Tyler - Day Seven

Well, this journey is starting to come to a close. After 23 days in Moscow, we are heading home! However, as this journey ends, a new one begins with Tyler in the United States of America. We got our Russian Consulate registration done today and were able to change our tickets and come home one day early. Today we packed while Tyler napped (11:15pm last night for anyone wondering) and Maria even napped while packing (see picture below).

We are heading to the airport early and have a 12:25pm Moscow time flight on Delta into JFK with a connection to BWI that arrives at 7:00pm EST. We will be transit from our apartment in Moscow to our home in Baltimore for approximately 20 hours. We will post again once we are home and catch up on sleep and get situated.

We are so excited to be able to pass the torch to Lauren and Marco who pick up Cupcake tomorrow. They will get their paperwork done and come home where Cupcake and Tyler will meet for some pictures.

Hopefully, reaccredidation will take place soon so the torch never stops being passed and as one forever family leaves Russia, another picks up their son or daughter and becomes a forever family.

We will be talking with you next from the States!

Jeff, Maria and Tyler

Maria finding a little piece of bed to use while packing the suitcases.

Tyler Day Six

Well, a little late with a post tonight as Tyler has won the first round. He is still up and not appearing to considering sleep at this point. Not sure why? We tried to get him down at 9:00 with no luck. We let him play a little more thinking he would get tired . . . no luck. At 10:30 he was still fighting when we tried to get him to sleep. Now at 11:00 we are ready to go to sleep and let him stay up and watch Leno. He did so well the first few nights but tonight was one of those nights.

He does have a little bit of a cold, so maybe that is it. We gave him some PediaCare this morning, afternoon and evening. We don’t think that would be it, because he slept really well for his naps . . . maybe too well.

Andy, Renee and Jake came over to complete our Home and Home series of visits. It was a good visit and the kids did good together. Lauren stopped by with her mother (Janet) Larry and Joe and they all got to see Tyler before he crashed for his afternoon nap. It really helps to see people from home here in Moscow.

Just a couple of pictures for today. We brought with us size four shoes for Tyler and they ended up being too small. So, Jeff walked to the local Baby Store to scout out shoes and got a little pair of Italian boots for Tyler. He walks (when we hold his hand) much better with these on and can actually stand pretty well.

We’ll let you know tomorrow what time Tyler decided to go to sleep.

Good Night!

Maria, Jeff and Tyler

Tyler Day Five

That is day five with Tyler and day 21 in Moscow for Jeff and Maria and we are all ready to head for home.

We had a nice relaxing morning. Tyler ate and played around the apartment and in the afternoon we headed over to Renee and Andy’s apartment with Tyler. Renee and Andy just picked up Jacob from the Baby Home in Orekhovo-Zueveo. Another Moscow Region Yahoo Group friend also stopped by. She is adopting from the same city and baby home as Renee and Andy. She is in her 10 day wait, but did have her nearly three year old son who was also adopted from Russia with her. We had a great time just talking about the process and learning a little about how we each went through the process and all the stops this past week. A couple of pictures are below of Phillip, Jake and Tyler.

Nothing much else happening. Tyler had a bit of a runny nose today and sneezed a couple of times . . . perhaps a cold is coming on. Not impossible since we were all at the embassy together with 15-20 other kids and over the first three days that we had Tyler we had to go in and out of the car and buildings three or four times a day when it was about 5 degrees outside. He would sweat in the snow suit and freeze in the outside air.

Our last Saturday night in Moscow and first as parents . . . so we are sitting here watching Tyler sleep.

That’s it for today,

Maria, Jeff and Tyler

Maria with Tyler, Jake and Phillip

Tyler and Jake discussing whose toys are whose.

Tyler checking out a really cool toy of Jake's.

Tyler Day Four

It was a very uneventful day in Moscow accept for we had Tyler with us. It was a holiday here (Men’s Day) and there was a parade this morning and fireworks this evening. We did not go anywhere all day although I think the temps got above 10 degrees. A real warming trend tomorrow as we will probably get into the low 20s.

Aunt Lauren stopped by with supplies that should get us home next week. While it is true that you can get most everything here in Moscow, it is knowing where to find it that makes it a challenge. The local chain drug store called 36.6 carries a little of everything . . . kind of like a really small CVS/Rite-Aide/Eckerd. Lauren walked to the 36.6 that is about ½ to ¾ of a mile for baby food, wipes and a couple of bottles with Jeff last night. Of course it was zero degrees outside with a nice breeze blowing. The 36.6 had two jars of food, glass bottles and no small travel size wipes. Lauren knew where to stop today and offered to stock us. Many thanks!

A couple of more photos of Tyler playing in the apartment.

Tyler was fascinated by bubbles. He just watched them float down and tried to catch them or touch them. A picture of him looking up at bubbles.

He was also thrilled with a small blue balloon and was walking around in this picture with it in his mouth. Shortly thereafter, the balloon disappeared.


And of course Jeff teaching Tyler how to work the remote control and watch sports.

