Sunny Day in Moscow

We went nonstop today! First we enjoyed the excellent breakfast buffet that’s included with the cost of the hotel here, then we headed off for our 9am doctor’s appointment. While there we met a couple and their newly adopted three year old girl who are from Texas, another couple and their newly adopted 13 month old girl who are from New York and another couple with a newly adopted 13 month old girl who are from California! Jill’s appointment went fine; the only thing she didn’t like was when he looked in her ears. This made me think there may be something wrong with her ears, but he said they looked great! He did say that we need to see an ENT as soon as we get back to take care of her adenoids and tonsils. That’s why she can’t breathe! Ty had his adenoids out a few years ago, so we know just where to go! After the doctor’s visit we headed to the zoo! Mia had given us Metro directions; we followed them exactly and made it! This was trickier than our usual Metro outings because we had to change lines, but we did it! Actually, we had a little help. As they announced the stop for the zoo I said to Wade, “It’s the next one.” A lady overheard me and said, “Are you going to the zoo?” We told her yes and she said she was going that way and would show us where it was. That was very nice of her as there were two different ways out of the subway station and only one took you to the zoo. Also the zoo is a couple of blocks away from the station. So, we got to the zoo, took a few pictures and a little video outside, then went up to buy our tickets. There were a lot of people standing around looking through the gates, standing by the cashier booths, out front milling around, but there weren’t any people working at the cashier booths. There were workers inside the gates hosing down areas and sprucing things up, but the zoo did not appear to be open. I guess there wasn’t a sign up saying anything about them being closed because all sorts of Russian people were walking around looking as confused as we did! We decided to take a walk and look for something to eat, then come back and see if they had opened in the meantime. We saw a sign that said McDonald’s 1.5 km, so we headed in that direction. We ate at McDonalds then walked back to the zoo to find new people milling around the cashier booths looking confused. We also saw many adults walking away with some very disappointed looking children. We decided they must not be open today for one reason or another, so we headed back to the Metro station and figured out how to get to The Red Square. We took some pictures around St. Basil’s Cathedral, looked at the things vendors were selling around the square, and generally just strolled around taking in the sights. We went in GUM mall where no one I know could afford to buy anything, then went across from The Red Square to a normal mall. That was more fun to look through, although we still didn’t buy anything. Every store was either a clothing store, shoe store, or sold accessories like jewelry, hats, or purses. There were no household stores or Halmark type stores. We found that somewhat strange. It was only about 3:30 when we were pretty much finished looking around The Red Square area, so we got back on the Metro and went back to Arbat Street. We went back to a store we had been in yesterday, and I bought an amber necklace and earring set. Russia is famous for their amber. We also bought a small flag of Russia. I think I forgot to mention that we bought a handcarved chess set yesterday! Wade got a Euro 2008 T-shirt and a hat that says Russia yesterday, and today he bought a Hard Rock Café Moscow shirt after we ate dinner there. We split their huge plate of Nachos. Wade was so happy eating nachos and drinking iced tea-with ice! Jill ate an entire chicken fingers and fries kids meal with milk! As we headed back down the street to get to the Metro we ran into one of the couples we had met this morning at the doctor’s office; the ones from Texas! We chatted some more with them and found that we both have 2pm appointments at the American Embassy tomorrow! We told them our zoo story and said that we may try again tomorrow after our appointment. They asked if they could join us, so of course we said yes! So, now we’re back, Jill’s had her bath and is in bed, and we plan to sleep in tomorrow. Then, after the big breakfast buffet, we may look into the hotel pool before going to our 2pm Embassy appointment. After that we do hope to visit the zoo with the Texas family for the rest of the day and possibly join them for dinner. And then……..sleep, get up Wednesday, eat, go to the airport and begin our journey HOME!

