I went to see the little man Friday afternoon. He was happy to see the car in my bag but took everything out of the bag looking for the second car. I can’t put anything past him; he’s a smart little boy who will keep me on my toes. When he left me he had the car in one had and the bag of cookies in the other, he knows what he likes, cars and his food!
From there I went to the airport, despite heavy snow in Moscow and fight delays on both flights, I made it home Saturday night. Now I have more paperwork to prepare. Once mine is done and the paperwork that needs to be completed in country is done, it will all be submitted to the court and I will wait for a court date. I’ll keep you posted.
I thank all of you for following my blog, for your posts, for your words of encouragement and prayers. I’ll post again soon. Chris
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Better Day
This morning I was unable to see the little man because I had to take care of some paperwork. The papers I signed today will officially begin the process of me bringing him home. We still have a lot of work to do and this will take several months, but I made the decision that I want to adopt this boy and bring him home; so the next step in the process has begun.
The little man and I had a much better visit this afternoon than yesterday. He was happy and playful. The only problem was he was most happy about a couple of cars I borrowed from Michael & Jennifer. I had to return the cars to them which meant taking them away from him when I was getting ready to leave, let the crying begin. I gave him a cookie to ease the pain of loosing the cars, he stopped crying and took the whole bag of cookies, and apparently he was not leaving me empty handed! He waved victoriously as he walked down the hall away from me.
Tomorrow I will see him once more before I leave for Moscow. I couldn’t very well leave him without a car of his very own. Before dinner we walked over to the toy store and got him a little red car, he will be a happy boy tomorrow.
Have a good night. Chris
Posted February 18, 2010 10:40 PM
The little man and I had a much better visit this afternoon than yesterday. He was happy and playful. The only problem was he was most happy about a couple of cars I borrowed from Michael & Jennifer. I had to return the cars to them which meant taking them away from him when I was getting ready to leave, let the crying begin. I gave him a cookie to ease the pain of loosing the cars, he stopped crying and took the whole bag of cookies, and apparently he was not leaving me empty handed! He waved victoriously as he walked down the hall away from me.
Tomorrow I will see him once more before I leave for Moscow. I couldn’t very well leave him without a car of his very own. Before dinner we walked over to the toy store and got him a little red car, he will be a happy boy tomorrow.
Have a good night. Chris
Posted February 18, 2010 10:40 PM
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Distracted
Today was another busy day, I went to see the little man twice again today. I think he is coming down with a cold, he had a runny nose and seemed to be very distracted. Hopefully he’ll feel better tomorrow.
Here's a few pictures from yesterday's walk over to the Kremlin. You can see it was a nice day, we had about two hours of sunshine, that’s been about the only sunshine we’ve seen all week. Goodnight. Chris
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Posted February 17, 2010 9:15 PM
Here's a few pictures from yesterday's walk over to the Kremlin. You can see it was a nice day, we had about two hours of sunshine, that’s been about the only sunshine we’ve seen all week. Goodnight. Chris
A statue of Stalin.
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The Kremlin.
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Posted February 17, 2010 9:15 PM
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Toys & Snacks
Today was a busy day, I went to see the little man twice. Each time I visit him he seems more comfortable with me and I with him. Here’s really enjoying the toys I brought with me and loves the snacks. I read a book to him yesterday during our first visit, he would not let it go and took it with him when he left me yesterday. I was told today that he takes it with him everywhere and he even slept with it last night. I guess he likes the alphabet!
Today was a warmer day here, snow was melting everywhere. In between visits, Jennifer, Michael and I walked over to see the Kremlin and took a few pictures. I posted a couple of them below.
I’m tired, going to bed now, I’ll update again soon. Chris
Posted Tuesday February 16, 2010 11:40 PM
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Today was a warmer day here, snow was melting everywhere. In between visits, Jennifer, Michael and I walked over to see the Kremlin and took a few pictures. I posted a couple of them below.
I’m tired, going to bed now, I’ll update again soon. Chris
Posted Tuesday February 16, 2010 11:40 PM
Lunch at the Windmill Restaurant
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Monday, February 15, 2010
Big Day Today 2
February 15, 2010 8:26 PM
This morning I realized that my blog posts were being posted in Eastern Standard Time, instead of the actual date and time I am posting. I believe this is beacuse my blog was originally created in the Eastern time zone. If any of you fellow bloogers can let me know how to post in the time zone I'm in without having to schedule my posts eight hours in advance, please let me know. I put the correct time on the computer today thinking the blog posts would actually be in real time, but they are still posting in EST. I'm going to put the date and time of each post on each entry until I figure this out.
