Pics from HomeComing

I am not sure how many people are still checking our blog & I probably will not post too much anymore but wanted to post these homecoming pics which our friend Bill took. Seeing them brought tears to me eyes .. especially the ones with Scott & Erik.. Enjoy!

Scott & Erik

Here are some pics of Scott & Erik. Scott loves Erik & is always looking for him or trying to call his name. Erik has been so awesome with him. We are so proud of him!

We found out today that Scott does have giardia which is a parasite which is causing his stomach problems. We knew it had to be something. It does not effect his mood at all. He will start the meds soon & hopefully it will take care of this.

Sorry I have not had much time to post on the blog. Just wanted to post these pics before Scott wakes up. The last one is what he does when he knows his picture is going to be taken.. he blinks his eyes Before. Its so cute. He is doing great & seems much more comfortable in our house. His favorite toys are balls & the Matrosyka doll we brought back from Russia. He seems to stil be trying to say Erik & is still sleeping great. Yeah! We hope this lasts. We took him to the dr last week & both docs were happy with is weight & development. He may have some verbal delays buts its too early to tell. We are still waiting on all the lab work. Gotta run he is waking up!

First 2 Days Home

Saturday 10:30 AM

Scott just went down for his morning nap so I have a few minutes. He has been fighting naps & cying more & more even though he is tired. Just a few minutes ago he fell asleep sitting up leaning his face against the crib as I was sitting in the rocker & he was looking at me. He falls asleep when I rock him but then wakes up when I put him in the crib, He has gotten very attached to me which is great but it can be exhausting. The first night he slept until 2 am, the next night until 4 am & then last night until 5:30 YEAH! It felt so good for us to be able to sleep 8 hrs. He is still an eating machine but is also still having bad BMs so its hard to know what to give him to eat. He lights up when he sees Erik. This morning he was actually pushing Erik on a toy. There is only about a 10 pound difference between them. Scott LOVES to practice walking & of course loves the stairs & giving mommy a hard attack as he tries to go head first down the stairs. We are going to make a trip to Babies R Us today to get another gate. I gave him his 3rd bath today & he is slowly getting used to them. Still wimpers but not as bad. We are all adjusting as a family & I am sure it will seem like he was always here soon. My mom & Dad are still here but are leaving today. Mom has been a huge help with all the house stuff as well as watching him so I can take a quick shower. I am a little nervous about this week as I need to take him to 2 doctors on my own but I guess I will manage. The first 3 pics were while in Russia & the last ones are at home

We are home!

Hi everyone... sorry I have been so bad about posting. I am in awe of other families who keep blogs & post detailed entries every day with pictures. I just found I did not have the energy to do it every day. I will try to post some more while we are home. We arrived home today about 6 pm. It was an incredible homecoming. My mom & dad were with Erik & about 20 other friends & neighbors on our cul-de-sac. They had decorated the front of our house with American Flags, signs & balloons & the older children had drawn welcome home signs & airplanes with chalk on the street. As soon as I saw Erik I lost it. I had been pretty good about not crying during most of this trip but I just lost it when I saw him. It was so good to see him & so good to be home. Our flight went well but Scott only slept a total of 1 hr of a 10 hour flight! It was a very draining flight but overall he was not so bad. He did not scream or cry just a lot of whining as he was tired but just would not sleep. He did great in the car seat though. He went into it no problem & within minutes was sleeping. When we got home he of course woke up & was staring at everyone. We kept him awake until everyone came by & then I put him to sleep in his new room after a bottle. He fell asleep within minutes. About an hr later I smelt a wiff of something in the hallway & went in to find out he had a big BM. He has been having bad BMs since we took him out of the baby home (sorry if this is TMI). It may what is called giardia which is a parasite a lot of kids have from the orphanges or it could be the formula. We will find out next week after we take him to the dr. I have been up since 2 am with jetlag. I am sure I will crash again tomorrow. Thanks everyone for your support & love. It really has helped us through this sometimes diffult journey

In Moscow

Hello... we are in Moscow now staying at a Marriot... so nice compared to Siberia. We had another fiacso with the flights yesterday but were able to fly here together. Its a very long story but basicallly everytime we turn around we need to pay more $ for something. I only have a little time as the internet is free here for 5 minute but then is more expensive. Some things we have learned about Scott
1. He likes to be rocked & falls asleep easily
2. He does not like baths at all. Screamed or more wimpered when we gave him one. Hopefully this will get better
3. He tires easily.. he seems to need naps almost every 2 hrs.
4. He has the cutest smile
5. He LOVES to eat pretty much anything
6. He knows who we are & his face lights up when we see him.
Thats all for now... See everyone on Wednesday!

