Emma, Geneva and Jackson awoke at 6:30am Sunday morning excited to meet their new brother. They had to wake until we woke Maddox up at 8:30am. Maddox certainly doesn’t seem to be suffering from jet lag like Britt and I. The meeting was great. Maddox smiled at them and that sent them into giggles. Since then there has been some great times and some growing pains. Maddox has to get used to sharing us after having us all to himself for a week, and the other 3 have to get used to having a little brother around that is into all their stuff (especially Jackson). So far pretty much like we thought...Emma is the little mother, Geneva is interested one minute then not interested the next, Jackson is territorial (with his stuff and with me), and Maddox is holding his own.
Lots has happened since we were gone. Emma went from a timid bike rider to a pro…doing lots of stuff that make her mom nervous, as only a mother can get. Geneva was riding her bike with training wheels when we left and now she is riding without training wheels, stopping on her own without help. Jackson is peddling his trike to keep up with his big sisters. They did great while we were gone, but are happy to have us back too. I’ll take some pictures today and get them posted before we head back to Topeka tomorrow.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The Last 48 hours
Our last meal in Russia – Dinner Friday Night
We have loved our travels, but we are MORE than ready to be home. After the “rat” experience, we were not interested in being adventurous for dinner, so we headed out to find the “Teremok” restaurant that we loved in St Petersburg. We had seen one in while walking the day before. If you remember “Teremok” served the Russian version of crepes. We found it, but it wasn’t a sit-down restaurant, it was a food stand. After waiting in line for about 10 minutes, it was finally our turn to order. Britt had been practicing while waiting to order 3 ham and cheese crepes in Russian. He did a marvelous job, and the lady even understood him. However, she showed us that she didn’t have enough ham for 3 ham and cheese crepes and handed us a picture menu. We changed our order to one ham and cheese, one chicken and sauce, one mushroom and cheese, and one strawberry (for dessert). Then she started to make it…now we realized why we had to wait so long in line…she was the only one in the booth. 4 crepes later and many animal cracker bribes to Maddox to keep him still, she finally finished. Then instead of handing over the crepes, she proceeds to seal each individually in these little aluminum foil bags and write IN RUSSIAN what each one was on the outside of the bag. Britt and I just look at each other and start laughing…totally a “blog-able” moment. We are finally handed our crepes and we speed walk back to the hotel to eat them while still hot and feed our starving boy (he hadn’t had anything in 2 hours except a dozen or so animal crackers…no wonder he was starving ;).
PS. The crepes were good!
Friday night – Maddox’s 1st Real Bath
Prior to tonight, we had only given Maddox a sponge bath with him sitting on the vanity with his feet in the sink. The first time I didn’t fill the sink, the 2nd time I filled the sink and let him dangle his feet in it. So, tonight was THE NIGHT…a full bath. I ran the water, tested the temperature and got Maddox undressed. We told him (in Russian) it was bath time and he ran into the bathroom…so far so good….then we put him in the tub and he had a calm look on his face for about 5 seconds…then it was complete terror and he was clambering to get out. Britt, ever at the ready, hopped in with him to try and keep him calm. After some convincing with our limited Russian vocabulary, he seemed to tolerate it pretty well. Bath #1 all done…maybe it will go better when Jackson joins him next time.
Saturday morning – hotel checkout
We got up early and were ready to go about and hour before our ride was going to pick us up. We had some rubles left, so we decided to go get a cappuccino. When we got back to the hotel, we still had about 20 minutes, so we just decided to stay in the lobby, check out and let Maddox run around. We were the only ones in the lobby besides the 3 front desk clerks, the 2 porters and the 2 doormen (remember very nice hotel). Let’s just say that after those 20 minutes of us playing chase, peek-a-boo around the marble columns, going around and around in the revolving door, and Maddox practicing his stair climbing and descending the marble staircase to the 2nd floor restaurant, I am sure they were happy our driver finally arrived. We certainly left our mark on the Marriot Royal Aurora Moscow and I thought it was nice to hear some giggling and laughter in that huge lobby.
Saturday, April 25th – On the plane from Moscow to Washington-Dulles
Things are never normal flying with us it seems on these trips. So, we leave our hotel at 9am for a 12:30pm flight. It takes us over an hour to get to the airport because the nice weather has everyone heading to their dachas for the weekend and there is killer traffic going out of the city. We stand in line for 40 minutes waiting to check in…thankfully Maddox was in a pretty good mood and the rye crisp crackers take him a while to eat. When we get to the check-in counter, the printer breaks and she is talking (in Russian, of course) to 2 different ladies about our tickets. So, finally over an hour after we had arrived at the airport they tell us that we are listed in on the “departure management list” and we have to come back to the check-in counter at 11:40am. Last night when I checked the flight, there were no available seats, so we thought we would be lucky to get seats together…now we just want seats on the plane. Keep in mind, we are supposed to board at 11:50am, we haven’t gone through security, customs or passport control yet and can’t until we get our boarding passes. So, we find somewhere to let Maddox run around for 30 minutes. When we go back to the United counter, at first the lady acts like she doesn’t understand (must be the language difference) then we must have gotten through to her and she calls someone else over. We finally get our boarding passes and run to customs-no problem…passport control – the immigrations officer takes our passports, looks at us, looks at Maddox and asks for our paperwork, I hand her all our documents (Maddox’s birth certificates, his mother’s release of his birth rights, the adoption certificate…you get the picture…a thick stack of papers) and she proceeds to read ALL of it…finally she starts stamping our passports (thank goodness…it is now 12:05pm)…security – no problem. We are moving very rapidly to the gate. Once we get to the gate there is a HUGE line to get into the gate area (we have found in all our recent international travels that you have to enter a secured gate area with another round of passport/boarding card checks before you even actually load the flight and give someone your boarding pass). We made it through that line and the gate agent asks us if we have a “gate check” ticket for the stroller…no one ever gave us one…they said we’d get it at the gate. So, she tells us to follow her and we proceed to the front of the LONG line of people and she fills out our “gate check” ticket for the stroller. Just about that time, the crew shows up (it is now 12:30, remember we were supposed to leave at 12:35). We decide to just stay at the front of the line…that is where the gate agent put us, right? So, we finally start boarding and we are the first ones on the plane…as we find our row we see that we are in the “Economy Plus” section…United wanted an extra $119 for the seats if you upgraded (we didn’t it…must have been the “departure management list” :) in the middle section…3 seats (we have 2 of them). We are getting settled and we realize that there aren’t anymore people coming on the airplane. The flight is 100% full in the “economy” section and less than 50% full in the “economy plus” section. We hold our breaths, hoping a huge load of people aren’t still coming…the flight attendants start closing the overhead bins…the aircraft door closes…YES, YES, YES….we have a ton of extra room because the flight attendants won’t let anyone from “economy” move up because it costs $119 (there isn’t even a bulkhead between the sections on this aircraft. The row behind us is “economy” and it has 5 inches less space between the rows…that is the only difference…not worth $119 for me, but I’ll take it, plus the extra empty seats if United wants to give it to me. So, right now I am blogging, in 27C, Britt is reading in 27H (there is no D, F or G) and Maddox is sleeping stretched out in 27 A&B (with a seatbelt around him). Britt and I were not looking forward to an 11-hour flight on a packed airplane with our son sharing our laps. However, God takes care of even the small stuff sometimes.
As for our other flights, right now they have one of us in 10B and the other in 34F on our way from Dulles to Chicago…we’ll work that when we get there and they have us in 3A&B (1st class) from Chicago to Minneapolis…we’ll let you know how that all works out…keep reading.
IT IS OFFICIAL!!! At 4:10pm eastern daylight time Maddox Singleton became a US citizen at the Washington-Dulles airport. The customs guy was super nice and the process went really smooth.
Saturday – 9pm (in Chicago) - Well, with a ton of flight delays due to crew issues and weather, we are now waiting for our flight to Minneapolis. It will end up leaving about 2 hours late and we’ll get in around 11:30pm. Maddox has been champ and done really well.
