TRAVEL DAY!
The alarm goes off at 5:30am but I have been stirring for sometime now. I am a nervous wreck. I get up and get in the shower. Apparently the shower wakes up Kyle and he is up with him feeding him. Brooke sleeps awhile longer so this lets us finish up with our last minute stuff. The morning gets away from me and the time just flies. Before you know it, it's almost 8:30am and we need to be downstairs for the driver who is going to take us to the airport. Our flight doesn't leave until 12:25pm but we have to get there early so they can re-ticket us. Unfortunately, the flight is booked and we didn't buy extra seats for the kids. They will be on our laps the entire way. Oh lucky us!
We make it down to the lobby and get our bill paid and our luggage in the van. We are on our way. It's hard to believe that we are actually on our way home. The traffic in Moscow isn't so bad this morning. We make it to the airport by 9:15am. We head to the Delta counter, get our tickets from them and they waive the $400 since we have our letter. Thank God! We then continue on to the security. The crap thing about this airport, is that security has you open up ALL of your luggage so they can rummage through it. This sucks as we have to kids on our front. The nice part is that this lady pulls us out of line and puts us to the front. Gotta love traveling with kids. Brooke has now fallen asleep and is taking a little nap. Security goes through our luggage, we get it locked back up and loaded back up on our cart and headed to checking it in. We of course have to pay again for an overweight bag. Whatever!!! All this lugging around and Steve and I are all sweaty. We get the bags checked, our fee paid and we are now on our way to pass through customs. We had over all of our passports and she wants to see the kids' paperwork. We hand that over and it seems like she is taking forever. She finally waves us through and we head to the gate. We want to be prepared so we wash out the baby bottles in the bathroom and get those loaded so we can be ready in a minute. We get to the gate and sit down. We get the kids some fresh diapers and prepare to load. Again they let us go in front since we have little ones. Steve was able to arrange it so one of us could have the bulk head row. The plane is another 2-3-2 seating and I'm in the 3 part on the aisle. Steve is a row back but in the 2 seat part. We get on and this gentleman was kind enough to switch with Steve so we could sit next to each other. We get situated and prepare for this flight which we hope is not from hell. This first leg of the flight is a little over 10 hours. I don't know how you can prepare yourself for this journey. I think you just have to do what you have to do. I'm not going to go through the flight hour by hour. I'll just tell you that it was LONG and we didn't get that much sleep. Brooke was a bit fussy because I wanted her to sleep and she was screaming a bit. If she got too bad, I would go into the bathroom and try to calm her down. i could tell she was totally tired and just fighting off sleep. Of course we had lots of food on board for Kyle so whenever he fussed, he got food. I didn't really eat breakfast that morning. I was a nervous wreck so I didn't feel like taking my shift at the buffet. Steve did though. When the flight attendants came around with food, I didn't know how we were going to do it with 2 sleeping kids on our laps. Steve got his tray table out and had them put 2 meals down. He was nice enough to feed me some rice and chicken while Brooke slept. He then ate his meal. The next meal that came was hours later and it was a sandwich of some sort. It was like a cheese and tomato sandwich. YUCK. I skipped that meal and figured I get something to eat at JFK.
After 10 long hours with barely no sleep, we land at JFK. We gather our belongs and head out. We walk towards customs and this is where we will hand over our paperwork that we got at the embassy and hand to them. This will officially make the kids US citizens. All of the paperwork that we did before hand made the kids American the minute they touched American soil. I wanted to take them out of the carriers and have them touch the ground. Again it was nice to be traveling with kids. We were standing in line at customs waiting and the kids were getting just a little fussy. Us along with another woman were pulled out of line and put at the front. Yah baby! We made it through there and then had to go into another room. I'm not really sure what that guy did but he cleared us through. We then had to grab our luggage and have it re-checked. We also had to go through security. I was nervous they would take our water away. i saw a TSA guys and asked him. He said to have it go through the systems and if it beeped, they would take it. We got that done and headed toward our gate. The only bad thing about going through that security was that they made us take the kids out of the carriers and place the carriers through. We managed and we were on our way. We got to the gate and I took all of the bottles and went to the bathroom to wash them out again so we could prepare ourself for the next leg which was going to be 6 hours or so. Go the bottles loaded back up again and went to sit back down with Steve. He had given Kyle some apple juice on the last flight. This of course caused a poopy diaper. Got that changed and we were waiting to board. Right before that, Kyle did another number in his pants and I had to change him again. let's just hope he got it out of his system and I don't have to do that on the flight. This is another packed flight and we are again not ticketed to sit next to each other. We have now changed kids. I have Kyle and Steve has Brooke. Right as we get on the plane, Kyle is hungry. Boy can this kid eat! i feed him and wait for the person to come to their seat so I can hopefully sit on the aisle. We all sort of play musical chairs and Steve and I are now sitting next to each other again. The plane is taking forever to get moved away from the gate. It's one delay after another. Kyle starts to get fussy which calls the attention of the flight attendant. She comes over to tell us that Steve and I can't sit next to each other. This of course pisses me off and I tell her that we did it all the way from Russia. The gal in front of us offers to switch with me. I am now in front of Steve. I get the stewardess to get the rest of Kyle's formula out of my backpack which is in the overhead. I give it to him and he falls back asleep. We were on that plane before takeoff for an hour and a half. Something to do with the tower holding planes back due to weather. I swear we are never going to get home. Kyle does pretty well on the flight and I am able to sleep a bit. Since I didn't get anything to eat at JFK, my stomach is soooo hungry that I feel sick. I get up with Kyle and go to the back and ask if they can give me some peanuts. The lady gives me a handful and i"m back to my seat. The young kid that is sitting next to me is really nice and helps me out a bit. The come around with a snack on the flight and it's cheese and crackers. I eat a little but it's too hard with Kyle on my lap. I am able to fall back asleep for a bit and when I wake, I ask the stewardess what time it is and when we will land. She tells me that we took a detour in the air due to the weather so we're now going to be landing at 9:30pm. Oh good god. Really, we are never going to get there. It's a bumpy ride down on our decent but we finally make it to LAX. We are tired, dirty and exhausted. The kids are just as tired. We get our luggage and head to the shuttle. We make it to the car and I have no idea how the kids are going to do their car seats. They have never ridden in them before as they don't use them in Russia. Kids just sit on your lap in the car. We buckle them in and we are on our way. They are not screaming as they are just too tired. I turn around and Kyle's head is totally slumped over. EWWW. Total Brittney Spears. I put it back up and he is out sleeping with his mouth wide open. Just like his momma. Brooke is again fighting off sleep in her car seat. She finally passes out. Steve and I are both hungry and decide it's another McDonald's night at the same place that we stopped the last time we came in. We grab our food and scarf it down in the car of course hiding the drink cup so Kyle doesn't see it. We make it home and it's close to midnight. The house has been decorated up and there are welcome signs and balloons. It's a nice sight to see. We get the kids in the house and our fur kids are waiting for us. Buddy is glad to see us and we are just glad to be home. We introduce the kids to the animals and they are not afraid of them. This is a good thing. We get them fed and put in their PJ;s. We put them in their new cribs and head off to the shower. Kyle screams for about 10 minutes and then passes out. Gotta love the new baby monitor. It's now a little after 1am and Steve and I pass out from exhaustion. We are glad to be home with our 2 new little ones and our new life can finally begin. Now let's just hope they will sleep for awhile so we can get caught up. It is great to be back in our bed again and not on that plane.
Well, that is it for our journey to Russia and back. I will continue to post here and update everyone on the kids. Before you know it, they will be turning 1 which is right around the corner. Thanks to everyone for their support to Steve and I during time. At times it really helped pull us through. We'll be seeing all of you shortly with our 2 new bundles.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Well, we have been here 10 days so far. We are really looking forward to getting home and getting back to a routine at home. I didn't sleep that well last night. I was letting this embassy thing weigh on me. It's just one more step toward home and I really don't want anything to go wrong now. We are so close but yet I feel like we are so far. Julia is coming for us around 1pm so we can stop by to get our letter and then we have our appt at 2pm. We start our day like many of the other ones. Feedings, diaper changes and our breakfast rotation. The breakfast thing is nice. It gives the other parent a 30 minute down time to relax and eat in peace. The kids are doing great so far and Brooke is just really coming along. Every day she smiles and giggles a lot more and this makes me so happy. She is making great strides in getting rid of the Orenburg scowl. Everyone still tells us that she is such a serious child. Well, you spend the first 6 months in a baby hospital with no love and then get moved to an orphanage for the next 2 and see how happy you are. She'll get there. One day, we won't even remember that scowl.
The morning passes by pretty quickly. We get the kids dressed and we're down in the lobby and ready to go. We have had the same driver the entire time. The van is nice since it has more room and he seems to be driving not so stop and slam on the breaks. Perhaps it was because I was a crab to him on our first day riding back from the airport. We make it to the medical center and Julia is nice enough to jump out and go and get our letter. She comes back and tells us that the doctor hand wrote it and it's in Russian and English. perfect. Let's hope Delta will take it and not charge us the $400 for having to change our flight. We now move on to the embassy. When we arrive, there are a lot of people standing out front. Julia tells us that they are Russians and looking to get travel visas. Good. We don't have to stand in that line. We go over to the side and they look at our passports and need our appointment sheet. We get in and thanks to Ann and Dave, we left all cellphones, cameras and electronic devices at the hotel. We go through security and they want me to leave my thermos. I explain that it's hot water for the formula and the kids. They seem to be alright with that and let us go. We grab our ticket from this automated machine which gives us a number. Steve gets out "the package" which we have been calling it. This is our money he has been carrying. Just in case you all wanted to know, we had, key word there was HAD, 25K with us in CASH. Do you know what that's like to carry? Geez, it you lose that...I don't even want to go there. I constantly asked Steve, do you have the package? Anyhow, he gets out the cash that we are going to need here and we go to the second floor. There are more adoptive parents there ane luckily, we are 2nd in line. We pay our money at the cashier (we have to pay for the kids' travel visas and they also charge us because the kids aren't related....don't ask. It's only money!) We then wait for our number to be called. The waiting room is now really filling up with parents and kids and we are talking with others. I actually get Brooke to fall asleep since she's tired and is missing her afternoon nap at the baby suite. They open up the windows at 2pm and they call us up pretty quickly. I figured we were going to be called into a separate office and interviewed. Nope. You stand at the window you are called to and they talk to you right there. This woman had us hold up our right hands and swear to blah blah blah. i have no idea but it was something about being the kids' parents. hello. What have I been doing for the past 7 days. I tell her that we do and she actually lets me go sit back down since she sees that Brooke is sleeping in my arms. Steve comes back a few minutes later and tells me that now we will have to wait for about 30 minutes until the visas are ready. No biggie. I am talking with some people who have adopted a 6 and a 10 yr old. Bless their hearts. We are one of the only ones in this waiting area that have small children. The rest are like 3 and older. These kids will now have a real good chance at life. I am especially happy for the older ones. The guy and his wife who have the 6 & 10 yr old, those kids were taken from their family and placed in the orphanage. Yikes. I hope they make it and enjoy their new life in America. In a way, I'm glad our kids are younger so they dont' remember how life started out for them. It's not long and they are calling numbers 1-6 to come and pick up the passports with the Visas in them. Yeah. We are done. This means we can REALLY go home. Steve grabs them and we head out the door. We say goodbye and good luck to the rest and walk back out to the van. It's a short trip back to the hotel. The embassy wasn't far. I have to admitt, I thought the embassy would be a bit more of a grand looking place. Just looked like a building. We hang out at the hotel for the rest of the night and get our things together and pack. I can't believe we are actually going home tomorrow. I am really excited to be home but I am really not looking forward to that flight with 2 kids. Steve goes out and gets us more KFC and brings it home. We just wanted something easy so we can go to bed early. I have the alarm going off at 5:30am. We get the kids down to bed....finally....as Kyle is still being a pill at going to sleep. He just really fights it. We have a hard time just letting him sit in the crib and cry since we are in a hotel and that part of the baby suite sort of echoes. The poor people next to us. Hopefully there isn't anyone on either side although I believe there is. He finally goes down but not before waking Brooke back up. This solidifies the fact that we are NOT going to have them in the same room when we get home. 2 rooms, 2 separate beds. Once they are down, we finish up with our packing and get to bed. My stomach is in knots again just thinking about this flight. We are going to have to have our A game on tomorrow for a very long time. It should take us well over 24 hours to get home. I am thinking that the non stop Aeroflot flight that would have us home in 13 hours is sounding pretty good right now. Oh well, Delta here we come!
