What Has Been Happening

Well I am finally getting a chance to update you on how things have been going over the past few months. I am hoping to update more often now - I know I said that before but now that we are all settled and Christmas is over and I have brain dumped everything over the last few months, I think it will be easier for me to update you on the little coming and goings of our family. It is really hard to believe that today has been three months since I walked out of the orphanage with little M. It seems so long ago. Below this post is a post that will update you on what happened from our last day in Astrakhan until we got home if you are interested. It is lengthy but there are pictures.

Little M is doing so amazingly well! I think that he has adjusted so well. He gets along with the kids very well. He loves his big sis and she loves to baby him. He runs around the house following his big brothers as they burn off energy – At first, there was some jealousy from little M when one of the other kids would sit on my lap, he would want to push them off and get on my lap Now he just climbs up besides me and wants me to hug him too.

The dog issue is much better. Poor Rocky was very jumpy for awhile but us better now. He still keeps his eye out for M but now it seems that he only gets stepped on by accident.

SLEEPING has been going great since about week three home. At first, I would try to rock him to sleep but since he would not stay in my lap when I sat down, I would have to rock him standing, I also had to make sure that we were in a dark room or else he would spend all his time looking around at things. After about a week of doing that twice a day for 10-15 mintues both my feet and back where killing me. So I started just putting him in his crib and let him cry for about 5 minutes(checking in on him every minute to ensure that I was there). After a few days, I then felt bad, so I would lay in the bed in his room until he fell asleep. One night, I could not lay down and he was fine and has been great ever since. He sleeps through the night for about 11.5 hours and 1.5 to 2 hours in the afternoon. He is in a room by himself because when he was in with one of his brothers, it messed up everyones sleep schedule. He does so much better in a room by himself – I guess each child is just different.

EATING started out great and now, even though it is difficult, it is typical of a two year old. He eats most things now except tomatoe sauce. Somedays he is more picky then others but he has gained about 3 pounds since we have been home so I think he is doing good.

HEATHWISE he is also doing great. No concerns with any of the doctors we have seen. We have had difficultly getting a good hearing check because he always seems to have fluid behind his eardrum. It is no infected but the doctor recently put him on antibiotic to see if we can get it cleared up. He has also had a horrible runny nose since I picked him up from the orphanage so the meds seem to be helping with that too. He still had not grown any heightwise and I am hoping that will kick in soon. He wears a 24 month top and 12 month pants. We joke and say that he is part Corgy because his legs are so short.

SPEECH: The only big concern we are dealing with is his speech. He was very dealyed in speech only speaking a few words( that we knew of) in Russian, so after about a month of talking to him in Russian and English, we slowly cut out the Russian and only now use English. He has picked up english so well and you can see how eager he is to learn know words. He often brings things to me so I can tell him what they are. But there are several sounds that he simply can not make so some words are just not recognizable and many sound the same. But each week he is making progress. A few weeks ago he started saying his first phrase on his own “I'm coming!” And last week he started with the toddler babbling. Before he would just say words in response to seeing things but now he will play and just babble on and on. We are on a waiting list for a speech therapist and will get him in the school system once he turns three. But we are going to more forward with our own speech therapist at the beginning of the year.

EMOTIONS: He has also really advanced with being affectionate. At first, he really never hugged and we had to teach him how to kiss. He never really liked being held either ( that is still the case but then he just does not sit still very long either – He's two). Fast forward three months, he is a very caring person. If one of the kids is crying he will go over and hug them. He loves to come over and rub my back and arm and even after he gets out of a time out – he immediately comes over to give me a hug( like is is telling me that he is sorry).

CONCERNS: The only issue that is a little concern to me is that he doesn't really know a stranger. We will be standing in line, and he just has to go up and touch people. I also have to be careful because he will let others pick him up. Most of the time, though, he will immediately turn away and want to come to me – which is good. There are a few people that he feels very comfortable with, my Mom and his Sunday school teachers. It is really hard after you have read all the attachement books on what you should and should not allow. It comes down to the child and the family and you just have to go with your gut.

I have to say that even though things are going well with M. It has been hard. I knew it would be hard but it still doesn't make things more palatable when you are going thorugh it. The things that took me the most by surprise was my feelings. I knew that it would not be love at first sight but with all our visits at the orphanage, he would just melt my heart. However, we never had a honeymoon period as others have mentioned because he started testing me during the last visits in the orphanage. So when we got back to a normal life, I have to be honest, he did not “feel” like my son. There is just something missing with him that I have with my other kids. Others say that it will come and I know that it will but I wanted to let others out there know that things are not perfect and that is ok too. However I feel at times, I am glad that we have M in our lives and that all the frustration of the paperwork, the wait and the adjustment will result in many blessings from God for both M and us.

Not to end a post on a downer – I will leave you with some pictures over the past few months :

My little Bumble Bee
My favorite present

You are saying that I CAN rip this paper?

Entries from Final Days in Russia

Well, Here is the recap of our time from Astrakhan until we got home. If you are not into reading scroll to the end for pictures!
October 1st:
We were to leave around 5 pm that night to make our 7pm flight to Moscow and we had nothing planned that day. Needless to say it was hard to keep a toddler occupied for several hours while trying to pack. It got to the point where I packed everything up an just kept taking him outside for little walks. It is always interesting how I think I stick out so much as an America but how Russians will come up to me and start asking me something, in Russian, I just kindly smile and so “No Russki”. However, I did meet someone I never thought I would ever meet in Russia – A Jehovah Witness! As I am walking the short little block in front of our hotel, a lady comes up to me and asks me a something – I say “No Russki” and she then proceeds to look for something in her purse. She pulls out a book and looks up something in an index and then gives it to me to read. After reading the first paragraph(in english) I knew she was a Jehovah's Witness and kindly said “Christian”, and “Jesus” and tried to walk away, she kept talking so I kindly looked and her and said “Spaseeba”? which is Russian for Thank you. Who in a million years would have ever thought that encounter would have happened?
Well, after a very long morning, it was wonderful when our translators finally came and we actually got to see his passport. We were not sure if we would get the paperwork because they only had two days to process it instead of the normal 7 but we had everything and were ready to go! It was a sight to see myself and Kyley and Greg taking all our stuff out the hotel to the car (the thing with this small hotel is that there were not elevators and it was a flight of stairs just to get to the hotel lobby – so carrying 40lb+ bags down the stairs was not easy. Thankfully we had the translators to help with the kids while we carried the luggage).
Once we made it to the airport, things went fairly smooth and we said our good-byes( so hard to say good bye when you know you probably will never get to meet again). We made it to the waiting area which was a big deal for me. Ever since our first trip home, I had dreamed about what it would be like to sit in that waiting room with our new little one and it was finally here! How wonderful! One of the last things I remember in Astrakhan was having the airport doors open to get on the bus to the plane and being hit be a hord of mosquitoes – In October!
Well the flight to Moscow was pretty good we had a bulk head seat so M had room to get up and down. No problems with the ears but did not like the seat belt at all. I had to bribe him with food once I got the belt back on for landing. And the Kids meal on the plane – well it was more of a snack then a meal and had only sugary foods – just what we needed at 8pm at night.
At the airport it was a bit of a wait for the luggage and then when we got outside it was raining – no surprise for Moscow but I am pretty sure M had not been in the rain before so it was interesting to watch him try to figure out what happened.
Next was filling out paperwork in the car on the way to the hotel so they could get everything to the embassy in time the next morning. We had to finish it up in the hotel room and got everything completed after midnight.
Here is where the worst thing since court happened. As we were filling out paperwork we realized that the I 600 form that I had had Russ sign and notarize in the States was not the I600 but the I600A! She was not too concerned at that point but I thought I would die – if I had to stay in Moscow any longer! Needless to say I did not get much sleep that night.

