June 6th....Back to the grind

Michael and I both headed back to work. It was good to be able to keep busy so that our minds stayed occupied. Everyone at work was asking a million questions about Alex, our trip, when we were going back etc... It's been amazing since we started the process the outpouring of support that we have received from our family and friends. I guess since we had been trying to start our family for so long and had struggled so much everyone is just over the moon with excitement that this is finally happening.

Even in my jet lagged state over the weekend I had managed to put together an album of pictures to show off. I have one of my favorite pics hanging at my work station so that I can see my baby boy anytime I like. Of course I had to make one for Mom to, lol, Granny has to be able to show off her Grandson to everyone. Her and Dad are just so excited that in a (hopefully) short time they are going to be able to see their Grandson in person. I think that during the time that Michael and I were struggling with infertility they were upset but never showed it. They were putting on a strong front for us as we were already about as low as you could go. Now though that this is actually happening and they are going to be (already are) Grandparents they are just proud as peacocks.

Everytime the phone rings I jump thinking its going to be our agency calling with a request for more information or a date for us. It's going to be a LONG couple of weeks waiting to hear from them on when we will be able to go back and bring Alex home forever.

For now we will eat, sleep and dream about Alex and bringing him home to us forever.

June 5th The first of many long days.

Jet lag is horrible. Missing our son is horrible. Today we slept in and later my aunts, uncles and cousins will be coming over to watch movies and "meet" the soon to be newest and most anticipated member of the family. We have unpacking to do and tons of film to have developed with all of our precious memories on them. Our dogs must have thought we had left them forever as they have not left our sides since we arrived back home. Even just going to the bathroom sends them into a panic that we are leaving them again. They are going to be beside themselves when we head back to Russia in a few weeks and bring home Alex.

What are we going to do with ourselves for the next long weeks? We will await word from our agency on when our court date has been set. There will be last minute paperwork, a shower to register for and loose ends to tie up. Those things won't fill the holes that are surely going to be a part of our days until we bring Alex home though. We are having our shower on June 19th. That's exactly 2 weeks away and something to look forward to. Plus we will be 2 weeks closer to bringing our baby home.

This afternoon my family came over and we filled them in on all the details of our trip and told stories of how wonderful Alex is. We watched hours of home movies that we had taken and I laid in the floor watching them and crying. Everyone ooohhhh'd and aaaahhhh'd over the cute little blonde haired blue eyed bundle on the TV. For as much as they were all suddenly smitten with him it didn't come close to the emotion that Michael and I felt from having spent a week with him and having him fill a place in our hearts that had been empty for so long.

Tomorrow it will be back to work for Michael and I. Everyone is going to want to hear about and see pictures I'm sure. It will help talking about him and looking at pictures. I just pray that it doesn't take long to get our court date.

June 4th, 2004 The long flight home........

We got up this morning and met Vladimir in the lobby of the hotel. He would drive us to the airport for our flight home. Sleep didn't come easy for either of us last night and neither did the grim realization that we were leaving our baby boy for an undetermined amount of time.

We arrived at the airport and made our way through security checkpoints and into "airport world". In our hands we carried our luggage and in our hearts we carried the memories of Alex that would get us through the next weeks until we could return to bring him home forever. Michael and I didn't talk much while waiting to board the plane that would drop us in Paris. Both of us have very different ways of expressing out emotions but today it was the same. My wonderful husband was doing his best to brighten my spirits. Whether it was just to reach out and take my hand or give me a smile, it helped. The flight to Paris would be 4 1/2 hours and then another 6 to Cincinnati. We both had a feeling it was going to be the longest day of our lives.

Paris was just as smelly and busy as it had been a week ago when we were here. We made our way through the airport and caught our connecting flight to Cincinnati where Mom and Dad would be waiting to pick us up. The inflight movies helped to pass the time because we both had our own little TV's in the back of the seat in front of us. That was everyone could watch or listen to whatever struck their fancy. When we arrived back in the US we had be pass through customs and go through all of the hoops to get out of the airport.

Finally we made our way through the airport and headed towards the baggage claim area. While coming down the escelator I caught site of Mom and Dad. Tears of joy for seeing them were shed along with tears of sadness because our hearts were still in Stavropol. I stood in the middle of the airport and drug out the video camera so that Mom could have the first glimpse of her grandson. As she watched the video I was overcome with emotion and just stood there sobbing with Mom doing her best to comfort me and tell me that everything would be all right.

During the ride back to the house the car was filled with chatter and more tears. Stories of what Russia was like and mostly about how wonderful Alex was. When we arrived home Michael and I were both exhausted, especially considering we lost 8 hours along the way. We unpacked and settled in on the couch to watch our home movies of our son. This will happen a lot over the next weeks I'm sure. Luckily we have a baby shower and other odds and ends and of course paperwork to get completed while we are waiting to help and pass the time.

