Trip 1, Day 4

This has been the best day of our trip.  We were able to go see little baby E at 10:30 and stay until 12:00.  She was so playful and happy.  Again, I was able to feed her lunch.  She didn't eat very much from the huge bowl of food they sent for her, but she did drink her juice.  We then were able to stay for about 30 minutes after lunch to play with her.  She loved her little baby Eric Carle, The Very Hungy Caterpillar, book with 4 crinkly pages.  She also loves a ball that makes a lot of noise that we took her.  I did have H give up a couple of stuffed animals, but she's not too interested in those.  That's probably a good thing.  I'm pretty sure we are about to be overtaken by the stuffed animals in our house now.
We are missing the kids at home and we're ready to be back at our house.  However, we are looking forward to our visit tomorrow with the baby.  This first trip has been great, but we are ready to get it behind us so that a court date can be set.  We are ready to bring her home ASAP!  :)
When we first found out we were coming to this region we were a little disappointed that it wasn't St. Petersburg.  However, now we are so happy that we are here.  Our hotel is wonderful, there is a huge park we've been walking to each night about 15 minutes down the road, and we've had great phone and internet service while we've been here.  Also, the mall is right next door.  We have access to anything that we need.  It is not a tourist town, so other than the hotel staff and our translator, we haven't met any other English speakers.  Which brings me to our dinner tonight...

I'm posting a picture of dinner because Aubrey and I have laughed about it all night.  We decided after our walk to stop at the mall.  It was crowded with people going to see the new Twilight movie.  We decided to eat at Southern Fried Chicken.  Aubrey told me to get my pointing finger ready.  I pointed to what I wanted which looked like a chicken snack wrap + fries + a Coke.  It took a couple of minutes of head shaking and laughing.  The cashier was a teenage girl and she had another teenage girl standing with her.  I was pointing and saying Coke and I felt good about my order.  Then, Aubrey pointed to a big picture of what he wanted.  Neither of us noticed that it was called the "Hunga Busta."  So, the waitress said, "Oh, Hunga Busta," which cracked us up.  She kept saying stuff to us and we just kept shaking our head - we had no idea what she was saying.  The next thing we knew we ended up with all that is on our tray.  We thought if she went and got one more thing we were going to have to leave.  By the time it was over, all 4 of us were dying laughing.  They were so sweet and we were all confused. We had 4 Cokes (?) - why, 2 snack wraps, 3 fries and 3 pieces of chicken.  We still came out cheaper than the hotel restaurant and we had more fun!

Trip 1, Day 3

We had our second visit with the baby today (Wednesday).  I got to feed her.  I'm not sure what the mixture was that she was eating, but it smelled like it had fish in it - mmmmmm.  She also drank juice from a small cup (not a sippy cup).  She cried when she saw the juice cup, but she wasn't supposed to have it until after she ate.  But, our driver/interpreter quickly gave her the cup so she would quit crying.  We only got a short visit today because it seems that the first time when we visited for 1.5 hours it was too much for her and she was more tired.  We are going back earlier today (Thursday) to see her, and we are hoping for a longer visit than we had on Wednesday.
When we left the baby home we went to visit a beautiful church nearby.  Our driver asked us if we wanted to eat bear for lunch - um, no.  We settled on Subway - :).  I'm not doing well with traditional Russian food - dumplings with meat, pickled herring, cabbage, potatoes.  I'm enjoying the mall food court more - pizza, etc. 

It has been very cold here, about 20 degrees and snowy.  Even with silk pants under my pants my legs feel numb after walking for a while.  However, my new Lands End puffy coat is working well on my upper body!

Trip 1, Day 2

We had a great first visit with the baby!  She was beautiful and so sweet.  We had a little playroom where we visited with her.  There were a few toys there for her to play with, plus we took some toys for her as well.  We arrived at about 3:30 p.m. for our visit.  She was very calm and curious while we were there.  About an hour and half after being there she started to stick out her bottom lip.  I told Aubrey she was getting upset about something.  I picked her up and held her and she put her little thumb in her mouth.  I looked at my watch and it was exactly 5:00 - her nap time.  She is exactly like J and H were.  The babies are on such a routine, it's amazing.  About 10 minutes later the caregiver came back to get her.
We also took care of some formalities that we needed to do today in the downtown area. 

Trip 1, Day 1

Today we were able to catch up on some sleep.  We also went over to the mall that is just a couple of parking lots down from here.  It's not very big, but it's nice and you can buy most any type of clothing.  There is also a big grocery store in the mall.  We ended up eating a fish sandwich at the food court for lunch.  Even though they only had about 4 restaruants to choose from, one of them advertised Southern Fried Chicken.  I had my doubts...

We took some good pictures around town, but I can't get my camera card to work in Aubrey's laptop.  It won't even give me the choice as a drive when I browse.  So, I will take pictures with his phone and those will be the ones I can upload.  I only have this one from Monday.  It was taken from looking out our hotel window.

We're Here!

