In Two Weeks from Yesterday

We leave to for Russia to make our final trip to bring our son home. How lucky we are!

We have a lot on our plates right now and I am under a lot of stress. Please pray for us as we are still waiting for documents to arrive that are out of our control. Among those are our updated police clearances and our amended I-171H showing the fingerprint renewel. Both places say we will receive the items on time, but I can’t help but worry we won’t get them as the days count down. Another big worry I have is the amount of time between our flight on the way to Russia. We only have 1 hour and 17 minutes between flights and I am worried about making the next gate in an airport we have never visited. Troy seems to think we will be fine, but I can’t help but worry about every little thing!!

We have started making a pile in our guest bedroom of items we want to take to Russia for us and for our little guy. My sister-in-law Amber has been so helpful to us by letting us bug her questions such as “How many of these would you take?” or “Do we really need this?” We managed to cut several piles in half last night!! Thanks Amber!

As for the baby shower – here is my sister’s last comment from a few days ago.

BABY SHOWER COUNT DOWN.....6 DAYS! WHOOO WOOOO, WOULD YOU LIKE A RED, PINK OR A BLACK BLINDFOLD WITH PAWPRINTS? COMPLETE LONG TERM SLEEP DEPRIVATION COUNT DOWN....17 DAYS

Now I wonder if they are going to take me the SPCA, throw me in a kennel with a couple of dogs wearing my paw printed blindfold and of course the socks!! Okay by me – rubbing dogs for a few hours uninterrupted sounds relaxing to me!!! Of course wouldn’t my babies be jealous?!?!

We Got Our Court Date!!

We are completely in shock, but we just found out we got our court date already!! It’s April 15th and it can’t come soon enough!! Please say some prayers as we have to redo our police clearances and they take a minimum of two weeks. I have called the Virginia State Police and am working with a lady who seems to think we can have it back in time.

We should get official travel dates tomorrow!! I can’t believe it. We are again over the moon at seeing our angel again so quickly.

As to our surprise shower, my sister left me this comment on our last post:

"shower rsvp's are good, especially you out of towners!!!....RAE YOU HAVE NO IDEA!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Uhhhh, what in the world does she have planned? As Becky mentioned to me, it’s starting to sound like a Bachelorette Party!! With her...somehow I wouldn’t be surprised!! I’ll keep you posted if I get any hints!

The Dog Did It

Troy and I went to the ever famous Wally World this weekend to pick up a few groceries. While we were there we found the cutest T-shirt for our little guy who we hope to hear about and meet soon.

How appropriate is this shirt in our house!! We bought a 3T which might be too big, but we’ll save it. The shirt was just too cute to pass up.

We also bought this handmade photo holder some time ago that I wanted to share. I found a lady on Ebay who hand stitches the paper together. I was able to request one in the colors we liked and then she made it and listed it for us. Closed it says “A Special Delivery”. You can also display it opened and from the top you’ll see a star pattern. Then each side has either an adoption poem or a spot to slide in a photo. The ribbon you see coming out of the top are tags that you can pull out and write a caption about the photo in the spot. Each spot there is for a photo also has a tag. I thought this was beautiful and a nice keepsake. I love that the paper is hand stitched together. Pictures are below.

In other adoption news, we finally received our re-fingerprinting appointment notices from USICS. We go February 29th at noon! I’ll be glad to get those done and then we’ll wait 30 days for a new I-171H approval with new dates for our fingerprints expiration. We wanted to be sure to have them done as soon as possible so that they wouldn’t hold up a court date, in the case of a referral soon and court soon after.

Since being registered last Tuesday, Troy and I are sitting on pins and needles waiting for “the call”. We hope it is soon!!

Another Baby Milestone

This coming weekend marks yet another Baby Milestone on our path to parenthood. We are headed to Nashville on Thursday to attend CHI’s Pre-Adopt Class 2 on Saturday. No, it doesn't take 2 days to get there, but it does take two days to visit my grandmother and of course the Bass Pro shop for Troy!! We loved the Pre-Adopt Class 1 and can’t wait to hear what this class has to offer. We also get a chance to meet our blog friends Keith & Becky, Jim & Adrienne, Michael & Carrie and Norman & Carey. We are also hoping to be able to meet Coby & Brandy, if they can make it. I know we’ll have a good time.

