We're home!

This was our Gotcha Day photo. I'm so glad we've got our pumpkin and our hom.

How exciting..we're home....we're home...we're home!! 18 hours of flying, airport waiting, screaming and running kids (not mine), and one delayed flight. We made it home.

Alina was a super trooper. She slept about an hour at the airport while we were waiting to board and one hour nap on the plane. We got so lucky and got bulkhead seats during the trip. My crutches/bum knee got us those seat so God was watching out for us. The flight was super full. We were able to put her down on the floor with a bunch of pillows and a blanket I bought for about an hour for a nap and another hour for playing. But the rest of the time she was wired and bored. Andy was a great entertainer. We would take about an hour each and alternate.

She was so loopy when we were waiting in Atlanta. Both she and I fell asleep for the 30 minute flight. One of my best friends Christina and her daughter picked us up from the airport with a 'Welcome Home Alina' sign. So sweet.

Alina slept all night and so did we. She's taking a lenghthy nap now. She was cranky but played a little this morning. Ignored the dog even though this is the first time she's seen one to our knowledge. Watches the cat like a hawk though which is funny. We've got so much laundry and clean up. Life is back to real...but so changed. Thank you all for your support with the trip and being such a great cheering section.

I'll still be blogging as well update things. I know some of you will fall off now becuase we're just a boring old at home family now. But this has been such an amazing journey. Unbeleivable in the time that it's taken and now that journey is finished and we start a new one.

Much love to all.

It's Amore!

Yesterday started very well. We'd all had a good night sleep and went down for a 10am nap no problem. Alina eats and sleeps well most of the time. But we went to the U.S. embassy at 2pm to get her visa (yeah...we got it), then had to go to our agency office to complete some paperwork. By the time we got home, it was 5pm and someone had missed her afternoon nap. We put her down about 6:30 and made the mistake of waking her up from that. When we put her down again at 8:30 she was up every 30 minutes all night long. It was rough. About 4am she finally passed out from exhaustion and slept through until 7:30.

We all got up and ate breakfast. We had to go to the Ministry of Education at 11am. We spent from 7:30-10:30 trying to keep a tired baby up. We succeeded, did our final exit signature with the promise to do our followup placements. Picked up McDonald's and came home about 12:30. Alina went down for a nap quickly after having a bottle. She's been sleeping for about 2.5 hours. I hope this puts her in a better mood tonight.

She's so funny when she's sleeping. She's scoots up into a turtle position and sticks her tush in the air. It's looks so uncomfortable but she always moves back into that position.

Andy says he has "nothing to say at this present time".

We probably won't blog again after today because we leave for the airport at 10am tommorrow morning. Packing is on the agenda for this afternoon. Another lady who adopted with our same agency is in Moscow today so we may visit with her and her new daughter. I think Alina would like to play with another little one about her age.

Also, those of you whom we've been doing Skype with...our skype is disabled so we won't be able to call you today with it. So don't worry if we miss you.

Much love to all.

We're doing great!

I know everyone who hasn't seen a picture, wants to. But we aren't going to post any photos of Alina until we get home. We're being very cautious about that and I hope everyone understands.

Okay, other blog from the other day was the initial parent panic. I'm stating that right now. You can prepare with books, reading, advice, whatever but then all of a sudden this little 22 lb (we found out her current weight this morning), dark brown haired, precocious munchkin is in your care and you aren't just visiting anymore....scary. I about had a meltdown on Monday becuase I was tired and didn't want my child to starve...wanted her to sleep. Wanted me to sleep...BUT we survived day one and two.

Not that I'm an expert now or anything, but we've already got our nap routine down. We're eating great. Had our first bath last night. First poopy diaper this morning (GAG!!--literally). I know a few of my friends are laughing their behinds off right now because they know me. I have a gag reflex cleaning out the litter box...same thing with poopy baby diapers.

We're feeding Alina Similac Advance formula (thank you so much Susan for the supply) which is going down well. We have a great eater on our hands. We're supplementing with a cereal mix that you just add water two that's just like the Gerber cereal in the states. We only do that once a day because it's a little variety. We're also doing apple juice because that's what she's used to. We've already cut back on that, but it's what she's used to at the orphanage.