October 2nd:
The next morning we went to the doctors and I was anxiously waiting for our translator to let me know if the form would be ok. She got a call and said that everything should be fine so I was able to take a deep breath! There were three families at the doctors and he was running very late( found out later he was stuck in an elevator). Little M checked out fine but I had the doctor look at his thumb because by now he had a blister on the thumb that he sucked. He cut off the dead skin and bandaged it up – amazingly enough he would still try to suck that thumb, especially when he slept. I have to jump ahead and tell you that after the doctor's bandage needed to come off, I had placed a bandaid on it to let it heal. It worked great until he went to sleep. In his sleep he would still suck on that one thumb and when I went to check on him before I went to bed, the bandaid was GONE! An guess where it was – His mouth! He had sucked off his bandaid! From then on the bandaid was only on during waking hours.

Now back to the doctor visit – once the last family was done, they rushed us all out to the car(in fact the last family did not even have a chance to fully dress their child). They needed to get the medical reports to the embassy before a certain time or we would not get an appointment for the next day and then would have to wait until Monday. Everything seemed to work out ok and we were on the way to the hotel, until the doors opened and we were back at the embassy. At this point, I was told that the form I was worried about eariler would not work! The good news is that I just have to fax a form to Russ, get him to sign and notarized it and fax it back to the embassy. No problem, except that it needed to be at the embassy by 5 pm Moscow time and at the time it was about 3am back home and he had until 9am back home to get the letter faxed. So the afternoon was a loooong one as I had to call Russ at 4am, have him pack up the kids and travel to the local FEDEX store at 5am. He had contacted a 24 hour notary to meet him there. Amazingly everything all worked out - purely by the grace of God - but the stress level those few hours were through the roof.

The remaining highlights of Moscow:
*Taking a $60 round trip taxi ride to the hotel where Kyley and Greg were staying so that I could have some friendly conversation after a horribly stressful day.
*Little M still was not interested in naps
*Sleeping went pretty good at night – I would just put him in the crib and lay in bed beside him with the lights off – within 10 minutes he would be out an sleep through the night
*The embassy visit was great – it went smoothly and pretty quick. It was so nice to see the American flag and the lady at the window was American – Hearing English with no Russian accent was really great. Even though we were still in Russia – I still felt like I was on American soil – Oh how I missed it.
*The last afternoon, I wanted to take him to Red Square, Our hotel had a shuttle that took us close. So we walked down Tevrskaya Street(Not an easy trot with a stroller) and spent a little time looking at my favorite site in all of Russia(besides little M) St. Basil's Cathedral. There were other people on the shuttle that I ran into at Red's Square and they took pictures of us together. I also tried to get one of Little M and St. Basil's but he was more interested in the cars driving by – but I finally got one that is pretty good.
*Eating for Little M went pretty well, as long as there was food, he ate it. However, ordering cold milk to drink did not go over with him – they must have just had it at room temperature on the orphanage. He did however really like the ice cream that I got for him at the very expensive Italian restaurant.
*We tried McDonald's and he did like the chicken nuggets. He wanted to try my coke, so I let him, and the face he made was horrible – so no more pop for him!
*Did well at the airport. Got there in plenty of time, went through luggage check pretty well but then it took a really long time to get our tickets because we had changed them and did not have a seat assigned – but we ended up in a bulk head seat so it was worth it. Passport control however was one more nightmare on this trip. The lone was long but that was normal and little M slept awile in the stroller. Now for those of you who have adopted before, you are told many many times to make sure that your child's Russian passport has their new name in english spelled correctly – no problem, I had check it over and over again. However, when we got to passport control and I gave them his passport, the new birth certificate and the adoption certificate. It was then that the nice lady on the other side of the window(who did not speak english) pointed out to me that the passport had his name spelled wrong - in Russian! How was I to know that! I must have grown as pale as a ghost because the lady was so kind and immediately started saying Nyet, Nyet and handing all the papers back to me. She was trying to tell me it was ok and she let me through. Thankfully this was the last heart stopping event of the trip!

The Trip Home
Plane ride went really very well for a two year old. I could keep him confined to the seat area and did manage to get him to sleep for about 1.5 hours on the plane but I had to hold him for most of that. Thankfully Kyley and Greg were on the same plane so potty breaks for me were a little easier.
I was concerned about making my connection in Atlanta especially when US passport control said that he said there was no way I would make the connection. But then again – I had God on my side. We had to wait awhile in immigration( there were only two adoption families) and once we got to the immigration person, he was really nice. At that point I really wanted to make my connection but I was in the US and if I had to stay one more night away from home – I was just happy to be back in the US. I even felt like breaking out in the song ( God bless the USA). So I said my good byes to Kyley and Greg and off we went to catch our flight. We had time to stop by to get an I love Atlanta bear and some chicken fingers for the flight. We got to the gate – called home to tell them we made it and then it was time to bored – I wished I could have talked to the passport control person and told Him I made it!
The plane ride to Columbus went smoothly and he slept for most of it. I had him in the stroller walking through the airport but got him out before we turned the corner to greet our wonderful family. It was so wonderful to put my arms around them! He did well in the car and it was so great to walk in our home with him. The dog was scary for him but as long as Mama was holding him he was fine.


You are telling me that YOU are taking all of this half way across the world?

Our last glimpse of Astrakhan.

Our Little M at Red Square

First Picture as an American Citizen

What are you doing to me now?

Back in Papa's arms

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry I have been AWOL for awhile but it has been very busy and very crazy around our house. I am hoping to update this week since we will have some more relaxing times but I did not want to miss the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and to praise our Savior who so humbly was born into this world to become our King, Redeemer and Savior.

It is amazing to sit here with little M on this wonderful morning and to think of all the wonderful children who are now with their forever families for this Christmas - one of the best and most precious gifts to us all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

All is Well

Yes we are alive and all doing well. I kept meaning to post but I have literally no time! There is not much time when he is asleep and I am not( maybe 3 hours in the entire 24 hour period) and then I am either tired myself or either doing one of the million necessary things that is much easier to do when he is not awake( and blogging is not a necessity for be anymore).
So for the few moments that I have while he is playing with his toys here we go...