We are counting the days on one hand!

Maria, Jeff, and Tyler

Tyler – Day Three

A short note today. Tyler got his Visa today after a brief visit tot the US Embassy with all of the other kids being adopted. We ran into Laura and Rich with their daughter and Renee and Andy with their son as well as a dozen other families. It was a relatively painless process as we signed couple of papers and waited 30 minutes and got Tyler’s Visa and away we went.

Tyler was a bit of a bear this morning. He woke up and was not the playful little boy that went to bed. He gave himself a nap from 10:30- 11:45 when he just laid on the comforter we have on the floor and fell asleep. He took another nap from 1:00 – 2:00 in the car on the way to and sitting at the embassy. After we got home around 3:30, we was all smiles and laughs except when bath time ended. He just played and played.

Tomorrow is a holiday in Russia. It started similar to veteran’s day, but now is more like a men’s day. We are doing nothing the next four days except passing time. Our agency will take care of registering us with the consulate next week.

Another couple of photos.

Tyler during his first nap . . . did not quite make it to his stomach.

Tyler snoozing this morning

Tyler with his Winnie the Pooh outfit

More to come over the weekend!

Maria and Jeff

Tyler – Day Two

Well, here is the story for today. At 10:30am we went today to get Tyler’s medical exam, sign some book at the Ministry of Education and then to get a visa photograph for Tyler. All of the offices were nearby, but it still took almost 4 hours to get it all done. Tyler was good most of the time although the doctor had him crying real good during the exam. He twice fell asleep in the car but was awakened at the next stop 15 minutes later. Once back on his home turf, he settled down a little. In the meantime, Jeff saddled back up and headed for the Passport office (45 minutes with no traffic) He did not return until 5:30PM.

Tyler weighed in today at 20 lbs and measured 28 inches . . . proportional but small for his age. The doctor at the American Medical Center joked with us about Tyler. He started with saying “You have a serious problem”. Our hearts drop . . . he than continues with “the problem will be keeping the girls away when he is older”. A great comment that we are guessing he uses with some frequency, but it always makes the parents smile. When Tyler started to cry and we both jumped to pacify him, he nicely asked us to sit down and he turned his back to Tyler and talked to us keeping one hand on Tyler and explained that these first few days, Tyler is testing us to see what he can get with crying. Within a minute of talking to us, with Tyler not able to see us, and just the hand of the doctor on Tyler’s leg, he stopped crying. He cautioned us to be careful with how you respond to crying or your little boy may be your baby when he is 25 years old.

Tomorrow we go to get Tyler’s visa. The best we can tell is that tomorrow, our paperwork is turned into the embassy by our agency and we are given and appointment in the afternoon to take Tyler and meet with the US Immigrant Visa interviewers. It is only 15 minutes but they are very strict about being prompt. We will not be late! Have we mentioned that we are ready to come home!

We gave Tyler a bath tonight. Well this had two possibilities really good or really bad. We filled the tub with 3-4 inches of water and a little bubble bath that really did not bubble much. We stripped Tyler down and got ready for the Kodak moment. With the video running we slowly lowered Tyler into the tub and when his feet hit the water he smiled. As Maria sat him in the tub, he was just ecstatic and loved it. He splashed and played and did not seem to mind having water poured on his head. We scrubbed him down and washed his hair and let him play until the water got cool. Now it was time to get out . . . let the screaming begin. Boy, he can really let go with some tears. Nevertheless, we got him dried and in his PJs and he settled down. About 30 minutes later we got him off to bed. A full day as parents and he is OK!! Who would have thunk it?

That is it for today, more tomorrow. Pictures below.

Maria and Jeff

Tyler in the tub with Maria holding him steady.

Tyler dealing with the shock of being out of the tub . . . see he has hair!

Tyler playing before bedtime

Gotcha!!

We have Tyler and we are finally back at our apartment! We got back at 6:00PM after a long day. We actually picked him up at 1:30PM and made several stops and sat in a lot of traffic. Tyler slept a little and cried a little.





Oh yea, some pictures . . . .








Tyler on a play day at the baby hospital.





Tyler on a play day at the hospital.


Tyler in a snow suit ready to leave the hospital!


Tyler at our apartment!


Tyler playing at our apartment.


More to follow later once Tyler goes down . . . if he goes down!

Maria and Jeff

Waiting Day 12

The last day of waiting and our last day as a couple of DINKS, (Dual Income No Kids). The important part of that is that our lifestyle for the last 20 years will be changing and we are so ready for it. OK, once all the laughing parents catch their breath they can continue reading now. We are not naïve and we know it is going to be a tremendous challenge and no matter how ready we think we are, there are going to be surprises around every corner. We are expecting the unexpected and planning the best we can, knowing that there will be bumps along the way. We are looking forward to both the challenges and the rewards.

