Sometimes I have a Bad Day

I have tried to keep most my blog post positive. 

But sometimes I have Bad Days and just feel like writing about them. 

I haven't blogged a lot lately because the Bad Days seem to outnumber the Good Days

and so I just sit around and sulk. 

But I want to remember this journey and I don't want to look back and only 

see fundraisers on my blog. 

So if you don't want to read about my Bad Day because you want

to believe that adoption is all Sunshine and Roses

here's your chance to stop reading. 

We have been on this journey to adopt Natasha for about 15 months now. 

When we started I had no idea it would take this long.

We assumed it would take between 9 to 12 months like the norm. 

I should have known that we as a family don't typically get to follow the norm. 

I mean, normally, when you foster a child they are either freed for adoption or

placed back with their families by 9 to 12 months. 

Not 2 years!

So here I was thinking we would be getting off easy with this adoption. 

I mean, I shouldn't be as emotionally attached, right? 

I have only spent 3 days with this little girl, it's not like she has lived in my house

for the past 15 months. 

But somehow it is still very hard. 

My arms ache to hold her and bring her home to a better life. 

I worry if she is warm enough or if she is sick and has anyone to comfort her. 

We finally turned our court paperwork in two weeks ago. 

I was so relieved and knew that most likely the judge would want changes 

but knew we would just knock them out when they came. 

What I didn't know is that they would come a little at a time.

Because of the new treaty we have been caught up in the new training requirements. 

We knew this could be a possibility and have been taking extra classes. 

We were also hopeful that our PRIDE classes we took for foster care could count. 

We have hit a new snag where not only do we have to show our certificates for our 

training but we have provide notarized licenses from the agencies that provided the training. 

On Thursday I drove 2 hours to San Diego to our old Foster Family Agency.

They signed their license for me in front of the notary and 

then I took it another 2 hours up to LA to be apostilled. 

I then drove home 2 1/2 hours in traffic. 

I had just done this trip to LA two weeks before. 

I mailed out what I was hoping to be the last of our court docs on Friday 

overnight mail. 

Today I received another email from our agency stating that there were

more changes to be made. 

More paper chasing and more driving to LA. 

I'm afraid I am exhausted today. 

I am beginning to think it will never end. 

Today I have just felt like screaming

"THAT"S IT. I GIVE UP"

Today the song lyrics from Wicked ring in my ears.

Something has changed within meSomething is not the sameI'm through with playing by the rulesOf someone else's game
I'm through accepting limits''cause someone says they're soSome things I cannot changeBut till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of Losing love I guess I've lost
Well, it that's loveIt comes at much too high a cost!

I don't want to be a quitter but to say that I am 

very discouraged today would be a huge understatement. 

I remember last year wondering what I would dress the girls up for Halloween.

Nevaeh is going as Belle and Natasha was going to be Cinderella. 

Someone gave us a Cinderella costume and it is hanging in Natasha's closet waiting for her. 

But once again, she will not be home for Halloween and most likely will not be

home for Christmas either. 

So some of you reading this might just say

"Then why don't you just quit? Why not just give up?"

If it is that emotionally and financially draining than just quit.

This is why:

I recently read a friend of mine's blog and saw this picture of their family on Facebook.

You can read more about their amazing story here

This is what she put with the picture.

The Bible tells us to defend the defenseless, to protect the voiceless and to seek justice for the orphan. 

ALL children deserve a family, regardless of where they are born; regardless of what special needs they have; regardless of their skin color; regardless of their gender; regardless of their 

age.

Through adoption we see God’s redeeming work, the same redemption He offered us when He sent His Son to be crucified on the cross so we might be called the children of God.

Please look at these photos. Are you not a witness to God’s love, mercy and redemption? 

This is why I can't give up. 

This is why I continue to fight and hold on when all reason tells me to just walk away.

ALL children deserve a Family. 

Did you read that.

A FAMILY.

Yes, I could send money to an orphanage to help make living conditions better

for a lot of children. 

But I have seen it first hand. 

These children want A FAMILY.

Family is the most important thing to God. 

Taking care of the physical needs of children by providing them a good place 

to live is nice. 

But providing them with A FAMILY is God's plan for orphans. 

If you were to survey people and ask them what the most important thing is their life is

How many do you think would say "My Family".