June 3, 2004 Tears tears and more tears.......

This morning we woke with heavy hearts. How can you say goodbye to your child? I guess we are getting ready to find out. I'm still not sure that I can handle this. No matter how much we have mentally prepared ourselves for this moment I don't think that you can ever be truly ready.

We packed our bags and checked out of our hotel because we would be leaving from the orphanage and heading to the airport to fly back to Moscow. Our hearts heavy and our stomachs in nots we headed out to meet Lena and Sasha. Once we got to the orphange I tried my best to be strong and not let Alex see how upset I was. Silent tears streamed down our faces. The sobbing would come later I'm sure of it. Lena sensed how upset I was and even offered to let me bunk with her and her husband until our court date. You don't know how close I was to taking her up on that offer. We had just about broken the bank with the adoption and I knew that for Alex I had to go home and work until we could come back for him. We hugged him and kissed him and told him over and over again that we loved him and would be back soon to bring him home with us. He just smiled as if to say I'll see you tomorrow. Not knowing how long it would be until we were reunited.

The drive to the airport was almost an hour and we rode in silence. Lena tried to teach me more Russian with the childrens book she had bought for me. My heart just wasn't in it. Tomorrow we would be flying back to the US to wait for "the call" with a court date. There is a lot to do at home and a baby shower to be had. Plenty of stuff to help pass the time but it didn't make it any easier. Once we arrived at the airport we said good bye and thank you's to Lena and Sasha for their wonderful hospitality and that we would see them again soon.

I cried all the way back to Moscow and when Vladimir picked us up at the airport he took us to the hotel and we checkedin for our 1 night stay. He would be back to pick us up early early in the morning for our flight home. Michael still being the strong one did his best to hold himself together but you could tell inside his heart was breaking.

June 2, 2004 Alex

It's getting harder now because we know that the day after tomorrow we are going to have to leave Alex here and fly home to wait for our court date. Everyday we come to visit and he just smiles and reaches for us. We still can't believe that you could fall so hard and so fast. I don't know that I'm going to be able to leave him here. Michael is trying to be strong for me but he's feeling it too. We are just enjoying every precious minute that we have with him and trying our best to leave him knowing that we love him with all of our heart and that we'll be back soon to bring him home with us. He's to little to understand and right now he just sees us as fun people who come and play with him everyday. I wonder if he'll miss us?

The workers let me feed him today which was quite the experience. When you walk into the orpanage it smells like a school lunchroom. Which is odd since all of the children here are under 2 years old. Alex's meal consisted of boiled potatoes and shredded meat of some sort in a broth. He was fed with a table spoon. Yes you read that right. A table spoon. They would put a hand on his forehead and tilt his head back so that the food just slid down. When I tried of course I was giving him smaller bites and I wasn't doing it fast enough to suit the workers so they "fired" me. LOL They fed him and got the meal over with in record time. The little bitty babies were fed from glass milk bottles with nipples on them that had the tips cut with large openings so the stuff in them came out as fas as possible. I say stuff because I can assure you it wasn't milk.

After his lunch it was naptime and they sent us away until later in the afternoon. It's getting harder and harder to enjoy the siteseeing since we know that with each passing hour we are getting closer to having to leave. We are trying our best to make the best of our time because when we come back for the finalization it will be all "business". No time for much else and I don't anticipate us coming back for a vacation once we take Alex away from here.

Tomorrow will be the last day that we get to see him before flying back to Moscow and we'll only get to see him in the morning since our flight leaves out at 1:00. My heart is breaking...................

June 1, 2004 A day with Alex

We got the O.K yesterday to visit with Alex but we didn't realize we were going to get to see him in the mornings and afternoon. It was so great. They told us yesterday to go and buy some diapers so that we could get him out and play with him without worrying about getting peed on. We ended up buying several packages and taking to them which got us some brownie points. LOL They don't use diapers since they are an expense that they can't afford so they are just constantly changing the babies clothes. It's so sad. Alex is really getting used to us and just smiles now when we come in. We got to get him down on a little carpeted area and play with him and some toys. He loved this purple catepillar. We couldn't hardly get him away from it. During the middle of the day when he was napping we did some sightseeing and bought some souveniers. Lena and Sasha took us all over Stavropol and gave us all kinds of info on the history and whatnot. They even took us to a lake and we were able to enjoy the fresh air and just hike around without all the commotion of the city.

MOE's Office 5/31/04

After we left the orphanage we headed for the Minester of Education's office. We had to be interviewed by her and she had to give us the stamp of approval to visit Alex the rest of the week. One little tidbit I forgot to mention was his given name. Ivanov Alexander. We had the name Alek picked out for a boy and when they told us his name was Alexander we couldn't change it so his name is to be Alexander Michael Fitch. Meant to be huh??

