The Beatles said it best, "Back in the.....," well, you get it...

I'm not saying we've been here too much, but we are starting to recognize people on the street. No kidding! We saw a lady who works at our hotel get off the bus tonight, and instantly knew who she was! We've got to get out of this place!

As you can tell, we made it back for our third (and final) trip to St. Petersburg. It is Thursday evening, and we have settled back into the Andersen Hotel for one last time. This time our room looks a bit different. To my right, is a pack-and-play all set for Max to sleep in tomorrow night (at least we hope he sleeps). To my left, is a gigantic suitcase full of toys, diapers, clothes, food, more toys, shoes, more diapers, a stoller and a diaper bag, full of wipes, medicine, a blanket, more toys, snacks, and, of course, more diapers. WOW! Who knew a child needed so much stuff??? As a result, Shelly and I packed extremely light this trip. It appears that the tables have already turned. Max has become the priority, and us, secondary. Let me save you parents the energy of saying this, "We best get used to it!"

Tomorrow's plan is to pick Max up around noon, then it is off to the passport agency. There, we will apply to get his Russian passport. We will pick up the passport on Tuesday, and head for the train station bound for Moscow. While in Moscow, we will establish a US passport for him, in preparation for our departure on Friday.

So, tomorrow starts a new chapter in our lives. One that we have be anxiously awaiting for a long time now. I know, I know....our lives are going to be so drastically different from what they are today. What you don't realize is just how welcomed that change will be for the both of us. It is a change that we have been waiting for for many years now. It's just hard to believe that it is finally happening.

Of course, I'd be lying if I said we weren't a little nervous, but I know someday we will both look back and laugh about the butterflies we had today.

Time to get some rest. Do you think we can get 16 years worth tonight? Let's hope so!

Court Day!

We headed off to visist with Max this morning prior to our appearance in court at 2pm. We were greeted with a somewhat cranky kid, but managed to settle down quickly. The director of the orphanage said that he is really trying to test our limits. We believed her!

At one point, one of his caretakers gave him a piece of candy as incentive to settle down. What differed from the candy on previous days was this was chocolate candy. He refused to allow us to feed it to him. He wanted to do it himself. As a result, he ended up with chocolate all over his hands, his face, his ear, his clothes, and MY clothes. Who thought it was a good idea to give him chocolate? And especially on the day we had to go to court? I guess the judge wouldn't doubt we had contact with him today!

After our visit, we headed off to court. The actual courtroom was not in what we expected, but rather in a old building in the middle of the city, without any markings. We were greeted by our court translator, the director from our agency, the deputy medical director of the orphanage, and a director from the family services department. We were asked to come into the courtroom, where a judge, prosecutor and clerk were present. The judge read our names aloud, along with other demographic infomation and proceeded to ask us questions about our jobs, our income, and our intent to adopt. The prosecutor had a few questions as well. The deputy director and director from family services read information about Max, such as his date of birth, weight, medical conditions, etc. Shortly thereafter, the judge issues a "positive verdict" in our case, and pronounced us the parents of Max. We have to wait 10 days to allow anyone who wishes to appeal her verdict in the Russian Supreme court, but after that, we will take custody of him.

We anticipate returning next week to start his passport paperwork and hopefully will have him home by August 20th. While we are not looking forward to traveling with him, in country, we can't wait to get him home to meet his new family and friends!

Sightseeing

The last couple of days, we have spent seeing the sights around St. Petersburg that we were not able to see on our first trip. Saturday, we visited the Hermitage Museum, which holds one of the world's largest collection of fine art. Some of the pieces in the museum include works by, Rembrant, Matisse, Picasso, Da Vinci, Monet, and Gauguin, just to name a few. Many of these works were not even behind glass or roped-off, which allowed you to get so close that you could examine each brush stroke made hundreds of years ago. It was quite an impressive feeling to see these works first hand.