Little M is really adjusting well. He is eating great, sleeping well and overall very happy. He does not like to go down for naps or to bed at night so that takes a little time but not as long as I have others have had to deal with. Once he is down, he sleeps great( unless we let him have too much to drink after dinner and then it is an early morning waking up to a full diaper, wet little boy and bed.
Eating, well, he loves to do eat. There is not much he does not like. At first he would eat until I thought he would explode but he is doing much better at recognizing that he is full.
The dog is no longer an issue, well at least he is no longer afraid of the dog. Now I have to worry about keeping him away from the dog. He loves to through things at him and try to step on his tail so I had to look up the phrase, "Don't hurt the dog" in Russian. Well, I found it so I know that others have had this issue too.
He is getting along with the rest of the kids also. He loves to play with them but does not like it if I am doing something with one of them and he is not included.
He is learning new words very well. His favorite is "CAR" and "BUS". Surprise surprise! Hopefully I will be getting him in some type of speech therapy in the next month and then hopefully he will get into the school systems program when he turns three.
So overall, things are going well. I think that I am the one with the most adjustment. I have been through the "twos" three times before but never did I get fropped right into the middle of them. I think that is the hardest thing. Most of the difficulties that I have with him are not attachment issues or adoption issues but two year old issues and those too will pass.
I also want to congratulate all those families out there that I either received their referral or been to court since we have been to court. I have not had much of a chance to read other's blogs let alone comment so I want to take the time now to congratulate you all. It is amazing how quickly you forget the pain of the wait and paperwork once they are home.

God Bless you all and I hope to post sooner. Here are a few pictures of life at home with our new family.

HOME!

Sorry for the delay in getting to blogging. For some odd reason, I could not get signed on to blog in Moscow. I thought I would have time to type up things on the plane ride home and post when I got home but M only slept for 1.5 hours on the 11 hour flight home. I am hoping over the next week I will catch you all up on things that have happened. But most importantly we our home and our entire family is together.
It was a wonderful wonderful wonderful sight to turn the corner and see Russ and the rest of my kids, along with my parents. I sight I will always remember.
A quick update: Since M did not sleep much on the plane ride he went down quickly and slept through the night. He did well Sunday night too but was up early this morning at 6am. I am hoping that in about a week, we will be out of jet lag mode and on a regular schedule.
He eats well, in fact too much if i would let him. He is getting along well with all the kids, I just have to remind them that he is not a toy to be shared. The only things that he does not like is the dog. But that is improving too. He was scared to death at first and would start crying when he would come near him but only after 1 day, he will pet him as long as Rocky is facing the other direction so give it a few more days and I am sure things will be fine.
He seems to be attaching well and this morning was a test to that. I usually walk O out to the bus stop in the morning and since Russ was here, he took M and I went outside. When I came back, M was crying. I guess he had cried the entire time. Since he saw me leave, he thought I was going away. No one wants their kids to cry but this was a good thing to see that he is attaching.
Well, off to get the day into full gear. I want to thank all of you who have prayed for our family, I do not think I could have made it through all the difficulties without being lifted up in prayer by you all.
May God bless you all for your service of prayer for us.

Last Full Day In Astrakhan

Well, today is the last full day in Astrakhan. Visiting the orphanage went well and M did not even cry. He was a little quite at first but after he saw the stuffed animals, he was back to his old self. We got to see the director and got the papers that we needed with his schedule and then a few pictures and out of the orphanage forever.
We did not do much today but walked to the store with Kyley and Greg and got a few things. He loves to go outside and when he is ready to go he keeps pointing outside again and again until you are ready to go. When he is in a new situation he gets very quite and wide eyed but is very observant and takes everything in. Here is a picture of his not so sure what is going on look:(we were not moving at the time, just parked waiting for Vika).

Here is another picture that I thought was too cute to pass up. We were getting ready to leave and he likes to try to dress himself. Well, here is how he put on his hat. Too Cute.



For dinner we decided to go to our favorite place one last time – the Chocolate Cafe. We went early and took a cab there and back. And it still took two hours! We came prepared for food for the kids and it went pretty well. I have to be careful with M because as long as there is food in sight he will eat it. Even in the room, if there is something left out on the counter, he will keep pointing to it like he wants to eat it so I have to put it away.
We are all very excited to be leaving tomorrow but it was a bit meloncoly driving through the city for the last time tonight. I will always have wonderful memories here but i am also very excited to be getting back home and being together as an entire family!
Tonights bed time routine took a little longer but I made some break throughs. When it was time to go to bed, I tried to hold him and rock him thinking that this would be good for attachment. Well, he did not want anything to do with that, he would figit and skworm trying to get down so he could play. So I would then put him in his crib for awhile. He would sing and play but never really lay down. Eventually He would try to climb out of the crib, which could happen, so I would pick him up and try to rock him again. After about 35 minutes of doing this routine, he finally let me rock him. He settled down and started putting his thumb in his mouth and eventually fell asleep. It was so nice to have him asleep in my arms.
The thumb sucking brings up another issue I ran into today. When I picked him up yesterday, I noticed that his thumb was split open like really dry skin or a small cut that had not healled. Well, I finally realized today that it was sore because it was the thumb that he sucked on. I brought pacifiers to try to switch him to them instead but that is not going real well right now. We will see.
There was thing that I am trying to figure out how to handle today that I would love input on. M knows when you tell him No what that means and as a two year, he likes to test it but what is weird to me is when he does something that I tell him not to, he starts to laugh. So I make a stern face and tell him no again and then put him on my lap and tell him no and hold him for a little while. The whole time he is giggling and laughing. So I try to get his attention on to something else and he stops laughing and continues on playing. I think that he knows what he is dong is wrong but I am not sure about the laughing thing. Well it is only day two and I have to remember that it all takes time.
I don't know if I will be posting tomorrow because we leave the hotel at 5pm, our plane is at 7pm and we probably will not get to the hotel in Moscow until 10pm, provided we get his passport tomorrow like we are suppose to( please pray for that one to happen). But I will post as soon as I can.

Blessings from Above

Introducing!!!!

Introducing the newest member of the Canestraro Family – Little M!


I wanted to get this posted earlier but when you have a two year old in a room that is not child proof, you do not have much time to sit down and type.

It was a whirl wind morning because there was so much that everybody needed to do get his passport by Wednesday so we did not get to spend much time at the orphanage saying our goodbyes, but we are going to go back tomorrow for that( I hope that he does not freak out thinking I am going to take him back). Since we rushed him out so quickly he was almost in shock, just staring wide eyed. It was a long bumpy ride but towards the end it slowed and and he seemed better. Once we got into the room and he saw the toys that he was familiar with, it was back to his old self.

We had a great lunch and he did pretty good with lunch and the sippy cup. But no nap for him. There was just to much to check out. We went later to get his visa picture taken right around the corner and purchased a new pair of boots for him because his feet had grown and what I brought were too small.He was not thrilled with everything that was going on but was not scared either. He just absorbed it all. Later we went back to pick up the photos and he was very excited about going outside again. He loved watching all the cars drive by on the street.

He has started this singing thing that I just love. He never barely spoke above a whisper but after awhile in the room while he was listening to music, he started saying LALALALALA loudly with the music. I was amazed! It was great to hear because you could tell he was happy.
We met up later with Kyley and Greg and their little girl and had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Of course he would have ate everything on the table so I had to stop him at what I thought was best and hurry up and eat my food so we could get away from the table.

