Pink

The room has 2 coats of pink on it now, on Monday the painter will put the finishing touch of Candelight on it.  It looks awesome!  When he is done, we will put up the crib and hang some decorations on the wall.  This is soooo exciting.

I was at Target today to look at bottles, boy oh boy have bottles changed since Andrew needed them.  To tell you the truth, I think it has been waaaay longer than the 10 years that I actually bought a bottle.  Since I am not sure how she will like them, I bought 2 different kinds.  I also bought differnt kinds of nipples for them to see if that makes a difference.  When we get her, I think we will give her bottles to help with the attachment.  I understand that this helps to promote eye contact, and a sence of dependency with us. 

I called the adoption agency, and they have not heard anything yet in regards to a court date.  Our agency seems to think in the next 10 days we should find out, and then have 10 day before we travel.  We are getting very anxious to be with our daughter again.  We do watch the videos frequently and find ourselves longing to have her here with us.

Trevor is doing great, he does not seem to have any pain.  He went to school and is with Tom and Andrew today at the Deer and Turkey Classic down by the farm.  He is getting very bored, oh heavens, I don't know what that boy is going to do for the next 6-8 weeks that he can't play sports.  He is going to drive us crazy I think.

Surgery was a success

Trevor did great in surgery, he was a little scared in the beginning.  When he was done, he said, "I don't remember anything."  The Doctor was able to just manipulate the bones into a better position, he did not need the rods or pins to hold it in place.  Thank you God!  Trevor is home now, recovering and seems really good.  Thank you for all of your prayers.

Trevor before Surgery

He was trying to keep his mind off of the Surgery

He is watching T.V.

After Surgery

He still looks a little drugged up!

Playing a game on his IPod

Arm Update

We did get in to see the Orthopaedic Surgeon yesterday, and yes he does want to do surgery on Trevors arm.  He is not happy with the way the bones look and wants to make it right.  Trevor is really sad about this.  He dosen't realize that it is for the best.  We will go in tomorrow morning.  Thank you all for your prayers, please keep them coming as it is always risky to do a surgery.

My arm gave way!!!! Warning, graphic pictures!

Saturday was a typical day for us.  Andrew had basketball, Trevor had soccer, we came home had some lunch I continued to work on the wallpaper (yes still) and then Andrew had soccer, and Trevor had basketball.  I took Andrew to soccer and when he was done I texted Tom to see how Trevor was doing.  Tom calls back about 2 minutes later and in a nice calm voice he says "I think I have to take Trevor to the Emergency Room, his arm is in the shape of a C".  I laugh and I say "ya right, your kidding right", No he says, it is in the shape of a C, I gotta go.  I am panicking now, and I am about 40 minutes away from where he is.  I was driving right by our house, so I dropped off Andrew and rush to the hospital.  I run into the hospital, and I see my boy, with his arm surrounded by pillows and Trevor half dazed out of it.  He looks at me, and he just says "mom why me", "why did this happen to me".  I just said, oh honey, this is a right of passage for most boys, we just haven't had to deal with it, but in the whole scheme of things, I don't think this is as bad as it could have been.  We prayed together, and I sang a song to him.  It seemed to calm him down and I just kept talking to him so he wouldn't let the shock of everything take over.  I think the drugs were starting to work, he kept dozing in and out.  The doctors were wonderful, the nurses were just delightful.  One of the nurses, her son just did the same thing 2 weeks prior playing basketball.  She was a calming sense for me, and for Trevor.  I think God really put these people there for our benefit.  Well the doctor asked us to leave the room, and they put Trevor under and then put his arm back into a normal position.  So while the doctors were working on Trevor, Tom told me what had happened.  Trevor made a great play, he stole the ball and while he was stealing the ball, the ball hit off of his leg and started to roll away.  While he was going for the ball, he tripped over his team mates foot, and while Trevor was about to fall, he put his hand out to break his fall.  That is when it happened.  Trevor remembers thinking, thats weird, my arm gave way.  He stood up holding his arm and his friend and team mate started yelling "This is serious, help".  He has a splint on his arm up and over the elbow, and they wrapped it up with an ACE bandage.  We will have to go see the Orthopaedic Surgeon on Monday to see if he needs to have surgery.  We have some really excellent doctors here so I am confident that Trevor will have the best care possible.  Today, Sunday, he is doing remarkably well.  We went to his basketball game this morning so he could see his teammates and tell them that he will be fine.  Trevors friends made some cookies for him today and gave him cards to wish him well.  Attached are some pictures, but I warn you, it is a little disturbing to see them.  As a mom, you want to just shelter your children and keep them from harm, but in reality that is never going to happen.  We will continue to put our trust in God to keep us safe thru this life we lead. 

