Kids' Bedroom Ready

Angie, Pat, and I have spent the last week or so getting the kids' bedroom painted, carpets cleaned, furniture assembled, clothes put away, and several other little details in preparation for their arrival.

It's neat to go into that room and imagine them jumping on their beds, playing with their toys, or whatever else will entertain their little minds.

May can't come soon enough.

Steve

Timing update

We submitted our final packet of paperwork to AAI to be sent to Russia to petition the court for a court date.

I asked Kris Burow (our new Adoption Agent, since Alla resigned) when she thought our court date might be.  She said, optimistically, in April.  Dimitri (Minister of Education) has to gather paperwork on the children from the children's home and put it together with our information, and then it is reviewed for a court date.

Also, a new regulation came out with that changed the waiting period from 10-14 days to 30 days.  It's unfortunate that this happened right at the tail end of our process, but it is what it is.

• http://adoption.state.gov/country_information/country_specific_alerts_notices.php?alert_notice_type=notices&alert_notice_file=russia_3

So, if we have our court date sometime in April (optimistically), we can bring them home sometime in May.

Thanks for all your support.

Update

Hello all,
well not a whole lot to tell you, we are waiting to get our court date.  FBI has to send us a report saying we have no arrest records then we can get the date.  We are missing them greatly 4 hours was not enough time to spend with them.

We have had 2 showers so far and we have 1 more that Angie's co-workers are having for her...We are overwhelmed with all the love and gifts we have received from everyone...We thank everyone greatly...

We will update more as soon as we know anything....

Home from Russia

Hello all...we arrived back home Friday night after our week in Russia.  St. Petersburg was amazing, we seen beautiful Churches, paintings, and alot of the town.

Arkhangelsk was amazing being we met 2 beautiful children who captured our hearts.  Veronika( Grace) is quite the ham.  She has the cutest laugh:)  Maxim (Parker) was a little reserved but was very open to us, and he sure knows how to smile for the camera. 

Leaving them was very hard...so now the wait begins to see them again.

We are sorry we were unable to update the blog while we were in Russia.  Our wi-fi connection was hit and miss at times and we couldnt get the blog page to convert to english.

Thank you to each and every one of you for all the warm wishes...we greatly appreciate it...

Steve and Angie

Itinerary for first trip to Russia

Dec 3, from GR in morning to Toronto on Air Canada.  From Toronto in evening to Frankfurt on Air Canada.  Dec 4, from Frankfurt in morning to St. Petersburg on Lufthansa.

Dec 4, get our bearings.  Staying at Park Inn Pulkhovskaya until Dec 5.

Dec 5, from St. Petersburg in evening to Arkhangelsk on Aeroloft.

Dec 6, MEET KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dec 7, MEET KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dec 7, from Arkhangelsk to St. Petersburg on Aeroloft.
Dec 7, staying at Hotel Columb in the city center for some tourism.

Dec 9, From St. Petersburg in morning to Frankfurt on Lufthansa.  From Frankfurt to Chicago on Lufthansa.  From Chicago to GR on United.

FIrst trip to Russia!!! First time to see the kiddos!!!

Our first trip to Russia (the Russian Federation) will be on Saturday Dec 3.  This will be when we meet Grace and Parker for the first time.  How exciting!!!!

We fly out in the morning and arrive Sunday afternoon to St. Petersburg.  We will be staying there overnight and flying up to Arkhangelsk Monday evening.

On Tuesday, they will bring Grace and Parker to see us at the hotel.  We cannot visit the town of Severodvinsk where the orphanage is because it is a military base.  Non-Russian citizens cannot enter the base.  We are not yet sure how long we will be able to visit with them, but it will probably be for a couple of hours.  They will then bring them back again on Wednesday for another visit.

We will return to St. Petersburg for a day to sight-see, and fly home on the 9th.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

A very big THANK YOU to all of you who have helped us in various ways to make this adoption a reality. It's difficult to put into words the warmth we feel from all your caring and generosity.