2nd Day with our Daughter, Peterhoff

After waking up at 5 a.m. to talk to the kids at home, we went back to bed.  We slept until 11:10, which was kinda crazy because we were getting picked up at 11:40 to go to the orphanage.  The day seemed really good here, the weather was beautiful, Tom actually slept (finally) and he was in a better spirit.  We got to the orphanage and they put us in the "music" room and we waited.  They brought in our daughter and she was happy to see us.  Our translator actually left the room so that we could have some alone time with her and that was great.  I actually undressed her and got to look at her and I brought our "Gotcha Day" clothes with  us so that I can see if they fit.  They do!  She really opened up to us and we even got a few babbles from her.  No talking yet but lots of sounds.  She loves books and music.  Another item that she liked is this chew toy that vibrates when you chew on it, oh man they didn't have that toy when the boys were younger, but she loved it.  It was a special present from Andrew, he picked it out for her.  We spent about 2 hours with her and she really let us see her personality.  She wants to be very independant, which is probably how she survives being in an orphanage and she knows what she wants.

After we saw her, we took a ride into the "southwest suburbs" of St. Petersburg to a place called Peterhoff.  It is the Summer Palace of Peter the I.  It is famous for its many fountains and beautiful landscape.  Well right now, there is no water in the fountains and the landscape is not yet planted, but it was still beautiful.  The fountains are to open on May 1 and go until September.  It is located on the Finnish Gulf.  Tom really enjoyed getting out of the city to actually see grass and trees.

We are still having our court date for Wednesday, so thank you everyone for praying and keeping us in your prayers.  There are so many children in the orphanages here, and so many loving parents looking to have their children home in America.  It has been a truly wild ride in International Adoption, but it has led us to our daughter so God is good.

                                      Last night after we ate dinner around 10:00 (yes that late)
                            We get to look at this beautiful church everytime we walk out our door.
                                                                    It is truly amazing!

Outside of the Upper gardens of Peterhoff

Just one of the fountains that are supposed to be very beautiful

Finnish Gulf

Seeing Our Daughter

2 whole months ago was the last time we saw her. She has changed in so many ways, but has also stayed the same.

She still LOVES tags
She can WALK
She still has the same amount of teeth
Her hair is starting to grow
She is still very cautious when she first sees us

She is absolutly gorgeous and I don't think she remembered us. She did remember my necklace that I wore, and also a few of her favorite toys from before.

There has not been anymore development with the Russian authorities. From our translator the only thing she said is "It is a show now between the two governments". "New system needs to be put in place to protect the child from this."

We are to expect a very tough time in court, which is understandable. Tom is ready and prepared to answer all questions.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, we walked to the Hermitage Museum and we paid extra for an english guide to take us around. It was well worth the money because there is so much to see that we never could of appreciated it without her.

After seeing our daughter today, we went to St. Isaaccs Cathedral. It is magnificient.

St. Petersburg is truly a beautiful city.

First time holding Daddys hand

Hermitage

Hermitage

St. Isaac Cathedral

Tom on the top of St. Isaacs

We got to climb 211 spiral stairs up to the top

PRAYERS NEEDED

We just arrived here in St. Petersburg under a dark cloud.  For those of you who have not heard there has been a couple of awful cases against Americans adoption Russian children.  The latest is this case which just happened on Friday as we were getting ready to board a plane to come to Russia.  Read it here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36322282/ns/world_news-europe/

It really is heartbreaking for that child, and for all the children here that are awaiting their permanent home.

I really don't have the words to say so I will just ask for you to PRAY.

Room is Done

Tom never thought he would ever see so much pink in our house.  But surely he loves it just like I do.  The room looks so cute, I even had Tom hang a chandelier, he thought I was nuts.  The boys asked if I could buy some clothes that didn't have pink in it, and I told them NO.  I'm loving it all!

Shelf with her Russian Dolls

We have left the space above her crib open, we are hoping

to find a great oil painting while in Russia

to put there

Rocker will I will hold her and read to her

Our small yet pink chandelier

Closet with lots of clothes

Leaving for Court

Today is the day that we leave to have our Court Trip.  As I mentioned we are leaving a few days early so that we can explore more of St. Petersburg.  We have rented an apartment with Oksanas, it is a different apartment than the one we stayed in before.  It is right across the Canal from where we stayed on our first trip.  We really liked the area, and we feel comfortable navagating the streets from there.  We will have court on Wednesday so pray that all goes well with us.

