Second Post in One Day!

If you haven't read the post below this one, you definitely should. I wrote it this morning, and then realized I needed to post another update. So, it's two-for-one day, I guess. :-)

Because it's the prerogative of women (and mommies) to change their minds, I have completely re-done our nursery theme. I know I was really excited about it when I posted pictures before, but the longer it sat in the closet, the less I liked it. Maybe I just got caught up in the Ikea excitement while I was there, but it looked much cuter in the store than in my house. And then a couple of weeks ago, I found some stuff at Target that I totally fell in love with. For a few weeks, I went back and forth. I'd look at the new stuff online and in the store, and then look at my Ikea stuff. This week, I finally admitted to myself that I just needed to return the old bedding. (Ben, in his wisdom, said he knew this would happen from the moment I found the new bedding!)

So, now our nursery will be decorated in light blue, tan, and white instead of bright colors. (Much like the rest of my house. Guess I should stick with what I like.) I still like the zoo animals, and my friend has some great painting ideas. I know I'll like this better in the long run, and it will be easier to transition him into a "big boy" room someday if the walls are blue, as opposed to lime green. :-) So, sorry if I messed up any potential gifts out there. But I thought I'd post a picture of the new and improved nursery bedding:
It's called DwellStudio Zoo if you want to check out more pictures on the Target website. Thanks for putting up with my ever-changing mind as I wait for our son to come home!

Three updates

First, a praise: our documents arrived in Nizhny on Tuesday! Now they are in the process of being translated and eventually submitted to the court. Please pray that this process is efficient and smooth. We are specifically praying that everything will be submitted by the end of April, so that we can schedule a court date for sometime in June.

Second, a minor update: While in Russia, we decided to change the spelling of Sam's Russian middle name to better represent how it's pronounced. So now it's Yevgeniy with a "y" on the front of it. Just thought those of you interested in details would appreciate knowing that!

The third update is more serious and a big call for prayer. Beginning on May 1, Nizhny Novgord will no longer be allowing adoptive families to travel on business visas (I posted earlier today that it was all of Russia--I was mistaken!). You may remember that earlier this winter, the office processing adoption visas closed, which halted travel plans for families until an alternative was found. That alternative was business visas, which will also no longer work in a few weeks. Some regions are accepting tourist visas, so we are praying that the decision-makers in Nizhny would see this as an acceptable way for adoptive families to travel.

While this seems like a huge hurdle to me, it is a comfort to know that God is not at all surprised or worried. I am sure that an alternative will be found at some point in the future; it's just unclear how long it could take for a decision to be made. This will affect many families waiting to get their children in Nizhny. Of course, it's clearly within their rights to do this, and I'm sure there are reasons behind their actions that we are unaware of. I know they have these kids' best interests in mind. Please join us in praying that our contact in Russia will be successful in speaking to the right people to help solve this problem in a quick and easy way. And please pray that it will not delay our travel plans to bring Sam home!

The waiting is still not over

Even though we have been so blessed to meet our son, the waiting portion of our journey to become a family of three is still not over. Hopefully, it will only last for a couple more months!

Right now, we are waiting for our final documents to arrive in Russia. Last Monday, we were able to schedule an appointment with our doctor. He is excited about our adoption, and was willing to take care of our paperwork very quickly. He walked across the street with us to get everything notarized by his secretary, and she said she'd be willing to help with any other paperwork we might need. It was a huge blessing! Our state police clearances arrived in the mail last Wednesday. We were so glad to see that envelope arrive.

On Thursday morning, I decided to make one final trek to Tallahassee for more apostilles. We had six documents that needed to be certified. Because we are under a time crunch to get everything turned in to the judge before her vacation, we knew that every day might be precious. So I got it all processed and on the way to Russia by Thursday afternoon. We're hoping our facilitator there will receive it by the middle of this week and be able to get started translating and preparing to turn it in to the judge. Then we should be able to get scheduled for a court date. Can't wait to receive that news!

Yesterday some dear sisters threw me a beautiful baby shower. After years of not knowing if I would ever get to have one of these, I was so honored to be celebrated in this way. I should have pictures back soon, and will post more about the day when I have them. I am thankful for so many friends that already love Sam before they've even met him!

Home again

We're now back in Florida, and trying to catch up on emails, bills, laundry, phone messages, etc. Things get piled up even when you're only gone for a week!

Thank you to those of you who so faithfully checked our blog while we were gone. It was a joy to be able to share some of our stories with you. Many people have asked how we've been feeling. It's hard to say. Of course we enjoyed our time with Samuel so much, and it was difficult to leave. But we knew from the beginning that we'd have to come home without him, and so our hearts were prepared for that (as much as they can be). I did shed some tears on the flight from Moscow to London, knowing that we were leaving our son's country. But we are confident that these next few months will fly by, and that we'll be reunited with him before we know it.

I do want to share a few pictures with you. Sorry that you can't see his face yet, but at least you can see a piece of our bonding time with him. It truly was a time that we'll treasure for the rest of our lives.
Yes, this is our son with a pink bonnet. I also gave him water from a pink bottle. I think they're not fussy as long as the stuff works!

Sam and Daddy, reading a book (actually Sam chewing on the book is more accurate).

I guess chewing is the theme here...now it's my necklace!

OK, this looks a little more like Dad and Sam reading.

This is the only picture of the three of us I can show you for now...more to come in a few months!

Two visits went by so quickly!