The morning passes by pretty quickly. We get the kids dressed and we're down in the lobby and ready to go. We have had the same driver the entire time. The van is nice since it has more room and he seems to be driving not so stop and slam on the breaks. Perhaps it was because I was a crab to him on our first day riding back from the airport. We make it to the medical center and Julia is nice enough to jump out and go and get our letter. She comes back and tells us that the doctor hand wrote it and it's in Russian and English. perfect. Let's hope Delta will take it and not charge us the $400 for having to change our flight. We now move on to the embassy. When we arrive, there are a lot of people standing out front. Julia tells us that they are Russians and looking to get travel visas. Good. We don't have to stand in that line. We go over to the side and they look at our passports and need our appointment sheet. We get in and thanks to Ann and Dave, we left all cellphones, cameras and electronic devices at the hotel. We go through security and they want me to leave my thermos. I explain that it's hot water for the formula and the kids. They seem to be alright with that and let us go. We grab our ticket from this automated machine which gives us a number. Steve gets out "the package" which we have been calling it. This is our money he has been carrying. Just in case you all wanted to know, we had, key word there was HAD, 25K with us in CASH. Do you know what that's like to carry? Geez, it you lose that...I don't even want to go there. I constantly asked Steve, do you have the package? Anyhow, he gets out the cash that we are going to need here and we go to the second floor. There are more adoptive parents there ane luckily, we are 2nd in line. We pay our money at the cashier (we have to pay for the kids' travel visas and they also charge us because the kids aren't related....don't ask. It's only money!) We then wait for our number to be called. The waiting room is now really filling up with parents and kids and we are talking with others. I actually get Brooke to fall asleep since she's tired and is missing her afternoon nap at the baby suite. They open up the windows at 2pm and they call us up pretty quickly. I figured we were going to be called into a separate office and interviewed. Nope. You stand at the window you are called to and they talk to you right there. This woman had us hold up our right hands and swear to blah blah blah. i have no idea but it was something about being the kids' parents. hello. What have I been doing for the past 7 days. I tell her that we do and she actually lets me go sit back down since she sees that Brooke is sleeping in my arms. Steve comes back a few minutes later and tells me that now we will have to wait for about 30 minutes until the visas are ready. No biggie. I am talking with some people who have adopted a 6 and a 10 yr old. Bless their hearts. We are one of the only ones in this waiting area that have small children. The rest are like 3 and older. These kids will now have a real good chance at life. I am especially happy for the older ones. The guy and his wife who have the 6 & 10 yr old, those kids were taken from their family and placed in the orphanage. Yikes. I hope they make it and enjoy their new life in America. In a way, I'm glad our kids are younger so they dont' remember how life started out for them. It's not long and they are calling numbers 1-6 to come and pick up the passports with the Visas in them. Yeah. We are done. This means we can REALLY go home. Steve grabs them and we head out the door. We say goodbye and good luck to the rest and walk back out to the van. It's a short trip back to the hotel. The embassy wasn't far. I have to admitt, I thought the embassy would be a bit more of a grand looking place. Just looked like a building. We hang out at the hotel for the rest of the night and get our things together and pack. I can't believe we are actually going home tomorrow. I am really excited to be home but I am really not looking forward to that flight with 2 kids. Steve goes out and gets us more KFC and brings it home. We just wanted something easy so we can go to bed early. I have the alarm going off at 5:30am. We get the kids down to bed....finally....as Kyle is still being a pill at going to sleep. He just really fights it. We have a hard time just letting him sit in the crib and cry since we are in a hotel and that part of the baby suite sort of echoes. The poor people next to us. Hopefully there isn't anyone on either side although I believe there is. He finally goes down but not before waking Brooke back up. This solidifies the fact that we are NOT going to have them in the same room when we get home. 2 rooms, 2 separate beds. Once they are down, we finish up with our packing and get to bed. My stomach is in knots again just thinking about this flight. We are going to have to have our A game on tomorrow for a very long time. It should take us well over 24 hours to get home. I am thinking that the non stop Aeroflot flight that would have us home in 13 hours is sounding pretty good right now. Oh well, Delta here we come!
Monday, March 26, 2007
Happy 10 month birthday Brooke. She is exactly 10 months old today. She is doing just great and making big improvements. Her Orenburg Scowl is going down and she is actually smiling more and more every day.
Today is an outing for us. We are off to the medical visit today. Julia is coming to pick us up at 9:30am so we can make it to the appointment by 10am. The kids get up, we get them fed and dressed and then Steve heads off for his shift at breakfast. I didn't have a very good night. I woke around 3:30am and was stirring off and on from there on out. I have no idea why I am so worked up about this medical visit. I have been told it is no big deal. I get ready while the kids are playing. It's a slow go though seeing as at one point, both of them are crying. I have no idea why Kyle is crying but Brooke has now bumped her head on the doorway and is crying. Geez, this getting ready with 2 kids is a bit hard. I finally get to almost done when Steve gets back. He takes over and I am able to get out the door.
I return around 9am and it's just enough time to get the finishing touches on the diaper bags and so a once over and then get their clothes all laid out along with their snowsuits. It's a bit colder today and there is a little bit of wind. We get the kids up, dressed and in their carriers. We head downstairs and Julia is already waiting for us. She tells us that the driver is running a little behind but that is OK. We take a seat and wait. We hand over the documents that she wants with the exception of the home study. I forgot to bring a complete copy of our dossier. I will have to wait until someone in the States wakes up to get that faxed over. Great!
The driver arrives and we get piled into the van. The medical place isn't that far and we are only in the car for about 10-15 minutes. We get in the building and Julia takes us back to where we are to go. We get right in and Brooke goes up first. Steve gets her undressed as the doctor wants to see her naked. Her exam takes about 10 minutes and then it is Kyle's turn. Nothing new from this visit. Tells us everything we already know. We get them dressed and Steve takes Brooke down the hall to have her blood taken. I had been told that it could be pretty ugly so I choose to stay with Kyle. Steve returns with Brooke and I ask if she cried. She did but she doesn't look like it so maybe it wasn't that bad. I think that's what I'll tell myself anyway.
We get back in the van and head towards home. We ask Julia if she can drop us at the store. She asks us if we want her to wait. We say sure and she actually comes in with us to help. We get some more diapers, wipes and some food for lunch. They don't have the soy formula that we have been giving the kids. I gave them some half soy, have enfamil yesterday and Brooke had quite the runny diaper this morning. I think I'll have them make the transition when we get home. Who wants runny poop on a plane ride home?!! We'll have to try and find a pharmacy once we get back to the hotel and get the kids dropped off. We end up spending a small fortune at the grocery store but oh well. We needed the stuff.
We come back up to the room with our groceries and both kids are asleep in the carriers. We lay them down and I decide to head out on an adventure to try and find this soy formula. I get the money from Steve and head downstairs for some directions. I first walk down to the first pharmacy which is literally 2 seconds from the hotel. I ask a woman if they have it and she shakes her head and says, "niet." I walk back to the hotel to ask where the other pharmacy is at. She points it out on the map. I take it with me along with the name of the formula written down in Russian and I'm on my way. This time it's about a 5 minute walk from the hotel. I hit the underground walkway and cross 2 other streets. I find it and walk in. I find the formula but they don't have what I need. I circle the place and finally get the nerve to ask one of the ladies. I ask in Russian if one of the other cans is soy. Just so you know, soy is "soy a" in Russian. Not too hard. She says it's not and I ask if there is another "apteka" close. She points like it's around the corner. OK, I head out of there and walk down the street. I go about 200 yards and sure enough, there is another "apteka" and I walk in. Third time is a charm cuz there it was right as I walked in. They have 2 cans. I really wanted 3 to be on the safe side so I ask, "tri". She looks under the cupboard where it is and says, niet. I can be good with 2 I guess. I then ask her if there is something for my nose which is now running like a faucet. She wants to give me this spray. Nope, I need something to dry it up. She gives me this flu drink. Whatever, I'll take it. I gather my things up and walk back to the hotel. I am pretty proud of myself right about now. Through the majority of trip #1 and #2, I have let Steve do the majority of this stuff. I don't know why I have been such a whimp with this crap. Guess it was my "mom mojo" that had me off and brave enough to do it.
I come back to the hotel room and both kids are still napping. I break out our food that we bought at the grocery store and have myself a little picnic on the bed and drink my flu drink. I feel like I should get a nap in while the kids are sleeping but just don't really feel that tired. I decide to check email and again update the blog. Before you know it, the kids are up and hungry. We get them fed and busy with some toys. Now that we are in this room, they have a lot more to play with than just a set of keys, a chew toy and the hippo/elephant. There are balls, big leggos and other things in the playpen. Steve has renamed the playpen "the thunderdome." We put both kids in there but Brooke pretty much stomps all over Kyle. Whatever toy he has, she wants and takes it away from him. This of course pisses him off because he isn't mobile and can't take it back. Even if we take it away from her and hand it back to him and tell her no, she'll take it right back. I'm sure this is just a kid thing rather than an orphanage trait.
I have to admitt, the honeymoon period is officially over though with Kyle. He has been sooooo fussy lately and just whining and crying all the time. I just don't know what to do with him. We figured he'd be our easy one and Brooke would be the more difficult one. NOPE! The only time she cries is when she is hungry or tired and you can tell when she's tired because she rubs her eyes. I guess we're still learning with Kyle. I know he didn't do this in the orphanage. He would have been ignored. We'll work it out. The plane ride home should be pretty interesting if he continues on with this. I already feel sorry for the people on the plane!
So tonight's dinner was KFC. I found it today while I was on my mission. Steve went out to get it for us. When I first saw it on our first trip, I laughed because for some reason to me, it looks like "pot cock" if you say it in English. Then I realized it was KFC. The little things that make you laugh.
Well, it's a whopping 8pm and I am exhausted. I am going to go to bed. We are off to the Embassy tomorrow around 1ish for our interview. We will also swing by the doctor's office to pick up a letter that he has written saying that our delay was due to medical. This should waive our rebooking ticket penalty with Delta. Let's hope so.
Hope everyone is doing well. Tomorrow is our last full day in Moscow (we hope!) and then we're headed home. I do have to say, the past few days have gone by pretty quickly....knock on wood. Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well and we'll be headed for the States on Wednesday without any further delays. I'm sure I'll stay up half the night on Tuesday worrying about the flight on Wednesday. Goodnight to all!
Today is an outing for us. We are off to the medical visit today. Julia is coming to pick us up at 9:30am so we can make it to the appointment by 10am. The kids get up, we get them fed and dressed and then Steve heads off for his shift at breakfast. I didn't have a very good night. I woke around 3:30am and was stirring off and on from there on out. I have no idea why I am so worked up about this medical visit. I have been told it is no big deal. I get ready while the kids are playing. It's a slow go though seeing as at one point, both of them are crying. I have no idea why Kyle is crying but Brooke has now bumped her head on the doorway and is crying. Geez, this getting ready with 2 kids is a bit hard. I finally get to almost done when Steve gets back. He takes over and I am able to get out the door.
I return around 9am and it's just enough time to get the finishing touches on the diaper bags and so a once over and then get their clothes all laid out along with their snowsuits. It's a bit colder today and there is a little bit of wind. We get the kids up, dressed and in their carriers. We head downstairs and Julia is already waiting for us. She tells us that the driver is running a little behind but that is OK. We take a seat and wait. We hand over the documents that she wants with the exception of the home study. I forgot to bring a complete copy of our dossier. I will have to wait until someone in the States wakes up to get that faxed over. Great!
The driver arrives and we get piled into the van. The medical place isn't that far and we are only in the car for about 10-15 minutes. We get in the building and Julia takes us back to where we are to go. We get right in and Brooke goes up first. Steve gets her undressed as the doctor wants to see her naked. Her exam takes about 10 minutes and then it is Kyle's turn. Nothing new from this visit. Tells us everything we already know. We get them dressed and Steve takes Brooke down the hall to have her blood taken. I had been told that it could be pretty ugly so I choose to stay with Kyle. Steve returns with Brooke and I ask if she cried. She did but she doesn't look like it so maybe it wasn't that bad. I think that's what I'll tell myself anyway.
We get back in the van and head towards home. We ask Julia if she can drop us at the store. She asks us if we want her to wait. We say sure and she actually comes in with us to help. We get some more diapers, wipes and some food for lunch. They don't have the soy formula that we have been giving the kids. I gave them some half soy, have enfamil yesterday and Brooke had quite the runny diaper this morning. I think I'll have them make the transition when we get home. Who wants runny poop on a plane ride home?!! We'll have to try and find a pharmacy once we get back to the hotel and get the kids dropped off. We end up spending a small fortune at the grocery store but oh well. We needed the stuff.
We come back up to the room with our groceries and both kids are asleep in the carriers. We lay them down and I decide to head out on an adventure to try and find this soy formula. I get the money from Steve and head downstairs for some directions. I first walk down to the first pharmacy which is literally 2 seconds from the hotel. I ask a woman if they have it and she shakes her head and says, "niet." I walk back to the hotel to ask where the other pharmacy is at. She points it out on the map. I take it with me along with the name of the formula written down in Russian and I'm on my way. This time it's about a 5 minute walk from the hotel. I hit the underground walkway and cross 2 other streets. I find it and walk in. I find the formula but they don't have what I need. I circle the place and finally get the nerve to ask one of the ladies. I ask in Russian if one of the other cans is soy. Just so you know, soy is "soy a" in Russian. Not too hard. She says it's not and I ask if there is another "apteka" close. She points like it's around the corner. OK, I head out of there and walk down the street. I go about 200 yards and sure enough, there is another "apteka" and I walk in. Third time is a charm cuz there it was right as I walked in. They have 2 cans. I really wanted 3 to be on the safe side so I ask, "tri". She looks under the cupboard where it is and says, niet. I can be good with 2 I guess. I then ask her if there is something for my nose which is now running like a faucet. She wants to give me this spray. Nope, I need something to dry it up. She gives me this flu drink. Whatever, I'll take it. I gather my things up and walk back to the hotel. I am pretty proud of myself right about now. Through the majority of trip #1 and #2, I have let Steve do the majority of this stuff. I don't know why I have been such a whimp with this crap. Guess it was my "mom mojo" that had me off and brave enough to do it.
