We're Back Home (for now)

Now that we're home, I wanted to post some of our pictures from our trip. Our adoption of Katie will not be completely final until July 21st, when Andrei picks up the court ruling. Therefore, we can't post any pictures of Katie's face until after that date. However, here are some others.


Here is Steve and Katie walking around the grounds of the orphanage on Monday. There was a lovely playground there, but because of the rain on Sunday, Katie couldn't play on any of it. It's so great to see that they have it and that they take the kids outside so often.













Here is G.U.M. and St. Basil's lit up at night. They were really beautiful to see, but since it didn't get dark until 11:00, we questioned our judgement in staying out so late!


Also, on Wednesday, Andrei picked us up 2 hours before our court hearing because he anticipated that it would take an hour and a half to get there with the traffic. However, the traffic was quite light that morning so it only took us 20 minutes to get there. Since we had an hour and a half to wait, we visited with Andrei for awhile about what to expect with everything. In that conversation, I asked about the length of the hearing, and he said it shouldn't take more than an hour, but since we were her (the judge's) only case that day, she may not hurry us out. I thought it odd that we were the only case so I asked if she had made an exception for us or if she just didn't have any other cases. Andrei said she made an exception for us. I asked if he knew why -- yes. I asked if he could tell us -- no. Hmmm. Steve and I are just so curious about why she made an exception for us. We don't know if it's because of us, Katie, Andrei, or what. We are very grateful that she made this exception, because our court date may have been much later otherwise, but we are sooo curious about why. We'll probably never know.

Our flight home was uneventful, but not as pleasant as our flight there because there weren't any empty seats around us. We had to actually sit in the seats we were assigned! Can you believe that? However, I must admit that I got addicted to one of the games they offer on the individual screens -- Zuma -- so the flight actually went by pretty quickly!

We landed in Atlanta, and that is by far our favorite airport to go through customs and passport control in. We've gone through New York (JFK), Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. It was so well organized and open and well-marked. It was a breeze to go through. After rechecking our luggage, we checked the screens for our departure gate, and to make a long story short, the Atlanta airport had closed for 35 minutes earlier in the day due to weather, and EVERY flight was delayed or canceled and there were countless gate changes and subsequent confusion. We were supposed to catch a flight leaving at 8:07, but we ended up going standby on an "earlier" flight, scheduled to depart at 5:45, but actually departed at 8:45. Our original flight, scheduled at 8:07, finally left at 10:15. By catching the earlier flight, we landed in Kansas City around 9:45, and our parents took us home. However, our luggage didn't arrive until 11:15, so Steve drove back to the airport to pick it up. We only live 15 minutes from the airport, so it wasn't that big of a deal. It was a minor inconvenience in an otherwise pleasant trip.

She's Our Daughter!

We had court this morning and everything went smoothly. Everyone seemed to be more nervous than we were, and they were all so glad that court went well. At the hearing, there were 9 people: the judge, the prosecutor, the secretary, Steve, me, our interpreter (Yelena), Andrei, a doctor from the orphanage, and a lady from the municipal government. Steve went first and then me, and the judge asked us each basically the same questions: name, birthdate, citizenship, why we wanted to adopt, and why we chose Russia. Since Steve went first, he had additional questions like when we got married (He had to think about it, but he did remember!), our address, when our previous adoptions occurred (He remembered those dates, too!), description of our house, his job information and income. The judge asked me if our boys knew about us adopting a girl, and I said, "Yes, and they pray for her every night." She seemed really pleased with that answer, and I didn't even have to make it up; that's really true!

After us, the doctor talked about Katie's health diagnoses and about her personality in general. She talked about how it was in the best interest of her for her to have a family. The lady from the government then said that we had filled out all the necessary paperwork, that we had petitioned the court for this adoption, and that they had accepted our petition, etc. etc. Andrei then showed them the photo album we had prepared with pictures from our first visit. The prosecutor looked through the album, and it was obvious how much she enjoyed the pictures. With a little girl as adorable as Katie, how can anyone not love the pictures?! Lastly, the prosecutor spoke about how it is the opinion of the state that it is in the best interest of the child for this adoption to take place. Then the judge left the courtroom to make her decision. She returned after about 5 minutes, and ruled in favor of the adoption. Everyone shook hands and congratulated us, and it was smiles all around!

After we left the courtroom, Andrei took us to the orphanage with the orphanage doctor for one last visit with Katie. Earlier, before the court hearing, he said that we weren't going to be able to go see her today because he had too much work to do on our case to take us. We were very disappointed because we hadn't said goodbye to her yet. On the contrary, we told her that we would see her the next day, so we were glad when Andrei changed his mind. As it turns out, the office that he needs to go to for this document closes at noon so he couldn't go today anyway. When we got to the orphanage, Katie was dressed in a darling red and white checked dress. We only had maybe 15-20 minutes with her before Andrei returned, and I just held her in my lap the whole time. Steve took some precious pictures of the 2 of us. She was content to just sit and snuggle with me with a huge smile on her face. The doctor told us that she is going around the orphanage saying, "Papa, Mama, I will go home." Also, yesterday when we were walking around outside yesterday, she was saying, "Mama kharasho" to everyone. Sergei even said it when he picked us up. We asked Andrei today what that word meant and he said it means "good." She's telling everyone that I'm a good Mama. Does anyone have a tissue?

