When do we go back?

The most popular question we get at this point is when do we get to go back and bring Alina home. Well, the short answer is that the average time between the 1st and 2nd trip is 2-3 months. We are in the process of putting together the paperwork required by the court in Chuvashia. For those interested, here is a rundown of all that we need:

3 Copies of a letter of intent from us (a letter that states that we want to adopt this specific child)
2 Medical questionnaires from our doctor for each of us (saying that we are physically and mentally fit to adopt a child)
2 Copies of our doctor's license (we did this before, but his license was renewed back in February, so we had to do it again)
2 Letters from my company stating my current income and how long I have worked there
2 Letters from our CPA stating Brandon's income for 2007, since she is self-employed
2 Background Check Letters from the State Police
2 Letters from a licensed psychologist stating our ability to be adoptive parents
2 Copies of the psychologist's license
2 Copies of some other documents stating that we agree to post-placement supervision, that we will register our child with the appropriate Russian consulate upon returning to the US and if we move, and a couple other minor documents

All of the above (with the exception of the police letter) had to be notarized as well, so that's an extra step taken in the process. We have most of the documents done, the only items we have left are (1) we are waiting for our state police letters to be returned to us as we've already submitted our fingerprints and (2) we are currently scheduling the appointment with a psychologist.

Once those are done, the info then gets sent to the state of Texas to be apostilled (basically they certify that the notaries who signed the forms are registered with the state), and then it can be sent to Russia to be translated and sent to the court. So LOTS of stuff going on, but we are done with about 80% of what we need to do already, so we've made a lot of progress.

We have a crib!

Brandon and I bought our crib and baby furniture this past weekend. The furniture is on order, but we were able to buy a floor model of the crib so that we could get it now. We brought it home this weekend, and put it together last night. Bailey, our dog, tried to help as well. She was crawling under the bed and then flopped down. We're not sure if she was going to try to hold it up for us while we screwed it together, or if she was just providing moral support. We'll go with the latter, because she really provided no help except to gain attention.

After we got it together, we started putting our bedding on it to get a sense of what it looked like pulled together. It also helped us to narrow down some of our paint colors for the room. It's a bit scary that it is all coming together, but very exciting at the same time.

We hope that the bedding will go to good use very soon, as we are putting together all of the paperwork needed in order to get our court date set in Russia. We can't wait to go back not only to get our daughter, but also to take in the country a little more. We want to take in more of the country so that we can be good stewards to Alina about its history and the wonderful sights that can be seen there. We also look forward to seeing the people we've met again since they are as much a part of this process as we are.

Fast Facts about our 1st trip

Thought we would give you a few fast facts about our trip.

By the numbers....
Air travel time: 29 hours
Train travel time: 22 hours
Car/Taxi travel time: 4 hours
Moscow traffic time: 14 hours
Words we know in Russian: maybe 12
Number of nights slept on a train: 2
Bowls of borscht we ate:3, before this trip: 0
Stalls in the men's bathroom at the train station that shared a single roll of toilet paper: 8

Other items of interest....
The mullet hairstyle is alive and well in Russia.
Even though a couple days it was 70+ degrees outside, many people were still pretty bundled up.
Traffic laws are really just suggestions, because 4 cars can fit side-by-side across only 2 lanes and a shoulder. (much like any really big city in the US: New York, LA, etc.)
Coming from Texas (the land of the pickup truck & SUV), it was very strange to see only 2 pickup trucks the entire week we were in Russia - both being the smaller variety.

So I kid a little here to get a laugh, but to be honest, we had a wonderful time in Russia. Our hosts were so accomodating and hospitable. It's amazing that we could connect with them even though there was a huge language barrier. We hope to stay with them on our 2nd trip as well as they are a part of our Russian family.

Happy Birthday, Alina!

Today is Alina's first birthday, and we are more than 5000 miles away from her. To say the least, it is not a really fun day for us because we wish that we could be with her. We had a wonderful visit last week with her, spending about 6 hours over two different days getting to know her. Since we knew we wouldn't be with her today, we sang happy birthday to her during a quiet moment with just the three of us last week.

It's amazing to think how our lives have already changed for the better, and that we now have someone else that we put ahead of ourselves. Last night we watched the clips of video we took of her, and just marveled at how amazing she is. It's hard to believe that we have connected so deeply with her so quickly. While we came home after just a week, a piece of our heart stayed in Alatyr with our little baby girl. We are simply wrecked and will not feel complete again until we get to see that beautiful face in person again.

