Day 3 of 10

Today started out grey. After a little while the snow started coming down. I thought it was neat because yesterday was on the warm side and I wanted to walk on snow today instead of slip on ice. :)

Our ride came at 9:30 and off to the orphanage we went. Jack was brought in and we said Hello. He walked right over to me and gave me a hug. How sweet it was! We started playing with the toys in the room and then it started getting a little - hmmm - well, rough. We think he might have been teething or tired or both because he started throwing things and when I wouldn't let him pull down the VCR in the room he started throwing a tantrum. Needless to say I was a little nervous about the crying fits since we were on other people's turf with our driver and facilitator watching. I tried to calm him down but he would have none of it. Our driver, Serge, came over and started talking to him in Russian, sort of rough, and that seemed to calm him down a little. We played a little longer and then he was at it again, wanting to get into something he shouldn't and me stopping him and him throwing a tantrum. The next hour pretty much went the same way with others intervening when they didn't want to hear the crying.

At 11:30 they brought in his lunch and we were told we could feed him. I was hoping we would be able to watch him eat with the other children in his group but no. His food was in porcelain dishes, with an adult size spoon and a porcelain teacup had warm tea. First was a bowl of soup and they told us he could feed himself. Uhh, no. He started to but then turned the spoon upside down to get it into his mouth, thus spilling the broth down his chin and back into the bowl I moved up to his chest. They told me to take the spoon and so I fed him the rest, and he munched on a piece of bread in between slurps. Then came the hearty portion, mashed potatoes and a gravy like meat mash. He ate that like a pro with my help. He had some tea in between potatoes and that was a little hard to serve him. In the end we finished without too much of a mess. The caretaker came in and we were told our visit was over as it was Jack's time for a nap. We needed one too.

So, our first really fussy experience was definitely a learning one. We don't get to see Jack over the weekend so we will have to wait until Monday morning to see him again. I think we'll try to find the flea market other's have mentioned, provided David is up for it. He started feeling a little stuffy today so pray it doesn't get to what I had. It's not fun.

FYI: If you ever come to this region, here are a few things that tend to be hard to find in the grocery stores: Tissues, Coffee Filters, Paper Towels, regular Napkins, good Peanut butter and I don't think Washcloths exist. On the other hand, we've had plenty of ramen noodles and there are many different flavors of hot tea! I'll post things like this as I think about them! :)

Day 2 of 10

We had a great visit today with Jack. We had a surprise from our facilitator. She told us we were going to take Jack to get his photos done for the Visa. This was wonderful news except I hadn't come prepared for it with bib and baggie just in case he got car sick. You see, these children have likely never been in a car except for the one that brought them to the orphanage originally. There is a chance they've gone to medical exams, but typically all the medical stuff is done at the orphanage.

So, here we were, waiting in the hall of the orphanage for the caretaker to bring Jack to us for our fun car ride, and in walks this tightly bundled little thing with face all pudgy and worried. He started balling when I picked him up so I passed him to the facilitator who calmed him down in Russian and then she put him on the floor and the three of us walked hand in hand. I got in the van first, then David gave Jack to me to sit on my lap and then David got in. Jack was a little hesitant and fussed a little, but then calmed down. When the car started moving he grabbed my arms tight and that was a wonderful bonding moment for me.

We got to the photographer and took off his thick coat and hat, put him in his little high chair for the pictures and he started smiling at the photographer. When the pictures were taken it was back into the coat and hat and back into the van. On the way back he basically fell asleep and stayed asleep even after getting out of the van and walking around the orphanage grounds.

We got back inside the orphanage to the play room and took off his outerwear when he finally woke up. It was fun after that as Jack was giggling and playing with us a lot. It helped that we had Cheerios for him too. :)

We left after about an hour and after returning to the hotel decided to take a walk to a restaurant nearby that had a buffet lunch. It was pretty good. We walked around the area a bit more going into a children's store, looking for a snow suit for Jack since he's bigger than we expected.

Now we are back in the hotel and relaxing. Tomorrow is when we'll be able to watch him eat either a snack or lunch. It should be interesting. They say he likes to feed himself.