Anyway, today was a busy day; I had an early morning pickup to go for my ’interview’ at the Ministry of Social Welfare. The interview was very fast; it consisted of a review of my referral, a question about whether or not I would like to meet him and the signing and notarizing of some documents. Then it was off to the orphanage to review all of his documents and hear about his medical and social history. From there I went to see him. I had two visits with him today, he responded to me the way he should have when we first met, he cried (keep the wise cracks to yourselves). The second visit went better than the first; he warmed up quite a bit and was much more responsive. I’m hoping he progresses with each visit. I’ll see him two more times tomorrow and Wednesday then I will have to make my official decision by Thursday.
My room was changed today, I’m in a new room where I can actually walk without having to turn sideways, again, keep the wise cracks to yourselves. I just had dinner with Jennifer and Michael and I’m going to try to get some sleep tonight, I haven’t slept at all since I started this trip. Thanks for following along, Chris
This morning I realized that my blog posts were being posted in Eastern Standard Time, instead of the actual date and time I am posting. I believe this is beacuse my blog was originally created in the Eastern time zone. If any of you fellow bloogers can let me know how to post in the time zone I'm in without having to schedule my posts eight hours in advance, please let me know. I put the correct time on the computer today thinking the blog posts would actually be in real time, but they are still posting in EST. I'm going to put the date and time of each post on each entry until I figure this out.
Anyway, today was a busy day; I had an early morning pickup to go for my ’interview’ at the Ministry of Social Welfare. The interview was very fast; it consisted of a review of my referral, a question about whether or not I would like to meet him and the signing and notarizing of some documents. Then it was off to the orphanage to review all of his documents and hear about his medical and social history. From there I went to see him. I had two visits with him today, he responded to me the way he should have when we first met, he cried (keep the wise cracks to yourselves). The second visit went better than the first; he warmed up quite a bit and was much more responsive. I’m hoping he progresses with each visit. I’ll see him two more times tomorrow and Wednesday then I will have to make my official decision by Thursday.
My room was changed today, I’m in a new room where I can actually walk without having to turn sideways, again, keep the wise cracks to yourselves. I just had dinner with Jennifer and Michael and I’m going to try to get some sleep tonight, I haven’t slept at all since I started this trip. Thanks for following along, Chris
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Big Day Today
Well today’s the day I have been waiting for. I get picked up at 8:10 AM and it’s off to the Ministry of Education for my interview, to paraphrase the Beatles, ‘hopefully I passed the audition’ and they let me into the baby house to meet my boy.
Last night I met the other CHI couple that is adopting from Astrakhan now and is staying here at the Azimut, Michael and Jennifer. They are very nice people. They are on their court trip for siblings, a 4 year old girl and a 3 year old boy that they are adopting. They have an adopted 5 year old son, Daniel at home. They told me how their interview went and what I may be able to expect today.
I’m hoping today goes smoother than the previous few days, I think it has to! I appreciate all of your prayers, good wishes and posts to my blog. Hearing from people at home is a great comfort.
It's 6:20 AM on 2/15/10 in Astrakhan now, I’ll post again later, wish me luck! Chris
Last night I met the other CHI couple that is adopting from Astrakhan now and is staying here at the Azimut, Michael and Jennifer. They are very nice people. They are on their court trip for siblings, a 4 year old girl and a 3 year old boy that they are adopting. They have an adopted 5 year old son, Daniel at home. They told me how their interview went and what I may be able to expect today.
I’m hoping today goes smoother than the previous few days, I think it has to! I appreciate all of your prayers, good wishes and posts to my blog. Hearing from people at home is a great comfort.
It's 6:20 AM on 2/15/10 in Astrakhan now, I’ll post again later, wish me luck! Chris
Astrakhan Against The Odds
This morning I decided not to go to Red Square, it was snowing pretty hard and I didn’t want to take that long walk in the snow so I stayed at the hotel and did some things to prepare for tomorrow. I’ll see Red Square on my next trip.
