Saturday -- Day #7

Well...I'm finally on the internet again. Since we arrived in Pskov on Tuesday...we have only had access to the net via Mike's phone. I made a couple of quick facebook posts using it. But it is not for a lot of typing! LOL!!!

Anyway...The Doctor visits on Monday were not as bad as I envisioned. We saw about 5 different doctors and were told we are healthy...but fat! Yeah, tell me something I don't know. The doctor visits were $800 each...they told us $750 before we left. It seemed to go into the main doctors pocket. Oh well.

Then we had late lunch/early dinner at a Ukrainian chain restaurant...It was good. Mike had a beer and they served it with a dried/salted fish. He did not like the fish. I had a chicken noodle soup and pork ravioli things. Like a peirogie maybe. They were both good

When we left the restaurant, I twisted my ankle. VERY PAINFUL. I did not think I'd be able to walk on it. But somehow, it is not as bad as I feared. We motrined me up, and kept it elevated on the 12 hour train ride. It is still tender...but I'm not hobbling around.

More "funny" business with the train tickets. In March we paid $300 for the tickets and they included dinner and breakfast. We just paid $330 and got no meals. We never see price sheets and are at the mercy of our Russian hosts. I feel that money is pocketd. But, what can we do?

We arrived in Pskov on Wednesday and saw Max in the afternoon. He is soo big, much bigger than I thought. I can't wait to get him home and have our drs. measure him. I don't believe the measurements that we received are accurate. We are unsure if the clothes we brought will fit him. He also has a very bad case of dermatitis(?). His entire body is covered with dry skin and scabs. He is soo itchy! He cried for the first half hour or so. But, he seemed comfortable in my lap and mostly afraid of Mike. He is not accustomed to seeing males, let alone big men like Mike. But, eventually he calmed down and played with us for a while.

Thursday morning was our court time. We gave a speech, answered questions, and then told the adoption is approved. There is a 10 day waiting period that must be fulfilled before we can take him. So, we will visit as often as we can. We will be picking him up on Tuesday September 16th.

We went to see him on Friday. His skin rash is looking better. I think they are finally giving him something for it. But, he seemed very tired. After the visit, we went to Ludmilla's home. We are staying with our translator during the waiting period. Here home is nice and she is a very good cook. I had hoped to lose 10 pounds during my stay in Russia. But, she is feeding us a lot of food!

The weather right now is gloomy. It has been raining on and off for about the last 2 days. It is cool outside. But Russians keep their buildings very warm. I find that I am hot and sweaty more often than not!

I FINALLY slept an entire night last night. Although, I do feel tired today. I suspect my body will finally adjust to russian time for us to go home!