Back to Normal...

...not entirely!!! We are all missing Maddox. God has brought this child into our life and we can't wait to get him home. We give all the glory to God for this awesome journey he has taken us on...it hasn't always been fun, but God has shown us His wonderous works. We are praying for the lest amount of time possible before our court hearing.

Sights of St Petersburg

St Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great, the first tzar of Russia in the early 18th century. He envisioned a waterway to the West and a great cultural, westernized capital for Russia. The city is very beautiful and revivals any Western European city. We didn't have a lot of time to take in the sights on this trip, but did get a few cool (literally) pictures we thought we would share.

Home Again!

We arrived home yesterday around 3:30pm. We managed quite a bit of sleep on the flights, so the transition hasn't been too bad so far. It was great to see Emma, Geneva and Jackson...we could tell they missed us, and we missed them. We all watched the videos we made while in Russia last night. We realized that he had smiled a lot more than we remembered and had caught with our still camera. The best video was when we just set it up to record and left it. Maddox really didn't like the camera or video camera, so when we were not actively filming, he was much more relaxed. Emma kept commenting that it wasn't fair we couldn't bring Maddox home. We all feel the same way. Since we've been home, I caught myself thinking often of what time it is there and what he may be doing.

A Hint of a Smile...

18 Feb 2009 – 7pm St Petersburg time
Today was part fun, part adoption work. We left this morning at 7am for our medical appt. We arrived at the Russian Hospital of the Academy of Sciences at 8am. We had blood drawn, an EKG and chest x-ray. Then we met with 8 different specialty doctors. We were treated extremely well, given pastries, tea or coffee in between doctors and saw a few other adoptive couples. Overall, we were there 4 ½ hours, but it went by fast and we had a good time teaching our interpreter sayings like “off the beaten path,” “piece of cake” and “pass out” (which we didn’t do when they took our blood). We were pleasantly surprised at how smoothly it went. Then we were off to the notary where we had to sign a bunch of documents for the court officially asking to adopt Artyom and change his name to…HERE IS WHAT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR… Boris Ivanovich Singleton…Just Kidding…it took us 16 months, but when the pressure was on last night (and this morning) we asked to adopt MADDOX LEONIDAS SINGLETON. Maddox is Welsh meaning benefactor’s son , Leonidas meaning brave as a lion and also after the Spartan king who led 300 Greeks against hundreds of thousands of Persians (you can look up the story online) and he was also known for his kindness and respect for his wife.
Then after the notary, we went to a local Russian lunch place and had a meat-filled pastry pie (Britt had a rabbit meat and mushroom pie-he says it was very good). Then we walked to the Church of the Resurrection and Spilt Blood (see picture). We wandered around the souvenir market and spent some money. It was very cold and snowy (today was the coldest day yet) and the vendors were really willing to come down on their prices because there was hardly no one there. After over an hour of browsing, haggling and buying, we were freezing. We set out towards our hotel, stopping by the Winter Palace (see picture) and walking for about an hour to get back to our hotel. Hopefully it will be warmer on our future visits and we can do some more sightseeing. Overall, it was a great day and we are packing up for our 3:30 departure tomorrow morning. We’ll get home around 4:30pm Kansas time and will await our next trip for our court hearing.

Day 2

17 Feb 2009 – 6pm (St Petersburg)
Last night after talking to our international adoption doctor, there was some question about a diagnosis and the timeline of his labs. So, we sent out to get some copies of some of his medical records and try to resolve the issue. We would try and solve the mystery between visits today.
Today was a long and emotional day. We went to the orphanage at 10am (left our hotel at 9:15am). When we arrived, his group was going outside to play. So, we stayed outside playing with all the kids for about 45 min. They were all bundled up like snowmen and when they fell over, most could not get up on their own. We spent quite a bit of time picking them up and putting their mittens on them over and over. Tyoma really didn’t want anything to do with us, but the other kids wouldn’t leave us alone. He was always watching us and did finally warm up to us. Then we got to take him into a room by himself and we gave him a cookie like yesterday. He really nursed all the cookies we gave him (you can see it all over his face) and every little crumb that was on his hands, he made sure to eat that too. One thing that was really interesting was he loved having his face and hands wiped off. He was just soaking it in and then he played with the wipe afterwards. We had to leave at 11:15am, but before we left we were given the copy of his maternity hospital report and his 2008 labs. We went to a local post office and faxed these 2 documents to our IA doctor (not too bad about $10 to send 2 pages to the US). Then we went to eat at a local mall and set out to try and figure out how to call our IA doctor at 2pm with no pay phone. Our driver let us use his cell phone to call our IA doctor and we called her at 6am (her time). She said she would check the fax and we could call her back. So 30 minutes later we called her back using our translator’s cell phone (we had used all the credits on our driver’s phone) and the IA doctor said ”I’m very pleased with the information” which we took to mean the labs said what they were supposed to say. After paying the driver and our translator for the calls so they could recharge their phones those 2 calls for a total of 5 minutes cost $25. However, it was a huge relief and another way we saw God working in this adoption. Now we are pressed for a name because we are supposed to have a name picked out when we go to the notary tomorrow to sign the official paperwork to request the adoption. When we returned in the afternoon, he cried when they brought him in, but stopped in about 30 seconds. He sat on Britt’s lap eating his cookie and playing with a little red car we had brought along with the nesting cups. By the end of the 45min we saw our first hint of a smile and he shared his cookie with me. He is a very serious, cautious, but content boy. He is walking well and can say what sounds like “ball” which means “fall” in Russian.
Our day tomorrow: We have a 9-doctor medical appointment, blood work, EKG and chest x-ray to make sure we are healthy enough to adopt. Then we will go to the notary to sign some paperwork to file for the court. Then the rest of the day we’ll have on our own to do some sightseeing (we have had no time so far). Then we leave Thursday morning from the hotel at 3:30am to fly back home.

