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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

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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) !

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