Merry Christmas & toddler too

Well, we got the goods today! Juliana is now with us.She did pretty well in the car util the last 1/2 hour of the drive were she deided it was time to puke all over mommy.Once she did that she was fine.We made it back to the hotel about 8pm.She was a bit to wired to sleep, so she took inventory of the room. Once she got tired she realized she was with us and she pretty much got freaked out and cried for about 1hour and finaly feel asleep around 1 am in my arms.

One More Day to Gotcha Day

In adoption talk they call the day you get custody of your child "Gotcha Day" so we are very excited that tomorrow is going to be our Gotcha Day. Today we walked down to the "mall" and went to the Banana Mama store which is a kids store and picked up a couple little things for the car ride tomorrow for Juliana. Last night Bob and I went to the local chinese resturant, very tricky ordering there with only pointing at pictures,I stuck to what I know sushi, Bob I think had something with some sort of seafood,maybe squid?, we are not sure.Bob also went out last night with Roma to his company party were he had tongue and a few other not so sure about meals.The weather is very cold and snowy,makes me glad I live in the south!

Nothing New

Well there is really nothing new going on here.We are bored silly and very ready to come home.We are looking forward to going to get Juliana on monday and will be heading out of Perm on the 27th for Moscow.Once in Moscow we get her visa done. We are going to try to change our tickets to get out of here on the 30th instead of the 31st but im not sure if it will work or not.If not we get into the good ol US of A on the 31st at 9 pm in Savannah. And we cant wait.Bye for now

Kelly

The Tropics

Well were told that they keep the buildings pretty warm, well we were not prepared for July on the beach.It is so hot inside places.We have no short sleeve shirts so we have to open and shut the window in the room. Today is very cold so we pretty much have stuck around the hotel,we did venture out to the local SFC yup that is Southern Fried Chicken, who would have thought in the middle of Russia. Well Bob had a burger ( I know who goes for chicken and gets a burger) I stuck with chicken,its a good thing the burger had cucumbers on it?
Yesterday we had the experiance of going to the Bank to pay taxes, something you have to do to get a passport for Juliana,Im not sure how this works but it was only 200 Rubles which equals $4.00.But at the bank we found out people pay their electric bill,parking,speeding tickets and can buy lottery tickets it was a very busy place.The Russian people I think thought Bob and I were nuts,they do not smile at all , while if you know Bob & I you know we laugh & smile a lot I think they think we are some type of loone.

The money here is another weird thing Rubles..it is like monopoly money, for instence a 100 Rubles is about $4.00, 1000 Rubles is like $ 40. & they have coins for anything under a 10 its hard to get used to it.Bob has gotten much better at it then myself.

Love that Bow !!

The Road to Berizniki

Nascar Qualifying

Our day started this morning at 5:00 AM, when you have nothing to do and go to bed at 7 pm, you tend to wake up pretty early. Roma was picking us up at 7:30 so we got up got ready to go,and off to Berizniki we go to get Julianas passport & visa pictures done. I think Roma has a secret desire to be a nascar driver. They drive crazy here! there are no lines on the roads they pass on the left,the right whatever works. So we are about 2 1/2 hours into our 2 3/4 drive,driving in white out conditions and bam! We hit a pothole the size of Hilton Head. Mind you Romas car is a Russian brand car..no name just a # 14..not a big car. Yes that is right we have a flat tire and I look at the outside temp gage it says -3 C . We pull over and all pile out of his car & mind you no one in Russia is going to stop so he and Bob pull out the spare, jack the car up & Roma doesn't have the wrench to get the lugnuts off. So he manages to flag down a car, explains to the guy we are Americans, and we have no wrench. The guy gets his wrench gets the tire off, spare on and yup the spare is flat!..OK no lie the other guy goes to his car and pulls out a bike tire pump, needless to say it didn't work. So Roma got a hold of his dad who doesn't work far from there and he comes and saves the day.
We finely got to go get Juliana and took her to get the pictures,the poor thing was all ready to go & thought we were off to the airplane, she was rather bummed out when we took her back to the orphanage she probably can't figure out the big deal of being adopted if that's all it was about.
She was very funny to day and we got to see more of her personality. She had these huge bows on each side of her head,one fell off and I tried to fix it but she wanted Poppy not mommy to do it!