Bush, by Vincent Van Gogh (1889)

But, famous works of art are not the only reason to visit the Hermitage. The building itself is a work of art. It contains over 400 exhibit halls and guilded salons, once housing the royal families of Russia before it became a museum. Many rooms, like the Malachite room (named for the malachite-trimmed columns in the room), are extremly ornate and displays personal items from the Imperial family.

The Malachite Room

There was plenty to see outside of the museum as well. We saw several monkeys, an very large bird, and two baby bears. They were all available to have your picture taken with, for a few rubles, of course.

Sunday's adventure took us to Peterof, the summer palace of Peter the Great. Peterof is a complex of gardens and residences on the shore of the Baltic Sea. We arrived by hydrofoil, which is a boat that rises from the water as it is propelled, leaving nothing but the prop in the water. Quite an interesting way to travel...

Once arriving at the dock, you walk along a canal that leads from the sea up to the palace itself. You are greeted with cascading waterfalls, over 60 fountains and more gilt statues that you have ever laid eyes upon.

Quite a bit of the palace and it's decorations did not withstand the attack of the German troops in World War II, so much of it is actually a replica, but many of the original parts are still intact. Nevertheless, a beautiful place to visit.

In the evening, we ventured down to the Palace Square in St. Petersburg where Madonna was performing. We were unable to get close to the venue, as the police and military had the area blocked-off to everyone, but ticketholders. We saw the back of the stage and were able to hear a portion of the show, but not worth sticking around.

Tomorrow, we will visit Max in the orphanage in the morning, before we head off to court in the afternoon.

Reunion

We weren't sure what to expect when we got to the orphanage. Would he remember us from 3 months ago? What would his reaction be? Well, we found out! He wanted nothing to do with us. I can just imagine what was going through his head. "Who are these people who are taking me away from playing with my friends outside today? If I throw a fit, I'm sure they will take me back to my group."

Despite repeated attempts to return with his group, we visited with him for about 2 hours. Most of the time either having a complete melt down, or on the verge. We think it may have been the hat that was the source of his frustration. Wouldn't you be frustrated if you had to wear one like that?

We finally got him settled down as we pushed him in a swing. He seemed to enjoy it, but started to get a little sleepy. Probably a combination of the gentle motion of swaying back and forth and the fit he threw an hour earlier. His caretaker said that he is pretty "strong-willed." We don't doubt her!

Our afternoon visit went much better. He cried a little when he first came into the room, but only lasted a minute. After that, we played with some Legos, blocks and some new toys that Shelly brought for him. He enjoyed building things and taking them apart. He was particularly interested in a pingpong ball, which he would lose from time to time, only to look around with his hands up, like, 'where did it go?'

It wasn't long before the orphanage director came to take him back to his group. As you can imagine, he didn't mind heading back to see all of his friends.

In the evening, we took the subway to dinner at an Italian resturant that we were unable to find on our last trip. Then, took the subway back to the hotel and retired for the evening.

We have Saturday and Sunday to do some sightseeing, then back to the orphanage on Monday morning before court at 2pm. We will have one last visit Tuesday morning before we depart. Let's hope that hat isn't around!

TOUCHDOWN!!!

No, not that kind of touchdown. I should say we "touched-down" in St. Petersburg about 5pm local time tonight (9am back home). It was a realtivley uneventful flight. Just a little bit of food poisoning on the way here, but it left just as quickly as if came. Shelly was grateful enough to share her dinner with me on the long flight from Detroit to Amsterdam. Little did she know that I was saving her from about 30 minuets of sheer hell. She owes me...(ha).

We had a short layover in Amsterdam, then it was off to St. Petersburg. When we landed, we were greeted with a much different looking Russian landscape than on our last visit. The first thing we noticed was that the sun actually shines in Russia, which seemed to allow grass to grow and leaves to come out on the trees. What a concept!! It is in the mid seventies today and I believe the weather forcast is similar for the duration of our stay. That should provide us with some nice sightseeing weather in between visits with Max.

