So I am happy to announce that we have a court date. It is Tuesday, March 20th. I am excited that we have this date but a little disappointed that it's still a month away. We were told in Russia that we would be back in 15 - 20 days. Not the case but I will hang in there. So this will be our Trip # 2 itinerary:
*Saturday, March 17th = leave for Russia
*Sunday, March 18th = land in Moscow around 11am, get picked up and taken to the domestic airport for a flight to Orenburg that leaves at 8:30pm
*Monday, March 19th = somehow visit BOTH orphanages to visit the kids which is required by court.
*Tuesday, March 20th = GOTCHA DAY! This is an adoption term used to signify the official day the kids become ours. We will celebrate this in the future.
*Wednesday, March 21st = run around Orenburg getting passport photos and other paperwork that needs to be done.
*Thursday, March 22nd = get up at 3am so we can be at the airport to fly back to Moscow on a 7am flight. Once we are in Moscow again, we will get the kids' medical visits done. These are needed for their visas.
*Friday, March 23rd = Embassy visit and interview with the children. They will get their visas (which will make them US citizens the minute they touch American soil), and anything else that we need to fill out.
*Saturday, March 24th = coming HOME! This is when we will begin our "flight from hell" as we have been told! It will be a long 24+ hours of flying trying to entertain two 10 month olds. All worth it in the end!
*Sunday, March 25th = Our Forever Family begins in our very own home (with 2 tired parents)!
I called today and the kids already have an appointment with their International Adoption(IA) doctor out in Long Beach. He is going to evaluate them and check to see where they are health wise as well as developmentally. Kyle is going to need some help catching up. Brooke, well she'll probably be running the household once she's home. We'll just have to see. I'd rather be proactive than reactive when it comes to this. Must be the educator in me!
Hope everyone is doing well.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Today is our travel day and just like the other days, i'm up at around 3am again. This is not that bad, hoping it will help me sleep on the plane. The first leg of our trip is about 9 hours or so. Could be longer if we hit a head wind. We were able to get a connecting flight at JFK to get us home tonight instead of overnighting in New York. We would just like to get home and sleep in our own bed.
Again we have to wait for everyone else to get up just to get some coffee. You gotta love staying in an American type hotel. They have coffee and it's STRONG...just like we like it. We decide to get ready early and head to the restaurant and have breakfast. It's a breakfast buffet and it great. I eat tons thinking it will be our last "normal" meal for quite some time.
We arranged with Ilya before we left him for a driver to pick us up at our hotel and take us to the airport. Taxis there are outrageous...like $100 plus to the airport. We got this guy for a little under $40. I felt pretty good about that. He was ontime and we got to the airport around 10am. Made it through all the security without any problems. We did have to pay extra for one of our suitcases. Oh well. We were just glad to be heading home.
The flight from Moscow to JFK wasn't so bad. Slept most of the way. I had started to feel pretty crappy in the airport and thought I was starting to get sick. Well, halfway through the flight, I was feeling like crap. My sinuses, throat and ears were killing me. Nothing like getting sick! The flight was very uneventful, just how I like em!
We get into JFK and we get through customs pretty easily. We now have to go get our bags and recheck them in. I think I said this before in an earlier post, but i just can't stand the people working in the airport. I guess I should clarify this. The people who are in security and with bags. They are all just so rude. I realize they have to deal with stupid people all day long but you're in a customer service oriented job. Could you please be a little nicer!!! There, my rant is over!
We now have to find our other gate for LAX. We see a Starbucks and decide we need one. It's pricer than normal but well worth it. We find our gate and sit for the next few hours. You can tell we are back in the States. The nice thing is is that we don't have to smell cigarrete smoke 24/7. Our jackets smell like it from being in the Moscow airport. Our flight finally arrives and we get boarded. There is NO way we are leaving ontime. Steve was able to get us emergency exits again for both flights. On this one though it's weird. It's one of those planes where when you get in, you take a left for 1st class and then BAM, our seats are right there. Oh well. I am asleep before the plane takes off. I don't even remember taking off. This is a good sign. I am hoping to sleep thorugh the entire flight. I wake up in time for the in flight snack and figure out that I have a TV screen that flips up from my seat. I watch it for awhile thinking we must be getting close. I ask Steve what time it is and he says it's only 8pm. YIKES! This means we have TWO more hours. I feel like I am going to have a complete melt down! Just get me off this plane. It was freezing in there and the toilet was darn near close to overflowing! Lucky us, we were right next to it.
We finally land at 10:10pm. We grab our bags and head for the hotel shuttle. We'd left our car at the hotel. That was really nice. The shuttle came, picked us up and we were off to the car. What a painless chore. Threw the bags in the car and we were on our way. My stomach was growling so we stopped for food at midnight. You guessed it, McDonald's drive through, open 24/7. Gobble down some dinner and head for home. We are excited to see the fur animals!
We get home and our course are not really tired. We end up staying up until 2am. I figure I should go to bed so to not screw up my times any more. Slept like a baby! Good thing there is no work tomorrow. We can get caught up on laundry, and get things together for the work week. My mom and aunt are coming to town on Wednesday because my friends are throwing me a shower this Sunday. Most of this is just so weird and surreal to me. We've talked about this for so long now, it's just weird that it's coming true. I know that may not make sense but it's weird. Just imagine once the kids are home!
So, goodbye for now. I will update the second we get a court date. I just might even update before that with more pictures.
Again we have to wait for everyone else to get up just to get some coffee. You gotta love staying in an American type hotel. They have coffee and it's STRONG...just like we like it. We decide to get ready early and head to the restaurant and have breakfast. It's a breakfast buffet and it great. I eat tons thinking it will be our last "normal" meal for quite some time.
We arranged with Ilya before we left him for a driver to pick us up at our hotel and take us to the airport. Taxis there are outrageous...like $100 plus to the airport. We got this guy for a little under $40. I felt pretty good about that. He was ontime and we got to the airport around 10am. Made it through all the security without any problems. We did have to pay extra for one of our suitcases. Oh well. We were just glad to be heading home.
The flight from Moscow to JFK wasn't so bad. Slept most of the way. I had started to feel pretty crappy in the airport and thought I was starting to get sick. Well, halfway through the flight, I was feeling like crap. My sinuses, throat and ears were killing me. Nothing like getting sick! The flight was very uneventful, just how I like em!
We get into JFK and we get through customs pretty easily. We now have to go get our bags and recheck them in. I think I said this before in an earlier post, but i just can't stand the people working in the airport. I guess I should clarify this. The people who are in security and with bags. They are all just so rude. I realize they have to deal with stupid people all day long but you're in a customer service oriented job. Could you please be a little nicer!!! There, my rant is over!
We now have to find our other gate for LAX. We see a Starbucks and decide we need one. It's pricer than normal but well worth it. We find our gate and sit for the next few hours. You can tell we are back in the States. The nice thing is is that we don't have to smell cigarrete smoke 24/7. Our jackets smell like it from being in the Moscow airport. Our flight finally arrives and we get boarded. There is NO way we are leaving ontime. Steve was able to get us emergency exits again for both flights. On this one though it's weird. It's one of those planes where when you get in, you take a left for 1st class and then BAM, our seats are right there. Oh well. I am asleep before the plane takes off. I don't even remember taking off. This is a good sign. I am hoping to sleep thorugh the entire flight. I wake up in time for the in flight snack and figure out that I have a TV screen that flips up from my seat. I watch it for awhile thinking we must be getting close. I ask Steve what time it is and he says it's only 8pm. YIKES! This means we have TWO more hours. I feel like I am going to have a complete melt down! Just get me off this plane. It was freezing in there and the toilet was darn near close to overflowing! Lucky us, we were right next to it.
We finally land at 10:10pm. We grab our bags and head for the hotel shuttle. We'd left our car at the hotel. That was really nice. The shuttle came, picked us up and we were off to the car. What a painless chore. Threw the bags in the car and we were on our way. My stomach was growling so we stopped for food at midnight. You guessed it, McDonald's drive through, open 24/7. Gobble down some dinner and head for home. We are excited to see the fur animals!
