Amelia Grace O'Rourke
Born: November 20, 2011
Perm, Russia
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Monday, December 31, 2012
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Almost home....
This has been one heck of a looooong day! Maxim picked us up at the hotel at 8:30am. After a very busy drive to the airport (lots of traffic as Saturday is a working day there), we made it through bag check in and over to customs. John was worried that the customs people might say something to us but everything went smoothly. They did ask to see her documents but it was no problem at all and they would have asked us that under normal circumstances.
While we were there, we saw the other couple from our agency (from Chicago) and their son so it was nice to say goodbye to them again and exchange email addresses. When we got to our gate, there were 3 other couples that we were with at the Embassy who were on our flight. Everyone was quite anxious to get home and know how lucky we are to have our children.
The 10 hour plane ride went pretty smoothly. Andrew did great again! He is definitely a trooper and never complained or whined about anything! He even slept the last 3 hours of the trip! Although on Russia time, it was 8-11pm that he slept. Baby Girl did great too! She ate and slept quite a bit and "played" the rest of the time. One of the other mothers went around to all of us collecting email addresses. She said she is going to send out an email with everyone's contact information so that maybe someday if the kids want to get in touch they can. She said maybe they will all write a book together "Children of flight 31...the last ones out of Russia". Though, we are definitely praying that they aren't the last ones, and that at the very least those in the process will still be able to get their children.
We arrived in NY and went through customs with no issues. The customs officer who checked us in said "wow, you guys are lucky...have you heard what's going on?" We replied "uh, yes...we got her just in time."
We collected our baggage and made our way to where our hotel shuttle picked us up. The hotel we are staying at is only 5 minutes from the airport which will be nice tomorrow morning for our 8am flight. Everyone is extremely tired and we are actually laying in bed now at 6:45pm.
We are anxiously awaiting our flight to Pittsburgh tomorrow and taking Baby Girl home! Our flight is scheduled to get in around 9:45am for anyone who wants to meet us there :)
Pictures and her name will be posted tomorrow!!
While we were there, we saw the other couple from our agency (from Chicago) and their son so it was nice to say goodbye to them again and exchange email addresses. When we got to our gate, there were 3 other couples that we were with at the Embassy who were on our flight. Everyone was quite anxious to get home and know how lucky we are to have our children.
The 10 hour plane ride went pretty smoothly. Andrew did great again! He is definitely a trooper and never complained or whined about anything! He even slept the last 3 hours of the trip! Although on Russia time, it was 8-11pm that he slept. Baby Girl did great too! She ate and slept quite a bit and "played" the rest of the time. One of the other mothers went around to all of us collecting email addresses. She said she is going to send out an email with everyone's contact information so that maybe someday if the kids want to get in touch they can. She said maybe they will all write a book together "Children of flight 31...the last ones out of Russia". Though, we are definitely praying that they aren't the last ones, and that at the very least those in the process will still be able to get their children.
We arrived in NY and went through customs with no issues. The customs officer who checked us in said "wow, you guys are lucky...have you heard what's going on?" We replied "uh, yes...we got her just in time."
We collected our baggage and made our way to where our hotel shuttle picked us up. The hotel we are staying at is only 5 minutes from the airport which will be nice tomorrow morning for our 8am flight. Everyone is extremely tired and we are actually laying in bed now at 6:45pm.
We are anxiously awaiting our flight to Pittsburgh tomorrow and taking Baby Girl home! Our flight is scheduled to get in around 9:45am for anyone who wants to meet us there :)
Pictures and her name will be posted tomorrow!!
Friday, December 28, 2012
Last day in Russia
Well, everyone woke up a little bit more rested although it was another early morning with the 4 of us up at 5:30. It was then a lazy morning just hanging around our hotel room.
Maxim picked us (John, Laurie & Baby Girl) up at 10:30 to go to the US Embassy for our exit interview. It is comforting to visit a little piece of home while over here and it was the exact same process as with Andrew. While we were waiting, several more families showed up for the same reason. In all, there were 7 families having exit interviews and heading for home tomorrow. Another agency's coordinator said she has never seen more than 2 families there at the same time - everyone is very anxious to be going home given recent events. We were assured at the Embassy that we will have no problems tomorrow at the airport, but everyone will be much more at ease once we are home.
After the Embassy, we returned to the hotel to pick up Andrew & Laurie's parents. Maxim drove us over to the park that has the statue we visited with Andrew (in 2010) of the ducklings. The park was covered in snow and it was a slippery walk but worth it for the photo op :)
From the statue, Maxim took us to an observation overlook area to see the city. It was pretty cold out so we didn't last for too long there. He then took us to Arbat street. This is a road that is closed to vehicles so it is only for pedestrian traffic. We visited a souvenir shop so we could buy some final Russian momentos and then headed back to the hotel. Baby Girl wasn't having a very good afternoon - she was hungry and tired as she didn't really get to take a nap today. We returned to the hotel around 3:30 and just hung around for the rest of the afternoon.
Baby Girl ended up going to sleep around 6:00 and the rest of us ordered room service for dinner. After dinner while we packed, Grammy and BupBup entertained Andrew by playing "Go Fish" - he's becoming quite good at it however he has trouble holding all of the cards in his hands so then he starts putting them in his toes.
We are in for a fun time when we get home because Baby Girl watches Andrew's every move and does her best to mimic him. Since he is a crazy kid, looks like she will be too :) We were worried about him being jealous but so far she is the jealous one. Anytime Laurie is doing anything at all with Andrew, Baby Girl starts crying and does whatever she has to in order to get to Laurie and push Andrew out of the way. He handles it pretty well but then he can just go running to his Daddy or Grammy or BupBup...so, it will probably be a little different once we are home.
Maxim is picking us up at 8:30 tomorrow morning for the airport. Our flight leaves Moscow at 12:35pm and we land at JFK at 2:15pm - gotta love that time difference. Since Delta doesn't have any flights from JFK into Pgh after 2:15, we are spending the night in NYC before returning home. Depending on everyone's mood/level of fatigue, we might try to go into the city to see the Rockefeller center Christmas tree and have dinner. Our flight is scheduled to land in Pgh Sunday morning at 9:45!! So, in 48 hours we should be home!!!
Maxim picked us (John, Laurie & Baby Girl) up at 10:30 to go to the US Embassy for our exit interview. It is comforting to visit a little piece of home while over here and it was the exact same process as with Andrew. While we were waiting, several more families showed up for the same reason. In all, there were 7 families having exit interviews and heading for home tomorrow. Another agency's coordinator said she has never seen more than 2 families there at the same time - everyone is very anxious to be going home given recent events. We were assured at the Embassy that we will have no problems tomorrow at the airport, but everyone will be much more at ease once we are home.
After the Embassy, we returned to the hotel to pick up Andrew & Laurie's parents. Maxim drove us over to the park that has the statue we visited with Andrew (in 2010) of the ducklings. The park was covered in snow and it was a slippery walk but worth it for the photo op :)
From the statue, Maxim took us to an observation overlook area to see the city. It was pretty cold out so we didn't last for too long there. He then took us to Arbat street. This is a road that is closed to vehicles so it is only for pedestrian traffic. We visited a souvenir shop so we could buy some final Russian momentos and then headed back to the hotel. Baby Girl wasn't having a very good afternoon - she was hungry and tired as she didn't really get to take a nap today. We returned to the hotel around 3:30 and just hung around for the rest of the afternoon.
Baby Girl ended up going to sleep around 6:00 and the rest of us ordered room service for dinner. After dinner while we packed, Grammy and BupBup entertained Andrew by playing "Go Fish" - he's becoming quite good at it however he has trouble holding all of the cards in his hands so then he starts putting them in his toes.
We are in for a fun time when we get home because Baby Girl watches Andrew's every move and does her best to mimic him. Since he is a crazy kid, looks like she will be too :) We were worried about him being jealous but so far she is the jealous one. Anytime Laurie is doing anything at all with Andrew, Baby Girl starts crying and does whatever she has to in order to get to Laurie and push Andrew out of the way. He handles it pretty well but then he can just go running to his Daddy or Grammy or BupBup...so, it will probably be a little different once we are home.
Maxim is picking us up at 8:30 tomorrow morning for the airport. Our flight leaves Moscow at 12:35pm and we land at JFK at 2:15pm - gotta love that time difference. Since Delta doesn't have any flights from JFK into Pgh after 2:15, we are spending the night in NYC before returning home. Depending on everyone's mood/level of fatigue, we might try to go into the city to see the Rockefeller center Christmas tree and have dinner. Our flight is scheduled to land in Pgh Sunday morning at 9:45!! So, in 48 hours we should be home!!!
Thursday, December 27, 2012
A snowy Thursday in Moscow...
Today was another bright and early day with Andrew waking up at 3:30am. We kept trying to get him to go back to sleep but didn't have any luck. Baby Girl woke up around 6:00 so that was the official start to our day. Boy oh boy are we ready to get home in our regular time zone and get some "normal" sleep!
John and Laurie's dad took a walk to a nearby convenience store and picked up some yogurt for breakfast. Maxim picked us (John, Laurie and Baby Girl) up at 8:30 and we were off to the medical clinic for her physical. It was the same building and actually the same exact exam room where Andrew had his physical. The doctor checked her out and said all looked good. He didn't weigh her and we didn't think to ask until after we left. Anna, a coordinator from our agency, was there with us and we had to sign some documents for her to present to the Embassy. We will go tomorrow morning for our exit interview and they will have Baby Girl's Visa ready for us.
We asked Maxim to take us to a grocery store so we could buy some things to have for breakfast the next couple of days as the breakfast in our hotel is quite expensive. We returned to our hotel room a little after 10:00 and gave Baby Girl some more food before her nap. She played for a little bit and then slept from about 11:30 - 2:00!
While she slept, everyone else just hung out and Andrew watched a movie. When she woke up, she had some playing time with her big brother. He shared his trains with her again and they crawled around on the floor with her chasing him.
We decided to leave around 3:30 to walk to Red Square and then go to dinner. It's not very cold here (in the 30's) but it is very wet. It has been snowing all day and when we went out, it was a rain/snow mix - so we were quickly soaked. We started out with Andrew walking and Baby Girl in the stroller. We made it to Red Square when Andrew asked to be carried (not bad considering it was a 15-20 minute walk through slushy sidewalks). Everything is decorated for Christmas and was very pretty. We actually were able to walk around inside the squre (it was closed when we were here for Andrew and we could only walk around the outside).
After we walked around, we went to Sbarro for dinner - - pizza and breadsticks sounded wonderful :) Andrew started to fall asleep at the table and we decided it would be easier to carry Baby Girl back and put him in the stroller. So Laurie pushed him back while BupBup carried Baby Girl for the majority of the trek. It's not a bad walk under normal circumstances but with the rain/snow mix, slushy sidewalks and uphill grade - it turned out to be a bit of a workout.
