Cautiously Optimistic

Well, this last week has really not been any fun at all. One minute my heart is sinking and the next I'm thinking everything is going to be fine and I will be in Russia next month.

I did get a court date for May 12th and was actually going to buy my plane tickets and send passports in to get my visas on the day this whole scandal broke. I'm glad I didn't send them in!

So this last week I've just been watching the news (bad choice obviously!) and checking Frua and emailing my agency. For those of you that don't know, the news agencies misreported that Russia had stopped all adoptions but they have not. They could at any time though which really makes it hard to plan. I have to buy my plane tickets and send for my visas by this coming Friday to keep the rate that I've been quoted. I'm definitely making the tickets changeable and refundable! I was hoping to have some more news on Tuesday when the delegation from the US was supposed to be in Moscow to discuss everything, but now I've heard that they will be delayed because of the volcanic ash - we just can't catch a break!

I have decided that if I do get to go, that I will stay in Russia for the 10 day waiting period. It's getting to be closer to high season so ticket prices are going up and it will just make me feel better knowing that I'm in the country. I know this isn't true but in my head I feel like if I stay, they'll have to let me bring her home! Completely unreasonable but it will keep me sane so that's what I'm doing!

There are so many things I need to do to prepare for Norah but half the time my heart just isn't in it - I think it's just self-preservation in case things do fall apart. But I have decided to be positive (trying my best!) and move forward and get things done. So this week my goal is to finish the nursery. I changed some things around and I'll post pictures once I get everything the way I want it. I know I'm being a little ridiculous about it since I know she won't care at all, but it's one of the few things I can control and the interior designer just comes out in me and I want it to look awesome.

My church threw me a great shower a couple of weeks ago and I got a lot of great things. Here are a few pictures from the shower. My friends make these great clocks and I was planning on buying one for the nursery but then they surprised me with it at the shower! Here's my shameless plug for them: www.urbanposture.etsy.com

Nursery Pictures

Here are the nursery pictures. Luckily I haven't had to buy any furniture for the nursery. My aunt was nice enough to let me borrow her crib and I had all the other furniture already. I'm still looking for a changing table but those are pretty easy to find so I'm not too worried about that.
I'm not quite done yet - I still need to get some baskets for the shelving unit, curtains, and some things on the wall but it's getting close!

Here's a close-up of the quilt I made:

Great News!

I will have my FBI clearances back tomorrow! Yay! As soon as I posted my last message, my contact at my senator's office called to say the FBI had found my fingerprints and was processing them and I should have them by the end of the week. That made my day yesterday but I didn't want to get too excited - but I just checked the tracking number and it will be here tomorrow! 7 weeks is definitely better than 13!
This means I can get everything notarized and apostilled tomorrow on my lunch break and sent off to my agency. Finally things are moving again!!

The FBI is killing me...

Wow - I didn't realize it's been so long since I posted! Right now the only thing I am waiting on is my FBI clearances to come back and then I can get a court date. I know there are a lot of people in the same boat right now and it just really stinks that the only thing holding us up is the US government! I would have at least thought it would be on the Russia side of things, but noooooo.
Anyway, that is my rant on the FBI. I have called both of my senators to see if they can speed things up. One was no help at all but there's a lady in Grassley's office that is helping to see what she can do. Right now she is my only glimmer of hope of not having to wait until May.

Other than that, I have been busy on the nursery. My friend Sarah came over and helped me paint this awesome pattern on the wall - I love it!. I got the crib set up this week and I just have a few more things to do to finish it up! The only thing I'm having trouble with is curtains - I have an idea in my head of what I want and now I'm having trouble finding the fabric that's in my head. There are a couple of Amy Butler fabrics that would look awesome but of course I can't find the ones I want anywhere. I'm hoping I will just come across something that works perfectly that is inexpensive - we'll see. I'll try to post pictures of the half done nursery tonight.

Recovering...