Oh, we were also given 3 of his fingerpaintings. It was really sweet of them to share them with us.

p.s. I'm feeling much better today. Sinus headache is almost completely gone, just some congestion around my nose, so thanks to everyone for your prayer!

Day 1 of 10

Artwork by Jack Pentecost

Today was the first of our 10 day waiting period. We weren't scheduled to go to the orphanage for our daily visit until 3pm so we had the morning to do as we pleased. I still don't feel all that great so I decided to rest some more and David relaxed, read some, and did exercises (ran stairs, tae bo, etc.) We then ate lunch and got ready to go.

We got to the orphanage right after their naptime so Jack walked in a little groggy. We had a little coaxing to do but eventually he started playing with us and giggling. :) We had a good 2 hours with him. Tomorrow our visit is early in the morning and I think we'll be able to feed him his morning snack.

Our driver and facilitator then dropped us off at the California Pizza Kitchen (no relation to the U.S. version that I can tell) and we had pizza for dinner. We walked back to the hotel and now we are drinking hot tea and it's yummy. I think we'll read a couple of good books, maybe watch a video sermon and try to get a good night's sleep.

Thanks for all your comments and well wishes. We really appreciate them so keep 'em coming when you can. :) Love you all!

The Court said DA!

We have just returned from our court session. We were told it was unusually on time, unusually fast, and not a bad experience at all. We appreciate all the prayer as we know God had ultimate control. Soooo, after everything was said and done, the judge stood up and said "Congratulations, I approve you as parents to this child". That was that!

We are thrilled and excited. We are also happy this is now over with. We were told we will pick Jack up next Saturday the 28th so we look forward to that!

Thanks again to everyone for their prayer and support. I'll fill you all in as the days go by. We get to visit Jack tomorrow!

Court tomorrow

Hey everyone. Woke up to about 2ºF this morning in Krasnoyarsk. It was great!

Just to let you know we saw Jack this morning. Woohoo! He was our little boy who grew up a little. He's got a bunch more teeth, a little less belly, but the same adorable personality. I'll write more tomorrow because I must get some rest now.

We have court tomorrow (for you guys it will be at 10:30pm EST Monday) so please keep us in prayer that we say everything that we're supposed to and nothing that we're not. David will be doing about 96% of the talking so especially pray for him.

Just a few pictures to give you a clue as to how we're doing. We made it to the Region of Krasnoyarsk and got off our plane outside, in the -8º C snowing weather. It's like 17ºF, we found out. Tomorrow and Tuesday will be the coldest in the past few weeks.. lucky us... But we will be able to visit Jack Monday morning so it's all worth it! We are unbelievably excited, as you might imagine. I will post more tomorrow afternoon, but these pictures will have to do for now.

Oh, please pray for me (michele) as I have developed a sinus infection/head cold. The last thing I want to do is pass on any sickness to our son. I appreciate all of your prayers!

Until next time...
Russia's version of hot beverage cups - we have cocoa!!!:
Ice Sculptures in front of our hotel - oh so fun!:

Remember the boots with dirt... it's been replaced with Snow!!!

Approved.. Approved... Approved!

It is about 3pm our time and we are done with our medicals. We left the hotel about 11am and returned at about 2pm. The experience was pleasant and I didn't feel nervous at all. It went very quickly as we didn't "sit" very much in between doctors. There was another American couple there so we chatted with them too.

When we were finished and paid our fees, we were given our papers with all the doctors' signatures of approval and that will go with us to court.

Another step completed! We leave the hotel tomorrow at 5:45 to head to the airport to fly to Krasnoyarsk where we will arrive on Sunday. Pray everything goes smoothly with the flights and we don't have any trouble. I'll fill you all in on the first part of our trip when we arrive at our region hotel, so don't worry. :)

Feel free to comment. We love reading "letters from home". :)

We made it to Moscow

I'm on the public computer at the hotel and people are waiting to get on so I'll have to be brief. We had a nice flight over here and things have been great. I can get into detail more when we get to Krasnoyarsk on Sunday because we can't afford this hotel's WiFi service. Which is why we are on the public computer... it's free access.

