Grace from God

Oh, my how time flies!

2011-09-29T16:16:00.003-05:00

Well, I had a very busy summer and had no time for updates. I guess since I starte posting on Facebook, I kind of forgot about my blog! So....the last post I mentioned that we've thought about adopting again. We went to the seminar and attended one meeting about adopting from Foster Care, and then put it aside for the time being. Towards the end of May, I went to the doctor because my shoulder had been bothering me for about 9 months, and I had been taking some pain medicine, but it wasn't really getting any better. After an MRI, it was declared that I had a torn tendon! So, off to the orthopedic doctor I went! It was determined that I would need surgery to repair the tear, which was 3/4 torn through. I took the month of July to get ready. I cleaned the house, purchased frozen meals, arranged for help the first week after surgery, and prepared my daughter for the fact that mommy would be in a sling for four weeks and won't be able to do a lot of things. The big day came on August 1. Surgery went well. My month in the sling went pretty fast, although learning how to do everything left handed was fun. I am now almost nine weeks post-op and have been attending physical therapy now for about six weeks. I have attended physical therapy for three days a week. Just this week, the PT said I would no longer need to be stretched out because my range of motion is normal, and I would only need to come and do my exercises. He also sent a request to the doctor stating that I would only need four more weeks of therapy. However, when I saw the doctor today, he said that I only need about three weeks of therapy and only once a week! Since the PT gave me exercises to do at home, there's no need to go to the therapist three times a week, when I can do many of the exercises at home. YAY!

So, I'm back to "normal" in some ways. I just have to build up my strength. My right arm is still very weak, and I still have trouble reaching behind me, but all other motions are back to normal. I think it was wise to focus on preparing the house for the surgery and also to keep a low profile after the surgery. Now, we can concentrate on our decision to adopt again!

Basically, we can't afford another international adoption. Even domestic adoptions are out of reach. I know there are grant programs and such, but I'm not sure that's where God is leading us this time. We have been considering adopting from foster care. We have some friends that have adopted through foster care, and we will schedule some meetings with them to kind of feel out the process and ask some questions. We will be taking our time, however, and it might be another two years before we finally have a child. We do need about 33 credits of PRIDE training through DCFS, and they have to be taken in consecutive weeks, so about 9 weeks or so. Not sure yet on the details. So, I looked at the schedule for DCFS training in our area, and most sessions in our area are done already. That's ok because we have to have a completed homestudy before we can begin the program. Perhaps by the time we get the homestudy done, it will be a new year, and we can start the program then. Like I said, we're not in a huge hurry, but we've both agreed that we can start, so it's just a question of finding the right agency and scheduling the home study.

So, now about Grace. She loved her preschool year, and she graduated in May. We had a fairly good summer. The weather wasn't great, and I spent a lot of time preparing for the surgery, but we did get to the zoo a few times and she was able to go to parks and play outside and such. We also went to Indiana to visit family a few times. August was hard. After the surgery, I was in a very bulky sling that attached my arm to my side so I couldn't move my shoulder. No driving and no lifting for me. I tried to take her to the park a few times. Mostly, though, we stayed around the house. She weathered the time well, though. She's very independant, and she was able to dress herself, and take herself to the potty. She was very willing to help me in any way she could, and she very sweetly prayed for me every night. I owe my quick recovery to her prayers.

Well, I must stop for now. Time to make dinner! I'll try to update more frequently, especially as we start the paper trail for another adoption!

Spring? And other news...

2011-04-22T11:02:00.002-05:00

Well, spring is supposed to be here, but it's so cold it feels more like fall. Grace is doing great in school and every day she has to sign herself in. She's doing great writing her letters. G, A, C, E are all recognizable, but her R looks like an A. I think she's doing a fantastic job, and I can really see the progress from January until now. We are really looking forward to celebrating Easter. Today is Good Friday, and Grace and I are leaving this afternoon to visit with my mom. We will be coloring Easter Eggs. My nephew, Raymond will be there also. Raymond loves to be with Grace. He is so sweet. He's 9 and he is awesome with Grace, very patient and kind. After we visit with my mom and color eggs, I'll head over to my Mother-in-law's place where we will color eggs with her cousins on Daddy's side-Kiyana, Monique, and Sarina. On Saturday, we celebrate Easter with my mom. We'll arrive at around 11 and then eat lunch around 1 pm. After lunch my mom is going to hide the eggs (depending on the weather...if the weather is bad, the eggs will be hiden already...if the weather is good my mom thought of taking the eggs to a park to hide them). Anyway, Raymond and Grace will look for eggs. On Sunday we'll celebrate with Brian's family. We will go to the 9:30 service at Bethel in Crown Point, then go back to the house for the lunch. My MIL is thinking about having the girls search for some eggs on Saturday morning before we leave for my mom's but I don't know if that will work.

Well, so on to the other news.....

Earlier this month, I saw an ad for an adoption seminar coming up in our area. I signed us up for it and then realized that our own pastor at Calvary in Oak Park is going to be the keynote speaker. I am looking forward to this seminar. So, as I was thinking about it, I realized that this seminar is worth DCFS credits. Probably not much-like 5 or something, but I realized that I don't think we can keep those credits for very long. I thought that if we could start a home study we could use those points. I approached the subject with Brian and he agreed. I've contacted Adoptuskids.org, and they've passed our information along to an agency in Coook county that specializes in adopting from foster care, which is what we are interested in. So, although we haven't started the home study quite yet, I guess you could say that we've started the adoption process once again! It will be interesting to see what this process is like compared to the first one. I hope we are more prepared for the roller-coaster ride! Wish us luck. I'll probably be posting more often with all our frustrations and triumphs.

BLIZZARD 2011

2011-02-02T21:32:00.002-06:00

Well, we survived the big blizzard. We all had fun waking up this morning and seeing all the snow. Looking out our back door, snow was piled up halfway up our door, so we couldn't get out our back door. For our front door, the snow blew across to our neighbors, so our stairs were clear. However, my husband never put glass in our storm door, so snow had blown in between. The outside of our front door was covered in snow, and I wasn't able to get it closed again once I opened it to clear the snow. There was snow wedged in the little cracks, and we had to clear it in order to shut the door. Our cars cannot be moved. We are in a townhouse, and we have 30 parking spots along a busy street. Not only do we have about 20 inches behind our cars, but the plows also pushed all the snow off the main road right along our parking area. We tried to call plows to move the snow, but all of them said that they couldn't even get in to begin to plow. Others said they can't do it because there is so much snow that they would need a dump truck to move the snow-which they didn't have access to. All 30 of us are going to try to call the village public works tomorrow and complain because the village snow plows helped push that snow behind our cars and therefor they should be responsible for helping us remove it.

We did venture out in the late morning and early afternoon. We shoveled the sidewalks. Well, our neighbors shoveled the sidewalk, I just did a little bit by our stairs. The snow piles were so high from shoveling we were able to create an area for the kids to sled. It was actually pretty fun. Later in the afternoon while Grace was taking a nap, I braved the snow to go out and clear some of the snow off my car. I had a really hard time removing the snow around my car just to get to the doors. I then used my shovel to remove the snow from the top of my car. At least when the sub-zero temps fall tonight, there's no snow on the car to freeze to it! I just can't believe how much snow is behind our cars! I don't know who we are going to end up getting to remove the snow, but I pray it's tomorrow. Here's another video to show the snow piled up behind the cars.

More photos from Disney

2011-01-28T08:23:00.003-06:00

Grace with Belle. All these characters were very good and so very friendly! Grace is just absolutely in love with Princesses.

Ariel was really cute. She was calling the kids little fish, and asked Grace if she'd seen Flounder.

Snow White gave her a big kiss on the cheek and left lipstick lips. We showed Grace in the mirror, and she didn't want to wipe it off. Belle left lipstick on the other cheek. It was really cute.

Grace wanted to wear her Sleeping Beauty dress on this day, but it's very long on her and wouldn't have fit. Most of her princess dresses we got from church-sponsored resales, and the dresses were "Halloween" costumes purchased for very cheap-but they are authentic Disney dresses.

I'm usually the one behind the camera, and we therefore have very few pictures of Grace and I together. However, for this trip Brian insisted on taking the pictures. I was a little thankful because I really was able to enjoy myself without having the camera stuck up to my face the whole time. He did a pretty good job with the photos. He said that perhaps he'd like to get into photography as a hobby himself.

Grace did such a good job this trip. We didn't bring a stroller because she doesn't usually like to use one anyway. She actually did great. I think it was the fourth day before she started complaining that her feet hurt. She hardly ever asked us to carry her, and she was in such a good mood the whole week.

Since we've been home, she's talked non-stop about the characters we saw. I've shown her the DVD I made of all the videos we took, and she was so thrilled. She loves to watch herself on the movie, and she really enjoys watching all the shows we saw. We were allowed to videorecord whole performances. The only requirement was not to use flash or an extra light. As most performances were well-lit, the video turned out great. She can watch all the shows to her heart's content!

I also was able to get our photos printed. I made extra copies for Grace, and I'm helping her make her very own scrapbook. I purchased a scrapbook kit from Disney, and I'm currently working on it.

I started having the characters signing pieces of fabrich, which I am going to use to make an autograph quilt for Grace. Brian wanted to have signatures in a book also, so I purchased a small autograph book for the characters to sign also. She will have lots of things to remember her trip. I'm actually looking forward to another trip-and to see if we can save even more money than we did this time!

I'll post photos of the autograph quilt once it's finished. I have the first row complete. I have ten large 12*12 squares with the signatures on them. I then take 6*6 squares of patterned fabric to match the signatures (so Mickey Mouse fabric will go with the large piece that has Mickey's signature). I also have white squares with iron-on pictures. I will also be using iron-on photos of Grace from the trip, too. It sounds ambitious, but I did a lot of the cutting and iron-ons before our trip, I just need to sew them together and arrange the fabric.

On another note, I'm currently planning Grace's birthday party. For the first time, I'm planning on inviting her friends for a children's party. Grace wants a Princess party, so I am going to have the girls be Princesses and the boys be Knights. I'm a little nervous and a little excited at the same time because I've never planned a children's party before.

Vacation!!!

2011-01-23T07:37:00.003-06:00

Well, Brian came home from the hospital on January 3 feeling great. All the phlegm was out of his lungs, and he was ready to go back to work! As a matter of fact, he went to work that afternnon after enjoying lunch with us.

On Saturday the 8 we left for our vacation. The traveling went really well, and Grace loved the airplane. We had six full days to visit Disney, and a 5 day park pass. On Saturday we arrived late so we just had dinner at our hotel. On Sunday we went to Epcot. There were a lot more live shows than I expected, and Grace loved them all. I wish we had seen more live performances at the Country pavilions, but we did see a couple.

On Monday it was rainy all day, and instead of wasting the rainy day at a park, we went to Downtown Disney for some window shopping. There was a huge Disney store, and Legoland. We had a nice day despite the weather.

On Tuesday we went to Hollywood Studios. Again, I was surprised at the amount of live shows there were. Grace saw a lot of characters. She loved getting their signatures and sitting for pictures.

Wednesday was Animal Kingdom, and it was the coldest day there. I don't think it got to 50 degrees. In the morning, Grace had to wear gloves to keep her hands warm! We had fun, though, between seeing the characters and going on Safari.

Thursday and Friday we went to Magic Kingdom. I figured that Grace would prefer this park more than the others, and I was right. Not only did it have some nice shows, but it also had rides that she could go on, and Meet-and-Greets with the princesses, the fairies, Rapunzel, and Tiana. On Thursday we stayed to see the Lights parade, which was nice. We also saw the fireworks show. It was really cool. Grace was so tired she fell asleep in my arms while we were waiting for our bus to take us back to the hotel. Speaking of being tired-Grace did really well, and she didn't have a nap the whole week. We didn't feel like hauling her all the way to the hotel for a nap and knew that she would probably be too excited to sleep! She did really well, and didn't get cranky-just a little more touchy.

On Friday we had breakfast at the castle with Cinderella and the other Princesses. She had such a great time. I am so glad we were able to allow her to go to this. She did not want to come home on Saturday. However, the vacation had to end sometime. She was very disappointed and sad to go home. She wants to return to Disney again-she has asked about it almost every day since we came home.

Christmas came and went...

2011-01-06T21:02:00.003-06:00

Wow, Christmas went by so fast! On Christmas Eve, Brian had the day off, so we celebrated with just us. Grace doesn't know any better, so we just said St. Nick came a day early. We slept in and then all came downstairs together, where we video taped and photographed Grace opening her presents. I think the one on the bottom says it all. She recieved a doll house with accessories and a whole bunch of Disney Princess stuff which we will be using on our trip to Florida on Saturday.

After we opened presents, we had pancakes and then just spent the rest of the day relaxing. Later in the evening we left for Indiana to spend Christmas with our families. On Christmas morning after everyone had eaten and was dressed, all the kids sat very patiently for a photo of all the Reynolds girls. Yes, the Reynolds have all girls. We then allowed the kids to open all their gifts, and it was a nice time. Grace received some clothes and ZuZu pets. They're interesting little things. Later in the afternoon, cousins came over and we all had lunch together. It was a very nice, relaxing day.

On Sunday we were going to go to church, but Grace had a really stuffy nose and was coughing a bit so we decided not to go. Around noon or so we went to my brother's house where we exchanged gifts and had lunch. It was much less stressful than it usually is, and we had a great time.

Now-on to other news. The day Brian was supposed to return to work (that would be the 27th), he wasn't feeling well. We took him to Immediate care, and they sent us to ER. He had pneumonia. 70 percent of his lungs were full. Unfortunately, he was there an entire week, so Grace and I spent New Years by ourselves. He was released on January 3rd and immediately went to work. He had to get in a bit of work because we are leaving for vacation soon and we needed some income to pay the bills that will come in. Anyway, he is doing well and has instructions to do his therapy even when he doesn't feel like it. So far this week, I think he's only missed twice. I'm a little nervous about the vacation. Perhaps I can convince him to start the antibiotics once we return. Especially if they cause digestion issues, we don't want to be walking around Disney and get him dehydrated again. Well, I'll just see what happens. We are super excited about our trip. We leave for Disney on the 8th and will return on the 15th. We don't plan on taking a laptop with us, so we won't have internet access. We plan on having a great time, however.

Cold, cold, cold!

2010-12-14T08:32:00.003-06:00

Well, as you can see by the title, it is COLD! I am not used to weather this cold in December! Right now, it is about 10 degrees outside! Yikes! While I am tempted to hole up inside the house and stay warm, I know I am going to go crazy in the house. So-I am venturing out to the Women's Bible Study at our church this morning. I know I will enjoy getting out of the house for a while, and Grace loves to go to her "Little Lamb's" class. There's a girl in her class, I. I. is Grace's "Best friend". Last Sunday, I gave her a drawing. It was so cute. I am hoping to have I and her sister N over for a play date during the Christmas break.
Grace has been continuing to do well in School. A couple weeks ago we had Parent Teacher conferences. The teachers said that she is doing great, and that a lot of points on her Progress report that needed work no longer need work. Apparently, they assess the students shortly after school starts, but by the time the parents get the report several more weeks have passed. So, her "Needs work" areas are much less. The teachers did say that at first the other children tended to treat her like a baby (because of her size) and tried to take things away from her. However, now they realize that she can't be taken advantage of and she stands up for herself. This is a relief for me because I wanted to make sure that she didn't become a push-over.
Academically, she's doing well, too. The teachers are impressed with her math skills, and they are also surprised that she knows all her letters. One activity is an outline of a letter, say the letter N. Inside the N are other letters, like M, O, and S with some N's. They children have to use a Bingo marker to find the N's. Grace is always the first done, and she always gets all the letters correct. I explained to the teachers that she knew her alphabet by the time she was 2 1/2. All in all, the conference went well. I decided after the conference not to petition the school district for her to be tested for speech. I think that being around children her own age has really helped. She speaks more clearly, and I think that I will wait until Spring when I would need to register her for Pre-K. If at that time I am still concerned about her speech, then I will consider the school district again.
She continues to love going to dance class. I had to buy her some long-sleeved leotards because the little sleevless ones left her too cold.
Grace absolutely loves the Christmas season. Right around Thanksgiving when all the trees came out, she would just love to walk around the stores and look at the trees. We pulled our tree out and she had so much fun putting the ornaments on it. I also took out her little tree and let her decorate it with all of her little ornaments. I also bought an ornament from the Russian web site and let her put it on our tree. From that same web site I got a little Matryoska doll. It shows the life of Jesus on each of the little pieces. The largest on shows the Nativity, the next shows Jesus and the Triumphal entry, the next is Jesus on the cross, and the last tiny one shows Jesus rising into heaven. The biggest one is only like an inch and a half tall, so this set is really little. However, I always try to get her things from Russia that have a spiritual meaning. It's very beautifully done, and very well-painted.
I am really excited for this Christmas holiday. It is going to be much simpler than other years. Usually, we have a meal with my MIL's family on Christmas Eve, then on Christmas day have a meal with my FIL's family. My MIL makes both meals and it is very stressful for her to have two large meals back-to-back, and it is always frustrating for me, because I have squeeze in time with my family. So, my SIL and I decided that instead of trying to squeeze in an hour with my family, we would celebrate Christmas the day after or the Saturday after. This year, since Christmas is on Saturday, we'd have my family meal on Sunday. This relieved a lot of stress. My MIL also decided (after me mentioning it for several years) that it's not fair that she has to have two seperate meals for the two sides of the family. Although members of my FIL's family don't like my MIL's family, I told my MIL that she should host one meal, and if people choose not to come, that's their issue, not hers. She finally decided to have one meal...but no one can come on Christmas day-so....we get Christmas just with our immediate family on Christmas day and a couple weeks after Christmas we'll have a meal with cousins. AHHHHH!!!! Imagine-Christmas with just the parents and siblings! In the 17 years I've known my husband, that has NEVER happened. I am so excited about this Christmas.
Grace visited with St. Nick and told him she wanted a doll. We had already purchased her a dollhouse. The dollhouse will be from St. Nick. We've decided that instead of buying many gifts from Santa and just a few from parents, that only one would be from St. Nick. We don't want her to have the "gimmies". The trick is keeping the gifts hidden. She's still a little bit naive because she's been in our room several times and seen the gifts but she hasn't asked any questions and she hasn't been tempted to try to play with them. We know have the gifts under the tree, and not once has she asked to open them. Don't know if that will work next year.

Two Years Ago Today!

2010-10-13T13:40:00.005-05:00

Today marks our two year anniversary! Time truly is flying by. Grace has changed so much in the two years we've had her home. Some things that have changed since last October- 1) completely potty trained. 2) knows all her colors and all her letters. 3) speech is coming along very nicely. We can pretty much understand everything she says. Of course, not all her words are pronounced all that clearly, but she's able to communicate quite nicely. 4) she is now over 20 pounds!!!! Huge success there. 5) She has grown another 6 inches. She is now up to 35 inches and 22 pounds. She wears 4t tops and 2t bottoms. 7) her gross motor skills have greatly improved.

She is very smart and very active. Right now we are working on memory verses for the Awana Cubbie year. Not only will she say the verse (I only give her the first word, and she says the whole verse)-she will remember all the previous verses! So far, she knows 8 verses. I don't make her memorize the chapter or book, though. I'm actually just happy she can say the verses.