Normally in the morning she gets cereal, compote (juice mixture), and some kind of bottle cooked by the kitchens there. Lunch was a soup puree mixture, compote. Supper was a bottle of compote or formulish thing and dinner was a cereal, puree, cookie combo of some kind. We've simplified.

First day I tried some gerber baby type food...stuff smelled nasty...she didn't like it. We tossed that idea and we're just doing formula, baby banana stuff which she does like, and Gerber cereal cookies (thank you Christina and Tammi), etc.

I don't remember if I had a chance to type about Monday because I was kind of typing in a blur. I brought a pair of ugg type boots a friend gave me as a shower gift they were so cute....size 3...I also had a pair or slippers my Mom bought me...size three but a lot of give becuase they are soft...no way they would fit. We have big foot on our hands. I think she may be in a size 5. I know friends with two year olds that have smaller feet than that. She's got wide long feet. Andy suggested she could be a deep sea swimmer with those tooties of hers. The baby home staff were laugh at us (with us) on Monday about that so they gave us some knitted booties as a gift to remember them by.

She was apparently a bit of a favorite because they let her hair grow. That's what the doctor said. Usually they cut the hair short so it's easier to mess with and in case of things like lice and other "infestations".

I have to say, the orphanage we're in was an excellent one. They have people who care and they take great care of these kids. They are very cautious about cleanliness and they disinfect the clothes daily to try and avoid problems. I don't know if all of them are that way, but the children we saw there were thriving (depending upon how long they had been there). We had several chances to talk to the caregivers of our group and another group and they were all great ladies.

Alina had her U.S. embassy doctor exam this morning and she's in good shape. Also, he gave us the name of the nasal drops to help with the congestion and with the plane. I forgot to bring some, but Andy and our guide are going to get them at the Arteka (pharmacy) today. Also, I had some Motrin infant drops and orajel which is helping with the teething. She's got 2 coming in on the bottom and 1 on top from what I can tell. She smiles with her whole mouth so it's easy to see in there.

We've learned how to Skype so we had a Grandparent visiting session yesterday with video. She likes the video and bangs on the laptop to say high...makes her grin to see people on the screen. I had heard about Skype, but now I'm a big proponent. Even when we get home we're going to use it to help with grandparents who are too far away.

Well...I'm going to close now because Alina is waking up. Tommorrow we don't have to go anywhere until the afternoon visit to the Ministry of Education. Apparrently, we have to take Alina there to show that we really got her and that we're capable of caring for her. It's the last Russian thing we have to do. Friday is the visit to pickup the visa (Andy is there now turning in the paperwork). Then we come Saturday. We will be in Atlanta by 4pm. Going to be a fun plane ride...(maybe not).

Much love to all. I'm sure Andy will blog his 6 rubles worth later.

PS

If anyone has suggestions, comment or email me. Stacye

Gotcha Day!

Well, I'm sure some of you have been waiting waiting waiting for us to update. Well it's here....we've got Alina. She's was snoring softly right now in her crib (rental Pack-n-Play) when I started this and then woke up cranky cranky. So I'm cutting and pasting Andy's summary.

Sunday, we were the only couple to visit the orphanage and we had such a great afternoon with Alina. She wasn't distracted and got very comfortable with us. For those of you who are coming after us, I really recommend that you do the day before visit....it's not the same with every child but it really seemed to make a
difference with her.

Andy’s 5 Rubles (Looks like a quarter)
As most of you know we spent the 10 day wait in Moscow because it corresponded with my spring break. In other words it was cheaper, and more fun to be here than back in Bama. Not to mention no jet lag. Here’s the updates.

Thursday: We went to the Pushkin Museum. Large collection of French Impressionists. And it’s inside and therefore not freezing. But it’s not about Alina so YOU DON’T CARE.

Friday: We went to the Victory Museum in Moscow. Museum of WW2. It has the largest park of restored military vehicles from WW2. Got to see Shermans, Matildas, and a lot of Russian Tanks many T34’s and other cool things. Got my picture taken in front of a T34 before the police got mad and shoed me away. But it’s not about Alina so YOU DON’T CARE.

