Happy Girl

The Big Cheese

Pleased to Meet You

Here are our two little bundles of joy. Suffice it to say that we think they are pretty special.

We arrived in Indianapolis this afternoon and hope to hit the road back to Russia sometime around mid December. If all goes well, Bohdan Sergei (Bo) and Eliana Inna (Ellie) will be in their new home by Christmas Day.

We hope to hear more early next week about travel dates for our second trip. We cannot wait to get back, but it is very reassuring to know the kids' caretakers do a great job watching over them.

Enjoy the pictures.

Meeting Eliana Inna

Eliana Inna with Pooh

Meeting Eliana Inna

Bohdan Sergei with his Tigger

Meeting Bohdan Sergei

Meeting Bohdan Sergei

Hanging in Red Square

One Trip Down...One To Go

Wow...what a whirlwind first trip. Since our last posting, we were able to visit Eliana Inna again (on Wednesday morning) at her orphanage. Even though she is still battling a cold, the caretakers allowed us to visit for nearly 45 minutes. When you factor in some 24+ hours of travel to meet her, it doesn't seem like much. But, we can tell you we made the minutes count.

Saying goodbye was tough, but we know we'll be back soon. The outfit Eliana was wearing had a picture of Santa and a tag that said, "Santa Express..please deliver by December 24th." Wouldn't that be a nice Christmas present? We are certainly keeping our fingers crossed that we will travel again soon.

Last night, we met some other Hoosiers for dinner in Moscow. We are all at different stages and it was good to talk about our experiences. This morning, we woke up early and toured around Red Square a bit before catching a cab for Sheremetoyva Airport. Some 11 hours later, we are now at a hotel near LaGuardia Airport getting ready to sack out so we can catch the early morning flight to Chicago. After a visit to Ft. Wayne, we will make it back home sometime Saturday morning.

Posting pictures has proven to be a challenge while on the road, but we'll get some up this weekend.

What a Difference a Week Makes

Last week we learned about two kids living in Rostov, Russia. Seven days later we held them in our arms and were able to tell them how much we love them. Wow, what a difference a week makes.

This afternoon around 12:30 p.m. we drove 90 minutes north from Rostov-on-Don to meet our little boy, Sergei. He was born in the town of Shakhty (pop. 50,000) and now resides in an orphanage housing Russian children from infant to age 14. We arrived in Shakhty around 2:00 p.m.

Sergei is a happy little guy and he was all smiles playing with the Tigger stuffed animal and wrist rattle we brought over for him. The medical specialist we hired in country says he is very healthy. And, from the appetite he displayed as we fed him a bottle of some magical Russian brew, we would agree. That bottle didn't stand a chance. As our friend, Joe Burke, would say, "that boy can eat."

The orphanage staff brought us coffee and chocolates and we had a great time playing with Sergei for awhile before needing to leave to visit Inna. We said our goodbyes to Sergei not knowing if we would be able to visit him tomorrow before our flight back to Moscow.

Around 3 p.m. we started our drive back to Rostov to meet Inna. It ends up she lives in a different orphange, but we seem to have pieced together that the two kids once lived in the same one. Anyway, on our drive back we were pulled over by Russian police for speeding. Our driver got out of the car and was back driving in less than five minutes. We learned that speeding tickets here are paid on the spot and the police pocket the money. Today's fine...100 rubles. In U.S. currency that comes out to a little under $4. The medical specialist with us laughed and asked how much a speeding ticket costs in the U.S. When we told him $100-$120, he told us we should immigrate to Russia.

We arrived to Inna's orphanage around 4:30 p.m. today. This visit was rushed in comparison to the first stop. Our doctor spoke with the orphanage director for awhile and translated a bit for us so we could keep up on the significant points. Then, we went in to meet Inna. She has a chest cold right now, so her caretaker had us wash our hands and put on surgical masks so we would not risk passing any infection to Inna.

Our doctor evaluated Inna and also found her to be very healthy (minus the common cold). We were then able to hold her in our arms and play with her a bit. Her caretaker was gracious, but told us we could not spend much time with her today because of her cold. We would have loved to spend more time with her, but it was great to see the orphanage demonstrating so much care and concern for Inna.

Even with her cold, Inna was all smiles and showed she is full of personality. We quickly had to say our goodbyes, but the good news is that schedules will allow for us to visit Inna again tomorrow morning before we fly back to Moscow. We will not be able to see Sergei until we return, but at least we were able to spend a fair amount of time with him today.

We could share a number of stories regarding our travel here, but that will have to wait for another posting. For now, we will sign off and tell you all is well from Russia. We will attempt to post pictures once we get back to Moscow, but we may have to wait until Friday.

Thank you all for your kind emails and calls. We have been able to check email from here and appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Today is the day and excitment is running high. We decided to start a family five years ago and that goal now feels like it is finally within reach. Our journey has been a real rollercoaster ride and we can't wait to see what's coming for us around the next turn. The image we have is that we are at the front of the roller coaster this morning with our arms held high as we get ready to scream out loud and race down that first big hill.

Since we need to go catch a plane -- one of Michelle's favorite pastimes -- this posting will be brief. But, we did think it necessary to answer one of our favorite questions of the week. The conversation starts with us telling friends that the little girl and little boy we will meet next Tuesday are ages nine months and seven months. In all of the excitement the question then comes, "are they biologically brother and sister?" Now, we would be the first to tell you that Russian adoption can be a mystery. But, even Russian women have to play by the same nine-month pregnancy rule. Go figure.

See you in Moscow.

Krista Calls One In

We have good news to share. But first, we need to tell an amazing story.

On Tuesday, our friend Krista was in Jerusalem as part of an annual trip she leads. While there, she visited the famous Wailing Wall and placed a prayer in it for us regarding our adoption adventure. Her prayer was for us to hear about our kids soon. She must have been pretty determined in what she had to say because later that day we received a call from our adoption coordinator telling us we needed to come in to learn about two children now living in an orphanage in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Now coincidence is one thing, but after waiting nearly seven months for "the call", it absolutely floors us that our good news came mere hours after Krista called one in from Jerusalem on what must be a direct line to Heaven.

With our good news in hand, we raced to the adoption office to learn about a little boy (nine months) and a little girl (seven months) who will likely become our kids in the weeks ahead. We received some medical information on them, saw a few pictures and then embarked on a whirlwind of calls and paperwork that shows no signs of stopping. We can't make out much in the blury photos the orphanage sent, but we'll have some good pictures soon.

We will likely depart for Moscow this Sunday, arrive on Monday and visit the orphanage in Rostov-on-Don on Tuesday and Wednesday. If everything goes as planned, we will fly home on Thanksgiving Day. It will be a quick couple of days in Russia and we are very excited to meet the kids.

If technology allows, we'll post a message from Russia in the days ahead. Thanks for your love and support.