While we have been able to come and go as we please and do what we want when we want, we know those days are coming to an end. We know that starting tomorrow, and for the next several (20-30) years, we can never just go out without the thought of Tyler. Either we are going out and he is with us, or we are looking for babysitters and wondering if he is OK . . . or is the babysitter OK. No longer will it be easy to just say “I don’t feel like making dinner tonight let’s just go out.” Taking Tyler to a nice restaurant may not be the easiest or best thing to do right away. While Tyler is already a Raven’s Season Ticket holder, he may not be ready for the games on Sunday for a few more years and for both of us to go may not be that easy. All things we will work through together.

We recognize that it is a total change to our lifestyle and our being. Our responsibilities have increased and we now have to answer that call. Failure is not an option.

OK, enough of that . . . so, we were going to walk to the US Embassy today to check the place out and see if Jeff could find his old colleague Joe Moone who works there. Thankfully, we called first. The US Embassy was closed, except for emergencies, because it is President’s Day. So, while they are here is Russia, they still celebrate the US holidays. They also celebrate the Russian holidays, and therefore they are also closed on Friday for Defender’s Day (18 total Russian and US Holidays for the Embassy staff). No one seems to be working with us in our effort to get out of Russia sooner than Wednesday February 28th.

We also were told that the Russian Passport agency does not accept applications on Wednesday, which is the first step in our process for Wednesday. Our agency is working on this to see if we can get in anyway. And finally, we also read that the US Embassy does not do Visas on the last Monday of the month, which is of course next Monday. The process as best we can tell is this. (1) Apply for a Russian Passport for Tyler (Wednesday). It is usually ready the end of the next business day (Thursday). (2) Get Tyler a medical exam (Thursday) in preparation for his US Immigrant Visa application. With the Russian passport and medical exam in hand, (3) apply for and receive the US Immigrant Visa. This normally would have been on Friday, but since this Russian holiday is celebrated by the US Embassy, they are closed, so we must wait until Monday. (4) With passport, visa and Tyler in hand, go home!

We are only concerned now that if we cannot submit for the Russian Passport until Thursday, it will not be ready until Monday and we will be doing Tyler’s visa on Tuesday before leaving on Wednesday. No room for errors or any further delays. Just to make it more fun, the temperature the next three days, starting tomorrow, are not getting out of the single digits Fahrenheit with lows in the -12 range at night.

Tomorrow we will get Tyler and hope to be back to the apartment by 6:00PM. We will get a post on the blog as soon as possible with some picture of our day . . . OK, pictures of Tyler!!

This will be Tyler's Crib for eight nights starting tomorrow!

That is it for day 12.

Maria and Jeff

Waiting Day 11

Good news, the internet is still working today! Hopefully, that is all behind us and we can stay connected the rest of the trip.

All in all, a quiet day. We really did nothing this morning, we had a little breakfast and then walked to the grocery store around 11:30am and got some supplies for the week. Lauren, Kate, Laura and Rich (fellow bloggers) were having breakfast/lunch/coffee in the restaurant below us so we dropped our groceries and sat with them for an hour to talk. Kate, in the process of adopting, was heading back to St. Petersburg this afternoon and Rich and Laura have court in Kirov tomorrow. That is a 13 hour overnight train ride from Moscow so they leave at 6:00PM this evening.

We are down to the last couple of days before Tyler arrives for good. There is not much we can do to prepare the apartment. It is bigger than a hotel room and offers a bedroom, kitchen and bath in addition to the family room area. I cannot run down to the Home Depot and get all the baby locks for the cabinets and covers for the outlets. We will block things with chairs and obviously never let him out of our sight which is not hard.

Since this is a slow news day, how about a couple of pictures of our apartment. The kitchen is all in white and is really decent size and even too big for this apartment. It is the same size as the bedroom and we would give anything to have an extra three feet in the bedroom. The round porthole window thing under the counter is the washer/dryer combo. You can wash two pair of jeans with some socks and underwear but not much else. The Bedroom, as you can see has a queen size bed, with two little night stands. There is about 18-24 inches of space on both sides of the bed and the same at the foot of the bed to the closet. The TV area has a sofa and arm chair and the dining/work area has a glass table with six feet of cabinets. Plenty of storage space. Between

the kitchen table and the dining room table we have 10 chairs. A few more than we need so they will become blockers for us. Notice we have no rugs, so comforters will be used to create some space to play on the floor. We can make it work for 8 days.

Finally, check the weather forecast if you want to talk about cold. I know our family, friends and colleagues at home have had quite a few days below freezing but the forecast here is for a high of (-1) and a low of (-8) on Thursday! Now that should be fun!

That is it for today. Tomorrow’s post will say we are getting Tyler tomorrow! On Tuesday we will post pictures of our son for all to see.

Maria and Jeff

We are back! Internet problems solved!