Rainy Day in Moscow

Picking up from where I left off yesterday afternoon…After I returned from McDonald’s, Jill was up from her nap. We decided to go looking for the German restaurant that others have recommended. Mia had told us that it was across the street past the Metro station. We walked past the Metro station which is a nice park-like area lined with stores and restaurants on either side. It was a nice walk, but none of the restaurants looked German, and none of the names per my ‘sounding them out’ sounded German at all. So, we gave up about the time it started getting windy and looked like it might rain opting to go back and eat in the hotel instead. Wade got the $18 club sandwich and fries and I got the $10 bowl of Borscht that was pretty much a ten dollar bowl of beef broth. The Borscht at the Horseshoe in Astrakhan had beef in it, chunks of potatoes, chunks of beets, and shredded cabbage, carrots and such; it was so good. This had some shredded vegetables in beef broth and that was it, very disappointing. After dinner we met up with another CHI couple. It turns out they are from Kansas City and they were both raised in the St. Louis area!!! What a small world! We chatted for a long time, then Wade went with them to the market to buy some bottled water while I put Jill to bed. Her bed here is not a crib like it was in The Korvet. It is actually a chair that pulls out like a pull-out couch and makes a twin bed. It’s the perfect size, but we were curious to find out if she would stay in it or get out whenever she wanted to. I helped her with pajamas, teeth brushing, and read her her favorite book; then I kissed her goodnight and patted her back a few times. She didn’t cry or fuss at all! I headed to the bathroom and soon heard her behind me. I told her ‘para spat’ (time to sleep) and ‘go back to bed’ motioning for her to go back. She Did! She went and climbed back into the bed and stayed there! This morning we met up with the KC couple for breakfast before the headed back home for their 10 day wait. We also went to the lobby to catch Mia before they all left to ask her for the name of the German restaurant. It’s something that starts with a K and sounds a little like kielbasa. While there the couple offered us one of their umbrellas since we didn’t bring one! How nice! Even though it was raining, we decided to head out to Arbat street (since we now had an umbrella) for some shopping. We met a couple that spoke English on the subway; the man was from Scotland and the woman from India. They were very nice. We got off at the same stop, but split up then. We didn’t go ‘up’ from our stop the same way my dad and I did on my first trip here, so we didn’t see the church that was my sign for which way to go to get to Arbat street. We walked around the block and still didn’t see it, so we asked someone who pointed us in the right direction. Finally, we found it! We did have a poncho that covered Jill and the stroller, I had my water-resistant jacket with a hood and Wade had his water-resistant jacket as well as the umbrella. The rain let up every now and then, and we had an enjoyable time strolling up and down both sides of the street going in and out of shops and looking at the various things the vendors in the middle were selling. We ate lunch at Sbarro’s Pizza. It was OK; it would have been much better if it had been hot, but it was barely even warm. I’m also not sure if it had any sauce on it. We found a closer Metro station right at the end of Arbat street and headed down. Unfortunately, we found out the hard way that it was a different line. We figured this out only two stops in, got off, headed back two stops the other way and asked someone which way to go. She directed us to go one more stop and then change lines. We went one more stop, but weren’t sure how to change lines. We knew we needed the red #1, but were unsure of where that was. A man who spoke some English could tell we were trying to figure something out and stopped and asked us where we were wanting to go. We told him and he pointed us in the right direction, how nice!!! Then we got on and rode back to the hotel! So, in all of this Jill missed her nap. She seems to be doing okay, though, she was going strong until dinner, then had a few fits during dinner because we don’t like her to hold onto the prong end of the fork after each bite getting her hand all yucky, but for the most part she was fine. We did find the “German” restaurant and it was FANTASTIC! Wade had some kind of German beef and mutton sausage with sauerkraut (that he didn’t eat) and French fries, I had beef stroganoff with mashed potatoes, green beans and a salad. Jill ate a ton again! After having this HUGE piece of pizza and a banana this afternoon, she ate most of the tomatoes from my salad, about a third of my beef stroganoff with beef and mushrooms, an ice cream scoop size of mashed potatoes, and LOTS and LOTS of fresh green beans! Tomorrow is her doctor visit at 9am. Our American Embassy Interview is in the afternoon on Tuesday, then, we’ll head to the airport Wednesday morning; we’re very close!!!