Trevor thinks his arm looks like a bananna

Tom and I think he is in a Chinese YoYo

His fingers were in that contraption to keep his arm up.

After they were done setting his arm, he had to stay for a while and try and wake up.

They wanted to make sure he could stay awake and drink some Apple Juice.

I HATE Wallpaper

Still trying to remove the stinking wallpaper from Trevors room, nope not even DIF works.  I have followed all directions and it is a stinker!  Stuck like glue.  Uuugggghhhhh

One of those days

Have you ever had one of those days where you woke up in the morning and you just didn't feel like doing anything?  I did, today.  I woke up early and helped the kids get to school.  I ususally leave early with them and go and do my workout.  Today, I got my workout clothes on and I just didn't feel like going out.  I bummed around and did laundry, made myself a really nice breakfast, cleaned some of the kids drawers out, rearranged clothes for the boys.  I also tried to take off the wall paper that is in Trevors room, since this is where our daughter will be.  I have the painter coming next week so I need to get the wall paper off the walls.  I am still sitting here in my workout clothes and not feeling up to anything.  Just one of those days.

When did that happen

Trevor has been "invited" to attend a Football Camp for high level athletes.  I am so proud of him, and his work ethic to be "invited" to this camp.  He also is on a high level soccer club in our area.   This summer, along with his football camp, his soccer team is attending a really important tournament.  Now let me just say that in the Midwest, we have clubs for every kind of sport.  If you have any kind of skills, you are on the club sports, not just the park district sports because you want the better competition.  Now because of these sports and clubs, a lot of the games, tournys, are over the weekends.  Tom and I have told all of our children that God comes first, not games, or teams.  Tom is better at upholding this virtue than I am at some times.  We are fortunate to have a church where we can attend on a Saturday night, or a Sunday morning at different times.  There have been plenty of times, where we as a family are seperate because of sports, but we feel it is important to have the children see that God is there first for us.  Here is the problem, Trevor is "invited" to this camp, he has a soccer tourny over the same weekend, and our Church has a camp for Jr. High where they can deepen their relationship with God and have a great time doing it and learning how to do it.  I told Trevor that he should go to the Football Camp, and then try and make the soccer tourny on the last day.  He thought about it for a week or more, he came to me one day and he said, Mom, I made my decision.  I was like, great football here we come, but he said to me, mom, isn't my walk with God more important than football.  He said, I think I need to go to my church camp so that my walk with God can be stronger and, I think that in the long run God will honor that decision over the football.  WHAT, did I just get a huge lesson from my 12 year old son?  You betcha I did.  He is absolutely right, that son of mine.  Tom and I tell them all the time how important it is not to get caught up in the ways of the world, and here I am pushing him to do the football because it is a great opportunity that dosen't happen very often, blah, blah, blah.  And my son who is growing up before my eyes teaches me a lesson.  So when did that happen, that my son became a stronger witness than me, it happened in the blink of an eye.  They grow up so fast.  Lesson learned, and I truly do believe that God will pave the way to where he needs to go and what to do in regards to football.

Trevor when we went skiing in January.

Thank you God for your wonderful blessings, poured out on us

Not Much Happening

Ya Right!!!  We have just a couple of documents that needed to be done, I have those completed except for a notarty and then of course the apistilling of them all.  That will be a trip to the city.  I think it will happen next week for me.

I called on our FBI fingerprints, I don't know if they will be done in time, I am going to call our Congress Woman tomorrow to see if she can help things along.  Please God, don't let this little thing stop everything from proceeding.

The boys are busy, busy.  Tyler finally got a job, he actually got 2.  He now needs to decided which one he wants.  Tom says, how bout you take both?  I don't know if that could happen, he still needs to do his schoolwork.  Afterall he is an A student, we wouldn't want anything less for him.

