Kras Wait Day 2

It's another balmy day here in Krasnoyarsk at about -20F. Hahaha Meanwhile, I here back home is experiencing above normal temps around 50F. Oh well, we are making the most of it anyway.

***The photo is taken looking down from our apartment window to the open market across the street.

This morning started with another visit to see the Little Princess. We got stuck visiting in the little front office which only holds three people comfortably, let alone trying to play with a toddler and having people come in and out of the office to get files or use the computer. The ladies are all very polite, but the Princess always is less focused on Momma and more focused on the faces she knows better when we have to visit here. I'm hoping tomorrow we will get the music room again. Much more room to run around in and play.

As expected, the little Princess was more wound up and energetic today than yesterday. She was so calm and cuddly yesterday, I just knew today she would be full of energy and want to play with everything, including getting into cabinets and files that she shouldn't be in. Isn't it fun to be 2? I do love this age, you just never know what to expect. Always have to be on your toes.

The funniest story from our visit today had to be the box story. You know how people always say, forget the expensive gifts for little kids, just give them the box it came in and they will have a blast. That is exactly what Little Princess was playing with today. One of her caregivers gave us a box of the mega size legos to play with. You've all seen them I think. They come in a plastic container about twice the size of a shoe box. Well anyway, Little Princess dumps out all of the Lego's and basically says the heck with them, and we proceeded to play with the box. It was a ma china to ride on, a bassinet for the dolly, a bassinet for the big dolly baby (little princess got in it too). Got pictures of this, so cute... It was also a ma china for mama to ride on, but I didn't fit very well. Guess who played with the Lego's? Grandma, of course!

Our visit was from 10-12 this morning. After the orphanage, Dasha was kind enough to drop Mom and I at the Mall, Planyeta. We had lunch and looked around the shops for a bit. Grandma bought Princess a new baby doll to play with when she gets to the apartment.

After the mall, Dasha drove us back to the apartment. We have since trekked down stairs and around the corner to replenish the food supplies. I just love going to the store and trying to figure out what the items are. It's always a surprise when you get home and open them up and try to make something out of all that you have gotten. If you are lucky, it even tastes good, you just don't know what to call it. :) My only bad experience so far was my first attempt to buy milk. Luckily I tasted it before pouring it on my cereal cause it was buttermilk. Yuck! Second attempt was good. Now I just stick to that same carton every time.

So, for the rest of the night, I am doing exciting things like laundry! We have a cute little washing machine in the apartment, but no dryer. Mom found some type of clothes line in the cupboard, which I now have strung up from one end of the bathroom and back. This will work!

Here's a couple of Pic's of Mom in our apartment.

Hope all is well with everyone! Thank you all for your comments! I love hearing from everyone!

Paka,
Shannon

Wait Day 1

This morning was a lazy day, just hanging out at the apartment watching all the people down below heading to work and to the outdoor market in the freezing cold. We are on the ninth floor of our apartment building so it is easy to people watch from above. Also while Mom played video games, I played on the computer.

At 3pm we got to go and visit my beautiful little Russian Princess at the orphanage. She is so darn cute. I know I said that before and that I am just slightly prejudiced about it, but she is. While we were waiting for her in the music room, I could hear her coming all the way down the hallway saying Momma, Momma. I just love that. I have to admit it is music to my ears. In walks little Princess and she is wearing one of the outfits that I left at the orphanage last visit. It was only a size 12 month and is pretty small on her now. I was tickled though that the orphanage staff decided to put on an outfit that I left. How sweet!

For our visit today I brought a diaper bag full of toys and some goodies. We had fun discovering everything that was in it. Her favorite was the Dora CD player with headphones. She listened to music for almost an hour before finally deciding to take off the headphones. She also wanted to be Mommas girl today. She sat in my lap or right next to me the whole visit. She went to Grandma, but for only a moment at a time and then right back to Momma. She is bonding so well already. I also brought the photo album with me that I had prepared for the Judge yesterday in court. After the Judge was done looking at it I received it back. That was a nice surprise. Anyway, Little Princess and I looked at all the photos and she picked Momma and herself out of all of the pictures. She calls herself lolla or lolly in all the pictures. She must think she looks like a dolly, as that is the Russian word that she uses for doll. Fun day today anyway. Nice and relaxed. No pressure on me feeling court looming over my head. Little Princess must have felt that too, as she was very relaxed as well.

After our visit, which lasted until 5pm, we headed on back to the apartment. Tonight I tried my hand at making spaghetti sauce and pasta from scratch using only a few ingredients and everything in Russian. I couldn't find anything that resembled Prego or Ragu at the supermarket so had to find some kind of tomato sauce instead and make from scratch. Now mind you, at home I do like to make pasta sauce, but it is challenging here. So the tomato sauce that I picked ended up being tomato paste. We also had left over sausage of sorts that we have been eating with eggs in the morning, left over chicken from last night, garlic, sugar, salt and pepper. All the ingredients went into the pot along with some water, and voala....spaghetti sauce, minus the oregano. It actually tasted really good according to my Mom. I thought it wasn't too bad either.