Our visit with the MOE was very quick. Nervewracking but quick. LOL She asked us a few questions and we chit chatted for a little bit. She signed the paper saying we could visit the orphanage and away we went. By this time we were ready for lunch. So we stopped and had a bite to eat and make a quick phone call home. We ate at a place called Quick Chick. LOL It was sort of like a KFC. Very good food. Then we went to the internet cafe to call home. Lena was a stickler on time and I could only talk to Mom for like 2 minutes. Both of us crying the whole time. I did manage to tell her he had blonde hair and blue eyes about 15 pounds and 25 inches tall. I asked her to relay the info to Michael's Dad and Mom and anyone else that needed to know.

Then we were off for a bit longer visit with Alex. YEAH!!!!!!!!

Monday May 31, 2004 Finally we meet!!

Monday morning finally arrived and we got up early to get ready to meet Sasha and Lena in the lobby of the hotel. We were both so nervous it wasn't even remotely funny. I couldn't stay out of the bathroom, Michael just wasn't saying anything. I can't imagine being any more jittery if I was in labor myself. :o)

We went downstairs at 9:00am to meet our ride. The orphanage was only about 10 minutes away from the hotel so we hopped into Sasha's little car and away we went. We traveled into a more rural area of Stavropol. It was unreal the poverty that the people here live in and for the most part the areas we were going through were considered middle class. We finally arrived at the orphanage. It was an old school house that had been coverted into the baby home. It was a rundown looking building, the grass was not mowed, the drive was not in good condition. We went up to the door and rang the bell. One of the workers opened the door and her and Lena talked back and forth for a minute and Lena showed her the papers that we were allowed to be there to see the director and meet our son.

Finally we got to go in. We were ushered up a flight of stairs and into a waiting area. Lena disappeard to talk with the orphanage director and let her know that we were there. It seemed like forever. Michael and I paced back and forth while we waited. From time to time a worker would walk by with several little ones. Finally Lena came back and we were off to meet the director. We went up 2 more flights of stairs and finally ended up in a conference room where we were told to have a seat. The director came in along with the orphanage nurse. They had a file on "alex" with his medical history. They went over everything with us and some of it sank in some of it didn't. I think they could have told us he had 3 eyes and it wouldn't have mattered one bit to us. They did say that he was born premature at 28-30 weeks, deprived of oxygen at birth and had an abnormally place chord in the left chamber ofhis heart. We just wanted to see him and finally we were on our way to his nursery.

They took us into a little room and made us put on booties over our shoes and finally we were ushered into the playroom. We went over and sat down on a bench against the wall and everyone was just standing around. All of a sudden here came the nurse with the most precious little boy we'd ever seen and just plunked him down in my lap. I just started bawling. Michael even got misty eyed. He just had this dazed and confused look on his face but also this little smile. There was no turning back now. This little boy had stolen our hearts in less than 5 minutes. Almost as quick as they brought him in they whisked him away and us back off to the conference room. Here they went over his parents information. He was the 9th pregnancy and 5th premature delivery and the first child that they had relinquished. No drug or alcohol abuse they just couldn't afford another child. We were then asked if we wished to sign the intent to adopt. Uhhhhh YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where do we sign????????? It was love at first sight. I can't imagine it being any different than if I'd just given birth.

Next stop is the Minester of Education's office to get their approval to visit each day while we are here.

Sunday in Russia

We got up on Sunday morning very very early. :o) Jet lag is aweful. We went to bed too early on Saturday and were up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. Either way we are soooo excited. Vladimir picked us up at the Radisson at 11:00. We had eaten a huge breakfast down in the lobby. Buffet!!! Our favorite. We go soooo stuffed, but we didn't know what things were going to be like in Stavropol in the food department so we ate good while we knew we could.

We checked out of the hotel and away we went for a little sightseeing before heading out for the airport that would take us to Stavropol. Vladimir took us to a little gift shop that is evidently very popular with the American families. We had learned before we got here that it was rude to turn down anything offered to you. So when we walked in and the girl at the door offered us a little cup of what looked like water, we couldn't say no. Little did we know that that little cup was Vodka. Nothing like a shot before lunch to get ya going. LOL We thanked them and went on about our business looking around.

We ran into an American family with their new son there and stopped and made small talk with them for a bit. We didn't buy anything that day since we were going to be back in Moscow at the end of the week we thought we'd just look, keep stuff in mind for later and compare prices when we got to Stavropol. Lena was with another family that day and we were just on our own trying to communicate with Vladimir. It was interesting, he knew some English and we knew a few Russian words, so you can only imagine. He took us to a street market where you could barter with the vendors. It was really neat and we'll have to make sure and come back here before this is all said and done.

