WE HAD TO SAY GOODBYE TODAY

Hi everyone,

This morning we had to say goodbye to "O" until we can come back to Russia for court. We were picked up this morning and taken to the orphanage. We could only have about 20 minutes with her because we had to get on the road to drive to Moscow. It was REALLY hard to leave her but I knew that the faster we got home, the faster we get back to pick her up.

Yesterday we had two visits with her and they were the BEST day of all. Angie and Kurt, who were there to have court, stopped in with their adorable little girl while we were playing in the room. When "O" saw their little girl being active, she held onto my fingers and just started walking like crazy. This is the first we have seen her walk (with help) that good. She is so precious!

We are in Moscow now and it is completely different than Kaluga. It is like New York City here and Kaluga is such a small town. But, I kinda miss Kaluga. The people were really nice who we were working with. We are staying at the Marriott Grand and it is really, really nice. The internet access is so much better than what we had in Kaluga also.

We went to the Catholic Social Services office here in Moscow to meet with Svetlana and Irena. They asked if we had pictures and Joe whipped out his laptop and showed them the videos we took. They loved looking at them and were VERY happy that we accepted her as our daughter.

Our driver, Vladimir, will pick us up tomorrow at 11:00am to take us to get our physicals and then tomorrow we will head for home.

We can't post pictures of "O" until after we court and we get her, so I will tease you a little.

paka,

Renae and Joe

WOOOOHOOOOO...SHE IS GOING TO BE OUR DAUGHTER!!!!!

Hi everyone!

GREAT news! We are letting them know tomorrow that we want to sign papers to adopt this ADORABLE little girl!

I'm SO sorry that I didn't post our trip 1, but I was just SO nervous about getting all the right medical docs to our doctor and our access here is HORRIBLE, our Skype keeps breaking in and out and your really can't understand ANYONE your talking to and it has been hard just to keep in touch with the doctor and our family.....whew!
But, I can now share the AWESOME news and we are very excited!

Trip one was good, but as most of you adopting know, she was a little hesitant and scared. Then we visited her again for about an hour in the evening and it was a little better. All she wanted was to be held, she really didn't want to be put down to play too much at all.

We then went into the office and the orphanage doctor gave us all of her medical. Joe and I asked question after question and got I'm SURE all the medical in her file. Afterwards, the orphanage doctor told us that she wasn't prepared to be asked about so much. She was REALLY nice though and gave us everything we asked for.

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our translator Nadia (or Nadya?). She is THE BEST! She and our really nice driver Vladimir even drop us off at the restaurant that we want to eat at and she comes in to order for us before she leaves for the day. She takes really good care of us and so does the driver Vlad. We are NEVER left alone anywhere until after we get back to the hotel.

Today....our 2nd visit....was AWESOME! We took Michelle's advice (thanks Michelle) and asked if we could observe her with the other kids before she sees us. She WAS a completely different person than she was with us the first visit and, like Michelle said, it made us feel THAT much more sure of our decision!

We then took her into the gym and she just felt so much more at ease with us. She played, giggled, walked around (with the help of someone) and just was SO funny and loveable. I cannot WAIT to bring her home to our family because they are going to LOVE her! She is so adorable, funny and LOVES to be held. She actually puts a choke hold on my neck! She's also teething VERY bad and loved to bite on anything that she could. Forget the little photo album Joe and I brought for her, she already destroyed it. She was chewing it and ripped out a few pages, but will NOT let us take it away from her. It was the only thing she wanted to hold and play with. She wouldn't take the teether I bought her..she didn't want it. Loved the gerber treats though!

Tomorrow we will go for her visa and visit with her two more times and then one time Thursday morning to say our goodbye's and off to Moscow for our medicals and then home on Saturday.

I will try to post again while in Moscow, maybe the access will be a little better.

I just want to say CONGRATULATIONS to Karen and Cathy for getting your COURT DATES....YEEEAAAAH!!!!

And, to our family, I can't WAIT to come home and have a MOVIE NIGHT with all of you so you can see the future addition to our family.....she's ADORABLE!!!

Love you Michael.

Talk to you all again soon!

Paka,
Renae and Joe

WE FINALLY MADE IT TO RUSSIA!!!!

Hi everyone, we finally made it to the Kaluga region! It was a very LOOOOONG flight (about 10 hours) but a very smooth flight. We flew American Airlines from Chicago to Moscow. We were in business class and the seats were extremely tight. It was almost impossible to get a good night sleep on the plane (especially for Joe who is a little on the cranky side right now) but with the help of a couple benedryl and a few bloody mary's, we managed to get some shut eye.

Nadya, our translator, was right there at the airport waiting for us. She is SO very nice and helpful. We then were met by our driver, Basil, who is also very nice quiet, but nice) and drove for another 3 hours to our hotel in Kaluga.

Nadya brought us to our hotel and checked us into our room and we were then met also by Rita who works as a facilitator at the orphanage. She introduced herself, took our itinerary and said she would meet us tomorrow at the orphanage. You girls were right about having to check EVERY outlet in order to get internet access, but once we did we were fine. I'm sure our family was wondering what happened to us, but we just couldn't get access right away and we,of course, had no cell phone access. We tried to do some Skype calls, but our microphone must not be that great because my sister-in-law had a hard time hearing us. We were just so excited to have our own room and a BED....even if it IS as HARD AS A ROCK!

