Scarletina?

I guess this is what they call Scarlet fever in Russia, not sure why it is an "outbreak" maybe they don't have the antibiotics for the kids.  I called our ped to see if we can bring antibiotics for V if she needs it.  Also they are having an extreme cold spell with no end in sight.  Oh and we needed to change not only our air flight times but even the carrier because they want us there faster.  I got the flights rebooked, waiting on a credit from the old flight and trying to figure out how to get everything done in 2 more days.

Scarlet fever

There is an outbreak of scarlet fever at the orphanage :(  They are not saying we can't come but just to be prepared.  I am on with our dr. to see if we can bring antibiotics for V and C incase they need them.  They also wanted us to know that an extreme cold front has moved in and they don't see it passing for a while.  I guess I am not surprised, did not expect Siberia to be warm in December.

Time keeps slipping away

That is a good thing in that it feels like a shorter wait now, but a little frustrating as I still have no idea how I will get everything done.  We are trying to keep things normal for Chase right now, we put the Christmas tree up last night and decorated it so that Santa can come while we are out of town.  Chase's birthday is next week and we are going to celebrate it Thursday night with family here.  I have to call the travel agency again to confirm our tickets, I need to make sure our travel visa has been processed, go to the bank again (they all know me by sight now), send off a package to our agency with final payment, send a package to my sister in Ny and ..... the list keeps going : )   I keep reminding myself that I can sleep when we get to Biro.

Counting down - 5 days left

Where is the time going?  We leave in 5 days - I can't believe it and in 7 we may actually have our daughter in our arms.  I keep crying at odd times, just thinking about seeing her again.  Finally being able to tell her how much we love her and want her to be with us always.  We want to tell her how she will always have a family, how we will love her no matter what.  I just want to hold her and never let her go.  Putting her back on the plane this summer was one of the hardest things I have ever done.  Her room is ready, we have some clothes laid out to pack and my nerves are getting to me.  Our lists have lists but we are slowly and surely getting things done.  Today I purchased a christmas dress for her and a matching sweater for our son.  Not sure if I will pack them for the kids to wear on Christmas or keep them at home and have them wear them when we celebrate here.

Thankful!!!!

Sorry this post is a day late but things have been a bit busy here.  We are so thankful to be blessed with amazing and supportive family and friends.  Thank you all for your fantastic support, we would never have been able to do this with out it!!!  I am so grateful for my amazing hubby and son as well as all of you!!!  Can't wait until our family grows by one in less than 2 weeks - Court is Dec. 9th.

Daily Update

What needs to get done today?  Mostly making lists, following up with our new post placement agency as we need to get our postplacement commitment letter from them, making sure our visa information arrived in DC and that it is getting processed and will be back in time for us to fly next week.  We have to confirm with our adoption agency that our flight times and dates -with how long it takes to fly to Khabarovsk which is a 3 hr. drive to Biro and the 15 hr. time change - we leave on the 3rd but arrive on the 5th.  I slept some last night which was nice but now my stomach is in knots again.  I also should start getting things ready to pack.

Time is ticking away

Booked our flights today and sent our visa applications overnight to be processed.  Hoping to have the approval so we can leave next week.  Also scheduled booster shots for tetanus and whopping cough for J and I as well as flu shots for all of us.  Trying to make lists to cover all that needs to get done before we go.  Right now I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, the one day we have before we leave that everything is closed and we will have to relax :)

Sleepless in Chicago

It was really hard to get some sleep last night, even after making major lists with J, I still could not wind my mind down.  I am excited, nervous and the list of things to do before we leave next week keeps growing.  The big goal today is airline tickets, we have an agency working on it but we have not gotten the itinerary yet. I also need to start listing out what we need to bring from what we want to bring.  It is pretty expensive to check bags internationally and our goal is 3 carry ons (one each) and one checked bag.  Not sure if I can do it, but going to try.  The other big thing we have to do today is contact the bank to order "new money" - crisp, unwrinkled, never used bills.  Anyone who has done IA adoption knows that they won't exchange money that does not look perfect.