It was about an hour drive from Moscow to the domestic airport Domovito where we would begin the next leg of our journey. Our flight left at 6:00 so we needed to be there to check in and such at least one hour early. When we got there Vladimir dropped us at the door and went to park the car. When he got back, we went inside and made our way through security. This didn't take too long, nothing like in the US. Then away we went to the check in desk to check our luggage and head for our "terminal". I use this word very lightly because this airport was like nothing we'd ever seen. We said goodbye to Vladimir and headed on our way. Being out of town and all most everything was written in Russian and spoken in Russian. Vladimir had told us exactly where to go and where to wait.

At this point we had almost an hour before our flight was scheduled to leave. I went to the bathroom and just a word of advice for anyone who may be going to Russia in the future. ALWAYS PACK NAPKINS! They do not believe in toilet paper. Only torn up newspaper on a little table, that I'm assuming they use for wiping. I had to drip dry. This was my first "public restroom" experience. Let's just say I learned from it. LOL I went back out and we sat in this little cafe until they opened up for us to start boarding the plane. We were the only one's hanging around by our gate and we were a little concerned that mabye we weren't in the right place but, we'll have to wait and see. About 30 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave more people had gathered and they began taking our tickets. After a few more minutes and a lot more people showing up we finally got ready to go out and get on the plane. We went down a stairway to the ground level and caught a bus to take us out to the plane. Let me just tell you that reading this is not going to do justice for this experience but hopefully you'll get the idea.

Let's just imagine that we didn't have tickets and that everyone was not going to get on the plane and it was first come first serve. :o) Got that mental picture? This is what getting to the plane was like. Pushing, hurrying and just plaine chaos. I mean we had all paid for a ticket and everyone had an assigned seat. What's the hurry? When we finally got on the plane I began looking around wondering where the livestock was. The plane was old, smelly, and small and it was raining so everything was damp. Michael and I got situated in our seats and prepared for flight. Now after all of our flying in the last 2 days you'd think I'd be over the jitters. Let me just say this plane brought out quite the fear in me. We rumbled down the runway and away we went. Another step closer to meeting our son. Now, they didn't have enclosed overhead compartments so everything that wasn't snug, slid either out of the bins and down onto everyone's head or just shifted to the back. This is going to be an interesting flight.

They served us dinner on the flight. Which was strange, since it was only a 2 1/2 hour flight but oh well. We've never turned down food. It was O.K, much different that the food on the other airlines. This was our first experience with Russian food. It was a small sandwhich of sorts, cheese and a piece of what appeared to be raw salmon, and a cookie for dessert. Everything is served with tea (chai) or coffee (cafe). We like chai. No coffee for us. I ate all of my dinner except for that mystery fish. Michael being the food lover that he is ate everything. I think he regretted the fish after it was over with. The rest of the flight was very uneventful except for a trip to the bathroom for me. I don't think anyone actually used the toilet, the floor was soaked, it smelled like urine. I was afraid to touch anything. I went back to my seat and the next thing we knew we were landing in Stavropol. Pyetigosk actually. We were a 2 hour drive from Stavropol City.

We got off the plane with our carryon bags and headed for what appeared to be a barn at best. We looked back and eventhough it was dark, we could see them loading the luggage from the belly of the plane onto a wagon. Yes a wagon. We entered the "barn" and were immediately accosted by what we later learned were taxi drivers. There was no one there waiting for us with a sign and we had no idea once again what our driver and translator looked like. Out of nowhere someone rescued us from the mayhem. It was Lena. Yes, we have 2 translators named Lena. She whisked us over to the side out of the mess and we made introductions. Sasha was there also, he is going to be our driver for the week. Lena explained that we would have to wait until the doors opened and they let us going in to gather our checked bags. This was yet another mad mess. People went scrambling for there bags like they would let someone else out with them if they didn't hurry. They had just pulled the wagon into this room and opened the doors for people to get there stuff. Somehow in all the madness one of the tags came off of one of our suitcases and they almost didn't let us take our bag with us. Lena had to get very hateful with the man at the door. But in the end we were triumphant and exited with our luggage.

We made our way to Sasha's car and away we went. Now it's after 9:00 pm by this time and Michael and I are exhausted. We still had another 2 hours to get to the hotel. Lena made the drive interesting. She was full of questions about Kentucky and what we do for a living. She talked non-stop for 2 hours. Finally we made it to the hotel, got checked in and went straight to bed.

Tomorrow is going to be the biggest day of our lives. May 31, 2005. We will be meeting our son for the first time.

All I can say is WOW!!! 06/04/04

I don't know where to begin. Our lives have been forever changed by one little blonde haired blue eyed boy. There are so many emotions right now it's just unreal. Excited, heartsick, totally in love with this little boy who will now be known as Alexander Michael Fitch. Last week was by far the most emotional week we have ever lived through. I didn't know you could fall in love so fast with someone you just met. I guess I'll just start from the beginning.

