Last night in Vlad

We are waiting on our load of laundry to finish so that we can pack the last of our things. We are very excited to be leaving tomorrow. Of course we will cherish the memories and the friendships we have formed, but there is no place like home! We are going to miss Ryan, Sandy, and Bodi. They have been such a blessing to us while we are here. We will also miss little Victoria and Jennifer. They will always hold a special place in our heart as we shared some life changing events together!

Today we ran errands and went to the doctor. An interesting thing happened when we were all done. Irina told us we would be taking another van home because she needed to stay downtown with the driver. Not a problem. I led Blake to the other van and he stopped dead in his tracks and yelled NYET! I tried to pull him toward the van and he pulled back. This was odd as he is easy going about everything (other than the crib). Justin picked him up to put him in the van and he started crying hysterically and clinging to him. Irina heard him cry and instantly came over because she thought it was unusual for him. Her face fell instantly and she said, “Oh no, this is the same van that the baby home has. He thinks he is being taken back.” I was instantly in tears with him. There was a part of me that was relieved to see that he truly does not want to go back, but the other part of me was so sad for him. Irina explained to him what was going on and that we were not going back to the baby home. He calmed down, but he was stone sober and alert the entire way. It wasn’t until we got out of the van at the hotel that he smiled again and would talk to us.

The potluck was a success. There was quite an interesting array of food. Below is our attempt to get a group picture of the children that are here now. In the picture are Walker, Victoria, Blake, and Bodi. Blake brought a baggie of fruit loops to give to each one of them as a parting gift.


Earlier in the day Blake and Victoria took to reading Time Magazine. I think they are up to date on the swine flu, President Obama’s latest events, and the controversial topic of sex education. I believe they are ready for their US citizenship!


Our flight is 8.5 hours long but we are gaining back part of the 16 hours we lost coming to Vlad. I am sure our internal clocks are going to be quite confused. Of course I am getting pretty sick with a sore throat, draining sinuses, etc… I think I will start the antibiotics we brought along just in case. We don’t know yet what our internet access will be in Moscow. We hope to be able to update the blog from there.

Paka for now!

So Blessed!

I want to thank each of you for your comments and emails. I wish we had more time and unlimited internet access so that we could reply to each of you. Each time we hear from you it makes us remember how many people are making it possible for us to be on this journey. There are so many things I want to tell you and yet I feel there is very little time. So I’ll make some random notes…

As I type this it is Tuesday night for us. Tomorrow is our last full day in Vlad. We will do several things in the city tomorrow as far as paperwork goes, and Blake will see the doctor one last time. Sandy True came up with a great idea. We are going to do a potluck tomorrow for dinner. Amy, her dad Randy, Walker her son; Fred and Heather the Canadians; Jennifer, her mom Vicky, and Victoria; Ryan, Sandy, and Bodi True; and the three of us will attend the big event. Who knows what we will conjure up! On Thursday we leave for Moscow. We are hoping to meet up with Greg and Shannon Martin and their two children on Friday to go to the zoo.

Today Justin had to go sign some papers and Blake and I hung out. We did a webcam call with Grandpa Critter, Grandma Cindy, and Ariel – the dog. Then we chatted with Brady, Madison and Nana. It was great for them to finally lay eyes on one another. Madison said “Menya Zavoot Madison. (My name is Madison) I love you!” Brady thought Blake was cute, and when he put on his Old Navy hat Brady thought he was cool. We can’t wait to get home!

Thank you to those that gave us a donation for the orphanage/baby home. We donated cute monster like beach balls, several crafts appropriate for their age, and as you see below Pampers. We had asked what we should donate and Irina told us they always need diapers. When we picked up Blake, we carried the diapers in and just left them in the visiting room. It seemed as though that was the end of it. Then the director came in with Irina and said (through Irina) that it was a miracle. They had just run out of bigger diapers that day. They needed them very badly. She was sincerely grateful. I tried to push out of my head what would have happened had we not brought the diapers with us.

It didn’t take long for us to find out that Blake loves cabinets. He got in the ones in the White Rabbit room, and then after his bath discovered that we had an empty cabinet in the room.

We really had a good evening. He enjoyed his bath after about a minute of getting used to the idea that it was ok to sit down in the water. Bedtime was ok but very insightful. He laid with Justin and I for awhile but was too distracted so we thought we would try the crib that was in the room. This was not the thing to do! He instantly cried in terror. Not a “Hey I don’t like this” kind of way but rather a body shaking horrified sort of way. We instantly took him out. He and I went to the other room so Justin could get some sleep. He little body was relaxed and he enjoyed the closeness, but he was too afraid to let his little eyes close. Finally, at about midnight, he was out.

As is evidence in this picture, going to bed over three hours past his normal bedtime didn’t phase him much!

We even had enough energy to walk down to the beach for a photo shoot!

Today was a special day because it was Victoria’s Gotcha Day (Jennifer’s daughter and Blake’s Bee group pal). They treated us to a special dessert celebration. It didn’t take long and Blake had shown Victoria how to get in the cabinets in the White Rabbit room. Of course the spectators laughed and made some comment about bringing cute chicks to the man cave!

And here we are tonight, attempting bedtime again. We have to thank Blaine for the John Deere pajamas. We are hoping not to be up until midnight. We are truly blessed with three amazing children. We are so excited to get home and begin our life together!

Presenting.....

Blake David Overstreet
Born September 30, 2005

Leaving Artem




Referal Photo


Playtime at the baby home.

Finally – Gotcha Day!

It is about 9 am on Monday for us and Sunday around 5 pm at home. Today is known as Gotcha Day in the adoption world. The court decree will be ready a little after noon. Justin and I are excited as can be and also nervous. We just got done speaking with Brady and Madison and it was obvious that they were disappointed that Blake wasn’t here already. We hope to have more time later this evening to post Blake’s first pictures. We have NOOOO idea what to expect for today.