Our plan tomorrow is to head to the orphanage in the morning for a couple of hours of visitation, and back in the afternoon for a couple more. We will not be able to see him over the weekend as the director prefers weekday visits only. One of the two days this weekend, we will meet with the translator that will be with us during our court appearance on Monday. She will help us to prepare and let us know what to expect. Outside of that, we plan on visiting the Hermitage Museum on Saturday, and taking a hydrofoil (boat) to Peterof (Peter I's summer palace). It is about a 4o minute boat ride outside of the city. They say it is the Versailles of the North. Not sure we could call their bluff, as we have never been to Versailles, other than Versailles, Ohio. It's GOT to be better than that!

Sunday night, Madonna is performing in concert on the palace square outside of the Hermitage Museum. We will be sure to steer clear of the mayhem down there that night!

Monday we are scheduled to appear in court at 2pm. We are going to attempt a visit with Max in the morning and perhaps after court as well. We will have to play that by ear.

Tuesday, we leave around 6pm, so we will plan on one last visit with Max prior to our departure. The best news of all, is that it looks like we will be back to pick him up sooner than we thought! As a matter of fact, we may be able to bring him home almost a week sooner than planned. We need to get some clarification from the director in the next few days on our next trip's timeline.

Once we settled into our hotel room (same hotel as last trip), it was off to our favorite resturant, Stolle (pronounced "Sh-toll-e"). They are known for their "pies." Meat pies, vegetable pies and of course, dessert pies. I branched out this time and ordered a "meat pie," as opposed to my standard Chicken Kiev. I wasn't sure what kind of meat was in it, so I asked. The woman behind the counter said, "Meat. Meat. You know, 'Mooooooo'." Shelly and I could only surmise that she meant beef, so I just went with it. It wasn't half bad. Shelly went with her usual standby, mushroom soup and a greek salad. We both had cheesecake. There was no way we were skipping the cheesecake.

After dinner, we did a little grocery shopping, then back to the hotel to hang it up for the night. The clock in the room says 10:17pm, but our bodies think that it is the middle of the afternoon. It doesn't help that it is still light outside. Looks like it's going to be a restless night.

Until tomorrow...

We finally got the call...

After what seemed like an eternity, we got the call we have been waiting for since last February 2008. That call was a specific timeline that included the date we would bring our son home for good.

Prior to that, we have a few last hurdles to face. The first of which is a court date with a Russian judge. Once we make it through the Russian court system, we will return home to wait out a 10-day recision period. I can only imagine that this will seem more like 10 months, than just shy of two weeks.

Once the 10 day period is up, we hop a flight back to St. Petersburg (yeah, it sounds easy, but it's not) to pick him up.

One would think that you would, at this point, be able to return home and start our new lives together, but you would be wrong! Instead, we spend almost a week in St. Petersburg getting his paperwork finished, then it's off to Moscow via an overnight train trip.

Once in Moscow, we visit the US Embassy for, guess what, more paperwork. This should only take a couple of days, but with the weekend, maybe a total of 4 or 5 days.

Then comes what we have been dreading the most from the start of this process, the plane ride home. Neither of us are really sure what to expect, but we are prepared for a VERY LONG trip home! The combination of us not knowing him well, him not knowing us well, all three of us tired of traveling should make for an intersting flight home. I guess we just need to put it all in perspective that, a) it's only 24 hours, b) it's all worth it in the end!

Next post will be from warm and sunny St. Petersburg! Until then, Пока Пока!

Day 6, and it's time to go home...

We just had a morning visit today, as we had a flight to catch, but it was an exciting one. We were taken on a tour of the orphanage and able to see where he spends his days, as well as meet his caretaker.

He is part of a group of 12 kids that are all of similar age. This group of kids eat, sleep, bathe, and play all together in one big room. The room is divided in half, with 12 cribs on one side, and a play area with small tables and chairs on the other where they eat and play. Everything in the room is neat and orderly. To keep everything straight, each kid has a number (his is 4), and that number corresponds to their own towel, washcloth, potty, closet, table, crib, etc. It is a really neat system, and probably one that the caretakers couldn't do without!