We get home and our course are not really tired. We end up staying up until 2am. I figure I should go to bed so to not screw up my times any more. Slept like a baby! Good thing there is no work tomorrow. We can get caught up on laundry, and get things together for the work week. My mom and aunt are coming to town on Wednesday because my friends are throwing me a shower this Sunday. Most of this is just so weird and surreal to me. We've talked about this for so long now, it's just weird that it's coming true. I know that may not make sense but it's weird. Just imagine once the kids are home!
So, goodbye for now. I will update the second we get a court date. I just might even update before that with more pictures.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Well, today was another early morning. Woke around a little before 3am and couldn't go back to sleep. I woke up and my mind started to race about our little man. Our IA doctor had told us that she was placing him in an extreme category. I had gotten on the internet to talk to some others who had adopted from Russia to ask about their little ones and what they were like. Our little man was just like theirs. This put my mind at ease to know that once we get him home, he is going to be fine. Alol of this is a leaf of faith I know, but you can't help but worry. Just can't wait to get both of them home.
We hung out awhile in the room seeing as it was so early. Couldn't even order room service coffee as they didn't open until 6am. We were going to wander out again today and go to the Kremlin and Old Arbat street. After we got our coffee down, I asked the hotel how much it would be for them to drop us off at Arbat street. It is snowing today and cold again. I figure if we could get a ride one way it wouldn't be so bad. We decided to have them do it. We walked down Arbat street and found a Hard Rock Cafe. We decided to eat lunch there. I know that seems sort of boring but wandering into a Russian restaurant is sort of freaky especially when you can't make out anything on the menu. We got a typical american meal and headed back out into the snow. We found a souvenir shop and got a "troika" doll for Brooke. It is painted and tells a fairly tale on each of the dolls. for those who don't know what the doll is, it's a wooden doll that has many dolls inside. It's wooden and hand painted. I paid through the nose but I think it was worth it. We also got this hand painted wooden egg that has St. Basil's cathedral painted on it. We decided to put it in the china hutch to remind us of where they came from. We had a really great time wandering down Arbat street. I was really impressed at how well we were doing in the snow and cold. We were all bundled up and at times were actually hot! Can you believe that?
From there, we decided to walk over to the Kremlin. At the last minute, we decided to not go in but to walk around the outside. I know, you go that far to not go in. We were getting tired and we still had to walk back to the hotel which was probably about a mile or so walk. Mind you it has been snowing the entire time we have been walking and I was tired of slipping and sliding.
We got back to the hotel and decided to start packing up our stuff. We are leaving tomorrow and want to try and condense some of our stuff so we don't have so much to lug around. Boy have we learned our lesson. We are definitely going to pack less crap next time. Being in the same clothes for 5 days really shows you how many clothes you don't need to bring.
We decide to call it a night at around 10pm. I have been trying to push myself to stay awake hoping it will help me sleep through the night. So far, it hasn't been working. Delayed jet lag.
Tomorrow we come home. Not looking forward to the flight....
We hung out awhile in the room seeing as it was so early. Couldn't even order room service coffee as they didn't open until 6am. We were going to wander out again today and go to the Kremlin and Old Arbat street. After we got our coffee down, I asked the hotel how much it would be for them to drop us off at Arbat street. It is snowing today and cold again. I figure if we could get a ride one way it wouldn't be so bad. We decided to have them do it. We walked down Arbat street and found a Hard Rock Cafe. We decided to eat lunch there. I know that seems sort of boring but wandering into a Russian restaurant is sort of freaky especially when you can't make out anything on the menu. We got a typical american meal and headed back out into the snow. We found a souvenir shop and got a "troika" doll for Brooke. It is painted and tells a fairly tale on each of the dolls. for those who don't know what the doll is, it's a wooden doll that has many dolls inside. It's wooden and hand painted. I paid through the nose but I think it was worth it. We also got this hand painted wooden egg that has St. Basil's cathedral painted on it. We decided to put it in the china hutch to remind us of where they came from. We had a really great time wandering down Arbat street. I was really impressed at how well we were doing in the snow and cold. We were all bundled up and at times were actually hot! Can you believe that?
From there, we decided to walk over to the Kremlin. At the last minute, we decided to not go in but to walk around the outside. I know, you go that far to not go in. We were getting tired and we still had to walk back to the hotel which was probably about a mile or so walk. Mind you it has been snowing the entire time we have been walking and I was tired of slipping and sliding.
We got back to the hotel and decided to start packing up our stuff. We are leaving tomorrow and want to try and condense some of our stuff so we don't have so much to lug around. Boy have we learned our lesson. We are definitely going to pack less crap next time. Being in the same clothes for 5 days really shows you how many clothes you don't need to bring.
We decide to call it a night at around 10pm. I have been trying to push myself to stay awake hoping it will help me sleep through the night. So far, it hasn't been working. Delayed jet lag.
Tomorrow we come home. Not looking forward to the flight....
Friday, February 9, 2006
OK, the jet lag thing has to go. I woke up this morning at 4:30am and couldn't go back to sleep. Steve of course is out like a light and again, snoring like crazy. I decide to get on the computer and again, update this blog.
We hang around the room for awhile and decide to head out a little later. We got online and saw that the weather for the day is supposed to be -8 F. OK, that's now not celcius! hello! We grab some breakfast in the lobby, get about 10 layers of clothes on and walk down to Red Square. It's not so bad. We walk by a sign that states it's only -11 C. Not as cold as we thought. It's about a mile walk down to Red Square. We are pretty dry and warm as we walk. Moscow has some crazy streets and people just don't cross them so they have undergroud walkways. They are heated so it gives a chance to get some warmth as we walk.
We get down to Red Square and there are some vendors with tables selling stuff. I had told Steve long before we came that he had to get one of those big black fluffy hats. We find a guy selling them and I have Steve try one on. I want him to try this other one and the guys says to me in English, "um, excuse me ma'am, but that is a woman's hat." At this point, I am laughing my ass off. Steve of course just gives me another one of "those looks" but the guy goes back and we find a hat that fits him. He soooo doesn't want me to post this picture. He says it's too big meaning too tall. I have pointed out many other large hats like that. I have to tell you, fur is VERY popular here. All the woman are walking around in full length fur coats and hats. They are very stylish here. Boots are really popular too.
I had read that woman are pretty dressed up but I am impressed especially since it's as cold as it is and to have high heel fashion boots on.
We walk around Red Square and pay our 200 rubles to walk through St. Basil's Cathedral. We come out of there and I tell Steve that I think the building across the street is the GUM. I knew it was shopping but get out of town (salga de la cuidad!). It's the rodeo drive of Moscow. VERY expensive shopping. I walked into a kids store hoping to find some warm clothes and found a little jacket for $160. I turned to Steve and asked where Target was! This place is huge. 3 stories high and 3 isles wide of high priced clothing and other stuff. I walked into a fur shop and was going to just try on a fur coat. Expensive. Tried on a shawl and asked Steve how much 27,000 rubles was. He said about 1000K. I quickly put it down!
We decided it was time to leave and get some lunch. We were both looking for a bathroom and couldn't find one. On our way out, I see the sign. No problem. We have to pay. We get our 16 rubles paid and go in. In the ladies room, you grab the TP before you go into the stall. I am all bundled up and walk into the stall. It's a hole in the ground that flushes. Here is a picture.
This is sort of like peeing in the woods but it won't get on your shoes. well, i guess if you're careful it won't. Kim, do you remember the time in Italy with one of these things and you pee'd on yourself? I must be getting punchy again.
OK, so we start to walk back to find something to eat and decide to walk into the gated part of the Kremlin. We are just in time to watch the changing of the guards in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It's pretty cool. It is starting to snow but it feels as if it has warmed up a bit. We head to Sbarro to get some pizza for lunch. After lunch we head back to the hotel. It is now really snowing and a little windy. I am glad when we get back to the room. I am able to get the kids' medical info typed up and sent off to the doctor and I also slip in a nap. Tomorrow is our last day in Moscow for hopefully another month. I am really missing the kids and just want to take them home with us. It has been a long road here and I just would really like to sprint to the finish line. In all good time. Hopefully the next month will go by quickly.