This year for "Family Day" or "Gotcha Day", we went to the Morton Arboretum. It was a great day to be together. Although it was October, we actually had 80 degree weather. The trees are starting to turn, and it was great just to walk together, see the different trees turning colors and see the many plants still blooming. We walked in the Children's Garden, where Grace was able to do some crafts and paint a small pumpkin. We walked around one of the paths that goes around the lake and saw all the scarecrows the local Girl Scouts made. They were cute. Grace would run up to each one and say how pretty it was. Then she'd say "What's her name?" Each one was given a name by the troop girls that made her. She had a great time.

One thing I would like to say is that I finally found more information about a diagnoses that was in her medical records when we brought her home. The Russians call it "perinatal affection of the central nervous system". For two long years I have been trying to find out what it is. My doctor even showed it to a Russian-born doctor, but she didn't even know what it was supposed to mean. Finally, I found a post on-line this morning. Here is what I understand. Perinatal affection of the central nervous system is a very common diagnoses for orphaned children-particularly in Russia. Basically, it means that something happened to the child while in the mother's womb that could cause neurological issues. For instance; alcohol abuse or drug use while pregnant, poor prenatal care, poor social situation (poor nutrition) while pregnant, or prematurity are all indicators that they use to suggest this condition. They are concerned that any one of these situations could cause neurological problems (seizures, learning disabilities, or other neurological problems). From what I understand, most children in orphanages diagnosed whith this fully "recover" (or-never show any signs of this issue). With Grace-she was premature, her mother MAY have used alcohol, and she had no prenatal care-which is why Grace was "diagnosed" with this. There were no "symptoms" and her records indicate that she "recovered" (showed no signs of neurological problems). I am relieved to finally have found more information about this "condition". My purpose in mentioning this is that if you have found this blog by doing a search that you will be comforted to know that most children diagnosed with this really don't have any problems.

My final thought today: here are my goals for Grace for next year: 1) to get up to 26 pounds (or more), to be completely caught up in her speech, and for her to continue learning the Cubbie verses. It challenges me to know the verses, too. Enjoy the pictures! Some are of Grace's fall pictures I took at a local park, and some are from the Family Day at the Arboretum.

School Days

2010-10-08T10:53:00.003-05:00

Grace absolutely loves school. She attends on MWF from 9:15-11:30. The teachers set up a routine for the coming in time. We enter, hang up her coat and backpack, wash hands and choose a job. I think choosing a job is the best part of her day. Perhaps it's time to set up a job chart at home...
She loves talking about school. There are a number of girls in her class that were in her playschool class, so she likes talking about her friends. She loves the days she goes to school.
The building she goes to is a community center, and they also have adult activities. One is a little room with gym equipment. For $20 a month, you have unlimited access to this room. Today I used the room for about 45 minutes. Seeing that this was my first "work out" in many years, I think that was pretty good! Eventually I would like to build up and work out the whole two hours she's in class. That would be ideal, but probably not very realistic at this point.
Anyway, our fall is in full swing. Next week we celebrate 2 years home with Grace! I can't believe it's been two years already. The time is flying by so quickly! This weekend, we will celebrate our Family Day by going to Morton Arboretum (if everything works out...). It's has great nature trails and lots of oportunities to see all kinds of trees and plants. I hope we will enjoy walking the trails together.

Gettin' Ready for School

2010-08-26T20:04:00.004-05:00

Well, as August comes to a close, we are looking forward to the new school year. Grace will start Preschool after Labor Day. She is so excited, and I'm excited too. What can I get done in 6 extra hours a week? August was pretty busy. We had birthdays, celebrations, floods to clean up...I took some time out to take some photos of Grace. I hung a white sheet over an empty wall and then put another white sheet on the floor. I then let her play "dress up" and let her play while I took pictures. I also let her dress in her Christmas dress to practice taking pictures for Christmas. I can get much better smiles out of her than professionals can, so I decided to do our own family pictures this year. I'll have to see if it's worth it!

The fall/winter is going to be busy for us, and I'm grateful. On MWF she will have school. On Tuesday nights she will have dance class, and on Wednesday nights will be Cubbies (AWANA) at church. I am hoping that the schedule will help the cold days pass quickly. I'm sure she is going to have a blast in Preschool, and I can't wait to photograph her first day of school!

August, already?

2010-08-04T12:48:00.003-05:00

Can it really be August?

More than half the year is gone already! Grace is growing so fast. I know, I say that in almost every post. She's not just growing taller, she's growing in her speech as well. She has a great vocabulary, but recently we've noticed that she's using a lot more sentences and is very much aware of what is happening around her. She is very independent. Now when we go to the store, she doesn't want me to put her in the cart. She wants to be a big girl and walk. So, I always tell her two rules. Today she said she wanted to walk at the store so I said "What are the two rules?" (this was the first time I have asked her to say them to me without me saying them first) She said "No running" and "I have to obey my mommy". She can be so funny. We are having a great summer. We've been going to the zoo a lot and enjoying the nice weather.

We had a flood a couple weeks ago. It rained like seven inches in one night, and our village's sewer system just couldn't keep up. We ended up with a soaked carpet and tons of sewage on the floor. We hired a team to come out and clean up and remove the carpet. We now need to put new flooring down. This is a long process for us, and so we have very little living space. Our Family room was in the basement: our TV and most of Grace's toys, our computer and my sewing/craft area. A lot of our belongings are currently in our diningroom/living room, so now Grace has very little room to play. Our TV is just connected for DVD and VHS since we don't have an antennae up here. I go stir crazy spending so much time in such little space.

We went camping on the last weekend of July. I was glad to get out of the house and get away for a couple days. It was fun, but a lot of work. We arrived on Friday evening and left Sunday morning. The minute we stepped out of the car on Friday, we were swarmed with mosquitoes. I have probably more than 100 mosquito bites on my body. I'm not kidding. Grace didn't sleep well. She kept waking up. She woke up at 6am and wouldn't go back to sleep and wouldn't leave me alone. I had a restless night sleep because I kept waking up when she woke up. On Saturday we went to Castle Rock State Park in Wisconsin. We went swimming at the beach. It was Grace's first time at a beach and she loved it. She was so worn out from swimming, playing and not enough sleep that she fell asleep on her towel. That night she slept a little better. Sunday morning we broke camp. I went witout Brian, so I had to do all the packing and such myself. It was harder than I thought since Grace was so tired, hot, crabby, and getting eaten alive by mosquitos. I left as soon as I got everything packed in the car. I felt bad leaving our friends there, but Grace couldn't stand being bitten by mosquitos any longer, and I didn't have a spouse there to pack the car while I comforted Grace or to comfort Grace while I packed the car...so...we left.

I am looking forward to this last month of summer vacation. Here are a few pictures from the past month.

2010-07-13T12:53:00.003-05:00

Wow! The summer is flying by very quickly. We have been very busy here, and before I know it, the fall will be here. Last year was a dud. The weather was pretty bad all summer. I remember only taking her swimming two or three times last year. This year has been awesome! Despite the mega rain the last few weeks, we've actually been very busy outside. Because I have a zoo membership, we go to the zoo about once a week. I know for some that sounds like a lot, but Grace loves it, and it really stimulates her language skills. She knows a lot of the animals, and I really try to get her to talk about what's happening. I remember last summer, she went through another period of language growth. I don't know if it's the increased activities outside that helps, or just the way her body works, but she is doing amazing.

Fourth of July was great. We had friends over on Saturday as well and spent the whole weekend in Indiana with family and friends and pool party! Grace is doing great with the pool. We tried to put her in a suit that has floaties in it, but she didn't like it. We then put her in a regular suit and put her in a floatie ring. She swims like a fish in it! Her favorite thing to do is to stand on the steps of the pool and jump in. The floatie keeps her head above water, and she can swim anywhere she wants in that thing.

We plan to go camping at the end of July, and I am really looking forward to it. We went last year, but I was too obsessed with keeping her bed times. It was miserable to hear her crying in the tent as I attempted to make her go to sleep at a somewhat normal time. This year, I will not make that mistake. I will let her stay up until the other kids go to bed and perhaps it won't be as miserable. I will also be sharing a bed with her this year, as my husband cannot join us. He has a back injury, and sleeping on an air mattress hurts his back too much. Last year, we tried to get her to sleep on the other side of the tent on her own mattress. It would probably work better this year, but since my husband won't be there, why bother trying? This way if she wakes up really early, I can attempt to keep her quiet longer. We'll see.....

I am also going to have her tested by our school district. Our district is more lenient about testing than other areas are. We have very high testing scores, and our elementary school is one of the top schools in Illinois. I think she will qualify for speech and perhaps physical therapy. Don't get me wrong, she's doing a great job catching up, but she is still having problems with some sounds- Like "f" she says like "P" like instead of "fireworks" she says "pireworks" or "bireworks" When a word starts with the "l" sound, she says "m". " I want to sit in your map".

While most districts would say that she wouldn't qualify, our district would probably get her into therapy. If she qualifies, she would be eligible for free preschool. It's worth a shot!

Well, I have the rest of the summer to look forward to. I'll post more as the summer comes to a close.

Spring!

2010-06-14T14:17:00.003-05:00

Spring is here-and turning into summer fast!

These are some of my favorite pictures of Grace that I've taken this spring. At the end of May, Grace graduated from her Playschool class. I also signed her up for a ballet/tap class. She was having some separation anxiety issues, so I decided to put her in a summer school program. The summer class is taught by the same teacher as the Playschool, but it is a drop-off class and is meant to prepare them for Preschool in the fall. It is six weeks. She loves it. She is now very good in the ballet/tap class. She has two weeks off of class due to the performance (which she missed because she joined too late to buy a costume). However, I'm glad she wasn't at that performance since she had only been taking the class for about five weeks. This summer is going to be great. She gets to go to summer school, and VBS at our church. We will go to the zoo often, and the sting rays and dolphins are back! Yay! Lots of trips to the park-walking, of course. She is doing very well, and we are tickled pink with her progress. I have some concerns about her gross motor skills and I'm unsure whether I should have her see a physical therapist or not. I'll see how she does over the summer. If I see that she's still having problems at the end of the summer (after all those chances to run and play, jump and climb) then i'll make an appointment.

otherwise, she is doing great!

Grace is three!!

2010-03-20T21:03:00.005-05:00

Wow, time goes by fast. Our angel is now three! Her birthday is on March 11, so on the 6th we went to Indiana to have her birthday party with our families. It was a nice, small party, and Grace had a lot of fun. We had a Princess theme, so she dressed like Cinderella with her cousins and her male cousin had a sword and shield to be a knight. I made her a Cinderella cake, and used fondant icing to make the skirt. It turned out cute for my first one, but the cake itself didn't cook well, so I'm glad I made a smaller cake to go with it...unfortunately, the doll was too tall for the cake, so her legs got amputated. Grace doesn't seem to mind...

On her birthday we had school, and I took snacks and cake to celebrate. She had a lot of fun and enjoyed everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to her.

As I was up in the attic, I found my Barbie collection I wanted to hand down to her. I also found my collection on Barbie clothes: ones from when my mom was a child, and ones from my Barbies. I brought them down, but the ones my mom had are hand-made and are falling apart. I decided as I read some blogs that I can use the clothes for a pattern and make new ones. So, I started with probablly the hardest one. I ripped all the seams out and used new material to make a dress. I didn't do so bad. I think I will enjoy picking out fabrics and making new clothes. The best think is I don't think I'll need more than a fat quarter to make any of them. A quarter of a yard is pretty cheap.

Progress

2010-02-07T17:39:00.002-06:00

I can't believe how much Grace has changed in just the last couple of weeks. We noticed at Thanksgiving that she was really using a lot more words and increasing her vocabulary every day. However, since the new year, she's really amazed us. She is now using complete sentences. "I want to play with something else". Of course, her speech isn't quite that clear, but that's what she's saying. "I want to go to school, Mommy!"

She is also beginning to tell us when she has to go potty. This is a huge relief. Up until this point, I've been taking her to the bathroom every hour or so and that has kept her dry for several months. However, this week I've noticed that she's starting to tell me when she needs to go. The girl is a camel! She hasn't gone since about one in the afternoon, and she's still claiming she doesn't have to go...and she's been drinking lots of water, too!

Tomorrow (Monday, Feb. 8th) I register her for Preschool! I am so very excited about that. I am going to try to get her into the Community Center class. It's fairly inexpensive. It has two choices-twice a week (T and TH) or three times a week (MWF). I am hoping to get her in the MWF class. The following Monday she has her physical with the doctor to get all her documents filled out. She's never had a hearing or vision test, so this ought to be interesting. She will also need her vaccine form filled out. When we arrived with Grace, the Dr. decided to test her when she's 5 to see if she needs any re-dos on her vaccines. I wonder if he's just going to put the dates that Russia "claims" she had her vaccines. Of course, the records are all in Russian, and the translator only noted the vaccines given, not the date. We will have to assume they were actually given when they were needed. When she's 5 (starting Kindergarten) we'll know for sure if any actually took. Grace will be so excited to be in Preschool next year!

I am also looking forward to planning her third birthday party. Last year, we kept it really small with just our immediate family members present. This year, I think we'll do the same. On her birthday, we have Playschool, so I will take snacks and have a little "party" at school. We will also be celebrating a close friend's birthday (he'll be two) that weekend, and the only people I would have invited to Grace's party will be at his party, so we're combining parties. So, that just leaves our families. She's met my husband's extended family (aunts, cousins, second cousins...) but I have a HUGE family, and she's actually not met many of my cousins, aunts and uncles. A birthday party is no time to freak her out with all kinds of strangers. So, we're having a Princess party. Only problem is my nephew. I guess I'll buy him a plastic sword and let him be the king for the day. Oh, did I forget that we're having a princess party?

So, February and March are going to be busy. Today (Superbowl Sunday), my husband is off watching the game, so Grace and I are having a movie party. She gets to watch as many movies she wants, and we get to skip dinner and eat chips, cookies, and popcorn. Grace keeps bringing me cheetos and feeds them to me-even though I'm stuffed! She's having a great time, though, and each time she eats a cheeto she says "we're having a party!"

Starting a new year!

2010-01-23T20:29:00.002-06:00

I can't believe it's already 2010! Where does the time go?
I don't know how many people read this blog, but I would like to take a moment to write about some families that need our prayers. First in my thoughts is K. K adopted a daughter from Russia a couple of years ago. She found out that her daughter has a sister, and has been trying since to adopt the sister. Needless to say, the agency couldn't help her, and a private adoption wasn't fast enough. The sister is now too old to come to the States as an orphan. They tried getting her hear on a student visa, but the Embassy in Moscow denied her visa because she would have no reason to go back. (no home, no family)
Second in my thoughs are a family I just read about. These women both used the same agency we used, and I am just sick that these cases had to happen. This adoption was in Pakistan, and it too failed. Turns out (long story short) that the girl had been trafficked and the Embassy found that the documents were forged. She returned home childless-and the agency refuses to refund her money or to help her untangle this web. Please pray for these families!

Grace is doing very well. She absolutely loves Playschool, and I am looking forward to registering her for Preschool. She will be three in a few short weeks. I am excited about planning a party-decorations, cake, etc...She continues to learn at an amazing pace. She now knows all her letters and is showing an interest in learning the sound each letter makes. She is also almost done with potty training. She will not tell us if she has to go potty, but I make sure she goes throughout the day, and if we forget, she starts to cry when she starts to go in her pants. She has now learned to "stop and wait" until she gets to the potty. Number two is similar. I try to get her to the potty when I know she needs to go. However, sometimes it's a "surprise" later in the day. Same thing now-my husband reported today that she started to cry and said "potty" and when he got her upstairs he found that she was just starting to go and was able to get her on the potty...she had been holding it until she got there. Progress! By September she needs to be completely trained-including being able to pull her pants up and down by herself. We're working on it.
No other news, really. It's been cold so we've been staying in. Can't wait for Spring!
Again, please keep the above families in your prayers (or thoughts!). It grieves me that they used the same agency we did. We had such a hard journey-but it's nothing compared to what they are going through!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-29T14:03:00.005-06:00

Ok, so these were uploaded out of order, so you'll have to forgive the confusion. This photo was taken on Sunday, December 27th. We are going to try to take a family photo on Christmas each year. She was dressed up for church earlier in the day, but she went out to play in the snow, so we put her in jeans and sweatshirt. Anyway, this was the best of the bunch...cheesy smile and all.

We have a great picture from last year. Last year on Christmas, it was so cold the driveway iced over. We took the kids out and pulled them on sleds. We have this great picture of Daddy holding Grace. She is so bundled up you can only see her eyes. This year, I made sure we got a picture of me holding Grace in the snow as well. it was a great day, and Grace said "Having fun" while she was out playing. She had a blast!

Daddy holding Grace.

Grace was running through the snow and telling me she was having fun. She loves playing in the snow. The only thing that could have topped this is if the snow were good enough to make a snowman!

On Saturday, December 26 we went to my mom's house to celebrate Christmas. I loved that Christmas was on a Friday this year. Usually my husband has to work the day after Christmas, so this year was really nice because we got to spend the whole day with my mom instead of just an hour or so. We had a lot of fun-and argued about Cabbage Patch Kids!

Grace doesn't know Uncle Ray (my brother) that well, so I was really surprised when she let him hold her and read a book to her. Her cousin Raymond looks too!

Raymond and Grace. Since we don't see my brother and his family a lot, she doesn't know them very well. They'll just have to come up this way more often to see us!

Nanna reading a book to Grace.

Her little Christmas light necklace. The necklace lights up. You can't see it on the picture, though, because the flash cancels out the lights. She loved the necklace, though.

This was on Friday, Christmas Day. Her Aunt Sarah gave her Cinderella slippers for Christmas. I could never keep slippers on her feet, which is important because we have wood floors and down in the basement it's cold in the winter. This solved the problem! She loves her slippers!

Nana bought her a "My First Piggy Bank". The bank has coins that the pig counts as you put them in. It also sings. All weekend, all Grace could talk about was "my pig". Unfortunately, we had to put the pig (and all her other gifts) away because one of her cousins tends to hide things that she likes, and she took Grace's pig away first thing. Grace had a second Christmas when we got home and started unpacking everything!

Grace posing with her cousins. From left to right: Monique (8), Kiyana (7), Sarina (5 weeks) (all sisters) and Grace (2)

Grace loves to hold Sarina. I don't know how I got this, but little Sarina smiled for a split second, and I was able to capture it.

On Thursday, December 24, we celebrated Christmas at home so we didn't have to take all her gifts with us to Indiana. Here she is opening her stocking. She received some tights, a coloring book, and some sweets.

A few months ago, I found this Little People barn at a second-hand sale. I paid $3.50 for the big barn and two smaller barns-with two chickens a a few accessories like people. I called Fisher Price and ordered extra animals. I kept this all hidden until Christmas. It's her favorite gift. She is always playing with it and has already told me there is a "mommy goat, mommy horse, daddy horse, and baby horse".

Standing in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Not all the gifts were hers; most went to Indiana. We took it easy this year-taking advantage of the fact that she's too young to understand. We also knew she'd be getting things from grandparents and such.

My father in England sent us some money to buy gifts for her. She has the Tag Jr. reader. We bought her some books to go along with it. We bought an Elmo book, and a Curious George book.

My friend Natasha in England sent her a book and this Jack-In-The-Box. Grace loves it!

