Hello all,

Many of you have noticed in the one picture of Alex, it looks like something is near his ear. There is something near his ear, it is a bubble. We brought bubbles and our translator was blowing them and I was trying to catch his reaction and the bubbles in flight. That was the best I could do. Thanks for alll the emails expressing your queries.

Scott

Hello all,

We finally arrived home last night around 8:00 pm or so. We will update the blog later with more details. Thanks for reading.

Love, Scott and Cathy

Well, here we are in Moscow!

We arrived at aout 1:30 PM and met another CHI representative, Olga, for a city tour. This place is HUGE! We did a 3 hour tour and only got a glimpse of all the amazing sights. St. Basil's cathedral was like a fairytale! The Kremlin way bigger than we had imagined, although we were unable to visit the inside, because it was closed today, as was Lenin's tomb. We will inlcude a few pictures for you to view.

The hotel is fantastic~ and guess who is staying here to give a private party/concert tomorrow night?????????? Earth, Wind, & Fire!!!!!!! We included a picture to prove it! Isn't that wild?
We even ate next to one member of the band at dinner.

Russian language lesson for the day: Yite-za = eggs. eggs are quite the stable in ALL Russian dishes. For example, Scott order pork and it came surrounded in an egg and cheese pancake. I ordered a chicken breast...it came with egg laying on top of it. Tonight we ordered club sandwiches in an Americanized restaurant at the hotel....you guessed it, fried eggs were inlcuded in the layers. So, we will both be needing to seek yet ANOTHER specialist to adjust our cholesterol once we are home. Go figure.

Oh, important note...which we can not believe we forgot to tell you all. When we met Alex for the 1st time this past Monday, 4/17, it was his birthday. he turned 2 and we were there with him. How cool is that? So we are including another picture in which he is playing with 1 of his presents we gave him- ring stackers.

Our plane leaves tomorrow at 2:20 PM Moscow time, so I imagine we will be picked up by 10 AM or so. We will see you all soon!

loads-o-love,
Cathy & Scott

Hi everyone,

We are waiting for our driver to take us to Moscow. So we decided to check on the blog and make a small post.

As an FYI, you can click on any of the pictures, not once but twice to make them really big. We are both very anxious about our impending return schedule. It looks something like this working backwards: 5/19 @11:30 court date, 5/18 In country doctors visits, 5/17 Visit Alex again in Kashin, 5/16 arrive, 5/15 leave JFK (if we can, depends on flight schedules, maybe 14th). We are hoping that on our second trip, other couples are here again. Hopefully one will be working on their second trip as well. We have watched two families go through trip two together, and we can see the help and support they gave each other.

We plan on posting again tonight with pictures from Moscow. Rob, I know they do not allow cameras in Lenins tomb, but I will get a pic of the outside.

Talk to everyone later,

Love, Scott and Cathy

To everyone who have written us, we really appreciate the words of encouragement! Due to only having one hour on the PC, we cannot respond individually. But please know, that we are reading each one and your love and support has helped us each day.

Russian language lesson for the day: SHYOT = pronounced Shit also means "bill", like "May I have the bill, please?"

Anyway, moving on. Today our day consisted of sleeping in, as we did not have anything scheduled till 3:15, for a 4:00 pm meeting with the judge. We enjoyed breakfast, and then talked with two other couples from Pennsylvania who are staying here as well. They both adopted older children (Boy 9 Girl 8) through a summer hosting program. We will see them again tomorrow in Moscow. As they are staying at the same hotel.

Court was good, calm, and efficient. Our translator was great and our facilitator only made one comment. He stated that we should keep our answers, shorter, direct, and less detailed. He attributed this to our good natured hearts. The judge asked some bizzare questions and had a stone face. Other adoptive parents felt intimidated, but for us it seemed like it was a game to see if we whould crack under pressure. In any case our court hearing is set for 5/19 @ 11:30am that means we have to leave again for Russia on the 15th, arriving the 16th. We have a detailed schedule, but will post that at a later time.

Cathy and I walked about the town of TVER today. We did some soveniur (sp?) shopping, went into a Russian mall and took some pictures. Today we are including a picture of our facilitator (Alexyea - Male) and translator (Luba - Female), a picture of us in front of the court building, a picture we forgot to upload yesterday of the shopping district, and finally one of the University (AKA as High School).

Tonight we plan on finishing our beers, doing a little packing and attempting to order Pizza. We find it funny that the Russians copy many things of ours. Some examples are potato chips in different flavors, certain brands of clothing (big black market), candies, movies and the list goes on.

We are headed back to Moscow tommorrow at 10:00 am. At 1:00 we are scheduled for a tour of Red Square, Kremlin, the city itself, cathedrals and hopefully Lenins tomb (time permitting). I am not so sure we will update tomorrow, but we will try.

