No News

We haven't heard about travel dates for January, so I guess it won't be January! Russia shuts down the next couple weeks for their holiday. I'm not bummed because I've run out of patience, but more so afraid something will go wrong. Ok, I'm running out of patience a little too. I keep reading blogs with sad news.....Oh I don't really want to let my mind go there. It's so difficult to constantly be at the mercy of someone else and have NO CONTROL over any of this. Our hearts are still very guarded...

Our many, many prayers are not just for us, but for those other families who are STILL waiting for referrals and travel dates.
Here's to 2010!!! May this be the year that our babies come home!!! Happy New Year!!!

Wunderly Christmas 2009

We spent yesterday in NJ at Brad's parents. It was so nice to see everyone and the kids had a BLAST together! Every time they are together, they just play so nicely and enjoy being together. They are so lucky to have each other! Mimi made a delicious meal and I am still full :) The kids got more presents and were thrilled! Mimi had the kids make their own snowman sundaes. They were so cute! It was a wonderfully relaxing day with family!
Cousins!

Poppie, Mimi and grandkids

Todd, Stephanie, Ryan and Emma

Ryan and Aidan

Brothers

Check out our crowns!

Ryan and Emma

Aidan and his snowman sundae

Nate and his snowman sundae

Mimi and boys

Wunderly boys

My boys!

Love this picture! Emma and Aidan working the remote control spy gear tank.

Tickle fight with Poppie

Merry Christmas!!!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve at my grandmother's and it was great to see everyone. I wish I had taken pictures of the whole room, because there were 40 people there (and that was small this year)! The boys got some gifts and I did a lot of showing off of our baby pictures!!! I felt a little sad Christmas morning (briefly) because I couldn't believe another year has passed without having our daughter home. This time last year, we thought we were going in Jan/Feb. and never thought for a second that we wouldn't have her home for Christmas of 2009. We are still guarding our hearts a bit in case something goes wrong, but all I want to do is be excited.

The boys got lots of great things from Santa! We entertained Christmas day for my parents, Brad's parents and Aunt Denise and Uncle Andy. There was only minor bickering in "my kitchen"!!! Love you, Mom!

Tomorrow we head to NJ for the Wunderly Christmas. The boys are so excited to see their cousins! And of course, there are more presents involved! Stay tuned for pics....
Christmas morning



Lexi and the boys on Christmas Eve.

Denise and Andy being difficult!



Nanny and Aidan


Aidan getting his baseball gear.

Aidan, Pop-pop, and the bat!

Nate and Pop-pop

Nate getting his air soft gun from "Aunt of the Year". Look how happy he is!!!

Some Pictures!

Our little Russian boys!

Inside Gum



Gum


Baby Home #3 outside play area

Home Sweet Home

We made it home around 7pm friday night. It was so good to see and hold the boys! They loved their souvenirs, especially their fur hats! I'll post pictures of that later today. I have been dizzy on and off since monday. I thought it was jet lag, but now I'm getting concerned it's not. I haven't stopped spinning since I walked in the door last night. Does anyone know anything about this? It's driving me crazy!!!

A big thanks for Mimi and Poppie, Mom mom, Aunt Denise and Uncle Andy for watching the boys all week!!!!! We really appreciate it. The boys told us they missed us, but had fun all week. Makes me smile :)

Trip 1 (Take 1) Almost Over

The IA doctor got back to us last night with a great report. She couldn't find anything wrong with her!!! We got to go to the orphanage to visit the baby today for about a 1/2 hour. She is so sweet! She babbled a lot which made us happy, because she was pretty quiet yesterday. She is a very active baby. I better baby proof every inch of the house and get in better shape!

We then had Vlad drop us off at Gum (huge mall) at Red Square to do some shopping. Not a great place to look for souvenirs. So we went out to the stands along the road. It is about 0 degrees today. Now that is a big warm up compared to the negatives we lived through all week. Anyway, we froze our butts off! It was not fun and actually painful at times. For all of you future tourists of Moscow, the people who work the carts will bargain with you. I found that out accidentally when I was trying to convert rubles to american dollars in my head :) Wish we could have tolerated the cold a little longer to finish our shopping, but just couldn't. Hopefully when we come back in April, it will be good shopping weather :) So some of you aren't getting anything! Sorry :( Our first concern was getting stuff for the boys who looked so sad last night on skype. We miss them so much and can't wait to see them.

We leave for the airport around 8:30am and get home to JFK around 3pm. Then we are driving home from there. We can't thank all of you enough for your love and support. The emails, blog comments, and facebook comments really helped us during both the difficult times and happy times. Brad and I feel so blessed!!!

Can't Stop Smiling

We met with little Katya today for about 1 1/2 hours. She didn't stop moving! She was so alert and engaged in toys. She is teething up a storm. We had trouble getting pictures without toys in her mouth. She is even crawling!!! She appears so healthy. Every sound caught her attention. She was born in April, so we can't go to court until then. Russian law says the baby has to be one year old before being adopted. It will be a long few months, but she will be worth the wait. We do need to take a trip in January as well to handle some paperwork, but it will be a quick trip. The moment I saw her, I starting crying. I wish I could share pictures, but you will all have to wait! Trust me, she is precious! She is eurasian with big brown eyes and dark hair. Can you tell I'm in love???

So Happy!