Here she is in front of "her" tree. It's a little tree that I decorated "Russian" style. A friend of ours are missionaries in Russia (well, were...they had to come home because of VISA issues). She told us that Russians usually decorate their trees with white, silver and royal blue decorations. So, that's what I did. I also went to some Russian web sites and ordered a few Russian ornaments. On Jan. 7 (which is Orthodox Christmas), we will let her open her gifts from Father Frost and the Snowmaiden (I purchased some little Russian dolls off the internet). I think I'll make this a tradition each year. Each year she will get another ornamtent to hang on her tree, and a Russian gift or two.

All in all, I think we had a great Christmas. There were a few arguements, but that's probably normal. We are happy to be home, however, and we look forward to the start of 2010. Grace has come a long way since last year. Even in the last few weeks her language has exploded. She has been using sentences, telling me her feelings, and communicating a lot more. Since the last time I posted, she's learned to recognize more of her letters. Today I went up in the attic and brought down a bunch of toys. I used to be a nanny, and for the little girl I used to watch I bought a whole bunch of educational stuff. Her mother didn't exactly demand that all her toys be educational, but she did push education a lot. I had to care for J in my home for a few months while their house was being worked on, so we needed toys to play with. Anyway, I went to the attic and there was a jackpot of things that I can use with Grace. Since she's learning the alphabet, I thought I'd teach her the sounds. She has the refrigerator magnets from Leap Frog, so she's learning the sounds from there. Melissa and Doug also make a puzzle set. One side has the letter and the other side has a picture representing the sound the letter makes. For example, H has a picture of a horse. It showes the capital letter and the lowercase letter-which is what I like. There was also a three-letter Leap Frog refrigerator magnet that helps children learn how to make words. Since Grace loves letters, I'd figure I'd let her play with it. I know she's too young to understand how to make words, but for right now, she'll just like to put the letters in. There's more which I won't bore you with the details, but I think that instead of going shopping for her birthday, I'll just go back up into the attic and bring some things down from there. There's stuff I bought Grace for Christmas only to realize that I already had it up in the attic-obviously forgotten!

I hope everyone has a great New Year!

2009-12-21T16:17:00.002-06:00

Helping mommy make cookies. This was the first time I had let her "help" me with cooking something, and she did a really good job! I was really impressed with my patience and with her enthusiasm!

This year I gave her her own tree. I decorated it with white, silver, and royal blue ornaments (I was told that's how trees are decorated in Russia). I also let her decorate it with handmade ornaments (also a Russian tradition) and I purchased a couple Russian Christmas ornaments from a Russian store online. Here she is putting the "Snowmaiden" ornament on the tree. The Snowmaiden travels with Father Christmas to distribute gifts.

She's getting in the Christmas spirit. She recognizes pictures of St. Nick. We are talking about St. Nick rather than Santa. She will recieve one gift from St. Nick, and next year we'll start talking about the story of St. Nick. We are also teaching her about Jesus' birthday. We've heard "Happy Birthday, Jesus" on the Moody radio station, and I try to sing it every once in a while.

The Christmas tree at the Brookfield zoo during Holiday Lights

Frosty gets a hug at Brookfield Zoo.

Well, it's been a while. I think I need to post more often! Grace has changed so fast! Since she started Playschool in the fall, she's learned all her colors. She's actually very good at it. I've also started letting her watch "Super Why" on channel 11. She actually loves watching it, and I've noticed that she can recognize about 20 of the letters. A,B,C,D,E,F,G,I,L,M,N,O,P,Q,S,T,U,V,W. Ok, so about 19. We actually aren't trying to teach her the letters. We have the refrigerator magnets with the Leapfrog thing she uses while I'm in the kitchen. She is also starting to get an interest in shapes and numbers. She knows circle, heart, and triangle-and she will point out the number two and say "number two". Her vocabulary is growing-but her speech and pronunciation are just a tad behind. We're not worried, however, because she is doing an amazing job catching up.

This year we will celebrate Christmas twice. We will celebrate on Dec. 25 with all our family and all. Also, on January 7 is when Russians celebrate Christmas. We will have a small celebration here at home. After Dec. 25, I will change the table linens to reflect Russian traditions. White table cloth to represent Jesus' swaddling clothes, a white candle to represent that Jesus is the Light of the World, some hay (although it won't be real) to represent the manger, and on Jan 7 bread to show that Jesus is the Bread of Life. Grace has her little tree in the family room that is decorated with Russian Christmas colors, and with a couple Russian ornaments I bought from an on-line Russian store (each year I'll add to the collection). She will have a couple gifts (not many) that she will open. I bought her two collector's dolls from the Russian store. One is a doll of the Snowmaiden and one is a doll in traditional Russian dress. Nothing really fancy-just a small celebration.

We are so looking forward to Christmas this year. She's going to be a lot more interested in opening gifts, and she's going to love being with our families. Also, since Christmas is over a weekend, we have a lot more time to spend with our families and won't be so rushed and crazy.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Everyone! I'll post pictures of Grace on Christmas later!

Where has the time gone?

2009-11-24T14:53:00.006-06:00

Proud Aunt Dea holding baby Sarina minutes old!

"Nana and GiGi (short for Great Grandma) with Grace

This pumpkin was about 1100 pounds!

Wow. I can't believe it's been a month since I've posted! We had a fantastic Halloween. We went to Indiana and spent Halloween with our families. On Friday we went to go visit my mom and then later we visited my husband's grandfather at the nursing home. He fell a few months ago and broke his hip. The healing is going very slow. He's 96 years old.

Anyway, Grace had a blast at the nursing home. My mother-in-law would say "Grace, come here and say Happy Halloween!". Grace would run to the door and say "There's another Grammy! Happy Halloween!" Every time she would see a woman, she would say "Another Grammy!" She was dressed as a Care Bear.

On November 19 my Sister-in-law had her baby girl Sarina Nevaeh (heaven spelled backwards). The baby is doing well, but she has a sensitive stomach, so she requires a special formula. We are hoping she will be able to come home tomorrow so she is home for Thanksgiving, but it depends on how she's eating and if she can keep this formula down.

This Thanksgiving will be a little better than the other years. I will go out on Wednesday with Grace. It's always easier to travel with her earlier in the day. We will stop to visit my mom. Thanksgiving day we have lunch at my MIL's and then we go to my mom's for dinner. I usually stay the night and come home on Friday. I haven't decided whether I will do any shopping on Black Friday or not. We don't need any Christmas gifts, so I don't know. We do have to get back to the house sometime on Friday. I am doing a trial group for a new cat litter. I have to use the litter for two weeks, and each day I have to log in and tell the panel what I think of the litter. I have to make sure the litter boxes are clean so the cats will use this new litter. Either we have to rush home on Friday, or perhaps I'll put another litter box out so that we don't have to come back until Friday night or even Saturday. I haven't decided yet.

Enjoy the pics of Grace on Halloween and our family picture taken at church for our new directory. I think they turned out GREAT!

One Year on Tuesday

2009-10-12T18:44:00.003-05:00

Gottcha Day October 13, 2008 Daddy, Dr. Ludmilla from Prokopyevsk Baby House Mommy, and Grace!

Grace at Johansens Farm petting a chick.

Grace at Johansens Farm

One year ago on October 13, Brian and I stood nervously in front of a judge in Kemerovo waiting for her to give her answer. Obviously, she granted us our petition to adopt! A few hours later (after going to the vital records office to get the birth certificate and adoption decree, and the post office for her passport) we were on our way to the orphanage! That three hours in the van was so hard! The translator tried to keep us busy by talking to us, but all we wanted to do was stare numbly out the window with anticipation!

When we arrived, the care takers were finishing up her dinner (it was close to five or so). We spent those few minutes talking to the directress about what had happened while we were gone and asking any last-minute questions. I excused myself to go to the bathroom. I saw a caretaker in the outer office holding Grace, waiting to be summoned in. I didn't want to freak her out by making a big deal, so I forced myself to continue on to the bathroom. When I got back, the children were in the room. Grace was sitting on Brian's lap, both of them looking VERY confused! The minute I walked in the room, Grace looked at me, held out her hands, and started crying! Now, I would like to believe that she recognized me and knew I would comfort her. However, It was more likely that she saw that I was a "woman" and wanted to escape from this "weird creature with hair on his face!". We were urged to quickly change their clothes and get them bundled up. We didn't have any time to cuddle them or get them comfortable with us. Change their clothes and go!

Grace was very quiet in the van. There are no car seats, and there wouldn't have been any room for on in the small van. I took a bottle out and filled it with some juice we had brought from our hotel room. While we were riding in the van, I gave her the juice. She not only drank it all...she fell asleep in my lap! She slept the entire way back to the hotel...a three hour ride!

When we arrived back at the hotel, the ladies were all in the hallway waiting for us. As soon as we walked in, they were oohhing and ahhhing over the children. They both started talking excitedly, first poining at Grace's nose and then at Brian. The translator said that they were saying that she looks like him. We got her upstairs and then gave her a really quick bath/shower. There wasn't a "tub" in there, so we sat her in the shower. The shower detached and we were able to wet a washcloth with it. We needed to bathe her because she smelled dirty. She hated the shower. We quickly dressed her in her pajamas and I spent a few minutes with her before putting her to bed in her crib. She fell right to sleep after rocking herself back and forth for a few minutes.

That was the day we had dreamed about.

Today, she is a happy, healthy (well, ok...right now she has a stuffy nose, but otherwise...) normal toddler! Most people cannot tell that she was adopted as she has caught up almost completely to where she needs to be. Most assume she was born premature (which she was...).

Right now she likes Elmo, Veggie Tales, Super Why and "the letter game" (Wheel of Fortune). She loves her Playschool class and the gymnastics class she is in. She is learning her colors, and a few letters. She is almost potty trained. She will tell me when she has to go, but I am still the one who initiates the potty. She still has trouble with the poo. I have learned that if I make her sit on the potty shortly after breakfast, I can usually catch her before she goes in her pants. The only problem is that sometimes she has one after lunch, and today she had one before dinner (it was more a result of the extra mucus...) She is wearing big girl undies, though, because she gets infections from regular diapers.

She loves to eat, but she is going through a very picky stage right now, she only has a few foods that are her faborites. However, she is getting a little more adventurous. I can usually coax her into eating dinner by offering her crackers to eat with her meal (a bite of food and a bite of cracker).

Her weight and size are still on the small size. She is wearing size 2T tops, but her bottoms are 18 month only because she needs the length. I have to take the waists in, which is difficult to do on jeans.

Over all, she is doing great, and I can't believe a whole year has gone by! We have watched her go from a very shy, quiet, baby-like girl to a talkative, loud (oh, so loud) normal toddler who loves to put mommy and daddy's shoes on! We are so proud of our little angel.

Court, Potty training....

2009-09-23T16:57:00.005-05:00

After court. Feeling tired.

Grace with her Junior Deputy Star

Grace being served her papers.

Waitng for Grace to be served.

Rice Play

House play

Gym time

Good-bye song

Art time

Well, today we went to the court building in Downtown Chicago (the Daley Center) and had our hearing to "readopt" Grace. In order for us to get an Illinois birth certificate, we needed to adopt her in Illinois. It's nothing serious. It was kinda cute in a stupid way. We had to be at the Daley Center by 8am, so that meant Brian and I were up before 5 to start getting ready. Grace heard us and woke up at 5:30. We were at the train station on time and caught the 6:30 train. It was a mile walk to the building. Wasn't so bad, except Brian's back is really bad and he was tempted to get a taxi. We went in up to the 17th floor and met our lawyer, who had us sign some documents. She then went down to the 7th floor and filed our petition. We then had to meet her down on the 7th floor and be served with papers. Actually, Grace was served the papers. It's kinda funny. Grace is the one that has to be summoned, so she is served the papers. The Deputy acutally gave them to her while our lawyer took a photo of her being "served". We then had to go back upstairs and wait while our lawyer submitted our paperwork to the judge. When it was our turn for court, we went in and were sworn in. The judge asked how we were doing, and noticed that we had been home with Grace for almost a year and said congratulations. He signed the documents and wished us a good day. That's it. As we were leaving, a deputy offered Grace a sucker. We waited outside the courtroom for a few minutes while our paperwork was finished , then the lawyer came out and gave us our copy and that was it! We were done by 10. So, now she has to get a letter from our agency (which she says will be a challenge because she hasn't had good experience with getting paperwork in a timely manner from that agency) and after she gets that paperwork, she will apply for a new Illinois birth certificate for Grace, which will take about three months. We paid one flat fee, and that covered all the work she will do for us.

So, I will post the pictures from court, we have a picture of her being "served". She also received a little Deputy Star after she was served. Then we have a picture of us standing by the window with a really nice church in the background that Brian took after court. We would have liked to get a picture with the judge, but he was busy and we didn't want to sit around until the other three couples went.

I will also try to post some pics I took of Grace at playschool. I took video there, and was able to freeze-frame a few of them for still pictures. I'll see how that works.

Potty training is going well, but right now it's more about "parent" training. She pees on the potty no problem, but pooing on the potty is a whole other story! I am usually good about sitting her down when I know she should go (right after breakfast and sometimes after lunch). I have been trying to keep her in underwear because the pull-ups were giving her...problems.

Gotta go for now. We have AWANA tonight at our church, and I teach the Cubbies! Grace gets to come along as a practice Cubbie, and I appreciate it because otherwise I'd need a sitter because Brian has docotor appointments on Wednesdays. Go red table!

School Time!

2009-09-13T13:05:00.002-05:00

There are a lot of preschools in our area that have programs for 2-year olds. However, I was too lazy this spring (or maybe just not ready...) to register her on time. So, I still wanted her in a "class", so I contacted our local community center for a list of their classes. She's not old enough to enter their preschool program, but they do have a Playschool for two and three-year-olds. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we go to Playschool. Parents stay and participate. The first 45 minutes are free play. There are TONS of different toys. There are ramps for them to run up and down (Grace likes to actually run to the end and then jump off right into a pile of cushions), an airplane teeter-totter, a little play house, dress-up clothes, dolls, buggies, play vaccums, puzzles, oh, too much to mention! So, we play for 45 minutes (rather, she plays and I try to keep up with her!). Next, we clean up and gather in a circle for song time and snack time. Last, we go into the gym for gym time, or do an art project. It's an hour and 15 minutes max. It was really nice. She went to the first class, but missed the second because she threw up that morning. Nothing serious. She just had a ton of post-nasal drip in her tummy, and she had to get it out. I just kept her home to make sure it wasn't anything else.

I also wanted to get her into some sort of gym class or dance class. The only class our Park District offered for her age was a pre-gymnastics class. They learn about balance, rhythm, and such. It's cute. The class is about 45 minutes long, and the children go in the class by themselves, while the parents wait outside. Her first class went well, according to the teacher.

I will be taking a video camera with me for the next Playschool class and gym class so that I can get photos from them.

She is doing well. She started Sunday School again today. We had the summer off. She walked right in and grabbed a doll stroller. Didn't even glance back to say "good-bye". She does very well in classes and such. We hope it's because we don't make a big deal about it. The Sunday we were back, we took her to church and put her in the Church class for her age. Anyway....

We are looking forward to our fall and winter. We are very close to our one-year "Gotcha-Day" anniversary. She has gained about 7 pounds the last year, and grew about 6 inches or so. She is still having eating issues, but she continues to gain weight, and we are hoping that the eating problems are just a phase. There are other parents who bore their children that are having similar problems, so I'm not too worried at this point. I am sure I will write more next month, but for now I'll go. I'll post pictures of her in Playschool and Gym class next week....

Time Flies

2009-08-14T08:50:00.004-05:00

The three of us at a wedding where I was the photographer.

Photography class practice...and experimenting with Photoshop!

Practicing my "portrait photography" and experimenting with Photoshop!

I can't believe that summer vacation is almost over for school kids! It seems that they just got out yesterday...

Our anniversary is this weekend. Last year for our tenth anniversary, Brian completely took my by surprise. He called me from work to tell me to dress somewhat nice for our dinner. He picked me up and took me to a nice restaraunt I had never seen before in our area. It had a little balcony. When we walked in, the server practically jumped to seat us. He took us all the way upstairs and out onto the deck, where there was one tiny table with a dozen red roses on it. All the servers were beaming. They all knew what was going on because the flowers were delivered earlier that day. We started to have a really nice dinner...until it started to rain. We ended up having to move inside after being on the balcony for only a few minutes.

This year won't be so romantic, but it will still be special. Brian is going to an AC/DC concert tonight. On Saturday morning, we will drive to my in-laws. Their community is having like a Family Fun Fest. We will spend the afternoon there or in their pool. We will then leave Grace with Nanna and Pappa (and Monique and Kiyana, her cousins) to go out to eat. On Sunday after church we will go see my mom before heading home.

Grace's potty training continues to do well. We had a little trouble last week when she had a few days of accidents all day, but we are back on track, and we added pooping on the potty! She took me completely by surprise yesterday. She said she had to go potty, and I assumed it was pee. She sat for a few minutes, and I wandered away because sometimes she like "privacy". Well, after a minute or so she started to whine and-there it was! She calmed down once she saw I was excited that she went on the potty. She got two MnM's. Today, she did the same. However, about a half hour after she went the first time, she said she had to go potty, but it was too late, she had already gone in her pull-up. I wasn't mad or upset, but I just told her to tell mommy next time she had to make poo. I guess that the fact she went twice willingly is a huge step forward. Everyone is telling me that training for poo takes a long time after they master pee, but she's starting now. Horray for that!

Cute Pics

2009-08-02T16:12:00.004-05:00

Since this summer has been cool, I've decided to potty train Grace. It took her a good three weeks to really get the hang of it. The first week, she really did not want to sit on the potty, and when she did "go" on the potty, she acted all freaked out, like "wait, this isn't supposed to happen!". I made the error of taking her away from home for a stay at the in-laws. Up to that point in the week, she had been used to sitting on the potty and even going once in a while. However, she now had a new place (the same potty) and more audience (her grandparents and cousins). This means that she absolutely refused to go on the potty. She would sit for a long time and not go. Needless to say, we were there for about three days, and she ended up going in her diaper the whole time....a major setback.

That Sunday, I resolved to continue on as if we had been home the whole weekend. She did an awesome job of "going" on the potty that day. That next week, beginning Monday, I resolved to stay home and really work on it. By that Wednesday, she had very few accidents. I again had to go to the in-laws for a few days, but this time when I took the potty, she actually used it! I still had to keep her in pull-ups while we were there because my MIL would have been furious if Grace had peed on the floor. However, she didn't go through many pull-ups because she remained dry the whole time.

By the third week, she was peeing like a champ. Again, only about one or two accidents for the week. I must say, however, that this involves pee. She has not yet mastered pooping on the potty. I know when she is supposed to go during the day, and I try to catch her, but she either holds it in until she's wearing her diaper (or underwear) or she goes on the floor if I'm letting her go in the buff.

Last night I let her wear training underwear to bed for the first time. We had to have her wear a pull-up during church, but she came home dry as a bone. She wore the training underwear the rest of the day. This is the first time we've really let her go without a pull-up for the majority of the day. This week, we will be exploring outside the home. Any time I ran an errand in the last few weeks, she'd been mostly dry. Now, I want to try a longer outing and see how she does using public toilets.

I plan on taking her to the zoo this week. The bathrooms usually have "tot potties"...toilets that are smaller and lower to the ground for toddlers to use.

Otherwise, she is doing well. Her language skills improve daily. She is now using two-and three-word phrases. She can communicate her needs to us either verbally or with simple sign language, although speech is becoming more common and sign language rare, which is fine...the sign language was used to jump-start her learning of English and a way for her to communicate her needs to us. It really worked, but now that her language has progressed, she doesn't feel the need to use sign.

