Emotions...

After such a great day yesterday, today is filled with so many emotions....

We awoke (after over 9 hours of continuous sleep for Baby O) this morning after sleeping as a family in the same room. The joy was overwhelming as was the feelings of what day it is. It was 5 years ago today, that Laurie's brother Will died. It's a hard thing to deal with being so far away from family and traditions of this day, but there is a really good 16 month old distraction here from some of the pain.

Our first day together has been mostly spent getting used to habits and schedules. After breakfast, there were several hours of indoor playing. He still hasn't quite gotten the grasp of walking on his own, so there has be A LOT of crawling and walking holding onto a finger :) He has been very happy all day - lots of smiles and laughter again. It was approaching lunch time and he led Laurie over to the dining room table - he was ready to eat! He has been eating really well for us and we are happy to "put some meat on his bones" - he's a skinny little peanut!

Nap time again was a bit of a struggle. He is having so much fun playing that he doesn't want to give in and fall asleep. It didn't take as long as bedtime did last night, but there were some tears today. We are sure it's hard because of the new surroundings too. After his almost 2 hour nap, we decided to take a walk since the sun was out a little today. It didn't last too long because it was windy and he seemed more interested in playing with his mittens than observing his surroundings but he laughed almost the whole time.

We just finished his dinner and we are going to attempt the first bath before bed time. They warned us that this might not be a favorite time in the beginning, so we are prepared for some crying. We are hoping that he sleeps as well tonight as he did last night :)

We have our son!!!

After a VERY long day....we are finally all together in the apartment!!!

The day began with a call from Natasha around 8am...we were up and getting ready for our 9:00 pick-up and she said her reason for calling was to let us know that our pick-up would now be at 10:00 - she said she was trying to get ahold of us all evening yesterday but she had the wrong # written down and decided to call our apartment place this morning to get the correct one. So, when we finally headed out around 10 we were greeted at our gate by Galina. We led her to where we meet Alec and she let us know that we had to pick up Natasha at the court. Apparently there was a typo mistake on something with our paperwork so Natasha had to have the judge correct it. When we arrived at the court, we found out that the judge was not there yet so we must wait...and wait we did - for an hour and 1/2 in Alec's car! When Natasha finally came out, we went to the birth certificate office. We were in that office for over an hour but finally walked out with an adoption certificate and a birth certificate (with his new name)!

At this point of the day, Natasha had some other places to go so Galina stayed with us. Our next destination was the orphanage but first we had to stop at a supermarket to purchase 2 cakes (it is a tradition for a family adopting a child to bring cakes to the orphanage for them to celebrate a child getting a new life). Once we arrived at the orphanage, we were told that we were early and that we had to meet with Tatiana (the director/doctor) but she is in court and will not return until at least 3:00 or 3:30 (it was 1:45). So, we walked with Galina to a nearby shopping mall where we had lunch. It took just the right amount of time and when we returned they brought him to us (in the clothes we brought for him) and then a couple of minutes later Tatiana came in. She answered a couple of remaining questions we had and then led us to the door. We walked outside with him at exactly 4:00pm :)

The car ride to our next stop was quite a fascination for him. He spent most of his time just looking around and taking it all in. When we arrived at the passport office, we had to wait a little for Natasha to arrive. She took John and Galina with her into the office (we were not both required to be there in order to apply for his passport) while Laurie stayed in the car with Alec and Baby O. We thought he might fall asleep in the car, but nope he just wanted to play the whole time - he was a very happy boy today :) An hour later, the passport group returned to the car and we were on our way to the apartment (his passport will be ready on Tuesday for pick-up).

When we entered the apartment he very quickly wanted to explore...he spent a little time taking everything in and playing with his toys and then it was dinner time. He did a great job with dinner and we were shocked to learn that he knows sign language for "more" (which we wouldn't know if it weren't for our friends Ty and Reed) so we knew when he was still hungry. We were a little concerned because he wouldn't drink from a sippy cup (they told us that he has been drinking out of a cup since Oct but they never specified what kind of cup and we just assumed). We tried a regular cup and it took both of us, but he chugged the entire cup of water. Bed time proved to really be our only challenge today (other than all of the waiting). He was over-tired and just didn't want to give in. It took a little over an hour but not really any tears before he finally gave in :)

All in all, it was a fantastic day. He was full of smiles and laughter (right away through bed time) and so were we!