Free Photos courtesy of McDonalds!!!!!

Reporting From Moscow!

Hello from Moscow!!! We found out last night when Lena dropped off Jill’s passport and other necessary documents that Voloya wouldn’t be picking us up until 6:20am! Yay! One extra hour of sleep! So, since we were pretty well packed last night, we got up this morning, got ready, each ate a banana to tide us over until the flight served breakfast, and headed to the airport. Volyoa was so nice helping us with our bags, cutting into a different line and somehow getting us up front where we got our boarding passes and checked our bags. Then he walked us through to the security area, made sure we knew where to go and what to do and said goodbye! We were worried about not having a translator with us, but Voloya was just as good, or better (it looked like he “knew people” there)! When it was time to board we could see the plane from the waiting area; it was about 150 yards away. Wade figured we’d walk right up to the plane, but I warned him that we’d probably have to board a bus; that’s just how they do it here. Sure enough, I was righ.We spent 10 minutes boarding everyone on flight and all of their carry-ons onto a bus, then drove about 1 minute over to the plane, then spent 10 minutes getting everyone and all of their carry-ons off of the bus to stand in line to go up the steps to board the plane. Luckily they let families with children board first, and we walked right up and got situated without a crowd. The flight was uneventful. Wade played with the doll making it jump up and kiss Jill on her cheek so that she would laugh for about ½ hour, then it was time for breakfast. The adult breakfast was a ½ piece of ham, a piece of something that looked like fatty turkey, two pieces of Swiss cheese, one pecan, ½ cucumber, ¼ tomato, ½ piece of bread, a dinner roll, and a brownie. We also each had a glass of orange juice and cup of coffee. Now, Jill got the “kids meal”. Her meal consisted of a vanilla yogurt, a strawberry yogurt, ½ piece of bread, a dinner roll, a whole green apple, a juice box and a pastry that was like a small pie crust filled with a chocolate icing type treat. It also had a cardboard punch out thing to play with. After lunch she watched Sesame Street on the laptop, and then we were heading down! She whined a little on the way down; we thought she might have been queasy or that her ears were hurting, but all in all she did OK. We landed, waited about 15 minutes for a bus to come to drive us to the terminal, waited another 10 or 15 minutes to get our luggage, then met up with our Moscow translator, Mia, who helped us with our bags. The driver, Eugene, got us to the hotel Holiday Inn Solkoniki where Mia and I filled out a small stack of paperwork for the Embassy. After the paperwork was out of the way, Mia and Wade headed across the street to McDonald’s. Jill and I waited here until Dada brought back two BigMacs, two orders of fries, two Cokes (WITH ICE!), and one cheeseburger. She SCARFED down the entire cheeseburger and then ate a handful of fries! The boys have some competition in their McDonald’s eating now. This room has one double bed and a chair that turns into a twin bed. So, I changed the chair into a bed for her nap. She really didn’t want to sleep, but really only cried about 5-10 minutes while I patted her back before she drifted off. Lucky for us she’s a very sound sleeper because a minute after she fell asleep we had some kind of construction noise going on. It was LOUD, but she slept right through it and is still asleep now. I want to say CONGRATULATIONS to my cousin Adam and his beautiful bride Jennifer who are getting married today! I so wish we could be there, we were so close to being back in time! Have a wonderful day and we’ll try to catch up with you the next time you’re in town!