Sadly, Kiddie Land, which is just a few blocks away from us, is closing at the end of this season. I am hoping to take her there even though she's too young to really enjoy too much of it. I am hoping to have my nieces go along, so that they can go on the rides with her. I am sad to see this amusement park go. It has been there for many years.

Fourth of July

2009-07-06T13:00:00.002-05:00

Swimming with Daddy. She loves the water!

Tired on the Fourth of July!

Although our day was cold and rainy, the celebration was great. Our Fourth of July was very relaxing with friends and family gathered to celebrate our freedom. Grace had a lot of children to play with. They certainly kept her busy!

Saturday was rainy and cold, so I kept her out of the pool. She didn't seem to miss it much. She did keep saying "pool" and pointing at it, but she didn't get upset when I didn't put her in her suit and take her down.

We decided to stay an extra night since my husband had a change of plans. On Sunday, we couldn't have asked for better weather! We visited a church and even my sister-in-law attended service (I think her mother just about had a heart attack!). It was so nice, the kids all went swimming! My MIL and SIL are taking my niece to get evaluated in Indianapolis, so I have my other niece here with us for a few days. It's great, because she keeps Grace busy!

All in all it was a nice weekend. Since we were all stuck indoors for the majority of the day on Saturday, it gave us all a chance to just sit down and talk to everyone. It was great to just catch up and relax. We hope next year brings fantastic weather. Of course, Grace was so tired from all the excitement that she went to bed early. All the noise from the fireworks didn't seem to bother her at all.

One Year Ago Today

2009-06-23T13:19:00.002-05:00

One year ago today-June 23, 2008, Brian and I walked into a Russian orphanage and met our daughter for the first time. When the caretaker placed her into my arms, she was so confused, but she didn't complain. We got to spend an hour and a half with her that day. It was so hard to say good-bye. I remember going back to the hotel rooom, and although we were very tired from the time-change and excitement, we watched our videos and looked at our pictures over and over again, wondering if this really did just happen! In the 8 months since we brought her home, I marvel at how much she's changed. No longer is she a shy, quiet, confused little baby. She is now a talkative, stubborn, smart toddler!

Memorial Day

2009-05-27T12:56:00.002-05:00

We had a fantastic Memorial Day! Every year (well, almost every year) we go camping on Memorial Day. This year we had a lot of fun. Well, we always have fun, but this year was special because it was Grace's first camping trip! We were a little nervous about how she would handle it all. Actually, she did a pretty good job. We left on Friday morning. I went with the owners of the property and Brian came with friends later. It didn't take us long to get there. Grace did pretty well with the long car ride. I just kept playing her music over and over and over again. I had a bag of toys next to me and I would hand them back to her at intervals. I also had snacks and water I would offer her. It kept her busy. We set up camp and Grace loved to explore her tent. We had our sleeping tent and then we set up a smaller tent near the cooking area for her to play in safely. That night she went to bed normal time, and she slept really well.

Saturday the girls went to garage sales. I got Grace a couple of cute toys. Someone had been to Mardi Gras and I bought her some beads. There was a cute little back pack, too. We just hung out at the camp the rest of the day. On Sunday we had a picnic at a nearby park. It also had a war memorial with a WWll tank. The kids had a blast climbing on the tank. I took lots of really great pictures. The men went to play golf and the women went back to camp. Grace refused to take a nap. I even put her to bed late, and she still refused to sleep! Once she did fall asleep, she slept well for about four hours. She woke up around one in the morning. I woke up because my mattress had gone flat. I put her crib mattress (she was in a port-a-crib to keep her in place...) and tried to sleep on that. I tried to bring her in bed with us, but she just wanted to play. Finally, I wrapped her all up and put her back in the crib and prayed for her to go back to sleep. She woke up again around six. Monday we packed everything up and headed home. She refused to sleep in the car, but the minute we arrived home and I put her to bed, she zonked out!

Some new families came with us this time, and the children are in love with Grace. All of them say "she is just a little peanut!" I really appreciate them being there, because they really helped keep an eye on Grace when I was busy cooking or cleaning up. She absolutely loved all the attention, and she loved that they had an endless supply of energy when pushing her on the swing!

Grace had a great time, and she loved being outside. Other than the sleeping (which I now know to be better prepared for...) I'd say it was very successful.

What a Blessed Mother's Day

2009-05-08T14:14:00.002-05:00

I am so looking forward to my first Mother's Day! Every year prior to this, I would go to church on Mother's Day, and each year the church would hand out a flower to all the "mothers and young women". I'm guessing they started this so that the "young women" who don't have children wouldn't feel left out. Anyway, the last couple of years, my mother-in-law thought it appropriate to get me a Mother's Day gift....and call it an "Aunt's Day" gift. While I appreciated the gesture, I couldn't help but feel depressed about it. If she had given it to me on a different day and called it "Aunt's Day", I think I would have felt better about it. Anyway, those days are now behind me. This Mother's Day I am going to be so proud of the name "mama". As I was reading my Bible the other day, I ran across a verse in Psalms 113:9 "He gives children to the woman who has none and makes her a happy mother. Praise the LORD!" I love this verse and couldn't help but use my photo editing program to make a picture I can put in a plaque. Enjoy!

Our Easter

2009-04-13T18:31:00.003-05:00

The three of us on Easter morning ready for church.

Grace with Nanna and Gigi (great-grandma)

Grace with her cousin Raymond.

We had a wonderful Easter this year. On Saturday we went to my mother's house to celebrate. Grace and Raymond hunted for eggs. Some were outside, so it was so special for her to be outside looking for eggs. I can't remember how long it's been since it was nice enough to hunt outside. We had a nice lunch of ham and potatoes. It was really nice. On Sunday we got up and the girls hunted for eggs in the living room. Those eggs were empty and were there for fun. After services the other guests arrived and we had a nice lunch. Afterward, the kids looked for eggs in the basement. Those had coins in them. Grace went down first because she's the youngest. When the older children came down, it was complete mayhem. Later, I distributed some coloring pages of Russian eggs. The kids sat down and and colored...I was surprised. We left early because Brian had to run and do some work. He got paid like double time for the couple hours he was there.... All in all it was a REALLY nice holiday.

Two steps forward and one step back

2009-04-09T12:37:00.002-05:00

I feel as if we took one step forward and now we are taking one step back. Grace has come a long way with her eating in the last six months. When we were in Russia, she would eat anything and everything we put in front of her. We would give her some rice cereal in our hotel room, and then we would go down for breakfast, and the ladies at the hotel would insist that she eat the yogurt and egg that they made for her. The first morning I thought "well, she just stuffed herself on cereal, there's no way she'll eat that too!" I was wrong. She ate it all. It didn't matter what we put in front of her...she'd eat it. Well, as long as it was really soft like scrambled eggs or pureed foods. She couldn't chew yet. 19 months and didn't know how to chew. We came home and I started the same routine. However, we quickly discovered that she did NOT want to eat lunch or dinner. We made sure she got plenty of healthy snacks in between, but when it came to actually eating lunch or dinner, she refused. One day, I was desperate. My friend called and offered some stew. She made too much and wanted to share with us. I pureed the food, and approached Grace. She downed the whole thing! That's when it hit me...she refused to eat the American baby food because it is bland. The Russian baby food has tomatoes, garlic, and onions in it.

So, in an effort to get her to eat lunch and dinner, I started cooking regular meals for her and pureeing them. Her eating improved drastically. Gradually, I started pureeing the food less and less. Around January/February, we started noticing another problem. Her lunches were still fine. We were now feeding her sandwiches, mac and cheese, Tyson nuggets, etc at lunch, and she had a great appetite. At dinner, however....not so much. She was back to having her temper tantrums. Now, my food isn't bland. Sure, I don't use tons of spices and such, but it's not totally without flavor. But she stopped eating anything except pasta and sometimes mashed potatoes. I became stubborn. You don't want to eat your dinner-fine, you go to bed hungry and tomorrow you'll eat a big breakfast. While that relieved us of frustration, it didn't encourage her to eat her dinner. We were watching Supernanny one night, and she had a little blurb about picky eaters; she said to just put the food on the plate and let them eat what they want. So, for a day or so I did that-but sometimes she wouldn't eat anything. This week, I had a little breakthrough.

I know that sometimes she won't eat the protein because she doesn't like the texture or because it's too tough. So, the other day when I made stew, I decided to puree it a little bit; just to break up the meat into more manageable pieces. She ate a whole bowl. Usually, what she would have done is taken a bite and swallowed the potatoes while spitting out the carrots and meat. However, since it was all blended together, she couldn't. She enjoyed the flavor of the whole thing. I also discovered that cheering her on by offering her an occasional goldfish cracker also helped. A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do. The next day we were having chicken tacos. I'm trying to get creative with our leftovers. So, I knew she wasn't going to eat the chicken, but I also knew she would like the flavor. So, I did the same thing. I took all the "stuff" to make a taco, and I blended it all together for her. I added some crushed chips and she ate the whole bowl. Once she figgured out there were chips in it she was more enthusiastic. So now, I've gone two steps forward by realizing that other than tough meat, there are no limitations to her chewing now...big difference than six months ago. However, I've taken a step back by having to puree her food so that she will enjoy the flaovorful meal rather than picking and choosing just the carbs. Perhaps I'll take it a step further; perhaps half her meal will be all the "stuff" seperated so she can pick and choose, and the other half will be the same thing only pureed. Perhaps she'll eventually she'll realize they're the same only one is all put together and the other is all seperate. I'll post again to see how it all works out. Tonight we're having leftover stew from the other day. I'll giver her two plates; one with the meat, potatoes, carrots and juice and one with it all pureed together. Hmmmm.....

Happy Easter

2009-04-07T13:04:00.002-05:00

We are really looking forward to celebrating Easter with Grace. Today we went to the mall to get a picture with the Easter Bunny. she did an amazing job. Not only was she in a good mood, but she did not freak out when the EB picked her up. We were the first there when the mall opened for the day, and so the EB could spend a little time playing peek-a-boo and stuff to get Grace comfortable. She /it (don't know who was in the suit...I shall guess it was a she) ....anyway, SHE did a great job getting Grace comfortable. She smiled for the picture! As a matter of fact, we were there when the next child took his turn. She was actually jealous that someone else was with "her" Bunny!

Anyway, she has grown some more latele, and I've had to switch out her closet again. THis time I've had to switch her shirts to 2T/24 month (same size as I see it) and also her pants. When she wears her cloth diapers, the 12 month pants were a little tight. So, I brought out the 18 month bottoms. The only problem is that the 18 month pants are way too long, so I'll have to either roll them up or under. I spent some time today matching up her pants with a top, so I have more "outfits" to choose from instead of having to pull out a pair of pants and match it with a shirt when she needs to get dressed. Is that a little anal? Anyway, it will make mornings much easier to have the outfit already matched. It seems that every two months or so I'm switching out her closets. At this rate, she'll catch up to where she needs to be in no time! She's pretty close. Certainly with the tops. Anyway, I also pulled out her 24 month pajamas because the one-piece 18 month ones are a little hard to zip. The 24's are a little long, but when I use a loose scrunchie around her ankles, it keeps the jammies from falling to her feet and tripping her. I also notice that I may need to start buying 24 month dresses. I'll have to see. They may be a bit long by the knees, but she might need the waist lenght.

She has gained two and a half pounds and grown three inches since December. She had her two-year check up last week. She got her two-year shots. She didn't need the chicken pox vaccine because she had the chicken pox right before our first visit in June. In fact, she still had the blue medicine on her, and a few scabs. She now has one little scar left on her left cheek.

She's doing very well, and it seems that she learns new words every day. I've stopped counting how many words she can say. Last week for the doctor's office it was up to 45, but I think now it's around 50. She also knows about 25 signs. Her newest is "help". I get so frustrated when she cries because she can't do something. I tell her to ask mommy to "help" "please". She'll sign the words, and then I'll help her and encourage her to say "thank you". She's catching on.

Hope everyone has a great Easter holiday.

5.5 months

2009-03-28T19:44:00.004-05:00

I can't believe that we've had her for five and a half months! The time has gone by so quickly. It seems that we've always had her. Grace continues to do well. She isn't growing quickly, and she isn't gaining a lot of weight, but that might be because we aren't feeding her a lot of fat! We are really looking forward to the warmer weather, as we are all suffering from cabin fever. Poor Grace. She got a taste of good weather, and we spent as much time outside as we can. However, now when we are ready to come in the house from running errands, she cries and backs away from the door. She wants to spend more time outside! Poor thing. Believe me, I'd like nothing better than to stay outside. Especially with the week we've had!

On Tuesday I woke up to find our basement carpet wet. After investigating, I found that someone had turned our spiggot outside on. The ground was drenched from the rains that weekend, and then this...our neighbor's spiggot was on, too. (we're in a townhouse) So, we had to move most of our furniture in the basement to get the carpet pulled up. We put a dehumidifier in there and had fans running. Of course, with all the mess, we had to keep Grace out of that room. This was a struggle for me because that's her play room and our tv room. I had to entertain her for four days away from that room. GRRRRR!!!!!!

Today (Saturday) we finally felt that the carpet was dry enough to lay back down. It took us a good portion of the afternoon to get it laid down fairly flat. There's one or two bubbles...not big ones. Of course, then we had to move all the furniture back where it was. We are almost done with the furniture.

As Spring Break begins in our area, I found a handy little parent guide with all kinds of early childhood information in it like child care centers, medical centers, dentists, and best of all preschools. It reminded me that we really should begin to decide which preschool to send her to. She will be two and a half next August, and I would really like to put her into some sort of playschool or preschool. Right now, she does not have any friends that are her age outside of church. Unfortunately, she just started the Sunday School with children her own age, and I only know like two kids in her class. I really would like to get her involved with those kids more so that they can form friendships. I'm a little upset at the SS teacher. I don't know if she's just joking, or if she's serious. When we picked her up the first week, she said "She's so tiny...she's two?" I said yes. The next week, she said "I just can't believe she's two. She's so small. Are you sure she's two?" I explained to her that she was recently adopted from Russia, and that the doctors said she would always be petite- and yes, I'm sure she's two! Why would I lie about her age?

Anyway, I'll let it go for now. She is a little peanut and everyone mistakes her for being much younger. Oh well....take advantage of it now while I can, right??? Enjoy the pictures!

Grace's Birthday

2009-03-11T20:14:00.004-05:00

We had the joy of celebrating her second birthday today. I have the flu, so it was interesting for me to get through. I managed to feel well enough for most of it. I have the chills now, and some not-so-pleasant bm's, but my stomach isn't queasy at least.

Anyway, they had pizza (Grace and Brian) for dinner. We then let her open our gifts. She is having a birthday party on Saturday at my In-Law's so we let her open ours today. We then had a tiny cake we got from Jewel. It was cute. I didn't realize they made them so small. Anyway, she loved it and signed "more".

All in all it was pretty good. I wish I wasn't feeling so cold. I'm posting some pics.

Post Placement Relief

2009-03-06T12:41:00.004-06:00

Our social worker finallly called us today. She was unaware that our PP Report was moved up from April to March 11. She was also unaware that I was trying to get ahold of her because she had been having problems with her e-mail. She finally heard from our case worker when the president of the agency told our case worker to alert our social worker that I was trying to call. Anyway. So, the report is due on the 11th. She conducted the interview over the phone. She just asked questions about her development since December, which is when she last contacted us. She asked about her height, weight, eating habits, physical development, speech, etc... She also asked us how we as parents are handling the transition to parenthood. We will go into the office on Tuesday so she can physically see the child (necessary because we could by lying about her or something...) and then she can finish the report. However, with the interview today, she could type up most of the report and have it ready very quickly. Yay! Also, because I am taking Grace to the office it's cheaper than having a social worker come out to the house. PHEW! I am so relieved! Ok...so that's the update.

We went to the zoo yesterday while it was nice out. This time, I think Grace really "got" it. While we were walking through the tunnel, she got really excited and started bouncing in her stroller. She just absolutely loved the animals, and this time I really didn't have to work hard at trying to get her to look at the animals or find the animals. I could tell this time that she saw the animals...even when they were quite a distance away. I took one amazing shot of the leopard walking by the glass Grace was standing by, and they look like they are face-to-face. Grace loved it! At lunch time I also realized how much her eating is developing. WHen I make her a sandwich, I usually cut it up for her. At the zoo, I just let her take bites out of the bread while I held it. I turned around to eat my own lunch, and when I turned back around, she was holding the bread just like a big girl and taking a bite out of it like she's known how to all along! Now I know that she can feed herself with a sandwich and I no longer have to chop it up into tiny pieces. Just cut it in half, and she'll do the rest!

Next week, Grace turns two. On the 14th will be her first birthday party! I was just talking to my MIL today to set up the plans. We aren't doing anything fancy or big. We're just inviting our parents, grand parents, and siblings. 16 people total. I think there was some hinting around to invite more (cousins and such), but I don't want a big deal for her first party. Anyway, the 15th will be her first day in the new Sunday School and Children's Church rooms. During our Sunday School hour, she'll be in a new Toddler class, and during the Church hour, she'll go to the Two's. I'm a little nervous and also excited. The class she's in now is for new walkers (she just started walking in November), and I think that being around children her own age will really help her development. Well, that's all the new news for now. I'll post a couple of pictures from the zoo.

I am soooo mad!

2009-03-04T17:28:00.002-06:00

Last week, we were notified that our post-placement report was due five months after we brought our daughter home rather than six months. So, our report is due March 11. However, the agency would like it two weeks early so it has time to be translated, etc... Ok, two weeks early was the day before I received the e-mail. Now, the problem doesn't end there. Other than saying what kinds of photos I should send of Grace, it said noting about what the post placement should say, so I wrote a report about how Grace has improved since we brought her home. I e-mailed a copy of it the other day, proud of myself that I've managed to get it done before the due date, only to find out today that it was supposed to be done by the HOME STUDY AGENCY!! Would have been nice to know. So, I have to try to contact the H.S. agency to get them to write the report and all before next Wednesday. Then they lay a guilt trip on my by saying that if we don't have it submitted on time, it will delay the other couples waiting because Russia wants to investigate why the reports are late. Well, they're just going to have to wait. I can't possibly submit a report I don't have, and I'm not to blame that Russia decided to change the requirement to five months. I am soooo frustrated!

Winter Blahs

2009-02-24T14:06:00.002-06:00

I am so done with this cold weather. I have been cooped up in this house. I'm freezing! We're trying to save money on our gas bill, so we have the thermostat set to 68. However, in the basement, which is where the television and computers are, it's about 64. Since my daughter is currently taking a nap, and I don't want to disturb her, I'm just sitting being quiet...and because I'm not active, I'm COLD! I can't wait for the warmer weather so I can get out and have fun....get some exercise, lose some weight....

2009-02-13T12:23:00.002-06:00

I am going to print these and include them with her Elmo birthday invitations....

Our Valentine sent to family

Four Months ago Today

2009-02-13T12:14:00.002-06:00

Four months ago today a judge in Kemerovo, Russia made us the happiest people on earth. She granted us our petition to adopt our daughter. We were so nervous as we sat in that court room. The judge asked Brian a lot of questions about his health, and also asked about our home, our yard, and our schools. She also asked questions about our families. When it was my turn, she asked me why I don't have a job with my bachelor's degree. I explained that I wanted to stay home with our child. I then asked for the 10-wait period to be waived. We left the court room for all of 30 seconds, and when we returned the prosecutor told us there was no reason for her to deny our petition, and the judge granted us custody of our daughter!

