Goodbye...for now....

Today began with Sasha taking us to see "The Cathedral of Christ's Resurrection" also known as "Church of Spilt Blood". We are at a loss to explain the extreme beauty of this structure - it is absolutely amazing. We did not visit the inside (possibly our next trip) but just getting the opportunity to see the outside of it was a wonderful experience. We were then off to the notary to have our official application for adoption (of this specific child) filed. This particular form is the first step needed so that Natasha can begin applying for our court date. The next destination was to have our Russian medical exams completed - apparently 2 American medical exams and blood work is not enough :) It was a relatively painless experience - John was not a fan of the blood work, but Laurie is very used to having that done though :)

It was then time for our final visit of this trip. We were first taken to the social worker at the orphanage who needed to meet us before she could sign a form of our approval in "their eyes". Then we were led into the same room we were in on Tuesday (with the truck). They brought him in and he soon eased into playing with our toys again. John decided to bring the truck over to him at one point and his entire face lit up at the sight of it. We followed him as he circled the room countless times happy as can be. During a break from the truck, he discovered two hula hoops that were in the room. John began to spin them on the ground and he surprised us by trying (and succeeding) to imitate the movement. John then placed the hoops together and started hitting them on the floor making a silly sound...for some reason, that was a funny movement to him and for about 5 minutes there was uncontrollable laughter coming from him - it was probably the best sound we have ever heard. Laurie video taped it and we have already watched it 3 times this evening :) When our visit was winding down, he began rubbing his eyes. With about 5 minutes left he cried a little bit (for the first time) out of fatigue - we think all of the truck riding and laughing tired him out. We were sadly able to say goodbye - knowing that this is necessary to bring us closer to the time when we can bring him home with us.

We visited our favorite little Italian restaurant again for dinner - 3 out of 5 nights we ate dinner there :) It is difficult to feel adventurous when it is so freezing cold outside and a restaurant we are comfortable with and enjoy is relatively close. Sasha is picking us up at 11:00 am tomorrow to begin our journey home (our flight leaves Russia at 2:00 pm which is 6:00 am at home). We will arrive home in Pittsburgh very late Friday night. As hard as it will be to leave him here, we know that the end is in sight and he will be home with us soon.

Another wonderful visit

We started today off with a lovely walk - was only about zero degrees outside. We were able to take some nice pictures but could only stay out for about an hour and 15 minutes because it was simply too cold. We then returned to the hotel to get ready for Sasha to pick us up for our third visit.

The traffic wasn't that bad today so we made it to the baby home in only 45 minutes. We met Galina (our translator) and found out that because we were a little early, the baby was still sleeping. We were taken into yet a different room and had some time to get to know Galina while we waited. She was very friendly and kind. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for him to wake up and be brought into us.

When he was brought in, Laurie held him for a bit as he seemed a little sleepy still. It wasn't long until he was ready to play though. He sat on the floor and played with the toys for a little bit and then he wanted to move. He was off crawling and walking (with assistance still) around the room and over to the rocking horses that were there. John put him on one and pushed him for a few minutes. He seemed much more at ease and animated today and let us know when he was ready to move on to the next toy :) He even got a little fussy for the first time when he was ready to stop looking at a book (and climb off of John's lap) but was slowed down because we had to re-tie his shoe. We have been showing him every day how to roll and toss a ball back and forth - today he actually tossed the ball back to John on his own without any help! He seemed to take pleasure in us taking turns kissing his cheeks - once John would do it, he would turn to Laurie for her turn and then back to John...he seems to be feeling the love. He was babbling more today and smiled several times for us. We still have yet to see him cry! He is very calm and serious most of the time but lets us see him smile and have fun too. Tomorrow will be a very difficult day as we say goodbye and have to wait for our second trip to Russia to see him again.

