Morning Visit with Zoya

This morning we visited with Zoya at 10:00. When we got there they told us she was having “massage” done on legs. I think this is some sort of therapy they do. They brought her out with her legs all bandaged up and they had some type of heat inside the bandages. It didn’t look too comfortable. See?

She had on a cute little green dress with no stocking so we finally got to see her little legs. She looked much smaller to me today without all the tights and socks and layers. We also saw her scar from her heart surgery which looks to be healing nicely.

She loves this little spinning/vibrating easter egg toy we got her!

This one is for Uncle Bub! "I love the keys you got me!"

After about 15 minutes they came back out and got her and said, “massage” and motioned for us to stay there. While we were waiting we heard lots of crying from lots of different kids. I thought I heard Zoya crying but I had never heard her cry before so I wasn’t sure. A few of the kids tried to escape out the door to come and see us and the care takers swept them back into the room. Poor babes. When they brought Zoya back to us she had indeed been crying . Her face was so pathetic and she seemed quite uncomfortable for the rest of the visit. She only wanted to be held and when we tried to put her on the floor to play she would start to cry (this is the first time we saw her cry and it is a pitiful sight!). I don’t know if her legs were sore or what they were doing to her legs really. Shawn thinks they were doing some deep tissue massaging to get the blood flowing since she doesn’t use her legs much yet. Her legs are a lot smaller in comparison to the rest of her body. She definitely has very low muscle tone in her legs and will need some PT to strengthen them (Elizabeth—we will need a consult when we get home hehe). She can take a few steps when her hands are being held. Whatever they were doing, I don’t think she enjoyed it very much. She was pretty upset when they brought her back out. I could tell she had been crying and she grinded her teeth one time, which I know is sometimes a coping/soothing mechanism some of the orphanage kids do. She also does this funny thing with her tongue where she sticks it out and moves it side to side while making noises. We are noticing she also seems to do this to comfort herself.

Again today she just wanted to be held and loved on. She is such a sweet snuggle bug! I tried out my baby carrier (baby k’tan) and she LOVED being so snug up against me! I held her in the carrier and danced with her to the tune of a light-up musical baby Einstein toy that seems to be her favorite. When I would stop dancing she would shake her body and try to dance and then stop and look at us like, well aren’t you going to keep dancing? She started getting sleepy around 11:30 and fell asleep listening to and watching this light up musical toy. She slept for a half hour and probably would have slept more but the care takers came out to get her for lunch. Having her sleep on my chest and watching and listening to her breathe was so beautiful. I can’t wait until we can break her out of this place FOREVER!

See her tiny legs?

Sleepy girl!

Here is a video of her falling asleep:


On a “business” note, all of our necessary documents (that we spent the last 2 days running around doing) have been registered with the court.  Marina took our documents to the prosecutor before sending them to court to get her approval (which isn't usually done, but Marina wanted to play it safe and make sure all of the documents were okay before registering them).  The prosecutor approved them which is a huge victory in this region!  This is good news!  This doesn't mean they can't still request more documents, but I guess it is less likely that they will since the prosecutor approved them.  We hope to hear very early next week which judge we will get and soon after, hear our court date. After the court date will start a 10 day waiting period. We had planned to go home and come back after the 10 day wait, but we are not sure what we will do now. If the process is moving quickly, we may stay here. If it is moving slowly we will come home and wait. I just don’t know how we will leave this angel for 10 days. I don’t know if my heart can do that.