These four months have gone quickly, and Grace continues to grow and learn. We have had a few days of good weather, and I have taken the oportunity to take her to the park and to the zoo. At the zoo, she was dancing and singing, and I finally realized that she was singing "Old McDonald". She sang it for all the animals we saw, including the giraffe and bears! She loves the camera. For Valentine's Day, I made a sign and had her hold it. She would not even wait for me to take the picture, but would come running to see the picture on the screen. I finally got a shot that was good enough and e-mailed the Valentine to our families. Tomorrow I am going to the party store to get balloons for V-Day, as Grace absolutely loves balloons.

She is continuing to gain weight. She is now up to 18 pounds. That is so exciting for us.

One year ago yesterday

2009-02-05T09:04:00.002-06:00

One year ago yesterday, we received the bad news that the little girl in Guatemala that we were in the process of adopting was no longer available. Later that day, on Feb. 4, 2008 we received a referral of a baby girl in Russia. She was 11 months old, and she was tiny. One year ago today, we contacted our adoption agency and accepted the referral. It was a very rough ride. We are so glad we accepted the referral and are now the proud parents of this beautiful little girl.

Happy New Year

2009-01-23T13:27:00.006-06:00

We are so blessed to start this new year with our daughter. We have had so much time to get to know each other with this cold weather. There were several days that were too cold to leave the house. Right now, Grace has a cold. It's her first time sick here, and it's been interesting to see what her personality is when sick. So far, she is saying about 24 words. Well, what we can recognize as words, anyway. She is also using about 16 signs in sign language. She is growing like crazy. When we first picked her up, she was in 6-9 month clothes, and they were baggy. By November, she was wearing 12 month tops because she has a long torso. Just recently, I've had to switch to 18 month onesies and pajamas because of her length. She still needs 12 month pants because her legs are short, and long-sleeved shirts I still need 12 months. But the onesies and zippers make it too tight on one-piece outfits. I am so glad that she's getting taller and gaining weight. She is also a little ham. She loves getting her photo taken, and she loves to be the center of attention. My mother took a four-generation photo at the shower, and she is hoping to have it placed in the local paper with an article. She asked me to write the article, and I did. I don't know if it's good enough to get into the paper, though. We continue to discover who she is, and we are having a lot of fun doing so. We can't wait for our first Valentine's Day!

Christmas Blessings

2008-12-22T13:55:00.005-06:00

Well, this Christmas we are certainly blessed. We have really enjoyed shopping for Christmas presents for our daughter. She has brought so much joy to our lives.

I just wanted to post quickly with how she's doing. She is walking very well and has gained a few pounds. She is learning very quickly. She can now say about eight words in English and use about 10 signs in sign language. She is a fast learner.

Well, I thought I could post more, but baby girl just woke up from her nap, so I'll have to stop for now. Merry Christmas!!!

Update

2008-11-23T15:04:00.004-06:00

It has been one month now since we brought her home. We are doing very well. We are still seeing a few temper tantrums, but now it's more like "getting close to the terrible two's" type of tantrums.

The picture is from her second trip to the park. Her first visit to the park we forgot the camera, and on the second trip she just absolutely loved the swing.

She is eating well, and all issues with milk/juice have been worked out. She will now not only drink milk, but soy milk, goat's milk, and even rice milk. This is handy because some soy doesn't have to be kept refrigerated (for when we are on the road...) She eats just about anything, and if she won't eat something the first time, I try it again another day and she loves it. She has started eating on her own...if I can make it "finger food". I still need to hand feed her things like yogurt and oatmeal, but I let her hold a spoon and I guide it to the food and she puts it in her own mouth. She's getting used to it. A couple more months and she'll be eating only on her own. She is now completely off the bottle and drinks from sippy cups.

Her sleeping is going well. She sleeps 11-12 hours at night and 1-2 hours in the afternoon.
She still screams when we put her to bed, whether it's nap time or night time. She cries loudly for about five minutes or so, then quiets down and goes to sleep. As the weeks go by, we find that she's crying for less and less time. Also, she's getting used to our "nightly" routine. When we sit on the twin bed to read the night time story, she starts to whimper, because she knows that the next step is me laying her down in the crib.

She has met the majority of the family....grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles. She has one aunt to meet, but she's met almost all of her cousins. She'll be meeting the rest at Thanksgiving or at the baby shower on Dec. 6th.

She will be evaluated on Nov. 25 by Early Intervention to see if she qualifies for any services. While I personally don't think there are any issues, and in fact she catches on very quickly to things, I also don't think it would hurt to have a professional opinion or to get some tips on how to help her catch up.

She started walking soon after we got home, but it wasn't until mid-November that she found her balance and started walking around the house. Now she loves to walk everywhere. We went to the indoor play room in our are and she just spent the whole time walking around the room. She had no interest in playing...she just wanted to walk....

As far as the adoption goes, we are officially "done". We received her Certificate of Citizenship in the mail this week, along with a letter from President Bush, congratulating her on becoming a citizen. We can now apply for her Social Security card and her Passport.

I am amazed at how quickly my house becomes messy now. It seems like I am constantly doing dishes. The laundry didn't surprise me, and I'm not really having problems keeping up with that. I am having trouble keeping up with the vacuuming and dusting. I think I just have to do it once a month or once every two weeks and not worry about it so much. Since she's taking such long naps, it will be easy for me to grab some cloths and dust the furniture and such. Vacuuming is harder, and I find that I have to do it on weekends when my husband is home rather than try to do it during the week. Other than that, my biggest adjustment has been shopping. I can't just pick up my purse any time and head out the door. I have to think about whether it's close to meal or snack time or even too close to nap time. The weather, too. She gets hot easily, and she throws a fit in the car if her hood or hat is on because she gets sweaty so easily, so if it's raining or snowing I have to make sure she's covered for the trip to the car, but then uncover her head in the car. I also have to think about where we're going and if I'll need a stroller or can use a cart. If we are going somewhere like the post office, it's so much easier to take her in a stroller because then she doesn't wiggle as much.

Well, my daughter has been sleeping for over two hours, and if she sleeps any longer, she won't go to bed at a decent time tonight, so I think I'd better go make some noises so she'll wake up. I hate to do that, but I'd like to go to bed at a decent time tonight, too!!!!

We are all doing very well, and I can't wait to see what the next month brings....

How We're Doing

2008-11-07T06:32:00.002-06:00

Where has the time gone? It seems like we got home yesterday, but it's been two weeks! Grace is doing very well. She was throwing some massive temper tantrums and we seem to have worked out the issues. Most of them centered around meal times. We finally figured out that she doesn't like the American baby food. It's too bland. So, we just make soups, stews, and whatever else we're having for dinner and blend some up for her, too. So far there is nothing I've made that she doesn't like....that's a great feeling... She's a great eater. She has a huge breakfast of oatmeal and fruit, and then a couple hours later she'll have a snack. At lunch she eats a huge bowl of food (usually a soup) and then have a snack in the afternoon after her nap. Sometimes she'll have a second snack in the afternoon if I just don't want to give her dinner so early. At dinner she'll eat a huge bowl of food, and sometimes before bed we'll give her another snack. We're still working on meals and snacks as far as what she eats. I know we have to get a little more creative with her snacks...they need to be a little more varied and such. However, for now it's working....she's not getting any junk food for her snacks or meals, so we're safe there...

Her sleeping is awesome. She goes to bed anywhere between 7 and 8 pm. She wakes up anywhere between 7 and 8 am. She takes a nap in the afternoon-anywhere between 1-2.5 hours. This gives me an advantage because I know that when I get up at 6am, I have time to take a shower, dress, catch up on e-mail, do some dishes, and eat breakfast. During her naps I can clean the bathrooms, Swiffer the floors, and do some dishes.

We have a somewhat daily routine, which has not only helped her get the sleep she needs, but helps me stay sane. After she wakes, she has breakfast, then we play for a while. On MWF around 9 am or so, we go to the Community Center in a nearby village and go to the indoor play area. It's great. For $2 she can go in and play with all this outdoor play stuff and have fun. We usually stay for an hour or so...it depends on if there are other children there. She gets hungry around 10 or 10:30, so we go home and I give her a snack. If she gets up early (closer to 7) then I can give her a snack before we go and then I have time to run a small errand before we have to go home for lunch. Lunch is close to noon if I can manage it. Really it's about 11:30. Between noon and 1 she's ready for a nap. She sleeps until 2 or 3. (Usually closer to 2) We then have a snack and then if it's a "nice" day outside we try to go out and go to the park...or just go for a walk. Around 4 or 5 she's starting to get hungry again so I'll give her a small snack or just make dinner for her. When I make meals for us, I take the leftovers and process them for her. Then I make meal sized portions and put them in the freezer. That way, if she's hungry before I can get our dinner done, she can eat one of the leftovers. We have more playtime after dinner and when my husband is home, he plays with her, too. Depending on how tired she is, we usually take her upstairs around 7:30. Every-other day she gets a bath, and we then put her to bed. She has a sleep-routine where she cries for about ten minutes, but then settles down and falls asleep to her lullaby music.

She is gaining weight quickly. She is about 17 to 18 pounds now. When we took her to the doctor in Moscow, she was 14.7 pounds. She's really trying to walk, too. She loves to stand herself up, and will usually walk along the furniture with ease. She will take about five steps before she falls. She loves to try to walk to me. She is also coming along in her speech. She is saying "Mama, Dada, UP, Nana (our word for Grandma). She is mimicking sneezing, and she likes to scrunch her nose and mouth up and blow...we don't know who taught her that one. She can blow raspberries.

She is overall a very happy baby. We had the film developed from the pictures the orphanage ladies took. Most of them are dark, but you can make some things out. She appears very confused to be in the play rooms. She looks very serious in each picture. She's also very alone. We wish that the pictures had turned out better, but we're grateful for what we have.

She's doing very well and is adjusting to her new life quickly. I'd better go now so I can have my breakfast before she gets up....

2008-10-26T13:17:00.004-05:00

In her Hip Hammock, enjoying the sights of Moscow...this is a cafe on Arbat Street called My My.

A few photos for your viewing pleasure...

Dr. Ludmilla, the orphanage director...

Our Journey to bring Grace HOME!

2008-10-25T06:13:00.003-05:00

I didn't have access to a computer/internet while we were gone, so sorry it's taken me so long to post.

We left on Thursday, October 9. The flight to New York went well...it was only about two hours. It was a tiny plane. When we arrived at the airport, we stopped at Wendy's to get lunch. If we had known what was ahead, we should have grabbed several burgers to take with us, but what did we know? The flight to Moscow seemed to take forever, and of course, I couldn't sleep a wink! It was about nine hours from New York to Moscow. We landed a bit early in Moscow, and had plenty of time to get through Passport Control and Immigration. We collected our bags and entered the "waiting" area and found our coordinator from last time, Oksana. She took us to a seating area to wait for the other couple whom we traveled with last trip. We waited only about 40 minutes. Their flight from Atlanta landed shortly after ours. We then all piled into a van and headed for the medical clinic. Now, during our flight we had "dinner" and "breakfast". Of course, you know airline food....it was o.k., but not the greatest. By the time we landed in Moscow, we were pretty hungry. However, there were no "fast food" restaurants at the airport where we were waiting, and no time to really get a bite to eat. The driver did not stop to get us something. We hinted to Oksana that we were hungry, but we had to get to the medical clinic.

We arrived at the clinic at about 1, but our appointment wasn't until 3. Oksana told us that we needed to pay for the visit in Rubles (we had been told previously that it could be American dollars), so she took us a few blocks away to exchange money. We then stopped at a Cafe, where we had a sandwich for a snack. Actually, it was a half a sandwich...and kind of expensive. I ate it simply because I was starving, but it wasn't good. We got back to the clinic to wait our turn for the medicals.

The medicals were a joke. We were told in May that we had to have an 8-doctor medical when we arrived in Moscow, and we had to do the medical before we could go to court. It cost us about $700 a piece. We had to submit paperwork and test results from our doctor here and take all that stuff with us. For the visit, one doctor would call the couple in, ask a handful of questions, stamp a paper, and we were done with that doctor. Litereally. The questions were so stupid, I don't know how they can determine how healthy you are from that. For instance, the psychiatrist asked "do either of you have a history of mental health problems?" and "do either of you have family members that suffered from mental health problems?" and then said " based on your answers I would say that you are both mentally capable of taking care of a child." The psychologist asked " are you excited about adopting a child?" " Are you both pretty happy people?" and "Is your family excited about the adoption?" The infectologist asked "how often do you get a cold?" The only doctors that asked a bunch of questions was the general practitioner who seemed fascinated that Brian had clear lung x-ray even though he had cystic fibrosis (thanks to me who insisted he do his therapy religiously before the x-ray...) She called in another specialist to review the findings. Asked Brian a bunch of questions about his health, none of which seemed rude, smiled a lot at us and signed our papers. Another doctor came in and tested our reflexes. Another one came in and checked our breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. (mine was high, but after 24 hours of traveling and court to look forward to, whose wouldn't be?) That's about it...only one doctor actually smiled at us. The rest were all business. Only two looked at any of the paperwork we brought. Oh, and we needed a urine analysis (we were told we didn't need one by our case worker) so we gave a sample, but I really don't think the tests were run on it.

After that, we rushed back to the airport. It's a two-hour drive from the clinic, and we were going to be late for our flight. We arrived just in time. We were all starving, but of course, no fast-food at the airport, and we didn't have time to go searching for snacks. Our flight left like a half hour after we found the gate. This flight was four hours to Kemerovo. We landed at about 6 in the morning. Our coordinator, Anna, met us after baggage claim and took us to a van. She explained that we would have about 40 minutes to shower and have breakfast at the hotel before we were to leave for the orphanage. I've never eaten so much so fast in my life. The women at the hotel made us breakfast. We had fried eggs, shredded spicy carrots, cold ham, cold kidney beans, cold corn, and some other stuff too. I was so hungry I ate just about everything accept the carrots...too spicy for me! We ran out to the van for the 2.5 hour ride to the orphanage.

When we arrived at the orphanage, we were pleasantly surprised. It was undergoing a rennovation. Anna explained that there is a new law stating that walls have to be a certain depth, so the orphanage added insulation and siding. There was also some new play equipment in the play yard. Glad our "donation" was able to help. Anna rang the bell, and a woman answered. When she heard what we were there for, she shook her head and told Anna that no one told them anyone would be here to visit children that day. She let us in anyway and took us to what is the Music Room. We didn't see this room the first visit, but it was right next to the Play Room we were in in June, and we could hear the children singing and someone playing the piano while we were playing with our children. About a half an hour later, they brought the children in to us. Grace cried almost the entire time. Her nose was stuffy, and we weren't sure if she had a cold. She also appeared very tired and hungry. We were only with our children about 40 minutes before the caretakers came in and took the kids for lunch. How I wish the visit could have been longer!!

We left the orphanage and Anna said that we'd be stopping to get something to eat. We stopped at an Uzbek place. I won't call it a restaurant, because it was like a truck stop. It was a small building with tables and chairs and you order your food at the counter. Then a man outside with a grill makes your food and brings it to you. The meal was very good. We had a "salad", which was cucumbers and tomatoes with mayonaise and barbecue pork wrapped in a tortilla. Brian and I had to use the restroom, and Anna showed us a door with a T on it. It was an iron door leading to a cement room. There was a hole in the ground. You get the picture? No TP and no sink. Fun!

We got back to the hotel and all of us just crashed. We had about three hours of sleep in the last 48 hours, and all of us were just zonked.

On Sunday we went down for breakfast. It was blinis (thin pancakes) stuffed with cottage cheese. Doesn't sound good, but they were sooooo good. Especially with sour cream on them. We went exploring and found an internet cafe. Well, it advertised that you could use the internet there, but no on could get a signal. There were two men there. They were trying to speak to us in English. They communicated to us that Germany and Russia played soccer the prior evening, and that Germany won. They then started talking about politics. They wanted to know what party Obama was and McCain. They told us they wanted Obama to win. They said some uncomplementary things about our present President and told us that the leader of Georgia is a terrorist. They then tried to get us to go out back for a smoke, but they weren't talking about cigarettes. We think they wanted us to smoke pot. We left quickly. We found a "mall", which was like WalMart. Well, a disorganized WalMart. Either way, we were able to buy some necessities and some food.

Bright and early Monday morning we had the egg breakfast before court. The other couple went first. It took about 40 minutes. We were called. There were four other people in the room. The judge, the social worker from the orphanage, a prosecutor, and the court reporter. The judge asked Brian to stand. She asked a lot of questions, all of which we had been prepared for and Brian was allowed to read his responses from notes. She then asked about his diabetes. She was just trying to make sure that Brian's health is stable and that he can provide for our daughter.

I was then asked to stand. The judge wanted to know why I have a Bachelor's Degree but don't use it. I explained that I wanted to raise our daughter first before I started my career. She seemed pleased with that. I then asked for the 10 day waiting period to be waived and explained that she had a doctor's appointment to see how we can start "treating her" (they made a big deal out of the fact that she is underweight and not on-target developmentally....they saw it as a "sickness"). We then listened as she read almost our entire home study. The prosecutor asked us a few questions, and then the social worker from the orphanage spoke. She said that when they brought Grace out to us for the first time in June, Grace came to me without crying and that she played really well with us while we were there. The prosecutor was satisfied with the fact that I had been a nanny-I had lots of experience with children. We left the room for about 20 seconds. When we returned, the prosecutor said that she believes we satisfy the requirements for an adoptive family and that she supports the 10-days being waived. The judge also said that we satisfy the requirements and that she approves the 10-day waive. She granted us our petition to adopt. We're parents!!!

Right after court, we went back to the hotel to grab our diaper bag and some paperwork. We first went to the Vital Records office. Anna had previously filed our paperwork for us, so when we arrived, it was all ready. We received her birth certificate and her adoption decree. Anna held on to them, however, because they needed to go through more paperwork with them. We then went to the Police station where we applied for her Russian passport.

Prior to court, Anna had told us that Dr. Ludmilla wished for us to pick up our children that day instead of Tuesday. So, after we were done at the Police station, we loaded into the van and left for the orphanage. Our translator, Alyssia, had the driver stop at an Armenian place (much like the Uzbek eatery) for a quick bite to eat. It was pretty much the same meal, only the barbecue sauce was different and not as good. We raced to the orphanage and arrived at about 5:30. Dr. Ludmilla met us there and went over any questions we had. She then talked about the schedule at the orphanage and their sample menu. It went something like this:

7am wake up
8am breakfast (oatmeal)
9am activities /exercises
10-12 snack and play time (juice and fruit)
12 lunch ( something like bread product and eggs)
1-3 nap
4pm snack (sour milk product like yogurt or kefir)
5-7 activities like massage and walks outside
8pm dinner (casserole, milk and fruit)
9 pm bed

Ok, so it's not exact, but that's the general idea, and yes, 9pm bed and 7 am wake up....

I had to use the restroom, and when I returned, a very confused Grace was sitting on Brian's lap. As soon as she saw me, she burst into tears. We had to hurry and change them (diaper and all) and had time for one quick photo with Dr. Ludmilla before we left for the hotel. She cried until I gave her a bottle of juice, then she fell asleep.

When we returned to the hotel, Grace woke up so we decided to give her a bath. Well, actually it was a shower because there was no tub. She hated it. She went to bed, though and went right to sleep.

