1/26/2004 6:58:57 PM Moscow time
Dear Ya'll:

Thanks for your prayers. Court went well. The Judge seemed to like Thad, and we are officially parents. What a willd court system!!! We have pictures, but they take forever to upload, an at $8.75 for 15 minutes, we'll try and send them another time.

Another update to follow.

Love,
GA

Mommy's and Daddy's letter after they first met us:
1/24/2004 8:56p.m. Moscow

Hello from Big, Beautiful, Blustery Moscow!!!
Our children - Mary Katherine Olga (Olishka until we are in the U.S.) and Frank Payne Sergey (Serrogia until we get home) are amazing, and Thad and I are beside ourselves with joy every time we see them and think of them. The cameras have become our best friends (not to mention our driver/translator Anatoly). Unfortunately, we are still looking for a place to send pictures via e-mail. We are still attempting to locate - stand by for pictures. On to the children...

Olishka is so tiny, but has these big beautiful deep blue eyes - almost navy, but definitely blue. We had a meeting with the head doctor/orphanage director for Baby Home 23, Yllana, who was abrupt and passed us off to her deputy doctor, Vera, who was warm and friendly. She seemed to love Olishka. Not only does she have beautiful blue eyes (which Mama cannot seem to get over) and a big smile, she has big cheeks. However, not much else is big, except for what appears to be a distended belly, which we'll have checked out when we come home - nothing serious. When we met with Vera, we learned that Olishka's mother abandoned her at the maternity hospital and reported orally to the hospital that the father is Armenian. (Her mother was not registered with the passport agency.) Hence, Olishka's dark hair and features. Something amusing - do not stick your finger in her mouth, she has a set of choppers. Thad (a/k/a Papa) found out the hard way. Olishka's consumed 2 bananas and an apple the first day - Friday, and 1 banana and an apple today. She is hungry, and we have to make her chew every bite. She doesn't understand the chewing and swallowing mechanism- she is like a chipmonk. When we leave her, we say "dos vedonya" and she waves and says it back. We'll tell all of you this - get ready to fall in love because she is smart and knows how to rap you around her finger. An example of this is when we were leaving the baby home today, a caregiver in another group saw us leaving. She ran outside to give is a picture of Olishka in a cute outfit and smiling. You could tell that she is one of the favorites and a leader of all the boys. On to Serrogia...

Serrogia is so big - he weighs more than Olishka (MKO). We'll find out on January 29th, his first birthday, just exactly how much he weighs. He is also taller than MKO, which is going to be interesting. His sky big blue eyes light up the room, and he, along with his sister, are happy children. We met with Serrogia's (FPS) orphanage director/head doctor, Svetlana, who took alot of time with us in explaining every detail of his medical record. She runs a tight ship and has the reputation of running the best Baby Home in Moscow. She was amazingly friendly and Russian Orthodox. She loves those children, each and every one of them. FPS's parents are still married and live about 40 km from Moscow city, but were unable to take care of him because of the economy. They were registered with the government via the passport agency. He does have other siblings, but there was no other information about them. We are still trying to find out more about them. FPS is allergic to red food coloring, citric acid and chocolate, so we just have to be careful because he gets roseola when he eats that. FPS is in love with his Papa - they have a special bond already. He loves laughing and giggling with mama too. He loves his mashed banana that we bring him on
our visits. The only time we have seen him cry is when we were getting ready to feed him, and had to put the bib on first. He wanted to be fed immediately!!!

Both MKO and FPS have a fascination with the locket that Thad gave me for our seventh anniversary. (It is about the size of 2 silver dollars and has pictures of MKO and FPS inside.) They love to open it and look at it, and we have told them about each other. They will not get to meet until two weeks from Monday when our 10 day waiting period is over - pray this goes quickly because it is bitterly cold (we were prepared for this mentally and with enough clothes, but not physically). Also, we are trying to move to the Marriott Tverskaya because the Marriott Grand (a/k/a The Four Seasons) is very, very expensive for three weeks. We are working on moving on Tuesday after our court date. Olga - we may need your help with this. We hope that we can accomplish this soon. The Marriott Tverskaya's 4th floor is adoption central, and they have an inside play area for the children.

We will attempt to send an e-mail every 4 days to keep you apprised of our progress. Our court date is Monday, January 26, 2004. Pray that it goes well - we should be fine. Our facilitator/official court interpreter, Galina, has prepared us well. BTW, for those of you who know, we received our lost luggage the next day with the children's clothes.

Please feel free to forward this on to those I may have missed. Much love to all of you.

Dos Vedonya and Good night.

Georgia and Thad