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Our trip home went smoothly although the travel time seemed unbearably long. I can't imagine doing this 3 more times. We left for the airport at 7am (11pm GR time) on Friday, took a 10:20am flight to Amsterdam that was 3 1/2 hours, then the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit was 8 1/2 hours, and finally the car trip home was about 2 1/2 - 3 hours as it was rush hour! Ahhh... I don't think I have ever sat that long at least not since I have had Noah! :)

Noah seems like he did okay. I still don't want to leave him again, but I know I have to. I think I just block it out of my mind until I have to. He told me he missed me so much. How cute. Since I am normally with him ALL of the time - I don't hear that kind of thing much. I have to admit that was nice to hear, but I would rather not leave the country again just to hear him say it! :)

All day today (Saturday) I just sit here and day dream about what life will be like with two. If I could just fast forward past the rest of the travel and court and whatever else we have to do and be at the end!

I will post more pictures later.

Last Day at the Orphanage

So today is our last day to visit the orphanage. I woke up with such a bad attitude. I really was missing my little guy at home, it is so hard to continue to connect and get to know our little boy when I know we won't see him again for at least a month and how do we explain that to him at 14 months old, and I was a little frustrated with not understanding a thing any one says to me. :) So, Jeff and I applied for the Shaohannah's Hope grant. In the mail with our confirmation that they received our application was a 14 day devotion. I grabbed it when I was packing. I thought that it would be quite fitting for our trip. Well this morning as I am eating my yogurt(that we picked up from the grocery store - that I have no idea if it is full fat, low fat or no fat or even yogurt for that matter because all I can read it the picture of a strawberry) with a granola bar that we brought from home I am reading the devotion. "God desires that we step out together as His body and love these children as our own; we are the spiritual house in which He dwells here on earth." OK - so I guess I am feeling pretty shallow. Isn't God amazing? This is really the kick in the pants that I needed today. Too bad there isn't some way that we could take all of them home with me.

Today when we got to the orphanage Konabek is looking for us. They are outside playing and he is sitting in a stroller and sees us come in and then he waves! Wow - how awesome is that! In the 3 days that we have known him he has come so far. In the beginning he was barely even looking around and now he was waving... What a sweetie. We grabbed him and took him to play. By now they are pretty laid back with us. We found a little play area in the back with a little Step 2 house. He loved it! I think we spent about 45 - 1 hour playing in the house. I wonder if he has ever played in one before. He thought opening and closing the door was the coolest thing and then he was going in and out and walking around the inside. He has become quite independent. He did not want help! He was doing great. We also heard him speak something... That is the first time I have heard him say anything. I don't know what he said or if it was english, russian or even a word! But - it was cool... He loved sitting on the ground and just exploring and picking up leaves and sticks. I can't wait to introduce him to his big brother who loves dirt, bugs, mud, you name it - he will check it out. I hope that they weren't too mad about him sitting on the ground. They don't seem to let them do that. He was so dirty and wet (it had just rained) by the time he went back in. Later as we were walking around I was carrying him when he looked pretty worn out. He started to fall asleep on me. We visited two times today. Leaving the 2nd time was the hardest. We had to give him back to the caretakers. As we were walking out the gate, he scooted up on a toy to watch us leave and then he walked along that closer to us. He crawled to a closer toy and then was standing up to something else. All I could see was his little face peaking over this toy and his hands. His hands were waving good-bye. What a sweetie...

I just want this process to be over so we can get him home and I don't have to have one boy in the US and one boy in Russia. Breaks my heart. Every trip we take either way is bittersweet.

Orphanage - Day 2

We were told to be at the orphanage by 11am today. When we arrived at the orphanage Konabek was outside playing again. Well - they had him in a walker and he was just sitting there. He seems to sort of sit in a daze if no one is talking to him. We were able to take him out of the walker and then play with him. They are very nice about allowing us to go to a private area and play. They gave us a stroller and told us that we could take him for a walk. They have a sidewalk all around the building. We obviously had to stay inside the gate. I took him out of the stroller right away. I didn't feel like we would really bond with him in a stroller. Konabek doesn't do much when we are playing outside. He has so many clothes on that I really don't think that he can move! He is getting pretty good at walking though when holding our hands. He seems to know Leeza - Jen and Kyle's daughter quite well. He wanted to walk to where she was. When we were walking around the orphanage we saw at least 2 more groups of children with at least 10 per group. There were two more outside playground areas. He had to go in for lunch around 12 so we didn't get too much time to chat with him. Jen mentioned that Konabek came outside when Leeza did so didn't think that was napping in the morning. We plan to go earlier tomorrow.