We have loved our travels, but we are MORE than ready to be home. After the “rat” experience, we were not interested in being adventurous for dinner, so we headed out to find the “Teremok” restaurant that we loved in St Petersburg. We had seen one in while walking the day before. If you remember “Teremok” served the Russian version of crepes. We found it, but it wasn’t a sit-down restaurant, it was a food stand. After waiting in line for about 10 minutes, it was finally our turn to order. Britt had been practicing while waiting to order 3 ham and cheese crepes in Russian. He did a marvelous job, and the lady even understood him. However, she showed us that she didn’t have enough ham for 3 ham and cheese crepes and handed us a picture menu. We changed our order to one ham and cheese, one chicken and sauce, one mushroom and cheese, and one strawberry (for dessert). Then she started to make it…now we realized why we had to wait so long in line…she was the only one in the booth. 4 crepes later and many animal cracker bribes to Maddox to keep him still, she finally finished. Then instead of handing over the crepes, she proceeds to seal each individually in these little aluminum foil bags and write IN RUSSIAN what each one was on the outside of the bag. Britt and I just look at each other and start laughing…totally a “blog-able” moment. We are finally handed our crepes and we speed walk back to the hotel to eat them while still hot and feed our starving boy (he hadn’t had anything in 2 hours except a dozen or so animal crackers…no wonder he was starving ;).
PS. The crepes were good!
Friday night – Maddox’s 1st Real Bath
Prior to tonight, we had only given Maddox a sponge bath with him sitting on the vanity with his feet in the sink. The first time I didn’t fill the sink, the 2nd time I filled the sink and let him dangle his feet in it. So, tonight was THE NIGHT…a full bath. I ran the water, tested the temperature and got Maddox undressed. We told him (in Russian) it was bath time and he ran into the bathroom…so far so good….then we put him in the tub and he had a calm look on his face for about 5 seconds…then it was complete terror and he was clambering to get out. Britt, ever at the ready, hopped in with him to try and keep him calm. After some convincing with our limited Russian vocabulary, he seemed to tolerate it pretty well. Bath #1 all done…maybe it will go better when Jackson joins him next time.
Saturday morning – hotel checkout
We got up early and were ready to go about and hour before our ride was going to pick us up. We had some rubles left, so we decided to go get a cappuccino. When we got back to the hotel, we still had about 20 minutes, so we just decided to stay in the lobby, check out and let Maddox run around. We were the only ones in the lobby besides the 3 front desk clerks, the 2 porters and the 2 doormen (remember very nice hotel). Let’s just say that after those 20 minutes of us playing chase, peek-a-boo around the marble columns, going around and around in the revolving door, and Maddox practicing his stair climbing and descending the marble staircase to the 2nd floor restaurant, I am sure they were happy our driver finally arrived. We certainly left our mark on the Marriot Royal Aurora Moscow and I thought it was nice to hear some giggling and laughter in that huge lobby.
Saturday, April 25th – On the plane from Moscow to Washington-Dulles
Things are never normal flying with us it seems on these trips. So, we leave our hotel at 9am for a 12:30pm flight. It takes us over an hour to get to the airport because the nice weather has everyone heading to their dachas for the weekend and there is killer traffic going out of the city. We stand in line for 40 minutes waiting to check in…thankfully Maddox was in a pretty good mood and the rye crisp crackers take him a while to eat. When we get to the check-in counter, the printer breaks and she is talking (in Russian, of course) to 2 different ladies about our tickets. So, finally over an hour after we had arrived at the airport they tell us that we are listed in on the “departure management list” and we have to come back to the check-in counter at 11:40am. Last night when I checked the flight, there were no available seats, so we thought we would be lucky to get seats together…now we just want seats on the plane. Keep in mind, we are supposed to board at 11:50am, we haven’t gone through security, customs or passport control yet and can’t until we get our boarding passes. So, we find somewhere to let Maddox run around for 30 minutes. When we go back to the United counter, at first the lady acts like she doesn’t understand (must be the language difference) then we must have gotten through to her and she calls someone else over. We finally get our boarding passes and run to customs-no problem…passport control – the immigrations officer takes our passports, looks at us, looks at Maddox and asks for our paperwork, I hand her all our documents (Maddox’s birth certificates, his mother’s release of his birth rights, the adoption certificate…you get the picture…a thick stack of papers) and she proceeds to read ALL of it…finally she starts stamping our passports (thank goodness…it is now 12:05pm)…security – no problem. We are moving very rapidly to the gate. Once we get to the gate there is a HUGE line to get into the gate area (we have found in all our recent international travels that you have to enter a secured gate area with another round of passport/boarding card checks before you even actually load the flight and give someone your boarding pass). We made it through that line and the gate agent asks us if we have a “gate check” ticket for the stroller…no one ever gave us one…they said we’d get it at the gate. So, she tells us to follow her and we proceed to the front of the LONG line of people and she fills out our “gate check” ticket for the stroller. Just about that time, the crew shows up (it is now 12:30, remember we were supposed to leave at 12:35). We decide to just stay at the front of the line…that is where the gate agent put us, right? So, we finally start boarding and we are the first ones on the plane…as we find our row we see that we are in the “Economy Plus” section…United wanted an extra $119 for the seats if you upgraded (we didn’t it…must have been the “departure management list” :) in the middle section…3 seats (we have 2 of them). We are getting settled and we realize that there aren’t anymore people coming on the airplane. The flight is 100% full in the “economy” section and less than 50% full in the “economy plus” section. We hold our breaths, hoping a huge load of people aren’t still coming…the flight attendants start closing the overhead bins…the aircraft door closes…YES, YES, YES….we have a ton of extra room because the flight attendants won’t let anyone from “economy” move up because it costs $119 (there isn’t even a bulkhead between the sections on this aircraft. The row behind us is “economy” and it has 5 inches less space between the rows…that is the only difference…not worth $119 for me, but I’ll take it, plus the extra empty seats if United wants to give it to me. So, right now I am blogging, in 27C, Britt is reading in 27H (there is no D, F or G) and Maddox is sleeping stretched out in 27 A&B (with a seatbelt around him). Britt and I were not looking forward to an 11-hour flight on a packed airplane with our son sharing our laps. However, God takes care of even the small stuff sometimes.
As for our other flights, right now they have one of us in 10B and the other in 34F on our way from Dulles to Chicago…we’ll work that when we get there and they have us in 3A&B (1st class) from Chicago to Minneapolis…we’ll let you know how that all works out…keep reading.
IT IS OFFICIAL!!! At 4:10pm eastern daylight time Maddox Singleton became a US citizen at the Washington-Dulles airport. The customs guy was super nice and the process went really smooth.
Saturday – 9pm (in Chicago) - Well, with a ton of flight delays due to crew issues and weather, we are now waiting for our flight to Minneapolis. It will end up leaving about 2 hours late and we’ll get in around 11:30pm. Maddox has been champ and done really well.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Maddox the US Immigrant - One More Step
Here is a picture of Maddox with his Russian passport and his new US Immigrant visa...of course, Britt is the proud papa. 
Just one more step...touch US soil and Maddox is officially a US citizen. YEAH! Tomorrow at this time we'll almost be to DC.
Oh, one more picture of Russia for you all...Red Square from the steps of St Basil's Cathedral.
Read below for more info from our last day in Russia
Our Last Full Day In Russia
Friday, April 24, 2009 – 4pm (Moscow time)
Crusing Around Red Square
The last 24 hours have been real interesting for us. It started when we went to dinner last night. We went to a chain restaurant a few blocks from our hotel. As we were walking, the traffic was amazing…I took a picture of the street. There were cars parked everywhere, on both sides of the road, double parked, triple parked and then there was just enough room for one car to squeeze in between. However, there were so many cars that no one was moving at all and the entire street looked like a parking lot.
