Jeff and Maria's Second Trip to Moscow

We are home!

2008-06-02T21:41:00.002-05:00

Well, we had some Internet problems and then we were home and it has been a great few days and hectic. The time for updating the blog in Moscow was after Annabelle went to bed. Here it is the same, except it seems that we barely had the energy to stay up 15 minutes and clean up the house a little.

The flight home is long. No way around it. We knew it going in and it proved to be everything we feared. Some of the highlights:

Our Interpreter drove us herself so we did not have to pay both the driver and interpreter fee. We wanted our interpreter (Irena) to go in with us as we were still getting a paper ticket for Annabelle. We arrived at the airport by 9:30 for our 12:55 flight. After about 30 – 40 minutes of working with the lone Delta agent, we were issued a paper lap ticket for the flight. The good news was that he did it as a round trip and managed to book it for 3800 rubles or about $162. Lesson one for those reading this and planning an adoption: Go to the Delta office in Moscow and get the ticket, it is a lot easier and faster.

Irena then went with us to the first long line to get our bags scanned. She walked us to the front of the line and told the people we needed to go with the baby who was in the stroller. Saved us 20 minutes. We gave Irena a hug and figured we were in good shape. The first check point was easy. We packed our bags, they were with us at all times, no one asked us to carry anything for them. The next step is the hand search of the checked bags. Lisa spotted a not so energetic searcher who we headed for, however, another guy waved us over. I hoisted the first large bag up and unzipped it. He patted it three times and said OK. I went for bag #2 and he signaled no, it was OK. Great, now onto Delta check in.

We wait in a short line and get a relatively young and new agent. Lisa and I have boarding passes and we have the paper for Annabelle’s lap ticket. After several minutes and assistance from a supervisor, our bags are checked and we are now headed to Passport Control.

The line here was crazy long. No quick way through this line, so we think. After about 30 minutes we are two or three people from the window when we see a couple of parents with infants in strollers working their way right to the front of the lines next to us. Apparently, while no one will hold a door open for you with a stroller, no one will question you cutting in the front of the line with the same stroller. We go to the uniformed passport control woman (none of them ever seem to smile) and she asks for the passports and boarding passes. Irena has told me to be prepared to show the adoption decree, birth certificate with my name, other documents that may be requested. I give her all three passports and tickets. She keeps asking for another boarding pass. I keep saying that is all Delta provided as Annabelle is a lap ticket. After a few minutes the three star supervisor appears in five-inch heels and a short skirt and says we must go back to Delta and get a boarding pass. Although not smiling, she was very helpful as she marched over to the Delta counter and asked for a boarding pass. No kidding, the agent pulled out a blank card from the printer and hand wrote Annabelle’s name on it and the flight number. We marched back to the window and we were processed through. It had taken us nearly 2 hours to get to our gate. Annabelle was an absolute princess the whole time, smiling and charming the crowds, she never cried or fussed.

After the final baggage search at the gate, we boarded our flight. We had both aisles in the middle row of three seats and waited anxiously as the plane started to fill. Annabelle was a lap ticket and we were gambling on an open seat. Finally, a young guy shows up and looks at his ticket and the middle seat and says that is my seat. YIKES!! I talk to the flight attendant that says that it is suppose to be sold out but to wait and see. He said if there was an empty seat, he would move our guest. Fortunately, there were three open seats and we were saved. They closed the doors and we pushed back and left Moscow about 35 minutes late. The flight was uneventful, but a very long 11 hours. Annabelle took a 75-90 minute nap early on and then another 60-minute nap when we were 10 hours into the flight. I actually woke her as I picked her up for landing. It did not give us much rest.

We had a 2 hour 50 minute layover in Atlanta that worked out fine. By the time we cleared all customs and completed the adoption paperwork (turned over the secret sealed brown envelope) we had 90 minutes to our flight. Annabelle was running out of gas and so were we. We boarded the flight and all three of us fell asleep for part of the hop to BWI. We got off the plane at 9:15pm and made our way to the terminal where Annabelle’s Mommy and brother Tyler were waiting.

The second journey is now complete. In a little over two years (26 months) we were able to take the thought of adoption and selected an agency, switch agencies, and bring home two wonderful children. Both our kids were 13 months when we met them and 15½ months when we got them home. It took five round trips to Moscow over 18 months and a total of 58 nights in Moscow hotels and apartments. Maria spent countless hours completing the endless stream of paperwork with notary and apostilled for everything. In the end, we won because we have our forever family with two kids and as Visa says "priceless". We are not planning on a third, but never say never . . . check back occasionally.

No pictures right now but some family shots will follow shortly.

Thanks for the support and help.

Jeff, Maria, Tyler, and Annabelle

2008-05-27T13:19:00.003-05:00

Well today can be summed up with a couple of words. We have a Russian Passport and a US Visa. We took a quick picture of it before moving on to the next step just to prove it is done. A couple of pictures of Annabelle of course, but that is it for today.

Stay tuned . . . we are almost done.

The Cover of a Russian Passport

Annabelle's Visa . . . info blocked out for the blog

She is working on a little belly like her Daddy

She's got the look

2008-05-26T13:37:00.003-05:00

The big news of the day is weather. I woke at 6:30, peaked out the window and it was wet, but did not appear to be raining. By 8:30, there was sunshine. I need to let you know that at 6:30AM it is fairly light out as the sun has been up for a while. For the golfers in the world days like today and most of the summer in Moscow are great. The sunrise is at 5:00AM and does not set until 10:00PM. That is only seven hours between sun down and sun up or 17 hours for golfing. It is 10:00PM as I type this and there is plenty of light for finishing the last couple of holes. OK, enough about how much golf one could play.

IT WAS SUNNY AND 65 TODAY!!

As planned we got our driver to pick us up and take us to Old Arabat, St. Basils and GUM. It was nice to get out and walk and see a few things. Annabelle was a champ as always. Taking in the sites and generally being a perfect little shopper as we went in and out of stores. We left at 1:00 and did not get back until 5:00 and she was great.

Tomorrow is a big day as we go to the US Embassy for our interview at which point we will get Annabelle’s Russian Passport back with a Permanent Resident US Visa in it. We will also get the secret sealed envelope that we are instructed not to open. We will simply hand it over to US Customs when we arrive in Atlanta. As the adoption process works and with paperwork already filled out, once we reach the United States, she will be a US citizen eligible to get a US Passport. Shortly after we are home a letter from President Bush congratulating Annabelle on her citizenship will arrive with her official certificate. We are looking forward to getting this step of the process completed.

So, we have a bunch of photos today. In addition to the usual cute Annabelle stuff, we have a few from around Moscow.

Tomorrow, Passport and Visa!

Annabelle being a ham for the camera.

Red Square

Aunt Lisa and Annabelle at St. Basil's Cathedral

Annabelle taking a little break

Annabelle's signal that it is nap time.

2008-05-25T13:05:00.002-05:00

BLAH. That sums up the day here in Moscow. Annabelle is just great and I almost get tired of saying how good she is but she really is awesome. She is doing much better with the apartement all day long then we are.