Our Apartment for Trip 2

The only thing this apartment dosen't have is

Cable T.V. for Tom

We did a lot of internet watching

and playing movies on the computer.

Spring Youth Turkey Hunting

We left for the farm on Thursday and had a great trip down.  We stopped and ate at Texas Roadhouse where the kids love to eat, so do Tom and I.  I had my typical filet and the boys had their steaks.  On Friday we set out to set up the turkey blinds and it was a beautiful day, little windy but sunny.  We worked hard and the boys practiced their shooting.  After we left the farm, it started to pour, it rained all night.  When we woke up in the morning it wasn't raining so we set out for the Turkey Blinds.  We put out our decoys and we were ready to go.  It started out great, I was in a blind with Andrew and we heard a turkey near by at 6:15 a.m.  Not bad considering we just got setteled by 6:00a.m.  We sat and waited, but nothing, Andrew tried a couple of calls but nothing worked.  Around 8:00 a.m. it was POURING RAIN, THUNDER, and starting to get really cold.  Tom ended up taking his blind down and coming to get us.  We then started back to barn, no longer did we return to the barn, the sun started to shine.  Bummer.  Tom and Andrew went for a walk about to see if they could get any turkeys to respond to them.  Nothing.  So another year that I go Turkey hunting and I don't even see any!  All in all, I think I am a great hunter, I'm very quiet and I pay attention.  The boys will end up sleeping while I watch for turkeys.

Here I am, I wear all of Toms old clothes.

They are quite large on me.

you can see the rain coming thru the windows

right after we took the pictures, the rain started

coming in from the roof also.

A lot of effort for 0 results.

I guess thats why its called hunting!

We left Saturday night, because Easter was the next day.

One Year Ago, Easter

Has it really been almost a year since I started this blog?  I remember thinking of Easter and how much I LOVE this holiday.  I love this holiday because I can really sit and reflect on all that Christ has done in my life with out having all the commotion of Christmas.  I smell the Lillies that are sitting here and I think about the oils that they poured on Jesus when they placed Him in the Tomb.  Oh How He Concured Death.  He is our Redeemer, Deliverer, Perfect Sacrifice.  My Heavenly Father has called me to be His and now I can not wait to show His Love to my daughter.  She will know Gods Love and I pray that she will one day come to Know Jesus as her Personal Saviour as well.

REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS, AGAIN I SAY REJOICE.

I feel sad when I watch the movie The Passion of the Christ, it is more of a physical reminder of what Jesus went thru on that Good Friday.  I sometimes wonder, do I do that to Jesus today?  Do I forget all of the blessings He has poured out on me everyday.  How can those Israelites be so blind I ask?  How can I be so blind? 

Lord, I pray that I will be a better hand maiden for you to use.  Amen

HE IS ALIVE!

HE LIVES IN ME!

Reflections

Just thinking that my baby girl is 15 months now.  I miss her more than I ever thought possible.

Tyler - he is growing up so fast it makes me think, did we do a good job with him.  Does he have a strong conviction of who he is and is he proud of that?

Colleges we went to visit:

Western Michigan - nice size about 20,000 students.  Small enough campus that it is easy walking distance to everything.  Town close by to make it ok to go off campus.

Calvin - small Christian school about 2,000.  I liked it, Tyler did not think it was for him.

Hope - small Christian school about 3,200 kids.  I thought it was a very nice campus, close to a lot of big things.  Tyler liked it a lot. 

It is interesting to sit and reflect on your children and how each one of them are sooooo different than the other.  It is a weird feeling to know that Tyler will be with us for just one more year and then he is off to college, and then we have our daughter coming into our family. 

Tyler did not want to get his picture taken at any of the colleges we visited, but I did happen to snatch a few from bowling and Andrew while he was swimming.  Andrew got to pick the hotel we stayed at based on the pool.  He picked one that was in the shape of Michigan.  It was a nice hotel, thanks Andrew for picking a nice one.