We have been investigating colleges lately for Tyler.  Boy it is weird, I will have one going out and one coming in.  I love it though.  Tyler is really looking forward to going to college, even though he is only a junior this year, he seems ready.

I just keep looking at the pictures and videos of our daughter, and I can't wait to go back to get her and be with her some more.  She will probably change so much by the time we see her again.

Sneek Peek of her beautiful hands!

Hope all is well with everyone, I will let you know if we hear anything in regards to a date and our FBI fingerprints.

Home Sweet Home

We made it back home in good shape.  We stayed up the whole night before leaving St. Petersburg because our translator was going to pick us up at 3:45 am anyway.  We packed and Tom watched T.V. and I read all the blogs over again.  It didn't seem like we were staying up all night.  We thought that if we did it that way, we could possibly sleep on the plane.  We arrived at the St. Petersburg airport and we went thru their check station.  When I say they check everything, I mean they check everything.  They went thru all of our luggage, not just glancing, they took everything out and opened everything.  Very through check in.  We went to the Lufthansa gate and waited becuase the gate was not opened yet.  When the gate did open, people rushed to it, it was kinda weird how they all rushed to it.  When we got to the door of the gate, we had to go thru another check in station.  This one was even more thorough and nobody at the check stations smiled at all.  They were all business, not very friendly, and a little intimidating.  We made it thru with no problems and sat on the plane, they had to deice the plane which took a while.  We were flying to Frankfort, and we only had 1 hour between flights so we were getting a little worried that we would miss our connecting flight.  Well God has it planned and they had a special transport for us who were going to Chicago.  Yeah, no extra walking and a much faster way.  We did have to go thru another security check point and they stopped the man in front of me, they made him take a bunch of skin tests, with wipes, they even were wipeing his shoes and belts, and clothes.  He had to wait and I was able to go thru with no problems.  Thank you God.  We made it to the plane with just 5 minutes to spare and it was a very full flight.  I was able to sleep so not sleeping payed off for me, not so much for Tom.  Poor guy, he has not slept well at all on this trip.
It is good to be home, now we just need our daughter with us.  The boys loved watching all the videos we took of her, and Tyler is looking forward to going on the 3rd trip to pick her up with me.
Lots of work to do here at home, we still have not received our FBI clearance check, I am truly worried now that I read that it is a 10 week wait.  That would be just about the time we entered our fingerprints to them and get them back in 6 weeks for our 2nd trip.  It will be close.
Now to do the wash, and watch the Super Bowl Game.

4th day with our daughter

Well today, Saturday, we were picked up about 10:00 am to go and see our daughter.  This was the first day with Sun here in St. Petersburg and it was beautiful.  The Church on the Spilled Blood, just glistened and the Gold Spires were even more outstanding.  It seemed that everyone seemed in a cheerier mood because of the sun.  We drove to the orphanage, it only took us about 15 minutes, much shorter than normal.  There was absolutely no traffic.  When we got to the orphanage, there was nobody in the coat room, so we hung up our own coats and took our blue booties.  We then proceeded to go upstairs, the staff directors were not there today, it seemed really quite there today.  Our translator went and got our daughter.  She was wearing a cute pink sleeper with sandals.  One thing we noticed, they do try to dress her up when they bring her to us.  She was even wearing the same headband as the first day.  I took her from the arms of her caretaker and she was just a little bit unsure.  I started to show her all the familiar toys and she seemed really serious.  After just a few minutes she loosened up and started playing freely.  I have noticed that she sits really well, she can move herself from being on all 4s to sitting really well.  She can walk while holding on to our fingers, and can stand well with help.  I am going to work with her on the crawling because I feel that it is important for hand eye coordination.  She has wonderful grasping technique and can grab with her thumb and pointer finger with no problems.  She tried to stack the rings today and couldn't do it, but she could take them off very easily.  We only had about 1 hour with her, which seemed to go very fast.  It was really hard to let her leave and we couldn't take her.  As for Tom, she already has him around her finger.  He really has totally fallen in love with her, and hates to leave her also.  We are looking forward to the time we can come back.