Here are some photos of Red Square and the GUM:
We hang around the room for awhile and decide to head out a little later. We got online and saw that the weather for the day is supposed to be -8 F. OK, that's now not celcius! hello! We grab some breakfast in the lobby, get about 10 layers of clothes on and walk down to Red Square. It's not so bad. We walk by a sign that states it's only -11 C. Not as cold as we thought. It's about a mile walk down to Red Square. We are pretty dry and warm as we walk. Moscow has some crazy streets and people just don't cross them so they have undergroud walkways. They are heated so it gives a chance to get some warmth as we walk.
We get down to Red Square and there are some vendors with tables selling stuff. I had told Steve long before we came that he had to get one of those big black fluffy hats. We find a guy selling them and I have Steve try one on. I want him to try this other one and the guys says to me in English, "um, excuse me ma'am, but that is a woman's hat." At this point, I am laughing my ass off. Steve of course just gives me another one of "those looks" but the guy goes back and we find a hat that fits him. He soooo doesn't want me to post this picture. He says it's too big meaning too tall. I have pointed out many other large hats like that. I have to tell you, fur is VERY popular here. All the woman are walking around in full length fur coats and hats. They are very stylish here. Boots are really popular too.
I had read that woman are pretty dressed up but I am impressed especially since it's as cold as it is and to have high heel fashion boots on.
We walk around Red Square and pay our 200 rubles to walk through St. Basil's Cathedral. We come out of there and I tell Steve that I think the building across the street is the GUM. I knew it was shopping but get out of town (salga de la cuidad!). It's the rodeo drive of Moscow. VERY expensive shopping. I walked into a kids store hoping to find some warm clothes and found a little jacket for $160. I turned to Steve and asked where Target was! This place is huge. 3 stories high and 3 isles wide of high priced clothing and other stuff. I walked into a fur shop and was going to just try on a fur coat. Expensive. Tried on a shawl and asked Steve how much 27,000 rubles was. He said about 1000K. I quickly put it down!
We decided it was time to leave and get some lunch. We were both looking for a bathroom and couldn't find one. On our way out, I see the sign. No problem. We have to pay. We get our 16 rubles paid and go in. In the ladies room, you grab the TP before you go into the stall. I am all bundled up and walk into the stall. It's a hole in the ground that flushes. Here is a picture.
This is sort of like peeing in the woods but it won't get on your shoes. well, i guess if you're careful it won't. Kim, do you remember the time in Italy with one of these things and you pee'd on yourself? I must be getting punchy again.
OK, so we start to walk back to find something to eat and decide to walk into the gated part of the Kremlin. We are just in time to watch the changing of the guards in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It's pretty cool. It is starting to snow but it feels as if it has warmed up a bit. We head to Sbarro to get some pizza for lunch. After lunch we head back to the hotel. It is now really snowing and a little windy. I am glad when we get back to the room. I am able to get the kids' medical info typed up and sent off to the doctor and I also slip in a nap. Tomorrow is our last day in Moscow for hopefully another month. I am really missing the kids and just want to take them home with us. It has been a long road here and I just would really like to sprint to the finish line. In all good time. Hopefully the next month will go by quickly.
Here are some photos of Red Square and the GUM:
Thursday, February 8, 2006
Today is the earliest I have been up the entire time here. We have to be in the lobby by 5am to go to the airport to fly back to Moscow. The alarm is set to go off at 3:30 but I am up at 3am. I can't sleep anymore. Steve is out like a light and snoring like crazy. I just get up, take a shower and pack up the few things we have. If you remember, our 4 bags of luggage were lost. Andrei finally got ahold of someone yesterday with the airline. He said they had 2 bags and were going to send them down to Orenburg. He had them pull them off that and deliver them to the Hotel where we are staying at in Moscow. For crying out loud....you gotta love airlines.
Everyone is on time in the lobby and we quickly leave for the Orenburg airport. Our flight leaves at 7am. Orenburg is 2 hours ahead of Moscow so we will actually gain some time back today. While at the airport, we meet 2 families that are returning with their children. One couple I talked to before we came so it was nice to put a face to a voice on the phone. Their daughter is just a cutie. She told me to call her when we got home and that's just what i plan to do. They show us the little passports that they have. How adorable!!!
We were able to grab some coffee while we were waiting for the plane. It was nice to be able to get some caffeine in me. We were all able to sort of say goodbye and hopefully make our plans to all come back together. we traveled with a really great group of people. We all had similar personalities and we just really had fun together even though we were sleep deprived and running on empty. We were able to make each other laugh in situations that were at times stressful. Thanks Johnny for the "shit! I wore the wrong shirt" comment while we were at the MoE. What a stress reliever!
The time has come for us to load the plane. Me of course have my camera out to take pictures. I roll one off and out of the blue this man is sturnly telling me something. I am nervous that he is going to take my camera away from me. Ilya appears and tells me to put it away. Christina turns around and tells me that she thought I saw her get in trouble. Nope!! Oh well. Perhaps the KGB is still alive. We get loaded on the plane and the ride is pretty uneventful. It's only a 2 hour ride. Both kids did really well on the flight. We sat right behind them. I only hope that same plane ride goes as well for us! One can only hope.
We arrive at the Moscow airport at the same time that we left Orenburg. We grab my 1 bag and head out. We all have drivers taking us somewhere. Ann and Dave are staying at a hotel near SVO, Dave and Christina are making the long haul home to see their 4 yr old and Steve and I are off to the Marriott Tverskaya to stay for a few days. We walk outside and it is really cold. I had just made the comment to someone saying that I thought it was going to be a lot colder than it really was. The temp has really dropped in Moscow. We are standing outside waiting for all of the drivers and it is cold. It makes your lungs hurt a little. I later heard that it is -24 degrees C. Finally, they put us in a car and we are on our way. I thought we would make it to the hotel pretty quickly but boy was I wrong. There was MAJOR traffic and it took us a little under 3 hours. People here are crazy drivers. I asked the translator in the car, "are those people driving on the sidewalk?" Her reply was yes. I asked if they could get in trouble and she said they take the chance. NIce! And we thought LA traffic was bad. It was worse than a sig alert on the 91 freeway!
Anyhow, we finally make it to the hotel and check in. They were going to have a wait until 12 and it was only 10:30am. We go up to the cafe and grab a latte. I loving that they have these. Steve goes to check on the internet service and comes back to tell me that they have given us a room. Thank god! We also get news about our luggage. They have it and they tell us that there are 4 pieces. However, he says it's all green. This isn't good. We only had 2 green and the other 2 are black. We go to the room and the guy says he will bring it up. He knocks on the door and there it is....ALL OF OUR LUGGAGE!!! I was so excited. I practically wanted to peel my stinky dirty clothes off right there and begin to change. We get it in the room and we can't open it up fast enough. WOW! It's really the little things in life like a clean pair of socks and clean underware that hasnt been washed out in the sink!
We decide to take the rest of the day and get caught up on some serious sleep. I took a 2 hour nap and when Steve tried to wake me, I couldnt open my eyes. I felt like I had been drugged. I manage to wake up and begin updating the blog. After awhile, we go to the restaurant to eat some dinner. It's not cheap but we don't have to walk outside in the cold. We figure we'll go to bed early and be ready to take on some sites tomorrow. We want to hit the popular spots like the Kremlin, Red Square, Arabat, etc.
Stayed tuned for more....I'm off to bed. This jet lag is really setting in. I really thought I was over it while we were in Orenburg. Boy was I wrong. Good luck coming home ane being productive at work.
Everyone is on time in the lobby and we quickly leave for the Orenburg airport. Our flight leaves at 7am. Orenburg is 2 hours ahead of Moscow so we will actually gain some time back today. While at the airport, we meet 2 families that are returning with their children. One couple I talked to before we came so it was nice to put a face to a voice on the phone. Their daughter is just a cutie. She told me to call her when we got home and that's just what i plan to do. They show us the little passports that they have. How adorable!!!