I come back to the hotel room and both kids are still napping. I break out our food that we bought at the grocery store and have myself a little picnic on the bed and drink my flu drink. I feel like I should get a nap in while the kids are sleeping but just don't really feel that tired. I decide to check email and again update the blog. Before you know it, the kids are up and hungry. We get them fed and busy with some toys. Now that we are in this room, they have a lot more to play with than just a set of keys, a chew toy and the hippo/elephant. There are balls, big leggos and other things in the playpen. Steve has renamed the playpen "the thunderdome." We put both kids in there but Brooke pretty much stomps all over Kyle. Whatever toy he has, she wants and takes it away from him. This of course pisses him off because he isn't mobile and can't take it back. Even if we take it away from her and hand it back to him and tell her no, she'll take it right back. I'm sure this is just a kid thing rather than an orphanage trait.
I have to admitt, the honeymoon period is officially over though with Kyle. He has been sooooo fussy lately and just whining and crying all the time. I just don't know what to do with him. We figured he'd be our easy one and Brooke would be the more difficult one. NOPE! The only time she cries is when she is hungry or tired and you can tell when she's tired because she rubs her eyes. I guess we're still learning with Kyle. I know he didn't do this in the orphanage. He would have been ignored. We'll work it out. The plane ride home should be pretty interesting if he continues on with this. I already feel sorry for the people on the plane!
So tonight's dinner was KFC. I found it today while I was on my mission. Steve went out to get it for us. When I first saw it on our first trip, I laughed because for some reason to me, it looks like "pot cock" if you say it in English. Then I realized it was KFC. The little things that make you laugh.
Well, it's a whopping 8pm and I am exhausted. I am going to go to bed. We are off to the Embassy tomorrow around 1ish for our interview. We will also swing by the doctor's office to pick up a letter that he has written saying that our delay was due to medical. This should waive our rebooking ticket penalty with Delta. Let's hope so.
Hope everyone is doing well. Tomorrow is our last full day in Moscow (we hope!) and then we're headed home. I do have to say, the past few days have gone by pretty quickly....knock on wood. Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well and we'll be headed for the States on Wednesday without any further delays. I'm sure I'll stay up half the night on Tuesday worrying about the flight on Wednesday. Goodnight to all!
Sunday, March 25, 2007
I would really love to tell you that we had an interesting day. We just really hung out today at the hotel in our room. With the kids getting up around 7am give or take a little, then going down for a morning and then an afternoon nap, there really isn't a lot of time in there to do much. We just kick it and relax before we start on Monday with all of the "must have's" before leaving on Wednesday. We take the easy way out for dinner and order a pizza. I have to admitt, we didn't do it, the hotel told us they would do it for us. Gotta love the Marriott.
Here are some photos since this post isn't that long or interesting.
*Mommy & Brooke after court and breaking her lose!
* Kyle & Brooke in the playpen @ the Marriott Baby Suite
*Brooke in her playpen @ the host family's house
* Kyle being a ham for the camera @ the host family's house
Here are some photos since this post isn't that long or interesting.
*Mommy & Brooke after court and breaking her lose!
* Kyle & Brooke in the playpen @ the Marriott Baby Suite
*Brooke in her playpen @ the host family's house
* Kyle being a ham for the camera @ the host family's house
Nungesser....This One is for You!!!!
Nun, I am dedicating this entire post just to you man! We took your lead and went to get a Crapdog on our way back from our friend's hotel. They were pretty good. We got the one that looks like a sandwich. I don't even want to know what was in there. It was dinner and it tasted good. We will definitely go back for another one before we leave. Steve actually told me on the way back that if we could overnight one to you, we would! Hope you, DW and AB are doing wonderful!
Saturday, March 24, 2007
It's another good night for sleeping. Steve actually got up with the kids this morning and let me sleep in a little since I still have this damn cold. I'm up in time though to help with the feedings. We get them fed and on the floor with some toys. Steve and I have been taking shifts going to breakfast. No way are we going to take the 2 of them to this restaurant on the 2nd floor and actually try to get something decent to eat. Kyle goes into a frenzy if he sees me drink out of a water bottle. He thinks it's feeding time. He could've just eaten 20 minutes prior, see me take a drink and pitch a fit because he wants something to eat. Just another one of those orphanage traits that he will eventually get rid of. Brooke isn't so bad with this. It's pretty nice that this breakfast in included in the room rate. It's a buffet type of deal. Not too bad. There is quite a bit of American food available, even CoCo Puffs cereal. It's not something I would pay for every morning so thank god it comes with the room.
After breakfast, Steve asks me if I am interested in asking the hotel about the baby suite. We passed this room yesterday afternoon while we were on our way to ours and it said that above the door in wooden letters. I told him yes and he went down to check it out. We must be nuts. We have just sort of exploded in this room and now we're going to move down the hall. He comes back and tells me that it's awesome. The kids are napping so I tell him after they wake up we can move. I in the mean time, start stuffing crap back into our bags. We get all the stuff, the kids wake up and we move down the hall. I am amazed when I walk through the door. It's absolutely wonderful in there. I am so glad that Steve checked into it. Here are a few photos:
As you can see, this room just made staying in a hotel that much better. I have to admitt that the Marriott rocked. They may be on the bit expensive side but it was worth it. They took such good care of us. Also if you look at the photos, you can see there is a playpen in the middle of the room. We moved it there so we could fit the portable crib in there for Brooke. We put Kyle in the wooden crib. Steve coined the playpen, "thunder dome." We would put both kids in there and whatever toy Kyle had, Brooke would steal it from him. She'd be in there just stomping all over him. Poor guy. If that doesn't make him want to get up and crawl, I don't know what would.
Later on, we put a phone call into Ann & Dave today to see how they are doing. We are planning on walking down to their hotel later on today. Ann gives me a call back and apparently, Andrei has arranged for them to have a sitter so they can get some sleep. They have been having a time of it so Ann takes them up on the offer. I tell her to call me when she's up and ready for us to come down. We head down around a little before 4pm. It takes us about an hour to get there. The kids do really well in their carriers. Auntie Erin gave them some snow hats so we had to take a picture of them with them on for her.
We make it down to their hotel but it took us a little bit. We got a little bit detoured. It's really hard to read a map with street names that you can't read for the life of you. We stopped to ask some police/security men. They pointed and we figured we were headed in the right direction. As we were walking, these 2 grandma like ladies smiled at the children. I turned to them and waived hello from the kids. In English they ask if they are a boy and a girl. We say, "da." They smile and we continue our walk. We are still in our sweatshirts walking along. We pass a really great park with tons of people in it and kids playing on the equipment. Our kids are a little to young. It is still so funny for me to see people drinking beer out of bottles in the park or just plain walking down the streets.
We make it down to the Marriott Courtyard and Ann brings us up to the room. We brought them some more diapers and returned her mink hat that she bought and had forgotten in Orenburg. We stay and visit for an hour or so. They are in the process of packing up as they are leaving for home tomorrow. Still envious of this as we are STILL here until Wednesday. We let the kids play a bit and Dave is nice enough to let me have a cup of tea. This cold is still really kicking my ass. I'm sure running around in a sweatshirt doesn't help any but all the buildings are so hot and then walking around like a kangaroo with a baby in your pouch, well that keeps you warm too.
We take off for home a little after 6pm. We have only eaten breakfast today so we need to grab some dinner on the way home. We are hoping to stop at the McDonald's and eat super fast. We don't want to go and sit down anywhere. Not with the kids and especially not knowing if they will have highchairs. We are looking for fast. We spot the McDonald's and take a little look. I can't believe how much busier the streets are on this trip than the last. Then again, it's not snowing and -11C. It's also a Saturday night on Tyverskaya Street and the McDonald's is PACKED! We decided to do something else. From all of the reading that I did before hand, I found a gentleman who just loved this hot dog like stand. They are everywhere on the streets. If you look at it, it looks like Crapdogs. We make that executive decision and eat there. We sit down and eat on this side wall. Luckily, both kids are out asleep since they didn't really get much of an afternoon nap. We chow down so we can head back home before it gets much darker. We are back a little after 7pm and the kids are pretty tired. Kyle actually goes to bed at 7:30pm and Brooke goes down shortly after that. Steve is not far off from them and I stay up to update this blog. Guess I should get to bed and try and kick this cold. Wishing I would have brought more cold medicine and different types. WOW! What an exciting Saturday night we just had. The life of new parents! I can tell you that we are enjoying the heck out of it.
After breakfast, Steve asks me if I am interested in asking the hotel about the baby suite. We passed this room yesterday afternoon while we were on our way to ours and it said that above the door in wooden letters. I told him yes and he went down to check it out. We must be nuts. We have just sort of exploded in this room and now we're going to move down the hall. He comes back and tells me that it's awesome. The kids are napping so I tell him after they wake up we can move. I in the mean time, start stuffing crap back into our bags. We get all the stuff, the kids wake up and we move down the hall. I am amazed when I walk through the door. It's absolutely wonderful in there. I am so glad that Steve checked into it. Here are a few photos:
As you can see, this room just made staying in a hotel that much better. I have to admitt that the Marriott rocked. They may be on the bit expensive side but it was worth it. They took such good care of us. Also if you look at the photos, you can see there is a playpen in the middle of the room. We moved it there so we could fit the portable crib in there for Brooke. We put Kyle in the wooden crib. Steve coined the playpen, "thunder dome." We would put both kids in there and whatever toy Kyle had, Brooke would steal it from him. She'd be in there just stomping all over him. Poor guy. If that doesn't make him want to get up and crawl, I don't know what would.
Later on, we put a phone call into Ann & Dave today to see how they are doing. We are planning on walking down to their hotel later on today. Ann gives me a call back and apparently, Andrei has arranged for them to have a sitter so they can get some sleep. They have been having a time of it so Ann takes them up on the offer. I tell her to call me when she's up and ready for us to come down. We head down around a little before 4pm. It takes us about an hour to get there. The kids do really well in their carriers. Auntie Erin gave them some snow hats so we had to take a picture of them with them on for her.
We make it down to their hotel but it took us a little bit. We got a little bit detoured. It's really hard to read a map with street names that you can't read for the life of you. We stopped to ask some police/security men. They pointed and we figured we were headed in the right direction. As we were walking, these 2 grandma like ladies smiled at the children. I turned to them and waived hello from the kids. In English they ask if they are a boy and a girl. We say, "da." They smile and we continue our walk. We are still in our sweatshirts walking along. We pass a really great park with tons of people in it and kids playing on the equipment. Our kids are a little to young. It is still so funny for me to see people drinking beer out of bottles in the park or just plain walking down the streets.
We make it down to the Marriott Courtyard and Ann brings us up to the room. We brought them some more diapers and returned her mink hat that she bought and had forgotten in Orenburg. We stay and visit for an hour or so. They are in the process of packing up as they are leaving for home tomorrow. Still envious of this as we are STILL here until Wednesday. We let the kids play a bit and Dave is nice enough to let me have a cup of tea. This cold is still really kicking my ass. I'm sure running around in a sweatshirt doesn't help any but all the buildings are so hot and then walking around like a kangaroo with a baby in your pouch, well that keeps you warm too.