The apartment we rented has turned out to be a gem.  It feels like home away from home after just a short time. We love being in this location, it is so close to everything.  We have ventured out to some really great restaurants and have been pleasently surprised on how many people speak great english.  The menus have been in Russian and English, we haven't had a problem talking to anyone and the Russians seem very happy to please us.  While walking on the streets tho, that is a totally different world.  You really need to know where you are going, because the Russians just push there way to where they need to go.  If you stop and are in their way, they will be happy to push you along to the side.  We really have been able to navigate Nevsky very easily.  It would have been great to see this place in the summer, I bet it is a totally different world then.

Today we went to the largest shopping mall here, it has everything you could ever want.  The prices are very high and everyone here wants "brands".  We did happen to find a store outside our apartment that has some nice souveniers. 

We have mixed emotions tonight as we get ready to pack, it will be so hard to leave our daughter here, and pray that the nice women who have raised her thus far will continue to do a great job.  We pray for her safety and that her heart will be full with all the love that we send her way.

Friday night we ate at Bogarts, it was a recommendation from

Ina, our translator at the clinic.

It was really good, it had Humphrey Bogart decor everywhere

We had a really good meal, and for desert:

FONDUE

Julie we thought of you at this time!

This picture was taken towards evening time,

looking down our street at the

Kazan Cathedral

This was taken the other night,

it is a beautiful book store with a cafe

This is inside the bookstore, we ate there tonight

our last meal before leaving St. Petersburg.

It was good, and we had another great dessert

3rd Day with our Daughter

Reflections of the Infamous Doctor Exam:

• You have to get to the Clinic early
• You can't eat before you go, because of the blood work
• There is a lot of formality involved
• It's not as bad as we had heard
• Tom was a skeptic until we did the exams
• The doctors are very nice
• We were fed some yummy "pies"

OK, now that I gave you the bullet points, let me tell you the story.  We were to be ready by 7:15 in the morning, no problem, since we haven't been sleeping well.  I think I slept a total of 4 hours from 8:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight.  I don't think Tom slept at all.  So anyway, we went downstairs and were met by our driver.  He didn't speak much english, but seemed very kind.  His name is Vladimir.  It snowed again last night, so the roads were not plowed again.  We drove for about 30 minutes, and we arrived at the clinic.  We were met by our translator Ina, and we were the first to arrive at the clinic.  We went in and had to check our coats again, and put on those lovely blue booties.  We walked down the hallway to a newer part of the clinic, and went into an office where there were some lovely doctors talking and laughing amongst themselves.  We were instructed to sit down and we were told what we would expect.  As we were sitting and listening, another adoptive couple came in and followed the same instructions as us.  We left that office and went to a room where they draw blood, they take about 6 vials of blood, I went first, then Tom.  No problems here.  We went back into the original office where the Vice Doctor is and she offered us cakes, tea and coffee.  Since we were hungry because we hadn't eaten yet, we enjoyed our breakfast.  The cakes were like HoHos to me.  I ate 2.   Next we went downstairs to an x-ray room of sorts.  This part of the building in very old and run down.  We wait our turn and they call me in.  I am to undress from the waist up, they want to take an x-ray of our chest to see our lungs.  You stand on this little platform and they push you up against the x-ray wall of sorts.  It wasn't a gentle push, and she forced my head in the direction she wanted.  This technician did not want to wait for the translator to translate instructions, just push and do I guess.  No problem, Tom went next and he was laughing when he came out, because she did the same to him.  Next we went to a totally different part of the clinic and went before the Psychiatrist.  This was a very interesting interview.  He had a copy of our homestudy and knew all about Tom and I.  He asked several questions about family, with Tom and I being the youngest he wanted to know if we were more priveledged than our siblings, he wanted to know about our faith.  If we believe that faith and religion are the same.  Then he spent a good 10 minutes on me and my family and about myself being adopted.  He wanted to know a lot about my feelings and how I felt not knowing who my biological parents were.  We (Tom helped the good doc to see our view) finally got him off that topic and then said Da, (yes) you can go.  We were dismissed and we left to go upstairs to a totally differnent part of the clinic yet again to the EKG room.  Let me tell you that the machine they used is like really really old.  It was like a clamp on our arms, picture cable jumpers for cars, and legs and all we had to do was breathe in and out.  Oh I forgot to let you know that I had to once again undress from the waist up.  This was a female doc again so no biggy.  Next we went downstairs to the original office and waited for some more docs to see us.  A neurological doc came and got us, and took us to a part of the clinic not yet completed from the renovation.  She asked us some really basic questions, do we get headaches, do we get dizzy at all, have we ever had any head trauma.  After the questions, she tests our reflexes like a general doc would do, all good, she has us stand close our eyes and touch our nose with the pointer finger from each hand.  No problem, good to go.  Next we see our last set of docs, skin doc, and breast exam.  We are in a new office with 3 ladies who ask us to undress from waist up, she does a breast exam and feels my stomach and my glands under the arms and in my neck.  She asks if we ever had any skin problems and thats about it.  We are invited back into the original room where that really nice Vice Doctor is and she offers us homemade "pies".  They are bread filled with all different fillings, potatoes, carrots, apricots, apple.  They were hot and delicious, we also were served tea.  We had an absolutely enjoyable time as far as doctors go.