We were able to grab some coffee while we were waiting for the plane. It was nice to be able to get some caffeine in me. We were all able to sort of say goodbye and hopefully make our plans to all come back together. we traveled with a really great group of people. We all had similar personalities and we just really had fun together even though we were sleep deprived and running on empty. We were able to make each other laugh in situations that were at times stressful. Thanks Johnny for the "shit! I wore the wrong shirt" comment while we were at the MoE. What a stress reliever!
The time has come for us to load the plane. Me of course have my camera out to take pictures. I roll one off and out of the blue this man is sturnly telling me something. I am nervous that he is going to take my camera away from me. Ilya appears and tells me to put it away. Christina turns around and tells me that she thought I saw her get in trouble. Nope!! Oh well. Perhaps the KGB is still alive. We get loaded on the plane and the ride is pretty uneventful. It's only a 2 hour ride. Both kids did really well on the flight. We sat right behind them. I only hope that same plane ride goes as well for us! One can only hope.
We arrive at the Moscow airport at the same time that we left Orenburg. We grab my 1 bag and head out. We all have drivers taking us somewhere. Ann and Dave are staying at a hotel near SVO, Dave and Christina are making the long haul home to see their 4 yr old and Steve and I are off to the Marriott Tverskaya to stay for a few days. We walk outside and it is really cold. I had just made the comment to someone saying that I thought it was going to be a lot colder than it really was. The temp has really dropped in Moscow. We are standing outside waiting for all of the drivers and it is cold. It makes your lungs hurt a little. I later heard that it is -24 degrees C. Finally, they put us in a car and we are on our way. I thought we would make it to the hotel pretty quickly but boy was I wrong. There was MAJOR traffic and it took us a little under 3 hours. People here are crazy drivers. I asked the translator in the car, "are those people driving on the sidewalk?" Her reply was yes. I asked if they could get in trouble and she said they take the chance. NIce! And we thought LA traffic was bad. It was worse than a sig alert on the 91 freeway!
Anyhow, we finally make it to the hotel and check in. They were going to have a wait until 12 and it was only 10:30am. We go up to the cafe and grab a latte. I loving that they have these. Steve goes to check on the internet service and comes back to tell me that they have given us a room. Thank god! We also get news about our luggage. They have it and they tell us that there are 4 pieces. However, he says it's all green. This isn't good. We only had 2 green and the other 2 are black. We go to the room and the guy says he will bring it up. He knocks on the door and there it is....ALL OF OUR LUGGAGE!!! I was so excited. I practically wanted to peel my stinky dirty clothes off right there and begin to change. We get it in the room and we can't open it up fast enough. WOW! It's really the little things in life like a clean pair of socks and clean underware that hasnt been washed out in the sink!
We decide to take the rest of the day and get caught up on some serious sleep. I took a 2 hour nap and when Steve tried to wake me, I couldnt open my eyes. I felt like I had been drugged. I manage to wake up and begin updating the blog. After awhile, we go to the restaurant to eat some dinner. It's not cheap but we don't have to walk outside in the cold. We figure we'll go to bed early and be ready to take on some sites tomorrow. We want to hit the popular spots like the Kremlin, Red Square, Arabat, etc.
Stayed tuned for more....I'm off to bed. This jet lag is really setting in. I really thought I was over it while we were in Orenburg. Boy was I wrong. Good luck coming home ane being productive at work.
Wednesday, February 7, 2006
Ok so after almost falling asleep at dinner last night, I went to bed around 10pm. Today is another early morning. We have to be downstairs by 6:30am. We are all traveling to Orsk today. This will be our first trip and it will be the 2nd for the rest of the group. We were the only ones who had a child in the Orenburg baby home. John was able to take a picture of our little guy yesterday and he showed it to us this morning. He was in a little walker thing and was in a room with other children. He looks to had red hair. We'll just have to wait and see. We all grab some breakfast upstairs that John and Christina have set up. Thank you very much. This is the morning that Steve and I get a latte. We were in heaven. Another morning of 2 eggs barely cooked, some ham, bread, cheese and butter. John for Ireland thought the stick of butter was cheese and put the entire thing in his mouth. That was a nice laugh. We all eat quickly and head downstairs. We keep waiting downstairs and our coordinator is not there. finally he shows up, he overslept, and we head down the road for our 3 hour trip.
I walked out to make sure we could have the same driver as we did the day before. Why? His car had enough leg room in it so we didn't have to be pretzels in there. We jump in, it's still dark outside and head down the freshly snowed on roads. Here is a picture of us at the gas station just outside of town.
Here is Steve in the front seat of the car. it was nice because he could stretch out and we put the backpacks in the back with me.
This stretch of road is for the most part pretty straight. We have 4 cars all going along down this road. Our driver stopped for gas so that left us last but not for long. I told steve he wasn't driving fast, he was just qualifying for Nascar. It didn't take us long to catch up to everyone else and pass them up. We were seriously hauling ass. The funny thing, I wasn't nervous. The road didn't have too much snow on it. At one point the driver pulls over and stops. We ask him in English if everything is OK. He must understand a bit because he makes a motion telling us he has to smoke. He's back in the car in like 2 minutes. I look at Steve and tell him he's as fast as Janet (love you girl but you have some competition!). We're back on the road to the baby home. There isn't much on this road and it's pretty desolate. He asks if we need to stop for the toiloet. we say no, we're ready to get there and meet the boy.
We pull into town, so here is a picture from the car. There are not a lot of house in Russia that I am seeing. Its all apartment buildings. I have no idea what they look like in the inside but the outside looks like crap.
We travel through town and finally show up at the baby home. It doesn't look anything like you would expect. It's just a building. The reason we know we are there is one, we've stopped and gotten out of the car and 2, the door is painted blue with a stork on it. Very cute. We are the first ones there in our group. Guess we won the nascar race on that one. Go Sergei the driver!! We make it in under 3 hours.
The driver takes us in and I say, "toilet" and he gets it. He finds someone to show me where to go. Thank god I took my backpack with me. Toilet paper is not really readily available here so good thing I bought those rolls at Target. Also, I learned pretty quickly that most places you don't put the toilet paper in the toilet, it's put in the trash can next to it. Figured that out in the airport. Here is a picture of the bathroom.
When I walk in and see this. I chuckle to myself, do my business and of course grab my camera. Janet, are you proud of me?! I walk out and go and meet Steve in the lobby area. We are then taken to another room where there is a worker and 2 children in there plus a grey cat. She takes the children out and leaves us in there. Here is a picture of the room we were in.
If you look closely, you can see the cat under the jungle gym thing on the right. A few more times people pop their heads in but we just sit there and wait. Then, a woman shows up at the door with a baby boy. We look at each other and she walks in the room and hands this baby to me. She looks at the boy and says, "mama" and hand him to me and leaves. I take him and he is ALL smiles. I have to tell you. This made my day, week and month! It has to be the equivalent of having someone place the baby on your chest after birth. This is the happiest of little boys ever. Steve and I get out our blanket that we have brought and place it in the center of the room. I just keep telling Steve that this baby is NOT 8 months old. He is so small but he doesn't stop smiling and laughing and cooing. We place him on the floor, he can't sit up on his own but can be on his stomach and roll to his back and vice versa. We have just been left in the room alone and no one has come back in to bother us so it is great family time. I look at Steve and tell him, "let's go". The whole time I'm thinking I just want to put him under my jacket and hit the road. I haven't even heard his medical yet and just know he is OK. People told me that before we left but I just didn't know. We are not sorry at all that we didn't have a doctor from Moscow. These kids are fine but just have some institutional things. These will be over once we are home and eating and sleeping in our house.
