In Russia

We made it to Russia safe and sound, and all of our luggage. Here in southern Russia there is snow on the ground and the temp is around 20F. Moscow was cold, but we are from Minnesota so we are used to extreme cold. Monday we did our 8 doctor med, and it was a all day event we went all over town to each doctor, we passed. We have seen our boy 3 times so far, I was taking back to see him in the same outfit that I gave to him the last time I was here. I am going to do some serious cooking when we get him home. We have court on Thursday and Friday so please keep us in your prayers. I hope the next time I post we will have some good news.

One more question

Thank you for all the idea's. I engaged in a little bit of retail therapy today. And I ended getting almost all of the items that you all suggested. I found these wonderful stack and nest cups by Kid O you can use them on dry land and in the tub. I have one more question, when did you give gifts to the orphanage director and staff? Did you give them gifts before court or after???

What to pack

Ok, I need advice on what we should bring on our trip, for our little boy?
Thank you, Ursula

Court date

We got the call late yesterday from our agency.
Nick and I are leaving for Russia next Saturday and court is on the following week. I just got back from sending off our forms overnight, to get our visas ASAP, we are cutting this really close. Nick got our plane tickets, and I will be running around like a crazy lady trying to get everything else done.

Bag

I received a nice surprise yesterday. Nick out of the blue gave me this bag by Oilily!!! I had been ogling this bag on eBay for a while now. I would not buy the bag because I have been scared to get anything for the baby until we go to court. Also we found out or paper arrived from Moscow and everything was submitted to court. So that is some positive news!

No new's yet

We are still waiting for the all elusive letter from Moscow. Our coordinator told us that we should hear something next week. However, they have been telling us this for 3 weeks now. I am not going to get into the details because I might say something that I will regret, so for now I will hold my tongue. We are really hoping to get our court date in the next week. On a happier note I am so thrilled for my fellow PAPs that have gotten there court dates and referrals. I hope everyone is having a nice weekend and staying warm. Nick and I will be watching the Superbowl with friends and snuggling with our puppy's.

Now we wait

Last week was a very high stress week. We had a couple of documents that expired, and one last new requirement. We ran all over town, back and forth to the Secretary of State. We ran over to Fed Ex Friday late in the day and explained that we needed the documents to be shipped as quickly as possible. they proceeded to tell us they could have our documents in Russia by the 20th of January. Now call me crazy, but 2 weeks to deliver an envelope seems really slow and this was the express service!!! Thank goodness we thought of DHL, we drove like maniacs to the airport location during evening rush hour to get it out asap. Unlike Fed Ex they could get our envelope to our region in 4 days. We needed to get our last documents to Russia no later than the 12th, the Russian government has been basically shut down for the holiday season and reopens on the 11th. We are really hoping that we receive a speedy court date. Nick and I celebrated that we got everything done. All together we had a total of 85 separate documents for our region!!!! I hope we hear something very soon, until then we wait.

Our Crazy Journey

OK, I am going to start from the beginning.
November 3rd we got the call, about a little boy, who was 3 1/2 years old, our agency emailed a photo of him and some medicals. We had to really think about this referral, because he was in our old region, and in the same orphanage that our last, lost referral was from. After much discussion we decided to go and throw caution to the wind. We left two day's after thanksgiving, met the little boy, spent alot of time with him, and sent his medicals to the University of Minnesota. Unfortunately he was not the right fit for our family, he had some issues that we were not ready or able to deal with. We had to decline this referral after traveling all this way again. My hope is that another family will adopt him.

We then decided to spend some extra time in Paris. 3 days in the city of lights to be exact, and it was a greatly needed detour. We have not had so much fun in such along time. We really needed the vacation together. I find myself getting so wraped up with the whole IA process that I tend to loose focus of life around me.

