Denson Family

More Drama

2012-02-12T10:59:00.000-06:00

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/02/11/russia-wants-to-suspend-us-adoptions/

Oncologist Referral

2012-02-10T11:08:00.003-06:00

So as I stated in a previous post, the kidney specialist wanted us to go see an oncologist since Dasha did not have any formal cancer treatment after her tumor removal. So our Pediatrician set up a referral with a pediatric oncologist. They want to do a CAT scan and a chest X-Ray just to make sure there are no little bad cells hanging out anywhere. Now mind you, all her blood work came back clean, her ultrasound came back clean, she is very healthy. Just being overly cautious.

Now to do the CAT scan and chest X-Ray you have to be perfectly still, not going to happen with a 22 month old. So Dasha gets to be sedated. That should be interesting. The CAT scan is set for Feb. 21st. Randy is suppose to work at the fire station that day, but we will just get someone to cover for him that day. The other negative, her scan is set for 1 pm. She can't eat after 7 am that morning. That is going to be rough for her, she LOVES to eat!

Other than that, life continues as normal. Dasha is adjusting well, and the kids fight like siblings, and life is pretty good.

Dentist Appt.

2012-02-08T15:23:00.003-06:00

This appt. went just about as well as I thought it would. We waited forever, they were crazily overbooked. So Dasha was extremely restless by the time we got called back. They took us to a private room since she was so little, and they figured that she may cry. The dental asst. got out the latex gloves and Dasha saw them and instant tears. I put her on my lap and she stopped. The same thing happened at the Nephrologist appt. the minute the gloves come out she tears up. There has to be some negative memory concerning those gloves. So then the dentist came in and he put ON the gloves, then more tears. They had her sit on my lap in the chair, and he did get her to open so he can look. Not too hard to do though when she is crying her heart out. He did a quick exam, and stated that her teeth look good, no cavities, so that is good. They gave her a balloon and a toothbrush and she was in HOG HEAVEN after that. They want us to come back in 6 months to try to do a cleaning. So hopefully she will lose those bad memories by then!

We also went to the courthouse to try to apply for Dasha's re adoption. We live in the poorest county in KS, and only live there out of obligation. They county has a residency requirement for city employees. Over half of Wyandotte Co. lives below the poverty line, so foreign adoption is not very common in our county. So they told us that we had to go hire an attorney etc. File all kinds of forms etc. and this was straight from the judges mouth who should know the law concerning re adoption. I told them that the state website says that it is a 1 page form. They stated that the state was wrong! So we left and contacted the state, they told us to go to the Johnson Co. Courthouse and that the Wyandotte Co. people had no clue what they were talking about. So we called Johnson Co. the richest county in the state, just south of us, and they said, yep, this is what you need, a one page form, the fee is $36. Only hitch is we need her passport and Dasha's is still out for her registration. So we need that back before we can apply for her new birth certificate.

In other news, her hair is looking SO much better. We went to see a friend last night and they had seen Dasha before we got her hair cut, and they were so impressed with how much better her hair was. She is adding more and more words. Still mostly on her terms. She seems to be attaching well. She will not go to people that she doesn't know. She will instead run and cling to my legs. She still gets very quiet in new situations, but is doing well. Sleeping at night and during nap time is also going well.

Little bit of this, little bit of that...

2012-02-06T12:42:00.001-06:00

Today we went back up to Children's Mercy for her hearing test. She did great during this visit. No crying, no whining, all was good. She is not responding as well as they would like in her right ear, so we have to go back in 6 months for another test. She did pass, but just slow responses on her right side.

Veggies, we love green beans, etc, but we are now trying to learn to like carrots. Yeah, she doesn't like them so much. If they are mixed in food she eats them because she doesn't take the time to pick the carrots out, but just giving her a raw carrot is a little more difficult. So what I have been doing is putting her in her high chair, and giving her the carrots, and then going to make her meal. Usually by the time I get her meal ready, the carrots are gone. If not I set her plate on the table so she can see it, and the carrots disappear quickly after that!

I finally have a child who like PB&J! Wahoo! I can't get Camden to eat sandwiches period, so I thought I would try with Dasha. She loves them! Wahoo!

Sleeping, we are great in that department now. I have even removed the nightlight, no issues at all. I play music at night still, but I have always played music for Camden. Classical, hopefully they will learn to appreciate classical music through osmosis!

Behavior, overall is pretty good. Except for Sundays. Every Sunday is the same, horrible fits after her staying in the nursery. I am usually on my own, so if I want to enjoy church, the nursery is the answer. She is great for them, but is pretty horrible for me the rest of the day. Oh well, I guess one day a week isn't too bad.

Randy's work, he is on day 4 of a 5 day in a row work stint. Which means the kids don't see him at all for 5 days straight. This is the last one until the middle of March though, so hopefully we can continue this new trend when he sets up his next work schedule for the hospital. 5 days in a row is really hard on me, I am just exhausted by the end of the 5 days. I give ultimate credit to single moms and to military moms. I don't know how they do it.

Nephrologist Appt.

2012-02-02T21:59:00.000-06:00

So today we went to Children's Mercy to meet with a Nephrologist. We had a nice bright and early appt. at 8:15 in the morning. Never again will I do an appt. that early in the morning. I had to get the kids up way to early to get them ready so that we could be downtown in time. So we get there, get signed in and get right in. I was curious about how she was going to react since just last week she got to experience her first shots.

Since she only has one kidney they needed to get a "sample", that was interesting. As soon as we started getting Dasha undressed she immediately started crying. I guess the shots ruined the doctor for us! So they attached a bag to her skin to catch a sample so they can test for protein etc. We went over medications that she is on, and then we saw the intern. The intern did the main exam, checked her over, and said she looked very healthy. Every doctor has said that her ears are full of junk, hopefully when we go to the Audiologist on Monday they might clean her ears out. So then the main doctor came in and examined her, said that she looked good, but sent us down to radiology for an ultrasound. We have to go back in 6 months for a follow-up, and then every year after that. He did give us a list of things that she shouldn't do, i.e. dangerous sports, etc. We did at the end get the sample they needed, and removing it was just about as emotional as putting it on. Luckily Randy was there today to help!

Down in Radiology she got pretty nervous and started pouting but the tech. was very good and made a game out of it, and they stated that her remaining kidney is good! They are giving us a referral to a pediatric oncologist just to cross out t's and dot our i's since Dasha had no chemo or radiation after her tumor removal.

Because of how long we were there we missed our speech evaluation, so I have to call and reschedule that, but oh well! Overall a good day!

Annalisa 15H

2012-02-01T20:29:00.001-06:00

Every year for my birthday my parents instead of buying me a present, they give me money and let me get what I need. I really kinda appreciate this gesture, that way I can get what I need. So this year I was contemplating, clothes, pedicure, etc. Then I was perusing the Internet one night and I ended up on Reeces Rainbows website. I have always had a heart for children with Downs Syndrome. Now I am not sure if I would be the best match for a child with Downs, but they are some of the sweetest children that you can meet. I was searching through the girls 0-2 with Downs and they are all beautiful children, but this little girl just caught my eye. She looks so happy and such a beautiful little girl. Her name is Annalisa and there is a link below her picture and you can go to her page and read more about her. I instantly knew what I was going to do my birthday money this year. I don't need any new clothes right now, I am a stay-at-home mom, I live in sweatpants and t-shirts. :-) I don't need a pedicure, my feet are enclosed in socks for at least 2-3 more months. Unless this "winter" continues as it has been. My feet might see the light of day a little earlier than usual. But still I don't "need" a pedicure. Annalisa NEEDS a family! She already has a great scholarship fund. I am going to add to it to make sure she gets the family she needs. My challenge to you, find a child and sponsor them, one that speaks to your heart as she spoke to mine.

http://reecesrainbow.org/19041/annalisa-15h

Huge Milestone!

2012-01-31T21:54:00.000-06:00

Today was a great day! We hit a huge milestone regarding behavior here! We went the entire day with no fits and no timeouts! Dasha had a wonderful day. She played, she was pleasant, and she overall just had a great day!

First Ped. Visit

2012-01-27T13:40:00.000-06:00

Today we went to the Pediatrician to get started on immunizations and to get our referral for an audiologist and an ultrasound for her kidney. Poor kid had to get 3 shots and man she screamed. She also had an ear infection. So now she is on 4 different medications and supplements. Fun times. we will go back in 6 weeks for a 2nd round of shots, and then 6 weeks after that for the final round and she will be caught up then. Some shots she doesn't need due to her age, but I feel so bad for her. Camden was a little jealous of all the attention that Dasha has been getting so while we were at Target waiting on her prescription we went back to the toy dept. and I got him a hot wheel. Hot Wheels take care of almost everything.

I have found a great option for getting out and keeping the kids with me. A friend of mine is doing a small group every other week at McDonald's and the kids get to play in the play place while we talk. The only dilemma last night was Dasha freaked out at the very top of the play place, and it is super hard trying to get up there and get her! Fun times crawling around up there. She had a much better time in the toddler area. So I get to talk to other adults, and still keep her around but she is not hanging on me. I have had to start blocking her off from the kitchen while I am cooking dinner because she literally hangs on my leg while I am cooking and I am constantly knocking her down because she will be right behind me and I step back and boom. She is not happy about that, but she is getting better about it.

Results of our IA visit

2012-01-23T21:02:00.000-06:00

Happy 200th Post!

So we got the results of Dasha's blood and stool samples today. She tested negative for all things yucky in the stool sample, but they want us to do 2 more samples for parasites on different days because I guess parasites can be tricky that way. We will do those through our pediatrician.

Her blood word came back and all is well except she is Vitamin D deficient, no surprise, Calcium Deficient, again no surprise, and Iron Deficient, little surprise there. So now she is on Vitamin D supplements, she takes 1 Tums a day for calcium, and an iron supplement twice a day until the end of March. Then we get to go draw her blood again to see if that helped any. Maybe that explains why she is so restless at night, she tosses and turns and moves from one end of the bed to the other all night long. She won't stay covered up either. Randy makes fun of me for what I dress her in at night to keep her warm. We keep our house pretty cold anyways, but at night it goes down to 60, so I got her in the skin tight fall/spring PJ's and then I put a pair of footie PJ's on over the top of that. But hey, she is warm in the mornings when I get her up!

We go to our Pediatrician on Friday to start immunizations, and to get a referral so that we can go get an ultrasound of her remaining kidney. We are going to go to Children's Mercy for that. Hopefully I can get that scheduled on a day that Randy has off, and Camden has school. What do you think the chances of that are!?!

Thanks everyone who commented on my last post, I just had a horrible day was feeling sorry for myself. I always told myself that since Camden was so easy as a baby/toddler that my next kid was going to be a lot tougher, well I was right. :-)

Question

2012-01-22T22:22:00.000-06:00

This is a selfish post. I need to get out! I need a break. I am sometimes alone with the kids 4-5 days straight alone and I am going crazy. I am thinking about doing a bible study once a week which would require me to leave the kids in the nursery for 2 hours. Camden no issue. Dasha on the other hand, I have left her for our church service the past 2 Sundays, it's 1 hour. She is just too restless to not be a distraction during the service. Unfortunately she lets me know her displeasure after church all too well. In fact today was horrendous, she screamed for almost an hour in a fit. It was about all I could handle. She is fine for the nursery workers, it's when we get home that she let's loose. So the question is, when did you leave your kids, babysitter, church nursery, do you even think this is a good idea?

On a positive note, here are some fun pictures.

She took him down!

Don't ask, I said "Smile!" This is what I got!

Again, the same thing!

One Month Home and First Haircut

2012-01-17T15:19:00.000-06:00

So today marks one month home for us as a family. Things are slowly falling into place and getting better everyday. Today we ventured out to get Dasha's first haircut. Her hair was really pretty long but she had a mullet and her hair was not healthy at all. It is very thin and fine, so I decided to cut it all off and start from scratch. We went to a fun place that we took Camden to for his first haircut. They do a whole package, before picture, after picture, they put the hair in a little baggie and they get a certificate. Now I am not one of those camera toting moms who takes a picture every time they turn around, I am horrible about taking pictures period but I did remember the camera today!

Before

Not a peep out of her!

Enjoying sitting in her airplane!

New view of the back

Cute little bob

Certificate Of Citizenship

2012-01-15T21:29:00.001-06:00

It arrived in the mail on Friday. The normal step next would be to send it off to get Dasha's Social Security number, but the way Randy's insurance is set up, we had 30 days from the time that the adoption was finalized to get her on his insurance, our adoption was finalized on Dec. 13th. So when we got home he called to add her to his insurance. They asked for her social security number, and he explained that she didn't have one yet. So they told him that they have to have a social security number to add her and he had 30 days period or we would have to wait for open enrollment next October! So I think we were home for 3 days and we packed the kids up and went to the Social Security office with all our paperwork. We got an awesome lady who set up Dasha's file and said that as soon as the USCIS approved all her paperwork that we handed over at immigration she would immediately file for her number. We got her number last week so we were in the green for insurance! The hoops we have to jump through! But with her kidney issue in the past we couldn't let her go without insurance.

The days are steadily getting better everyday. The kids are playing better and better everyday, and though Randy has been gone A LOT, it is getting better on me every day also. Some days I do have to say I am so happy that bed time comes, but every day is becoming more and more joyful.

Dasha's behavior has drastically improved also. She still tests her limits, which any toddler will do, but when she is corrected, and is in her "time in", she quits crying after a few minutes, where as when we came home sometimes she went 15-20 minutes at a time. Her eye contact has improved so much also during these times. When she has a time in I cradle her in my arms and hold her close and hold her feet, she kicks, and she has to look at me. She does not turn her head and look away any more when she is angry at me. After every time in she has to give me a hug and a kiss and then she always has a huge grin on her face.

Her words are growing we got
Hi
Bye Bye,
Nigh, Nigh
Ball
Her version of Camden, na, nan
go
no
up
Mama
Dada
thank you

she signs
more
eat
please
thank you
up
we are working on drink

The talking is still mostly on her terms, but knows that if she wants to get on our laps she has to say up, and she loves to go Bye, Bye!

We sit on the potty about 4 times a day, and usually make the chair play music, and sometimes we get a little extra in the potty, that is not pleasant to clean out! She gives no indication of the #2 business, Camden was a full show of red face, grunting, so I would use the big toilet for those jobs!

Her little mug shot! Though I was not happy the mail man folded the envelope!

Visit to the IA Doctor

2012-01-12T20:46:00.000-06:00

So Tuesday we loaded up the car and headed up to Minnesota for Dasha's IA doctor appt. A regular drive would of been right at about 6 hours and 15 minutes. It took us 8.5 hours! But we stopped twice at rest stops etc. We also stopped in Des Moines to see my cousin who was in a bad car accident the day we got back in the country. She broke her neck and is in a halo. She is like a sister to me and it was so good to see her and see that she was okay. We made it to Minneapolis and checked into a wonderful hotel. Funny story, when we got our referral, we applied for a Marriott rewards card where we got 50,000 free points, but since we had only two weeks between trips we weren't credited our points in time to use in Russia. So we have all these points, so we got a great room in Minneapolis for free!