Okay, this is Britt. After that, we went to a chain restaurant a few blocks from our hotel that one of our translators recommended to us. It sounds silly, but the name (as close as we can approximate) is “Yalky-Polky.” We were about half way through our meal. Suddenly I felt something brush past the heels of my shoes and the stroller folded up behind me fell over as if bumped. Then came a scraping and loud rustling in the corner. I looked down just in time to see a large rat disappear under the bench where Keri was sitting. She looked at me with wide eyes and said, “What was that???” I replied a split second too soon. I know her reaction to rats, but blurted out before I could stop myself, “That was a RAT.” At which she yelped, drew both her legs up onto the bench, and tried to lift Maddox as high as she could to protect him. Then came another loud rustle, and she yelped again, louder. At this, all eyes in the room drew directly to us. I held up my palms and nodded my head reassuringly to the mob, and they all went back to eating. Then Keri and I had a rapid-fire discussion on what to do. We decided to stay in place to finish our mediocre meal, but not have dessert. As soon as we asked for the check, Keri was dressed and out the door with Maddox before I could even get my money out to pay. Thus ends the tale of the rat. Back to Keri.
One of the differences we’ve noticed about Moscow since we were here 10 years ago has been the change in commerce. 10 years ago we went into Gum Department Store (like a big mall) and there were local shops and we ate lunch for $1. Today when we went in there it is filled with very high-end stores. The wealth that has come to Moscow has really changed the city. From the fancy shops to all the very nice cars and expensive places to eat, the evidence of people having $$ to spend is everywhere. Here is a picture of the inside of “Gum” mall and an example of what you can buy there…a suitcase covered in Swarovsky crystals. I didn’t look at the price tag, but it is probably quite a bit more than your average Samsonite considering I looked at the price of a baseball hat that said “Russia” and it was $45 (just your average baseball hat…no crystals).
inside Gum Department Store
This morning we all slept in. Maddox went to sleep at about 9:30pm last night and until 10am, so we didn’t get up either. Then we had some breakfast and headed to Red Square.
We wanted to go to Gum Department store and inside St Basils Cathedral, as well as get some pictures in Red Square with Maddox before our Embassy appointment. The concierge at the hotel told us that the inside of St Basil’s was nothing special and we should just look at the outside…well you know us. We really wanted to go inside and we are really glad we did. It was relatively cheap at 100roubles ($3) a person and it was very different than the church in St Petersburg. It was very chopped up inside with many different small chapels and they had restored some of them to different periods in the church’s history. The church was built in the late 1500s and has 2 floors. As we were walking up the stairs from one floor to another, we heard the most beautiful singing. I thought it was a big choir singing, but when we reached the small 8-sided chapel that rose over 100 feet to the top of the biggest onion dome it was only 5 guys. The shape of the chapel and the high ceilings magnified their sound. It was awesome and Maddox was transfixed, se bought their CD with traditional worship and Russian folk music.
Then we raced back to the hotel, stopping at Sbarro for Britt and I and feeding Maddox when we got to the hotel. Then we were off to the American Embassy for the last of the paperwork here in Moscow. We were there for about 2 hours and left with a big sealed envelope of papers, a bunch of original documents including Maddox’s original birth certificate and his new one, and his Russian passport with US immigrant visa.
Now all that is left is one night here in Moscow and 3 plane rides to Minnesota. We leave here at noon then stop in Washington-Dulles where Maddox becomes a US citizen, a stop in Chicago and then we arrive in Minneapolis around 9:30pm Saturday night.
Crusing Around Red Square
The last 24 hours have been real interesting for us. It started when we went to dinner last night. We went to a chain restaurant a few blocks from our hotel. As we were walking, the traffic was amazing…I took a picture of the street. There were cars parked everywhere, on both sides of the road, double parked, triple parked and then there was just enough room for one car to squeeze in between. However, there were so many cars that no one was moving at all and the entire street looked like a parking lot.
Okay, this is Britt. After that, we went to a chain restaurant a few blocks from our hotel that one of our translators recommended to us. It sounds silly, but the name (as close as we can approximate) is “Yalky-Polky.” We were about half way through our meal. Suddenly I felt something brush past the heels of my shoes and the stroller folded up behind me fell over as if bumped. Then came a scraping and loud rustling in the corner. I looked down just in time to see a large rat disappear under the bench where Keri was sitting. She looked at me with wide eyes and said, “What was that???” I replied a split second too soon. I know her reaction to rats, but blurted out before I could stop myself, “That was a RAT.” At which she yelped, drew both her legs up onto the bench, and tried to lift Maddox as high as she could to protect him. Then came another loud rustle, and she yelped again, louder. At this, all eyes in the room drew directly to us. I held up my palms and nodded my head reassuringly to the mob, and they all went back to eating. Then Keri and I had a rapid-fire discussion on what to do. We decided to stay in place to finish our mediocre meal, but not have dessert. As soon as we asked for the check, Keri was dressed and out the door with Maddox before I could even get my money out to pay. Thus ends the tale of the rat. Back to Keri.
One of the differences we’ve noticed about Moscow since we were here 10 years ago has been the change in commerce. 10 years ago we went into Gum Department Store (like a big mall) and there were local shops and we ate lunch for $1. Today when we went in there it is filled with very high-end stores. The wealth that has come to Moscow has really changed the city. From the fancy shops to all the very nice cars and expensive places to eat, the evidence of people having $$ to spend is everywhere. Here is a picture of the inside of “Gum” mall and an example of what you can buy there…a suitcase covered in Swarovsky crystals. I didn’t look at the price tag, but it is probably quite a bit more than your average Samsonite considering I looked at the price of a baseball hat that said “Russia” and it was $45 (just your average baseball hat…no crystals).
inside Gum Department Store
This morning we all slept in. Maddox went to sleep at about 9:30pm last night and until 10am, so we didn’t get up either. Then we had some breakfast and headed to Red Square.
We wanted to go to Gum Department store and inside St Basils Cathedral, as well as get some pictures in Red Square with Maddox before our Embassy appointment. The concierge at the hotel told us that the inside of St Basil’s was nothing special and we should just look at the outside…well you know us. We really wanted to go inside and we are really glad we did. It was relatively cheap at 100roubles ($3) a person and it was very different than the church in St Petersburg. It was very chopped up inside with many different small chapels and they had restored some of them to different periods in the church’s history. The church was built in the late 1500s and has 2 floors. As we were walking up the stairs from one floor to another, we heard the most beautiful singing. I thought it was a big choir singing, but when we reached the small 8-sided chapel that rose over 100 feet to the top of the biggest onion dome it was only 5 guys. The shape of the chapel and the high ceilings magnified their sound. It was awesome and Maddox was transfixed, se bought their CD with traditional worship and Russian folk music.
Then we raced back to the hotel, stopping at Sbarro for Britt and I and feeding Maddox when we got to the hotel. Then we were off to the American Embassy for the last of the paperwork here in Moscow. We were there for about 2 hours and left with a big sealed envelope of papers, a bunch of original documents including Maddox’s original birth certificate and his new one, and his Russian passport with US immigrant visa.
Now all that is left is one night here in Moscow and 3 plane rides to Minnesota. We leave here at noon then stop in Washington-Dulles where Maddox becomes a US citizen, a stop in Chicago and then we arrive in Minneapolis around 9:30pm Saturday night.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Doctor's Visit and Moscow
Our Smiley Boy!
Gum Department Store (very famous)
Thursday, Apr 23rd – 11am (Moscow time)
We just returned from Maddox’s medical clearance appointment. He passed and now we have the rest of the day free. He has a slight allergic rash caused by who knows what. We’ll figure it out when we get home…right now everything he eats is pretty much new. One thing we noticed was that he and Serge (the other little boy from St Petersburg) were the biggest kids by a lot. There were 4 other sets of parents there with their kids from other regions and they were all really tiny. The youngest was 12 months old and he was the smallest, but there were a few kids 16, 20, 19 months and they were all much smaller than Maddox. The doctor weighed him at 11.1kg (24.4lbs) and his length was 79cm (31.1in). He certainly is all torso…the onesies we brought him are just about too small and stretch across his big belly, but the pants are all a little long and sag in the bottom area. We had to wake Maddox up this morning at 6:30am, so he is tired. We are going to go walk around and get something to eat…all things revolve around food right now. Our hotel is a block or two from Red Square and we are hoping to tour St Basil’s Cathedral today or tomorrow morning. We picked up some groceries on our way back from the doctor and after 2 packets of instant oatmeal for breakfast Maddox has still managed to eat an entire banana, a glass of milk and some rye crackers. The kid just keeps eating. When the food is gone, he throws one of his fits where he lays on the floor and whines. Sometimes you can “trick” him by leaving his bib on, but once you take that off, the fit is back. Otherwise, he is pretty much like any other 18-month old…into everything. He has emptied his suitcase twice already. Well, we are off to explore Moscow a little bit before naptime…more later.