We had a very good flight overall. The layover in Paris was one that I could have done without. Everything smelled funny, the people were rude and there just wasn't enough time to even catch our breath from racing off the plane from Cincinnati, to boarding the one that would lead us to our final destination. Moscow. The plane was very "warm" would be the best way to describe the flight from Paris to Moscow. I now know why everyone smells over there. :o) It was the most uncomfortable leg of our journey. But it got us safely where we needed to be. We landed in Moscow around 10:50 am on Saturday May 29th. We made it off the plane, through immigration and customs and out to where our translator Lena would be waiting to meet us.

This is where it gets a little interesting. We walked out from customs and there were all these people waiting there for passengers, everyone was holding little signs and we were frantically looking for one with our name on it. Lena was no where to be found. I was beginning to panic. There were a bunch of taxi drivers there offering there services in Russian, which we did not understand at all. Michael was scanning everywhere and I was digging for a phone number to reach AAi. This went on for about 5 minutes or so when this pretty little blonde lady came to our rescue. LENA!! She was just running behind as she had been seeing another family off back to the US. She was so sweet and nice, she immediately whisked us onto the elevator and up to the ground level where our driver Vladimir was waiting to take us to the Radisson.

We were exhausted and ready to get to the hotel and shower and take a nap. We piled all of our luggage into the tiny car and away we went at warp speed. There are no words to explain the driving there. It was just fast and wreckless. Two lane roads were turned into 4 lanes, everyone was just flying around at a mad pace. Lena informed us that our flight would leave tomorrow for Stavropol at 6:00pm. We paid her for the tickets which cost about $150.00 US dollars. Not bad at all compared to what it cost us to get to Moscow. We made small talk on the way to the hotel which was about 40 minutes away from the airport (Shermovito).

We got to the hotel, took all of our luggage in and got checked in and away we went to our room. Vladimir was going to pick us up around 10:00 in the morning and take us for a little bit of site seeing before we headed off to the airport for Stavropol. The hotel was very very nice. Should be for the amount of money we were paying for a room. ($289.00/night US dollars) You'd think we had rooms at the palace. :o) We went to the room unpacked a few items not much since we would have to pack right back up in the morning. We were looking out our window and witnessed a guy getting the crap beat out of him down on the street. Hmmm. Doesn't make you feel real warm and fuzzy, but we decided after a quick shower that we would walk around a bit outside the hotel. They had told us not to go out alone, but we were just going out to check out the fountain and the walkway over the Moscow River just right outside the hotel.

Much to our surprise when we walked out, we saw a man in camo armed with a machine gun standing outside the hotel. You guessed it. Definitely no warm and fuzzy here. :o) We made a quick pass around outside, snapped a few pics which I will post and made our way back into the hotel where we crashed. We got up later that evening ordered some dinner from room service and went right back to bed. This jet lag thing is for the birds. Hopefully before the trip is over we will adjust to the time difference.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day. We are going to do a little site seeing and make our way to Stavropol to see our son for the very first time.

Stay tuned...................

So long for now! 5/28/04

Well, it's Friday morning finally!! Last night was nuts, but it's finally here. A call to the airport has confirmed that all flights are on as scheduled. We are a nervous wreck. The day that we thought would never come is here. In 2 short days we will be meeting our little boy for the first time.

We are going to be leaving for the airport in a bit and I probably won't have access to a computer until I come home to do anykind of posting. Never fear though. I will have pictures and hopefully happy happy stories when we return home on June 4th.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We love you all!!!!

Kim and Michael

What a storm!!! 5/27/04

Well, this has been an interesting week to say the least. We found out on Tuesday that the terminal we are supposed to fly into at Charles de Gaul airport in Paris has collapsed. We will still be landing there but all traffic from that terminal is being rerouted through other terminals. We only have 45 minutes to change planes to begin with. This is making me terribly nervous. This will only make 2 times that I've ever flown.

Tonight a terrible storm came through. We were lucky and didn't have any damage to our place but Eminence didn't fair so well. A tornado touched down there and pretty much tore the little city to pieces. Luckily no one was hurt too bad. Evidently there were aweful storms all over the place, so first thing in the morning I have to call the airport in Louisville and make sure that all flights are on schedule. Michael decided that since it wasn't bad here that he would try to go into work. That was his plan all along and at the time he was supposed to go to work we didn't know just how bad Eminence was. He was going to work all night and then hopefully be able to sleep on the plane to help ease the jet lag some.

He called me when he got to New Castle and said that there we trees down and whatnot, but nothing to terrible. He ventured on closer to Eminence and the closer he got the worse it got. He came to a standstill right outside of Eminence near Rose Hill Florist. Apparantly no one was getting in or out in that direction. He sat there in traffic for about 35 minutes and finally got turned around and headed back out of town. He decided to try going down Herndon Lane and go in the back way. Still no luck. They told him at the crossroads that Eminence was officially a disaster area and they weren't letting anyone in and to just go home.