We then headed out to dinner, and got home and put two very tired kids to bed. Dasha did not like the new environment, and really cried, but we got her calmed down and to sleep and we had a good nights sleep. The next morning we got up and ate a wonderful breakfast and then loaded up to go to the University of Minnesota. We got there, got checked in and within 5 minutes we were headed back. They weighed Dasha, she was 23.6 lbs, 28%ile almost gained 2 pounds in a month and was 32 inches, 32%ile she has grown an inch since we have gotten back. Crazy!

We gave the nurse the history that we knew, and then we met the nurse practictioner that I have been emailing back and forth with, gave over our wonderful stool sample and then they said Dr. Howard would be in shortly. She was in so fast it was insane, she was WONDERFUL!!!!! She was very hands on, and she spent almost 2 hours with us. Talking, and answering questions, and then they brought in an OT to evaluate Dasha, and they did some skills with her, gave us some suggestions, and then they observed her run. That has been my biggest concern, see Dasha runs with her legs straight, so she swings them out to the side when she runs. So they went and got a PT to observe her and we were told that we should get her evaluated at home, she needs some work on that.

Overall I was super impressed with the whole process. They were so nice and kind and it was more like friends meeting than a doctors appt. Finally the last part was the blood draw. I made Randy take her in and I stayed out in the waiting room with Camden. I guess they tried in her right arm and couldn't get into her vein well, so they had to move to her left arm. They got a good vein in her left arm and took all the blood they need. They then did the TB prick and we were on our way. They have a few things for us to do here. We need to get an ultrasound of her kidney, they didn't think our insurance would cover it if they did it, and tomorrow I have to take Dasha in and get her TB test read. Then I need to get her into our pedetrician and start catching her up on her vaccinations.

After the appt. we went to the Mall of America and let Camden loose in the amusement park, he had a BLAST! We took Dasha on one ride, and she did NOT like it, so we didn't try any others. She was just happy running around. Camden's favorite was the log jam ride, he rode it twice. We left around 2 and made it home at 8:30. The kids were exhaused, and Randy had to work today. So it was a very quick trip, but I highly recommend anyone who is remotely close to Minnesota to go there for their IA appt. We most likely will go back for her 6 month follow up.

Someone enjoyed her first Chocolate Chip Cookie

2012-01-06T22:04:00.000-06:00

Photos from the orphanage

2012-01-04T20:52:00.000-06:00

I left 2 disposable cameras for the care takers to take pictures of Dasha. One camera was good, the other they forgot to turn on the flash.

Christmas and Sleep

2012-01-01T14:55:00.000-06:00

Well we are up to 5 nights in a row that Dasha has slept through the night. But it seems that we are reverting on naps. She sleeps for 30 minutes and wakes screaming, and so on, so now during nap time I am constantly going in and quieting her. The secret, I think, for night time was keeping the door open to her room. Since we started doing that, no 4 am wake-up calls. Let me tell you it makes my disposition much better with 8 hours of sleep at night.

The kids are having a hard time with sharing, equal on both sides, though Dasha is an instigator. Camden has all of his "valuable" toys up in his room, but the common toys, Camden will be playing with something and she will just come and snatch it from him. Camden, being an only child, does not fight back, but immediately cries and then she runs from him. So I am constantly intervening with toys. Though today was a great break-through, they played for over an hour together with no fighting, no screaming, and no fits!

Christmas pictures below.

Dasha's Story

2011-12-28T21:18:00.001-06:00

So Dasha is a 21 month old little girl that has been on her own since the day she was born. She was unfortunate enough to be born sick. Dasha was born with a Wilm's Tumor in her right kidney. Wilm's Tumors are very rare but if taken care of quickly and correctly the chances of any cancer returning are less than 10%. Dasha's mother couldn't take care of her so she left her at the hospital.

When Dasha was 1 month old she had surgery done to remove her right kidney and the tumor in the process. The entire tumor, kidney and some surrounding tissue were removed to make sure all cancer cells were gone and then she remained in the hospital until October 2010. In October she was moved to the orphanage in Kirov City. During her time in the orphanage she was presented to 42 Russian families who all declined her due to her health and her heredity background. See Dasha's mother was a Gypsy. Hence Dasha's dark hair and skin. I don't know the whole story behind the relationships between Eastern Europeans and Gypsies, but it seems that it is not a positive one.

I don't know if Dasha was presented to any American families but I would be lying to say that I was very concerned when the word cancer was mentioned. So we sent her information to Dr. Dana Johnson and Dr. Cynthia Howard at the University of Minnesota International Adoption Clinic. They asked for a few more test results concerning the other kidney, and gave us an enthusiastic YES! Go get her. There will be a few things that she will not be able to do due to her condition, no sledding, no contact sports, and no drinking. All of those restrictions are just to protect the other kidney, if you only have one, you need to treat it nicely! But other than that she should be able to lead a normal life. We are actually traveling up to Minnesota on Jan. 10th to see Dr. Howard so that she get a very through exam related to her condition. The only major negative is that Dasha was not given any vaccinations due to her surgery so we have A LOT of shots in our future. That really stinks! Dasha's name is the nickname of her given name, Darya, we kept Dasha as her legal name because it means Gift from God.
After my last post I am very proud to say that, that night during bath time Dasha had a blast! I put her in with Camden and would splash him and then splash her and she saw that he wasn't dying and got into it. Though the best thing was last night she SLEPT ALL NIGHT! We did something a little different, don't know if that was it, but we will give it a few more nights to see. Then I will tell what our change is. So I will leave you with a picture of our pretty girl.

10 days home

2011-12-26T09:17:00.000-06:00

Just a quick recap of what has been going on the past 10 days. Life has been crazy the past week with family in town for Christmas and what-not. Randy went back to work last week, he had plenty of time at the fire station to take off, but does not qualify for FMLA at the hospital, so he has to return to both.

Sleep for Dasha is still an issue, but has been getting better. Instead of getting up at 1 or 2, she is sleeping until about 4:30 in the morning now. Then we go in, rub her back and tell her night, night. She cries for about a minute and then is quiet for around 30 minutes. Don't really know if she is sleeping or not, but is quiet. I don't know if she wakes up and realizes that she alone or what, but she doesn't like it. This usually goes on until about 6 or 6:30. This morning though I was so tired that I brought her in to bed with me at 6:30 and she went to sleep until 8. Any suggestions on this would be great. I don't know how much more I can handle 4:30 wake up calls.

There have been some pretty big tantrums, the biggest being yesterday. There are definitely territory issues between the kids, and she got mad at Camden for taking one of his new toys away from her, which led to a 30 minute fit. She got so angry that she bit herself. Then she was really mad. Don't know if she will do that one again. Does anyone know, she definitely knows what No means, and melts down every time I tell her no, were they constantly told no, or never told no? I have a spot in the living room where she throws her fits, where I can see her where ever I am.

Baths are still not a favorite thing, she cries the whole time, but doesn't fight it. She clearly says mama, dada, and ball.

I have to limit how much she drinks because she will drink the entire cup at one time and then 30 minutes later we have a major mess on our hands. One positive though, we are down to one yucky diaper a day though!

She did very well with the concept of Christmas. She got into the tearing of the paper, and playing with the new toys. Overall she is doing well.

She understands commands such as
come here
sit down
let's eat
do you want a snack
do you want a drink

sorry no pictures this post, can't find the camera post Christmas disaster. Also sorry if the post makes no sense, I am so tired!

The long awaited Day 20 post

2011-12-20T20:50:00.000-06:00

Sorry, jet lag has been my major nemesis this time around and I have been just miserable. Dasha also has not taken kindly to the time change but it is getting better. I go to bed when they do at night, and I nap when they nap. I am finally catching up.

So Day 20, we got up around 7 am and got the kids ready to go, our driver was picking us up at 9 to take us to DME. We ran out of drinkable water so I sent Randy and Camden out to get some water and they got back around 8:20 and said are you ready? The driver is here. So we left and got packed up in the car to go to the airport.

We got there so early that United wasn't even checking in yet for our flight so we just hung out and walked around for a while until it was time to check in. We got checked in and then we proceeded to passport control. We were standing in the line that stated passengers with children and were waiting. A woman came up to me and started talking to me in Russian, I tried explaining to her that I only spoke English. So she demonstrated that I needed to cut to the front of the line since we have children. So we did, and no complaints. Interesting philosophy. We did have to show our adoption paperwork, but Randy took Dasha through, so I didn't have to deal with it. That made me very happy, less stress. I took Camden through.

We get to our gate sit down, feed Dasha lunch, and go buy ourselves one expensive pizza and spent the last of our Rubles. Then the most annoying part happened. I don't know why, but every time we leave Russia, they make you take all our bags and leave the gate area, and then go back through a check-point again with your passports, it's not like they haven't been checked 4 times already!

So we get on the flight, and the seats are 2-3-2, so I am in the middle with the kids, and Randy is sitting on one of the side aisle seats. We got Economy Plus seats and they were wonderful! 5 more inches of leg room, is amazing. Dasha slept a little more than we wanted, but she did very well. We did see her temper a few times. Mostly when the seat belt signs came on and I had to hold her and she couldn't move around. The girl has a set of lungs on her.

We got to Washington D.C. and went through customs, it was very quick and painless. We handed over our sealed envelope from the US Embassy and he said, Congrats, you will get some papers in the mail in a few weeks. So off we go to get our bags. We rechecked our bags and then had to go through security AGAIN! All 3 bags we sent through got searched and they made us open Dasha's baby food to make sure it wasn't hazardous. They told me next time I needed to take the food out. By this time we had 22 minutes until our next flight and I was not in the mood for a lecture from the TSA. I stated that they needed to post on their signs that baby food needed to be taken out, as they are NOT a liquid. So we booked it to our gate, and amazingly found out that our flight was delayed for an hour. So we were able to get some dinner which was so nice.

The final 2.5 hour flight Dasha slept the entire flight in Randy's arms and Camden slept the last hour, we landed in KC and my parents were there waiting for us to take us home. Dasha did very well with the car seat, just a few whines and it was the first time that she sucked her thumb other than going to sleep, so she was definitely nervous. We got home, got the kids ready for bed and crashed. Then the jet lag hit. I went to sleep at 10:30 and woke up at 1:15. Was awake the rest of the night. Kids were up at 4 and 5 respectively. More to come as I get over the jet lag still....

Day 19

2011-12-16T11:54:00.000-06:00

We are coming home tomorrow! Wahoo! The whole adventure is coming to an end. Don't worry, the blog will continue!

So today we had our embassay interview. Dasha woke up around 7:15, good thing she was in the room with us, as the ONLY reason we knew she was up was that she was rolling around a lot. She is so quiet, unless she is excited and then she squeals and sings and babbles. We have gotten her to say mama and dada, now we just got to have her connect those words to us!

So we get up and get her fed, and we start getting ready for the day. Randy went in at 8 and woke Camden up as our ride was coming at 9:15. I was getting Dasha's snowsuit on when I smelled it. Yep, you guess right. Now I get to undress her and change the lovely diaper and then get her redressed again! We still made it outside in time for our 9:15 pick-up time. We then went and picked up the other family and off to the embassay we went. There were 12 families there adopting kids. We walked right to the front of the line at security, then when Randy had to go pay for her visa he cut in front of all the Russians waiting to pay for ther visas to the US. We then waited for our interview. We learned that Dasha will be a dual-citizen until at least the age of 18. Then she can renounce her citizenship or remain a dual citizen the rest of her life.

We flew through our interview, got our sealed packet and we were ready to go. I was bummed though because when we walked outside it was raining. Today was our St. Basil picture day. We got back to the apartment, fed the kids and our selves, and then put them down for naps. I tell you what, when we got our daughter, we got a super sleeper. She does not want to be rocked to sleep, she wants you to lay her down and she sticks her thumb in her mouth and she is out. We do our snuggle/cuddle time when she wakes up, she does not wake up easily! Oh, yes after lunch there was another lovely diaper!

After naps we still went to St. Basil's anyway, even in the rain. We got our shot, we are diehards! I finally broke down and bought a beautiful Fabagre egg that has the Kremlin on the outside and when you open it, St. Basil's is on the inside. The lady proudly told me that it was made in St. Petersburg, and then pointed to the cheaper ones and said with disgust, "China." I just had to laugh.

Got home for dinner, pizza, and then yet again another yucky diaper. Ugh, 3 in one day is a little more than I can handle. I guess the new food is affecting her a little. Hopefully she adjusts soon!

Then on to the adventure of bath #2. I brought her in and turned on the water. Instant water works. She wasn't even in the tub yet. She cried and cried, and even shrieked once, but Randy came in and held her hand and she instantly stopped crying. So nice, I got her all scrubbed up, and got her out and instant smile again! Crazy little girl.

Right now both kids are sound asleep and we are packing, so for a few days we leave you with a picture of our whole family in front of St. Basil's!

Day 18

2011-12-15T12:43:00.001-06:00

So I will kinda recap our last 24 hours together since we picked up Dasha from the orphanage. It feels so nice to say her name!

So we headed to the orphanage at 2 p.m. We were taken to a new room and told to get Dasha dressed. Out she comes in her underwear, undershirt and socks. She looks like they just woke her up and brought her to us. Dasha takes quite a while to warm up after she wakes up, so the whole getting ready was pretty somber for her, she didn't quite know what to do. We were then told to get her snow suit on, and we were like wait! Our gifts. So we rushed, rushed to the doctors office, gave her her gift, and the orphanage their gift, tons of diaper and wipes, I gave Lena her gift, and Olga's since Olga wasn't there that day. Then the care takers, and off back to the room to get her snow suit on. I rebelled a little and never bought her snow boots, so we snuck her out with no one looking to the van, got a quick picture, and off we went to the hotel to get our luggage. We had about 30 minutes where Dasha finally started perking up and playing. Then to the train we went. We took the 5 pm train out because we needed to be in Moscow at 6 am for the children's medical appts.

So Randy and I didn't get any sleep at all, we made Dasha a bed on the floor, Camden and Randy slept on the lower bunks, and I slept up top. Dasha was all over the place rolling while she was sleeping. Randy and I were constantly pulling her out from under the seats etc. Plus there were some very loud "spirited" guys next door to us. So we got up at 5 to feed the kids, and we got off the train. One thing we did learn is that Dasha sucks her thumb, but only when she goes to sleep.

We had to do some paperwork and then off to the medical center. We saw the lovely Dr. Boris. He gave the same lines: "Do you have any weapons, No? Better get one to fend off the boys."
"She must of been a favorite, she is chunky."
"Don't spoil her."

She weighed 22 lbs, and 31 inches long. She is a big girl!

We had to go get her picture taken for her US Visa, she did much better this time, and we went to the Embassy so that Tonya, our translator, could drop off our paperwork. Dasha fell asleep in the van during this time and probably slept about 30 minutes in my arms, when we got dropped off at the apartment she was drenched from head to toe, because she was in her full arctic gear! Dasha already needed a bath, because of the orphanage "funk" but now she really needed the bath. The bath went as expected. I put a little water in the bottom of the tub, put both her and Camden in, the minute her toes hit the water she started crying. Now she never freaked, but let it be known she was not happy with me. It was a very quick bath, and as soon as I pulled her out, she gave me the biggest grin!