Day 9/10 – Progress is good

Yesterday and today have been jam packed with activity and we are thankful for that. It was so nice knowing that this was the last ‘visit’ to the baby home. On Monday (Sunday back home) we will be bringing Blake with us!!!!

We spent our last visit up in the gym. Jennifer had brought little plastic cups for water and we had a ‘tea party’ with Blake and Victoria before they got too wound up. It wasn’t long and Blake began rummaging through the backpack. It is always interesting to see what he is looking for. It is usually the water, but since that was already out he had our interest. It turns out he was looking for the brown crocks (shoes) we have been bringing each visit. They must feel good on is his. It is a bonus that they actually fit unlike his baby home oboofs (shoes). There were a couple of happenings that were highlights for us. Blake is a good repeater. He is trying to say Brady and Madison for us and we have him saying Please MaMa and Please PaPa when he wants food or water. I have been telling him several times I love you, Ya Tibya Lo Bloo. I put both phrases together in hopes that he will understand. During the visit, he said back to me Ya Tibya Lo Bloo. Now I am not fooling myself into believing that he really knows the meaning of I love you, but it was still sooo great to hear. As with the other times we have been up in the gym, the caregiver brought up the rest of the Bee Groupa. It is always pure mayhem when the other children enter the room. Justin and I blew up all of the beach balls that we had brought to donate to the baby home. After several minutes, Blake decided that he wanted our undivided attention. For the first time he called out to us in a loud voice MaMa, PaPa. He wanted the other children to know that we belonged to him. Slow and steady progress.

I guess that the water from the tea party did its number on Blake, and he went to the caregiver and told her something. She looked at me and said MaMa peesit. Ummmm ok, so the boy needs to go potty. I had no clue what I was supposed to do. Thankfully Blake knew exactly what was going on. He led me all the way back to his group’s room. He pranced in and said something in Russian to the two caregivers sitting in there and they smiled at him. We went around the corner to their little area where the potties where. He took care of business and then led me back to the gym. It was neat to see a little more of their living area. I am hoping that on Monday Justin and I can see where he sleeps and get some pictures. When it was time to go, Irina explained that in two days we would be back and he would go with us forever. He seemed to think that this would be ok with him!

As a great way to cap off an already good day, Justin and I went to dinner with Irina, Lana, and Oleg (our driver). They took us to an overlook to see the city of Vladivostock and then to a great Chinese restaurant. It was really nice not eating the hotel food for a change. We enjoyed learning more about their culture and their experiences with adoptions through the years.

Today we headed downtown on the train again. This time we ventured out with Ryan, Sandy, and Bodi True. It was rainy most of the day, but as always it is good to get out of the hotel. We had a great lunch and walked around quite a bit. At the end of the day we came up with a fun game. We would all four take a guess at what would be inside a building and then we went in to see who was the closest. We should have started this much earlier in the day because it was fun. You just never know what you are going to find!

Here are a couple of pictures for you.

This is Justin at a well in the village that we drive through to get to Artem.
This is a picture from the overlook we went to on Friday night.

It is always foggy or smoggy so it is hard to get a real good shot.

And here are the stray cebakas (dogs) in the city. There are dogs everywhere.

Day 8/10 Insightful Visit

Praise God for sunshine. I am not kidding you. Yesterday was sooo much better that the previous two days. The sun was out and there were people moving around. It made things seem so much less ominous. We started the day by chatting with Brady and Madison. We love seeing their faces and hearing about the events of their day. Each time we talk to them though it gets harder and harder not to cry. We can’t wait to squeeze them! We then made breakfast in our room. After that I went upstairs to walk on the treadmill and Justin headed outside for a stroll. When he came back, he said that he ran into Ryan and Sandy and that they had told him of another place we could walk. So back out we went. For those of you that stay at the Vlad Inn, don’t be afraid to explore! We walked down the tracks a bit and went into the gates of the big yellow deserted mansion looking place. There was a guard there, but he completely ignored us. It was a fantastic place to walk.

We had our visit in the afternoon, and we got to take the kids outside today for the first time ever! It was fun to watch them play on the equipment and chase the stray cats. I was also very happy that when we went to help them get their layers of clothes on, Justin was able to snap a few more pictures of the other children in their group, and we have more of the little girl that I am intrigued with. So here is the insightful part of the visit… Blake kept leading us toward the parking place where the van was. He wanted to get in the van. We lead him away from it and then he made his way back. When we came upon it a third time Irina spoke to him. She told us that he wants to go. She explained to him that we would be there on Monday to take him with us for good. When it was time to go back in, we got some adorable pictures of Victoria and Blake on the steps. But there is something very different about these pictures than all of our others. He is not smiling. Blake was sad about going back inside. On one hand it made us sooo incredibly sad that yet again we had to leave him there. On the other hand we took some comfort in knowing that he is ready to leave. After playing in the visiting room for a bit and having a few fruit loops, cookies, M&Ms, and of course lots of water he was back to smiling. Under his outside layers he had on an obnoxious shirt that had girls all over it and the words Girl Part written in a number of places. He has a runny nose and his glands are swollen. When it was time for us to go, Justin and I felt for the first time that he really gets that we are HIS momma and papa.

Something else I wanted to share, especially for those that are or will be going through this emotional process… You begin to over analyze, second guess, and doubt a number of things along the way. One thing that Justin and I began thinking about on this trip was about the trauma Blake might experience by being removed from the orphanage. Keep in mind, that unlike many of the children, Blake was not removed from an abusive situation. His mother terminated her rights at birth. At first Justin and I were thankful that she recognized she could not provide for him and that he didn’t experience some of the horrible things (other than orphanage life of course) that some children have to undergo. Well something clicked in us and we began to think that we may be causing the ‘trauma’ by removing him from the only place he has known. Well as is typical of this entire process, God has done two things to quite our hearts and minds. First he let us experience today that Blake is more than ready to leave with us. The other is the insight we have gained about orphanage life. In just a few months, Blake would have been moved from the baby home he is in now to another orphanage for older children. We cannot imagine how this little guy would have survived that move with all of the older children. And if he did survive, his little heart would have become hardened and callous for sure. He is ready, we are ready, and Brady and Madison are ready for us FINALLY to be a family of five.

