Last day at Malutka

Today was our last day with Hannah at the orphanage. Tomorrow we start our two-day trek back home. Bittersweet. Here is a picture of the orphanage front door.
We had a great last day with her though. Morning went as usual. She was sleeping when we got there and woke up within a few minutes. The caregiver picked her up and I was standing just outside the room. When she saw me, her face lit up and she smiled. It was the first time I actually thought she recognized me. And of course, it happened on our last day. Here’s a picture of her trying to crawl. She actually wasn’t going anywhere and we put her in the position, but the fact that she had the strength to maintain the position is a big deal.

During the afternoon visit, we were supposed to have a party with Hannah’s caregivers but unfortunately, our translator, Olga, is sick and called us before we left to tell us we wouldn’t be having the party. We still brought gifts for them and hopefully they will have a party without us (considering we’ve already given the money for it to Olga). Some of the caregivers actually come on their day off for the party so we asked Olga to make sure and call the orphanage to let them know there wasn’t a party. We think she did, but a few caregivers still came. We felt bad and weren’t sure how to deal with the situation since we don’t speak Russian. Luckily Joe ran and got another translator to help us. With Lena’s help, we were able to explain what happened with Olga and relay our gratitude for all they’ve done and will continue to do for Hannah! They in turn wished us a happy, healthy life and told us to come back next year for a boy. : ) They also wrote letters to Hannah “Alina” (on stationary we provided) and gave those to us today. It was all very “gezellig”!

Right when we got upstairs, Joe thought he smelled something. Sure enough, it was our little banana! Here we thought she didn’t poop since we haven’t seen it in the 3 weeks we’ve been here. : ) Luckily, we still have the joy of being in the orphanage. We brought her back to her room and one of the caregivers cleaned her right up! We would’ve done it ourselves (although we loved avoiding it another day), but they don’t use wipes here and rather hose them down. Whatever works! After that, she was just a doll today! Laughing like crazy. She thought her mommy was very funny!

It was very hard to say goodbye to her. She could care less and was super sleepy but I was very sad leaving her room. But only 2 more weeks until we’re together again.