WE’RE HOME!

OK we have been home and are just now getting to update the blog. We arrived home a week ago and have been running around catching up on Christmas stuff all week. We also are working hard to make sure we get all of the additional paperwork together as soon as possible so it can be sent to Moscow. We do not want them waiting on us for anything. Staying busy will help the time go by . . . we hope!! Since we are not anticipating the call for a court date until February so we have a long month of January to wait. Once we get the court date, we do not expect to have much time so we need to be ready to go.

We still have a lot of work to do on the nursery and that will keep us busy as well. We will put some pictures up once we get it finished, but that will be a couple of weeks away. Until than, please have a safe and happy holiday and check back with us in a couple of weeks.

Wishing a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year to all!

Maria and Jeff

Our Last Full Day in Moscow

Today, we went to complete paperwork to be filed with the Ministry of Education and the local court. We had to have five differnet papers signed and notarized for about $15 - $17 each. Not bad since a notary here has to have a law degree. We were able to get this done and than spent a little time walking through the Kremlin and Red Square. We also walked around and looked into some stores and a very nice shopping mall (Gum) at the Red Square.

We are one step closer to bringing Tyler home. We are now back to waiting and once again, we will be looking for a call from our agency letting us know we have been assigned a court date. We are hoping it will be 6 weeks, but it is more likely going to be 8 or 9 weeks. There are lots of holidays here between the Catholic Christmas on December 25, Gregorian New Years on Jan 1, Russian Orthodox Christmas on January 7, and another new year celebration on January 12. Some people take all the holidays off. The process includes the collection of papers from Tyler's hospital, social worker, and the Ministry of Education. Once all of this is together and our own paperwork is reviewed, we can get a court date assigned.

So, we are packing up and preparing to leave Moscow tomorrow. We know we will be back to pick up Tyler and bring him home to Maryland. We cannot possibly tell you how much it has meant to have this blog and to receive all of the love, support and helpful hints through the comments section. We will post again from the States!

Maria and Jeff

HAPPY DAY

Another day in Russia and it was another good day. We have been struggling with the loss of the first referral with so little time to grieve and comprehend what happened, yet trying to evaluate a new child to see if he will be our son for the rest of our lives.

Our doctor, who speaks good English, made the three hour drive (one cannot understand Moscow traffic until you experience it) to this hospital with us. Sure it is only 60 miles, but the first 30 miles takes 2 hours as it is just stop and go forever. Waiting through every light four or five times . . . it is as bad as rumored.

The Doctor did a very good exam and reviewed all of his medical records. Tyler is very thin and small and you can actually see his rib cage. The nurse says he is a very picky eater, but the good news is that he just loves cream of wheat. Of course this was cream of wheat in a bottle, so we are not sure what that really means. One thing for sure is that we need to fatten this little boy up. The Doctor really feels that all he needs is a good diet, lots of attention and lots of love. In the end, the doctor gave him a “clean bill” of health. This kid is a fighter.

We were definitely able to relax and just play with Tyler who played the entire time except when we fed him. Maria was able to feed him another bottle and they tried to spoon feed him, but he would not have anything to do with it. It was a nice visit. We got lots of smiles today from the boy in pink. Apparently, the nicest outfit the hospital has is pink, (“not that there is anything wrong with that”) and thus he was wearing the same thing again. For trip two there will be lots of colors, including blues, and reds and Raven’s purple!

Tomorrow we will not have time to visit as we have to go to the notary at 10:30am to sign all the papers to officially accept him. These are the papers that are filed with the court to get us on the calendar, hopefully in 6-8 weeks.

So, our son’s name will officially be Tyler Jackson. It is a big name for a little boy, but we know with all the love from us and our family and friends, he is going to do great. His birthday is November 17, 2005.

Maria and Jeff

A Better Day!

Today was a good day. We met our son. He is a cute and small 13 month old little boy that has blonde hair and very big blue eyes. We had to drive almost 2½ hours to get to the little town where he is being held at the general hospital. He has only been there a month after spending his first year in the maternity ward in a near-by hospital since all the baby homes are full at this time. We went to the hospital with the local social worker who told us that he is available for adoption.

Once we arrived and saw Tyler (middle name still being debated), we knew that he needed us more than our first referral. There is a belief in the perspective adoptive parent world that you eventually end up with the child that was meant for you. We knew that he desperately needs a loving family and we needed a child to love. It is a perfect match.

We met with the doctor at the hospital who said that he was fine and healthy - -all considering his circumstances. He appears to be good with no unusual problems. He was born weighing 5lbs 12 oz and is now 17lbs 14oz. We could not bring our doctor today, but he will come with us tomorrow for our visit and unless he discovers something that the hospital has not, we will be formally filing paperwork on Friday morning to request a court date. Hopefully, if 6-8 weeks we will be back for court. Right now, it appears that all this little boy needs is love, nourishment, and attention.

