We're home!!

Sorry I haven't had a chance to update. When we reached Moscow we could not get internet accecss in our apartment, though we tried and tried. We had a great stay in Moscow. It was a very busy 4 days. All of our appts went well. We had no problems at the Embassy and it was fun to see other American families adopting children. Everyone there was so excited, as you can imagine. We also stayed within walking distance to Arbat Street and had a blast eating and shopping on that street. It was easy to spot other American families on that street as well.

We are now home with our daughter. It sounds so wonderful to say that!! Just got in late last night. She is doing well. Very happy baby. Seems to go with the flow and has transitioned so well to all her new environments. She has slept in many new beds over the last week with us, from hotels, to trains to airplanes to apartments to now our home and is taking it all in stride. We are so impressed by her!! We had a very good day of traveling yesterday...15 hours in total in air and will post more later. The boys are still asleep this morning so they have not met their baby sister yet. Looking forward to that meeting!!

It is so good to be home!!!

PS Ondrea, send me your email address so I can write to you.

We have a baby girl!

We are so happy to introduce the newest member of our family...

our daughter Emily!!

Monday April 21st Court Today!!

We had an amazing day with Emily yesterday!! She did not hesitate to come to us. We were so happy to see that and so happy to have her back in our arms. We have only been gone a month but was amazed to see how much she has physically changed in that time. Her cheeks are a little more filled out, she looks a little taller. She is definately growing and still the sweetest little girl. We are so happy! There were a few other families from our agency and another family from another agency at our babyhome yesterday. Some were on first, some like us, on second trips waiting for court. It was fun to all be together in the large playroom and meet all of their children.

We had a fun dinner out with another family from our agency last night. The weather yesterday was beautiful and when we left the restaurant at 9pm it was still as light as day. It was really amazing!

We have our day in court this afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed for us that all goes well.

We are here!!

We arrived safely last night and checked into our hotel. It's a different hotel from our first trip and it's very nice. We woke up and went downstairs for a yummy breakfast served in a beautiful ballroom. I will have to get a photo of that room tomorrow! There are a few other families staying here from our agency..some are on their first trip. We hope to get in touch with them later today.

We have just one more hour to go before we head off to the babyhome. I can't wait to see Emily. Hurry up time..hurry up!

Here I am... a little bored in my hotel room. You can see a little bit of hubby snoozing in the background. Here's a little bit of our room. You can also see the desk where I type away at my laptop.

Tomorrow we have court in the afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed all goes well!

Waiting in Frankfurt

We have landed in Frankfurt. It's 10am here, 2am back in California. We are exhausted and just passing the time in one of the lounges. We had a nice flight over but I didn't really sleep. I ended up watching 2 movies. Funny enough they were both adoption stories...Juno and August Rush. I had been wanting to see them both, so that was a nice treat. And they sure did get me even more excited to see my daughter!




We flew the same route we did the first trip...from Ca to Frankfurt on Lufthansa. I really like Lufthansa airlines. The customer service is amazing, from the ticket counters to the flight crew. Everyone is just so nice and helpful. There was a mother traveling alone with a child under 2 and the flight attendants checked in on her frequently, brought the mother a bag full of toys for her child to play with, meals, played with the baby, etc. The planes we have been on are new and have the latest conveniences. The food is really good on the flights too. When we landed in Frankfurt the terminal was packed so our 747 was parked away from the gates and they had 3 big buses waiting to take the passengers to the terminal. It was raining and there was no cover once leaving the stairway and yet the flight attendants stood at the bottom and escorted older passengers to the buses, assisted families traveling with small children. They even ran over to the men unloading the luggage off the plane and brought over all the strollers to the parents so they could have them at the terminal before they got to baggage. And all with a smile. Just impressed by them. I wish there was a domestic carrier that had as great of service in the states!

Well..that's all for now. We have a three hour layover and should be in St Pete this evening. I can't wait to get to the hotel, shower and crash. And then tomorrow it's off to the babyhome to see our little girl!

Until then everyone!

We leave tomorrow!!

I can't believe it is almost time!! Today will be a busy day of getting everything done so we can leave tomorrow! I have so much to do still!! Hopefully we will still be able to get to bed early tonite! Okay...I'm off and running!

Fooling Around

I've been working steadily along all day getting ready for our trip. I'm beat and thought I would sit for a minute after dinner and try out a new blogger setting. One of these days I'm going to have more than a few minutes and really learn some new tips on headers or some other cool idea. But for now this will have to do.

A great Birthday Present!!!

I got a very special phone call this morning on my birthday........We got our COURT DATES!! Wahoo!!

Our court date is Monday April 21st! In just a week I'll get to see my baby girl again!!! I can't believe in just a week I'll be back in Russia!! Wahoo!!

What a crazy weekend this will be!!

A Possibility...

I talked with my agency casemanager earlier this week and there's a chance we may get our court dates for this month!!! I could know as soon as the end of this week...that's friday. Friday also happens to be my birthday!!! How wonderful would that be if I got the news then? Of course I don't mind getting the news a day early, like tomorrow. Better than a day late like Monday.

I can't believe there's a possibility that in less than 2 weeks I could be back in Russia seeing our little girl!

It's funny because I felt like I've been nesting. Right before the due date of both my boys I started in on some nesting project. Getting something ready for their arrival. So for my nesting for Emily we spent this weekend putting the crib rail back up on Emily's crib, hanging a few pictures in her room, washing all her sheets, her clothes, her bottles, etc and then packing her suitcase for the trip.

I have to admit since I have come back the waiting for the call for a court date has been so very hard. But now, since I found out this news..this week has been sooooo long filled with just waiting, waiting!

The hardest part is that my boys' birthdays are both the end of April and the beg. of May..just 3 days apart. (again with the number 3...my favorite number) In fact 3 years ago, I missed my oldest child's 2nd birthday because I was still in the hospital due to an emerg c-section for my youngest. Just this month I had been working on their joint birthday party and had the invites all ready to be mailed for their birthday party which I was hosting a weekend before either of their actual birthdays. I didn't think we would go back in April so I thought I was pretty safe hosting their birthday parties a week early. So needless to say, their party is on hold... If I get to wish for which week to go.. I'm so hoping we get to go the week before the end of April so I don't have to miss both their birthdays! How ironic that would be if I missed both their birthdays because of their sister's "birth" into our family. Then I will have officially missed my oldest son's b-day twice, my younger son's once and my daughter's once. Not a very good track record already. Let the guilt rain down.

Oh...I just want that phone to ring!!