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.