better day and very busy

Still no word on travel dates. Hopefully tomorrow. But today was a better day. A lot going on. This morning, I finished the first graphic design project that I've done in a while. My doctor asked me to redesign her letterhead, in exchange for waiving my co-pay. Sweet deal! I was happy with the way it turned out, and I enjoyed having something else to work on, other than obsessing about our travel dates!

Then I went to the chiropractor, to fix my stressed out and seized up back. He said there was indeed tension in my back. No surprise there! His daughter runs the office, and she is 7 months pregnant, so every time I go in, we have great conversations about baby stuff. She told me about a website that I hadn't found yet, Three Sisters Toys. They have nice wooden toys. There was a woman in the waiting area with a 3 month old daughter. Talking about babies and then seeing a beautiful baby made me feel a lot better!

After I came home, I worked on our visa applications. I filled out as much as I could, and we have the photos, so as soon as we get the final travel information, they'll be ready to take to FedEx.

The photos came today from Shutterfly. So I got the album put together that we're going to leave at the orphanage, and it's ready to go in the bag. It felt good to get that done too.

R talked to the bank, and our travel cash is now taken care of as well. All we need now are definite dates and some plane tickets!!!

Late this afternoon, my mom came by with some baby items. She brought us a Diaper Genie, some baby clothes and receiving blankets (that we're going to leave with the orphanage), and a nice changing pad. Since the baby's room is upstairs, I can use this changing pad on the bed in the downstairs guest room. It was such a nice surprise! (Thanks, Mama! And I meant to tell you that your hair looks great!)

Here is a photo of the baby blanket that we are taking. Liam's parents (Rob and Dede) had mentioned on their blog that they had left a couple of blankets behind on their first trip, and we thought that was a great idea. This blanket is SO soft and snuggly. I hope he/she can have it in the crib. (This isn't the best photo, but you can still see Pooh and Piglet!)



So today, the focus was more on the baby and less on the actual traveling, and I felt better. This waiting has been so hard, but we are blessed with a wonderful agency, and we trust them. We know they will make the right decision about the best time for us to travel.

the word is that there is no word

R. called C. this afternoon only to find out there is STILL NO WORD. Today is the 7th day we have been waiting for a definite travel date. C. said there is still a 90% chance we are going on the 9th, but did not recommend buying our plane ticket yet, unless we wanted to gamble. We are not risk takers by nature, so we will wait until Friday. Booking the apt. early was as much risk as we feel comfortable taking right now!

My mother and sisters all called, anxious to hear if we were getting on the plane, and I had to tell them yet again that I don't know yet! My family has been so wonderfully supportive. (Love you guys so much!)

Our dossier is supposed to be registered in the Moscow region on Friday, and we should get our definite travel date then. That means we will only have 1 week's notice. We do have the apartment reserved, but we do not have plane tickets or a visa yet. ARGH! This increases the cost for us, as well as the tension. I am not as upset as I was earlier today, but I'm still stressed.

Karyn thanks so much for your email this afternoon! You have been such a great friend during this journey! Sorry I haven't posted sooner. I had to leave the house and take a break from the computer for a while.

After we got the news that there was no news, I was really upset. The most upset that I have been during this whole process, I think. I was at my limit with anxiety and frustration. I changed clothes, and we went downtown to get our fingerprints done for the FBI clearance. When we arrived, they asked us if we had brought the fingerprint cards with us. They do not use their criminal cards for this type of clearance. Of course, because I was already having such a good day, we forgot to bring the fingerprint cards I had downloaded from the FBI website. We had left them at home, sitting on the dining room table. We told the woman at the desk that we would be back, and we drove home to get them. After we returned, we paid, and went downstairs. The police sargeant met us, and took us to the booking room. I told A. I felt like I was on a bad episode of "Cops"! We gave him our fingerprint forms, and they did not fit into the card holder. That did not help my stress level. He took our cards and left us in the room. After a few agonizing minutes, when I'm thinking he's going to tell us he can't take our prints for us, and I'm going to get in big trouble for having a meltdown in the police station, he returns. Some nice person trimmed the cards. We got our prints taken finally. We happily took them to the FedEx drop box and sent them on their way!

Then we decided as long as their was no news. and as long as we were out and about, that we would go do some shopping for gift items. We actually had some success. We went to the local University Bookstore, 2 other local bookstores, and a local market/deli. We found some good regional items that reflect this area. Then I felt a little better, because we did get something accomplished today.