Days 7 and 8

We ate our last breakfast here this morning! 3 hot dogs each, peas, swiss cheese, bread, butter, yogurt, juice, and coffee. Jill just woke up from her last nap here! Pretty soon we'll go have our last walk to dinner. We have plans to go to the "French Restaurant", La Vanille, for the last time. Last night we visited our other favorite dining establishment "The Chicken Hips Restaurant", Chocolate (Hut?), for the last time. The girl who waits on us there speaks quite good English, so we told her we were leaving town soon and that this was our last visit and we thanked her so much for being so friendly and helpful through our trip. I know we ate there at least 7 times. We're pretty much packed, except for the toys that Wade keeps packing and then I keep getting back out so Jill has something to play with the rest of today! We have to leave at 5:30 am tomorrow morning and will not have a translator with us! Voloya, the driveer will pick us up and take us to the airport. Hopefully he will help with our luggage, but once in the airport we're on our own! I hope I remember how to maneuver my way around the place; I think I will as it usually 'all comes back to me' when I see it. We take off at 7:30. We hope Jill will watch an episode of Sesame Street for half of the flight, then there's a meal served, that will take about 10-15 minutes, which leaves about 45 minutes to fill with looking at her photo album and other books. I think it will go fine, really. We're excited to meet up with the other Americans in Moscow, we're excited to have a McDonald's Big Mac!, Wade's excited to see The Red Square/St. Basil's etc. and shop on Arbot street, since he hasn't yet had a chance to explore Moscow. Jill has a doctor's appointment one of the days there, probably Monday. I hope the doctor can prescribe something for the rash on the creases inside her elbows. She's scratched the one side so much that is has bled and is now scabbed over. She has a little of the same rash on a crease in her neck too. Maybe the doctor can tell us if she has bronchitis or something that makes her sound like Darth Vader. Her nose is a tiny bit stuffy, but the sounds she makes with her mouth open is awful! I kind of really hope that she is sick with something; that way it can be cured instead of finding out that that's just the way she's always going to sound!

Yesterday she finally paid attention to the other doll we brought. This one's not a baby, it's a girl with red hair and an all stuffed material, about the same size as the baby doll "Lala". She would yell, "Nyet!" and wanted nothing to do with it this entire week, but all of a sudden yesterday she pulled it out. She started singing with it, the only word I could catch was 'lala', she took it's jacket off and put it back on and made it dance. She used some of the big Legos and made a sort of car for it. Then she took all her blocks out of the dump truck and put the girl in it! She rolled it back and forth like a stroller, and pushed her around the room talking to her! Until then she had never moved the truck, she just used it to put things in and out, so it was so cute to see her using it as a stroller. Today I took "Baby Lala" out of her bed where it usually stays and she used both dolls in the imaginary stroller. She also wrapped "Baby Lala" up in a blanket and rocked her. Very cute. Oh-speaking of very cute, I can't believe I didn't take my camera to the grocery store yesterday! I mean, really, why would you need a camera at the grocery store? Well, if the grocery store has cute little child sized carts you do! Jill pushed the cute little child sized cart around and we filled it up with bananas, a bottle of Pepsi, a bag of Lays Crab flavored chips, a bag of Lays Bacon flavored chips, (the tiny vending machine sized ones) and some animal cracker type cookies. She was SO cute pushing the cart around. She kept rearranging the food in it whenever Wade and I would stop and stand there discussing what else we needed to get. But, she almost cried when we put the food up on the shelf to be checked out. We showed her the food in the bag that Dada was carrying, but once she wasn't pushing the food in the cart, she was in a bad mood. It was a little difficult getting her to walk back (we didn't take the stroller). Then once back here she didn't want to eat lunch! Of course when it came down to lunch or nap, she ate.