Andrew was asleep for the night at about 6:15 while Baby Girl had some dinner and played for about 45 minutes. We are learning more and more about her every day. She is letting her personality show and she is goofy just like her brother :) She has a good set of lungs and cries every time she doesn't get her way. Andrew is not at all a fan of her crying and it sends him into the other room with his hands over his ears - haha! She is a very determined little girl when she wants something and has an incredibly strong grip! She has great hand/eye coordination and feeds her self Puffs like a pro :) She is now in bed for the day and we are hoping to follow shortly.
John and Laurie's dad took a walk to a nearby convenience store and picked up some yogurt for breakfast. Maxim picked us (John, Laurie and Baby Girl) up at 8:30 and we were off to the medical clinic for her physical. It was the same building and actually the same exact exam room where Andrew had his physical. The doctor checked her out and said all looked good. He didn't weigh her and we didn't think to ask until after we left. Anna, a coordinator from our agency, was there with us and we had to sign some documents for her to present to the Embassy. We will go tomorrow morning for our exit interview and they will have Baby Girl's Visa ready for us.
We asked Maxim to take us to a grocery store so we could buy some things to have for breakfast the next couple of days as the breakfast in our hotel is quite expensive. We returned to our hotel room a little after 10:00 and gave Baby Girl some more food before her nap. She played for a little bit and then slept from about 11:30 - 2:00!
While she slept, everyone else just hung out and Andrew watched a movie. When she woke up, she had some playing time with her big brother. He shared his trains with her again and they crawled around on the floor with her chasing him.
We decided to leave around 3:30 to walk to Red Square and then go to dinner. It's not very cold here (in the 30's) but it is very wet. It has been snowing all day and when we went out, it was a rain/snow mix - so we were quickly soaked. We started out with Andrew walking and Baby Girl in the stroller. We made it to Red Square when Andrew asked to be carried (not bad considering it was a 15-20 minute walk through slushy sidewalks). Everything is decorated for Christmas and was very pretty. We actually were able to walk around inside the squre (it was closed when we were here for Andrew and we could only walk around the outside).
After we walked around, we went to Sbarro for dinner - - pizza and breadsticks sounded wonderful :) Andrew started to fall asleep at the table and we decided it would be easier to carry Baby Girl back and put him in the stroller. So Laurie pushed him back while BupBup carried Baby Girl for the majority of the trek. It's not a bad walk under normal circumstances but with the rain/snow mix, slushy sidewalks and uphill grade - it turned out to be a bit of a workout.
Andrew was asleep for the night at about 6:15 while Baby Girl had some dinner and played for about 45 minutes. We are learning more and more about her every day. She is letting her personality show and she is goofy just like her brother :) She has a good set of lungs and cries every time she doesn't get her way. Andrew is not at all a fan of her crying and it sends him into the other room with his hands over his ears - haha! She is a very determined little girl when she wants something and has an incredibly strong grip! She has great hand/eye coordination and feeds her self Puffs like a pro :) She is now in bed for the day and we are hoping to follow shortly.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Moscow!!
What a day! We all slept much better Tuesday night and woke up around 6:45 - - so 12 hours for Andrew and about 10 for the rest of us. We went down to breakfast and saw the same waitress who sang to Andrew yesterday. She told Laurie's mom that she is so thankful for what we are doing for "their children" and gets teary eyed just thinking about our family. Baby Girl had a little bit more of an appetite at breakfast where she ate 2 bowls of porridge and that was after a jar of fruit. After breakfast, John was picked up by Val so he could go get Baby Girl's passport.
The rest of us took the remainder of the morning to pack and play. The suite was reserved for another family starting at 2pm so we had to be out of it by 1:00. Laurie's parent's room was free for late checkout so we could stay there until our airport pick up at 2:30. Baby Girl went down for a nap around 10:45 and we had to wake her up at 1:00 to leave the room - yes! she slept for over 2 hours!! John returned from the passport office and then ran to the grocery store for more baby food (now that we know what she prefers). At checkout, the hotel gifted us a book on Perm and wished us many congratulations and the best of luck.
At 2:30, Val & Olga showed up to take the O'Rourkes to the airport while Laurie's parents took the airport shuttle (much better than waiting for Val to make 2 trips). Once we were all at the airport, Olga set up our lap seat ticket for Baby Girl and we waited for another couple from our agency and their son (who Val went back to the hotel to pick up). We soon found out that our 5:15pm flight was delayed until 6:20. If anyone can remember, there isn't much to the Perm airport so this news was anything but exciting. We waited it out though and soon it was time to check our bags (they only do it close to the time of your flight).
We said goodbye to Val and Olga and went through security. We ended up waiting until 6:30 to board our flight and the weather in Perm was the worst we had seen it. VERY cold and VERY VERY windy! We had to take a shuttle to the plane and when we got off, everyone stepped aside so we could take the children on the plane first. The plane was about 500 degrees and once in the air, both Andrew and Baby Girl instantly fell asleep. Andrew slept for the entire 2 hour plane ride but Baby Girl woke up to eat. She did very well, only crying a few times (because she was hungry and tired).
We arrived in Moscow around 7:00pm (they are 2 hours behind Perm so we gained 2 hours) but then had to be shuttled to the airport and wait for our bags. We were met by our driver, Maxim, and he had a huge van that fit all of us and our luggage. It was a about a 45 minute ride to the airport but a pretty one with many Christmas lights. Our hotel is in walking distance to Red Square and we could see the Kremlin on the drive in.
Once in our hotel room (we have adjoining rooms with Laurie's parents), the kids got baths and Baby Girl fell asleep after another jar of food. Andrew is hearing a story right now and then we are all off to bed. Maxim is picking up John, Laurie & Baby Girl at 8:30 in the morning to go for Baby Girl's medical exam and then to apply for her Visa at the US Embassy. The rest of the day is free for sight seeing. The weather is much more tolerable that Perm. There is more snow but the temperature is 34 degrees so that makes it feels a little more like home.
The rest of us took the remainder of the morning to pack and play. The suite was reserved for another family starting at 2pm so we had to be out of it by 1:00. Laurie's parent's room was free for late checkout so we could stay there until our airport pick up at 2:30. Baby Girl went down for a nap around 10:45 and we had to wake her up at 1:00 to leave the room - yes! she slept for over 2 hours!! John returned from the passport office and then ran to the grocery store for more baby food (now that we know what she prefers). At checkout, the hotel gifted us a book on Perm and wished us many congratulations and the best of luck.
At 2:30, Val & Olga showed up to take the O'Rourkes to the airport while Laurie's parents took the airport shuttle (much better than waiting for Val to make 2 trips). Once we were all at the airport, Olga set up our lap seat ticket for Baby Girl and we waited for another couple from our agency and their son (who Val went back to the hotel to pick up). We soon found out that our 5:15pm flight was delayed until 6:20. If anyone can remember, there isn't much to the Perm airport so this news was anything but exciting. We waited it out though and soon it was time to check our bags (they only do it close to the time of your flight).
We said goodbye to Val and Olga and went through security. We ended up waiting until 6:30 to board our flight and the weather in Perm was the worst we had seen it. VERY cold and VERY VERY windy! We had to take a shuttle to the plane and when we got off, everyone stepped aside so we could take the children on the plane first. The plane was about 500 degrees and once in the air, both Andrew and Baby Girl instantly fell asleep. Andrew slept for the entire 2 hour plane ride but Baby Girl woke up to eat. She did very well, only crying a few times (because she was hungry and tired).
We arrived in Moscow around 7:00pm (they are 2 hours behind Perm so we gained 2 hours) but then had to be shuttled to the airport and wait for our bags. We were met by our driver, Maxim, and he had a huge van that fit all of us and our luggage. It was a about a 45 minute ride to the airport but a pretty one with many Christmas lights. Our hotel is in walking distance to Red Square and we could see the Kremlin on the drive in.
Once in our hotel room (we have adjoining rooms with Laurie's parents), the kids got baths and Baby Girl fell asleep after another jar of food. Andrew is hearing a story right now and then we are all off to bed. Maxim is picking up John, Laurie & Baby Girl at 8:30 in the morning to go for Baby Girl's medical exam and then to apply for her Visa at the US Embassy. The rest of the day is free for sight seeing. The weather is much more tolerable that Perm. There is more snow but the temperature is 34 degrees so that makes it feels a little more like home.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
A BIG DAY!!
First of all, Merry Christmas everyone! Second of all, we now have a 4 year old - Happy Birthday to Andrew! And lastly, we are officially a family of 4!
The day started out super bright and early. Big naps sounded like a good idea yesterday but it turns out that it wasn't such a good idea. Andrew fell asleep around 11:45pm, soon to wake up at 1:15am for the day! yup, he was up for the entire night! He was so excited that it was his birthday that he couldn't sleep and would just lay in bed singing "Happy Birthday" to himself. Mommy and Daddy both averaged about 3 hours of sleep and were hurting when it was time to start getting ready for the day.
We met Laurie's parents around 7:30 for breakfast. Grammy told our waitress that it was Andrew's 4th birthday and she was really excited to help us celebrate it. She and 2 other waitresses surprised him with a huge piece of cake with "Happy Birthday Andrew" written around the plate in icing. They sang him happy birthday and cheered him on blowing out his 4 candles.
Val showed up soon after (at 8:20) to pick us up for the orphanage. Grammy & BupBup were given strict instructions to not let Andrew sleep while we were gone (no more naps so we can actually sleep tonight). On the way, we picked up Olga and arrived at the orphanage around 9:15. We were given instructions to hurry up and get her dressed (in the clothes that we brought for her) because we weren't supposed to stay long (another thing that we didn't quite understand). So we got her dressed, gave them the gifts we had (some diapers, baby clothes and toothbrush kits from our dentist) and left. We went straight back to the hotel to introduce Baby Girl to her big brother. She slept for the entire 45 minute car ride :)
It's been a day of playing "getting to know you". Learning what makes her laugh and what she likes to eat. Andrew has been a great big brother so far with sharing his toys. They crawled around after each other playing trains for a good bit of the afternoon. Andrew loved that she followed and copied what he did. When it was time to feed her dinner and she didn't like the jar of food we picked out, Andrew picked out another one and she liked it - he was SO proud of himself that he picked out the kind of food that she liked :)
While Laurie, Grammy and Andrew fed Baby Girl dinner, Bup Bup and John ran to McDonalds to pick up everyone elses dinner - yes, Christmas dinner from McDonalds (birthday boy's choice). Soon after we set our food up to eat, Andrew sat on the floor, drank half of his milkshake, took one bite of his cheeseburger and passed out! We are amazed he made it from 1am until 6:30pm and are praying that he (and she) sleeps through the night - we all need the sleep!
So, on that note, it is at 7:30pm that we say Good night and again a very Merry Christmas to all!!
The day started out super bright and early. Big naps sounded like a good idea yesterday but it turns out that it wasn't such a good idea. Andrew fell asleep around 11:45pm, soon to wake up at 1:15am for the day! yup, he was up for the entire night! He was so excited that it was his birthday that he couldn't sleep and would just lay in bed singing "Happy Birthday" to himself. Mommy and Daddy both averaged about 3 hours of sleep and were hurting when it was time to start getting ready for the day.