Waiting Day 10

Today was the last day we were going to visit Tyler in OZ. We were picked up at 9:00am and went to the children’s store to get some supplies for the hospital and than to the hospital. They were very appreciative for the supplies. Unfortunately, because it is Saturday, we cannot use the playroom as it is locked and no one has the key. We are told not to worry, they have a room that we can use. It is not the same room as the first trip, but virtually the same. A room with two twin cots . . . really cannot call them beds. The room had to be close to 90 degrees. The heaters were cranking and the doors and windows were closed. We opened the window a little and started to play with Tyler on one of the cots. We had our large towel/blanket we were going to put on the tile floor so we could spread out and play a little. However, our interpreter insisted that it would be cold on the floor so we must close the window. Since we were sweating and Tyler was sweating, we gave up on the floor and went back to the cot. It was not nearly as fun. For one, we had a few toys with us and no where to play and two, it was HOT. Thank God we had the play room for our first three visits.

The good news for this visit was the feeding. They brought Tyler a bottle of banana juice. His first taste was not good with the icky face being displayed. However, he tried it again and than calmly drank the rest of the bottle. This was the first thing we saw him eat that was not cream of wheat. It gets better. Near the end of the visit, they brought in a jar of apple baby food and he ate half the jar and appeared to like it. The nurse was feeding him with a standard table teaspoon. I guess baby spoons are not used? We are ready to go now. We can get him eating and more vitamins. He will be sprouting up in no time at all. Our friends Kristi and Fred (also our part time advisers as we are always emailing them questions) have a beautiful 14 month old girl. We met them in December on the flight home after Trip one. Their daughter has gained three pounds in less than two months! We hope Tyler will also be ready to gain some weight!

He was also a little cranky today . . . which we attribute to not being able to play and that he was burning up. At one point Jeff propped the window open to bring the temps down to a comfortable 75 degrees but the nurse bringing the food closed it up and was not happy about the propping of the window. Maria had unsnapped his outfit at the neck and unzipped it two or three inches trying to cool him off. When we gave Tyler to the nurse at the end of the visit, she zipped him back up and snapped the neck nice and snug. Hard to gain weight when you sweat all day. Our interrupter said that most people in Moscow keep their house or apartment very warm. I can’t even imagine what their gas bill would be in the US.

All in all it was great to see Tyler again, but it was tough not having the play room. Nevertheless, we are done visiting and anxiously awaiting Tuesday when we can make our last trip to OZ. We used to be counting down the days and now we are counting down the hours. (just a little anxious, does it show?)

Finally, we have internet back because the best business man in Moscow, Andrei, came here and personally spent 3 hours calling the Internet Provider to convince them that the problem was theirs! He is a saint and a business guy who would do anything to make his customers happy. Go Peace Travel! (wwwgotorussia.com) We did not post yesterday because they said the IP was down. The blog we wrote yesterday is posted below. Sorry for no personal emails, but we will start catching up tomorrow morning.

That is all for today!

Jeff and Maria

Waiting Day 9

A good day all around. . . . .except for a little internet problem. More later.

We were able to sleep in the morning and lounge around for a while. Around noon we headed over to Arbat Street to do the tourist walk down old Arbat. A nice pedestrian street that has numerous booths in the center many selling Russian hats, shirts and lots of matchuska dolls. There are small to medium size shops on both sides of the street including the hard Rock Café for Moscow and of course the McDonalds. We met Lauren and Marco and shared a ride over and back with a quick stop at Saint Basils for the quick picture.

It was nice to get out and walk and do something for a few hours. Although it was only 15 – 18 degrees, ducking in an out of shops kept us plenty warm. One of the nicer shops was serving shots of vodka which also helped.

So, we grabbed a little lunch/dinner with Lauren and Marco at 4:30 in the pizza restaurant right below our apartment. Good pizza at a good price. Soup was fair and for $10 a bowl. All four of us we itching to get back to the apartments to check emails and post our blogs. We got back and had no internet. We tried the standard resetting the modem, rebooting the computers, unplugging, swearing, kicking the table and reconnecting all the wires with no connection. We finally call and find out that the Internet Provider is having a problem and working on the issue. We should give it a couple of hours. Therefore, we are writing this post and waiting for the internet to come back online.

Tomorrow is the last visit to the hospital to see Tyler. That sounds kind of sad, but it really is a great thing. We are going tomorrow and than when we return on Tuesday, we are taking Tyler with us! We are going to stop and get some things for the hospital on our way out tomorrow, although the head doctor did not want much. They only have five and with Renee and Andy getting their son from the baby home in this region, another may be moving to that open space soon. Nevertheless, we feel like we want to get something for them.

Jeff and Maria

Waiting Day 8

A pretty much uneventful day here in Moscow. No visit with Tyler and pretty much nothing to do. It was snowing this morning when we got up and the sidewalks have become a real mess. With temps a little above freezing yesterday, there is water everywhere and it is all starting to freeze. Add two inches of snow on top of that and we have a mess. Crossing any street requires jumping the icy puddles. Of course nothing slows down the Muscovites as they are all out driving and walking like usual.