I guess that's it for now. Everything is going so well now! I kind of feel bad about posting all the "bad" stuff a few days ago now that it's going so well, but then again, I think it needed to be said for anyone out there who is reading this and soon to adopt a three or four year old. I searched and searched the blogs through this whole process looking for information on what it would be like adopting a three and a half year old and I couldn't find much of anything! CHI only had one family on their reference list that adopted a three year old girl; I e-mailed them, but didn't hear back. I really wanted to know what to expect as to if they're really potty trained, what I may need to know about eating issues, sleeping issues, etc. but I just had to jump in and do it find out. Hopefully someone out there is contemplating or even in the process of adopting a child of this age and they will know exactly what kinds of things to expect because I didn't hold back information, I didn't just put the good stuff, (of which there is a lot of 'good stuff'!) I put it all and I hope that it helps someone! If anyone out there needs to know more they are very welcome to e-mail us! Just leave a comment on the blog with your e-mail, we won't publish your comment (we have it set up that we can choose which comments to publish) and then we can e-mail back and forth about anything you want to know!

We hope to be able to update the blog at the McDonald's across the street for our hotel in Moscow. Then, once we're home I'll try to update here and there as most people who have completed their adoptions tend to do! Pray for a safe flight to Moscow for the three of us and for a peaceful one on Jill's part, that she is not scared and that the time passes quickly!

Next post.....Moscow!!!

The Rest of Day 6

AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING....

#1 no thumb sucking attempts for over 24 hours
#2 no regurgitating food for over 24 hours
#3 goes to bed without complaint (naps and nighttime)
#4 loves to brush her teeth
#5 TELLS us when she has to go potty and goes on a regular basis!

I really can't believe the bedtime thing, I mean she gives us hugs and kisses, she holds her arms up for Wade to put her in the bed, then she lays down and after a little while-she's out! No crying, whining, we don't even need to pat her back anymore! We do stay close by and I think she knows we're there, but that's it!

I think we finally have a routine, and that really helps. She gets up about 8, calls out "Mama" so we know she's up, goes potty, washes her hands (which she loves!), plays for awhile while we get ready, we get her ready, we go down the hall to eat, she eats a lot (1 and a half hot dogs, a yogurt, a piece of bread and a piece of cheese for breakfast today) and is well behaved for meals (still working on the NOISE of eating with her mouth open), we come back to the room to play more,potty a few times, have lunch (ham and cheese sandwich, banana, milk, 1/2 granola bar with dried fruits and nuts in it today), go down for a nap with no complaints, sleep for two hours!, go potty, play while we get ready to walk to dinner, get her ready to walk to dinner, walk about 30 to 40 minutes to a restaurant, eat, she's very well behaved at the restaurant looking at her photo album or playing with the toy animals we bring (had a chicken salad off the children's menu tonight-basically shredded chicken and cucumbers), walk 30 minutes to an hour back depending on how much of it we let her walk and how much of it we push her in the stroller, play, potty, bath, brush teeth, watch a short show (Little Einsteins tonight), then bed with no complaints!

I almost hate to go to Moscow now because it will mess up the schedule and things will be new again and I'm not sure how it will go. Then, I'm sure once we're home, we'll go through some problems again until she gets used to that!

New things for today...
...using the Crayola Color Magic Finger Paints that only show on their special paper. I painted on a piece and she painted on another piece, and then she carried them around all day. She rolled them up and used them as drumsticks, she unrolled them and pretended to read them, they entertained her for a large part of the day.
....PlayDoh! She liked this! We rolled it out with one of the cylinder building blocks and then stamped it with one of the stacking cups (they have an animal on the bottom of each cup) to see what animal it would make. Then she broke it up and put pieces into the cups, then she took a long rectangular building block and pretended to stir the playdoh in the cup and dump it into a new cup like she was cooking or something! I was rolling out strips and weaving them while she played 'baking'. When I finished, I held it up for Wade to see and she went wild! Yay!! Yay, Mama!!! she yelled and clapped! She seemed to have a name for what I had made and pointed and called it something (can't remember what)over and over. I was very surprised at her reaction, but it was very nice Playdoh weaving if I say so myself!
....holds the yogurt cup and spoon herself; I had been feeding her the yogurt, it seems so messy, but today we let her try it herself. We only had to remind her once to hold the cup with her right hand while using the spoon in her left (yes, we're about positive that she is left handed). We also thought she might take too big of bites, but for the most part she didn't
....Kind of 'played along' with Little Einstiens, patting and clapping and raising her arms when they said too.
....says, "Mama, kiki" and motions with her hand for me to follow her when she needs to go to the bathroom. We've now gone from holding it 20 hours to going every 10 minutes though. We think she's smart enough to have figured out that since we've given her a cookie every time she's gone, that if she goes a lot, she'll get a lot of cookies! So, now we're not giving her a cookie every time-it has to be about an hour after the last time to get the cookie.