The picture above is from today (Thursday). David is to the right and our tour guide is on the left. This is a picture down Arbat street. We took a walking tour of Moscow and it was nice. Cold, it snowed a little, but our guide was very informative. My feet are killing me though because I wore my heeled boots. Other than my feet, we are doing great!

One other thing, the picture below is of my boots and you'll notice they are VERY dirty. That would be the only other thing that isn't so great. I've had to wash my jeans hem last night and I'll be washing them again tonight, but they dry really fast so that's cool.
We leave for our medicals tomorrow at 11am so pray for us. We are seven hours ahead of Florida time so you'll probably be sleeping when we're at the medical center. :)

More details to come, probably not until Sunday, though I'll try again when no one is behind me waiting for this computer. Toodles!

I almost forgot one thing, David's thrilled tonight... he found a Marvel comic book... in Russian.

We're Outta Here!

Well, this is my last post from America this month. I hope you will all join us in prayer for this life changing trip of ours. We will update this blog as often as possible along with responding to emails we receive. I've been feverishly working/preparing for our trip and now that it's here I can hardly believe it.

Thanks to all of our family and friends who have supported us and prayed for us. We appreciate each and every one of you!

Catch ya on the flip side!

Makin' a list... checkin' it ... twice?

Well, in response to mrs. salty, I do have a list, thanks for the suggestion! Many know I basically have a list for everything. I rely on lists to keep me on track. :) Especially during these last few weeks, I've made and rewritten several lists. The one I have now has been about half way crossed out. I like leaving the list until almost everything is crossed off because it makes me feel like I'm actually accomplishing stuff. :) We only have a few major things to do for the trip, including packing. It's a little nerve wracking as I'm afraid we'll forget something. Oh well. So, that's where we're at... checking the list... several thousand times! :) woohoo.

Carpets clean! Ah...

Well, we are on the flip side of this week. Less than a week before we leave. Wow. I had a few friends help me put the car seat in my truck the other day. Talk about a reality check. Every time I go somewhere, there it is, the reminder that someday very, very soon that seat will be filled. Incredible.

I've been getting stuff done around the house, in preparation of our return. Yesterday we had our carpets cleaned and what a great feeling that is! I still have lots of little things to do but we're in the home stretch now. Work has been coming in for me this week so I've been trying to balance my time... it hasn't been easy. :)

God has been so faithful in helping me control my anxiety. I nearly had a breakdown earlier this week but when I was able to take a moment and talk with God, He took care of things, in me and for me. For instance, the new medical requirements have now been taken care of. We received everything we need this past Tuesday. It worked out beautifully. (Thank you Doctor's office for all your help!)

That's all for now. I hope to post a couple more times before we leave so we'll chat again soon!

The countdown has begun

Well, I'm nervous, happy, busy, happy, anxious, happy, dizzy, happy, on the go, happy, flippin' out.. and happy!

This final week has started and I'm adding stuff to my list almost faster than I'm crossing stuff off. I still have to finalize the new documents with our doctor but hopefully that will work out soon. We have to get a new router for our computer setup. I spent precious hours on Saturday working on it but it didn't help. Eh, it's cool. It will get taken care of, eventually, along with all the other stuff.

I want to say Thanks once again to all our wonderful family and friends for their support and encouragement. We are really very blessed to have such wonderful people around us.

That's the update. Have a great day! -michele

Two Surprises! (long post)

I received two surprises yesterday. First thing in the morning I was feeling a little overwhelmed by "things" and decided to spend some time just praying, not reading the Bible (which is still good) but just really pouring out my heart and then listening to God. I felt refreshed and ready to tackle the things that were on my list. As the day went on I received an unexpected package from my sweet cousin up north. She sent me a bunch of wonderful little things like magazines and sample packets of things along with some organic snacks and a canister of organic cereal. All kinds of things that we can use. It was all very wonderful and extremely thoughtful! I thanked God for planning this gift to arrive the very day I needed a 'pick me up'. That was a great surprise!