She definitely smelled much better after this! Then it was lunch time and nap time. She can put away food, it is amazing, and how fast. She doesn't chew, she just swallows. I am so glad I brought the baby food, we have to work on chewing though! Then both kids went down for naps at 1 and we had to wake them up at 4:30! They were so tired. Then dinner again for Dasha, and then we hit the town and went to Chili's. We had to take two trains to get there and Dasha did amazing! Not a peep and even swinging her legs in the stroller and singing. We had a wonderful dinner and got back late not realizing it, it was 9. Got the kids changes and into bed, and now it is our turn. We both have been awake for about 36 hours so we are exhausted. Thanks for all the wonderful comments on the previous post, we leave Saturday and tomorrow is our embassy visit. We are really on the home stretch now.

Day 17 Family Day

2011-12-15T06:32:00.003-06:00

My blogger friend Trisha renamed this Family Day which I love, so sit back, relax and enjoy!

Day 16

2011-12-13T07:37:00.001-06:00

So this morning we woke up on the train, it was probably the worst that I have ever slept on the train, maybe it was because I wasn't extremely exhausted. We went to the hotel and we were given 25 minutes to be showered and downstairs ready to go. I was like wow, not a lot of time at all! So we get in the van with two other families that were on their first trip, funny thing one is from Kansas, about 30 miles from where we live. So we head out to what we thought was the orphanage, but we stop after a few minutes, and they say paperwork families out, that was us. So we get out and go do some paperwork. Then we go to another building, more paperwork. Then we drive forever and the other paperwork family gets out but not us. By this time it is lunch time. So we drive to the orphanage and get the two families that were on their first trip, and we go to lunch.

After lunch we were summoned again, paperwork families, let's go. We proceed to go to the van and off we go. We then learn that Peanut has a savings account. We then dropped off the other family at the hotel, no orphanage visit today, and we continue on and and we make 5 more stops, non of which we get out. We finally go to a bank where Randy gets out and goes in and closes out Peanut's account and we realize that we have a great start to her college account. We never dreamt that there would be the amount that she had. Peanut is very blessed! After that we had been in the van for about 7 hours including our time at lunch, and Camden hadn't lost it yet, and we were taken back to the hotel for the night. No orphanage for us either. Oh well, we get Peanut tomorrow forever. It's all good!

Day 15

2011-12-13T07:25:00.001-06:00

Well today was pretty uneventful. We just hung around the apartment until it was time to leave for the train station. We caught the train and took it all night to Kirov.

day 14

2011-12-11T23:40:00.000-06:00

Sorry all, after I went to bed last night I realized that I forgot to update last night. So here it is. We didn't do a whole lot yesterday, we took the metro up a stop because Randy read that there were some good eating places there, since we were tired of what was around us. So we took the train up, and since I have no directional skills I just follow Randy. We start walking and walking and walking. Nothing, I didn't bring the stroller this time and Camden is getting tired, finally Randy says, there's a TGIFridays! Oh look, a McDonalds. I look, and sadly realize that these are the TGIFridays and McDonalds right by our apartment. We went the wrong way and were back in our neighborhood. So sadly we went to McDonalds. If I have to eat at McDonald's anytime soon after we get back it will be too soon. We have not been more adventurous with our food because Camden is in that stage where he doesn't like anything, so we have stuck with the known likes.

Last night though was fun, after dinner, we got bundled up to go see Red Square at night. Definitely worth it. It is very pretty at night and though very cold, it is worth it. I highly recommend doing it.

Day 13

2011-12-10T08:58:00.001-06:00

So today we went to quite a few places. First, Randy got inspired by one of our FB friends to go find the old KGB headquarters building. It is a pretty impressive building, though not sure what it is used for in today's society.

Next, we took the Metro to the train station, where there is a store where we were able to purchase our coordinator's presents. We are having our friend from the states bring us some chocolates, they were on sale in the U.S. for $2.79, if we bought them here we would spend over $10 a piece for the same chocolates. We then purchased then a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of vodka. They are father and son, so they can trade if need be! Randy and I have bought more alcohol in the past 2 weeks than we have in our entire lives! Since we don't drink, we hope we are buying something they like! We looked at the store here by us, but they were about double the price of the store we went to.

Finally we went back to the flea market. Izmailovsky Park and Market was much busier today than last Sunday, plus it was colder and it snowed on us all morning. Randy finally broke down and bought his Father Christmas figurine, he found a beautiful one, and I got a replica of St. Basil's that plays music, and also two sets of Nesting dolls that have the family theme. There is a Father, Mother, and 3 daughters. There are not any that have sons in them. Weird. We then headed back towards where we are staying at and went and ate lunch. I think the temperature dropped a few degrees when we were eating because it was so cold when we left.

The protests are still going on over here, I guess there was a gathering of over 30,000 across the river from the Kremlin, they were suppose to meet in Red Square, but there were too many people so they moved them across the river to accommodate them. It has been interesting to see the Russian point of view on the whole process and how Putin is annoyed at H.Clinton for asking for an inquiry of their elections. Needless to say the local governments are not saying nice things about her.

The Russian people, they have been very nice to us. I have had people offer to help carry the stroller down the many endless stairs in the Metro, and though they will cut in line with the best of them, flashbacks to my education days, when there were fights for the best spot in line, but once they get on the escalators in the Metro, they stand in a single file line. The women here are very beautiful, and very agile! They wear 5-6 inch stilettos in the snow and ice. Wear mini-skirts in freezing cold weather, with only tights to cover their legs. Crazy! They make amazing pastries and breads. Plus they are giving us a beautiful little girl to take home with us!

Now to leave you with some more pictures of our adventures here in Moscow.

The Former KGB Building

We thought this was funny, it was right by the KGB building, and if you look at the letters of the Restaurant...

Inside another Metro Station

The inside of the expensive grocery store right by us! Beautiful

Camden took this shot, had to include it! My St. Basil's Music box

The train station

day 12

2011-12-09T10:06:00.001-06:00

Wow, we are getting closer! We leave for Kirov in 3 days, and come home in 8 days. So close. We are almost done. Thanks for all the suggestions for gifts, we got it figured out!
So today we ventured back to Red Square in hopes that the security and protesters were gone and we could shop the vendors there. Success! The security was gone and we got to shop the vendors there. We scored some great deals! For future PAP's coming to Moscow, don't waste your time shopping on Arbat Street. Definitely go, but don't shop! Everything is so much cheaper on Red Square and at Izmailovsky Park and Market. Now some of the stores told us that they would give you a discount, but their discount was like 50 Rubles. We talked one guy down today almost 200 rubles, and his starting prices were less than in the stores there. Now I loved walking down Arbat Street, but not for the deals.

I also highly recommend taking the Metro. So many websites state that it is scary, but it is just like riding the subway in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. The only challenge is the language, but we found a metro map and it is super easy. Plus they are the most beautiful subway stations I have ever seen. Marble, statues, chandeliers. Just awesome!

After about 2 hours at Red Square we were frozen, and headed back to go eat lunch. We ate lunch and went to the apartment where Camden crashed. He has been so good the past 2 weeks it is amazing! He has always been a good little man, but all the changes, and just everything we have thrown at him have just been taken in stride.

Below are just some fun pictures that we have taken!

Need a parking spot, just park on the sidewalk!

The Ritz-Carleton, very impressive!

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Our Apartment Building!

Metro Stop, Just Beautiful!

day 11 and Please Help

2011-12-08T11:40:00.000-06:00

Today was a much better day! Though bitterly cold. Though I hear that it is much colder back home in KC than it is here in Moscow. We went to the Moscow Zoo today. It is smack dab right in the middle of the city. Just one metro stop away from us. Since it was so cold a lot of animals were in their "homes" but we still got to see a lot of wildlife and Camden loved it. The only negative I would have of it, is the buildings that we could go in and see the warmer climate animals, such as giraffes, elephants, monkeys, etc, the building smelled HORRIBLE! Makes me realize how good the ventilation at our own zoo is, to avoid that horrible smell.

Afterwards we went to lunch at Burger King right across the street, Camden was starving. We got someone who spoke English so I braved ordering a chicken sandwich with no mayo. I hate all things condiments, and when I got my sandwich, it was pretty funny. They had taken a sandwich that had already been made, and just wiped the mayo off of it! LOL, too funny, I ate it anyway!

For dinner we splurged and went to TGIFridays, and Randy was pretty bummed that his Jack Daniels Chicken was the equivalent of $20 here. So he and Camden split chicken fingers, and I got the blackened chicken pasta. The chicken was excellent, the pasta, not so much. It was very bland and had no flavor at all. Afterwards we skyped with my mom, and got Camden off to bed.

Now for the help part, we are at a stand still on what to get our two male coordinators for gifts. We have a friend who is coming back on Monday to finish her adoption with is, and is willing to pick up something for us, but we are at a loss! Help, what did you get your male coordinators? Or male anybody, translator, driver. Just something for a man. Have a great day!

Denise

Day 10-or Blah day

2011-12-07T09:26:00.000-06:00

That about sums it up. Did not want to do anything at all today. We have seen all the major sights in Moscow, and we are out of ideas of what to do. We just hung at the apartment all day and only ventured out to go get lunch. We did find a great little bakery shop under the streets that sells wonderful apple turnovers and cinnamon rolls for less than a dollar a piece. When you are in Moscow, to get from one side of the street to the other, you actually walk under the street. These passage ways are lined with the tiniest shops ever. They sell everything from hose to clothing, hats, nesting dolls, everything. The bakery is our saving grace! It is about 4 blocks from our apartment. Tomorrow we are going to try Red Square again since it seems the protests have moved up towards where we are located at now. I wish they would just end though. It is getting annoying. The police presence is massive, I have never seen so many police ever. We have 5 more days until we head back to Kirov. So ready to go and get back home. I miss my car, stores with stuff I can read! I am so glad we got to experience the culture here though! It is priceless.

Denise

Day 9

2011-12-06T09:45:00.000-06:00

Ahhh, what a relaxing day it was here. Last night Randy and I were just plain exhausted! He went and laid down with Camden at 8 and I knew I would never see him again. ;-) I was doing laundry, the little Euro-combo takes like 2.5 hours to go through an entire cycle. Well 8:30 hit and I just couldn't keep my eyes open any more. So off to bed I go. Camden slept until 7:30 this morning, and it was heavenly. I really felt rested this morning! So we ate some breakfast, and then just hung around the apartment until lunch time. We have been eating breakfast and dinner at the apartment, and lunch out. Today we went to KFC. Yummy! We then hopped the subway and went to a local mall since we have a few more gifts for translators and coordinators still. We found 1 gift, but I am stumped at what to get our 2 male coordinators. Any suggestions, the fall back is alcohol, but I would like something to be personal. What did you do?

The mall also had a grocery store in it, so we grabbed some water, pop, and some TP. Very important stuff that TP!!! Then the subway back home where Camden took a nap, and then we did our favorite. Breakfast for dinner! Love doing breakfast for dinner. We were lacking a few things, no potatoes, and no salt and pepper. Have not seen either of them at all. Maybe that is why I haven't seen hardly any heavy Russians, no salt! Actually it is probably all the walking and all the stairs in the subway system. I feel like I have lost weight with all the walking we have done!

Day 8

2011-12-05T09:59:00.001-06:00

So today we were out for a long time. We decided we were going to go find Arbat Street. So we hopped on the Metro and went to the correct stop. Once we got off I even saw a sign that said Arbat Street straight ahead 100M. Guess what, we missed it. We just kept walking, and walking, and walking. Finally we turned around, and went back towards the metro. We saw a map, but it was backwards, so I finally went into a hotel and asked, the people laughed and said right around the corner. We were literally standing right by Arbat Street and had walked right by it. I was looking for a street with vendors, etc. It is actually a street with mainly stores. We went looking and found some beautiful Father Christmas wooden dolls, but we didn't purchase any. Everything there was quite a bit more than the flea market that we went to yesterday. So I think next weekend we will go back there and buy the rest of our presents that we need. Funny thing though, is that Camden got two things for free. They just love him here and he got two more presents in two of the stores we went in. We are going to be set for gifts, just need to take him a few more places! :-)

Afterwards we went to Red Square. There are some elections going on right now and there is a major police presence through out Red Square. We couldn't even get to some of the vendors because they had them barricaded off because of heavy protesting going on. Hopefully it ends soon, so we can go look at the vendors there also. But we went through Gum mall, which is decorated beautifully for Christmas, saw the Kremlin, and of course St. Basil's Cathedral. It is very majestic.

Inside Gum Mall

The Beautiful St. Basil's Cathedral

Us outside St. Basil's

Day 7

2011-12-04T11:21:00.000-06:00

Well today was a little more active than yesterday! This morning we got up and skyped with Randy's sister and mom, ate some breakfast, and waited for the sun to come up. It rises at about 9:30 and sets at 5ish. We decided that we were going to try the subway system! We wanted to go to Izmailovsky Park and Market. It is a flea market of types, where you can buy all things souvenirs.

So we set off and the first hurdle is buying tickets. We tried to purchase 3 2 ride passes. Handed the lady the exact change, and she gave us 3 cards, but when we went to scan them to get through the gates, only 1 card worked. Grrrr... Luckily the lady down there let us through anyway. Then we knew that we needed to take 3 different trains to get there. Now everything is in Russian Acrylic, and we got confused at first and went the wrong direction, but it actually worked out, we just hopped another train and we still made it. The only negative was how HOT the trains were. I knew we were going to be out all morning so we bundled up, but on the trains we were sweating horribly.

We made it to the market though and were walking around and I found a perfect little Russian dress for Peanut with matching hat that I had to have for her! It is their traditional garb that they wear for ceremonies etc. Next we were grabbed by a hat vendor, that have the traditional fur hats. We asked for one for Camden. The guy brought out one that fit well, and then said that he wanted 2,000 Rubles for it. We were like No, No, No. Then he was like name your price. So we asked how many for 3 hats, gifts, etc. We came down to 2,500 for 3, and I said no, 2,000, and we got them! 3 hats for the original price of 1!

Finally we found some beautiful nesting dolls, one for us, and 2 for gifts. They lady also gave Camden a Santa figurine as a present. So nice. The crazy thing is, though, I have expected to get yelled at since I do not have him in a snow suit, and I haven't gotten one word yet. Awesome!

We headed back to the apartment, stopping for some lunch. Put Camden down for a nap, and started searching the Internet for a grocery store. We found one two subways stops away. So after Camden got up we were off again. We did much better this time! We found it, and even though their prices are still high, they were so much better than the store by us. We were able to get hamburger, bacon, spaghetti sauce, and some snacks. Again though the heat in the store was almost unbearable! They need coat racks as you enter stores that you can take your coat off, so you don't melt. We have been running the air conditioner in our apartment at night so we can sleep comfortably!

Tomorrow we are off to Red Square, and maybe Arabat Street. Still have some more gift to buy. We also got to attend church tonight. Our church does an Internet feed live, so we tuned in tonight. It was very nice to be able to do that. Until tomorrow!

