Sunday, May 31, 2009

Getting back into the swing of things

It is so good to be back home! It will be even better once we have Connor home too. It won't be long now! It's a good thing summer is here, I have so much to do to get ready for him to come home. Yesterday we finally put the border up in his room so now we can put the crib together and get things organized. Fortunately I have saved quite a few clothes from Travis so I have been busy going through that. I am not sure what size he is, based on the measurements they gave me he might be about 9-12 months in most things. I guess I will find out shortly!

Now for our big news: After MUCH thought and discussion Daryle and I have decided to bring Travis with us on this last trip!! We know it will be a LONG airplane ride, but he has always been such a good traveler I think he will be fine. (Any tips on keeping him busy welcome!) Not too sure about Mom and Dad, but I am sure we will manage!! I just got his plane ticket this morning and this week we will get his passport. (For a little extra fee you can get almost anything done on an expedited basis!) Travis knows a couple of words in Russian: yes, no, dog and we are working on thank you. That one is a challenge for him! I am hoping that two weeks of practice is enough and he will be good to go. (Thank goodness for the "My First 1000 Words in Russian" book I bought while waiting for Travis to come home, now we can practice a bit!) The only other important words we need to know are "Chicken nugget Happy Meal" at McDonald's and then we know he won't starve! LOL On our trip to Moscow we volunteered to take another flight and in exchange we got vouchers, it pretty much covered the cost of his plane ticket, I only had to pay a small fraction of the cost. We don't have to worry about getting him a visa since he has dual citizenship. He will arrive in Russia on his Russian passport (which expires in August, perfect timing!) and he will arrive back home on his US passport. We really think and hope this will be a good experience for him. We think he is at an age where he will remember things and it will be good for him to see where his brother came from (and uh, I guess where he is from too!) It will be good for him to experience some Russian culture first hand, well as much as any 6 year old can anyway. I think just riding around in the car will be culture shock enough for him!! We are hoping that it will be a good bonding experience for all of us and that Travis will feel more involved in everything. I really can't believe we are bringing him with us! All along we said "NO WAY!" when people asked if we would bring him at all, but I think that after being back over there twice in the last 2 months we feel more comforatble being there and we feel comfortable having Travis with us as well. Now, we only hope and pray he is on his best behavior while we are there!! LOL

Friday, May 29, 2009

WE'RE BAAACK!!

Finally, we are back home safe and sound. Unfortunately our flight from Moscow to New York left 3 hours late so of course we missed our connecting flight home. Boy, I sure hope that doesn't happen to us on our last trip!! So, Delta kindly put us on a flight to Salt Lake City, arriving at 11:30 and directed us to a hotel room. We flopped into bed at 12:30 and asked for a 4:30 am wake up call to catch the 7 am flight to Phoenix. We arrived at 7:20 this morning!! Only about 12 hours later than we had planned on.....

Oh well! At least it was just the two of us, no baby in tow! I am exhausted. Earlier in the week I had asked my mom to schedule Daryle and I each a massage for this afternoon, so that is where I am off to now. When I have had a full nights sleep I will post some pictures from our sight-seeing in Moscow. We never were permitted to see Connor again after that first visit, so all I got were two pictures of him in a crazy PINK outfit!! Poor baby, I can't wait to put him in some American clothing!!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

It's Official!!

We just got back from court and it is official, we are now proud parents, again!!!! Court went smooth as can be, lasting only about a half an hour. A sharp contrast to the two hours of court we had when we adopted Travis. Daryle did most of the talking and then the judge asked me a few questions. When asked my date of birth I started to say "2000" but caught myself in time! It is a bit nerve wracking standing in a Russian courtroom with this judge looking at you and asking you questions. The funny memory we will take away from this court day was that while Daryle was asking his questions the window washers decided to clean the windows in the court room! They kept banging into the window, I thought they just might come crashing through at any minute! Everybody in court was so nice, the director of the orphanage was there and the rep from the Ministry of Education, both were extremely nice. Everybody was smiling and saying congratulations to us. It was an amazing moment to hear the judge say the court has accepted our petition to adopt and that we are now his parents. Wow! We were hoping to get to visit him today, but after court the director said he was still the same (low fever and still in isolation) and we could not go see him. Evidently there have been two Russian people who have returned to Russia from New York and have had the Swine Flu. I think they are being extra cautious around here, I can't say that I blame them. So, now Daryle and I are going to walk down to Old Arbat Street, we know there is an ice cream place there as well as a Starbucks. It isn't too far from our hotel and the weather is once again beautiful. Tomorrow morning we will be picked up at 8 am so we can be to the airport 3 hours early! Our flight leaves at noon tomorrow and we get home at 8:30 at night via New York. I am ready to get back to my bed and my "oldest son"!!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