Assuming all goes well, we will be leaving Moscow on Aeroflot flight 315 Saturday around 2:00 Moscow time arriving in JFK at 4:00pm EST and driving home by 8:00pm EST. We will be able to make the Raven’s game on Sunday and the little Raven’s outfit that Maria already bought will certainly fit Tyler. We think a Super Bowl victory will be great for him!

A special thanks for all the thoughts and prayers and emails the past 24 hours, when you are this far from home, it makes all the difference.

Maria and Jeff

Bad Day

We got very bad news today. After spending 90 minutes playing with Tyler, the head doctor came into the room and talked to our translator who let us know that this child is not available for adoption. Needless to say we were totally and completely devastated. There is no explanation that can justify or explain why this happened, but they said a local Russian woman had asked for the baby but the social worker had not yet filed the papers with the Ministry of Education. Regardless of what is right or wrong, Russian families have preference over over American families. There was no way we could keep the referral. We left and had a very long ride back to the hotel.

Our coordinator here was able to call the Ministry of Education to ask them if we could get in today for another referral. Miraculously, we did and we did get another referral for another13 month old baby boy that is in a baby hospital because there is no room in the baby home for him. He is described as being in good health. It was too late today to visit this home because it is about 60-70 miles outside the city. Since they have no highways and traffic is worse than anything in the US, it will take us 2 to 2.5 hours to get there tomorrow.

We are now both very sad at losing the first referral. After holding and kissing and playing with this child for two days, thinking he was ours, it was just heart breaking to walk away. We are also happy to have a new referral. We have a picture and he is also described as having sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. He is said to be sociable, plays well with others, is active and was communicating and walking a little. We are hopeful that tomorrow will be better than today. While yesterday was the best day, today was the worse.

We know you are all praying for and supporting us. We have not come this far to turn back now, so we are moving forward, cautiously. Everyone said this is very unusual and not to worry about it happening again, but how can you not worry. So, tomorrow, we will try again and go to visit this baby. We will take more pictures and hopefully deliver good news again tomorrow. We are sad but OK. We really do not have time to stay down, because we are meeting a new child tomorrow with the belief that he will be ours forever.

Maria and Jeff

IT'S A BOY!

This is the best day for us on the blog so far. Today we went to the Ministry of Education and just as we expected they told us siblings were not available, however, they had a beautiful little boy that is 13 months old. His hair was described as brownish and eyes were gray. The small black and white photo that the MOE had did not tell us much, but nevertheless, we were very pleased and accepted the referral. We than went with our driver and translator in search of our child. It took us a while to find his home, but after asking no less than 8 people for directions we made it.

The waiting and all the anxiety we experienced over the past 7 months was instantly forgotten when we got to meet Tyler for the first time. He was getting ready for a nap but we got him up and let our doctor examine him. Maria than got him dressed and we spent 90 minutes playing with him and holding him.

He was very good and attentive. Although we could tell he was getting tired at the end, he did not seem to mine having us around. As soon as they took him back to his crib, he fell asleep. Tomorrow, we are going around 10:30 to play for a while and they said we could feed him his lunch. He is eating from a spoon and has six teeth, so we are not sure what lunch is, but we really don’t care. He will nap after lunch and we will come back Wednesday for the same routine.

It was a perfect “Met you date” and we cannot wait to our “Got you date.” We cannot post pictures here because it is a publicly accessible website. We will post pictures after we return from trip two.

That is it for now. It is 10:00PM here and we have had a long but wonderful day!

Maria and Jeff

Moscow, Here we come!

We are leaving in ten minutes to drive to JFK airport with a quick stop at the local Fed Ex distribution center to pick up Maria’s Passport and VISA that just arrived in Baltimore forty minutes ago (long story - yada yada yada - we are going to Moscow!!).

We were up late packing and are so excited that it is our turn. We are praying for all the families waiting for trip 1, trip 2 and reaccreditation. It is a difficult process and not for the weak of heart, but in the end we know it will all be worth it.Our next posting will be from Moscow. We can’t wait.

Thanks to all our family, friends, colleagues, and dear neighbors for all the well wishes and prayers. We feel all the support and love.

Maria & Jeff

THE CALL!!!!

Well, at long last we got "The Call"!! We had taken the day off with little expectations but at just a little after noon, our agency contacted us to let us know we were invited by the Ministry of Education to travel to Moscow to meet our child(ren). What that means is that we do not know at this point if it is a boy or a girl, one or two, or anything about age, but we are approved to adopt. We may find out some more info before we leave, but probably not. We will be traveling next weekend (December 9th) in order to be there for our meeting on Monday December 11th. We return home on Saturday December 16th. Needless to say, we could not be happier!

We are working on booking flights and hotels and figuring out some of the details. Thanks for all those who have been sending us their best wishes and praying for us. We feel like this has put us over the last big hurdle. We still need to travel and complete paperwork and everything else that goes with the adoption process, but we are now in the system and approved for adoption.

We may update the blog again as we prepare to leave, but if not, look for the next update from Moscow! You know we cannot post pictures of the child(ren) but we will write as much as we can and at least post some pictures of the city and stuff.

Maria & Jeff