After awhile, Anfisa comes in with the doctor. We sit down on the bench and I get out my notebook and gear up to start writing like mad. They just run down his medical with you and you just write it down. This little boy was born a preemie. He was born at 34 weeks but was born on May 29, 2006. While I am writing, Steve is holding him and he falls asleep. I continue to ask questions and write. The doctor asks Anfisa if I am a doctor as I am asking medical questions. NOpe, just have done my research on the internet. Bascially, this little boy checks out and he is ours. We tell them to get the paperwork so we can proceed to adopt this boy who will be known as Kyle. He is small but looks great. He has a bit of a cold and a runny nose. This I can handle. He doesn't have any of the skin rash stuff that Brooke did. He is as clean as a whistle. He looks like a 5 month old though and for the most part, acts like one. No biggie. Once we are done with the doctor, I ask Anfisa if we can join the others in the room where they are at. She says yes and Steve and I walk down the hall. The worker asks us if he is asleep and wants to take him. Oh no you don't. I tell her it's fine and we continue. Everyone else in in another play room. They take a look at him and everyone thinks he's so cute. I would love to post pictures of him but I can't . You'll see him in all good time.
Anfisa comes in and says we need to leave so we can travel back and get to the notary before it closes. I feel sort of rushed. We have only been there for a little under 2 hours. I just want to continue to hold our new baby boy Kyle. The worker comes in and takes him. I make sure to give her the bear blanket thing so he can sleep with it. I also give her the book I made so he can look at his new mommy and daddy. In addition, we leave a disposable camera so they will take pictures of him in his current environment. With this, we jump in the cars and head back home.
The trip home was a lot longer. We make it to the notary but one of the other couples is ocver there so Andrei takes us across the street and we get some tea and coffee. I ordered the same thing I did the other day but actually got a shot of esperesso. EEKS! The caffeine will do me good.
Finally our turn is up with the notary. We need to give her the names we plan to name them. We give her Kyle Sergey Bierbaum and Brooke Elena Bierbaum. We read through the documents, actually they were translated for us, and we sign our names on the dotted line. This step apparently helps speed the process along.
By the time we get out of the notary's office, it is close to 6pm. We get back to the hotel and are told to meet upstairs so Andrei and Anfisa can go over what documents they need for the second trip and so forth along with gifts, etc. I am so tired again that I want to just put my head on the table. Once done with dinner, we go back to the room and call our folks to let them know they now have a grandson. It is now time to go to bed. We have to be in the lobby at 5am tomorrow. I swear, every day the time gets earlier and earlier. We are now on our way back to Moscow. The other couples are leaving to go home. Steve and I are staying through the weekend. Andrei just tells us, "no sleep." Couldn't agree with you more Andrei. He has been a pleasant surprise. He is now joking with us and laughing.
We got to bed that night thinking of our 2 new babies! It sounds like we could be back here in a month to pick them up. Andrei told us at dinner maybe the 12,13,14 of March. Steve and I have a bet, I say then and he says the week before. We'll see. Until then....stay tuned.
I walked out to make sure we could have the same driver as we did the day before. Why? His car had enough leg room in it so we didn't have to be pretzels in there. We jump in, it's still dark outside and head down the freshly snowed on roads. Here is a picture of us at the gas station just outside of town.
Here is Steve in the front seat of the car. it was nice because he could stretch out and we put the backpacks in the back with me.
This stretch of road is for the most part pretty straight. We have 4 cars all going along down this road. Our driver stopped for gas so that left us last but not for long. I told steve he wasn't driving fast, he was just qualifying for Nascar. It didn't take us long to catch up to everyone else and pass them up. We were seriously hauling ass. The funny thing, I wasn't nervous. The road didn't have too much snow on it. At one point the driver pulls over and stops. We ask him in English if everything is OK. He must understand a bit because he makes a motion telling us he has to smoke. He's back in the car in like 2 minutes. I look at Steve and tell him he's as fast as Janet (love you girl but you have some competition!). We're back on the road to the baby home. There isn't much on this road and it's pretty desolate. He asks if we need to stop for the toiloet. we say no, we're ready to get there and meet the boy.
We pull into town, so here is a picture from the car. There are not a lot of house in Russia that I am seeing. Its all apartment buildings. I have no idea what they look like in the inside but the outside looks like crap.
We travel through town and finally show up at the baby home. It doesn't look anything like you would expect. It's just a building. The reason we know we are there is one, we've stopped and gotten out of the car and 2, the door is painted blue with a stork on it. Very cute. We are the first ones there in our group. Guess we won the nascar race on that one. Go Sergei the driver!! We make it in under 3 hours.
The driver takes us in and I say, "toilet" and he gets it. He finds someone to show me where to go. Thank god I took my backpack with me. Toilet paper is not really readily available here so good thing I bought those rolls at Target. Also, I learned pretty quickly that most places you don't put the toilet paper in the toilet, it's put in the trash can next to it. Figured that out in the airport. Here is a picture of the bathroom.
When I walk in and see this. I chuckle to myself, do my business and of course grab my camera. Janet, are you proud of me?! I walk out and go and meet Steve in the lobby area. We are then taken to another room where there is a worker and 2 children in there plus a grey cat. She takes the children out and leaves us in there. Here is a picture of the room we were in.
If you look closely, you can see the cat under the jungle gym thing on the right. A few more times people pop their heads in but we just sit there and wait. Then, a woman shows up at the door with a baby boy. We look at each other and she walks in the room and hands this baby to me. She looks at the boy and says, "mama" and hand him to me and leaves. I take him and he is ALL smiles. I have to tell you. This made my day, week and month! It has to be the equivalent of having someone place the baby on your chest after birth. This is the happiest of little boys ever. Steve and I get out our blanket that we have brought and place it in the center of the room. I just keep telling Steve that this baby is NOT 8 months old. He is so small but he doesn't stop smiling and laughing and cooing. We place him on the floor, he can't sit up on his own but can be on his stomach and roll to his back and vice versa. We have just been left in the room alone and no one has come back in to bother us so it is great family time. I look at Steve and tell him, "let's go". The whole time I'm thinking I just want to put him under my jacket and hit the road. I haven't even heard his medical yet and just know he is OK. People told me that before we left but I just didn't know. We are not sorry at all that we didn't have a doctor from Moscow. These kids are fine but just have some institutional things. These will be over once we are home and eating and sleeping in our house.
After awhile, Anfisa comes in with the doctor. We sit down on the bench and I get out my notebook and gear up to start writing like mad. They just run down his medical with you and you just write it down. This little boy was born a preemie. He was born at 34 weeks but was born on May 29, 2006. While I am writing, Steve is holding him and he falls asleep. I continue to ask questions and write. The doctor asks Anfisa if I am a doctor as I am asking medical questions. NOpe, just have done my research on the internet. Bascially, this little boy checks out and he is ours. We tell them to get the paperwork so we can proceed to adopt this boy who will be known as Kyle. He is small but looks great. He has a bit of a cold and a runny nose. This I can handle. He doesn't have any of the skin rash stuff that Brooke did. He is as clean as a whistle. He looks like a 5 month old though and for the most part, acts like one. No biggie. Once we are done with the doctor, I ask Anfisa if we can join the others in the room where they are at. She says yes and Steve and I walk down the hall. The worker asks us if he is asleep and wants to take him. Oh no you don't. I tell her it's fine and we continue. Everyone else in in another play room. They take a look at him and everyone thinks he's so cute. I would love to post pictures of him but I can't . You'll see him in all good time.
Anfisa comes in and says we need to leave so we can travel back and get to the notary before it closes. I feel sort of rushed. We have only been there for a little under 2 hours. I just want to continue to hold our new baby boy Kyle. The worker comes in and takes him. I make sure to give her the bear blanket thing so he can sleep with it. I also give her the book I made so he can look at his new mommy and daddy. In addition, we leave a disposable camera so they will take pictures of him in his current environment. With this, we jump in the cars and head back home.
The trip home was a lot longer. We make it to the notary but one of the other couples is ocver there so Andrei takes us across the street and we get some tea and coffee. I ordered the same thing I did the other day but actually got a shot of esperesso. EEKS! The caffeine will do me good.
