Plenty of love!

Matt and I were in PA this past weekend and got to spend a lot of time with my family and friends (who might as well be our family anyway). One thing I realized, although I should have known this already, is that E and I are going to be well loved. Everyone had all kinds of questions about the kids and of course Matt and I were more than happy to talk about them every chance we got. We even taught some Russian to people whether they wanted to learn it or not! The only problem is that it made me more excited and made the wait seem even longer. I can't wait to bring them home and I can't wait for them to meet our wonderful families.

Русский язык - твердый язык, чтобы учиться! Russian is a hard language to learn!

Мы начали наш российский класс вчера вечером. Я думал, что это только собиралось быть диалоговым русским языком. Хорошо, это не! Мы собираемся учиться читать это также. Трудно изучить новый алфавит.


We started our Russian class last night. I thought it was just going to be conversational Russian. Well, it's not! We are going to learn to read it too. It's hard to learn a new alphabet.

We will be warm!

We got our coats today. I'm such a bargain shopper. As soon as I realized we might be going to SIBERIA in the winter, I started searching online for winter coats. We wouldn't be able to find anything warm in Florida! Well, I found some bargains at Land's End. We still need boots, hats, long underwear, and gloves. Oh boy, am I going to freeze!

I think we are ready.

We started looking for Living Room furniture last weekend. We've decided that our living room is going to be a kid-friendly room. Right now, it's a big, empty room with one lonely rocking chair. Even with the news we got this past week, we decided to go ahead and buy it today.
Here were our requirements:
Must be red (Kristi's wish)
Must be comfortable and not formal
Must have an oversized chair with ottoman or a chaise (again, Kristi's wish)

But it wasn't that easy. Yes, there is a lot of red, comfortable furniture available now. Everytime we sat on a piece of furniture, we tried to figure out how many kids and dogs it could hold! So we found a sofa (with stain resistant fabric) with an ottoman and a chaise. The sofa fits many kids, dogs, moms and dads. The chaise would easily fit one parent, one kid, and one dog. So, we're set on that. Now we just need the kids. And, a rug that doesn't hurt your knees!

October 16

The mother relinquished her rights, officially, on April 16. Our first trip will be sometime around October 16. R told us that they would definitely get us updated pictures. We'd also like to see updated measurements in a few months to make sure the kids are growing as well as can be expected.

I guess one good side about this timing is that I get to watch my new niece be born on October 4!

Ok.... 5 months and counting....

It WAS too good to be true.

We just heard from our agency that when the children entered the orphanage, the mother never relinquished her rights. When we said we were interested in the children, they checked the paperwork and discovered this. As far as we know, she signed off on her rights sometime in April. But, the kids have to be on the registry for 6 months AFTER these rights are terminated. Can you believe this? They have already been there since June and now they have to wait for 6 more months!

We were offered another referral from our agency but we decided not to look at it. I and E are our children right now. They will not be offered to any other Russian or American family, however a biological relative can adopt them. If this would happen, we know it would be the best thing for the children, as long as it was a stable and loving environment.

I'm just so sad that these kids have no idea we are ready to love them. We've asked if there was any way we could donate to the orphanage in the meantime. That way we would know that they were benefitting from us somehow.

So our first trip will be sometime in October. I hope we'll have them home before E's 8th birthday (12/01). I guess now we'll have more time to learn Russian. And, we'll get to experience Siberia in the winter. Oh, Joy.

Sharing the news and holding babies

My co-teacher and I told our class today that we are both going to be mommies in a few months. She is pregnant and due in November. Of course the kids were more excited for her. They don't understand the concept of adoption (except for the 2 children in our class who are adopted). A few of them asked me about their names and so I showed them their pictures. We'll see how many questions I get after they've talked to their parents about it.

On the other hand, I had the opportunity to hold TWO newborns on Friday night, not at the same time! I was surprisingly ok. I really thought it would be hard for me. I think that I've pictured myself as a mom to older kids for so long now (I can't tell you how many of my students I've wanted to take home). It was hard only in the fact that we don't have our kids yet but I didn't find myself yearning for an infant. Plus, it's hard to eat when you're holding a squirming baby! I guess it's good that I don't know what it's like to have a newborn. Now I don't know what I'm "missing". At this point, I'm really confident in our choice to parent older children.

No more waiting please

R just told us that she's guessing we'll travel in mid-June to meet the kids. That seems so far away. And then I just read a post on one of my dicussion boards where a woman posted that she is bringing home a 4 year old boy and a 7 year old girl this summer! What if they are my kids? I know, they aren't, but it still makes me worry.

Still haven't chosen names.... Matt's fault by the way!