Once we returned to the hotel, we decided to brave the cold again (not much of a choice about that if you are hungry) and tried McDonalds for the first time here. It was actually amusing because there did not seem to be anyone there speaking English except for us. In the end, we pointed to pictures on a plastic menu and actually got what we wanted!! When we returned to the hotel, the temperature was 3 degrees with a wind chill of -9 degrees! We will be off to the hotel gym in a little bit to work off some of that lovely food and warm up :)

Tomorrow will be a big/long day. Sasha is going to pick us up around noon and first take us to see a couple of cathedrals. We will then meet Natasha at a notary for the completion of some documents and visit the European medical building to have our Russian medical exams completed (this only consists of blood work). Then it is off to our final visit of this trip :(

Shopping and Visit #2

Today was another very good day. Sasha picked us up and took us to a lovely souvenir shop. There was a young woman there who spoke English (very well) and helped us shop. It was wonderful to have her help. We had some very difficult decisions to make as everything was so beautifully crafted. Before we left the shop, Sasha bought us a small gift :) Bless his heart, he even put on a radio station in the car that played several songs in English for our long ride in the crazy traffic.

We were then off to get some lunch before our visit. Sasha took us to a three story mall that had a supermarket, movie theatre and fairly large food court (with both restaurants and "fast food" places). We had a bit of a challenge as the employees and menus here were all in Russian. We were, however, able to get 2 cheeseburges and waters (for only $14) with little difficulty. After lunch we stopped in the supermarket to try and get something for breafast tomorrow. It is very difficult to shop in a grocery store when you don't read the language on the packages. We thought everything would basically look the same but it really doesn't...

When we arrived at the baby home, Natasha was already there. We were taken into to a different room today that was much bigger, had a large carpet rug and many toys. They brought him in and again he didn't seem afraid. We were able to play with the toys we brought as well as the toys in the room. It was quickly apparent to us that he LOVED a truck they had in the room that he could both walk behind and ride. We made several circles around the room walking beside him as he pushed the truck and pushing him around as he rode on it. He was again fascinated with John - not being used to seeing men he seems not quite sure what to think of him yet. He did sit on his lap several times looking through books and playing with plastic balls though. He spit up a little on Laurie, the first of many to come for sure. Because this room had a carpet rug he was able to crawl around we we could see what he wanted to play with, not being limited to our laps and the toys we handed him like yesterday. Our visit today was longer - almost an hour and 1/2. When they came to get him we were playing with the truck again and he didn't seem to want to leave. Again, though he didn't cry the entire visit!! Oh, for those of your who are curious...Laurie was able to read the tag on his overalls today and they were size 12 mo - they needed rolled up a little on the bottom but fit well otherwise :)

The plan tomorrow is that we are going to spend the first part of the day walking around on our own. Most of our pictures are out of a car window so we want to try and get some better ones. It is very cold here so we are not sure how long our walk will last. Sasha is going to pick us up in the afternoon for our next visit at the baby home. We told Natasha today that yes, we officially want to adopt HIM and we signed a form. She is going to schedule a couple of appointments for Thursday and will therefore not be with us tomorrow - we will have Galina (a translator) with us at the home for our visit. On Thursday we must visit a notary for various required paperwork and also meet with a doctor for our Russian medical exams.

We are off to dinner now - we found a lovely little italian restaurant yesterday and have decided to return there tonight. We must take advantage of English speaking staff, a menu we can read, good prices and good food :)

We met our son!

Today we had our appointment with the Ministry of Education office. We were a little bit nervous for this meeting because we weren't quite sure what to expect and what, if any, questions they were going to ask us. After sitting in what we can only describe as completely utterly ridiculous traffic (making New York city look like an open freeway), we made it to the appointment and met Natasha (our agency's employee here). She was not what either one of us expected but she was friendly and speaks English (with a very heavy accent though). The meeting went well and we were not asked any questions. We saw a picture of him when he was only 2 1/2 months old and were given very little information on him (less than what we were previously told and nothing recent).

From there we left to go to the baby home. Having Natasha in the car was nice because she pointed out many things to us and gave us several history lessons. Once we arrived at the baby home we thought we were going to meet with the director (who is a medical physician) first and then meet him....BUT, she was busy so they brought him right into us.

