COURT AT 11:00 AM

We have court at 11:00 am please be praying for us that our words will come easy when the Judge asks us questions,that the judge has favor in her heart for us and that we come away from court today with a new little  NINE !

Happy Birthday Amelia

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
To my baby girl Amelia (Mae Mae)who is 5 years old today.I know we can not be with you today but we are working hard to bring you back the best birthday gift ever,your baby brother! We love you so so much sweet baby girl.HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

3rd visit

I don't think I will ever be able to put into words how much I love this child!

2nd visit

 We are so messed up with our time we were up skyping the kids till 1:00am 2:00pm the kids time and then we slept till 8:30, breakfast is from 7 to 10 so we needed to get ready and go eat breakfast. We don't know if we will get to eat again today so we try to fill up on breakfast. We love their breakfast buffet here, it's so good. We got down stairs at 9:30 had 1/2 an hour to eat before Boris and E were picking us up to go see Josiah. We got done just in time.
 It was snowing and all the roads that were clear yesterday where white today it was so pretty.
We got to the baby home a little after 10:00. We went in, no one was around this time the hall was still,maybe because its Saturday, we walked right to Josiah's room and E peeked in to tell them we were here, They told her like last night to go up to the closet room(they don't call it that we do lol) so we go and wait it was so hot in there that E opened the window. We again could hear him coming up the stairs. When he got to the door he took off running and ran straight into my arms with huge smiles, it felt so good! He was so happy to see us and it was different then last night, he was so happy to see us maybe happy that we came back.
I gave him the duck that I brought him from home that sings the ABC's. He loved it, played with it for a long time.  Again he only wanted to sit on Mikes lap and at one point he looked right into Mikes eyes for a long time touching his beard with both hands and talking to Mike. It was so sweet I just couldn't help it, I started to cry. I have prayed for so long for that moment I so wanted Josiah to love Mike over anyone else and want him first. I know it sounds silly but all the other kids always wanted mommy 1st as babies you know mommy is food to an infant lol so of course they want mommy first. but this time I wanted that for Mike I wanted him to feel the love and the bond of that and it has happened. I can not express how blessed I feel. I will never forget that sweet moment.
we spent the rest of our time playing, he did eventually come and play with me and he would look me straight in the eyes as if he were studying me. I would sing the ABC song along with the toy and he would just look at me so sweet. It was a really wonderful sweet day today, my heart is so full.

little store

  After we got back to the hotel we were hungry but didn't want to go to the restaurant in the hotel so we walked over to the little store across the street. We didn't ever go there last time so this was new for us. As you walk in there are some stairs to go up. This store like all the stores here is underneath some apartments. At the top of the stairs there is a lingerie store with all different type of nylons all up on the windows and night gowns and stuff inside this little shop, reminded me of how a concessions stand looks but with lingerie hhaha. Then you go up some more stairs and into the store it is a grocery store What it reminds me of is the organic section of a grocery store at home, you know where they have shelves of things but only 2 or 3 choices of types or brands. Unlike in the  US where you get 20 choices lol. This is how I think all the grocery stores are here,  E took us to one last time and it was just like this so simple again taking me back to the 40s or something. I can't help to think how do people live like this? with so few choices? but that is an American talking we are so spoiled with junk! so we found a few snack things, we got these pretzels type things and some crackers some chips, water and Pepsi oh and some chocolate yum yum ! junk food!.but they also had on a shelf Easter baskets and a few stuffed toys that you push the tummy and it sings a song in Russian I have no idea what it is singing but I thought it would be neat too get Josiah something like that to have as a keepsake. I didn't get it but we are going back today and I will.

1st visit this trip with our sweet boy

  Ok now for the best post so far,our visit with our baby. We get to the baby home go in just like before, get the covers on our shoes, we stop at the doctors office E talks to him. Sometimes when they talk here it sounds like they are yelling at each other or fighting lol so when they were done talking I asked E what that was all about. She said he was just giving her the phone number of the doctor we will call to do the medical on him before we go to the embassy to come home. Then we went to Joshia's room and looked in, there were 5 kids sitting at the table but no Josiah, E said something to a Nannie and we went up stairs to the closet room, the small room we went to for some of our visits before. We sat and waited, then we heard him coming as he walked up the stairs. The Nannie brought him into the room. He was a bit hesitant at first but I grabbed him up and kissed him and sat down with him. He squirmed a bit, I got out his favorite toy and that was all it took, he played with that toy and loved it. Then I gave him the wooden animals I brought.. He knew all the names and the sounds for the animals in Russian, he is a smart boy. Then he started to play with mike he likes to tease and after that all he wanted was mike, I would take him and sit him on my lap and he would lunge for mike. He is a Daddy's boy I'm happy about that I prayed that he would be.When our visit was over we went to take him down to his room and I opened the door said bye bye, gave kisses and he went into the room with his friends. I stood there and watched for a while. He was so cute with the other kids. there were only 5 kids, last time there were 12 so not sure where the rest of them were.I forgot to say when he first came to the room we put him by the door so Elena could get a picture of him for his passport she took about 50 pictures while we were trying to get him to hold still look straight lol hope she was able to get a good one.