Survivor Russia

Our days here are really starting to feel like a reality show. It is really hard to explain how different this country is from our own. It is snowing again this am,Bob and Roma have gone out to get some paperwork done for Juliana's visa, I decided to stay here and try to get rid of this cold. We have watched the same shows over and over on Russian TV I actually feel like I know what they are saying,they have more music tv here then I have ever seen or heard.
Ok for a funny story, We had some laundry done by our floor houskeeper,I think she lives here because I have not seen her leave the floor.Anyway we get it back and it appears to be fine, Bob wears a shirt, takes it off and notices that there are holes in it, the same thing has happened to 2 pairs of jeans it is very weird.
Tomorrow we will be going out to see Juliana,it must be very confusing to her as why we come and go and are not allowed to take her out of the orphanage yet,1 week left till the breakout!

Italian Food In Russia

Last night Bob and I ventured out with 4 other American couples for dinner. We were able to go to a local Italian restaurant Casa Mia. We were so happy to be having a somewhat American meal.
Our hotel includes a breakfast bar so each morning we have been having breakfast here at the hotel. They have some different ideas about what to eat for breakfast. They usually have an omelet type of thing but it is way fluffier then what we get at home and not much taste. Bob has started to look forward to the mornings with meatballs on the breakfast bar, a little weird for me I like breakfast food. I would love some fruit right now,they do have a fruit salad on the bar but it is not so fresh looking. You are not to drink the water here so we have been pretty careful about what we are eating and drinking.
We have been able to find most things we want or need at the local market,the only thing we cant find is Hot Chocolate & Peanut Butter,although we knew they didn't have peanut butter here we hoped for hot chocolate.

Having met so many other couple also in the process of adoption we realize how lucky we have been, many have been in the process for over a year many for almost 2 years, we started our process in May of this year. We feel incredibly blessed at our good fortune for this.
We hope all is well with each of you,
Love,
Kelly

Snow,Snow & More Snow

This morning we woke up to snow, which is a nice change from the previous days. The past few days have been very dreary. We have been going out everyday to walk around with a few other American couples we have met, it has been a comfort having the other families here to share the process with. We are all on the count down to when we will get our children.
Roma( our coordinator) has been a blessing he has come everyday to take us somewhere or to talk and just be there for us.
The hotel, has a love for loud music, everywhere you go around here there is disco, Russia Rap or some other loud music going. We would love to hear some Christmas music about now. Well that's about it for now.
Love,
Kelly

Day 3000 I think

Well we had snow today! and its getting cold and Im staring to feel not so well. That is about it for fun we are very homesick and are missing the boys.

Just hanging around

Well, Bob and I have been spending our days walking around the city of Perm. It really is a nice city.The sun has not come out so far but it has not been cold. We have met many US couples that are in the same boat as us just waiting out the 10 day period.
One of the hard things to get used to is it does not get light until about 10 am and gets dark about 4 . We are catching up on our sleep that is for sure.
While we were in Berizniki last week Bob was able to visit a fire station, he can't wait to get back and share the pictures and things he has learned with all at the station. Here Fireman get no respect at all and they were in awe that he even wanted to come by and meet and be shown around. Even with the language barrier, they all seemed to enjoy each other.

Back from court

We are now the parents of a daughter! Court went well, it was about 1 1/2 hours long and most of that time is spent translating things.We did not get the 10 day waiting period waived,so we will get custody of Juliana on Dec 25th, what a great Christmas gift.

Today is court

Today at 10 am we will be in court to ask the Russian court system to make Uliana our daughter.Over here Bob is required to do most of the talking and I am only to agree with what is being said, (lol not like home). We are hoping that today the sun will be out and we can walk around more and get a better look at the city.