Day 6

2011-12-04T04:13:00.000-06:00

We arrived back in Moscow about 10 am, and Ilya our coordinator in Moscow drove us back to our apartment, where we went in and started some laundry. Our apartment has one of those European washer/dryer combos, now I am extremely grateful that we get to wash them in a machine, rather by hand, but this thing does not dry the clothes at all! It gets them really warm, and then turns off. I have even tried just drying them, nada. So I have to hang all our clothes all over the apartment to get them dry. Which I will take that any day over hand washing the clothes in a bathtub.

We then ventured out for some lunch and we are right by the biggest McDonald's in the world. It is massive. We walked in and they have 17 registers, 1500 employees, can seat 700 people, and serves over 40,000 people a day. After we got a picture menu, we ordered, and then proceeded to try and find a table. It was so packed in there it took us about 10 minutes to find a table. After eating, we went back to the apartment and just relaxed for a while.

When dinner time came we went over to the grocery store and were overwhelmed by the prices. $10 for 1 kilogram of hamburger meat. $10 for spaghetti sauce, etc. It is so expensive. We left with cereal, bananas, milk and water! Camden ate cereal for dinner, and Randy and I didn't eat, we really weren't hungry. We are going to try and find a market outside of downtown to see if the prices are any cheaper.

Mostly we did absolutely nothing today and it was wonderful!

Dah Day, day 5

2011-12-03T01:48:00.000-06:00

Court day!!!

We had court at 10 am this morning. We met up with another family on their trip 1 from the U.S., they dropped us off at the court house and then they continued to the orphanage.

The single lady that we were with went first. She got her dah, and then it was our turn. Camden waited outside with Stephanie, watching a movie, and we went in for our session. We had to stand and state our names, where we live, and then we got started. Randy spoke for the most part of our court session.

He was asked questions such as, can we afford another child, why not another biological child, and how are we going to overcome the language barrier. He did an amazing job. Then it was my turn. He asked if I am okay with being a stay-at-home mother, and I said yes. He asked if I have a driver's license, which was yes, and if I have transportation to go shopping, etc, or if in an emergency can I take the baby to the hospital, I said yes. Then the really surprising question came. He asked, you give $X amount of dollars to your church every month. Why?

I explained that our faith believes that we give back 10% of everything we make to the church, for ministry opportunities. He then stated, that it was a lot of money, why do we do it? So I went a little deeper, stating that our church sponsors orphans around the world and if we didn't give to the church, then they would not be able to impact the orphans lives like they do. He seemed satisfied by that. They also asked that if we ever were able to have another child would we want Peanut anymore. I was like, she is our child, I would never not love her!

The Ministry of Education official gave her recommendation, and the prosecutor gave her recommendation, and then the judge left. About 2 minutes later he came back and read his decision. It was a DAH!!!! He said congratulations, and we then went out to the waiting room. We were packing up Camden's thing, when the judge came back with a beautiful Model car in his hands. He then handed it to Camden, and told Lena, that he was such a good boy during court that he deserved a present. We thanked him and then he left. Lena was amazed, she said that he had NEVER done that before.

We left, and went back to the hotel, and changed, met the other families, and went to lunch. After lunch back to the orphanage, for about 2 hours, and then back to the train. Camden gave Peanut a hug and kiss bye, as did we, and we will see her again in 10 days. Back to Moscow, for some adventures, and fun.

Right after our Dah! Outside the Courthouse!

Camden with his new car!

Day 4

2011-12-03T01:31:00.000-06:00

We got into Kirov, and was picked up by Lena, and we went to the hotel for a quick shower, breakfast and clean clothes. We then were off to see little miss. Camden was so excited! We were taken to a different room this time and we waited. There were some toys in this room and Camden got busy playing. About 10 minutes later little miss was brought in. Sadly she didn't remember us at all. So it took her most of the morning to warm up to us. Camden played well with her though, and he shared with her, and really loved playing with her. When it was lunch time we took her to her room, and then we were off to lunch.

After lunch we went back and it was a much better time this time. She was very active, playful and really smiley. When she laughs, he kinda does an internal giggle, not a real belly laugh or anything, but she really was expressing herself. After about an hour and a half, Lena came in and told us to take her back to her room, so she could get dressed so we could go get her passport photo. She also stated that we were taking 3 additional children. So between the 3 that we were there seeing we had 3 more. So let me tell you it was a spectacle. All of us had a child, plus Camden. They had these babies so bundled it wasn't even funny, I have a picture of Peanut, but can't post it yet, but will. The funny part was though when Lena came up with the Irish couple's baby, they traveled with us on Trip 1, and plopped her in his arms. Randy has a firm policy of not holding other people's babies. The look on his face was priceless.

So off the the photo place. All the babies were miserable, and drenched in sweat! Peanut had on an undershirt, her outfit, then a sweatshirt, then her snowsuit, hat, mittens, and a scarf. So when we took everything off, she was just wet. All the other babies went in and got their pictures, and then it was Peanut's turn. I took her in and put her on the stool, and she freaked out! She started crying so hard, this was the first time we had ever seen her cry, so it was good. I picked her up and comforted her, and tried again, the guy took her picture, but it is not pretty, she is screaming her head off! It will be a good keepsake for when her first boyfriend comes over!

We then had to take all the babies back to the orphanage, drop them off and then back to the hotel. Dinnerish, mostly snacks, as we were all exhausted, and sleep!

Day 3 Continued

2011-12-03T01:18:00.000-06:00

So we were picked up at 11:45 to go to the Medical Center for our 8 doctor medical exam. When we got there we were led to a waiting room with the other single lady that was adopting who traveled with us last time. We were called in 1 at a time. The first doctor was the TB doctor. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, Randy always tests postitive with the skin TB test, so he goes in every year and take a chest x-ray instead. The doctor was not happy that he did not have the actual skin test done and he tried explaining what american doctors do in this situation. She then suggested that he take an anti-histamine for 7 days before he takes the skin test so he can get a negative. Again he tried explaining how it is done in America. She then asked why he didn't take the blood test for TB. Then he was really confused, since there is no blood test for TB, since it is a lung disease. She then stated that TB could be in the bones, the blood, liver, etc. Now Randy is really confused, as he is a nurse, he was was like WHAT!?! TB is a lung disease only! This was the TB expert! Anyway, she signed the form, and we then waited for the next doctor.

Next was the infectious dieseases doctor, she looked at her lab results and was happy. Done. Next was the addiction doctor, she looked at our urine analysis, and signed away. Next was the family doctor, she asked if we had ever had any broken bones, I stated that I had broken my elbow. She asked me what the name if the bone was! Randy had to tell her what the bone was called. LOL, we then had to take off our shirts, let her listen to us breathe, and then lay on a bed, and let her feel our stomach. Also, as a side note, there is NO privacy in these appts. There was a Russian family adopting in the room with us, and the curtain that provided "privacy" only went to mid-chest!

We went back to the waiting room, and was waiting for the other doctors, and Tonya, our translator, came in and told us the other doctors were too busy to come and they just signed our forms. We had to pay our 25,000 Rubles, about $806.00 per person, and we left with our reports. Took about 2 hours.

We left and went to go catch our train, on the way to the cafe, where we wait Camden fell asleep in the van, now this is highly unusual for this child, he NEVER sleeps in the car, he was just so exhausted that he passed out. We got to the cafe and had about 2 hours before the train, we went in and put Camden down and he passed out on the couch. We let him sleep about another hour while we chatted with a German couple that was going out to Kirov with us to meet their son. About half an hour before we left I tried to wake Camden up, and it was nearly impossibe! He was so out of it. I finally got him up and we got on the train to Kirov. Camden loved the train for the hour he was awake. :-)

We all slept pretty well, and we got in to Kirov about 8 am the next morning.

On a side note, I realized when we were in Moscow, that I forgot to buy a present for one of the VIP women, so Randy went on the hunt for a bottle of expensive wine for her. Day 4 and 5 coming soon!

Ok, A little More Coherent here now!

2011-11-30T00:05:00.000-06:00

I guess this would be day 3 of our trip, since we left on Monday, so the day 3 report. We left on Monday at 3. Now if you have ever flown out of KC you know it is about the easiest and fastest airport ever. You don't have to arrive 2-3 hours early, an hour is sufficent, even when checking bags, because you go through security at your gate, not with every person flying at the airport that day. So we get on the plane, taxi, and seems like we are taxing forever, like I said, easiest airport ever to fly from. After about 25 minutes of waiting and taxing, the pilot come on and said that the 1 of the primary runways was shut down for repairs, and the other primary was shut down because a bird hit a plane in the engine, so the plane was on the runway broken down. So we were going to the alternate runways, 1 for landing, 1 for taking off. Lots of planes.

We arrive in Chicago, grab some dinner, and board for the long flight. They close the doors, and they say that we are leaving, but we never leave. Finally the pilot comes over and says that there is a problem with a bag and they are trying to fix it. An hour later we finally leave. Camden slept about 5 hours of the 8 hour flight. He did amazing. I, on the other hand didn't sleep a wink. I didn't want to take sleeping pills because I didn't want to be passed out if Camden needed anything. We arrive in Frankfurt, have to take a bus to the terminal, get through security again, and then off for our last flight. I tell you what, Lufthansa doesn't mess around. I took Camden to the bathroom before we took off, because he says it's too loud when the plane is flying. Well we were in the bathroom and the plane starts moving, not a pleasant experience with a little boy who has aiming problems anyway.

We get to Moscow, go through security, and we go get our bags, all three bags were there, and go find our driver. Then goes our 1+ hour drive to our apartment. I think our driver got lost a few times, he kept googling where we were. Camden passed out after about 5 minutes, which is a miracle, he NEVER sleeps in cars. We get to our apartment, Randy had to go get a phone, TP, and some water, we made contact with ur agency, and we are leaving at 11:30 am for our medicals, and then overnight train to Kirov. Luckly we get to leave a bag here at the apartment, because we have so much for Peanut, we thought it was crazy to drag it all there, bring it back, drag it back, etc.

We are getting rid of most of our gifts when we are in Kirov for court, so that will empty an entire suitcase! Can't wait to get rid of that stuff. So last night we went to bed at 11ish, and I woke up wide awake at 2:30, the sleeping pills were in the diaper bag in Camden's room, and I didn't want to risk waking him up, so I just tossed and turned for a while. Went back to sleep and woke at 7. The sun rises about 9:15 and is suppose to set at about 4:15. Short days! Well until tomorrow, have a great day!

Moscow

2011-11-29T12:33:00.002-06:00

We are here, tired, exhusted beyond belief, no sleep at all for me, but Camden did awesome! What a trooper. I will type more when I can keep my eyes open without them burning.

Travel Plans

2011-11-27T23:11:00.001-06:00

So tomorrow we leave to go get Peanut! Our travel is going to look something like this:

We leave Kc at 3:00
KC to Chicago,
Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany
Frankfort to Moscow. We arrive in Moscow the 29th at 7:30 p.m.

We have our medicals in Moscow the 30th, and then we hop an overnight train to Kirov.
Arrive in Kirov, on the 1st, and go visit Little Miss on the First.
Court on the 2nd, overnight train back to Moscow, arriving in the morning on the 3rd.
Hang out in Moscow the 3rd to the 12th.

Overnight train back to Kirov the 12th arrive on the 13th. Visit Little Miss on the 13th, and pick-up on the 14th. Immediate overnight train back to Moscow arriving on the 15th.
Peanut's medical on the 15th,
Embassy on the 16th,
Leave Moscow the 17th, arrive in Dulles, where we only have a 1.5 hour layover, I have a feeling we will miss our connecting flight, but I don't care, we will be back in the US, so we will either get home on the 17th or the 18th.

Very fast, very whirlwind. I really don't know when the next time we will get Internet access, we will have it in Moscow, but we might pass out from exhaustion! So for sure we will post on the 1st from Kirov after our visit with Little Miss.

Thanks for all the encouragement and kind words, all of my blogger friends have been wonderful! I hope that I get to meet more of you as time go by!

Divorce from Agency A

2011-11-26T15:25:00.000-06:00

There had been so much stress from trying to get all our court documents done that I completely forgot to tell about divorcing Agency A.

I had all these scenarios in my head on how it would go, and it did not happen at ALL how I imagined. I called them and asked to speak with the director, and of course he was not in the office, and so I asked to speak with our coordinator. Guess what, she was gone also. Just confirms our decision to not use them. So I was transferred to our coordinators voicemail. I left a very nice message saying that they are not the agency for us, and they can't help us anymore, and I asked if they would mail us our receipts. I also stated how disappointed in them that they stuck us in a region that refuses to give out referrals.

Didn't hear back all that day, but the next, I got an email from the coordinator stating that she didn't know if she could give us any receipts, as no one had ever asked for them before who had left the program, and would have to ask permission. About 20 minutes later, I got another email with the receipts, no goodbye, no sorry we dropped the ball, just here are your receipts.

Later on that day I got an email from the director saying that he was sorry we were leaving, but then said that if he was in our shoes, he would of probably of done the same thing! Wow, even he does not have confidence in his own agency. I also posted a message on the agency yahoo message board, saying we were leaving and if anyone had questions they could email us. About an hour later, we were removed from the yahoo group, probably the agency.

I did get a few emails, and I told them our story, and gave them Agency B's information. Hopefully they get some good info. So needless to say, I didn't "stick it" to them like I wanted to, but it was probably better this way.

On a positive note, we got our new washer and dryer installed today, and I am already doing laundry! LOVE THEM!!!

Wahoo!

2011-11-25T16:28:00.002-06:00

I got the visas today, and they were all there! I have been having horrible dreams the past two nights that I get the envelope and open them, and there are only 2 visas, not 3! Crazy I know, but you know things just go through your head and you can't stop them. We also got our letter from the doctor who evaluated Peanut for the USCIS saying that they feel she is great to come to the US.
I now feel like we have everything we need, and possibly the kitchen sink accounted for, for our 21 days away. I got the car seat installed, and I am really confused as to how our suburban is set up. For those of you who have ever been in a suburban, to access the 3rd seat, you have to move one seat. Well for our 2nd row, there are only 2 sets of hooks for the car seats, one in the middle, and one on the seat that has to move. That seems really odd to me, wouldn't you want it on the seat that doesn't move? Well I have just decided to use the seat belt instead of the hooks, because I don't want to have to move the car seat to get to the 3rd row. It will all be much better when we can buy the new(er) car.

Thanks to everyone who has made such nice comments, and who have prayed for us. You have no idea how much that means to us in this endeavor. Tomorrow we have to go get our new washer and dryer, (don't ask, just Murphy's Law in effect), finish getting the house decorated for Christmas, and get laundry done so we can pack. Still don't know what I am going to do for a tree, we always go cut down a tree, but getting home 1 week before Christmas might pose a problem there. Oh, well, small problem in a big picture!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and if you went shopping, hope you got some great deals!

Not Drama Free Yet

2011-11-23T14:12:00.000-06:00

Well this wouldn't be a Russian adoption without some Visa drama. Monday the 14th I shipped off our Visas overnight to New York for 3 business day service. They should of been done Thursday, and I had them in my hand on Friday. Guess what, still no visas. Thursday I called to find out why they hadn't been shipped yet, and was informed that they didn't get submitted until Wednesday, and didn't explain why, and that they wouldn't be done until Monday. They said the submission day doesn't count in the 3 business day aspect. Though last time it did. Confusing. So they should of been ready Monday, and shipped out Monday, received on Tuesday. Still okay with this. Well guess what, they didn't go out on Monday either. Now I am a little upset. I called on Tuesday, and they promised they were going out Tuesday. They did get picked up, so I should of had them today. So I get up and look up the tracking and guess what, they are still in New York.....