We take off for home a little after 6pm. We have only eaten breakfast today so we need to grab some dinner on the way home. We are hoping to stop at the McDonald's and eat super fast. We don't want to go and sit down anywhere. Not with the kids and especially not knowing if they will have highchairs. We are looking for fast. We spot the McDonald's and take a little look. I can't believe how much busier the streets are on this trip than the last. Then again, it's not snowing and -11C. It's also a Saturday night on Tyverskaya Street and the McDonald's is PACKED! We decided to do something else. From all of the reading that I did before hand, I found a gentleman who just loved this hot dog like stand. They are everywhere on the streets. If you look at it, it looks like Crapdogs. We make that executive decision and eat there. We sit down and eat on this side wall. Luckily, both kids are out asleep since they didn't really get much of an afternoon nap. We chow down so we can head back home before it gets much darker. We are back a little after 7pm and the kids are pretty tired. Kyle actually goes to bed at 7:30pm and Brooke goes down shortly after that. Steve is not far off from them and I stay up to update this blog. Guess I should get to bed and try and kick this cold. Wishing I would have brought more cold medicine and different types. WOW! What an exciting Saturday night we just had. The life of new parents! I can tell you that we are enjoying the heck out of it.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Holy Crap...this morning is an early morning. We got to bed around 9ish and I am not feeling so good with my cold/flu. The house has been hot the whole time and since I am a bit sick, I am freezing and actually get up to get a blanket. I also take some aspirin and some other cold crap. My stomach is in knots just thinking about traveling. At one point, I have myself sooooo worked up that I feel like I am going to barf. I am just sitting there telling myself to calm down. Jesus! I should have taken a Xanex instead of the cold crap!!! It feels like a very short night when the alarm goes off at 3am. I get up and start to get myself ready. Steve is up shortly after me. The kids are still asleep but as we start to move around and make noise, they start to stir and we decide to get them up and get them fed, changed and put into their travel clothes. They are pretty good about being up this early. They are doing better than me. Since we have been up and making noise, Yena and Nurija get up and start breakfast. They have been a super host family. Helpful but not overbearing. The first night that Kyle came, she told us that if we had a problem to come and knock on their door. I thought that was really sweet in her broken English. While we eat breakfast, she holds Kyle and Brooke stays in her playpen. Since Yena's car broke down yesterday, someone else has to come and pick us up. He shows up at 5am and we are on our way. The men get the luggage downstairs and I get the kids in their snowsuits. Once they are in them, we need to get them outside so they don't sweat to death. Steve comes back up, we put on our Ergo Baby Carriers and put the kids in them. We head downstairs and get in the car but not before saying our goodbyes. We take pictures of the kids with our host family and then we are on our way to the airport.
It's still dark outside and pretty foggy. I close my eyes and fall asleep on the way there. I wake up and we are at the airport. Our driver turns around and says something to us in Russian and I have no idea what he is saying and he doesn't say anything in English. Whatever. Anfisa is now opening the car door telling us that the flight has been delayed until 10am. it's now 5:30am. What do we do now? She tells us to stay there so we do. She comes back and tells us that we are going to get out. We pile out of the car and head toward the inside of the airport. We get our stuff through the first pass through security and meet another couple who was delayed in Orenburg as well. Ashley and Joe are from Florida and they were there on their first trip. We talk to them for a bit and then Anfisa tells me that she has arranged for us to have a separate room with the kids. That's fine by me. She scurries off somewhere and then returns to tell us that we will put our luggage with the airport. Steve gets the claim ticket and she tells us that the room is only for women. She looks at Ashley and says, "you are a woman Ashley, you can help her." She says she will but I just thought that was rather funny. Anfisa now takes me through the final security with the kids and Steve in tow. He comes through to see where we are located. We get ourselves situated and the room is just fine. there are 4 beds, a bathroom and we are set. We are not out there amongst the crowd and are able to kick back. The bad part is that i will be back here by myself. Steve goes out to get us some water so I'll be able to mix bottles. He comes back with 3 cold bottles and has to head out. It's just me and the kids now. I get us situated and comfortable. Both kids shortly into it decide they are hungry so I mix up some bottles. I am a bit worried seeing as I don't have any room temperature water. I mix up the bottles and Kyle takes his no problem. I swear I could have ice cubes in there and he would drink it. He is definitely not picky and will eat whatever is placed in front of him. I have both kids on beds and I am in between them. I have Kyle propped up on a pillow with a bottle in his mouth and Brooke on the other bed with a bottle in her mouth. I am on the floor in between the two. Boy, wish I could have had a picture of that! Kimmy, if you are reading this....you were right. You just do what you have to do! That's exactly what I did. I got Kyle to lay down and go back to sleep and then I layed down with Brooke and we took a little nap. Steve came back while we were napping to check on us to tell me that the plane has now been delayed until 12pm. Good god! We are never going to get out of here. Our only saving grace is that we are back here and not out there with everyone else. I lay back down with the kids and let them sleep. This is a picture of the room we were in.
Steve comes back for us at 11am. The kids are up by now so we decide to come out since I think we will be leaving in a hour. They are lining people up before the gate so we all go out there. Well, the crap part of it is that we stood in that line for over an hour. They finally let us go through and we have to have the kids' paperwork out as well as their passports. The security people are really nice with us since we are traveling with kids. He helps me with the backpack and motions to me that I don't have to take Brooke out of her carrier. Thank god! We are now back over on the side that me and the kids have been on the entire time. We wait in there for awhile and we continue to talk to Ashley and Joe. She tells me that she tried to come back and help me but they wouldn't let her through. I told her it was no big deal. I was able to sleep and so did the kids. As we are sitting there, Steve has Kyle in the carrier. Kyle is teething and will chew on anything that we give him or anything that comes close to his mouth! So needless to say, Kyle is chewing on the strap of the baby carrier. This Russian woman gets up out of her seat, walks over to Steve and tells him that Kyle needs to eat and he needs to feed him. I about come unglued! Are you kidding me?! Ashely looks at me and tells me that it was pretty ballsy! This woman then continues to give us F.you looks and glaring at us. I am running on little sleep and decide I'd better get up out of my seat before I go completely postal on this woman and get myself kicked out of the airport. Ashely decides to stare her back down for me. I like this gal already! We are not in this area long. Maybe an hour. All of a sudden, they say Moscow and everyone gets up and starts to leave for the plane. Steve has gone back into the back room so he can change Kyle. EEKS! We are leaving and what is he doing. He's been back there for awhile. I start to pack up and Joe and Ashley are right there to help. Thank god for nice people! I tell Steve that I am not putting the kids int their snowsuits to walk 200 yards. I'm sure if the Russian woman who gave us her unwanted opinion before sees us, she's going to have a hay day. Oh well. We wrap our sweatshirts around them and put their hats on and head toward the plane. We are waived to the front of the line. Whoo Hoo. gotta love traveling with kids! We get up into the plane and get situated in our seats. This is going to be fun. The seats are super close together and we have kids in our laps. So far so good although, Brooke has started to fuss a bit. Crap. We are already in our seats and the plane is taxing toward the runway. We can't get up to get her a bottle. Oh crap! The plane starts to take off and her eyes are like saucers! It's pretty cute. Thankfully, Ashley and Joe are in front of us and Joe's in on an aisle seat. Once up in the air, we have him grab out backpack and Steve and I get a bottle made. Whew! The entire flight wasn't too bad. Brooke starts to get a bit restless right before our decent. I am cooked so Steve takes over. We finally land and let everyone else get off first so we can take our time. We are the last ones off. That's fine. Once off the plane, we head toward baggage claim to get our luggage. Once through that hurdle, there is a translator waiting for us with our name on a sign. We walk to her and she greets us. She asks if we need anything and we tell he we are good to go. We changed the kids on the floor of baggage claim off in a corner so all is good. Steve hits the bathroom though before we head out. I ask the gal if we will be going to the doctor this afternoon. She shakes her head no and that we will not be going until Monday. I just look at her and ask, "does this mean we won't be leaving now until Wednesday." She shakes her head and says yes. I just feel deflated. Since we left so late out of Orenburg, we wont make it in time and we can't do the doctor and the embassy in one day. Great. More plane changes! Oh well. What can we do at this point. I do however feel like we are NEVER going to get out of here. We gather up our belongings, put the kids in their snowsuits and head towards the hotel. Steve and I have been up since 3am. We are tired and just want to relax and get settled. The driver picks us up and we are in a van type car and not a little Lada. We get in and head to the Marriott Tyverskaya. Their comfortable bed can not come fast enough. It takes us probably about an hour to get there. You gotta love how they drive though. Traffic is crazy and it's a go 100mph and then slam on the brakes. For those of you who don't know this, Russia does not use car seats. We have 2 9 month old children on our laps in this traffic. After the 2nd or 3rd major slam of the brakes, I look at the translator and tell her we have 2 small children in the car and he needs to be careful. I stop really jolted the crap out of us! At last we arrive at the hotel. Steve gets us checked in and the beauty of it is that they have us in a junior suite for the same price as the other room we were going to have. Pretty nice. We get up to the room and request 2 cribs for the kids. We get unpacked and situated and let the kids explore. Well, Kyle just checks it out and Brooke takes off all over the place. The extra space is really nice. We are so exhausted that we decide to just stay in tonight and order room service which is an arm and a leg. We contact the Westovers who are also staying at the hotel. They have just returned from the Embassy and they are headed home tomorrow. Bummer...so should we. Christina pops down a little later to drop off some extra food and to tell us where the grocery store is at. Very nice. We wish her a safe travel home and to email us when she gets there. We get the kids to bed and then I crawl into bed around 8:30pm. It doesn't take me long to pass out completely. I wake at one point and hear Steve on the phone. I roll over and go back to sleep. I am cooked and need to sleep and the bed feels like heaven after that pull out sofa for 4 days. Another day down but I still don't feel like we are any closer to home. We will have the weekend to ourselves to do whatever. The weather is pretty good and we are still not needing our winter jackets. We are still only wearing sweatshirts and doing just fine.
It's still dark outside and pretty foggy. I close my eyes and fall asleep on the way there. I wake up and we are at the airport. Our driver turns around and says something to us in Russian and I have no idea what he is saying and he doesn't say anything in English. Whatever. Anfisa is now opening the car door telling us that the flight has been delayed until 10am. it's now 5:30am. What do we do now? She tells us to stay there so we do. She comes back and tells us that we are going to get out. We pile out of the car and head toward the inside of the airport. We get our stuff through the first pass through security and meet another couple who was delayed in Orenburg as well. Ashley and Joe are from Florida and they were there on their first trip. We talk to them for a bit and then Anfisa tells me that she has arranged for us to have a separate room with the kids. That's fine by me. She scurries off somewhere and then returns to tell us that we will put our luggage with the airport. Steve gets the claim ticket and she tells us that the room is only for women. She looks at Ashley and says, "you are a woman Ashley, you can help her." She says she will but I just thought that was rather funny. Anfisa now takes me through the final security with the kids and Steve in tow. He comes through to see where we are located. We get ourselves situated and the room is just fine. there are 4 beds, a bathroom and we are set. We are not out there amongst the crowd and are able to kick back. The bad part is that i will be back here by myself. Steve goes out to get us some water so I'll be able to mix bottles. He comes back with 3 cold bottles and has to head out. It's just me and the kids now. I get us situated and comfortable. Both kids shortly into it decide they are hungry so I mix up some bottles. I am a bit worried seeing as I don't have any room temperature water. I mix up the bottles and Kyle takes his no problem. I swear I could have ice cubes in there and he would drink it. He is definitely not picky and will eat whatever is placed in front of him. I have both kids on beds and I am in between them. I have Kyle propped up on a pillow with a bottle in his mouth and Brooke on the other bed with a bottle in her mouth. I am on the floor in between the two. Boy, wish I could have had a picture of that! Kimmy, if you are reading this....you were right. You just do what you have to do! That's exactly what I did. I got Kyle to lay down and go back to sleep and then I layed down with Brooke and we took a little nap. Steve came back while we were napping to check on us to tell me that the plane has now been delayed until 12pm. Good god! We are never going to get out of here. Our only saving grace is that we are back here and not out there with everyone else. I lay back down with the kids and let them sleep. This is a picture of the room we were in.