Back at the beginning of May when we came for court, the weather was great. The temperatures were in the upper 60s and low 70s most of the time and even reached 80 degrees once. When we arrived we had the same good weather, but since Wednesday, it has rained every day. The first couple of days we were doing business so it was not a big deal, but the last three have been tough. Today it just rained all day and never reached 50degrees. The last three days it has been only 50 degrees and raining most of the time. That makes it really hard to go anywhere walking with a stroller.

Today I called our Alliance translator and driver and asked if we could get a ride tomorrow so we can try and get to a few places like Old Arabat, St. Basils and GUM. I think the weather will get better the rest of the week and we can get around on foot. We just need to get out tomorrow and do something.

So, we got a few pictures while in the apartment but it is limited. I included one of the family room that doubles as my bedroom with the sofa bed opened.

That is it for today.

Annabelle is not a thumb sucker, but uses two fingers when she is tired. It is the cutest thing!

This is where we spend most of our time. Lisa at our little computer table and our 10 inch TV with eight channles. Annabelle is playing in the center of the floor.

We had a movie on this evening and Annabelle was intrigued (for a minute) by the singing . . . guess what the movie/musical is?

2008-05-24T13:02:00.005-05:00

Well, it was just an OK day with Annabelle . . . Just kidding! It was great!

Same old same old . . . slept well and even woke up bablling with no crying. Cuddled, ate well, napped well and was too perfect to describe. We keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The events of the day were a trip to Children’s World in the afternoon. The morning was mostly rain. It is a cool and damp 50 degrees but we were able to bundle her up and walk once the rain stopped. We got her a new set of PJs with feet for the cool nights here.

This evening we made the requisite American trip to the TGI Fridays on Trveskaya. Annabelle sat in her high chair and was great. Never cried or fussed. She ate a yogurt and played with a couple of toys while we ate our big greasy American cheeseburgers and fries. Annabelle seemed to be a little overwhelmed with the number of people, the loud music and the TV, but she hung in there and we all left in good spirits. Once back on her home turf she was all smiles and fun aswe played for a little while before going to bed.

One more day down. Tomorrow it suppose to be the coolest day yet, but I think we wil start to warm up after that. Weare thinking that on Memorial Day we will try and do some site seeing and get over to St. Basil's for some photos.

Speaking of photos, todays selection is below.

Annabelle actually interested in the camera

Our Happy little girl

Annabelle at TGI Friday's. A little dazed but doing fine.

Annabelle in her new PJs with her favorite toy . . . Lisa's len shade.

2008-05-23T14:36:00.006-05:00

Another great day with Annabelle!

Same old story of a good girl. She slept through the night and got up around 8:00 and snuggled with me for a little while. She ate a nice big breakfast of cream of wheat and baby food with apple juice. She took a great nap at 10:45 – 12:30. More food. We then decided to head out as there was a little break in the rain. We only have to go one block to get to the underground mall over by Red Square. It is accessible from the underground walk way at the bottom of Trevskaya. Nice three level mall with 60-75 stores. Mostly adult clothing. Addidas, Reebok, Puma and Nike all had stores there. Of course there were at least 8-10 women’s lingerie or bathing suits stores. Nevertheless, we enjoyed walking around and Annabelle did great in the stroller. We bundled her up for the 5 minute walk outside for fear of the babushkas yelling at us.

Annabelle had a little yogurt snack and took a little nap. We made dinner and were eating around 6:30 with Annabelle when we realized that she was a little constipated. There were the obvious signs of a little girl struggling. She worked things out, but we are now realizing that the Baby Homes schedule and list of what she ate was probably not so accurate. I am guessing that the oatmeal and cream of wheat is the first real solid food she has had. Nevertheless, I needed to walk to the grocery store for milk so I got a little bottle of prune juice just to make sure things stay normal. I added a little to the cottage cheese snack, and she spit it out. Come to find out, she does not like cottage cheese. Another one of the items on her schedule from the baby home. Just another tip for the adoptive families, be prepared for everything and don’t believe the children eat everything that the baby home says.

We gave Annabelle another bath and she did a little better, but it was not good. She cried the whole time but at least there was not fighting to get out of the water. It only lasted 2-3 minutes and she was rewarded with a snack before bed.

Some good photos today, but that is not hard with Annabelle.

That is it for today . . . hoping to get to Children’s World tomorrow . . . weather permitting.

Annabelle in her stroller all bundled up

Annabelle has found herself in the mirror

She cannot hel but be cute

After her bath with her curls coming in

Another great day with Annabelle

2008-05-22T13:37:00.004-05:00

Are you tired of seeing the same headline . . . .? Another great day with Annabelle.

She went to bed and slept like a champ and did not wake up until 7:30 this morning. I picked her up and she slept on my chest for another 30 minutes. We got up and her appetite was great and she ate cream of wheat and banana baby food with some apple juice to wash it down. We played all morning until she conked out around 10:45. She slept until 12:45 when we fed her lunch and got ready to go to get her passport. First we stopped by the MOE and signed the book and headed for the passport office. We were quick on both stops although it took nearly an hour to get to the passport office.

After the passport office we asked Yuri and Irene to take us to Real Market behind the passport office. We had made a good list of food to get us most of the way through the rest of our stay. I sat down with Irene to go over all of the Embassy paperwork and fill out several additional forms. Lisa took Annabelle and started shopping. We caught up to her in the toy section. We then got steaks, chicken, frozen pizza, some more pasta sauce, other supplies and a bunch of baby food jars. We calculated out what we need at three jars a day and potentially four or five for the plane ride home. We may have to go up to the Trveskaya Market for milk or bread, but otherwise we are set. The REAL market is a must stop for the Moscow people since you are there already and you can get a lot of stuff and not have to carry it far. They also have about anything else you may need.

The ride home was bad. It was traffic like you read about and fear. We sat in bumper to bumper traffic for 1:45 minutes. The last 15 minutes of the two hour trip we were able to get near the posted speed. Annabelle could not have been better. She slept for 30 minutes and just played with us and sat patiently.

One more step down as we continue the process. We cannot wait to get home.

Pictures below. Again, not a great day for pictures, but we got a few in the apartment.

Annabelle screams of joy!

Guess who wants the camera?

Checking out one of her new blocks we bought a REAL

Just being a cutie with her stacking cups

Playing with Daddy

2008-05-21T13:44:00.003-05:00

Another great day here in Moscow with Annabelle.

Last night she went to bed like a pro. I rocked her a little bit, placed her in her crib, she looked up and I rubbed her back and then she drifted off to sleep. The best part is that she slept for 11 hours. From 9:30pm to 8:30am. Tyler has never slept eleven hours in his life. He is more like me with 6 or 7 hours seems to work just fine. He actually is more like 8-10 hours but never 11.

She got up and ate like there was no tomorrow. We brought four different Gerber foods with us, applesauce, pears, bananas and sweet potato. One of each has been completely eaten along with a generous helping of oatmeal and a bottle with some apple juice. This evening, we gave her 6 oz of milk and that was gone. She will be an easy child, for now, with foods. The worry of what to take on the plane home is over. Anything we have she will eat.