My computer officially died in Russia so I had to go buy another laptop this week - not an expense I really wanted but what are you going to do. I think trying to pull up my chest x-rays at the 8 doctor medical just put it over the edge. Luckily there was a computer in the room so I was able to pull up my x-rays on their computer.
The trip home went really well - only a 20 minute delay on one flight. I thought that was pretty good! The only snafu was that I was locked out of my house when I got home and had to call a locksmith to get in. My friend who was dog sitting for me accidently locked my keys and the spare key in the house - not a huge problem and out of all the things that could have happened on the trip, that was pretty minor! But now I have about 5 spare keys around town so hopefully that won't happen again!
So the last few days I have just been trying to get back in the swing of things. I didn't really have any jet lag which is really nice but work has just been crazy this week! I think everyone decided to call and need something while I was gone so I've just been trying to dig out of the huge pile of stuff on my desk. And to top it off, we haven't had any heat in the office all week which is totally rediculous!
I have a few paperwork things to take care of this week and then it's on to working on the nursery!

Day 4 & 5

Thursday was a driving day. We were picked up at 9:00 in Kaluga and made the trip back to Moscow. It took a little over 3 hours and then we went to the CSS office and met Svetlana and Irina - very nice ladies! We went over some paperwork and then headed to my friend's house.


It was so nice to see her and hang out with her last night. Her apartment is super comfortable and it just feels more like home. She took us to Red Square to see it lit up at night and Christ the Savior Cathedral. Then we went to the underground mall by Red Square at ate at a Pizza place that was awesome. We just got to chat about stuff in Russia and stuff at home. It was a great day!





Friday we got to sleep in which was really nice. My parents and my friend left to go see the city. I waited for my driver and translator to come pick me up to go to the 8 doctor medical exam. That was an experience! I wasn't really nervous about it but I just didn't know what to expect. It was a piece of cake and they basically just asked me questions but it just took a long time - about 5 hours. We went into a large room with a conference table and just waited for the doctors to come in when they had a break from their regular patients. There was a screen and a exam bed in the corner that I had to take my shirt and shoes off for the dermatologist and the general practitioner. The dermatologist told me I had dry skin - really? Of course I do! I'm in Russia in the dead of winter!

I met another CSS family while I was there and it was great to be able to chat with them while we were waiting. There were also 2 families from Ireland there too. Since there were 4 families that had to be seen, it just took longer I think.

I was starving by the time I met up with my parents on Arbat street so I had to stop at McDonalds and grab a hamburger. We shopped a little bit on Arbat street and then headed back to my friend's apartment. We stopped by a mall on the way to eat and I had Blinis - yum! We packed up our stuff to be ready to go to the airport at 3 am - fun!



Here are a couple of pictures from our last 2 days in Moscow:

Introducing...

Norah Victoria

Don't you just love the headless pictures? Sorry I had to cut my face off too - I'm just not patient enough to edit it any better :)

Well this day didn't go quite as expected although it was still a good day. We woke up and went to the Blini restaurant where the girl working was really annoyed when we asked for the English menu. It was pretty easy to order though, we just pointed at what we wanted and it was really good! I'm definitely going back there on my next trip.

Then we came back to the hotel to wait for Nadya and Vladimir to pick us up. We were headed to the baby home to pick up Norah for our photo session - passport pictures. Well, when Nadya came she said that Norah had a fever and we couldn't go to the baby home today or get the pictures taken. Soooo... we headed to the notary to get all of our paperwork signed and then we decided to stop by the baby home just in case they might let us in for a few minutes. They let us stay for 20 minutes which is better than nothing! We just stayed in the little hallway by her groupa's room and played on the couch. She was in a really good mood despite her fever. Then we had to say goodbye and I left a few things for her.

So then we had the rest of the day to find something to do so we decided to go to a monestary about 15 miles out of the city. It was very interesting and I'm glad we went. There is a natural spring there that is considered holy water and it never freezes and people bring empty jugs to take the water home. There are also these little houses that sit on the springs that you can go into and take a dip in the water. No thank you! It was about 10 degrees today and I wouldn't want to take my coat off let alone swim around in freezing water!

Then we headed back into town and went to a sourvenir shop and then to an Italian restaurant that was very good. I had a mushroom risotto that was awesome. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and said goodbye to Nadya and now we are just hanging out in the room. I'm pretty tired today - walking around the monestary outside in the cold really wore me out. Tomorrow we're off to Moscow in the morning to meet up with a friend from home that lives there. She was sweet enough to let us stay with her to save money on a hotel or apartment.

So this is my last post from Kaluga! See you tomorrow in Moscow!