Steve comes back for us at 11am. The kids are up by now so we decide to come out since I think we will be leaving in a hour. They are lining people up before the gate so we all go out there. Well, the crap part of it is that we stood in that line for over an hour. They finally let us go through and we have to have the kids' paperwork out as well as their passports. The security people are really nice with us since we are traveling with kids. He helps me with the backpack and motions to me that I don't have to take Brooke out of her carrier. Thank god! We are now back over on the side that me and the kids have been on the entire time. We wait in there for awhile and we continue to talk to Ashley and Joe. She tells me that she tried to come back and help me but they wouldn't let her through. I told her it was no big deal. I was able to sleep and so did the kids. As we are sitting there, Steve has Kyle in the carrier. Kyle is teething and will chew on anything that we give him or anything that comes close to his mouth! So needless to say, Kyle is chewing on the strap of the baby carrier. This Russian woman gets up out of her seat, walks over to Steve and tells him that Kyle needs to eat and he needs to feed him. I about come unglued! Are you kidding me?! Ashely looks at me and tells me that it was pretty ballsy! This woman then continues to give us F.you looks and glaring at us. I am running on little sleep and decide I'd better get up out of my seat before I go completely postal on this woman and get myself kicked out of the airport. Ashely decides to stare her back down for me. I like this gal already! We are not in this area long. Maybe an hour. All of a sudden, they say Moscow and everyone gets up and starts to leave for the plane. Steve has gone back into the back room so he can change Kyle. EEKS! We are leaving and what is he doing. He's been back there for awhile. I start to pack up and Joe and Ashley are right there to help. Thank god for nice people! I tell Steve that I am not putting the kids int their snowsuits to walk 200 yards. I'm sure if the Russian woman who gave us her unwanted opinion before sees us, she's going to have a hay day. Oh well. We wrap our sweatshirts around them and put their hats on and head toward the plane. We are waived to the front of the line. Whoo Hoo. gotta love traveling with kids! We get up into the plane and get situated in our seats. This is going to be fun. The seats are super close together and we have kids in our laps. So far so good although, Brooke has started to fuss a bit. Crap. We are already in our seats and the plane is taxing toward the runway. We can't get up to get her a bottle. Oh crap! The plane starts to take off and her eyes are like saucers! It's pretty cute. Thankfully, Ashley and Joe are in front of us and Joe's in on an aisle seat. Once up in the air, we have him grab out backpack and Steve and I get a bottle made. Whew! The entire flight wasn't too bad. Brooke starts to get a bit restless right before our decent. I am cooked so Steve takes over. We finally land and let everyone else get off first so we can take our time. We are the last ones off. That's fine. Once off the plane, we head toward baggage claim to get our luggage. Once through that hurdle, there is a translator waiting for us with our name on a sign. We walk to her and she greets us. She asks if we need anything and we tell he we are good to go. We changed the kids on the floor of baggage claim off in a corner so all is good. Steve hits the bathroom though before we head out. I ask the gal if we will be going to the doctor this afternoon. She shakes her head no and that we will not be going until Monday. I just look at her and ask, "does this mean we won't be leaving now until Wednesday." She shakes her head and says yes. I just feel deflated. Since we left so late out of Orenburg, we wont make it in time and we can't do the doctor and the embassy in one day. Great. More plane changes! Oh well. What can we do at this point. I do however feel like we are NEVER going to get out of here. We gather up our belongings, put the kids in their snowsuits and head towards the hotel. Steve and I have been up since 3am. We are tired and just want to relax and get settled. The driver picks us up and we are in a van type car and not a little Lada. We get in and head to the Marriott Tyverskaya. Their comfortable bed can not come fast enough. It takes us probably about an hour to get there. You gotta love how they drive though. Traffic is crazy and it's a go 100mph and then slam on the brakes. For those of you who don't know this, Russia does not use car seats. We have 2 9 month old children on our laps in this traffic. After the 2nd or 3rd major slam of the brakes, I look at the translator and tell her we have 2 small children in the car and he needs to be careful. I stop really jolted the crap out of us! At last we arrive at the hotel. Steve gets us checked in and the beauty of it is that they have us in a junior suite for the same price as the other room we were going to have. Pretty nice. We get up to the room and request 2 cribs for the kids. We get unpacked and situated and let the kids explore. Well, Kyle just checks it out and Brooke takes off all over the place. The extra space is really nice. We are so exhausted that we decide to just stay in tonight and order room service which is an arm and a leg. We contact the Westovers who are also staying at the hotel. They have just returned from the Embassy and they are headed home tomorrow. Bummer...so should we. Christina pops down a little later to drop off some extra food and to tell us where the grocery store is at. Very nice. We wish her a safe travel home and to email us when she gets there. We get the kids to bed and then I crawl into bed around 8:30pm. It doesn't take me long to pass out completely. I wake at one point and hear Steve on the phone. I roll over and go back to sleep. I am cooked and need to sleep and the bed feels like heaven after that pull out sofa for 4 days. Another day down but I still don't feel like we are any closer to home. We will have the weekend to ourselves to do whatever. The weather is pretty good and we are still not needing our winter jackets. We are still only wearing sweatshirts and doing just fine.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
I am happy to report that both kids slept through the night although both parents still woke up at around 3am. Oh well. We just sit in bed and are in awe that we have 2 kids sleeping near us that we can call our own. It all seems a bit strange still. Things are going well with the kids and we aren't having any major problems. This is a good thing.
We start our day again around 5:30am with the kids and play on the floor with them. Same toys although Kyle has his own set so we have a total of 6. Didn't have room in the suitcase for anymore stuff. We have some breakfast and drink our instant coffee and just sort of hang out for the day. We will pack our things up today as we will be leaving for Moscow tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn. Steve and I decide to take both of the kids on this little shopping excursion to get them used to the carriers that I brought for them. We'll make it our test run before we slam them in them tomorrow for an extended period. Yena tells us that we will leave at 11am to go shopping. We start to get ourselves ready and move in that direction. Yena has to leave to run an errand but will be back. I get in the shower to get ready while Steve has the kids. After I get out and get dressed, I decide to call my dad to see if he can help us get our plane tickets changed to Tuesday. Yena had told us that we could use their phone but to see how many minutes we used. Fine by me. As long as I can figure out how to call. I pick up the phone and dial home. My dad answers the phone and I am all business. Poor guy. I tell him to get a pen and get ready to write as I am calling from their phone and need his help. I give him the low down briefly. He asks me how things are and I hit the wall. I just lose it and start to bawl. I just don't know if it was that I was talking to my dad or if it was just that I could talk to someone in the states and feel a little bit of home. I am sure I was just on emotion overload and was just DONE. Stick a fork in me and turn me over. I am ready to get out of here. Steve sees me crying and is in the other room with the kids. I am glad they are in there as I don't want them to see me. I don't want them to be upset. Dad tells me he'll get right on it with our plane stuff and I tell him that we'll be OK. He wants us home as much as we do. I hang up the phome and Steve gives me a hug. I lose it again. I tell him that I am going to stay here with the kids and he is going to go out by himself and get the supplies that we need. Both kids are sort of fussy right now and they are about to go down for a nap. Steve is fine with this and he continues to get ready.
Yena returns home and is ready to pick us up. The phone rings and Yena tells Steve that it's Sergei on the phone. He was one of our translators from our first trip who we enoyed so much. He is also Anfisa's son. He informs Steve that the blood work test came back and it is good news. We ask if this means we can get home sooner. No dice. We're still going to leave on Tuesday. Oh well! It was worth a shot. Sergei tells Steve that he will be coming with him today on the excursion. That will be nice. Yena speaks darn little English and we need to find diapers and formula.
Yena and Steve head out the door and I stay behind with the kids. They both go down for a nap and I go to the other room where there is a window cracked and sit on the sofa. I catch up a little bit on my journaling and just get some down time. There is not much else to do since the power has gone out. Yup. No electricity.
Steve, Sergei and Yena come back around 2 or so and we all have some lunch. It is nice to see Sergei again. We brought him some LA County Fire TShirts and a DVD movie. He also has gifts for us which are related to Orenburg. Lunch that Yena made was really awesome. We each had our own individual ceramics pots and they were filled with chicken, potatoes and onion. It was all baked in the oven. It was really good. Oh, and of course we also had bread! Can't forget the bread.
After lunch, the guys take off again. This time Sergei is going to take Steve to the fire department and to the fire museum. I hand Steve the camera and bid them goodbye. The kids and I settle in to some more play time together. I actually try to sneek in a little nap buy Kyle has other plans. Brooke goes down for hers but Kyle is not having anything to do with it. So we just sort of sit together on the bed and wait for everyone to come home.
Steve comes home awhile later and tells me that the trip was cut short when Yena's car broke down. Fortunately they were right in front of the fire department. They were able to go there and to go the the museum. The museum trip was cut short when Anfisa said there was another car on the way to pick them up and take them back. Steve was able to get a few pictures in a the museum before heading out in addition to being taken on the tour by the director himself. They piled him high with little trinkets and stuff that we will put in Kyle's fireman's room.
Now that Steve is home, our job is to pack up all of our crap into the suitcases and get ready for our trip back to Moscow tomorrow. I am a bundle of nerves just thinking about traveling with 2 new kids. We get to work and put all of our stuff together. It's going to be an early morning. I have plans of waking at 3am even after showering tonight. I don't know how long it will take me to get ready in addition to 2 kids. Whoo Hoo. We are 1 day closer to coming home.
We start our day again around 5:30am with the kids and play on the floor with them. Same toys although Kyle has his own set so we have a total of 6. Didn't have room in the suitcase for anymore stuff. We have some breakfast and drink our instant coffee and just sort of hang out for the day. We will pack our things up today as we will be leaving for Moscow tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn. Steve and I decide to take both of the kids on this little shopping excursion to get them used to the carriers that I brought for them. We'll make it our test run before we slam them in them tomorrow for an extended period. Yena tells us that we will leave at 11am to go shopping. We start to get ourselves ready and move in that direction. Yena has to leave to run an errand but will be back. I get in the shower to get ready while Steve has the kids. After I get out and get dressed, I decide to call my dad to see if he can help us get our plane tickets changed to Tuesday. Yena had told us that we could use their phone but to see how many minutes we used. Fine by me. As long as I can figure out how to call. I pick up the phone and dial home. My dad answers the phone and I am all business. Poor guy. I tell him to get a pen and get ready to write as I am calling from their phone and need his help. I give him the low down briefly. He asks me how things are and I hit the wall. I just lose it and start to bawl. I just don't know if it was that I was talking to my dad or if it was just that I could talk to someone in the states and feel a little bit of home. I am sure I was just on emotion overload and was just DONE. Stick a fork in me and turn me over. I am ready to get out of here. Steve sees me crying and is in the other room with the kids. I am glad they are in there as I don't want them to see me. I don't want them to be upset. Dad tells me he'll get right on it with our plane stuff and I tell him that we'll be OK. He wants us home as much as we do. I hang up the phome and Steve gives me a hug. I lose it again. I tell him that I am going to stay here with the kids and he is going to go out by himself and get the supplies that we need. Both kids are sort of fussy right now and they are about to go down for a nap. Steve is fine with this and he continues to get ready.
Yena returns home and is ready to pick us up. The phone rings and Yena tells Steve that it's Sergei on the phone. He was one of our translators from our first trip who we enoyed so much. He is also Anfisa's son. He informs Steve that the blood work test came back and it is good news. We ask if this means we can get home sooner. No dice. We're still going to leave on Tuesday. Oh well! It was worth a shot. Sergei tells Steve that he will be coming with him today on the excursion. That will be nice. Yena speaks darn little English and we need to find diapers and formula.
Yena and Steve head out the door and I stay behind with the kids. They both go down for a nap and I go to the other room where there is a window cracked and sit on the sofa. I catch up a little bit on my journaling and just get some down time. There is not much else to do since the power has gone out. Yup. No electricity.
Steve, Sergei and Yena come back around 2 or so and we all have some lunch. It is nice to see Sergei again. We brought him some LA County Fire TShirts and a DVD movie. He also has gifts for us which are related to Orenburg. Lunch that Yena made was really awesome. We each had our own individual ceramics pots and they were filled with chicken, potatoes and onion. It was all baked in the oven. It was really good. Oh, and of course we also had bread! Can't forget the bread.
After lunch, the guys take off again. This time Sergei is going to take Steve to the fire department and to the fire museum. I hand Steve the camera and bid them goodbye. The kids and I settle in to some more play time together. I actually try to sneek in a little nap buy Kyle has other plans. Brooke goes down for hers but Kyle is not having anything to do with it. So we just sort of sit together on the bed and wait for everyone to come home.
Steve comes home awhile later and tells me that the trip was cut short when Yena's car broke down. Fortunately they were right in front of the fire department. They were able to go there and to go the the museum. The museum trip was cut short when Anfisa said there was another car on the way to pick them up and take them back. Steve was able to get a few pictures in a the museum before heading out in addition to being taken on the tour by the director himself. They piled him high with little trinkets and stuff that we will put in Kyle's fireman's room.
Now that Steve is home, our job is to pack up all of our crap into the suitcases and get ready for our trip back to Moscow tomorrow. I am a bundle of nerves just thinking about traveling with 2 new kids. We get to work and put all of our stuff together. It's going to be an early morning. I have plans of waking at 3am even after showering tonight. I don't know how long it will take me to get ready in addition to 2 kids. Whoo Hoo. We are 1 day closer to coming home.
Meet the Newest Members of Our Family!
Now that it is official, court is done and these two beautiful babies are ours, I can post their pictures to this blog. So without further adue, here we are!
The picture is taken in our host famiily's home in our room. I look a bit out of it but hey, I now have 2 kids and am trying to deal with this jet lag. i have also caught a cold and it has hit my chest. Funny, the last time I was in Russia I got sick too. I don't know if it's the kids who are both sick or just the weather. It could also be the fact that we sweat our asses off in the house and then go outside. Who knows. Perhaps the sunny California weather will dry us all up...if we can ever get there.
The picture is taken in our host famiily's home in our room. I look a bit out of it but hey, I now have 2 kids and am trying to deal with this jet lag. i have also caught a cold and it has hit my chest. Funny, the last time I was in Russia I got sick too. I don't know if it's the kids who are both sick or just the weather. It could also be the fact that we sweat our asses off in the house and then go outside. Who knows. Perhaps the sunny California weather will dry us all up...if we can ever get there.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Today is an early morning as Brooke gets up around 5:30am. This is not bad and I am excited that we slept through the night. She had a moment though that she let out one little wail and then went quiet. Still though, we both sat up in bed and were ready to rock and roll. We've got our "parent mojo" going on! We sit with her on the floor and play for awile until everyone else is up. We don't really have anything on tap for today. All I know is that we have to hit the passport office today to pick up both of the kids' passports. Somehow Kyle had his picture taken in Orsk. Andrei showed it to me while we were at the court house yesterday. I sort of freaked out because it didn't look like him. He turned the picture over and showed me the last name. I made Steve go out to the car and get his picture so we could compare. That's just what I wanted was for them to bring me the wrong kid! But the way things are going, who knows! Anyhow, Steve and I take shifts at breakfast. Nurija offers to hold the baby but we tell her it's fine. We can take shifts.
