Preparing to travel

We have been continuing to get ready for the trip. Making sure we have our paperwork and clothes ready, getting the tickets and checking seats, luggage requirements, etc. It gives us something to do while waiting for next week which is nice.
we were able to take care of a few of the requirements for our next dossier. This one we need to send to the agency after trip 1.

We also bought some items to take over. A few outfits to better judge his size, some goldfish and cheerios for him, a toy and a stuffed animal. We are also bringing a soft photo album that we borrowed so he will have pictures of us while we are not there. We are taking disposable cameras hoping that the caretakers will take some pictures of him and his friends, along with the caretakers, in between trips. We've got our camera which we will use to take pictures of him while there, along with a Flip Video Ultra compact video camera. It is a small, light device that looks like a cell phone, but it takes good video and will be useful (and much more compact) than a regular video camera. I've taken a few minutes of video in the house and it looks good so far. I'm hoping to use it to capture our first (and other) visits to the orphanage and when we first meet Baby Boy. I'll also use it for our time spent with him on other trips, things that we'll only have one chance to get. If I have room left over I will try to get some shots of the area and whatever else, but my main concern is him.

We went out with Heather's sister (Thank you!) to help us figure out what to register for. Wow, lots of little things to think about. I knew it was lots of stuff, and we were trying to think of what we would need, but there were a number of things that we hadn't thought of. Once we get back from the first trip we will have a better idea of his size and can adjust items based on that, along with post his size in relation to age.

In one week from now, we will be in Moscow preparing to take the flight to the region. With our layover in Moscow we are getting a temporary hotel room to recover from the flight. It's about a 5 hour flight to the region, along with another 3 hour time difference. It certainly will be interesting.

We now have travel dates!

I was thinking that we might get travel dates at some point this week, but I certainly didn't expect to get an email this morning. We got an email from our agency contact that we need to set up plans to arrive in the region Wed morning March 4 and then we will leave the region Saturday morning March 7.

Wow, less than 2 weeks and we will be in Russia. Krasnoyarsk is 12 hours ahead, so exactly 12 weeks from now it will be 9:00 am Wed. morning and we will soon be at the orphanage. I just checked the weather for Krasnoyarsk and it is currently about -22 F with a windchill of -36 F at 9:00 am, yikes. They do seem to be having a warming trend so they might hit positive temps tonight. Heather and I will be buying some things from L.L. Bean including very warm coats.

I don't know what there will be for internet access while there. We may not be able to update the blog or post pics, but with it being a pretty short trip it won't be that long until we can get back and update.

Now to finish up our paperwork, get the visa process started and be ready to fly out on Monday. Wow.

Houston, We Have A Referral!

Yes, you heard it right, we got a referral. Last Monday I was driving home from work and got a call. I didn't recognize the number but I was thinking it seemed familiar and just maybe??? It was someone from our agency that we were working with giving me a heads up that we got a referral. She was going to send me an email with the info, but wanted to call first.

I stopped at the front of our road to talk with her (missing a call from Heather) about the referral for a 12 month old boy. As soon as I got home I checked my email to get the information, mainly medical and growth information along with a picture. I told Heather when she got home and she was like 'What?'. She was shocked and I then showed her the information. We can't post the picture or any information until the adoption is finished, but he is cute and the medical information came out ok. I'll call him Baby Boy.

We sent the information to a doctor familiar with international adoption, including Russia, and he came back with pretty much nothing to worry about. We then told our agency on Friday that we accepted the invitation to travel. Wow!

Going from waiting and not knowing when something would happen to getting a referral and needing to travel in the near future is a big change. The agency is going to have their staff in Russia get travel dates for us, but it shouldn't take too long to get them. The first trip is to officially meet Baby Boy and accept the referral. We will send back pictures and firsthand sort of information to the doctor so he can give sort of a final ok on everything. This first trip is only 1 week but it will probably seem like forever. The worst part is when we have to leave and wait possibly 2 months until the second trip.

We are hopefully going to be able to bring a laptop to update the blog and post pictures of things. Any pictures we take of Baby Boy that we can't post now we will store up and post them all after it is finished (cross your fingers).

Short update

Well, a brief adoption update that will have an effect on things going forward.

We have been thinking about whether we should change to a referral for a single child or stay with siblings. When we started the process there were more siblings groups available and if we were able to adopt siblings then that would be a good thing. Not everyone is able to or willing to adopt siblings. We didn't have a compelling reason to switch to a single child.

Earlier in the week we got a monthly country newsletter from the agency. This is different than the weekly updates we get. It is more about the country as a whole and what is going on outside of mainly referral activity. The newsletter talked about the trend of fewer sibling groups being available and more families requesting only siblings. It also said that the ages for siblings were increasing (we are on the younger age range for siblings).

All of this would mean increased wait times for families waiting for only siblings, while there are still single children available for adoption. Since we were thinking about switching, we felt that this was something that would have us switch to a single child. So, we have sent in the paperwork to officially make the change to a single child.

Overall it is good if there are more families looking for siblings than there are siblings available, but it might mean fewer single children are finding their families. We also asked the agency about changing the age range, which we had as 0-36 months for siblings. They told us that changing it to 0-24 months for a single child wouldn't affect the timeframe of things.