The second surprise came about 6:20pm. We got an email that said as of March 1st there are new requirements for the medical documents we are to bring over to Moscow. Basically we need to get more stuff done... See the doctor again... get more paperwork notarized, etc. At first I handled it ok, but after hashing things out I just kind of, well, let's just say I got really, really frustrated.

I thought we were done with all of this paperwork stuff and basically just had packing left. Now there is yet another "issue" we have to deal with before we leave. This was not a great surprise.

Today, after speaking with a friend, we realized that God knew all of this and had everything planned out. It becomes a kind of cliché but it's really, really true. We had complained that our court date was further away than expected. Turns out, if it hadn't been set up for that date, we would really be scrambling, or maybe even in a position where it would be impossible to complete the necessary documents. The other thing I had kind of complained about was that our doctor decided to do a full blood work panel, instead of just the ones the Russian government required. There were many, many more results on the lab reports and I didn't want the doctors over there to give us grief or raise a red flag about anything on there. Again, it turns out that the very things our doctor tested us for that I thought shouldn't be on the report are now the things the government is requiring. How awesome is our God! I should know it by now... God can be trusted.

So, long story short - things are tough, things get better, things go really bad, in the end God is really Good.

Starting our 6th Trimester

We are on the verge of beginning our 6th trimester. (See ticker way below). It's not your typical pregnancy, but it feels similar to one none the less. We started with tons of paperwork and have gone through this process growing with anticipation for our son-to-be. We are anxiously awaiting his arrival and are swollen with love and desire for him. There's so much more to be said about the similarities but I think you understand.

I received our (hopefully last) necessary documents for our upcoming trip. I will be making one more drive to Tallahassee (Lord willing) early this week and then everything will be in place for our departure. The countdown starts this Saturday! Please continue to pray for us as the travel portion of this expedition takes a heavy toll, not to mention the time in Russia amidst people who have a fairly different culture from our own. It will be a great experience and we look forward to it, but we desperately need to be led by God's wisdom in everything we do and say.

Thanks for all your prayer thus far. We know God has been working on our behalf and we are so grateful!

Flights Set, Visa in transit... All Systems Go

So the title is a little weird... We've got 24 days to go. Sounds like a lot but we know it will go faster than we expect. I've booked our flights, decided to do it on our own instead of use an agent and I am praying there aren't any problems down the line. It is very strange seeing our son-to-be's name on the flight confirmations. It is a good kind of strange though. :)

Our Visas should be back in a couple of weeks. The good thing about this longer than expected wait is that we don't have to pay the expediting fees like when we only have the typical 2 weeks notice.

We're trying to get the house and gear ready for our departure/return. We're still praying the fellow adopting couple will get the same court date as us. They will probably find out next Wednesday so please keep this in prayer. It would really be nice for both of our families if we traveled together.


Happy Valentines Day.
(Our family coordinator suggested we make this special since it will be the last one we have without having to find a baby sitter! Woohoo!)

COURT DATE!

We heard from our family coordinator this afternoon. We have an official court date! We are so thrilled to finally be at this stage. I will give you more details later but we leave here in exactly 4 weeks from yesterday! This is further away than expected and kind of disheartening but we know that God has it all under control and we trust Him completely. We get to see our little boy very soon! Woohoo!

Next Phase

We had our home visit tonight to fulfill the last of the requirements for the Home Study Update. As usual, it was very pleasant and not too grueling. We're hoping our report will come quickly. I found out that this update will need an apostille so that means at least one more trip to Tallahassee before we head out to Russia.

We also found out that our Petition is on it's way to Russia, as of this past Monday. The earliest we could hear something about a court date and travel itinerary would be next Wednesday the 11th. So, we're back to "waiting". Well, meantime we are preparing for travel, collecting all the necessary clothing and accessories. This will help so we're not scrambling at the last minute.

On a side note, the family that got their referral and petition at the same time we got ours is having a slight delay in getting their petition off to Russia. At the last minute they found out they need one additional document from their state (they should have it very soon) before they can send it off. We would really like to travel with this family so please join us in prayer that we end up with the same court date, God willing. Thank you!

Happy Birthday Luca!!! I miss you!