3rd visit and a little bit of Perm

We were quite tired at the end of our day yesterday so we took advantage of the ability to go to bed at 9:30pm.  That is until we were awakened by our phone ringing at 10:20.  It was our driver, Val, saying he was in the lobby and needed someone to come downstairs to talk to him.  We instantly thought something bad happened (why else would he show up at almost 10:30pm at our hotel and not be able to tell us over the phone).  John went downstairs to talk to him while Laurie paced up in the room imagining the posibilities.  When John returned he said that both Val and Olga were down there to tell us that our appointment was going to be in the morning on Wednesday instead of the afternoon.  They felt horrible at having to change our schedule again and wanted to see our reaction in person.  Thinking of all the possible reasons they could have been there, a schedule change was a huge sigh of relief! 

So, Val and Olga returned to pick us up at 9:20am today.  We went straight to the orphanage to see "Baby Girl".  She was brought to us and (finally) had on a different outfit, although it was definitely not a stylish one - haha! 

We had almost an hour and 1/2 to play with her today and it went very well.  She seems to be getting more and more used to us and laughed a lot today.  She crawled between the two of us and even pulled herself up to be standing several times!  Laurie felt in her mouth and she has her first tooth!  It's one of the bottom front teeth - the orphanage needs to update their records :)  For all of those reading who are anticipating another body part, we thought we would indulge you with a foot this time :)

Once we left the orphanage, Val told us they were taking us to the military museum, a souvenir shop and to a Ukrainian restaurant for lunch.  The military museum was outside and quite fascinating.  We were able to see various weapons and machines that were used in the past - a very scary thing to imagine them actually in use.  Val told us to climb on one of the tanks and he would take our picture.  As we were climbing up, Laurie said "Yeah, until the police come and arrest us" to which Val replied "POLICE, POLICE - hahahaha!!" 

After the museum, we were able to do a little Perm souvenir shopping.  Laurie was more than a little weary about the lunch that followed at the Ukrainian restaurant, but she was up for the challenge of finding something on the menu she would actually eat.  The restaurant had a very nice atmosphere and an extremely large menu.  John decided on a cup of Borsch and meat filled raviolis while Laurie decided on chicken filled raviolis.  They use the term ravioli but it is not the ravioli we know in the United States.  They could be compared to large gnocchi with your choice of filling and instead of a tomato based sauce that we tradionally put on a pasta dish, they put sour cream on everything.  As an appetizer, we had rolls and what Val informed us was liver spread - John tried it but (surprise surprise) Laurie passed on the spread.  Our food turned out to be quite good and very filling.  We had great conversation with Val and Olga as well.  We learned some about Perm and the judge we will probably have for court (our next trip) while they asked us questions regarding Andrew and our families.

Val told us at lunch that whenever we are ready to make our official decision (yes or no to "Baby Girl"), to let them know and they will need a day to complete paperwork.  We vaguely remember needing to visit a notary on our last day of our first trip in Andrew's process, so we assume that will need to take place this time too.  There wasn't any hesitation with our decision, but one hold-up remains with the completion of paperwork - - her name.  We thought before we arrived that as soon as we met her it would be clear but we are still struggling between our 2 favorites.  We will make a final decision by the end of today  :)