Weekend #2 Update...

Saturday was a fairly laid back day. The sun was out for most of the day but the temperature was not very warm and there was a lot of wind. We decided in the afternoon to take a walk. John read about a beautiful view from a certain angle at The Hermitage so we walked over to check it out. From there we walked over to our favorite Souvenir Fair and John managed to find and purchase the only Pittsburgh Penguins nesting doll they had. The walk only lasted a couple of hours but it was nice to get out of the aparment.

Alec picked us up today at 10:30 for the journey to Peterhof. We found ourselves in a different part of St. Petersburg and it was refreshing to see some new sights. Once we got to the edge of the city, we reached a region that Alec said is "for sleeping" and it seemed to be one high rise apartment building after another. We commented to each other that after being in Russia a total of 18 days (between trips 1 & 2) we had yet to see a house and wondered where they are. Probably 10 more minutes into our trip, we saw our first house. There were actually a lot of houses from this point to Peterhof and it was nice to see something "normal" and "like home" instead of being surrounded by the beautiful, huge, old buildings that are in the city :)

Peterhof is an imperial estate that was founded in 1710 by Peter the Great. It is a combination of several palaces, a number of wonderfully landscaped parks and an array of magnificent statues and fountains, all contributing to it being known as "The Russian Versailles". The Grand Cascade flows beautifully from beneath the Grand Palace towards the Gulf of Finland (the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea) and is one of the largest fountain ensembles in the world. We were hoping that they would have all of the fountains running on the day we visited Peterhof - we couldn't get a definite answer as to when they started though...some said April, some said May 1 and most said May 9. So, we decided to go today since we thought it might be hard to go there next weekend with the baby and we will be home on May 9 :) Well, the fountains weren't on. There were a few that they apparently were testing, so they were running when we got there but were later turned off. Despite the fountains not being on, it was still a breathtaking site to behold. We took a VERY windy stroll to the banks of the Gulf of Finland, walked around the palace (decided not to tour the inside), and walked over most of the grounds. All in all, we were there for a few hours and it was a great way to spend the day - there was not a cloud in the sky and when the wind wasn't blowing, it was delightful to walk in the sun.

What we saw...
What it looks like in the summer...

On the way back to our apartment, Alec asked if we wanted to stop for lunch. We told him yes and treated him to lunch at a delightful restaurant that is directly across the street from a St. Petersburg residence of President Medvedev (where Alec told us President George W Bush once visited).

Tomorrow will be our last day before we pick him up at the orphanage. We plan to make another trip to the grocery store and just relax a little more in anticipation of the big day on Tuesday!

Our last visit...

There was no blog entry yesterday because due to the weather, we watched movies all day and only left our apartment for an hour to take a walk (between rain showers). Today, the apartment cleaning crew showed up at lunch time so we decided to step out and try some popular Russian fast food. The restaurant is called Teremok and they make what is called a Blini - which is a Russian pancake sandwhich. The menu consists of several choices to have in your blini (caviar, pork and sauerkraut, bananas and chocolate...just to name a few) as well as soups and salads. We both ordered ham and cheese - it was like eating a ham and cheese sandwhich but instead of bread, it was on a very thin pancake (similar to a crepe)...strange but not bad :)



Due to the weather today, we were able to have our very last orphanage visit indoors (which we were very pleased about). He seemed to be in a good mood and we were able to interact and play more than if we were outside. He was being silly and it seemed like he was doing things on purpose to get a laughing reaction out of us and that was really cute. From the room we were in, we could smell dinner being prepared and toward the end of the visit he kept crawling to the door because he knew it was almost time to eat - typical male, always concerned about meal time :)

We made plans with Alec to visit Peterhof on Sunday. We are hoping for a nice day and that the fountains will be on (but they might not be started until May). We also spoke to Natasha today got the details for Tuesday - the day we get to pick up our little guy!

Outside Again....

Today we had our visit in the afternoon and again it was outside. It was pretty much the same as the last few visits have been (walking around, playing on the playground equipment and with the toys we brought). The weather was a little chilly but tolerable except for when the wind would blow - which unfortunately was quite often during the last portion of the visit. Even all bundled up in a snow suit he could feel the wind and as much as we tried to block it, we weren't that successful most of the time. The toys we got out for him to play with went into his mouth a lot so we are thinking that his teeth are bothering him some. His cold is still there and seems about the same as it did on Monday.