Saturday: We went to a large open air market in the mud and sureenough cold. Stacye tried to stimulate the Russian economy all by herself. Lots of souvenirs. But it’s not about Alina so YOU DON’T CARE.

Sunday: We went to see Alina and got groceries from Globus. No Tuna Pizza. Just a well balanced meal of sausage, bread and ice cream. Alina was happy and fine and you don’t care about the rest.

Monday: We went to court and picked up Alina. She was too big for her age appropriate clothes. She didn’t fit in her snowboots. She didn’t fit in her back up larger shoes. We had to break out the 14 month clothes. She tolerated the car ride much better than we anticipated. Then she played for 2 solid hours while grandparents watched via Skype. They cared since it was about Alina. We’ll spend this week on Red tape and Red, White and Blue tape....Love, Andy

Okay, I'm back. It's Tuesday now. We had a bit of a rough night trying to get Alina to sleep after she woke from her nap. I think she's teething, congested, and generally disconbobilated (if there is such a word). We're trying to figure out the food schedule and what we can actually get her to eat. Yikes. Have to keep this short....someone is crawling this way. Much love, Stacye

Saw my cutie pie today :)

Well, our extremely long 8 days ended today as we went and saw our little pumpkin. :)

She was feeling very poorly last Monday when we saw her and she's still a little congested, but is doing better. I can't do anything about it until she's mine for good on MONDAY!! MONDAY is our gotcha day.

We went this morning and bought some swings for the orphanage. They wanted swings and we tried to find wind-up infant swings but had terrible time looking. So we bought swings that are for about 1 year olds. They said they can use them for the older group (1 year+). But we had brought a pyramid of clothes we dropped last week that will work for Alina's age group. It ended up being a pile about as high as my knee (two suitcases worth...thanks to all my friends/family who gave us clothes for that purpose).

Anyhow. She was so fussy today. She's definately teething again and we think she didn't remember us much. Took her about 45 minutes to warm up this time. Too long between visits. But what can you do. She looked like a pickle when she came in and they gave her to us. She wasn't much into going to those strangers in the loud room. We had another couple playing with their little boy and the translators were talking. So she just wanted to be held. After a while everyone left and it was just the three of us and she warmed up because she relaxed. I found out if I fake that I'm going to eat her foot...she just thinks thats the funniest thing. We actually caught her on film with a full on 7 tooth smile. She even giggled outloud and started cooing a little. She's not a very verbal child yet, so that was a great step to me.

We only got two hours with her, but at the end she was in a good mood and we'd had a chance to talk at length with her caregivers and her attending doctor about her sleeping schedule, feeding schedule, and what they actually feed them. Apparently, they usually feed them pureed food they make in the kitchen of the baby home. It's a conglomeration of meat, potatoes, squash, carrots, etc. Her bottle last week smelled like tomato soup or vegatable beef, now I know why.

As for Tuesday, we went to the Pushkin Museum and the Church of our Savior Christ (which was bombed out by the Soviets and rebuilt by the Russian Federation). Yesterday, we had our last major out of town excursion. We went an hour north to Sergiev Posad which is a very historic monastery which has housed several of the Russian Orthodox churches patriarchs (equivalent of the Catholic pope). It was founded in the 15th century by St. Sergiev as a hermit and then a town grew up around it because he was said to be able to perform miracles. The monastery that grew there also housed a theological school as well as an Icon artistist traininng center. It was shut down in 1930 by the Soviet government and turned into a dormitory for the students of the local university. But in 1985 under Gorbachev, they church was allowed to reconvene the school returned to it's original purpose. The site actually houses novice priests and monks. Priests must marry. Monks don't. Interesting.

The really fascinating thing was the tour we had by a novice priest who was about 20 who gave us a history of icon painting. It was fascinating.

Also, housed on grounds was Boris Gudinov who was the Prince of Moscow before Mikhail Romanov came to power. Lots of the site was donated to the Monaster by Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great. They hid Peter the Great during the fight for his throne.

I also had a friend of mine come all the way over from Nizhny Novgorod (7 hours away) to go with us. She used to attend UAB and we became friends. Haven't seen her since 1999. But we kept in touch and it was so nice to see her.