We did walk up to the Marriott Grand today to make some copies of our passports and registration papers. You would think making copies is easy, but there are no Kinko’s, Staples or Office Depots in Moscow. We figured that the easiest thing to do was to walk to the Grand and use their business center. We went in, sat down in the lower lobby and Maria headed into the business center and got the copying done.

As we passed by the TGI Fridays, Jeff was wondering if they had Miller Lite and a bar with American sports on TV. Somehow, we doubt it. Restaurants in general don’t serve many beers and Jeff has had to drink Heineken and Corona. TGI Fridays can wait for another day.

We are heading to Lauren and Marco’s apartment for dinner tonight. We are looking forward to a nice home cooked meal and a dinner with our friends. We will be sharing stories, pictures and videos all night.

Tomorrow is a milestone day . . . it will be the half way point 12 nights down and 12 to go. We will be on the last half of the trip! Over the hump! On the down hill side!

Talk to you later!

Maria and Jeff

Waiting Day 7

The good news is that we are more than half way through the 10 day wait, which is actually 13 days. The bad news is now is when it slows down a little. We had a great visit yesterday with Tyler and we are going back on Saturday, so the next three days are pretty quiet.

Good news in the adoption world . . . two more court appearances were completed today . . . see Lauren and Marco and Scott and Lisa under forever families.

How about a picture of a toy and Tyler’s snow suit. He seems to love unstacking these little things and as long as we keep restacking, he is unstacking. Also, the temps here are a balmy 35 degrees today, however, the long range forecast courtesy of Weather.com is for some more cold air to arrive early next week. The day we pick Tyler up it may be a high of only 14 degrees. So, we will be layering him with a Turtle neck onesie, a sweatshirt and pants, with socks and shoes and than his snow suit. All fashionably in blue. We will also take a blanket to wrap him in outside. The grandmother's need not worry . . . he is not going to freeze to death.

We are now looking to find another adoption family staying at the Marriott Courtyard or Grand next week. We would love to meet them and let our kids play together. They have some nice play rooms in the hotels and of course we would also like to give them the opportunity to visit us in our apartment and not have to go out for lunch and dinner every night. Our friends Renee and Andy, who are picking up their son on Tuesday, also have an apartment and we can all get together occasionally.

That is it for today from Moscow

Jeff and Maria

Waiting Day Six

Once again Oleg did a great job of getting us to OZ in two hours. Traffic was not great and a little snow was falling but he just goes! The trip home took close to two and half hours, but who cares!?!

When we got there, we met briefly with Tyler’s doctor and got his vaccination record. We also asked him about what types of things the hospital might need for the children. He basically said not much that they get diapers donated and that they have plenty of clothes and toys. While we may not agree (who could ever have enough toys, see Jeff’s tool cabinets), we also do not want to insult anyone and give them things they do not need or want. The doctor said they can use little things like wipes, Q-tips, baby lotion and powder. We are going to stop on our way out next time and get a few boxes of stuff for them. We have been leaving behind a few toys each time and that seems to work.

They were changing Tyler into the outfit we left him in last time. We were going to change him into something new, but we know that we will use everything we have during the eight days that we have him before returning home. He will have pictures of him in everything before we leave. We once again went to the play room where we spent two hours with Tyler. He was so content to just play and explore the room. We took some more video and pictures. Tyler seems to be tiring of the flash from the camera as he is starting to squint and make ugly faces when he sees the camera.

Speaking of ugly faces, we were there when it was time to eat. The nurse came down with two bottles, one with a beef broth and one with a warm Kompot that is boiled veggies and fruit . . . a kind of broth as well. The nurse tried to feed him the beef broth and the faces that Tyler made were great. He really does not like it. The nurse made him eat some because he needs the nutrients. Eventually, she brought the cream of wheat and Maria gave that to him. As usual, he slurped it down. Jeff tried to give him some of the Kompot, but he was not that interested. He did take a few sips because he was hungry, but not enough to eat that.

He already is like many children. We have brought numerous little toys, rattles, and stuffed animals for him and today we had a small gift box for the 4 year-old that lives at the hospital. Well, Tyler had the most fun with the box. He beat on the lid and chewed on the corners.

Each visit seems better than the last. We are in the final week. Next Tuesday, we go to pick him up forever. Elena, our translator, talked to the doctor today to make sure he or whoever is at the hospital are prepared to give Tyler to us next Tuesday evening. Another great day with Tyler and one more day closer to completing our journey.

Below, is a picture of the baby hospital in Orekhovo-Zuyevo. There are two of these buildings next to each other. One is the Neo-Natal Maternity Hospital and the other the baby hopsital where Tyler was moved when he was one year old. The brown door is the one we enter and Tyler is on the second floor.