Today is our last visit. It is Friday and we will go in the afternoon. Just like last weekend there will be no visits on Saturday or Sunday. On Monday, we will make the drive to the Artem baby home for the very last time! I am almost in tears right now with the joy and relief that brings! I will leave you with a couple of pictures from yesterday. The first is of Blake and PaPa walking around the outside of the baby home. The other is of Blake and Victoria peaking out after one of the stray cats escaped them.

Day 7/10 – Much better day

It was still a rainy day outside, but we started the day out much better because we got to visit Blake. He seemed happy to see us too. The doctor said that his heart is fine and that they didn’t find anything wrong. Just as we had expected. We were also able to go to the gym today for a nice change of pace. Another great surprise was that about 40 minutes into playing the caregivers brought up rest of Blake and Victoria’s group. There were several more girls than boys. Blake was protective of his things at first, but then Justin and I insisted that he share his toys and he was receptive to that. He was protective of his photo album and photo books too. We did not make him share those as we feel it is important that he feels a sense of ownership to sentimental items. He seemed to be fine with that. We were able to get some great pictures of the kids. There was an adorable redheaded girl with pigtails that caught my eye. There was another girl as well that I just can’t get out of my mind. She seemed to be very intrigued with me. She had one eye that seemed cross, and I feel like she was trying to speak to me with her eyes. I wish so much that I knew what she had to say. I feel moved by her for some reason. Justin was a kid magnet. We had a beach ball that he would hit up in the air and the kids would chase it and bring it back to him. It was so cute to watch. Today we will go back in the afternoon for our visit because Blake and Victoria have to see another doctor in the morning. Don’t even ask!!

The rain had turned to drizzle by the afternoon time so Justin and I decided to take our stroll to the market. We heard something strange on the way. It almost sounded like infant children fussing. We then realized that it was two stray cats. Cats here by the way are HUGE, and the one that hangs out by the market is missing an ear and is quite mangy looking. Justin is convinced that the cats here meow in Russian. It started to rain a bit harder so we headed back to our room. I actually pretended to work out for an hour today so that seemed to help my mood a bit.

I missed saying goodbye to Nancy and Joshua. They are finally headed home to Texas. We are thankful for the other families here. If there weren’t other people to share this experience with we would probably fall apart. We ate dinner tonight with the True family. I find their experience quite funny – well funny isn’t the right word, but they make me laugh. They may be leaving Saturday or Tuesday
at 8 or at 10… you really have to be here to understand why that is sooo funny but I had to include in on our blog because it is so typical of how things go around here. As much as we want them to be able to head home, we selfishly hope that they are here through the rest of our stay.

Well I guess that is it for the day. We take great enjoyment on marking off the days on the calendar. Thank you all for your comments and support. We know this too shall pass, but sometimes in the moment you feel like you are living the proverbial groundhog’s day!

Paka Paka (Bye, Bye)

Here are a couple of pictures. One is a little table and chairs outside of the gym at the baby home and the other two are the playground right outside the front door.

Day 6/10 – Ho Hum

If you are looking for an upbeat update from Vladivostock, Russia you may want to find another blog for today. I need to complain. I am trying really hard not to complain to Justin as he is experiencing the same things as I am, and I don’t want to complain too much with the other sweet people that are here because they are all putting in their time as well. So guess what – you get to be my complaining audience today.

Let’s start with the fact that it had rained alllll day long. Now I know that it has been raining back home too, but when it rains here that takes away one of the few things I look forward to which is our afternoon stroll. Another complaint it is makes the room even more dreary. I like a lot of light. I like things bright. In fact at home Justin is often asking me why I insist on turning every light on. Well even on sunny days there isn’t enough light for my liking in our room. Ok so that is one complaint.

Now to the biggie. Yesterday Justin, Jennifer, her mom, and I left at 9:00 for our visit as usual. We made the raining trek to Artem in about 45 minutes. Irina wasn’t there yet, but we went ahead and went in. We put on our blue booties over our shoes and headed up the stairs to the visiting room. The lady that led us up there said blah blah blah (Jennifer’s daughter’s name) and then blah blah blah (Blake’s Russian name) hospital. We were confused. Who was at the hospital? What? She left the room and we decided to wait a minute or two and see what would happen next. In came Jennifer’s adorable little daughter and no Blake. Thankfully Irina came up the stairs and we asked here where Blake was. She said she would go find out. Minutes later she returned and was not happy. She said that the silly baby’s home took him to the hospital to have his heart checked. Now before any of you panic let me explain a few things we have learned. 1) These doctors are crazy about medical tests. If Nancy’s blog wasn’t set to private I would link this to her entry about her doctor’s visit. She knew she had a sinus infection and really needed antibiotics. She finally decided to tell her agency folks so they could help her get some medicine. Well first they don’t have general practice doctors so she had to see the ears, throat, and nose specialist. That doctor then wanted to do some crazy procedure where she would go under anesthetic – remember this is a sinus infection! When she wouldn’t agree to that they suggested a number of things. It ends up she had a CT scan, was turned upside down so they could clear her sinuses and then finally gave her a prescription. They wanted her to return every day after that to be checked. Needless to say she didn’t go back. There are more stories like this I could tell you but the point is they overreact in my medical opinion – whatever that is worth. 2) Blake does not have anything listed in any of his reports about any kind of heart condition. Irina gave us a little insight in to why she thought he was being looked at. It has nothing to do with him or his heart.