We told her goodbye one last time, and she blew us kisses. Andrei took us back to our apartment where we ate lunch and took another nap. We're still not sleeping well here. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 12:55, and Sergei will pick us up at 10:00. From here, we're not completely sure how everything will work, because Andrei contradicts himself. However, we think that this is what we can expect: On July 21, Andrei will get the judge's ruling. Then he can take that to get Katie's birth certificate and adoption certificate. Everything will need to be translated into English for us (court ruling, certificates, and anything else). Then we will return to Moscow. Once we arrive we will apply for her passport and visa. This takes 3 days. So, we think that we may leave to come back on either July 26 or August 2 (this is our estimate not Andrei's - he will not give one). We would arrive the following day (Sunday),pick up Katie, apply for passport and visa on Monday, pick them up on Thursday, go through embassy and consulate on Friday, and fly home on Saturday. Once again, we'll just wait and see.

We are now firmly in the "wait" portion of this "hurry up and wait" process. These next few weeks will be difficult because we are already chomping at the bit to return and take her home. Right now she is officially our daughter, but we have to leave her here. Ouch!

A Gorgeous Day in Moscow

We went to see Katie again this morning at about 9:00. We thought Andrei was going to drive us as always, but when we got outside, we saw that Sergei was driving us instead. Sergei is the coordinator for the Moscow City Region, whereas Andrei is the Russian coordinator for the agency. Sergei is a very nice guy, but he doesn't speak any English. It was a very quiet drive to the orphanage.

We went walking with Katie again outside, and the weather was absolutely beautiful! We walked around for awhile, and everytime we would pass another person, Katie would tell them that I'm her Mama. It was so sweet! After we walked around, we went inside and played in the play room. Boy does she love goldfish crackers!! She is signing more, all done, eat, swing, and another one we can't remember. She is feeling more and more comfortable with us as evidenced by her testing boundaries. This is good to see, but it's hard to handle while we're in the orphanage.

After about 2 hours with her, Sergei picked us up and took us back to our apartment. Thankfully, Andrei called him and spoke to us so we know that Andrei will be picking us up tomorrow morning at 8:00 to go to court. Our hearing is at 10:00. Our apartment is on the 6th floor and they are working on the elevator. We have 113 steps we have to climb every day -- multiple times. We're getting a nice workout while we're here. We took another nap this afternoon because neither one of us slept well last night. Afterwards, we took it easy. All the walking yesterday around Moscow made my left knee and right hip hurt. I guess I'm getting older! Steve took the Metro to pick up our visa registrations, which we had dropped off yesterday. If you are in Russia more than 3 business days, you have to register your visa. Since we are leaving the morning of the 4th business day, we wondered if we would need to register, but since we are going to court tomorrow, we wanted to make sure everything is in order.

We're eating better this trip since we brought more food with us this time. With our court in the morning, we're hoping for a good night's sleep. Thank you for all your prayers and support. Hopefully the court will go well without any surprises or difficulties.

Two Days til our court date

Andrei picked us up this morning at 8:30, and we went straight to the orphanage. When we got there, Katie was all ready and waiting for us...dressed in the outfit we gave her yesterday and wearing a necklace and bracelet. Of course, she preferred my bracelet so we traded. It was a beautiful day, so we went for a walk outside on the grounds for awhile. Then we played in the play room before returning outside for a little more. Her group was outside as well, and they went in at 11:30 for lunch. We thought it would be a smooth transition for Katie if we went in at the same time and she just joined her group. Well, it was somewhat chaotic getting everyone inside and up the stairs, and at one point we heard a child cry on the stairs at the same time that a worker struggled to get a child to stand up. We thought it was the same child until we saw Katie walking up the stairs ahead of this child. Katie stopped at the landing and turned around. Her face was red with tears streaming down, and she was crying. I ran to comfort her, and she stopped crying but was still very sad and upset. We don't really know why she was crying. She's never cried any other time that we've had to leave, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. One of the workers took her from me after awhile and told me to do something, but all I could do was look at her blankly. I felt so helpless, but since we'll be going back there tomorrow, maybe we can comfort her some more.

Katie's signing is really coming along, especially when goldfish crackers are involved!

After Andrei picked us up, we came back to our apartment for lunch before resting for a couple of hours. Then we went to go register our visas before doing some shopping and sight-seeing. We ate dinner at a Russian restaurant, which was very tasty, and we went to Red Square to see St. Basil's and G.U.M. lit up at night. G.U.M. (pronounced goom) is a beautiful shopping mall with gorgeous architecture. Dusk lasted for about 2 hours before it was finally dark at 11:00. We would post pics, but one of our converters doesn't work anymore, so I'm using the laptop on the battery -- no time for uploading pics. Sorry! I took an adorable one of Steve and Katie walking hand in hand outside today. We'll post it after we get home.

