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

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….

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