"Absolutely Not!"

Well, there was a different doctor at the orphanage today. When asked if we could come visit he replied, "Absolutely NO! They are Americans and could have the Swine Flu, they are not permitted in the isolated area!" That is that for today I guess. So, today we spent the day walking around. The weather has been beautiful here, flowers and trees are blooming and everything is so pretty. Our hotel is very close to Red Square so we walked there today. We ate lunch at McDonald's and then we went to the Kremlin. We had not been there before, it was pretty cool. We got confused though because the signs said no cameras or videos so we checked in our bag (of course it took us forever to figure out where that was, and I even got scolded to in Russian but I was only trying to ask where the place was to put our bag!) but when we got inside the Kremlin there were people with video cameras and regular cameras! We still don't quite understand that one! Once we were inside we walked around and found this area with a bunch of cathedrals. Well, on our brochure it said we could go inside one of them. We couldn't figure out where to go in, so we walked up these steps and out of nowhere this man appeared asking why we were trying to go inside. So, we showed him our tickets and he pointed us in the correct direction. We have no idea where he came from, but it scared Daryle half to death. He thinks I am now on a "list" and they are watching me!! LOL When we found the correct cathedral to go in Daryle didn't want to go in, I guess he doesn't like being yelled at by Russian men! I went inside, it had a bunch of tsars and other famous people that were buried in there. I finally heard an interpreter in Spanish so I tried to listen and see if I could understand who some of the people were. Finally I heard some English so I tried eavesdropping on them a bit. I did buy a book about the Kremlin in there and it had really good pictures of what it looks like in there so now I don't feel as bad about not having my camera with me! We also got a chance to go inside St. Basil's Cathedral. We were brave and took some pictures inside there, it was really cool and not at all what I thought was going to be in there. It is not a church, just a lot of walkways and relics and different things displayed in there. There was this really cool walkway that was windy and seemed like a secret passageway of some sort. We got some pictures in there too. We just got back a little bit ago and we are worn out! Tomorrow morning we have court at 11 am. I am holding out hope that maybe we will get to see Connor tomorrow afternoon, but we will have to wait and see. I am trying not to be nervous about court, I hope I sleep well tonight! The next time I post we will officially be parents to two boys!! How exciting!!

Monday, May 25, 2009

Sick Baby

This morning we went to go see and visit Connor. Once we got there we found out that he was sick and in "isolation" so we were not able to play with him. They did bring us to the room where he was and we took a picture of him from behind the glass. They told us he had a high fever over the weekend and a red throat. He is on antiobiotics and today his fever had gone down to 100 degrees. He did smile though! We waved to him and said hi, he seemed to wave back to us. We gave our donation of baby clothes to the orphanage and they seemed to be thankful and liked the items. We are hoping to get to at least hold him and visit with him tomorrow. In the morning we will get a call telling us if we can see him or not, it will depend on how he is doing. When they first told us, I thought, this is ok, we will be fine. Then as we walked down all of these stairs I stared thinking, "Oh gosh, to see my baby sick and not be able to hold him might just kill me" but when we got there we saw other babies in cribs that were sick too. I think the fact that he smiled at us and seemed to wave made me feel ok about not getting to hold him. Plus, we don't need to catch anything or even worse, give him something because he is not used to our germs either. So, we went upstairs and the doctor gave us all the details of his illness. I think it sounds a bit like strep throat or a flu. We were told it is NOT the swine flu! (phew!) I held it together until the doctor looked at us and said (as translated to us) that she is so very sorry that we were not able to hold and play with the baby. That is the moment the tears began to stream down my face! I got over it pretty quickly, but we are just disappointed that we didn't get to have more interaction with him. They did give us his measurements and he is about 15 pounds and 28 inches long...that is the size Travis was when he came home but he was 16 months old and Connor is 11 months old. I have to say though, Connor looks longer than Travis was so I am not sure how accurate the measurements are. But, it does give me something to go by for now! Well, I had better go, I think my free five minutes are about up!