Now that we have almost reached this Baby Milestone we need to come up with a few more. We’ve had basically one a month and had hoped at this point to be closer to referral than we are, so we don't have anymore planned. I’ll have to get to work on setting more Baby Milestones for us.

Oh – well I do have my second Hepatitis vaccination on November 9th- Yippee – Uh, not really!! I guess it will count though – any port in the storm!! I will REALLY, REALLY be working on those milestones soon!!

Pediatrician Appointment

Last Friday Troy and I saw a local pediatrician who we were hoping would be the one we would use for routine visits after returning from Russia. The office is close to home and was cheerfully decorated. They had separate waiting areas for healthy and for sick children. We were greeted nicely and told to have a seat. Everything seemed to be going well. Then, the wait began. We waited almost 45 minutes before being seen. I am not the most patient person in the world, so this was not the way to start off the interview. I realize it was the end of the day, and I realize we weren’t sitting there with a sick child, but I wasn’t thrilled.

The conversation with the Dr. seemed to go around and around also. While he was excited for us and was happy to prescribe medications we may need for the child on the second trip, he just didn’t say much else. He waited for us to talk and on one particular topic we just couldn’t seem to mesh our conversation. I asked him one thing and he was talking about the other and no matter how many ways I phrased the question, he just didn’t get it.

I think we may try another office. After all the “Pre-Natal” appointments are free!! Seriously, I don’t want to go to a Dr. that I can’t communicate with very well. I guess I’ll have to add looking for a different pediatrician to my “To Do” list!! That will have to wait until after vacation!!

IAD Appointment

Today Troy and I had a chance to meet with an International Adoption Doctor (IAD) to ask some general questions and get a feel for whether or not we were comfortable sending a medical report and photos to him for review while we are in Russia. The doctor put us right at ease and answered most of our questions without us even asking them. We were very pleased. Some things we learned were that:

• The very best photo to send to a doctor of the child is a head-on, straight view of the child’s face when they are not smiling (relaxed facial features);
• Profile shots are helpful as they can look at the shape and development of the head;
• Pay attention to their muscles. Many times they will be limper than expected due to their lack of stimulation. However, if they are stiff or tight, this can be because of an underlying issue; and
• Pay attention to their hands. A child who is 6 months should have open hands and be able to transfer an object from one hand to the other. A 12 month old child who keeps their hands in a fist may have underlying issues.

We also talked about taking toys and watching them and noting as much as possible. He said not to be shy when we email and even if we think something we observed may not be that important we should email it anyway as it could raise a red flag to a doctor. He also gave us permission to call him anytime day or night while we are there if there is an issue that just can’t wait. He also had no problem writing a letter for court and prescribing some medications before the second trip of items to take with us in need be (general children’s antibiotic, cream for scabies and such).

All in all, we are very happy we went and hope that some of this information benefits others.

In saying all this we have reached what Becky coined a “Baby Milestone” during our waiting. Each time we reach a baby milestone more of the waiting has passed and we are closer to bringing our son home!! Our next baby milestone is the local pediatrician appointment on September 7th. We are now looking forward to that one!!

Forms, Documents and Waiting...

Yesterday I prepared a package to CHI containing the travel agreement and other such forms and mailed it. Then I went home and started going through all the documents we have ever received, printed, or copied during the adoption to date. Needless to say our file of documents has now officially turned into a box.

Now that our dossier is in Russia things have become so real for us. Waiting is so much harder than I imagined. I feel silly complaining about the wait time already, but it truly is tough. We wonder if our child has been born yet and if so we wonder what he wakes up to each day. We pray that he is safe and well and warm. There just isn’t anything we can do at this point. While we were gathering documents, at least we could make it go as fast as we wanted. Now we have no control.

Please keep us in your prayers as even though this waiting period may seem difficult, we know and have heard from others that the period in between seeing your child and bringing them home is much, much more difficult.

Something in the Mail!!

Two days ago we received a nice big package from CHI. Inside was great book with the first 1,000 words to learn in Russian. The best thing is that it has a link on the internet where you can hear the words spoken. No excuse now, we must learn Russian!! We also got more forms to fill out and sign. Go figure. Additionally, we also received our travel packet which has great information. It kept me busy yesterday reading it. Each little thing like that is a bright spot for us as it signifies another step in the process for us and brings us one step closer to our little one.