It was really amazing to watch him interact with his caretaker and the other kids in the room. You could tell that it was an environment that was familar and comfortable for him.

After our tour, we had some time to play. He was a different kid today, as his cold begins to subside. There were lots of smiles and laughter, but he still likes to cuddle.

We both new that it wouldn't be long before someone would come get him for lunch, and it would be time for us to head to the airport. We weren't sure how we would react to the fact that this is the last visit we have for awhile, but after seeing how well adjusted and cared for he is with his group, it eased the inevitable distance we were about to face.

We are both excited to get home, but even more anxious to get him home with us for good. But, in the mean time, he is being well cared for and having a good time with his friends.

So, it isn't "goodbye," it's just "see you later."

Day 5

Today was the dreaded medical exam. We started out our morning at the hospital, where we had exams from 8 different doctors where we were checked for:

• Infectious Diseases
• Blood drawn (about 2 gallons worth!)
• Neurological work-up
• Oncology exam
• Cardiology (EKG)
• Pulmonology (chest x-ray)
• Psychology (save your punchlines...)

And the final results are that we are "healthy." And a little bit poorer since they don't take Aetna!

Then, it was off to the Notary to execute our final documents stating that we intend to adopt. These papers, along with our medical results, and a whole host of other documents yet to be completed, will be forwarded to a judge here in St. Petersburg for our trial at a later date.

Our afternoon visit to the orphanage was good. We found that he is starting to feel a bit better, evident by a productive cough, and lack of a runny nose.

We decided to pull the toys out one by one this time to see if he would remember what we had been bringing. As we guessed, he kept looking toward that familar bag of toys until all of them were displayed on the floor. Smart little guy!

Moments of play were interrupted with desire to be held and comforted from his cold. But it didn't take long for him to spot one of the toys and be right back in the mix.

Day 4

We spent the morning visit, today, outside. Despite the cool weather, it was sunny, and they take every opportunity to get the kids outside. Unfortunately, he was still feeling a little under the weather.

We did some walking and took turns carrying him around the outside of the building. When we put him down on the ground to walk, he holds each hand up in the air, and opens and closes his hands as to ask, "grab my hands." This must be the way he learned to walk with his caretakers.

We each grab a hand, and off we go. We only made it a few hundred meters (can you tell we've been here too long? Now I'm using the metric system!), and we would feel is grip lessen. That was our cue to pick him up as he was exhuasted from the walk. We knew that the tears were only seconds away. As soon as we picked him up, his fingers went in the mouth, and he was ready for quick nap.

During our break between visits, we took the subway into the city centre, where we had lunch, did some shopping in the open air market, and toured the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. This is a church with an amazing history.

It was commissioned by Russian Czar, Alexander III to memorialize the death of his father, Alexander II, who was killed on site in 1881 by a terrorist's bomb. It took 26 years to complete and was closed in the 1930's by Stalin's communist government, as many churches were during Soviet times.

It sustained damage over time, especially during WWII , including bomb attacks that left holes in the beautiful domes. During it's time of closure, it was used as a warehouse to store potatoes.

The church underwent many years of reconstruction to return it to it's original glory. The interior of the church is floor-to-ceiling mosaic tiled scenes, and contains detailed alters made of marble, jasper, gold leaf and semi-precious stones. Pictures can't do it justice.

There is a particular alter in the church that holds a section of rail that is said to be the actual rail at which Alexander II died.

Our afternoon visit was back inside the orphanage. It is much easier to play with the toys, and him, when indoors. Just the fact that he is not bundled up in a snowsuit, must be a relief for him.

His demeanor was much like the morning visit. He had fun while he was playing or walking about, but when he was done, he was ready to be held. We took turns walking him around, and rocking in the rocking chair. He loves to cuddle, and tries hard not to fall asleep, but tends to loose the battle.

Before we knew it, it was time to go. His caretaker came to pick him up. "Packa Packa" and off he went. We think that means "bye-bye."