It's midnight, so we're going to bed. We'll see Katie again tomorrow and then court on Wednesday. We're getting there!

We're Here in Moscow

Well, we made it! It was a long trip, but everything was fine and we arrived safely. Flying Delta was much more enjoyable than flying Aeroflot! For one thing, there was no one sitting in the two seats behind us, so Steve moved back a row. We each had two seats to spread out in, and that made a huge difference! Also, instead of having an overhead movie, each seat had its own screen just above the tray. On this screen we could watch movies, TV shows, HBO shows and movies, play games (trivia, solitaire, chess, etc.), listen to music, or watch the path the plane was taking across the Atlantic. Each person could choose whatever they wanted, and combining all the movies, TV shows, and documentaries, there were probably 30 choices. I mostly watched movies while cross stitching Katie's stocking, and Steve did almost everything. He only played solitaire briefly because when he poked at the screen, he moved my whole seat. In addition, the headrests could angle forward to rest your head, and one complimentary alcoholic beverage with dinner was included. All of these were just little things, but they added up to make an enjoyable flight. Steve and I both rested, but I don't know that either one of us slept.

After deplaning, we waited for over an hour to go through passport control before getting our luggage and meeting up with Andrei. We drove straight to the orphanage, but Katie had just fallen asleep 5 minutes earlier for her nap, so we went to our apartment. This apartment location is better than last time's, so our drives to the orphanage should be about 30 minutes instead of an hour. We unpacked and took a nap before Andrei picked us up again at 3:30 to go to the orphanage. We played with Katie for about 2 hours, and she must be feeling more comfortable with us because she showed us her ornery side! If she didn't want to do something, she would arch her back and lay on the floor. She didn't actually fuss or pitch a fit, but she was making herself clear! She loved the seesaw again, and this time they had a little plastic swing in the room, which she loved even more. We also played a made up game where she would plop on my lap, I would stand her up, and she would plop again over and over. She got the giggles pretty good with that one, too. She ate lots of goldfish crackers, and according to Andrei, she said that she would be waiting for us tomorrow when we return (how sweet!). We gave her a little outfit today, and when she went back to her room, you would have thought she was a model on a runway. She was so cute! We also brought donations for the orphanage that we will deliver tomorrow: clothes for the kids (from our house) and fragrance samples for the workers, which were donated from Dillards.

We came back to our apartment, found a deli to buy a few things, and ate dinner. We're now getting ready for tomorrow, because Andrei will pick us up at 8:30 to go see Katie, and we're just a little bit tired. We love spending time with her, and we are just so anxious to bring her home. Lots of love to you all!

We're off to Moscow!

This is our last night in Kansas City for 6 days. Our flight leaves tomorrow morning at 9:30, we'll arrive in Atlanta at 12:30, we leave Atlanta at 3:30, and we'll arrive in Moscow at 10:30 Sunday morning (1:30 A.M. our time). We have all our bags packed except for last-minute items, and all the arrangements for the boys have been made. As I sit here listening to the "rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air," I can't help but feel proud to be an American. We live in such a wonderful country, and I hope we remember all the sacrifices that people made to help make our country as wonderful as it is.

I hope you all have had a glorious 4th of July, and please pray for us as we travel again. Pray for safe travel, a successful court hearing, and safe travel home. We don't know what we'll be doing each day except for court on Wednesday at 10:00. We'll be writing posts while we're gone to let all of you know how we're doing and what's going on. We love you.

We're Getting Closer

Tonight was kind of a hard night as Steve put the boys to bed. He will leave for work tomorrow morning before they wake up. They will leave with Nana and Grandaddy to go to the lake before Steve gets home from work, and we will leave for Russia before they get back from the lake. Therefore, it'll be 9 days before he sees them again. I won't have much more time with them, and the reality of us leaving is setting in. We got our passports with our visas back today. There's something very bothersome to me about mailing my passports to a stranger one week before leaving the country, so I'm always very glad when they return with time to spare. Everything is set, and all we need to do now is take care of some last-minute details and pack.

Tomorrow I will focus on getting the boys all packed for their weekend at the lake. We had planned on all of us going, but as we planned we knew there was a possibility that we might be traveling this weekend. Nana and Grandaddy generously offered to go ahead and take the boys down as planned, and this will give us 2 1/2 days with no children. Steve will be off on Friday for the 4th, so we are really in good shape to get everything done before we leave on Saturday.

When Nana and Grandaddy return with the boys on Sunday, Grandma and Grandad will take over while staying at our house. Derek starts summer school on Monday so he's set. Alex's last day of summer school is tomorrow so I've scheduled lots of things to keep him busy next week. Otherwise, Grandma and Grandad will have to hear the following, "What can we doooo? Where can we goooo? Who can I plaaaay with? There's nothing to dooo. I'm so booored." Hopefully, the boys will still be intact when we return, and hopefully the grandparents' sanity will still be intact when we return next Thursday!

Have a Happy 4th of July!!