What a difference a day makes!!!! Met with a different baby girl; eurasian, adorable, alert, crawling, active, just plain perfect!!!! We are starving and need to head out to eat, but I will post more later! Stay tuned....

So Sad

We are so sad, but needed to turn down our referral. There were too many risks with her being born so early and from what we witnessed while visiting her. She is such a pleasant baby and we hope and pray she finds a home that is right for her. We don't really know where we go from here, but are waiting to hear something, anything. We do need to go back to the orphanage in person to sign papers.

This has been so difficult for us. I cried all afternoon and night and barely was able to sleep. To be here and not have our happy ending, is crushing us. We do feel we made the right decision, although we keep going over it and over it. Our guts told us right away that something wasn't right.

We may have new information later today. Please keep us in your prayers.

I know you are all anxious!

This is going to be very short for now. We did meet with the baby today. Learned that she was premature (23 weeks!). We are trying to feel hopeful, but very concerned right now. She was physically healthy looking and sweet, but the low birth weight has us very worried. We are now waiting to hear from the IA doctor. Will post more later. Sorry for such little information, but we are trying to wrap our heads around all of it right now.

Dinner in Moscow, Russian Style!

There's not much I don't eat, but when it comes to other cultures I get a little nervous. I bugged the poor girl at the hotel lobby for a restaurant that would have English on the menu and something basic to eat. I didn't mind trying something new, but I wanted to KNOW what it was. Brad is very proud of me for braving it at our first traditional Russian restaurant. I also braved the -6 degree temperature outside to get there! The people were very nice and I felt like I stepped back in time.

Brad got some kind of lamb! He enjoyed it "marginally".

I ordered "stake with mushroom sauce" and mashed potatoes. Not sure what kind of steak this is, even after eating it! But it was good!!! Hopefully my stomach will feel the same tomorrow :) Yes, I know it doesn't sound like I was "braving it", but I was!

Monday in Moscow

First of all, check out my weather pixie for Moscow! As I'm typing this at 2pm Moscow time, it is 0 degrees! We just walked for 3 hours out in the cold with Sergei!!!!! It is freezing!!!!! And this was suppose to be our warmer day. When Vlad our driver told us his stepson would take us on a 4 hour tour for $50, we thought we were being picked up in a CAR and driven around Moscow. We walked back down to Red Square where we just were last night when it wasn't this cold. I didn't have long underwear on and the air went right through my jeans. My legs were numb, cold and felt swollen all at the same time. We walked all the way over to St. Basil's only to find out it wasn't open yet. We went inside the Kremlin and saw all the different churches. I wish I was allowed to take pictures inside because the paintings are beautiful. Every inch of the walls and ceilings have saints or princes painted on them. The picture I posted yesterday and said it was the Kremlin, well I was wrong. We think that was GUM (Goom). We are tired and confused :) After a couple hours of freezing our butts off, I said I want to shop! Sergei took us on the subway to Arbat street to do some shopping. It was an interesting experience. Sergei didn't care where Brad went in the store, but he stuck to me like glue. So did the employees. I felt like they thought I was going to shoplift. It was very annoying. I just wanted to browse and find some wonderful gifts for the family and I couldn't even focus on anything but the people staring at me. I would like to go back there, but I'm scared to death of the subway with just Brad and I. I couldn't get over how many people are rushing around there even after rush hour. After only 2 stores, we said we wanted to go back to the hotel. We were so cold! Brad took allergy medicine but he still had some facial rash going on. His whole face was red and splotchy except for the skin around his eyes which was bright white. For those of you that don't know, poor Brad has an allergy to cold. It's a real thing :)

Now we are staying warm trying to find somewhere to eat tonight. We'll take any advice on restaurants close to the Courtyard Marriott for those of you who have been here. Tomorrow is our big day! Please say a prayer that all goes well! I'll leave you with some pictures from today. There aren't too many because it was just too cold to play with my camera!
Arbat Street - pedestrian street filled with shops!

Sergei said this was "the biggest cannon". Not sure if everything he told us was fact :) *Just found out it IS the largest cannon, but was never fired!

One of the churches inside Kremlin.

Statue on St. Basil's Cathedral

Red Square

Who's that masked man??? Brad in front of another Kremlin church

We Made It!

We made it safely! No problems at all. Except for the man with BO on the plane! Luggage all got here :) We are exhausted and dizzy! But I knew I couldn't disappoint my loyal followers!!! I'm just going to apologize in advance for any typos or grammatical errors.

Vlad picked us up at the airport and he is such a nice man. We checked in and took a couple hours to nap, then went out for a bite to eat and check out Red Square. We are a 10 minute walk which was fine tonight, but when the temps drop we may not be doing that again. We had our first meal in Moscow at Sbarro :) We were hungry and it was right there at Red Square. Tomorrow we will find a better place to eat. There were tons of people out tonight with music. We have a tour scheduled for tomorrow with Sergei for four hours. Then tuesday is our meeting with the DOE. I'm fairly brain dead right now, so that's all I got. Will try to post again tomorrow with pics from our tour. Time to go skype with my kids :) Miss you, boys!!!
View from our room.

Our "queen size" bed! Don't think so!

The Kremlin (we are 90% sure)

My own picture of St. Basil's!






Some pretty building on Red Square.

Ice skaters at Red Square

Don't know what was going on here. But lots of people were looking and taking pictures. There were two guards, a fire and something else in the background I couldn't see :)

Tunnel that goes under major road for pedestrians to cross.

The street our hotel is on