And Life Happily Goes On

With a couple of months now passed since our return from Moscow, we've both gained great perspective on the outstanding, fun & amazing parts of our life together. Somewhere, during this tedious and lengthy adoption process we became so incredibly focused on the goal of becoming parents to this Russian child, that we lost focus on the rest of our life. We have an amazing relationship - so much fun together and we both feel so blessed everyday that we found one another - even if it did take a little longer than we think it should've.

We've built a beautiful home and have landscaping plans for the summer. We can't wait for baseball season to begin. We've become even more involved at church - specifically with our youth ministry - and have already realized so many rewards from that involvement. We have a cruise to the western caribbean planned for the end of May, a mission trip in July and a visit to Grammy & Grampy in Florida in August. We've recently added a new four-legged, furry friend to our family. His name is Louis (after one of our favorite cities), and he's a fun and playful brown tabby cat who we rescued from the shelter. We have plans to possibly open a 2nd pizza location and Jay is working on applying to a Master's program at his alma mater.

So, life really does happily go on. There is happiness and contentment after a failed Russian adoption. As for future plans to build our family? We'll see. One thing you can bet on: when know, we'll be sure to let you know.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Well - there's no better way to start this post, then to just say it: we're home. After a lengthy meeting with the CHI folks in Moscow, we decided that this was not the right decision for us. Some things have changed recently that gave us concerns great enough to decide to come home. We are sad that this didn't work out for us, but we made the decision together and we both truly believe that it is the right decision for us. And as the Russian psychologist told us at the end of our meeting, "The end of one thing, is just the beginning of something new." She's right. We're going to take a couple of months to regroup, focus on ourselves and figure it out. Friends, I'll be happy to give you more specific details in person, but don't want to put them on the blog. Thanks for your love and support!

We've Landed in Russia!

Wow! - That was weird to type. We landed in Moscow at about 11:00 this morning. Elisia, a CHI representative met us at the airport, helped us exchange our dollars to rubles and then, along with a driver, escorted us downtown to the Marriott Tverskaya. She made sure that we got checked-in okay and then took off. Very friendly and very helpful. It was extremely comforting and reassuring and we know that if the rest of the Russia CHI group is like her our trip will go just fine.

The flight wasn't bad. It ended up being about 9 hours 45 minutes from Atlanta. The plane was completely full. Neither of us had ever been on a plane that big. Another couple that was going on their first trip to adopt from a region in Siberia sat across the aisle from us. They were with a different agency but had all the same nerves that we did. We also had the USA Wrestling team on our plane. Other than that, most of the passengers were Russian and what little interaction we had was friendly - we didn't really understand eachother - but it was still friendly.

The folks at the Marriott have been nice. Jay got a Pepsi and I got a Pepsi Lite (in 1 liter glass bottles) when we got here, then they brought us a gift of a bottle of Merlot and some appetizers. We weren't sure what the appetizers were, but it was a beautiful presentation - very fancy. We slept for a couple of hours when we got checked-in and now are going to do our best to stay awake until a normal bedtime tonight. Hopefully we can so we won't be upside-down tomorrow.

Tomorrow our CHI driver is picking us up (with our luggage) at 10:30 in the hotel lobby. We'll be at the Moscow CHI office for a couple of hours while they go over the upcoming week with us. Then they'll take us somewhere for lunch and on a tour of Moscow. Our flight to Astrakhan is not until 9:45 tomorrow night and we'll get in around midnight. It'll be a long day, but we're glad to get the tour of Moscow - it should be very interesting and we really want to do our best to learn about Russia culture and history while we are actually IN Russia.

Our understanding at the point, is that we'll go to the Ministry of Education in Astrakhan first thing Monday morning. Because of our schedule tomorrow, we probably won't be able to update you again until Monday - maybe even after we meet our referral. But rest assured that we will update just as soon as we can.

What an adventure this is already turned out to be. Hopefully the next 8 days will go as smoothly as this first day. We love you guys and will talk to you all soon!

Suitcases, Granola Bars & the Holy Spirit

Hello everyone. Well tomorrow is the BIG day - THE day - the DAY!

As most of you know we've had our fair share of anxiety over this trip for the past several days. Our lives will change so much and I'm sure it's normal. We tend to be the kind of people that look for signs from God. To some of you that may sound strange and to some it may be completely normal. A few years ago, when I went through RCIA and joined Jen's church and faith, I had an extraordinary teacher. She's a really cool lady whom we've remained friends with since then. She use to always talk about receiving messages from the Holy Spirit and I remember sitting there and thinking, "What?" Even Jen's been Catholic her entire life and had never heard from the Holy Spirit. And as she continued to talk we both began to realize that what she meant was that if you really pay attention, things will happen around you, messages will come and you just really need to recognize where they came from. (i.e. THE HOLY SPIRIT) So tonight, as we're packing and preparing, Jen went online to print off our flight and hotel confirmations. We have a customized mymsn homepage and it contains our horoscopes. Now the average Catholic will tell you that you shouldn't really be "living by your horoscope" and generally we just have them on there for fun, but here's what they said tonight:

Aquarius (Jay)
An exciting new project or opportunity might be presented to you today. It could involve a new love - or at least a new friend. Something which you've been working on for a long time could finally come to fruition - and excite your enthusiasm for moving on to the next project. dear Aquarius, go to it!