Here's some pictures of our trip. Hope you have a great day. Pray for a smooth week next week. We will see Alina again on Sunday. Friday we're going to see a T-34 tank at the WWII museum for Andy and Saturday we're going to the big market at Izmayilova (SHOPPING!!). Much love to everyone.

Our weekend...

Well, we're back in Moscow safe and sound. Had a nice weekend with the my friends parents who live in Yaroslavl. It was about 4 hours on the train to Yaroslavl which is north of Moscow and its about 6-10 degrees colder there. Friday in Moscow was about 32 degrees (1 to -1 C) and then in Yaroslavl it got to -10 degrees yesterday morning. BURRR...but it made for some very beautiful weather attributes I've read about in Literature and never seen called Hoarfrost.



I want to tell you about what we did Friday and then about our weekend.

Friday, we went with our new friends from Washington, DC to see St. Basil's in Red Square. It kept being closed when we tried to see it, but we hung outside until they opened at 11am with Paul and Donna. We really clicked with this couple and they are so sweet. I hope we get to see them again before we leave when they come back after the 10 day wait. They just had court last week on Thursday, but decided to go home between.

St. Basil's was beautiful and interesting building. We also saw the sun come out which was so nice.

















Our hosts met us at the Train station on Friday and we took a taxi to their home. They live in a small apartment in the edges of the city and Alexander works for one of the local universities as a historian. Andy and he got on beautifully becuase they could talk history all day. Larissa is a school teacher and was extremely sweet. Both were so generous with their time and energy. They cooked us all the meals while were there and it was SOO good. It was nice to have home cooked food and not restaurant food or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

aturday we went to the Yaroslavl Jazz Festival. They had 3 sets of players of jazz. Set 1 was a local band from Yaroslavl, Set 2 was a Moscow Free Jazz Band, and the 3rd group was an excellent ensemble from Moscow and the US. Their pianist was a guy named Keith Javers from Philadelphia. Guy could majorily play the piano. The tenor sax was played by Oleg Kireyev who has the #1 jazz club in Moscow. They are headed on tour to Europe and the U.S. Keith was so suprised so see someone who was American in Yaroslavl (he didn't speak any Russian himself)and so pleased to talk to us. He signed my CD I bought and his buddy Oleg gave us two more of his CDs to take back to Alabama. He plays world music as well as Jazz. So that was very cool.

Alexander gave us a tour of a few historic churches in Yaroslavl which date from between 1682-1692. Apparently during this period, Yaroslavl was a huge funnel from west Europe for trade traffic and made their fortunes that way. Other centuries the city had mercantile success with grain and tanneries. They lost all of that when St. Petersburg was built in 1703 and the traffic from Europe came through there and then lost the mill trade after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 because there were so many aristocrats and bourgeousie. Before 1900 they had a about 100 beautiful churches in the city, but they lost many to fire and many others were bombed out in WWII. About 30 are left in the city. Interesting thing about the church in these pictures is that the big building is for worship in the summer and the smaller white building is for worship in winter. Has 3 foot thick walls.





We also saw the Yaroslavl montastery and walked along the Volga on Saturday. Then walked along on Sunday morning when all the Hoarfrost was out which I just thought was amazing.





It was neat to be outside in this freezing weather and see the activity of the average Russian people as they walking along the Volga embankment. Kids on skis doing cross country type skiing, parents pushing children in sleds (no way to use a regular stroller when the ground is iced 3-6 inches thick), people out on the Volga with large augers cutting holes in the ice for fishing, kids tobogganing. That was fun. Unfortunately, my coat zipper has died. It won't zip and it was REALLY cold. So we went into the Yaroslavl city museum where they had wonderful Russian artwork.

We left on Sunday evening and arrived back in Moscow about 9pm. We came out a Belorusakya and we saw the KFC...so we broke down and ate there. That was actually the first time, but it was inexpensive and really good. Actually better than I have had recently at home. They play techno music and try to make KFC look cool which is kind of funny.

We got back to the hotel to a call from the other couple we had met at the Baby home last week. They are from Toronto Canada. They are adopting a 15 month old little boy who runs around and is very stable on his feet. They are also staying for the 10 days wait like us. They are getting their son the day after we get Alina. So we decided to meet them for lunch and as today was Monday all the Museums and major attractions are closed. So we did a tour that was in their guide book looking at the metro stops.