Planning to travel in under 2 weeks - wow

I spent hours today on the internet and on the phone trying to get the major parts of our trip booked.  Some were successful, others not so much.   We have our hotel booked for Birobidjan (not hard as there is only one hotel in the city and our agency reserved it for us), booked our hotel in Moscow (thank you Starwood hotels, since we had points and were able to use them to get a lower rate) and tried to book air fare, but... no luck yet.  We have a travel agency working on it, but it is a little hard as the holidays make travel much more popular and we need at least 2 seats together as we are bringing our 6 year old with us and he can not sit alone.  Also there are no direct flights to Moscow from Chicago so we need to stop over in either London or Frankfurt and the way it is looking we will be stopping in one on the way there and one on the way back, unfortunately no time for sightseeing or leaving the airport but hey how many other 6 year olds can say they visited London, Frankfurt and Moscow all in one month?  You definitely have to have a sense of humor while going through adoption.  You also have to remember you are not in control, someone else tells you where to be, when to be there and what you have to do.  Everything is on someone else's schedule and you have to let go of your own time tables.   We are also working on getting our travel visas.  The parents are traveling on a business visa, our son and my mom on a tourist visa.  We have someone to process them and have to overnight the forms, payment and passports tomorrow.  My list of things to do is growing fast but I am confident that we will get it all done somehow.

We got THE call today

The call every pre adoptive parent waits for, we got our travel date!!  We are heading out NEXT week - beyond excited. I can not wait to go and to see our little girl again, for her to become legally our daughter is a dream come true!!  I am going to be taking this blog private for our travel times, so if you want to stay updated on our trip - please sign up so you have access.  We want to be careful with the information.

Thank you all for your support

Missing our visitor

It has been almost 4 months since we had to say good bye to our visitor.  We have spent most of that time trying to finish up outstanding paperwork and trying to get a court date.  We sat down today and figured out that we would have to hear about our court date by the day after Thanksgiving in order to travel and be done before New Years (the major Russian holiday) or we will not travel until 2011.  There are pros to going this year (like getting V home faster, using the adoption tax credit to get some of our money back) and the cons (being gone for our son's birthday and Christmas).  It is fine to know your own pros and cons but like most of the other parts of adoption, we don't have any say.  When they tell us to travel, we go.  On average you get 2 weeks notice before having to leave, not a whole lot of time given the fact you then have to be there for a month.  We are trying to get the things done now that are not time sensitive and will be fine regardless of when we travel (like buying travel items that we will need in Russia).

Could you leave everything behind?

That is one of the thoughts going through my mind.  For our daughter to become part of our family that is literally what she needs to do.  She will leave the only home she can probably remember as she has been there since she was 2, she will leave her friends and her country to gain a family.  When she leaves the orphanage it will be empty handed as everything, even the clothes on her back will stay behind.

The waiting game

That is the time in between finishing all of your paperwork and getting your travel date - feels like hurry up and then..... silence.  You hope that things are moving smoothly, that those who don't know you are pushing your papers through the system and getting them where they need to go in a foreign place that you have never been.  I spend time online looking for other blogs, websites, online groups that have people in similar situations.  Asking for advice on what to buy now, what to bring with us, how much to budget for living there, what to expect, etc.  What exactly am I searching for, I don't know.  I feel like I should be getting stuff ready, with a baby you know to buy blankets, bottles, little onsies but with an older child it can be a bit harder.  Most things will wait until she is here like clothes to make sure they are the right size or shoes, etc.  I have to bring some with us and I do have those ready (the basics like pj's, underwear and socks).  We will do some shopping with her there after the adoption is completed but before she is allowed to come stay with us at the hotel.

Nerves

We received an update that our documents were almost done being translated and will shortly be at court which is a great thing.  It is also something that makes me nervous.  I am excited to be moving forward but the unknown of how long we will be there, how much the final costs will be, how our little visitor will react when we get there, are all weighing on my mind.

A new forever family

Our friends who are over in Biro right now just had their court date and were awarded custody of their two host daughters from this summer.  They are so excited and we are excited for them as well.  They now have the 10 day wait in the region but they will get tons of time with the girls.  Their translator took a picture of the happy new family and everyone is glowing.  She said that the girls are now asking when they can head home on the plane.

Why Adoption?

