The first full day

The day was long but we filled it the best we could without unveiling EVERY toy. We've got a large supply tucked away but want to rotate things but a couple of puzzles can only do so much! We had breakfast, played a bit, went to the market, came back to the room to unload, went briefly to a small play area near the hotel (but it's HOT and the sun was blazing). Then we had lunch in the room and then went CRAZY inside the confines of its walls, so we decided it was time for another walk.

We did dodge a near-calamity; both girls took their dolls on our walk to the market and only one made it with hers (Leah, Hope's was MIA) and we feared it gone for good. However, on our walk back to the hotel we found that some wonderful Russian stranger had placed it in the iron fence outside a home and we reclaimed her. Thanks kind Russian stranger!

Here is a glimpse of today.

Nightgowns and shoes; doesn't everyone have our fashion sense?

A day for the ages

I don't have much time to post a long entry; more will follow tomorrow. Let me just say I'm sitting on the floor with a tiny lamp on trying to get this posted because I know so many of you are eager to meet...our daughters! They, and Brian, are sleeping right now but I worry that I'm tempting the fates with even my quiet clickety-clack of the keyboard. So, for now....

Leah Dorothy was born Aug. 4, 2006, and Hope Elizabeth on July 9, 2007. We are tucked into our hotel room and things went WONDERFULLY (again, more details later). Now we wait here for their Russian passports. We filed a "please speed up the process" document yesterday, but it could be mid-August before we have them in hand.

Here are a few pics. I promise more when everyone's awake! It's going on 1:20 a.m. here and I hope I can go back to sleep! I wonder if a toilet flush is going to wake everyone up?

Leah Dorothy (3 for a few more weeks)

Hope Elizabeth (just turned 3)

We LOVE Papa.

First van ride as a family (and with our new dolls)

Just chillin', in Russia

We've arrived in Russia, again...for the last time! 

We arrived on Tuesday and had an exhausting and blurry day - at least blurry is how it seems now, in retrospect. We were picked up at the airport, driven to the city we stay in, about 2 hours away from Moscow, checked in to the hotel and had a few moments here before leaving again to go do hours of bureacratic "stuff." We're not entirely 100% certain what we did, but we know it included getting the official court decree, getting new birth certificates for the girls and doing something at the local passport/immigration office related to a fine for not having an adoption visa, which doesn't exist. Sometimes you just take a deep breath and roll with the punches.

Apparently now we need a document from the grils' orphanage to formally get their Russian passport requests moving...and we'd hoped to get that today but apparently the orphanage office is closed. Sometimes you just take a deep breath and roll with the punches.

So, now we have a "day of rest" here. Though we try, try, try to get on local time it's hard and with an afternoon to kill we might just try to get some sleep. We're sure once we have the girls our schedules will get even more wonky and sleep will be liminted as we all try to adjust to being a new family in a hotel room! We're all unpacked and so now we just...wait! (And take a deep breath and roll with the punches).

Packing: too much vs. too little

Here is another interactive post! I have a feeling that I could easily overpack clothing for the girls. There's just so much stinkin' cute stuff! So, those with kids (especially those in the 3-ish age range), if you were going to be packing, how much would you take for one child? I will be taking some laundry detergent to be using the hotel sink if need be. Would you take 2 outfits per day for a child this age, or is that too much? Should I just do one outfit per girl per day and then wash stuff as needed? Many pieces can be mixed and matched. Input welcome for this newbie!

Overjoyed for friends

After enduring an absolutely unfathomable wait for a court date, our friends Shelly and Steve have FINALLY gotten a court date and get to go back to Russia to see their Little Miss! To say their wait has been long is an understatement. Shelly's strength has been amazing. While I know it has been so, so difficult on her, she was still so positive for us every time any good thing happened and provided so much support to me, even when her own heart was breaking.

When I found out her good news I burst into tears, got goosebumps and texted Brian. Their region is all the way across the huge Russian country from ours, but we're going to be in Russia at the same time - their court date will be just before we receive the girls' Russian passports and head from our region to Moscow for visas and the trip home! Every time we're there I tell Shelly I say a prayer just for her, and now we'll be looking at the moon from the same country!

I'm off to find my tissues now. Hooray!