Many metro stops in Moscow are considered major works of art as they were decorated during Soviet times to commemorate WWII, the bolshevik revolution, Soviet unity, the arts, many other things.







Well, hope you enjoyed our update. Tommorrow we're probably going to either the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum or the Victory Park and WWII Museum. Love to you all.

Today...

Russia apparently doesn't buy into coin laundry or do it yourself laundry. The hotel will do laundry (dry cleaning)...how about $3.00 for a pair of socks or $13.00 for one shirt. So we revolted. We did it ourselves in the bathtub. Fortunately, I had purchased liquid tide in travel sizes.

Imagine us with a unmentionables hanging all over the room and jeans stretched out over every suitcase we brought with us. We put the do not disturb sign on the door so we would freakout the poor floor maid. After we got up, some things were dry so we redistributed it around the room. Only the jeans and big sweaters will take two days to dry.

We didn't get out of the hotel until about 1pm and took it easy as was suggested to us. We took the metro over to Novy Arbat and Old Arbat which are basically shopping streets. I bought a cute little Russian dress for Alina that she will get to wear once and we can have pictures that everyone can say....'Awww' and then we will mothball it...but I couldn't resist. It's the traditional style and it's much cheaper here than at home.

We ate at TGI Fridays...I know...cliche...but we were hungry and it was right there. They had a great mushroom soup, a nice salad, and the nastiest cheeseburger I've ever eaten. Andy had a Quesdilla which he enjoyed. I just did the salad and soup and the cheeseburger remained...um...you know uneaten.

We came back to the hotel and called it an early night. I ate peanut butter sandwich...Andy had another Crapdog...he loves them. I can't quite stomach them.

We won't be blogging for two days because we're going out of town for the weekend to a town called Yaroslav. I have a friend who has parents there and we were invited to stay with them. Apparently we're going to a Russian Jazz Festival on Saturday. That should be fun and a great distraction from the waiting.

Love to you all and we'll blog on Sunday to let you know we're okay and back safely.

Andy's 6 Rubles Worth

Hey ya'll:

You may get double postings...we're a little bored becuase we get zapped by the all the walking and then get stuck in the hotel. So here's Andy's bit. His will go up a Ruble each time :)

Stacye

• Court went very well. It was long and boring but the result was GREAT. Our interpreter prepared us very well. The previous court session went long which I was ok with. I was very concerned, however, when they started shouting at each other. I did NOT want to have an angry judge. But all went well.
• Everybody wants updates on Alina but we are thinking with our heads and not our hearts. Visiting her in the 10 day waiting period is expensive. $200.00 for a driver and interpreter. Extra visits would cost Alina’s 1st year’s college tuition. Also, and more importantly, visits during this time are not good for Alina. 1st they mess up the routine of the staff. They have a big job to do with a lot of babies and little staff. They need a routine and we don’t need to mess it up. It also has the potential to confuse Alina. We don’t want her thinking that we come and leave her. ALWAYS leave her. That is the wrong message. So we’re doing the hard thing and not visiting until later next week. When we can get reacquainted and learn her habits. So we can keep the ones that make sense. So for now we’re tourists.
• The bad news is that it’s very cold. Very, Very, Very cold if you’re from Alabama. The good news is that the lines are short. Why? Because it’s very, very, cold. Yesterday we went inside the Kremlin walls. Among the cool things we saw were: The changing of the guard at Russia’s tomb of the unknown soldier, The Czar’s armory (which featured carriages, silver, jewelry, tableware, textiles and more Faberge eggs than I can imagine), and many churches. It seems as if they made a new church every 300 years. (Moscow is old so that’s a lot of churches.)
• Socially, one thing that I found interesting and very telling about Russian racial attitudes. Just ahead of us in the line to enter the Kremlin was an Asian man with his two grandchildren. He set off the metal detector. He took out a pocket knife and went back through. He set off the metal detector again. He took the change out of his pocket and went back through. He set off the metal detector again. He then took more change out of his pocket and went back through. He set off the metal detector again. He then took out a flask to go with his other stuff and went back through. He set off the metal detector again. He then took off his belt buckle and shoes (on a cold day) and went back through. He set off the metal detector again. By this time the line had backed up and they opened another line. I went through and set off the metal detector. I went back through after emptying my pockets. Then, even though I set off the metal detector, I was passed through. They were still giving the Asian guy a hard time. I set it off twice and was passed through. He set it off many times and they nearly stripped him. I doubt terrorists would bomb the Kremlin with their grandchildren in tow. I think that he simply relieved the boredom of two Russian policemen.
• It seems that there are a lot of very expensive cars here in Moscow. They’re all caked in mud. If I lived here I would buy a large affordable car like a Ford or Skoda. When they’re caked in mud they look like a Mercedes or Audi, at 1/3 the price. A true entrepreneur would convince these people that clean cars are faster and run better. He would then open a cheaper, quicker car wash. People would need a new car wash everyday. The money would rack up.
• The subways here are very deep. The escalators are very steep. While it is possible that this is because the soil is sandy, I doubt it. I think they were meant to be fallout shelters. The older ones are very pretty fallout shelters. They have decorative carvings and great tile work. They also have beautiful plaster on the ceilings. The subways are large and clunky. Like the subway version of a 1965 Chevy truck. The newer subway lines are not as deep and the stations aren’t as elaborate. The subways are sleeker. I’ll take old, elaborate and clunky. More character.