First & Second Day with Scott

Friday
Fri morning we first went to the ticket office to try to see if we can change our flights & if Kris/Rich could get coach seats. We were both at a luck. After we finished we picked up the couple form Austria who was adopting a 19 month boy. Before going to the Baby Home we stopped to pick up cakes for the baby home workers & the other couple picked up tons of diapers to donate to the Baby Home. We had left a donation last time which they used to buy blinds in one of the baby rooms. When we got to the Baby home we went into the directors office & we had to take care of some more paper work & we also were given a fund the govt opens to orphans. It was only 10 rubles. For the older kids the amt is donated to the baby home. A few moments later the kids were brought it. Scott started crying right away. The nannies were trying to calm him down to no avail. We had to change him into a diaper & clothes we brought for him. He seems to fit in most of the 18 month clothes but some of the pants are lose. We took a whole bunch of pictures & as we were leaving the main dr told us Scott had not feeling well & gave some medicine to us with all these complicated instructions. There was so much commotion going on when we left it was a little overwhleming. THe russian all seem to talk loud & on top of one another. The dr started to cry as we left the office which naturally made me cry. Scott continued to cry in the car even when I offered him some juice in a bottle. When we got back to the room we fed him right away since it was his lunch time & he totally calmed down. Ed had to leave to go back to Kemerovo City to get the passports. I rocked Scott who proceeded to spit up on me.. not sure if it was too much juice or motion sickness. We was rubbing his eyes a lot & locked tired so I put him in the crib, He cried for a few minutes & I tried to rub his belly & back but he pushed my hand away . I then just stayed next to him & he stared into my eyes like he got he kind of got that I was not leaving & then he fell asleep. He slept for 2 1/2 hrs. And the big shocker was he went on the pottie when he woke up. In Russia they toilet train very young so I figure I would try it. I put him on it when he woke up & he peed right away. I am sure it kind of fluke but we will see. When he woke up I gave him a bottle of formula & then we had to get his passport picture. He loves being outside! We hung out in the room some more & went out to dinner with Kris & her son which actually went very well. Scott had 3 small pieces of bread as I had given him dinner already. He fell asleep right after Ed got him 9 & slept through the night until 7 am.
Saturday
Today we have been taking it easy & staying in the room with Scott mostly as it is raining outside. He already seems to start bonding with us. He has great eye contact with us & seems to look for me when I leave the room & then gives me a big smile when I return. He has been an eating machine. I don;t want to overfeed him that he will get sick but we are feeding him frequently. He has had 2 bottles of formula today & lots of baby food & yogurt & of course cheerios. He seemed really tired already at 10:30 so he took an early nap & slept for 1 1/2. Its now 2:30 & Ed just tried to put him down again as he was rubbing his eyes. I am sure even though we are not doing much its more activity then he is used to. He loves to look out the window & point to trees/cars. We leave tomorrow morning at 5:30 am to go to the airport to catch the flight to Moscow. Hopefully we can get seats together if not I am not so worried now as he seems more comfortable with us. I just hope his ears are ok.

First Day as a Family

I once again do not have much time but wante to post a few pictures of Scott from yesterday.. I will post more about our day later on. He was so much fun today after the intial crying at the BabyHome!

Erik officially has a baby brother!

Thursday 8/9 - 9 pm
We just got back from driving 3 hrs to & then 3 hrs back to Kemerovo City for court & I am happy to report the judge granted us parents to Scott Dimitri!!!! We were sooooo relieved due to the issues with the paperwork. It was not even brought up at all! The whole court proceeding took about 1/2 hr. It was much easier than our court session for Erik. We had to leave at 6:45 am this morning which was fine as I hardly slept at all last night as I was nervous about taking a sleeping pill & being too out of it in the morning. We were with 2 other couples who also had court. Kris & Rich were taken first & came down about 45 minutes later & then we were next. Its a very formal proceeding & the translator is with you the whole time translating everything which is being said. Ed had to give a little speech about why we wanted to adopt, how we feel about Dimitri & how we have prepared to bring him home. After Ed's speech they asked if I had anything to add & then they asked only a few more questions. They asked me mostly about Erik & if he knew he was going to have a brother & if we discuss his Russian heritage with him. THere was also a social worker & prosecutor in the room who made statements. THe one interesting thing we found out was that they had placed an ad in the Russian newspaper with a picture of Scott & that he was available for adoption to a Russian family. We were able to get a copy of this ad. He looks like a newborn in the picture so it is cool to have this early picture of him. We had to request to have the 10 days waived due to his medical conditions & we also found out from the social worker that the room which Scott is in has mostly handicapped children so this is another reason why they waived the 10 days. After the court decision was made we had to go to numerous offices to get documents processed. We also got to see our faciliators apt which was very nice.
More potential good news is we may be able to either fly out to Moscow together on Sunday or we may be able fly to Moscow on Sat. We are going to the ticket office tomorrow morning & after that we are going to pick up Scott!! Ed then has to do the 3 hr drive back to Kemerovo to pick up the passports while I hang out with Scott at the hotel. We can not wait to start to bond with him & I can not wait for everyone to meet him!