Maria and Jeff

Waiting Day Five

We had an interesting start to day nine in Russia. We stayed out to near 1:00am with Lauren and Marco last night having a wonderful dinner and hours of fun conversation. Jeff slept in until 9:00am and Maria 10:30am. We got up and were just hanging in the apartment in our pajamas having breakfast when the door bell rang around 11:00am. We have heard the bell for the numerous repair people trying to fix the internet and heat, which they never fixed, but that is another story. We know that today the cleaning person is to arrive so we thought it was him. Jeff unchained the door and outside the second set of glass doors that locks our hallway from the elevator were two police officers. Jeff stepped out to unlock that door thinking that they were going to go down the hallway to visit another apartment . . . wrong! They started speaking some Russian to Jeff to which he replied “English”. The simple response was “Passports”.

Jeff grabbed both passports and presented them to the two officers who remained in the hallway. They studied the passports, registrations, and visas for two minutes, but it seemed like ten. All the time Jeff is standing in his American flag pants (see photo below). After what seemed to be forever, the young officers smiled and handed back the passports and turned and left. Boy that was really fun! We had no idea what was going on, but apparently, this is becoming part of the routine under the new rules for registration that the police will randomly check to see that you really are where you said you would be. Both our hearts were racing a little bit after that, but all was fine.

Because of a change of schedule, we are going to see Tyler tomorrow, so we will have more pictures and video . . . not that the blog world can see them, but we treasure them. We are leaving a little later (10:00am) so we can be sure to use the playroom. We may not get home until after 4:00 depending on traffic.

That is all for today. It is now 4:30pm in Moscow and Maria is preparing for some work calls.

Jeff and Maria

WAITING DAY 4

We met Lauren and Marco after their visit to the baby home to see Cupcake. We headed to a big children’s department store about half a mile away. It is a couple of blocks past the Duma (Russian Legislature) building. We went in and it was a little like FAO Schwartz. They had a couple of floors with almost any thing you could want for infants through youths. We found a couple of toys, for Tyler, that are very similar to ones at his hospital that he seems to like. We have a picture of the front of the store for future travelers.

It was a cold but refreshing walk and a good way to pass some time as we wait through day four. We now have reached the point that we see Tyler every three days and than pick him up forever.

We do have another interesting picture of a car being towed. As usual, pictures cannot really give you the whole story. Why this car and why at this time? There are cars parked on the sidewalk all the time. The tow trucks are really some flat beds with a crane type of boom that swings out and they pick the car up with straps and bars under all four tires.

We are probably going to go out to dinner tonight with Lauren and Marco, but we are waiting for a call from other blogger friends who were to arrive today and also go with us.

Another day down and one more closer to getting Tyler.

Jeff and Maria

Waiting Day Three

This is a picture of city hall . . . remember a few days ago we said this was part of Lauren's view from her apartment. Speaking of which, Lauren and Marco (blogger world friends) arrived today right on time. We went the two blocks up Tvreskaya to see them as they settled into their great apartment.

Renee and Andy, our friends on the same schedule for picking up their son from the baby home in OZ headed home today. They will be back for trip three on February 19th.

It is still snowing and the temps are hanging in the 15 degree range. People don't seem to notice or care that it is snowing and cold as the streets are full of people walking and driving. Shop and store owners do not really bother to do much to clear the sidewalks and people just trudge through the frozen, muddy slush. It is very slippery, yet, I have never seen anyone fall. Be sure that if the sidewalks in Baltimore looked like these, they would be littered with bodies of fallen pedestrians. The hospitals would be full and the civil lawyers would be overwhlemed filing suits. Here if you fall, I think they just kick you to the side or have the police take you away for obstructing the free flow of traffic. We are enjoying the time in Moscow, but still have 10 more days to go until we get Tyler.

Tomorrow, we are going to venture out for a walk to the baby store which is near the Duma building and hopefully not too far for us. We want to see what they have and maybe pick up a few things for Tyler and the baby hospital.

We are not scheduled to go back to the baby hospital until Wednesday and that seems so far away. We cannot wait to get back and hear more of Tyler's babble and walk him around. Soon enough he will be wearing us out and we will be the sleepless ones trying to keep up with him . . . good times are coming!

That is it for today . . . talk to you all tomorrow!

Jeff and Maria

Another great visit!!

Well we are on a roll! Once again we started our day at 9:00am meeting our translator Elena and driver Oleg outside of our apartment building. It was -14 C. We were on the road and in 90 minutes we were turning off the main road and heading to OZ. We actually arrived at the hospital around 10:50am. We praised Oleg for setting a new record!

We went in and asked if we could use the playroom and they said yes. They went and got Tyler for us and we went down to the playroom for the next two hours. I cannot say that he instantly recognizes us but he sure seems to be more and more comfortable with us. Today, he babbled almost nonstop. He wanted to walk around a lot and was pretty much going nonstop. He walked a lot with just one of us holding one hand. His walking was good, but he does seem to tip-toe on his right foot more and walk flatter on his left. He does pull himself up a lot and while small, he seems reasonably strong for his size . . . which is definitely 12 months for clothing. He will be tuning fifteen months next Saturday.

