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.