From the Mountaintop to the Valley

We feel like this adoption is a never-ending series of trips from the highest high to the lowest low. We're back in the valley today. I cannot share details since I made the blog public again. Just know that we need some serious help from God to move a mountain that has been placed in our way. Don't worry; we are still pursuing K. However, we may be facing more delays. We know God is sovereign above all. We know he doesn't want K to stay in an orphanage either. So we are putting all of our hope in him and praying that he moves this mountain. Please join us in praying; it is our only hope to avoid several more months away from our son.

Christmas Miracle

Well folks, looks like we've got ourselves a true Christmas miracle. Prayers for our sweet K have been heard and the judge in our region will begin accepting court cases for adoption starting TODAY! As many of you know, the judge in our region did not want to assign new court dates until the bilateral treaty on adoptions between the U.S. and Russia is signed. Although that has not yet occurred, she has decided to go ahead and resume issuing court dates. This is amazing news because we did not believe the treaty would be signed until December 31st, and even then we might have to wait for the judge to get to our case.

Please continue to pray for our judge. We really do feel that she has had reasons for not issuing new court dates all this time. We have been told by our agency, who we trust, that she has been very concerned about the children of her region always. They have given us instances where she has really worked with families to get children home who were in need of medical care. We know that she feels a burden of responsibility for the children she approves for adoption. Please pray for her wisdom and that she sees how much we love K and want him to be home with us.

We have to redo some paperwork that has expired, but hope to have a consultation with our agency in the next couple of days to find out exactly what they need. At that point, we will rush like mad to get the papers to them so the judge can review our case. Hopefully, we will have a court date in the near future! I will keep you all updated. But for now, just know we are finally seeing a light at the end of a very long, dark, and emotion-filled tunnel!

Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree

It's time for the Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree! It kicks off tomorrow, November 1st. I will be fundraising for Victoria, Russia Region 6. The children on Reece's Rainbow each have their own grant fund. The larger the grant fund, the more like a child is to find a forever family. A typical international adoption of a child with Down Syndrome is approximately $25,000 (average). Most families are more than able to financially support a child once they get home, but most families do NOT have an extra $25K laying around upfront. Think of it this way, what if you had to come up with $25K before you could have a child the "normal" way? Most people wouldn't have kids, would they? Remember, there is no shortage of families who are willing to adopt these precious children with Down Syndrome, only a shortage of funds to do so.

To donate to Victoria's grant fund, simply click on the ornament on my sidebar with her beautiful picture on it. If you give $35, you will receive an Reece's Rainbow ornament with Victoria's picture on it. I've seen the ornaments and they are beautiful. My ornaments from last year are among my favorites. Eventually, I want to have a whole tree just for my little RR angels! Watch the video below before you decide if you will give or not. Pay close attention around the 6:04 mark for an angel you may recognize!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The First Trip-Part 1

Hotel Lobby

Our guide, Dima

Outside of St. Basil's

I want to remember as much as possible about this trip, so bear with me as I may be a little wordy (not unusual for me anyway). I guess the best way to document our trip to meet Kirill is to divide it up into parts. Otherwise, this post could take longer to read that the trip itself. So this post is dedicated to the first leg of our trip.

We left Tuscaloosa around three o'clock on Friday afternoon headed for Atlanta, where we flew out of on Saturday morning. We had planned to leave around noon but it just seemed like all the last minute details were taking forever and we had to get some paperwork together for our adoption agency that they were wanting for our second trip. It wasn't necessary that we get the paperwork done before we left, but "preferable" so we wanted to go ahead and take care of it. So anyway, I was a stressball (of course) and when we finally got into the vehicle I couldn't stop worrying that we had forgotten something very important. We hadn't, but I couldn't shake the feeling.

When we got to Atlanta, we decided to go eat for our anniversary since we would be on an overnight train the night of our actual anniversary (the 12th). We ate at the Atlanta Fish Market and then headed to the hotel to try to get some sleep. We both tossed and turned a good bit; Greg didn't sleep at all.

Next morning, we headed to the airport bright and early. Our flight didn't leave till 10, but we left the hotel at 8 to give ourselves plenty of time. Glad we did because we got all the way to the airport and I remembered that I left my insulin in the fridge in the hotel room. Fantastic. We had to go all the way back to the hotel, but still had time to spare after we checked in at the airport. Emergency diverted.

Our flight to D.C. and to Eastern Europe were both uneventful. One thing we learned; it pays to make friends with the stewards on long flights. Our steward was a huge African American guy who looked like he could play football at Bama. Greg was convinced he was an air marshall. Regardless, we shared our story with him and talked to him a lot about his family and he totally hooked us up the rest of the flight with whatever we needed including things we should have had to pay for like drinks and snacks.