We will find out today what the ‘results’ were, but I am not worried at all. We are sooo ready to get him into our care and get him home. Enough of this craziness! Irina was not happy that they did not call her and tell her that we shouldn’t come for our visit. We ended up leaving Jennifer and her mom to enjoy their visit with Victoria, and Irina drove Justin and I back to the Vlad Inn. We had a great conversation on the way back and learned a lot of interesting facts about the region and the adoption process. She told us several times she would be speaking to the baby home director about not calling her ahead of tme. So that just really set the stage for a crummy day.

When Alex, the driver, brought Jennifer and her mom back we all piled back in the van and went to the infamous baby store and market. I loved looking through the things in the baby store. The market is interesting, but just like at home a few minutes into grocery shopping and I was done. So we are really hoping that today is a better day with a little sunshine and a great visit with Blake. We are missing Brady and Madison more and more everyday! I think it is time for us to reread James chapter 1. If you never have read that chapter it only takes a couple of minutes. There are several verses in there that Justin and I gain strength from for a number of reasons. One in particular is verse 4, “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Check it out – verse 27 has special meaning t0 us now as well.

Thanks for listening/reading. It is amazing how much better I feel already!

Here is a picture of one of the rooms in the baby store. The strollers here are amazing.


The infant swings are too cute.


Here is a picture of our suite with the bed in the kitchen. Umm I guess you can call it our home away from home.

Day 5/10

I can’t wait until we can post pictures of Blake on here. We have some real cute ones from yesterday. We brought shoes and clothes with us to try them on him so we could see if they fit. He can fit in 24 month/2T pants length wise, but he is a skinny minnie. I don’t think his little legs and bottom even fill out his silly tights. He does have long arms though so 2T and 3T seemed ok. I’m guessing it won’t take long to get some meat on his bones. Irina brought two chocolate Easter eggs for him and Victoria to enjoy. In the middle of the egg is a little toy. They both really enjoyed the chocolate! Today we also brought a water bottle. Blake really enjoys the fresh water maybe even more than the chocolate. It was kind of rainy outside so we were stuck in the brown couch room for the whole visit. We are holding out hope that during today’s visit we can go outside. There really isn’t much more to report. The ride back to the Vlad Inn was awful. It usually takes like 45 minutes, but today it took 2 hours. And that was two hours at a snail’s pace with diesel fumes coming back in the van. We are all becoming a bit nauseated. It turns out there was a pedestrian/bus accident that was causing the hold up. We did take a walk across the railroad tracks for a bit. Below is a picture of us today on the beach. You would think that with all of the strolls we are taking we would feel healthy, but it feels like the only thing we do is sit and eat meals. I think we have already gained like 10 pounds - partially because we are eating out of boredom and partially because we are eating things that we wouldn’t typically eat at home. Ok so I have completely digressed in this entry. We hope all is well with everyone back home. We love little updates about ANYTHING… family, friends, weather, work, what you ate for dinner last night… you name it – we are interested!

Dasvidanya (Goodbye!)

Oh I almost forgot. Today they gave us back the album that we left for him on the first visit and the album that Amy took to him. They also gave us back the disposable camera, but they didn’t take any pictures because there were afraid they would have broken it :o(. I asked about the blanket and pillow that my mom had made for him. We fully expected not to get it back. They said that the children really enjoy playing with them and asked if we would mind if they kept them. Of course we said that that was fine. My mom can always make him another one, but it warms our heart to know that such simple things can bring pleasure to the children. In a way it is somewhat sad. In another way, it is a nice reminder to enjoy the simple things in life. Now I just wish we had about 100 more of the blanket/pillow combos so that each child could have their own!

Day 4/10

The day was pretty uneventful compared to our trip downtown. Because it was Sunday we didn’t go see Blake. The hotel did have more people come in to eat dinner and there was quite a bit of activity down in the park, but nothing too exciting. Justin and I did take an adventurous stroll down the tracks. I enjoy seeing the way the people in the area do regular day-to-day things. Here are a few pictures from the day. We will chat with Brady and Maddie in a few minutes and then head out to Artem to see the Blakester!!!!

So the first thing we need to know is whether or not anyone has a clue what kind of bug this is. It was crawling across the floor in our hotel room. After its creepy little life came to an end we took it up to the front desk to ask what it was. The receptionist kinda giggled and said it was a funny spider. Ummm in the U.S. spiders have 8 legs NOT 24 legs! Now for future families travelling to the Vlad Inn, please know that this hotel is very clean. The maids here really work hard and truly scrub every nook and cranny. This is the very first bug we have seen, but wowza it was a freaky looking one!


This is one of the piers that we walked out on. Keep in mind that the area we are in is one of the ‘nice’ areas in the region. (Mom, I bet you would have passed out if you took one step on that thing!)


This cracks me up, but I love the concept! So in the parking lot of the market we go to is this fancy table set up where wealthy folks come to dine on fine china. There is nothing wrong with this, but could you imagine using your fine china to dine in the parking lot of your local grocery store?

Downtown Adventure

Day 3/10

Happy Easter (again)!

We had a change of plans after eating breakfast yesterday. We decided to take the train downtown on Saturday instead of Sunday. Jennifer and her mother along with Amy and her father decided that they really wanted to go too since none of us of our children here yet. It is really neat to experience the train again. We saw a couple women selling things on the train, many intoxicated individuals, and people jumping the train to avoid the ticket checker. Many of you may remember on our first trip on the train we took a picture of an adorable little Russian girl and then a few minutes later her mother was ‘disciplining’ her in a way that was too harsh in our opinion. We were sharing that story yesterday on the way home when we heard a little girl cry behind us. Justin and I turn around and to our surprise it was the same adorable little girl! Within about 1 minute of her crying her mom ‘disciplined’ her again and the rest of the group experienced what we had shared the last time. Thankfully it happened only one time and not over and over as it did on the first trip. And the mom rocked and hugged her for awhile, but we are still just really bothered by the situation and the irony of witnessing it again. Just bothersome!