We met Laurie's parents around 7:30 for breakfast. Grammy told our waitress that it was Andrew's 4th birthday and she was really excited to help us celebrate it. She and 2 other waitresses surprised him with a huge piece of cake with "Happy Birthday Andrew" written around the plate in icing. They sang him happy birthday and cheered him on blowing out his 4 candles.
Val showed up soon after (at 8:20) to pick us up for the orphanage. Grammy & BupBup were given strict instructions to not let Andrew sleep while we were gone (no more naps so we can actually sleep tonight). On the way, we picked up Olga and arrived at the orphanage around 9:15. We were given instructions to hurry up and get her dressed (in the clothes that we brought for her) because we weren't supposed to stay long (another thing that we didn't quite understand). So we got her dressed, gave them the gifts we had (some diapers, baby clothes and toothbrush kits from our dentist) and left. We went straight back to the hotel to introduce Baby Girl to her big brother. She slept for the entire 45 minute car ride :)
It's been a day of playing "getting to know you". Learning what makes her laugh and what she likes to eat. Andrew has been a great big brother so far with sharing his toys. They crawled around after each other playing trains for a good bit of the afternoon. Andrew loved that she followed and copied what he did. When it was time to feed her dinner and she didn't like the jar of food we picked out, Andrew picked out another one and she liked it - he was SO proud of himself that he picked out the kind of food that she liked :)
While Laurie, Grammy and Andrew fed Baby Girl dinner, Bup Bup and John ran to McDonalds to pick up everyone elses dinner - yes, Christmas dinner from McDonalds (birthday boy's choice). Soon after we set our food up to eat, Andrew sat on the floor, drank half of his milkshake, took one bite of his cheeseburger and passed out! We are amazed he made it from 1am until 6:30pm and are praying that he (and she) sleeps through the night - we all need the sleep!
So, on that note, it is at 7:30pm that we say Good night and again a very Merry Christmas to all!!
Monday, December 24, 2012
A lazy Monday....
Well, there isn't much to report for today. The O'Rourkes seemed to sleep better last night waking up at 7:00 but the Morrows had an early morning (waking at 3 and 5am). We met for breakfast around 9:00 and took our time in the restaurant knowing that we didn't really have anything planned for the day.
After breakfast we went back to our suite and just hung out reading and playing on various computers - Andrew of course watching train videos. After a few hours, Laurie's parents decided to return to their room to take a nap. Laurie thought that sounded like a good idea for the 2 with colds so she and Andrew took naps too. John took a walk down to the mall to check out the food court to see if they had any pizza we could eat for dinner and then returned to take a nap too. After about 3 hours (yes, Andrew must be both jet lagged and not feeling well for him to take a 3 hour nap!) everyone woke up hungry for dinner. With help from the front desk (to know how to order it), John walked back over to the mall and ordered us pizza.
After dinner, Andrew played with his trains a little bit and then we got a Skype call from John's sister Kim and her girls. We talked with them for a little bit and then decided to put on a movie and play a game. Bup Bup thought it would be a good idea to teach Andrew how to play "Go Fish". We played 5 games and Andrew loved it! Instead of saying "Go Fish" he said "Gold Fish" and won 4 out of 5 games.
Earlier this afternoon, we received a call from Val saying that he was going to pick us up at 8:20 to go get Baby Girl out of the orphanage. So, it looks like we will have her out by 11am - meaning it will really be 12/24 at home!
We are currently all ready for bed and listening to Andrew's recordable book of Nini reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Ready for a big day tomorrow!!
Merry Christmas eve!!
After breakfast we went back to our suite and just hung out reading and playing on various computers - Andrew of course watching train videos. After a few hours, Laurie's parents decided to return to their room to take a nap. Laurie thought that sounded like a good idea for the 2 with colds so she and Andrew took naps too. John took a walk down to the mall to check out the food court to see if they had any pizza we could eat for dinner and then returned to take a nap too. After about 3 hours (yes, Andrew must be both jet lagged and not feeling well for him to take a 3 hour nap!) everyone woke up hungry for dinner. With help from the front desk (to know how to order it), John walked back over to the mall and ordered us pizza.
After dinner, Andrew played with his trains a little bit and then we got a Skype call from John's sister Kim and her girls. We talked with them for a little bit and then decided to put on a movie and play a game. Bup Bup thought it would be a good idea to teach Andrew how to play "Go Fish". We played 5 games and Andrew loved it! Instead of saying "Go Fish" he said "Gold Fish" and won 4 out of 5 games.
Earlier this afternoon, we received a call from Val saying that he was going to pick us up at 8:20 to go get Baby Girl out of the orphanage. So, it looks like we will have her out by 11am - meaning it will really be 12/24 at home!
We are currently all ready for bed and listening to Andrew's recordable book of Nini reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Ready for a big day tomorrow!!
Merry Christmas eve!!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Sunday fun in Russia
Well, we were hoping that our sleep pattern the last trip was because of court nerves but maybe not. All 3 of us woke up at 5:00am :( After an hour of trying to get back to sleep, John took Andrew into the "living room" part of our suite so Laurie could get a little more sleep since she's been suffering from a cold and not feeling great. On a side note, the hotel very nicely upgraded us (John, Laurie & Andrew) into a 2 bedroom suite with a living room and 3 bathrooms since we were coming for an adoption (would eventually have 2 children with us) and it was over the holidays. We ended up going down for breakfast around 9am with Laurie's parents to get "fueled up" for the day.
After breakfast, we came back to our room(s) to hang out and Andrew played with the iPad (it seemed at this point that he had caught Laurie's cold as his nose turned into a faucet). He was acting very tired (which makes sense because he was up for 27+ hours with only a 2 1/2 hour nap and then only slept for about 7 hours) so Laurie encouraged him to take a nap. He finally fell asleep around 1:00 and we were able to let him sleep for about an hour and 15 minutes before we had to meet Val. While he was asleep, John and Laurie's dad walked over to the grocery store to get some baby food & diapers (that we didn't want to have to pack). When it was time to wake Andrew up, he was not very happy to need to get up and it was quite a struggle to get him ready. We all needed to bundle up because we were doing some outside things and it was -7 degrees F but the "feels like" was -24 degrees F!
Val picked us up at 2:30 and we went to see the ice village that they were setting up at the center of the city. It was quite a sight but not complete yet so we couldn't walk through it, just around it. Val told us that it gets set up for New Years and remains up for about a month. We didn't make it much more than 20 minutes or so before we returned to Val's car as we decided that we wanted the feeling back in our cheeks. After that, he took us to a very pretty Russian Orthodox church to look around and then back to the military museum that we visited on our first trip.
We didn't last very long at any of the sights as they were mostly outside (other than a short visit inside the church) and it was just too cold out. We then went to the orphanage for a short visit. Since Andrew & Laurie's parents were with us and they aren't allowed in the orphanage, we told Val we only wanted to visit for 30-40 minutes (the heat was on of course and they had the iPad for entertainment but we still didn't want them out there for too long).
Baby Girl hasn't changed too much. She has a tiny bit more hair and her belly looked a little bigger but basically the same. She didn't seem to be feeling well. She only wanted to be held and had really no interest in playing with any of the toys. We heard her cry for the first time and had to wipe away the tears. She seemed a little hesitant toward John and was just over all not very happy for the whole visit.
When we left, we asked Val if he would drop us off at the Ukranian restuarant near our hotel for dinner. Andrew fell asleep on the way to the restaurant and then proceded to sleep on Laurie's lap at the restaurant. He woke up at one point crying that he wanted to go back to the hotel and go to bed (it seemed like jet lag had set in). John decided to leave and carry him back to the hotel. The rest of us hurried to eat our dinner, got John's wrapped up to go (we had gotten Andrew soup that he had no interest in because he just wanted to sleep) and headed back to the hotel. It was only about a 10 minute walk, but it was a painfully cold one. When we got back to the room, Andrew was full of pep and eating a peanut butter sandwich and oranges. John said as soon as the cold air hit him outside he woke up and talked the entire walk back. He was full of energy all evening long after that - we think it was maybe because he was so bundled up and it was really hot in the car and restaurant that he just couldn't stay awake.
We aren't quite sure what the plan is yet for getting Baby Girl but it is still happening on Tuesday. We also haven't been given an explanation as to why. Laurie was upset/sad about another thing happening on December 25 and feeling bad that Baby Girl wouldn't get the special "Gotcha Day" attention that Andrew does on his day (simply because it's also Christmas and Andrew's birthday). That was until Grammy made the point that if we get her in the morning, with the 11 hr time difference, that would still be Dec 24 at home and we could really say that is her "Gotcha Day". So, we are now hoping that is the case. The day changing doesn't affect any of our other plans, we will be able to pick up her passport on Wednesday, head for Moscow later that day and then leave Moscow as scheduled. Val said he would call us tomorrow with the plans but that we have nothing to do tomorrow. With the even colder forcast for tomorrow, it sounds like we will be most likely just hanging around the hotel for the day but might risk a walk over to the mall for something to do :)
After breakfast, we came back to our room(s) to hang out and Andrew played with the iPad (it seemed at this point that he had caught Laurie's cold as his nose turned into a faucet). He was acting very tired (which makes sense because he was up for 27+ hours with only a 2 1/2 hour nap and then only slept for about 7 hours) so Laurie encouraged him to take a nap. He finally fell asleep around 1:00 and we were able to let him sleep for about an hour and 15 minutes before we had to meet Val. While he was asleep, John and Laurie's dad walked over to the grocery store to get some baby food & diapers (that we didn't want to have to pack). When it was time to wake Andrew up, he was not very happy to need to get up and it was quite a struggle to get him ready. We all needed to bundle up because we were doing some outside things and it was -7 degrees F but the "feels like" was -24 degrees F!
Val picked us up at 2:30 and we went to see the ice village that they were setting up at the center of the city. It was quite a sight but not complete yet so we couldn't walk through it, just around it. Val told us that it gets set up for New Years and remains up for about a month. We didn't make it much more than 20 minutes or so before we returned to Val's car as we decided that we wanted the feeling back in our cheeks. After that, he took us to a very pretty Russian Orthodox church to look around and then back to the military museum that we visited on our first trip.
Baby Girl hasn't changed too much. She has a tiny bit more hair and her belly looked a little bigger but basically the same. She didn't seem to be feeling well. She only wanted to be held and had really no interest in playing with any of the toys. We heard her cry for the first time and had to wipe away the tears. She seemed a little hesitant toward John and was just over all not very happy for the whole visit.