I called FedEx and was informed that due to weather and mechanical issues, they couldn't leave and now because of Thanksgiving I won't get them until Friday. Now we don't leave until Monday, but this still freaks me out, I sent them out so early just so I wouldn't have to stress about them.

Oh, yeah, and my washing machine broke today, so guess who get to possibly go buy a new washer? Hopefully Randy can fix ours though...

On a good note though, both kids are done with Christmas, presents bought, gift are bought for all people that we need in Russia, and I have a coat and snowsuit for little miss. Shoes are bought, and I think I am ready to go, I don't need anything else. Praying anyway, I am tired of shopping.

3rd Times a Charm?

2011-11-22T08:53:00.000-06:00

The good news is that our court documents are in the mail to our agency and we have no more paperwork to gather! The bad new is, it literally took all day to get it done. After the fiasco on Saturday at the Pediatricians office, I was positive that everything was going to be okay. Well we went in to get the paperwork, and took it out and it looked great, and then I looked at the second "copy" of all the documents, they were literally photocopies. I looked at Randy and was like Oh No! We had just seen the notary leave. So we had a few testy moments there, where I was told that it would of been nice if I would of just typed everything up and emailed the forms to them. I had specifically went in before trip 1 and asked if I could of done that and was told no, they don't have email. The lady was like What? who told you that! Anyway, we were meeting a traveling notary at the Psychiatrists office, so we asked her if she would go to the Pediatricians office and do the forms there. So it got done the 3rd time. We booked it home, made scans, and then went to go get Camden from school.

After picking Camden up from school, it was pajama day, so he was in his PJ's and we went to Topeka. He looked pretty cute running around in his PJ's. I just have to say they are so fast in Topeka, we had 30 documents for them and they were literally done in 20 minutes. Headed to FedEx, and then the package was out of our hands. Now I just hope that It makes it to Russia before we do!

Car Seat

2011-11-20T17:31:00.000-06:00

Bought the car seat today! Loving this car seat, wish they made these when we got Camden's. It is a Graco Nautilus, 3-in-1 car seat. It has the 5 point harness, then converts to a seat belt booster, and then converts to a backless booster! Plus it is PINK!!! It is a little heavy, but really how often do you take the car seat out?

Wow, what a week

2011-11-19T13:51:00.000-06:00

I am so emotionally spent right now it isn't even funny. Everything is falling into place, I just feel like I live in the car running from this place to the next. Everyone has been so nice, minus the PD, but it has all worked out. Today though, I hit rock bottom. I had just left the Psychologists office, after my personal interview, we get to pick up out letter from him on Monday, and I went to the Pediatricians office to get Camden's letters. On Tuesday Randy had dropped off all 3 forms that we needed his doctor to do. 2 different letters, and a cover page for her medical license. Yesterday I called and they said I could come in on Saturday and get them. Well the receptionist gave me the envelope and I knew immediately that something was not right, the envelope was not thick enough. There should of been 8 pages in there. I opened it and there were only 2 copies of 1 of the forms Randy left. Ok, I wasn't panicking yet, I simply said I am missing 2 of the forms. So they called a nurse, who then went searching for the missing forms. Couldn't find them. So they called the lady who typed them up and then my world started getting crazy.

She informed them that the doctor said that since she had never done any forms like the two missing ones, that she didn't need to do them!!!!! I was like WHAT!?! I wouldn't of brought them if you didn't need to do them! The lady then said, don't worry, we will get them done on Monday, and then said, "Does Dr. Pediatrician work on Monday?" The receptionist looked and I could tell by the look on her face that it was not good news. My sons doctor was on vacation next week due to the holidays. That is when I started crying. They all started freaking out then, and I was like, WHY didn't you call me! You should of asked if you had a question! Then I asked if another pediatrician would be willing to sign the letters? So they went looking. Since they are a cooperative practice, Camden has seen most of the doctors in the practice, and luckily one of them agreed to sign the forms on Monday when the notary comes in. BTW the one form that was done was incorrect anyway, they had Camden's birth date wrong! So Monday we SHOULD have everything and we can go to Topeka and get everything apostilled and FedExed to California. I will be so happy to be done with everything, and then maybe I can concentrate of Peanut coming home. I haven't even been shopping for her yet, I have got to get that done!

And I though yesterday was bad

2011-11-15T17:51:00.000-06:00

Wow, today was 3 times worse. Randy left first thing this morning to go to the psychologist's office to take his test. He took my car since we don't drive his truck except for him to go to work and back. About 20 minutes after he left the lady from the Visa office called and said that since Camden was a minor we needed to fax her a copy of his birth certificate. Camden and I were still in our pj's, so we quickly changed, put the spare car seat in Randy's truck, and took off to the grocery store to send the fax. Meanwhile Randy finished, went to the home study agency and picked up our lost document, and then to the Pediatrician's office to drop off Camden's paperwork.

When he got home he said that we were going to have problems with the PD clearance. He called and told them what we needed, and they said nope they can't do it that way. All they do is run a report, but what we needed was the results written in a letter form and notarized. So he called the legal department and of course they were at lunch. So we went to run a few more errands, then went to legal. We told her what we needed, and she was like no problem, I will send the form to the captain of records, head on over and they will have it done. We stopped by the fire department to get Randy's employment verification, then to the PD we went. 2 hours later we left! It was insane, it took soooo long! The bad thing was, they brought the forms out and they had my birthday wrong, and they misspelled City in Kansas City on both forms, so all of them had to be redone! We left right before 5, right before they closed. I can't wait for the rush rush to be done. But we are almost done with the difficult stuff. I have my doctor appt. tomorrow, so we are on the home stretch. Can't believe it is all falling into place!

I hope tomorrow is a lot calmer! On a positive note, our small group that we are involved in have made us dinner this week, it has been so nice to not have to worry about cooking meals, especially when we get home right at dinner time!
Denise

What did you do today?

2011-11-14T21:37:00.000-06:00

Well today I....
Took Camden to school, then I went to the Psychologist's office to take my personality test, took the 567 T/F test and I just had to laugh at question #496 Are you stressed right now? Ummmm, YES!!! TRUE!!! But it only took me 1.5 hours to do it.

Left there went to the Credit Union withdrew the $$ for the plane tickets and the visas. Went to our bank deposited that money, and then ordered our money for our trip. Meanwhile Randy was at work today he reserved our apartment in Moscow, and booked our flights. We found a guy who lived in Moscow for 20 years and has about 20 flats that he rents out, he is going to accommodate us for all 12 nights we need in Moscow. 1 night for our medicals, 9 nights later for the 10 day wait, and then 2 nights for the Embassy visit. He is giving us an adoption discount and we don't have to pay the 18% tax that all the hotels charge.

Anyway, after the bank, I went home and started the visa applications, got Randy's done in time to go get Camden, we then stopped by the fire station and had Randy sign his application. We then went home and I filled out Camden and my application. Loaded the boy up and we went to FedEx. I tried setting up an account, but it wouldn't let me print off any labels. So I went to the store to see if they could help, and of course they said no, so they charged me their new "holiday" rate which was quite a bit more than what I paid last time. Now I was adding Camden's passport and application so I knew I would pay a little more, but wow, that was a big mark-up!

So we leave November 28th. Arrive in Moscow the 29th. Our 8 doctor medicals on the 30th. Overnight train to Kirov, arrive on the 1st. Visit Peanut the first, Court on the 2nd. Overnight train back to Moscow on the 2nd. There is NOTHING to do in Kirov. Up until about a year ago, foreigners were not allowed to stay in Kirov overnight, so the 10 day waiting period was always waived. After Torry Hansen, they started enforcing the 10 day wait, so they changed the laws concerning foreigners, but the city is NOT English friendly. We also can't visit Peanut during that time.

So then we wait out the 10 days in Moscow, then overnight train to Kirov on Dec. 12th. Visit on the 13th, and pick-up on the 14th. Overnight train again on the 14th, Peanut medical on the 15th, Embassy on the 16th, and home on the 17th! 3 weeks! Wahoo, I love our new agency!

Tomorrow, Randy is taking his personality test, I am taking Camden's doctor her paperwork to fill out, we are going to the police station to get our Police Clearance, and I have to go pick up a form from our home study agency that got lost somewhere between KC, California, and Russia. Busy days all week this week! Hopefully we will be done on Friday!

Moscow??

2011-11-12T22:19:00.000-06:00

Where did you stay in Moscow? Apartment, Hotel? Any suggestions?

Home Sweet Home

2011-11-12T08:52:00.000-06:00

It was so nice to be home and sleep in my bed last night! So on Wednesday night we left Kirov at 8 p.m. on the overnight train, and we slept pretty well. We got into Moscow right around 10 a.m. Thursday morning where we were picked up and taken to the airport. We found a TGI Fridays and had a wonderful meal. It was a good thing that we stuffed ourselves because the food options on the plane were NOT wonderful at all. Our flight left at 3:30 and we got to New York at 5 p.m. It was a long flight with little sleep. There were some very "happy" Russians who were passing a bottle among themselves sitting in front of us. We got through immigration pretty fast and got our bags and rechecked them to KC.

Then the fun started, we had to leave Terminal 1 and go to Terminal 2, we had right around 1:10 until our next flight. We walked into Terminal 2 and there were probably about 400 people waiting to go through security. I looked at Randy and said that we were going to miss our flight. They were so disorganized and had no clue what to do with all of us. Finally they asked for all people who had 7-7:15 flights to follow them. We left Terminal 2 and went to Terminal 3, went to the basement and went through security there, we got through with 20 minutes until our flight. We started power walking/running. We got to our gate with 5 minutes to spare, and they were calling our name overhead!

We then had a short flight to Cincinnati, where we had to stay overnight. We caught our shuttle to our airport, and ordered a pizza, and then slept in some of the most comfortable beds ever! The best 7 hours of sleep. With our experience with JFK earlier, we opted to arrive very early at Cincinnati. Not necessary, we were very early and got through security in about 5 minutes! Oh well, better to be safe than sorry. We had one more short flight and then we were home. When we went to get our bags, we found out that our bags didn't make the plane in JFK, but they expedited them overnight to Cincinnati, and they were waiting for us in MCI.

My mom and Camden picked us up and it was so good to see the little mans smiling face! We had some friends bring us dinner last night, and it was so nice to not have to worry about dinner that night!

Visits 3 & 4

2011-11-09T08:52:00.000-06:00

Wow, another whirlwind day for the Densons. It started with us waking up at 6:30, and hanging out for about 3 hours before we had to leave to go to the orphanage. We went to the playroom and they brought us the girls one by one. In marches our little peanut wearing these neon green tights, a green sundress and a hand knitted sweather that was all different colors crazy! It was too funny. We had a good morning and I got to try on the clothes that we brought. She is definately a 24 month top and a 18 month bottom. She has a little belly on her. But I did realize she is not a pink girl, with her complexion she is a red, blue and green girl. We got to go up to her groupa room and meet all her little playmates. Let me just tell you it broke my heart. There was one little girl that just clung to Randy and I like there was no tomorrow. We got to see where she sleeps and where she plays. I got her schedule and we got to see her interact with the other kids. She really livened up around the other kiddos. After that we went back to the playroom and played for a while until her caregiver came to take her for lunch. Shortly after that we went to lunch and then came back to the orphanage where we got....................................

COURT DATES!!! December 2nd, let me tell you I freaked out a little!

So for the next hour we went over court details and stuff we have to do.

Then Peanut came back and we got to play for another 2 hours before we had to take her to her room. I dropped off her photo album, clothes we bought, cameras for the caretakers to use and her bear that we bought her. It was sad to leave, but we will be back in 3 weeks, so that is all that matters!

We have to leave to go catch the train, so until we are back in the states,

Paka!
Denise

Visits 1 and 2

2011-11-08T09:36:00.000-06:00

Well we got to the orphanage this morning and we were led to a small room, all 3 of us couples, told to take off our shoes and wait and they would bring us our little girls. After about 5 minutes Lena came in and said mama and dada for "peanuts name" I was like here, here, she's ours! She was perfect. She was wearing a purple shirt and skirt and Turquoise tights. What a combo! But she was so somber and quiet but went right to me and molded into my arms. What a wonderful feeling! We just stood there and held her while the other little girls were brought in. It took quite a while, but we finally got her to break out of her shell a little, with the help of some puffs and yogurt melts. We got to play with our little ones for right about an hour and a half and then I got to take Peanut back to her room, she had missed lunch but the caretaker promised that she would get fed. We also got to talk to the doctor and she had all postive things to say about her. Her one medical that we knew about from the beginning, and nothing else.

We then went to lunch were we met 5 families that were picking up their little ones today, and had some insight for us. It was nice to talk to people who have been through it! After lunch we went back to the orphanage and I was told that Peanut was still napping but we could get some paperwork done while we wait. We signed our intent to Adopt and gave her her new name. And no we are not telling! Peanut came in and you could tell she was still sleepy but she let me pick her up and she just molded again, it was perfect. She quickly woke up and she went right into play mode. She ran and hid from us and ran, and we got some great giggles from her. It was priceless. The only complaint I would have was I was down to my short-sleeved shirt and I was still sweating. One family opened the window and she quickly got scolded by Lena that the babies would get a cold. So it was closed. She really latched onto us, and would bring me things she found, and really wanted us to play with her. We had about 3 hours with her, but it was so hot it was not the greatest quality time. We get to go back tomorrow to visit, and then we hop back on the train to head back to Moscow. I don't know if we will get to blog tomorrow, but will from the airport. Have a great day!

Again, excuse the typos.

Travel for Trip 1

2011-11-08T09:16:00.000-06:00

Okay here we go!

We left KC at 8 am on Sunday morning, flew to Cincinatti and I had the biggest letdown ever. I saw a Chick-Fil-A and I went over to see what time they opened, only to realize that they were closed on Sundays! Oh well, so we then get on our plane to New York, we were flying these really tiny airplanes, the ones where if you bring a carry on bag, you have to check it at the gate because it can't fit. There is about enough room in the overhead bins for a purse and that is it. So I get on and I try to put my bag in the overhead bin, because we were in the bulkhead and there was no seat in front of me to put my bag. Well there was this purse sitting longways, so I went to move it sideways so I could get my bag in, well the lady whose purse it was started yelling at me to not touch her purse there were delicate items in there. I told her I was just moving it and she got so angry at me The bad thing was she was sitting right across the aisle from me so that was a LONG hour and a half flight!

So we get to JFK and we try to go through security for our international flight. They tell us we have to go get a new ticket from Aeroflot, but that they don't open until 4. It was about 2:30. We were both starving, but people were already lining up in Aeroflots line, so we went to get in line. We started asking around what there was to eat inside the secured area and were told to go eat in the food court instead. This HUGE airport had 3 options for eating, chinese, McDonalds, and Sbarros. What good choices. So we ate, and then went through security, and waited for our flight. While we were waiting, we ran into another couple adopting from our region Kirov, but they were going to an orphanage outside the city, and ours was in Kirov. Still it was very nice to talk to them.