On a happier note when we got downtown we walked to their central square where we went in December. Much to our surprise instead of being a huge open space there was a market set up. We got some great pictures and had tons of fun people watching. After we got back we hung out with the True family for awhile. I stayed up way late last night. I think I wasn’t in bed until like 8:40!!!


Here is Justin and I overlooking the bay and part of the Russian fleet (I think).


Here are a couple of pictures of the market.



Here is Justin shopping for hats for Madison.


This is a small version of an Easter cake. They make these cakes which actually taste more like a bread for Easter. Many people will take the cake to church to be blessed and then eat it today to celebrate.

Day 2/10

So first I have to start by making a correction. Justin wanted me to let you know that he had to answer more than 3 questions in court! I guess it just seemed like it wasn’t that many as I would have preferred he answered ALL of them! Another thing I wanted to mention about court for future adoptive parents was that you shouldn’t be surprised if something in your homestudy gets mistranslated. During court the judge asked me if I went to religious school. I was confused by the question. I simply said No. Then she seemed confused by my response. So they asked me again. Did you attend a school for religion? Again, I said no. They just let it go. After court I asked the interpreter what that was all about and she said that it must have been the way something in our homestudy was written. My guess is that there is a section that talks about church attendance and our involvement in church and that we host a small group bible study (we miss you guys by the way!). That must have been what it was.

Our other news from yesterday that we forgot to share was that we moved across the hall to a new room. This room has a full kitchen in it. I will have to post pictures of it for you. I can just imagine the luxurious hotels many of you are picturing. HaHa wait until you see how extravagant this place is! Lol

We had an awesome visit with Blake today. We were able to stay for three hours. There is a lady from California named Jennifer here with her mother. She had court yesterday. Her daughter (Irina) Victoria is in Blake’s group. So we will make many of our visits together. You should have seen the two of them play! I wish I could post pictures of our visit. We had so much fun. Jennifer immediately changed Victoria’s shoes, put in a hair bow, put on a necklace and satin gloves, and gave her a little purse. Blake went over to her and said something in Russian to Ira (that is her nickname with the kids) and then he gave her a kiss! It was priceless!! So as any good parents would we got them excited quickly by playing chase and tickling. Well I guess the babies in the room next to us were sleeping and we got scolded in Russian! We tried to behave, but it is hard in that small room for 3 hours. I think we only got in trouble 2 more times! We were worse than the kids. But it was just wayyyy to fun to hear them laughing and giggling. Justin did try to go ask someone if we could move to their gym but they said Nyet, it was being painted.

So guess what Blake is obsessed with?? He loves electronics! Cell phones, cameras, anything with buttons. He loves to pretend to be talking on the cell phone. Even Jennifer was stunned at how much he fascinated by them. The other amazing thing we learned today is that he is a great repeater. If we say a word two times he will do his best to repeat it. This will be huge for learning English. So for example we said Braht Brady. Brady. And he said Brady the best he could. We said Sistra Madison. Madison. And he said Madison. We are definitely proud parents! But we are going to make sure we watch what we say around him! Also we are using his name as much as possible so that he catches on. We are saying Blake followed by his Russian name. We will soon drop the Russian name and hope that he catches on.

We will not get to visit today or tomorrow. The baby home locks the doors on the weekends and does not allow visitors. Kind of creepy in a way. So we will leave the hotel at 9:00 on Monday to go back. We are hoping to get to go outside and play for a change of pace. When it was time to leave, Irina – our agency rep, told Victoria and Blake that we would be back on Monday and that soon we would come and bring them new clothes and take them home with us forever. Blake grinned, but I still am not sure he gets what that means. As many have pointed out, this may be an advantage of not having him during the 10 days. We always have to look for the positive side of things. At least this way we are working up gradually and able to explain for the next several days what is forthcoming so that he may be a bit more prepared.

Today we will hang out at the hotel and walk to the little supermarket. The biggest project of the day is to organize the room since it is all disheveled after the move. Don’t you just love how FULL our agenda is here at the Vlad Inn?!?! On one hand it is nice to slow down. On the other hand it is enough to drive a person to insanity. Sunday here is the Russian Orthodox Easter celebration. From my understanding the meaning behind their celebration is the same as ours. No, I am not talking about Reese’s peanut butter eggs, egg hunts, and chocolate galore. :o) But the amazing fact that Christ rose from His grave! We hope to join in on their celebration in some fashion. We are planning to venture downtown as we hear there will be special things going on.

Paka, Paka (Bye, Bye)

Ups and Downs of Court Day

Day 1/10

I’m gonna apologize now for this being a long entry. There are lots of things about the day we want to remember.

We started out the day with our first webcam session with Brady and Madison. It was great to see them and check in on what has been going on back home. We weren’t but a minute or so into the call when they began pushing each other so that they could be in front of the camera. Gotta love the sibling spats! They started off by telling us that they have been sleeping on our bed and wearing one of Justin’s sweatshirts each night. They were proud to announce that they are going to wear the sweatshirts every day we are gone. We hope they wash them at some point :o) Of course after disconnecting from the chat session we were sad. We still have soooo many days left before returning home.

We spent the morning hanging out with the True Family (Sandy, Ryan, and Bodi) and picking their brains about court. Around noon we decided to go back to the room and reread our homestudy, Blake’s medical and family information, and make a list of notes to have with us in court. We were to be picked up in the lobby around 2:30-2:45 for our 4:00 court session. Well because there was NOTHING else to do, Justin and I began getting ready for court early. We decided to be in the lobby at 2:15 just to be on the safe side – and to get us out of our room! At 2:12 the phone in our room rings. It was Lana, our interpreter. She said, “Heather, there has been a mistake (insert here – heart pounding, lump in throat developing, stomach turning). The judge changed the court time to 2:00 not 4:00. She only told half of the people 2:00. Irina will be there to pick you up in ten minutes. Please be ready!” Well that sure made things interesting. Justin and I prayed together before leaving the room and then headed to the lobby. Sandy took a quick picture of us before court as parents of 2 children and then we got a picture after court as parents of 3 children!