lunch and more

  After the medicals we had a lot of driving around to do and let me tell you driving here is not fun it takes forever and the drivers drive crazy. 1st we had to go get the papers we just had signed by all the doctors notarized so we went to the notary. Well since we hadn't eaten yet we were really hungry and asked E to take us someplace to eat . We went to this little place that was just around the corner from the notary office it was a real  cute place lots of charm for the city .But the food well you could only order 1 of 2 things fish or pork, it came with soup and salad but salad here is not like at home it is pasta salad or cabbage salad like coleslaw.  We got the pasta salad it was ok we ate it but it wasn't the best. Then we got soup she said it was vegetable soup but it had no vegetables it was like cheese soup I guess it was cooked so long the vegetables were cooked down to nothing.It was pretty good but nothing I would go back for, then for the meal I got pork it  was pork chunks and potato chunks in a broth .and mike got fish it had buckwheat on top he didn't eat but one bite of it lol it looked gross to me. oh and instead of water they gave us this strange red juice I asked E what it was she said it was like raisin juice they cook raisins down into liquid it is very common here, they give it to children at a young age, it is good for the heart. well I liked it it was pretty good mike lol not so much but here was
 another time I should have listened to myself because myself was thinking ok raisin juice that may be like prune juice hum maybe I should not drink this.(note to self again please listen to yourself next time yourself tells you not to drink something) I am having the consequences from not listening to myself now spending some time in the bathroom with a messed up tummy.
So after the notary we had to go drop the papers off at the court house just E went in but we got to see what the building we will be having court in looks like. Then it was on to fedx to pick up some other family's documents don't know who, E didn't say. By the time we were done with all that it was 2:00 we were picked up that morning for medicals at 7:00 so we had been out for 7 hours we had 2 hours before we could go see our boy so we asked that we be taken back to the hotel to freshen up and rest a bit before going to the baby home. by the end of this day we ended with having to pay $195 for the driver wow!

Medicals

  We had our medicals  and it all went fine all the other family's do not worry any about it. It was no big deal. Now I don't have all the technical terms for stuff and I don't even remember the Dr's specialties  but this is how it works.You go to this old building that is a hospital it was no shock to me all the buildings look like this here. You go in and check your coats. Then  you go into a office E talks to a lady then a Dr comes over and asks you questions medical  stuff no big deal. Then you go to a room where a lady looks at your eyes and check reflexes. Then go to another room to  get blood taken it was  no big deal I have really hard veins to find and she found it the first try. Then you go back to the office for tea and cookies and answer some questions on a form, questions like is it ok to steal? dumb stuff like that. I think 55 dumb questions lol. Then another lady comes and asks you questions about TB test and your chest. Then you go to another room all the way on the other side of the building where you get x rays on your chest. Now this is the fun room haha. The lady is really gruff she orders you around like a drill Sargent and you have no idea what shes saying so she gets irritated with you and just sort shoves you in to the wall of this x ray thing that you stand up on topless and it moves like a ride. haha that part starteled me I was standing there on this thing holding a deep breath with my arms up and my eyes closed and the thing started moving.. The drill Sargent yells you hold your breath! then you are done and she yells at you to get dressed! but you don't know shes saying that until  E comes to translate lol. ok then you go wait in the hall for the nice older lady that asked you the questions to give you the x rays and tell you if anything is wrong. Then you go up stares in this little elevator the size of a small closet  to another room.  Oh all these things you go in one at a time while the other one waits in the hall. So this next room you go in for an EKG the lady a really nice lady tells you to just pull up your top bra and all. she puts two clamp things that look like jumper cables on your ankles and two on your wrists. Then she takes these blue balls that have suction cups on the and puts them on your chest all around your heart. She tells you take a deep breath and hold it, then let it out and your done pull your top down and your on your way to the next room. The psychologist E told us to smile and don't look worried or he will ask us more questions. This guy was nice he had a little smile on his face as he asked the questions. I was not worried at all. I saw that he had our homestudy in front of him and he was asking us questions from it so make sure you read thru your homestudy before you go.The questions were  not anything hard. He asked about my siblings and asked mike about his dad being in the navy. He asked us both why we are adopting. You need to know your answer to this with out any doubt. It sounds like an easy question but when you are put on the spot it can be hard. I think we did fine he smiled and told us good luck.he didn't ask us anything about down syndrome. ok now this is the one that threw me off guard. We went in together there were three lady doctors they asked us questions about our skin and Cancer stuff like that. Then a guy around 20 or so with a bad mullet hair do comes in. I didn't think much of it until the lady doctor told us to take our shirts off. Then told me to come stand by her. Then told me turn around and the guy Doctor was then standing in front of  me. He told me lift my arms so I did. Then yep he did a breast exam on me,I was sorta shocked because I was told all the Doctors would be ladies I just had to think to myself he's a Doctor no big deal right. Mike and I laugh about it now but at the time it was not funny at all I was sorta mad about it because the fact that  I was told all the doctors would be ladies guess NOT! (another thing to show how much we are willing to do to bring home our boy)  then it was time to get dressed and we went back to the office for more cookies and tea, signed a paper and that was it. Besides the awkward breast exam everything was fine no big deal and E tells me in the car its usually a lady that does that she must have been out today. oh thanks choose the day I am there to be gone.haha!