Finally our turn is up with the notary. We need to give her the names we plan to name them. We give her Kyle Sergey Bierbaum and Brooke Elena Bierbaum. We read through the documents, actually they were translated for us, and we sign our names on the dotted line. This step apparently helps speed the process along.
By the time we get out of the notary's office, it is close to 6pm. We get back to the hotel and are told to meet upstairs so Andrei and Anfisa can go over what documents they need for the second trip and so forth along with gifts, etc. I am so tired again that I want to just put my head on the table. Once done with dinner, we go back to the room and call our folks to let them know they now have a grandson. It is now time to go to bed. We have to be in the lobby at 5am tomorrow. I swear, every day the time gets earlier and earlier. We are now on our way back to Moscow. The other couples are leaving to go home. Steve and I are staying through the weekend. Andrei just tells us, "no sleep." Couldn't agree with you more Andrei. He has been a pleasant surprise. He is now joking with us and laughing.
We got to bed that night thinking of our 2 new babies! It sounds like we could be back here in a month to pick them up. Andrei told us at dinner maybe the 12,13,14 of March. Steve and I have a bet, I say then and he says the week before. We'll see. Until then....stay tuned.
Our Hotel Room in Orenburg
First of all, thanks to everyone for their well wishes. It was very nice to read. I know you were all waiting for an update but we were seriously going from sun up to sun down and just didn't have time to update while in Orenburg. Here are some pictures of our hotel room. It was a pleasant surprise. The one bad thing about being here is that every room, building, hotel has the heat cranked up to like 85 degrees. When we were visiting Brooke, I kept looking out at the snow thinking if I could just jump in there and roll around. Mind you I only had the 1 pair of clothes I had on so that was'nt going to be an option. I wore a pair of jeans and a short sleeve shirt and was HOT. It's been a good trip for learning so now we'll know more for later.
Here are the pictures of the hotel room.
The way that we regulated the heat was to open the window at night. The only bad thing was in the morning, the hot water didn't really work that well so it was only luke warm. it made getting out of the shower pretty cold. There were 2 restauraunts in the hotel. we ate breakfast in the one donwstairs. We woould have dinner on the 8th floor. This is Europe so people smoke inside. EWWW! We ate upstairs one morning and they actually made Steve and I a latte. i was in HEAVEN. They are big tea drinkers here and not so much on the coffee.
So, stay tuned for the update on the Orsk baby home and meeting our baby boy Kyle...
Here are the pictures of the hotel room.
The way that we regulated the heat was to open the window at night. The only bad thing was in the morning, the hot water didn't really work that well so it was only luke warm. it made getting out of the shower pretty cold. There were 2 restauraunts in the hotel. we ate breakfast in the one donwstairs. We woould have dinner on the 8th floor. This is Europe so people smoke inside. EWWW! We ate upstairs one morning and they actually made Steve and I a latte. i was in HEAVEN. They are big tea drinkers here and not so much on the coffee.
So, stay tuned for the update on the Orsk baby home and meeting our baby boy Kyle...
Tuesday, February 6, 2006
It was a very short night as the alarm goes off at 6:30am so we can get ready. We are going to the Ministry of Education today in order to get approval to visit the baby homes/orphanages.
Everyone is down in the lobby and we are taken to breakfast to basically get briefed on what is going to happen for the day, what the Ministry is going to ask us, etc. Our breakfast consited of eggs, ham, bread, cheese and tea. NO coffee. More adapting on my part. I later bought a diet coke in the lobby for the caffeine. What can I say?
Again, our 4 cars meet us at the hotel and take us to the Ministry. I am getting nervous. It didn't help either that we were the last ones to go. We got our piece of paper that stated we could go and meet our possible future children.
The plan is that we will go to the Orenburg baby home today to visit the girl and then travel to Orsk tomorrow to see the boy. Now I am just nervous about the health of the children. What a worry wart I am! I am settling in though to the adventure part. I don't really feel like I am as far away from home as I really am. The other couples traveling in our group are all going to Orsk for the day. Poor things. By the time we get out of the Ministry and back to the cars, it's after 12noon. The trip to Orsk is a 3 hour drive ONE WAY! We are wisked off to a building across the street and told we are going to have to talk to the "specialist." Have no clue who that is and we are just going with the flow. When we get there, she tells our translator to come back at 2:30 and then we can go to the baby home. We get some lunch and arrive back at 2:20. I am really nervous now. My stomach is in knots and I feel like I want to barf! Needless to say, I ran back to the Ministry to use the bathroom. Typical European bathroom. No toilet seat and it hasn't been cleaned in 20 years!
We finally head off to the baby home. We walk in and are taken to a room where the director of the home, the doctor at the home, our translator and this "specialist." We were told that she wanted to observe us with the child. Nungessor, this is when we gave your frame to the director. She seemed VERY pleased. In all of the excitement, I forgot to take a picture. I did however take this photo of Steve holding it in the hallway while we were waiting.
The specialist decides she needs to ask us the exact same questions as the MoE. Good god! When do we get to pass the test? While she is asking all sorts of questions, the door opens up and there is a girl in the workers arms. Steve goes nuts. The tell her not yet. Steve just looks at me. At this point, the doctor is now telling us what is in the medical report. About 5 minutes later, they bring her back in and hand her to the director. I am trying to take notes and write as fast as possible. Steve at this point is GONE! He can't stop looking at the girl. The director comes over and places her in his lap. I am still trying to get as much as possible about her medical history to make sure she is healthy. It's just too difficult. They let us take her down the hall to another room to play with her. There is another woman in the room who doesn't speak to us but it just sitting there at a desk. no biggie! Sergei our translator is there with us. We tell him we still have more questions for the doctor. In the meantime, we are playing with our daughter. She is a fireball! Spunky as the day is long. Steve has her up on the coach and she is into everything and wants to touch everything. She finds my coke bottle in my backpack and thinks that it's a bottle and trys to shove it in her mouth. Good that she does this because it's one of the questions on the Denver Developmental test we have to got through with her. Bad thing is, it's not food and this makes her angry. She starts to cry and there is nothing either one of us can do to calm her down. We feel bad because she is crying because she wants food and we can't give her anything. A worker comes in to get her. It's nap time anyway. We decide to stay and talk to the doctor and also wait out naptime so we can visit again. We talk to the doctor and are satisfied that all is well with our new little girl Brooke. After awhile, they bring her back in and I am holding her. She again starts to cry but Sergei tells me they are going to bring her a bottle and I get to feed her. I would love to post pictures of that we we are not allowed to do that at this time. She is not officially ours. This calms her down. She chugs down that bottle like it was a fraternity party beer chugging contest. Not that I know anything about that. She is done in like 2 minutes and wants more. I try to take the bottle but she just grabs it back and shoves it in. Ater awhile, she lets me take it out and she is in a better mood. We undress her to make sure she is OK in that department. We also find out that she is tickleish. We get her to giggle and laugh. She has NOT cracked a smile yet. This makes me feel better that she is giggling. By around 7pm, the workers come to take her back. We tell Sergei that we would like to sign the papers to proceed with the adoption. Andrei makes a brief appearance and gives us the thumbs up. We tell him yes. We sign the papers and are off. It was hard to leave. We knew we wouldn't be back for another month or so.
We head back to the hotel where Andrei meets up with us and Sergei. He tells us to meet him on the 8th floor for dinner. We are exhausted physically, mentally and most of all, emotionally. We got to dinner and it's nice. Of course we get into politics with all of this adoption stuff going on over there. I finally told Steve I was going to hit the plate with my head I was so tired. We left and came back to the room. We called our parents to let them know they had a granddaugthter and that we were off tomorrow to see the boy. What a day. It will be another early morning. We are told to be in the lobby by 6:30am so we can make the drive to Orsk. Again, it's 3 hours one way. Oh boy. Another long day ahead of us.
Everyone is down in the lobby and we are taken to breakfast to basically get briefed on what is going to happen for the day, what the Ministry is going to ask us, etc. Our breakfast consited of eggs, ham, bread, cheese and tea. NO coffee. More adapting on my part. I later bought a diet coke in the lobby for the caffeine. What can I say?