Another first I saw today was him crying. He had never cried or even was upset before. Well, today, after lunch, I tried to take him to the bathroom, they say he is potty trained. I had no little potty or seat to put on top so I tried to hold him. He did not like that at all, and was a little scared. I tried later and he wanted nothing to do with the bathroom at all. In fact, when I went to change his pullup he started crying again until he realized that I was not going to take him to the bathroom. Even tonight, I had put him in the crib and tried to get him to lay down but he was just standing right up and thinking he was funny. I had was getting ready to go into the bathroom to change and wanted to tell him where I was going. Well, the only word he understood was potty and quicker then anything he laid right down. I am hoping that when we get home and start using the little potty, he will not be afraid of the bathroom anymore – something to work on.
Then there is the two year old, I am going to see how many times I can drop this and get mommy to pick it up. About two is my limit and then it goes Paka, Paka(ByeBye). Unfortunately he has three older siblings that have wore Mommy out on that one.
So, to end up the day as I have been typing, he sang his LALA song for awile and then started sucking his thumb and now he is fast asleep about right on time for bedtime. Here is hoping that he sleeps through the night. What a marvelous day. It is still hard to believe it is all real. Thank you all again for the wonderful prayers and encouragement. God Bless.

Day 10!!!!

I can not believe it! Day 10 is here and gone. We tried to keep busy today. Slept in some and had a late Breakfast. Then we went for a long walk probably about 5 hours with a stop at subway for lunch. It was amazing how much subway was like home, even the tables were the same. We were trying to go to a region museum of Astrakhan and found it but it looked like it was under construction. A wonderfully sweet woman tried to tell us how to get to another museum with the little English that she knew. We somewhat understood but did not think we would find it. Well, as we were walking by the park area near the Kremlin, Kyley recognized the russian word for museum so we went in. Again we were greeted with smiles as we asked if anyone spoke english. They did not however we managed to fingure out how much we should pay. It seemed to be the WWII museum that we heard about because everything was focus on the war but also included WWI. There again was this wonderfully sweet woman that was trying to show things to us and explain certain things. We did not understand but really appreciated her effort.
We took a walk along the Volga again, one of the most beautiful places in Astrakhan. Then back to the hotel for a little rest and back out for our walk to dinner. We were going to try another restaurant that we found out had an english menu, Kamila's but unfortunately, they were having a private party tonight so we could not eat there. Thankfully plan B was to eat at the Chocolate Kafe again. Our normal waitress greeted us at the door and they even gave us a free dessert of fruit and chocolate. I guess you can get that kind of treatment when you eat there three times in one week.
Well, I am all packed and ready to go in the morning to get little M. It is still so hard for me to believe that I get to take him out of the orphanage. I have a toy he likes for the car ride and the cloths I am going to change him into. All the cloths he wears must stay at the orphanage. Again, I can not believe that this day is almost here. This is the day that all the effort and paperwork and stress and tears and aches have gone towards, boy is it worth it.
I am glad that we walked so much today, it wore me out so that I will sleep good tonight, otherwise I think that I would be so excited that I could not sleep at all.
Pray for an easy transition. I am starting to get more concerned about the language barrier but we will do our best.
Have a blessed Monday!

Day 9(Last Visit)

Today was the last visit before I get to pick up Little M! I do not get to see him tomorrow because it is Sunday but Monday morning, Off we go to get him out of the orphanage. I will have the translator explain to him but I do not think he is going to get it right away. I know today we were playing and someone came in and talked with Galina for a few moments. He immediately stopped what he was doing, got real serious and just watched this person. After she left, he went right back to smiling and playing. I can tell he enjoys being with me and I think he was thinking he was going to have to go back. What a surprise on Monday when he never has to go back.
Today was really busy. Orphanage visit, a visit to a baby store to pick up some diapers, etc. A visit to the grocery to get some food for the kids and then back to the room for a late lunch. And then it was laundry time. I was exhausted after hand washing, rinsing and laying out the cloths I needed washed. I really do appreciate my washer and dryer so much more.
We went for an evening walk to Creme Kafe. We really like these places to eat but there are only three that we know for sure that have English menus(we are not adventurous enough to deal with only Russia menus) besides our hotel and we would like to have more of a variety but I don't think that is going to happen. We probably only have one more night out anyway. We are not sure how the kids will do with eating out, especially Kyley and Greg's little girl so Monday and Tuesday may be in the room – we will see.
Another wedding tonight and we laughed as we came back to the hotel. We could see inside to the dance floor and what so you think we saw... Women and children dancing and men outside smoking, almost like back home. Oh another thing to add to my list of things to remember.... The size of the napkins about ¼ of what we have at home.
Well, finally a short blog entry! Off to check email and to bed. Have a great day!

Day 8

Day 8
Well, I think this was the best visit yet with M. At first I was a little worried on our way because we stopped somewhere we had never been before. It was just Galina and myself and she told me to stay in the van. The building had a blue medical type cross on it so I starting getting worried that they put M in the hospital. Well, after about 5 minutes she came out with some papers and off we went, boy was that a relief.
Today he has no fever and was much more full of energy. But I think the best thing was his smile. Usually, when he comes into the room, he comes over, gives me a hug and goes right for the toys. No real facial expression – good or bad. But today, he was smiling before he even entered the room – ear to ear! He then came running over to hug me. It was wonderful! He definetly wanted me to hold him more today, which was fine with me. I could tell his mouth must still be sore because, he would sometimes struggle when swallowing but he seems 1000 times better. I will get to see him tomorrow at 10am and then hopefully take him with me on Monday!

Went out on my own this afternoon, the other families were visiting their kids. Just walked to the Mall/Grocery for more internet and phone cards. Thankfully, I got the english speaking guy today, He is very nice. I managed to exchange some more dollars for rubels on my own and then back to the room for lunch.

I was thinking about starting a list of things that I might forget once I leave here. Little things that will not mean much to anyone else except for those who have travelled to Russia and specifically Astrakhan. Here it goes:
*Remember how many times you would have to turn the key to get your door open. And then have to do the same thing on the otherside to lock the door once you were inside.
* Remember the horns honking and decorated cards driving down the street but on Friday Afternoon
*Remember never to walk down the street and look at the city. If you do not keep your eyes on the ground, you are surely to trip and fall.
*Remember the dogs and cats walking down the street. Especially the ones that knew how to cross the street with you and the adorable black and white puppy at the Astor that I would have loved to take home.
*Remember the heels that women would wear and how they never seemed to be limping from the discomfort. I never saw any of them trip on the street – boy were they good!
*Remember the Quail eggs in the salads
*Remember the room key on the large wooden key chain. At least I would know when I dropped the key.
*Remember that Lays did not make good flavor choices for their chips is Russia, SourCream and Mushroom, Crab and BBQ and Steak Flavor.
*Remember how we always specified to the taxi driver that we wanted to go to the HOTEL Korvet, so that they did not accidentally take us back to that ship. Always carry the hotel bussiness card on you.
*Remember to be careful on the steps because they are not all the same height
*Remember the smile that a waitress would have when we were NOT seated at her table. I always felt so sorry for the Russian waitresses that did not speak english but were stuck with us.

Well that is it for now, I am sure that more will come to me. Hopefully, those of you who have been here before, had an enjoyable time walking down memory lane.

We went out to dinner tonight with Andy and Kathy. For their last night here we went back to the Chocolate Cafe and had another fabulous dinner. For sure this is our favorite place. It will be sad to see them go. It is so strange how we all get so close in such a short period of time. We have only know each other for 5 days but it feels like much more then that. We joked that it is like camp. We even thought of getting T-shirts made that say Camp Astrakhan.
I have to take time out to thank you all again for your prayers. It really means the world to me.