1pm (Moscow time)
Maddox is now sleeping. Knowing a few Russian phrases is really helping. We just say the Russian phrase and then the English equivalent after it. It has made some things easier. We have figured out that he doesn’t like to sleep with us. He doesn’t mind, but he when he is mad (like when it is time to take a nap or go to bed) he doesn’t want you near him or touching him. So, it has worked to just lay him on the bed or in the crib, tell him it is time to sleep and he is mad/fusses for a minute, we go in there and tell him “it is ok” and/or “don’t cry” and he finds his wrist, sucks away and falls asleep. Sometimes after he has been sucking on his wrist a few minutes, he’ll roll over and lean against you, but it has to be on his terms…you can’t reach over and touch him or stroke is head, etc or he’ll bat you away. That type of cuddling has to be on his own terms. Any other time, he loves it all. Maddox has figured out that if we pick up his jacket, we are going outside…we loves to walk around. We had him out in Red Square today and he was walking everywhere. Once we decided it was time to go he did not want to go back in the stroller. Maddox has also figured out the word “eat.” No big surprise there since he loves to do it. He has not voluntarily stopped eating yet like he was full, so that may be our first big issue. We found the Sbarro that we ate at 10 years ago when we were here. So, we had that for lunch. We got Maddox a roll and he ate the sausage from my pizza. It was like a brat cut up and he ate every piece on my pizza…it must have been almost an entire brat. Then he at a roll…when we told him it was all gone and there wasn’t anymore…he melted down again. We thought he was going to fall asleep in the stroller on the way back to the hotel, but he was too busy watching everything. When we got into the hotel, we let him out of the stroller to walk and he smiled at everyone that we passed. If the smiled at him, he just kept on smiling, but got closer to me. He as figured out the elevators too…he just walks right in, stands real still and looks in the mirrors then when doors opens he just strolls right out again.
6PM
Well, our trip to Red Square and St Basils Cathedral was a bust...we walked over there, but for some reason the entire square was closed. You couldn't go in. So, we'll try tomorrow morning before our Embassy appointment. We did walk around the other parks and squares and Maddox chased birds and we chased him...that made him giggle and smile a lot. We did see a few Lenins, Stalins and even a Nicolai Romanov (the deposed Tzar).
AN INTERNET NOTE: The hotel here has wireless access everywhere, but you have to pay for it by the hour. It is $12/hour and once you log on, it charges you for the entire hour. So, we are going to try to get on only once a day (mid morning, US time) and stay on for only 1 hour. We didn’t know this little bit of info last night…logged on with our purchased 60 min, used only 36min and then couldn’t figure out why we didn’t have any minutes left this morning. So, if you don’t hear from us, that is why…we’ll only be getting online once a day until we get back to the US (on Saturday).
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Goodbye St Petersburg, Hello Moscow
Wednesday, Apr 22nd – Moscow
Well, reality hit a home run last night. Maddox was either over-stimulated, overtired, underfed, overfed, constipated, or just sick of being around 2 people who he couldn’t understand and in a place he wasn’t familiar with and didn’t find the adventure fun anymore. He finally gave in around 2am. All 3 of us slept until 10am. Then we packed up the room and headed to Moscow…that was an adventure all in itself. In case any of you are ever coming to Russia and planning to take a flight within the country, just some info…the airplane we flew on was originally designed as a Soviet bomber (thanks for that piece of trivia Britt…I don’t feel better), they really don’t care about seatbelts, bags stowed properly or where you sit even though you have an assigned seat. They do care about baggage weight…all your baggage, including carry-ons and strollers. So, we were 18kgs over our weight limit…just 1500roubles extra (about $50) and we were told to give it in cash in our passport and hand the passport to the check-in clerk who promptly removed the cash and gave us back our passport. By that time we didn’t really care, we just wanted on the plane…then we found out all that other stuff I mentioned. We left our hotel in St Petersburg at 1:30pm and finally arrived at our hotel in Moscow at 9pm…and the flight was only 1hour long. Maddox did pretty well on the plane and on the way to/from the airport. We are staying at the Marriott Aurora with Marriott reward points and boy is it nice! The current rate is around $400 a night. We kind of feel like the Clampetts. It is so nice in fact that we can’t even afford to eat here. We decided to just get something in the hotel for dinner since it was so late, but would have required a small loan. So as Keri exercised her increasing Russian vocabulary and battled bedtime, Britt trekked all over Moscow looking for something to bring back for dinner. Maddox fell asleep in about 7 minutes tonight…thank goodness. We leave tomorrow morning at 7:30am for Maddox’s medical evaluation. It is required for his visa. Hopefully we’ll have the afternoon free to see some of Moscow before and after Maddox’s nap (we will probably sleep too). Sorry there are no pictures today…I only took one all day and quite frankly; I am too tired to upload it to the computer. I promise lots of pictures tomorrow.
Well, reality hit a home run last night. Maddox was either over-stimulated, overtired, underfed, overfed, constipated, or just sick of being around 2 people who he couldn’t understand and in a place he wasn’t familiar with and didn’t find the adventure fun anymore. He finally gave in around 2am. All 3 of us slept until 10am. Then we packed up the room and headed to Moscow…that was an adventure all in itself. In case any of you are ever coming to Russia and planning to take a flight within the country, just some info…the airplane we flew on was originally designed as a Soviet bomber (thanks for that piece of trivia Britt…I don’t feel better), they really don’t care about seatbelts, bags stowed properly or where you sit even though you have an assigned seat. They do care about baggage weight…all your baggage, including carry-ons and strollers. So, we were 18kgs over our weight limit…just 1500roubles extra (about $50) and we were told to give it in cash in our passport and hand the passport to the check-in clerk who promptly removed the cash and gave us back our passport. By that time we didn’t really care, we just wanted on the plane…then we found out all that other stuff I mentioned. We left our hotel in St Petersburg at 1:30pm and finally arrived at our hotel in Moscow at 9pm…and the flight was only 1hour long. Maddox did pretty well on the plane and on the way to/from the airport. We are staying at the Marriott Aurora with Marriott reward points and boy is it nice! The current rate is around $400 a night. We kind of feel like the Clampetts. It is so nice in fact that we can’t even afford to eat here. We decided to just get something in the hotel for dinner since it was so late, but would have required a small loan. So as Keri exercised her increasing Russian vocabulary and battled bedtime, Britt trekked all over Moscow looking for something to bring back for dinner. Maddox fell asleep in about 7 minutes tonight…thank goodness. We leave tomorrow morning at 7:30am for Maddox’s medical evaluation. It is required for his visa. Hopefully we’ll have the afternoon free to see some of Moscow before and after Maddox’s nap (we will probably sleep too). Sorry there are no pictures today…I only took one all day and quite frankly; I am too tired to upload it to the computer. I promise lots of pictures tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Personality Comes Alive!
Tuesday, Apr 21st – 9:30pm (St Petersburg time)
Our first complete day is over (or pretty much…Maddox is still going strong but we are hoping he will soon pass out from exhaustion). Maddox slept the entire night and woke up exactly at 7am. He slept great, but for some reason Britt and I could not sleep at all. We both really missed Emma, Geneva and Jackson last night. Here are a few things we have learned about Maddox in the last 28 hours:
He loves to walk.