On Tuesday we all just stuck around the hotel. Brian went to the Police station to pick up her passport. On Wednesday we ventured outside and took her to the internet place to send some quick messages. People were getting worried because they hadn't heard from us. It was a quick message, though, because Grace refused to go anywhere near Brian, so Brian had to type.

Thursday morning bright and early we boarded a plane for Moscow (it's now the 16th of October). Grace fell asleep during take off, cried most of the trip, and slept during landing. Again, she didn't like Brian so I couldn't just hand her over to him while I took a break. Let's just say I was very tired. We landed in Moscow and we were dropped off at our apartment. It was very spacious and was located on Novy Arbat Street. Very nice place...I would highly recommend it. It was very close to food and shopping.

We couldn't find the grocery store right away, so I did have some panic moments when our supply of baby food was winding down. However, we did end up finding one and I was able to feed my child. We were also able to buy chickens for ourselves that I could boil with our pots and stove at the apartment. Friday we went to the medical clinic for Grace's check up. Dr. Boris called her a Drama Queen, and I have to agree. He declared her healthy but underweight. He urged us to stick to the diet the orphanage director gave us. Good luck with that, the girl wouldn't drink milk or formula or water. We also didn't have access to all the foods the directress told us about. Anyway, we did the best we could.

On Saturday and Sunday we went shopping and exploring. On Monday we went to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and received her American Visa. Tuesday Brian took her passport to the Russian Consulate and registered her. Wednesday we went to the Kremlin (although we didn't pay to see anything. We just took photos of the outside....we never made it to St. Basil's because you had to pay to get in.

Early Thursday morning (October 23rd) we began our LONG journey home. She slept for take off, cried most of the way to New York, and fell asleep for landing. During the flight from New York to Chicago, she slept the entire flight. When we landed at O'Hare, my Father-In-Law was there to get us, and my Mother-In-Law and her sister were there, too. They went to our house during that day and had baked us cookies, made a pot roast, and decorated the house for Halloween. They only stayed a few minutes, though, and we went to bed right after we put her down.

So far, Grace has adjusted very well. We are still tweaking our sleep schedules. Friday she woke up at 4:30am and would not go back to sleep. She took a nap in the morning and another in the afternoon. However, she wanted to sleep longer and I woke her up at 3:30. She was NOT happy. She was a bear the entire evening. She had an absolute fit during dinner. Wouldn't eat-just got hysterical. I gave her a bath and put her to bed.

This morning she woke up at 3:30. I changed her diaper and put her back to bed. I was NOT going to repeat Friday. She cried for a few minutes and then went back to sleep. She slept until almost 7am. She was very cranky at breakfast, but I think it was because she was so hungry and she didn't like being in the high chair. She has been in a very good mood since she woke up.

She loves the cats, but still is a bit rough with them. Lyla really likes her, and will rub up against her...until Grace grabs her tail....

She loves daddy now, and loves to play with him. That was a huge relief. She loves the house and loves her toys. Her first medical visit is on Monday, where I can ask the doctor how to get her to gain weight.

Well, we're off to Babies R Us, where I need to buy a diaper pail and a Sleep Sack. The girl twists, rolls and moves so much at night she can't keep a blanket on! I'll post pictures once we've had a chance to get them on our comuter!

Just a few more hours

2008-10-07T22:34:00.002-05:00

Well, just a few more hours to go before we leave and change our lives forever. I have been reading the blogs of people who have recently returned from their second trips to get an idea of how things go. One couple used the same agency, and completed the adoption in January. Their daughter was the same age as ours and it was interesting to read their experience.

We currently have one suitcase and two carry-ons each. The suitcases are five lbs over the weight limit for the Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Kemerovo. I am considering splitting some of the things into a third bag so that we won't get fined. I will have to check to see if three bags for two people is acceptable.

We are unable to take the laptop with us, so we will have to be content with using the computers at the hotel and apartment.

We are traveling with the same couple we traveled with on our first trip. Our apartments are only about 1.5 miles away from each other in Moscow, so it will be nice to have another couple to sight-see with.

We'll write more once we're in Kemerovo.

Less than a week to go...

2008-10-03T14:29:00.003-05:00

It is now six days before we leave. We have made all our travel arrangements, and received our Visas today. We leave on Thursday, October 9th at 11:25 am. There is a stop-over at JFK, then we land at 10am on Friday morning in Moscow. We will be joining Beth and Jason (the couple who went with us on trip number one) and will go to our medical appointments. Later that evening, we will catch a flight to Kemerovo. We arrive in Kemerovo around 8am Saturday. We will be visiting our children on Saturday. On Monday, we have court. We pray that the judge waives the 10-day wait. If the ten days is waived, we will pick Grace up from the orphanage on Tuesday the 14th. We are required to stay in the region one full day after pick up (Wednesday). On Thursday morning we go back to Moscow. Our flight leaves Kemerovo at 8am and because of the time zones we land in Moscow at 8am. It is a four-hour flight, and Kemerovo is four hours ahead of Moscow. On Thursday, our children will go to the U.S. Embassy for their check up. Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday will be spent doing passport and visa stuff. We will leave Thursday afternoon/early evening the 23rd. Because of the time zone differences, we will arrive at O'Hare at 7pm on Thursday.

We are trying to pack lightly, but we still have two huge suitcases along with our two carry -ons. I am trying to stuff as much in the carry-ons as I can so that if our suitcases get lost, we will each have some clothes until they catch up with us again. Brian won't pack until the last minute, so I am going nuts thinking we are going to forget something.

My friends are thowing us a baby shower on Saturday, October 4. I am so excited! My mom and Grandma are coming. They are driving out tonight and staying the night until tomorrow. My Grandmother has never been to our house before. I'm not sure where she will want to sleep. My mother has never come here by herself, so I'm a bit nervous about her driving here for the first time. She doesn't have a cell phone, so I hope she doesn't get lost!

I'll post again once we return!

2008-09-19T13:53:00.002-05:00

We have a court date!!!!

We were notified on Thursday that we have a tentative court date for October 13 (probably won't change, but we're waiting for confirmation).

We are currently scrambling to make travel arrangements. We've already called the travel agency (I don't want the hassle of trying to schedule all those flights!!) and she will get in touch with me later today. Of course, just like the first trip, we can't purchase the tickets until we get the confirmation.

We will have to make arrangements for our stay in Moscow on our own. There are tons of apartments available. We are trying to find some under $150, which is proving really hard. The family that traveled at the same time to meet their son is also traveling at the same time for their court. We are trying to work together to get the same apartment building. It would be nice to be in the same area. They are in Georgia and decided to book their own flights, so we won't see them until we get to the airport in Kemerovo...we might see them on the flight from Moscow to Kemerovo..I think there's only one airline that makes the flight. Anyway...I know we'll be staying in the same hotel in Kemerovo because our agency makes the reservations for us.

It will be nice to have another American couple staying near us in Moscow. We will be able to sight see together, and of course take some FAMILY PICTURES!

We are just so excited to be able to to.

Please pray for us as we make travel arrangements and approach our travel date.

Thanks for all your prayers so far...they have truly been a blessing to us, and have helped us survive to this point!!!!

Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Adoption

2008-08-28T19:43:00.001-05:00

Things I wish I knew Before I Started Adoption
International Adoption information:

As soon as you sign the contract for your agency, download application I 600 A from the U.S. Department of Homeland security web site. Submit with a cover letter stating that you will send your home study as soon as it's completed.

Begin your home study A.S.A.P. Ask ahead of time what documents you will need and take them to your first meeting. During the home visit, you will be asked for a biography. Work on this ahead of time.

Your agency may require adoptive parent credit hours. Begin these as soon as possible. There are on-line classes you can take for free, or find out if there is an adoption seminar you. You can take on-line classes for credit through adoptionlearningpartners.org

The USCIS will issue an order for you to be fingerprinted…do it as soon as you can as the results can take up to eight weeks.

Contact the Secretary of State in which you were born/married and order copies of those documents. Also, request them to be authenticated at the same time, saving time and shipping costs. (you must know the country you are adopting from, since all countries have different requirements). Or, you can order your documents through the Vita check web site. (you will receive your documents within days instead of weeks)

If you were born out of the counry, make sure you know how to order copies of your birth certificate and get copies of it as soon as possible. They will also need to be authenticated (apostilled or certified).

Submit your fingerprints to your local police station as soon as possible, as sometimes the results can take up to 8 weeks.

When you start your dossier, ask for two or three original copies of what you need. Have one or two notarized. Leave the other one or two alone in case you need them notarized at another time.

When you take your documents to be notarized, make sure that the notary does not expire for at least a year. If you are not close to completing the process by the time the notary expires, try to take the un-notarized copies to another notary. If your notary expires before your court date, your documents would need to be re-done. Therefore, if you have extra original copies of your dossier, you can have them notarized and apostilled in a jiffy.

When you notarize the documents for your dossier, photocopy them before you get them notarized or apostilled. Once they are apostilled, it's harder to photocopy. Also, if you need an extra copy of your document without the notaryl you will have copies of it. When you get them apostilled, you'll have to photocopy the apostille as well.

Make friends with a notary public. Try to get all your documents notarized by the same person. This will make getting your documents apostilled easier and faster.

When you are ready to have your documents apostilled (or certified, whatever language your agency uses) try to go to your state's capital if you live near enough, or to the largest city that has the office you need. In Illinois it's the Secretary of State's office at 17 State Street, level 10. If you can go to the office, go in person. Arrive as early as they open. This way, you are sure to get your documents done while you wait. When you send them in to the office, it will take weeks for them to get to the documents and you have to pay for shipping.

Your agency might ask you to set up a FedEx account (or another mail service). If you choose FedEx, you can go online to their web site and order envelopes and air bills. Order at least the air bills because they print your return address information and account number on the forms. Having them in your home will make it easier when you need to send something out to your agency.

Stay organized. Don't let the photocopies and originals get all mixed up. Keep them all separate in folders clearly marked.

Be prepared for unexpected costs. While the contract may say that your adoption costs $21,000 in reality, it may cost about $35-40,000. This is because the agency doesn't take into account the fees for applying for the I-600 A and the fingerprinting, and also the postal costs, photocopying fees, etc…

Invest in a printer that acts as a photocopier, scanner, and fax machine. You might be able to find a really good one on sale, or through craig's list, ebay or garage sale. You will save a lot of money and time by being able to do it at home.

Have a stack of post-it notes close at hand when you are working with your documents. That way, you can write memos to yourself about what needs to be done with each page.

When your agency e-mails or sends you the documents necessary for the dossier, save them to your computer. That way, if you mess up a copy, you can easily print another one. You should also consider saving a copy once you fill it out. You can always print it and write "I affirm that this is a copy of an original document" to have it notarized. It will save you a lot of heartache to have to re-do the page if, say, the notary expires. If you have a photocopy on file (without a notary signature), you can print off a copy and get that one notarized. Also save a notarized version in case your agency looses their copy. You can print off a copy for them and still keep your copies. Save a copy of the apostille for each page as well in case you need to print off a copy of the apostille.

I hope these tips help, and if you have any advice, please let me know!

Whew

2008-08-19T16:03:00.002-05:00

We have made huge leaps since I last posted. Was it only two weeks ago? Anyway, last Wednesday we had our appointment to get fingerprinted. I received the Police Clearances yesterday. We also had our doctor's appointments on Thursday. Today I picked up all the test results from the chest x-rays and the bloodwork. I also picked up the long-awaited letter from the doctor. I hope that it is sufficient. I e-mailed it to our case worker, and I'm waiting for a response. I don't know if no response is a positive thing or not.

I hope to have everything notarized tomorrow and perhaps by Thursday I will be able to go downtown and have everything apostilled. If it goes smoothly like that, I can send everything to the agency by Friday or Monday. That's it. Our whole second dossier is complete. After everything is notarized, I will photocopy everything. Then when it's all been apostilled, I will photocopy the apostilles. It will be a big packet I send to the agency. Not only will I have to send the agency's copies, but I also have to send an additional three copies for their co-agency.

We are praying that we meet no new challenges. We have struggled so hard for this adoption, and I pray that we are met with relative smooth sailing from now on. (minor problems are ok...but no more big stuff, please!)

I'll post again once we hear something.

A little progress

2008-08-07T19:02:00.002-05:00

It took us over three weeks to finally get his neurologist to fax his medical records to our family doctor. We called them after three weeks and explained that we only need the two years surrounding the surgeries. Within 24 hours, the files were at our doctor's office. Big progress there. We also scheduled our physicals for August 25. I sent our agency an update, and we were asked if we could get a physical sooner. So, we called the doctor and re-scheduled for Aug. 14. We also ordered the papers for our background checks that takes four to six weeks to get the results. However, the agency e-mailed and asked if we can get our fingerprints done instead, which only takes 24 hours. We would then call the State Police and ask them to send us a letter of clearance.

I'm a little anxious to find out why we are all of a sudden in a hurry to get all our paperwork in. We pray that we will be able to travel by the end of September. After we get the police clearances and medicals, our second part of the dossier is complete. We've had the majority of it done since April. We were supposed to take the bulk of it with us to Russia and hand it over to the translator to be translated while we were waiting for our second trip. However, we were asked at the last minute to hang on to them and make extra copies. So, we will be sending the entire dossier to Russia to be translated, and I have no idea how long that will take.

That's all the news we have for now. Hopefully, I'll have some more positive news another day. We are still unsure if Russia will still be allowing us to continue even after our doctor writes the note. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm thinking our agency is positive we will continue because we were told a month ago not to do the rest of our paperwork until our doctor had written the note and the agency had a chance to "guess" if Russia would be willing for us to continue. Obviously they've had a change of heart because not only are they asking for us to go ahead and do the paperwork, they are also asking us to do it "in a hurry".

More later.....

A Snag

2008-07-13T20:02:00.002-05:00

We have hit a snag in our process. We now need a note from our doctor explaining a medical condition. We are unsure if our family doctor will be willing to write the letter. However-even if our doctor is willing to write a letter, we still may not be able to continue with this adopion. The letter may not be acceptable to the Russian DOE. Please pray that if this is God's will that we be parents to this beautiful, sweet child that we will be able to complete this adoption. Pray for our sanity and our patience. We are getting very frustrated and just want to see things done.

We're home!

2008-06-26T16:54:00.004-05:00

Wednesday was such a bittersweet day. Aliona picked us up at 9:00 and took us to the orphanage. We went into Dr. Ludmilla's room and presented her with our gifts of clothes for the children, money for diapers or formula, and chocolates for the caretakers. She must have been impressed, because she took us on a tour of the orphanage! There are pictures on the Kemerovo yahoo group of these rooms, so I'd seen them before, but we were treated with a tour. It was amazing to see the rooms I had only thought I'd see in pictures. First we saw the pool room. It is a three-leaf clover-shaped pool. She said the children learn how to swim at an early age. She then showed us the sauna. Now, when I saw the picture on the yahoo group, I thought...wow...they have a sauna. However, Dr. Ludmilla explained that they don't use steam. Instead, they put herbs and oils on the rocks to help children with soar throats. She then showed us a little table set up with tea cups and explained that the children with soar throats drink herbal tea to relieve the pain and promote healing. Next, she showed us a large cedar barrel with a hole in the top. It is a steam chamber, and the child sits inside with his head out. The steam helps open nasal passages and lung passages. It was a gift from our agency, and she is very thankful for it. We then saw the therapy room. There were a few very old nebulizers for children with asthma and other breathing problems. Then there were little cots and electo-shock devices. She didn't explain all of it, but I'm assuming it might be for the children with CP. There was also a tanning light there. We at first were thinking...ok...lucky kids get a tan....but Dr. Ludmilla explained that there aren't enough sunny days there and the light helps the children absorb enough vitamin D.

We were very impressed, and we were amazed that she allowed us to see these rooms. When we arrived back at her office, a caretaker came in with Grace. She cried when her caretaker left, but she didn't fight me to get down. Dr. Ludmilla offered her a cookie and she stopped crying and even put her head on my chest while she chewed on the cookie. We then went back into the play room to spend time with her.

It was nice having the room all to ourselves. She wasn't distracted by what was going on with Jacob, and her attention was on us. We held her for a little while, and then let her down to show us what she wanted to do. She loves the stackable cups we brought, and the balls that make noise. She also loves to walk. When she was sitting on the floor and wanted to get up to walk, she would grab our fingers and pull herself up. That was an encouraging sign. If she didn't like the finger you offered her, she would move your hand until she found the finger she wanted to hold. Today I let Brian play with her a lot because the children aren't used to men. She took to him pretty well. She allows him to hold her, but when he kisses her she turns away...but I think it's more the mustache and beard rather than anything else.

We laid her down on the mat and found her tickle spot. She has a really cute giggle and we love her smile. Most of the time she pushes her bottom lip out. This makes her look mad all the time. I don't know if that's a nervous habit of hers, or if it's a mannerism. She smiled quite a bit for us today and was really using her voice. She was really comfortable with us.

All to soon, our time was over and we had to surrender her to her caretaker. We took one last moment to take pictures of us holding her and then gave her to the caretaker. I was waving bye-bye and saying "bakah bakah" in Russian (bye-bye) and for just the slightest minute, she waved her hand like she wanted to wave. We also gave the caretaker the blankie for her, the monkey that has our voices, the picture album, and the one-time use cameras.

Dr. Ludmilla was going to a meeting, so she said good-bye to us in the hall. She told us not to worry about our daughter, that she will be well taken care of while we are gone, and she will see us when we return in four to six weeks. She then shook our hand and gave us a kiss on the cheek and wished us a safe journey home.

I was surprised that I didn't cry when it was time to leave. We did get a chance to take a few pictures of the playground and the building before it was time to go. The rest of the day was spent in our room, as we don't have the translator all day. We didn't want to try to explore on our own.

We woke up at 4:30 on Thursday and began getting ready for our trip home. The flight in Novokuznetsk departed at about 7:40. The flight was four hours long, but because of the time changes, it was only 8:05 when we arrived in Moscow. We used the restroom on our way to baggage claim. The line for the women's room was really long. When we got out of the bathroom, I thought it was strange that our luggage hadn't arrived yet. We heard an announcement that said if you hadn't received your baggage to see the desk, and sure enough...there it was! We couldn't believe how fast the baggage was claimed off that flight.

Oksana met us after baggage claim and took us to the American Airlines desk to find out when our check-in was. We were a bit early. She was unable to take us further into the airport, so she wished us a safe journey, gave us a hug and said good-bye. We waited in a waiting area for about 3 hours, then checked it. It was so long. First, we were met by a security worker who asked us about our luggage...who packed the bag? How long have you owned the luggage? Where did you pack it? Do you have any battery-operated devices? How long have you owned them? When she was satisfied with our answers, she let us through to check in. That went easy, but then we had to go through Migration, and they had to check our visas to make sure we were leaving on the day we said we would. Then we had to go through passport control, then security. Once we reached the appropriate gate, we had to wait about an hour and a half before they announced our flight. It was another security check. They took our tickets and then we had to randomly get patted down. I was randomly chosen. She searched my bags and then I had to take my shoes off so she could check them, and finally she used the wand to check for metal and such. We were then shown to another waiting area where we waited another half hour for boarding.

We boarded about 2:00 and took off around 2:40. The flight was about 9 1/2 hours, and because of the time zone changes, we arrived at O'Hare at 3:00 pm. We disembarked and went through immigration then had to collect our baggage and go through customs. We took a taxi home...and here we are!