We spend the rest of the morning just sort of hanging out. Russlan and Nurija leave for work and Yena leaves because he has to drive someome somewhere. We have the house to ourself. Steve had asked Russlan if he could use his computer since it has the internet. Some type of civilization and a way to comunicate to the outside world. It's only dial up but that will have to do. We are concerned since we have to rearrange our hotel and flight home from our delay. I stay with Brooke while Steve is on the computer. She is getting tired and it's time for her nap. I am over the moon when she allows me to cradle her and rock her to sleep!!! May not sound like a big thing but when you go from her being afraid of you to letting you rock her to sleep, that was major for me.
The day sort of slides by and there isn't much to do. We are sort of couped up in the house. Plus, I don't really feel comfortable leaving and walking around the neighborhood. I have no idea what type of neighborhood we are in. Plus when they left, they told us not to answer the door. Yena comes back later in the afternoon to feed us lunch. I do have to admit, the food has been a pleasant surprise. We have had some soups for lunch, of course bread, and also this ravioli type of stuff called Permini. The only thing I really didn't eat was this red cabbage stuff. I haven't gone hungry that's for sure. I do think though that it might be awhile before I want to eat bread and cheese again for awhile.
Around 4ish, Yena tells us that we're off to the passport office. I am in the process of getting Brooke ready when Yena tells me, "only Steve." That's fine with me. I don't really feel like dragging Brooke out anyway plus we have to bundle her up so much. They leave and I am now at the house just me and my daughter. Again, nothing to do! We play on the floor but we don't really have that many toys. Just a pair of plastic keys, a stuffed Hippo and a chew toy which by the way, on her first night home, she didn't let go of it. We play and wait for Kyle to show up. Nurija comes home from work and I can hear her in there preparing dinner. After a bit, she goes to the TV room to watch TV when I hear her at our door and she says to me, "BABY." This must mean Kyle is here. I pick up Brooke and put her in her crib/bed/playpen. The nurse comes through the door and hands Kyle to me. Nurija and the nurse look at me and say, "clothes." This means I have to take off his clothes and give them back to the nurse. I already knew this. He is bundled 6 different ways from Sunday and is completely soaked in sweat and stink too from it. Poor little guy. He is 100 degrees. It literally takes me 5 minutes to undress him. He actually has on 2 hats! You would think that the way the bundle these kids up that it's 30 below 0. We have been walking around the entire time with sweatshirts on. It's just not that cold. There is still snow on the ground but it's all melting and fast and the street are lakes! So, I am almost done undressing Kyle when the nurse comes back and tells me, "eat." This means I have to feed him. Geez lady, give me a break. I'm still trying to get all of these clothes off of him. I get them off and get him dressed into the clothes I have for him. They are all WAY too big. All of the clothes I have for both kids are way to big. The measurements that they gave to me were off or just plain wrong. Kyle should be in 6 month clothes and Brooke should be in around 9 month clothes. Anyhow, I get his clothes on and get his bottle made. Once he sees the food, he goes nuts. He gulps his down the same way Brooke did when we feed her in the orphanage. It doesn't take me long to figure out that he needs a slower nipple on his bottle. We manage just fine though until it's gone. The nurse leaves and I am there by myself with TWO kids. EEKS! After about an hour or so, I am starting to wonder where the heck Steve and Yena are. I could really use some help/relief or just some moral support. Shortly thereafter, they both come walking through the dooor and daddy gets to see his little boy again! We play in the room for awhile until dinner is ready. When it's time to eat, we put both of them in their cribs and are able to sit down to eat. Of course I get up 10 different times to peek my head in to see how they are doing. Already the nervous nelly mom!! The rest of the evening slides by without much else going on besides us enjoying our children. Bedtime is pretty uneventful and they both go to sleep pretty easily. We are hoping both kids will sleep through the night again. More than that, Steve and I are hoping that WE will sleep through the night. The jet lag has hit us and we are waking up around 3am and are up from then on out. At least it's the jet lag and not a screaming child.
Well that's it for this day. Not much is on tap for tomorrow. The other couples that are traveling with us will leave tomorrow and head back to Moscow. I am very envious and wish it cold be us. We will stay here and wait for the blood test results to come back. We were told that Yena will take us shopping tomorrow so we can buy more diapers and formula since our trip will now be extended. So, we'll just keep rolling with the punches and see what tomorrow brings.
We spend the rest of the morning just sort of hanging out. Russlan and Nurija leave for work and Yena leaves because he has to drive someome somewhere. We have the house to ourself. Steve had asked Russlan if he could use his computer since it has the internet. Some type of civilization and a way to comunicate to the outside world. It's only dial up but that will have to do. We are concerned since we have to rearrange our hotel and flight home from our delay. I stay with Brooke while Steve is on the computer. She is getting tired and it's time for her nap. I am over the moon when she allows me to cradle her and rock her to sleep!!! May not sound like a big thing but when you go from her being afraid of you to letting you rock her to sleep, that was major for me.
The day sort of slides by and there isn't much to do. We are sort of couped up in the house. Plus, I don't really feel comfortable leaving and walking around the neighborhood. I have no idea what type of neighborhood we are in. Plus when they left, they told us not to answer the door. Yena comes back later in the afternoon to feed us lunch. I do have to admit, the food has been a pleasant surprise. We have had some soups for lunch, of course bread, and also this ravioli type of stuff called Permini. The only thing I really didn't eat was this red cabbage stuff. I haven't gone hungry that's for sure. I do think though that it might be awhile before I want to eat bread and cheese again for awhile.
Around 4ish, Yena tells us that we're off to the passport office. I am in the process of getting Brooke ready when Yena tells me, "only Steve." That's fine with me. I don't really feel like dragging Brooke out anyway plus we have to bundle her up so much. They leave and I am now at the house just me and my daughter. Again, nothing to do! We play on the floor but we don't really have that many toys. Just a pair of plastic keys, a stuffed Hippo and a chew toy which by the way, on her first night home, she didn't let go of it. We play and wait for Kyle to show up. Nurija comes home from work and I can hear her in there preparing dinner. After a bit, she goes to the TV room to watch TV when I hear her at our door and she says to me, "BABY." This must mean Kyle is here. I pick up Brooke and put her in her crib/bed/playpen. The nurse comes through the door and hands Kyle to me. Nurija and the nurse look at me and say, "clothes." This means I have to take off his clothes and give them back to the nurse. I already knew this. He is bundled 6 different ways from Sunday and is completely soaked in sweat and stink too from it. Poor little guy. He is 100 degrees. It literally takes me 5 minutes to undress him. He actually has on 2 hats! You would think that the way the bundle these kids up that it's 30 below 0. We have been walking around the entire time with sweatshirts on. It's just not that cold. There is still snow on the ground but it's all melting and fast and the street are lakes! So, I am almost done undressing Kyle when the nurse comes back and tells me, "eat." This means I have to feed him. Geez lady, give me a break. I'm still trying to get all of these clothes off of him. I get them off and get him dressed into the clothes I have for him. They are all WAY too big. All of the clothes I have for both kids are way to big. The measurements that they gave to me were off or just plain wrong. Kyle should be in 6 month clothes and Brooke should be in around 9 month clothes. Anyhow, I get his clothes on and get his bottle made. Once he sees the food, he goes nuts. He gulps his down the same way Brooke did when we feed her in the orphanage. It doesn't take me long to figure out that he needs a slower nipple on his bottle. We manage just fine though until it's gone. The nurse leaves and I am there by myself with TWO kids. EEKS! After about an hour or so, I am starting to wonder where the heck Steve and Yena are. I could really use some help/relief or just some moral support. Shortly thereafter, they both come walking through the dooor and daddy gets to see his little boy again! We play in the room for awhile until dinner is ready. When it's time to eat, we put both of them in their cribs and are able to sit down to eat. Of course I get up 10 different times to peek my head in to see how they are doing. Already the nervous nelly mom!! The rest of the evening slides by without much else going on besides us enjoying our children. Bedtime is pretty uneventful and they both go to sleep pretty easily. We are hoping both kids will sleep through the night again. More than that, Steve and I are hoping that WE will sleep through the night. The jet lag has hit us and we are waking up around 3am and are up from then on out. At least it's the jet lag and not a screaming child.
Well that's it for this day. Not much is on tap for tomorrow. The other couples that are traveling with us will leave tomorrow and head back to Moscow. I am very envious and wish it cold be us. We will stay here and wait for the blood test results to come back. We were told that Yena will take us shopping tomorrow so we can buy more diapers and formula since our trip will now be extended. So, we'll just keep rolling with the punches and see what tomorrow brings.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - GOTCHA DAY!
Court is this morning at 10am. We are first up out of the 3 couples. I get up early so I can get ready and also pack our diaper bag. We are supposed to go to the baby home after court to be able to pick up Brooke and finally break her free. We leave for the court house a little after 9am. We hit the court house and walk upstairs. We are pretty on time when it starts. There is a total of 8 of us in there which consists of Steve and I, the translator Anfisa, the court recorder (who by the way in writing everything down on a piece of paper!), the judge (who is a man, very uncommon in Russia as I hear), the prosecutor and a rep from each baby home. We are in there for a little over an hour. It was actually pretty boring. The judge went through our dossier reading every document, reading us our rights, blah blah blah. All the same questions we were prepared for. Nothing was a surprise. Although us being in there that long was a surprise. I thought we'd be done in 30 minutes. With us running behind, I knew the others would be late as well. After everyone has said their peace, the judge leaves to go and make his decision. Right before he left, he asked Steve and I if we had anything else to say. He stood us up one at a time. Me being the idiot almost started to cry. I told him what a gift he was giving us. He said something back in Russian and everyone laughed with the exception of Steve and I as we didn't understand. I actually asked, OK everyone is laughing, what gives. Anfisa told me that the judge stated that he hadn't made his decision yet. OK, get me on a technicality! He leaves and it back in 10 minutes. We are able to walk out for a minute and get some cooler air. The court room was getting a bit warm. Ann and Dave are outside and greet us. They figure we are done. We tell them we have to wait a little bit more. The judge comes back and again reads a long big schpiel. Let's just get to the verdict. He finally gives it and we are DONE! The kids are ours and the 10 days is waived. We come out and now John and Christina have arrived. We all hug and fill them in on what will happen.
The bad part of this day is that we wait for the other couples to finish court before we can go get our baby girl. I ask Andrei when we can go and he says 2pm. EEKS! I am dying here. He says we have to wait for the court documents which are the "short" version. The official ones will be ready tomorrow. As we are waiting, we are trying to fihd out more info. We still don't know yet when we are leaving out of Orenburg and we have also heard that not all of the children will be coming from Orsk. We have heard that only 2 will be coming. They tell us because there is only one nurse, they can only bring 2 babies. Well, then get another nurse and car for Christ Sake!!! We get some of the answers and find out that we won't get Kyle until Wednesday but the time is still up in the air. Like I stated before, we are on a need to know basis and we just don't need to know anything. This is really just getting annoying. Can't SOMEONE just tell us how things are going to go.
After standing around the court house literally all day, we take off for some unknown destination. We find out that we are going to some other office building to do some paperwork ane then from there, we will be off to another building. I am really starting to get tired and I have to have my "A" game on when we pick up Brooke. While we are waiting for our paperwork, I sit in this chair and close my eyes. Andrei walks in and I ask Anfisa where Ann and Dave are. She tells us that Andrei has power of attorney for them so they don't have to be there. I look a little dumbfounded as we also had that. You know, it was one of 100 documents that we had to have notarized, authenticated and apostilled, sent to Russia to be translated, etc. Anyhow, we finally have the documents and can hit the road. I ask Andrei again, when we can go to the baby home. He now says 4pm. Good god. We had court at 10am. Like I said, we finally leave and head to the baby home. I have my change of clothes for her and her snowsuit. We again walk through the doors at the orphanage and go to the same room we have gone to the last few times. A worker comes in and wants the clothes she is going to be changed into along with a diaper. I hand them over and about less than 5 minutes later, Brooke comes through the door in her new clothes. They hand her over to me and of course, she starts to cry again. I feel so bad that we scare her and everything is just going crazy for her. Anfisa tells us that we will go and she will go through her schedule with us at the apartment. We quickly get her dressed in her snowsuit which is about 10 times to big but we make it work and we head out to the car. It's about a 20-25 minutes drive and she has finally calmed down a bit but is in a little bit of shock. We take her upstairs once we get there and get the snowsuit off. We set her on the floor and let her play with some toys that we have brought for her. Little by little we try to get close to her but it makes her cry. This is just breaking my heart. yena that morning had set up both playpen beds for the kids. We put her in oce of them and she really seems to like it in there. i am sure it is something she is very used to. Again, every time we get close to the crib thing, she starts to cry. We just sit in there and watch her.