It was a wonderful visit. He walked in (with assistance, because his shoes were way too big) and was placed in a big container of plastic balls (a miniature version of one you would see at Chuck E Cheese). We went over to him and he did not seem afraid at all. He did seem a little uncomfortable sitting in the balls so Natasha suggested we take him out. Laurie picked him up and he sat on her lap playing with a ball we brought..actually, more trying to chew on it than play with it. He spent a lot of time looking at John since he is not used to seeing men. He did go to him though and sat on his lap. He liked to feel John's face because it was a little rough and he's not used to that. He played with all of the toys we brought and attempted to put everything in his mouth. We were able to get a couple of smiles out of him and took several pictures. The visit lasted a little less than an hour but it went much better than we ever expected. He was quiet and serious most of the time, taking it all in but didn't cry at all! He seemed as comfortable with us as he could given the circumstances

Once they took him out of the room, the director came in and talked to us. We were able to ask a couple of questions but most of our questions were answered already between either what she had to tell us or by Natasha earlier in the day. We did learn that he is now 17 lbs 12 oz and 28.3 inches tall - so, he hasn't grown very much since our last update in October but he didn't seem overly small to us. They advised us before we left home to bring a sewing tape measure to get a measurement of his feet (so we would know what size shoes to buy) so we are going to measure him tomorrow to check the accuracy on at least the height. We also learned that he already has 8 teeth and by the way he was chewing on everything - more are on the way :)

We get to only visit with him once a day, which is disappointing after originally hearing we would probably get to go twice a day. Tomorrow our driver is picking us up a little early so that we can do some shopping and then we go for visit #2. We are off to get some dinner now as breakfast and lunch consisted of a granola bar and some twizzlers in our hotel room :)

We are in Russia!!!

Well, after a long journey we have made it to St. Petersburg, Russia!

For the most part our trip went well. We left Pittsburgh about 20 minutes late because our plane had to be de-iced (thanks to mother nature dropping some more snow on us Saturday morning) but we made it to Chicago just fine. Jimmy (O'Rourke family friend) picked us up at the airport and we met Chris (one of John's sisters), Brynn and Marin (2 of our nieces) for lunch. We had a very nice visit before returning to the airport to wait for the long flight to Germany.

We took off on time for Frankfurt, Germany and that flight went smoothly. We had TV screens on the seats in front of us so we were able to watch a couple of movies to help pass the time. We landed in Frankfurt with only about 45 minutes until our flight to St. Petersburg was to take off. We arrived at our gate to hear that the flight was delayed for 15-20 minutes due to snowy weather in Frankfurt (our plane had to be de-iced there as well after we boarded - we ended up being an hour late ariving in St. Petersburg). During our wait, we struck up a conversation with a couple who happened to be from Columbus, Ohio. They were on their way to St. Petersburg for their adoption court date. They made their first visit in December and are adopting 2 little boys (brothers ages 5 & 3). We were able to ask them many questions and they were extremely helpful. When we arrived in St. Petersburg they led us to Passport Check and we exchanged email addresses to keep in touch :)

Once we received our bags, we met our driver (Sasha) and we quickly learned that he knows very limited English. He called Natasha, our agency's employee in St. Petersburg, and we were able to speak to her about our plans for Monday (and he was able to figure out which hotel to take us to). On our drive to the hotel, Sasha pointed out many things to us but it was often in Russian or his attempt at English. The temperature is similar to home (at least today) and there is snow here but not as much as at home. We checked into the hotel (it's an American hotel so they speak English thank goodness!) and are now just hanging out in our room. We weren't able to get comfortable enough to get a lot of sleep on the planes - only about 2 hours each. So, we have gone almost 28 hours with only 2 hours of sleep (and we left our house after only 5 hours of sleep Friday night) - we are a bit tired needless to say :)

Our appointment tomorrow is at 2:00pm (6:00am at home) with the Ministry of Education to receive our "referral". Once that is over, we will travel to the baby home. We will first meet with the Director of the home to ask her any questions we have about him (we have lots!) and then we will finally get to meet him!

Russian visas

We received our Russian visas yesterday. Only 12 more days until our first trip to St. Petersburg, Russia.