Again, our 4 cars meet us at the hotel and take us to the Ministry. I am getting nervous. It didn't help either that we were the last ones to go. We got our piece of paper that stated we could go and meet our possible future children.
The plan is that we will go to the Orenburg baby home today to visit the girl and then travel to Orsk tomorrow to see the boy. Now I am just nervous about the health of the children. What a worry wart I am! I am settling in though to the adventure part. I don't really feel like I am as far away from home as I really am. The other couples traveling in our group are all going to Orsk for the day. Poor things. By the time we get out of the Ministry and back to the cars, it's after 12noon. The trip to Orsk is a 3 hour drive ONE WAY! We are wisked off to a building across the street and told we are going to have to talk to the "specialist." Have no clue who that is and we are just going with the flow. When we get there, she tells our translator to come back at 2:30 and then we can go to the baby home. We get some lunch and arrive back at 2:20. I am really nervous now. My stomach is in knots and I feel like I want to barf! Needless to say, I ran back to the Ministry to use the bathroom. Typical European bathroom. No toilet seat and it hasn't been cleaned in 20 years!
We finally head off to the baby home. We walk in and are taken to a room where the director of the home, the doctor at the home, our translator and this "specialist." We were told that she wanted to observe us with the child. Nungessor, this is when we gave your frame to the director. She seemed VERY pleased. In all of the excitement, I forgot to take a picture. I did however take this photo of Steve holding it in the hallway while we were waiting.
The specialist decides she needs to ask us the exact same questions as the MoE. Good god! When do we get to pass the test? While she is asking all sorts of questions, the door opens up and there is a girl in the workers arms. Steve goes nuts. The tell her not yet. Steve just looks at me. At this point, the doctor is now telling us what is in the medical report. About 5 minutes later, they bring her back in and hand her to the director. I am trying to take notes and write as fast as possible. Steve at this point is GONE! He can't stop looking at the girl. The director comes over and places her in his lap. I am still trying to get as much as possible about her medical history to make sure she is healthy. It's just too difficult. They let us take her down the hall to another room to play with her. There is another woman in the room who doesn't speak to us but it just sitting there at a desk. no biggie! Sergei our translator is there with us. We tell him we still have more questions for the doctor. In the meantime, we are playing with our daughter. She is a fireball! Spunky as the day is long. Steve has her up on the coach and she is into everything and wants to touch everything. She finds my coke bottle in my backpack and thinks that it's a bottle and trys to shove it in her mouth. Good that she does this because it's one of the questions on the Denver Developmental test we have to got through with her. Bad thing is, it's not food and this makes her angry. She starts to cry and there is nothing either one of us can do to calm her down. We feel bad because she is crying because she wants food and we can't give her anything. A worker comes in to get her. It's nap time anyway. We decide to stay and talk to the doctor and also wait out naptime so we can visit again. We talk to the doctor and are satisfied that all is well with our new little girl Brooke. After awhile, they bring her back in and I am holding her. She again starts to cry but Sergei tells me they are going to bring her a bottle and I get to feed her. I would love to post pictures of that we we are not allowed to do that at this time. She is not officially ours. This calms her down. She chugs down that bottle like it was a fraternity party beer chugging contest. Not that I know anything about that. She is done in like 2 minutes and wants more. I try to take the bottle but she just grabs it back and shoves it in. Ater awhile, she lets me take it out and she is in a better mood. We undress her to make sure she is OK in that department. We also find out that she is tickleish. We get her to giggle and laugh. She has NOT cracked a smile yet. This makes me feel better that she is giggling. By around 7pm, the workers come to take her back. We tell Sergei that we would like to sign the papers to proceed with the adoption. Andrei makes a brief appearance and gives us the thumbs up. We tell him yes. We sign the papers and are off. It was hard to leave. We knew we wouldn't be back for another month or so.
We head back to the hotel where Andrei meets up with us and Sergei. He tells us to meet him on the 8th floor for dinner. We are exhausted physically, mentally and most of all, emotionally. We got to dinner and it's nice. Of course we get into politics with all of this adoption stuff going on over there. I finally told Steve I was going to hit the plate with my head I was so tired. We left and came back to the room. We called our parents to let them know they had a granddaugthter and that we were off tomorrow to see the boy. What a day. It will be another early morning. We are told to be in the lobby by 6:30am so we can make the drive to Orsk. Again, it's 3 hours one way. Oh boy. Another long day ahead of us.
Monday, February 5, 2006
It's about 11am when we touch down in Moscow. There is snow on the ground but not as much as I thought. It's cold so we finally decide to take out our new down jackets.
We were the only international flight landing so we breezed through customs. It is really hard here to look at someone and not smile. They are not a smiling type of country. Oh well. Got through customs and headed over to get our bags. When we checked in back in LAX, the gal at the united counter asked if we wanted to check our bags all the way through. We said sure. After we had done it, we were worried because it had to not only change planes but also airlines. It was too late to do anything about it. As we were standing there looking for our luggage, it became apparent that our bags were not going to be there. My carryon was the only thing there. We had planned for this so we were prepared. We went to the counter and filed out claim to try and find our bags. We left out of there and were to wait for someone to pick us up. We found the guy with our rented cellphone but no one there from the agency. We waited about 10 minutes when a young man walked up to us. Guess us Americans stick out like crazy. He told us we were going to wait for the other couple and they were arriving at 1:30. Steve went off to try and resolve the luggage thing. He found the Delta counter and the woman gave him a number. He called and they only spoke Russian. We decided to wait for the young man to come back so he could help us. His name is Ilya. He arrived awhile later with the other couple. Steve had spoken to her via email. It was finally nice to meet the people. They were John & Cristina Westover. They were 1 of 3 couples that were traveling with us.
We picked up our belongings and headed outside. There, 2 cars took us to the domestic airport to catch our flight to Orenburg. It took us 2 hours to make it there due to traffic. It's worse than the 91 with a SIG alert. Once there, we met the other 2 couples, John & Maggie from Ireland, and Ann & Dave from Rhode Island. Again, I had previously spoken to Ann on the phone before we left. It was nice to have people there that you felt you already knew a bit.
We all walked over to the ticket counter and Ilya purhased all of our tickets. For a 2 hour flight, it cost us $500/person. WOW! We forked it over and since we had so much time to kill, found a place to sit down and eat. By this time it is about 3pm and our flight isn't scheduled to leave until 8:30pm. While eating, our coordinator Andrei walks in. It was very nice to meet him. We had heard some very different opinions on him so we were really unsure. He seems like a nice man.
Once it gets close, we pack up and head toward our gate. Low and behold, it's running late. It's now going to leave at 9:30pm. This is the never ending travel day, My hair is now stuck to my head and I am feeling rather gross and sticky.
The time finally arrives to board. We have to go outside, get in a bus and it will take us to the airplane. It's cold and windy outside so we bundle up.
Steve getting on the bus!
Getting on the plane!
We board the plane for our 2 hour flight. It was really uneventful. We all sort of slept a bit. Once we land, we walk down some stairs off the plane and the coordinator and ilya take us to 4 waiting cars. We are told to wait there until the bags come. They then come and get the guys and tell them to come but tell us woman, "woman stay, men, get bags!" It is now 2am. It's about a 20 minute drive to the Orenburg hotel. We are all ready to sleep in some type of a bed. We pull up and it looks pretty decent. They get us all checked in and tell us that we need to be in the lobby ready to go by 8am. It's going to be a short night.
Steve and I go upstairs and get settled. He takes a shower and I have to wash my only pair of underware in the sick and hang it to dry. Thank you very much REI and my clotheline that I brought. I rinse off and we both fall into bed. Tomorrow, will be a very interesting day.