Super excited boy playing a video game.

Andrew touching the "You Are Here" star in the bottom of the pool

Good picture of Andrew

Andrew while we were bowling

Tyler bowling, can you tell he was super mad at me for taking this picture

Me

Picture to prove that Tyler beat me, and Andrew almost did!

Picture proving that I beat both of them on round 2

Dreaming

Dreaming of the time when I can hold my sweet girl again.  Wondering how much she has changed.  Is she walking now on her own?  Did she get more teeth?  Oh how long the days are, just waiting for her to be here with us.  Do you think she will remember us?  I have my doubts, I'm praying that the orphanage has shown her our pictures that we left with her.  Pray that God has given her a heart of rememberance of us.

Hard Work

Saturday was a day of work around here.  We have a yard that has been calling to us, please give me mulch!  We have ignored its plea for 2+ years, and we finally gave in to it.  Really the only reason we gave in is because every time the dogs went out to do their business they would come in all muddy.  It was time to get our hands callaused and our backs to an aching.  We had delivered 25 yards of mulch.  That is a huge amount, and we got it done in one day.  It is really nice to have Tyler and Austin able to do a lot, Trevor was gone at a soccer tourny, not that he could of helped anyway with his arm still in a cast.  Andrew helped a lot also.  I am glad it is over with, and a couple of Advil later I was feeling pretty good.

Tyler, Andrew and I will be leaving to go and visit a couple of Colleges in Michigan and Ohio this week since it is Spring Break.  On Thursday we will go to the farm, it is Spring Youth Turkey Hunting and Andrew, Trevor and Austin will have their chance to shoot a Turkey.

Killer icicles

I found this today. This is what we faced in St. Petersburg while we were there. We took pictures of the men working on the roofs. There were not very many warnings to indicate they were working. It is very dangerous.

Killer icicles terrorise Russians - Yahoo! News

So Much Happening

This last week has been very busy, but what else is new?

Saturday:  AWANA Games Day.  I was the coach again this year, we ended up not doing too good, we took home 3rd for both teams.  Our morning team had 13 points in disqualifications and that hurt us sooo much.  I guess I will be coaching again next year.  Andrew on the other hand for the boys had a terrific day.  He excelled at all of his events and I was so proud of him and his hard work.

Monday - I sent in our Visa Application.  We should get that back next week.  I also went to the DuPage County again to get an updated copy of our Marriage License.  The one we had on file in Russia was about to expire, it needs to be less than a year old for our court date.  When I got home, in the mail was our "FBI FINGERPRINTING RESULTS".  YAHOO!!!!  AMEN!!!!  Now I think we have everything we need.  That is until the Judge comes back from Vacation and gives us more forms that she may want.  Who knows?  We are just thrilled that we will be going.
On Monday night, Tyler was inducted into the National Honor Society.  This is a huge honor for him, and we are so proud of him.

Tuesday - went downtown to get the marriage license apistilled.  Sent it off to our agency.

The group of kids that were recieved into NHS

Yes, Tyler is taller than Tom now!

I thought this was so pretty

It is on top of the bus stop in Downtown Chicago

So our schedule looks like this:
April 9 we leave
Aril 10 arrive
April 11 - we will visit the Hermitage Museum
April 12-13 hopefully be able to see our daughter
April 14 Court
April 15, come home
We will not know when we can go back to pick up our daughter until court.  They will officially give us the date then.  In the adoption world this is known as "GOTCHA DAY".  When that happens, Tyler and I will travel to go get her and do all of our necessary documents and embassy forms, we will have to travel to Moscow for that trip.  It will take about a week to get all the forms and embassy items done.

News At Last

As I was sitting here searching my way around Travel Football Leagues for Trevor an E Mail came in with our date for court:
April 14 we have court!  Is it much later than I wanted, YES, is it great to finally know now when we will be traveling, YES!

Sarah said it best in the last post, well now the weather should be a little nicer!

Tom and I want to go a few days before and do some sightseeing that we didn't get to do on the first trip.  Areas we want to see are:
Hermitage Museum
Winter Palace
St. Isaacs Cathedral - we can climb to the top and look out.
Shopping (well maybe just I want to do that)
walk along the canals and see some beautiful bridges

So now the fun begins to gather and collect the necessary paperwork.  It is a good feeling to be doing something useful with the time.