For lunch, our drivers insisted that we go to the Arbat. It is a big site to see in Moscow. A pedestrian only road with lots of cute shops and restaurants. We ate lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. It is a good thing that we ate - the drive was making me a bit car sick today. His driving seemed a little crazy. The traffic was horrible. It takes about 30 minutes to get to the orphanage (it is only about 6K) and tonight it took us 70 minutes! ouch... So back to lunch - they spoke good english and then we walked the Arbat back to our hotel. The drivers met us back at our hotel and took us back to the orphanage.

It was raining when we got back to the orphanage. We went up to play in the playroom again. This time Kyle, Jen and Leeza came up to play as well. Konabek was good. It took him about 30 minutes and then he was quite relaxed. We stayed until 6:30. He was playing really well. He really like to follow Leeza around. He crawls great and seemed to really want to run after her. He was really trying to take steps. It was cute - Jeff was holding him and he was come right to me. It was more like a step and then a dive towards me. He loves to be lifted in the air - the one on one play and the body contact. He started to crawl to me and then crawl right up onto me. It was sad to take him back downstairs when we had to go. I really don't want to bond with him anymore because we are just leaving in a day for at least a month. He is too young to understand or maybe even remember us. We are ready to bring him home. He seems very smart. He will try anything that we show him. His fine motor skills seem great. We think that these kids seem well cared for.

We journeyed to the McDonald's for dinner again. :( It is the right price after an expensive lunch. After walking to pick up dinner, we ate in Kyle and Jen's hotel. We needed to stop by and borrow something from them and spotted Kyle at McDonald's - so followed him back. :) We had to stop and pick up some more water to drink and some things for breakfast. We didn't get back to the hotel until 10! Long days....

1st Day at the Orphanage

We started our morning out at the Department of Education at 10am where we spoke with the director. We needed to register our passports, visas, and travel schedule there. We met Olga and Anna when we arrived. Olga and Anna work with Adopt A Child which is who Bethany works with in Russia. We spoke with Anna and Olga while we waited for our appointment with the director. They prepared us for the visit and the questions that the director would ask. Wow - I wasn't prepared for this part! They told us that she may ask: why we chose to adopt? why we chose Russia? what have we done to prepare our living area for the adoption of a child? tell her about ourselves and our living area... I told Jeff that he could do the talking... It turned out to be easier. She just asked us one question and that was how we had prepared our living area for adopting a child. She turned out to be very nice. Olga was with us in the meeting and translated for us. They granted us access to visit the orphanage.

After the meeting at the department of education we headed to the orphanage. When we arrived, we saw some children outside playing. The other couple (Jene and Kyle) that is traveling with us saw their little girl playing outside. It was neat to watch them connect. Then all of a sudden they turned a stroller around that had Konabek in it. What a cutie! He seems to have a permanent frown on his face, but we did eventually make him smile and even laugh. It was quite funny. I felt like it was easy with Konabek because we didn't need a translater with him. The children were so bundled up! The all had snowpants, coats, hats, scarves on! It was only about 50 outside! We we able to hang out with him outside for maybe an hour and then the children had to go in for lunch.

We then went in and spoke with Julia the resident physician. She gave us the medical history and we were able to ask any other medical questions that we had. After this we met Konabek in a nursery or playroom that was upstairs in the orphanage. We were able to play with him for about the next hour. It was really fun. After awhile he finally opened up and started to act silly.

We went back to the hotel for awhile and then headed back to the orphanage again at 4:30. Konabek naps from 9:30 - 11 and then from 2-4. We were only able to go to the orphanage when they allowed it. We stayed at the orphanage until about 6 - 6:30ish and then came back to the hotel again. The drive is horrible... We tend to spend more of our day in the car than anywhere else... :)

We dined at MacDonald's.. I think that it is the first time that I have eaten there in ages... The price was right - i had to get over it. We met Jen and Kyle over dinner and chatted about our day. It is so cool to have another couple to connect with after an emotional day like this.

(Jeff)
The toughest part of the morning was the car ride, Moscow is like New York city...lots of traffic and you have to be an aggressive driver to get anywhere, so lots of sudden breaking and swerving and I am not sure I am adjusted to the timezone just yet. We made it first to the department of education, it was somewhat intimidating and I was nervous. We were prepped by Anna and Olga...wow, they are very nice and are taking very good care of us. They asked "how were we prepared for this child"...I really wasn't sure what they meant...so I just started talking and waving my hands, of course Olga is there translating so I am looking at her and then looking at the official. People were smiling so I assumed things were okay, and I just kept talking...and then it was over and we left. People were still smiling and we signed some papers and that was it. Back into the car and an hour car ride probably to only go about 10 miles. Stop, break, swerve...for the next hour.