It is a question we have heard from those closest to us and those who have just met us.  Usually for those who do not know us well it follows with "is your son adopted?" to which we say no and then we get the "then why are you adopting?" question.  There are lots of reasons we could list like the religious one: we felt there was a child out there that was supposed to be part of our family or the fertility card: fertility treatments did not work or a funny one: We already have 2 sets of triplet nieces and nephews and decided quads were out for us.  We could give a travel reason: We always dreamed of going to Siberia or the one that makes the most sense to us: this is where we ended up.  I don't think we started out planning to adopt, although I have heard from my family that I said at a young age that I was going to adopt (and that my younger sister told me that I had to give birth at least once to go through the pain).  When my husband and I dreamed about what our family would look like, we usually thought it would have at least 2 kids in it but back then, we had no idea how hard that would actually be.   Once we decided to adopt, it did not take us long to be pulled towards adopting an older child.  There are so many people who want babies, long lines of people who can't wait for a little bundle of joy but those lines dry up as the children get older.  I want to be honest, we were nervous about considering an older child.  Anyone can search online or get an unsolicited story about someone that they knew or heard of that adopted an older child and all of the horrible things that happened.  One person told me that would be taking on someone else's problems.  The thing is that a lot of these children are pretty amazing and the only thing they want is a family to call their own.  When we first started looking into older adoption we started with calling our local foster care agency, they told us that their goal was reunification and if we were looking for adoption then we were at the wrong place.  We hired a consultant to go through all of our options, domestic, foster, international, special needs and spent a lot of time talking together about what our family could look like.  When we found the hosting program that we participated in, we finally felt like we were headed in the right direction.  That is not to say that this journey has been smooth.  There are days I want to pull my own hair out because nothing seems to be going our way or there is an arbitrary rule change or we are getting our 3rd round of chest x-rays done, or yet another round of blood tests because the results expire within 3 months and I can't see the end in sight.  Then I pull out our photo album from this summer and I remember why we are doing this, that there is a child out there who needs us and wants us as much as we need and want her.

Adoption Update

Where to begin?  Our dossier finally made it over to Biro, our friends that traveled over this weekend brought it with them - we are very excited about that.  There are, as usual, a few hiccups.  Our homestudy agency is currently blacklisted by Russia.  What is "blacklisting" you may ask (I know I have), it means that the agency is delinquent on post placement reports from adoptive families of Russian children.  Adoptive families are required by Russia to complete post placement reports for the first 3 years after the child is adopted, we already had a signed contract with our homestudy agency to do this and now we will have to find a new agency to do the reports.  It could be worse, they could have rejected our homestudy and made us start over from scratch again which would have been devastating.   Right now we are trying to get a new agency and updated letters to notarize and then apostille and send over to Biro.  Any IA (international adoption) family can tell you that you QUICKLY become friends with your local notaries and the States Office because everything that goes over has to have both a notary stamp and an apostille seal.  Make sure you check the notaries stamp expiration date BEFORE they sign and stamp your form or you may have to get it redone.  Make sure you have at least a year before the date expires or you will likely end up having to get the letter done again (and notarized again and apostilled again and sent to your agency again and then sent to Russia again - seeing the pattern??) save yourself time and headaches by asking the notary for this information ahead of time, we have had to have a few documents redone due to the notaries stamp expiring, it costs both time and money (and sometimes your sanity) trying to get them redone and resubmitted.  Highly recommend getting a large and sturdy accordion file folder to track and keep copies of everything (and they mean EVERYTHING) that you send over there as they may loose it or need another copy and when you are 1/2 way around the world, you want to make sure that you can provide the documents if needed in court.  The big hiccup we had before this was our immigration letter, new policy in the US only lists your first and last name however Russia needs your full passport name on there (which includes your middle name) - a time savor that we learned after the fact is to call the immigration office within 2 days of getting your finger prints done and requesting that they generate the letter WITH your middle name.  In our case we received the letter incorrectly and then it took over a month to get a corrected version (also took multiple calls to immigration) so just a helpful tip to save you some time.

I have more updates but not the time to post them now, will hopefully finish my update tonight.

Holidays are hard while waiting

I had a great time on Halloween with our son last night but it was dampened a little with missing our little visitor.  We will have plenty of time to make memories once she is home but as each holiday passes without her being home it gets a little harder to wait.