Wonder Boy had his First Communion

After all the preparation Wonder Boy finally had his First Communion.  He was so nervous and excited.  It was so great to see that he really understood the significance of what he was doing.  I so want him to understand his faith and not just go through the motions.  It seem that he is beginning to.  I am so proud.

E-mail from Charlie

Hello:


I made it to Moscow fine. Unfortunately, my bag did not. After accepting the fact that it was not here, I spent several hours at the lost and found desk getting the right forms filled out. Thankfully, the man there was very helpful, it was just a long process. Finally got out of the baggage claim area at 2:00.

They're supposed to deliver my bag to the Park Inn when it arrives, although there's a part of me that suspects we'll never see that bag again.

So apparently, I'll be wearing these clothes until Wednesday or so, unless I get time to do some shopping in Stavropol. The plan is still to come back to Moscow on Wednesday Morning. Irina said the orphanage would most likely loan me clothes for Caleb until I get back here.

I'm using a Russian rent-a-computer here at the Vnukovo airport, and it thinks every word I type is mis-spelled, since they're all in English.

Irina dropped me off here b/c she had to go to the notary today.

Apart from the missing bag, everything else is going okay, I suppose.

Only 2 minutes left of my 15 minutes for 60 rubles. Just thought I'd check in.

-Charlie

Travel Troubles

Charlie's flight to New York was delayed to the point that he missed his flight to Moscow.  He stayed an extra day in New York and took the flight out on Sunday.

This Angel can be Adopted

This little angel just won't let me go.  I saw her on Reece's Rainbow and she is so beautiful.  She has arthrogryposis that affects her lower limbs.  She can't walk, but can crawl.  Her birth date is February 2006.  I'm just so in love with her and hope to spread the word about her so that she can find a home of her own. 

Change of plans

Charlie and I were both going to pick up our boy, but airline fare have risen so much that we decided that only Charlie would go.  It would have been great for both of us to go and back each other up because that 24/7 parenting can be tough especially if there is a language barrier.  On the other hand it'll be great for Charlie to have some time with him before he has to go back to work.  I'm a little sad that I won't get to see Moscow.  I was really looking forward to it.  Oh well, those are the sacrifices that we have to make.

Court

Court was pretty intimidating, but we got through.  In Stavropol court is a two day process.  On day one Charlie and I met with the judge by ourselves.  (Well also the translator, the lawyer, the court reporter--taking taking hand written notes-- and the representative from the Ministry of Guardianship.)  She questioned very thoroughly about our finances, motives for adopting, how we would care for Little Bit, and what we would do if we got tired of him.  The whole process took about an hour.

The second day was much less involved for us.  Mostly we re-answered questions from the day before, although she did ask a few new ones including did we plan to have any more children.  (Umm, maybe?)  the about half a dozen other people spoke: the orphanage director, the representative of the Ministry of Guardianship, the representative of the Ministry of Education, the lawyer.  Thing that we were most worried about was what the prosecutor might ask.  However it was the Friday of a holiday weekend and pretty much everyone wanted to get the holiday started.

After hearing all of the information presented the prosecutor said that he had no questions and recommended that the petition be grated.  After a short recess the petition was granted.

Yippeee!  Oh frajelous day, calloo calay!

We see Little Bit

On Monday morning we got to see Little Bit.  As we climbed up the stairs his group was passing us, although I didn't see him.  All of a sudden I heard, "Mama!"  I don't know if someone pointed us our or if they had just shown our pictures to him lots, but it felt great.  We played well for most of the visit, but he get tired.  He is speaking so well and gets frustrated that we don't understand him. 

Our visits over the next few days had varying degrees of success.  He like his routine and the activities at the orphanage, but he also wanted to play with us.  I think he is also very scared.  He's been told he wants to be adopted and he wants to be, much in the same way that a child who's never been to Disney World wants to go.  It sounds great, but he has no idea what that really means.  On the other hand, his whole life is at the orphanage.  Poor little man.

Visa Debacle

On Wednesday the 21st of April we still had not got our visa and we were leaving on Saturday April 24th, so on Thursday I called the office of the company that was processing our visa.  The visa had not been issued yet, we were told, but it would be today and they would over night it so we would have it on Friday.  Thursday evening we received another call.  We were informed that the visa had been issued for the 26th instead of the 25th.  With that visa we would not be able to get into the country.  OK, on Friday they would have the visa fixed and overnight it to us.  We could go to the Fed/Ex office and pick it up we would have it by 9:00 am so we could leave by 1:00 pm for the airport

Friday was very tense as we finished packing, pick up my parents from the airport and checked in on the visa.  throughout the day we kept hearing, "No it has not been issued yet."  The consulate closed at 6:00 pm with no visa issued, but we were told not to give up hope, they were still working on it.  (What?  Who??)  This is the only time in my life I have actually fallen to my knees in prayer:  Saint Joseph, who loved his foster son, intercede for us, so that we can go and get ours.  After much yelling and screaming we finally got the scoop.  The visa had been issued--- for the 27th of April.  What are they kidding?  How do you mess that up twice?  Ludmilla, they agency rep we were working with had a plan.  If we could get to New York on Saturday, she had someone who would come in and reissue the visa.  She would then drive to the airport and hand deliver them to us.  We quickly scrapped our flights and re-booked.  Everything was set and we only had to see if everything would work.  (At this point I was pretty doubtful.)

Everything went off without a hitch, and we actually arrived earlier than we would have on the other flight.

Wow.