We sit down and eat with the host family again and Andrei and Anfisa show up. At this point, this is not a good thing to see them walk through the door. I let Steve deal with it as I want to be with Brooke. he is trying to nail down this blood test that she had to have and if we really need it in order to get to the Embassy. Trying to get a straight answer out of him is like trying to nail jello to the wall. I hear Steve asking if he is 100% sure that if we get this blood test done that we will not have a problem at the embassy. Again, no straight answer. Whatever. i just have to hope at this point that we have heard from our agency and they said it was a go so I am going to put my faith and trust in them. Toward the end of the conversation, I walk over to the crib and Brooke allows me to pick her up. YEAH! It's the little things in life. Andrei and Anfisa leave and it's about 9pm. We get Brooke fed and put down for the night. She goes down pretty easily without much of a fight. We decide to go to bed as well as we don't know what the night will bring. What a hell of a last couple of days. I will really be ready when this is over and we are back home again. I like the host family house that we are staying in but it is HOT HOT HOT. I needed to have shorts and a tank top. They have radiators throughout the house and they can not control them. I read somewhere once that they are turned on in October and turned off at the end of March. Even the family has shorts that they walk around in. Oh well, we are making due! Key words here is ADAPT!
That is it for our Tuesday. We have our daughter and that is all that matters to me and yesterday can go down as a nightmare that we will put behind us.
The bad part of this day is that we wait for the other couples to finish court before we can go get our baby girl. I ask Andrei when we can go and he says 2pm. EEKS! I am dying here. He says we have to wait for the court documents which are the "short" version. The official ones will be ready tomorrow. As we are waiting, we are trying to fihd out more info. We still don't know yet when we are leaving out of Orenburg and we have also heard that not all of the children will be coming from Orsk. We have heard that only 2 will be coming. They tell us because there is only one nurse, they can only bring 2 babies. Well, then get another nurse and car for Christ Sake!!! We get some of the answers and find out that we won't get Kyle until Wednesday but the time is still up in the air. Like I stated before, we are on a need to know basis and we just don't need to know anything. This is really just getting annoying. Can't SOMEONE just tell us how things are going to go.
After standing around the court house literally all day, we take off for some unknown destination. We find out that we are going to some other office building to do some paperwork ane then from there, we will be off to another building. I am really starting to get tired and I have to have my "A" game on when we pick up Brooke. While we are waiting for our paperwork, I sit in this chair and close my eyes. Andrei walks in and I ask Anfisa where Ann and Dave are. She tells us that Andrei has power of attorney for them so they don't have to be there. I look a little dumbfounded as we also had that. You know, it was one of 100 documents that we had to have notarized, authenticated and apostilled, sent to Russia to be translated, etc. Anyhow, we finally have the documents and can hit the road. I ask Andrei again, when we can go to the baby home. He now says 4pm. Good god. We had court at 10am. Like I said, we finally leave and head to the baby home. I have my change of clothes for her and her snowsuit. We again walk through the doors at the orphanage and go to the same room we have gone to the last few times. A worker comes in and wants the clothes she is going to be changed into along with a diaper. I hand them over and about less than 5 minutes later, Brooke comes through the door in her new clothes. They hand her over to me and of course, she starts to cry again. I feel so bad that we scare her and everything is just going crazy for her. Anfisa tells us that we will go and she will go through her schedule with us at the apartment. We quickly get her dressed in her snowsuit which is about 10 times to big but we make it work and we head out to the car. It's about a 20-25 minutes drive and she has finally calmed down a bit but is in a little bit of shock. We take her upstairs once we get there and get the snowsuit off. We set her on the floor and let her play with some toys that we have brought for her. Little by little we try to get close to her but it makes her cry. This is just breaking my heart. yena that morning had set up both playpen beds for the kids. We put her in oce of them and she really seems to like it in there. i am sure it is something she is very used to. Again, every time we get close to the crib thing, she starts to cry. We just sit in there and watch her.
We sit down and eat with the host family again and Andrei and Anfisa show up. At this point, this is not a good thing to see them walk through the door. I let Steve deal with it as I want to be with Brooke. he is trying to nail down this blood test that she had to have and if we really need it in order to get to the Embassy. Trying to get a straight answer out of him is like trying to nail jello to the wall. I hear Steve asking if he is 100% sure that if we get this blood test done that we will not have a problem at the embassy. Again, no straight answer. Whatever. i just have to hope at this point that we have heard from our agency and they said it was a go so I am going to put my faith and trust in them. Toward the end of the conversation, I walk over to the crib and Brooke allows me to pick her up. YEAH! It's the little things in life. Andrei and Anfisa leave and it's about 9pm. We get Brooke fed and put down for the night. She goes down pretty easily without much of a fight. We decide to go to bed as well as we don't know what the night will bring. What a hell of a last couple of days. I will really be ready when this is over and we are back home again. I like the host family house that we are staying in but it is HOT HOT HOT. I needed to have shorts and a tank top. They have radiators throughout the house and they can not control them. I read somewhere once that they are turned on in October and turned off at the end of March. Even the family has shorts that they walk around in. Oh well, we are making due! Key words here is ADAPT!
That is it for our Tuesday. We have our daughter and that is all that matters to me and yesterday can go down as a nightmare that we will put behind us.
Monday, March 19, 2007 - Our Nightmare Day!!!!
From the title of the post, you already know that today is going to be just a horrible, rotten, no good day. We are able to sleep for awhile and wake up around 8am. Yena makes us some breakfast, bread cheese and yes...COFFEE. It's instant freeze dried and it is actually pretty good. We unpack our stuff and get spread out and then get ready to leave. The phone rings and we are off for the orphanage and it's around 10:30am. We are going to stop off and pick up our translator Helen. We grab her and we are on our way.
We get to the orphanage and Helen tells us that we are going to have pictures. I am thinking to myself, this is an abvious DUH. I want to take plenty. Well, we walk through the door and it just smells in there. I just can't wait to get her out of the hell. We go to the same little room as before and wait. A few minutes later, the same doctor as before and Helen walk through the door. They are exchanging words and I look at Steve and tell him something is wrong. When they are done, I ask Helen what is wrong. She tells me it's something about paperwork. I'm thinking, that was a longer conversation than just paperwork. Apparently at this point, we are on a need to know basis and they don't think we need to know anything. The doctor and Helen come back in and Helen gets our coordinator Andrei on the phone. You can hear him on the phone with the doctor. I am hoping he is yelling at her telling her to get her shit together. We think we are set to go and helen tells us that we are going to take Brooke to go get her passport picture taken. OK, we are a go!
They bring her in and she is wrapped up in clothing 6 different ways from Sunday. I take her in my arms and she is afraid of me and begins to cry. We take her out to the car and she quiets down a bit. Eyes like saucers, we take off for the pictures. When we arrive, Helen has been on her cellphone speaking to whomever. She turns to us and tells us, in a matter of fact tone of voice, "you will go to court tomorrow for 1 baby and then come back for the girl in 2 months when she is 1 year and go to court again." I just look at her dumbfounded and tell her, "I'm not leaving Russia without my daughter." At this point, Steve and I are frantic. We have no idea what is going on. We take Brooke in to the passport place and get her picture taken. I just don't know which way to turn and who to call. Note to anyone reading this who is coming to adopt. RENT A CELLPHONE ON BOTH TRIPS. We didn't have any way to call our agency, the embassy...ANYTHING. We don't speak the language and we don't feel like they are giving us all of the information. Sure, have a 5 minute conversation and then tell me it's something with paperwork. We get back in the car and we head back to the orphange. A caregiver comes in and takes Brooke. At this point, I'm not sure when I will see her again and if ever. I am in tears and just hysterical. Helen comes back in and we talk to her some more. She tells us that Brooke needed a blood test and it wasn't done and it is done when she is a year old. I walk out to the car and am still hysterical. What the hell is going on here?! Steve and I wait outside for Helen to come back out. Finally, I go back in to look for her. I don't find her and come back out. Steve goes in to look for her and is back 5 minutes later. We leave and drop Helen off. She tells us that all of her words at the baby home were for us and only said good things. Great! Is that going to get me my daughter?! We leave and head back to the house. I am basicaly crying all the way home. Steve tells me that when he went back in to find Helen, she basically told him that we needed to find another baby. I look at him in horror. My mind is racing and is frantic. I just can not accept this. I will turn over EVERY stone to find someone who will help me. I just keep thinking to myself, God can not take 2 baby girls from me. This just can not be happening. WHY???!!!! WTF!!
We get back to the apartment and Yena makes us some lunch. How in the hell am I going to eat? I don't want to be rude so I go out to the table. We get a little way into lunch and the phone rings. Yena answers it and then tells Steve it's Helen. She tells Steve that Brooke will get the blood test and the results will be ready on Thursday and we are set for court on Tuesday for BOTH children. He repeats back to her what she just said and it is true. Well, this has me crying again. I won't feel better though until we are back on American soil.
We prepare ourself for court the next day. Around 7pm, Nurija and Russlan come home and they make us dinner. Russlan speaks English so we are able to have a conversation. They tell us that we are first up tomorrow at court. Great, after court, we will go to get Brooke out of Baby Jail. We try to hit the hay early and see if we can get some more sleep. Pretty soon, we will have 2 children and the sleep will be out the window.
Later on that evening, We call John and Christina at their host family's house and ask them if they will call on their cellphone and ask our agency to call us at our host family's home number as we don't have a way to get to them. Christina bless her heart does it without hesitation. We have only met the other couples once before this on our last trip but I feel as though we have met friends for life. They just get the situation that we are in. 10 minutes later, the home phone rings and it's our director from the agency. It is so wonderful to hear his voice. I told him i was going to put Steve on the phone. He then asks me if this is a money issue. A money issue? Are you kidding me?! I just about lost my daughter and you think this is about money! Oh please. Steve gets on the phone and tells him the story. He says he is going to get on it and get back to us. The reason that he asked if it was a money issue is that Andrei had come over and they told us he needed 5K. Then they needed another chunk of change after that. We just wanted to know where the money was going and for what so we weren't just throwing money out the window and getting screwed. I got on the phone and also spoke to the director and just let him know about the day and it was emotionally heart wrenching.
As I sit here typing this, my story about Brooke seems so short and uneventful. I just can not express how horrible this day was. You just appreciate what we have in the States and what is available to us. We rely so much these days on cellphones and other things. I don't know how to tell you in words what it was like to be in a foreign country with no cellphone, no way of contacting anyone in the States that can help us and no one around you who speaks the language. I don't ever want to feel that again. Just a helpless feeling. Guess we'll just put this day behind us and move on. This week can not go by fast enough and I can't be on that plane home any faster.
We get to the orphanage and Helen tells us that we are going to have pictures. I am thinking to myself, this is an abvious DUH. I want to take plenty. Well, we walk through the door and it just smells in there. I just can't wait to get her out of the hell. We go to the same little room as before and wait. A few minutes later, the same doctor as before and Helen walk through the door. They are exchanging words and I look at Steve and tell him something is wrong. When they are done, I ask Helen what is wrong. She tells me it's something about paperwork. I'm thinking, that was a longer conversation than just paperwork. Apparently at this point, we are on a need to know basis and they don't think we need to know anything. The doctor and Helen come back in and Helen gets our coordinator Andrei on the phone. You can hear him on the phone with the doctor. I am hoping he is yelling at her telling her to get her shit together. We think we are set to go and helen tells us that we are going to take Brooke to go get her passport picture taken. OK, we are a go!
They bring her in and she is wrapped up in clothing 6 different ways from Sunday. I take her in my arms and she is afraid of me and begins to cry. We take her out to the car and she quiets down a bit. Eyes like saucers, we take off for the pictures. When we arrive, Helen has been on her cellphone speaking to whomever. She turns to us and tells us, in a matter of fact tone of voice, "you will go to court tomorrow for 1 baby and then come back for the girl in 2 months when she is 1 year and go to court again." I just look at her dumbfounded and tell her, "I'm not leaving Russia without my daughter." At this point, Steve and I are frantic. We have no idea what is going on. We take Brooke in to the passport place and get her picture taken. I just don't know which way to turn and who to call. Note to anyone reading this who is coming to adopt. RENT A CELLPHONE ON BOTH TRIPS. We didn't have any way to call our agency, the embassy...ANYTHING. We don't speak the language and we don't feel like they are giving us all of the information. Sure, have a 5 minute conversation and then tell me it's something with paperwork. We get back in the car and we head back to the orphange. A caregiver comes in and takes Brooke. At this point, I'm not sure when I will see her again and if ever. I am in tears and just hysterical. Helen comes back in and we talk to her some more. She tells us that Brooke needed a blood test and it wasn't done and it is done when she is a year old. I walk out to the car and am still hysterical. What the hell is going on here?! Steve and I wait outside for Helen to come back out. Finally, I go back in to look for her. I don't find her and come back out. Steve goes in to look for her and is back 5 minutes later. We leave and drop Helen off. She tells us that all of her words at the baby home were for us and only said good things. Great! Is that going to get me my daughter?! We leave and head back to the house. I am basicaly crying all the way home. Steve tells me that when he went back in to find Helen, she basically told him that we needed to find another baby. I look at him in horror. My mind is racing and is frantic. I just can not accept this. I will turn over EVERY stone to find someone who will help me. I just keep thinking to myself, God can not take 2 baby girls from me. This just can not be happening. WHY???!!!! WTF!!