He is coming out of his shell more and more all the time. He responds to his name (Maddox) and knows that Britt is his “daddy” and I am his “mommy.” He now says “dada.” He doesn’t like having lotion put on his body, but likes having his hair washed and brushed. He will keep eating as long as there is food in front of him and will eat a few bites of anything, even if he doesn’t seem to really like it. 
He loves to slide.
We spent the day like this: get up, eat, go outside walking, eat, nap, eat, go outside walking, eat, bedtime. He has shown us today that he does have a temper. He didn’t like it when we put him in the stroller one time because I think he felt he wasn’t done playing in the dirt.
We’d only been doing it for over an hour, but apparently that wasn’t long enough. We figured it out by the arched back, pushing against us trying to buckle him in and the crying. It only lasted a few minutes and then he was back to his smiley, head-bonking self.
Tomorrow we have the morning to ourselves and then we head to Moscow in the afternoon.
Right now Maddox has retrieved the trash can from under the desk and is putting whatever he can find in it… currently it contains his ball, his shoes, Britt’s socks, one of Britt’s slippers…oh wait, now he is taking everything out, including the trash…Britt is videotaping it, so we’ll have it to blackmail him with it later. It may be a long night!
We spent the day like this: get up, eat, go outside walking, eat, nap, eat, go outside walking, eat, bedtime. He has shown us today that he does have a temper. He didn’t like it when we put him in the stroller one time because I think he felt he wasn’t done playing in the dirt.
We’d only been doing it for over an hour, but apparently that wasn’t long enough. We figured it out by the arched back, pushing against us trying to buckle him in and the crying. It only lasted a few minutes and then he was back to his smiley, head-bonking self.Tomorrow we have the morning to ourselves and then we head to Moscow in the afternoon.
Right now Maddox has retrieved the trash can from under the desk and is putting whatever he can find in it… currently it contains his ball, his shoes, Britt’s socks, one of Britt’s slippers…oh wait, now he is taking everything out, including the trash…Britt is videotaping it, so we’ll have it to blackmail him with it later. It may be a long night!
Monday, April 20, 2009
GOTCHA DAY - April 20th, 2009
Monday, 20 Apr – 9pm (St Petersburg time)
Our day started out with a phone call at 10am from our coordinator saying we would be leaving to pick up Maddox at 2:30pm. So, we headed out with our friends to grab a late breakfast and kill some time. Here we are in the courtyard of the Winter Palace before picking up Maddox.
It is hard to believe that 18+ months of praying, paperwork, phone calls, more paperwork, and 3 trips to Russia was the easy part. God has blessed us this entire journey and we know He deserves all the glory. We go to sleep tonight knowing that the next part of our journey is just beginning and trust in God the entire way.
Our day started out with a phone call at 10am from our coordinator saying we would be leaving to pick up Maddox at 2:30pm. So, we headed out with our friends to grab a late breakfast and kill some time. Here we are in the courtyard of the Winter Palace before picking up Maddox.
Now, for the info you all really want to know about...
Right now Maddox and Britt are lying on our bed. Britt is doing more sleeping than Maddox. We have had him to ourselves for just over 4 hours now and so far, so good. We went to pick him up and got to the orphanage just after 4pm. After waiting for what seemed like forever (it was really just about 10 min), the social worker came in with a ledger. She had us sign our name in the book and then they brought him into us. Just like every time before, he was crying. It took him a few minutes, but he did stop. Then we changed his clothes and diaper, put on his snowsuit and walked out of the building with him. There was no party or goodbyes, just us walking out the door and down the stairs to the car.
He was a little scared at first in the car…he had never ridden in one before. After a minute or two, he was fascinated with everything going on around him. He sat very still on my lap for the 30 min ride to our hotel (car seats aren’t required and are not usually used).
He whined when we got out of the car because he wanted to look some more, but that didn’t last long because there was new things to see in the hotel lobby. We took him to our room, took the snowsuit off (way to hot, but they pack the layers on their kids…when in Rome…), and got out the toys. I reached into the bag of toys and took something out, and then he reached in the bag. From that moment on, he took out a toy, laid it on the floor and reached into the bag to take out another one until the bag was empty. He transformed into a very different little boy. He was laughing (a first for us), giggling, smiling, running around and wanting me to chase him.
Right now Maddox and Britt are lying on our bed. Britt is doing more sleeping than Maddox. We have had him to ourselves for just over 4 hours now and so far, so good. We went to pick him up and got to the orphanage just after 4pm. After waiting for what seemed like forever (it was really just about 10 min), the social worker came in with a ledger. She had us sign our name in the book and then they brought him into us. Just like every time before, he was crying. It took him a few minutes, but he did stop. Then we changed his clothes and diaper, put on his snowsuit and walked out of the building with him. There was no party or goodbyes, just us walking out the door and down the stairs to the car.
He was a little scared at first in the car…he had never ridden in one before. After a minute or two, he was fascinated with everything going on around him. He sat very still on my lap for the 30 min ride to our hotel (car seats aren’t required and are not usually used).
He whined when we got out of the car because he wanted to look some more, but that didn’t last long because there was new things to see in the hotel lobby. We took him to our room, took the snowsuit off (way to hot, but they pack the layers on their kids…when in Rome…), and got out the toys. I reached into the bag of toys and took something out, and then he reached in the bag. From that moment on, he took out a toy, laid it on the floor and reached into the bag to take out another one until the bag was empty. He transformed into a very different little boy. He was laughing (a first for us), giggling, smiling, running around and wanting me to chase him.
We played for over an hour on the floor. Then, it was his dinner time so I left to get some hot water and while I was gone (less than 2 minutes) he cried and ran to the door. Britt said Maddox was very concerned. When I came back (without the hot water), we decided to all go to the restaurant to get the water. He walked holding my hand down the hall and back. When we got back to the room, he whined again…he didn’t want to stop. As we walked, he touched everything…all new experiences. For dinner we gave him a packet of plain oatmeal, a cup of yogurt, a bunch of banana-flavored stars and some milk from a cup. He probably would have kept eating and eating, but we thought he shouldn’t overdo it tonight. After dinner we played some more and then I gave him a sponge bath while Britt ran and got us dinner. FYI, Russian McDonalds tastes better than American McDonalds (they must use oil with trans fats in it). I set him on the vanity with his feet in the sink. He loved splashing his feet in the water and didn’t seem to mind the washing at all. Maybe tomorrow we’ll try a real bath. After I dried him off and put his PJs on him, I brushed his hair. Then I gave him the brush to look at and he started brushing his hair with it (smart kid). After that, I made up a bottle and we cuddled as he drank it. It took him a few minutes to remember what to do, but it was excellent bonding time. Before we laid him down, we did a family hug (something we do a lot at home) and he had the biggest smile on his face…so we did another one. Then we tried to lay him down in the crib, but he started to cry, so we laid him on our bed. I stayed with him for a few minutes and then Britt laid with him. While Britt was there, he and Maddox took turns pointing at their ears, nose, eyes, etc. Britt would name them for Maddox and Maddox would say something in return. Sometimes it sounded right and sometimes it didn’t, but it was a really cool moment. One thing we found out was that Maddox sucks on his wrist. I never noticed the marks before, but I noticed them today and when he went to sleep we found out what they came from. He has a vacuum lock on his wrist. Now he is sleeping peacefully on our bed. 
We are going to move him to the crib and put the crib next to the bed. They told us that he goes to bed at 8pm and gets up at 7:30am…we’ll see what the morning brings. He didn’t fall asleep tonight until 9pm. Tomorrow we are going to get out. We plan on wandering the hotel, going to a park, trying a restaurant for lunch. We’ll see how it goes. We were told his nap is from 12:30-3pm…if that holds true, he will be the best nap taker we’ve ever had :)
It is hard to believe that 18+ months of praying, paperwork, phone calls, more paperwork, and 3 trips to Russia was the easy part. God has blessed us this entire journey and we know He deserves all the glory. We go to sleep tonight knowing that the next part of our journey is just beginning and trust in God the entire way.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Happy Easter!
