Part 2 of 4: First Contact

Once we arrived in Kirov, we were ready to go straight to the orphanage. However, there was other business to take care of. First we went to the hotel, dropping off our bags. The hotel was an interesting hodge podge; some rooms had been recently renovated (like ours), others were extremely dated (Gene & Cara received one of those rooms). From the hotel, we were driven to the Ministry of Education. Andre, the coordinator, needed to drop off some paperwork. Finally, we were on our way to the orphanage.

We arrived at the building and were shown to a big open room where we would wait to meet the children. Maura and Michael (an English couple that were also adopting), were already in the room playing with a little girl. We introduced ourselves and soon found out that they were completing the adoption process that day. They were picking up their little girl and would be departing that afternoon for Moscow. Maura and Michael were extremely helpful in filling us in on details of what to expect over the next hours, days, and weeks. They also gave us good information about the food and drink options in Kirov.

At this time, we also met a wonderful lady named Olga who would be our translator over the next couple of days. After verifying our name and the name of the child we were adopting, she left to go get our son. Both of our families nervously awaited Olga’s return, anxious to see who would meet their child first.

Finally, the moment arrived. Our little boy was brought in first, a wonderful, beautiful, happy little boy. He is so big now, and looks nothing like the picture we received for the referral. Our first thought was, “Did they bring us the right child?” He is as blond as can be with beautiful blue eyes. Later, we found out that Gene used his video recorder to capture the moment that we met little A.

Our boy is so good natured, and so big; we had a number of 9 month old outfits, but we don’t think any are going to be big enough for him. He crawls all over the place, and loves walking when he is hanging on to our hands. He can also pull himself up. Kathy was lying on her side, and he crawled over to her, and pulled himself up. Alan of course had him laughing and giggling within the first 15 minutes we were playing with him.

After soaking in the enjoyment of meeting the chap, we did the basic medical checks that were suggested by our adoption doctor. He has a really strong grip, and can hold items in either hand. We put a rattle on either side of his head and shook it to make sure he could hear it. There is definitely nothing wrong with his hearing. We did the same type of thing for his eyes, moving the rattle from side-to-side. He passed all of the tests with flying colors, and surpassed our expectations of his development.

After an exciting morning, the three families left the orphanage to have some lunch. We went to a local café in Kirov, that had excellent food. It was very enjoyable getting to know the other couples, but each of us were distracted thinking about the children waiting for us at the orphanage.

In the afternoon, we met the orphanage director. She spent a lot of time trying to sell us on A being “a good healthy boy, worthy of adoption”. She didn’t need to do that though; we were hooked on him from the first moment we saw him. When they brought us paperwork to sign stating that we officially wanted to petition the court, we couldn’t sign it fast enough.

Once the paperwork was done, we spent more time with A. Alan used his “Uncle Al-Pal” powers to discover what A enjoyed doing most. He enjoyed chewing and drooling on the soft toys we brought, and had some interest in a little truck that stacked up with blocks. But A’s true favorite activity was bouncing. He absolutely loves to bounce, never taking a rest. Alan would hold on to him, lift him into the air, and the giggling permeated the room. When his feet touched the ground again, he would bounce 3 times, and then gaze expectantly at Alan, waiting to be lifted into the air again. Over and over, he was a bouncing maniac. We decided that one of his nicknames was definitely going to be Tigger, because bouncing was absolutely his thing.

Eventually, it was time to leave. None of us wanted to leave the children there, but there had been so much time spent playing and bouncing, that all of us (including the children) needed to rest. Maura and Michael departed early to catch the train to Moscow, while the rest of us returned to the hotel. That night, we had dinner and drinks with Cara and Gene at the hotel restaurant (pectopaHt in Cyrillic).

On the second day, we spent more time playing with the chap. We had about a 45 minute wait to start the day, as our little guy hadn’t slept well overnight. He was still recovering from the pneumonia that developed while he was in the hospital, and we had worn him out! Later on the 2^nd day, Olga took us up to the baby room. We got to see where he sleeps, and each got to help feed him. We also saw all of the other babies in his room (all adorable).

During the afternoon of the second day, A started to get a little fussy. He was very tired, due to the exertion from the first day, and the changes in his schedule on the second. Otherwise, A never seemed to get upset. Once, he dropped a plastic block on his head, and started to cry. It only took 5 seconds of Alan blowing bubbles on his belly, and he was giggling again like nothing had happened.

Finally, it was time to leave. Taking A back up to his room was heart wrenching for us, because we knew this was the last time we’d get to see him for at least a month. It was a somber ride to the train station that night, but we knew we would be back soon. Luckily the dining cart had good beer and good vodka. Soon we celebrating our good fortune at the opportunity to adopt such wonderful children.