We get back to the apartment and Yena makes us some lunch. How in the hell am I going to eat? I don't want to be rude so I go out to the table. We get a little way into lunch and the phone rings. Yena answers it and then tells Steve it's Helen. She tells Steve that Brooke will get the blood test and the results will be ready on Thursday and we are set for court on Tuesday for BOTH children. He repeats back to her what she just said and it is true. Well, this has me crying again. I won't feel better though until we are back on American soil.
We prepare ourself for court the next day. Around 7pm, Nurija and Russlan come home and they make us dinner. Russlan speaks English so we are able to have a conversation. They tell us that we are first up tomorrow at court. Great, after court, we will go to get Brooke out of Baby Jail. We try to hit the hay early and see if we can get some more sleep. Pretty soon, we will have 2 children and the sleep will be out the window.
Later on that evening, We call John and Christina at their host family's house and ask them if they will call on their cellphone and ask our agency to call us at our host family's home number as we don't have a way to get to them. Christina bless her heart does it without hesitation. We have only met the other couples once before this on our last trip but I feel as though we have met friends for life. They just get the situation that we are in. 10 minutes later, the home phone rings and it's our director from the agency. It is so wonderful to hear his voice. I told him i was going to put Steve on the phone. He then asks me if this is a money issue. A money issue? Are you kidding me?! I just about lost my daughter and you think this is about money! Oh please. Steve gets on the phone and tells him the story. He says he is going to get on it and get back to us. The reason that he asked if it was a money issue is that Andrei had come over and they told us he needed 5K. Then they needed another chunk of change after that. We just wanted to know where the money was going and for what so we weren't just throwing money out the window and getting screwed. I got on the phone and also spoke to the director and just let him know about the day and it was emotionally heart wrenching.
As I sit here typing this, my story about Brooke seems so short and uneventful. I just can not express how horrible this day was. You just appreciate what we have in the States and what is available to us. We rely so much these days on cellphones and other things. I don't know how to tell you in words what it was like to be in a foreign country with no cellphone, no way of contacting anyone in the States that can help us and no one around you who speaks the language. I don't ever want to feel that again. Just a helpless feeling. Guess we'll just put this day behind us and move on. This week can not go by fast enough and I can't be on that plane home any faster.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Well today is the day. We are off to get our kids! We are excited to say the least. It's another long haul but we now have a focus and a goal on something which somehow doesn't make the trip so bad.
We make it to New York pretty easily. The day before was a nightmare with the airports. Flights canceled due to weather. Needless to say, the airport is PACKED with travelers who were canceled from the day before. We got there 2 hours before and thank god for that. We make it up to our gate and grab some coffee and a light breakfast. By the way, NO starbucks by Delta. EWWW! Got a knock off brand, it did the job.
While we were in New York, we were wondering about the other couples and whether or not they made it out as they are east coasters. No more than 2 minutes later did we see Ann looking pretty bedrangled walking towards us. There was our answer. They did not make it out. We go and grab some lunch and head back to the gate to wait with them. We will now be on the same flight to Moscow. Good thing we went back to the gate with them since our time was off by an hour. We were going to go to Chili's for lunch and sit down and relax. had we done that, we would have missed our flight.
The flight over is long. Steve takes some Ambien and is out like a light. I am wired and can't sleep. But again, I have a goal and am just trying to get to it. We hit down in Moscow and it's actually a little after 10am. The flight over is only about 8 hours. We breeze through customs and head towards baggage claim just praying our luggage made it. At one point I am getting nervous as I don't see anything. Finally I see one of our bags and yell at Steve to tell him that it's coming. Thank God!! We gather it up and head out. Julia our translator meets us along with Ann and Dave. She tells us that we won't be on a flight to Orenburg until 9pm that night. Did I happen to mention that it is now probably around 11am. She asks us what we would like to do? We tell her that the other couple is at the marriott and we'd like to go there and meet up with them. She is good with that so we pack up our stuff and hit the road. Traffic is pretty light since it's a Sunday.
We hit the hotel and no more was I through the front door of the lobby when the receptionist asks me if my name is Teresa. I tell her yes and she hands me the phone. I was to say the least, a bit shocked. I know I have had my wild days but those were spent in Pullman, WA and Moscow, Idaho NOT Moscow Russia. It is Christina on the phone. She saw me from the window. Too funny. They come down and meet us in the lobby. We all decide to walk around Red Square and Old Arbat street. By the time this little excursion is over, I am soooooo exhausted I am delirious. We head back to the Marriott where John and Christina have their luggage and where they are going to pick us up at 6:30pm. From the second we hit that lobby and I hit the sofa, I was passed out! I got in probably about 2 hours on their sofa and that did a lot of good.
We all load up in a van and head to the domestic airport. We get our tickets and check our luggage. You can only have 40 kilos (whatever that is in pounds) TOTAL with your luggage and carryon. If you are over, you pay! So Steve goes to another counter and pays $85 dollars extra for our luggage. Whatever! We head down to the gate and wait for our flight. It's on time this trip but it is still going to put us in Orenburg very late at night. The flight is pretty uneventful and I don't get much sleep. It's tight, cramped and uncomfortable. I am just ready to get to our destination. We touch down and are met by our translator Anfisa. By now it is 1am and we wait for our luggage and head off to the host family. We meet the host dad as he is our driver. It takes us a bit to get home as Anfisa is with us and we have to drop her off first. Of course I take the opportunity to pound her with questions. The unfortunate part is that she tells us that we will not be making the trip to Orsk to see Kyle. This means we will not see him before court on Tuesday. Bummer.
We make it to the host family's house which is an apartment building. I am praying that we are not on the 10th floor as we have to huge suitcases along with 2 other bags and our backpacks. Luckily we are on the 2nd floor. We make it through the double door and meet the host family mom. We are staying with Yena and Nurija. They also have a son, Russlan. We put our luggage in our room and am I am glad to see that we have our own room even though it's a pull out sofa. it will have plenty of room for 2 kids and us. We pile in to bed and it's now about 2 something in the morning. We were told that we wouldn't be leaving until 11am the next morning. We will be going to see Brooke at her orphanage. It's off to bed and just the start of a whirlwind week.
We make it to New York pretty easily. The day before was a nightmare with the airports. Flights canceled due to weather. Needless to say, the airport is PACKED with travelers who were canceled from the day before. We got there 2 hours before and thank god for that. We make it up to our gate and grab some coffee and a light breakfast. By the way, NO starbucks by Delta. EWWW! Got a knock off brand, it did the job.
While we were in New York, we were wondering about the other couples and whether or not they made it out as they are east coasters. No more than 2 minutes later did we see Ann looking pretty bedrangled walking towards us. There was our answer. They did not make it out. We go and grab some lunch and head back to the gate to wait with them. We will now be on the same flight to Moscow. Good thing we went back to the gate with them since our time was off by an hour. We were going to go to Chili's for lunch and sit down and relax. had we done that, we would have missed our flight.
The flight over is long. Steve takes some Ambien and is out like a light. I am wired and can't sleep. But again, I have a goal and am just trying to get to it. We hit down in Moscow and it's actually a little after 10am. The flight over is only about 8 hours. We breeze through customs and head towards baggage claim just praying our luggage made it. At one point I am getting nervous as I don't see anything. Finally I see one of our bags and yell at Steve to tell him that it's coming. Thank God!! We gather it up and head out. Julia our translator meets us along with Ann and Dave. She tells us that we won't be on a flight to Orenburg until 9pm that night. Did I happen to mention that it is now probably around 11am. She asks us what we would like to do? We tell her that the other couple is at the marriott and we'd like to go there and meet up with them. She is good with that so we pack up our stuff and hit the road. Traffic is pretty light since it's a Sunday.
We hit the hotel and no more was I through the front door of the lobby when the receptionist asks me if my name is Teresa. I tell her yes and she hands me the phone. I was to say the least, a bit shocked. I know I have had my wild days but those were spent in Pullman, WA and Moscow, Idaho NOT Moscow Russia. It is Christina on the phone. She saw me from the window. Too funny. They come down and meet us in the lobby. We all decide to walk around Red Square and Old Arbat street. By the time this little excursion is over, I am soooooo exhausted I am delirious. We head back to the Marriott where John and Christina have their luggage and where they are going to pick us up at 6:30pm. From the second we hit that lobby and I hit the sofa, I was passed out! I got in probably about 2 hours on their sofa and that did a lot of good.
We all load up in a van and head to the domestic airport. We get our tickets and check our luggage. You can only have 40 kilos (whatever that is in pounds) TOTAL with your luggage and carryon. If you are over, you pay! So Steve goes to another counter and pays $85 dollars extra for our luggage. Whatever! We head down to the gate and wait for our flight. It's on time this trip but it is still going to put us in Orenburg very late at night. The flight is pretty uneventful and I don't get much sleep. It's tight, cramped and uncomfortable. I am just ready to get to our destination. We touch down and are met by our translator Anfisa. By now it is 1am and we wait for our luggage and head off to the host family. We meet the host dad as he is our driver. It takes us a bit to get home as Anfisa is with us and we have to drop her off first. Of course I take the opportunity to pound her with questions. The unfortunate part is that she tells us that we will not be making the trip to Orsk to see Kyle. This means we will not see him before court on Tuesday. Bummer.
We make it to the host family's house which is an apartment building. I am praying that we are not on the 10th floor as we have to huge suitcases along with 2 other bags and our backpacks. Luckily we are on the 2nd floor. We make it through the double door and meet the host family mom. We are staying with Yena and Nurija. They also have a son, Russlan. We put our luggage in our room and am I am glad to see that we have our own room even though it's a pull out sofa. it will have plenty of room for 2 kids and us. We pile in to bed and it's now about 2 something in the morning. We were told that we wouldn't be leaving until 11am the next morning. We will be going to see Brooke at her orphanage. It's off to bed and just the start of a whirlwind week.
Kyle's Room.....Complete!
OK, Kyle's room is complete! Yay! It turned out really cute and I couldn't be happier. Now hopefully in a year or two he will like it. Here are some of the pictures:
Well, we are one week out. I am just chomping at the bit to get over there and get them. I'm not looking forward to the flight. I just want them to be OK. I can't wait to put my arms around them and finally have our family that we have worked so hard to get. Someone on a message board told me today that I almost have my family. It hit me like a mac truck. I do almost have my family! We can't wait. People keep telling us the bad stuff and right now, that just doesn't matter. When you can't have kids and that right is taken away from you without being asked....having your forever family here is just beyond words for me. I might be sleep deprived and they will cry but.....it's been a long road to here and it will be worth it.
Now the last time that we left, we weren't able to post anything until Thursday of that week. Sorry folks but it's probably going to be the same this trip too. I don't really think the Russian family that we are staying with is going to have an internet connection. Right now, we're just hoping for hot water and a decent meal.
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are going to need it.
Well, we are one week out. I am just chomping at the bit to get over there and get them. I'm not looking forward to the flight. I just want them to be OK. I can't wait to put my arms around them and finally have our family that we have worked so hard to get. Someone on a message board told me today that I almost have my family. It hit me like a mac truck. I do almost have my family! We can't wait. People keep telling us the bad stuff and right now, that just doesn't matter. When you can't have kids and that right is taken away from you without being asked....having your forever family here is just beyond words for me. I might be sleep deprived and they will cry but.....it's been a long road to here and it will be worth it.
Now the last time that we left, we weren't able to post anything until Thursday of that week. Sorry folks but it's probably going to be the same this trip too. I don't really think the Russian family that we are staying with is going to have an internet connection. Right now, we're just hoping for hot water and a decent meal.
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are going to need it.
Brooke's Room....Complete!
Yah! Steve and I worked our you know what's off yesterday and put everything together in Brooke's room since the mural painter was finished in there. We also went shopping and bought her a dresser and a night stand. Kyle got a dresser yesterday. It was a busy day shopping!!! What a load off. I went to bed last night and told him that I felt so much better knowing that we could bring the kids home tomorrow and be just fine. The beds are together, there is food in the house for them and they have plenty of baby supplies. All I have to say is....WHEW! Now we just have to finish Kyle's room with the mural painter and we're good to go. Here are some pictures of the room. We are so happy with the way it turned out. If you look back at an older post, I showed you what it looked like just after we painted it. I should have taken a picture before we started with all the crap in there when it was the guest/scrapbook room. That room has come a long way BABY! Kyle's room on the other hand wasn't that difficult. That room has sat empty in our house since the day we moved in.
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Well, that's it for now. I'll post more pictures of Kyle's room when it's finished! Until then, 12 days until we leave. Holy crap! That just made my stomach do flip flops when I counted that in my head. EEKS! 16 more days and we'll be the proud parents of 2, just about, 10 month olds! I must call the doctor and get my "crazy pills" refilled!
Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos
Well, that's it for now. I'll post more pictures of Kyle's room when it's finished! Until then, 12 days until we leave. Holy crap! That just made my stomach do flip flops when I counted that in my head. EEKS! 16 more days and we'll be the proud parents of 2, just about, 10 month olds! I must call the doctor and get my "crazy pills" refilled!
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