Sunday, Apr 19th – Easter (Russian Orthodox) – 4:30pm
Today can be summed up with one word…walking. We walked everywhere today. We met up with our friends at 9am and walked to a local coffee place. We had a great cappuccino and pastry to start our day. The barista even put a lion face in our foam.
Then we walked across 3 bridges to Peter and Paul fortress which is an entire island in the Neva River. Here is a picture of it from one of the bridges.
We went into the Peter and Paul Church where all of the Tsars and Tsarinas are buried…the last Tsarina to be laid to rest there had her remains moved from Denmark to join her husband in 2006. We walked through a building that had showed the history of St Petersburg and walked along the outside of the fortress walls.
There were multiple people lying against the walls sunbathing…it was not above 40 degrees and the wind was really blowing…not sure I would have needed vitamin D that bad. I spared you the picture. We exited the fortress through Peter’s gate.
We then walked back across the Neva to go to our favorite place for lunch…Stolle…the pie place. We all needed to sit down and warm up. After lunch we went to St Isaac’s Cathedral and climbed the dome for a spectacular view of St Petersburg. You could see every major landmark today as the sky was clear. We took a picture from there of our hotel (Petro Palace) to show you all how close we are to the city center.
Tonight we are off to find a restaurant that was recommended to us last trip. We decided to have one more nice dinner before tomorrow. We are still hoping to pick up Maddox tomorrow afternoon, but we haven’t heard from our coordinator as to a time yet. We are praying that our blog update tomorrow will include Maddox in our room :)
Today can be summed up with one word…walking. We walked everywhere today. We met up with our friends at 9am and walked to a local coffee place. We had a great cappuccino and pastry to start our day. The barista even put a lion face in our foam.
Then we walked across 3 bridges to Peter and Paul fortress which is an entire island in the Neva River. Here is a picture of it from one of the bridges.
We went into the Peter and Paul Church where all of the Tsars and Tsarinas are buried…the last Tsarina to be laid to rest there had her remains moved from Denmark to join her husband in 2006. We walked through a building that had showed the history of St Petersburg and walked along the outside of the fortress walls.
There were multiple people lying against the walls sunbathing…it was not above 40 degrees and the wind was really blowing…not sure I would have needed vitamin D that bad. I spared you the picture. We exited the fortress through Peter’s gate.
We then walked back across the Neva to go to our favorite place for lunch…Stolle…the pie place. We all needed to sit down and warm up. After lunch we went to St Isaac’s Cathedral and climbed the dome for a spectacular view of St Petersburg. You could see every major landmark today as the sky was clear. We took a picture from there of our hotel (Petro Palace) to show you all how close we are to the city center.
Tonight we are off to find a restaurant that was recommended to us last trip. We decided to have one more nice dinner before tomorrow. We are still hoping to pick up Maddox tomorrow afternoon, but we haven’t heard from our coordinator as to a time yet. We are praying that our blog update tomorrow will include Maddox in our room :)
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Tourist Time
Saturday, Apr 18th – 8pm (St Petersburg time)
Today we saw a lot of St Petersburg history. We had our first sunny day today for all our trips. However, the seeing the sun did not mean we were warm. It was pretty cold and I think we were all wishing we had warmer clothes. We went with another couple to Tsarskoye Selo and saw The Summer Palace, also known as Catherine’s Palace (picture #1, #2).
On our way there and back we say many dachas (picture #3).
A dacha is a little shack that the people who live in the city have in the country. They are usually really tiny and they also have a garden and fruit trees. Then we at what is becoming our favorite place Stolle Restaurant. They make pies; meat pie, rabbit pie, chicken pie, herring pie, caviar pie, apple pie, lemon pie…you get the idea. It is a stuffed pastry. It is very good and inexpensive. After that we wandered to the souvenir market and the Church of the Resurrection and Spilt Blood (see picture #4).
The day was so beautiful that we wanted to get some more pictures. It is light here from about 6am to 9pm, so we went walking around the city some more. We wandered into the Kazan Cathedral where there were tons of people in different forms of worship for the Russian Orthodox Easter which is tomorrow. We saw the priests blessing people’s Easter cakes with holy water. The entire experience was very interesting. We found “The Bronze Horseman,” a statue of Peter the Great on horseback looking over the Neva River (the main river in St Petersburg – picture #5). 
Then we walked past St Issac’s Cathedral, but it was closed (see picture #6).
Tomorrow we’ll try and go inside and we are also heading over to Peter & Paul Island to see the fortress that was built there along with the church that holds the graves of all the Tsars. We will find out tomorrow night what time we will be picking Maddox up on Monday. That’s all for today.
On our way there and back we say many dachas (picture #3).
A dacha is a little shack that the people who live in the city have in the country. They are usually really tiny and they also have a garden and fruit trees. Then we at what is becoming our favorite place Stolle Restaurant. They make pies; meat pie, rabbit pie, chicken pie, herring pie, caviar pie, apple pie, lemon pie…you get the idea. It is a stuffed pastry. It is very good and inexpensive. After that we wandered to the souvenir market and the Church of the Resurrection and Spilt Blood (see picture #4).
The day was so beautiful that we wanted to get some more pictures. It is light here from about 6am to 9pm, so we went walking around the city some more. We wandered into the Kazan Cathedral where there were tons of people in different forms of worship for the Russian Orthodox Easter which is tomorrow. We saw the priests blessing people’s Easter cakes with holy water. The entire experience was very interesting. We found “The Bronze Horseman,” a statue of Peter the Great on horseback looking over the Neva River (the main river in St Petersburg – picture #5). 
Then we walked past St Issac’s Cathedral, but it was closed (see picture #6).
Tomorrow we’ll try and go inside and we are also heading over to Peter & Paul Island to see the fortress that was built there along with the church that holds the graves of all the Tsars. We will find out tomorrow night what time we will be picking Maddox up on Monday. That’s all for today. Friday, April 17, 2009
Here We Go Again!!!!
Thursday, Apr 16th – 4:30pm
Here we go again! We are at the airport waiting to fly to Frankfurt for trip #3. We will apply for Maddox’s passport tomorrow when we get to St Petersburg and then wait for 4 days for it to be ready. We are hoping to see Maddox every day while we wait. Right now we will pick him up on Wed morning…a change from what we were told before. We are just going with the flow.
17 Apr – Frankfurt Airport
Britt and I flew separately this trip. Britt was in NY for training all week, so he flew straight from there. He arrived in Frankfurt early enough to make the first flight to St Petersburg. I did not. So, I have a 5 hour layover in Frankfurt while he got to be in St Petersburg registering for Maddox’s passport. I thought that since I had such a long layover I would take some things to wash up while I was here. I was in the bathroom and had washed my face, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, etc. When I was finished putting everything back in my carry-on I stood up and SMACK, hit my head on a tooth cleaner dispenser. OUCH! I saw stars. Luckily I didn’t pass out, but over an hour later my head still hurts. Wouldn’t that have been great…travelling by myself in the Frankfurt, Germany airport and I knock myself out. Just thought I would share my funny (knuckle-headed) story.
As for the next 4 days, I have no idea what we have to do or what we get to do or if we’ll get to see Maddox. All I know is that as long as Britt made it to St Petersburg on time, they should have taken him to register for Maddox’s passport. It will be ready for us to pick it up on Wed and then we are supposed to fly to Moscow to complete his visa paperwork and get his visa. So, tune in again to find out what happens…we’ll be just as surprised as you.
Here we go again! We are at the airport waiting to fly to Frankfurt for trip #3. We will apply for Maddox’s passport tomorrow when we get to St Petersburg and then wait for 4 days for it to be ready. We are hoping to see Maddox every day while we wait. Right now we will pick him up on Wed morning…a change from what we were told before. We are just going with the flow.