When we left, we asked Val if he would drop us off at the Ukranian restuarant near our hotel for dinner. Andrew fell asleep on the way to the restaurant and then proceded to sleep on Laurie's lap at the restaurant. He woke up at one point crying that he wanted to go back to the hotel and go to bed (it seemed like jet lag had set in). John decided to leave and carry him back to the hotel. The rest of us hurried to eat our dinner, got John's wrapped up to go (we had gotten Andrew soup that he had no interest in because he just wanted to sleep) and headed back to the hotel. It was only about a 10 minute walk, but it was a painfully cold one. When we got back to the room, Andrew was full of pep and eating a peanut butter sandwich and oranges. John said as soon as the cold air hit him outside he woke up and talked the entire walk back. He was full of energy all evening long after that - we think it was maybe because he was so bundled up and it was really hot in the car and restaurant that he just couldn't stay awake.
We aren't quite sure what the plan is yet for getting Baby Girl but it is still happening on Tuesday. We also haven't been given an explanation as to why. Laurie was upset/sad about another thing happening on December 25 and feeling bad that Baby Girl wouldn't get the special "Gotcha Day" attention that Andrew does on his day (simply because it's also Christmas and Andrew's birthday). That was until Grammy made the point that if we get her in the morning, with the 11 hr time difference, that would still be Dec 24 at home and we could really say that is her "Gotcha Day". So, we are now hoping that is the case. The day changing doesn't affect any of our other plans, we will be able to pick up her passport on Wednesday, head for Moscow later that day and then leave Moscow as scheduled. Val said he would call us tomorrow with the plans but that we have nothing to do tomorrow. With the even colder forcast for tomorrow, it sounds like we will be most likely just hanging around the hotel for the day but might risk a walk over to the mall for something to do :)
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Back in Russia....
Well, after many hours of travel - we made it back to Russia!!
Andrew woke up super excited to start the voyage on Friday morning. After getting showers and eating breakfast, he went over to the neighbors house so we could get some things ready to celebrate Christmas when we get home :) He did really well on the short flight from Pittsburgh to NYC and was very excited to see BupBup & Grammy (Laurie's parents) when we got there (they had driven to New York earlier in the week and took in some shows/holiday sights for a few days).
After a fairly short lay-over in New York, we boarded the plane for Russia. Andrew insisted on sitting beside BupBup. He anxiously awaited the announcement that electronic devices could be used so that he could watch a movie on the iPad. Between watching a movie, eating dinner and playing games, that kept him pretty well occupied until he (finally) got tired. He asked to sit on his daddy's lap for a little bit and then on his mommy's lap where he actually fell asleep. It was after flying for about 5 1/2 hours (so it was 10:30pm home time) and he slept for 2 1/2 hours. He woke up when they turned the lights on for breakfast and was full of pep - jumping up and down in his seat giggling at silly little things (we think he was delirious). When we landed in Moscow he was very excited to see that there was snow on the ground. He did amazingly well on the flight and surpassed all of our expectations!!
Once we went through passport control, collected our bags, rechecked our bags and went through security in Moscow, we had about 3 hours until our flight to Perm. Andrew sat on a chair the entire time watching train videos on the iPad. Once we boarded our plane to Perm, the adults struggled to stay awake while Andrew played a train game on the iPad the entire 2 hour flight. He truly amazed all of us by being a wonderful traveler.
Once we arrived in Perm we were greeted by a surprised Val as he wasn't informed that there would be extra travelers - even though we made that very clear and were assured on several occasions that it wouldn't be a problem. So, as his car is not large enough to fit all of the people and our bags he had to make 2 trips - first with Laurie, Andrew and Grammy while John and BupBup waited at the airport. On the ride to the hotel, Val informed Laurie that we would be taking Baby Girl out of the baby home not on Monday but on Tuesday! As all can probably imagine, this was not taken very well as that is Christmas Day and Andrew's birthday. Laurie is attempting to get in touch with someone at the agency to get some answers and as you can imagine, emotions are high after being awake for pretty much 28 straight hours.
Our plan for tomorrow is to take a trip to the grocery store and then Val is picking us all up at 2:30 to visit an ice village in the center of Perm and then we are making a short visit to the baby home. Only we will be able to go inside for the visit, meaning Andrew, Grammy & BupBup will have to sit in the car (all bundled up from being outside) so we only plan to have a 30 minute visit - which is actually a surprise anyways because we were under the impression weekend visits didn't happen.
Anyways, more tomorrow as we are completely exhausted and off to bed!
Andrew woke up super excited to start the voyage on Friday morning. After getting showers and eating breakfast, he went over to the neighbors house so we could get some things ready to celebrate Christmas when we get home :) He did really well on the short flight from Pittsburgh to NYC and was very excited to see BupBup & Grammy (Laurie's parents) when we got there (they had driven to New York earlier in the week and took in some shows/holiday sights for a few days).
After a fairly short lay-over in New York, we boarded the plane for Russia. Andrew insisted on sitting beside BupBup. He anxiously awaited the announcement that electronic devices could be used so that he could watch a movie on the iPad. Between watching a movie, eating dinner and playing games, that kept him pretty well occupied until he (finally) got tired. He asked to sit on his daddy's lap for a little bit and then on his mommy's lap where he actually fell asleep. It was after flying for about 5 1/2 hours (so it was 10:30pm home time) and he slept for 2 1/2 hours. He woke up when they turned the lights on for breakfast and was full of pep - jumping up and down in his seat giggling at silly little things (we think he was delirious). When we landed in Moscow he was very excited to see that there was snow on the ground. He did amazingly well on the flight and surpassed all of our expectations!!
Once we went through passport control, collected our bags, rechecked our bags and went through security in Moscow, we had about 3 hours until our flight to Perm. Andrew sat on a chair the entire time watching train videos on the iPad. Once we boarded our plane to Perm, the adults struggled to stay awake while Andrew played a train game on the iPad the entire 2 hour flight. He truly amazed all of us by being a wonderful traveler.
Once we arrived in Perm we were greeted by a surprised Val as he wasn't informed that there would be extra travelers - even though we made that very clear and were assured on several occasions that it wouldn't be a problem. So, as his car is not large enough to fit all of the people and our bags he had to make 2 trips - first with Laurie, Andrew and Grammy while John and BupBup waited at the airport. On the ride to the hotel, Val informed Laurie that we would be taking Baby Girl out of the baby home not on Monday but on Tuesday! As all can probably imagine, this was not taken very well as that is Christmas Day and Andrew's birthday. Laurie is attempting to get in touch with someone at the agency to get some answers and as you can imagine, emotions are high after being awake for pretty much 28 straight hours.
Our plan for tomorrow is to take a trip to the grocery store and then Val is picking us all up at 2:30 to visit an ice village in the center of Perm and then we are making a short visit to the baby home. Only we will be able to go inside for the visit, meaning Andrew, Grammy & BupBup will have to sit in the car (all bundled up from being outside) so we only plan to have a 30 minute visit - which is actually a surprise anyways because we were under the impression weekend visits didn't happen.
Anyways, more tomorrow as we are completely exhausted and off to bed!
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Court Day
What a day! We woke up after about 5 hours of sleep (we think nerves definitely got the best of us). We eventually got ready for the day and went to breakfast. After breakfast we got ready for court and went downstairs to meet the 2 Olgas.
On the way to court, Olga put relaxing music on the radio for us and we were definitely TRYING to relax. We arrived at the court about 30 minutes early and just tried to review our speeches while we waited. Roman, our interpreter, arrived about 15 minutes later and asked if we had any questions for him about the court process before we went in.
Once we entered the court, the baby home's social worker followed, then the prosecutor and the secretary. The judge came in just a little after 10:00. He has a very structured court and began by introducing the members of the court and reading our petition. Then John got up and delivered his speech. He spoke about more factual things. Once his speech was over the judge then asked him several questions. The social work and prosecutor had no questions for John. It was then Laurie's turn to deliver her speech. Her speech was to talk about more emotional things although she was not sure what to do because in John's questioning he was asked to explain or address many of the things that were in her speech. She gave an abbreviated version of her speech, trying not to repeat too many things. The judge then asked her several questions as did the social worker. The prosecutor did not ask any questions. The judge then continued with his court process and eventually left for the break where he made his decision. After about 15 minutes he returned and gave us his response - YES!
We were very relieved to have the experience over with and with a positive result.
We had remembered our translator in St. Petersburg telling us how much she wished she had Crest toothpaste (they can't buy it in Russia). During a conversation with Val on our first trip, toothpaste actually came up and he too said that he wished he could buy it in Russia. So, during our break from trips 1 to 2 we made a special trip to Costco to buy some toothpaste. Once we returned to our hotel, we gifted Olga and Val with 10 tubes of Crest toothpaste each as a thank you from us. They seemed so surprised and truly grateful. Olga said "like Christmas".
We then returned to our room, we did some things on our computers and fell asleep. As much as we did our best to avoid naps the previous 2 days, we were unable to do it today. We decided to go to the Ukrainian restaurant that we discovered on our first trip for dinner and invited Christine & Todd (the other couple here from Pgh) to join us. We had a great time with them at dinner and really enjoyed sharing our stories and hearing theirs.
We just finished Skyping with Andrew & Laurie's parents and we are now off to bed. Val will be picking us up at 4:30am to take us to the airport for our 6:25 flight out of Perm. It will be a long day, but we are excited to come home on Thanksgiving as we have so much to be thankful for this year!
On the way to court, Olga put relaxing music on the radio for us and we were definitely TRYING to relax. We arrived at the court about 30 minutes early and just tried to review our speeches while we waited. Roman, our interpreter, arrived about 15 minutes later and asked if we had any questions for him about the court process before we went in.
Once we entered the court, the baby home's social worker followed, then the prosecutor and the secretary. The judge came in just a little after 10:00. He has a very structured court and began by introducing the members of the court and reading our petition. Then John got up and delivered his speech. He spoke about more factual things. Once his speech was over the judge then asked him several questions. The social work and prosecutor had no questions for John. It was then Laurie's turn to deliver her speech. Her speech was to talk about more emotional things although she was not sure what to do because in John's questioning he was asked to explain or address many of the things that were in her speech. She gave an abbreviated version of her speech, trying not to repeat too many things. The judge then asked her several questions as did the social worker. The prosecutor did not ask any questions. The judge then continued with his court process and eventually left for the break where he made his decision. After about 15 minutes he returned and gave us his response - YES!
We were very relieved to have the experience over with and with a positive result.
We had remembered our translator in St. Petersburg telling us how much she wished she had Crest toothpaste (they can't buy it in Russia). During a conversation with Val on our first trip, toothpaste actually came up and he too said that he wished he could buy it in Russia. So, during our break from trips 1 to 2 we made a special trip to Costco to buy some toothpaste. Once we returned to our hotel, we gifted Olga and Val with 10 tubes of Crest toothpaste each as a thank you from us. They seemed so surprised and truly grateful. Olga said "like Christmas".
We then returned to our room, we did some things on our computers and fell asleep. As much as we did our best to avoid naps the previous 2 days, we were unable to do it today. We decided to go to the Ukrainian restaurant that we discovered on our first trip for dinner and invited Christine & Todd (the other couple here from Pgh) to join us. We had a great time with them at dinner and really enjoyed sharing our stories and hearing theirs.