snow and people

  Snow ok I'm not sure, no I know I have never seen this much snow! there are walls of snow all along the roads. I mean huge walls taller then me and cars buried inside these walls  from the plows coming thru and pushing the snow to the sides of the road. Then there are mountains of snow at the bottom of buildings where workers have pushed the snow off roof tops. I mean these are mountains my kids would have so much fun making snow houses, tunnels and sledding down the mountains. We have seen no kids out playing in this snow guess it is old news to them.it does not feel that cold to me here E told me it was much colder last week (sorry Heather lol.)

 The people here all wear coats with fur trim or total fur coats.  Everyone I mean everyone  wears a hat! All types of hats from big fur ones to little knit ones but everyone wears a hat. And boots  tall long boots, with spiked heals! how do they walk in the snow with spiked heals? I have no idea lol.
People wear a lot of black or dark brown but once in a while you will see a flash of color one lady had a bright yellow coat one lady had a bright pink coat and pink boots to match with a cute big pink fur hat all matching she looked so cute. but everyone dresses nice not all in dresses and slacks but nice looking jeans, nice sweaters, lots of pretty scarves. Not the warm knitted type like we would wear in the snow but silk type scarves. You don't ever see people in sweats or pj pants or jeans hanging off their butts lol. These people all have class, they even walk with class. It sorta feels like I'm in an old movie from the 40s or something. I do not feel at all out of place though. I brought my nice looking jeans, I wear sweaters and my black toat snow boots that are cute but not  spiked heels (not everyone wears spiked heels) and I have my black coat with the fur (fake fur) trim. I feel fine walking around.

our travel day

 We had a long day of travel I think it was 30 hours with layovers and flights a long long day. On one of the planes I saw a couple and just knew that they were also adopting, I could just feel it. They ended up sitting right behind us. I turned and asked them," are you adopting?" they said, "yes how did you know?" I said," I don't know I just felt it.,"They had already adopted 4 children 3 years ago siblings. and they were now going back to adopt the older sister of the children, she is 16. It was a really great story I'll post their blog as soon as she sends it to be. Isn't it just wonderful how God puts people in your path to give you encouragement and strength!
On our flight from Portland to Seattle we talked to the flight attendant and told her about our adoption.  Before we landed she announced on the loud speaker the we are on our way to adopt a son.  Everyone on the plane clapped for us that was so neat.
  We had little TVs on the long flight 9 hrs and I watched 5 movies lol. They were all movies I have been wanting to see so that was good.(I still do not like flying but the little tvs did help.) I ate some yogurt that came with our breakfast against my best judgment. I mean really all the while I was eating it I was saying to myself don't eat that its going to make you sick! Well guess what? by the time we landed I was feeling so bad and I don't get air sick so I know it was the yogurt .(note to self listen to yourself when yourself tells you not to eat something)
ok so the trip was not fun not at all but just shows what we are willing to do to bring our boy home.
When we got to Josiah's City we were 3 hrs late and our driver Boris was waiting for us he picked up our coordinator E on the way to our hotel.when we got to our hotel room the same hotel we stayed at last time but this time Boris booked it for us we only paid $90 per night and Boris had arranged for them to have a fruit platter and water for us we also had robes and slipper we didn't have these things last time so we know Boris pulled some strings for us it was really nice to have the fruit since we would not get to eat breakfast in the morning do to fasting for the medicals.

For Mommy and Daddy.

We love you and miss you!
Just wanted to let you know that it snowed all night! And we didn't have school today!
Here's a picture!

And to all you bloggy friends, thank you for your prayers! :)
~Amanda