Sunday, May 24, 2009

WE MADE IT!!!!

Hello!! Yes, we made it, and yes, I found the internet at our hotel. However, the connection is very S L O W so I will make this quick. We got on the plane to New York without a hitch. While in New York we found out the plane was overbooked. Daryle asked me what it would take for me to take a later flight, I said at least $1000!! Thinking NO WAY is anything like that going to happen! By the third time or so they asked for volunteers to take a later flight they mentioned flying First Class to London and then onto Moscow plus a good amount of money to fly on Delta in the future. So, since the flight to Moscow still go us in on Sunday (5:45 pm instead of 10 am) we did it. We got to fly on a new Delta plane that had "flat beds" in First Class. It was great, we each even had our own TVs and got to watch whatever we liked. Very nice. Now I can say I have been to London...only the airport...but I have been there! Anyway, we got to Moscow just fine and are all settled into our hotel. We got a very good night's sleep and just ate the most expensive breakfast ever. It was probably about $25 a piece and all we had were some pastries, some fruit, juice, coffee and some cereal. The milk was a little odd tasting so we didn't eat much of that. I have heard there is a McDonald's close by so I think we will venture there tomorrow. That is way too much to pay!! We are being picked up at 11:00 am to go visit Connor!! We are so excited. Travis gave us one of his webkinz for Connor to play with, we are excited to take a couple of pictures of that to show Travis! The weather so far is fine, in the 50's and 60's (a far cry from 107 it was in AZ last week!!). It will probably rain while we are here, it was in the forecast for each day. Well, I had better go! We have court on Wednesday at 11 am Moscow time. Now, off to see Connor!!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Done with school, on to court!!

Phew, I am done with the school year!! I never thought it would all finally come to an end, what a crazy year it has been. I had a nice class, just a big class and a lot of talkers!! No day was ever the same! They all gave me big hugs good-bye, it is weird because they still have school next week, but with a sub. I just hope they are as good as possible for her...stop laughing...I can hope, right??

So, now on to packing and getting ready for court. With all of the crazy things I have had to do for school I have hardly thought about the whole court thing. The last time we were pretty nervous, I think it lasted about 2 hours, but we did just fine. From what I have been hearing, court in Moscow isn't too bad, less than an hour or so. The same questions can be expected, except now we have "experience" so we will probably spend some time talking about Travis and how we have handled different issues with him. I think once we get over there my brain will be able to focus and get ready mentally.

Since we are coming in a day early we are hoping to see Connor on Monday and Tuesday!! Instead of one visit we are hoping to get two. Yeah!! I can't wait to see him, hold him, hug him, kiss him and get lots of pictures of him!! I am also going to try and figure out what size he is while I am there.

Our flight leaves tomorrow at 6 am for New York, we need to be at the airport by 4:30 to get our seats. Please say a prayer that we get on that flight, we were told they save the last 30 seats to be assigned at the airport. I am saying big prayers that we get on that plane!!! We will arrive back in Phoenix late on Thursday evening. We are staying at one of the Marriott hotels and I am hoping there is computer access there. If so, I will be able to post on here and let you know how thing are progressing.

Well, I have lots of packing to get done and not too much more time before I need to get to bed. Next post from Russia!!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Things are moving along!

