Elvira Day 2

We had such a great day with Elvira today!  She surprised us with how much she showed us today.  She remembered us and was excited to see us, so we didn’t have to warm up this time.  We just started playing right away.  Elvira LOVES back rubs, so I rubbed her back and head a lot today.  We tried to give her as much physical affection as we could while we were there to try and fill her little tank. 

Here she is getting a back rub from Mommy. Can you see her amazingly long lashes?  They're close to an inch long!

She also loves the phone we brought her yesterday, especially when it plays music.  She dances side to side and keeps pushing the button that plays it.  She also learned to put her ear up to the phone like we showed her, pretending to talk.  She did a lot of babbling today, mostly ‘Loodle-loodle-loodle.’ She also did some ‘bababa’ and a lot of squealing and laughing.  I sang her some songs, which she was very interested in.  She put her little hand up to her ear and stared at my lips.  She also played at a toy piano.  She seems to love music just like our other children!

Here she is playing her piano:

We showed her our family photo album that we brought for her to look at while we’re gone.  She was completely enthralled by it and kept turning the pages and pointing to the pictures of her ‘sistra’ and ‘brat’.  Yes, you read that right.  Brother is ‘brat’ in Russian.  Pretty stinkin’ hilarious.  We certainly don’t think Colvin is a brat, but it was funny just the same.  Some of the nurses also looked at it, and they were very impressed with the size of our house and car.  Most people there live in apartments. 

Here is a pic of Elvira's favorite nurse - Eula.  She is a very sweet lady. I can see why Elvira likes her so much.

Our gift for Elvira today was a set of stacking cups.  She really enjoyed putting the cups inside each other and was quite good at it, especially considering she may never have tried it before.  They have stacking cups at the orphanage, but they’re all up on high shelves where the children can’t reach them.  I think they only use them for visiting adoptive parents.  Here is the playpen that the children spend a lot of time in.  As you can see, there aren’t many toys in there.

I got to feed her lunch again today.  This time she sat in my lap while I fed her and kept squeezing my arm with her little hands.  She’s a slow and steady type of eater, and I’m wondering if that’s part of why she’s so skinny.  Maybe they can’t give her the time she needs to finish her meal.  She ate all of it, and I got her to drink about half of a PediaSure.  Ryan tried the drink they brought her, and we were happy to find out that it was not tea.  It was some sort of fruit compote, so we felt much better about that.

Elvira during lunch:

And here she is stealing Daddy’s heart:

We talked to her doctor again today, but she didn’t tell us much more than what we already knew, so it wasn’t that productive.  But that’s ok.  Most importantly, we signed our Letter of Intent to adopt Elvira! 

Please pray for better weather the rest of the week.  It snowed today, which was beautiful, and ordinarily I would be very happy to see snow.  But it made the downtown traffic even worse than usual, and it could keep us from getting to see Elvira tomorrow. 

We have to get documents notarized, which has to be the priority.  If the weather causes it to take too long, we may not have time to see Elvira.  It could also make it difficult to see her on Friday or even cause our flight to be delayed on Saturday.  So again, pray for good weather!

Marj