Anyway, we couldn't have been in better hands than we were with Nadya...she is GREAT! She even took us to a little restaurant around the block and helped us order. She said she is going to call us tomorrow at around 11:30 a.m. to pick us up for the orphanage.....we get to see our little girl tomorrow! I'm not sure about tomorrow, but she said that on Tuesday and Wednesday we will get to go to the orphanage twice, once in the morning for a couple hours and once in the afternoon for about an hour and a half. We were also so excited when we showed her the picture that we had of her (well, actually JOE had of her in HIS POCKET) and she said "YES, I know this little girl!" She was so happy. She said that she has the prettiest eyes and that when she saw her she just was sitting up happy in her walker, but all by herself....ahhhh...how sad. Nadya will be there with us every day to translate for us. We just cannot WAIT to actually see her face...finally!

Well, this is going to be a short post because I am exhausted! Joe is already CRASHED. I'm going to TRY to sleep, but I don't know if I'll be able to.

Well, I'll post again tomorrow after our first visit!

To all our family, we love you and just want to say thanks for being as happy and excited as we are. Dad, you can breathe now...we're here safe and sound! ha-ha!

Michael, love you honey.

Paka,
Renae and Joe

WE LEAVE TOMORROW!

This is the time we have been waiting for!!!! We are packed and ready to go. We will arrive in Moscow around 12:15 p.m. on Sunday. We will be picked up at the airport in Moscow by our translator (I believe Nadia) and our driver and they will take us to Kaluga which is about a 3 hour drive.

I spoke with "C" today and she said that we probably will not get to go to the orphanage until Monday. So, I guess we'll go to our hotel, try to settle in and get organized and get a little sleep (TRY anyway).

We both cannot WAIT to see this little girl. Hopefully all goes well and we are able have some good news to share!

Bye everyone....next post will be from RUSSIA!

Renae and Joe

WE GOT OUR TRAVEL DATES!!!!!!

I received and e-mail from "C" today telling us that we are going to Russia on Saturday, October 11th and leaving Russia on Saturday, October 18th....yeaaaaah!

We are now going through the crazy rush process of sending for our visa's and making flight and hotel reservations. Hopefully that will all be done tonight and tomorrow.
"C" said that we will arrive in Moscow on Sunday and a car will pick us up to go directly to Kaluga, which is the region where we are going to visit this sweet little girl. The trip from Moscow to Kaluga is a 3-5 hour drive. We will then go to the orphanage to visit on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday....drive back to Moscow on Thursday (hopefully after accepting our referral), have our 8 doctor medical on Friday and fly home on Saturday.....whew!

I'll keep you all posted!

I sure hope all of you other families get some good news real soon also!

Renae and Joe

REFERRAL!!!!!!!!

We are FINALLY going to Russia! I actually got a call last Tuesday from "C" who offered us a referral for a little girl in Kaluga. She sent us some pictures and a little bit of medical information and, after reviewing her medical information with our IA doctor over the weekend, we called "C" and told her that we would love to go and meet this little girl!

We are SO excited and yet nervous at the same time! "C" said she thinks we will be traveling the weekend of the 11th....that's in 2 WEEKS!

I called my son Michael and the rest of our family to tell them the WONDERFUL news and they were ALL just as excited as we were! It is SO great to have such a loving, supportive family and we can't wait to bring our daughter home to be a part of it!!!

Now the packing and preparation of traveling begins...yikes! I have to get my lists made!

We'll keep you updated!

Renae and Joe

STILL IN KEMOROVO....FOR NOW

I spoke with C last Thursday and she said that they want to keep our dossier in Kemorovo after all. She was told that there is a CHANCE that there may be another girl referral in September. She said that she will not keep us there long though, so if there isn't a referral by the middle of September, we will again discuss our options. I am going SO crazy....I really hope we do get a call in September!

Meanwhile, Joe and I took yet another trip to the Florida Keys! I really needed it after being told we would possibly get our call in July....and didn't.....and then being told that Kemerovo wasn't giving any girl referrals until at least January of next year (which may not be the case now...who knows). It felt REALLY good to just relax, drink some delicious margeritas and do a little fishing.....who CARED if hurricane Fay was on it's way to the keys also.

Saturday night Joe and I were at Lazy Days, one of our FAVORITE places to eat overlooking the ocean. We got a call from our Captain for our Sunday morning trip and he said that it's going to be some GREAT fishing tomorrow and that the storm isn't supposed to REALLY hit until Tuesday night. He said that they just called for an evacuation for all visitors for Sunday morning at 8:00, but we're coming back in at 3:00 and then we can just get into the evacuation line. ARE WE CRAZY?!?!?!

So, we DID go out and it WAS beautiful most of the trip except it was a little windy and the waves were about 5 foot. I wasn't nervous until we were heading back and it got REAL dark and REAL windy. We did catch alot of dolphin, but it was just a little too rough out there and it was a bit hectic on the boat as far as the fishing went....but it was fun! Joe and I wished we were staying so we could actually see the storm, but we got out just before it got really bad.

Now, we wait and see if we get our call in September.....I REALLY, REALLY hope we do because this is WAY too stressful!

Congratulations to Karen and Cathy who traveled on their first trips to meet and accept their baby girl and boy!!!! And to Michelle who had her Gotcha Day with her precious little girl!

Good luck to the families who will be traveling or are traveling right now!!!!

bye for now,

Renae and Joe