Then the 9 hour flight commenced, it was ok, but the seats were hard and very close together, but I did sleep with the help of sleeping pills! We arrived late to Moscow, got our bags, and caught the shuttle to the hotel where our coordinator then grabbed us and we headed for the train station. We had a little time to kill so we went to a cafe to order drinks, since neither Randy nor I drink coffee we ordered Hot Chocolate. What the brought us was LITERALLY hot melted chocolate. It was very good, but very rich.

We then hopped on the train, still in the clothes we left in on Sunday, and we were starting to smell a little mind you :-) We teamed up with a couple from Ireland, and a single lady from Florida. With the help of some more sleeping pills I actually slept pretty well. 13 hours later, we arrived in Kirov! Very cold and snowing. We met our driver and translator, and they took us to the hotel where we checked in and we had 50 minutes to take a MUCH needed shower and have a light breakfast. Then off to the orphanage we went. Details to follow in the next post.

P.S. I apologize for any misspellings, spell check is highlighting every word since we are in Russia!

Greetings from JFK

2011-11-06T17:47:00.000-06:00

We are sitting here at the airport getting ready to skype with Camden and then hop on the plane and sit for the next 9 hours! We have been going since 8 this morning Central time and still have 1 plane and 1 train to go. Just wanted to say hello, have a great day!

Orphan Sunday

2011-11-05T11:09:00.001-05:00

It almost seems fitting that we are leaving to go meet our daughter on Orphan Sunday. She is not going to be an orphan much longer if I have anything to do with it! Since I don't know if I will be able to blog tomorrow, I am writing this post today.

There are estimates that there are anywhere from 147-163 million orphans in the world. Some are orphaned because their parents are deceased, some are orphans because of social issues. For example, China has a 1 child policy, if you chose to have more than one child you pay a very hefty fine, or you don't have the finances to take care of another child. Other children are orphans because they are deemed to be defected. Whether they are missing a limb, have crossed eyes, or was born with Downs Syndrome. In some countries, it is not okay to have special needs, so the children are given to the orphanages. I am glad that we live in a country where ALL our needs are able to be met to the best of our abilities.

We are commanded by God to take care of the widows and orphans.

Father to the fatherless, defender of widows — this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families.

Psalms 68:5-6

This does not mean that you have to go out and adopt a child. It is not in the cards for every person, but there are things that you can do to help orphans. You can sponsor an orphan, ask your church, if they don't have a program, contact our church, Westside Family Church in Lenexa, KS. They sponsor children in India, Thailand, and South Africa.

You can foster children, children caught up in the Foster care system can get lost. They need strong people to help them and support them.

You can give to an organization that helps parents adopt children. For example, we got a grant through Hand in Hand Adoption. It is a matching grant organization. They match whatever we are able to raise from family and friends. They rely solely on donations! Without this organization, we wouldn't of had the money to complete our adoption. We are so grateful for them. There are a lot of grant organizations out there. ShowHope, Helpusadopt.org, Adoption Resources Foundation, and many more.

Or if you hear of a family adopting, you can pray for them! You can be a rock for them to lean upon. You can be a blessing in their lives.

As we leave tomorrow, I can't wait to meet my future daughter, I know she is going to be perfect for us. Since we will be on the run so much while we are gone, I really don't know if I will be able to blog while we are gone, but I will take great notes and will post as soon as we get back in the states! Thanks for your prayers.

Got the Visas!

2011-11-03T12:44:00.001-05:00

I am ready to go now, we got the visas bright and early this morning! I was a little disappointed though in the beginning, when we opened them it was our passports and a piece of paper, with our registration on it. I was like wow, we paid $300 a piece for these? Then Randy opened the passports and we saw the stickers! The real visa!

We have all our paperwork together and now we just have to wait for Sunday to come! I also got a call from our Agency today to see if we would hand carry some dossiers over to Moscow with us, I gladly said yes! Glad I get to help out another family.

Paka for now!
Denise

It's all coming together

2011-11-02T15:33:00.001-05:00

We are almost there, the best part is, when we got back from picking Camden up from school I check our bank acct. online and FedEx had debited our account which means our visas are on their way back to KC. Yesterday I went to go pick up our money, and they assured me that all the money was good. I took their word on it. Never again. When I got home I went through it all. Our agency stated that we had to have money printed after the year 2000 and no stamps, writing, marks etc on it. Well when I went through it, 1 bill was printed in 1996, and 6 bills had little smiley faces stamped on the back of them.

So today after Randy and I dropped off Camden at school we went to a different branch and exchanged out our bad bills and also got a medical Power of Attorney signed for my mom since she is taking Camden next week. Then we went to Nebraska Furniture Mart and bought a backpack laptop carrier to put the laptop in. I also have room to put the camera and video camera in it. So no camera bag to lug around. Then we went and picked up a money belt and electric converter from Trisha from Adventures! Thanks again. We also went to Wal-Mart and got all our travel size everything we need. I did forget the Tylenol PM though. I will need that, since we will be traveling SOOOOO much, I don't sleep well if I am not in a bed. Planes, trains and cars, forget about it. I have to be drugged to sleep.

It is all falling into place, now I just need to figure out what I am taking! I am a last minute packer, and so is Randy, we will probably be packing at Midnight Saturday for our Sunday A.M. flight. :-)

Happy All Saints Day

2011-11-01T09:50:00.000-05:00

Yep, this is the holiday that is delaying our visa by a day. Don't know anything about this holiday, but oh well.

Russian Holidays!

2011-10-31T10:48:00.001-05:00

Freaking out! Ok, just a little bit, I sent our visas off for 3 business day service, sent it Thursday, they received it Friday. Should be done by Tuesday right? Nope, Nov. 1st is a Russian holiday so they don't work that day, so they won't have it done until Wednesday, so I won't get it back until Thursday. Cutting it close in my opinion. Next time I think I will find a place that does two day service, or I will make sure that there are no Russian holidays hindering my visa application!

Our Trip

2011-10-28T20:46:00.003-05:00

This is what our trip is going to look like..

Nov. 6th Leave KC and fly to Cinci. OH, then Cinci. to JFK, JFK to Moscow arriving on Nov. 7th.
(side note, we could of flew straight to New York, but then would of had to change airports, Newark to JFK, not interested in that, the tickets we got were a $1.50 more than straight to New York.)
Then overnight train to Kirov arriving on the 8th.

Hopefully a shower before we go to the orphanage!

Two visits each day on the 8th and the 9th, sign papers, and overnight train back to Moscow arriving on the 10th.

Flight from Moscow to JFK, then JFK to Cinci, and an overnight in Cinci.

Leave bright and early on the 11th and fly home to KC, and to our little man.

Not a lot of time with our princess, but my view is, the faster we get home, the faster we get to go back and bring her home for good!

We are gone for 6 days, but only staying 2 nights in a hotel! We are going to be EXHAUSTED! Randy is going to have two recovery days before he has to go back to work, hope that is enough.

Ready! I think...

2011-10-27T12:28:00.000-05:00

Well I got the visas in the mail today, good thing I called the company last minute, because she told to me to include our ID numbers and passwords for the online application, probably to fix any mistakes we made. This information was not on their websites on what to include so I am so thankful I called. The only problem is everyone at that office is Russian and their accents are so hard to understand over the phone!

Our bank got the money thing taken care of, I called a bigger "branch" and spoke to someone who had done this before and she said she would have our money for us by Tuesday. Wahoo! Now all I have to do is pack, and go buy her two outfits, one in 18 months and one 24 months to see what size she is! Any suggestions on snacks? I am taking puffs and yogurt melts. Any other good suggestions?

Visa Application-OH MY HEAVENS!

2011-10-26T15:41:00.000-05:00

That thing is INSANE! I am surprised they don't ask for a blood sample. I am just floored at how long it took me to fill it out. For those of you who finished before July 2011 they changed the application system, to where it has to be filled out online, don't know what it was like before, but WOW! The thing I am worried about is it asked for my current employer, well I am a stay at home mom, I don't have one, but it would not let me move to the next page without a position and an address of my current employer. So I just put stay-at-home mom and my home address. Any other SAHM's have this same problem? Did I do it right? Also, the question on how many countries have I been in during the past 10 years! I had to call my mom to help me out, to see if certain trips happened in the past 10 years. Randy is going to be miserable on his, he took a 5 week backpacking trip across Europe and Israel back in 2004, so he will have fun filling in all those countries!

I have almost everything squared away except for the Visa and our crisp new bills. Our bank was like WHAT?!? They will try, but no guarantees. Yeah! Flights are booked, and I didn't sleep a wink last night, I think drugs are going to be in my immediate future.

WE GOT THE CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-10-25T14:43:00.001-05:00

Yes, you heard me correctly, Camden is going to be a big brother FINALLY!

I got the call on Oct. 12th, but there were some questions about her medicals so I decided to keep mum. After waiting 20 months with Agency A, and then switching to Agency B we got the call less than 2 weeks after our application was accepted! She is a beautiful little girl who was born on our anniversary, even better! We leave on Nov. 6th to go and meet her! I am SOOOO excited I can hardly stand it. Right now we are researching flights to see what our options are.

We will fly to Moscow and then take an overnight train to her region, Kirov about 500 miles away. Spend 2-3 days with her and then fly home! The best news ever! I will post more when I get more info!

Off it goes!

2011-10-18T15:41:00.000-05:00

Finally, our dossier is on it's way to California! Today I finally got to go pick up our home study documents from the agency to a nice tune of $275. Don't even get me started on this. They have a policy that if they have to do any additional documents after the update they charge $25 a page. I should of asked for a discount since they made me wait over a week for them, but oh well.

Off to Topeka then, where I then spent another $435 on apostilles. Yikes! That one hurt. Not to mention the 8 that I had from Missouri. 64 documents in all. So then off to FedEx I go. Now I I don't hardly EVER ship anything, and usually if I do I use snail mail. So when he asked me if I wanted Morning overnight delivery or afternoon overnight delivery I figured there couldn't be THAT big of a price difference. Needless to say when he told me my total, I about had a cow, $75 to ship. My bad, next time I will choose afternoon delivery! I am just glad it is finally out of our hands and in the hands of our agency now. My stack of documents were so thick I couldn't use an envelope, I had to use a box, which upped the price a little there also!

Have a great day everyone.

Denise

What a week

2011-10-14T14:41:00.003-05:00

As I stated in my last post we have been waiting on our home study agency to finish up some paper work for our new agency. I was supposed to have them by last Monday. Then I was supposed to have them today. Now I am not going to get them until Tuesday. All because someone didn't read the directions. I was cc:ed in the email that went to our home study agency and I read everything that they were suppose to do, they were not difficult. Our agency sent the templates and all they had to do was to fill in their information. There was also 1 specific instruction on EACH form, the Executive Director has to sign each form, not the social worker. Well each form was filled out for the Social Worker to sign. When that was brought to our home studies attention by Agency B when they checked everything a nasty email was sent back to Agency B, from the social worker, that those instructions needed to be clarified better in the instructions. Each template for the signature portion, it said specifically Executive Director. In the instructions, it said Executive Director. I don't know how much more specific it could of gotten. So each form had to be changed from her name to his. Not too bad right, well then she let us know that the Executive Director is on vacation until next Tuesday. So I can't have my stuff until then. Now I have had all my stuff done for almost a week, and that's after spending HOURS on the phone trying to find a CPA, etc. All they had to do was copy and paste and fill someones name in. Hmmmm.....I really wish our first home study agency hadn't been put on the blacklist. I might switch back to them for the post-placements, we will see.

So on Tuesday, I will be in their office bright and early and I will sit and wait until they hand me my papers, and after I double check each one, then I will be off to Topeka, getting them Appostiled, and then overnighting them to California. Whew! Hopefully I will have good news for you next week! :-)

I just don't get it!

2011-10-11T15:11:00.001-05:00

So Randy and I have been busting out booties to get all our paperwork done for the new agency. I finished today, minus the doctor visits, and the psychological exam. Our home study agency has had all the paperwork from our new agency since last Monday, and she said she would have it done by Monday at the latest. Well she emailed me yesterday, and said that she wasn't finished and there was one form that she has no idea on how to fill out. She asked me if I knew how to fill it out! I was like WHAT!?! That is why you are the home study agency, you are up to date on adoption stuff, not me. So, it doesn't look like I will get it today either, as I tried to call her and she has been out all day, and I really wanted to go get everything Appostilled tomorrow since Camden has school and I wouldn't have to drag him along with me. I dragged him all over today and he did so good, I put the kiddo in the car for a 30 minute drive out to the CPA's office, then 20 minutes to downtown, then another 20 minutes to find a parking spot. Note to self, never go to a government building the day after a holiday, INSANE! Had to park 6 blocks away, ended up carrying Camden about half of that, the boy is getting BIG! But after 50 minutes in the Missouri Secretary of State's office, he was DONE! I think they were done with us also. We have met our $100 limit in Missouri on Appostile's so I think she kept pushing us back and took care of all the paying people first. There were plenty of people who came in after us, that left before us. So now we are at the mercy of the home study agency, hopefully they finish by Friday morning at the earliest, so I can run to Topeka and get our Dossier to California to our new agency. I wanted it there by Thursday, and we would of had a record Dossier prep, less than two weeks, but we are looking right at two weeks now. Still pretty fast. Now if only Kansas would put a cap on their Appostile's. I think I will be writing them probably right around a $500 check when I go!

New Family Photos!

2011-10-06T17:21:00.001-05:00

Well I was suppose to get these done this summer close to Camden's 3rd birthday but the week we had them scheduled it was right around 109 degrees outside, needless to say I called and rescheduled. I am really glad I did, this way we got "fallish" pictures. Here are a few of the best ones! Notice the new one on top!

What Randy and I did today!

2011-10-05T17:15:00.000-05:00

Well first we dropped Camden off at school, and then we headed over to the bank to get all 34 documents of our notarized. That took about an hour, the poor notary didn't know what she was getting herself into! Then we went home to continue on the quest for a CPA and a psychologist. Since we are not real estate developers, or hold large assets, we have never used an accountant, or CPA. We do our taxes ourselves. So this is how our conversations went with the CPA's.

Randy or Me: Hi...(explain what we need here)...Can you help us?
CPA: Are you a current customer?
Us: No
CPA: Sorry, we can't.
or
CPA: Sorry it is not legal for us to sign that without a full audit of our assets.
Us: Well how much is an audit?
CPA: You don't want to know.
Us: Why do you need to do an audit?
CPA: So we can't get sued.
Us: Really? Who's going to sue you? Russia?

End of Conversation...

FINALLY, I put out a word of help on Facebook, and a friend of mine had a friend that is a CPA, I called her, explained what we needed, she hesitated, I stated I can email you the form, she said ok she would look at it. Finally she emailed back, and said YES!!!!! Wahoo!!!!!!!!

Hope we don't have to redo that document again!

Now on to Psychologists:

Randy:: Hi.....(explain what we need)... Can you help us?
Psy: You mean you DON"T want a diagnosis?
Randy: Exactly, we want you to say we are NOT crazy.
Psy: Sorry, I can't bill your insurance if you don't receive a diagnosis.
Randy:WHAT??
Psy: Blah, Blah, Blah

Finally we found one who will do it! Insurance SAYS they will cover it, supposedly with a $25 co-pay for each of us. We will see!