As exhausting as the past 24 hours have been, I have to say we had great flights and they were all on time. We left Atlanta at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and arrived in our region at 8:30 a.m. Atlanta time on Sunday, but locally it was 7:30 p.m. Sunday night. We lost 11 hours somewhere between home and Russia and I'm about to see if I can find it! :). I will post each day with photos. However, today Aubrey made photos of the airport when we landed and the security guard made him delete them. And by delete, I mean stood next to him while he scrolled through them. Oops!
Our hotel was about a 20 minute ride from the airport, and it's really nice. We will be comfortable here for the week. There is a 24 hour supermarket across the street, too. We have Monday off with no plans, so we are going to try to go out today and walk around. I'm so glad I bought me some waterproof snow boots. There is snow everywhere!
We will meet our driver/translator Tuesday for an appointment we have, then we will go to the baby home to meet the baby for the first time. On Wednesday-Friday we will have assigned times we can visit her more. We are so excited! I can't wait to share pictures.
Love,
Brandy

Finally . . .

I'm having to take the cobwebs off the blog...

On October 11, 2011 I received the call that we had a referral -  a baby girl.  She is precious and we can't wait to meet her.  We will travel Saturday, November 12 to her region in Russia.  Our first trip will be for a week.  We will then return home and wait for a court date which will be after the new year, possibly February or later.
I have prayed that the ones taking care of her will have favor on her - that they will hold her and love her until we can get to her.  When I question whether all of this will work out, I'm amazed that everything falls into place.  I have prayed all along that we would have the child that God has meant for us to have.  I'm hopeful that this baby girl is the one. 

I'm looking forward to being able to update the blog daily while in Russia.  I talked with a family who recently traveled to where we'll be and they had no trouble with internet service.  I won't be able to post pictures of the baby :( - boo-hoo.  But, I will bring tons of pictures back with me to share in person!

*Also, (my friend) K.I.'s singing made me add "Blessings" to my Playlist.  Laura Story is great, but I prefer K.I.'s version! 

I-600a

Today we received our approval for adoption from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.  We have been waiting for this since January!  This is a big step toward completing our adoption. :)  Hopefully we're still on track to be home with our baby by the end of the year.

Officially Waiting!

Even though we had our last home study meeting at the end of January, it took a month to get the home study written and put together.  So, around the 21st of February we received a draft of the report.  We revised it, as did our adoption agency, and it was edited, etc.  My caseworker had also received our original FBI fingerprint cards and state criminal clearances.  Finally, our agency approved our home study + received all clearances!  Then, they mailed us some Russian paperwork that you don't receive until your home study has been accepted.  We signed it and mailed it yesterday.  Now, we will be in the group of families waiting for a baby :)!  We're sooooo excited - we're one big step forward.
Also, during the past month ,we decided that we will take along H and J for the 3rd trip to pick up the baby.  It will be about a 2 week trip.  I've spent most of the month figuring out and gathering paperwork for H and J.  Their Russian passports expired in 2009 and they don't have U.S. Passports.  The short version is that they HAVE to enter Russia on a Russian passport since they are Russian citizens.  Russia will not issue them a visa for travel.  But, they will re-enter the U.S. on a U.S. Passport - uggggghhh.  To get a Russian passport renewed, the paperwork has to be filled out in Russian and delivered to the consulate in Washington, D.C.  I had to hire a passport service to complete all of this for them.  Finally, I think we're set - and their new Russian passports and U.S. Passports should be delivered soon! 

Paperwork is complete . . .for now

I reached the goal of having all of the paperwork we were respnsible for completed by the end of January!  Tomorrow I will give our state caseworker the last bit of paperwork I have for her.  I also mailed the last few things that my Russian agency needed this week.  Here are a few of the things that have been required:  physicals for Aubrey and I, psychological testing for us both (we passed), background checks, drug tests, reports of any 911 calls made from our residence in the past 5 years, a septic tank inspection, letter from our vet, appostilled marriage certificates, letter from peadiatrician, letter from our mortgage company, and on and on and on.
On Wednesday night, Aubrey flew back home from being in Arizona this week.  He went straight to the 911 center in D'ville (where we used to live).  They didn't have a request form so they wouldn't give him what he needed.  He went back the next morning and filled out the paperwork.  He drove to work, and then went back to D'ville at lunch to pick it up - and then back to work!  He said the whole time he just kept thinking that there was a baby, probably sucking its finger, who needed him to do this!
Honestly, this has all been very easy to do - much easier than I thought it would be.  We are so thankful to the people God has put in our path to this adoption.  We know He has a special baby for us!

Snow Jam 2011

Well, between Christmas break and Snow Jam '11, I've been able to get a ton completed for our adoption!  I think on my end I've either completed, or requested, all the paperwork that is needed.  Tomorrow we will have our 2nd of 3 homestudy meetings.  The 3rd meeting will be at our house.  My goal has been to have all of my paperwork and homestudy meetings completed by the end of January.  And, so far that's going well.

I was excited this week to talk with a Mom who is leaving Saturday for St. Petersburg to pick up her baby girl.  This is their 3rd and final trip.  They are using our agency.  They began their adoption in January 2010.  She had nothing but great things to say about our agency and the help they've received while in Russia.