We are keeping ourselves busy with the paperwork we need to complete in order to get the court date set in Russia. We want to get it done as soon as possible so that our second visit comes sooner rather than later. At the end of that visit, assuming all goes as planned, then we will be able to bring her home. We also have LOTS of stuff to get in order, like her room, etc., so that will hopefully help to pass the long wait until we see her. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers, as we know that God is watching out for her while we cannot.

Say hello to Alina Evelyn

We just got back to Moscow this morning from Chuvashia. It was an incredible journey that culminated when we met our baby. After meeting her, we decided to call her Alina Evelyn. We felt strongly that we wanted to keep a Russian name, so we chose Alina, which means beautiful. Evelyn, of course, is a family name on both sides - Brandon's grandmother, and my mother's sister. She has beautiful blue/grey eyes, and very light blonde hair. Her 1st birthday is coming up this week, Tuesday, May 20th. We feel very sad that we will miss it.

While in the region, the baby house doctor arranged for us to take a tour of a Russian Orthodox monastery. It was brilliant, and certainly a once in a lifetime experience. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside, but got several of the outside. We also bought a book that has pictures of the inside for Alina. The book is written in Russian, so she'll have to keep learning in order to read more about it. The village only has 40,000 people, but has 18 monasteries. I'd say that's quite a bit per capita.

We went to the notary this afternoon in Moscow to make it official that this is the baby we want to adopt. Now we have to come home and get some additional paperwork done on our end so that we can get the court date set as soon as possible. Everyone in both America and in Russia seems very willing to try to make this go as fast for us as they can, so we have a lot going for us on both sides of the process.

We're in Russia!

Brandon and I made it to Russia without a hitch. We landed yesterday afternoon just before 4pm, and spent about the next hour or more trying to get through passport control. The workers kept taking breaks (or at least leaving their booths for a few minutes), and people kept jumping between lines. It was mass chaos. The interesting thing, though, is that by the time we got up to the window, the woman that helped us looked a bit like a Russian-version of my sister-in-law Debbie.

We were welcomed at the airport by Alexander (aka Sasha), and his 10-year old daughter Masha. We then had about a 2 hour ride in traffic to get to Alexander's parents house, Ludmila and Lev. Apparently traffic was very bad because it was the end of a 4-day weekend.

Masha entertained us last night, as she is the one who speaks the best English. We played cards for a while, and then we found out that Masha dances traditional Russian dances. We asked her to dance for us, thinking it would just be a 30 second sample. She actually went to the other room, changed into her traditional dress, and danced for a good 10 minutes. I was able to take a couple pictures which I'll post at some point. She then went and got into a different dress so I grabbed the video camera to tape her. When she saw that I had a video camera this time, she exclaimed "ohhhhh" and proceeded to dance for another few minutes, hamming it up the whole time. She's quite the entertainer.

Today we went to register our visas, which you have to do within the first 3 days of arriving. We also met Tatyana, who is our translator and will be traveling with us to the baby house. She doesn't know much about the baby, but apparently she's been told that she is beautiful and a good baby.

All in all, we are doing terrific and thank you all for your continuous thoughts and prayers.

Baby Idiots

We found out today that we are baby idiots. Let me first set the story up just a bit...

We have to take some items for use by the orphanage in Russia. These items can be clothes for the kids, antibacterial lotion, surgical gloves or masks, baby vitamins, shampoo, developmental toys, etc.

We walked aimlessly around Wal-Mart trying to figure out where all these things were. Sure, some of them were easy to find, but which ones are grouped together? Which ones are in the baby section vs. the pharmacy? Which ones are with detergents or soaps? Do they group child clothes for 12 months or less, and those more than 12 months in different groups, or are they all mixed together?

So I looked at Brandon and said "we are baby idiots"! I know we'll figure all this stuff out, but if anyone could tell me what section baby vitamins are in (that is, children UNDER 2 years), let me know.

We're headed to Russia!!

We got the call today from our adoption agency and they told us we have been matched to a child! All we know is that she is just shy of a year - no name, no medical history, and no picture (which is pretty common with international adoptions).

The crazy part is that they told us we had to be in Russia by Monday, the 12th. You read that right, 7 days from today. Pretty unbelievable, eh? Thank God for airline miles, because the tickets that would have cost us about $5,000 total cost us only $350. We spent the better part of today arranging our flights and putting together our a FedEx pack of info so that we could get our Russian visas by Wednesday.

The other thing that we have to do is complete 10 hours of video training before we leave. We had been so focused on paperwork the past few months, and we had been told that it would take 12-18 months in total that we hadn't started our training. So in the midst of getting all of the other things ready for our trip, we have to watch the videos. We cranked out 3 tonight, and succesfully passed the follow-up quizzes in order for us to get credit for them. Only 7 hours to go!