All together this took right around 5 hours, and at least 30-40 phone calls. Never have I seen more people Unwilling to help someone adopt. The funny thing though is that almost all the calls ended with Good Luck on your adoption!

Question?

2011-10-03T22:46:00.000-05:00

For those who had to go to a Psychiatrist, how did you phrase the initial phone call. Or how did you even know who to call? We have to visit one for our new agency, and I am at a loss at how to find this particular one. I got answers for everything else, just this one is tricky! Help please!

Here we go

2011-09-23T11:42:00.000-05:00

Randy and I have officially applied to another agency as of today. I mailed off the application about an hour ago to be exact. After many talks with our current agency, it was looking at minimum of 12 months to a referral, and then up to 18 months to be home. That just doesn't fly with us any more.

You have to understand, when we started we were told 12-18 months from start to finish. We are now in month 20 from the start, with the possibility another 18 months to finish we were finished with agency A, kinda. I will let you know why the kinda in a moment.

So on to Agency B, between Randy and I we called and spoke to 5 agency's in the past week. ALL of them were appalled at the wait we have had and were expecting. Also, they were confused about why our agency told us to only apply for sibling sets up to the age of 3. Their minimums are age of 5 for sibling sets because unless the set was taken from their parents, or parents turned them over to the orphanage right after the youngest was born, it is almost impossible to get a referral of two siblings that young. When they explained this it really made sense, since the children have to be in the Russian database for 8 months before they are available for international adoption. That is the second reason we are kinda leaving.

So now on to agency B, where the director actually had to TURN AWAY a girl referral last week because he didn't have any one to adopt her!!!!!!!!!!!!! OUTRAGE!!! If only we had called two weeks ago! So now we are on the fast track, there may be a few things that we need to change with our home study, because we are raising our age limit, and with Randy's new job at the hospital. This agency doesn't see why we won't be traveling in the next 3-6 months.

Now to the kinda part. Our paperwork doesn't expire with Agency A until April. So we are keeping our file with them active until April. We are willing to risk the Agency fee with agency B, to have both hands in the cookie jar so to speak. It is perfectly legal and nothing morally wrong with this. So, we have now just have to be a little bit more patient.

Another thing I like about Agency B is that we do a mini dossier, like 10 documents, and then we hand carry Dossier 2 to Russia with us on Trip 1, to expediate the court date. With agency A, we had to do about 30 documents, which we have to redo every year, and then when we get home from trip 1 we then tackle Dossier 2 which has an additional 10 documents to Dossier 1, and oh yes, we have to redo everything in Dossier 1 again! So needless to say, we are very happy and ready to go. Oh yes, we are also on the wait list from the moment he gets our application, unlike agency A where you only get on the wait list when you turn in your dossier 1.

One Month Down

2011-09-18T08:02:00.001-05:00

Well we are 1 month into Randy's new work schedule, and it has been different to say the least. Randy is exhausted to be quite blunt, and Camden and I miss him a lot. But it is only for a year, hopefully!

As far as the adoption goes, I am not really sure where we are, on Thursday we were told to expect to wait another 12 months before a referral. Yep you heard me right, another 12 months. I was ready to jump ship that day. I guess the region that we were assigned, yes they did give out a referral, but they have not given that family travel dates. I guess that region has decided that the agreement that was signed was not good enough, and now they are waiting on the DUMA, don't know if that is spelled correctly, to sign the agreement into law. Now we are talking government here people, it took the US and Russia, over a year to sign the original agreement. So we were told no referrals and no travel dates until the agreement is law. We are technically locked into this region, with not really a way out. I was afraid of this when we were originally assigned to this region. I was very skeptical that we would actually get a referral from them, followed by travel dates.

So here is the scenario, leave the agency, lose the $5,000 that we paid them, go to Agency B who said we can have a referral in about 3-4 months, Agency B is about $7,000 more than Agency A, for 1 child, and we can not afford agency B's sibling price, it is OUTRAGEOUS!!! Followed by another adoption a year or so after this one is finished. Out $12,000, plus the cost of another adoption down the road.

Or stick with this current agency, and just wait it out, get our siblings, whenever, and never mention the word adoption again. Personally I HATE both options. I am done. If I wanted to wait 4-5 years to finish an adoption, I would of applied to China. I picked Russia because they were suppose to be fast, then that horrible woman in TN did her thing. I am not sure what direction we are going. Please pray. Also, if you are local to us or family, it would really help me out if, instead of asking how the adoption is going, please just say that you are praying for us. It is just too hard to bring up the subject over and over. Also, I encourage you to check in to the blog. Don't want to be rude about it, but it just hurts to talk about it.

First Day of School!

2011-09-13T14:56:00.001-05:00

I know that I said I would post pictures last week of Camden's first day of school, but my computer decided to quit on me again! Luckily Randy got it up and going for me. So here we go!

Getting ready to go get in the car. He was so excited!

Had to take a picture of the Cars backpack. He loves that thing!

Outside his preschool.

Unloading his backpack, and getting his folder out.

Camden and his teacher Miss Pam. Wasn't too sure about taking a picture with someone he didn't know.

His backpack on his special hook. Can't believe my little man is in school!

Letting go...

2011-09-06T17:49:00.000-05:00

I think I am finally ready to let go of all my baby gear. Car seat, swing, stroller, baby bathtub, bouncer, pack-n-play, etc. You know, EVERYTHING! It has taken me a year and a half to get to this point, but I think I am ready. There is a great consignment sale coming up in October called Just Between Friends, and you can take all your stuff there for people to purchase. You get 70% of the sales price on everything and you pay a $10 entry fee. I think I got enough stuff stored in my attic to fill their whole sale. :-) This has been a long time coming, but after this horrible experience with the adoption, and my horrible experience with the infertility specialist, I think after this adoption I will be done. I have always vowed that I was NOT going to be an old parent. I had set a limit of 35 of introducing new children into our lives. Right now I am 32, will be 33 in January. I know, not that old, but I want to be true to my convictions. I don't think I can go through another adoption, at least with this current agency, and I know the chances of me conceiving naturally without intervention are slim to none. So it is time to let go, and move on. Don't worry the adoption is still going, but who knows I might be 35 by the time we are done at the rate we are going.

On a lighter note, Camden starts pre-school tomorrow! He is so excited to go to "school!" He will go two days a week for 5 hours a day. I am excited for him to go, he doesn't get enough time with other kids, since he is not in daycare, and has no siblings, but I am fearful that I am going to be BORED out of my mind. I will post pictures tomorrow of his BIG day!

Adoption books for kids

2011-08-31T15:40:00.002-05:00

I haven't done a lot of research on this, but as Camden gets older we discuss the adoption more and more. Now I know that he doesn't fully get it, and won't until we bring these kids home, but if anyone has any adoption books geared towards kids I would be greatly appreciative!

I do have "My Adopted Child, There's No One Like You" by Kevin Leman

But if there are more, or even ones geared towards kids that are biological, or previously adopted I would love the titles!

Also I filled out Camden's passport application today, now just have to go get him a picture and go apply for his passport and he will be ready to go to Russia!

Edit: just realized when I got out Camden's birth certificate that I put the wrong city of birth on his application! I know, sad, but the hospital where he was born is right on the edge of 3 suburbs of KC meeting, and I picked the wrong one, oh well!

84 Hour Work Weeks

2011-08-25T22:59:00.000-05:00

Well this week starts the 84 hour work weeks for Randy. You ask, how in the world? Well he just accepted a full-time position at the hospital as an RN. He was working PRN, but full-time positions are few and far between here in KC. There are SOOO many nursing schools that the city is over saturated with nurses looking for full time positions. We were very blessed that he got offered this position so soon after starting at the hospital he is at. So every week he will work 2 24 hour shifts at the fire station, and also 3 12 hour shifts at the hospital. The nice thing is though we still get him 2 full days out of the week. I am sure he will be napping with Camden though on those days off. Since he will be working so hard, I have been "trying" to help out as much as I can. Heck, I even mowed the lawn twice in the last week! Go me! I HATE mowing. Now I am not one of those girls who say they "can't" mow, I am actually pretty good at it, but I hate doing it. It drives my allergies insane!

Hopefully if everything goes as planned, our adoption will be fully funded by December 31st, and we will be able to purchase a new(er) car by late summer next year. Since we don't do debt, we will also be paying cash for our car. Right now we have a Suburban and a truck, the suburban is great and we will be able to get all 5 of us in the car fine. But if anything were to happen to it, we would be tough out of luck with the truck, since it only seats 3, so we desperately need to replace the truck. We just pray it lasts 1 more year, it is a 1990 truck that leaks oil like a sieve!

We are also praying that Randy can get into the ICU by this time next year working weekend options, where you work every weekend, but only work 24 hours, but get paid for 36! Then it would only be 4 days of work a week. If you ever want to meet a more determined person, I would gladly introduce you to Randy, he is one of the hardest working people I know.

Just as I thought

2011-08-15T10:47:00.000-05:00

No, we are not closer to a referral, good thing I did NOT get my hopes up. They just assigned people to regions so that people would quit asking. Yes, I am disappointed, and frustrated. But based on the message board that our agency has, is seemed to me that they just started assigning people, because there were people after us that got region assignments also. This is not in our agencies normal behavior. Oh well, life goes on.

Interesting....

2011-08-13T18:50:00.000-05:00

Friday, the 12th, we got an email stating that our dossier was being sent to Kemerovo to be registered with the MOE, (Ministry of Education). Supposedly this is suppose to mean that the region has a referral that meets our requirements and wants. This is just confusing since on Wednesday during the conference call I was told not to expect anything anytime soon. So we are NOT getting our hopes up. Though we did check out flight information for there. EXPENSIVE!!! They are about $500 per ticket more than they are for the region that we got the initial referral from. Which means we need to add to our budget for these added costs.

In other good news, Randy who was working PRN at a local hospital was offered a full-time position with the hospital, so my husband who is amazing anyway, is now embarking on 2 full-time jobs! In order to go to CRNA school he has to work full time as a nurse for 2 years, he was going to do this after the adoption, but nursing jobs are so scarce here in KC that he just had to take it. We won't be seeing Randy very much between the fire department and the hospital, but it will all be worth it in the end so that he gets to accomplish his goal!

Have a blessed Weekend!
Denise

Conference Call

2011-08-11T17:47:00.000-05:00

So yesterday we had a conference call with our agency with everyone who is in the "process". There was some good news, the "go-to" region actually gave out a referral this week, and the region that has been taking over a year to give out court dates gave out two dates to 2 of the 7 waiting families there. Though we were told that if you want girl, don't expect anything soon. So, some good news, some bad. I really don't know where we are in the process, just waiting, waiting, waiting.

Pawn Stars Faberge Spider

2011-08-10T22:36:00.000-05:00

In addition to my famous Russians, I added this clip from a show that Randy and I love to watch, Pawn Stars. Shelly, this is the episode that I was talking about when you did your piece on Faberge on your blog. Please excuse the bleep, but it is a priceless episode. Wish I could stumble across something like this!

Famous Russians

2011-08-10T15:45:00.001-05:00

Peter the Great (Peter the I of Russia)

“I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.”

Peter the Great, an experienced army officer and navy admiral, a skillful shipbuilder and an amazingly energetic personality, ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from 1682 until his death and is credited with dragging Russia out of the medieval times to such an extent that Russia was considered a leading eastern European state.

Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev, Soviet political leader, a skilled reformer, was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. His series of summit talks improved substantially the relations with the U.S. and decreased East - West tensions. Gorbachev contributed to the end of the Cold War and ended the political supremacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union which led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Evgeni Plushenko

Plushenko is a very talented Russian figure skater, who was seven-time National Champion, five-time European Champion, three-time World Champion, 2006 Winter Olympics gold medalist and four-time Grand Prix Final gold medalist.

Aleksandr Stepanovich Popov

Was a Russian physicist and electrical engineer, a pioneer in the invention of radio and its application. He first demonstrated the practical application of electromagnetic (radio) waves. Although he did not apply for a patent for his invention, Popov is credited with being the first to use an antenna in the transmission and reception of radio waves.

Etiquette and Customs in Russia

2011-08-01T17:29:00.001-05:00

Meeting Etiquette
. The typical greeting is a firm, almost bone-crushing handshake while maintaining direct eye contact and giving the appropriate greeting for the time of day.

. When men shake hands with women, the handshake is less firm.

. When female friends meet, they kiss on the cheek three times, starting with the left and then alternating.

. When close male friends meet, they may pat each other on the back and hug.

Naming Conventions
Russian names are comprised of:

. First name, which is the person's given name.

. Middle name, which is a patronymic or a version of the father's first name formed by adding '- vich' or '-ovich' for a male and '-avna' or '- ovna' for a female. The son of Ivan would have a patronymic of Ivanovich while the daughter's patronymic would be Ivanovna.

. Last name, which is the family or surname.

In formal situations, people use all three names. Friends and close acquaintances may refer to each other by their first name and patronymic. Close friends and family members call each other by their first name only.

Gift Giving Etiquette
Gift giving using takes place between family and close friends on birthdays, New Year, and Orthodox Christmas.

. If you are invited to a Russian home for a meal, bring a small gift.

. Male guests are expected to bring flowers.

. Do not give yellow flowers.

. Do not give a baby gift until after the baby is born. It is bad luck to do so sooner.

. Russians often protest when they are offered a gift. Reply that it is a little something and offer the gift again and it will generally be accepted.

Dining Etiquette
If you are invited to a Russian's house:

. Arrive on time or no more than 15 minutes later than invited.

. Remove your outdoor shoes. You may be given slippers to wear.

. Dress in clothes you might wear to the office. Dressing well shows respect for your hosts.

. Expect to be treated with honour and respect.

. Offer to help the hostess with the preparation or clearing up after a meal is served. This may be turned down out of politeness. Asking 'are you sure?' allows the hostess to accept your offer.

Table manners are generally casual.

. Table manners are Continental -- the fork is held in the left hand and the knife in the right while eating.

. The oldest or most honoured guest is served first.

. Do not begin eating until the host invites you to start.

. Do not rest your elbows on the table, although your hands should be visible at all times.

. You will often be urged to take second helpings.

. It is polite to use bread to soak up gravy or sauce.

. Men pour drinks for women seated next to them.

. Leaving a small amount of food on your plate indicates that your hosts have provided ample hospitality.

. Do not get up until you are invited to leave the table. At formal dinners, the guest of honor is the first to get up from the table.

Facts about Russia

2011-07-27T21:26:00.000-05:00

I have decided since we are in the waiting arena, and are unsure as to when we will emerge, I will educate myself and those of you who chose to read our blog a little about Russia. This idea was kinda stolen by a fellow blogger, she gave great Russia 101 lessons on her blog.

For tonight, just basic Russia info.