So Irina picked us up and drove like a race car driver into Vladivostock. We had Natalia, the Artem Baby Home director with us in the car. Irina explained that the prosecutor is her friend (cha ching!) and called her at 2:00 and asked where she was. Irina explained that she was driving to pick the director up, that is when she learned that the court time had changed. Oye! When we arrived, Irina dropped us off at the door so that she could park the car. Lana, our interpreter was on her way. So if you can possibly follow the characters of this story… Justin and I are walking into the Primorsky Regional Court with no one that speaks English. We get past the security counter and sit on a bench to wait. It seems as though people are pretty calm and that the time mix-up had been smoothed over. Then the court reporter opens the door to the small court room and motions us in. YIKES! Where is Lana? Where is Irina? Surely they know we can’t understand a word they are saying right?!?! The judge walks in and we all stand. She said something and the prosecutor said “Passports”. So we handed our passports over. Thankfully they didn’t continue until Lana entered the room. She probably arrived about 2 minutes after we had gone in.

Over all the ‘hearing’ wasn’t that bad. It took about 40 minutes and quite a bit of that time was spent with the director of the baby home and the social worker for Artem, Svetlana, speaking to the judge. Justin spoke first. They asked him about 3 questions. I got to answer all of the rest. It was hard to look at the Judge which you can’t understand and then look at the interpreter then speak to the judge who in turn listens to the interpreter. Quite an interesting process.

Some of our questions (Helpful for future adopting parents):

Are biological children prepared for the child?
Why do you want to adopt when you can have children of your own?
Why from Russia?
How did the child react to you?
Does he know you? What does he call you?
Which one of you does the child like better? (They asked me that. A part of me wanted to ask if they were seriously asking that question. But instead, I said that I felt he enjoyed his interactions with Justin more. It seems like he likes having a male influence around)
There was a question about our mortgage and how the economic crisis has affected us.
Who will be the primary caregiver of the child?
What services can we provide for him?
Have we spoken to doctors about his delays?

We left the court room for 2 minutes, went back in and the judge stated that we are the legal parents of the child. After the 10 day waiting period we will be legal guardians. Congratulations. We were very excited at that point. We then got in the car with Lana and began to leave.

Ok, so at this point we were relieved to have that done and over with. We were then waiting to hear whether or not we would get to have Blake with us at the hotel. We knew that Artem has only let one child stay with the parents during the 10 days. But we were hopeful. Irina feels very passionate that this is so important for the families, and now almost all of the baby homes and orphanages allow it. She said she would give it her best shot. So as we are driving to the market, Justin says to Lana that we would have to take her and Irina out to dinner and get some good Chinese food. She turns and looks at us with a sad face and says, “Guys, with what I have to tell you, you will not want to buy us dinner.” (picture big happy balloon being stuck with a needle). She said that Irina just called and we will not be able to have Blake during the 10 days. She said Irina is furious right now and is yelling about it. For future Artem adoptive parents here is what we have learned. We got permission from the baby home director, we got permission from the Ministry of Education, we got permission from the social worker that saw us play with Blake. The decision is up to the Director of the Department of Family Services in Artem city. She is the chief or boss to Svetlana, the social worker. When Irina spoke with her she said no. This made Irina angry. She then spoke with the MOE. The MOE said that they can only suggest and make recommendations but they cannot force the Department of Family Services to allow it. I can’t help but to wonder if this woman has ever seen the children in the orphanages. We know she has never seen us. If only we could speak with her directly and try to connect with her personally. Perhaps bring her flowers, chocolate, perfume…. Just kidding!

So that is the long way of telling you that we will not get to have Blake with us at the hotel. We are very disappointed, but we also knew this would likely be the case. Hopefully we will get to visit him most of the 10 days. It will depend on a number of things. And there aren’t visits over the weekend so we’ll have to find something to pass the time. We do get to go visit today at 3:00. Hopefully today we will get to just spend the whole time playing without interruptions. And we will be having another webcam session with Brady and Madison in a few hours!

Thank you so much for the emails, comments, and prayers. They really help us keep our sanity!

Before court.


After court - proud parents of THREE children!

Visit with Blake!

At 8:30 this morning our driver picked us up to head to the Artem baby home. After picking up our translator, Lana, we started to take a different route than we had taken in the past. We learned that on the way we were going into Artem City to pick up the social worker who will actually testify on our behalf tomorrow in court. So about an hour or so later we arrived at the baby home. We went to the visiting room and waited for Blake to come in. When he came in, he had a big grin on his face. We think he remembered us, but he especially remembered our black backpack. He immediately started taking out all of his things. It was so great to see him again. For some reason he seems even smaller to me now than he did in December. He was wearing green tights, snoopy denim shorts, and a yellow shirt with girlie flowers. His hair has been cut since the pictures that Amy sent in March. We were able to play for a bit and then I had to speak with the doctor about his current medical condition. The judge will ask us about this tomorrow as will the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. We really didn’t learn anything new. He did have bronchitis in both January and February, poor thing. I then got to join Justin and Blake to play for a couple more minutes. We even got some hugs and kisses. And then the social worker came in to ask us a few questions and then to go through Blake’s family history. Again we will be asked about this tomorrow. We actually got more information (nothing real pertinent) and it was very interesting to hear more about his birth family. Soon after that it was time to go. I was disappointed because I didn’t feel that I got to spend too much time just playing with him and reconnecting. I think that he and Justin were able to reconnect though. There were lots of high piats and giggling going on. When it was time to go, Blake grabbed Justin’s hand and was leading him back to his room almost as if he was going to show his groupa buddies his new pal. It was all wayyy too cute!