We just finished Skyping with Andrew & Laurie's parents and we are now off to bed. Val will be picking us up at 4:30am to take us to the airport for our 6:25 flight out of Perm. It will be a long day, but we are excited to come home on Thanksgiving as we have so much to be thankful for this year!
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Baby's First Birthday!
We were picked up today at 9:50 by (driver) Olga. Again, it was still dark out so it made us feel like it was much earlier than it actually was. We have discovered that she never takes the same route twice so each time we are in the car with her we are getting to see something new in Perm.
When we arrived at the baby home, they brought our birthday girl to us. We were warned, however, that she didn't have a diaper on! We are not quite sure why that is, if their supply was low and figured a 1 year old would be ok for a couple of hours without one but regardless of the reason, we were a little cautious given that information :)
She warmed up to us much more quickly today than yesterday and really loved the musical toy that we brought for her to play with. For most of our visit today, she either played with that toy or we threw a ball back and forth (she's getting quite good at it). We sang her "Happy Birthday" several times and she seemed to love it - rocking side to side with the tune. We also played for her a video (several times) of Andrew singing "Happy Birthday" to her (since he doesn't know her name, his version said "dear baby sister") and she kept reaching out as if to try and touch him :)
Our visit today lasted for an hour and 1/2 but it was a little easier to say goodbye knowing that we will be back in a month and we will be taking her home with us! We found out that she is currently 18.5 pounds and 28 inches long - - so she is the same exact weight as she was at 9 months and she has grown an inch since we first saw her.
The majority of our afternoon today was spent preparing for court. We found out that we both need to deliver speeches to present in addition to fielding any questions asked by the judge. Our court hearing will start at 10am and will last approximately 2 hours - - so, anyone at home who is awake at 11pm Tuesday night please say a prayer for us.
When we arrived at the baby home, they brought our birthday girl to us. We were warned, however, that she didn't have a diaper on! We are not quite sure why that is, if their supply was low and figured a 1 year old would be ok for a couple of hours without one but regardless of the reason, we were a little cautious given that information :)
She warmed up to us much more quickly today than yesterday and really loved the musical toy that we brought for her to play with. For most of our visit today, she either played with that toy or we threw a ball back and forth (she's getting quite good at it). We sang her "Happy Birthday" several times and she seemed to love it - rocking side to side with the tune. We also played for her a video (several times) of Andrew singing "Happy Birthday" to her (since he doesn't know her name, his version said "dear baby sister") and she kept reaching out as if to try and touch him :)
Our visit today lasted for an hour and 1/2 but it was a little easier to say goodbye knowing that we will be back in a month and we will be taking her home with us! We found out that she is currently 18.5 pounds and 28 inches long - - so she is the same exact weight as she was at 9 months and she has grown an inch since we first saw her.
The majority of our afternoon today was spent preparing for court. We found out that we both need to deliver speeches to present in addition to fielding any questions asked by the judge. Our court hearing will start at 10am and will last approximately 2 hours - - so, anyone at home who is awake at 11pm Tuesday night please say a prayer for us.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Seeing "Baby Girl" again
Well, so much for getting caught up on some sleep. We both fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows but only slept until about 5:30am. On a normal day, 7 hours of sleep would be great but when you are missing an entire night of sleep it isn't quite enough. Anyways, we decided to take advantage of being up early and went to the hotel gym for a work-out before breakfast.
After breakfast we ran into Christine and Todd (the couple we were on the plane with last night) and chatted with them for awhile. Before we knew it, it was 9:20 and time to meet (driver) Olga to visit Baby Girl. We were a little surprised to discover that it didn't get light out until almost 10:00am but then remembered very little daylight during our first visit to St. Petersburg in Feb of '10.
We were so excited to see her after 3 months...wondering how much she's changed and if she has anymore hair :) When they brought her to us we were kind of surprised to see that she pretty much looked exactly the same! She does have a little bit more hair, emphasis on little, and seems to be a bit taller and heavier. Olga (coordinator) is finding out for us her current height and weight so we can see officialy how much that has changed.
The visit was great. She seemed a little skeptical of us at first (which is actually a good thing for a child her age since she really doesn't know us yet) but she let Laurie hold her and eventually started playing with the toys we brought. We noticed that she has 3 teeth now - front bottom 2 and 1 front top. She is crawling very well, pulling herself up, standing in place and walking while holding onto our hands or a table. They had her extremely bundled up (especially for being in a warm building) with a long sleeved top, footed zip up jammies, thick socks over her feet and a silly hat on her head. We told her that her brother would love the hat and would call her Santa :)
She tried to play catch for a little with a ball and then she moved onto chewing on the blocks and book that we brought. We discovered today that she puts her thumb in her mouth just like her big brother used to. She ended up not taking long to warm back up to us and let John hold her a lot too. While we were there (coordinator) Olga showed up with yet another couple from our agency whose baby girl is at the same orphanage. They were meeting their child for the first time today and it was really neat to see their reaction. Our visit today ended up lasting about an hour and 1/2 and we found out that we will be picked up tomorrow at 9:50 for another morning visit.
After breakfast we ran into Christine and Todd (the couple we were on the plane with last night) and chatted with them for awhile. Before we knew it, it was 9:20 and time to meet (driver) Olga to visit Baby Girl. We were a little surprised to discover that it didn't get light out until almost 10:00am but then remembered very little daylight during our first visit to St. Petersburg in Feb of '10.
We were so excited to see her after 3 months...wondering how much she's changed and if she has anymore hair :) When they brought her to us we were kind of surprised to see that she pretty much looked exactly the same! She does have a little bit more hair, emphasis on little, and seems to be a bit taller and heavier. Olga (coordinator) is finding out for us her current height and weight so we can see officialy how much that has changed.
The visit was great. She seemed a little skeptical of us at first (which is actually a good thing for a child her age since she really doesn't know us yet) but she let Laurie hold her and eventually started playing with the toys we brought. We noticed that she has 3 teeth now - front bottom 2 and 1 front top. She is crawling very well, pulling herself up, standing in place and walking while holding onto our hands or a table. They had her extremely bundled up (especially for being in a warm building) with a long sleeved top, footed zip up jammies, thick socks over her feet and a silly hat on her head. We told her that her brother would love the hat and would call her Santa :)
She tried to play catch for a little with a ball and then she moved onto chewing on the blocks and book that we brought. We discovered today that she puts her thumb in her mouth just like her big brother used to. She ended up not taking long to warm back up to us and let John hold her a lot too. While we were there (coordinator) Olga showed up with yet another couple from our agency whose baby girl is at the same orphanage. They were meeting their child for the first time today and it was really neat to see their reaction. Our visit today ended up lasting about an hour and 1/2 and we found out that we will be picked up tomorrow at 9:50 for another morning visit.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
We made it!
Well, we are back in Perm and we were greeted with SNOW! On the ground and currently still falling - - definitely a pretty sight!
We had very good flights aside from the techinical difficulties with the entertainment system on our plane from JFK to Moscow so we weren't able to watch any movies! It actually went fairly quickly though without any movies to pass the time. It's amazing how much nicer it is to travel when you don't have 15 hours in layovers!
We even had a lovely surprise on our flight from Moscow to Perm. There was a couple that we met at our agency's last zoo reunion in May that is in the process of also adopting a little girl from Perm. As we were walking down the aisle of the plane to find our seats, we hear "John!"....guess who was not only on our plane but in our row! It was such a nice surprise! We were able to reconnect and share some stories during the 2 hour flight. They are here on their first trip and get to meet their little girl for the first time tomorrow. We are in the same hotel and our rooms are actually just down the hall from each other!
When we arrived at the Perm airport, we were met by Olga and another Olga (we did not meet this other Olga on our first trip). Apparently Val was busy so (driver) Olga came to help out since there were 2 couples being picked up at the same time. Val was waiting for us at the hotel though when we arrived. We learned that (driver) Olga will be picking us up at 9:20am tomorrow to visit Baby Girl.
We were able to Skype with Andrew & Laurie's parents once we got to our room so we could say hello before they were off to church and we go to bed. Speaking of, since we've been awake for pretty much 27+ hours we are excited to get some sleep!
We had very good flights aside from the techinical difficulties with the entertainment system on our plane from JFK to Moscow so we weren't able to watch any movies! It actually went fairly quickly though without any movies to pass the time. It's amazing how much nicer it is to travel when you don't have 15 hours in layovers!
We even had a lovely surprise on our flight from Moscow to Perm. There was a couple that we met at our agency's last zoo reunion in May that is in the process of also adopting a little girl from Perm. As we were walking down the aisle of the plane to find our seats, we hear "John!"....guess who was not only on our plane but in our row! It was such a nice surprise! We were able to reconnect and share some stories during the 2 hour flight. They are here on their first trip and get to meet their little girl for the first time tomorrow. We are in the same hotel and our rooms are actually just down the hall from each other!
When we arrived at the Perm airport, we were met by Olga and another Olga (we did not meet this other Olga on our first trip). Apparently Val was busy so (driver) Olga came to help out since there were 2 couples being picked up at the same time. Val was waiting for us at the hotel though when we arrived. We learned that (driver) Olga will be picking us up at 9:20am tomorrow to visit Baby Girl.
We were able to Skype with Andrew & Laurie's parents once we got to our room so we could say hello before they were off to church and we go to bed. Speaking of, since we've been awake for pretty much 27+ hours we are excited to get some sleep!
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Finally a Court date!
After a VERY long 11 weeks since our first trip, we are
excited to say that we have a court date!! We leave this Saturday (11/17)
for Russia and we will have court on Wednesday 11/21.
It’s been a longer than expected period of time between
trips filled with a lot of stress and anxiety. The judge requested more
information from us over that time including things such as:
- a survey of our house including the square footage of each room, totaled for each level and then whole house
- copies of our vehicle purchase receipts & registrations
- updated background checks (June 2012 wasn’t recent enough)
- a letter explaining our stance on corporal punishment
There were a total of 16 additional things that we had to
provide to the judge since we returned from our first trip. Then it was a
matter of waiting….and waiting….and waiting!
Last week we finally found out (on Friday) that the judge
had set us a date of November 21 but until he issued an official invitation, it
could change - meaning that we shouldn’t book our airfare and hotel until we
know for sure. The judge did officially issue the invitation today for
the 21st! We took a chance and booked our airfare Sunday night and it
worked out - had we waited until today, it would have been an extra
$399/person!
The best part about this trip is that we will get to see
Baby Girl on her first birthday (Tuesday November 20)! That is very
exciting and special for us (especially having missed that milestone with
Andrew). It means that we will be traveling home on Thanksgiving but we
are set to land in Pittsburgh at 5pm so we won’t completely miss out on dinner
(which happens to be Laurie’s absolute favorite).
Friday, August 31, 2012
Goodbye....for now....