Two good things happened today. First, when we got home our VISA's had arrived! Yeah!! I believe we got dual entry VISA's and they expire the day after we come home on trip three. It is cutting it close, but it works for me! The second good thing is we got our plane tickets for our trip home. They had to send us paper tickets for that trip because we will be bringing Connor home and we need to have some type of ticket for him. It is very cool to see a plane ticket with his name on it, it makes it all seem that more real!! There really is a missing person from our family and in just a few short weeks he will be HOME where he belongs! I did finish painting his room and this weekend I found a dresser too. In a few months I plan on going back and buying the bed that matches the dresser. I want to get it before it gets discontinued, that is the type of luck I always get! I wanted to put up the border tonight and start getting his room together but I have run out of time. Maybe tomorrow night it will happen. At school I have been acting like this is my last week of school, so tomorrow I hope to get my report cards done and maybe even the permanent records (yes, schools really do have those!) since we have a half day. I feel like I have so much to do and time is doing nothing but ticking away from me. I am trying not to get too overwhelmed by it all, so far so good!!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Itinerary

After about three hours on the computer and on the phone yesterday I finally got our flights booked! Things get a bit complicated when you are suddenly adding another little person on one leg of your flight. Originally we were told to be there May 25 so I was trying to book a flight leaving on May 24. Well, I had to call Expedia for a price on something and the girl on the phone asked me if my dates were flexible. I found out that if we left on May 23 our flights would be HALF the price!! So, of course one more hotel night would be much cheaper for half price tickets. We were also lucky to fly Delta for all the trips, they have a nice direct flight to Moscow from New York and Atlanta. This makes for faster traveling and less stops. So for now here is our plan:

Saturday, May 23- Leave Phoenix to New York to Moscow, we arrive Sunday morning.
Thursday May 28- Leave Moscow to New York to Phoenix, we arrive Thursday night.

Whew....rest for two weeks...

For our third and final trip:
Leave Saturday, June 13- Phoenix to Atlanta to Moscow
PICK UP CONNOR ON JUNE 15, HIS FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! WHOO HOO!!
Leave Saturday, June 20- Moscow to Atlanta to Phoenix, we arrive Saturday night at 8:30

I can't believe that just one month from today we will have him with us forever!! We have so much to do before he comes home. I still have to paint his room and get it ready, plus I still need to get him a dresser! We are on the final stretch of another amazing journey! Now for a safe journey over and back!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh, I thought I was going to get an ulcer today waiting for this call!!! The "bad" part is we didn't get our first choice of court dates so we are going a week later than we had hoped for. The "good" news is that we got our court date for May 27!!!!! I will have to miss the last week of school....oh well, not too upset about that. What I am sad about is that we will miss Travis' kindergarten graduation. So, I guess the grandparent's will have to video tape it for us!! There were pros and cons to each week, so one of the good things is that we will "spring" him from the orphanage on his first birthday!! I can't think of any more wonderful gift we could ask for than that! Another positive is that I only have to have a sub for three days since Monday is Memorial Day and Thursday is the last day of school and Daryle will only miss 4 days of work instead of 5, so in the end it seems to be working out ok.

Now I am off to make some plane reservations!!! YIPEE!!!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Surprise Shower

Oh my gosh, today after school my teammates (the other second grade teachers I teach with) threw a surprise baby shower for me. I was so shocked!! I got a lot of cute clothes, two swim suits (you need those here in AZ!!), bath towels, diapers, all the accesories, hats, books, gift cards, etc., etc., etc. It was so nice! I still have most of the "big" things saved from Travis but I was needing some new things here and there. Everything will come in handy for sure. I guess Connor won't have to wear all hand-me-downs after all! LOL I feel so lucky and blessed to work with such kind and generous people! Thanks you guys!!

No news on the court date. We did have a minor heart attack/meltdown this afternoon regarding the VISA situation, but in the end I think it has worked out, maybe even for the better. It isn't good when you come home to a voicemail and an urgent e-mail...all that time I was having fun at the shower!! Oh well, like I said, it all worked out and it ok for now.

Due to the VISA issue I did talk with my agency in Tuscon this afternoon as well. She is hoping we might hear some news after midnight....gee I hope so!! Sleep?? Don't think I will be getting much of that tonight. Every time I wake up I know I will be running to the computer to check and then if there is a date of course I will have to schedule our flights!! I am running on pure overload tonight. Next post: good news!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

A better day!