After the doctor exams, we went to the Notary builing it is about 30 minutes by car.  We had to sign the papers for our intent to adopt our daughter and have them notorized for the courts.  Easy peasy.

Next we left, it was not time to see our daughter yet as it was her nap time.  So we went to another Russian cafe, and had Baked Potatoes that were mashed with loads of butter and cheese and then topped with any kind of salad you want.  I went with the cheese, ham pickels and onions, Tom had feta cheese, ham, pickels and onions.  It was good, but I know for someone like me who is not supposed to be eating carbs, that is all I have been doing here.

It was then time to go see our daughter and she had just finished eating her morning snack of soup and vegetables again.  They brought her into us and she was at first a little reserved, but then when I picked her up and started playing with her she warmed up immediately.  We had a wonderful time and watched her and just marveled at all of the things she does.  We wanted to put her on her stomach and see what she would do, she immediately pushed herself into a crawling postition, but didn't crawl.  She may not be able to, she rocked on all fours and then she did take one hand and reached out in front of her to grab a toy.  She then rolled onto her bottom and sat there.  Once she did that, we encouraged her again to be in the crawling position and she did, but only moved her hands and not her legs yet.  We had another wonderful visit and the time went by way too fast.  She already seems so happy to be with us, and our interpreter is so encouraged to see her disposition.  She seems to be able to be happy with us and feels safe.  I agree, and she gave wonderful eye contact.  She held my gaze a long time today.  We will definitely have to keep working on it, but I am encouraged.

We had to leave so she could have her afternoon nap, we left and our interpreter dropped us off at the Church on the Spilled Blood.  We paid 640 rubels to enter and we were in total awe once we entered the door.  Before you even enter the church you see the wonderful details on the outside, and then you go thru the doors and your mouth is just hanging open.  The details of the inside is beyond words.  Pictures won't even do it justice, you just have to be here and see it.  I think it should be a must see sight for everyone coming to Russia.

We are back at the apartment and will get ready to try another dinner place.  This place called Bogart was recommended by Ina.  Now I hope we can find it.

Now these photos don't even come close to the majesty of the church

Each peace of tile was hand laid, and every piece is about the size of

my pinkie finger.

Now just imagine the WHOLE ENTIRE WALLS, CEILING AND

COLUMN WAS ADORNED WITH TILE

and the walls very very very tall, and the ceiling was very very big

and the columns were very very big and round.

It told the story of Jesus Birth, Life, and Resurrection

This is outside the exit, all hand painted.

In Russia, Iron work is very popular.

I love to see the different patterns.