We are looking forward to our last orphanage visit on Friday...it will only be 4 days after that when he will be with us :)

A Day of Sightseeing....

Today we had a slow morning until the apartment cleaning crew showed up and wanted us out while they did their thing :) We decided that was when we should journey out to do some sightseeing. The first thing we did was get a couple of hot dogs from a street vendor - the things you don't really eat at home, for some reason sound appealing when you are 5,000 miles away :) We then walked over to St. Isaac's Cathedral which was the largest church in Russia when it was built (in the early 1800s) and remains the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral in St. Petersburg. Once there, we decided to climb the 250 steps (spiral staircase) up to the cathedral's colonnade. It was amazing to have such a magnificent view of St. Petersburg.

From St. Isaac's we walked across the street to the hotel Astoria. John wanted to walk inside the hotel because, legend has it that Hitler sent out invitations to a celebratory party in the hotel’s Winter Garden in anticipation of his capture of St. Petersburg (the party of course never happened). We took our time walking through "our" part of the city until we reached the Cathedral of Christ's Resurrection. This is the cathedral we were able to quickly see on our first visit to St. Petersburg. We are now within walking distance to it and can see it almost daily. Today we decided to take a look inside of the cathedral. It is very difficult to describe the inside of that beautiful structure. There is 80,700 sq feet of mosiac - almost the entire inside (floor excluded) is covered in beautiful mosiac pictures. To say that it is breathtaking is an understatement.
Tomorrow we have another visit, but not until the afternoon (4:00). The weather is supposed to be pleasant so we are guessing it will be outside again :)

Another visit with our little marshmallow man

We awoke this morning looking forward to seeing him again after the weekend 'break'. When we arrived, they told us we would yet again have our visit outside. They got him all bundled up (yep! snowsuit again) and he was brought out to us. He was in a better mood than Friday and while his nose is still runny and he still has a cough, he seemed to be feeling a little better. The visit went very much like the previous outside visits. We walked around a lot and played a little on the playground equipment. Mostly we sat on "our" bench and played ball with him & let him play with the piano/phone toy we brought. There were a lot of other kids outside playing and he was very curious about what they were doing but didn't seem interested in playing with them. We think he very much enjoys his special attention from us. The weather was a bit colder today but he didn't seem as bothered by it as we were (again, he had a snowsuit on and we didn't - haha!). We will return again on Wednesday afternoon for another visit.

On the drive back to our apartment, Alec commented on how he thinks we were very smart to stay in Russia for our wait - since all flights have been cancelled due to the volcanic ash. Finally, something that isn't affecting us - as long as it is cleared up by May 8 that is!

We made another trip to the grocery store in preparation for the week. Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day so we are planning on taking a walk and visiting a couple of the beautiful cathedrals in the area.

Weekend #1 update..

Saturday started off as a lazy morning...we then decided to get ready for the day and visit the The State Hermitage Museum. Before it was a museum, in the 1760's onward, it was known as the Winter Palace and served as the main residence of the Russian Tsars. It is now one of the world's largest and oldest art and culture museums. We were able to see works of art by Rembrandt, Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet and Renoir. We also saw sculptures dating back to the 4th and 5th century BC....Someone told us that if we were to spend 1 minute looking at every item (both on display and in storage) for 24/7, it would take over 11 years to see everything! We were only there a few hours and felt like we saw so much...it was a truly magnificent place!

When we left the Hermitage, we took a stroll along the Neva River. It was lovely to see the water flowing instead of frozen (with people walking across it) as it was during our trip in February. We took our time walking back to the apartment and admired an "art fair" that takes places in a square along our street.

Sunday has been a day of rest and relaxation. We look forward to our morning visit tomorrow. Hopefully he is feeling better!

Morning Visit

Today Alec picked us up earlier than usual for a morning visit. We arrived at the baby home around 10:00 and they told us it would be another outside visit. It was a little cooler than yesterday but he was bundled up the same way, so we doubt he felt the chill :) The visit started out well, but as time went on it was clear he wasn't feeling well. We aren't sure if it's just a cold or teething or a combination of both, but it was easy to tell he just wasn't himself. We played on the playground equipment some more and he seemed to really enjoy the slide. After awhile though, there really wasn't anything that he seemed to prefer doing. The morning must be "outside play time" because they had several children out playing. It appears now that our court is over and things are official, we are "allowed" to see other children there. The visit lasted for about an hour and 1/2, which we felt was a long time to have him outside when he wasn't feeling well and we were sad we couldn't just take him inside to snuggle & fall asleep.