We enjoyed another wonderful time with Samuel this morning. It is so hard for me to believe that already our vists with him are over until we return to bring him home. This morning, Julia picked us up from our hotel again, and we went to the notary. We had to sign several documents saying that we do plan to adopt Samuel. This will begin the process with the courts. Then we returned to the hospital.

Yesterday when we were with him, there were 6-8 other people with us, observing. It was a little strange. But today, it was just us and Julia. SO much better! We got to play and have fun with him, and she took lots of pictures. (She called herself our paparazzi!) He loved to play with my necklace again, which I plan to wear often now to remember him. We tried to read him a few books, but he just wanted to chew on them--including the family photo album we brought. We also got to see him crawl and stand up with our help. At first, he was quite reserved, but by the end of the time, we were making him laugh and loved to see him smile. We got a lot of great pictures which we will treasure until we are able to come back. We got to pray with him in the room too, which was a blessing. After about 45 minutes, the nurse returned to get him. She said she could tell that he didn't want to leave us...I don't think he gets much personal attention in his room. He was obviously soaking it all in from us. It made it even harder to leave, knowing that he would pretty much be alone until we return to bring him home.

Julia told us that the judge here will be on vacation for the entire month of May, so that changes our timeline a little bit. If we get the rest of our documents completed as soon as we return, Julia is hoping to turn everything in before the end of April, and will try to get us a court date in early June. But, it will depend on the judge's schedule completely. Our visas will expire on June 15, so if we don't get the process completed by then, we'll just have to apply for new ones. We are hoping we'll be able to be with him on his birthday in early June, so we can celebrate together. God has a good plan for when to bring Sam home, so we'll be waiting on Him.

This afternoon, we are going to go out walking around town again, even though it's snowy and quite cold. Tonight we take the train back to Moscow, and will do some sightseeing there on Friday and Saturday. It will be nice to have something to take our minds off of how much we already miss our son!

Live from Nizhny

We made it! We have just returned from the first meeting with our son, and it was absolutely incredible. Already, we are looking at the pictures and finding it hard to believe we were really with him just a few short hours ago. Let me back up a bit and tell you about our trip so far...

On Monday evening, we left Atlanta for an 8-hour flight. Neither of us slept great on the plane, but it was OK. When we got to London Gatwick, we had to get our bags, go through customs, and then take a 1 1/2 hour bus ride over to Heather. Then we had to check in and go through security again. We both took a nap on that 4-hour flight. We were greeted in Moscow by Max, our taxi driver. He was so nice. Our taxi ride into the city took over two hours, but we enjoyed looking at the city and trying to read the signs in Russian! Around 9:30pm, we enjoyed a special treat. We met a Natalie, a friend from Tver, for dinner at TGI Friday's. It was nice to eat a real meal, and Max waited for us outside. Then all four of us went to the train. We were so thankful they were both there to help us get settled into our little room. We had a small cabin to ourselves with two beds (pictures to come). We both slept great! We woke up this morning, and were greeted by Denis. He took us to our hotel, and we had just an hour to shower, eat, and get ready for our appointment this morning.

At 8:45, his wife Julia picked us up at our hotel. We went directly to a meeting with the Ministry of Education. It only took about 5 minutes, but we were still required to be dressed up. She told us his birthday and a little more information about him. Then we were invited to visit him at the hospital. So, Julia, Dimitri (our translator), and we went to pick up the social worker. She went with us to the hospital.

We were directed into a room with many people in white coats. They were doctors of various specialities. They said they would tell us more information about him while they brought him in. All of a sudden, he was in the room with us! It felt like a dream. I think I was even holding my breath. He is SO adorable, even more than in his picture. He made great eye contact with both of us right away and was looking all around the room. They undressed him for us, and then took him away before we could hold him. Then they went over his medical and family history, and answered a lot of questions. It was great, but hard to concentrate because we wanted to see him again! I took notes to help me remember, but there was nothing worrisome. He will need a minor surgery when he comes home, but he will have no lasting problems. Praise God that there is no permanent damage to his kidneys!

After the Q&A session, they brought him back in, and he lit up the room. You could tell that all of the doctors (mostly women) loved him. They admitted so later. :-) We were both able to hold him and play with him for a short while. We got to give him a bottle with water, and he made eye contact while he was drinking, which was great. After just a few minutes, we told them we did want to proceed with adopting him, and so we signed a few papers. Julia took some pictures of us. I was wearing a new necklace that he loved to chew on, so we got some precious pictures of that. The doctors loved the Build a Bear and the photo album I made, labeled with Russian words. They promised to go over this with him, and to keep his new toys with him. All too quickly, we were kissing him goodbye and he left.

Tomorrow, we will visit a notary to sign more paperwork, and then we get to return to the hospital to visit him again. We are grateful to have two visits, and hope that tomorrow's will be longer than today's. But any time we have will be a blessing. Then tomorrow night, we'll head back to Moscow on the overnight train again. Hopefully I'll be able to post more after our visit tomorrow.

Can't wait until we can post pictures for you all to see! Now we are off to give ourselves a tour of the city and buy some souvenirs. Should be fun!

Our our way!

I am just sitting down for a quick update before we head out to the airport. Yesterday, we drove the five hours to Ben's dad and stepmom's house. It was nice to do that drive on the day before the flights. We had a great evening with them, and were able to sleep in and get some good time with the Lord this morning as well.

Now we are grabbing a quick lunch together, and then heading into Atlanta and the airport. Our flight leaves tonight at 7:25...so soon! We hope we'll be able to meet Samuel on Wednesday afternoon, which is early in Wednesday morning here in the States. We'll write again as soon as we're able.

Thank you Lord that this day we've prayed for for so long has finally arrived!