Visiting the Kremlin

We got to visit the Kremlin for the first time today. We intended to go see Lenin's tomb, but that's going to have to wait until another day. I couldn't do both with my knee and probably did more than I should, but they had a beautiful collection in the Armoury Chamber where they used to house the Kremlin Treasury since the time of Ivan the Terrible. Now it's where they house treasures that were gifts to the Kremlin, Tsars, or produced by Kremlin craftsmen over the years. We couldn't take any pictures of the inside of the place, but we did take some great shots of the outside.

One of the first areas we saw the where they have the eternal flame lit for an unknown soldier. Same as we do in Arlington Cemetary, they recognize their lost ones from World War II. The Soviets lost something like 24 million people in the WWII.



They do the changing of the guard 5 minutes to the top of the hour each hour.

From there we went to Kutifaya Tower and bought our tickets for the Armory Chamber and the Kremlin Cathedrals/Grounds. This was a combo ticket for about $1050 rubles. The Armory Chamber does their entries into the museum on timed entries...so we had to hustle (as fast as I can going slow) from the Tower, around the government offices, 5 churches, down the hill, and into the Armory building. To start the tour we had to climb the grand staircase in the Armory building up to the 2nd floor. This was so much fun with my knee hurting. Fortunately they take this into account and had benches on each level and in each viewing room for those of us with issues. We got an audioguide and saw 11-15th century silver and gold object. The most impressive to me was the gilded bible covers with the 3X3 inch emeralds on the cover.

After this tour we went back up the hill to the Cathedrals: Assumption, Archangel's; and the Church of the Laying our Lady's Holy Robe; and Ivan the Great's Bell tower. In the bell tower they had an exhibition of Persian and Indian treasures with maginificent jewels and carvings. Wish I could have read enough Russian to learn more about them.

After that, we came back to the hotel and rested and then went to dinner with another couple we had met at the baby house. They are adopting a little boy and are from Washington, DC. We ate at a Russian themed, Russian cuisine restaurant recommended by our hotel. It was really good and they had ladies dressed in traditional outfits singing Russian songs.







Well...tommorrow we're going to stay in and do some housekeeping things. i.e. Do our laundry and relax some. Love you all.

We're Parents!!

So sorry for the delay in blogging today but we had to call the grandparents, godparents, mailman, etc. Just kidding. I saw the comment that some of you are stalking the site today for news.

We are successful! We have cleared court and we have been declared parents of our beautiful little girl.

We met our driver/guide at 9am this morning and went to pick up our agency coordinator. We left early because Moscow traffic is definately hard to guess. There's not a lot of predictability. We actually got their early and waited about 30 minutes so she could finish getting ready. After that we drove to the courthouse...again traffic obliged and we got there in about 20 minutes.