On the way back to our apartment, Alec took us to a souvenir shop (which just happens to be the same exact one Sasha took us to on the last visit) and we picked up a couple of more momentos to take home with us. Alec asked what we wanted to do over the weekend but we let him know that we just want to rest & explore a little on our own. We have plans to return to the baby home on Monday, Wednesday and Friday next week (they are 'closed' for visits on the weekends).

We had a fairly successful trip to the supermarket last night, so our plans for the rest of today include Laurie experimenting with the washer/dryer machine while John does some work. The exact weekend plans are yet to be determined but we might try indoor things as the weather is supposed to not be very nice (cold and rainy) - we might venture to a couple of nearby museums.

Everything is ok...

We went to our visit today and got to be outside the entire time. They had him a little overdressed in our opinion (multiple layers under a snowsuit - yes, a snowsuit) for 52 degrees but he didn't seem to mind. The one thing he did NOT like at all were our sunglasses! Not as much a problem for Laurie as it is for John because they are his regular glasses that tint in the sun - so when taken off, he is slightly blind :)

We mostly just walked around a little and played on a couple of the playground equipment toys. He enjoyed just sitting on our laps and listening to us talk too. We have a morning visit tomorrow (for the first time) at 10:00 but then won't get to see him again until some time next week.

When we returned to our apartment (it was just going to be a quick stop before grocery shopping again), we had several messages waiting for us from concerned friends and family members regarding the news in the US about the Russian adoptions being frozen. We just got off the phone with our agency and they told us (as of right now) not to worry - "take a deep breath and don't worry". She said that we had court yesterday and that our adoption was finalized yesterday. She also said that the Russian official who made the statement had no official authority to do so and when asked why he did it, he said "no comment". So, as of right now until WE (John and Laurie) hear anything stating that we are frozen and until you hear it from us - - we are going to tell you the same thing we were just told, "don't listen to the news (no matter who they are) and don't worry about it"!! We will deal with things when and if they occur (and affect us) & as of right now, nothing has been officially decided.

Court...

We will start with the official ruling and then go into the details....YES!!!!!!!

Ok, Alec picked us up at our apartment at 2:00 and we traveled to court. We arrived there 20 minutes early and were told that the case that was 2 before us was still going on. It was an American couple trying to adopt 5 children (at the same time, all living in different orphanages). The case before us (single woman) was sitting with our coordinator as she is with our agency as well. A woman came out of the court and said that there was a problem with the case going on (apparently the adoptive mother didn't know all of the medical histories of the children - a BIG no no in court!!) so the judge temporarily stopped the case. We were told that the next case would not be until 4:30! Natasha decided to take us, Golina, 2 woman speaking on behalf of Ann (the woman before us) and Ann to a bar nearby where we had tea and coffee. It was an interesting time as we were able to speak with Ann (she is from Florida and adopted a little boy from Moscow 5 years ago) about her experience with our agency and were happy (for what it's worth) to find out she had the same frustrations and it was not just us.

We returned to court at 4:30 and Ann was immediately taken in. The wait was only 30 minutes for her to come out with a YES response. We were then taken into the court room and the judge was already seated. The only people in the court (besides us) were the judge, her assistant, a prosecutor, our orphanage director/doctor, a social worker and a translator. The judge announced the case and we each had to stand up as she read our name, date of birth, place of birth and citizenship. She then announced the other people in the room and why we were there. Laurie was asked to step forward first (to a podium) where the judge asked her several questions - ranging from "are you ready to be a mother", "do you think you have been married long enough to be parents", "what interaction have you had with other children", to "what plans do you have for child care". John was next and his questions ranged from "are you ready to be a father", "do you feel you are financially stable to support your family", "what are your religious beliefs" to "what are your hobbies". The orphanage director then gave the child's medical history and reason for being in the orphanage. The judge asked us if we knew this information and if we were comfortable with it. The social worker then stood up and gave a little more background on the child's history. Lastly, it was the prosecutor's turn and she gave her recommendation from the municipality that we be approved based on our paperwork and the statements of the orphanage director and case worker. The judge then retreated to her chambers to make her decision. She returned about 2 mintues later and said that the judgement was approved and would be official on April 27 when we can pick the child up from the orphanage!! It was a very emotional moment!

