We Are Off!

Almost Ready!

It hit us today. Northwest FedExed us a ticket for Jack Reis. JACK REIS is real and he is coming home
. :)

Before

Better!

Okay, so I think we have a solution! I know this is a strange thing to post. :) We might actually get all of this into our suitcase. We'll still be over on weight (40 lbs. each Aeroflot) BUT we can get it all in the one bag we are allowed. I passed by these travel bag things that squish the air out at Linens N Things today and decided to give them a try. They work pretty good! I know - it doesn't take much to impress me, but seriously - these bags just made my life a whole lot less stressful. Think Erik would kill me if I put his court suit in one? :) I still have to write his speech and send it to the consultant today. Apparently in court he gives a 5-10 minute speech and when he's finished, all I'm allowed to say is "I agree with everything my husband has said." Little does the judge know - his wife wrote it! ;) Jen

Last Monday Night at Home with No Baby

I told Erik it was his turn to post something. I don't think he's that freaked out. But Super Nanny is on right now and I don't think that is helping - so he might be a little bit. We need to change the channel. :)

We are very excited and overwhelmed. We're trying to finish the new house, leave our current house ready for showings, and pack at the same time. The hardest part is packing for Jack. He's not allowed a suitcase until he's actually on the plane and he's taking up most of ours before we get to him!! We thought about washing clothes in the sink, but that still doesn't cut down too much on the amount of clothes to bring. It's a high of 50 degrees/low of high 30s in Arkhangel'sk and it's about 90 degrees in Moscow! On Aeroflot we are each allowed one suitcase and we need to bring food, diapers, all that stuff! We have to be prepared if they hand us Jack and tell us he's hungry. I guess it's common for the caregiver to get the day off before court so we may not have time to go and buy food and diapers before court.

70 hours and counting....

Freaked Out

We're about to go get our baby.Holy sh*t. Leaving Thursday.
Erik

Adult Movies?

We are wondering if anybody has any regular movies on DVD that we may borrow for our trip. We have many Baby Einstein, Happy Feet, Nemo etc. for Jack. Last time, we did not have an English channel on the television, so we're wondering if anybody has any regular movies that we could borrow - we'd make sure they got back to you in great shape when we return. Thank you!

My, He's REALLY Grown!

Dimitry emailed us last week to give us Alexander's (Jack) measurements. We were very surprised to learn how much he's grown! He went from close to 15 lbs. to 25 lbs.! Also his new measurements said he'd grown in length close to six inches! He must really be eating that ground beef!

We emailed Dimitry back and asked if he would please double-check the measurements and explained why - he'd almost doubled in 2 months! Natalya (his wife) called the orphanage and wrote back that they gave us the wrong the measurements by mistake. He's only about 18 lbs. now. :) That makes a lot more sense! Here's what they sent us so we can buy him clothes. Guess we'll be bringing a ruler to the store! :)

height 73.5 cm, weight 8100 gr, chest 47 cm, head 44.5 cm, sleeve 21 cm, trouser-leg 40 cm, foot 11 cm

So we'll go to the store and measure the shoes. :) We still have no idea what his feet look like - we tried to look but those striped socks you see on him are actually tights!! We didn't take off the tights to look at his feet (or even to make sure he's a boy :) ) because we didn't want people at the orphanage to think we were doing anything strange to him. Poor little guy - a pink outfit with a princess on it AND striped elf tights! :)

Dusseldorf! - Archie Wants to Come Too!

Well, it's official - we've got a plane ticket! We'll be leaving May 31st and then spending two nights in Dusseldorf, Germany to start to get acclimated to the time zones of Europe. Then we'll arrive in Moscow on June 3rd where we'll meet Dimitry and one other family from North Carolina. We'll all fly to Arkhangel'sk together. Alexander (Jack) will fly with a caregiver from Kotlas and meet us in Ark. On Monday, June 4th, we'll finally get to spend more time with him. :)

Our consultant told us that he's not supposed to stay with us until after court, June 5th and so we can buy supplies there. However other families have told us that they've been handed the baby the day before court and then expected to take care of him/her from then on. The caregivers don't always want to continue to care for the children. They've told me that when they weren't prepared and didn't have food, diapers, or medicine - the social worker gets angry. They say it's best to bring a couple days of supplies such as food and diapers because often there's no time to shop in between the all of the appointments. It will be fun trying to pack everything! On Russian planes we are only allowed 40 lbs. a piece so we are not even going to bring an infant carrier on the plane. We've decided to take turns holding him so that we can save $1000 and take more luggage. The people that I work with have been awesome. Teachers and kids have donated toys and clothes for us to donate to the orphanage and I want to take as much as possible!

On Tuesday the fifth we'll go to court. Dimitry will work on getting his passport the next couple of days and then we'll all fly back to Moscow on Thursday. If we can get into the embassy on Friday and get everything finalized and get Jack a visa, we'll be able to come home June 9th. (Happy Birthday, Mom!) But if not, we have to be there through the weekend, go to the embassy on Monday and leave to return home on Tuesday, June 12th.

I find it really amazing that we'll be back just in time for Father's Day. Last Father's Day was heartbreaking for Erik. I know Erik has been dreading this Father's Day, but coming home at this time will make it a day to celebrate. Can't help but think someone is watching over us! :)

Almost home...

Today we got a confirmed court date of Tuesday, June 5th! We can even get tickets and visas! It looks like Sergey's surgery is working to our advantage because they are planning his calendar in advance and so we won't have to buy last minute tickets.

We will probably leave June 2nd at the latest because Dimitry has already gotten us a flight from Moscow up to Arkhangel'sk the evening of June 3rd. Alexander (Jack) will be brought to Arkhangel'sk by a caregiver. We will get to spend time with him the day before court. After we go to court, we get custody of him. We'll spend Wednesday and Thursday in Arkhangel'sk while Dimitry does the rest of Alexander's paperwork. Then we're off to Moscow and the embassy to get the "okay" from the U.S. embassy to bring him home. The U.S. also requires that a doctor checks him out before we can bring him back. The doctor will come to our hotel room. Strange. :)

We can fly back to the U.S. as soon as Saturday, June 9th with Jack. It's expected the judge will waive the 10 day waiting period. I guess it has never been imposed on families adopting from this region of Russia through our agency. We're thinking we may stay in Mosocow through Monday or Tuesday just to see some of it. It could be a while before we're in Russia again!

June FIVE

Last week we heard our date would be around June 1st- that some more paperwork needed to be done on the Russian side of things. Today we heard our paperwork is in, but the Minister of Education is having surgery and so our date needs to be moved to June 5. Let's hope he has a fast recovery!