PICS OF OLIVIA

I just thought I would post a few of my favorite pictures. Some with grandma and Pap, some with dad and cousin and some with Aunt Kimmy.

Olivia is doing just fine. We have early intervention coming in today to help with her speech.

Enjoy the pictures!

Renae

OLIVIA AND BIG BROTHER

I just thought I would share some pictures of Olivia and big brother Michael. My heart melts when I see them together.

Michael just took his teacher's test and will get his results within a couple of days to see if he passed. He will be a senior next year. We are VERY proud of him....he made the Dean's list the last two semester's!!!!!

As for Olivia, we take her to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia on Wednesday to get a CT scan of her head....we then go from there with the results. We pray everything will be o.k.

Bye for now,
Renae

OLIVIA UPDATE

Thank you all SO much for giving Olivia such a warm welcome! She is taking her nap right now, so I am able to post a little. She is only taking one nap a day, but she is sleeping all night...yeaaah! Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) got back to us today and set her appointment for February 18th in the morning. I can't wait to get her evaluated so we know for sure what is going on and where we will have to go from here. I will also feel better knowing we are getting 2 opinions on her health status. All we DO know for SURE is that she is a happy baby as you can see by her pictures. I just LOVE that smile of hers! Don't get me wrong, she has her "cranky" times too, but for the most part she seems to be bonding to Joe and I quite well.

Uh-oh, I hear a cry...gotta go! Enjoy the pics and I will Keep you posted!

p.s. I also want to thank a great lady and friend for offering to let us use her condo that is 2 minutes from CHOP just in case we needed it....Thank you from the bottom of our hearts "D"!!!!!

Renae

INTRODUCING OLIVIA REESE NODINE!

I have to apologize to everyone for taking SO long to post....I am finally getting a routine down and I can take some time out from chasing Olivia around to post. We are having a BLAST bonding with her and getting her used to her new home. She is doing good sleeping also. She takes about an hour and a half nap in the day and goes to bed around 8:00. She wakes up around 6:30-7:00am.

She had her first visit with Dr. Gordina last Thursday and Joe and I went for all her results yesterday. Everything came back good for the most part....Dr. Gordina had concerns about her soft spot on her head closing already (being that her head only measures that of a five month old). Joe and I will go to CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) to have her evaluated. We pray that this will not be a concern and she will not need any kind of surgery.

We are SO happy to finally have her home! Thanks to all my friend blogger's for being SO patient with me....I KNOW I have been a BAD blogger....so sorry. I promise I will try to be better....ha-ha!

As you can see in the picture, Olivia is now a Pittsburgh Steeler fan! GO STEELERS!!!!!!!

Bye for now,
Renae

LEAVING TOMORROW FOR RUSSIA!!!!!

Finally, it is time to go and pick up our daughter and bring her home! The flight is supposed to be around 6:30 p.m. out of JFK, but doesn't it FIGURE they are calling for snow/freezing rain tomorrow in New York. I sure HOPE it isn't bad and that the flight will not be cancelled or delayed too much. Then, it's off to London and then to Russia...landing at around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday (HOPEFULLY). Our translator and driver will be at the airport and then it is a 3 hour drive to Kaluga. We will get the room all set up Sunday night and probably pick Olivia up on Monday morning.....yeaaaaaah! We will then go for her passport and stay in Kaluga for a couple of days until the passport is finished and then it's off to Moscow to start all of the procedures there. We will stay at the Marriott for a couple of days until her Visa comes in and the exit interview at the US Embassy in Russia is finished. Our flight home is booked for the 24th, but hopefully we will get finished with everything before that and be able to fly home sooner.

I will keep everyone posted from Russia!

Renae

Anxiously Waiting to Pick up Our Daughter!

We returned home last Friday, and are now running around getting a few more last minute documents that need to get to Russia before we pick up Olivia. Because of the Russian Holiday, we will not be picking her up until the 11th of January. We will leave on the 8th or 9th and will have to stay for about 2 weeks until her passport and visa are ready. We are going CRAZY having to wait that long to pick her up, but I'm sure the time will seem to go a little quicker because of Christmas and New Years...hopefully. We will have to stay a few days in Kaluga to wait for her passport and then it's off to Moscow for about a week to finish her medical/visa and exit interview at the U.S Embassy.

We wish all of our Family and Friends a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year!

Renae and Joe

IT'S OFFICIAL...SHE IS NOW OLIVIA REESE NODINE!

Court was a success! I was SO nervous, but Joe got asked most of the questions and he did real well. We started around 2:30 and were done at 4:00....not too bad. I do have to say that it was NOT as bad as I thought it would be. As I have heard before from a family who adopted from Kaluga, "she asked very fair questions." She did not try to trick us with questions from our home study, she just asked basic questions.

We really gave it alot of effort to get the 10 days waived, but the judge did not waive them, so Joe and I will return home on Friday. They are going to let us know tomorrow when we can return to pick Olivia up.

We went to go and visit her after court and she was SO much fun! She does pretty good at walking now and she loves to dance! I just hate the fact that we have to leave her again and not see her for a couple of weeks...I can't WAIT until we can finally bring her home.

Joe and I just want to let everyone know that it was comforting to know that we had so many family and friends thinking and praying for us today....thank you all for thinking of us!

We will post more later! Above is a picture of us outside of the Kaluga court house.

Paka,
Renae and Joe