We got another referral on our way back from Paris!!! So 3 days after we came home I had to turnaround and fly right back to Russia without Nick. We luckily had applied for a double entry visa. This referral was perfect for our family, I spent a week with him, I took tons of photos and video, and sent his medicals to the University of Minnesota. My trip back was interesting. Challenging is how I would best describe my return trip home. I was one of the many people who got stuck in Amsterdam. I was stuck on the runway for 7 hours before being let off the plane from a stairway in the runway. There were no gates left to pull the plane into. When we finally got into the terminal the lines to rebook were thousands of people long and nobody to help, they then left and said they would be back in the morning. Nick had been on the phone with Delta all night rerouting and changing my flights as needed because they kept canceling the flights. He got me booked on the flight that was not cancelled in the morning, the only one I might add as the other three were cancelled overnight. He routed me through Detroit and then to Minneapolis, he even had to rebook my ticket from detroit while I was in the air because we were not going to make the connection, so when I got to Detroit everyone else was stuck but I had a first class ticket to MSP. Thanks to Nick not Delta I arrived home safe and sound. As a side note, Delta gave us nothing for the trouble and charged us a change fee. It could have been so much worse, it took some people a week to get to there destinations from Amsterdam.

When I got back, Nick and I set up an appointment with the doctors at the U of M. We are very lucky to be in Minneapolis and got to meet with Dr. Dana Johnson. Dr. Johnson is the head of international adoption clinic and has a wealth of knowledge about children who have lived in institutions. I feel that we got very direct information on what challenges we might be facing down the road, But in general he said everything looked really pretty good. As PAPs we have very few advocates. Your IA doctors has no other motives but to help you and your family in this process. They are your only real advocates!!!!. We received the green light in regards to our referral. I really hope this little boy works out and we get a court date ASAP. We had all of our paperwork done so I hope after the Russian holiday we will get a court date. I want everyone to know that we are very excited about the baby. However, as those of you who have been following our blog are aware we are really guarding our hearts. At this point anything can happen in regards to Russian adoptions so we are hoping for the best.
We are wishing everyone a happy New Year!!! I enclosed photos of Paris and Russia.

Russia in December

I plan to write more, when I get home, but I am in Russia. This trip is my 2 trip to Russia in the last month. I have a great story to tell, I will try to post something, later on tonight. I am no longer MIA.

Holiday

I hope everyone had a great holiday!! Our Turkey Day was really nice. I will be posting in the next couple of days. We are taking a trip.

Great News

Well we have good news, we are going to Russia. I am not going to get, into all
of the specifics, because of the current climate regarding IA. But, I can tell you we are leaving soon.
We are very excited, also we are being somewhat cautious considering our past experience.
I promise more will be reveled, I am just trying not to jinx us. Thank you again for all of your support and kind words.

We know the truth,
not only by the reason,
but by the heart. -Biaise Pascal (1623-1662)

Very sad news

Last week was really tough for us. We lost our referral.
It happened last week but I did not feel like writing about it. We always knew this could happen, unfortunately this is the second time it has happened to us. We were told a Russian family is in the process of filling out paperwork to adopt her. More than anything I am most upset about the 6 months that have gone by since the referral was given to us. What a waste of time! Our region Stavropol has become more and more difficult since the news of the Colorado couple abusing their children this summer. They are doing everything they can to place the children with Russian families. I hope that a good family is adopting her, she is an amazing little girl. I know our agency is working hard for us right now, they feel really bad. We are just trying to regroup and move forward and hope for a new referral soon. However, because of the problems in the region our agency is thinking about moving us to Vladivostok rather than staying in Stavropol. Ursula

Busy

I have a busy, busy day today, we are having a Fall party tonight. I dropped off my mom at the airport, and she flew back to CA. I am going to miss her. I found a great web site www.lot26.com they have wonderful removable wall decals, for nurseries and kids' rooms. After this weekend I plan to do a little shopping. This week I have been going back and forth with my Agency (Email and Phone). I will post Sunday with more details, I posted a photo of my Mom and me, she is really looking forward to becoming a grandmother.

