Venting

Edited: Well, this "new information" may need to be investigated a bit further. I will keep you posted!

Two days ago I received an e-mail about changes being made to the VISA's required for us to enter Russia. On this last trip we paid $250 a person for our 30 day VISA meaning we had a 30 day window in which we were allowed to be in Russia. That is a lot, but ok, not too bad. We knew we would have to do this two more times since we have to make three trips. When we brought Travis home we paid close to $900 total for our VISA's, they were called a dual entry VISA meaning we could enter the country twice within a 90 day period. Well, now there is no such thing as a dual entry VISA and the single entry VISA is now $390 a person!!!! AAAAHHHHH!$!$!$!$!$! I understand people may or may not understand what I am talking about here ....bottom line is, MORE MONEY of course!!! UGH!



(Anybody know somebody who would like to buy a cookbook???) ;-)

Happy Easter

I can hardly believe that tomorrow is already Easter! So far, 2009 has been flying by for us. I don't know where the first three months went to. Seriously, I blinked and they were gone.

Not much new here, just getting ready to color some Easter eggs. That is always lots of fun! The pack I got this year has "egg tattoos" in it, I thought Travis would get a kick out of that. I didn't even realize it, but Daryle got Diamondback's tickets for the game tomorrow afternoon. So, that is where the two of them will be. I am looking forward to a few hours to be by myself and get some things done around here.

Travis and I were off yesterday and I already started checking things off of my to-do list before we get Connor home. It has been 2 weeks now since we left him in Moscow, I hope and pray he is doing well. It is hard going through a holiday without your child, especially when you have already met them, held them and then had to leave them there! I didn't have to do this the last time, so this is uncharted territory for us. I do know in my heart that he is in a good place (of course not as good as in our arms!) and people are taking care of him. Just one more thing that is out of my control, all I can do is pray and hope for the best. Here's to next Easter when he will be HOME!

Happy Easter to all of you!

Back to the land of the living!!

Finally, I think I have returned to "normal", whatever that might be. I count this as a good day because I got the house cleaned, all laundry done and still had time to take Travis and his friend to the movies for his birthday as well as having my parents over for dinner tonight. The best part is I still have tomorrow to get more things done, mostly things for my class Thursday night. Things seem more calm and back to what we consider "normal". Here is what we have been up to for the past week.

Sunday started out celebrating Travis' 6th birthday. Can he really be getting older so quickly??

Here he is enjoying his new sleeping bag from Grammy and Grandpa.

Not sure if I mentioned it in my earlier post, but while we were away Travis got hit in the eye with a ball at school. Grandpa had to take him to the dr, here is what I came home to! Thank goodness it looks worse than it felt. Fortunately, this morning when I checked it the red is just about all gone now. However, I do have to say it did freak me out a bit when I first saw it after getting off the plane last week!

Here we all are after being away from Travis for a week. He is holding up 6 fingers to show how old he is now. Next year we will have Connor with us to celebrate too! We can't wait
On Friday Travis had his first school field trip. Even after having a week off, I was able to take off Friday to go with him. I felt like after being away from him for so long that I needed to take some time for him. We had so much fun. I took a picture of him by this cactus slide, I have NEVER seen that thing before!! I guess it has been there forever, but I found this area with wallabies and a few other things that were new to me. It was nice, it was like being at a whole new place!
Most of you who have known me for any length of time knows that I would never call myself an "animal lover". I didn't grow up with pets, the only reason we have a dog is because Daryle loves animals and I promised him we could get a pet when we got our first house. I love my dog, I just wish he didn't bark at every little sound! Animals in general are ok, but I prefer to observe them from afar and I rarely ever actually *gasp* TOUCH strange animals! LOL However, Travis is more like his father in that area. Travis LOVES animals. I knew he was going to want to go pet the goats, I cringed, but did it because he likes it and as a mom I need to let him do things like that. Our group was Travis and I and Travis' teacher and another little boy. Well, Travis and his teacher were all excited about the goats, the other boy and I stood back and tried not to let any goat get too near us. We waited patiently for them to finish and then the two of us couldn't get out of there fast enough! I had to chuckle to myself. Here is Travis with his new goat friend. (Actually, I think he had to pet every one of them before leaving the area!!)