Got a few smiles today

Today we got to take Scott outside! When we first got to the babyhome & he saw us he started to cry again. There was another couple today who was also in the playroom & their was a lot of noise so I think it was very overwhelming for him. One of his nannies came in to calm him down but he still would not stop crying so they suggested we take him outside as the rest of the kids were outside. As soon as we got him outside he was a different child. I guess he will be like Ed! He stopped crying & wanted to walk around. He is so close to walking but still needed to hold onto our fingers. He loved touching all the plants & trees. We even got him to laugh when we had him on a swing & when we threw him up in the air. He definitely likes being around the other kids & nannies from his room. We did some videotaping of the other kids but were asked to only videotape Scott. It was so sad as the kids were eating the leaves & sticks on the ground & no one was saying anything to them. Ed & I tried to interact with as many kids as we could. At one point Scott walked into a different area where the older kids were & a few of them starting coming up to us. They were all so adorable. One child was playing peek a boo with Ed. At one point I got so emotional to see these children in the conditions they are in who are starving for attention. We got to spend about 1 hr outside with Scott. He again had no diaper on & I saw the other caregivers take the tights(yes tights) off most of the kids as they were wet & put new tights on them. We were able to see his room again as well as the room he plays & eats in.

After our visit with Scott we did some shopping at a mall to buy supplies for Scott & we also bought him a pair of shoes as I did not estimate his shoe size well.

Some potential bad news is we found out today that 2 of our documents may have issues. We still have court tomorrow & we are told to hope for the best but we are still very nervous that we may not be able to finalize the adoption tomorrow. The issues have to do with something the Secy of State of NJ messed up & no one noticed including us. We really hope all goes well but this coulld mean we are here for a few more days. We will let everyone know tomorrow how it goes

THanks for all your good wishes. It is so nice to here from the States while here!

Cathy & Ed

Greetings from Russia

Tuesday 11Pm

Hi! Sorry we have not been able to post sooner. We have been so tired & had computer problems. I will start from today when we saw Scott! As you can see from the pictures he was not such a happy camper. We went to visit him at the Baby Hone at 3 pm which was right after his nap time. He definitely has developed stranger anxiety & did not remember us at all. He also seems to be getting sick or teething really bad. He cried a large part of the time or just studied what we were doing. One big difference was his hair.. it was almost Blond! It is either from being outside a lot or I think his real hair color is reddish. He is not walking yet but they say he is cruising. We did not get to see him do this today as all he wanted to do was be held or sit on our lap. THey brought in a snack for us to give him.. 3 tea biscuits/cookies & a glass cup full of some sort ofjuice or warm tea. Yes tea for a 14 month old. He was SOOOO thirsty & all he wanted was the tea. He could not hold the cup & a lot of the tea was dribbling down his shirt but he finished all of it. He ate 1/2 of the cookie but was choking on it most of the time. He has grown since April but no longer seems so big. I think he is 21 pounds now. We were able to ask the Baby Home director some questions we had & they were very open with answering. We spent about 2 hrs today with him today & will go back tomorrow again with another family who also has their son in the same baby home. We are very happy that we came to the region one day early to help with him adjusting to us

We have had some hiccups with the plane reservations getting back to Moscow... needless to say it was a 2 hr process & we almost could not get a flight. We are tired now & will not write all the details but for those fellow Adoptive parents who are flying soon to a region I would highly recommend making sure he get round trip tickets back to Moscow for any Aug flights as there are not many flights available. In the end we had to switch our flights to Sun & I have to fly by myself with Scott to Moscow & could not get him a seat. Ed is flying on a different airlines also on Sunday. It should be interesting! Right now we should still be home on Wed.

Please email or post comments. We should be online again sometime tomorrow.

Leaving the House...

We are heading out in 2 ours for my mom & dad's place in South Jersey. We will be staying overnight there & driving to JFK from their house (a 2 hr drive). We are very excited to complete this part of the journey. I pray this trip goes well & we return home on the Aug 15th.

Some pics

Here is Scotts stuff & his packed bag. THe next pic is his dossier! It alone is going to weigh a ton & this is just some of the paperwork we are bringing with us!

2 more days to go!

