What an angel my caseworker is. She answers the same questions over and over. I called her today to ask what exactly we are waiting on. She said that our letter still hasnt arrived from Moscow and that they may wait to send them in a bulk shipment to the region. There were lots of families who traveled around the same time as us. She said that the coordinator has already translated our documents and when they get the letters things move pretty quickly. Unfortunately everyone is shutting down next week.
Jason and I spent the weekend downtown shopping for Christmas. It was great! I miss the city. Sorry Mom, but one day I would love to move back down there. We were able to meet up with Sandra 2 for breakfast. :) We traveled with her to Russia on Trip 1. Its a great kinship now, makes me feel closer to Maks just seeing her! :) I think all of the families waiting feel exactly the same, anxious and impatient.
We got our crib from Buy Buy Baby yesterday. Our chair is in at Little Deb N Heir and now we're just waiting for the dresser. We put the crib together and put the sheets/bumper/blanket on it. The room is starting to look more and more ready.
We're leaving for Florida soon so I probably won't post any more updates until January. Lets hope that we get some GREAT news in mid-January!!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Other Families
We received word that the 2 families who had court on Monday both passed. One family even had the 10 day waiting period waived! That is fabulous for them! They will be arriving home on Christmas day. I'm not sure what they did to have the waiting period waived. I'll need to ask when they get home, that would be a dream come true!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Waiting Until the New Year
One of the families traveling this month was kind enough to take our note and bottle of lotion to Maks. It makes me feel better that they will be there in his baby home. I wish they could see him and give him a hug for us. Or send me pictures so I could see if he's changed much in the past month.
The Russian court system is about to shut down for the year again. They won't open back up until January 15th or something like that. So the earliest we will travel is February. Maks will be almost 21 months by then. I'm so sad that I could miss that much time with him!
On another note, I accepted a new job. Its still with the same bank but I'll be working in a different line of business. It will still give me a good challenge, but provide more flexibility in my schedule. I was reading that parenting book again last night. (I think I should stop) and I got to the section that gives advice on working parents after an adoption. They basically said that you should do whatever it takes to have one parent stay home with the child for a year or two. She said, take out a 2nd mortgage, get a family loan, but try to stay home. Apparently day care is a bad thing (too similar to orphanage life), family care is a bad thing (bonding with someone other than you) and multiple care givers is a bad thing (obvious bonding issues). So Mom, you need to give me a loan. :) Just kidding.
All you can do is live your life and hope for the best!
The Russian court system is about to shut down for the year again. They won't open back up until January 15th or something like that. So the earliest we will travel is February. Maks will be almost 21 months by then. I'm so sad that I could miss that much time with him!
On another note, I accepted a new job. Its still with the same bank but I'll be working in a different line of business. It will still give me a good challenge, but provide more flexibility in my schedule. I was reading that parenting book again last night. (I think I should stop) and I got to the section that gives advice on working parents after an adoption. They basically said that you should do whatever it takes to have one parent stay home with the child for a year or two. She said, take out a 2nd mortgage, get a family loan, but try to stay home. Apparently day care is a bad thing (too similar to orphanage life), family care is a bad thing (bonding with someone other than you) and multiple care givers is a bad thing (obvious bonding issues). So Mom, you need to give me a loan. :) Just kidding.
All you can do is live your life and hope for the best!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Updates
Four families got court dates in Kemerovo for December. I'm not sure if they were families that traveled right before us or not. I talked to our caseworker this week and apparently all we're waiting on is the letter from Moscow to the region. They can't set up the court dates until they get that letter. Apparently that takes between 2 weeks and 2 months.
We got some baby lotion for Maks and are sending it to the orphanage. The lady who is helping us learn Russian translated a note for us to the Orphanage director. Mak's poor little legs were so dry, I don't want him to go through this winter like that. Hopefully they'll get the letter and lotion in a few days. Sending stuff to Russia is super expensive! It cost us $160 to Fed Ex our documents.
Hopefully we get some great news soon!
We got some baby lotion for Maks and are sending it to the orphanage. The lady who is helping us learn Russian translated a note for us to the Orphanage director. Mak's poor little legs were so dry, I don't want him to go through this winter like that. Hopefully they'll get the letter and lotion in a few days. Sending stuff to Russia is super expensive! It cost us $160 to Fed Ex our documents.