Here is Travis touching the stingrays. Those were pretty cool. I was a good mommy and put my arm in there and let one of them swim by and touch me. I spent the rest of the time holding Travis by the back of the shirt making sure he didn't fall in the pool! I think if he could he would have loved to go swimming with them!

I think that about sums it up. Somewhere in there I got caught up on my sleep and I am hoping this next week goes smoothly. My class has testing this week, that can be a good thing but stressful too. Nothing new to report on the adoption, we had to send in a form this week but other than that we are waiting for our court date. We know that will be at least a month and we also know it won't be before June. I am so glad that we are so busy because it makes the time go by faster and I am not dwelling on the fact that Connor is not here with us yet. The wait for Travis was so much harder for me, this time seems so much easier. I think it helps that this time around I have Travis to hug and kiss as I think about what Connor is up to. Before we know it we will all be together, I can't wait for that day to come!

One trip down, two to go!

We made it home safe and sound, thank goodness!! Boy, is that ever a LONG trip! When we woke up at 6:30 on Saturday to begin our journey home, it was actually 8:30 Friday night at home, we got into Phoenix just after 8:00 on Saturday, that makes almost 24 hours of straight traveling. Too bad we were not able to sleep on the plane, oh well. I think I am doing pretty well, Daryle is having a harder time adjusting. Hopefully he will get better over the next day or two.

Travis is getting excited to be a "big brother", after all, he did turn 6 today! Sometimes I am not sure what is going on in his little brain, but then he does or says something that lets me know he really is excited about all of the commotion. His world is about to be turned upsidedown! That little Connor is as sweet as can be, we can't wait to get back over there and bring him home. He has the softest, roundest little head and the most beautiful blue eyes. (Actually, they are the exact same color as mine!) We have two more trips to make. One trip is for court, the next trip is to bring him home. Since in Moscow the children have to be at least 12 months old to be adopted, we can't have court until he turns one. His birthday is in June, so we will not have court before that date. Then we will wait out the 10+ days until we can go get him and bring him home forever! It was hard to leave him, but we were comforted knowing that he is in a good place with people who really seem to care. The one caregiver we did meet was a very smiley person and seemed to genuinely care about the babies. The orphanage was very bright, clean and has a lot of toys. He even gets "music" lessons!! He loves music, he will rock back and forth to it and then stop when the music stops. I asked if the children heard music and was told about the music lessons. I was impressed with some of the things they do there, so much different from our past experience. You can tell by the way Connor acts that they really do try to give them some good experiences. Although I am sure he has some developmental delays, I really don't think there is much. We will keep our fingers crossed that he continues to do well in our absence. He is going to fit in well with our family!!

Of course, life went on around here while we were gone. Travis and Grandpa did a good job around here, there was a lot going on! Travis started playing t-ball, and Grandpa even got to take Travis to the doctor because he got hit in the eye from a ball on the playground at school!! I guess it was some type of rubber ball. The white of his eye has a big red spot and now he has eye drops. I guess we are pretty lucky that it wasn't worse! Grandpa handled it all like a pro!! It was so nice to come home to a tidy house and all of Travis' laundry was done too! Of course, Grammy and Grandpa kept in close touch too all week, they had a pretty good system worked out. Thank goodness for grandparents!!!!! We love you guys! We have never left Travis for so long, it was nice being able to leave knowing he was in very good hands!

I am exhausted! I can't post any pictures of Connor, I am so sorry, but it is one of the rules we must follow. As soon as we go to court and bring him home you can bet I will have tons to put on here. Later in the week I will try to post some pictures of Moscow. We had such a wonderful experience, many memories for sure!