Last night Val and Olga met with us in our hotel lounge for us to sign a declaration that yes, we officially want to adopt the child we have met with this week. We also had to write out a one page letter (Olga had the template and we just had to fill in our information) and sign it for Olga to take to a notary with the interpretor in order for it to be notarized. Once that was complete, we called Liz (the other woman from our agency) and met her and her friend (because Liz is single, her friend traveled with her to give her moral support during court - her friend has adopted 2 children with her husband so she understand the process very well) in our hotel lounge. We talked with them for over an hour and 1/2 before making plans to meet them for dinner tonight.
Val picked us up today at 10:00 and we went straight to the orphanage (Olga was busy today so she was not with us). One of the main caretakers greeted us today and we gave her the blanket we brought for the baby to keep there. She explained that we might not get it back because sometimes things get lost in the laundry. They told us that with Andrew's blanket too but it's on his bed at home, so we are hopeful that we will get hers back too. The caretaker also asked what name we have given the baby. We told her and she promised that from now on that is what they are going to call her so she can get used to it. The baby seemed really happy to see us today and we had yet another great visit. She showed off her crawling and pulling herself up skills some more and thoroughly enjoyed playing with our toys again. We noticed that every day she has taken great interest in Laurie's bracelet so John might be in trouble with now 2 jewelry loving ladies in his house :)
Val offerred to take some pictures today of the 3 of us because he pointed out that we will need many pictures of us with her for when we return to go to court. We thanked him and also assurred him that we have plenty of pictures to choose from :) After about an hour, it was time to say goodbye. We gave her hugs and kisses and promised we would be back to see her (hopefully) soon.
Once we left the orphanage, Val took us to "center market" to take a look around. It is a huge area in the center of Perm that has many outside vendors selling everything from hats, to clothes, to underwear, to shoes and then also has an inside area with many fresh foods to buy. We didn't spend much time in the outside area because it was raining. He did, however, give us a tour of the inside area. On the main (middle) level is the meat section. Val explained that everything is fresh daily - they kill the animals at night so that everything in the morning is fresh meat and everything that is there gets sold that day. The upstairs level had dairy products and the downstairs level had produce, again everything being very fresh. He said that these markets are quite popular and the food is much healthier/better quality than what you would find in a supermarket.
Val dropped us off at our hotel and let us know he would return at 4:50 am tomorrow to take us to the airport. Our flight leaves Perm at 6:25am, we fly to Moscow, have a 4 hour lay-over there, fly 10+ hours to JFK, have a 2 1/2 hour lay-over there and return to Pittsburgh at 4:30pm - - whew! that's one long day! We are sad to leave our baby girl here but we are excited to get home to see Andrew.
Val picked us up today at 10:00 and we went straight to the orphanage (Olga was busy today so she was not with us). One of the main caretakers greeted us today and we gave her the blanket we brought for the baby to keep there. She explained that we might not get it back because sometimes things get lost in the laundry. They told us that with Andrew's blanket too but it's on his bed at home, so we are hopeful that we will get hers back too. The caretaker also asked what name we have given the baby. We told her and she promised that from now on that is what they are going to call her so she can get used to it. The baby seemed really happy to see us today and we had yet another great visit. She showed off her crawling and pulling herself up skills some more and thoroughly enjoyed playing with our toys again. We noticed that every day she has taken great interest in Laurie's bracelet so John might be in trouble with now 2 jewelry loving ladies in his house :)
We made another observation this week that could possibly be the timing of our visits, but we are hoping it's really her personality - - she's very calm! She very much loves to be held and is content to sit on your lap and play. This is something that we observed (from when we first met Andrew) was not the case with her big brother and still describes his personality today - "busy"! We would be overjoyed if her personality offsets his some because the thought of 2 "Andrews" running around is definitely overwhelming - haha :)
Val offerred to take some pictures today of the 3 of us because he pointed out that we will need many pictures of us with her for when we return to go to court. We thanked him and also assurred him that we have plenty of pictures to choose from :) After about an hour, it was time to say goodbye. We gave her hugs and kisses and promised we would be back to see her (hopefully) soon.
Once we left the orphanage, Val took us to "center market" to take a look around. It is a huge area in the center of Perm that has many outside vendors selling everything from hats, to clothes, to underwear, to shoes and then also has an inside area with many fresh foods to buy. We didn't spend much time in the outside area because it was raining. He did, however, give us a tour of the inside area. On the main (middle) level is the meat section. Val explained that everything is fresh daily - they kill the animals at night so that everything in the morning is fresh meat and everything that is there gets sold that day. The upstairs level had dairy products and the downstairs level had produce, again everything being very fresh. He said that these markets are quite popular and the food is much healthier/better quality than what you would find in a supermarket.
Val dropped us off at our hotel and let us know he would return at 4:50 am tomorrow to take us to the airport. Our flight leaves Perm at 6:25am, we fly to Moscow, have a 4 hour lay-over there, fly 10+ hours to JFK, have a 2 1/2 hour lay-over there and return to Pittsburgh at 4:30pm - - whew! that's one long day! We are sad to leave our baby girl here but we are excited to get home to see Andrew.
We just got finished Skyping with Andrew and Laurie's parents before he had to go to school and it was a 25 minute conversation about the train they took him on yesterday. He told us it was just like the Polar Express and they said he was in heaven! He now has an engineer hat and a wooden train whistle (he is beyond obsessed with trains, so we can just imagine how thrilled he was by the experience). Tonight Laurie's aunt and uncle are taking him to Fun Fore All and Laurie's parents are taking him to the airport tomorrow to welcome us home. He is going to be quite disappointed to return to reality next week but we are so happy he had such a great week!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
4th visit and some Perm history
First things first....the name has been decided!!! That's all we have to say on that subject until she's home - haha!!
Val picked us up this morning at 8:30 and on our way to the orphanage we picked Olga up. We arrived around 9:15 and once they brought her to us, we were able to spend over 2 hours together! It was another great visit. She definitely seems to be getting more comfortable with us and just wanted to be held most of the time. She loves playing with the toys/books we brought with us from home (the same toys we brought with us for Andrew to play with) and also continues to love chewing on them as well - we know that will be ongoing for quite some time as she is just starting to get her teeth. It was quite apparent that we were there during her morning nap time (not sure her caregiver was all too happy about that but she agreed to the long visit). She often gave us huge yawns and even almost fell asleep a couple of times. We were happy with all of the extra snuggle time :) She did some more crawling for us and even took some more (heavily assisted) steps. As much as we are looking foward to returning home (to our "baby" there) we are not looking forward to saying goodbye to our baby here for the next couple of months :(
Once we left the orphanage, Val & Olga took us to another restaurant for lunch. They told us it is a commonly visited place by tourists to get some "authentic" food. They specialize in what could best be compared to a type of calzone/stromboli but with odd fillings. John ordered one with meat filling (when he asked what kind of meat it is, the response was "I don't know but its really good" - awesome!) with a garlic sauce and Laurie ordered one filled with a potato/sour cream mixture. Although they sound strange and possibly not appetizing, we were both pleasantly surprised and enjoyed our meal.
After lunch, they took us to a historical museum. We spent about an hour and 1/2 looking at various pieces of Perm's history while learning more about the city and Russia itself. Val joked that a very early version of a telephone was the "iPhone 1" - yes, they have iPhones in Russia and he has one :)
After leaving the museum, Val and Olga told us that they would return later today to meet with us and have us sign necessary paperwork to be notarized stating yes, we officially want to adopt the child we have met this week.
When we returned to our hotel, Val said we might run into the other woman from our agency, Elizabeth, as he would now be taking her to see her little girl. We did in fact meet her and she was very friendly. She said that she would love to sit down and talk to us later so we exchanged room numbers to possibly get in touch later.
Val picked us up this morning at 8:30 and on our way to the orphanage we picked Olga up. We arrived around 9:15 and once they brought her to us, we were able to spend over 2 hours together! It was another great visit. She definitely seems to be getting more comfortable with us and just wanted to be held most of the time. She loves playing with the toys/books we brought with us from home (the same toys we brought with us for Andrew to play with) and also continues to love chewing on them as well - we know that will be ongoing for quite some time as she is just starting to get her teeth. It was quite apparent that we were there during her morning nap time (not sure her caregiver was all too happy about that but she agreed to the long visit). She often gave us huge yawns and even almost fell asleep a couple of times. We were happy with all of the extra snuggle time :) She did some more crawling for us and even took some more (heavily assisted) steps. As much as we are looking foward to returning home (to our "baby" there) we are not looking forward to saying goodbye to our baby here for the next couple of months :(
Once we left the orphanage, Val & Olga took us to another restaurant for lunch. They told us it is a commonly visited place by tourists to get some "authentic" food. They specialize in what could best be compared to a type of calzone/stromboli but with odd fillings. John ordered one with meat filling (when he asked what kind of meat it is, the response was "I don't know but its really good" - awesome!) with a garlic sauce and Laurie ordered one filled with a potato/sour cream mixture. Although they sound strange and possibly not appetizing, we were both pleasantly surprised and enjoyed our meal.
After lunch, they took us to a historical museum. We spent about an hour and 1/2 looking at various pieces of Perm's history while learning more about the city and Russia itself. Val joked that a very early version of a telephone was the "iPhone 1" - yes, they have iPhones in Russia and he has one :)
After leaving the museum, Val and Olga told us that they would return later today to meet with us and have us sign necessary paperwork to be notarized stating yes, we officially want to adopt the child we have met this week.
When we returned to our hotel, Val said we might run into the other woman from our agency, Elizabeth, as he would now be taking her to see her little girl. We did in fact meet her and she was very friendly. She said that she would love to sit down and talk to us later so we exchanged room numbers to possibly get in touch later.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
3rd visit and a little bit of Perm
We were quite tired at the end of our day yesterday so we took advantage of the ability to go to bed at 9:30pm. That is until we were awakened by our phone ringing at 10:20. It was our driver, Val, saying he was in the lobby and needed someone to come downstairs to talk to him. We instantly thought something bad happened (why else would he show up at almost 10:30pm at our hotel and not be able to tell us over the phone). John went downstairs to talk to him while Laurie paced up in the room imagining the posibilities. When John returned he said that both Val and Olga were down there to tell us that our appointment was going to be in the morning on Wednesday instead of the afternoon. They felt horrible at having to change our schedule again and wanted to see our reaction in person. Thinking of all the possible reasons they could have been there, a schedule change was a huge sigh of relief!
So, Val and Olga returned to pick us up at 9:20am today. We went straight to the orphanage to see "Baby Girl". She was brought to us and (finally) had on a different outfit, although it was definitely not a stylish one - haha!
We had almost an hour and 1/2 to play with her today and it went very well. She seems to be getting more and more used to us and laughed a lot today. She crawled between the two of us and even pulled herself up to be standing several times! Laurie felt in her mouth and she has her first tooth! It's one of the bottom front teeth - the orphanage needs to update their records :) For all of those reading who are anticipating another body part, we thought we would indulge you with a foot this time :)
Once we left the orphanage, Val told us they were taking us to the military museum, a souvenir shop and to a Ukrainian restaurant for lunch. The military museum was outside and quite fascinating. We were able to see various weapons and machines that were used in the past - a very scary thing to imagine them actually in use. Val told us to climb on one of the tanks and he would take our picture. As we were climbing up, Laurie said "Yeah, until the police come and arrest us" to which Val replied "POLICE, POLICE - hahahaha!!"