Day #1 and our first trip to the orphanage

16 Feb – 1:45pm St Petersburg time
We meet with an official from the Ministry of Social Services or something like that. She officially gave us our referral. It was a government building with 6-8 other couples there with their translators all doing the same thing. We found out his birthday is Oct 2nd, 2007. He had a twin brother that died at 2 months old. They were given up at birth by their mother. When we were told he was a twin, both Britt and I thought to ourselves…well we can’t leave the twin brother here, but then they told us he had died. We are off to the orphanage to meet him and gather more info.
16 Feb – 8pm
We met Artyom today. They call him Tyoma – it sounds like “Toe Ma.” We were at the orphanage for about 2 hours. It took over 40 minutes to get there from our hotel and we never even left St Petersburg. It is a city made up of 42 islands,17 waterways and 5 million people.
Here is what we know of his story: He was born 2 Oct 2007 along with his brother Arthur. His mother was 22 and gave him up on Oct 8th. He went straight from the maternity hospital to the orphanage along with his brother on 10 Oct 2007. His brother died of SIDS on 19 Dec 2007. Before that neither one was ever sick and they were very healthy at birth. He has very dark eyes, oriental features and brown hair. The social worker (she picked the boys up at the hospital) said his mother was slim, small and Khyrghyz (from Khyrghyzstan). He has never been contacted or written to by anyone and it is very possible that his mother was in Russia illegally looking for work. Many Khyrghyzs come to St Petersburg to find work and send the money home. All his bloodwork has always been negative or within normal ranges and the only time he has been sick was in Mar 2008 – he had the flu and they sent him to the hospital because of his brother and all tests came back normal. Right now he is getting over the chicken pox (hence the blue/green spots – it is medicine to keep it from itching). He didn’t want to look at us at first and was very scared. Then I put him on my lap, gave him a cookie and he calmed down. Then we got out a bunch of toys…he loved the bubbles and a red car. He would never look at Britt and if Britt looked at him, he would cry…he had never seen a man before. But, after a while I gave him to Britt and he warmed up to him right away. He got very comfortable on his lap and even snuggled in a bit. We brought a stacking/nesting toy and he loved it…he was stacking/ putting them inside each other and then toys inside that. He is walking, going from sitting to standing on his own and even walked backwards. He never did smile for us today, but he did do some talking (babble with 1 or 2 Russian words mixed in) He is 31 in tall-we measured him.
Our day tomorrow: We will go to the orphanage from 10-12 and then from 3-4:30. We have to make our decision at that time and if we decide we want to adopt him than we have to have a name at that time too. We will talk to our adoption doctor tonight and unless she sees something we have missed, we plan on adopting him.

Our Trip Here

14 Feb – 3pm Kansas time
We are at Washington Dulles waiting for our next flight. The last time we were at this airport we arrived from London moving back to the US after 3 years in England. Emma was 2, Geneva was 2 months old. The kids did great on the flight except for Emma throwing up an entire carton of milk that she had just drank. We asked for some milk, they gave it to us, we checked the date and it felt cold, so we poured it into her sippy cup. She drank the entire thing in about 5 minutes and 5 minutes later she threw it all up. A stewardess was standing right there and offered me 2 cocktail napkins. Needless to say that didn’t begin to clean it up. Ahhh, the memories….anyway, that is a story that we will probably tell at her wedding.
Now we are flying the other way to see the son that God has for us.
It is hard to believe that 16 months ago God called us to adopt. Is it just coincidence that the boy we are going to meet is 16 months’ old. We don’t think so! The journey so far as seemed long and frustrating at times, but God’s plan has been and is ever present. His timing is perfect and looking back, we see how he has put all the pieces in place. His hand is always working in our lives. We are humbled to be His instruments and hope we will always seek His desires for us and our family.