Love, Scott and Cathy

ahl-LO oht Tver!

Thank you to everyone that sent us their comments yesterday. It really put a smile on our faces today reading them. We miss all of you!

Well, after writing the blog last night, we went to dinner and met 4 other American families in the hotel- 1 of which was from the Poconos and the other from York, PA. All of them had done a summer hosting program and were adopting older kids- 6-7 years of age. It was great talking to them! We even ate with another couple from Boston, Paul & Sherry. We then retired to our room at around 10:30, read for a while, and then crashed. We had an early appt. today and had to be up at 6 AM.

We drove to the Baby House in Kashin again today to visit with Alex and meet Dr. Victoria K. She was an ENORMOUS help! She got more information from the orphanage officials and was able to go through all of his records. This poor little guy has been through so much. Some of the health information was overwhelming to say the least. We got some positive results and a few more issues to contend with. It was extremely overwhelming for Scott and I at the orphanage today. After the doctor's examination, we were given time alone with Alex and then was asked to make our decision. Let me just say, many tears were shed.

After they came back in to take Alex for dinner (lunch for us), Scott and I took a walk outside to talk things through. We discussed the doctor's findings, Alex's most recent test results from April (which we did not have previously), and whether we could make such a committment to this child. In our minds we knew that we could say "no" and ask for a different referral, but something kept us focused on him. In the end, the doctor was leaving to go back to Moscow and came over to us outside. She asked us if we were scared. Our response, "Of course." She then said to us, "I am not here to tell to you accept or decline a referrral. My job is to present you with all the facts. He is not the best referral I have seen, but is certainly not the worst. I hope that I have helped." Somehow, this conversation seemed to calm us.

So, after a few more minutes of debating, Scott and I went in and accepted Alex as our son. Yes, we realize this is going to be an incredible challenge. Yes, we realize there may be many health issues to deal with down the line. But, we are holding on to the fact that he has made large gains since October in height and weight.....that he is able to understand and follow directions....that he can stand up, walk, and run....that he can feed himself and drink from a cup...and that he is developmentally sharp and seems very intelligent. We honestly feel that with the proper nurishment, medical care, support, and love, we can give a wonderful life to him (and us!).
Call it a leap of faith- but we are in love with this little guy!

Following our trip to the Baby House, we then went directly to a notary and signed off on some acceptance papers. We will be getting call later tonight as to what time our meeting with the judge is tomorrow. This meeting will set our return date, which we have been told only takes a month in this region. We will fill you in with this information as soon as we get it :)

As of now, Scott and I are sitting here enjoying a Russian beer called...Афанасий which translates into Fafyfcbq. Yeah, exactly!!!! In any case, it's pretty good. We plan to go to the diningroom soon for another Russian specialty (which, by the way- everything has some form of egg on it, in it, around it). For example, last night Scott had a pork chop, which came with an egg and cheese pancake surrounding it. I had a chicken breast smoothered in eggs and cheese. Bizarre, what can I say.

Enjoy the pictures! The one is of the orphanage and it's playground. One is a nearby house across the street from the hotel. Another is of the hotel. Last, we included a picture of the shopping district here in Tver.

Until tomorrow- Dah zahv-trah!
lots of love,
Cathy & Scott

Greeting from Russia!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, Scott and I arrived safely in Moscow Sunday morning. Although getting to the airport went very smoothly, the flight took FOREVER!!! But, alas, we survived Aeroflot, the extreme heat on the plane, having to speak Russian, the 45 minute delay on the runway, and the 9 hour flight.
We were greeted at the airport by our CHI translator and facilitator, Luba & Alexeya, and were whisked away to Tver- another 2 hours by van.
During that first night, we unpackedand had our 1st Russian dinner- not so bad :) This was followed by an exciting night of ironing and we were in bed by 7 PM.
Today we were able to go and meet Alex in Kashin, which is another 2 hours north of Tver. And let me tell you, you thought some of the roads back home were bad??? OH NO! Nothing compares to the potholes and lack of maintenance here.
We are sorry this entry is so short, however, we have to go figure out what to eat and had to email the doctor all kinds of information. More details to come...enjoy the pictures.

Love,
Cathy and Scott

Ps....notice that Scott has scaled down trying caviar to trying caviar potato chips- hence the picture.
Pss....also note, there is, IN FACT, toilet paper here- of course, it is yellow and perfume scented. So fear not folks, our butts are smelling sweet & fresh!!!!!!!!
Psss...Here's Alex :)

You can click on the pics to make them bigger

Hello all,

Today is the day. We fly out on Aeroflot flight #316 out of JFK @ 6:40 tonight. We plan on leaving at 11:00am this morning, for our trek to the airport. We packed yesterday, one suitcase for us and two backpacks. You can track our flight here

Since the flight is alittle over nine hours and Russia is nine hours ahead, we should arrive sometime around noonish in Russia on Easter Sunday. My thoughts are, based on peoples previous experience, maybe an hour to get through customs. Then of course is the the 2.5-3 hour ride to get to our region, TVER. In all I believe we should be in the hotel by Sunday at 5ish. I know we will have to stay up, till at least 9:00pm. Of course the sun is not setting there till about 9:00pm and is up at 6:00am, this is somewhat different then home.