We went to the American Medical Center today for Annabelle’s physical. A requirement for all children entering the US as permanent citizens. Dr. Boris took us quickly and immediately said that we will have problems with the boys when she gets older. After a quick exam he announced her healthy and even stated that she must have been a favorite of the care takers as she seems pretty sturdy.

We also stopped and got Annabelle’s visa photo take and that was it for today. We could not get by the MOE so we will do that tomorrow either before or after picking up Annabelle’s passport.

We were in the rest of the day as it started to rain after Annabelle’s nap just when we were ready to head out for a walk to Gum. We will have time later this week. We did give Annabelle her first bath. IT did not go over real well. With her feet wet, she was OK, but once she sat down she screamed and cried and wanted out any way she could. We managed to rinse her down and wash her hair in less than three minutes and get her out. Right now Tyler does not have to worry about sharing the tub for any long period of time. I am sure she will get used to the water after a few more baths, but s wanted nothing to do with the tub today. A yogurt helped calm her down. See picture below.

Our Alliance team has been great this trip. Elena our translator for every day we have been in Moscow starting with Tyler’s trip one, had to turn us over to Irene today as her granddaughter is graduating from school and she was going to be busy the next couple of days with ceremonies and parties. We are hoping to perhaps see her again for a tour of the Kremlin over the weekend or on Monday.

Today at 11:00PM local time there is a soccer (football) game here as the Manchester United plays Chelsea in the Champions league final. We have heard fans on the street chanting . . . hopefully at 1:00AM when the game is over it won’t be loud.

All is on schedule for our departure. We cannot wait to get back to the good old USA. A couple of pictures of Annabelle today. Not many ops for photos, but we got a couple in the apartment.

Talk to you all tomorrow.

Playing with Aunt Lisa's lens cap.

Still learning to walk with Aunt Lisa's help.

Just taking a little break.

After her traumatic bath, a little yogurt helped sooth her. Note hair is still wet.

2008-05-20T13:11:00.003-05:00

GOT'YA DAY

Tuesday May 20th turned out to be gotcha day. We thought we would get Annabelle yesterday, but scheduling and common sense prevailed and we waited until today.

We arrived at the baby home at about 1:30 and after handing over the gifts to the director and workers, we went upstairs to the holding sofa and waited for Annabelle. After they brought her out, we prepared to change her into our clothes. They all seemed a bit frightened that I would change her on the sofa, but it was that or the floor. Our translator said that the workers could change her in a room where I could not go and I politely said no that this was fine. Suddenly, the room was open and I used the changing table they have set up for all of the kids. One worker was certainly said to see Annabelle leaving and gave her a nice hug and kiss. The other worker was not so interested. We stopped by and signed a book for the doctor and headed out again stopping by the director’s office.

Once in the car, we headed for the passport office. Aside from driving about30-40 on some side streets out of Podolsk, we never seemed to get above 25 miles per hour. We arrived before our coordinator and went shopping at the REAL store behind the passport office. This is a great stop for all families. We are talking Super Wal-Mart. Everything and anything is there including great prices on diapers and other baby needs. Plenty of fruits, veggies etc.

We got the passport taken care of and headed home at 25 miles per hour and arrived at the apartment at 5:45. Long day but we had Annabelle so it was a god day. We tried some food for her. She ate Applesauce, oatmeal and drank nearly 8 oz of apple juice over the course of the evening. She was all babbles and giggles and enjoyed just sitting on the floor and playing. She quietly went to bed around 9:30-9:45 after a very busy evening.

We have three pictures of the many to share. One of her leaving the baby home, one just giggling and one in her PJs right before bedtime.

Tomorrow, we are headed to the American Medical Center, the MOE and to get a Visa Photo taken. Not too bad. Starting around 10:00 and should be back by 2:00 or 3:00.

We will continue to update and post more pictures. We are already counting the days until you all can meet her. She is a little princess who is just ready to blossom with a little love and attention.

That is it for today.

Operation - Get Annabelle is under way

2008-05-19T20:44:00.003-05:00

Jeff and his sister Lisa arrived today in Moscow. They are fast asleep right now. It was a long trip across the pond and the two Delta flights arrived(New York and Atlanta) at the exact same time so they got stuck in customs for an hour. We orginial hoped that they would get Annabelle today however based on what needs to be done, it makes sense to pick her up tomorrow. I always tell people that you need to trust your agency and this was definitely the right decision. After getting the 100 pounds of luggage they went to the court house (next to the airport) to pick up the court decree. We are the official parents. They then went to the apartment which they say is very nice (pulford.com) and grocery store and shopping. They stay awake until 9:00 and crashed. Tomorrow will be their busiest day. Two different vital statics offices (by airport, closed on Mondays), one for the original birth certificate and another office for a new birth certificate (in Podolsk) with Jeff and I listed as the parents. Than they go get Annabelle (in Podolsk) and than the passport office (other side of town). The passport office is critical. It is only open on Tuesday and Thursday and takes two days to issue. They must get to the passport office with both birth cert and Annabelle by 4:00. All prayers needed for tomorrow that it goes well and just for fun there is a major soccer tournment in town that should add to the traffic. Hopefully tomorrow's post will be from Jeff, Lisa and Annabelle.

2008-05-15T21:54:00.002-05:00

Well we are just three days away from trip three. Jeff will be traveling with his sister Lisa to get Annabelle. The flights are booked through Atlanta. We have an apartment but we did not go through Peace Travel this time but with Pulford. Leigh at Pulford has been very helpful and hopefully the apartment will be as good as Peace Travels. The Apartment is on Trveskaya #6 so it is down towards the Ritz Carlton at the Red Square end of Trveskaya.

We will start posting pictures of Annabelle on Monday. A little preview.

2008-05-07T12:22:00.002-05:00

There is no place like home!
We are home and busy making plan for Trip 3 and final trip to Russia. Jeff and his sister Lisa will be going back to pick up Annabelle on Sunday, May 18. We had a wonderful homecoming with our son Tyler who was thrilled to see us. Thanks to our family and friends for watching him while we were gone. More detail to follow.

2008-05-05T09:24:00.001-05:00

SUCCESS!!

We are parents again. We had court today and it was long. After two hours of a grueling court session where talked, the prosecutor asked questions; the social worker spoke, the prosecutor asked questions and then the judge asked questions; the judge then read aloud just about every page of our dossier. The judge asked if anyone had anything further to add and mercifully no one did. She left for 2-3 minutes and came back with a fully typed proclamation declaring us the parents of Annabelle Victoria. Indeed the courts of Moscow have ruled us fit parents again. This court session was much longer then expected and Jeff had to make a short speech. After about 90 minutes of the painful process, Maria requested an epidural but they said no we were to far along for drugs. After court, we reviewed our trip three schedule in detail for 90 more minutes and then spent another 90 minutes at a notary getting one document for power of attorney completed.

Fortunately, since it is Cinco de Mayo we are going out to celebrate. We started out a little rough this morning when we found out that the main road was going to be shut down at 8:00am for another tank/weapons rehearsal for Victory day (May 9) so our driver couldn’t get to the hotel. (Nice) We had to walk a couple of blocks but found him.

