Back home after the first trip

Well, here is a (probably) not very quick rundown of how our trip went. All in all it went very well. We met Baby Boy on Thursday and it was perfect. We were in the play room waiting for what we thought would be a first meeting with the head doctor. We were pleasantly surprised to have on of the caregivers bring in Baby Boy for us, fresh from a nap. I had the camera and flip digital ready so got a good shot of our first minute. The caregiver brought him in, put on a bib (drooling from new teeth, 6 so far), and Heather reached out and he walked straight to her. She picked him up and he put his head on her shoulder, a good first meeting. Wow!

So, to back up a little bit ... our flight on Tuesday was delayed due to engine issues. We finally left but, of course, missed our connecting flight in JFK to Moscow. They auto-booked us for a flight to Atlanta that night then the Atlanta to Moscow flight the following day. Not good. So we stood in line for almost 2 hours and fortunately had someone help us that understood how desperate we were to get a flight that night. She re-booked us on a flight with Air France, so we ended up being routed through Paris to get to Moscow. Those flights went well, not so bad.

Things got a little sketchy when we flew into Moscow. Not because of it being Moscow so much as timing of flights. The passport control line took forever, our luggage hadn't arrived, we had to fill out forms for that, so we didn't have much time to spare to get to our next flight. It was in a different terminal and barely made it as the agency people had to drive us very quickly over there. They actually held up the boarding of the flight for us. So, we ended up getting to the region on time.

We never got our luggage until we were back in Moscow on our way out. Then a long flight from Moscow to Atlanta and back home. Whew.

But anyway, back to the reason why we went over there! We had a visit Thursday afternoon, first with Baby Boy then the head doctor at the orphanage. We had a few hours playing with him, then the talk with the doctor went well. Updated information and things were still looking very good. Friday's visit was in the morning, spent more time with him, he even fell asleep with Heather holding him while there were other things going on in the room. A good way to end the visit, but we didn't want it to end.

Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to go back, but we don't know how long it will take. Cross your fingers that it goes a little quickly and we can get him back here.

More soon as that wasn't much, but it was a whirlwind tour so not really much to say.

Did you hear about the snow?

Well, there is a bit of a storm moving up the east coast and has dumped snow everywhere. It ended up leaving anywhere from 3 to 8 or more inches of snow in the Richmond area, so as you might imagine Heather and I are still at home. Our flight to Atlanta was on time until she suggested that I check it as we were about to leave. We were even trying to leave early since the roads were still a little messy. Our flight was canceled at the last minute, nothing else with seats leaving from Richmond or nearby airports, so we aren't leaving today.

I was able to get Delta to rebook us for tomorrow, similar times but going through JFK and leaving RIC at 2:00. Once our travel agent gets in tomorrow (snow kept him home) he will set up the final part of our flight over and we should be good.

Here is a late afternoon shot of the front yard ...



This delay might end up changing our trip, but we aren't sure yet. There is a Russian Holiday this Sunday which will cause Friday to be sort of a half-day. This might mean that we are asked to stay a little extra in the region, so we would stay through the weekend. We don't know if this will happen or how long it would be for, but it's not really a big deal. We've gone through lots of paperwork and issues, but it really isn't much of anything when you think about why we are doing this. There is a little boy sitting in an orphanage in Russia waiting for us to come and get him. That is worth doing all of this paperwork and traveling a second or third or fourth time. As we started this process we really felt good about trying to make the life of a child or two better, in addition to them making our lives better. It will work out in the end, so we'll just stay on this train until we get to the destination.

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).