We went into the courthouse and saw the Social Worker for the region was there. Greeted her, and then sat to wait. Of course...we're nervy to begin with and then we found out there was a case before ours at 10am. That case the guy was yelling at the judge (or just speaking loud...hard to tell sometimes). So that case didn't wrap up until noon. So we go into the court room. It's a very small room compared to what you see on LA law. There is official judicial bench...then a long table with four chairs on each side. On the left is where the social worker, transcriptionist, and prosecutor sit.

On the right...me, Andy, and our translator. The proceeding was announced and court in session. We stood for the judge. We were asked our names, education, occupation, place of birth. General questions about items in the dossier. Then the judge left to deliberate and she came back and announced that they agreed to our petition.

I know that's a little anticlimatic, but pretty much that's what was involved. It was a very professional and straight forward proceeding.

I was asked to make a little wrap up if I had anything to add. I basically started sniveling at that point becuase I got emotional. I tried to suck it up, but couldn't manage. So I made a very short two liners.

Andy managed not to make jokes (except in the hallway for an hour--- I think he got it out of his system), but we forgot to say 'Your Honor' after saying everything. Except at the very end. Andy...southern boy that he is...kept saying "yes ma'am" so hopefully that worked.

Andy was expected to do most of the talking as the man of the household which is funny as he was the only man in the room. :)

We are so ecstatic about this finally being over. Hopefully it will all be down hill from here.

We're not going to see Alina again until next week so we could stack up visits closer to the time of pickup. We hope to do our 'gotcha' on the 23rd because it's 10 days for court decisions to be finalized in Russia.

I got to try Andy's tuna pizza. Completely nasty (yuck). But I ate Pillau which is a spicy rice and pork dish. It was delicious.

Tommorrow we get to be tourists for once. Last trip we didn't get to do anything. So first thing we're going back to the Kremlin to try an see something. I think I want to go see Lenin's tomb and Stalin's grave in the Kremlin wall. That should be interesting :) Later this week we're going to Victory Park and the World War II museum. Andy wants to see a T-34 tank (whatever that is)

Bless all of you for your love and support. We will type at you soon.

Court tommorrow! Andy's 5 Rubles Worth

• Today we went to see Alina first. She has a cold. There was a lot running from that little nose. She seemed to recognize us but she was cranky. All she wanted to do was to be held. She cried more today than in all our previous visits. Seems like runny noses make Alina cranky.
After all the money that people spent on toys for Alina, she did not seem to be interested in them today. All she wanted was to be held and chew my watch. Seems like shiny watches trumped noisy toys. Probably just for today. Luckily my Swiss Army, Sam’s Club Special watch is good for 100 meters of water. There was probably that much slobber on it when I put it back on.
• We went to Globus, a Russian Wal-Mart, after visiting Alina. It has a restaurant which is relatively cheap so we ate lunch. Stacye ate beef and rice. I ate pizza with tuna. I didn’t know it had tuna because I don’t read Russian. Tuna on pizza is WAY overrated. One might say that it’s downright nasty. I don’t think that tuna and pizza belong in the same restaurant let alone the same pizza. Spent the rest time at Globus buying groceries for a week.
• Supper was a sandwich in the room. It’s too cold to walk around at night. Too cold to walk around in the day for that matter.
• Tomorrow we go to court. I’ve been told 5 things that I must remember when I’m in court.
1. No Jokes
2. Call the judge your honor
3. No jokes
4. No Jokes
5. No Jokes
• Apparently they don’t want me telling jokes.

Bit of Russian Culture and today

Yesterday (Sunday) March 8th was Women's Day. It's a combination of Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, and a celebration of womanhood all wrapped up together. During Women's Day, men bring the women in their lives flowers and chocolate. Maybe make breakfast for the wife. Our driver, S., included me in this tradition and I got beautiful tulips this year. It was really neat surprise.

When we got to the hotel yesterday and got settled. I apparently laid my head down for 'just a minute' and passed out sleeping. Andy went and got our dinner. Well any of you who know my husband, know he's a sucker for sausage. We went to Poland in 2005 and he ate it everyday. Last time we were here he was dying to try a sausage stand that is all over town but never had the time for anything. We figured out that the cyrillic translates as 'stardogs'...but looking at the cyrillic it looks like 'crapdogs'. He just thought that was the funniest and he finally got his chance. So for dinner he got two of them.