Yesterday was my last day in the office & today is my last working day from home! I am starting to have trouble falling asleep as my mind is racing about everything. I am not nearly as worried about Erik this time but I still have to remember all the things which need to be packed for him as well as what he needs once he comes back. My mom will be staying with him at our house for 3 days & he will be going back to school.

Yesterday I bought up a double stroller from someone who was selling one on Craigslist. The women was actually also an adoptive mom. How cool is that? The stroller is in perfect condition & we saved a lot of $. It just does not make sense to buy one new when we may not use it much

I found out there will be another family in Moscow when we get to the Courtyard Marriot. We have been emailing each other & they are leaving on Friday. It will be nice to have other families to hang out with.

We still have to BabyProof the bathroom believe it or not. Hopefully Ed can get to that tonight.
I am trying to take all my vitamins & get enough sleep. I will start taking the Airborne today. The last thing we need is one of us sick.

Thanks everyone for your love & support! We can't wait for everyone to meet Scott

Visas Arrived & Final schedule

Today we received our visas so we now have everything we need to get on the plane on Sunday. Below is our detailed schedule. We will very busy this trip!

8/5 - Sunday - We fly out of JFK at 4:30 PM EST

8/6 AM Monday - We arrive in Moscow at 10:10 AM (8 hour time difference); we will be hanging out in Moscow for the day waiting for our next flight

8/6 PM Monday- We depart for Novokuznetsk (Siberian Airlines) at 10:05pm.

8/7 - Tuesday - Arrive in Novokuznetsk at 6:10am. We will again stay at the Hotel Novokuznetskaya. (12 hour time difference).Today will be a rest and shopping day

8/8 - Wednesday - We get to visit with Scott today!

8/9 - Thursday - We drive 3 hours to Kemerovo City for our official Russian Court Date.We will spend the night at the Hotel Kuzbass.

8/10 - Friday - We do paperwork in Kemerovo City & drive back to Novokuztesk to pick up Scott out of the Baby Home!!

8/11 - Saturday - We depart Novokuznetsk at 7:40am and arrive back inMoscow at 8:05am.
We will be staying at the Marriott Courtyard. Either today or Sunday Scott will have his US Embassy Doctors's appointment.

8/13 - Monday - 8/14 TuesdayWe go to the US Embassy for our offical interview to bring Scott home; We pick up Scott's US Visa.; not sure how the timng of these 2 days will work

8/15 - Wednesday - We come home! Our flight departs Moscow at 12:15pam and arrives at JFK at 2:40 pm. As soon as Scott steps foot off the plane he is automatically a US Citizen!

One Week to Go....

We are done to the final countdown & we are exhausted. We spent a "family" day on Friday down at the Jersey shore with my parents. Erik had a great time at the ocean. This weekend we did not make any plans so we could get all the last minute stuff done as we know weekday nights not much gets done. We did go out last night with our friends Theresa & Phil to a Moroccan restaurant which was fun. They had a belly dancer there. Itwas it was a late night & we were drinking so this morning we were dragging.
I realized this weekend that I did not have any type of "lovey" for Scott so I picked up one of those soft cute bears with blanket this weekend. We are also still baby proofing & have taken donwn lots of baby stuff from the attic. I really wanted to finish Erik's Life Book this weekend but have done nothing on it. Ed has been super busy painting new doors we got, putting in a new door, distributing mulch & working on our Honda. Oh yeah we also found out on Friday that our Subaru needs a new transmission so we are without a 2nd car & have to pay for a new transmission. Lovely timing! We are in the process of looking for a Honda Pilot as the Honda had almost 200,000 miles but will not get it until we get back from Russia

Erik has been so good this weekend. I told him today it was a PJ day & he could stay in his PJs all day since we were not going anywhere (this is very rare for us). We also gave him an early Big Brother gift.. the Vtech Vsmile which I had picked up at a yard sale months ago. He loved it!

Please post Comments on our blog when we are in Russia. It is so nice to see every ones comments while we are over there

Off to do some packing & re-packing

11 More days

Even though we have been waiting a long 4 months to go back to Russia the last few days are flying. I have Scott's bag all packed & most of our stuff packed but we still need to figure out our clothes. Right now in Moscow & Siberia its in the 70's but I want to see what the weather forecast is closer to when we are ready to leave in case it gets cooler. We have to bring hat, jacket, pants, sweater etc for Scott regardless since Russias are very paranoid about children catching a cold.
We have decided not to have a big homecoming at the airport this time as JFK is such a pain. We are going to bring our car to the airport & drive ourselves home. Should be interesting getting to long term parking with Scott & then putting him in a carseat since they do not use carseats in Russia & Scott probably has never been in a car. We are giving an open invite for Aug 15th for everyone to come to our house to meet Scott. We really will need to limit visitors after this to aid in the attachment process & to not overwhelm him. Hopefully he will adjust fine but he will be going through so much in the next few weeks you just never know. Its so wild to think he is is Russia now & has no idea what is going to happen to him in 2 weeks....

