Paperwork SENT

I know I haven't written since we have been back home, but we have been pretty busy! It was hard going back to work after being off for 1 week, but we were definitely glad to back into a routine for now. The day we returned home, we were already receiving calls from Gladney, our homestudy agency and our dossier preparation agency on what we needed to be doing next for our court dossier. Lots of updating paperwork - medical exams, employer letters, fingerprints and police clearance letters and about 1 pound worth of documents to be notarized. But, we finally finished it all (just waiting for our police letters to come back) and put it in the FedEx yesterday! Luckily all of the people we have had to get signatures, information and notaries from have been really understanding. YAY :) Now, they (Gladney) will look it over and make sure everything is done correctly (they are EXTREMELY specific in their guidelines) and if it's ok, it will be sent off for translation and then to the court. In the meantime, we have been preparing for Alex to come home. We made our first big purchase - the convertible crib. We are not sure if he is ready for a toddler bed, since he has been in a crib his whole life, so decided the convertible bed that he can use forever would be a good investment! We ordered it online, it came on Monday, Dennis put it together Wednesday only to discover that a couple of the pieces didn't fit together. So, we took it apart and are sending it back. We have also enjoyed shopping a little bit - getting some clothes and shoes and toys to take with us when we pick him up. Any suggestions for what to entertain a 2 year old with on a 10 hour plane ride?!?! That should be fun! We have started registering - I think Dennis has picked out a lot of toys that HE will enjoy playing with and have compromised on what his room will be - Dennis wanted sports and I wanted baby animals. So we found a set called "TEAM SAFARI" at Babies'r'Us that is a great mix of the two! Once we get the room set up I will definitely post a picture for all to see :) It's going to be ADORABLE - all it's missing is Alex! Stay tuned to our blog for updated information....love to you all and please keep the prayers and support coming!

Moscow Sites

View of Moscow from Red Square

Historic Museum in Red Square

St. Basil's Cathedral

Where we spent most of our trip - IN THE CAR!!!

In Red Square - it was COLD that day

Back Home

We are finally back home in Hampton and trying to settle back into some sort of normalcy! We landed on Sunday evening with no problems. The Merz's picked us up at the airport and then we went to the King's for dinner and "debriefing" of our trip. We were so exhausted and were asleep by 9pm - and VERY glad to be home. We took off work on Monday and returned to work today. We keep replaying the trip in our heads, looking at his pictures and watching the video we took of him over and over - it's our way of keeping in touch with him while we are apart. We left a teddy bear, blanket, lamb and photo album with him - the caregivers said they will show him the album so he will remember us when we come back. We also left a disposable camera with him, so they could take pictures and we can see how he changed. The next couple of months will be busy - we have to get our 2nd dossier together for court and once we have all of the paperwork for that, we will get it sent off and translated and then hopefully be assigned a court date. They are giving us a 2 month time frame, but we have learned that it can happen whenever - remember we are not in control :). So, we continue to wait, tear down our guest room and turn it into a room for a precious little boy - so if you want a nice bed to sleep in when you stay with us, you need to come visit us soon - or else it's a pull-out couch to rest your head on...ha ha ha. We also want to thank all of you who were thinking about us, praying for us and pulling for us last week - the trip had NO glitches/issues/problems at all and we know it was because we had all of you surrounding us and God leading the way for us! We will never be able to thank you all enough, but know that we feel your prayers and love every day! Now our prayers have changed a little - we pray for patience during the waiting, we give thanks for a safe trip, we pray for a speedy completion of the next set of papers, we ask for safety and protection over Alexander (we say extra prayers to St. Alexander and St. Christopher), we ask for diligence and guidance over our adoption agency and everyone involved in our paperwork that they complete their part in a timely manner and we lastly pray that we become the parents that God needs us to be for this little boy and gift he has given to us. We hope you are all doing well and we will definitely keep you posted things progress! Love, Dennis & Nicole

Trip 1 ALMOST over....

Hello everyone! We are finally getting access to internet and thought we would give you a quick snapshot of our trip. Heads up - we are using our hosts computer and some of the letters might switch to cryllic...but you should still be able to understand. We arrived on Tuesday 3/3 and were greeted by our host, German, at the airport. The flight was smooth and we arrived with no problems. Then we were introduced to Moscow traffic - worse than ANY we have ever seen! NOVA people have NOTHING to complain about compared to here! We were exhausted Tuesday night after a long flight and 6 hours in the car from the airport. We got up early Wednesday morning to drive to Kaluga to meet Alexander. Again, more time in the car, but totally worth it by the end of the day. We arrived at the baby home at 3pm, met with the head doctor and she explained his legal and medical records to us. We had a translator, Anna, with us the entire time - she is wonderful! Then we met him - he had just woken up from his nap, so he was very standoffish at first, but that is to be expected. They fed him lunch and then we got to go downstairs to the gym with him and play together. What an ACTIVE little 2 year old - loves to play with everything (he especially loved the bubbles that we brought). He opened up with us while we were there - smiling and laughing. We spent about 1 1/2 hours together. THen we went to dinner and our hotel. We got to see him again on Thursday for about 45 minutes in the morning and then about 30 minutes in the afternoon. It was so neat to see his face light up when he saw us - he seemed to remember us - he even was giving kisses before the day was over. It was EXTREMELY difficult to leave him, but we know that he is in good hands with the caregivers and the doctors at this baby home - they truly love and care for the children. Then back in the car to Moscow (another 4 hours in the car). We got to sleep in today (FRIDAY). Marina took us to tour a monastery - VERY BEAUTIFUL and then we got to relax the rest of the day. Tomorrow we are touring Moscow and we leave early Sunday morning to head back to the states. We still can't post pictures on our blog, but I'm sure if you see us, we will have some to show you :). Just know, he is a BEAUTIFUL boy - big blue eyes, gorgeous smile, cute laugh - good things come in small packages and he is God's gift to us. We can't wait to come home - after being in a foreign country you begin to realize how blessed we are in America. Love to all and thank you for all of your prayers - please keep them coming.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE!

We landed on Tuesday afternoon and have experienced most of Moscow from the CAR :) We are having a wonderful time. We met Alexander today....what a CUTIE :). We are in an internet cafe now and don't have long to talk, but we have sent pictures and video to our IA pediatrician for evaluation. He is healthy, happy and full of energy. Nicole lost it when we left and he ran up to grab her hand to keep playing...we will definitely share more when we return. Love you all and please continue to keep us in your prayers. We will be back in the states on Sunday 3/8 - not sure if we will have internet access again :)