Thursday

Our time with Graham was a lot better yesterday. He was much more calm and we had a lot of fun.  It is going to be hard to leave him in a couple of days.  He loves to give hugs and say "hi" now.  We made a photo book of us and the kids to show him and he really liked that. He holds the pictures up about an inch from his face and squeals.  When he finds the picture of Brett and I he gets really excited and starts saying dada. The social worker said they will keep the book so they can show it to him every day. 

 The coordinator here was looking at the photos of the kids and told us that Josie looks like a squirrel, LOL.

I must say the squirrels here are very cute with their little pigtails!

Graham loved the puppets!

We had a chance to go upstairs in the baby house and look around at where Graham spends his days.  We could not get a photo of the main room since the rest of the children were having story time and we are not allowed to take photos of them.  We did get some pictures of the playroom and the room where everyone sleeps.  Graham was showing us his bed, #2.

After having a look around we went outside again.

Wednesday

We have around 2 hours of time to spend with Graham each day.  Our time together is spent in a tiny little room.  It works fine, but it can get a bit cramped with a three year old boy who has a lot of energy to burn off.  Yesterday we were able to bring him outside for a while.  That was wonderful.  He seemed to calm right down. 

It was so cute when his snowpants and jacket were brought in.  They asked him to sit down and take his shoes off, which he immediately did.  He set his shoes down and I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but they said something else to him and he picked his shoes up and placed them very neatly together.  Apparently they need to be put just so.  It is obvious to us that the kids are held to high standards here.  They are VERY well behaved.  Even on the plane rides there were several very young children that we never heard a peep out of.  To me that is amazing for an 8.5 hour flight. 

It looks like Graham likes structure.  We are told he is the first to move his chair onto the line after lunch and he is the first to put his clothes away in their spot each day.  Maybe he can teach his brother and sisters a few things!

We also had an opportunity to talk with the doctor and social worker yesterday and ask any questions we had for them.  We had a TON of questions.  I think we may have overwhelmed them a bit, our translator told us that people usually dont ask that much, LOL.  I know we will be thankful later that we have so much information though. 

On our way back to our hotel we drove by the courthouse where our hearing will be on the next trip.

A few more sights from our drive:

A church, under construction of course.

A tiger, the symbol of the city.

When we got back to our hotel we went for a walk around the neighborhood.

Some railroad tracks. 

An old oriental school.

Sightseeing

We had a chance to go up to the highest point in Graham's city today.  The city is huge.  It is the capital of the region and the main port on the coast here.  The population is around 700,000 we were told.  Here are some views of the bay and the city. 

Here is a bridge that is being built.  It seems like the entire city is under construction.  There is a big summit being held here next year so it looks like they are giving everything a bit of a face lift.

This is the largest university here.

We were told this statue is dedicated to the brothers that created the Russian alphabet.  The locks on the rails are put there by newlywed couples for good luck in their marriage.

Us buying a few souvenirs.

Here he is!

We headed to the baby house this morning to meet Graham.  It went great.  He is a very happy and ENERGETIC little guy!  He came right to us when he came in the room.  He kept saying what we thought was "dada" over and over again.  We were quite impressed until our interpretor said he was saying, "a man."  He was very facinated by Brett's beard and whiskers and kept going back to him to rub his cheeks. 

He can say a few words.  We heard him say "bopa" (daddy) and "mama" several times.  He also had a snack of a baked apple and some cookies and we very clearly heard him saying, "nyet" (no) as he pushed the apple away and reached for the cookies.  He knew what he wanted and it wasn't that apple. 

Graham can also say hello.  I wish I would have bought him a phone to play with.  He was picking up toys and holding them to his ear like he was talking on a phone.  He also loved anything that lit up or made noise.  I am hoping it is nicer out later this week so we can bring him outside.  He has a lot of energy to burn off.

Tomorrow we will meet with the doctor and go over any questions we have for her.  The social worker will also be observing our time with Graham.  She testifies at our court hearing as to whether or not we are the right family for Graham.  Please pray that tomorrow goes as well as today and that God gives us favor in her eyes.

We are here!

Well, it is Tuesday morning right now and time for a quick update.  We left home early Saturday morning (central time) and arrived at our destination Monday morning (Sunday evening central time).  There was a lot of flying and very little sleeping!  Other than being beyond exhausted the flights went very smoothly. 

We were greeted at the airport on Monday morning by the local coordinator and a translator who brought us to our hotel.  We checked in, talked with the kids on skype for a while and then crashed.  We were able to get in a couple of hours of sleep before heading to the DOE in the afternoon. 

It has been raining and VERY windy since we got here.  I thought the weather would be similar to what we were leaving in MN, but with the wind coming in off the ocean it is COLD! 

I'm not sure how great our interview went at the DOE, but we did get our permit to get into the baby house!  I think we need to work on being a bit more detailed with our answers before court on the next trip.  Neither of us are talkers and it looks like we need to be in order to convince them that we are the right family.

This morning we are off to meet Graham!  Please pray for everything to go smoothly and for this to be a wonderful experience for all of us.

We will update with some photos when we can.

I should have known this would happen

It was slightly amusing when our vacuum cleaner broke right before our homestudy.  But, when the washing machine decides it doesn't want to spin anymore when I am trying to make sure 2 adults and 5 kids have enough clothing to last the next couple of weeks....  Not so funny right now.

Looks like I'm off to hand squeeze my laundry. 

On the bright side, the kids will probably have a blast helping.

Puzzle Fundraiser!

Our adoption is moving full steam ahead as we are about to meet our new son in just a few days!  With the costs of traveling (two trips over for Lindsay and three for Brett) and the final adoption expenses in front of us, we have decided to start a fundraiser for those that are interested in helping to bring Graham home.

We purchased this puzzle to put together and hang up in Graham's room when he is home.  For every $10 that is donated to our Chip-In Button on the sidebar we will add a piece to the puzzle.  When it is finished we will glue it together and flip it over to write your name on the back.  Then, it will be hung up in a double sided frame so we can see all the names of the people who helped to bring him home.

Please help us spread the word so we can finish the puzzle!

Thank you for your support and prayers as we move along on our journey!

Q: Can one missing paper put things on hold again?

A:  Nothing can stop us when God is on our side!

There was a bit of a panic yesterday when we found out that an interagency agreement form that was sent from our agency here in MN out to the other agency in NJ could not be located.  We thought we might have to wait several more days for another paper to be sent out.  But, no, we just heard back from the coordinator in Russia that they will register our dossier without the agreement and we can send it over with the next round of papers!

So, our dossier is headed to Russia as I type this and should be in Moscow on Monday.  It needs to be translated and notorized (really!?  I know, this shouldn't surprise me anymore.) and should be in the region we are headed to by the end of next week.  We can travel a week after it arrives! 

God is good!

Anxiously Awaiting Our New Brother