We brought another outfit with us (12 months) and it fit him perfectly. It was a blue outfit with little dogs on it. We also brought our little barking stuffed animal which he seemed to have no interest in. We will continue to work with him on Hershey, (our 72 pound lap dog) but lets be real, you cannot appreciate Hershey until you meet him. Since we cannot post pictures of Tyler until the 10 days waiting period is done, we are trying to post one of Hershey!

Did we mention that Tyler was up and going the whole time we were there? This is scary because we were told that he usually sleeps at 11:00am. So, this would have been his tired state. We are starting to get that understanding of how he is going to be a handful when we get him home. If he is not walking on his own before we get home, it will be within a month and than we will have to chase him all over the house. What fun we are going to have and we just can’t wait.

Our interpreter was able to get a lot of information from the hospital about the foods he eats and the times of day that they feed him. We also were told that he was a good sleeper and that he sleeps through the night, which is 9:00pm to 6:30am. Of course for EST that is 1:00PM to 10:30PM, so he will be up and ready to go at 11:00PM. Hopefully, we will all adjust to EST quickly once we return to the states. (ha! ha!)

We want to go out again early next week and it appears that our driver and interpreter will be available either on Tuesday or Wednesday. We will also go next weekend and than on Tuesday the 20th to pick him up FOREVER!Lauren (our fellow blogger friend) arrives tomorrow and we will look for her and Marco to arrive in the afternoon. Let the party in Moscow begin!

More to follow over the weekend.

Maria and Jeff

Day at Court

Wednesday February 7th

Hope everyone slept well and as you wake up on Wednesday morning you know all is well here in Moscow. We on the other hand hardly slept at all as we were a little nervous about going to court. While we were confident that everything would be fine, it is the unexpected things that we feared. We were picked up at 10:00am for our 11:00am appointment. We arrived at 10:30 and were met by Sergei our coordinator and an interpreter. The interpreter briefed us regarding how the proceedings would go . . . kind of normal stuff. She reminded us to talk to the judge and to keep eye contact with him not her. Joining us in the court room were a prosecutor, a court reporter and the social worker from Tyler’s hospital. The proceedings were formal and thorough as the judge looked at everything and noted it for the record. He asked each of us a few questions that were fairly straight forward, education, job, income, home, etc. He asked the social worker to speak and she testified that we bonded with Tyler and that she thought this was the best thing for him and she would recommend us to adopt Tyler. He than asked the prosecutor who stated she also supported the recommendation to adopt. The judge asked us each if after the complete review of the records we wanted to still adopt this child. We obviously answered in the affirmative. The judge jokingly asked if we were prepared for the kaos we were asking for. We laughed and said yes.

The judge than left the room for a few minutes and came back and read the decree saying we were approved to adopt Tyler and that his birth certificate should now reflect Tyler’s full name and us as the parents. There was no mention of our request for a waiver of the 10 days and we were told that the decree would be official in 10 days which we took to mean that it was not considered or rejected. So, while we can still visit Tyler we will not get custody until Tuesday February 20th. Day one is tomorrow and since day 10 would be Saturday, they don’t count it or Sunday and Monday becomes day 10 . . . which really means that it is a 12 day wait.

We continue to have difficulty with the internet and sporadically get a connection. When we did yesterday we hurriedly posted a blog. We did read a number of the comments and emails but did not have time to respond to everyone. We appreciate all of them and hopefully, we can get the internet solved and get online consistently so we can communicate with everyone for the next three weeks.

A day to remember

Today we got to visit with Tyler and in every way possible it was a great day. It was 54 days since we last saw Tyler and it was great to see and hold him again. The day started well as we were picked up at 9:00 am and miraculously, the traffic was very light and we made it to O-Z (our nickname for the town Tyler is in) in two hours. We stopped to pick up the social worker, Olga, who went with us to the baby hospital. She will be in court tomorrow to attest to our bonding with Tyler.

When we arrived we went to the second floor and everything was familiar. We were told that Tyler was downstairs in the play room. Playroom???? No one mentioned a playroom last time we were here. We went down to the playroom and Tyler was there with another child and a worker who spoke English. She was holding Tyler and said he was such a good boy. We got to spend the next two hours playing with Tyler in this nice little rrom. We brought some toys but there were other toys there. He was not wearing pink, but a jumper and shirt. Unfortunately, the jumper was a little too big. However, we were smat enought this trip to bring clothes with us and we changed him into a cute little blue outfit. It was a 9 month outfit that was OK, a little bit small. All the 12 month outfits we have will be perfect for him. He looks very similar and may have grown a little but is definitely more expressive, he stuck his tongue out a lot and made blabbing sounds. Of course, Jeff swears he is saying Da, Da, Da, Da (Short for Daddy!)

He was so good for us and played with everything. He laughed a lot and wined occasionally. Near the end of the visit he was getting tired and hungry. They brought us a bottle of cream of wheat and Maria fed him. He was clearly getting tired by that point. He slurped the bottle down in about 90 seconds. They gave us a second bottle of some sort of apple juice which did not go well. Tyler was grabbing for the bottle and trying to get the nipple in his mouth but had that look of the first time you taste something sour when he tasted it. He was hungry enough to try three or four more times with the same result each time. We took him back upstairs and put him in his crib where he can nap.