Hopefully we get some great news soon!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Back to Waiting
Jason and I worked very hard to get as much paperwork done as humanly possible before we left for our Court Dossier. When you adopt from Russia you have to submit two sets of documents, one before you receive a referral and one after you meet the child referred to you. All we had to do when we got home was to pick up our blood tests, copy all of the paperwork, have it apostilled and drop it off. I think everything has been sent off to Russia. That is great news!
So now all we can do is wait some more... We were told it could be between 3 and 6 months before we get to go back. Now that we've met him and know his little personality and sizes, I've started to buy him some clothes. I bought his first pair of little pajamas today. I think I'll keep them forever. When he's 20 I'll be showing his dates his first pair of pajamas. Mom came up and we went to get a rocking chair at Little Deb N Heir in Naperville. We'll start getting his furniture soon too. Can't wait to see what it will all look like together!
I'll let you know as soon as we get any more information!
So now all we can do is wait some more... We were told it could be between 3 and 6 months before we get to go back. Now that we've met him and know his little personality and sizes, I've started to buy him some clothes. I bought his first pair of little pajamas today. I think I'll keep them forever. When he's 20 I'll be showing his dates his first pair of pajamas. Mom came up and we went to get a rocking chair at Little Deb N Heir in Naperville. We'll start getting his furniture soon too. Can't wait to see what it will all look like together!
I'll let you know as soon as we get any more information!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Day 5 (Nov 18)-The Longest Day Ever
We got up at 4:00am to get ready and met Aloyna and Alexei downstairs at 5:30am to head to the Novokuznetsk airport. This airport was nicer than the Kemerovo airport, it had just been renovated. Aloyna could not come with us past security so she gave us direction to get up and follow the crowd once they started moving toward the door. Really no one spoke English in this airport. Luckily there was only 1 flight at that time so we didn't have any trouble.
We were again taken by bus to the plane out on the runway. So surreal to board a plane on what I would say was an ice-field (ok that might be a little bit of an exaggeration) in the dark (it didn't get light outside until 9am in Sibera) at 9 degrees below zero. This flight was on time and we got into Moscow with no problem (5 hour flight).
Our flight was delayed in Moscow to Washington DC causing us to miss our DC to Chicago connection. It was ok though, this was our first delay and it was only a 3 hour delay. This time in the Domodedovo airport we were in gate area A and there were a bunch of cafes. We found a Sbarro, PIZZA! and ate before heading through security.
Our flight home was fine and we were able to sleep for a few hours. Got into DC, caught the 7:30pm flight and landed around 8:15pm CST. We said good-bye to Sandra and Sandra and headed out to meet my Mom & Dad for the ride home. We finally walked in our door roughly 31 hours after we left Novokuznetsk.
What an adventure. I will post pictures soon!
Now we need your prayers that our return is quick and we can bring Maks home where he belongs.
We were again taken by bus to the plane out on the runway. So surreal to board a plane on what I would say was an ice-field (ok that might be a little bit of an exaggeration) in the dark (it didn't get light outside until 9am in Sibera) at 9 degrees below zero. This flight was on time and we got into Moscow with no problem (5 hour flight).
Our flight was delayed in Moscow to Washington DC causing us to miss our DC to Chicago connection. It was ok though, this was our first delay and it was only a 3 hour delay. This time in the Domodedovo airport we were in gate area A and there were a bunch of cafes. We found a Sbarro, PIZZA! and ate before heading through security.
Our flight home was fine and we were able to sleep for a few hours. Got into DC, caught the 7:30pm flight and landed around 8:15pm CST. We said good-bye to Sandra and Sandra and headed out to meet my Mom & Dad for the ride home. We finally walked in our door roughly 31 hours after we left Novokuznetsk.
What an adventure. I will post pictures soon!
Now we need your prayers that our return is quick and we can bring Maks home where he belongs.
Day 4 (Nov 17)- Seeing Maks Again!
Jason and I both woke up around 4:00am on Tuesday. Our bodies were still a bit off from the travel. We met Sandra & Sandra at the restaurant for breakfast after trying to get on to our computer in the computer room. If you are traveling soon, don't bother with your computer. Just use theirs. The keyboard is in Russian but it does have English letters on it too. I didn't think about this but they have to have English letters because the Internet is all in English (Aloyna told us this). They can get on to Russian sites but still have to enter the web addresses in English.
