Novosibirsk

**Let me just start of by saying that because of confidentiality, I am not able to give out our little girls name. However, I will refer to her as L, to give her some sense of identity without going against the wishes of the Russian government.**

We have been in Russia for 24 hours, and are just now starting to feel normal. We arrived in Novosibirsk at 5:30 am on Thursday morning, where we were picked up by the WACAP staff and taken to Hotel Sibir, where we will stay for the remainder of our trip.

We arrived at the hotel with enough time to take a much needed shower and then rest for about an hour before we needed to meet Anna, our WACAP representative in Russia, who would take us to our appointment with the Department of Education.

After a short meeting with the Department of Education, we were granted official permission to visit the baby home where L is living.

After a few minutes of waiting impatiently, a very happy little girl, with a big smile, was brought in to us. In the referral we were told that she loves people, and it was obvious by the way she eagerly came to us. After a few minutes of visiting with her, we had a chance to speak with the head pediatrician at the baby home, who gave us more medical information about L.

After speaking with the head pediatrician, we were able to spend the remaining hour and a half with L, where we got to see her play with toys, crawl and interact with us. It is very clear that she is loved and well taken care of. This has been our prayer since we started this adoption.

We will be heading to the baby home to visit with L this afternoon. We were also told by the baby home director that we are welcome to come on Saturday as well. This is good news as they don't normally allow visitors on the weekends.

We were hoping to do some sightseeing around Novosibirsk in between visits to the baby home, but it is currently -12 degrees F, so we are going to stay inside and get some much needed rest.

The funny thing is, we are not as concerned about the weather as we are about the driving. We have yet to see a crosswalk. Instead, people just walk into the middle of the road, regardless of cars that are careening toward them. Add to that the fact that there are no lines in the road, and it becomes obvious that transporting ones self in Russia is really just a free-for-all. For this reason, I recommend 2 things:

* Don't look out the window while being driven around Novosibirsk. It does nothing but induce IBS.
* Russians approach a dinner buffet with the same amount of aggression as they use while driving. Be sure to hold on to your dinner plate, because things can get ugly.

More to come later!
Anna