We are preparing for court tomorrow. The couple we met at the medicial appointment has court at 10:00 and we follow then at 11:00. We are excited and nervous. We are sure it is going to go well, but we just want to get it done and to get the official decree. It will be just one more step done to get our little angel.

Maria and Jeff

Tomorrrow is a big day so keep all those prayers and good wishes coming!

We’re Back!

We made it to Moscow pretty much uneventful. As you know, we flew first to Atlanta and than direct to Moscow. We had booked two isle seats in a row of three hoping the middle would remain empty. When we checked in at the gate, they informed us that it had been filled . . . but the gate agent asked if we wanted the window and isle seat in an exit row. Needless to say we jumped at that opportunity. So we departed Atlanta for the 10 hour flight with exit row seats and lots of leg room. Jeff was thrilled! We arrived one hour early and sailed through customs. We were met by our driver who spoke very little English. We smiled and nodded at each other for the 45 minute drive to our apartment. We had our driver take us to the grocery store and were able to fill up the kitchen with the basics.

We love our apartment, home for the next 24 days. It has a kitchen with dishwasher, microwave and oven/range, dining room, family room, bathroom, and bedroom and it is half the cost of the hotels. So far the only problem is the internet is not working in the apartment but we are hoping that is fixed tomorrow. We are right next to a main street, Tverskaya, with lots of shops and stores and people.

You are currently reading our blog update that we were able to post through free wireless internet provided by good old McDonald’s. McDonald’s is a big hang out spot here in Moscow. How funny is that?!?

Today we had to complete the dreaded eight medical doctors review. This is the process of getting eight doctors to sign off we are healthy and sane and fit to be parents. The doctors include therapist, infectious disease specialist, dermatologist, neuropathologist, oncologist, psychiatrist, narcologist, and venerologist. All went well and after a couple of hours we had our paper with all stamps certified.

We also found out today that our court date is Wednesday at 11:00am. We are so excited. Tomorrow we go to the baby hospital to see Tyler. It all feels like a dream. We will get pictures of him in something other than pink. We are taking lots of blue outfits that we can put him in and leave them for the hospital. After court, we will likely have to wait 10 days (really 12) which will be the hardest part of the trip. But Tyler has been waiting 14 months to get adopted, so we can do 12 days!

Tonight, for dinner, we are going out with another couple that we met sitting in the hallway at the eight medical exam. Their son is from the same town as Tyler, but he is in the baby home there. They also have court on Wednesday. They are staying at the Marriott Courtyard.

That is it for today . . . hopefully tomorrow we have some sort of internet access in our apartment and we can send a few emails and post without going to McDonalds.

In Moscow

Maria & Jeff are in Moscow as of this morning. There flight arrived early. There internet service is not working. They hope to have it fixed tomorrow. They wanted everyone to know they have arrived, tomorrow they will have there 8 Doctor Medical. If time allows they will head over to see the baby, if not they will see him on Tuesday.

From Atlanta

We're going the wrong way . . . we are further away from Moscow than when we started this morning!

We have been very bad bloggers. You would have thought we would have lots time but since being told we need to be in Moscow on Sunday February 4th, we have been crazy. Both of us a full week up to the end. We stopped work seventeen hour before we left for the airport. There we were Friday night at 6:00PM, both on line with our offices . . . mostly at our own doing. (Yes, we are crazy) Maria had actually worked a ton of extra hours this week to close an acquisition for her office. (Maria: A very special thank to my work gang who went beyond the call of duty to get it done (Deal closed Friday night 7:05PM) and for covering all my meetings and travel)

We typed this on the plane to Atlanta. We will have a two hour layover and than we board the plane to Moscow. It really feels like a dream. We remember our first visit and all the returning families with their children and we were wondering would that be us one day. This trip is very different than the first. On the first trip we had no idea what to expect at the airport, the flight, the people in Russia, and who would this child be that we are meeting. So many questions were running through our minds. Now, this trip is such a joy. We are going for the purpose of getting our son. We are landing in Moscow on Sunday around 11:00AM. Hopefully, we will be picked up by our driver and check into our apartment that will be home for the next 25 days. It is going to be great having a kitchen and FREE high speed internet and internationals calling. We will be posting daily updates, no really we will! Promise! OK, just wait and see!

We believe our schedule will be three days of visiting Tyler, one day of medical exams and than court. We will have a 10- day waiting period following court when we can also visit Tyler. If our math and the judge’s math are the same, we should be able to get Tyler on February 19th, which is President’s Day.

We really need to thank our families and friends who have continued to help us and have offered to do anything and everything we may need. A special thanks to our neighbors, the extraordinary, Young family who are watching our 72 pound lap dog while we are gone. We are so lucky to have you in our lives.

Lots more to come! Moscow or Bust!

Maria and Jeff