3 Weeks to Court!

Well the official countdown has begun! We fly out in less than 3 weeks & I only have 8 days left of work but I may need to take some time off before we leave. I will be taking 12 weeks FMLA off so I will be out of work until the end of October. Its really not enough time since 2 of those weeks are spent in Russia. We will have to see how Scott does. If needed Ed may need to also take some FMLA. Ed has been very busy at work which is making these last few weeks kind of hard as we have no time during the week to do anything. I am going to make a stop at Babies R Us over the next few days to get last minute items & to pick up a double stroller. We also have to finish baby proofing!
Erik seems to be understanding more that Scott will be here soon. It will be very interesting to see how they interact with each other.
Our first leg of the trip will be very exhausting. We fly out of JFK Sun night; get into Moscow Monday morning & then are hanging out our agency office for most of the day & hopefully sleeping a little & then we take a 10:30 flight out to Novokuztensk Monday night & get into the region 6:30 am Tues so basically we will be up for over 36 hours with no shower! We decided to do it this way as spending the night in Moscow is kind of a waste since the flight to the region is 10:30 at night & we would rather rest in the region for a day. We are not sure yet if we will get to see Scott on Tuesday or will need to wait until Wednesday. I will definitely be taking sleeping pills on the flight to Moscow!

Shopping & Nesting

We have been busy getting MORE documents ready, booking hotels, shopping for baby stuff & getting the house in order. We will be stayt at the Courtyard Marriot for the 4 nights in Moscow & we were able to stay with our points for free which is awesome as its about $400 a night. We also booked our flights. We get back August 15th!! I can;t believe Scott will be here in 6 weeks! One thing I am very nervous about is we found out our schedule while in region

Day 1 - fly into Novokuznetsk; visit Scott

Day 2 - Drive to Kemerovo City (3 hrs) Court; stay in Kemerovo City for the night

Day 3 - Get Passports & other official documents in Kemerovo City; drive back 3 hrs to Novo; pick up Scott!!

Day 4 - 6:30 am flight back to Moscow

So we will probably only be with Scott for about 12-14 hours before taking him on a 4 hour flight!! I am really hoping he does OK. I am happy though that our trip is only 10 days as these 2nd trips can get much longer.

Ed has been working on putting our new swing set up. Its going to be so great for the boys!

We have Travel Dates!!

We got our official travel dates today!!! We leave August 5th & come home August 15th(assuming the 10 days is waived). Below is what I think our schedule will be
Sunday 8/5 - Flight from JFK
Monday 8/6 AM- Arrive in Moscow
Monday 8/6 PM - Flight out to Novokuznetsk (10:30 PM)
Tuesday 8/7 - Arrive in Novokuznetsk ( Day to kill & rest)
Wednesday 8/8 - SEE SCOTT!!
Thursday 8/9- Court date... 3 hr car to /from Kemerovo City
Friday 8/10 - Pick up Scott/Get Scott's Passport
Sat 8/11 - Flight back to Moscow
Sunday 8/12- In Moscow; Embassy Medical
Monday 8/13 - Embassy Appt
Tuesday 8/14 - Embassy Interview
Wed 8/15 - FLY HOME!!

We are booking flights now. We can use Delta points for our tickets. We are not going to get a seat for Scott as the flights are so expensive so hopefully he will sit on our lap or bassinet but I am sure we will be walking a lot with him anyway.
I am still nervous that since there are 7 more weeks before we go that something can come up but will think positive thoughts!

9 Weeks down.... 8 to go...

We got confirmation this week that our court date is definitely August 9th & will not be in June. We are disappointed but getting our heads/hearts around the Aug 9th date. We probably will be out of the country from August 6th until August 17th. We still do not have final travel dates though so we can book anything yet but hopefully will have them this week.
Scott's room is 90% done .. just waiting for some stuff in the mail & looking for some stuff for the walls. It looks very cute.
We are in the middle of getting some major yard work done including leveling our backyard so we can get a SWING SET. YEAH! Its going to be great with 2 active boys!

Moscow Times Article

A lot of people ask my why there are so many children in the Russian Oprphanages... this sad article explains some of this

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/06/08/003.html

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT!!!!

Today is Scott's 1st Birthday. It is so hard not being with him today. I would hope the Baby Home would do a little celebration but I really doubt they do anything. We plan on having a small party for him when he gets home.
We are still waiting for our final travel dates. The women who gets the release letters is on vacation until next week so we should hopefully know more next week. I have been chatting with other people online & have not seen a lot of court dates lately for our region so at least we are not alone with the wait.