The food is very different in Russia. Not bad, just different. The best food advice we received was to bring protein bars and other quick things to take with you. I don't think any of the Russian people we were with ate lunch. We didn't ever stop for food, so bring lots of protein bars, granola bars, cereal bars, snack packs, etc! We had a little breakfast and then met Alonya at 8:40am. She and Alexei our driver, took us back to Prokopyevsk to the Baby House again. We saw Dr. Ludmilla again and asked her any extra questions we had after meeting the children. Dr. Ludmilla is a wonderful lady, so caring and obviously connected to the children. By the way, Victoria was adorable too! She was a little blonde girl with the cutest pig-tails and sweetest face.
The caretakers brought Maks and Victoria in again. He was wearing the same little outfit as the day before and still looked adorable in it! It was a happiness I have never felt to see his face again. Like going home after you haven't been there in a really long time.
We went back into one of the playrooms and spent 2 hours with Maks. Boy does he like his Daddy. Jason is like a big toy that can throw him and run with him, and make him fly around the room. Maks overall was a really quiet little man, but we got a few sounds out of him that day. As Jason says, they were priceless. I love his little giggles. We took Maks some goldfish crackers on Day 1 and some Fruit Loops on Day 2. He loves to eat!! Really the entire time he spent eating (thank you Sandra for bringing those cookies!) and falling down. His walking is still a little unstable. :)
The 2 hours were up SO fast. We didn't get a lot of warning that it was time to leave and the caretaker came to get him. We were not ready to go. It was heart-breaking to hand him over knowing we wouldn't see him again for a few months. I think heart-breaking is too weak of a word.
We met Dr. Ludmilla again and signed the papers that we wanted to proceed with the adoption.
When we left the orphanage Aloyna took us to a small souvenir shop. They had the cutest little Russian nesting dolls or Matryoshka dolls as they are called.
We went back to the hotel and asked Aloyna to take us to another cafe nearby. We found another Russian restaurant to try. They had an English menu and we were able to order some chicken wings, potato pancakes, bellinis (russian pancakes) filled with Chicken & Mushrooms and french fries. So healthy, I know.
We headed back to the hotel and started packing for the long trip home.
The food is very different in Russia. Not bad, just different. The best food advice we received was to bring protein bars and other quick things to take with you. I don't think any of the Russian people we were with ate lunch. We didn't ever stop for food, so bring lots of protein bars, granola bars, cereal bars, snack packs, etc! We had a little breakfast and then met Alonya at 8:40am. She and Alexei our driver, took us back to Prokopyevsk to the Baby House again. We saw Dr. Ludmilla again and asked her any extra questions we had after meeting the children. Dr. Ludmilla is a wonderful lady, so caring and obviously connected to the children. By the way, Victoria was adorable too! She was a little blonde girl with the cutest pig-tails and sweetest face.
The caretakers brought Maks and Victoria in again. He was wearing the same little outfit as the day before and still looked adorable in it! It was a happiness I have never felt to see his face again. Like going home after you haven't been there in a really long time.
We went back into one of the playrooms and spent 2 hours with Maks. Boy does he like his Daddy. Jason is like a big toy that can throw him and run with him, and make him fly around the room. Maks overall was a really quiet little man, but we got a few sounds out of him that day. As Jason says, they were priceless. I love his little giggles. We took Maks some goldfish crackers on Day 1 and some Fruit Loops on Day 2. He loves to eat!! Really the entire time he spent eating (thank you Sandra for bringing those cookies!) and falling down. His walking is still a little unstable. :)
The 2 hours were up SO fast. We didn't get a lot of warning that it was time to leave and the caretaker came to get him. We were not ready to go. It was heart-breaking to hand him over knowing we wouldn't see him again for a few months. I think heart-breaking is too weak of a word.
We met Dr. Ludmilla again and signed the papers that we wanted to proceed with the adoption.
When we left the orphanage Aloyna took us to a small souvenir shop. They had the cutest little Russian nesting dolls or Matryoshka dolls as they are called.
We went back to the hotel and asked Aloyna to take us to another cafe nearby. We found another Russian restaurant to try. They had an English menu and we were able to order some chicken wings, potato pancakes, bellinis (russian pancakes) filled with Chicken & Mushrooms and french fries. So healthy, I know.
We headed back to the hotel and started packing for the long trip home.
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