Hmmm...I'm sure there's more, but nothing else is popping into my mind.

I do wish she'd learn my name though! Sometimes I'm Mama, but about half the time I'm Papa, or a word I don't recognize. But, Dada is always Dada. In the pictures I'll point to Wade and she'll say 'Dada', I'll point to her and she says some word that means 'boys'and I'll point to me and she usually says, 'papa'. So we just keep correcting her and saying 'Mama'. She follows Wade around everywhere calling Dada. She follows him around holding his shoes if she wants to go out, stacks books on top of him while he's watching TV, jumps in front of him and shouts 'boo!', etc. He's really been out-of-this-world-great with her. I knew he'd be good with her, but he's been 10 times as great with her as I even thought he'd be!!!

AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING!!!

Day 5/Half of Day 6

Wade's has said several times on this trip that his worst nightmare would be if we were walking to or from somewhere and it started to pour down rain. Well, yesterday we walked to the horseshoe, over by the Azimut, for lunch. About halfway back it began to pour!!! Wade ran pushing the stroller and I ran just behind them for about 1/2 a mile in the rain. She cried about the last 1/4 mile. We were soaked! Like, we could wring out our clothes soaked! She was shivering, wet, and cold when we got back. We immediately got her out of her soaking wet dress and into comfy pajamas, Wade wrapped her in two blankets and held her on the couch until she fell asleep.
Also yesterday, we spent our entire morning waiting for her to use the bathroom. She woke up dry! This was amazing to us because she hadn't gone since 3pm the day before and she had had a big bowl of chicken and potato soup for dinner, along with a good amount of water and some other food. We wanted to wait until she went before going to breakfast because we didn't want her to have an accident in the resaurant. Well, breakfast time came and went (8am-10am)and she still refused to go, so we ate some stuff we had in the room. Finally, at 11am, she motioned for us to come with her to the bathroom, held her arms up wanting us to lift her onto the toilet, and went! So 3pm-11am=20 hours. Wade says she has a bladder of steel! So we headed to lunch after this, and this is where the rain story comes in. The strange thing is that after that morning incident, she now loves to go on the potty! She went on her own three times after her nap! And, she was dry again this morning and walked right in there and went right away. And, she went just a minute ago about an hour after breakfast! So, now that that seems pretty well taken care of we're working on zakreetya rot (close your mouth) a little more. If she concentrates she can do it and smiles and points to her mouth to show us, "See, my mouth is closed!" She can do it for about 6 seconds now. Then back to the mouth hanging open with the 'Darth Vader' sound, and the drooling. So, at least she listens when we tell her to close it and she tries, so I'm sure it will get less and less as the weeks go on.
So, now we're just playing, reading books, doing puzzle cards, etc. all while reminding her to keep her mouth closed.
We plan to go to the French Restaurant for the second to last time for dinner tonight. You know we're close when we have the rest of our meals planned out; French Restaurant tonight, Chocolate Restaurant tomorrow night, then the French Restaurant Friday, then we leave early Saturday. We're so excited to know that there will be other Americans in Moscow when we will be there. One couple is going home for their ten day wait and will be in the hotel with us on Saturday. Another mom with her daughter will be in Moscow, but in a different hotel, the same days we will be! We've e-mailed each other and hope to be able to get together while there.