Court Date Set

Well good news bad news! We got a court date but its not until August 9th. Due to all the summer vacations & the fact our release letter the y can not get an earlier court date. This will mean we will be waiting 4 months from when we met Scott (Dimitri) to bring him home which is exactly how long we waited to bring Erik home. We don't have definite travel dates yet but hopefully will soon. I am pretty disappointed today that its not in June as I really thought it may be in June but at least we have a date & our lives are not on hold anymore. Scott will be 14 months in August. I am trying to see if we can get an update on how Scott is doing but am not sure we will be able to get this info. We will be traveling with the Drexlers again which is good.
It will be a very long June & July.....

No real news

Our final documents (minus 1) is on its why to our agency to be sent to Russia on Monday. We had to pay $20 per document as opposed to $5 since they needed these docs ASAP. So just for this little piece of paperwork the costs were $200 including the FEDEX fees (assuming our medicals are covered by insurance). Yes I am venting as the paperwork can get so frustrating because 1/2 the time you have to re-do it anyway due to things expiring !! Hopefully we will know in the next week or so if we really will get a court date in June

To add to my frustration level I find out our 2nd trip will most likely be a day or 2 longer now due to changes at the Moscow Emabassy

http://moscow.usembassy.gov/consular/consular.php?record_id=adoptions

We were thinking already we would be away for at least 10 days now it will be more like 11-12 or even longer if the time we go to the embassy falls over a weekend. UGH! Hotels in Moscow in the summer are also VERY expensive - $400-$600! & we hate to be away from Erik for so long

Ok end of vent.. on the plus side hopefully we will have Scott with us very soon & we can get continue our lives & have a great summer!

More Paperwork

We were called last week to get our medicals & police report updated, notarized & apostiled ASAP. We had to redo our blood work & are now waiting for the dr to complete the form & then I have to have notarized & then I have to Fedex them to Secy of State in Trenton NJ to have it apostiled. I am hoping we will have this last bit of paperwork done & to our agency by the end of the week. Our agency is still not sure if we will get a court date by the end June. I think we will have a better idea by the end of May if it will happen or not
Scott's 1st birthday is June 7th which is hard as I know he will not be with us. I think we will probably do some sort of first birthday party for him when he comes home. I am dying to know if he is walking yet. I think he will be.
That's it for now. Hopefully we will have some good news soon

Some Positive News

Well just when I was about to lose my mind.. we got a hint today that we may actually get a court date for late June. Nothing is definite & they still need some more paperwork to get the court date but this is the first time we have been told anything but August is possible. I am SOOO excited! It will be so awesome to have Scott home for the summer. Please say a prayer that everything goes well & we do get a court date in June!!

Time Standing Still

No real new news.... just seems like time is standing still until we bring home Scott. We are starting to put aside stuff for our 2nd trip & buy clothes for Scott. Luckily he can hopefully use a lot of Erik's stuff. I finally figure out how to post a picture on the Blog... note the girly shirt he was wearing.. at least its not pink!

Back Home

We are home now. We got into JFK on Sunday night in the middle of the storm. It was NOT a fun landing but at least we were not delayed. We drove to my mom & dads which took some extra time due to the flooding. It was soo good to see Erik. He did so good while we were gone. He does not seem to interested in his baby brother yet but I know its still hard for him to understand.

I have been touch with our agency to find out what we need to do. We need to get some paperwork updated & our medicals updated & then we basically wait. I also got some info on why it takes so long as it relates to Release letters from one of the Yahoo boards I am on.

"It is Russian law that all children placed in orphanages for adoptionpurposes to be registered on the Russian Database Registry System forat least 6 months prior to being eligible for adoption by non-Russiancitizens.The Documents that you signed in region was the formal petition toadopt your child that is to be filed with the local MOE office inKemerovo City. When your coordinator files the petition with the MOEoffice in Kemerovo City, they will send a formal request to main MOEoffice in Moscow City requesting a "Release Letter" to be issued onyour child. The Release Letter removes your child from the RussianDatabase Registry System.Moscow issues the Release Letter and sends it back to the MOE officein Kemerovo City. Once it arrives back, then your coordinator cantake it along with your Dossier and request a Court date for you.The time for the request departure, arrival, release letter issuance,and return to the region can take anywhere from 4 weeks to 8 weeks"

THe crazy thing is these forms used to be faxed but they switched to snail mail! I will never understand the Russians!

