First Visit

My first visit with Netta this trip was somewhat of a disappointment to me, but only partially.
Today is Sunday and we went to the orphanage to see Netta. I have not seen her since the previous trip to Moscow when we visited her in the hospital.
We spent a little under two hours with her in the small area at the orphanage where you are supposed to meet your adopted kids.
Netta was on the verge of tears from the moment Michelle brought her in. I think she had just woken up, which didn’t help things. The proximity to me seemed to be the trigger to her chin quivering, like a Geiger counter getting closer to uranium. I guess she has already accepted Michelle to some extent, though that didn’t stop her from bursting out crying several times, but I was still a total stranger and a male at that (there are no male adults in the orphanage). Michelle walked with Netta up and down the stairs and around the tiny room. I was surprised to see the level of her walking and climbing stairs. She is quite adept at it and goes from one step to the next without putting both feet on the same step. We played with her with the toys we had brought for her. She slowly warmed up a bit to agree to interact through the toys, and temporarily suspended the quivering chin. I was still an outcast, though she would look at me directly towards the end of the visit.
The highlight was when we looked up the word for kiss in the Russian dictionary. We then said Kiss (in Russian) and Michelle kissed her on the cheek. Big smile. This worked several times until she remembered the depth of her predicament and that it didn’t make the he devil (me) go away.
I imagine we are in for more of this before she feels comfortable with us.
My theory is that it is more difficult for her in the orphanage where everything is familiar, except us, versus the hospital where everything was unfamiliar and she wasn’t getting a lot of attention. Where we, who were equally unfamiliar, but gave her lots of attention.
Tomorrow is the big day, in the morning we are picking her up at the orphanage for good! That’s it!
From then on, for better or worse, she is with us.
From the orphanage we are going to the American embassy for the visa interview. From there to the hotel where she will stay with us for the next three days until we leave for home.
I am a bit worried about how we will manage all the normal taking care of a toddler with Netta in the hotel room and with her thinking that this is totally strange and frightening I hope she will start realizing that we aren’t that strange and frightening, and that it is scary for us too.