God Bless

Day 7

Not much new today. The same old same old. Breakfast, a little walk. We did finally stop in this store that we thought was a bookstore and had a great time. I found a couple nursery rhyme board books for M that we can not read but have great pictures. I am sure he will appreciate having them when he is older. I also finally went across the street to the open market. There were some fresh fruit and veggies that looked good but I really was not up to the effort involved in trying to communicate the price. It was just a real interesting experience that I will probably never have back in the US.

I spent the afternoon in the room just doing little odds and ends. No visit today but I did find out that M is doing better and I will get to visit with him Friday morning! I am hoping that is a good sign and that I will get to take him home(or at least to the hotel) on Monday. I am trying to get a list together of all the things that I need to do before we leave. I am starting to have those moments when I think, “I better do this now or I will never get to do it before we leave.”I guess that means we are coming to the end of our stay. I do have to repeat that it is amazing at how time does pass quickly here. You would think that it would drag on and on but the day is broken up enough that before I know it, it is time for our walk to dinner. Then it is back to the hotel and getting ready for bed. It is hard to believe that it has been 11 days since we left home(for the 4th trip that is) and that I will be home in 9 more days!

The Robert's will be leaving on Saturday and talked to their referral today about being adopted and she wants to be adopted! It is just so wonderful to see things working out. We went to San Pizza again for dinner. Dinner for us is a several hour endeavor. First, we either walk there or call a taxi. That could be anywhere from 10-30 minutes. Then we get our orders in quickly but it talks awhile to get our food, longer then in the US in most places. Once we are done eating, we have to remember to ask for the bill. We usually get talking and forget to ask, they never bring it to you unless you ask. Then we ask them to call a taxi. That is another 15 minutes for them to come.So we usually leave around 6:30 and get home around 9:30. It is long but very enjoyable to be with other families that understand everything that you are going through.

Can't wait to see M tomorrow, I hope he has bounced back quickly. Hopefully only two more orphanage visits and then he will be mine(ours).

I pray that you have a wonderful day and that God will shine His wonderful face upon you!

Misty

I wanted to take a moment out of my own life and mention Misty. Some may have noticed that I have a link at the top of my blog page that says pray for Misty. I don't know her or her family, in fact I only came to know about them through a blogging friend. But She had been battling brain cancer and has now left this earth to be with her heavenly father. If you want to see how a wonderful strong faith can keep you going, read her husband's blog. No matter how difficult I think I may have it at times, there is always someone else out there who is struggling more so I focus my prayers on this wonderful family as they walk a path that none of us could even imagine. Please take some time to pray for them and especially their little girl Olivia.

Day 6

Sorry for not posting yesterday, I was a very tiring day and once I returned back to my room, I just needed to go to bed. You know we never do too much here; my schedule at home is always on the go; but nevertheless I get tired. I think that it is the emotions that really wear you out.

So first the good news – We are expecting to Leave Astrakhan on October 1st and be back in the US on October 4th!!!!! - 6 days earlier. There is a huge celebration that I may have mentioned before. It is the 450th year celebration for the City of Astrakhan. It starts October 1st through the 5th and it is going to be very busy and there are going to be many people coming into town. So Galina has been able to get the passports processed quicker then normal. We are so grateful for her dong that. Six days does not seem that bad but it is like an eternity when you are away from home. In fact, I mentioned today that I do not know if there was anywhere in the world that I would like to be at for three weeks or more.

Now for the not so good news. Little M was sick and I did not get to see him today. They say that he has an oral infection called stomatitis. I am not sure what it is comparable to in the US but he has sores in his mouth and Galina purchased a certain medicine that they use to clean his mouth. Unfortunately I might not get to see him until Saturday and they are unsure if I should take him with me on Monday. Since we are leaving Wednesday they thought it might be better to leave him in the orphanage Monday and Tuesday because he would be there with a doctor and they could make sure he is well before we leave on Wednesday. I am not thrilled with that at all but I also would not want him to get sicker when he was with me either and then have no doctor. So time will tell. Just pray for healing and that I do not get sick either. In fact Vika was saying that she was glad that I was going to get to leave Wednesday, meaning that I am leaving earlier and can get him home to a heathly enviroment sooner. But I just laughed and said that they are glad to see me go because they never know what is going to happen next with me! HAHA!

Otherwise the day was a little gloomy. Rain and old in the morning so no real walk that morning. We did walk in the evening, it had cleared up by then and took Andy and Kathy to the soverneir shop and then on to dinner at the Chocolate Cafe. We really like eating there, it is really good food and a great atmosphere. Once back to the room, I was able to change my flights to the US and my hotel rooms in Moscow(went very smoothly considering all the trouble I have been having). What is great is that I had to change my flight to arrive in the US in Atlanta and not JFK so I get to be on the plane with Kyley and Greg back to the US. I am sure that they are wondering when they are going to get rid of me, but they have to put up with me a bit longer. They have solved my major plane delimma... how do I go to the bath room on the plane? Do I take him in with me? Do I chance it when he is asleep(assuming he will sleep)? Now, no worries.

Keep up the prayers because this trip is not over and those flaming arrows keep heading my way.

God Bless

Day 5

Ok, it is officially the half way point of the 10 day wait. Highlights of the day were first the continued wind that they have here. The computer said 27 MPH with gust up to 36 MPH. It was also overcast and sprinkling. Since the heat does not get turned on until mid October, my room(no carpeting just tile) is getting cold so for the firs time in the four trips we have made, I am actually cold in Russia - go figure.

On our walk today we stopped by the Azimut. I wanted to get pictures that I did not get the first time we were here. We checked inside and the lobby is looking like a regular hotel. It was the best part of the hotel before do I could not understand why they were redoing it and not the rooms but it looks really great now!

Today's visit was not well. Just because Micah is sick again. He is never fully healthy but today, you could tell he had a sore throat and a slight fever again but he was just really lathargic? We played some but you could tell he was not feeling well, so I tried to just hold him and rock him and sing to him. I want so bad to just take him back and give him medicine. I know that they have meds there but the germs just get passed around and not until I get him out of there will he have a chance of getting better. So pray that he will get better and that will stay well for the next 6 nights that he has there.

Possibly more good news, There is a potential that we may get to come home early!!! More news tomorrow on that so pray!

Thank you all for your support in words, prayers and help at home with my family. THere are no words that can express the gratitude that I have for you all. It is so hard(when you are a control freak) to be half way across the world and in little control of anything - at home and in Astrakhan. So you all have made it so much better for me. THank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Today we got to see God match another family together(hopefully). It is amazing how many times when you are on a path that you know God wants you on but things just do not seem to be working the way you thought it should and then God reveals His plan and it could not be more clear and more amazing - Oh we of little Faith and Oh God of Great Promises!

May God Bless all your lives as He has so graciously blessed ours.