We now are trying to get ready for Eriks birthday parties & also trying to figure out what boy stuff we still have (almost none) & selling the little girl furnture the had bought 2nd hand. I had given away all of Eriks clothes but will be able to get some of them back. I just am not sure if any of it will fit Scott anyway since he is so much bigger. I found out Scott is 19.5 pounds not 18 & is 28 inches long so he is probably wearing 12 months clothes now & will be in 18 months by the time we bring him home. I also did not mention previously but his DOB us 6/7/06.

Here he is !!

Click below to see pictures of Scott from today & yesterday

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2093387502

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2093426695

We had a great time with him today. They let us feed him & see his crib & play room. He is quite a character. It does not take much to get him to smile & laugh. He is also quite a talker so I have a feeling our house will never be quiet again between Erik & Scott. It was hard though as we also had to say good-bye to him. We did feel though that the caregivers really care about the children so I know he will be fine.

We fly out tomorrow back to Moscow & then Sunday we fly home. This will probably be our last post from Russia as the internet in the hotel in Moscow is very expensive.

Wanted to put up at least one pic of our new little guy...

Change of Plans

Well the big news is Erik will have a baby brother.. not sister!! We met & agreed a little 10 month boy today named Dimitry. We are going to name him Scott Dimitri.
As some of you know we had decline the little girl Victoria due to serious medical concerns. It was not easy to decline her but the best thing for our family
Scott (Dimitry) is adorable. He was crawling, into all the toys & of course our digital camera. Erik is going to have fun teaching him about motorcyles & Batman when he gets bigger.
Ed wanted to make sure I was ok with not having a girl & I am totally happy with our decision. Once we met this boy we knew he was meant for our family.
We are told we may not be back for court until August which will be very difficult but at least we know ahead of time it may be a long wait.
Tonight we finally had our appetites back & went to a Russian restaurant for dinner & beer. It was quite good! We are finding many more English speaking people in this region than we did in Tomsk where Erik is adopted from.
We will home on Sunday as planned. We miss Erik a lot but of course he is having fun still with Oma & Opa. Our hearts will be in both places for the next few months until Scott can be home with us.
Thanks everyone for your support!

Flying out to Novokutzsek tonight

We are now at the CHI office in Moscow & am flying out to the region at 10 pm tonight. We are doing well & actually slept pretty well last night with the help of sleeping pills. We are starting to get a little nervous now that we are only 1 day away from meeting our little girl. We have spoken to Erik twice & he is having a great time with Oma & Opa. We of course are really missing him.
We will write more tomorrow night after we met "Victoria".

In Moscow

We arrived in Moscow a few hours ago. The flight was fine. We were able to spread out & sleep a few hours with the help of a sleeping pill. I am writing this from the Business Center at the Holiday Inn where we are staying. The other CHI family will arrive later today. Today we are are on our own today/tonight & tomorrow morning we probably are doing a tour of Moscow & then going to the CHI office. We fly out tomorrow night to go to Kemerovo. We are feeling good & actually quite relaxed except for missing Erik. He was fine though when we left yesterdayWill write more in Novokutznesk

Comments

I forgot to mention I changed my settings so you should be able to post comments without having to log in.

Heading to Oma & Opa's

We are leaving this morning for my mom's (Oma & Opa's). We are all packed up. I feel I packed light but I am sure Ed will disagree:) Ed & I were commenting how different we feel this time. We don't have the same anxiety about Russia, traveling & the language just nervous about meeting our little girl for the first time & hoping she is healthy.

Thank you everyone for the support along the way! Our next post will probably be from Moscow!

Phone Number

We will be staying at the Hotel Novokuznetsky from Wednesday until Friday. The # from the states is 011 7 384 346 4647. Someone speaking Russian will answer but if you give you them our last name they should contact you. We may be able to give out a direct # when we get there.

3 Days Left

Last night Ed & I spoke to another family who completed their adoption 2 months ago from the same region. It was nice talking to them since they were just there. Everyone keeps talking about this 3 hr drive you need to do on Trip 2 to go to Court and then the men have to do the 3 hour drive again after to get the passports. He also told us that one of the previous translators is back which our friend Cindy told is is very good news

We are pretty much ready except for some last minute items. We got our visas yesterday. We still do not know which hotel we are staying at in Moscow by once we do I will post the phone number for the Moscow hotel & the Novokuznetsk hotel.

4 Days to Russia

Today I took off to do some last minute stuff. We still need to make sure Erik has a nice Easter & his birthday party is the weekend we get back so in addition to final packing for Russia etc I have to buy some stuff for Erik. I also have to pack for Erik. I think he is taking more stuff to Oma/Opa's then we are too Russia! We are lucky this time as it looks like the weather will be nice in Moscow & Kemerovo (low 50's/High 40's) so we don't need to bring the down jackets & heavy sweaters like we did when we brought Erik home in Januay 2004. I am sure the roads will still be messy though.