In the end, Annabelle will be ours and we are coming home tomorrow and Annabelle will be home with us on May 28th.

2008-05-04T08:22:00.003-05:00

Court Trip Visit #3

This was our eighth and final visit to the Baby Home in Podolsk as the next time we come out we will be picking Annabelle up and bringing her home. The visit today was fine with little to report. We spent nearly two hours with Annabelle and we walked her a lot with holding tight to our fingers. We played on some of the swings or rocking horses outside and just sat and held her for a while. In all the visits with her, we were never able to put her on the ground and see her move around on her own. By the end of the visit today, she was tired and falling asleep in Maria’s arms.

We did get her daily schedule which was helpful in terms of her napping and eating times. Obviously, this will help the week we are here getting paperwork done.

We have court tomorrow and we are as prepared as we can be. We have gone over our homestudy and prepared a short statement in case we are asked to make one. We go at 11:00am and it should be done by noon. We need to stop at a notary and get some paperwork done afterwards and then we come back to the hotel and pack. Being it is Sinco de Mayo we will go to the Mexican restaurant down the street for a Magarita and toast our success in court. Apparently, there is another dress rehearsal for the Victory Day parade Monday Night so all of the 100+ military vehicles will be rumbling down Tverskaya again. We will get some pictures of this and finish packing.

We are going to meet Emily and David again for dinner. They took us out ot Victory Park and if you want to see pictures of the park or the rest of Moscow, their blog is highly recommended. http://lovedilworth.com/Default.aspx Tomorrow is also a big day for them as they will make the final trip to Podolsk to pick up their son Zack and start the process of bringing him home. Annabelle will lose a room mate, but they will meet again in the United States.

That is it for today. We will post tomorrow after court.

Jeff and Maria

2008-05-03T05:58:00.002-05:00

Court Trip Visit #2

Another great day. The weather is beautiful with temps in the 60s and all sun.

Annabelle seemed to be more persanable and warming up to us today. She made some noises that we beleive sounded like "pa pa". We were able to go outside for most of the time. She is not yet walking but will be very soon as she loves to hold our fingers and walk around the grounds.

Heading to Arabat and meeting the Dilworths for dinner again this evening. More to follow later.

Maria and Jeff

2008-05-02T06:43:00.002-05:00

VISIT #1 BEFORE COURT

We went to visit Annabelle today and it was a great visit. She looks the same and was dressed in a cute little blue outfit with tights. We got to play with her for a while on the green sofa. After a little while, Elena asked if we could take Annabelle outside for some fresh air. We could and the workers quickly dressed her is hat and coat and sent us on our way. We could not do much but it was sure nice to be walking around rather then sitting in the hallway. It is cloudy but 60 -65 degrees.

When we went back in and they were ready to take Annabelle, we were asked if we wanted to see the play room and bedroom for Annabelle. We jumped. We got to see a nice little play area and then her bedroom. The bedroom was a small room with 16 identical cribs. Her crib is crib number 4 so we got a picture of her in it. He group size is only seven children, six boys and her. We took several minutes of video and tried to capture the whole thing. We are going again tomorrow and Sunday.

Later this evening we are meeting another couple for dinner. It is nice being able to talk with others in the same process. We think they are also adopting from Podolsk and that there son is one of the six boys with Annabelle’s group . . . we will confirm tonight.

That is it for today.

Maria and Jeff

2008-05-01T08:28:00.001-05:00

Journey to Annabelle

Well, Tuesday night we started packing at 10:00PM for our flight that was leaving in less than twenty-four hours. We strongly discourage this approach to other adoptive parents, but like so many others, with Tyler at home and both of us working, it seemed like we never had a time to pack. We finally were done packing at 1:15AM and the sound of the lights going out must have awoken Tyler. We were all up by 7:00am and getting Tyler ready for school (day care). We dropped him off at 8:45 said our goodbyes and finished packing by 9:30. He is such a great son, always happy although we both wish he would eat more. We will truly miss him this week but know that he is in great hands. We were on the road by 9:50 and got coffee and a bagel and headed for NY.

We drove to JFK and got on the Delta flight. The drive was easy and smooth except for some work issues. Maria has been working on selling a unit of her company for one year and the deal was closing by midnight April 30. Yes that was when we were in a plane flying over the pond. After working with lawyers, accountants etc. we think it is done but won’t know until we land and get logged in. Crazy.

Now the fun and excitement begins you would think. It is May Day here and a big holiday. Traffic leaving the city was outrageous as many are taking Friday off and taking a four day weekend. We figured we would catch some of the parade and other events. The concierge here at the Marriott Grand did not know much about what was going on, so we just headed for Red Square. Other then seeing a lot of uniform people walking around the streets, we did not see anything. Some roads were blocked but no signs of a parade. We looked for some sort of military vehicles but did not see any. I am sure they were here somewhere.

Friday and Saturday are Annabelle days. We will go visit her in Podolsk both days. We are hoping to catch up with another set of adoptive parents in Moscow for a nice dinner one of these nights. There were no other adoptive parents on our flight. Jeff and I look like geeky American tourist with our jeans and sneakers so hopefully we will meet some new people as it does help past the time. Monday is court and then we are going to celebrate Cinco de Mayo at a Mexican restaurant near the Ritz.

More to follow. For now we are safely here and in the Moscow Grand hotel. We will be glad when court is done and we are declared Annabelle’s official parents.

Maria and Jeff

The Plan

2008-04-28T20:55:00.002-05:00

If all goes well, here are the travel plans:
We leave on Wednesday, April 30 (yes, less than 48 hours and our suitcases are in the closet) on the famous Delta flight 30 from New York direct to Moscow arriving on Thursday at 10:00AM which is May day (holiday) in Russia. We check into the Marriott Grand and go to the parade. We feel the key to a successful trip is to stay awake the first day and force yourself to adjust to the new zone. On Friday and Saturday, we drive to the baby home and see Annabelle. I can't wait to see how she has change. My guess is she is walking and has more teeth. In my dreams, I always picture her looking at me and saying "Where the hell have you been, I have been waiting. Let's get our of here!" Sunday will be a day of wandering around Moscow and Monday is COURT!!!!!! On Tuesday, we fly home on Delta 31 (AKA the baby flight). This flight is a lot of fun for the adopting parents. There are lots of kids on the flight and you constantly hear crying (10 hours) or see little heads popping up over the seats like gophers. The airline attendees look pretty bad after the flight.
This will be a tough trip for Jeff and I. For our first adoption, we stayed in Russia after court so when we came home, we had our son. This trip we will have court and fly home knowing we are one step closer but without our daughter.

We got a court date!

2008-04-21T10:19:00.001-05:00

We are heading back to Moscow, we got a court date - Monday, May 5. Woo hoo! More news to follow.
Moscow or bust!

2008-03-15T14:28:00.002-05:00

Last Day in Moscow

The last day and our last visit with Annabelle this trip went great. She is warming up to us and has been smiling a lot. We really wish we had some other place to play with her, but we made it through five days on the sofa. It would have been nice to put a blanket on the floor and sit and play, to see how she crawls and moves on her own. It was hard to judge this on a sofa where the furthest distance of travel was three feet.