Day 4

Today started pretty much off the same, I think someone noted on their blog a reference to “Ground Hog Day” Well, it is true. You do the same thing over and over again for 10 days. And then I am sure that once I get Little M it will be more exciting but the routine will be the same day after day. Even though it is repetative time still seems to go by fast. The great thing about Breakfast this morning is that the Eggs were actually fully fried! At the hotel, Breakfast is included but you do not order off a menu or there is no buffet. They just bring you what they have. Usually, it is fired eggs, bread, yogart, cheese, sometimes some meat and coffee and tea if you want it. The thing is the eggs are always sunnyside up and very runny. Now I like then that way but poor Kyley could not eat them. We tried yesterday to ask for scrambled but we just got runny eggs with the yoke mixed up. So Kyley was thrilled today. We also had another treat, Andy and Kathy brought Peanut Butter with them! We were talking last night about how we were trying to find it at the store but there is none to be found here. Andy and Kathy said that they had brought some so at Breakfast, we had peanut butter on our bread! It does not take much to excite you when you are out of your comfort zone.
So off to another power walk but only for two hours today. Spent most of our time in the Kremlin area. They are working on restoring it and it is really pretty to look at. I got to go into the church today. It is very ornate inside and I slipped in a picture. I do not feel bad about being disrespectiful because they have little gift shops just inside the church. The paintings are very pretty. We then worked our way back in the wonderful wind. The thing we noticed the other day is that the dogs that run wild around here are very good about crossing the streets. They will stand near a crowd of people waiting to cross and when they move, so do the dogs, it is pretty funny to watch.
In the afternoon, it is calling home and internet catch up and then off to a visit. I started to think about if the hotel is charging me for the phone usage for a local call for my dial up. That could be really bad if they are. I will have to have Vika ask them for me. Today's visit was a little shorter but the testing has begun. He may be delayed physically and in his speech but mentally he is a sharp two year old. First of all he would spend his entire time have me hold him above my head so that he can take his favorite puppet and hold it over the puppet stage. So being the nice Mom that I am, I agreed to do that a few times but I would then put him down and and lead him away, well he started the leg collapsing thing so that he would fall to the ground, hoping that I would let go and then he would try to make a quick escape back to the puppet stage. I caught on quick and would not let go but boy is that so two year old behavior! The next was when he was paying with his stacking cups, one had fallen far from where we were playing so he picked it up and started tapping on the table, etc. as he walked. However, as he came to the TV, he stoped, held up the cup as to hit the TV and then looked at me to see what I would do! Of course I sternly said Nyet and walked toward him, he did not try but I could see in his eyes how he wanted to. Oh the two's!
The rest of the night was off to Sans Pizza for dinner and back home. Please pray for guidance for Andy and Kathy in their decision. Well off to bed and hopefully I can get up a little earlier.
Please pray for Russ and the kids as they try to get adjusted to the new schedule with Daddy being home. God bless you all in your lives and that God's peace will be with you.

Day 3

Today was the day I was worried about because there was no visit to see Little M and we were on our own. But it went very well. I usually sleep in and get up in just enough time to get ready for Breakfast. I usually meet with Kyle and Greg around 9 - 9:30 am. After that I hung out in the room and went through emails etc. We then went for a 4 hour walk around the town. It is still pretty windy here. Friday was the first day of pretty high winds and they are suppose to continue through Tuesday. It is really hard to walk with the wind because it is do dry and dusty here that the dirt just blows in your eyes. Anyway, we made it all the way to the MegaStore that had a Subway restaurant in it and then headed back. There is a tradition here for couples that marry to take a pad lock and put on on this bridge. I got to see the Bridge today and it is pretty neat. Some locks are fancy and other just simple with the names written on it.
After our walk, I called home and talked to Russ – he got home safely but very tired. Skype will work but with dial up it breaks up a lot so I decided to us Skype to phone home and it is only $0.02/minute the cheapest we have seen. It works ok but I would still love to see them. Kyley and Greg have offered to let me use their internet access to use Skype so maybe after I pick up Little M I will do that so he can see them and them him.

Another family arrived then in the evening, Andy and Kathy. They are so sweet. We spent all dinner and then some talking and filling each other in. It is so very nice to have company here.

It was very late and I was tired so I called home once more to talk to my little girl who was not home earlier, and then off to bed. I was too tired to blog so that is why this is posted on Monday. It is three days down and 7 more to go until I can hold Little M in my arms forever.

God Bless

Day Two

Well, I now have internet in my room. It is dial up but that is better then nothing and better then taking my laptop to a restaurant and type while I am eating. I was able to Skype with the kids today(somewhat). THey were very fuzzy and there was much delay but when you haven't seen your kids for awile, fuzzy is good.

I was thinking while I was waiting for the page to come up that I don't think I have given everyone the updated time line. It takes to long to change my tickers so I will just give you the info now. First there is a 10 day waiting period after court, I think it is for appeals. So the titles at the top of my posts are what day we are in of the 10 day. Today is day two down! After the 10 days little M will be ours. I will pick him up from the orphanage on Monday September 29th. We then apply for his passport so that we can fly to Moscow. Unfortunately it takes 7 days to get his passport so we should get that on Monday October 6th and fly to Moscow on October 7th. We then have to take him to get a medical exam, register with the US embassy and have an appointment to get a visa for him to enter the U.S.(he will have a Russian passport). We are then planning on flying home October 10th! Russ's birthday! The best present I think that we could give him.

In thinking about all the time that is ahead of me, it seems like forever, but surprisingly each days passes pretty quickly. Yesterday I spent time visiting with little M, oraganizing the room and taking a walk. Today was very eventful,at least for me. Woke up and had breakfast and went right away to visit Little M. THen off to the back to exchange more money, picked up the Smith's and went grocery shopping(this was great because I now have a stove in my room so I could purchase pasta and soups!). The afternoon was spent hooking up to dial up and catching up with emails and Skyping with the kids. THen off for a walk with the Smith's to dinner. We wanted to try La Vanilla, a restaurant that others suggested. THey still do not have an english menu, so after several minutes of trying to translate the menu on the spot, we gave up, asked to take the menu with us(that was not easy) and went around the corner to the Chocolate Restaurant. It was so nice to have an English Menu. Their food was also very good. Since it was quite cool here, we all decided to have Hot Chocolate at the end. I was a little dissappointed when the very small cup came out, but one we realized how thick and rich it was, that little cup was a lot. It was like drinking a melted Hershey's Bar, I actually ate it with a spoon. THen we came home by taxi and now I am blogging. No need to try to go to bed early. THe hotel has a large party room below. Last night and tonight there have been weddings. Since my room is now over the party hall, I can hear the music more then I would like. It is not to bad but enough to make it difficult to sleep. Last night it ended at 11:30pm, which was great - we will see about tonight.

Tomorrow is Sunday and no visits so we will see what we can do to make the time pass.

I can not end without a little update in Little M. Today he is starting to feel very comfortable with me. We were playing with the bubbles and I have been trying to get him to blow them. Well, today, he decided to take the whole container and carry it around. He kept tipping it and I did not want the bubbles to spill so I kept reaching for it, but he would just push my hand away. Then there is the puppet stage. It is more like a partition. He loves this little blue rabbit puppet and wants me to hold him up so he can put the puppet over the top. I have to be careful because I am afraid that it will fall over on him. But after holding him for several minutes, he gets heavy, and I get tired. I would try to distract him on the otherside of the room with other toys, but He would slyly sneek away and head right for that stage. It is going to be an exhausting 8 more days if I have to keep lifting him up. We go over pictures of the family in hopes that he will be able to say his siblings names by the time we come home.