I popped some Xanex and was out for the entire flight. Gracious, I love that stuff when I'm flying. I didn't feel a single air pocket. We arrived in Eastern Europe at 11:30 a.m. and we were greeted at the airport by smoke and heat. It was 90 degrees and the fires around the city had filled the city with smoke. It was inside the buildings and hard to get away from; especially in buildings with no a/c. We headed to customs and learned the system very quickly there; elbow your way to the front, no need for lines, just look out for number one and don't worry about the other guy. We made it through and headed to baggage where we would meet our guide, Dima.

Dima introduced us to driving in Eastern Europe. Basically, they drive as fast as they can and like absolute maniacs. If you have been to NYC or European countries, you may think they drive crazy there. Well, it's NOTHING compared to EE. We were told to expect this before we left, but I was all, "yeah, yeah...I've traveled a lot....seen crazy traffic...it's probably no worse than Europe." Well it is worse...about ten thousand times worse and the drivers would just as soon run over you as to look at you.

We made it to our hotel, where Dima gave us a quick city tutorial and dropped us off. Our hotel was exquisite. I don't think I have ever stayed anywhere so fancy! It was so nice to be able to relax in an American-style hotel when we first arrived. I don't like to be a spoiled American traveler and I feel like I have a pretty adventurous attitude about travel, but with all the nerves and emotions tied into this trip, it was comforting to have a place that felt a little like home. Well, not really like home because we don't live in a palace, but the room was like American hotel rooms...very, very nice American hotel rooms.

We tried to fight sleep but ended up taking a short nap at the hotel before venturing out for the evening. After our rest, we went to Red Square. There we saw St. Basil's Cathedral, which is just as amazing as the pictures. It was breathtaking to see Red Square and all of the beautiful architecture. Check that off the bucket list.

We also visited GUM (pronounced "goom"), which is a ginormous mall. There we went to a really fancy grocery store...similar to the one in Harold's if you have ever been to NYC...and bought some groceries because we were starving but didn't really know where to eat for dinner.

The next morning we headed to Arbat Street, which is full of touristy shops and restaurants. I was dying for coffee so we stopped at Dunkin Donuts, and totally broke our "no American chain restaurants in foreign countries" rule. Oh well, I had to have some coffee or my head would be splitting by lunch...and an eclair just for good measure. We ate lunch at a place Dima suggested called MyMy (pronounced "moo moo"). The food was traditional food and everything we ordered was quite good.

We spent the rest of the day at Christ Cathedral and Red Square. It was so surreal to see these places in person. It was also surreal to see all the booties hanging out of girls shorts. Wow, the girls in the city are scantily clad to say the least. It didn't help that they were having a heat wave so girls were walking around in less than bathing suits. Another thing I couldn't help but notice was underwear is optional. In fact, it is preferred to NOT wear it, I believe. And make sure that if you don't wear it, your over shirt is some sort of see-though material. Mesh shirts for men are very en vogue; best not let the ladies have all the fun!

After a day of walking miles and wearing ourselves completely out, it was time to go to Kirill's region via overnight train. Dima picked us up at our hotel around 6:45 a.m. and that started the second part of our journey to meet Kirill.

Next Time There Will be Pictures

I really hate blog posts without pictures. Even if I have to look up some random clip art to include with a post, I have to put a picture with my words. Well, this time I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'm going to do a picture-less post in anticipation of posting NEW pictures of our sweet Kirill that WE will take IN PERSON in just a few days.

Here are my last minute thoughts/notes before we leave:

We leave tomorrow for Atlanta where we will spend the night. Plane tickets out of Atlanta were cheaper, plus we will only have one layover vs. two if we flew out of Birmingham. Paying for a night in a hotel is still cheaper than flying out of Birmingham plus paying long-term parking (we can leave our car at the hotel for free as a part of a "park and fly" deal we got).

I highly recommend our travel agency, Golden Rule. They have been outstanding. They provide excellent service for humanitarian, adoption, and missions travel. Our agent was wonderful and did a great job making all of our travel arrangements on very short notice for (literally) hundreds of dollars cheaper than any other airline, travel agency, or online travel site. Don't get me wrong, it still ain't cheap to fly to Eastern Europe! But it was much less with Golden Rule.

I've really been struggling with my emotions for the past couple of weeks. On one hand, I'm so excited to meet our sweet Kirill. However, knowing that we will leave him there for who knows how long breaks my heart. It has been so hard to be happy about this trip because of the anticipatory grief I feel about leaving Kirill. Bittersweet seems so inadequate to describe my feelings. It seems so strange to feel such polar opposite emotions all at once.