We don’t have court until 4:00 pm tomorrow so we will have all day to get ourselves worked up over what to expect. We have been told by everyone here that it really isn’t that bad. Hopefully we will feel the same way when it is over. We did meet a few families today at the Vlad Inn. The True family is here with their son as well as Nancy from Texas. There are other families as well and more coming in. It seems to be busy around here. We like it like that as it makes the days go just a bit faster.

So after our next post our ten day waiting period will be officially underway. After that time, we are the official guardians for Blake!

Dasvidanya!

Here is a picture of what we saw when we pulled up to the baby home. We have no idea why the stuffed animal was in the tree, but it kinda looked cute there!

We have arrived!

After 32 hours of traveling, we have arrived in Vlad. Fortunately we have no exciting travel stories to share. Although Justin did make friends with a Trans-siberian train engineer who was flying to Vlad to drive the train to Moscow. We are running on adrenaline now. Tomorrow morning we will leave at 8:30 to go to Artem to see Blake! We are very excited and also a bit nervous. We are hoping that he is receptive to our visit and remember us. I can’t help but to think that Amy’s visit and going through our album will have helped a bit. We were able to get one of the mini-suites. This has two rooms, two bathrooms, a couch, a microwave, and a fridge. We are on the list to move to one with a kitchenette when it is available. We are hoping the internet speeds up here. It is excruciatingly slow right now!

Here are some pictures of our travels. The first one is our last picture as a family of four in the Moline airport. You will notice my red nose as I had already begun crying at this point. Brady turned to Justin and said, “Dad, here she goes again. Mom, you are making your face red and hot. Please don’t cry. We will be fine!” Madison put her head on my shoulder and said, “Please don’t cry MaMa we’ll be ok.” Needless to say that made me cry even more!


Here I am in Atlanta getting ready for the 11 hour trip to Moscow.


Here is Justin in the Moscow airport. This is probably all he slept the whole time.


And here we are 32 hours later getting off the plane in Vlad. Much warmer than it was in December!

Last entry from the U.S. for awhile

Just wanted to let you all know that we will do our best to keep you updated in Vlad. We are busy working on all of the last minute details and spending as much time with Brady and Maddie as we can. Our passports with our visas arrived yesterday. That was a huge relief! We are so overwhelmed with what lies ahead and we are very grateful for the support we are getting from so many people. We are hoping that when we are not running in circles we can properly thank everyone. There are many people helping us in so many ways. I won’t even try to name everyone, but we do want to thank our parents. We appreciate that you are there to help make life as ‘normal’ as possible for Brady and Maddie. For those that donated to the baby home, we are hoping to get some pictures to send to you with a thank you note when we return. For all of our blogger/email friends who have helped in so many ways we are forever grateful. And especially we want to thank Brady and Madison for being so understanding and having so much love in their heart for Blake! We are broken hearted about leaving them but are amazed at how giving and unselfish they are at such young ages.

We will spend tomorrow with family and finishing all last minute details. On Easter Sunday, we will leave home at 6:45 a.m. to head to the airport. We are praying for uneventful travels! There have been many people ask if there is anything specific we would like them to pray for. We feel so blessed already and have been praising God for making so many things possible for us. Our prayer requests are for patience and peace for Brady and Madison and for a smooth transition for Blake.

Until next time….

Dasvidania (Goodbye)

4 Months Ago – 1 Week Away

Dear Blake,
Privet! 4 months ago today we met each other for the first time. You won us over with that toothy grin of yours! We are now preparing to come back and be reunited with you exactly one week from today. We are so excited to wrap our arms around you again and reassure you that everything is going to be ok. There are many people here who are anxiously awaiting your arrival, but none more than your big brother Brady and your big sister Madison! In Brady’s nighttime prayers this week he has been telling God how excited he is to know that you are just about home. He said “I am so excited I can’t even find words to explain it!” Madison is also so excited. She has a sparkly bouncy ball that she says is her genie ball. She keeps saying “Poof! I just made Blake show up right next to me!” She is too funny!

Please know how much we love you. God has made this journey possible all on His timing. We will all have questions in the future about what brought each of us to this particular point in our lives. But one question we will never have is whether or not this was truly meant to be. It is apparent that this is exactly the path that we have all been destined to take in life. We are so blessed!!

In one week you will get to Oye! at PaPa’s crunchy hair, eat Fruit Loops, sit in MaMa’s lap and read our flap book, and show us all of your newest tricks. We can’t wait!

Ya Tibya Lo Bloo!

Paka! XOXOXO

~PaPa & MaMa

How are you doing?

It is amazing how we have had four months to prepare to be gone and yet we are running around like crazy trying to get all of the last minute details in place. I always have said I work better under pressure so I guess we’ll get things done somehow.

Right now my emotions are all out of whack too. I feel bad for any person who has looked in me in the eyes the past couple of days and said, “How are you doing?” For some reason that question is bringing me to tears. It is hard to explain how we are doing. We are filled with such joy and excitement, nervousness and anxiety, uncertainty and determination etc… So if you see us this week you may want to say, “Hey, what’s up?” if you don’t want to see me cry yet again. (o:

We are working on packing lists, getting as much squared away with work as possible, and spending time with our friends and family. We can barely sleep at night which is actually helping to get a lot done. Now we just have to hope that we don’t wear our bodies down and get sick.