Phew, today things went like a charm! Daryle's fingerprints were in the mail, the medicals were ready and I got it all off in the overnight UPS mail and it should arrive to our agency by 10:30 in the morning. Yeah!! (I even refrained from making any snide comments to the girl in the front office, however, I did warn Travis before we went in that Mommy might get upset with a lady in there because yesterday she made me very mad. Thank goodness I didn't need to cause a scene!) My next stop was the bank. Just so you know, it is VERY hard for me to find "new" money. So, I have to make the teller look over each and every bill. The last time I got in "trouble" because the bills had fold marks in the middle....they looked great to me and we poured over each and every one that time too! I have half the money I need for our next trip. I will have to go back Thursday or Friday and see if they have more. If not then I will have to go around bank to bank and round up some serious cash! Let's hope I don't have to do too much of that. I finally feel like I can breath a sigh of relief. I am a bit concerned about our VISA's, but I am putting my faith on the line and praying that it is going on schedule. There really is not a way for me to check on that just yet.

Maybe tomorrow I will have news, if not tomorrow then Thursday for sure!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Feeling Stressed Out

Ok, this is one of "those" days where it is all catching up to me. I took a half day off of work to get our VISA's in order and now Travis is sick so we have a dr appointment in a little bit. We need our VISA's right away, so I had to pay extra for that but the good news is we got dual entry VISA's that are good for 90 days. That is a little cheaper than if we had to do single entry VISA's twice. We ended up using a different company than we used the last time, they are cheaper and much more accommodating. I will let you know what I think of them when we get everything back on time. Right now we are hoping and praying for court to be next week, Wed or Thurs.!!! That is why we need to get these VISA's done ASAP. Now we need to wait for the confirmation of the dates before we can schedule the plane tickets, we don't want to have to pay penalties for changing the dates. We could be leaving as early as Sunday, or maybe Monday, it depends on when court ends up being scheduled for. Of course, there is always a chance court will be the following week, whatever it is it will all work out in the end. It is so amazing to think we could be seeing and holding Connor again in just a week!! I wonder if he has more teeth, how much he has grown, and if he is doing anything new yet. I get so excited just thinking about seeing him again!

Let me vent about the VISA application for a minute. I feel like I might as well have sent a blood sample and a lock of my hair along with all of the other crazy things they wanted to know about us! Where did you go to college? What did you study? Who was your employer before the one you have now? Who was your supervisor of that job? What dates did you work there? Address? Phone number? What are your parent's full names? (I was shocked they didn't ask about siblings too!) What countries have you traveled to in the last 10 years? Have you had a Russian VISA before? Do you have special training in firearms? What??!!?? It took me some time to do this not once, but twice, one for me and one for Daryle. Not to mention we filled all of this out when we got our VISA's in March too. Sigh... well, it is done now and in the mail. At least I got to scan in our passport photos (yes, those are required for a VISA too) and I scanned in our passports so that she can get to work on that ASAP. Go, go Eva!!! I hope she pulls through for us!

Now let me vent and complain about our dr office for a minute. We have to have our medicals updated every three months, ours just expired this weekend. I gave our dr new forms to fill out LAST Tuesday, he was kind enough not to make us come in for an appointment, HOWEVER, when I went in there today the papers were still not done!!!!!!!! The cold-hearted receptionist told me they would be ready tomorrow. I calmly stared her down and told her we were going to Russia next week and that I NEEDED those papers TODAY. Well, she calmly stared back at me and told me no, they would be done tomorrow. She said they might be done tonight, but could make no promises. I asked her if she could PLEASE ask the dr and she denied me!!! I do believe in karma, she will get hers one of these days! I looked at her, I said, "Well then, I think you are going to make me cry." I put on my sunglasses, walked out the door, got in my car and burst into tears. It has been a really rough day. I am proud that I didn't have a total meltdown like I did when we had to go through this for Travis. By the time we needed one of these medicals towards the end of the process I thought I was going to go out of my mind! Anyway, we need to get these medicals so I can get them to Tuscon to be notarized, then sent back to Phoenix to be apostilled, back to Tuscon and to Moscow and all of this has to be done by next week .