We left the court room and were congratulated by Natasha, Galina and the orphanage director. We made plans to visit our son tomorrow and were told that we will be able to take him outside to play! When we returned to Alec's car and as the ride back to our apartment began, through the shining sun, it started to rain. We would like to think that these were Uncle Will's tears of joy.

Just as we remembered....

We got to see our son again today and he is just as adorable as we remembered! It was very hard to tell if he remembered us because he came right to Laurie but he also did that the first time we met him. We were in the same room as when we first met him and he actually had on the very same outfit as when we first met him. He sat with Laurie when he was brought in and they started playing catch with a ball. This, like the hula hoop last visit, was incredibly amusing to him and we got to hear that wonderful laugh again. After listening to it via video for the last 2 months, words cannot describe how wonderful it was to hear it in person again! He has a cold right now, but was still playing and interacting the same as he did during our visits last time. The visit lasted about an hour and 15 minutes and he was rubbing his eyes by the end.

Once we left the visit, Alec took us to a cafe beside our apartment where we met Natasha. She spent about an hour going over possible questions the judge will ask and the answers we should give. She said that we are the last appointment for the judge so that might be in our favor, because she will be tired and it might go quickly. Our court appointment is at 3:00pm (which is 7:00am at home). Natasha said that while it is only natural, try not to be nervous - everything will be fine. We are feeling a little more at ease after discussing things with her today and knowing that we definitely will still have our court appointment.

Yesterday evening we had a successful trip to the supermarket (by ourselves) and it is only a 15 minute walk from our apartment. We were able to get some basic items to get us through a couple of days and then we will go back for a "serious shopping trip". We did eat at our Italian restaurant (Mama Roma) last night in honor of being back in St. Petersburg.

Our next post will be after our court visit tomorrow. We can't wait for that to be over with so that we can enjoy our time in St. Petersburg with each other and our son.

We are back in Russia!!!

After another long journey we are back in St. Petersburg, Russia!

We left Pittsburgh Sunday morning and first flew to Philadelphia. During our long 7 hour layover, a friend of Laurie's from college, Fran, picked us up at the airport and we spent the afternoon at her house. It was wonderful to visit with Fran and her son, Michael. We then flew from Philly to Zurich, Switzerland. We were a bit rushed in that airport as we arrived less than an hour before our flight to St. Petersburg took off. Everything turned out fine though and we made all of our flights. This trip didn't seem as bad as our last trip over here. We were able to sleep a little bit more, so that made the time go faster.

When we arrived in St. Petersburg, our driver was there to meet us. We didn't know who to expect and instead of Sasha (from our first trip), there was a man named Alec. Much to our delight, he speaks English! It's not perfect English, but we are able to communicate with him so much easier than we were with Sasha. He asked John if he likes hockey (silly question) and he knew about the Pittsburgh Penguins! As we approached our apartment, we were also delighted by the fact that it is about 1 block away from a Mama Roma (the Italian restaurant we dined at almost every night during our first visit). There is also a supermarket near by that we are going to visit today before dinner so we know how difficult our grocery shopping will be for the next 4 weeks. The apartment is very much like the pictures we saw and Laurie can't wait to try the washer/dryer machine :) The weather is much more comfortable this trip (so far, it's only been a couple of hours though). There are still a couple patches of snow but we can actually walk on the sidewalks (they are no longer covered with thick ice) and the river water is flowing. We have the window open in the apartment as it quite warm on the 3rd floor.

During our drive to the apartment, Alec received a call from Natasha. She said that we will be visiting the orphanage at 4:00 tomorrow with Galina. After our visit, Natasha will meet us to discuss court for Wednesday - we are assuming everything is still going on as planned (which will be a huge relief)! We are so very excited for our visit tomorrow and can't believe it's been 2 months since we've seen him!!

