We have passed Court!!!

We have a little bit of time here at the hotel before our afternoon visit with Landon today, so I wanted to just share our excitement with you!

Court was a pretty neat experience all around! While we waited for the judge to ask us to enter the room, we filled out our Embassy paperwork with Olga out in the waiting room area. This helped occupy our minds and keep us from getting nervous. The one document that the judge had not had in advance was our apostilled photos from Trip 1...so we gave those to Olga, who showed the head Dr. (who by the way also attends and testifies in court of our connection, and his condition in general). After they viewed those 10 photoes, I then showed both of them our little photo book I keep in my purse just so they could see all our favorite photos from the 1st trip. Little did I know how far this little photo book was going to go. The ladies loved the photos so much, that they asked to show the judge when we were in the middle of our hearing! She (the judge) also smiled as she looked through the album. I could tell from their facial reactions, they can see the love and connection we share with our boy!!

All that was said in regards to us in court was very positive. The judge left the room to think over her decision for about 5 minutes, and came back and read us the official decree- we passed!!! We are officially parents!! We, of course, have to wait for the 10 day wait to be over before being able to bring him to the hotel with us, but it is official as of today! I can't tell you how excited I am! When the judge was reading the decree, and Olga was translating my eyes filled with happy tears (as they are now, just remembering!)!   I can't put specific wording in regards to the hearing on here, b/c it's a private closed court hearing...sorry for the lack of details...but it's just to make sure we are not breaking any rules..but just know that it was all good!

Thank you all for your prayers! We can breathe a HUGE sigh of relief...on to the FUN part! Getting ready to bring him HOME!!!

We have an exciting afternoon ahead of us too! I am so excited! We will be able to take Landon today out of the orphanage for a brief ride to a local photo shop to get his passport photos taken. We will then be leaving them with our driver, to give back to Olga for our Embassy paperwork (which we brought in advance here this time, to ensure the process can be finished on the 23rd). We then will bring him back, but I am looking forward to a ride in the car with our boy!!! :)

One last thing before we head out: An idea of our itinerary for our return...

Option #1 - We arrive on Sunday, the 19th. Then, Monday, we visit him 2x. Tuesday, we get the court decree and pick him up for good. Wednesday, we will have a free day with him where our driver will take us to Red Square to allow us the time to enjoy his culture with him. Then, Thursday is our Embassy apt. and Friday we return home

Option #2- We arrive on Sunday, and POSSIBLY the adoption decree comes on Monday. We then pick him up that same day, and have EITHER 2 free days with him (Tuesday and Wednesday) and go to the Embassy still on Thurdsday OR we could get our embassy apt. on Wednesday.

Either will work, I think the embassy should be able to work with us- they said they are going to do their best. I believe we will be booking our flights as soon as we return home.

Pak-ah! for now!!! Thanks to all who have us in their thoughts and prayers!!!

Court Day!!!

We have about 15 minutes before our driver and Olga pick us up for court. We are very excited, and not as nervous as I had thought we would be. I know that is because there are so many of you praying for us- thank you!!!

I want to let you know, so you're not worrying (mom!) that we may not be able to post until tonight (for us) late afternoon (for you guys). We may be going straight to the orphanage for our last visit...or, we may just be back here at the hotel. We don't know what is planned for us today after court.

We enjoyed our visit with Landon last night, as usual. We didn't know if it was or wasn't our last visit...so that kinda helped me keep from getting sad again. But, at least this time, (Lord willing if court goes well...which as anticipate it will) we will be back in almost 10 days!

Again, thank you all for your prayers! I am hoping we can't update until later...b/c that will mean we got to go see our boy again!


Praying for a "DAH!",
Liz and Greg

PS- For any who do not know..."dah" in Russian means YES!

Tuesday Morning Visit

Today's morning visit went well. Not anything exciting, per say, but more quality time with our boy. He is still not feeling well, and we spent most of the time just holding him, either standing up or sitting down with him on our lap.   There was an interesting moment...he kept grabbing our two bags...my purse and our carry on bag we used to bring his toys in yesterday and today, since the gift bag broke...anyway, he grabbed both our bags, and tried to get us to walk with him to the steps. I don't know if he was trying to communicate that he wanted the 3 of us to leave...like leave the orphanage or if he just wanted to go do something else together. It's been getting harder and harder having such a small area to be in, with people walking through the whole time, and other people sharing the meeting space with us. Since it is so wet and muddy out with the snow on everyone's boots, we can't really sit down on the floor to play with him.