15 Feb – 8am Copenhagen, Denmark (1am Kansas time)
We arrived in Copenhagen and are waiting for our flight to St Petersburg. I managed a few hours of interrupted sleep on the 8-hour flight over the Atlantic, but unfortunately Britt couldn’t sleep at all. It could have had something to do with the woman who sat next to him and talked in a very loud voice the entire way with her light on. Good thing the seatbacks in front of every seat had their own video/music/game service. Britt has become an expert on SAS Airlines centipede. Hopefully he’ll get a few hours of sleep on the next flight because there will be no sleeping when we get to St Petersburg. The best way to get over jetlag going east is to stay awake the entire first day you are there and then crash that night. So, I will not let him sleep or he’ll be up most of the night. J
There is something special about being back in Europe. It just feels right. Britt and I decided it was because we have so many awesome memories of our travels across the continent. It was just fun to roam the airport convenience store with all “foreign” snacks yet they were very familiar. Britt almost broke down and had a Magnum ice cream bar (Dove bar tastes like dirt compared to Magnum).
Britt says “hello”

15 Feb – 4pm St. Petersburg time (7am Kansas time)
We finally made it to St Petersburg and are checked into our hotel. It is snowing here and overcast. We are very glad we brought boots because the sidewalks are very slushy and snowpacked. The driver and translator didn’t even know where our hotel was located. It is so new…the hallways still have that new carpet smell. The room is spacious and very nice. We are located 1 block from the old historic district and about a 10 minute walk from the city center. There is another couple from our adoption agency here at the same time, but they are staying at a different hotel and going to a different orphanage. Our translator gave us our schedule for tomorrow. We have our ministry of education meeting at 10am then we will come back to the hotel until 2pm when we get to go to the orphanage. He gets up from his nap at 3:30pm, so we will have some time once we get there to gather as much information as possible before we see him. Now we are going to go wander around for a while and find someplace to eat an early dinner and then go to bed early.

15 Feb – 7:35pm St. Petersburg time
We went walking around tonight. The woman at the front desk recommended a place for dinner that was some sort of music club. It was very nice and comfortable…I guess not too expensive for a nice dinner in St Pete. They had “warm mutton tongue” on the menu, but we settled for something a little more normal sounding. Britt had borsch and sea bass and I had a lamb soup and veal cutlet “kiev” style.

Making a list and checking it twice!

Well, we finally got around to packing. After some last minute paperwork and running around I think we are pretty much ready to go with about 24 hours till takeoff. We managed to get everything into carry-ons with room to spare (we'll have to bring back some souvenirs). We'll do the final check tonight and then it is on to St Petersburg. We've always said when you travel all you really need is your passport and credit card...this time we really do NEED a few other things.

We are trusting in God's sovereign will for our adoption and will continue to seek his grace and guidance throughout this journey.

Packing Continues

We are attempting to only take carry-ons. So, we shrank our toiletries bags down to the required ziplock. Baby steps, right?

Trip Planning...or not!

Do you think back to when you only had to throw a few things into a bag and off you went for a trip...maybe skiing, maybe on a train trip from Germany to Paris, maybe to your grandparents' house for the weekend? Those memories have been circulating in my mind over the last couple of days while we are frantically getting ready to travel to Russia. I am SO excited to go that I can't seem to even begin the packing process (organizing my thoughts to make a packing list). The kids' stuff is set. I guess all that will be required is some last minute cleaning and laundry. As for Britt and I, we haven't even started. All I can think about is "our boy is waiting and we are going to meet him in St Petersburg." Snap out of it Keri...there is still lots to do!

Bowling with our kids

Today we took the kids bowling as a reward for Geneva learning to write all her cursive letters. What an adventure...they loved it. Emma and Geneva bowled more strikes and spares than I did. They got so excited when they knocked the pins down. It was a really fun few hours and even Jackson got into it for a few frames...it only took about 5 minutes for his ball to get down the lane. It was a great time.

RUSSIA HERE WE COME!
We received our travel dates yesterday for our first trip to St Petersburg to meet our new son. We are leaving Feb 14th and returning Feb 19th. That gives us 3 1/2 days in St Petersburg. Now I am running around with my hair on fire trying to get everything done, but it is a "good" fire. We booked our tickets and hotel...so I can cross those 2 things off the multi-page list.
More to come...

The current crew...all snowy, but having a blast in Minnesota a few weeks ago.

The Start of A New Adventure...

...or I really just guess it is the continuation of one...just now it is all documented.