So....Another day down, and nine more to go before Princess comes to stay with Momma for good. Hoorah!

Court

It's Official!! The Judge finally said Dah (yes)! I am now officially the mother to the Little Russian Princess. Holy Cow! I can't believe it is finally over. At least the court part. It was a very difficult court day, with many questions, but the end result is the best, a positive outcome.

Above is the official picture of myself and my agency representative Oleg after the final hearing.

The ten day waiting period begins tomorrow. I should be able to pick up the Little Princess on Saturday February 21st for " Gottcha Day". Tomorrow we will go for another visit to the orphanage in the afternoon. Tonight we are celebrating at home with a baked chicken and rice. It is the beginning of a very cold week. Tonight -20c thus far, going down to -39c by mid week. Too cold to walk anywhere so will be eating alot of meals at the apartment unless we call a cab to take us out.

Thank you everyone who sent up prayers for me today! They really worked! I was calm until the 2nd time back in the court room. The first time in court there were questions that the Judge asked that I didn't have all the answers to, so she postponed the hearing until I went and got the answers and/or information that she wanted me to have about the Princess and her family. Usually the delay can be a day to 10 days so I was very happy when the Judge allowed me to come back today to finish the court proceeding once I had reviewed all of the documents that I needed to see. 2nd time in I was very nervous. It was difficult to figure out exactly what the Judge wanted from me as an answer so I just spoke from my heart. In the end her final decision was a good one.

For tonight, Paka from Russia.
I am mentally exhausted, but emotionally thrilled!

Orphanage Visit

Got to see the Little Princess this morning!!!! She came right to me again when I called her name, but was a little bit shy and not quite sure exactly what was going on as Oleg, my CHI rep and Sveta, my interpreter were with me along with my Mom. So many new faces in the room. I think she was a little bit nervous. I don't blame her one bit either. Once she sat down on the couch next to me and we started to play, her cheery little personality started to light up. She is just so darn cute! I also got out a little photo album that I have been carrying around with me for the last four months that contains pictures of her and I from my last visit. She really enjoyed looking at the pictures, especially of herself. She is so funny!

I can't believe how much the Little Princess has grown over the last four months. I bet she is about 2 inches taller and 5 pounds heavier if I had to guess. I am so glad, she looks very healthy now and she needed to catch up a little. She was on the petite side when I first met her. The Lady's at the orphanage have been taking excellent care of her. Not sure now if the clothes I brought are going to fit. Oh well!! Plenty of shops in the area that I saw at the Planyeta Mall yesterday. (Thank you to one of my fellow Krasnoyarsk adoptive family readers for letting me know the correct name).

After the orphanage visit this morning we went to lunch at People's bar and grill. Good food, but Mom almost got forgotten by the waitress. We all had meals, but she forgot to give the chef Mom's food order. Oops! She finally got served, and her meal was even tasty so she was happy, just very hungry for awhile looking at all of our meals. ( I was nice though and shared a little until hers arrived).

Didn't really do anything else outside of the apartment today. When we got back I took a little 45 minute nap since I only slept 2 hours last night. Not sure if I was worried about court or excited about seeing the Little Princess, or was it the coffee I had at 9pm. Could have been all 3. Hopefully I will rest well tonight. Court is tomorrow at 1030am. I have received the email version of the letter that I needed from my HR department (document issue!). I also found a copy of the letter in the papers that I brought with me. I had already completed this document it turns out, but no one here has it. Anyway, hopefully what I have now will be enough for the judge. Thank you to my friends and family back home for running around this morning to get the paper completed, emailed and ready to also Fed Ex should the need arise. Now hopefully I can relax a little tonight. Probably not, but it is a thought!

For Birthday dinner tonight, had left over Pizza from Peppers! Haha!! Will feel more like celebrating tomorrow after court. ( Positive thoughts!!!!!)

Stay tuned for more news tomorrow! Will try to get some new pics up on the blog over the next couple of days too!

Bye for now!
Shannon

Krasnoyarsk At Last

We Finally arrived to Krasnoyarsk Saturday morning bright and early. Well maybe not so bright, but definitely early. We arrived in a bit of a snow storm, but our fearless CHI rep Oleg made it to pick us up at the airport at 7am and got us safely to our apartment. We were hoping to stay at Hotel Krasnoyarsk so that we could be with the two other single Mom families that we had met in Moscow, but it appears that our representatives here did not get our request and hotel is now booked. The apartment that Oleg has rented us is very nice however. After adjusting to life without any English speaking people around us, and finding our way to the supermarket and then down the street to Peppers and the shopping district, we are coping just fine. Peppers is a pizza and pasta type restaurant with TV's and free WiFi. Food is good and people watching fun there too.