2nd Day with our Daughter

Today we were picked up about 9:30 and we headed directly to the Baby Home.  She is about 30 min away in the city.  We were in what our translator considered "light" traffic.  It looked like rush hour back home.  We have been having snow every night, and today it snowed all day long.  The streets are not exactly plowed and cars drive all over the place.  They just kind of make their own paths.  We got to the baby home and we had to wait for about 20 min before we could see our daughter.  She was eating a morning snack of porridge and vegetables.  When she was done, we got to play with her.  Today we were in a different room, it was kinda like an office off of the main doors to enter the nursery area.  We played with her, again at first she was a little hesitant, but then she warmed up nicely and played with the toys we brought.  She liked the book with the push buttons and my necklace A LOT.  She got very comfortable and was able to make really good eye contact with us.  She started smiling easier today and we even got a babble from her.  By the end of the visit it was time for her nap and you could tell it in her behavior.  She wanted to cuddle and lay on my chest.  One other thing we noticed is she loves tags.  Tags on the baby doll, tags on the stuffed animal, tags on the blanket.  Why bother with toys, just have a lot of tags.  She was able to grasp the tags with her pointer finger and thumb very easily.  When it was time to leave we saw that she was interested in staying with us.  This was a really good sign, it means that she feels safe with us.
After we left we took our translator out for a nice lunch.  We had a nice Russian meal.  If anyone knows me, I'm not very adventurous in my meals, but Kelly you would have been proud of me.  I tried all the Russian fare, so much that I can't even pronounce or remember the names.  We came back to the apartment and we crashed for about 3 hours.  I was absolutely exhausted.
When we woke we decided to walk around the city and we went down to the Church on the Spilled Blood.  GORGEOUS, OUTSTANDING, MAGNIFICIENT.  The colors and architecture is out of this world.  We were too late to go in, so perhaps tomorrow we will enter and see the beauty that lies within also.
Thats all for now.  Tomorrow is an early morning as we get to go to the doctor exam.   Fun!  Sally

Church on the Spilled Blood

Just Beautiful

Tom in Front of the Grand Europa Hotel

We ate there and had an absolutely wonderful meal

Here is our apartment building.  The men are picking at the ice

and getting them off the roof.

1st Meeting with our Daughter

How can words describe the feeling of meeting our daughter for the 1st time?  AWESOME!  MARVELOUS!  AMAZEMENT!  GODS CONFIRMATION!  FULLFILMENT!  I could keep going but wanted you all to know that she is beautiful, very healthy, ahead developmentally then I would have thought.  She is very interested in Music, maybe interested isn't the right word, how about LOVES music.  When our interpreters phone rang, it had a song ringtone, and she danced to the song.  It was so cute.  Let me start from the begining tho:

We were picked up and brought to "the commitee", this is a division of the Ministry of Education (MOE).  We went in and checked our coats at the door.  We waited in a waiting room for them to call us back.  When we were called back, we went into an office where there was one lady.  She spoke to us in Russian, and our translator translated for us.  It is customary to look at the person speaking to you in russian and not your interpreter, it is difficult sometimes to remember that.  She gave us our formal invitation to go meet our daugher and then we left.  We then drove, not far to the orphanage.  When we arrived at the front gate it is closed and they opened it up for the car to drive in.  We drove around to the back and were able to see the areas that the children play in when there isn't so much snow all over.  The conditions of the yard are beatiful, very well taken care of.  It looked like new playgrounds and play houses along with a fountain.  When we went inside we checked in our coats again and were given blue booties to put over our shoes.  This is to help keep germs out of the orphanage.  We went upstairs to a waiting room, we were called into the Directors office and she was an older lady, along with another older lady (not sure what she did tho).  We went over all the medical information that she had on our daughter and there were no surprises per se.  We really felt that they knew our daughter and really loved her.  We had a time to ask questions and answers were given, no surprises again.  Then the other lady talked about how our daughter came to be in the orphanage, about her family and some updated information regarding our daughter.  Once again no real surprises here.  I was able to take notes of everything and they once again answered all questions we had.  We were then taken to a different room and we waited just a few minutes for our daughter to come in.  When she was brought in, she was wearing the cutest stripped dress, tights, and really cute pink boots.  It was love at first sight.  She was a little timid and had closed fists, but she did not cry, or even get upset when I picked her up.  I held her for a long time, and started to play with her and show her some books and the photo album.  The thing that really got her to loosen up were Gymboree bubbles.  She was able to track them with her eyes and she even tried to pop them with her fingers.  She has good hand eye coordination and loved to watch them float in the air.  We played with her for about 2 hours and she did great.  We got her to laugh, she loves to have her stomach tickeled.  When her caregivers came to get her, she just lit up like a sunbeam.  I can tell that they love her and she loves them.  They helped get her to smile for us and talked to her in Russian and we got to see all 7 of her teeth.  They took her away, and we left. 