Update from Russia

Hello from cold, snowy Moscow! It has been snowing all day and they expect to get more tonight. We saw some GIANT snowflakes this morning, we took some pictures and video of it coming down! Daryle and I are so excited, although I think the Russians are ready for some spring! We saw the baby again today and officially opened the procedures to adopt him. He is for sure the "missing" member of our family! I have to chuckle to myself, because he has "my blue eyes" and fair skin, I kid you not! You have all seen Travis, so you know what I am talking about here. He is so cute and sweet, he is active, a lot like Travis. I think Travis has met a good match, hopefully they can wear eachother out and let Daryle and I rest! Hahaha!! We were allowed a 2 hour visit, but after about 1 1/2 hours he was getting sleepy, so our translator went to get somebody to get him. Well, in those few minutes he fell asleep on my shoulder!!! It was wonderful!! Daryle said, "He is drooling on you." I said, "That is great, I am his mom and that is what we are for!!" He just smiled and laughed! It is only fair, afterall, Travis fell asleep on Daryle first in Blago! The only thing is that the baby has a red birthmark over his left eye. I guess it has faded since birth and will either fade away all together or as he grows it will move up his head and be covered by his hair. His medical is fabulous, no problems at all, only this mark which is nothing at all. Our dr in Memphis that led us to Travis reviewed his medical and pictures and said "his medical looks great, no red flags if you have further question let me know." Well, that is exactly what she said about Travis when we met with her! We have had many great signs like this the whole time we have been here. This is our son, and we have decided to name him Connor. He is a Connor for sure with those big blue eyes!! We have been having a great experience here in Moscow, we are getting a true feeling of how people in Moscow live. We feel like we are making some very good friends whom we will keep in touch with. Most of them have children our age, it is interesting how many of them have left Russia for the US, Canada or even Italy. Out of 6 kids, only 2 are still here in Moscow and they are single women. They may leave just yet! It is so interestiing hearing these people's stories.Ok, I had better get going, it is getting late.

Hello from Russia

Hello!! Ok, I finally got access to the internet, Svetlana's neighbor has the internet, they are so kind to let me use it for a bit on their laptop. They have a 6 year old boy, he said "Hello", I guess one of the English words he knows!! I think Travis would like to play with him. Anyway, our flights were smooth sailing, we even landed in Moscow 30 minutes early. Our driver was there and he took us to Svetlana's flat. She is wonderful, so warm and welcoming. You should see the tiny elevator we took to get to the sixth floor, I am not kidding when I say it is the size of a phone booth!! Anyway, we got off the elevator and there she was with her door wide open and giving us hugs and welcoming us into her home. It was like we were already members of the family! I took pictures of her place, it is tiny but sufficient. No family room like we are used to, but I guess that is what our room would be if she didn't reserve it for guests. We already have stories about her, she is a lot of fun. We are even enjoying her cooking, although she feeds us way too much food! We laugh about it!! Since our appointment is not officially until Tuesday our coodinator was not able to get us in today like she had hoped to. So, we sat around waiting for her, sleeping, and reading wishing I had a computer!! Svetlana got home around 3:30 and showed me a little store and she showed me where we could go walking to the "mall", it was a lot like the one in Blago, only busier and maybe bigger. That is where I saw the apple computer store and I got on the internet and sent out a quick message that we were ok.

Tonight our coodinator came to meet us. We really like her a lot. She explained some things to us about the baby and about Dr.B. We are hoping and praying that it goes well with her tomorrow. She definately has an opinion about her, but she is also ok with us sending things to our doctor in TN. After our visit she will let us forward the medical information and a picture to her so that we can get her opinion on him. Our coodinator spent an hour with him today and she just really likes him, she has a good feeling, she doesnt' know why. We totally get that! Of course we are proceeding with cautioin, but the birth mother's birthday is the same day as Daryle's....hmmm. Anyway, we feel like we are in very good hands here, don't worry about us at all. I don't know when I will get back to a computer, I don't know if they will let us do this every day, they are busy people! We are going to try and get a calling card tomorrow, but we may be busy visiting the baby etc. We will do our best. Well, think that is about all for now.

Tell Travis they have lots of McDonald's here and we saw an IKEA store right by the airport!! We took pictures to show you too. It is cold here, but very nice inside. We really enjoyed our walk in the cold earlier, my cheeks and nose got cold and there were some tiny snow flurries.

Thanks for all the prayers, we go to the ministry of education at 10 tomorrow and we will meet with the baby around noon after his nap.

Ok, I had better get going.

Much love,Lisa and Daryle

12 1/2 more hours...

We are on the final stretch now, only 12 1/2 hours until we are on the plane to Atlanta and then off to Russia! Thanks so much for all the prayers and well wishes, we will update when we can.

Das fidanyeh!!

(I figure I had better start brushing up on some Russian before I get there!!)