Wish us luck heading to Russia. Have a Happy Easter.

Till next time.

Hello all,

Cathy and I went to Harrisburg again to Apostille some more documents. Uggh, this is getting old. On schedule tomorrow, is goto the bank to pick up some cash, CVS, goto Cathys Mom and her Dad to drop off an emergency contact list, gas up the car, drop off our dog Chloe and of course PACK.

It is getting down to the wire here. We will leaving for JFK airport at 11:00 am on Saturday for our 6:40 pm flight. Hopefully we will not hit any accidents or traffic jams.

We will post again tomorrow.

Hello all,

Just wanted to remind you of our hotel and the links to them.

While in Moscow we will stay here www.courtyardmoscow.com

This is a brand new hotel which opened a few months ago. It is centrally located downtown near the Kremlin, Red Square and of course Lenins tomb.

While in the region we will be staying at the Best Eastern here
http://www.besteastern.com/online/gethoteldescription.asp?id=9900085

Below are some helpful tips if and when you may need to contact us;

Keep in mind that, although many Russians working in the tourist industry speak some English, many others don't speak any English at all

Dial 011, the international access code.

Dial 7, the Russian country code.

the area code for Tver the city is 0822. The area code for TVER the region is 082. Since we will be staying the city proper, use 0822. If you have problems hit 00 on your phone and ask for the international operator and he or she will dial it for you.

and then the rest of the number.

Till next time.

Hello all,

Just as an FYI. I finally disabled the "you must register to comment feature". All readers can now post comments without having to register. I feel this will be a great way to keep dialogue going on while we are in Russia.

Well, so far this week we have been working on our rather large "to do" list. Today is the only day we have chosen to try and do school work. Our goal is to spend about 1/2 the day doing that and the other half adoption related stuff.

For those of you who read this blog and know my good friend Noel Pelletier, he was hospitalized late Saturday night. It was determined there was something wrong with his appendix. He had an apendectomy early Sunday morning. We plan on visiting him sometime today. He arrived home yesterday and is feeling "OK".

Till next time.

Hello All,

I am testing the upload picture feature. I do not want to become frustrated with the process working on a computer that will predominatelybe a WINXP operating system but written in cyrillic.

I am going to post a picture of our recently made over dining room. I added a chair rail, shadow boxes and painted two different colors.

Hello All,

Funny thing yesterday, I was spreading the remainder of mulch around our house, and Chloe (our dog) was going nuts at the front window. I was in the back of the house, so Cathy decided to see what was up at the front of the house.

She happened to look out our dining room window, and notice this FED EX envelope in our front garden. No note left on our door, no door bell ring, nothing. Of course Cathy went outside to get it and open it. Wouldn't you know, it was from our adoption agency with our Passports and Russian Visa's. I am pretty ticked off at FED EX, what would have happened had not our dog got upset with the envelope and started barking profusely? The end result would be rain soaked passports and visas. I am not done dealing with that FED EX delivery person yet.

Till next time.

Hello all,

Just an update. We have our plane tickets in hand. Still working on our updated medicals. Since next week is our Spring Break, we are going to take a different task each day and slowly knock them off our "Pre-Travel" check off list. Of course we will be traveling again to Harrisburg, PA to have more of our papers apostilled.

I feel like Cathy and I are getting ready to drive the Space Shuttle with the amount of activities we need to accompolish before we leave.

Till next time.

Hello All,

An update on what is going on. We booked our flights last friday. We are definetely leaving on 4/15 for TVER. Our flight leaves JFK at 6:40pm arriving 12:00 noon in Moscow the next day. Time difference is 9 hours. I am not so sure they practice daylight savings. For some reason I think they do not.

We will then board a van for the 2.5 hour ride to the region of TVER. Not so sure if we will get a chance to goto Easter Service in TVER, but we are going to try.

Tentative schedule of events:

On Monday we go to the Baby House and see Alex. At that time we will go through a medical exam with a Russian doctor and our translator. We may also bring a western trained doctor along as well. If we are OK with Alex, then we will state our intention to adopt or not.

On Tuesday, I beleive we will go back to the Baby House, spend some time with Alex and possibly go through the 8 doctor medical exam for us.

Not sure about Wednesday yet.

Thursday travel back to Moscow for some sight seeing.

Friday travel back to the USA.

Still working on our extensive check off list of things to do before we travel.

Till next time.