Long day

Can you believe it?!?!?! She's right HERE!!!! Backing up a little, after almost no sleep for a couple of days, I fell into bed at 4 in the afternoon and didn't really wake up until 4 a.m. this morning so almost 12 hours of sleep! I was SO tired!!! We took a taxi to the bus, and the bus for 4 hours to Izmayl this morning only to be told that we had to wait until Mattea awoke from her afternoon nap. We used that bit of time to find a shop to repair my eyeglasses that conveniently fell apart yesterday--- they took apart another pair and replaced both my earpieces with new ones because they couldn't fix the one that broke. Total cost, about $4. Then back to the orphanage for lots of "DaSvidanya"s and tears from the doctors and workers. Little Miss Mattea was ALL SMILES and REMEMBERED me!!! She screeched and smiled in her new yellow daisy outfit and stayed awake and happy the whole 4 hour drive back to Odesa. After we got here, I tried some foods with her, a fruit-flavored yogurt-like cheese that she gobbled up and danced over, then some bread mixed with milk (She can't chew very well yet) and bananas, which she also danced over. Then Irina cooked up some mashed potatoes, and yes more dancing. The picture I took in the previous post was after all those treats.
One thing that Irina translated to me was that the orphanage doctors told her Mattea's attitude changed completely after our first visit and she brightened up and started participating in therapies. She all of a sudden became interested in learning to walk, and sure enough she is now starting to take a few steps all on her own. She is also very, very active and curious and can pull herself up to explore countertops etc. This is going to be interesting when added to the one-year-old and two-year-old who are already at home reaking havoc...
My precious little one was just too excited to settle down until almost midnght! And now she sleeps. I am off to bed myself as tomorrow is the day to file for passport. PLEASE EVERYONE PRAY FOR THE SMALL CHANCE WE HAVE OF GETTING HER PASSPORT BY FRIDAY! This would mean we could fly home Tuesday or Wednesday instead of Saturday... I do miss my family so much! I got the Skype to work and it was so good to see them but hard not to be able to hug and hold them...