After the museum, we were able to do a little Perm souvenir shopping. Laurie was more than a little weary about the lunch that followed at the Ukrainian restaurant, but she was up for the challenge of finding something on the menu she would actually eat. The restaurant had a very nice atmosphere and an extremely large menu. John decided on a cup of Borsch and meat filled raviolis while Laurie decided on chicken filled raviolis. They use the term ravioli but it is not the ravioli we know in the United States. They could be compared to large gnocchi with your choice of filling and instead of a tomato based sauce that we tradionally put on a pasta dish, they put sour cream on everything. As an appetizer, we had rolls and what Val informed us was liver spread - John tried it but (surprise surprise) Laurie passed on the spread. Our food turned out to be quite good and very filling. We had great conversation with Val and Olga as well. We learned some about Perm and the judge we will probably have for court (our next trip) while they asked us questions regarding Andrew and our families.
Val told us at lunch that whenever we are ready to make our official decision (yes or no to "Baby Girl"), to let them know and they will need a day to complete paperwork. We vaguely remember needing to visit a notary on our last day of our first trip in Andrew's process, so we assume that will need to take place this time too. There wasn't any hesitation with our decision, but one hold-up remains with the completion of paperwork - - her name. We thought before we arrived that as soon as we met her it would be clear but we are still struggling between our 2 favorites. We will make a final decision by the end of today :)
So, Val and Olga returned to pick us up at 9:20am today. We went straight to the orphanage to see "Baby Girl". She was brought to us and (finally) had on a different outfit, although it was definitely not a stylish one - haha!
Once we left the orphanage, Val told us they were taking us to the military museum, a souvenir shop and to a Ukrainian restaurant for lunch. The military museum was outside and quite fascinating. We were able to see various weapons and machines that were used in the past - a very scary thing to imagine them actually in use. Val told us to climb on one of the tanks and he would take our picture. As we were climbing up, Laurie said "Yeah, until the police come and arrest us" to which Val replied "POLICE, POLICE - hahahaha!!"
After the museum, we were able to do a little Perm souvenir shopping. Laurie was more than a little weary about the lunch that followed at the Ukrainian restaurant, but she was up for the challenge of finding something on the menu she would actually eat. The restaurant had a very nice atmosphere and an extremely large menu. John decided on a cup of Borsch and meat filled raviolis while Laurie decided on chicken filled raviolis. They use the term ravioli but it is not the ravioli we know in the United States. They could be compared to large gnocchi with your choice of filling and instead of a tomato based sauce that we tradionally put on a pasta dish, they put sour cream on everything. As an appetizer, we had rolls and what Val informed us was liver spread - John tried it but (surprise surprise) Laurie passed on the spread. Our food turned out to be quite good and very filling. We had great conversation with Val and Olga as well. We learned some about Perm and the judge we will probably have for court (our next trip) while they asked us questions regarding Andrew and our families.
Val told us at lunch that whenever we are ready to make our official decision (yes or no to "Baby Girl"), to let them know and they will need a day to complete paperwork. We vaguely remember needing to visit a notary on our last day of our first trip in Andrew's process, so we assume that will need to take place this time too. There wasn't any hesitation with our decision, but one hold-up remains with the completion of paperwork - - her name. We thought before we arrived that as soon as we met her it would be clear but we are still struggling between our 2 favorites. We will make a final decision by the end of today :)
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Visit #2
Almost immediately after we published our entry yesterday, our hotel phone rang. It was our driver, Val, calling to explain that our visit tomorrow had to be moved to the morning. He said that instead of 3:30pm, they would be picking us up at 10:20am. Apparently the judge had called Olga (regarding the other client who is here this week) stating that their court appointment had been changed to the afternoon, which meant our visit had to take place in the morning so they were free in the afternoon. Due to the baby's nap (yes she reportedly naps - yippee!!) and feeding schedule, we couldn't really arrive there for a visit until late morning.
Last night after our dinner and brief walk, we were able to Skype with Andrew and Laurie's parents for over 30 mintues (he is doing just fine so far and they are all keeping each other busy) and then John's parents for about the same amount of time. We both had a restless night of sleep (probably due to our long afternoon naps yesterday) so we weren't ready for the alarm to go off this morning but we got up with the excitement of going to the orphanage again.
We arrived at the orphanage a little after 11:00 and were taken to the same room as yesterday. They brought her in soon after we arrived (in the same clothes she had on yesterday). She seemed excited to see us again, or maybe it was just the toys she knew we had that she could try to chew on :) When we went through this process with Andrew, we brought a book with us that was padded and he loved to chew on. It was later ripped from the binding from him enthusiasically looking through it but we still have it on his book shelf at home as a souvenir of our time with him in Russia because you can see his teeth marks around the edges. Well, we brought the same book on this trip (a new one of course) for her to play with. As soon as Laurie took it out of the bag, it instantly went into the baby's mouth and we had to chuckle at the similarity between she and Andrew. We got out a ball we brought with us and once she figured out it couldn't very easily go into her mouth, she sort of threw it back and forth with John. Again, her biggest interest was having something to put into her mouth and being held. About 30 minutes into our visit, Val came in and said it was time to go. The baby had to eat lunch soon and they needed to get back for the other client to go to court.
We were able to find out the missing weight measurement. She went from 16.2 lbs at 6 months to 18.5 pounds at 9 months. She is just 2 pounds less than what Andrew was when we brought him home (at 16 months)! Although, she isn't really moving yet so once she starts crawling that will probably affect her growth some.
When Val and Olga dropped us off today, they apologized for our short visit and promised us a much longer one tomorrow and also the chance to see some of the sights their city has to offer. We passed a military museum on our way to the hotel today and Val said that he would take us there for a visit this week. They plan to pick us up at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon.
We just finished Skyping with our little guy at home. Today is his first day of Preschool for this school year. Laurie is a little sad knowing that she isn't the one taking him there and getting his first day of school picture, but we know that he is very excited to show Grammy and BupBup his school. He looked very handsome and although he was tired at the beginning of the call, he seemed ready to go when we finished :)
Last night after our dinner and brief walk, we were able to Skype with Andrew and Laurie's parents for over 30 mintues (he is doing just fine so far and they are all keeping each other busy) and then John's parents for about the same amount of time. We both had a restless night of sleep (probably due to our long afternoon naps yesterday) so we weren't ready for the alarm to go off this morning but we got up with the excitement of going to the orphanage again.
We arrived at the orphanage a little after 11:00 and were taken to the same room as yesterday. They brought her in soon after we arrived (in the same clothes she had on yesterday). She seemed excited to see us again, or maybe it was just the toys she knew we had that she could try to chew on :) When we went through this process with Andrew, we brought a book with us that was padded and he loved to chew on. It was later ripped from the binding from him enthusiasically looking through it but we still have it on his book shelf at home as a souvenir of our time with him in Russia because you can see his teeth marks around the edges. Well, we brought the same book on this trip (a new one of course) for her to play with. As soon as Laurie took it out of the bag, it instantly went into the baby's mouth and we had to chuckle at the similarity between she and Andrew. We got out a ball we brought with us and once she figured out it couldn't very easily go into her mouth, she sort of threw it back and forth with John. Again, her biggest interest was having something to put into her mouth and being held. About 30 minutes into our visit, Val came in and said it was time to go. The baby had to eat lunch soon and they needed to get back for the other client to go to court.
We were able to find out the missing weight measurement. She went from 16.2 lbs at 6 months to 18.5 pounds at 9 months. She is just 2 pounds less than what Andrew was when we brought him home (at 16 months)! Although, she isn't really moving yet so once she starts crawling that will probably affect her growth some.
When Val and Olga dropped us off today, they apologized for our short visit and promised us a much longer one tomorrow and also the chance to see some of the sights their city has to offer. We passed a military museum on our way to the hotel today and Val said that he would take us there for a visit this week. They plan to pick us up at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon.
We just finished Skyping with our little guy at home. Today is his first day of Preschool for this school year. Laurie is a little sad knowing that she isn't the one taking him there and getting his first day of school picture, but we know that he is very excited to show Grammy and BupBup his school. He looked very handsome and although he was tired at the beginning of the call, he seemed ready to go when we finished :)
Monday, August 27, 2012
We met our daughter!
After a restful but not quite long enough night of sleep, we woke up bright and early this morning for our appointments. We had our appointment with the Ministry of
Education office first at 8:30. Since we've already been through this process, we really weren't nervous for this as we knew what to expect. Val drove us to the appointment and then he stayed in the car while we followed Olga into the building. This made us a little wary because she speaks no English. Once we were inside, we met Lena who served as our interpreter for the day. She was very friendly and helpful. She told us that she has been interpreting adoption information for families for over 13 years. The meeting went well. We saw a picture of her when she was a newborn and Olga was given a form to be completed at the end of the week with either a "yes" we choose to offically adopt this child or "no" we don't.
From there we left to go to the baby home but stopped at the notary on the way for Olga and Lena to take care of something for another client having court tomorrow. Once we arrived at the baby home we had to stay in the car for a little bit while Olga when in to talk with the director/head doctor. She came out to tell us that we would need to wait a little longer because the director was still in another meeting but she shouldn't be much longer. During this wait we were able to speak with Lena who asked us a lot of questions about Pittsburgh and gave us some information about Perm. Once the director was ready to meet with us, we had a very informative meeting. She shared with us a lot of information regarding the baby and we were able to ask all of the questions we had. We left the meeting feeling very informed (not how our meeting with the director of Andrew's orphanage went) and they promised to make us a copy of her daily schedule including what/how much she eats for tomorrow's visit.
After we met with the director, we actually had to drive to a separate building to visit the baby. This orphanage is quite large and is made up of 3 buildings. Once inside, we were led to a "visitation area" with 2 rooms that are used for prospective parents to visit with the children. While we waited for them to bring her to us, we saw another family leaving the other room. We learned that their child (a boy) had just turned 1 and he looked quite healthy (chubby in another word) which was comforting to see.