Needless to say it was almost 2am before he made it back home. We watched on the news and were praying that this wasn't a sign of things to come.

All is a go 5/24/04

Well, we sat down and made our hotel reservations on Saturday. AAi gave us a list of hotels that are close to the US Embassy. We got to choose pretty much between the Marriott, The Marriott Grand and The Radisson. After much surfing we decided on The Radisson. We're going to have to take out a 2nd on the house by the time this is said and done. The rooms in Moscow at The Radisson are 289.00/night US dollars. Let me tell ya that's cheap compared to the Marriott. We are going to be spending 3 nights in Moscow and 4 nights in Stavropol. We can only hope that the plane tickets and accomodations in Stavropol aren't quite so pricey. It'll all be more than worth it, but we're in "sticker shock". LOL

Once we arrive in Moscow, our translator will have our plane tickets to Stavropol and our translator in Stavropol will have already made our hotel reservations there. This is how are week is going to play out according to AAi.

Friday-We will be flying out of Louisville and going to Cincinnati. Don't ask it was for some unknown reason cheaper to make several stops than to fly straight through. Go figure. Once in Cincinnati we will hang out at the airport for 3 hours before getting to board the plane for Paris. Yes that's right I said Paris. We will be stopping in the city of love on our way to meet our son. After a quick 45 minute layover and plane change in Paris we will be on the last leg of our flight to Moscow. We should arrive God willing at 11:00am on Saturday. Moscow is 8 hours ahead of us so we will be loosing a day on the way over. We will spend one night in Moscow and leave Sunday afternoon for Stavropol. On Monday we will go to the orphanage and meet our son for the first time. We will fly back to Moscow on Wednesday do sight seeing in Moscow on Thursday and fly home bright and early Friday. It's going to be a crazy but totally exciting week. We are soooooo excited and nervous. We can't hardly stand the anticipation.

This is going to be the longest week ever.

Life is a whirlwind. 5/21/04

Whew. Our heads are spinning out of control. We had our travel meeting today. All is still a go. We got to talk to Diana, the owner of the agency. She was so sweet and so excited for us. She is Russian and spends about 6 months a year there. Her accent was very thick and at times it was hard to understand her but we made it through. Tonight when I get home we will sit down and book our hotel in Moscow. Our coordinator/translator in Stavropol will take care of our rooms in region and our translator in Moscow will take care of our plane tickets from Moscow to Stavropol and back. That's one less thing to worry about. Now the amount of cash we are going to be carrying. A HUGE WORRY. We have to pay our lawyer in cash, we won't go into the amount but it's quite a sum. Half on the first trip and the rest on the second trip when we go back to finalize the adoption. Wow that still doesn't seem real to say.

We booked our room tonight for the first night in Moscow and for the 2 nights at the end of the week when we return from region. We will be staying at the Radisson SAS. It looked quite posh online. :o) We had three choices and I know it's not the right way to look at it, but the Radisson was the cheapest. Our other options were the Mariott and the Mariott Grand. Go figure. Oh, yeah. Our plane tickets got here today. Was that fast or what???????? So now with our hotel booked, plane tickets in hand, we just had to wait for our visa's and start figuring out what to pack.

We were instructed to pack light and to pack an extra outfit in our carryon incase our luggage got lost. WHAT??!!?? So along with trying to pack our camera, and video camera and our paperwork that had to arrive with no wrinkles, we needed to pack an extra outfit apiece. Whew. This is going to be a challenge. I've already packed and unpacked our donation bag about a hundred times, making sure everything was just so so and that I hadn't forgotten anything.

Well, I'm mentally exhausted. More later. :o)

Plane tickets and other stuff. 5/19/04

I got up and headed into work this morning, knowing full well that there would not be very much work done. I had to get ahold of ECVO and find out what they came up with on tickets. When I talked to them later this morning I think I misunderstood a lot. That said, they are Russian and spoke with very very thick accents. I thought she told me that she found seats for us, but they weren't together. I told her I would see what I could come up with but to hold them for us until this afternoon, just in case I didn't have any luck.

I found a site called gotorussia.com and found the best deal on tickets. Let me tell you it was no "deal". It ended up costing us 3200.00 for both tickets round trip. It was basically the same price that ECVO had but I knew we would sit together. Booking on short notice we didn't get any type of "bargain fare" Mom and Dad offered to pay for the plane tickets for us. That was a blessing. Michael had been working 6 days a week for the last 6 monts and we had saved up around 4000.00 on our own, along with the 22,500.00 that we borrowed on the blazer and the boat, we were going to end up coming up short in the end with how expensive the tickets were ending up being. We did get a bit of a discount if we hopped planes several times. I had first looked at a direct flight from Cincinnati to New York and then on to Moscow. I ended up saving around 400.00 going from Lousville to Cincinnati, Cincinnati to Paris, and Paris to Moscow. I emailed the itenerary to Amanda to make sure that it would work for the translators and drivers. She would get back to me that aftenoon so I could go ahead and book the tickets.

