Wednesday - Day 9 of 10

Today we visited “Brother” at 10:30AM. When we got there, we waited a bit at the entrance, because we were supposed to take him for his passport and visa photos with one of the staff. After a while, we were told to go up to the playroom to visit him, because the staff who was going to go with us to the photo store still wasn’t there. There were two other Russian couples visiting with their children when we got up to the play room. So initially, Brother was very quiet and distracted by the other parents and children. We played with some of the toys in our backpack, but at this point, I think he’s bored with almost all of the toys.

Our visit was over, and our interpreter said we were going to take Brother to the photo store for his pictures. Brother wasn’t too happy about this, because it was almost lunchtime. The staff that got him dressed gave him a cookie and a piece of candy to quiet him down as she got him bundled up. All 5 of us crammed into our driver’s car. Brother held on tightly to his cookie in one hand and candy in the other. He did a good job sitting still for his photos, and then we dropped them off at the orphanage. We were glad we could get the photos done today, so we aren’t rushed with it tomorrow, or Friday when we pick him up.

Then we went to a store to get some more groceries, and headed back to the hotel. I am coming down with a bit of a cold that started late last night, but hopefully it won’t be too bad. I took a nap this afternoon while Matt worked on the computer. We’re not sure what time we will visit Brother tomorrow. Just one more day of visiting - and then it’s called “Gotcha Day” on Friday!

Here are some of the groceries we purchased…


Here are some pictures of our bathroom which someone requested. The drain is very noisy and you can hear water rushing by when someone else flushes the toilet or showers. The bathtub is very high and hard to get into and out of. Plumbing here isn’t quite up to U.S. standards.


Here's a video of driving in the city...