I hope that things are going well and that the Buckeye's won this week. It will be wonderful that Russ will be home tonight for the kids. I am hoping that I will get a post tomorrow with a recap of the week that I missed. It seems that there are many others traveling on 1st and 2nd trips now or soon - that is so wonderful! God Bless you all!

Day One

Well today was an early start, at least for Russ. He was picked up at 5:30 for the airport to start his trip back home. It is amazing that we have been traveling since September 4th and he will get back home September 20th - He has spent a total of 4 days at home and 2 sets of 2 days each in Astrakhan in that time. I know that he will love being home for the long haul and hopefully let his body get adjusted to one time zone.

Today we(Kyley and Greg and I) went for a walk. We had lost electricity at the hotel and thought that we could get away for awhile. Well we came to find out that most of the city was out. It was extremely windy and walking was difficult because all the dirt was blowing in our eyes and hitting our legs. So our plans to go to the bank and the store did not pan out because of the loss of electricity.

I got to see little M today and we had fun. He has a cold and was running a fever yesterday but seemed better today. Our visit was short today and when Vika asked him if he was ready to go eat, he shook his head no! Yea, I won out over food - but he still had to go. He definitely is expecting me when he comes in the room now and it just seems natural to be together. I do have to say that it is hard to get in my head that he is really our son now, I am sure that it will not really sink in until I get to take him home.

Tomorrow will be a morning visit, hopefully some grocery shopping and I think I will be able to get dial up working tomorrow! That sounds so weird to be excited about dial up but the internet is always down in the hotel and I now have a room with no internet(but a great kitchen and large table to eat at( no coffee table for lunch). We are trying restaurants with free wifi for dinner so we can check our blogs and emails so I am hoping that I can start doing it from my room and possibly Skype with the kids. Anyone that is on their way to Astrakhan, bring a laptop with an phone jack, and plan on buying a phone/internet card(150 rubels(about 6 dollars) for 10 hours internet - Pretty good.

I will start creating a recap of the past week and post soon. We have another family arriving on Sunday for their referral - it is so great that all our many visits that we have been here, we have had other familys with us. What a blessing.

Hope to post soon. Thanks again for your prayers. Love your comments.

Hey kids - we love you very much take it easy on Grandma and Grandpa! Love you Mom and Dad more then words can say.

Family of 6

Yes, It has finally happened! We are now parents to a wonderful little boy. Court was great! I think that two times is a charm for us. Can't talk much because we are at dinner at Sans Pizza - THey have free wifi. The hotel does not have us in a room with internet but it doesn't matter much because it is usually down anyway. So my hope is that I will be finding restaurants to eat at with wifi and will be able to keep everyone posted. I want to say thank you to everyone for your prayers. They were felt and court was wonderful it went better then we could ever imagine. God is good and has blessed us immensely. Russ will be starting his trip home tomorrow so pray for safety. THankfully I will be here with Kyley and Greg, they are wonderful company. THey also had a successful court today. It has been a great day all around.
Again thank you all continue your prayers and have a blessed day. Now off to celebrate!

God Bless - Russ and Monica

??????????????????????

Hello all! We are alive and well and back at home. We had severe technical problems in Russia and were not able to post again until we got home. I have the title as is because there has been so much going on that I do not even know where to start. But to sum it up things have not been on the upside. Basically, we went to court on Monday and it was postponed! I could not believe it myself. I feel like everything has been a bad dream and I am hoping that I am going to wake up soon.

Basically there was some paperwork that we did not have that the court wanted. So within 5 minutes of starting court, it got postponed. It has been rescheduled for September 18th. We should have the paperwork today and be back in a plane on Monday for our court. The good news is that we were planning on coming home this time so this has helped us to process things quickly. The bad news is that most of our dossier expired between 9/8 and 9/18(ccourt) and we do not know if the judge will have an issue with it. So we have spent an enormous amount of time and money on the phone trying to get things going while we were still in Russia. It also means that, if court is successful, we will not get to bring him home until October 10th, everything is pushed back 10 days. We have decided that Russ will come home immediately after court and I will stay the entire time. Our kids have been through so much and we can not ask them much more, especially since we haven't been able to Skype with them like we planned.

Also I want to give my Mom the Mother of the year award! Not only has she had to take care of my three kids, running them to school and activities. But she has been instrumental in helping get our paperwork updated and to top that off, in the middle of her running around for me she was sick and found out that she had a sinus infection. Now that is motherly dedication. I love you so much!

So, I have 4 days to get paperwork, reschedule planes and hotels, unpack/ repack for a longer trip, get more money and spend as much time with our kids as possible( the whole reason we were coming home in the first place)! Oh! and try to get our computer problems solved. Just a note to everyone out there who loves Apple computers, Russia is not ready for them! We have had so much problems and we think it is related to our macbook. So we are going to bring our Windows based laptop this time and pray that we can get things to work.

Needless to say, blogging has not been high on my list so I do not know if I will get to post again before we leave, or while in Russia for that fact but I ask for prayers, prayers and more prayers! Prayers for strength, for perseverance, for a loving heart and that we will glorify God with a loud voice through it all!

Blessing to you all. Thank you for the prayers!

Back in Moscow

Sorry to all of you who regularly check our blog. I did not get to post before we left, just very busy getting last minute things taken care of. We got off on Thursday and our flights went well. I was able to sleep a little better on the flight this time(don't think Russ did). It was nice becaue this flight had indivdual screens for each person so you can watch what you want when you want which makes it really nice. This helped to make the time go by quickly.

We arrive in Moscow on Friday, slept, called the kids, slept some more and then went out for another walk around the sights. Had dinner and then went to bed(for 10 hours). We are now at McDonalds for a low cost breakfast and the Free WiFi. We are leaving around 3pm Moscow time for Astrakhan. So more traveling. Our hope is that we have the same room as last time because we have all the computer settings already in the laptop, that way we can et up and running quickly. We are using a different browser this time and hope we will be able to post and check emails. If you do not hear from us, that is probably why. We will be back in Moscow on Tuesday and home Wednesday night. I am really beginning to hate(I do not use that word much) travelling. On the way over, I kept thinking to myself, I can not believe I am going to have to go through this one more time( and in another week and half)! I just keep thinking how nice it will be to see the kids for thoses few days.

COURT! Now that is what is constantly on our minds for the last few days. In case we do not get a chance to blog again, Our court is at 10am (2am EST) on Monday. Please pray, pray, pray! We just ask for wisdom in our answers and kindness of heart in the judge. I have never had to be in court before and the first time in a foreign court is a little nerve-wrecking.

Another prayer request is that we get to see our little boy tomorrow. Normally, the family gets to see their child the day before court but with it being Sunday, we are not sure. It has only been 6 weeks since we have seen him(we know others have waited much longer) but it is still hard and we can not wait to see him again.

Well, we have finished our Egg McMuffins and our back to practice for court until we get picked up. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and a special message of love to our brave kids who are so kind to let us go for this long trip so we can bring love into the life of a precious little boy.

God's Blessings to you all,

Russ and Monica

It's Here!

Our Mortgage letter finally showed up early this morning on our door step. I have to tell you that this past week has been a killer on my nerves. I knew that it would show up deep in the recesses of my mind but many things went wrong this week and it took two extra days to get here. I know that does not seem like a big deal but since we are getting on a plane Thursday morning and with Labor Day - we only had two more bussiness days to take care of things and that is cutting it too close for me. For those of you who are not familiar with Apostilled Papers here is a picture. There is nothing much to it but it is critical that you have it.