Hopefully soon, Ursula

One more form

Well, there is not to much to report on our adoption right now. I have been in contact with my agency, and we need another, new form for court. (we still don't have a date yet.}

I should have another update soon, so I hope I can a little more information to share. It has been 5 months now, since we saw our girl, I hope we get some good news soon. On a lighter note my mother flew in from CA., yesterday. The timing was perfect she always has a good positive outlook on life, and she has already put a big smile on my face. I will post soon.

Fall fun

Well, Nick and I had a nice weekend, we went to Lake Pepin to enjoy the fall colors. Here in Minnesota we are at peak colors right now. I must say it was a nice diversion, the waiting can be very stressful, when it comes to our adoption. We ate our way around the lake . There are lots of small towns around the lake, one half of the lake, is Minnesota, and one half is Wisconsin. We also bought some pumpkins at a cute farm, I plan to make some pies. I just wanted to say we are still around, I plan to talk to our agency in a couple of days, so I will post soon after that.

Until then Ursula

State Fair and Adoption

Well, Nick and I went to the Minnesota State Fair the other day and had a blast.

There were pigs, cows, sheep, and you name it. The fair is the second largest fair in the country, Texas is #one. Almost all of the food is on a stick and most of it is deep fried, we ate everything by the end of the night, I was in a food coma. My favorite gastronomic delights were the Cheese Curds, Deep fry ed Veggies with tempura batter, and the Crepes W/Brie, almonds, and cranberries. I wanted to try the Chocolate covered Bacon on a stick, but I was to full by the time we got to that booth. We walked through the midway where they have all of the old rides and carnies, that never fails to entertain us. But my favorite attraction is Princess Kay of the Milky Way, she is the reining Dairy Princess of Minnesota. The lucky gal who is voted princess kay gets her head carved out of a block of butter, this is a 58 year old tradition. My mother was Princess Kay in the 60's, and yes she had her head carved in butter. I enclosed photo's for your entertainment, yes that is me in the oink hat and Nick in the midway. On the adoption front, I was at my agency Friday going through all of our Dos#2. We have to redo almost everything because it has all expired. I wanted to cry, but I am choosing to look at this as a challenge. We are still hopefully going to court in November or December, I am keeping the faith.

Adoption Stress

This weekend, has been just a little stressful. Last week, we got a call, from one of our coordinator's, and he told us, that the social worker in Russia, is bound and determined to find a Russian family, to adopt our girl. He told us that one family went to meet her, and they passed. Then he wanted to know, if I would like to know if another family sees her. We hope to here from our agency tomorrow. I am praying that there are no major problems.

Nice weekend

Well, I had a really nice weekend. Saturday Nick and I went to go see Blondie, yes that Blondie. She really put on a great show, I have no idea how old she is, but I hope, I hold up that well. The first time I saw her play, was when I was 13 years old, and she played with the Talking Heads. I just aged myself (oops).

Yesterday we had Nicks family over for dinner and I made Tom Kha soup. I love to cook Thai food, and lucky for me, everyone loves it to. Nicks sister Tinka brought over some fresh cucumbers from her garden, I made a sesame cucumber salad. Yum!! It was very nice to see Nicks family, they of course wanted to know when we were going to go to court, I keep saying November. Hopefully we will know a date soon. Next weekend the Minnesota State Fair begins, I will take lots of photos, it is one of the biggest in the country.

Birthday weekend

Last weekend I had a fantastic Birthday, every night, thanks to a great husband, and friends and family. The love that I felt from everyone was truly amazing. Today I found out that, there is a new requirement for court. Here we go, I wonder how many more (new requirement's) there will be?? We also found out that court will be either in October or November, I hope sooner than later. This weekend is our 12 year anniversary, time has really flown bye.

Summer

Well, I really have nothing new to report. I can't believe that it is already late July, time is just flying by. We miss our girl so much, but I am also guarding my heart right now, there is so much uncertainty.

I had a nice weekend, Friday Nick and I saw Inception. I must say, now this is just my opinion, but I thought it was the best movie I have seen in 10 year's. Today was also nice Nick and I celebrated Bastille day, at cafe Barbette, they throw a fun party, with band's every year. I am just trying my best to stay positive, while we wait. My prayer's are with all of us PAP right now.