At 2 PM my translator and driver showed up to take me to the airport as planned. When we got to the airport things began to change. Go with the flow, expect the unexpected, all things that are said repeatedly by adoptive families traveling all over the world to bring their children home. Well today’s trip to Astrakhan was just another example of expect the unexpected and maybe a little bit of just how much can you take? I checked in and my translator left me at the security gate. As I was going through a young officer came over and took my passport. He then started asking me several questions about where I was going and why and announced that my visa was wrong and that I could not fly on a tourist visa. I was able to fly on this visa from the US to Moscow, but apparently I can’t fly domestically within Russia on a tourist visa, it’s so much easier in the US, no visas to cross state lines, maybe it’s something we should think about, we could keep all those New Yorker’s out of Florida. Of course I have no way of knowing how to solve this but my translator has been well trained. Unbeknownst to me she had not left the airport, she was waiting to see if I cleared security and when I didn’t she came over and talked her way in to help me. A few phone calls and a lot of conversation and the young officer let me through the security area….. we’ll see if they let me fly back to Moscow on this visa, can’t wait!
Landing in the Astrakhan airport was different. We landed on an airfield where we had to get on a bus to take us to the terminal, I’ve done this before but the strange thing was the plane we were on was the only plane on the airfield, I guess we don’t have to worry about air traffic control here (see previous post about leaving JFK… ha ha ha).
Against the odds I made it to the hotel, not the one I thought I was going to, but that’s OK, I’m staying in the Azimut, it’s an older hotel right on the Volga river. A few minor problems here that my translator and coordinator are going to solve tomorrow, I was told not to unpack my suitcase, my coordinator had to pay for my room in cash tonight, etc. etc. One thing for sure is that I know I’m in good hands, I’m sure they will resolve everything tomorrow and hopefully tomorrows post will be without incident, one can only hope!!
Julian, great post, thanks for the laughs, much needed and I’ll be sure to count the layers of clothing tomorrow.
Happy Valentines Day! Chris
At 2 PM my translator and driver showed up to take me to the airport as planned. When we got to the airport things began to change. Go with the flow, expect the unexpected, all things that are said repeatedly by adoptive families traveling all over the world to bring their children home. Well today’s trip to Astrakhan was just another example of expect the unexpected and maybe a little bit of just how much can you take? I checked in and my translator left me at the security gate. As I was going through a young officer came over and took my passport. He then started asking me several questions about where I was going and why and announced that my visa was wrong and that I could not fly on a tourist visa. I was able to fly on this visa from the US to Moscow, but apparently I can’t fly domestically within Russia on a tourist visa, it’s so much easier in the US, no visas to cross state lines, maybe it’s something we should think about, we could keep all those New Yorker’s out of Florida. Of course I have no way of knowing how to solve this but my translator has been well trained. Unbeknownst to me she had not left the airport, she was waiting to see if I cleared security and when I didn’t she came over and talked her way in to help me. A few phone calls and a lot of conversation and the young officer let me through the security area….. we’ll see if they let me fly back to Moscow on this visa, can’t wait!
Landing in the Astrakhan airport was different. We landed on an airfield where we had to get on a bus to take us to the terminal, I’ve done this before but the strange thing was the plane we were on was the only plane on the airfield, I guess we don’t have to worry about air traffic control here (see previous post about leaving JFK… ha ha ha).
Against the odds I made it to the hotel, not the one I thought I was going to, but that’s OK, I’m staying in the Azimut, it’s an older hotel right on the Volga river. A few minor problems here that my translator and coordinator are going to solve tomorrow, I was told not to unpack my suitcase, my coordinator had to pay for my room in cash tonight, etc. etc. One thing for sure is that I know I’m in good hands, I’m sure they will resolve everything tomorrow and hopefully tomorrows post will be without incident, one can only hope!!
Julian, great post, thanks for the laughs, much needed and I’ll be sure to count the layers of clothing tomorrow.
Happy Valentines Day! Chris
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Moscow
I made it to Moscow although it was not the best flight I ever took, that’s for sure. One thing interesting about Aeroflot Airlines, they leave the cockpit camera on during takeoff and landing so you can see the runway and see the plane takeoff and land. Although I only thought this was interesting for a minutes. As we were gaining speed and about to lift off the ground at JFK all of a sudden the pilot slammed on the brakes and the plane slid sideways down the runway! Everyone in the plane went flying forward as we slid. A few moments later he made a very excited announcement in Russian over the public address system, for some reason his earlier announcements did not sound quite as excited as this one, I think I know why! About fifteen minutes after that one of the cabin crew made an announcement in Russian and then in English that we were in line for takeoff and that we would be taking off soon. Well two hours late we took off, had a very bumpy flight but ultimately arrived in Moscow safely.