We now start the long 6-8 week wait. We hope to hear about a court date in 3-4 weeks so we can start making the plans to get back here. We do have plenty of work to do at home with Tyler and preparing Annabelle’s room. Hopefully, the weeks will go fast.

Here are a couple of pictures from the outside of the baby home. The play area is a little old looking and muddy. I just hope it dries out enough for the kids to use.

We will try and post a follow-up with some current tips for travelers as well as ideas for surviving the first trip. As we learn more about our next trip we will start posting the dates and plans for our return.

Thanks for your support this trip and stay tuned for some good pictures on Annabelle in just a couple of months.

Maria and Jeff

The sign ouside the gate of the baby home

Part of the outside paly area . . . no kids have been out while we were here as it is still cool.

Day Four - Visiting Annabelle

2008-03-14T09:37:00.002-05:00

It was another good day. The 60k drive is taking about one hour each way and our driver Yuri is well aware of all the shor cuts and takes the belief that he would rather drive an extra 5k as long as he is moving. Yesterday his horns stopped working and it was fun to watch him beating and pushing on it as it is his natural reaction. We want to send him an air horn to installl as he would love it.
Our visit with Annnabelle was a pleasant 90 minutes as she was wearing the same red velvet Christmas dress we met her in on Tuesday. She is such a content little girl and is very happy playing with just a coule of toys and being held. She is ready to walk and we used our limited space to hold her hands and walk her around. We still have one visit left tomorrow. We will have no access/limited access to the internet for the next day but will post tomorrow. We can't wait to head home on Sunday although we leave a part of our hearts in Moscow.
Maria and Jeff

2008-03-13T12:23:00.005-05:00

Blog Day Three

There is nothing new or eventful to report today. Annabelle was dressed in a cute little navy blue dress with white lace collar and the word Cherry scripted across the collar with white tights. The visits are tough because we cannot do much besides hold Annabelle as there is no where to go or to play. We are confined to a small area that has a sofa and that is our play area. We have no floor space and the only toys are those that we bring with us. All this is OK with us as long as we get our 60-90 minutes with Annabelle.

We also got to the notary today to sign paperwork officially requesting to adopt Annabelle. For the future adoptive parents this is a little hidden cost of doing business. The fees for all the documents to be notarized and copied came to 4840 Rubels or about $205. This made for a long day as we did not get back until after 5:00PM.

The weather here has been pretty good. Temperatures today were in the mid 40s and mostly dry but a little rain fell in the afternoon evening time. All week it has been between 35- and 45.

Check out the picture our play area and the front of the baby home!

Maria and Jeff

2008-03-12T10:52:00.000-05:00

Day Two in Moscow

The trip to the baby home in Podolsk was a little slow this morning has there were light rain/snow showers in the area. The ride is about one hour with normal Moscow traffic.

The visit was nice and nondescript as we played for 90 minutes in the 8’x9’ hallway area as staff were coming and going all around us. Annabelle laughed and played and was a little angel today. Towards the end she was getting tired and was ready for her afternoon nap.

We received the doctor’s report today and he mentioned that she was premature at birth, delay and a few issues that we should address in the United States but nothing we felt we can not handle. The social worker also stopped by and again told us about her premature birth and talked about how small she is. We feel confident that we can handle this and with nutrition, vitamins, three squares a day, and lots of love she will flourish. Tomorrow we visit and go to the notary to complete all the . So far so good.

More to follow tomorrow.

2008-03-11T13:43:00.005-05:00

IT IS A GIRL

The day started with a short traffic free ride from the Marriott Grand to the MOE for the Moscow Region. After about 30 minutes of looking at the hole in the floor in the hallway where all families wait, the head of the MOE invited us in. We sat around a round table and she came in and explained that girls were very difficult to find, but she had one and only one. If we declined this child, she would be glad to refer us a boy.

We accepted the referral and headed to Podolsk where the orphanage is located. We met a beautiful little girl who appeared to be very healthy. Our doctor met us there and spent 20 minutes giving her an exam and than reviewed her medical records. In the end he said this was an easy job for him because he did not see any serious problems with this girl. He explained that she is small and a little developmentally behind, but that is normal for children in institutions. He said a few months of good nutrition, love and attention will cure all her problems.

We have not come down out of the clouds yet. We are going to go to visit the next four days and will post more info everyday.

Maria and Jeff

We are here!!!!!!!!!

2008-03-10T08:41:00.002-05:00

Dear family and friends,
Just a quick note to let you know we are here safely. The trip to New York and flight to Moscow were perfect and a special thanks to Aunt Lisa and Hailey for watching Tyler when we left. Tyler did great however Hershey (our dog) was a wreak. We are staying up all day at the Marriott Grand and will be heading to bed soon as tomorrow is a huge day for us. We go to the MOE to received are referral and than go to the baby home so we will post late tomorrow night. Keep us in your prayers!
Maria & Jefff

We're Going Back!!

2008-03-06T22:21:00.002-05:00

Well, we have been home just over one year and life with Tyler could not be better.

Yes, we are going back to Moscow and getting a baby brother or sister for Tyler!

Stay tuned for more posts as we start the adventure all over again. We leave for Moscow on Sunday March 9.

Jeff, Maria and Tyler

2007-04-07T20:23:00.000-05:00

Yes, we are alive.

Hello blogger friends! Sorry we have been such bad bloggers since we came home. It has been a little crazy since we have been back. For some stupid reason, Jeff and I thought that we would have tons of free time during the one month (March) that we were both taking off. We thought we would accomplish huge projects, redo rooms in the house, and win the Parents of the Year award. After all, HOW HARD CAN IT BE TO WATCH A FIFTEEN MONTH OLD LITTLE ANGEL BOY. Yes, Jeff and I were a little naive. March went fast and we laugh at how stupid we were.

Tyler is such a joy but he is also one very active little boy. He has been keeping Jeff and I jumping. We did not get any major projects done and every night when we collapse into bed, we wonder what we actually did all day. We are clearly on Tyler time. Everyday has been great and our son amazes us constantly. He is walking and his first words were "tickle . . . tickle". At first we thought he wasn’t tickle-ish but than we figured out that since he was in hospital that there was a good chance that no one had ever tickled him. He is always smiling and laughing. Just saying tickle tickle sends him into belly laughs. He loves our huge dog. Tyler spends hours walking around and babbling to himself. Jeff and I are so thankful for him, he is truly a gift and while everyone says how lucky he is, we feel like we are the lucky ones.

We are attaching some pictures. Our plan is to print out the blog and add it to Tyler’s life book, however, we are not going to be adding to the blog. Jeff is now back to work and I go next month.

A special thanks to our families, friends, neighbors and bloggerland for helping us through the most challenging and rewarding time of all lives. Just for the record, this is truly a story in which the main characters live happily ever after.

Maria, Jeff and Tyler

2007-03-03T16:51:00.000-05:00

We're Home

Well . . . . we are home and getting settled, but the stories to tell about the journey home.