Can you even imagine being a child and not having one? 

I can't save all the orphans in the world. 

I can't bring them all home.

But I can provide one little girl with A FAMILY. 

So I won't give up. 

I will continue to fight. 

I will continue to paper chase. 

I will continue to try and raise the last of the funds we need to get her home. 

And one day I will post a picture like the one above showing the before

and after of our daughter and the joy that comes from having A FAMILY. 

Dedicated to Justin

Last year I wrote this post to my son, Justin. Justin would have been 9 years old tomorrow. I thought I would repost it in honor of his birthday. Plus I was able to change the video to pictures of our actual journey to meet our soon to be daughter, Natasha.



Justin

Our 4th and last son born to us.

Our son that never took a breath on this earth

and only made it 6 months into the pregnancy.

Our son who would have been 8 this year.

Justin

Our son who I have been thinking about
a lot this week.

This post is dedicated to our son

Justin

Because without him we would have
never thought to venture out on this journey to

Far Different Places.


To give you a little background about this song I thought
I would include some posts I wrote during our fostering
of Nevaeh.

For a long time I tried to convince myself that this was her song.
And the song can apply to her too.

But no matter how hard I tried to make this song
be something different
it has always been about the journey we would
take with a child that has Down syndrome.

My heart has known this for a very long time.

In December of 2005 I had a discussion with a lady at church.
She was 40 and had just found out she was pregnant.

I told her how I was feeling like we were suppose to have
another child but just kept pushing it aside.

She told me I had better listen or otherwise I would
end up like her and be over 40 and pregnant.

I remembering crying as I told her I just couldn't
"because I was so sure I was going to have a child with Down syndrome"
and after my last pregnancy I just wasn't sure I could do it again.

(From Our Journey with Nevaeh - How we came to adopt)

Luckily, Steve went to the doctor's visit with me on Friday, August 29, 2003, because it was on that day we learned our baby no longer had a heartbeat. We were told we had several options. We decided we would have the baby at the hospital, but we had to wait until Tuesday because it was Labor Day Weekend.

We went in early on Tuesday, September 2, 2003 to have me induced. It was a strange feeling going to a hospital to have a baby that we knew was not coming home with us. It was the same hospital we had gone to two times before and brought home two beautiful healthy baby boys. We had had the whole weekend to grieve and come to terms with what was happening, but it was hard to walk through the door of the delivery room and see that there was a picture of a leaf with a teardrop on it. This picture was to notify all workers that the person in the delivery room was not having a live baby.

The staff was wonderful and I remember the nurse being so upset that she had to leave me at 7:00 p.m. because her shift had ended and I still had not delivered. She was in tears when she left. Luckily, I was not in much physical pain. I just wanted to have it over with so I could grieve and get on with things. The nurse was very surprised when she came back at 7:00 a.m. the next morning and I still had not delivered. I don't remember the exact time I delivered and I will not go into detail about it, but I never want to relive that again. It was the most painful delivery I ever had, and I have had a 9 pound baby. I remember sobbing so hard that my whole body was shaking. 

Blog Post August 2008

About 10 years ago I went to a fireside where Janice Kapp Perry was the speaker. She spoke of an album (yes that is what they called them back then) she had written for people who had children with special needs. I went and purchased the tape to send to a friend who had a child that had been diagnosed with Autism. I never ended up mailing the tape because life got busy for me as it always does. So I put the tape up and forgot about it.


Then one day several months after we lost our 4th son, I found the tape and listened to it in the car. I had an overwhelming feeling that Heavenly Father had a daughter for us with special needs. This thought frightened me because I thought it was a Down syndrome baby ( baby with Down syndrome would be the correct way to say this) and I wasn't sure I could handle it. Again I put the tape away and forgot about it.

A few months after we moved here, I again found the tape and listened to it. Steve and I had been discussing if we should have more children but we never felt like we got an answer to try again so we dropped it. When I found the tape, I again felt like there was a daughter for us with special needs. Again it scared me because I wasn't sure I would be able to handle it. Again the tape got put away. 




Far Different Places 

A husband, a wife, a simple plan for life --Love in our home, A child of our own. 

Then a lullaby tune from a hospital room - As hushed voices whispered the news. Just a simple exchange, yet everything changed - And I think in that moment we knew.