I had a meeting this afternoon to prepare me for the next few days. Some of you will really appreciate this, they told me not to speak Russian to the baby, they said when Americans try to speak Russian, they just confuse the children, have they heard me speak? I am allowed to say yes, no and stop in Russian to the baby, that’s about all they want to hear from me. All those hours I spent trying to learn this language, all for nothing.
There is one phrase I can use and I plan on using it often, I can say ‘I don’t understand’ in Russian, I’ve already used that one today when I went to try to get something for dinner. Buying food in a supermarket is a ritual, I point at something that looks like I can eat it and hold my finger up to indicate I only want one. A young Russian man took pity on me tonight and helped me with the food I thought I wanted, he made a suggestion, it was a little Russian pizza, it wasn’t bad.
Tomorrow I’m going to take a walk to the Red Square in the morning then I leave for airport to go to Astrakhan at 2 PM. I’ll post again when I can. Chris
I had a meeting this afternoon to prepare me for the next few days. Some of you will really appreciate this, they told me not to speak Russian to the baby, they said when Americans try to speak Russian, they just confuse the children, have they heard me speak? I am allowed to say yes, no and stop in Russian to the baby, that’s about all they want to hear from me. All those hours I spent trying to learn this language, all for nothing.
There is one phrase I can use and I plan on using it often, I can say ‘I don’t understand’ in Russian, I’ve already used that one today when I went to try to get something for dinner. Buying food in a supermarket is a ritual, I point at something that looks like I can eat it and hold my finger up to indicate I only want one. A young Russian man took pity on me tonight and helped me with the food I thought I wanted, he made a suggestion, it was a little Russian pizza, it wasn’t bad.
Tomorrow I’m going to take a walk to the Red Square in the morning then I leave for airport to go to Astrakhan at 2 PM. I’ll post again when I can. Chris
Thursday, February 11, 2010
A Second Career?
For those of you who don't live in the New York area you may not know that we had a big snow storm yesterday, I think New York City got about a foot of snow. It looks beautiful but made traveling a bit difficult. Yesterday I may have discovered my second career, beacuse like the mailman, I didn't let the snow stop me. I had to go into the city, get a bunch of documents apostilled and most importantly pick up my passport and visa at the Russian Consulate. I did it all and was back home by 12:30, not too bad.
Now I have to get all of my paperwork together and finish packing so I can get on a plane tomorrow evening. Lots to do, the next time I post here it will be from Russia. Take care, Chris
Now I have to get all of my paperwork together and finish packing so I can get on a plane tomorrow evening. Lots to do, the next time I post here it will be from Russia. Take care, Chris
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Hurry Up & Wait, Then Hurry Up Again
Anyone who has been through this process understands it is a lot of hurry up and wait. As you go through it, you are driven to get all of your paper work done quickly so you can move ahead and then slow down and wait for the next step. Then all of a sudden something happens at home or in country and you have to prepare more paperwork or plan a trip as quickly as possible to the other side of the world or do both.
Well, if you haven’t guessed it, I’m doing both right now. I got a call on Wednesday asking if I could travel next week. I have a lot to do as I’m getting ready to leave for Russia, documents, visa, packing, plane tickets, etc. I’ll be leaving on the 12th for Moscow. From there I will travel to Astrakhan where I will spend the week. If things go well, by the time I come home on the 20th I will know my son. Stay tuned….
Well, if you haven’t guessed it, I’m doing both right now. I got a call on Wednesday asking if I could travel next week. I have a lot to do as I’m getting ready to leave for Russia, documents, visa, packing, plane tickets, etc. I’ll be leaving on the 12th for Moscow. From there I will travel to Astrakhan where I will spend the week. If things go well, by the time I come home on the 20th I will know my son. Stay tuned….
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Moving Very Quickly
I’m moving much faster than I thought I would in this process. My documents arrived in Russia on January 20th for translation and then region assignment, a process that normally takes about three weeks. On January 27th I received a call that there is a little boy in the Astrakhan Region that matches my home-study and is available for adoption. After several discussions with CHI and my adoption doctor, yesterday I let CHI know that I would like to start the process to go and meet this boy. I’m waiting for CHI to let me know what I need to do next, when I will travel, etc. I’ll post updates as I move forward.
In the mean time, if you would like to know more about Asterkhan, click on the link below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrakhan
In the mean time, if you would like to know more about Asterkhan, click on the link below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrakhan
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