I got word later that afternoon that all was a go and to book the tickets. Done. The visa's should arrive by Tuesday of next week via FedEx, our tickets will be coming FedEx also and should be here by the end of the week. Now it's on to booking a hotel. I'll work on that later. We are scheduled to have a telephone travel meeting on Friday and they don't want me to book a room until after that.

Like I said before, I didn't get much work done (that I was getting paid for anyway). I just feel like my head is spinning out of control. Most people get a month to plan this we have 10 days. Whoops, 9 days now. I mean how crazy is it that we are going to Russia?? We are going to be parents. We've wanted and waited for this for so long, it's scary now that it's really going to happen. I am so excited though. We just can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5/18/04

O.K. Today was the most exciting day ever. And hectic. It started out like any old day. Get up, take a shower, go to work. All was normal. I will admit though that everytime the phone had rang in the lab for the last few weeks I jumped out of my skin. Wondering Is that Andrea??

Well, today we wonder no more. I had just gotten back from lunch when the phone ran. Ooohhh. An outside call transfered up to us. I jumped as usual but ran to answer the phone.

This is how the conversation went:

Lab this is Kim.
Kim, this is Andrea.
Me thinking, Good grief what paper has to be redone or do they need now.
Andrea: Are you ready for this?
Me: Are you kidding?
Andrea: Kim, we have a 9 month old healthy baby boy for you guys if you are interested.
Me: Are you lying?
Andrea: No, I wouldn't lie to you about something like this.
Me: Oh my God!!! (crying and sobbing) I can't believe this. What do we have to do?
(in the meantime all my crying and shrieking had Anthony and Lisa pacing the floor trying to figure out what was wrong with me.)
Andrea: Here's the thing. That's all the information we have right now, but we have to move quickly. Can you guys be in Moscow on the 28th?
Me: (counting on my fingers) 10 days?? Next Friday??? Yes, yes. OMG!! I have to get ahold of Michael!! He's home sleeping with the ringer off on the phone.
Andrea: I need to know something within a couple of hours.
Me: I will call you as soon as I talk to him, but I'm saying yes without even talking to him. I'm sure he'll feel the same. So consider it a yes.
Andrea: O.K. go tell your husband and call me back with your definite answer.
Me: I will, Thank you Thank you so much!!!!!!!

I hung up he phone and was attacked by Anthony and Lisa. I had been trying to mouth 2 weeks to them while I was on the phone but they just weren't getting it. Then I realized. OMG !! It's not 2 weeks at all. It's 10 DAYS!!!! Anthony had been pasing around the lab and Lisa was crying. We were drawing quite a crowd with all the commotion. They called Dad and told him he needed to come upstairs. I'll never forget the look on his face when I told him he was going to have a Grandson. We cried and hugged each other. I called Mom and told her. I think she was in shock. The girls in her office told me later that she just balled when we got off the phone.

O.K. Now I don't want you guys to think that I've forgotten Michael for a minute. He works night shift and turns the ringer off on the phone during the day. In all the excitement I was like "how am I going to get ahold of him??" DUH. Think McFly Think. :o) Next thing I knew I was being shooed out the door and being sent on my way home.

I was in a daze for the drive. My mind just whizzing. In 10 days we were going to be in Russia!! We were going to meet our son. I walked in the door and of course the dogs started barking excitedly. Michael raised up out of bed and asked me what I was doing home early. I started crying and asked him what he thought about going to meet his son next week. He couldn't believe it either. I mean the dossier had just gotten to Stavropol the week before. I told him that we had to call Andrea and Amanda back and let them know definitely that we were going to travel next week so that we could get the ball rolling.

Let me tell ya. It was a good thing I left work when I did. I had no idea what the rest of the day was going to be like. We made the call and told them heck yeah we were going, like there was every a doubt. :o) Amanda said to go check our email for the "travel packet" Good grief another packet. LOL She also said that with the short notice we had to get a rush on our visa's which meant our application had to be overnighted to ECVO in New York TONIGHT!!!!!!!! We didn't even know where to begin. I mean plane tickets, visa's, hotels, travel meetings. We printed out the travel packet, the applications for the visas and off we went. We went to Mom's office for some much needed help. It was now 3:00 and we had to find a FedEx or UPS place that would be open when we got there and be able to deliver the visa applications first thing in the morning. ACKKKK!!