Although we don't know anything specific about timing of referrals, this change should mean that we get a referral sooner. A little crazy to think as we were expecting a longer wait since we were waiting for siblings, but this doesn't mean we are going to get a call in 2 weeks about a referral. There is still a long way to go.

Welcome to 2009 (and then some)!

Well, I want to first apologize for the long delay in posting. I'm not very good at this blog thing as you have seen. When things slowed down I had meant to write about other things but kind of failed at that. I'll try to get back to that, but here is some new somewhat random info.

On the adoption front ...
The end of the year was slow in Russia for a few main reasons. The first is due to the holidays at the end of the year. They take off extra time for it and actually didn't end their holiday time until just last week. This was for pretty much every region over there. The second reason was that they wanted to somewhat promote domestic adoption and fewer international adoptions makes the numbers 'look better'. The problem is that many parts of Russia are pretty poor compared to over here, so it's not easy to spend extra money on adopting a child.

We are getting back into things, working on finishing up the paperwork that we can do ahead of time. We have to go over an online training thing to familiarize us with the various steps in the process and how the travel goes. It gets you familiar with the culture differences and what to expect during the trip. We have even been looking at a minivan of all things. I'll post the picture if we buy it and I get some rims on it and fuzzy dice.


On the non-adoption front ...

George went to the vet last week for a follow-up blood test. His 'numbers' had increased, but the vet was more worried about his weight loss. He was down to 6.8 pounds which is a few less than his last trip in November. It seems like it is a cycle with not doing well then not eating then it making him worse, etc. The vet wants us to change to other foods to get him to eat more, including things like canned tuna. He certainly likes that and has been eating it more so we'll see how his weight goes.

I just got back from a hockey weekend in Georgia. I'm playing on a sort of travel elite inline hockey team. There are two teams, the 'major' team of older more experienced players, and a 'minor' team of younger players who can then move up to the other team. I had played on the major team last year and we did pretty good, but the way the did the schedule has us playing a single team during each weekend. This year they have a 'festival' where 4 or 5 teams show up to play each other. We were in Georgia so took a bus down there Saturday morning and got back Sunday night. We won our 4 games and now lead our division with 12 wins and 4 losses. I feel tired and sore but it was fun. I'm the oldest which is funny. I think that the next youngest player is 24, with most on the major team being about 19. The minor team is 16-17, so I'm the old man on the team.

That's about all for now, although probably not much that is very interesting. Post comments if you don't like to hear this random stuff I might post and I'll try to adjust the content.

Picture of George

Here is a current picture of George, well, current as of July. He doesn't look unhealthy or underweight in this picture. The main area that he looks or feels thin is the rear part of his back or whatever you want to call that on a cat.





I didn't get to go through older pictures this weekend. I had a longer hockey practice on Sunday than I was expecting (2 hours with lots of scrimmaging). After hockey Heather and I went with her sister, husband and kids to the new Bass Pro Shops here to see Santa arrive. We then had dinner, so by the time I got home it was a little late and I had to finish up my literature homework. Some of the real old pictures that we have of the cats are physical prints with no digital version, so I'll need to see if I can scan them in to post.

Another brief update

Yet again nothing very exciting. The agency put out a region update lately (they do this weekly). For our region, it seems that the person in the region that is in charge of referrals was on vacation and, after just coming back, has decided to stay on vacation a little longer. No referrals while they are away, so more waiting for us. still not a big deal as we were expecting to wait anyway. In a way, maybe it is good, as we know we weren't getting a referral as nobody was.

On a different subject, I wanted to get out an update on George. At his original appointments, the vet confirmed that blood test results showed an increase in waste products in the blood. These waste products are normally filtered out by the kidneys and removed from the system. If the kidneys don't function well, the waste products are not removed from the blood, hence the numbers from the blood test being higher. This is why we were giving him fluids, as his kidneys won't heal back to normal, so we need to do things to help limit these waste products.

Giving him fluids was the first step. It basically means using an IV to inject a water solution into the area beneath his skin. It sounds worse than it is, as you get some extra skin on his back and it doesn't necessarily bother them much. This helps to dilute the fluids in his system, meaning a lower level of toxins and helping his kidneys flush them out.

Wednesday I took George in for a follow-up blood test. The results show that the numbers have gotten lower, but still not to a normal level. He also lost a little weight, but this is probably due at least in part to us changing his food. Normal cat food has some things in it that we need to limit, so he gets special food. We tried dry food first (as he already ate dry food), but maybe he doesn't like it so much. I brought home a can of a different brand of similar 'diet' food and he seemed to like it better. Hopefully he will eat it and gain some weight.

We are also starting him with some pills that contain bacteria to help break down these toxins, allowing them to go out through his GI tract. This can help lower the numbers and won't hurt him. We are also trying to give him some Pepcid AC as cats with renal failure can have stomach issues.

George is doing ok with it, I just wish he could understand everything and that we need to be able to do these things for him. Please think good thoughts as we try and help George's medical situation get better. I promise to get pictures this weekend of him and our mystery cat, Lily. She is a mystery as people rarely (if ever) see her. I will try to do it tonight after soccer, but I can't promise anything.

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to get that out. Let me know about any questions or anything.