I have to say that there are a few blogs of people who have made the trip to Russia to visit their child and they have painted a very...hectic....negative view. Sure, the airports were confusing and it was a hassle to go throught all the checkpoints. My husband is diabetic and has an insulin pump attached to his stomach. I can't tell you how many times I had to tell the security people "He has diabetes" in Russian. They mostly understood and just shooed him through without further questions. We were also worried about all his medications. We were never asked about them. The only time it was an issue was when one lady accidentally put a sticker on his carry-on, labeling it as a check-in. The next lady was going to take it, and we had to tell her no, it's a carry on. We just opened it and showed her the prescription bottles, and she took the sticker off and that was it.

As far at the people...we had heard from some blogs that the people know why you are there and are very cold towards you. We did not find this at all. The translators were very friendly, and most of the people we met were friendly too, once we showed kindness to them. The people on the street didn't show any interest at all, and that's just Russia culture. But the staff at the hotel and the staff at the restaraunt we visited were all very nice (plus, we left BIG tips!) We left 10 rubels each time we ate, which is about fifty cents, but that 10 rubels was like 20% of the bill, and most people don't tip that much. At the restaraunt Brian was concerned we didn't leave the waiter a big enough tip until I pointed out that his tip was 40% of the bill! It doesn't seem like a lot to us, but it is a lot to them. Anyway, we found that if you showed kindness...allowed a pregnant woman to go first at the bathroom, let a single person sit at your table while you had breakfast because there were no other chairs...they were friendly.

We had a great trip. We can't wait to go back and see some more!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

2008-06-24T02:56:00.002-05:00

Today went very well. Yesterday after we used the internet room, we went back to the room and just relaxed. The other couple we met here from our agency were exhausted and wanted to rest. I ended up falling asleep around 9pm and woke up at midnight. The sun was just setting at that time. I couldn't get back to sleep until 4:30 am. I woke up again at 6:30, and because I was afraid of not waking up on time at 7, I stayed awake. We ate breakfast again at the little cafe on the same level as our room. We were downstairs waiting when Aliona came to get us to go to the orphanage.
When we arrived, we went into Dr. Ludmilla's room again, and she updated us on their health and to see if we had any questions. Grace was healthy. They brought her out first, and she cried when I took her in my arms. The crying didn't last long, however, when Brian brought out the balls she liked to play with yesterday. After they brought Jacob out for Beth and Jason, we were taken into the play room. We got two hours with her today. She was really starting to warm up to us today. We started out holding her and playing with the balls and the crinkly book. We showed her the monkey, but at first she was scared of it. Eventually, I took her hands and stood her up and she started to walk around the room. She led me where she wanted to go. She actually walks pretty well with assistance. It won't be long until she's walking by herself. Perhaps when we are here for two weeks next time we can work on that so that by the time she's in the US she'll be walking alone.
We took a lot of pictures and videos. I was giving her lots of kisses, and twice she gave me baby kisses. I was so thrilled. We started using the name "Grace Tanya" for her. Tanya is what they call her at the orphanage, and of course we are changing her first name to Grace. She was using her voice a lot today. We couldn't tell sometimes if she was unhappy, or if she was just baby talking to us. Finally, noon came, and the caretakers came in to take the children away. We each gave her kisses and hugs and said our good-byes. It was heart-breaking to let her go, but we know that we have one more day with her.

Aliona then took us back to Dr. Ludmilla's office, where we had to sign some papers accepting her as our referral and agreeing to continue with the adoption. Another form stated that we agreed to all the paperwork we'll have to fill out after the adoption to allow the Russian government to check on her, and the last was a form that would tell them what name should go on her birth certificate. It was so nice to write Grace Tatyana Reynolds for the first time!

After that, we were taken to a small souvenier shop, where we purchased just a few items. We then went to a cafe near the hotel for a late lunch. Brian had a sweet and sour chicken dish (very good, but not the same as you get at Chinese restaraunts), and I had counrty fried potatoes (round new potatoes fried in butter and onion) and pelminis, Ravioli stuffed with a mixture of pork and beef with sour cream. They were very good.

Aliona told us that there was a mall across the street from the hotel and we decided to go in. I wish we hadn't. It was like a flea market. We were in there for maybe 10 minutes.

Tonight we are hoping to stay up a little later and get some good sleep. I am exhausted. Tomorrow we will have our last day with Grace. Yes, I can call her Grace now. We asked the interpreter if there were any cases where a couple were called to court and the judge said no, and she said it's never happened. She said that if the judge is going to say no, he'll say so before the second trip. I also asked if it were common for a couple to go on the first trip and not be invited to court, and she said no. So, we don't have many concerns there.

After we visit with Grace tomorrow, we will present Dr. Ludmilla with our gift of clothes. She seemed quite pleased with the fact that we were spending an extra day here to get to know Grace better. She also told us that we should expect to be back in four to six weeks for court. She seemed very pleased with the way we were acting towards the children.

Thursday morning we will get up at the crack of dawn (literally-the sun starts to rise at 4am....it sets at midnight and rises at 4) and be ready for her to pick us up at 5:30 am. We will be taken to the airport to begin our long journey home. I don't know if I'll post again tomorrow.

I can't wait to get home so I can show some of you our pictures and video. Pray for us as we begin our journey home on Thursday. Start praying on Wednesday because that will be our Thursday....

We made it!

2008-06-23T03:32:00.002-05:00

It took a while, but we made it to Russia. We left Chicago at about 5:30 pm, and the flight was 10 hours long. We arrived in Domodedovo, where there was a little confusion about where we were supposed to go, but we just followed everyone else from the flight. We had to go through "Migration", which is where we turned in a paper stating what we were there for and where we were going. We then found the baggage claim. Exiting baggage claim, we found Oksana, who was holding a sign with our name on it. She took us through the airport and then asked us if we wanted to stay at a hotel. Of course, when she called the hotel, there were no rooms, so we ended up waiting 10 hours in the Moscow airport. It was a long wait. We found a cafe and I bought a sandwich. Every time we tried to buy water, though, we always ended up with mineral water. Oksana met us again at 7pm and took us to where we needed to go for the next flight. We made it to Novo. and Aliona met us. We then went to the hotel. We arrived at about 8 am local time, and took a shower. We then fell asleep and woke up around 4pm. We ate dinner then just spent the night in the room. I didn't sleep well that night.

We met Tatyana the next day. The workers call her Tanya. We went with another couple and the directress, Dr. Ludmilla, told us each about our child, then a caretaker brought the children to us. It was so amazing! What an experience. After a few minutes in the office, they showed us to the play room, where we got to spend an hour and a half with the children. It was amazing! I'll never forget seeing her for the first time. I couldn't stop hugging and kissing her!

I'll write more later. Of course, there are more stories, but I'm paying by the minute at the internet cafe and I need to write another blog.

Visa...

2008-06-18T21:32:00.002-05:00

We sent out our visa applications last Wednesday. They arrived at the travel agency on Thursday. The consulate was closed on Thursday due to...Russian independance day????..anyway, so they arrived at the consulate on Friday. I don't know if they were processed on Friday or Monday. I thought we would be getting the visas directly from the consulate, but I guess not. We did end up receiving them on Wednesday. I was so nervous about it. We hadn't received them on Tuesday as expected, and I was out of the house all day on Wednesday. I got home at 5 pm and was afraid to open the screen door. There they were! We also received our plane tickets and itenerary. Now I have all our things for the trip.

We have decided to have two check-in bags. We each have a carry-on stuffed with our clothes. We are only taking three changes of clothing. We wear one on Friday, and we will still be wearing it on Sunday (where are you going to change-at the airport? what kind of clean facilities will they have???). So, we will have M,T, W and the clothes we wear Monday we can wear home. Also, I believe the hotel we are staying at has a laundry, so I could do a load while there if I need to. We will also each have a second "purse" carry-on. Mine will be stuffed with our paperwork, books and other activities to keep me busy, and other important things, and Brian's will have his medications and food.

The two check-ins will have all of our "gifts" for the drivers, translators, orphanage staff, and the orphanage director. They will also contain the donation of clothes for the orphanage and food for Brian.

I'm glad that we are taking the donations and gifts now because when we go back, we will be there two weeks, and we will not only have to have our stuff, but hers as well.

I'll try to post here on our trip. We aren't allowed to upload pictures from the hotel computers, and it's illegal to post pictures of Russian orphans. So, these pictures will be the sight-seeing ones.

Update on Travel arrangements

2008-06-12T11:13:00.002-05:00

I spoke with the travel agency on Friday, June 6, but the travel plans were only good for 24 hours. I didn't realize this, or I would have purchased them that day. Anyway, our agency called on Tuesday and said that the travel arrangements were good, but when I called the travel agency, we could no longer book the same days. So, we are leaving on Friday, June 20 instead of Saturday. This actually works out pretty well. We will arive in Novokuznetsk on Sunday, giving us an extra day to sleep before meeting our daughter on Monday. We will visit her Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for about two hours each. According to the orphanage schedule, we can visit from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm. Those are the only times we are allowed to be in the orphange to visit.

There is another family traveling that week. We were supposed to meet up in Moscow, but since we are now taking an earlier flight, we will be meeting at the hotel. Their child is also at the same orphanage. We will be able to see our children together. We might even go sight-seeing together. We do not have access to a driver or translator for non-adoption related tasks. However, if we are willing to pay a little extra, we can ask the driver to drive us around if he isn't busy. On the other hand, since we will be with another couple, it might be nice to just walk around and explore Novokuznetsk.

We found out a little about the orphanage. Our hotel is in Novokuznetsk. Our orphanage is in Prokopeyvsk. We are hearing very good reviews of this orphanage. We are hearing that the directress is very nice and that the children are very well taken care of. We also received a sample menu of what the children eat during the day. Although it's not much like an American diet, it's not all porrige and mush.

Please keep us in your prayers as we plan for this trip. I am very busy from now until then. Friday I work, and then in the evening we have the appointment with the psychologist. That evening we leave for Indiana for the weekend. We will be there all day Saturday and Sunday for Father's Day. On Sunday we return home with my neice. I will have her Monday and Tuesday. I don't know if I work on those days. My father-in-law is supposed to pick her up Tuesday night. I work Wednesday, Thursday I don't know about yet, but Thursday night I'm supposed to do stamping cards, and we leave Friday night. In between there somewhere I'll need to do some laundry so we're not overwhelmed when we come back home.

Please pray for us on our journey as well. We leave Friday at 5pm and arrive home on Thursday at 4pm. We don't have anyone to take us there, so we'll either have to drive or take a Taxi.

Wonderful News

2008-06-06T14:32:00.002-05:00

Towards the end of May we had the first part of our psychological exam. It was easy, yet thought-provoking. It was a series of true-and-false questions. However, it was "false, slightly true, mostly true , very true". Some of the questions were really good like "I have value and worth". Others were really funny like "my favorite singer is Celine Dion". Others made you look bad no matter what you answered. These were usually about drugs or alcohol. "My drug use affects my family life". If you answer true, you're a druggie. If you answer false, you're still a druggie, but it doesn't affect your family life. There were 343 questions. I finished fairly quickly and then asked the doctor's permission to read the questions for Brian because of his reading problems. He's half blind, so it's hard for him to read. We would have been sitting there until midnight waiting for him to finish.

Our second half of the exam will be Friday the 13. Yes, Friday the 13. We will each meet with him for an hour, then together for a half hour. He will then type up letters for each of us and then forward them to our agency.

I was at the zoo on the 5th of June, when I noticed that I had a voice message. I called back, and it was our agency. WE TRAVEL ON JUNE 21 TO MEET OUR DAUGHTER!!!!! I was so surprised and psyched. We are overwhelmed with feelings. There are a million tasks that need to be completed between now and then. I spoke with the travel agency today, and we will need to send them our visa applications and passports to get our visas. We are lucky. Most people only get a 7-10 day notice. We get a 16-day notice! Still, there are a lot of details to attend to. I'll write more once I get some more details. Our itenerary needs to be approved by our case worker before we can purchase the tickets, and the hotel is booked through the agency. Our case worker is at a wedding and won't be back until Tuesday, so I won't know if I can buy the tickets or what the hotel rate will be until she gets back.

Anyway, it looks like about $5000 round-trip for the two of us, and that doesn't include spending money or food.

Please pray for us as we prepare to travel.

Psych exam

2008-05-11T21:32:00.002-05:00

We found out on Thursday that we have to have a psychological exam before we take our first trip. So, I will be calling our doctor to see if he recommends anyone. Just more hoops to jump through.

We don't know when we'll be able to go...we are still praying for July or August. Of course, we are hoping for sooner, but we'll take it a day at a time and a step at a time....

Situation in Russia

2008-05-03T16:06:00.002-05:00

It has been 3 months since we accepted our referral of Tatyana. In a normal situation, we would have taken our first trip toward the end of February or beginning of March, and would be expecting our second trip any day now. However, we find ourselves still waiting...and waiting...and waiting.

Our case worker sent out a general e-mail with details on what the executive director and president of the agency found. According to her, the Kemerovo region (which is where our paperwork is) has been temporarily shut down. There are two speculations as to why it is shut down. According to other agencies and people on the Kemerovo chat forums, the region is shut down due to the recent murder of an adopted child from Russia. It's a different story according to our agency, however.

Our case worker said that the region is shut down for a while because the orphanages for the region have exceeded their quota of children being adopted. The region will re-open in July or August. It is unclear if the "year" means that they exceeded the quota for a half-year, or a quarter, or if their "year" starts in July or August. I'm not too sure if this makes sense to me. There are a lot of children sitting in orphanages waiting for loving families. Why would there be a "quota"? Wouldn't these orphanages just love the chance to provide loving homes to the children they cannot care for? I don't know.

So, unless a miricle happens and Kemerovo opens again in the next couple of weeks, I probably will not post again until we get an invitation to travel.

USCIS update: We had our fingerprints re-taken this morning. Our social worker did come for a home visit a couple of weeks ago, and was supposed to submit a home study update to USCIS by May 1. I have no clue if she got it in on time, as I can't contact her now until Monday. I received an odd letter from USCIS talking about a home study and background check, but I have no clue what it's supposed to be talking about. I will also e-mail USCIS on Monday to check with them if they received the update they were waiting for. We've already been approved once, so this is just changing our country to Russia. I don't think they would approve us for one country and not another. That makes no sense to me. So, perhaps God sent this little "halt" to the region until our USCIS situation can be resolved. I don't know. All I know is we continue to sit here and wait.....

Nothing New

2008-04-23T15:46:00.002-05:00

The executive director and president of our agency are back from their trip to Russia. I am sure they are holding meetings with the case workers to give individual updates on all their clients that currently have a dossier submitted to Russia. However, our case worker was out-of-town for a wedding until today. So, I have no idea when she'll be able to give us an update on what is happening with our case.

Here's the latest news: Some yahoos on the chat groups are bemoaning the fact that Russia won't accept adoptive parents that are on antianxiety or antidepressant drugs. So, I didn't panic (Brian's on both). I just wrote back that it's not a "Russia" thing, it's an agency and region thing. Meaning: "don't get us all in a panic...check with your agency." Our agency is aware that Brian is on those meds and would have told us if there was going to be an issue.

So, for now, we have no new news to share....except that we finally heard from USCIS, and our appointment to get our fingerprints re-taken is on Saturday, May 3 at 8 am. I am so glad that will be out of the way!

TTFN!!!

The Wait

2008-04-14T15:29:00.002-05:00

Where do I start today? It turns out that the staff at the DOE was not on vacation. They were told to take off while the government decided what to do about the case in Utah where an adoptive father murdered his adopted children from Russia. This happened on March 7, and our paperwork made it to Russia on March 3. Just our luck.

Well, so the DOE is back and running again processing adoptions. However, there is another dimension to the game. Now when we arrive in Moscow before we go to court, we have to undergo an 8-doctor visit. It's supposedly non-invasive. Just so these specialists can go over our paperwork that we did in the States and ask us questions reguarding our health. There is also to be a psychiatric exam to boot. It's to cost $650-800 per person.

As if that's not bad enough, our fingerprints for Immigration expire in June, and 8 weeks before they expire we have to notify Immigration so they can make another appointment for us to get fingerprinted again (another $80). So, I sent in my letter on Friday, a few days early than the 8 weeks.

But wait-there's more! On Friday our social worker told us that Immigration wrote them and said they cannot approve us for Russia because we had not had a home visit in almost a year. Also, some of the answers to our questions were not acceptable. For instance, our other social worker asked us if we were ever accused of a sexual offense, and we said "no". But since she did not write our responses word-for-word, it's unacceptable. How many words does it take to say NO??? Anyway, she's coming today at 5:30. I'm not as nervous as the first time, but I am kind of nervous because our downstairs bathroom is torn apart because we have to replace water-damaged walls and ceiling, and our bathtub has part of the wall missing from having pipes replaced. I know I'm being paranoid, but those are my fears.

Anyway, I do know that the executive director and the president of our agency are in Russia right now checking into the situation. They are also checking on each individual case. We will be called in a week or two to get an update on what is happening with our case and to also maybe even get a travel date. So, here I go...waiting at least another two weeks before we hear anything!

Second Dossier

2008-04-03T14:54:00.002-05:00

Well, I was able to get most documents for our second dossier apostilled today. The financial statements were giving us problems. The woman who notarized the financial statement did not sign her name exactly as it appears in her stamp. We also could not get the CPA's license apostilled because a notary stamped them, but there were no signatures, and no statements like "I certify that this is a copy of an original....". So, once we correct them I have to take them back downtown. I will also have to take copies of our "State Adoption Law" that our social worker is sending us. That leaves only three documents for our second dossier to do after we return from our first visit. We need to have police clearances, medical exams, and the 10-day waivier.

As I looked at the calander, I realized that it has been two months since we received our referral. It has gone very quickly, but at the same time, I'm a little alarmed. Shouldn't we have been on our first visit already? Two months seems an awfully long time after the referral. You usually hear that people wait for months for a referral and then travel within two weeks on their first trip. You don't hear of people getting a referral quickly and then having to wait months for the first trip. I'm starting to get a little suspicious, but at the same time, I'm trying really hard not to panic and see problems where none exist. I just pray that we will hear soon when we will be able to travel. I have almost everything ready...we just need to send our applications out for our VISAS. I even have most of the information on the VISAS filled out, except for where we will be staying and the dates we will be there.

Well, that's all the news I have for now.

No News

2008-03-26T15:22:00.003-05:00

We don't have any new news to report this week. Our coordinator in Russia doesn't know when the DOE will get back from their vacation. While I'm getting impatient waiting for a travel date, I know that in a few months when we have our daughter home, I'll look back at this time and see how fast it actually went. As a matter of fact, I was just marveling the other day when I realized that our journey actually started over a year ago! We submitted our original contract with our agency on Feb. 14, 2007. As things were unfolding last year, I thought it was taking for ever. Now I look back, and I can't believe how quickly time flew!

Our only concern right now is that our fingerprints for USCIS expire in June, so it looks like we'll have to be re-fingerprinted. I don't know at this point if it costs another $80 or if it's free since we already paid for the first set....

Top ten things to do during your adoption experience

2008-03-21T16:09:00.004-05:00

There are many things I wish I had known before I started this journey. It's been an interesting experience trying to "learn as you go". I supplied this post so that you will be better prepared for your journey.