We woke up Tuesday morning in Moscow at 6:00am to shower, finish packing, clean up the apartment and to get Tyler ready for the big trip. Our ride showed up at 8:40 and we jammed four suitcases into the little compact car and off we went to the airport. An uneventful ride and with a little traffic we arrived around 9:30. We got a cart and stacked all the suitcases and went to the Delta counter. Which is really just a little booth in the airport. We worked through the ticket exchange and headed for the security. The first check point the bags are all run through a machine then re-stacked on the cart. We next directed to the hand searching area, where each of the bags is opened and searched by hand. Reloaded on the cart and finally to the counter where they are taken from us and sent to the plane.

Traveling a little lighter with a roller bag for computers, cameras, DVDs and other electronic gear, a diaper bag and a knapsack with food and toys. We go to the gate area and before going to the final security check we feed Tyler who fell asleep on the ride to the airport but once awake was a perfect little angel. About 11:25 we went through the security to the gate and grabbed a couple of seats. Jeff walked Tyler around for 20 minutes until her fell asleep. Perfect, 40 minutes to the flight and he is sleeping. When we look at the gate, we realize that the Delta plane that was at our gate is now gone . . . and we start hearing passengers talking about mechanical problems. Yikes! We are right next to the Delta flight to Atlanta and Jeff asks a gate agent if we can switch to that flight. He says yes and puts us on the list. It is now 12:25 and we have no plane and we are tentatively on the 12:55 Atlanta. They make an announcement that if anyone on the NY flight wants to switch to Atlanta come to Gate 2. The rush is on, but we are ahead of the madness because we registered our request. Finally, around 1:15 they start boarding the Atlanta flight and we get on board. At about 1:40 they come to us and say the NY flight is going to leave, and if we want to get that flight, we need to get off right away. We grab our stuff and go. We are back outside waiting for the NY flight to board, but at least the plane is there.

Indeed, we board the NY flight around 2:00pm and we actually take off around 2:30pm . . . a little over two hours late. Tyler has been a trooper through all of this. The 10-hour flight will get us into NY with about 40 minutes to make our connecting flight to Baltimore. We know the odds are slim, Tyler stays awake through most of the flight and even though we have the bulkhead seats with the bassinet, he sleeps only for 45 minutes.

We arrive in NY and have 30 minutes to make our flight. We go to Customs and are pulled from the back of the line to the front because we are carrying Tyler. The first good break. We get through pretty quick as the secret sealed envelope is opened. We are told to go to another desk to turn in paperwork. They take the papers and send us on our way. We stop and throw our luggage at the Delta representative who is rechecking it through to Baltimore. We than go through the American security check. Shoes off, computers out, etc. We clear security at our scheduled departure time and now know that our fight is in the adjacent terminal at the far end. We hoof it with Tyler on Maria’s hip. We get to the gate 10 minutes late (5:25) and are told the flight is gone. We are so dissapointed, but we are rebooked on the 8:25 flight. We now have three hours to kill!

We search out a spot in the airport that is not too cold so we can change Tyler and get him some food. We grab some water and camp out. Fortunately, at 7:00PM, Tyler conks out. We notice that our flight is pushed back to 8:40. Not a big deal. At 8:15 we move closer to the gate and at 8:30 Jeff asks why are we not boarding. "The Plane is not hear yet and the departure is now 8:55." At 9:00 Jeff asks what is going on. "We are not sure, it could be mechanical or waiting for a flight crew, but the plane has landed". Departure is now 9:30pm. At 9:30 Jeff is speaking to supervisors explaining that we need to have some better understanding of are we leaving tonight or not. The supervisor says he will find out. What he learns is that it is mechanical and that we are looking at 10:55 for departure. At 10:00pm, we start calling rental car companies looking for a one way rental from JFK to Baltimore. Hertz – NO, Avis – NO, Alamo – Yes (Thanks Jude!!). Jeff has also hit the Starbucks for a large coffee to prepare for the drive. At 10:30 we have a rental vehicle reserved and at the same time, the flight board has changed and the flight departure is now 12:30am. We grab our stuff and leave the terminal. Delta will not be getting us home tonight.

We take the AirTrain to the Rental Car center, get a Chevy Trail Blazer and start the 3.5 hour drive home at 11:00pm. Mercifully, Tyler has slept through all of this rotating between both of our arms. Once in his car-seat, he continued to sleep. The drive was hard. We had been up since 6:00am Moscow time or 10:00pm EST, which is now 25 hours ago and we have to drive 3.5 hours. Neither of us slept on the plane and we are so tired and just want to get home. We stop at the first rest stop on the NJ Turnpike and get some food and cokes. That is not working well and we stop about an hour later and Jeff gets a large coffee. That along with some calisthenics in the parking lot gets the blood going and we cruise the rest of the way home. At about 2:00am Tyler wakes up. We pull into our driveway at 2:30am, 26 hours after we left our apartment for the airport and having been up 28+ hours. Jeff, wired on too much caffeine, stays up with Tyler and Maria sleeps for two hours.

There was no big homecoming! Our family and friends who were going to meet us at the airport with balloons, signs, hugs and kisses were all told to go home because we were driving. The once in a lifetime event was loss thanks to Delta.

Since being home we are all getting adjusted to the time change and trying to catch up on sleep. Both of us have picked up the cold Tyler brought with him from the baby hospital. Tyler wakes every morning at 4:00am and if given his choice would nap three times a day. We are trying to get this down to two naps and sleeping 9 hours at night. Right now it is 9:00pm to 4:00am.
Tyler had his first doctor’s visit yesterday and he did great. He weighed in at 20lbs 13oz and is 31 inches in length. That puts him in the 10 and 50 percentiles, respectively. The doctor wanta to due a full battery of blood, urine, stool tests as well as a chest x-ray to get as much info on him as possible. Tyler and Jeff did well with the blood test . . . Mom not so well. Tyler is also getting an antibiotic for his cough, just to be sure it is not anything more than a cold virus.

We are working on the untold story of the adoption and will post that in the future. Right now we are still trying to find a spare minute to take a shower and clean the house. We know the excitement of the trip is over, but our life has just begun with Tyler.

Maria, Jeff and Tyler

2007-02-26T14:46:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-02-25T14:50:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-24T13:31:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-02-23T14:27:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-22T14:48:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-21T14:57:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-20T11:38:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-19T08:45:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-18T08:17:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-17T14:36:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-17T14:32:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-15T10:18:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-14T08:05:00.001-05:00

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

2007-02-13T09:39:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-12T08:39:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-11T09:42:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-10T10:31:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-09T07:55:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-07T06:52:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-06T11:22:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-02-05T13:24:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-02-04T12:38:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-03T14:47:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-26T22:35:00.000-05:00

Today was the day . . . . we got the call to come back to Russia and get Tyler.

The call was vague (all we were told wzs to be in Moscow on Sunday February 4th) and left us more questions than answers, but that is OK because we are leaving next Saturday. They know we need to be there and have time for visiting Tyler and for our eight doctors exams, so our guess is that Court will be on Wednesday or Thursday.