Our journey would take us to far different places then we had ever dreamed.

 Our journey would take us to sad, lonely places that some have never seen. 

Places with a different kind of beauty, a special place apart. Touching far different places in our hearts. 

A woman, a man, a very different plan - Blessing to earn, and so much to learn. 

For this child that we love, entrusted to us, would help us be all we could be. 

God made no mistake, and though our hearts ached, He touched us and helped us to see.

Our journey would take us to far different places then we had ever dreamed.

Our journey would take us to sad, lonely places that some have never seen. 

Places with a different kind of beauty, a special place apart. Touching far different places in our hearts. 

So Justin

8 years ago your mother would have never dreamed
she would have the courage to foster a child for
18 months, drop that child off at a halfway house and leave her for the weekend.
All the while thinking that this child that she had loved for
for so long was now going back to a horrible situation.

(video I made of Nevaeh when she started overnight visits and we thought she was leaving)


8 years ago your mother would have never dreamed
that 2 years later she would have the courage to
cross the ocean and adopt a child
with Down syndrome and
tackle the overwhelming challenge of
International Adoption.

The very thing in which she begged the Lord not to challenge her with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1zloc6n-dk
(music to Far Different Places)


Justin

Thank you for giving your mother the courage to do these things.

And although I never had the chance to hear you cry or
watch you grow, I am so grateful to God for allowing me to be your mother.

Because of you I have found the courage to do things I never would have dreamed possible.

Day 4 of our Adventure

So the problem with writing about your adventures 3 weeks after you get home is there is a lot that you forget to write and you aren't really sure when it happened. So I am going to start out Day 4 with just some other stuff that happened on our trip.

I think we were pretty hungry after Day 3 and just wanted to eat food we knew we would like (comfort food). So we had our facilitator take us to Papa John's Pizza to pick up some pizza to go. Our driver and our facilitator both ended up ordering pizza to take home also. I don't normally care for Papa John's Pizza but I think this was the best pizza I had ever tasted. We took it back to our hotel and were going to eat in our room except they were cleaning it and putting in new mattresses.

Now, funny story about the mattresses. The first night we were there Steve complained that they were lumpy and he could feel the springs. I am on an adoption FB group and several people have joked that they feel spied on while in country. One couple spoke of being very thirsty and wondering if the water in the mini bar was the free water they were allowed to drink. While having the conversation there was a knock at the door and there stood someone with the free water for them. So when we came up to our room with our pizza and saw them replaces the mattresses with new ones it was a little unnerving at first. Then we went to a lobby area to eat and noticed they were replacing all of the mattresses. Guess it was just time to get new mattresses.

The next day was our last visit with Natasha. We asked when we got there if there was anyway we could just spy on her for a few minutes to see how she interacts with her group and her caregivers. They said that would be fine. We were still trying to figure out if her behavior from the day before was her normal behavior or if it was just from all the excitement of being the center of attention by 5 adults when you don't normally get any attention.

So we stepped outside to have a peek. But the minute we walked outside we could hear her calling for us and running towards us. So much for spying on her. What a wonderful feeling though. She knew we were there for her. We were her people and she had claimed us. There were 4 adults that came out that door but I was the one she ran to and I was the one who's hand she took to go out on the playground. Talk about melting a momma's heart.

At first they tried to get her to go back with her group but she was having none of that. We had come two days in a row to play with her and that was what she was going to do. So her caregiver gave her a ball to take over with us and we went to a separate play area. She took her ball to a little basketball hoop. We had to laugh as she had a sunhat on but underneath was the HUGE blue bow.

Next she decided that she was going to try going on the slide. But she made it seem like she had never done so before so we had to help her up the stairs and she would not come down unless we were there to catch her at the bottom.

And having a dad to help you climb up the stairs was even better. She had us played well. All the time making us believe she had never climbed up those stairs before and acting like she couldn't do it unless we were there to help her.

