One more day and we are off to Russia

Thank you everyone for all of the kind words, love and support you have shown us through this long, difficult journey. We cannot believe we leave tomorrow. I feel very fortunate that I have been so busy with mock trials. It has distracted me the last two afternoon and evenings, I could hardly think about the trip and meeting our little boy! Brynn did such an awesome job. Last night one of the judges (a local attorney) spoke to Brynn during his critque about how awesome she did! She was the only participant from either team whom he spoke directly to about what a wonderful job they did. He had judged her the day before and he was so pleased with the positive changes she had made and how taken his advice from the day before. I had tears in my eyes of proud joy of what a great daughter I have! She is my crown and glory! I love that kid. She will make an incredible attorney one day, as everyone knows she can argue anything and win!

Today the reality sets in that I have way too much to get done. Luckily we have both been getting a good nights sleep every night but are eager to get up and start each day, one day closer to meeting our son. Seems incredible to say that!

We leave Fort Myers around noon tomorrow. We then leave Atlanta around 4 pm and get in to Russia at 11 am Saturday morning. We then leave late in the afternoon Sunday for Kirov on the train. I will try and post over the weekend and for sure will try to Monday night after we meet him but we are not so certain about the internet availability in Kirov.

The countdown

Just one week from now we will have met our son and be signing the paperwork in Kirov! I have been dreaming every night about him and how it will all be........how big he will be........his eyes.......how he will react to us. I pray that it all goes as planned but as many of my adoptive parent friends have warned me, it doesn't always happen that way. Almost all have very happy endings but sometimes the road getting there is a little rough!

We spent several hours yesterday working on packing and taking everything out of its packaging. Tonight we picked up some last minute things to hopefully to get us through the trip. We are very fortunate to have had so many people help us with the planning of all of this. We will be flying from Atlanta to Moscow with one of the families in our group which is wonderful! We have a great group of five couples and we have all spoken so it should be fun getting to meet each other and share in this journey to meet our children.

Tomorrow Brynn and her team compete in mock trials at the courthouse against other high schools. This is her second year and I am one of the coaches. It is rewarding for both of us. She just loves it, good practice for the attorney-to-be. She has college and law school all planned out already. I love that she aims high!

Just three more days here at home and four nights in our own bed and we are off on the journey of a lifetime! I should have posted a before picture of the nursery which is travel central. Now that we have packed suitcases it is much better in there, it was a disaster site!

Going to try and get a good nights sleep. Hoping the wine and Tylenol PM help me out. Pretty sad when at 3:45 a.m. you are ready to give up on sleep. But all will be well in a month when I am getting up at 3:45 with a crying baby!

Hard to believe

It is so hard for both of us to believe that we are finally going to meet our baby. It seems like the last two and a half years of waiting and wondering if and when we would ever have another child have been a figment of our imaginations. No not really, I wouldn't wish the heartache and the wasted money we have spent on anyone. And to be honest this is very expensive and not really in our budget so to speak but it is all worth it!

We have suitcases lined up in the nursery and I keep throwing things in that we need. It is nice to not have travel piles everywhere. Every time I go in there I get excited and dream. The smell in there is wonderful....Johnson's baby lotion, Pampers, Dreft, Downy....wonder what he will look like laying in his crib. My mom and I found a sheepskin at IKEA and that is in his crib for him to snuggle in to. It is so incredibly soft, not exactly what a Florida baby needs but he is also a Russian boy!

I have given Brynn and Michelle access to post on here while we are gone since we aren't sure if we will have Internet access in Kirov. We cannot post any pictures of him until we go to court. Sorry! Russian law and we aren't doing anything to jeopardize this!

Reservations are made!

I have finally firmed up all of our reservations and I think have all of the paperwork done. I was awake at 5:00 this morning and decided to just get everything done this morning. We have been waiting for some further information before making our plane reservations, since there is the possibility we could wait out the time between trips in Moscow. But I decided to just to do it and if things get moved around a bit we can always pay the fees and change our return date. Honestly in some ways packing for both trips at once is a wee bit overwhelming.

I also made arrangements for a driver/tour guide to take us around on Wednesday the 6th. That way we make sure to see the sights in Moscow from the warmth of a car. On 2nd and 3rd we will walk around a bit on our own or possibly with Marie and Shane and their new son, Bryson. They hope to be back in Moscow with him on the 2nd and are staying at the same hotel as us. They live just a couple of hours from us and Marie and I have met up a couple of times. It would be so wonderful to share in their joy and meet Bryson!

I feel that we have been so truly blessed! I so hope that things are finally going to be smooth for us but know that I have nothing to complain about. A good friend of mine had her referral withdrawn from their family today and she is so sad! I just cannot imagine the pain she is feeling right now. Sometimes it seems that nothing in this process is fair. You just have to pray that at the end the pain vanishes when you finally have that new person home. I know that all things happen for a reason and at some point that reason will be known to you but getting there can be so tough!

We have been fortunate enough to talk to several of the families we will be traveling with! It is nice to realize you will not be alone on what at this time seems like a scary journey. I have also been so fortunate to have my dear friend, Donna to guide me. Her beautiful little one was adopted from Kirov last year and she has been a wealth of information but more importantly a fantastic friend that I know I will have for life!

So here is our schedule:
Friday, February 1st - leave Fort Myers for Russia
Saturday, February 2nd - arrive in Moscow, play tourist
Sunday, February 3rd - depart Moscow late afternoon for Kirov on overnight train
Monday, February 4th - arrive in Kirov in morning, meet our baby
Tuesday, February 5th - visit orphanage, return to Moscow on train overnight
Wednesday, February 6th - arrive in Moscow in morning, play tourist
Thursday, February 7th - depart Moscow, arrive home late

Tomorrow is our 9th wedding anniversary! Hard to believe in some ways but others seems like we have always been together!

We have travel dates

Hi everyone! We were notified yesterday that we have to be in Moscow by 1:00 p.m. on February 3rd. We are planning to fly out of here on the 1st and arrive in Moscow on the 2nd and have one night to recover before we travel on the Trans Siberian Railway to meet out baby boy on the 4th! We are so excited and have so much to do between now and then. Please follow us next month on our travels!

Going to make the blog private

I hate to do this to everyone but I am going to have to make my blog private. At least until our adoption is complete. Besides I found a comment on my last post that was upsetting, someone advertising on my blog like they knew me. I am trying to figure out how to delete it. I think I have to delete my post and repost it Please leave a comment with your email address if you want to be able to access this blog after I make it private in a couple of days. Thanks!

I got a weather sticker!

I found another place to get a weather sticker and it worked! Now you can keep track of the weather in Kirov while we are there. We are prepared to freeze our tails off! I have been in Florida for over 16 years and Don 20 years so our blood is super thin.