We are so excited and looking forward to getting back to Moscow and seeing how Tyler is doing. We will be bringing Tyler home!! We have a lot to do between now and than. Stay tuned for more updates.

A Weather Update

2007-01-24T21:28:00.000-05:00

A weather update. Our weather here is not too bad and after a five weeks of above average temperatures we finally got some snow . . . a whole inch fell n Sunday. The forecast for the next 10 days is for temps to remain around or below normal meaning that highs during the day will be in the upper 30s to low 40s and lows at night in the 20s or teens. We should get a day or to of Moscow like weather where our highs are in the mid 20 and lows in the teens. So, ho is he weather in Moscow?

Well, let’s clear up a common American misperception about Moscow. . . the city does not get a lot of snow. It is cold there but not Siberia cold and while it snows every other day, it is only snow showers or light snow. When we were in Moscow in December, I read an article about the worst three-day storm Moscow ever had hit in January 2006 when over the three days more than 30 centimeters of snow fell. That is about a foot of snow. Heavy snow is not very likely.

The temperatures for the next 10 days in Moscow are forecasted to be highs in the upper teens to mid 20s with lows over night reaching the lower teens or single digits. Snow is forecasted as flurries or showers almost every day.

So, once we get to our apartment, we will not be getting out a lot except to go to the store to get groceries and supplies and to take care of business, meaning visit Tyler and go to court. We will be packing our flannel-lined jeans, boots, heavy sweaters, wool socks, Under Armor, and thermals. We are packing all sorts of warm clothing for Tyler.

We hope to hear something tomorrow or Friday. We know we are getting closer and our agency has said that our paperwork is almost done. We really hope the call comes later this week, but if not, we know it will be next week. Our court date is imminent and Tyler will be coming home soon.

The Waiting Game (Part II)

2007-01-21T22:58:00.000-05:00

Jeff and I have been keeping very, very busy. We had a wonderful Christmas and great New Year Day. We have been working very hard on Tyler’s nursery and have attached pictures below. We picked an airplane theme and truly have enjoyed the process. Tyler’s Aunt Lisa helped with the artwork and the grandparents bought our awesome nursery furniture. This week is the start of the official waiting for "THE second CALL". We are expecting a call from our agency sometime this week letting us know that we have a court date that we expect to be sometime in early February. The agency tries to give you 10 – 14 days notice, however, we need to go out at least four days early for a medical exam and to visit with Tyler before court. So, we may only get7-10 days notice beofre we have to leave. We have booked an apartment for most of February just in case. We are ready!!

Once we go to court, we start a ten day waiting period. At the end of the 10 days, the adoption decree is final. We will get an adoption certificate and a new birth certificate with Tyler's name on it. We will spend spend four or five business days in Moscow getting Tyler a Russian passport, registering him with the consulate, getting a medical exam and a permanent US immigration visa from the US Embassy. After all that, we can board our flight home. Once we
land here, Tyler will be a US citizen.

Our total stay in Moscow will be 20-25 days. We are very anxious to go back and bring Tyler home. Right now we just pray that Tyler is doing well and that we get a call with our court date.

We areready to start updating on a regular basis so stay tuned for the expected good news on our court date!

Maria and Jeff

2006-12-23T16:13:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-15T14:40:00.000-05:00

2006-12-15T09:44:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-14T15:19:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-13T09:18:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-12T10:42:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-11T13:25:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-12-09T09:52:00.000-05:00

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!!!!

2006-12-01T19:55:00.000-05:00

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

NO CALL

2006-11-24T17:51:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving was a very busy and nice day as we were able to have lunch and dinner with each of our families.

Well, it was another long Friday with no call, meaning we do not know when we are traveling yet. We are beginning to hate Friday’s. We hope that next week will be our week, just as we hoped this week would be our week. The waiting is really hard. OK, more than just hard, it is a painfully long, anxiety producing, torturous process. We were initially told that we would be traveling as soon as the end of the month and maybe even earlier if we did not mind going over Thanksgiving. However, with no call today, we are obviously not traveling in November and we are now just hoping to travel before Christmas. We have no idea why we have not gotten the call, but we are obviously tired of waiting.

On a more positive note, several of our internet friends, some also with our agency, have received "the call" and the good news about travel. Lauren and Marco will be traveling to the Moscow soon to meet their daughter and Lisa and Scott are going to Moscow City to meet their son. Additionally, Missi and her husband (different agency) are leaving Thursday for trip two to pick up their chubby blonde hair daughter. We are very happy for everyone and we are even more anxious now to get our call.

If we do not get a call soon, Jeff and I will be booking rooms at a local psychiatric institution for an extended stay. Keep us in your prayers.

Maria and Jeff

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maria, Jeff and Hershey

PICTURES!!

2006-11-15T21:32:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally have some pictures on our blog. Thanks to the expert technical assistance from our friend Sandra who helped us with guidance like, use the software your camera came with and make sure the camera is on when you plug it into the computer. She also gave us good advice on saving and storing pictures.

This is a picture of our crib! The wall color is not the color we are keeping, but gives you an idea of what things could look like. The crib has a drawer underneath, but it is covered by the dust ruffle.

Below is a picture of some baby shoes. Obviously, Maria has a little problem collecting shoes. Thanks to our family and friends who may recognize a couple pair from their kids.

That is all for today. Obviously we did not get "the call" yet. Hopefully soon!

Jeff and Maria

2006-11-12T21:21:00.000-05:00

Remember the Carly Simon song turned Heinz ketchup commercial?

"Anticipation, is keeping me waiting."

Well, we are waiting in anticipation of "The Call." We have been keeping very busy waiting and setting up the new crib. We will try to attach a picture of it soon, but what you need to know is that, we are both technologically challenged. We barely know how to use a digital camera (and never worked an Ipod either), let alone download or upload pictures to attach. We are working on it, but I think we may be hiring a local tutor from the neighborhood (Sandra) who can put a 60-picture slide show to music in less than a day.

We have picked colors for the room, once again. We are pretty sure that green, blue and off white are included in some combination and that airplanes will be a theme.

Some fellow blogers have asked if they could add our blog to their blog roll. Certainly! We are thrilled and glad to share our experience. It has been wonderful "meeting" so many fellow adoptive parents through this process. Maria had dinner last night with two fellow blogers (Melissa and Lauren) whose blogs are listed on our roll. Melissa and Mike have already been on trip one and met their son, so now they are just waiting for "the other call" to go bring their son home. Lauren and Marco are also going to the Moscow Region around the same time as us. We may get to travel together!

We hope to hear something (The Call) this week or next week so stay tuned.

Maria and Jeff

Getting Close!