She played with us for about 20 minutes and then decided she wanted to go back over and be with her group. But what was interesting is that she motioned to us what she was doing. Almost like asking permission. We nodded our heads and said Da (yes). So off she went. We still had not seen her with her group or caregivers so we wanted to just watch and observe for a few minutes. As soon as she was back her caregiver told her she had forgot the ball over by us. So here she came running back to to get it. We noticed that she does not bend her knees when she runs. But she did exactly like she was asked and went to play some group ball games. They did that for about 10 minutes and then the children were back to just playing again. That's when we noticed our little monkey went right up the stairs of the other slide and hung on the bar like she had been doing it her whole life. Apparently she only needs help with that activity if we are around :)

A few minutes later she "asked" her caregiver if she could come back over by us. (By asked I mean she motioned to us). The caregiver said yes and over she came. We took out the crackers again and asked her if she wanted some. At first she would take them and then go walk back to the group. She did this several times. We weren't sure if she was thinking about sharing but we think we finally figured out she was making sure it was okay to eat them. She started to get a little hyper again so we decided to put them away. We weren't sure if that would be the end of our "friendship" or not. But she decided to stay and hang out with us even though we wouldn't give her anymore crackers. 

Next she decided she wanted to color. She also liked pulling out all the stuff in the backpack and then putting it all back in the backpack. She probably played that game for about 20 minutes. She would examine everything as she took it out and then would carefully place everything back in. And she would "ask" for help with getting the crayons back in the box. 

I love the look that Natasha and Steve are giving each other in this picture.

After the rearranging game I tried sitting her on my lap to do the sticker book again. I wasn't sure how she would do but she seemed to love it. We would look at the different objects with her pointing to which one she wanted and "asking" me what it was. At one point I leaned over and kissed her cheek. She then turned and kissed mine and played with my hair until my earrings caught her attention and almost got ripped out.

She decided to hop down and look at more books. She chose a different one and then climbed back up on my lap and made herself very comfortable. Like I said before, she knew we were her people. There was a little boy in her group who's parents come every weekend to get him or to visit him. She knows that some children have people. She knows that some of them get extra love and attention.

For almost 7 years this little one has had no one to call her people. She haa been moved several times and has never had visitors. No one to hold her on their lap and do sticker books with. No one to ask her if she wants to color or play ball. But when given the chance she wants her own people. She wants to be loved and cared for and to feel special.

Oh how it broke my heart to leave her that day.

When are time was up the director asked her to hug us goodbye. She ran to Steve and gave him a big ole hug and then ran off. Then the director must have told her to come back and hug me. So she did and then she turned and kissed my cheek. The director made sure to tell me that she did not tell her to do that. That she learned from sitting on my lap. In just a few short hours of visiting that is what she learned. That we were her people.

As we left, her and another little girl waved and blew kisses. We did not spend much time with the other children as it was discouraged. It would have broken my heart because just the time we spent leaving with them tugging on us and asking us questions made me feel so sad that so many of them will never know what it is like to have their own people. Many of them will never have anyone come and visit them and take them away to live in families.

My husband knows me and he knows my heart. As we were leaving he leaned over and said "Remember, just one. We can't save them all".

And he is right. We can't bring them all home. But I can yell for them. I can help raise money for those who wish to travel on this adventure like us.

God has changed my heart and I will never again be the same when I hear the word "orphan".

Day 3 of our Adventure

Our third day in Russia was July 19th. Once again we had a hard time sleeping much past 3:30 a.m. We stayed in bed until 5:30 a.m. and then got up and got ready for our physicals. We had done a lot of prep work in the US in hopes of making the physicals easier in Russia. But our doctor's office messed up on Steve's blood working and forgot to have him tested for HIV. So Steve had to fast because he still had blood work that needed to be done.

We arrived at the clinic around 9:00 a.m. We first went in and meet the director of the clinic. She was such a pleasant lady and made us feel right at home. I was offered something to eat and Steve was whisked off to have blood taken. Within a few minutes he was back and able to join me in eating the little treats.

The director told us that we should feel right at home because the room we were in was designed after the way they build them in California. She then proceeded to tell us about the swimming pool they had too. We thought she was being serious. Come to find out she was joking because the roof is flat instead of slanted and when it rains it collects so much water up top they refer to it as the swimming pool.

