2 days!

And we are getting ready to leave. Our flight is at 6pm tonight. We should arrive in Moscow tomorrow and then take the overnight train to Bryansk and arrive there sometime Monday morning. Then hopefully not long after we will be making the trek to Klintsy and have Aaden in our arms forever!

We won't be near internet again until at least Monday sometime so I'm not sure when I'll post again. Depending on how busy things are, I may be able to walk down to the post office (the only internet in Bryansk) and share the good news on Monday. I will do my best. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and love.

3 days...

and I've been too busy packing to post. But we are so excited, the time is almost here :) We leave for Russia tomorrow!

4 days....

and I think we are about ready. The house is baby proofed, the carseats are in, and all the baby gear is put together. We are stocked with diapers, baby food, and other necessities. All that is left is to pack and get over there to meet Aaden on Monday. Time to relax (or at least try to) and enjoy these moments for what they are. Hmm...the house is so quiet and peaceful right now. Will I miss this? Nah, I don't think so ;)

The Countdown Begins! 5 days

In 5 days we will have Aaden in our arms. It's hard to believe it is finally here. Today I woke up and did laundry. It was my first time folding tiny clothes. So many mothers do this on a daily basis but for me, today, it seemed miraculous. I am finally able to do these things for my son.

As I leave to run some errands I turn back in my car as I back out of the driveway, there is a baby seat strapped snuggly in the middle of the back seat. As I come home from errands, I open my door to find a cabinet full of toys, a basket of baby books, a changing area, and a new stroller waiting for its little rider to come home next week. I drop off my bags in the kitchen and there’s a high chair and my cabinets now hold baby food and tiny plates, bowls, and sippy cups. I go upstairs and there is a baby’s room. Yes, it has been there for 2 months but this is the first time I am really feeling what it means. I have a son and he will be in that room next week.

Wow, how amazing is that.

Trip 2: The Movie

As promised, here is the video from our second trip. I apologize that it is so long but utimately it is for Aaden and I want him to see everything. If you want to skip to the really good part - our time with Aaden - just forward to about the 4:30 mark. Enjoy! :)



P.S. - I have to defend my little guy here. He is a MUCH better walker than he looks in this video. His shoes were 2 sizes too big, rock hard, and went up over his ankles. But he was still trying hard :)

We're Home

As promised, here are some new pictures of Aaden:
















Unfortunately these are about the only new photos we had time to get. It was a 2.5 hour drive from where we were staying & the court to his baby home. We were hoping to visit him after court but the social worker for the baby home insisted that we had to see him before court (that is protocol for that area but sometimes they make exceptions). Since court was at 11am the first morning we arrived in Bryansk, we had to leave at 5:30am to get out there and then had very little time with him before we had to turn around to make it to court on time. I did get video this time since our video camera was working and I will post that this weekend once I have it all downloaded.

Here are some pictures of the city of Bryansk. This is where our hotel was and the court, Aaden is staying in Klintsy.

The Court House. We wanted to get a picture of Michael and I on the steps after the hearing but we were told you are not allowed to take pictures of the courthouse at all because everything that happens there is suppose to be secret. We got this quick shot of it though when nobody was looking :)

Bryansk Center with statue of Lenin:

The city park:

Our hotel:

It's Official!

We are Aaden's parents! We had court this morning and the judge declared us his parents. Tomorrow starts the 10 day waiting period when they will do all the paperwork and we will pick him up for good on June 2nd.

We got to see him briefly this morning too and he was all smiles :) Although I'm sure he doesn't know who we are yet it sure seemed liked he did. We are looking forward to getting him home and starting our life with him. We're not in a good place to post photos so it will have to wait until Thursday when we are home. Sorry!

Besides all the long travel these past few days, everything else went very smoothly. The medical exams in Moscow yesterday were a breeze. All they did was ask a few questions, listen to our hearts, and check our reflexes. Today, we were in and out of court in about 30 minutes which is very quick we were told. They asked Michael most of the questions so it was even easier for me.

We leave Bryansk tomorrow and will fly home tomorrow night. I promise to post new pictures of Aaden on Thursday.

On our way to Russia

In a few hours we'll be leaving here and heading to Russia! I can't believe the time is finally here. I'll be able to post on Sunday and/or Monday when we are in Moscow but I'm not sure after that. Our time is tight in Bryansk and the only internet is at the post office so I don't know if we'll get there. Then we go straight back to Moscow and hop on a plane home.

Our court date is on Tuesday in Bryansk at 11am (3am EST)so please say a little prayer for us before you go to bed Monday night that all will go smoothly. We are told this is mostly a formality but it's still makes us a little nervous. After court, we'll get to visit with Aaden - the best part of the trip. And then we'll get the train back to Moscow and go straight to the airport to fly home. See you next week!

2 days and counting...

This time on Saturday we will be over the Atlantic on our way to Russia! We FINALLY got our Visas and passports today. The Visa is glued into your passport so you have to send them to the Russian Consulate in NYC. It's a little nerve wracking to send your passports out via Fed-Ex and hope you get them back on this end. They were supposed to be in yesterday but Fed-Ex arrived early and they missed the shipment. Luckily they finally arrived tonight and were in our hands by 7:30pm. Good thing we paid extra to have them rushed so they would arrive Wednesday instead of Friday. We would have been in trouble if they missed Fed-Ex on Friday! Now I just need to finish packing...

Plane tickets...check

Hotel reservations....check. Paperwork...check. Still waiting on Visas.

We are getting there! 4 more days until we leave for our court date in Russia and a short visit with Aaden. I still have all the packing to do but that should be the easy part. Running around getting the paperwork from everywhere, making sure there isn't one little thing wrong with it, getting it notarized and then aposilled was the hard part. Now that it is done I am breathing easier. Just keeping our fingers crossed that the Visas and passports come back tomorrow as scheduled.

Two trips to Aaden

We've decided to break it up to two shorter trips instead of one long 3 week stay in Russia. We were orginally planning on staying during the 10 day waiting period between the two court dates but we have been told we won't get to visit with Aaden during that time. Since the incentive for staying is no longer there, coming home for those 10 days in the middle will give Michael 7 vacation days back to take some time off this summer and it will give me a chance to do some last minute things around the house like baby proofing & putting all the baby gear together. We were not prepared to get a call this early (not that I'm complaining!) so this time back home will give me a chance to knock off a few more things on my to-do list.

The court is requesting extra paperwork so I've spent the last 24 hours figuring that out and am working on getting our Visas. Plane tickets are booked for the next trip and hotel will be next.

We are getting there! 9 more days and counting...

We got THE call!!!

Who knew how wrong I would be when I posted yesterday we would not be traveling this month? I am happy to say we got THE call today and will be leaving for Russia on May 17th! We were told we wouldn't hear anything until June so it took us by complete surprise. But what a very good surprise. Of course, we are completely not ready but he's got a room to sleep in and two very excited parents who love him so I'm sure the rest will just work itself out. Looks like we'll probably be taking 2 short trips instead of 1 long 3 week trip because we won't be able to visit Aaden for the 10 day waiting period. We should be bringing him home on or around June 7th. I'll post more details before we leave.

What's been keeping us busy?

We've had no updates from the adoption agency, so how have we kept busy. Finishing Aaden's room, of course! It is all set now so I thought I'd post it for you to check out. Here is the first video of Aaden's room starring Zoe the wonder cat ;)

Some of the video got a little dark so here are some photos:

Getting the room ready was the fun part for me. Now we have to start thinking about baby proofing the house - not so much fun. We may hold off for another week or two since it doesn't look like we'll be going to Russia this month.