17 Apr – Frankfurt Airport
Britt and I flew separately this trip. Britt was in NY for training all week, so he flew straight from there. He arrived in Frankfurt early enough to make the first flight to St Petersburg. I did not. So, I have a 5 hour layover in Frankfurt while he got to be in St Petersburg registering for Maddox’s passport. I thought that since I had such a long layover I would take some things to wash up while I was here. I was in the bathroom and had washed my face, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, etc. When I was finished putting everything back in my carry-on I stood up and SMACK, hit my head on a tooth cleaner dispenser. OUCH! I saw stars. Luckily I didn’t pass out, but over an hour later my head still hurts. Wouldn’t that have been great…travelling by myself in the Frankfurt, Germany airport and I knock myself out. Just thought I would share my funny (knuckle-headed) story.
As for the next 4 days, I have no idea what we have to do or what we get to do or if we’ll get to see Maddox. All I know is that as long as Britt made it to St Petersburg on time, they should have taken him to register for Maddox’s passport. It will be ready for us to pick it up on Wed and then we are supposed to fly to Moscow to complete his visa paperwork and get his visa. So, tune in again to find out what happens…we’ll be just as surprised as you.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
8 Apr – 7 am
Home again, home again, jiggity jig! We are all home again. It was great to see the kids and they were really excited. They had a great time at our friends’ house and it was nice not to worry about them. We have had great support and we thank everyone for that.
I promised a few pictures of the inside of the Church. Remember 70,000 sqft of mosaic tile pictures. The first 2 pictures are of mosaics and the 3rd picture is of the altar…carved marble and mosaic.
Home again, home again, jiggity jig! We are all home again. It was great to see the kids and they were really excited. They had a great time at our friends’ house and it was nice not to worry about them. We have had great support and we thank everyone for that.
I promised a few pictures of the inside of the Church. Remember 70,000 sqft of mosaic tile pictures. The first 2 pictures are of mosaics and the 3rd picture is of the altar…carved marble and mosaic.
The left side of the church
the interior of the dome
the altar
We are going back to get Maddox on the 17th, so there is much unpacking, laundry and repacking to do…we’ll keep you updated. Thanks for being a part of God’s journey for our family.
Thoughts on the flight home
7 Apr – 8:30am (Kansas time) – somewhere over Canada in route to Chicago
The same letdown I had last trip, I am feeling again...sort of emotional drainage. I am sad to leave Maddox behind, but happy we’ll be back in 10 days to get him. I miss Emma, Geneva and Jackson very much. I know the separation is hard on them and Jackson really doesn’t understand at all. So I also feel guilty to have to leave them again. Even though I know they were well cared for and will be again, I guess it is that motherly guilt that comes when you have your first child.
One thing that keeps coming back to me is that the translator and caregivers in the orphanage kept telling Maddox that we were his “mama” and “papa.” But we left him AGAIN. He has no idea what a mother and father are…he’s never had any 1 person in his life that has consistently been there. Caregivers come and go, sometimes he woke up to someone new just when he had gotten used to someone else. So, people were telling him that his “mama” and “papa” where these people who were giving him lots of attention—playing with just him, hugging him, holding his hand—but then they just disappeared like all those others that were there, then they came back and now they (we) are gone again. What do you suppose he is thinking? When we go back to pick him up, will there be some sort of emotion in him that says “this is fun, but they will leave me again?” I wish they wouldn’t have called us his “mama” and “papa” until we were there to pick him up and keep him. I don’t know if it makes a difference to him or not, but it makes a difference to me. I want my kids to know that they can count on me to always be there for them. I hope and pray that Emma, Geneva and Jackson are secure in the knowledge that Britt and I there for them…they can depend on us. Maddox has never had that in his life and we will give it to him. Of course, “being there for them” takes on different meanings at different times in their lives and we are only a short way into that support. However, for Maddox that will mean completing his cycle of need every time for a long time because it has been broken so many times in the past. I have no doubt that many orphanage caregivers, doctors, social workers and others care about the children there. But, the fact is that someone who feeds and clothes them for 24 hours at a time while taking care of 10 or so others and then leaves “their job” to go home doesn’t replace a parent that is a constant in a child’s life from birth.
Another thought keeps entering my mind. I can’t shake that feeling that just like pregnancy when you are uncomfortable and just want the baby to be born; the really hard part hasn’t started yet. Everyone knows that the first few months after a baby is born are full of great joy and extreme fatigue. We are not naïve to think when Maddox joins our family things will be any different. Yet we are ready for the challenge and know that this adoption is God’s plan for our family…wherever that leads us. We lean on that knowledge to get us through whatever lies ahead.
I know my fingers are just typing my thoughts right now, so thank you for indulging me. These sleep deprived ramblings may be hard to follow.
The same letdown I had last trip, I am feeling again...sort of emotional drainage. I am sad to leave Maddox behind, but happy we’ll be back in 10 days to get him. I miss Emma, Geneva and Jackson very much. I know the separation is hard on them and Jackson really doesn’t understand at all. So I also feel guilty to have to leave them again. Even though I know they were well cared for and will be again, I guess it is that motherly guilt that comes when you have your first child.
One thing that keeps coming back to me is that the translator and caregivers in the orphanage kept telling Maddox that we were his “mama” and “papa.” But we left him AGAIN. He has no idea what a mother and father are…he’s never had any 1 person in his life that has consistently been there. Caregivers come and go, sometimes he woke up to someone new just when he had gotten used to someone else. So, people were telling him that his “mama” and “papa” where these people who were giving him lots of attention—playing with just him, hugging him, holding his hand—but then they just disappeared like all those others that were there, then they came back and now they (we) are gone again. What do you suppose he is thinking? When we go back to pick him up, will there be some sort of emotion in him that says “this is fun, but they will leave me again?” I wish they wouldn’t have called us his “mama” and “papa” until we were there to pick him up and keep him. I don’t know if it makes a difference to him or not, but it makes a difference to me. I want my kids to know that they can count on me to always be there for them. I hope and pray that Emma, Geneva and Jackson are secure in the knowledge that Britt and I there for them…they can depend on us. Maddox has never had that in his life and we will give it to him. Of course, “being there for them” takes on different meanings at different times in their lives and we are only a short way into that support. However, for Maddox that will mean completing his cycle of need every time for a long time because it has been broken so many times in the past. I have no doubt that many orphanage caregivers, doctors, social workers and others care about the children there. But, the fact is that someone who feeds and clothes them for 24 hours at a time while taking care of 10 or so others and then leaves “their job” to go home doesn’t replace a parent that is a constant in a child’s life from birth.
Another thought keeps entering my mind. I can’t shake that feeling that just like pregnancy when you are uncomfortable and just want the baby to be born; the really hard part hasn’t started yet. Everyone knows that the first few months after a baby is born are full of great joy and extreme fatigue. We are not naïve to think when Maddox joins our family things will be any different. Yet we are ready for the challenge and know that this adoption is God’s plan for our family…wherever that leads us. We lean on that knowledge to get us through whatever lies ahead.
I know my fingers are just typing my thoughts right now, so thank you for indulging me. These sleep deprived ramblings may be hard to follow.
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Judge said, "Da"
Monday – 6 Apr – 7pm (Britt’s turn to blog)
Today we added a little boy to our family. The judge returned “a positive decision” and approved our adoption and name change request. So, officially on April 17th, Artyom will become Maddox Leonidas Singleton with Britt Harold Singleton as his father and Keri Lyn Singleton as his mother. Now we’re even MORE impatient than before. He’s ours, we want him, why can’t we have him? Court started 20 minutes late because the orphanage director forgot the scheduled time. After he was openly berated by the judge for the first five minutes, we began. The judge asked us to confirm our identities and our wishes as to the adoption, and that we understood our rights. Then a long list of information about us was read aloud for the court record. We presented photos to the judge, and Britt got to make his big speech to the court, pausing after every sentence for the translator to speak. Next came input from the orphanage director, child welfare counselor, and the government prosecutor. They were all in agreement that the adoption would be best for the child. Then they asked why we wanted to adopt another child when we already had three. Sticking with our home study verbiage, I said that our family was incomplete because we can’t have anymore children of our own and we would like another boy. So the judge responded with, “So your family is incomplete because it’s incomplete?” To which I responded, “Yes, your honor.” (Not the smoothest answer I admit, but what else was I supposed to say?) Then they asked Keri her thoughts and she said that neither of us had siblings very close in age and we see how close our girls are, and how sometimes Jack is left out, and how he could have a brother to be close to, and the court completely agreed with that analysis. (Maybe Keri should be an attorney) After that the judge left to contemplate her decision. We all rose when she left and hardly got seated again when she was back with the decision to make us the “Singleton Six plus Duke.” We were in court 37 minutes and that included the 5-minute tongue lashing the orphanage director got for being late.
