And they're off! (almost)

Well, we are just about ready to fly out of Richmond and head to Hotlanta (although a bit cold right now) and sit around a little before boarding the plain for Moscow. Our layover isn't very long, just enough to get a bite to eat and exchange some money for rubles. Fortunately the exchange rate is going up in our favor so we will get more for our money. We only need cash for things like meals and souvenirs, and we don't know how much would be dollars versus rubles. We can still exchange money over there, but this way we'll have money as soon as we land to buy a Coke or a snack.

Now, as people might not now it is snowing here in Richmond. It is supposed to stop before noon tomorrow but might leave up to 6 inches of snow. We are hoping to still fly out of here but there are flights leaving from Newport News and Norfolk if we need to go there. It started off as rain, then sleet, then snow and turned into a slushy mess. I had an ice hockey game but turned after I got to the end of our road because it was slushy and slippery. I think it's a good thing that I didn't go, so it really wasn't too bad.

We are packed and ready to go, but you always have that nagging feeling that something is being forgotten. I think we'll be fine but it is a long flight and we will be in Russia ... in Siberia ... in the winter. We arrive Wednesday morning at 5:40 am their time (5:40 pm Tuesday east coast time) where it will be about 13° F with the wind chill dropping that to about 2°F. The high for Wed is 21° and will get warmer as the high on Friday is 30°F. (Here is a link for temperatures) I think we are ready for the temperatures, but at least it is only a few days if the cold really gets to us. The funny thing is that the indoor temperatures are very high over there, so a greater difference between indoor and outdoor temps. We'll probably be in the hotel in shorts and t-shirts cracking a window for some relief.

So, hopefully we will get out tomorrow and maybe even blog while over there. We will have pictures to post when we get back and I'll try to mark them on a Google map to give a location to where the pictures are from.

I've made a change to the blog so you can post comments without having to sign in or anything. Just click on the 'Comments' link and choose the 'Anonymous' identity.

We'll see everyone soon, wish us luck!

Google Maps - Krasnoyarsk, Russia

I wanted to share a link that I had originally found a few months ago but recently came across it again. It is a link to an annotated area of Krasnoyarsk using Google Maps.

Right-click the link above and choose to open in a new window or tab, however your particular browser does things. Once it loads you will (hopefully) have the right-side satellite map centered on the Hotel Krasnoyarsk. The left-hand area has some places of interest that have been added (not by me). If you click on one of the items in the left-hand list the map will move around to allow you to see the item. Click and item on the map and a window will pop up with a description and/or a picture.

One of the cool things about Google Maps is that there are many photos that people have already added. This isn't really for slow internet connections (or at least wait for the images to cache), but if you click the 'More' button on the right-hand side and check the box next to 'Photos' then you will see small square thumbnails of images that people have taken around Krasnoyarsk. Hover the mouse pointer over the icon and left-click to see a larger version of the picture. You can always hide them to just see the original annotated points of interest. There are some interesting places that are marked, including a Baskin Robbins (yay!).

If you use Google Earth you can see all of this but is is more interesting and easier to navigate. For example, the photos are little blue squares instead of thumbnails so they don't overlap as much. It can get a bit messy with all of the photos.

So, browse around the city some and you can see where we will be visiting. I don't know how much we will be able to get out and see the city, but hopefully we will have some time to. It really looks to be a beautiful and interesting city.

Once we return and go through our pictures I will post them somewhere but will look at trying to incorporate them into Google Maps. That way you can not only see the picture but view it in context of it's actual location.

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.