It's an early morning for us tomorrow. We have to go to the medical clinic for our physical exams. Not sure what to expect, but there's no turning back now!

Day 3

When we left the orphanage yesterday, we could tell that he wasn't feeling too well, so we weren't sure what kind of mood he'd be in today. Much to our surprise, he was dressed and ready to go outside and play.

He is starting to recognize us, or at least the toys we are bringing. We walked around the grounds, again, and this time played with the toys outside. He seems to like the balls that make noise, and always makes sure he has all five in his possession.

We also played on the slide and laughed more and more with each trip down. Towards the end of our visit, he started to get a bit cranky, so we just walked with him and he nearly fell asleep in our arms. His caretaker said that it was just about time for lunch, which is always followed by a nap. We think he was ready for both!!

During our break between visits, we toured a local Russian Orthodox Church, which was having pre-Easter services (Russian's follow the Orthodox calendar). The Orthodox religion has many similarities to the Catholic faith, but also some stark differences. The most obvious is the format of their services and the church, itself.

Upon walking into an Orthodox Church, you will notice that there are no pews, as members of the church stand at various Icons during the services. That leads me to the second distinction, there are no figures, but rather two-dimentional icons throughout. At these Icons, members light candles in represenation of their prayers.

There are differences in ideologies as well, but for sake of not deviating from the purpose of this blog, I digress...

We also experienced local favorites, like a well known chocolate store, traditional Russian cuisine, and shopping at local retail stores.

Before we knew it, we were back to the orphanage to see how lunch and the nap went. We were greeted with a "freshly-charged" little boy, who was anxious to play with the toys we have been bringing the past few days.

His caretaker brought with him the stuffed animal of a chocolate lab we gave him on Monday. He wasn't too sure of it then, but seems to like it now.

It didn't take him long to start stacking the blocks, and throwing the balls. Shelly spent some time chasing him around the room, trying to keep him out of things he wasn't supposed to be getting into.

About 10 minutes before our visit was over, he started to get sleepy, and wanted to be held. He found comfort in Shelly's arms and cuddled right up to her. As shown in the picture, he likes to suck on his fingers. Looks like we should start saving for braces!

Day 2 (or so)

It's hard to believe that we have only been here for a few days now. In some respects, time has flown, but in others, seems to be crawling. Since we visit the orphanage twice a day, it almost seems like seperate days of the week.

Our morning visit was back in the toy room, where we met on Monday. We played with the Clippo Hippo, and anything else he could get his hands on. We asked if we could give him some snacks that we brought from home, and were promptly told, "Neyt, neyt." The medical director really frowns on feeding the kids anything from the outside. Makes sense since, considering the number of visitors they have per day and no way to montior their intake. So, we stuck to playing with the toys.

Since the weather was so nice today (50's and sunny), we were able spend our afternoon visit outside. He was dressed in a lovely girl's snowsuit, but was worth the humiliation to get some time outdoors. The grounds of the orphanage have a lot of playground-type equipment, but since it is spring and pretty wet still, we avoided the mud. Instead, we just took laps around the orphanage, taking turns walking and carrying him. His cold sounded worse than ever today. A terrible rattle in his chest and nasty nose that kept running. His mood seemed to reflect his symptoms, a little grogy and clingy at times. Despite feeling lousy, he smiled, laughed and played, and seemed to enjoy himself. We will see what tomorrow brings.

Our First Meeting!

Today was our first opportunity to meet this little guy. We heard him crying as he was coming down the hall, and thought that we were going to have our hands full, but he settled right down and even smiled, as captured in this photo:

We visited for about an hour and a half. We played with blocks, which seemed to be his favorite. He is very inquisitive and active. Despite his skinny little legs, he walks pretty well. He has a pretty nasty head and chest cold, evident by the bright red nose and rattley cough. So, for a sick kid, he seemed to enjoy our visit today.