Then a doctor come in and asked us questions about our health. She then apologized that she would need to ask us questions for another doctor too because that doctor would not be in until later in the afternoon. Then we got to walk around and meet a few other doctors one being the psychiatrist. Our facilitator told us that he usually asks embarrassing questions so to be prepared. He graded a little test we had taken in the director's office and then asked us 2 more questions. After that he told our facilitator he knew we were a good family and that he liked us and that was it. We were done. Our facilitator was shocked. She said "Wow, I guess he really liked you. He normally asks more questions." So I guess we got off easy.

Now it was time to drive the hour out to the orphanage. The director asked if we would like a tour. I did but I knew that it would cut into our visiting time so I was a little sad about that. But it was nice to see the orphanage and all the programs they have for the older children there. They are very big into the Special Olympics and even have an Olympic size indoor swimming pool.

After the tour was finished they brought Natasha to us. This time she was very excited to see us. She was wearing her big blue bow again with a pretty dress they had thrown over her play clothes. For some reason they had put us in an area that wasn't really even a room. It had a few coaches but was on a hard floor and right next to stairs and an elevator.

We brought out a small ball for Natasha to play with and it really wound her up. She was so excited and acting really hyper. She even hit her head on the corner of the wall while trying to get the ball and she just laughed about it. It broke my heart that she didn't cry and later I noticed she had a huge knot and bruise on her head from it. I am posting some pictures here that I don't feel I need to put a flower over her face because they are just side views and mostly just pictures of a big blue bow :)

We tried to calm her down by having her play with the iPad but that was not a good idea at all. She really didn't know what to do with it and at one point threw it at us. Not trying to be mean just trying to be funny.

She may look like she is being good with it here but a few minutes later she was pounding on the keyboard and slapping at the screen and trying to throw it on the floor. Just look at that mischievousness little smile.

So we decided to put it away and try crackers. It was fun to watch her sign crackers and more. For crackers she decided she needed to pull up her sleeves so she could find her elbow. That is why her arm is bent and her sleeve is up.

Here I am trying to clean her up after her cracker eating and she is letting me know that she needs her mouth wiped too. She thought the wipes were a great toy and at one point starting mopping the floor with them. So we had to hide those also.

I love this picture of Steve and I. I don't think we could have looked any happier.

Next we brought out the sticker book and that was a big hit. I taught her more sign language and she had a great time mimicking the sounds we would make.

Our visit was only about one hour and we were exhausted by the time it was finished. We determined that the next day we would try and visit her in her natural environment. We could see so much potential in her and loved how she would light up when we taught her something new. She has stolen our hearts and we can't wait until we get to go back and bring her home with us so she can learn so much more and reach her full potential.

Day 2 of our Adventure

On Wednesday morning we woke up at 3:30 a.m. We just couldn't sleep. We stayed in bed until about 5:30 a.m. and then decided to get up and get ready for the day. We needed to be ready by 8:15 a.m. to be picked up for our MOE appointment at 9:45 a.m. We went downstairs and had breakfast. It was included with the cost of our hotel. They had a pretty good selection but I was really hoping for some bacon or maybe a boiled egg. I had some sort of hashbrowns, kiwi, cold cut turkey, cucumbers, tomatoes and orange juice. The orange juice was like drinking an orange. After we ate breakfast we went back up to the room and called the kids. We were grateful to hear that everyone was doing well.

At 8:15 we went downstairs to meet our facilitator. We arrived at the MOE at 8:45 a.m. and our facilitator told us that we could go walk around for about 30 minutes. So we took some site seeing pictures of the main square.

This is a cathedral that we would be going on a tour of on Saturday.

 This is a river that runs all the way through the city. Peter the Great had originally wanted his city to be set up like Venice Italy with river ways instead of streets.

 My sweetheart in front of the river. You will notice that he is wearing his heavy jacket. Well, heavy for California. When we left the house on Monday morning I could not find the sweater I wanted to take so I grabbed my winter jacket instead. I was thinking that the weather would be in the low 80's and so I was upset that I was going to look silly wearing my big jacket. Once we got there and it was raining when our plane landed, I was go grateful to have a big jacket. It was just too bad that the only shoes I brought were sandals.

We were going to cross the street here to get a better picture but I was afraid of getting hit by a car. I don't think pedestrians have any rights in Russia so it's a cross at your own risk type of deal.

We probably only walked around for 20 minutes because we were cold and not crossing the street limited our abilities to see much. (We did cross one small street and I was not willing to do more in my stupid sandals).

