First hurdle cleared

We heard back from the international adoption clinic at Vanderbilt. They reviewed the brief medical history we sent them, and looked at several pictures of the baby. They don't see any issues with her health or development. They don't see any signs of fetal alcohol syndrome. She is on the growth charts, which is a feat in itself for a child from a baby house. She is right on track developmentally, even for being in the baby house and born 6 weeks early. They gave us the green light on her current health. So, first hurdle cleared.

The second step is to send them her entire medical history file. It is currently being translated by a special medical translator. Once we have it in English, we'll send it on for Vanderbilt's professional opinion. Then we can make our final decision. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure that it matters what they say. She's pretty much ours already.

I am taking some froofy clothes today to dress her up and take her picture. She will be irritated, I already know, because the camera bugs her. She pretty much rolls her eyes at me when I keep flashing it in her face. But really, what else do moms do?

She is super-ticklish, I forgot to mention that. And she's not a fan of Peek-A-Boo. I think they must not play that in Kazakhstan. She looks at us as if we are straight off the crazy boat when we try to play that with her.

In other news, I now have a special relationship with the ice cream girl. She doesn't speak English, and I don't speak Russian, but we both speak chocolate. So I've been having a 12-cent ice cream cone every day. Really, I'm just doing it for the price. A 12-cent ice cream cone! Luckily we're walking all over the city, to work off those calories.

I uploaded a few pictures to Flickr of the city. There are monuments everywhere here, to Lenin or World War II or some historic Kazak warriors. The upkeep on them isn't great, but they are pretty cool looking. So check those out.