Anyway, we now officially have all our paperwork, plane tickets, hotel reservations and visas. Technically we are ready to go but my "TO DO" list is still very long. With all the things that are going on I think I forgot to tell you all about our travel dates. The top of the blog has the countdown until court but we actually leave in "5 DAYS". I can not believe it. We are going to fly out on 9/4, have court on 9/8 and be back in Ohio on 9/10. When then leave again on 9/15 and return to the US with our new son on October 1st. I know you must be thinking that we are crazy to be traveling back and forth but we have our reasons. My heart is aching that we have to leave him again but I keep telling myself that it is just one more time(the last time) and the fact that we know exactly when we will see him next, helps. Someone else wrote that with each day they were are away from your child , they would fall more in love with them and the time away got worse - I agree 110%. It is hard to imagine unless you experience it, how you could fall in love with a child that you have only spent 12 hours with but it happens - it is wonderful!

So now that we have 5 days left, I am off to the races - I should post again before we leave. Our Court date is September 8th at 10am(2 am EST). So I ask those of you who have been praying for us to start praying now for our preparedness and wisdom in our answers, that the judge looks kindly on us and grants us to be parents of Little M and that most of all God will be glorified in this adoption.

God Bless you all

Progress

Well, I have been very busy over the last week and have realized that I should do a little update(ok not so little).  Because we did not have exact travel dates right away, we decided to do shopping last weekend. Little M now has a nice new wardrobe, even Russ was enjoying looking at cloths. We got the basics along with a few toys, new safety latches, sippy cups and so on. It was a fun start to a very stressful week. The main goal was to get the visas off (done by Wednesday), contact the Mortgage company regarding our letter, and booking plane and hotel. Since we are making a second and third trip it took longer to get the details of our travel dates so I did not actual finalize the plane and hotel reservations until today. It is amazing how much money I can spend on plane and hotel rooms in just a couple of hours( 7 nights stay in Moscow and 4 different plane flights). Thankfully we have been able to collect many Marriott points over the past year plus and are able to really reduce our bills at Moscow hotels.

The main drama of the week is getting the Mortgage letter. I fully expected to receive the letter this week but thankfully I received several responses to my plea in the last post and I was able to get a phone number of a helpful person in the US. Actually our letter had not even been written but the people were very helpful and were able to get it out right away. However, there was and error in the first letter so another one had to be done and sent(I did not handle this very well and thankfully Russ realized - after a tearful phone call - that I was at the end of my rope and took over from there. We finally got the letter and then began the amazing coordination of how to get it to Frederick county Maryland for verification and then to Annapolis Maryland to receive the apostille. Well, it is off and my prayer(Yes I am still praying fervently for papers) is that it will be back in our hands safe and sound(and correct) by Wednesday.

Thankfully through this anxiety filled week, my bible study had some focus on anxiety. The one that struck me was Matthew 6:25-34. This talks about not to worry about food and clothing because God takes care of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field and He will take care of you. Specifically verse 32 says"... for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things." God has lead us into the wonderful journey and carried us through many trials and tears, He knows we need this paper for our little boy, why would He not provide it for us? Me of little faith.

So we have 11 days until we leave, it seems so far away but at the same time, I don't know how I will get everything done. Besides all the prep for the trip and court and his homecoming, I have to organize things for my parents and their crazy schedule with the kids. I also find myself working on things that don't have to be done for awhile but I know that once we return with little M that I won't be able to do - or won't want to do - like getting the oil changed in the car, cleaning the carpets, and the list could go on and on...

One thing that I never fail to remember is how much I miss him. I look at his pictures constantly and think about how things will be when he is here - in fact last week with our trip to King's Island, we all were making comments like, M would like this ride next year. I told Russ that once I pick him up to take him out of the orphanage, I am going to want to hold him forever and never let him go.

Before I leave I want to congratulate Kyley and Greg on their Court Date(just a few days after ours) and for Craig and Phyllis who will be on their way home from trip one after meeting their three boys. It is so heart warming to see all these children being adopted and getting their forever families.

May God bless you all!

COURT DATE!

YEAH!!!! I have been waiting so long to type that title for a post. In fact I was thinking today that I needed to post again and I was going to title it "21" being the number of days that it has been since we have seen little M but I like this title MUCH better.

You know how they say that when you go away that is when everything happens - well we went to Kings Island today with the kids - the last outing before school starts. We had a great time - no news, no Olympics, no emails, blogs phone calls or even a cell phone. So no one could get in touch with us even if they wanted to. In fact only my parents and Russ' work even knew where we were. Aren't we glad that we checked our email before we went to bed! - Of course now I can't sleep because I have a million things running through my head about all the things that I thought I would have more time to do - I am not complaining though!

Oh - by the way court is September 8th - no travel dates yet but we are thinking that we will leave September 4th - that only leaves 3 weeks!

ONE THING TO ASK: If anyone has a way that I can contact Citimortgage by phone in the US(specifically account Inquiries in Maryland). Let me know. That is the one document that we are waiting on for court and we are now running out of time. Just post or email me.

I will leave you all with pictures of our 3D glasses from Kings Island.

Little L is left out here because of his pouty face.

But it didn't take long for him to be back to his normal self!

God Bless

Paper-itis?

Ok, it has been awhile since I have sent off all the papers 

to the necessary people but they are finally starting to trickle back in to us. This is wonderful news because I can finalize them by getting them apostilled and then send them off to Russia. However, this week, I have realized that I have come down with an acute attack of paper-itis! Yes, I know that is just made up by my symptoms are real. When I start thinking about having to read and re-read papers check dates and signitures; make sure the right papers are stapled together; yada, yada  - literally, I start to get agitated, my heart rate goes up, I get very nervous and my stomach gets tied in knots and I am snippy with everyone. There might not be an official diagnosis in the medical books but I know that it is real and that I have it. What has made it worse is that on top of all the adoption paperwork, I have had 3 large piles of paperwork to fill out for school!

So how do I get through this problem that I have? Well, prayer is the first thing. In prayer, God has allowed me to step back and trust in Him on getting things done and done right! Next, I just keep looking at the wonderful picture of our new little boy. A little boy who probably does not even understand that those fun people who spent time with me will be back to not just play for a few hours but for a lifetime!

SO, I am battling my paper-itis and I feel much more in control of myself. And with the  end of the paper trail coming to an end(for now), excitement is started to take over me again. We are hoping to get our papers back from the CPA on Tuesday. I will then get everything apostilled and off to CHI in St Louis and then on to Russia. I will only be waiting for our Mortgage letter which I hope I will get in the next week.

For those of you who are not familiar with the term apostilled, it is just a verification of the notary. There are usually two steps: 1) you have to got to the county that the notary is registered in and get them to verify that the notary is registered with them. Then you take that to the Secretary of State to verify the county information. 

One more pray request to send out is for the conflict between Russia and Georgia. It is horrible that people are dying and the ugliness of people is really coming out. All of us that are in the process of adopting are also very fearful how this could effect bringing these wonderful children home. 

Now to leave you with a picture of our first cloths purchase for little M. 

GO BUCKS!