Home, for a bit

We arrived home late, late on Friday night...and Brian's on the phone with the airlines now trying to work out our flight arrangements for what will be trip 4. We think we're just going to have this upcoming trip be the last trip and stay in country until it's all complete. We had the option of going back, picking up the final court decree and filing for their passports, then returning home once again without them, only to turn around a short time later (on what would be trip 5) to take custody and wrap it all up. We've weighed lots of factors - including the fact that our current double-entry visas have one more entry on them and if we go and come back and go and come back again we'll need to get another round of visas, expedited, which will be a huge pain, stress, worry and expense. Yes, this means being in-country for a long period of time, but it's kind of what we'd already planned on all along. This way we can be with the girls, bonding and having them get used to us and us to them, prior to us getting on the plane and coming home. I can't imagine having the decree, which allows us to have custody, and leaving them in the baby home.

We'll see if it works out; he's talked to 4 people and is on hold again. We shall see.

Meanwhile, yesterday saw us buying things I was too hinky to buy before; I felt like we were tempting the fates too much with things like carseats, etc. We're cranking through our list of those types of items and I'm washing a whole batch of new clothes from a very excited Grandma. We're enjoying the comforts of home, especially knowing we'll be leaving again soon. We're eager to leave only because leaving means being able to be with the girls, which means we're closer to getting home, getting settled and being a family.

Until later!

Trip 3 wrap up

We're 99% packed and ready to journey to Moscow in the a.m. for our flight. While it typically takes 2 hours to get from here to there, our driver wants to leave exceptionally early to avoid potential problems related to traffic, construction and something related to a bridge. I actually don't mind getting the journey going. The trip home is always a long one; it seems longer than the one here. I think it's because there's a long ride and then a longer layover in the US before our flight from NYC to KC.

We chilled today. Well, not really. It's HOT here (mid to upper 90s) and while our hotel has AC, the unit in our room is not working well. We weren't sure if it wasn't working or if we were just being spoiled Americans. We ate dinner next door with another US couple who is adopting (they know of a delivery pizza place! Hooray!) and their room was lovely and crisp, so we know that our AC is indeed not really working. We walked to the market this a.m. before it got too hot and then were in the room the rest of the day, except for our lovely pizza dinner with our new friends.

Still working out some details related to our next trip over but we're so thrilled to know we have another trip over and that our daughters await at the end of this incredibly long and difficult, but euphoric and amazing, journey.

My next post will be with me typing as I sit on our own couch in our own little house on the prairie (or at least suburban Kansas City!).

WAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The Russian judge GRANTED our adoption petition after our appearance before her today!!!! Now we only look FORWARD as we plan to bring our daughters home!


We return home Friday to wait out a mandatory 10-day period before we can return to Russia to file for passports in their NEW names! Exact custody dates are still a bit TBD. THANK YOU for all of your prayers and good thoughts; I swear I felt you all in court with us today. More details to follow; for now we're just enjoying our good news and shedding the stress of the past weeks.
 
YYYYYYAAAAAAAHHHHHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brian rules the world

The girls could not get enough of Brian today! It was adorable; he was the star of the show. They wanted to be climbing on him, be held by him, sit next to him on the swing, push him on the swing, etc. We had another good few hours of playing with them at the playground at the baby home. We go see the judge tomorrow morning. Please pray for the girls and that it goes well.

Back in Russia

Hi, all. We're back in Russia for what we hope is not the last time, but the next-to-last time. We arrived yesterday, played with the girls today, will see them again tomorrow and have a date with the Russian judge on Wednesday. We know you've sent many prayers skyward on our behalf lately and I'm asking you not to let up right about now! We need every bit of positive energy going out there for the girls!

Today we played with them in the little play area outside the baby home. It was great, minus one skinned knee incident. :) They are definitely sisters and know it and have this great interaction that's amazing to watch, even when we don't know exactly what they are saying to each other! They had this whole routine down at the merry-go-round where one would ride, one push, then one would say something (most likely, "Switch! My turn!" or "Me now! Me now!" or something) and they'd switch. We made lots of animal sounds today as we'd taken a book and a puzzle with farm animals. We have learned that Russian dogs "say" arf arf instead of woof woof but we're hoping that the moo moos, neigh neighs and quack quacks translated internationally.