I thought I would share three of the many proud parent moments from the weekend. 1) Madison had her Dazzler Showcase in which she danced her tap and hip-hop routines with her groups. She did a great job. 2) Brady had his solar system artwork selected to be displayed at the local art center (see photo). 3) On Saturday, when I came out of my bedroom from getting ready for the day, Brady and Madison were lounging on the couch reading!!! Not playing a video game, or the computer, or watching tv, or playing with legos or stuffed animals, or fighting with each other – but reading! I loved it! (see photo)

Hug Patrol

Wow, I think just a couple of days ago I was complaining about time just creeping along. And now I can’t believe how fast it is flying! (Insert Katy Perry Song… You’re hot then you’re cold. You’re yes then you’re no!) Many details are falling into place and there are a million more to complete still.

We have our tickets booked. We actually ended up spending $950 less this trip WITH Blake’s one-way ticket than we spent in December. The problem is we will not get to fly Korean Air this time since we have to go through Moscow on the way home. Justin is less than thrilled about riding in what he calls the Matchbox Plane. We will survive it though – maybe with just a few additional grey hairs. So here is what the general schedule will look like.

April 12th Fly out of Moline to Atlanta. (2 hrs) Celebrating Easter in the air!
Fly out of Atlanta to Moscow. Arrive on the 13th. (11 hrs)
April 13th Fly out of Moscow to Vlad. Arrive on the 14th. (8.5 hrs)
April 14th Check in to the Vlad Inn
April 15th Visit Blake and prepare for court
April 16th Court at 4:00 p.m.
April 28th Receive the court decision; Complete documents for the passport office; Visit a notary office for notarizing copies of the Birth & Adoption Certificates for the Consulate; Visit a regional registry office to apostille new documents
April 29th Receive passport; visit medical clinic
April 30th Receive documents for the US Embassy
Fly out of Vlad to Moscow. (8.5 hrs)
May 1st Russian holiday – Embassy closed (HUGE BUMMER!)
May 4th Go to US Embassy
May 6th Fly out of Moscow to Atlanta. (11.5 hrs)
Fly out of Atlanta to Moline. Arrive at 8:55 p.m. (2 hrs)

So now to the reason for the title of this entry. As you can imagine we are beyond excited to head to Vlad to get Blake! There are three rather gut wrenching problems with leaving however. One is the timing for Justin with the farm work to be completed. We won’t even go there! Number two and three are Brady and Madison. We are just sick to our stomachs (literally) about leaving them for this length of time. My heart just aches. They both keep reassuring us that they are going to be fine and that they are just happy that we will be bringing their brother home. We have fantastic help from our family and friends. And to be honest they probably will be so spoiled while we are gone, they will think it is great. I am truly nervous about how we will handle this. It will work in the end. It is worth it. They will be fine. Etc… I KNOW all of those things in my mind. But my heart isn’t so sure.

So as a result of those feelings you should all take pity on Brady and Madison for the moment. Every time Justin and I walk past them we are giving them hugs and kisses. Squeezing them. Telling them how much we love them. How much we are going to miss them. How proud of them we are. To be honest I think they are tolerating us because they can sense we are emotional, but I think another day or so of this and they are going to be like “All right already! Give us some space will ya?!?” (o:

Emotions are running high. It will be interesting to see how God continues to lay out our journey for us.

Dasvidania (Goodbye)

April Fool’s Day recap

Before sharing any details we wanted to let everyone know that we will be taking the donation button off the blog on Tuesday, April 7th. Please remember that is NOT a donation to Justin and me. This is a donation to the children in the baby home. Please click here to read the post that explains more about why we are doing this. Thank you to those who have donated thus far.

So now for how yesterday unfolded… After my regular weekly admin meeting, I was working away in my office and occasionally (ok – like every 2 minutes) refreshing my email inbox and glancing at my cell phone. Justin and I both had a hunch that Wednesday was going to be the day. As the hours passed, I was getting disappointed that we weren’t hearing anything. And then a special little surprise came into my inbox! Amy, my dear blogger friend who took Blake’s album to him, is now home and had sent us 2 short and ohhhh so special videos of Blake from her visit. I had gotten them downloaded and watched them about 4 times each. They totally lifted my spirits, and I figured that that is what would get me through the day with no news about court. So I just shifted my attention back to work when 5 minutes later my cell phone rings. I see Children’s Hope International on the caller ID and my heart starts to pound!!!!

Pam from CHI tells me that we have an April 16th court date and that we need to be in Vlad on the 14th. Unfortunately the return information wasn’t available just yet because May 1 is a Russian holiday and so more details were being worked out. We should know more today so we can get our flights booked.

A little side note to answer a question I got a couple of times yesterday. After court and the necessary paperwork processing we will be bringing Blake home with us. This is our last trip to Russia until many years down the road if he would like to visit.

Ok so back to the recap… As you can imagine I am in a state of shock. Excitement, fear, etc…start taking over. I quickly call Justin’s cell and it rings and rings. No answer. I dial again immediately. He will surely know it is important since I am calling right back!! No answer. I let a minute or two pass and call my dad to see if Justin was with him. He wasn’t. And guess what he was doing?!?!? Looking for his lost cell phone!!! Are you kidding me?!?! So I remain calm and just tell my dad to have him call me when he sees him. I then try Justin’s dad’s cell to see if he was with him. Nope! He was actually standing next to my dad! Another phone call to get a cell phone number of a friend of his. No answer. At this point I can’t hold it any longer. It was time to celebrate! I shared the great news with the ladies in our office and began to let it all sink in. About 50 minutes later he calls and starts the conversation by saying “Don’t yell at me, just tell me the date!” It was definitely not a day for yelling.

Ok this post is getting way to long. I just want to remember the details of this day for years to come. We have applied for our visas and have that underway. I just hate sending our passports in the mail!

More info to come when the travel plans are made. Thank you all for your support. It means the world to us!

Court Date!!!!! No joke!!!!

We have court in Vlad on April 16th!!!!! Have to be in Vlad on the 14th. We get to be reunited with Blake on the 15th.

So far there have not been any requests for additional or corrected documents. More details to come…

And I verified with our agency that is NOT an April Fools Day joke! (o:

God is good!