As for how long it will be between trips, we have no clue right now. The news from our agency regarding court dates has been slim to none. There is talk that the judge in our region has decided that she will not hear any adoption cases until the treaty between the U.S. and Kirill's country is signed, sealed, delivered and implemented. The could be weeks, it could be months, it could even be longer. I don't want to think about it at all because it just seems so daunting. The unknowns and the waiting are the worst parts of adoption. Can I get an amen from my adoption peeps???

If you are praying for us, these are the specific requests we have:

1. The judge will resume issuing court dates immediately and will not wait until the treaty is signed.

2. Our travel will go as smoothly as possible.

3. We will be able to show the love of Christ to the people we meet, whether it be in the airport, hotel, streets, orphanage...wherever we are we want to be Jesus to the people we meet.

4. My diabetes will BEHAVE while we travel. My blood sugars tend to go all wonky with travel; it's the nature of the disease. It can make travel extremely difficult. So please pray that it remains stable throughout our trip.

5. Our marriage...ha! Seriously, please pray for me and Greg to be patient and keep a good sense of humor as we travel.

Next post will be from Eastern Europe! Stay tuned for pictures!!!

Travel Date

I don't even know how to begin this post. We've been waiting for "the call" for so long that I really think I'd resigned myself to believe it wasn't ever going to happen. But it did! My phone rang yesterday at 1:27 p.m. It's funny how I know exactly what time it was. I was sitting at my desk at work and when I saw the number of our adoption agency pop up on our phone, I immediately looked at my clock to see what time it was for some reason. Anyway, that moment will be burned into my brain forever. I braced myself for bad news; I think it was almost a post-traumatic response to having received such horrible news about Sergey back in March. When I heard our social worker's voice, I almost expected to hear her say, "I'm so sorry Tesney, but I've got some devastating news." That was exactly what she said when she informed me about Sergey. So when she started telling me that she had tentative travel dates, I think I was so ecstatic that I didn't even hear anything past that.

After a few minutes of squealing on the inside, I tried to get my thoughts together and write down the important details. We will be traveling for one week in August. We have three days at the orphanage with Kirill. We have been so blessed to be in contact with two other families who have recently traveled to this region; to the very baby house where Kirill lives! So we do have a good idea of what to expect there. We have been very pleased to hear that the orphanage is one of the nicest orphanages in the region and the director is "a breath of fresh air." I couldn't be happier that our sweet Kirill has been given good care as far as we can tell.

We also got updated medical records-no surprises there-they seem to indicate that Kirill is pretty healthy. There are a couple of things that I'm just a tiny bit concerned about, but nothing that can't be addressed once we are back in the states. Anyone who has experience with international adoptions can tell you that medical records can be quite inaccurate and you never really know until you get the child back to the states for a thorough evaluation!

We also got the full-sized files of Kirill's pictures. We already had the pics...the ones we have shared here...but they were thumbnail-sized and didn't really show all of his features well. So here they are again so you can get a better look at how cute Kirill really is!

So we are frantically getting things ready to travel in just a few days!!! It's crazy how you go from wait, wait, wait to GO! GO! GO! when you adopt. We have felt that this day would never come, so now that it's here it feels surreal.

Recognize This Face?

I got a Facebook message this week from another family who is in the process of adopting from our region. It included a link that had pictures of children from one of the orphanages. This picture of a little boy named Kirill was on the site. I'm almost 100% positive it's our Kirill as a baby. I can't be certain, but the ears are exactly alike. Plus, they have the date of birth listed and it's the same as our Kirill, except for the year. It's not uncommon for sites that feature pictures of children to have mistakes regarding birthdate years. Plus, I just can't imagine that there is another Kirill with exactly the same birthdate that looks so much like our Kirill and is in an orphanage in the same region. That would be a HUGE coincidence. What do you think??? I'd especially like to hear from my friends who have adopted from Eastern Europe.

I know I've been pretty silent lately on here. I just haven't had much to say. I could type volumes about how bad the waiting sucks, but that really doesn't do much to help the situation. It just makes me think about it more and believe me, I don't need help with that. We did hear from our agency that the Director of the Federal Database of Orphans has been on vacay and is was supposed to return this past week. We were told to expect him to take a week or two to re-orient and get organized after being gone on vacation, and then we would get our first travel date. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm hopeful. It's just become too hard to get focused on any date. At this point, I'll be happy if Kirill is home by the time he's 18.

So that's pretty much it for now. I'll update as soon as I know anything. I'm really better at updating on Facebook about the day-to-day stuff. So check there for more information! I hope to have some really good news soon.