We did get a good picture of the 3 of us...he is smiling in it too! Since we don't know how to communicate "cheese!" or "smile!" with him, that's been a challenge. There was another lady there visiting a little girl, and she was able to take the picture for us, and I could tell she was telling him "smile!" in Russian, b/c he totally smiled on purpose! It wasn't like she made him laugh...hard to explain the moment here in words, especially since I'm rushing, sorry. We are getting ready to head out shortly for our afternoon meeting. Traffic has been really bad, so it's been taking about 1 hour and 20 min. to get back from the orphanage which leaves us less in between time to eat lunch and update.  I'll try to update again tonight, but want to make sure we are getting good rest and have all our paperwork in our bag for tomorrow's court date! WOW! I haven't been thinking much about that, b/c I've been so focused on each of our times with Landon, but now that it is tomorrow, I'm starting to get some butterflies!

We have a ham on our hands!

Today's 2nd visit was great! I don't know what part to write about first!

We had more of the "dreamed of" meeting this time, where he walked up to the steps towards us this time. And guess what! He was really happy to see us! He smiled...not the blank thoughtful stare like earlier...yeah!! :) And, we just had a blast together from there on out- he seemed to be feeling better, and was back to his silly self! He definitely still doesn't feel 100%, but he did seem better than earlier.

So...our ham...Well, I guess it doesn't help that most of the time I start it...b/c I'm just weird, or silly...okay, weird. :)  For example, I had to try the Mr. Potato head glasses on myself...and then he took them off me, and put them on his face! I got a picture of that, and it's hilarious! Then, he decided that in addition to carrying around my purse, he could wear my scarf, gloves, and hat! He is a HAM! The hat, scarf, and 1 glove he took off after a few minutes, but the ENTIRE rest of the time, he would not take that glove off! It was so funny And, since it's an extra long glove...like halfway up to my elbow...it looks really funny on him!

Both Greg and I put him on our shoulders for a while, and goofed around- he likes that too...what kid doesn't? :)

There were a few things that I will never forget about today:

- He reached for us! He has not done that before, like he did today. There was a few times where he just genuinely wanted us to pick him up- love it!
- He threw a little fit when we were leaving him. While we were putting on our coats, he just stood there watching us, and we were trying to tell him we were sorry, but that we were coming back. It was like he was thinking...where are you going? Then, I picked him up and we walked downstairs, and knocked on the door to his room. 3 ladies were there waiting for him, but when I put him down, and said, "Pak-uh!" He stomped his feet, shook his head back and forth, and was wining... that made me happy and sad at the same time- happy that I think this is a sign he is starting to attach to us, and sad, b/c I know we are leaving him again....thank God it's only 10 days this time, and not 2 more months!


I probably could write about many other things...like the delicious Russian Skyoblanka Beef I had tonight for dinner for the 2nd night in a row (apparantly the dinner plan we got with our room is the same limited menu every night...lol...good thing we like it!), and the yummy Chinese restaurant we had lunch at today across from our hotel... but, I think I'm going to try to go to sleep now. Praying I make it past 4 hours tonight before waking up!

Until tomorrow...Pak-uh!

Our 1st Reunion!

Well, our long anticipated reunion has happened! Not as picturesque as you might have imagined, but it was wonderful! We couldn't sleep last night (changing 8 times zones is really rough on your body!), and our boy has a cold...runny nose, cough...so we were all a little "off." BUT, it was as awesome as you might think to hold our son again! And, since he isn't feeling well, he isn't as into running straight to the steps, rather, he has wanted to just sit next to us on the couch, or in our laps, and just play with some toys in our laps...we are loving the cuddle time!
When we got to the orphanage, we had all the bags of gifts for the caretakers, so we were escorted into the head Dr's office to leave them there (she wasn't there), and then head up to our 3rd floor hallway meeting area. As we were on our way back out of her office, our boy was already being walked up the steps ahead of us to meet us! So, our first sight of each other was through the bars on the stairs. He looked down at us, and we looked up at him, and it was almost as if he was thinking...."I know these people...but give me a minute to put this all together..." He kind of just stared for a second. Then, the lady turned his attention, again, to walking up the steps. We were walking up at this point behind him, and were able to resume our reunion once we got to the 3rd floor...how sweet it is to be here with our precious boy!!!

Landon obviously remembers us- he started unloading and loading the bag full of toys, clothes, and shoes we brought with us for our time together. He loves doing that...over and OVER! We brought the tape measure to measure his feet...5 inches long, by the way, Nana! And he immediately picked up the tape measure, and put it to Greg's forehead and smiled! SO smart!! He still loves trying to pick up things that are too heavy for him- he loved my purse today- he was trying to carry it up and down the hallway, but he was swaying the whole time b/c it was so heavy on his shoulder!