We were the only international flight landing so we breezed through customs. It is really hard here to look at someone and not smile. They are not a smiling type of country. Oh well. Got through customs and headed over to get our bags. When we checked in back in LAX, the gal at the united counter asked if we wanted to check our bags all the way through. We said sure. After we had done it, we were worried because it had to not only change planes but also airlines. It was too late to do anything about it. As we were standing there looking for our luggage, it became apparent that our bags were not going to be there. My carryon was the only thing there. We had planned for this so we were prepared. We went to the counter and filed out claim to try and find our bags. We left out of there and were to wait for someone to pick us up. We found the guy with our rented cellphone but no one there from the agency. We waited about 10 minutes when a young man walked up to us. Guess us Americans stick out like crazy. He told us we were going to wait for the other couple and they were arriving at 1:30. Steve went off to try and resolve the luggage thing. He found the Delta counter and the woman gave him a number. He called and they only spoke Russian. We decided to wait for the young man to come back so he could help us. His name is Ilya. He arrived awhile later with the other couple. Steve had spoken to her via email. It was finally nice to meet the people. They were John & Cristina Westover. They were 1 of 3 couples that were traveling with us.
We picked up our belongings and headed outside. There, 2 cars took us to the domestic airport to catch our flight to Orenburg. It took us 2 hours to make it there due to traffic. It's worse than the 91 with a SIG alert. Once there, we met the other 2 couples, John & Maggie from Ireland, and Ann & Dave from Rhode Island. Again, I had previously spoken to Ann on the phone before we left. It was nice to have people there that you felt you already knew a bit.
We all walked over to the ticket counter and Ilya purhased all of our tickets. For a 2 hour flight, it cost us $500/person. WOW! We forked it over and since we had so much time to kill, found a place to sit down and eat. By this time it is about 3pm and our flight isn't scheduled to leave until 8:30pm. While eating, our coordinator Andrei walks in. It was very nice to meet him. We had heard some very different opinions on him so we were really unsure. He seems like a nice man.
Once it gets close, we pack up and head toward our gate. Low and behold, it's running late. It's now going to leave at 9:30pm. This is the never ending travel day, My hair is now stuck to my head and I am feeling rather gross and sticky.
The time finally arrives to board. We have to go outside, get in a bus and it will take us to the airplane. It's cold and windy outside so we bundle up.
Steve getting on the bus!
Getting on the plane!
We board the plane for our 2 hour flight. It was really uneventful. We all sort of slept a bit. Once we land, we walk down some stairs off the plane and the coordinator and ilya take us to 4 waiting cars. We are told to wait there until the bags come. They then come and get the guys and tell them to come but tell us woman, "woman stay, men, get bags!" It is now 2am. It's about a 20 minute drive to the Orenburg hotel. We are all ready to sleep in some type of a bed. We pull up and it looks pretty decent. They get us all checked in and tell us that we need to be in the lobby ready to go by 8am. It's going to be a short night.
Steve and I go upstairs and get settled. He takes a shower and I have to wash my only pair of underware in the sick and hang it to dry. Thank you very much REI and my clotheline that I brought. I rinse off and we both fall into bed. Tomorrow, will be a very interesting day.
Sunday, February 4, 2006
Today is travel day! I am so nervous. All of this unknown. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off yesterday. We told the the Monahan's that we would go to Hunter's birthday. It was a welcome stress reliever. Steve and I bowled a few rounds, had a few drinks and ate like pigs. Geez, how do you spell emotinal eating? Anyhow, back to the travel day...
I set 2 alarms and had the hotel giving us a wake up call. I know, I'm a nut but I wasn't going to miss this plane. While I was drying my hair, apparently Steve's cellphone went off. It was Delta calling to tell us that our flight had been canceled and that we were now going to be on a flight that left 30 minutes earlier. You thought there was stress before, LOOK OUT! We kicked it into high gear and headed out the door.
We checked our stuff in and headed toward the gate. We were doing great for time. Unfortunately, we packed our nice outfit for meeting with the Ministry of Education and had bathroom supplies with us. Well, the airport doesn't like this anymore. My carryon bag had a ton of "no no's." This gal was going to take it all. I knew the tight schedule that we were on and I was not going to be able to purchase any more anytime soon. I just lost it. I sat down in a chair and cried. Such a girl thing to do but my stress level just ran over. The gal went to get her supervisor. He came back and was telling me the "rules" which i could really care less about. I explained to him about what we were doing, showed him my passport and my visa to Russia. I even pulled out JESUS! Thank you very much Lou Velazquez! This man must have thought I was a nut. Nope, just desperate. The funny thing is, I had just shown steve the night before my makeup kit because it is so small. I said, some woman have a ton of makeup...LOOK, I just have this. I then followed it up by telling him not to screw with my hairproducts. Well, that's exactly what the airport wanted to do. Long story short, I somehow got the guy to let me go. Thank you very much. Of course as we are walking out of the security area, Steve looks at me in his best George Lopez accent and asks, "why you crying?" I just shook my head.
The flight to New York was pretty uneventful. It was United so it was cramped and small. It was a bumpy landing and I of course wanted to throw up. Made it out ok, but was feeling like crap. Wow. This long journey had only started and we already had a few hurdles to jump over.
We made our way through the airport and found our way to the international section. I was able to check my carryon bag with all my "bad" stuff here so I didn't have to go through the same ordeal again...however, Just so you know, the security people won't let you have water anymore either (the hair products though were safely checked though so all was well). I bought 2 waters at LAX and they took them away. Told me I had to buy it in the terminal. No wonder I like RVing better. Steve was able to score us the emergency exit seats for our 9 hour flight to Moscow. This was a relief. We got some lunch at a chili's in the airport and waited for our flight.
The flight over really wasn't bad. We sleep quite a bit knowing it would be 11am there when we landed. So far we were still in tack and not even halfway done with traveling to our desination.
Stay tuned for day 2!
I set 2 alarms and had the hotel giving us a wake up call. I know, I'm a nut but I wasn't going to miss this plane. While I was drying my hair, apparently Steve's cellphone went off. It was Delta calling to tell us that our flight had been canceled and that we were now going to be on a flight that left 30 minutes earlier. You thought there was stress before, LOOK OUT! We kicked it into high gear and headed out the door.
We checked our stuff in and headed toward the gate. We were doing great for time. Unfortunately, we packed our nice outfit for meeting with the Ministry of Education and had bathroom supplies with us. Well, the airport doesn't like this anymore. My carryon bag had a ton of "no no's." This gal was going to take it all. I knew the tight schedule that we were on and I was not going to be able to purchase any more anytime soon. I just lost it. I sat down in a chair and cried. Such a girl thing to do but my stress level just ran over. The gal went to get her supervisor. He came back and was telling me the "rules" which i could really care less about. I explained to him about what we were doing, showed him my passport and my visa to Russia. I even pulled out JESUS! Thank you very much Lou Velazquez! This man must have thought I was a nut. Nope, just desperate. The funny thing is, I had just shown steve the night before my makeup kit because it is so small. I said, some woman have a ton of makeup...LOOK, I just have this. I then followed it up by telling him not to screw with my hairproducts. Well, that's exactly what the airport wanted to do. Long story short, I somehow got the guy to let me go. Thank you very much. Of course as we are walking out of the security area, Steve looks at me in his best George Lopez accent and asks, "why you crying?" I just shook my head.
The flight to New York was pretty uneventful. It was United so it was cramped and small. It was a bumpy landing and I of course wanted to throw up. Made it out ok, but was feeling like crap. Wow. This long journey had only started and we already had a few hurdles to jump over.
We made our way through the airport and found our way to the international section. I was able to check my carryon bag with all my "bad" stuff here so I didn't have to go through the same ordeal again...however, Just so you know, the security people won't let you have water anymore either (the hair products though were safely checked though so all was well). I bought 2 waters at LAX and they took them away. Told me I had to buy it in the terminal. No wonder I like RVing better. Steve was able to score us the emergency exit seats for our 9 hour flight to Moscow. This was a relief. We got some lunch at a chili's in the airport and waited for our flight.
The flight over really wasn't bad. We sleep quite a bit knowing it would be 11am there when we landed. So far we were still in tack and not even halfway done with traveling to our desination.
Stay tuned for day 2!
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