We had a little bickering session over filling out the papers. They ask for everything but your right arm. No, really. I mean it. They wanted the last 5 places we had worked, with address, supervisors names, addresses, phone #'s. Who could remember all that at a time like this?? We finally got all the needed information and were on our way. We thought we were going to have to fly to Louisville like madmen, but luckily we found out that sending it UPS was acceptable and we headed for LaGrange to make the last pickup for the evening.

Amanda told us that ECVO could also arrange our plane tickets and hotels so I called them to see what they could come up with for us. More than likely it was going to be tomorrow before we heard anything back from them so we started looking on our own when we got home. Unfortunately for Mikey, he had to go into work that evening. It had been an exhausting afternoon, exciting and thrilling, but exhausting. He went to work and I collapsed into bed.

Dossier arrived in Stavropol!! 5/10/04

Andrea emailed today to let me know that the dossier had arrived safe and sound in Stavropol. Whew. What a relief. Not a lot's been going on. We've just been working and trying to keep busy to pass the time while we "patiently" wait. snicker snicker We went and registered at BabiesRUs and Wal-Mart. That was fun. People can be so rude. I went to get the little scanner thingy at Wal-Mart to start our registry and the lady might as well have slapped me. I told her that we wanted to start a baby registry. I'm not kidding when I say that this woman looked me up and down with a disgusted look like "you're not even pregnant and if you are it's too early to start a registry". She never said anything, just took my license and gave me the scanner. I was ready to cry. It's not written anywhere that the only way to have a child is giving birth to one yourself. I went and found Michael and was fuming. Needless to say when I went back to return the scanner I informed the rude lady behind the counter that we were adopting a child from Russia. She had to pick her teeth up off the counter. hehehehehe The look on her face was definitely a kodak moment.

BabiesRUs wasn't quite so bad, but there was no place on their little application that said you were adopting. It asked for a due date. O.K. We have no idea. The lady looked at me funny when I told her that. I then had to go into the whole "we're adopting a baby" spill. I mean come on people.

It was pretty funny seeing Michael and I running around trying to decide what we were going to need. We knew that our baby was going to be between 6 months and 12 months. That was it. So we just started scanning stuff that we "thought" we'd need. It was definitely fun though.

The nursery 5/3/04

Michael has been working so hard this week to get the trim stained and ready to put up. He's doing such a good job. My little carpenter hubby. The room really started to look like something when the trim started going up. He got done with it after lunch and we put up the border and hung up all the cutsie decorations. It looks more like a boy's room now that we are done with it. I'm posting some pics of my hubby's hard work.

I must say we are quite proud of ourselves. Now all we need is our baby to put in the crib and it will be complete. I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of time in here daydreaming until we get "the call". The poor dogs don't know what is going on. They just know that something is up and I don't think they like it. :o)

Dossier to Russia! 4/27/04

Andrea called this morning and told me that they had recieved the corrected documents that morning and had turned right around and sent the DHL to Russia. It would take about 2 weeks for the document to get to Moscow and then from Moscow to our region. It had to be couriered once it got to Moscow.

We are still in shock that this is really happening. We've started working on the nursery over the weekend. I'm attatching some pictures of our work in process. I think I mentioned earlier on that we had decided on Blue Jean Teddy for our decor. We decided that we were going to sponge paint blue, red and yellow on the bottom half of the wall and put up a chair rail and border right above that. The sponge painting was really fun. Michael and I have been staining trim and getting ready to put that up hopefully this weekend.

We have a region!!!!!!!! 4/23/04

The dossier was recieved in Texas on 4/21/04. AAi will do a final check of the documents and after the final O.K they will be on their way to Moscow. Today however they sent an email that they were trying to figure out what region to put us in.

Andrea's email said basically this: We are trying to decide what region to put you guys in. We have a situation we wanted to ask you guys about. Would you be willing to accept a blind referral? Which means that you would get very limited information about your child before you travel. We have a region, Stavropol, where there is no one waiting right now. You guys would be next to recieve a referral when one comes available but we would have to travel blind.

I ran outside and yelled at Michael. My heart was pounding out of my chest as I tried to explain all of this to Michael. We both knew that we were fine with it. You couldn't make lots of decisions when you were pregnant, who were we to pick and choose. We called Andrea to talk to here and get more information and let her know that we were fine with blind travel if that's what it came down to. I asked her if the wait was still around 6 months or longer. You could hear the smile in her voice as she said, "Kim, you guys will be the next to recieve a referral." Oh, O.K I said. Still geared up for the fact that it was going to be awhile. I wasn't going to get my hopes up. No matter what they told us, we weren't going to get our hopes up. We had went into this looking at a year plus in the process that was the mindset we were going to keep.

In the middle of all this talk she did tell me that she needed 4 documents redone due to an issue with the notary. I was like sure sure. I'll get them redone and have them in the mail to you on Monday. I don't think they realized who they were dealing with.