Updated plans

Well, we realized last week that there is a holiday in Russia during our stay. It just happens to fall during the baby's passport processing time. So, with the government being closed on Monday May 3 we will not be able to pick up his passport and leave St. Petersburg (for Moscow) until Wednesday May 5. This means that we will not be returning home until Saturday May 8.

We are busy getting everything at home ready for us to be gone for 4 weeks and trying to decide what to pack. It's hard to believe that a week from now we will be done with our court visit and just anticipating the waiting period to be over so we can pick him up!

Trip #2 Travel Dates!!!

We received a very unexpected phone call today - - we have a court date!!! It is set for Wednesday April 14. We will leave Pittsburgh on Sunday April 11, arrive in St. Petersburg on April 12, visit the baby home on April 13 and then go to court on April 14. After court, there is a 10 day waiting period. Once the waiting period is over, we will be able to go to the baby home and take him with us!! This, we believe, will happen on Tuesday April 27. We then have to go through the process of obtaining his Russian passport - this takes 5 business days. Once we have his passport, we will fly to Moscow to have a couple of appointments at the American Embassy. If everything goes as planned, we will be leaving Moscow and bringing our son home with us on Friday May 7 - which just happens to be our 5 year wedding anniversary!!

Now we are on to the busy tasks of booking our airfare, apartment in St. Petersburg, hotel in Moscow and getting our travel Visas (for the second time). Lots to do before we leave!!

Goodbye...for now....

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

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

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

Another wonderful visit

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

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

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

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

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

Shopping and Visit #2

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

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

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

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

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

We met our son!

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

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

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

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

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

We are in Russia!!!

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

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

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

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

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

Russian visas

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

Trip #1 Travel Dates!!!

Well, after being terribly disappointed in December when we found out we wouldn't be traveling in 2009 we finally have a date to focus on!

We found out today that we have an appointment on Monday, February 15 to "officially accept" our referral! This means later that day we will FINALLY get to meet our little boy. We will get to visit with him Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before returning home on Friday.

Our travel plans have us leaving Pittsburgh on Saturday, February 13 and arriving in St. Petersburg, Russia on Sunday, February 14 - what a special way to celebrate Valentine's Day :)

The next step is to send off our Visa applications and then wait to get our travel Visas (it usually only takes 3-5 days)!

USCIS Approval

We recieved our I-171H form today from the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services). This form officially approves both of us as adoptive parents (in the eyes of the U.S. Government).

This form completes our dossier that will be sent to the Russian Government!

Update...

We got a call today from the agency and they had some updates to give us:

He is currenly 16.5 lbs and 27 inches long

He is playing with toys, babbling, eating with a spoon, drinking from a cup, sitting, crawling, standing and walking while holding onto a railing!

We are very excited as he seems to be doing so well...after all, he is only 9 1/2 months old and was born 5 weeks early!!

Acceptance

We accepted our referral today (with our Agency). We need to appear in Russia to officially "accept" him though.

We cannot wait to travel and meet him but before we know our travel dates we need to be officially invited or sponsored by someone in Russia (we are thinking we will travel sometime in December).

St. Petersburg, Russia in December? We can only imagine......

Conference Call with Doctor

We had a conference call with the doctor today to discuss the medical information. Everything went very well and there was nothing that she was concerned about....she made a point of commenting on how cute he is.

Doctor review

We dropped off all of the information we received on the child at a doctor who specializes in international adoption so that she can review the medical information and the video. She is is a local physician (in the Pittsburgh area) and was highly recommended to us, her name is Dr. Sarah Springer at Pediatric Alliance

The Video...

After a VERY long day at work, we came home to find pictures and a video of a little boy waiting for us.

I think there are only 4 words to describe the viewing - LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!

BIG NEWS!!!!!

We got some great news today! Our agency called us and told us that they have a referral for us. This means they have matched us with a child in Russia (this is not a phone call we expected today - everything has happened so quickly)! After 3 years of disappointment, we FINALLY have good news!

Now to the part everyone has been waiting for -- It is a BOY! He was born on December 25, 2008 and he is in St. Petersburg, Russia. In case you didn't pick up on the date, yes! he was born on Christmas! (don't feel bad, a lot of people didn't pick up on the date first time either).

We will be receiving a video and medical information on the child tomorrow......

USCIS Fingerprint

We went for our fingerprints today which will be filed with the I-600 form for the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services)

The I-600 is a petition to classify an orphan as an immediate relative.