They brought the baby to us (around 11:30am) and we had a great visit. She didn't cry when she was brought to us but seemed a bit skeptical at first. The doctor we have spoken with at home (who watched her video) said we want her to be that way as it is a good sign if a child of her age isn't overly welcoming of strangers. After a few minutes she warmed up and let us hold her. She seemed to take quickly to John (we might have a daddy's girl on our hands like our mama's boy at home). We placed her belly down on a blanket on the floor with a toy across the blanket. She lifted herself up and 1/2 crawled, 1/2 scooted herself to get the toy. She can sit up by herself and when we tried to stand her up she put weight on her feet but needed held onto or she would fall over (all good developmental signs according to our doctor). We brought some stacking blocks with us and after showing her how they work, she picked up the blocks and tried to stack them herself. They eventually went into her mouth, as did almost everything else she could get her hands on. She currently has no teeth, so we took that as a sign that she is possibly working on her first tooth or she was ready for lunch...or most likely both :) Oh, she is starting to get some hair now but of course that's just a teaser because we aren't sharing the color :)
We were only able to visit with her for about 30 minutes due to us arriving so close to lunch time. They are pretty strict about keeping the children on schedule. Her caretaker said that due to her meal/nap schedule, it would probably be best for us to visit her in late afternoon every day. Once we returned to our hotel (around 1:00pm), we reviewed our notes from meeting with the director and realized that we wrote down her 9 month weight incorrectly (they use grams and we didn't notice our mistake at the meeting). She weighed a little over 16lbs at 6 months and according to our notes, she is only 9 lbs now - definitely not right! She is a pretty solid, health looking little girl :) We will have to get the correct weight tomorrow.
We took advantage of having a free afternoon (without a 3 year old to keep us busy) and took a nap! Tomorrow Val and Olga aren't picking us up until 3:30 due to their busy day (taking another client to court), so we will be able to sleep a little later than we did today. We are now off to the mall that is only 200 yards from our hotel to check out the grocery store (to buy some water) and the food court to get some dinner before Skyping with our "baby" at home.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
On Russian soil again...
Well, after a VERY long 2 days of travel, we made it successfully to
Perm. Saturday began at 3:15am when we
awoke from our very comfortable bed (after about 3-4 hours of sleep). We went to the Pittsburgh airport where we
then traveled the quite easy 1 hour (6:00-7:10) flight to New York’s JFK
airport. Once at JFK, we got our
bearings and found the food court in the international terminal. We had 1 choice at 7:45 in the morning for
breakfast so McDonalds it was. We were
then in touch with Laurie’s parents who reported that Andrew slept until after
8:00 (of course he would sleep in on a Saturday morning for them).
We ended up hanging out in the food court for the majority of our 7 hour New York layover (“playing” on the computer and/or phones) so that we could eat lunch there as well before our long flight to Moscow. We timed things so that once we went through security again (because we had to exit the airport to enter a different terminal) and charged our electronics for a few minutes, it was time to get in line to board our long flight (left at 2:30pm).
We spoke to Andrew before our flight took off . He was, however, quite pre-occuppied with all of the "new" toys at Grammy and BupBup's to play with and the thoughts of going to the playground and Chuck 'E' Cheese later so we didn't get much more than a "love you". He did take the time to record a video saying "Hi Baby Sister, I love you!" for us to show her during the week :)
For the next 9 hours we were aboard an Aeroflot (Russian airline) airplane. Our plane was quite large and was equipped with individual TV sceens with a large choice of movies and games. Laurie watched 3 movies during the flight but John managed to "break" his TV trying to play poker so he listened to music. Neither one of us are big plane sleepers, but we were able to each get about 2 hours of sleep during the course of the flight. We landed in Moscow at 7:30am (11:30pm home time) and by the time we went through customs, collected our checked bags and rechecked them for our domestic flight to Perm, we had used up 1 1/2 hours of our 8 hour lay-over at that airport. We went through security and found our way to our own row of 4 seats by a window. The seats were quite possibly the most uncomfortable seats in the world but we were so tired that we both fell asleep slouched over using both our neck pillows and carryon bookbags as pillows. We are pretty sure that our necks and backs will never be the same but we were able to get 3 more hours of sleep and use up more of the time until our next flight. After grabbing a quick bite to eat at an Irish Pub in the aiport we headed to our gate for our last flight of the weekend.
After a fairly short (2 hour) flight to Perm, we arrived at 8:00pm (10:00am home time). The Perm airport is like nothing we have ever seen - to say it's the size of a Giant Eagle would possibly be a stretch. It looks like one of the first airports in the world that was never expanded or had any updates done. We were greeted there by our agency's Perm coordintor, Olga, and our Perm driver, Val. We were suprised to learn that Olga speaks no English so Val had to interpret everything to us (he on the other hand, speaks English very well). On the drive to our hotel, they told us that they would be back to pick us up at 8:30am for our appointment at the Ministry of Education (where we will get our official referral) and then it's off to the orphanage! Val told us that we will visit the orphanage once a day and that the time will vary from day to day based on their (Val & Olga's) schedule.
Well, we are off to get some sleep since we have an early and exciting morning ahead of us!
We ended up hanging out in the food court for the majority of our 7 hour New York layover (“playing” on the computer and/or phones) so that we could eat lunch there as well before our long flight to Moscow. We timed things so that once we went through security again (because we had to exit the airport to enter a different terminal) and charged our electronics for a few minutes, it was time to get in line to board our long flight (left at 2:30pm).
We spoke to Andrew before our flight took off . He was, however, quite pre-occuppied with all of the "new" toys at Grammy and BupBup's to play with and the thoughts of going to the playground and Chuck 'E' Cheese later so we didn't get much more than a "love you". He did take the time to record a video saying "Hi Baby Sister, I love you!" for us to show her during the week :)
For the next 9 hours we were aboard an Aeroflot (Russian airline) airplane. Our plane was quite large and was equipped with individual TV sceens with a large choice of movies and games. Laurie watched 3 movies during the flight but John managed to "break" his TV trying to play poker so he listened to music. Neither one of us are big plane sleepers, but we were able to each get about 2 hours of sleep during the course of the flight. We landed in Moscow at 7:30am (11:30pm home time) and by the time we went through customs, collected our checked bags and rechecked them for our domestic flight to Perm, we had used up 1 1/2 hours of our 8 hour lay-over at that airport. We went through security and found our way to our own row of 4 seats by a window. The seats were quite possibly the most uncomfortable seats in the world but we were so tired that we both fell asleep slouched over using both our neck pillows and carryon bookbags as pillows. We are pretty sure that our necks and backs will never be the same but we were able to get 3 more hours of sleep and use up more of the time until our next flight. After grabbing a quick bite to eat at an Irish Pub in the aiport we headed to our gate for our last flight of the weekend.
After a fairly short (2 hour) flight to Perm, we arrived at 8:00pm (10:00am home time). The Perm airport is like nothing we have ever seen - to say it's the size of a Giant Eagle would possibly be a stretch. It looks like one of the first airports in the world that was never expanded or had any updates done. We were greeted there by our agency's Perm coordintor, Olga, and our Perm driver, Val. We were suprised to learn that Olga speaks no English so Val had to interpret everything to us (he on the other hand, speaks English very well). On the drive to our hotel, they told us that they would be back to pick us up at 8:30am for our appointment at the Ministry of Education (where we will get our official referral) and then it's off to the orphanage! Val told us that we will visit the orphanage once a day and that the time will vary from day to day based on their (Val & Olga's) schedule.
Well, we are off to get some sleep since we have an early and exciting morning ahead of us!
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Exciting News!!!
Well, after a VERY LONG wait we finally have big news to share....we have a referral!! We actually received the video on Monday June 18. Upon receiving it, we sent it to Dr. Melissa Goldstein (in New York City) who came highly reccommended to us. She watched the video, sent us a written report that Friday and followed up with a conference call with us the next Tuesday. She advised us to request some additional information from Russia and that's where yet another delay occurred. It took 3 1/2 weeks to get the information we requested in order to make our official decision (all is fine!). In the meantime, the agency contacted us with the travel dates of our first trip!! So, here is the information everyone has been waiting for:
Baby Girl was born on November 20, 2011. She lives in Perm, Russia. At the time of our video she was 6 months old and weighed 16 lbs, 2 oz and was 26 inches long.
The dates of our first trip are August 25 - September 1 (flights are already booked). So, that means we will FINALLY get to meet our baby girl on Monday August 27!!!
Baby Girl was born on November 20, 2011. She lives in Perm, Russia. At the time of our video she was 6 months old and weighed 16 lbs, 2 oz and was 26 inches long.
The dates of our first trip are August 25 - September 1 (flights are already booked). So, that means we will FINALLY get to meet our baby girl on Monday August 27!!!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Update on Adoption #2....
This update is long overdue and we have had many people asking us the status of our second adoption. First let us say, NO – we haven’t heard anything/received a video yet! :) Everything went fairly smoothly this time but was a little more frustrating. There were additional requirements to complete this time around making the dossier list as follows:
State criminal clearances
FBI criminal clearances
State child abuse clearances
Employment letters
Homeownership letter
Copy of Deed to home
Letter from mortgage company
Guardianship letters
Copies of passport photo pages
Photo sheets
Copies of Marriage license
Reference letters
Analysis of Monthly Income & Expenditures
Physicals
Physician's License
Letter from State Medical Board
MMPI-2
Psychologist License
Letter from Veterinarian
1040 Tax forms (last 3 years)
USCIS Approval
MMPI-2
Psychologist License
Letter from Veterinarian
1040 Tax forms (last 3 years)
USCIS Approval
Even though we had done almost all of these 2 years ago, we had to start all over again and complete everything again. In addition to completing the requirements we were also responsible for getting several of the documents notarized and then apostilled (which means we sent the documents to Harrisburg and basically got the notary’s signature notarized). The agency took care of getting these documents notarized and apostilled for Andrew’s process and this was a large part of our frustration because we felt things weren’t explained very well in the beginning. We began gathering most of these items in July and had everything (including our 2 home study visits with our social worker, Rita, and our fingerprints at the Dept of Homeland Security) done by late September. We received our USCIS (United States Citizenship & Immigration Services) approval on September 29 which was the final piece of our dossier.
Laurie was in touch with our case/social worker at the agency, Sarah, last week and she said that we are currently first in line for HER clients waiting for girls. There are 2 other case/social workers who have clients that have been waiting longer than us for girls though. That doesn't necessarily mean that we still have a long road ahead of waiting but it could. Laurie asked Sarah why the process is taking longer for girls than boys, she said that right now almost all of their clients are requesting girls to adopt and that the Russians adopt more girls than boys so there are less girls available in the orphanages.
Laurie was in touch with our case/social worker at the agency, Sarah, last week and she said that we are currently first in line for HER clients waiting for girls. There are 2 other case/social workers who have clients that have been waiting longer than us for girls though. That doesn't necessarily mean that we still have a long road ahead of waiting but it could. Laurie asked Sarah why the process is taking longer for girls than boys, she said that right now almost all of their clients are requesting girls to adopt and that the Russians adopt more girls than boys so there are less girls available in the orphanages.
We are hoping to hear something this month or next, but we really have no idea. Once we hear from them and accept a referral, it will be approx 8-10 weeks until we travel there to meet her (although it could be shorter or longer) and then another 8-10 weeks until court. As we know from Andrew's process, it's all very unpredictable and there are always "things" that can happen!
We very much appreciate everyone's prayers as we wait. Andrew is anxiously awaiting the arrival of his little sister (as are we). If you ask him where his sister is, he says "in Russia" and he claims that he is going to carry her around & change her diaper when she comes home :)
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