P is for Patience

We would like to tell you we are in Russia right now, but we are not.

Last Wednesday, we got a call that A is still in the hospital. While he was recovering from his surgery, he picked up a flu bug. Since he has a fever, they will not release him to go back to the orphanage. While we were very disappointed, we know he is in the right place getting the care that he needs. We are still waiting for new travel dates, pending his release. We hope to hear soon that he has made a full recovery, and we can schedule our trip to meet him ASAP.

In the meantime, we have been busy preparing our house for a little one. We are starting to amass quite a pile of clothes, including (much to my dismay) Minnesota Viking's apparel -- Skol! {editor} I have a few items that are Chicago Bear's colors, but nothing with the Bear's logo YET (will have to plead for my family's assistance to remedy that). Alan's parents have been a great resource, visiting garage sales on a weekly basis. One of the best finds so far is a stroller for $7. It had $1.75 in quarters in one of the compartments, so the net cost was $5.25!! We also picked up a Baby Bjorn and some toys. Being the Quality Assurance Analyst that he is, Alan had to test out the Baby Bjorn right away using a talking stuffed creature I had purchased at the same garage sale. I use the word creature because I am not exactly sure what it is.

One other item of note is that we have received our I-171H, the "Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition." This means we have approval from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to bring an orphan in to the United States. We are now considered "paperwork ready," which is helpful in getting a court date once we get to Russia.

That is all for now. Please stay tuned to the blog for additional updates.

- Kathy

May 6th, 2010: A Day That Will Live in Infamy

‘A’s surgery is complete, our tickets to Moscow are booked, and everything looks like it is a go.

Right? Wrong.

After booking the plane tickets, Alan kept an eye on our reservations. The initial email confirmation from Cheap Tickets was correct, but the trip itinerary that LOT Polish Airlines showed was missing the segment from Warsaw to Moscow. The next morning, things got worse.

8:30 am: Cheap Tickets updated their itinerary to match LOT. Our trip was now a one-way flight, with a five-day layover in Warsaw. Further investigation online showed that the flight we had been booked on, was no longer available. For the next 2 ½ hours, Alan had to stay on hold with Cheap Tickets while they attempted to contact LOT, while still teleconferencing in to many work meetings.

11:00 am: All itinerary issues were resolved.

11:45am: Kathy calls Alan to let him know that new information had arrived. Even though the recovery time for ‘A’s surgery was five days, the Russian government mandates that orphaned children stay in the hospital for two weeks following surgery. ‘A’ would not be at the orphanage in time for our trip, so our trip was delayed by approximately two weeks.

12:45 pm: After approximately 60 minutes of swearing, Alan begins the process of cancelling the reservations he had just worked to get corrected. Surprisingly, cancelling the flights and getting an (almost) complete refund takes much less time than it did to correct the original itinerary.

7:00 pm: With the new itinerary in hand, Alan is able to book new flights to Moscow. In a stroke of luck, the new tickets cost less, have one less layover, and feature an overnight stay in Amsterdam, one of the more interesting cities in the world.

So after all of the stress of the day, it turned out that the change in plans was a good thing. On Friday, news reports started coming out that the Icelandic volcano was spewing ash again, causing most flights to be diverted to a more southern flight path. The addition of 2 hours of transatlantic flight would have caused us even more headaches, as we had only a 1hr 10minute layover in Warsaw.

25,000 miles to go

After our return from San Diego, we completed the last of the dossier requirements. They were sent to Adoption Options, and we were sent the referral for an 8 ½ month old boy (we’ll call him ‘A’). There was one minor concern with this referral, a correctable medical condition called a diaphragmatic hernia.

Note: A HIGHLY recommended step is to work with a US doctor that specializes in international adoptions. This specialist takes all of the information provided in the referral (photo, medical history, measurements, etc.) and provides the prospective parents information they need to consider when accepting or rejecting the referral.

On April 28th, we were told the surgery was scheduled for May 11th. Alan figured that this meant we would be leaving sometime around the 16th, since recovery time was listed as five days. Enough time to plan our work schedules, pack, and get everything we needed for our first trip. Or so we thought.

April 30th brought new information: There had been a miscommunication, and the surgery was not going to be scheduled until after the first visit. So instead of arriving around the 16th, we were now booked to arrive in Moscow on May 12th by 2pm. This would allow us to catch an overnight train ride, to arrive in the city where ‘A’ was. We still needed to meet with our specialist, decide on the referral, and book our travel plans (all by Tuesday the 4th).

Alan had some concerns about scheduling our first visit before the surgical procedure took place. Once we made that first visit, we were going to be 100% emotionally invested. What would we do if there were surgical complications?

Our international adoption specialist, Dr. Bledsoe, was able to answer all of the questions and concerns that we had. In her estimation, ‘A’ was an excellent adoption referral. His growth matched expected patterns and there was evidence he had received pre-natal care. She was able to arrange an orphanage conference call, communicating directly with the doctor in charge of ‘A’s medical care.

When they spoke, we got one heck of a surprise. The surgery had already taken place! There were no complications, and ‘A’ would be fully recovered before we arrived. We booked airline tickets to leave on May 10th, reserved transportation and a Moscow hotel, and were on our way to visit in less than a week!

We will be making two trips from Minnesota to the Russian orphanage. Each MSP to Moscow flight is 5730 miles. The train ride to ‘A’s orphanage is an additional 500 miles. By the time we are done with planes, trains, and automobiles, our Russian travels will add up to 25,000 miles or more.

Will the trip go that smoothly? Stay tuned for part 3

Fish Tacos, Green Flashes, and a Referral

A few weeks ago, we flew out to San Diego to meet with people from our adoption agency, Adoption Options. Getting a chance to meet Brent, Michelle, and Natasha was great; it gave Kathy an opportunity to put faces to her constant phone companions of the past two months. They reviewed the dossier with us, and Kathy received many compliments on her orderly (and sticky noted) documentation. Brent, the director, showed us examples of the types of referrals we would receive once we were at the top of the list. A referral is a packet of information that contains a child's photo and medical history.

One particular little boy caught our eye. He was just 8 ½ months old, and cute as a button. Perhaps the happiest coincidence was that his given name was identical to the name we had discussed, prior to our travels. On our way out of the office, we both said we wanted a chance to adopt him.

The rest of the trip was spent enjoying the cold weather of San Diego with our friend Eric (who lives just 10 miles from the adoption agency). He was an extremely gracious host, and over the next 3 days showed us the best that San Diego had to offer:
· Fish Tacos and a beautiful sunset (complete with Green Flash) at the South Beach Bar and Grille
· Snow on the mountains (we weren’t as impressed as Eric had hoped we would be)
· Excellent vintages (including a $98 bottle opened for us by the vineyard owner) while touring the wineries of Temecula
· Beer, food, and highway adventures at a gigantic brewery / restaurant called Stone Brewing Company
· The beaches and beautiful turn-of-the-century Hotel on Coronado Island
· Panda Adventures at the San Diego Zoo
· Authentic Mexican food in Old Town (a highlight for Kathy)
· In-n-Out Burger (a highlight for Alan)
· The inspiring view from atop Mt. Soledad

Less than 24 hours after we returned home, the last piece of our dossier was complete. Kathy sent our psych evaluation off to Brent, and he sent back good news. We had a referral, and it was the 8 ½ month old boy we had seen during our visit! Another family had turned his referral down, because he was born with a diaphragmatic hernia. The condition was easily correctable, but this other family decided to pass on him.

Check back tomorrow, for part two!