Over the hills and thru the woods to Berizniki we go

After getting to Perm we headed out to Berizniki,which is the region where Juliana lives.We got to go see her everyday for about 2 hours a day.The first day of going to see her both Bob and I where a little nervous.Once we got there all of our fears went away she came right out to us with the photo album I had sent and said in Russian "hello Mama & Poppy" They told us she tells everyone that she sees that she is going to America to live with her parets and her brothers and loves to show off her photo album. She has already ecome daddies girl, she loves to play with him and have his attention. She was so funny with the toys that we brought for her she could not believe that she got to keep them.

Amazing Race-Russia 12/5/06

OK, so those of you that know me well know that 1) Im never Late 2) Im pretty organized 3} I don't lose or forget things. So that being said we head off to the airport Tue am we get there all 6 bags or so I think, I look around and realize we have forgotten one bag our carry on that has all our paperwork in it.Luckly we are early enough that mom drives back to the house and picks it up, problem solved. Bob and I check in and head to the gate, we get our Peanut butter taken away, Im not sure why I guess because it is creamy we should have got chunky I guess.We head off Sav to Atlanta to JFK to Moscow.
All flights go well, we get into Moscow at 10:30 am with all the luggage! wow. Only to find out all the flights from Moscow to Perm our booked until 1 am. We have two choices hang out until or go to a hotel for a about 12 hrs. Well trying to decide we met another couple from our agency T & R, we all decide it will be fun we will hang out in the airport.Well about 4 hours in we realize a hotel would have been nice but to late we have no driver. So we sit around watching people come nd go, them go us wait!Finally at 1 am we get to go to the plane, only to find out our luggage is over weight not a big surprise but a bummer none the less, so we have to pay.
Once on the plane we realize we are on the plane with the Perm Basketball team,and we thought our legs were squished! we even met one of the guys who plays and he is from Ohio..go figure go to Rusiia and meet a Ohio Basketball player.

Russia here we come

Ok well, the time has come we are off to pick up our daughter is hard to believe that we have come this far and will be in Russia celebrating Christmas this year with our new daughter leave tomorrow (Dec5th) and will return to the states Dec31st.We are hoping that we will have access to the internet while we are there.We will spending the first 5 days out in Berizniki,that is the region were Uliana is it is about 2 1/2 hours from Perm. We will check in when we can.
KP

Tickets are booked & need more paperwork

OK, well we are ready to go we have tickets we are leaving on Dec 5th and will not be back to the states until Dec 31, which means we will be flying home on Juliana's 4th birthday. Bob and I are supper happy to be going but a bit sad that we will be missing Christmas with the boys.
We found out Wed afternoon that the judge has requested a few additional items so we (well I ) am running around town getting all that.

We have a date!!

Yeah! we heard today that the judge has looked over all of our paperwork and given us a date to go pick up Uliana Dec 12th. We have to be in Russia 5 days before court and then have a 10 days wait after. Once the 10 days are up we will go to Moscow for a few days to get all the Visa,passport stuff done and then we will be home.So it looks like we will have our first Christmas with her in Russia and then coem home to celebrate with the boys.

Our Boys

9-4-06

9-4-06 Russia and back
Wow, I have been to Russia and Back in 5 days. I started out last Tuesday Aug 29th from Savannah GA, to Dulles to Frankfort Germany to Moscow to Perm. Unfortunately I had flight problems and got into Perm Thursday at 4:30 am instead of Wednesday at 11:00 am. This made us have a very rushed trip. I went Thursday, at 9 am to the Department of Education and was given a referral, we drove out 3 1/2 hours to the orphanage and met the little girl. Unfortunately this little girl had a few problems and we didn't feel she was right for our family. I was then given another referral in another orphanage. This little girls name is Uliana, she is 3 1/2 years old. She was great! We have decided to accept the referral and will be welcoming her to our family. We are hoping for a quick court date so that we can get her home soon. 9-4-06

8-27-06

Today has just been a day of packing and re packing trying to figure out what to take.

Our Update

Well we found out we are off to Russia I will be leaving on Aug 29th and be back in the states on Sept 3rd. I will be flying to Moscow,then on to Perm and then will have 3 hour car ride to our region.