One of the things we did today was try on some shoes...Aunt Lori, the size 7 I think fits pretty good! In fact, he didn't want us to take them off, so he is still wearing them now! (well, we will see when we get back). They look much better than the green striped socks with the shiny blue pleathery sandals he was wearing when we got there! We also wanted to check out his size in clothes, so we brought his new Jackson 10 jersey...woot, woot! And, he fits that perfectly! We left that on him for a while to get some pictures, and then took it off so we could bring it back home with us. The pants he had on were 18 months, and while they were okay on his waist, they were floods! I think 24 months OR 2T will be just fine! I didn't want to make him have to change...so we just held up the pants to him...I think we are good to go!

And, I'm so glad we brought 2 different size diapers to hold up to one of his caretakers- size 3 and 4. And, she pointed to size 4! Now we know! :)  We won't have our translator until Wednesday, so body language it is in the orphanage, lol!

Okay- off to go see our lil' man again! Love to all!

Keeping Busy Til Dinner!

I am so excited, I can't lay down and rest. We have about 2 hours until dinner, and I decided to unpack all our bags, and organize the gifts we brought for the orphanage workers, and our coordinator. Once I finished that, I filled the gift bags we brought  with us with all the clothes we are donating to the orphanage. We were so busy this past week with preparing to leave, that I didn't mention that we were allowed to each bring another check-in bag, no charge! So we quickly loaded up two additional suitcases with extra clothes that were given to us for Landon...and then to be passed on to another in need if we didn't need them. After 5 showers, and picking through a few friends' donated clothes, we still had tons left over to bring with us. Here are some pictures!

These are homemade scarves that my mom, my cousin, Hannah, me, and some girls from Agape helped make! Thank you to all who helped!!!

Here is a note in Russian that we have tied to all the scarves with a ribbon.

Our note of thanks and appreciation for our boy's care over this past year was translated by Patti's in-laws...thank you Gafts!!! 

Here are all the clothes we are leaving at the orphanage! Little boy clothes and shoes!!! Much needed!

Here are all the toys we brought to play with him this time (and we are going to bring most of them back home too...rather than leaving them this time) and 2 sneakers in sizes 6 and 7 to see what size he is!

Our call from Olga just came! Here's our itinerary:

Monday and Tuesday we are being picked up at 9:00, and will be driving to the orphanage to visit with Landon. The orphanage in traffic, is about 45 min- 1 hour away...much better than 2-3 hours from the hotel before!  Then, our court time is scheduled for 10:30 on Wednesday. We are being picked up at 9:45, b/c it's only 5 min. from our hotel. Please keep this time especially in prayer!  Olga anticipates our court decree being ready on Dec. 21st...so that may be our Gotcha day! (sorry Aunt Lori!)  If we can, we will also be visiting Landon in the afternoon after court.

Off to dinner!! (so much easier to post updates when internet access is in our room!)

We Arrived!!!

It's 3:15 PM here, and we are checked into our hotel, and settling in. Our "included in the price dinner" starts at 6:00, but I can't hold off, so I'm munching on some crackers! I don't know what's worse the smell of airplane food, or the taste, lol! I can't help it- I'm picky! I have to say, I think I did very well on this flight over compared to my other recent flights. Maybe it's because I am not as nervous, but more excited to see our boy tomorrow!!! Our travel was VERY smooth- everything on time, and not too long of lines on either end in customs/security.

We were SO happy to see a familiar face when we got through customs and baggage- it was our driver Slava! We embraced, and then QUICKLY walked to the car...he walks so fast, I literally feel like my legs are moving faster than they can go...add that to the slippery icy sidewalks, and that made for a funny walk to the car! I got a cramp in my one foot too b/c my feet went from being super warm in my boots to freezing cold outside...but no worries, it went away once we got in the car and it warmed up. :)

Traffic in Moscow is the same! We are staying at a different hotel this time...further away from Red Square, but from what we here, it's closer to the orphange...and cheaper too!!! I have taken a few pictures from our window- we are overlooking a different area in the city, but if you look closely, you will see that we will have easy access to a McDonalds and Starbucks if we need either! :)

We are expecting a call tonight here in our room from Olga. She will be letting us know what our week's itinerary is....and of course, I will keep you posted!

I can't wait to post tomorrow after our visits with Landon!!! We are SO excited to see him! Thank you all for your prayers- we truly feel them!
Love,
Liz and Greg