Bummer News

Today while I was out with Tom, we received a phone call from our agency.  She stated that the judge in charge of our case is out of the office until April 5!!!!  What, does, that, mean, Uggghhh.  Does that mean that I won't get a date until she comes back?  Does that mean someone else can schedule the court date right after April 5?  It has been over 5 weeks since we signed the paperwork, I really thought, hoped, prayed that we would of been back for court next week, and bringing our baby girl home in the first week of April.  It is a crazy ride we are on, and I hope we find out more information soon.  Pray, Pray Pray for us that our court date comes soon. 

Nothing Yet

No phone call, no email yet.  I did call our agency yesterday just to "check" what was happening, and she had no news either. We are anxiously waiting for some news of a court date.

We had all of the carpets cleaned in our whole house yesterday, boy was that a big job.  Tom wanted all of the furniture our of the rooms, so that they could do a good job, boy was that a lot of work.  We moved Trevor and Andrew into their new room, and Tyler also.  The boys were excited to be sharing a room until Trevor was up about 1 hour after going to bed throwing up.  He was soooo sick that guy, he was throwing up about every 30 minutes, then at about 1:30 am he went to every hour.  I was exhausted, he slept on the floor of the bathroom, and I slept in his new bed.  It was comfy for all of 45 minutes that I actually slept!

Nothing else is new, so please pray for us that we will get the phone call.  Ring, Phone, Ring.

Registry and Turnabout

Tonight was a very busy night.  Tom and David are both gone at the farm to do work there with other guys, and Austin and Jacob went to help also.  While they were gone, Kelly and I made a date to go out.  Kelly helped me to register for items for a shower she is going to throw for me on May 8.  Well today as we were at Buy Buy Baby, the lady (who by the way had a full beard) asked if she could help us and we said yes we would like to register for a baby registry, she looked at us kinda funny and I continued to fill in the application and she asked us when are you do, I said, well we are adopting so we don't know the exact date of arrival.  She was a little shocked and looked at us again and I know she was thinking, oh boy, here we have a "couple" and kinda acted funny.  Kelly and I just laughed because we do so much together, that I think people sometimes wonder about us.  So what does that have to do with Turnabout, well during our registry, Tyler called and he was getting ready for turnabout and we needed to take pictures.  Kelly and I left the store and went to the place where there were about 30 kids in the group and all of their parents.  Kelly and I walked in together, and once again we saw many people with "the look" and we just laugh because it seems so funny to us.  Tyler looked very handsome, and his date was a good friend of his.  After the picture taking session, Kelly and I went to dinner at Claim Jumpers, it was delicious.  Everything was great, we then headed back to Buy Buy Baby, to try and complete the registry, but alas we could not finish.  There is soooooo much to look at and everything has changed so much in regards to car seats, strollers, toys, bottles and everything.  We will have to go back again when there is more time to finish the store.

Tyler with Jessica

Jessica, Tyler and Teague

My firstborn, man what happened to that baby who was just born yesterday right?

Room Painted

Yeah, I can finally tell you all that her room is painted, it is the perfect shade of pink (of course).  I also had our painter add stripes to the wall in a glaze/shine that looks absolutely perfect.  We are getting the carpets done next week on Tuesday, then we will put the crib together and put the furniture back in the room.  The weather is starting to get better, and I am anxiously awaiting the phone to ring.  I am expecting perhaps next week for the phone to ring and the hustle and bustle to get the visas done.

Everyone is doing really good here, Tyler likes his new job, he also had an interview at Menards, Tom hopes he takes this job so he can get a discount.  Austin is continuing to do well at Marmion, and he is doing the flight club also.  Trevor well he is BORED!!!!  Andrew is as charming as ever.

Bronson (our painter) doing the stripes

I LOVE IT!!!!

Blanket

My mom has given our daughter a beautiful hand made blanket.  She has made one for each of the boys when I was pregnant with them.  She of course made this one while I was paperwork pregnant and made it in pink and it is the perfect shade to match her room.  It is absolutely gorgeous and very soft.  Thank you so much mom for this wonderful heirloom gift she will use.

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