Once we got back to the MOE we sat down and just waited. But as we were waiting someone came out and started to talk to us in Russian. We obviously looked confused and our facilitator and the other facilitator sitting next to her started to laugh. Apparently, I look Russian and the MOE worker thought we were a Russian family looking to adopt. Guess I didn't stick out as much as I thought I did.

We found out there was another family here from California who had their MOE appointment that day too. One thing I have to say about our facilitator is that she is very good at her job. She did not want us to have to wait so that is why we got there early to be the first in line. We were asked to please leave our jackets out front when it came time for our appointment. That seemed to be a continuing theme in our visit. We were freezing because we did not bring long sleeve shirts. So we really wanted to keep our jackets on. But I guess we appeared rude if we did so because our facilitator was adamant that we take them off and leave them out front.

We were called back and had to show our passports to the MOE worker. Then she showed us a picture of a little girl with Down syndrome and read the information she had on her. We were told at that time that the child had a minor heart defect but they weren't sure what it was and that we would need to ask the institution that she lived in about it. We were then asked if we wanted to meet the child and had to sign a paper stating we wanted to do so. And that was it. Next stop was to pick up the social worker to take with us to the institution.

The institution we were going to was about an hour away. It was a very beautiful drive out there. I couldn't believe all the trees we saw. I was starting to get really tired at this point and a little hungry too. I had brought protein bars and trial mix with me so I started nibbling on that to make my tummy happy.

We picked up the social worker and then were on our way to the institution. The social worker only needed to come with us on one of the visits but she is the one who has to decide if she thinks we were going to be a good fit with this child.

Once at the institution we meet the assistant director and another lady who I don't remember what her job title was. Again, we were asked to hang up our jackets and leave them. I was still a little cold but not freezing. The workers were so hospitable and they had us sit at a very tiny table pushed back into a corner. They then offered us some really yummy bread, cheese and salami to eat along with candy. They also offered hot tea and coffee. I had no idea they were going to feed us and had just eaten my protein bar but felt I needed to eat something as they had prepared so much.

While we were eating they asked us questions about our family life and why we wanted to adopt a child with Downy syndrome. We showed them pictures of our house and our children that we had brought to show Natasha. Then they took us up to ask questions of the doctor and another woman that worked with Natasha. They were all very nice. We asked the questions we had on our list and found out that Natasha had an oval window (hole in her heart) when she was born but that it had closed itself up. So no heart problems right now. We learned what her schedule was and saw some really cute pictures of her playing doctor with another child. Plus we saw artwork she had done in her classes.

Then it was finally time to met Natasha. I will not be posting about that visit here as I had already blogged about that visit.  We were probably only with her for 30 minutes. We had ran outside after her without our jackets so again I was freezing. I know I should not have been that cold when it was about 60 degrees outside but you have to remember that I came from 100+ summer weather.

After our visit we were exhausted but we knew this would be our only change to visit the gardens so we decided to make the most of it and tough it out. We had been told by another mom who had adopted from the same area that we really wanted to see the gardens since we were going to be there in such beautiful weather. We were so thankful that it didn't rain on us while we were doing our tour.

Here are some pictures of the garden just to help you get a feel for how beautiful it really is there.

Backside of the Cathedral that overlooks the gardens and all the fountains.

One of the main fountains in the garden.

Beautiful Avery located in the gardens.

 This picture is looking down at a section of the gardens.

And this picture helps to show just how big the gardens were. We took one hour to explore one side of the gardens. Then we decided we were just too tired to look anymore and after a while all the fountains and trees started to look the same. Plus did I mention I was freezing in my sandals and my feet hurt.

It was an hour drive back to our hotel and I think Steve may have fallen asleep on the ride back. We decided to just eat at our hotel. By this time we were pretty hungry and wanted food that sounded like something we could understand. Our hotel had English speaking staff and menus. We shared beef tips and a bake potato and I ordered some borscht just to try and experience something of the culture. It was pretty good but I think I was just too tired to eat.

We went back up to our hotel room to try and relax and call our children. We were 11 hours ahead so we had to stay up later than we wanted to be able to talk to them and not wake them up too early.