I unfortunately have managed to get sick. I was feeling real rundown & then my throat was killing me so I went to the dr yesterday. I have strep throat. I already feel better today after a day of antibiotics but I still am going to try to not overdo it as the last thing we need is for one of us to be sick.

I have been reviewing in the Baby Books what an 8 month would be doing.I know she may be delayed though. I can't wait to meet her. I hope she does not cry when they hand her to us

Packing. Repacking & Packing

We had a busy weekend getting ready. Below is our travel schedule. I was off by one day
Saturday 4/7 - Drive to my Mom/Dad's in South Jersey to get Erik settled
Sunday 4/8 - Drive from South Jersey to JFK; Flight from JFK leaves at 4:50 pm/Arrives Monday 10:10 AM Moscow time
Monday 4/9 - Spend day in Moscow.. probably mostly sleeping
Tuesday 4/10 - fly out to Novokuznetsk (Siberia) in the evening
Wednesday 4/11 - Arrive in Novo I think around 6 am; Sleep a little & then go to Baby Home
Thurs & Friday 4/12 & 4/13 - Visit Baby Home
Saturday 4/14 - Fly back to Moscow
Sunday 4/15 - Flight back to JFK ; Pick up Erik in South Jersey & Drive home (LONG DAY!)

The time difference betweeen NJ & Nov is 12 hrs so we will be meeting our little girl probably Wed AM NJ time. We are using an Adoption dr we used last time (Dr Gordina) who will review her medical records & picures while we are in the region. Hopefully there are no reg flags & we will agree to adopt her. We are hearing that the wait in between trips is currently about 2-3 months so we are not counting on going back until June or July.

How are we feeling now??? Nervous, excited, emotional, ditzy ( I keep forgetting everything) , tired (not sleeping well at all) !

Please add a comment if you can on the blog.

We leave Easter Sunday!!

We just got the call that we are leaving NY Easter Sunday (4/8) & will back in NY on 4/15. We will be at the Baby Home for 3 days from April 10-12th. There is a 12 hr time difference with Kemerovo (they are ahead). I have a ton of things to do today with Erik. Friday is our day together but I will be dragging him all over the place. Will try to post more later

Getting Ready

We still do not have "official" travel dates but my rep still thinks we are leaving on Easter Sunday so we are busy trying to get ourselves organized. We have had a bag ready with muchof what we need for months now but I need to go back through it now since I know she is only 8 months old & we are not travelling in the dead of the winter. For those who do not know this first trip is to meet our referral & agree that we will adopt her. The trip is usually 1 week. I know it sounds weird to refer to her as a "referral" but we are just protecting ourselves in case something happens. Hopefully she will be our daughter. We still are not sure what her name will be but we think it will be Rachel Victoria. I have been searching on the internet tonight to find out about the region & also about the weather & found this site. Its not up to date but gives you a good idea what the Baby Home is like. Victoria is from Baby Home #2.
http://novokuznetskorphans.da.ru/

We are travelling with another family from Chicago & we have been exchanging a lot of emails. This will be her first adoption & is adopting a 3 yr boy from a different Baby Home but it will be so nice to travel with someone on the first trip. When we adopted Erik we travelled solo on our first trip but we did meet a lot of nice families along the way

We told Erik we will be going to Russia soon but of course it really did not sink in. I don't think it will until we bring back a picure/video of her.

Please wish us luck & prayers on this next part of our journey to expand our family!

We got "THE CALL"

We just got "The Call" from our agency. The referral is for a 8 month little girl & her Russian name is Victoria. We still are getting the details on the travel dates but we probably would leave NJ on April 9th. I will post more later...

Some news

We received an email today from our agency that they feel they will know by the end of this week when we will be travelling & that we will be travelling with another family I have made contact with who is adopting a 3 yr boy. Finally ... some hopeful news! Nothing is definite yet but I think this could mean we would travel in 2 -3 weeks to Russia!

Day of Mourning in Russia

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6473921.stm

The tradegy which happened with the mine explosion is in the town where ours daughter's Baby Home is.

The Wait Continues

As most of you know, we are waiting for "The Call" to meet our future daughter in Siberia (Kemerovo). I decided to try a Blog this time instead of sending numerous emails while in Russia. Hopefully Ed & I can keep this up to date.
We are pretty much ready to go at a moments notice.. the essentials are ready to be packed, my Mom & Dad are waiting "patiently" to take care of Erik at their house for the first trip. we have our new $ to use. We do not have the babies room ready at all but are close to picking out paint colors. We are discussing with Erik more that we will be going to Russia soon to meet his little sister. I don't think he still quite gets it. Boy is he in for a shock!