Day Eighteen or...

Here Come the Judge, Here Come the Judge... oops, that's tomorrow!

We arrived at the Shelter to discover that Galina had mixed up the days and had sent Katya off with Saule to court for our adoption hearing! Katya must have been wondering where her pretty dress and shoes were! We had to wait a little while for them to return by taxi. Galina had even come in yesterday, her day off, to prepare the necessary paperwork!

After that, we drove over to see Katya's school. We had wanted to buy her a couple books, so we went to the "Sokol" Falcon Supermarket. We found a complete set of Lord of the Rings and a triology by Philip Pullman in Russian. We did some shopping, stocking up for Wednesday evening at the apartment in Almaty.

We went to lunch at a restaurant recommended by fellow adoptive parents. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal. I had lamb kabobs and Tom had a pork steak. Katya had a little of both. She had never had either of them and seemed to like the lamb.

We came back to the hotel for naps. Katya started in on LOTR and reported that she was enjoying it. That's my girl! Mama has read it at least 6 times. Katya said she'd seen the movie.

When Marina returned at 4:00 p.m. we drove out to the Orthodox Church. They were cleaning and polishing in preparation for Easter, so we were unable to go into the sanctuary. I did buy a Saint Peter icon, since we are in Petrpavlovsk, which mean Peter and Paul.

We then took Katya back to the Shelter with her dress and new shoes. We will meet her at the court house tomorrow morning at 9:45 a.m.

Katya had said she likes red roses, so on the way back to the hotel, we stopped and bought a single red long stemmed rose to present to her at court. It's soaking in a vase right now.

We dined on "Legs" again for supper, and now we're resting up for the big day tomorrow. We plan on buying a cake and some ice cream for a celebration in our room after court.