2006-11-05T17:54:00.000-05:00

Well, we are really starting to feel like we are getting closer to trip one. Our paperwork was turned into the Ministry of Education and we expect to hear from them by the end of next week. At that point, we are hoping that we will be given a travel date and be told that we will be visiting a boy or girl or siblings and their age. We will receive no other information until we land in Moscow. The good news is that this means that we could be traveling in three or four weeks. The way trip one will likely work is this; we will take a direct flight to Moscow departing New York at 5:20PM Saturday and arrive in Moscow on Sunday morning around 11:00AM. They are 8 hours ahead of us so it may feel like 3:00am to us. We will go to our hotel and check in and make sure we know where we need to be on Monday morning. We think we will go to the MOE and than be able to go to the baby home and meet our child, probably for a couple of hours. We will do that again on Tuesday and Wednesday. We want to take a local doctor with us to review the medical records and examine the child one of those days and assuming all goes well, we will go through the official process of requesting custody and a court date. We will take a direct flight out of Moscow on Friday at 12:25PM and arrive back in New York at 3:25PM. It is a 9 hour 40 minute flight over and a 10 hour and 30 minute flight back. The second (and FINAL) trip will be around 6 weeks later for our court hearing.

So, we have a lot to do in the next couple of weeks. We did buy a crib and ordered the rest of the furniture for the nursery (Thanks to both our parents). We have a great glider/rocker being loaned to us from our wonderful neighbors (Thanks Annie and JT!). We picked out colors to paint and may even have fabrics for linens. We still have to get some carpeting and do the painting as well as a million other things that we are now listing. Please keep us in your prayers and check back later this week to see if we have any news to report.

Maria and Jeff

Paperwork Update

2006-10-24T20:25:00.000-05:00

Paperwork update

Things always move a little slower than we would like, but we are happy to say that they are still moving! We received word today from our agency that our paperwork has been translated! Yeah! Our agency’s facilitator in the Moscow region has the paperwork and will file it next week with the Ministry of Education (MOE). We expect/hope/pray that we will get an invitation to travel in about four to six weeks. This will allow us to get our Russian visas to visit a child (or children) in an orphanage, or baby home as they are called in Russia. We will get one to two weeks notice that we will be traveling, so that puts our anticipated travel anywhere from 6-8 weeks from now. Once we get an invitation to travel from the MOE, we will find out where in the Moscow Region we will be going. We will book flights and start to packing. We are hoping to hear that we have a referral over the Thanksgiving weekend so it would be a Thanksgiving that we will truly have much to be thankful for.

Our agency also received their NGO approval last week! For those of you that do not know what NGO is . . . it stands for Non Governmental Organization. Starting this year, the Russian government requires that all foreign agencies working in Russia to be registered with the Ministry of Justice. Furthermore, adoption agencies must be accredited by the Ministry of Education (which ours is) and have NGO approval (which ours does as of 10/18/2006). We have one of the few agencies that have both!

The nursery has been a very, very, slow process. We (OK, just me) are still unable to pick a paint color, theme, or a crib. Right now the room is empty of all furniture. We have around 35-40 paint cards with blue, red, green, yellow and sand colors in the running. Some combination is likely. We will soon write the options on cards and draw one from the hat and be bound to that as our decision!

That is it for now. We will update you on colors for the nursery and hopefully, a travel date in the near future.

Maria and Jeff

The Waiting Game Continues

2006-10-13T20:19:00.000-05:00

Nothing much has changed in the past two weeks. Our paperwork is in Russia being translated and should be with the Ministry of Education within the next week or two. After that, we will just waiting for "The Call." It will be at that time that our agency tells us that we are traveling and that there is a referral. Until than, we will continue to wait and work on the nursery and cheer for the Ravens.

We were a little concerned because we had read that there may be a slow down in Moscow because of a new official at the Ministry of Education. We have since learned that that may be in Moscow City and we are in the Moscow region. So we are under the belief that everything is fine and confirmed with our agency that we are moving forward. We know of two other couples with our agency recently got referrals and will be traveling in the next couple of weeks. (Congratulations to Marco and Lauren!).

This week we looked at baby furniture which was truly overwhelming as there is so much out there. If we cannot settle the argument between a cat theme or a flag theme we will go with something different. We did look at some paint colors and just like everything else this will be a long process just to select a color. We have been able to actually move some furniture out of the room and into the hallway. At this rate we will be painting after Christmas!

That is it for now. The news is slow as we wait, but you will all know once we get THE CALL!

Another Step

2006-09-28T18:46:00.000-05:00

We received word that our agency has sent our Dossier via DHL to Moscow to be translated (OK, I called them ten times). Hip Hip hooray!!!!

While it is one small step in this process it is a necessary step in the right direction. The typical processing time is three to four weeks to be translated and then it is registered with the Ministry of Education and Science in the Moscow Region. So, we are playing the waiting game patiently (HA!). I have a feeling that you will see my patience get a little thin but right now it is OK. Our dossier was over fifty pages and contains our homestudy, marriage license, deed to our house, official registry paperwork, passport photos, picture of our house and families, criminal records checks, bank statements, etc.. It takes between two and three months to put all this together, so I can imagine it does take four weeks to translate everything into Russian.

Jeff and I have been thinking about the babies room and have started to move things out (desk, futon, book shelf, etc.). We were thinking we may need a bigger house, but since no one is allow to move out of our two court community it looks like a trip to the goodwill is in order. The interesting thing about the nursery, at first we were going to do everything in blue with a sports theme and then jokingly I said we would probably get twin girls. We looked at each other and thought what if we get a girl? She could hold it against her Mother and Father for the rest of her life that she was forced into a boy’s blue sports room. As you see, we are well on our way to being psychotic parents thinking too much about how we can prevent psychological issues.

Guess what colors we are doing – not red, white and blue – yellow and green – gender neutral colors. I apologize to all my girlfriends who I yelled at for picking these colors, but I have joined the club. I will update everyone next week on any news.

Thanks for all the well wishes and support. It really helps us on those frustrating days.

Maria & Jeff

Welcome aboard!

2006-09-18T07:51:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our blog and guess where we are going? We are starting this blog (thanks to my friend Lauren’s help) to let all of our family and friends follow along on our journey as we start our family. We finished all of our paperwork (dossier) and sent it to our adoption agency last week. They are reviewing it and hopefully sending it to Moscow next week (September 22) to be translated. Translation usually takes four weeks. Once translated, it will be submitted to the MOE (Ministry of Education) who will assign us a child or sibling group (Yep, maybe more than one) and invite us to travel to the Moscow region. This may take another 2 –3 months. We will only have a week or two notice before heading to the Moscow region for one week to meet our child or children. We have no gender preference and hoping for children between ten month (youngest available) and four year old. We will NOT receive any information about our child prior to landing in Russia. This is commonly referred to as traveling blind. Adopting in Russia has been very challenging as the laws are forever changing (NGO and reaccrediation are two current issues that we have been struggling with but so far so good).
Life is full of surprise and this will be the adventure of a lifetime.
Prior to this, we had been busy running around get paperwork, fingerprints, a home health inspection, criminal records checks our homestudy, and passports (ask Jeff about that fiasco). So, now that our paperwork is in, we wait. There will not be a lot of news in the next two months, but we will try to update you every couple of weeks on our progress. In fact, we may even take some time to do fun things like work on the baby’s room.

One statement that we read and feels so true:
"Adoption is having your child born to another and your journey of faith to bring them home"

We welcome you to participate in our journey, hold on tight, we are heading for the ride of a lifetime.

Maria and Jeff