On the way home, we stopped at Starbucks, which we don't normally do, and it was a nice treat.

So now, I have had a little time to calm down. Big sigh. I think this means Friday will be a very busy day, hopefully getting our plane tickets and sending our visa application on its way. I don't want to think about these travel details anymore! I want all this resolved, and off my mind, so I can focus solely on Baby F, and finally seeing his/her sweet little baby face.

staring at the phone (lost count of which day this is)

Yesterday, C. said that we should hear something today, but no news yet. We still don't have firm travel dates yet, and we're supposed to be leaving in 10 days. I am feeling VERY anxious right now. I REALLY want to book our plane tickets. The price rose $100 yesterday. For the last 4 days, I have done very well with not worrying and trusting God to take care of us. Today I have already prayed, and I am still struggling. Please pray that we hear something SOON!

good news

No, it's not an invitation to travel! But we did have some good news today on other fronts:

1) We reserved an apartment today with Peace Travel. We will be staying in the White House on Novy Arbat. Even though we don't have firm travel dates, we decided to go ahead and reserve the apartment for the week of the 10th, because I was afraid there wouldn't be anything available if we waited until the last minute. Peace Travel has such excellent customer service! The reservation process was so easy. If we do have to change our reservation dates, the fee is only $50 (as long as we give them 7 days notice). We will be sharing the apartment with another family with our agency, Marty and Lisa. We are not experienced travelers, so we are excited that we will be sharing this experience with another family! It has helped a lot to ease our anxiety about being in a new city.

We found out today that Doug and Kathy will still be in Moscow while we're there, and we're looking forward to seeing them too!

2) Our other good news was not adoption related, believe it or not! There is a huge piece of property in our neighborhood that is currently just undeveloped green space. For a while now, there has been a fight going between those who want the property to be a park and those who want commercial development. Every time there has been a public meeting, we have attended, along with lots other people from our neighborhood. Tonight we went to the city council meeting, where they voted on the proposal for the property to be zoned "General Commercial". The request was denied! The property will remain zoned residential. We were so happy! We really hope there will be a city park there one day, and we continue to support the cause.

Since this was a public hearing, many people got up to speak. When they talked about the future of this community for our children, I thought about Baby F.

I am starting to feel less anxiety about traveling and more and more excitement about finally meeting Baby F and seeing the cute little baby face and baby smile! I'm ready to book plane tickets! Maybe tomorrow!

no worries

I'm not going to worry about whether we can get an apartment or a flight next week. When we do finally get the invitation to travel, we will make the reservations, and it will all work out. I really feel that deep down. God will take care of us. He has brought us this far. This time last year, we had just made the decision to adopt, and I had just started doing some research and reading some blogs. When I think of all we've accomplished in the last year (selling our house, buying another house, renovations while we lived in a cramped apartment, home study, dossier, ALL that paperwork), I'm just amazed. Did we really do all that in the last year? It doesn't seem possible, and yet it all happened.

Earlier this summer, I read something I really liked on one of the blogs. (So sorry I don't remember who wrote this originally.) They said that we don't travel to Russia alone. God is already there. He has gone ahead of us and prepared our way.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" -- Philippians 4:6-7

90% on the 9th

We got a call from C. this afternoon. We still don't have definite travel dates, but we do know more. Our dossier was not registered today, so we won't be traveling on Feb. 2. We were relieved, because we are not experienced travelers. It would have been very stressful for us to get everything done in just a week's time. C. told us there is a 90% chance we'll travel on Feb. 9. She's hoping to know something Monday or Tuesday, and worst case scenario, we'll know something by next Friday, Feb. 1.

I'm feeling a lot less anxious than I did yesterday. Today I feel more excited. As Beth reminded me, my Valentine this year will be my precious little one!

Thanks to everyone for all the support over the last 2 days! It helped so much!

staring at the phone, day 2

Still waiting on THE CALL, which could come any minute. We're really hoping we get definite travel dates today. This waiting is so hard! I'm trying to stay busy. I typed a brief newsletter for my mother's circle at church and printed the copies she needed. Then I put away all the clean laundry and straightened up the utility room. I swept the whole downstairs (we have hardwood floors). I've checked my email 100 times. Read some blogs, but there weren't many updates since the 100 times I checked them yesterday.

I keep reminding myself that this is in God's hands, and will happen according to His timing.