10) Read! Get yourself books on parenting, adoption, potty training, discipline, all kinds of topics. The more you read the more you are prepared to have different methods on hand for situations. As a nanny, I find that I use methods from several different sources. I use methods from books, Supernanny (of course), parenting classes I took through our home study, parenting classes in church, and...books! You will not be able to use the same technique with all your children.

9) Take some parenting classes. These will help you think about different techniques you want to use with your child. Even if you already have a family, taking parenting classes can really help you figure out how to get your household under control before the next child comes in.

8) Fully research your agency before you commit to anything. Although I don't have any "official" complaints about our agency, I do wish that I had asked some key questions about their programs before committing to them.

7) Fully research the country you hope to adopt from. Talk to people who have already adopted from that country. Join a chat group for people who are adopting from that country and gather information. Please note, however, that different agencies have different requirements for some countries, so some information may be different. For instance, we had a referral for Guatemala. On the chat groups, people were talking about visiting their referral during the process. Some even decided to foster their child during the process by staing in-country. The children would then live with you in your hotel/apartment until you were done with court. However, when I asked our agency about visitin our referral, we were told that they do not allow it. Make sure you know what your agency expects/allows during the process BEFORE you begin!

6)Organize! You must be anal about organizing paperwork during this time. Purchase one of those milk-carton style files for your adotion information. I have expandable file folders in there that I keep my information in. One is for the homestudy, another for USCIS or BCIS (depends on your state...Immigration). One is for your dossier paperwork, another for general information(nursery ideas, parenting tips, etc...) I also break down the dossier folder with several files inside: notarized originals, photocopies, apostilled originals, my copies, extras, agency copies, court originals. You may not want all of them, but there have been times when I needed an extra original of something, and all I had to do was go to the correct file to find it.

5) Start shopping now! Some countries require that you take a donation to the orphanage. Some people wait until they get in-country before they purchase anything. That's fine, because then you can ask the orphanage director what they need (OTC medicines, diapers, formula, etc. that can be purchased at a local pharmacy). However, there are some major benefits to buying them before you go-espcially if you are considering taking clothes. Orphanages are constantly looking for clothes. It's common to see one baby wearing a particular outfit one day, and another baby wearing it the next...without a washing in between. It's no wonder diseases are widespread! If you'd like to take a donation of clothing, start thinking now how much you would like to spend. I think $100-$200 is about average. Once you determine how much you would like to spend, start hitting the clearance sales! A WalMart in our area just had a clearance rack, and most items were $1!!! Not kidding! I came away with 60 outfits. A caution about donating toys: I think it's a fantastic idea, but a friend of mine told me that when she visited an orphanage, instead of opening the boxes for the children to play with, they were placed on the top shelf and left alone. If that doesn't bother you, go for it! Again, hit the clearance isles. You can find some fantastic deals on toys. Start stocking up now...even if you are in the beginning stages! It's well worth the money saved.

4) Know where your Secretary of State's Office building is for getting apostilles. We live about 12 miles from downtown Chicago, and let me tell you, it was well worth going to the building in person. This is now the third country that we've had to apostille paperwork for, and if I had to FedEx it all in, it would have been a pain. If you live even 50 miles away from your state's capital or wherever your nearest location is, PLEASE consider going in person. You save a ton of time. I catch the early train, and arrive at the location right at 8am when they open. I wait maybe 15 minutes, and it's done. FedEx is costing about $20 each way. A train ticket costs $6.75 for a two-way. Of course, I know you have to factor in fuel costs and such, but it's well worth it if you can go in person.

3) Get to know several people: a notary public, a public accountant, your bank staff. You will have to have everything notarized, and you may not get everything you need in one visit. Try to see if there is a notary public where you work...and brown nose! If this person is going to notarize your documents for no charge, send them flowers, chocolate, thank-you cards, etc... Also consider getting this person a NICE gift from the country you are visiting. Our notary public has been fantastic! She has had to notarize tons of documents for three different dossiers now. Be aware that even though banks have a notary public, some won't notarize document being used for adoption. We found that out the hard way. Ask ahead of time. The accountant you may need to sign your financial forms for the dossier. We are going through Russia, and our agency requires that our financial worksheet be signed by a CPA. I don't know if that's an agency requirement, or if it's common for all Russian dossiers. We've been having problems with this one because we do our own taxes and therefore don't have a CPA. We are finding that CPA's are unwilling to sign the document if you are not a client (even if you offer to pay a fee!) I suggest you make some friends at your bank. If you are one of those people that do everything from the ATM machine, or from the drive-through, I would highly suggest you take the time to actually go in your bank and get to know some tellers. You will need a lot of Certified Checks, Money Orders, and of course, your cash withdrawl. Russia requires that you take the country fee in brand new $100 bills. You need to be able to request these from your bank, and it helps if they know about it ahead of time. Our bank requires at least a week's notice. Other banks may need more time, and some (small banks) may not be able to do this at all. You need to know as soon as possible so you can make arrangements. Your bank staff can also be helpful by guiding you in how to invest the money you are using for the adoption. If you are using credit, or equity, feel free to ignore this next little part. However, if you have been blessed by God to be able to use cash, your bank can help you in deciding what type of account to place it in while you go through the process. Anything that will help you get the maximum amount of interest without getting penalized for making withdrawls.

2) Make more than one original set of ALL your dossier documents. I am requesting at least five original copies of all my documents. Seems a little overboard, but I want to play it safe. I am apostilling at least three copies of the originals, and leaving two signed/notarized copies in a seperate folder. That way, if any of the three already apostilled gets "lost", I have other originals I can just run downtown and have apostilled. This also means that I can take a photocopied set to Russia with me, and an apostilled set with me in case any of our court documents gets "lost" while we are there. You can also leave a complete set of notarized documents with a trusted friend. If any get "lost" while you are in country and you don't have spare, you can have your friend get them apostilled and FedEx or DSL them to you. Make photocopies of all your notarized documents BEFORE you have them apostilled. For most countries, you must have exact photocopies of all your documents. In most cases, the apostille is attached to the top of your document. In some cases, however, the apotille is attached in the middle of a packet. For instance, if the notary appears on the second page of a document, the staple is removed, the apostille placed on top of the notary and then stapled. You CANNOT remove the staple in order to photocopy the last page, so if you have the pages already photocopied, you don't have to worry about getting a good copy. Also, some states (Indiana for example) not only staple the apostille to your document, they add a huge sticker (stamp) on top of that, making it impossible for you to remove the apostille without damaging your document. I have several different folders to keep track of dossier documents: documents that need to be notarized, documents that need to be apostilled (same folder...I take all documents to be notarized/apostilled at the same time), notarized copies (extras) , apostilled dossier set, photocopies, agency set, my set, apostilled set (extras).

1) The number one piece of advice I could give you: Order more than one copy of your birth certificates/marriage license and HAVE THEM APOSTILLED AT THE SAME TIME!!! Most of the time you will need your certificates to be apostilled, and it is worth it to request your original copies to be apostilled before they are sent to you. Early in the process, (even before you choose an agency) write to your state's vital records department and request copies of your birth certificates. Call them in advance for their requirements. Some require that you include a self-addressed-stamped-envelope, a cover letter including your name, address, place of birth, birth date, parent's names, etc., and a photocopy of your driver's license. They also charge different amounts. My husband's (California) cost $15 a copy, while mine (I was born in Italy so had to get a Certificate of Birth Abroad of an American Citizen) cost $30 a piece. It was a pain to figure out who to write to get mine, so I would suggest that if you were born out of the country you figure out NOW how to get copies. Our marriage license (Indiana) was $2 a copy. If you were born in the same state you now reside...you are SO LUCKY! It avoids a ton of complications! By the way, if you were born in the U.S., try Vital Check on the internet. We ordered my husband's birth certificates in March, and by July they still had not arrived. I ordered one copy through Vital Check (because we needed it ASAP), and it arrived so fast. I ordered it on a Thursday, and it arrived on Monday. A week later, the five copies we ordered through snail mail arrived. Also important to remember- for those of you that have to write to the Department of State to get your copies...they do not apostille your certificate. You will have to then send your birth certificate to the Passport services in Washington D.C. It took me two months to finally get a straight answer from three different government agencies. My gift to you-answers!

There are so many things I learned by trial and error. I hope that providing these tips help you be more prepared to start your journey. One more piece of advice that is VERY important....as soon as you start working with an agency, submit your I 600A. The reason is that it takes quite a while for the government to approve you, and the sooner you submit your I600 A, the sooner you'll get your approval and dossier completed. A word of caution, however. Your fingerprints are only good for a year. Since we've had such an...interesting...adventure, our fingerprints will expire before we are done with our adoption. Therefore, in a month or so, we will have to have our fingerprints re-done. Not a huge issue, but make sure you are aware of when your prints expire, and tell your agency well in advance so they can tell you how to contact the goverment agecy and get another apointment.

Well, that's all the tips I have for today. I hope the lessons we learned the hard way have helped you make your journey less stressful. I welcome your comments. If you have any tips that you have found to save time/money/stress, please let me know!

No News

2008-03-21T08:46:00.004-05:00

We haven't had any news recently. We were told that the person responsible for our paperwork at the DOE is on vacation, but we don't know for how long, so we don't know when to expect an update. Our case worker is confident we will travel in April, so it looks like it might be mid-to-end of April. Meanwhile, a lot of our documents for our second dossier are done. I just need two employment letters, our letter from our realtor, and for the CPA to sign our financial paper. The employers and the realtor have the samples, and I know that I will have them done within a week. That just leaves the medicals and the police reports, which we will not have done until right before our second trip. We are hoping to be able to take part of our dossier with us on trip one. We were told that we can hand over anything that's done. I wonder if that helps you travel faster if you have most of it done earlier?

We are just biding our time and trying to be patient. My husband has been acting strangely lately. He's been cleaning more frequently, and throwing things away. He's a pack rat. He never throws things away. I'm thinking he's either "spring cleaning" or "nesting".

In an effort to consider the environment when raising our daughter, we have decided to use two different diapers. The first will be used when we travel in Russia, or for long car trips like when we go see our families. They are gdiapers. They are a cross between a cloth diaper and a disposable. The outside is a really soft material with velcro in the BACK (so babies can't pull their diapers off). The inside is a plastic liner that snaps onto the inside. Inside the palstic liner,you place a disposable pad. This didposable pad is amazing. You can actually flush it down the toilet! You have to be really careful, though, and if you live in an older house, or out in the country, you may not want to flush it. You can also throw it in the garbage. Traditional disposable diapers take up to 500 YEARS to biodegrade. These take 52 days.

The second system we will use the majority of the time. They are fuzzi bunz, an All-In-One cloth diaper. The outside is a waterproff material (like cotton, only waterproof), and the inside is fleece microfiber. The fleece microfiber pulls wetness away from baby's skin. You get less diaper rash! There is a "pocket" in which you place an insert that comes with your fuzzi bunz. This absorbant insert is what holds the moisture. You can place two inserts for night time, or even a pre-fold. I know this will make more laundry, but since I plan to be a stay-at-home mom, I don't think that will be too much of an issue.

I know I have yet to factor in water use, but the fuzzi bunz were about $200 for a set of 12. (ebay) The G diapers were about $80 for four pants and a small package of liners. Unfortunately, the liners we'll have to keep buying, be I am planning on stocking up on them now while I'm working and we can afford it. We currently have about 300 liners-and if we are only using them occasionally, those should last us a while.

If you've been considering cloth diapers, give fuzzi bunz or gdiapers a try. I think you'll be impressed by how much they DON'T look like regular cloth diapers.

Happy Easter Everyone!

News

2008-03-14T15:47:00.002-05:00

Update
We received an update from our agency (finally). Yesterday, our agency e-mailed us to let us know that they had not heard from the coordinator in Russia concerning our case. Although I was disappointed, there’s nothing I can do about it at this point. However, today she e-mailed us with more news. The dossier is at the Department of Education, which is really cool. But, the person handling our case is on vacation. This person has to review our information, issue us an "official" referral, and send us an invitation to travel. We have to wait until this person returns from vacation before we can know when we travel. While I think it stinks that our travel plans will be delayed for a while longer, I don’t begrudge the worker a vacation. However, now our case worker is saying that we won’t travel until April. She was actually very appologetic about it. She told us that we would be able to travel this month, so she’s disappointed to see that we’ll have to wait a few more weeks.

Also in that e-mail she included all the documents we need for the second dossier. It doesn’t look too hard. Most of them are papers that we open in Microsoft Word, type in our correct information, print, notarize and apostille. There are a few that will take a while, like getting copies of our deed and such, but most are really easy. She said that we can do all of them except the medical reports and the police clearances, since they have an expiration date. The medicals are only good for about a month (since your health can change quickly) , and the police clearances are only good for six months.

This dossier should in some ways be easier, but in some ways harder. It should be easier because they have very specific guidelines that we must follow in order for the document to be done correctly. This makes it easy because we know exactly what we have to do in order to make it right. However, the same thing makes it harder. With the other two dossiers we worked on for Nepal and Guatemala, we were just given a list of documents needed, and there were only a few instructions. A lot of the paperwork we did for Nepal we could use for Guatemala, because there wasn’t a "formula" or a "form". For Russia, we can’t use any of the paperwork we did for Guatemala or Nepal because Russia has a form you print out (Word document), and a "formula" for all the letters. It tells you exactly how your employer should write the letter of employment! I guess that’s the way it is to make it easier for the translator. If there’s a "formula" to the documents, then he only has to concentrate on the specific details.
Well, I’ve got a stack of 15 documents that I need to prepare. 13 of them are documents for the dossier and 2 are check lists and more instructions. I’m going to start chipping away at it. Our case worker also mentioned that any documents completed for court that are done before our first trip we can take with us. I guess that’s so the translator can start working on the documents ahead of time.

Our Siberian Princess turns One!

2008-03-11T12:56:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday! Today is your birthday, Princess! Tatyana means "fairy princess", so you are our "Siberian Princess"! We hope that your caretakers made this day a little special for you, and we can't wait to go to Russia and meet you. In a few months, we will be a "forever family".

Dossier

2008-03-03T20:54:00.003-06:00

We e-mailed our agency to find out if it's possible to FedEx our documents to Russia. Our case worker e-mailed back that our paperwork is already in Russia! Last Friday, the 29th of February, we were told that we had to wait for a family to travel. We assumed that we'd be waiting a while because I didn't see anyone on the agency web site that was saying they were traveling soon. Anyway, it appears that a family left for Russia this weekend and handed our paperwork of to the corrdinator in Russia. Our case worker will call us later this week to let us know when the coordinator says we can travel. Our first step will be to make travel arrangements and book a hotel. Second, we will have to send our passports away to the embassy to get our visas. The Russian and American governments will want to make sure they know where we will be when we are there, so our visas will say where we are staying. We will provide the embassy with our fedex number so that we can have it back in a few days. We could have a 3-day turn around, so we could leave in a week or so. However, we are not getting to excited, as we might not be able to leave for a month or two (highly unlikely). Average is about 17 days. I'll post again when we find out when we leave!

Dossier

2008-02-21T16:58:00.002-06:00

Well, what a week this has been! On Sunday I came down with the flu. All day Sunday and all day Monday I stayed home and tried to stay warm. Of course, it doesn't help that this week has been bitterly cold! On Tuesday, I felt better...no more chills, but a bad cold now. I took the day to relax and rest. Lucky I stayed home because our home study arrived today certified mail. Today, Thursday, I feel only slightly better. Because it was a day off of work, I took all our dossier documents downtown and had them apostilled (the county checks to see if the notary is actually certified to notarize, and then they put a letter over the notarized paper with a seal.) It took three hours, and I was all bundled up against the cold. Also, instead of walking to the building from Union Station, I took a taxi. It really wasn't that bad, but I feel horrible now. I came home, and of course, you have to make photocopies of all the apostilles because all your photocopies have to be EXACT copies. So....two hours of photocopying apostilles! I then had to staple all the numbered apostilles to the correct documents. For isntance, the apostille for one of the forms is number 80, so I had to make sure that the photocopied "80's" went on the corresponding pages. Then, I had to place each copy or original onto one of six piles. Yes, six. There are three piles for the Department of Education and three piles for Court. One pile in the DOE is for the DOE and is sent to the agency...that's all the originals and is our "dossier". Another folder is for the Agency, and is an exact copy of all the DOE pages. The last is "our" folder to take with us on the trip and to keep for our records and are an exact copy of the DOE pages. The other three are the same only for court when we take our second trip.

So, after about two or three hours of copying, putting in folders, double-and-triple-checking, I finally took all our dossier documents to FedEx. Two sets will arrive tomorrow morning! They will check it over (which is just a formality as I already e-mailed her the whole dossier and she was able to check it over before I actually sent it out), and then they will send it off to Russia! Sometime after that, we will be notified of our first visit. People usually travel between 10 and 17 days after receiving their referral, but since we already have a referral, I don't know if it will be the same or if it will be longer.
Post again soon!

Welcome!

2008-02-12T20:22:00.001-06:00

Welcome to our blog! We are the Reynolds family. We have been married for 9 1/2 years. We had always prayed for a child, but God did not bless us with one of our own. There are medical reasons why it's not possible, but we won't talk about it here.

Our journey began a year ago when we decided to adopt. God had blessed us financially, and we decided to use that gift to adopt a child. We researched agencies, and we filled out a contract. Within one day of sending it out, we got a phone call to be introduced to our social worker and case worker. Within a few days, we met with our social worker and began the paperwork for the home study. We also signed up for an adoption seminar to get our credits for DCFS. Our case worker discussed the different programs and sent us the dossier paperwork.

We were flying high as we began a dossier for Nepal. We were done with our dossier in record time, and our home study was done earlier than expected, too. However, we found out through Nepal adoption chat groups that the new government was dissatisfied with the current adoption law, so they were halting all adoptions until they could re-write the adoption law. This meant that we could not submit the dossier we worked so hard to create. This also meant that all the couples that had already met their child and were waiting to return to finalize found themselves on hold. After waiting a couple of months, we decided to consider other programs. Our agency gave us information about a lot of different countries, but we didn't find one we really felt comfortable with.

In mid-August, we received a referral for a baby girl in Guatemala. However, we received word shortly after that she had died. After careful consideration of our options, we decided to stick with Guatemala. Our agency told us that Guatemala was also changing their laws, and we could end up not being able to complete the adoption. We took the chance and began working on a dossier. In October we received a referral for a little girl a year old. For three months we dreamed of adding that little girl to our family. However, that is not the child God intended for us. We found out on February 4 that the birth mother had changed her mind.

When the ageny called to deliver that terrible news, they also offered a baby girl in Russia. She told us to look at her information and to consider our options. Guatemala was no longer an option because they weren't taking new referrals until the new law opened up in April. After looking at her photos and thinking about our options, we decided to pursue this adoption in Russia.

We received our dossier documents right away, and our social worker was notified right away to update the home study.

So, it has been 8 days since we accepted the referral of Tatyana. We are frantically trying to finish the paperwork necessary for the first trip. It's not a lot, but it all needs to be notarized and apostilled. We have it all done and notarized and are waiting for our social worker to send us the home study. She said that she would send it Wednesday or Thursday. I will be taking it to be apostilled as soon as I get it. If it arrives early enough on Thursday, I will go right away. If not, I will go on Tuesday, since Monday is President's Day.

So, that is where we stand with our adoption. We are taking this waiting time to go through adoption blogs and reading all we can about adoptions from Russia, and in particular adoptions from the Kemerovo region, which is where we are going.

We will post updates as new information becomes available. Please pray for us as we pursue this adoption of Tatyana.