 Here is a picture of our hotel room. The bed is 2 twins pushed together and Steve complained that he could feel the mattress springs on his side. In my next post I will tell a funny story about that.

This was the view from our hotel room.

It was still very light out when we tried to go to sleep but we were both so tired I don't think we really cared. Next post will be our 2nd visit and our physical experience.

It really has been an incredible adventure.

Day 1 of our Adventure

I have decided to journal our journey. It will not be set up like my regular blog writings as it is more for us to be able to remember our journey than it is to inform others. So you are welcome to read it if you like but it might be a bit boring for you.

On Monday morning July 16th we finally set out on our journey. We had officially started the adoption process on July 11th 2011. At that time I had no idea we would only be on our first visit a year later. We had received our travel date on July 3rd letting us know we needed to be in Russia on Tuesday night, July 17th. I had been preparing for so long to hear this news that it didn't seem real when it finally came. You see, normally travel dates are issued on Mondays and our agency would call everyone sometime on Monday to let them know. So when Monday night came and we still had not heard anything I once again felt as if Monday had failed me. But on Tuesday morning there was an email from our agency saying we had an appointment with the MOE (Ministry of Education) on Wednesday morning, July 18th.

So back to Monday morning. We left the house around 7:30 a.m. Our flight did not leave until 1:30 p.m. but we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time. We found parking at a Marriott Hotel for the week and they shuttled us to the airport. (the hotel was less expensive than the long term airport parking lots and it was closer with covered parking).

Check in to the airlines was a breeze but getting through security took a little over an hour. You have got to love LAX (not). After we got through security we decided to exchange some money for rubles. Then we found our gate and went to eat lunch. We ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck and it was not very good at all and very expensive. Not loving the whole airport food thing. They really know how to get you. I was also extremely frustrated at LAX because they had horrible Wifi connections. I was not able to post things I wanted to be able to post. I did get a picture of our plane though.

We then boarded our 10 hour flight to Amsterdam. The longest I have ever flown is 5 hours so this was not a fun flight for me at all. Steve is used to flying business class when he travels to France so this was a little bit of a switch for him too. Our seats were extremely cramped. I cannot imagine a very big person even being able to fit in them. Steve had no leg room at all as the set in front of him was built over some kind of box. I tried to sleep but it just wasn't happening. Our plane was very nice though and had individual TV's with movies you could watch. Except mine was having issues. I wore my flight socks and walked around a couple times to keep my feet and legs from swelling. I was so excited when we finally arrived the next morning in Amsterdam (located in North Holland - remember when we set off on this journey I told you all we were going to Holland  -The Poem about Holland refers to families that will be parenting a child with special needs. I had not idea I was actually going to fly to Holland to get to Russia. It just seemed so fitting when I finally figured it out).

I cannot wait for Natasha to be home and wearing this shirt. The Amsterdam Airport was huge and very nice. But you cannot go sit in the boarding area until one hour before your flight. So we ended up walking around and then sitting in Starbucks to wait for our flight to leave.

Our next flight was from Holland to Russia. It was only a 2 hour flight and was so much better even though it was on a smaller plane. When we arrived I felt like a fish out of water. It was 5:30 p.m. there on Tuesday and I was completely exhausted. We had to fill out some sort of paperwork and did it wrong. We just needed to fill out both halves so they did not look happy with us at the window. I felt a little uneasy being in a country where I had no idea what the language was. There were some signs in English though. We did not have to wait long for our luggage but there was a mix-up with our driver. We had told our agency in the US that we did not need their driver to take us back to the airport. Apparently, she wrote and told the Russia agency that we didn't need their driver for the airport at all. We waited about 45 minutes looking for him and then found out that I misplaced the paper that had the agency contact info on it. I know,what a paper to misplace. So we called our son at home and woke him up. We were finally able to get a hold of someone and she took care of it for us. Not the best way to start out your trip in a foreign country when you are exhausted but it all worked out fine. Our driver was extremely kind and we are so grateful to him for taking us to our English speaking hotel.

We got checked in around 8:30 p.m. and went to bed around 10:00 p.m. It was still light out when we fell asleep. We are told that it gets dark this time of year from about 12:00 a.m. until about 4:30 a.m. but it always looks like dusk outside. Never completely black. We woke up around 3:30 a.m. and could not get back to sleep.