The largest country in the world, Russia constitutes one-seventh of the world’s landmass and spans eight time zones. This expansive area allows it to neighbor more countries than anywhere else on earth, as well as touch twenty-two bodies of water and hold twelve seas within its borders.
You can find the oldest mountains in the world, the Urals, and the deepest lake in the world, Lake Baikal 1,642 metres (5,387 ft) deep.
Russia has a population of 145.5 million people, 80% of whom reside in Western Russia and two-thirds of whom live in cities.
Given its vast supply of natural resources, Russia depends heavily on mining. It is the world’s leading producer of energy and military technologies.
The official language in Russia is Russian. This language uses the Cyrillic alphabet instead of Latin and is one of the five most spoken languages in the world.
Russia is home to more than 100 ethnic groups and indigenous people. Slavs account for about 75% of the total population. The densest areas of Russia are near the Ural Mountains and in southwestern Siberia.
Russian Orthodox is the official religion in Russia. 20% of Russians practice Islam while Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism are not wide spread but have small roles in Russian culture.
Moscow and St. Petersburg are three hours ahead of London time and eight hours ahead of New York City. Vladivostok, on the eastern most side of Russia is seven hours ahead of Moscow. It takes about nine hours to fly from New York City to Moscow, three-and-a-half hours from London to Moscow, and ten-and-a-half hours from Tokyo.

All facts are from the website http://www.travelallrussia.com/facts-about-russia/

Another Case...

2011-07-20T18:54:00.001-05:00

Of abuse, this region was the go-to region for our agency. Well back in November they "shut-down" to reorganize things, according to our agency. They were going to start putting our referrals again in June, but this story surfaced. Now they are investigating. Hopefully with the agreement signed they will start moving along now.

See below for story

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/06/10/51579183.html

There is a whole lot more to this story, the original adoption is dissolved by the adoptive parents, and the girl was adopted by the mother's sister, and it was her husband who abused the girl. So the people who abused her never went through any Russian requirements for adoption. Sad that this is interfering with adoptions also.

US/Russian adoption agreement

2011-07-13T13:58:00.002-05:00

It was finally signed today! Yeah, now maybe we can get some referrals going!

http://en.rian.ru/world/20110713/165180115.html

Wondering...

2011-07-11T09:37:00.000-05:00

I am sure all of you are wondering about what my decision is on taking Camden with us to Russia. No to trip 1, thank you. But really leaning towards yes on trip 2. I know that I would have great people take care of him while we were gone, but we are staying for the full 30 days. If we stay in the region that we got the first referral from, we have to stay for 30 days due to new rules that the region put out. I honestly don't think I can stay away from him for 30 days. He is a very laid back easy going child. We went on a R.V. trip two summers ago and we sometimes spent 15 hours in the car driving, and he did amazing. So that is what we are thinking, I think when we go for trip 1 we will ask permission from the director themselves if we may bring him during trip 2 and then we can have whole family bonding time. That is what I am thinking right now.

Taking your kids to Russia?

2011-07-05T13:29:00.000-05:00

Your thoughts? Randy and I have been going back and forth since the beginning on whether or not we should take Camden to Russia with us. What are your thoughts? Mainly this is for people who have gone and experienced everything of course! Is it toddler friendly? Are kiddos allowed in the orphanages? Etc? If you were to adopt again, would you take your adopted child back with you for the second adoption? Just wanting some opinions!

Denise

Happy 3rd Birthday Little Man!

2011-06-26T15:19:00.000-05:00

Our First Family Photo

Newborn Photos

Birth Announcement Photo

6 Month Photo, it is priceless!

1 year photo

Just taking a snooze, home from the hospital 1 day

Oh, it's suppose to go in my mouth?!?

Just a few pictures of my little miracle man early on in life. Today he turns 3, I can hardly believe it!

Floating in the Breeze

2011-06-24T14:56:00.000-05:00

So after my last post I was feeling like I was in Limbo. I even called and spoke to another agency about switching. This agency told me that most likely they could get me a referral for a GIRL by late fall, there wouldn't be much to switch, but their Russia fees are significantly more than our current agency. Randy and I haven't had a chance to really talk about them yet, but today I got a call from the director of our agency and he sincerely apologized for no one calling or email me back. So now I am not so upset with our agency and still want to give them a chance, but I am still on the fence. I think I will wait a few more weeks and see what happens, but I do have a great option.

Frustration

2011-06-22T19:42:00.000-05:00

So I have been trying to reach our agency all week. Granted it has only been three days, but they only are open 4 days a week. I just have a simple, but important question to ask them about our I-171H. As I have mentioned previously, our coordinator has been gone for the past 5 weeks, she will be back in the office on Monday. The lady covering for her is who I have been trying to contact. Every time I call she is on the phone, so I leave a message asking her to call me back. No call back, so today I sent an email to her, our coordinator, and the director of the agency, first of all asking my question, and second, expressing my disappointment on not receiving a phone call, etc. Surprise, Surprise, no email response back yet. Tomorrow is their last work day for the week, they are closed on Fridays, so we will see if I get anything. I know a lot of companies have a policy on a certain time frame that they have to either call or email back, my school district was 24 hours. Hopefully I will hear something tomorrow. Knowing my luck they will call while Camden and I are at swim lessons, in the FREEZING water! It has been so beautiful out, 78 and sunny, but it makes for a miserable time in the water because it is so cool, Camden freezes to death!

I-171H

2011-06-15T12:30:00.000-05:00

Well we got our amended I-171H in the mail today with our new fingerprint information and our amended information raising our age range to 3 to accommodate siblings. The only flaw is that they did not give us our extension. I filed for it so that we would not have to get a new copy of our homestudy, it has to be dated within 6 months, which we MIGHT squeak by on that one by like 2 weeks. We received an email last week that they were approving our fingerprints again, and amending it, but we were not allowed to file for our extension until it is 90 days from expiring. I filed for everything at once to save 1. on time, and 2. on Apostilling. We have to get each one apostilled so I was hoping to save myself $10.00. Oh well, that is the least of our worries now. Maybe we won't need to file for the extension?? P.S. I scanned the pink sheet that they send with the form and no where on there says that you have to wait until you are 90 days away from the expiration of the form to apply for the extension. I think it is silly that our fingerprints expire after 15 months, and our form 18 months. A lot of extra work on both sides.

Thank you...

2011-06-14T22:24:00.000-05:00

For everyone's comments and prayers. I was having just a really horrible day! Those days are the days that I know Satan just attacks me and goes after my heart and I get the selfish ME ME ME going. I think I am going to try Sarah's advice and not read any blogs for awhile, while I will update my own, I am going to just try to enjoy our summer together before the school year starts back up again. Our coordinator is suppose to be back in the office on June 27th and I figure I will give her two days to read her 1 billion emails that I am sure that she will have after being gone 5 weeks, and then I am going to start annoying her! :-) Maybe she will just get so sick of me that she will call Russia and BEG them to give us a referral!

LOL, if only it was that simple. Our summer fun should begin on Thursday, we are picking up Randy's brother, whom he hasn't seen in over 2 years, from the airport and we are headed to the lake for a long weekend, and I also get to go to my beautiful friend Kym's wedding down in Arkansas. Kym went to Africa shortly after I got married 4 years ago, and I got to see her briefly after she got back last September as she was driving through. So excited that I get to go to her wedding. It all worked out beautifully!

We are also going to celebrate Camden's 3rd birthday this weekend. Even though his birthday is not until the 26th, this is the only time that all the family will be together before his birthday. We did not plan a huge party this year, because we were hoping to be in Russia, just coming back, or getting ready to go, but it will be great all the same. Next year when he turns 4 he gets a monster party! Have a great week everyone!

Sick and Tired...

2011-06-11T23:50:00.000-05:00

I know that I am going to sound like I am whining, and it's because I AM!!!! I am getting so sick of this whole adoption issue. I am tired of seeing people who started after us already HOME with their children. I am tired of reading about all the experiences that they get to do with their kids that I don't because every spare dollar we have we put in our adoption fund so that we can pay for this crazy thing. Every blog that I follow, which is about 50, every person has their child. I can't even find a blog of anyone starting the process, so that I can talk to them about the process. I kinda feel left behind. We have been on this roller coaster for 18 months, DTR for 13 months, and I am just sick and tired of waiting.

There are many positives going on though, we are getting so close to having this thing fully funded. Which means NO LOANS! We are paying cash. Most in part to the grant we have received. That was the ultimate blessing, no doubt. I keep thinking, tomorrow, tomorrow is going to be the day when we get the call. Nothing happens though. I was so excited when we got that initial phone call about the siblings, now I wish we hadn't turned them down, because again, our agency is dead in the water. I know way back when we started that picking the right agency was the most important thing, well I think we goofed. They are just too small and are not in the right areas to move us along. I think day after day, we need to change agencies. Then I start thinking about ALL the stuff we would have to change, Homestudy, I-600A, grant information, not to mention all the money that we have already paid them. In my heart I know we can't change, but my head is screaming CHANGE, CHANGE!!

There are so many things we are wanting to do, we want to buy some land so that we can build our dream house, but we can't because every penny we have is reserved for our adoption, and you can't get a loan out here for land because of the economy, so you have to pay cash for it. We want to just get away, but we can't.

I also feel guilty, during the school year, I really felt like I was contributing, I was working, bringing home a very meager salary subbing on Randy's days off. Since school has been out, I just feel like a lazy slob. I never even felt like this when I was working and I had the summer off, maybe it is just the lack of free activities out there. Most of all I am just stressed, and I feel for Camden and Randy, I feel like I am just very stressed and tense, and I get annoyed by the smallest things.

I am also scared, I am scared because we are very comfortable in our family of 3. Yes I want more kids, but what is that going to do to us? How is Camden going to handle it, how are we going to handle it? If you could just pray for some peace for me I would greatly appreciate it.

Not Adoption Related, sorry

2011-06-05T23:19:00.000-05:00

I know I have been absent from blogging lately, but when nothing is happening I just don't want to bore you with my whining, so I thought I would show you a cute video of Camden "cutting" with his scissors. Usually he is very fast, but he was distracted by me filming him. Sorry it is sideways, I took the video on my phone.

Our coordinator is on vacation for a month, we are two weeks in, so I seriously doubt anything is going to happen until she get back at the end of June. Have a great week.

Praise the Lord!

2011-05-30T11:16:00.000-05:00

We got all of our grant money! Wahoo!!! As of Friday we were at $5125, so we get the matching money up to $5000. We still have one more week and donations can still be sent, they won't be matched, but will still go directly to our adoption and you will still get a tax deduction. I was really stressing over this but I know God is in control, I know that I need to give up some of my control of this adoption and leave it to God. Though it really does frustrate me when people say, well maybe it is God saying you shouldn't adopt since we haven't gotten the right referral yet. Just makes me want to scream! I know this is what we are suppose to do, and we are hanging on tight. Keep praying that we get it done and done soon!

Getting Closer

2011-05-20T20:36:00.002-05:00

To our goal that is! We need $5000, we are at $3100. Thank you to those to helped us on our grant funding this week, we have two more weeks to go. I am praying we get there, we only need $1900 more and we get the full match. Praying like a mad woman!

Ok, We Need Your Help!

2011-05-15T18:13:00.000-05:00

We received a grant through a wonderful organization called Hand In Hand Adoption Inc. They have been gracious to offer us a matching grant of up to $5,000. I sent out the letter two and a half weeks ago, and we have a little over two weeks left before our deadline. So far we have only raised $350. On the right hand side of the blog you will see a note to click to view our letter for financial support for our adoption. Through the matching grant that we received, we have to raise funds from our family and friends. This is not something where we give them money and they match it. We have to raise it from our family and friends. The money goes straight to the organization, we do not ever touch the money in any way. All money goes to our adoption. All funds have to be raised by June 3rd, 2011. Click on the link if you are interested in helping us bring our children home! Please help us we have a long way to go!

Fingerprint Appt. Again

2011-05-09T16:37:00.000-05:00

Well today Randy and I went back to the USCIS to get refingerprinted. We decided to do it a few months early since we were already submitting information to them to get out I-171H redone. It will save us on Apostilles later on! So this time was not as smooth as last time. Though our appts. were at the same time this time instead of an hour apart like last year. Last year we were both in and out in under 5 minutes. This year it took 30, though not horrible AT ALL! We did take Camden with us and he was very mad that he couldn't take his toys in. He was good for the first 15 minutes but after that he was tired of waiting. The best part was he wanted to get his fingerprints taken, he sat there all ready to go with his hands at the ready. He was with Randy and would not leave with me, I don't know if the guy played along with him or not. Then we had to get home so Randy could go to work. Both times they have scheduled our appts. for days that Randy works. As a fireman, you don't just show up a few hours late, you have to pay people out of your pocket to cover you while you were not there. Oh well though, didn't want to risk them scheduling it on a day he works again if we asked for a new date.

On just a side note, here in KC, last week we had frost advisories, today it is 92 and we have heat advisories! By Friday the high is 68. Just some craziness in the midwest. We have not turned on the A/C yet, hoping to get through this little heat wave.

1 Year

2011-05-06T10:47:00.000-05:00

Well it has been 1 year since our dossier was sent to Russia. A lot has changed in that year. We have gone from waiting for a single girl to waiting on a sibling pair. We have turned down one referral, and now we just wait for another one. Praying we get it soon! We are ready. As far as our grant, last week I sent out 77 letters to family and friends asking them for their support, with only one being returned for a bad address, I think that was pretty good if you ask me! It took me a long time to get to that point asking people for money, but we are there now, we are in the final inning, the bases are loaded and we have a full count. We have got to get this done! We have until June 3rd to raise $5000, to get the full matching grant! If you would like to help please see the letter to the right of the blog to find out how you can help us out! Have a great weekend everyone.

Yeah for Randy!

2011-04-27T14:55:00.000-05:00

Ok, Randy got the letter attached for me! On the right hand side of the blog you will see a note to click to view our letter for financial support for our adoption. Through the matching grant that we received, we have to raise funds from our family and friends. This is not something where we give them money and they match it. We have to raise it from our family and friends. The money goes straight to the organization, we do not ever touch the money in any way. All money goes to our adoption. All funds have to be raised by June 3rd, 2011. Click on the link if you are interested in helping us bring our children home!

Our goal in the beginning has always been to pay for this ourselves, but we are almost out of time and we have been turned down for almost every grant we have applied to. With the added expense of a second child we knew we had to ask for help. We have a great support system and we know we can get this money raised! All donations are tax-deductible. Thanks in advance if you choose to help support us!

Can anyone help?

2011-04-27T13:28:00.000-05:00

I want to add a gadget to the side reel that shows a link that people can click on so that they can see our adoption support letter. Can anyone tell me how to do this? I am not a technical person, it took me forever to figure out how to link a web page into my post! I don't want to bother everyone with the letter, only those who are interested.

Amazing How Good God Is!

2011-04-23T09:49:00.000-05:00

We got an email yesterday stating that we have received a matching grant from Hand In Hand Adoption Inc! It is a matching grant, we have to raise a certain amount of money and Hand In Hand will match it dollar for dollar up to a certain dollar amount. If we raise all of our funds that they match, we will be getting so close to our goal. With the added expense of a second child, we unfortunately are going to have to ask our family and friends for their help. This was not our goal in the beginning, but we have done everything in our power to get all our funds, we know we have great friends and family and will help us get to our goal! All we have to raise now is our trip 2 expenses and we will be done! How great God is!