The whole experience was amazing. We feel blessed and so grateful for the opportunity to be parents to this beautiful little boy. We are expecting to receive an official court date soon, and are hopeful that court and the 10 day waiting period will pass without incident. We are not able to post any pictures of him yet, as we need to wait until both of those events occur.

Tomorrow: The 8 Doctor Medical (insert dramatic music)

Part 1 of 4: The Road to Kirov

“Of course I am sure. You go tonight. You be in Kirov already tomorrow morning.” With those words, our well laid plans for our first Russia trip became irrelevant, and we stepped through the looking glass.

We left St. Paul on Sunday morning, the 13^th of June. Our first flight to Atlanta was uncomfortable but also uneventful. Upon leaving the gate on our Moscow flight, the power promptly failed, necessitating a return to the gate, and a wait of over an hour. Finally, we departed the US, and after a 10 hour flight (and 9 hour time change), we arrived in Moscow on Monday at approximately 11 AM.

Our original schedule had us resting in Moscow for just over 24 hours, and then traveling to Kirov Tuesday evening via train to arrive early Wednesday. Less than 3 hours into our hotel stay, the phone rang. It was Ilya, a representative from the adoption coordinators:

Ilya: “We will be there at 5 PM to pick you up.” (It was 3:30 at the time)
Kathy: “Today?!?!?!?”
Ilya: “Yes, you go to Kirov tonight”
Kathy: “Are you sure? We were told we were leaving tomorrow.”
Ilya: “Of course I am sure. You go tonight. You be in Kirov already tomorrow morning.”

We had been warned that plans could change quickly, once we arrived in Moscow. Even so, we were a bit grumbly that we would not be able to use the comfortable bed we had just used lots of Marriot Rewards points to purchase. Eventually we decided that meeting our little man a day early outweighed the value of a bed, and we were off. We showered quickly, re-packed our stuff, and headed out.

At the train station, we were introduced to another couple heading to Kirov to adopt, Cara and Gene (from Houston). They were traveling to adopt a 3 year old boy. Just before 7pm Monday evening, we boarded the train. Our driver Constantin gave us a few words of wisdom before the train took off:

1. Andre (our coordinator) would be in a room a few cars ahead of ours.
2. We should speak to the attendant if we wanted to lock our rooms while we went to eat dinner.
3. We would arrive in Kirov at approximately 7:50am the next morning, Andre would meet us on the platform at that time.
   
4. (This would prove to be most important) When using the bathroom, all paper products must be thrown in the trash.

With those words of wisdom, our 500 mile journey northeast to Kirov began.

The train ride itself was quite an adventure. For those familiar with the Harry Potter books, think “Hogwarts' Express.” We were lucky to have a Russian gentleman that spoke some English in the room next to us. He pointed out landmarks along the way, that we would not have noticed otherwise.

Since we were traveling very close to the summer solstice, the sun did not set until about 11 PM, which gave us plenty of time to enjoy the views. Unfortunately, sunrise was around 3 AM, a mere 4 hours after sunset. Along with the constant motion of the train, this made sleeping quite a challenge.

We were up early the next morning, ready to get off the train at the designated time of 7:50am. Fortunately, the nice man in the room next to us stopped us from exiting the train. What we didn’t realize was that the train had encountered some delays during the night, so our arrival in Kirov was postponed. Had he not stopped us, we would have gotten off the train a few towns (and approximately 75 miles) early! Cara and Kathy spent the next 90 minutes gazing longingly out the train windows, waiting to see Kirov roll in to view. Finally, at approximately 9:30 AM on Tuesday, after more than 14 hours on the train, we arrived in Kirov.

Tune in tomorrow for our next entry, meeting our son.

The time has come!

Greetings PBC blogospherians,

we've got good news! After five weeks in the hospital, our little chap has been released! While a hospital stay that long sounds very serious to the American sensibility, we've discovered that the Russian hospital system is almost a complete opposite of ours. The first two weeks were hospital mandated recovery time from his surgery (the actual recovery time is five days). During that time he caught the flu, so he had three additional weeks of mandated recovery time.

Unfortunately, there were communication difficulties between the hospital, orphanage, our adoption agency, and us. Since his first trip to the hospital, we have scheduled and canceled three trips to Russia.

Finally, we can say that Trip #4 is a go. We've had the tickets scheduled for a few weeks now, but after scheduling and re-scheduling our trip so many times, we didn't want to jinx it. Soon we'll be off to Russia, to meet our little guy for the first time. Both Kathy and I are very excited to finally be heading over. The next few weeks are going to be a flurry of activity!

Information will be spotty until we return from Russia. To those who already know various details, we ask that you keep them private. Until we sign the papers of intent to adopt, there is always the possibility that something can change.

Going radio silent,
Agent Al-Pal

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!