We will be back to see him in the morning and afternoon tomorrow. The orphanage is about 20 minutes from our hotel, or just a short subway ride, should we choose to go there on our own on our next trip. It is situated in the middle of an apartment complex, which seems to be a strange location. It is well protected, thought, as it is surround by gates.

An interesting building. Above the windows, at the top, are the old symbols of the Soviet Union, as well as "CCCP" above the doorway.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood (designed after St. Basil's in Moscow)

St. Isaac's Cathedral

The Hermitage

The Russian Museum (the wrong museum)

Day 1

Well, it was a busy day today. We were on our own, and figured that today would be our only day that we would really have to do some exploring. And exploring we did!

Our hotel, The Andersen Hotel

We started with a complementary buffet breakfast in our hotel. Quite an interesting buffet. Items found on the buffet included:

Rice

Scrambled Eggs (we think)

Spaghetti Noodles (no sauce)

Chopped up Hot Dogs

Porridge (if that's even spelled right?)

Creps

Various unrecognizable cold cuts

Assorted Pastries

Coffee

Needless to say, we had coffee and a pastry. Then it was off to find a supermarket. We picked up some bottled water, pretzel-looking things, cookies, plain Lay's potato chips (not the Crab or Meat flavored variety), and cans Pepsi. All safe bets.

Then it was off to McDonald's across the street from the supermarket. We looked for someone who looked like they spoke english, as the menu was in all cyrillic and had no numbers of combo meals to point to in order to brige the language gap. We found the manager at the center register and opened our order with what has become our most frequent greeting, "English?"

She nodded as if she understood what we said. We ordered a Cokka-Cola, a Cokka-Cola lite and french fry. Seemed pretty straight forward.

We ended up with everything we ordered, PLUS an orange juice. Not sure where the OJ came into play. Next, it was off to conquer the subway.

The subway system in St. Petersburg is quite interesting. First, it is REALLY deep underground. One escalator alone was about 200 ft long. Each station is really unique and ornate, mostly decorated with marble or granite and fancy chandaliers.



We exited the train an Nevsky prospeckt (the city's center) and headed off to one of the world's most famous collections of art, The Hermitage. During the tour of the museum, we both commented that it is impressive, but not THAT impressive. We later determined that we were at the wrong museum.



We hurried off to the correct museum, but came across a huge line, and a short time before closing time. Looks like The Hermitage will have to wait for another time.



We toured the colonnade of St. Isaac's Cathedral, which had spectacular views of the city, saw the Chuch of the Savior on Spilled Blood from a distance. Got lost going to dinner, and never found what we were looking for, so ended up in some English Pub. Someday we will brave the local cuisine, but afterall, it's only our first day...

We finally made it...

After 11 hours in the air, we landed in St. Petersburg, tonight, a little after 5:00 pm local time. We have no plans tomorrow, so we will see just how adventurous we feel. I can't tell you how "disconnect" I feel not being able to read or understand what is happening around me.

Our hotel is nice, but our room is quite small. I would say that it closely resembles a cruise ship room. Tight quarters, but hopefully we won't spend a whole lot of time in here. Not just because of the limited space, but also because Russians like it VERY WARM indoors, and our room is no exception.

It's GO TIME!

Well, after over a year of preparation, we leave tonight for St. Petersburg, Russia. It sounds like we have a busy week ahead of us, with visits to the orphanage, medical exams, and various other appointments. We are told that we sill have some time to take in the local sights as well.

It's a long flight there, 8 hours to Amsterdam, then another 3 hours to St. Petersburg. With an arrival time of 5:30 PM, there will be just enough time to get a bite for dinner, unpack and head to bed.

Pictures and video coming soon!

And the day has finally arrived...

We were surpirsed last Friday with a referral! We know very little at this point, but here is what we do know.

It is a little boy, 15 months in age. He is healthy, well adjusted and we can't wait to meet him. We were sent a few pictures of him as well as some medical background.

So let me save you the effort of asking... We still don't know when we are traveling to meet him. We know that it will be at least a month, but hopefully not much longer.

Stay tuned for more info...