Just got the Internet up and working this evening at the apartment, so am trying to catch up with every ones messages and updating the blog. Yesterday, as I said we arrived in Kras early in the morning after an overnight flight from Moscow. The flight is actually only 4 hours, but we also changed time zones another 4 hours. Flight left at 1020pm and arrived in Kras at 650am or there abouts. After getting settled into the apartment we rested for a few hours, then grocery shopped for lunch and breakfast. In the evening we were taken to Peppers for dinner, then back to apartment to watch American movies in Russian. Luckily Rambo was on and we both are familiar with how the movie goes so reading lips and just watching the picture went well even though we couldn't understand the Russian translator.

Today we rested some more. Mom didn't even get up until 10am. I guess she was tired! I was up a bit earlier and then on and off during the night. Trying to get used to a new time zone plays crazy tricks on the body. Just had to keep telling myself it was still early or middle of the night to get more rest. At about 8am I'd had enough and attempted to make breakfast of sausage and scrambled eggs. It took about 45 minutes to get the job done as the stove was not cooperating, but in the end we had breakfast that tasted pretty good. This afternoon our interpreter Sveta and a friend of hers took us to the big mall, I think she said they call it "The Planet". It is large and had a lot of shops and restaurants, along with a very large supermarket. We talked about how court would go on Tuesday and enjoyed walking around inside as it is cold and snowy here outside. After the mall, Svetlana dropped us back to the apartment where Oleg met us and helped us to conquer the Internet issue, and show us how to operate the oven and washing machine. Important issues! Once we were set, Oleg and Sveta left and Mom and I decided to walk the four or five blocks back to Peppers for dinner.

We are now back at the apartment after a brisk walk home from Peppers with full bellies. Tomorrow morning we get to go see the Little Princess. Yippeeeee!! Then practice court questions again and tackle a possible document issue. Yes, I said document issue.....hopefully it will be nothing, but may have to have family at home run to get a paper signed for me. Please everyone pray that the judge is satisfied with what I have already turned in and not ask for version number three of the same paper.

Paka (Good bye)from Krasnoyarsk for tonight. Stay tuned for more tomorrow...
Love, Shannon

We Made It To Moscow

18 hours or so after leaving the house yesterday Feb. 4th, we (My Mom and I) landed in Moscow, via Atlanta Georgia, safe and sound. Mom and I are both still a bit jet lagged, but we had a nice nap after lunch today and are now just hanging out in our Hotel room catching up on the news.

We are staying at the Holiday Inn Sokolinki in Moscow tonight. I stayed here on my first trip as well, so know the layout of the land so to speak around here as well as the amenities. It looks like we are booked here for our return stay near the end of February. We'll be here about 5 days then. Not a whole lot of time for sight seeing on the way this time, but we do get to have a professionally guided city tour tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow morning will be spent getting my Medical done and paper collected for court. Afterwards lunch, citytour, dinner and then the airport again. Our flight to Krasnoyarsk leaves at 1020pm tomorrow night.

I'm so excited that I am finally back to see my Little Russian Princess and bring her home. I'm nervous about court, but can't wait for it to get here and be over with at the same time.

More later as the rest of the journey unfolds. Probably wont be able to post tomorrow, but should get back online the day after when we get settled in Krasnoyarsk.

I can't think of any crazy airport stories either. Only one man that wouldn't sit down so that we could depart from atlanta. I thought for sure that he was going to be ejected from the flight, but he finally found his seat, and we finally were able to take off.

Take care all!!
Shannon...and Mom too!

Travel Dates

It's already been a whirlwind week! I can't believe I'm actually going to be leaving in one week to complete ( I love that word), the adoption of my beautiful little Russian Princess that I've been waiting for, for so long.

So here is the schedule so far:
Depart Detroit metro airport on Feb 4th.
Arrive Moscow Feb 5th.
Feb. 6th Medical evaluation in Moscow
Feb 6th evenning fly out to region
Feb 7th arrive in Krasnoyarsk
Feb 9th- my Birthday
Feb 10th Court Date
Ten day wait, then gotcha day ?? not sure of date yet.
Feb 26th leave Kras for Moscow
Feb 27th Childs medical in Moscow and documents submitted to embassy
Mar 2nd interview at the US Embassy
Mar 3rd Leave Moscow for home ( and my sisters birthday)

The past few days have been busy as I stated at the beginning, but productive.
Plane tickets to and from Moscow purchased.
Passports and Visa applications sent off
Bank notified to order new money
Employer notified of depart date.
Babys suitcase packed.
Friends and family called.
Dog, cat and house sitter arranged
Airport ride arranged

Still to go:
My suitcase
Pick up Mom from airport as she's still in Florida and needs to come home for this trip and repack.
Gather copies of all documents for court
Get batteries for camera
Figure out how to use skype
Pick up funds from Bank
Collect Passport and Visa
Turn in leave paperwork to employer
Try to relax.......and breath too, that would be good.