For a guy who can't learn 2 Russian words after months of trying, he can get what he wants. He got the sausage, milk, and two enormous chocolate pastries. So he brought me that as my Women's Day present and dinner. It was pretty good actually. I think I am going to have to forcefully keep him away from the 'stardog' stand.

It's 7am and our day is about to begin. I couldn't sleep anymore so I thought I would get up and get my shower and write. We're meeting T at 11am and headed to the baby house to see Alina again. We will actually have a few hours with her today.

For those of you who gave us clothes for the orphanage, I'm taking those over there today. Two suitcases worth of stuff. I'm sure they can use it. Thanks again for your help.

We're here!

Well...okay, I'm sorry I haven't blogged this week but we have been soon busy getting ready to go and wrapping up work that its been nutso.

First things first. We're in Moscow now. We went directly to the orphanage this afternoon and saw Alina. She's doing great and has 5 more teeth. She only had two when we left. She's already a little bigger, but for the most part we didn't miss a whole lot more of her life....except for the new teeth. She's also pulling up where before it was just an attempt...so she's going to be walking very soon. Grandparents...pay attention...you're going to have to start the childproofing on the cabinets soon.

Well...that's the best news but I'm going to go back and catch you up with our week.

After last Sunday, I went back to my orthopedic doctor on Tuesday. He said that I had a tear in my cartiledge and I could stay off the crutches. He recommended that I take them with me in case I did some more damage. Which considering how slushy and icy it is right now...no telling. He also offered a wheelchair which would have been almost impossible and almost laughable. Not the most handicap friendly town you have ever seen. They have had regular snow since we've been gone and there is at least 2 feet on the ground... lots of it slushy. I need hazard pay.

I bought the coolest retractable hiking cane from a hiking store and it's a great help when my leg is getting tired...like today. After flying/traveling for 12 hours we went straight to the orphanage....tired is not the work. Exhausted is. I had a nap and that's why I've got the energy to blog. Then I'm going to bed bed for real.

We're staying at the Holiday Inn just outside the Garden ring and it's very comfortable with an English speaking staff.

Anyhow, after the drama with my leg for the most part we've spent the week getting ready as much as we could and getting work stuff ready for our absence.

Back to Alina. She was so scared when they first brought her out to us, but after about 30 minutes she started to relax. We got to bottle feed her and then we switched from a lobby area to the play room. Then she started to relax for real and we got a few laughs and giggles out of her. I think she remembered playing there with us in January, but Andy doesn't think so. I don't think she would have relaxed as much if she didn't. But we will never know.

We go to see her again tommorrow (yeah!) and then we have court on Tuesday.

We will probably see her one more time this week and then a few times next week before we pick her up for good on the 23rd.

Well...I'll update more tommorrow.

Love to all.

Interesting week...

Well, since I posted the pictures of the room it has been a very interesting week. I had fallen when I was in Russia on ice and had twisted my knee. Tuesday I went to the orthopedic doctor and got a cortizone shot in my knee and a brace for the knee. I felt great on Wednesday, went shopping, and was feeling really good. Thursday, again feeling good. Then I went down a step...yikes...ow...something popped in my knee. I couldn't put any weight onto it. So we went to the ER Thursday and so now I have a brace and crutches and am babying my knee. I had a MRI on Friday but I won't hear the results from my doctor until I see him on Tuesday. So please pray for us...this is going to make a really interesting travel experience if I have to go with all this extra stuff and can't carry anything.




Fortunately, I had mostly put the room together and had packed some of the clothes I had gotten for the orphanage. I had a shower yesterday with my best friends and it was wonderful to hang out with them and they gave me a stroller and other great things that we needed for the nursery and the trip. My daughter is going to be a fashion plate with all these cute outfits, that's for sure.

This morning we woke up and had 2-3 inches of snow coming down. We never get snow here except once every few years, but it burned off by 3pm. I have four more days of work and then we pack up and head out next Saturday. Can't wait to see Alina. Nothing is going to stop me at this point...not even a bum knee. Keep us in your prayers.

Love to all.