Some things I want other pre adoptive parents to know:

• Gymboree bubbles are awesome,
• but ask first before bringing them.  When the baby home director found out we had bubbles, she was very upset.  They like to keep the floor in there nice and free from dirt, she was afraid that it would attract more dirt.  We won't bring them tomorrow
• Gerber Puffs work wonders.
• Bring a variety of toys.  I didn't have a teether toy, and I needed one.  Our little girl is getting some major teeth.
• Books with the buttons that you push she liked, remember I told you she likes music
• Bring a blanket you can lay on the floor.  I felt better having that to sit on and explore with her.
• I was told to wear a necklace that she can play with (thanks Amy), and that she could remember when we see her again.  I will wear it everytime I see her.

Thats is all I can think of right now, if I remember anything else I will let you know. We will be able to go back tomorrow for 2 hours, it will be during her nap time, so it may not be that long. I already miss having her in my arms.

Oh for those of you unfailiar with International Adoption, we are forebidden to post pictures of her until after she is officially ours.  You will have to wait to see her, but she is sooooo worth the wait.

Pictures of St. Petersburg

Tom wanted me to show you how they clean off the roofs here.

It looks really dangerous, one wrong move and hes done for.

Dinner, it was really good.

After dinner, we walked to the market, this was a huge Ice Sclupture

in front of the Grand Hotel

There are a few things that I want to write about before I forget.

• 
  
  Russian women are beautiful
• 
  
  Russian women wear very high heel shoes, and don't fall in the slush and ice
• 
  
  Russian women are very stylish
• 
  
  There are more fur coats in every type and design that everyone is beautiful
• 
  
  There seems to be no blonde hair women here in St.Petersburg
• 
  
  Every color of the rainbow for hair except their own natural color is expected
• 
  
  The sidewalks are made out of Granite.  Nobody shovels, and people wear a lot of black to cover up from all the slush left on the sidewalks. 
• The buildings are absolutely incredible, made of Granite and other stones

Our apartment:

Living Room, couches were very comfortable

Kitchen

It was a nice apartment in a very good location!  Thank David and Sarah Williams for this gem.

We Made It To Russia

Tom and I before leaving Chicago

This is our Lufthansa Plane

thi

Tom and his whole row of seats

When we took off in Chicago and got above some of the clouds, I looked out the window and saw a beautiful rainbow following us.  I thanked God again at that very moment for being with us in this journey.

This is flying into St. Petersburg.  There are a lot of buildings.

Well we made it here without any problems.  We left Chicago on time and had an enjoyable flight to Frankfort.  Tom and I had our own rows of seats.  Boy was that nice to be able to stretch out our legs.  We were served dinner and breakfast.  Kelly I think I ate more bread on that flight then I did for 3 months.  They really like their bread and cheese.  We arrived in Frankfort and navigated our way around the airport.  It was very easy, but it was very big.  Lots of walking.  We got to our gate, and waited just 10 minutes.  They started boarding, but you don't get on the plane there, you get on a bus that takes you to the plane.  We were outside to board, very different.  We got on the flight to St. Petersburg and there was no problem getting thru customs.  They don't even bother to look at you.  Our driver for the agency was right there waiting for us and we had an uneventful trip to the apartment we are staying in.  The apartment we are in, we are renting from a friend of ours from our old church.  He used to work here in St. Petersburg, so he has a ton of connections.  It is located in a fantastic spot and seems to be very accomodating.  So thank you David Williams for this great find.  Now we need to go and exchange some money at the Grand Hotel.  This is right around the corner from us and this is where all the presidents stay when they are here in St. Petersburg.  When we walk out the door there is this beautiful cathedral called The Church on The Spilled Blood.  I guess this is where a czar was killed?  I don't know my history, but the Church looks beautiful from here.

Well I will keep you update since we have internet and it is working fine right now.

Tomorrow we will get picked up at 11:15 from Svetlana and she will bring us to the MOE to get the formal invitation and then off we go to meet our daughter.

Keep praying everyone.  Love you all.  Sally