Sorry for so much venting, if you have actually read this far I am sorry! I don't think I have done too much complaining on here, I saved it all up for today. The good news is we should know our court date tomorrow or Wednesday or maybe even Thursday. Bottom line is that by the end of the week we will know when we will see Connor again and when we will be having court. Thanks for the prayers and well wishes, we are really needing them!! And, if you are someone I see on a regular basis and I look a bit frazzled, well I am, but don't worry, it will pass! LOL

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day

I can hardly believe it was just one year ago that Daryle and I started telling people that we had decided to take a leap of faith and adopt another child. When we stop to reflect we realize that so much has happened and changed in the last year. We are so excited to have met our new son and we are even more thrilled to bring him home and start our life with him. We are pretty sure we will be having court this month, we will know for sure later this week. We probably will have short notice, so we are preparing to leave at a moment's notice. If things go as we hope we have a very good chance of having him home much earlier than we had originally been told. We also know how things in Russia can change so for now we are saying big prayers and keeping our fingers crossed that we get the news we are hoping to hear this week. We have decided to go ahead and send off for our VISA's tomorrow, it is all just so incredible and "crazy" as our adoption coordinator put it. I am a nervous wreck on the inside while trying to stay calm and cool on the outside. I have no idea how well I am accomplishing that! Well, I am off to enjoy Mother's Day, I am hoping to make it in for a pedicure later this afternoon. Pure bliss!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Nothing New

Just to let you know we haven't heard anything. Each morning I wake up and run to the computer searching for an e-mail. So far no luck! I know that Friday and Monday are holidays in Russia. (FYI May 9th is Victory Day, they celebrate this day as when they defeated Nazi Germany and they also remember those who died fighting in WWII. I have read it is the equivalent to our 4th of July and Memorial Day rolled into one.) So, if there is no news this week I guess we will hold out for next week. With the end of the school year quickly approaching things are getting hectic around here. When I do get the news I am waiting for I will post it as soon as I can, promise!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Crazy Week

Here it is, Friday once again! Boy, has this been a crazy week or what? This Swine Flu thing is wearing me out. I think one third of my class *thinks* they are sick, another third has been out sick with *something* and the other third is clueless about the whole thing. I had the kids thoroughly clean the classroom at the end of the day. Hopefully if there are any germs lurking they will all be gone by Monday morning.

We have had some crazy things happen with the adoption this week, but so far it seems to be crazy in a good way. That is, of course, if things end up happening the way they might. Sorry to be so vague, but I don't want to jinx myself as I have done in the past. We could just use some prayers that some paperwork comes through and we have some news by Tuesday. If that happens, then I will be screaming so loud you won't need to check my blog because you will be able to hear me!!
Last weekend Travis was quite a busy boy. Here are some pictures so you can see just exactly what he has been up to.
On Saturday Daryle took Travis to a Monster Truck show. They had a blast. Travis even got his picture taken with some of the drivers. These trucks are HUGE!


On Sunday we all went to the Diamondback's game. The kids got free webkinz, which are a big hit with Travis right now. He has never been into stuffed animals, but since he got his first webkin last September (thanks Grammy Kathy and Grandpa Robert!) he has really been getting into them. This week he even started lining up his webkinz and plays school with them! It really is quite cute. We took his friend Jessie with us (by the way, she just might be my future daugher in law, Travis and her have been friends since they were in pre-k 3! She is adorable and they are two peas in a pod. She doesn't put up with any of Travis' nonsense!). Here they are with their cute lil webkinz.


Last Sunday was also Humane Society Day or something to that effect. Of course, there was my son warming up to the cute puppies! Jessie liked them too. It is so funny how both of them pose for the camera the minute they see me taking it out of my purse!

This weekend won't be nearly as exciting. Check back next week, hopefully there will be some good and exciting news to report!