Taurus (Jen)
An opportunity to travel with a partner or colleague, perhaps business-related could come your way. Any travel planned or begun today is likely to go well and bring you whatever results you were hoping for. Whatever it is you're planning, dear Taurus, it should excite your enthusiasm and optimism for your future success. Relations with others, both business and personal, should be warm, cordial and stimulating. Make the most of it.

Holy Spirit? Sure, why not? Clothes, hand sanitizer, toys and granola bars are packed! Next post will be from Russia. As always, we ask that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel. Thanks so much to all of our family and friends, old and new. Your thoughts and words really do mean the world to both of us!

Our Itinerary

Here is how we think our time will go:

We leave out of KCI Friday morning and fly to Atlanta. Then from Atlanta to Moscow, which is a 10 hour flight, but when we get to Moscow it will be somewhere around 11:00 am on Saturday, Jan 17, because of the time change. (9 hours)

Saturday - Arrive in Moscow. Stay at Marriott Tverskaya.
Sunday - Fly from Moscow to Astrakhan (2 hour flight) and check-in to the Hotel Azimut.
Monday - Appointment at the Ministry of Education and Science of Astrakhan. Receive our referral and permission for visiting the child. Visit the baby home.
Tuesday - Visit the baby home twice - once in the morning and again in the afternoon.
Wednesday - Shop and visit the baby home twice.
Thursday - Visit the baby home twice and get medical check-ups in Astrakhan.
Friday - Visit the baby home twice. Prepare the petitions and documents for court.
Saturday - Fly to Moscow. Stay at Marriott Tverskaya.
Sunday - Fly home.

This is how we THINK it will go based on outlines that we've gotten from CHI. What an adventure we will have - just a few days to go.

Finally ... RESULTS!

Today we got all of our medicals just how we needed them. We even got our x-rays. Amazing. We also got our FBI clearance back, even though we don't need it until the next trip. Still need our Visas though. Had a call from Oksana on the answering machine, but got home too late to call her back. HOPEFULLY she was calling to tell us that they'll be here tomorrow! We'll call her back first thing in the morning, followed by an hour long massage for each of us (Lord knows we need it) and then a trip to the Secretary of State in KC to get everything apostilled.

When we have time in the next couple of days we'll post what we think will be our itinerary while we're on trip #1. Just in case you want to keep up. And of course, as long as we can get WIFI (and we should be able to), we'll update daily while we're there.

My belly is rumbling ... time to make some dinner ... nature burgers & sweet potato fries! YUM!

My Cry Baby Day

Hi all. So, yesterday was an interesting day. You know, I've said before that no matter what I'm doing or where I am, it is constantly on my mind - this little thing that we're doing, that is. So, yesterday I woke up, of course fully aware of the fact that we leave in just one week for Russia. You know that feeling that you get when either something really good is about to happen or the one that you get when you're nervous about the outcome of something or the one that you get when you know there's a ton of stuff to do but you just have to wait because you're relying on others to do their part or the one that you get when you know you've checked and double-checked, but you just feel like you're forgetting something anyway? Well, I had all of those from the moment I opened my eyes yesterday morning. So yesterday on the way home from working out at the Y, I cried. Not because I was sad - or happy - just because I don't even know why. Then after I got home and got cleaned up, Jay hugged me and told me he loved me, just as he does several times a day - and I cried. I cried at the doctor's office when we went to get our bloodwork and x-ray results. (which they screwed up and we have to go back again on Monday) I cried while I was washing dishes at Little Caesars. I think I'm finished crying now. It must've been some kind of stress release, coping mechanism type thing. Although to this point, I hadn't really felt like as though I was having a hard time with all of this. Oh well, new day ... new reason to cry. Just kidding!

Here are our remaining issues:

1- Our visas, for which we paid extra for 5 day processing on 12/22, still haven't arrived. We have been told that they'll be here on the 13th. Our passports are with them, although that doesn't really matter, because we can't get into Russia with just our passports anyway.

2- Our doctor's office. It's been a 3 week process, during which they have taken blood from Jay 5 times and from me 6, and there are no results yet, except that I may be anemic and Jay has high tryglicerides. These are not the results we were looking for. We did get our x-ray reports back and even though we told them that we were getting them to rule out TB, there was no mention on either report that either of us did not have it. They're having us come back on Monday and they say that they'll have everything we need then.

So, if you are so inclined, send a prayer, a positive thought or some extra good karma our way. Or heck, do all three, we'll take it. Thanks for your support and your love. We are getting close. And we are very excited. And we know that all of this stuff is going to be so worth it and seem so insignificant when we finally become a family of three. I just thought I'd share with you what was one crazy day in my life anyway.