After court, we went back to the hotel where Keri proceeded to analyze every possible way to do our next trip on the new dates that were given us. Then, after she calmed down and had it figured out, we met some friends for lunch. After lunch we went inside the Church of the Spilt Blood (pretty church from last trip). It was incredible…over 7000 sq m of mosaic tile (each tile is less than 1 sq inch) pictures (if my math is right, that is over 70,000sqft). Every walled surface is a mosaic tile picture from the Bible. It was built from 1887-1907 and then was used as a warehouse from 1917-1972 (so sad). It was restored from 1974-1997 and reopened as a museum in 1997. We’ll put some pictures on the blog when we get home.
As for now, we have to leave the hotel at 3:45am…so get packing. We will be back here on the 17th and hopefully be back in the USA with Maddox on Apr 25th.
Today we added a little boy to our family. The judge returned “a positive decision” and approved our adoption and name change request. So, officially on April 17th, Artyom will become Maddox Leonidas Singleton with Britt Harold Singleton as his father and Keri Lyn Singleton as his mother. Now we’re even MORE impatient than before. He’s ours, we want him, why can’t we have him? Court started 20 minutes late because the orphanage director forgot the scheduled time. After he was openly berated by the judge for the first five minutes, we began. The judge asked us to confirm our identities and our wishes as to the adoption, and that we understood our rights. Then a long list of information about us was read aloud for the court record. We presented photos to the judge, and Britt got to make his big speech to the court, pausing after every sentence for the translator to speak. Next came input from the orphanage director, child welfare counselor, and the government prosecutor. They were all in agreement that the adoption would be best for the child. Then they asked why we wanted to adopt another child when we already had three. Sticking with our home study verbiage, I said that our family was incomplete because we can’t have anymore children of our own and we would like another boy. So the judge responded with, “So your family is incomplete because it’s incomplete?” To which I responded, “Yes, your honor.” (Not the smoothest answer I admit, but what else was I supposed to say?) Then they asked Keri her thoughts and she said that neither of us had siblings very close in age and we see how close our girls are, and how sometimes Jack is left out, and how he could have a brother to be close to, and the court completely agreed with that analysis. (Maybe Keri should be an attorney) After that the judge left to contemplate her decision. We all rose when she left and hardly got seated again when she was back with the decision to make us the “Singleton Six plus Duke.” We were in court 37 minutes and that included the 5-minute tongue lashing the orphanage director got for being late.
After court, we went back to the hotel where Keri proceeded to analyze every possible way to do our next trip on the new dates that were given us. Then, after she calmed down and had it figured out, we met some friends for lunch. After lunch we went inside the Church of the Spilt Blood (pretty church from last trip). It was incredible…over 7000 sq m of mosaic tile (each tile is less than 1 sq inch) pictures (if my math is right, that is over 70,000sqft). Every walled surface is a mosaic tile picture from the Bible. It was built from 1887-1907 and then was used as a warehouse from 1917-1972 (so sad). It was restored from 1974-1997 and reopened as a museum in 1997. We’ll put some pictures on the blog when we get home.
As for now, we have to leave the hotel at 3:45am…so get packing. We will be back here on the 17th and hopefully be back in the USA with Maddox on Apr 25th.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Our Sunday - normal tourist stuff
Sunday - 5 Apr – 5:30pm
We just talked to Emma, Geneva, and Jackson. They are doing pretty good. They are a little sad, especially Jackson, but they are having fun. Today we went to the Hermitage (the Winter Palace of the Tzars that is now a huge art museum). Think of The Louvre in Paris or the Pergamon in Berlin…too big to see everything during one visit and definitely too much for our eyes after a few hours. We saw the famous stuff and then the renovated rooms from when it was used as a palace. It was really incredible. Then we walked around some, visited the souvenir market, and met some friends from the last trip.
Tomorrow we have our court hearing at 11am and then the rest of the day is ours. We will probably try and see some more sights if the weather is ok. Yesterday it was sunny and in the 40s…just beautiful compared to last visit. Today was like last time…cold and cloudy. There isn’t any snow left and they say now if it snows, it will melt in a few days. We are hoping our next trip that the weather will be even nicer. The city looks a lot different without snow.
We just talked to Emma, Geneva, and Jackson. They are doing pretty good. They are a little sad, especially Jackson, but they are having fun. Today we went to the Hermitage (the Winter Palace of the Tzars that is now a huge art museum). Think of The Louvre in Paris or the Pergamon in Berlin…too big to see everything during one visit and definitely too much for our eyes after a few hours. We saw the famous stuff and then the renovated rooms from when it was used as a palace. It was really incredible. Then we walked around some, visited the souvenir market, and met some friends from the last trip.
Tomorrow we have our court hearing at 11am and then the rest of the day is ours. We will probably try and see some more sights if the weather is ok. Yesterday it was sunny and in the 40s…just beautiful compared to last visit. Today was like last time…cold and cloudy. There isn’t any snow left and they say now if it snows, it will melt in a few days. We are hoping our next trip that the weather will be even nicer. The city looks a lot different without snow.
Our Visit With Maddox
THE BIG SMILE
4 Apr 2009, Saturday
WOW!!! What a crazy day. We both had trouble sleeping on the plane this time and got about 1-2 total each. So, we were really tired when we arrived and we planning on just going to the hotel, taking a walk around town and getting something to eat before an early bed time. However, when we walked off the plane our translator said that we were going to the orphanage. Besides being really surprised, we were excited because we thought we were going to get to see Maddox twice on this trip. However, that was not what was going to happen. Apparently there is no administrative staff at the orphanage on the weekends, so visits aren’t encouraged. But, because it is required that we visit Maddox once more before court, they had to get us in sometime. Saturdays are better visiting days than Sundays, so we were off to see Maddox on Saturday. Since it was his nap time when we arrived in St Petersburg, they took us to our hotel first. We checked in and had 1 hour before we were leaving. We took a shower and tried to wake up. We left at 3:15pm for the orphanage and got there about 10 minutes to 4pm. When we arrived he was having his snack, so we waited. At 4:20pm they brought him out to us. Of course, he was crying and didn’t want to stay at first. But, Keri just picked him up and we started talking to him. He was dressed to go outside, so we went for a walk. He held our hands as we made circles around the orphanage yard. We gave him some animal crackers we had brought with us and he liked them. He had one in his hand, but always wanted us to feed him one instead. It was apparent to us that he either remembered us or they had been showing him the pictures because he warmed up to us really fast and we had him smiling and laughing…which he hardly did at all last visit. He would play games with us like peek-a-boo. Also, if we leaned into him, he would lean into us and then we would touch heads. We would say “bonk” and that really made him smile and even laugh. He also would reach out and touch our noses or ears and we would then touch his…that became a game that made him smile. Or he would hold out his hand and Britt would wrap his hand around Maddox’s hand and shake his arm gently. That really made him laugh and smile. Overall the visit was really great! We are still smiling and talking about the visit to each other today. We did also manage to try on the set of clothes Keri brought to see what size he would be in so we know what clothes to bring next trip. He is right where we thought he was…somewhere between 12-18 months size. That helps in being ready at home.
WOW!!! What a crazy day. We both had trouble sleeping on the plane this time and got about 1-2 total each. So, we were really tired when we arrived and we planning on just going to the hotel, taking a walk around town and getting something to eat before an early bed time. However, when we walked off the plane our translator said that we were going to the orphanage. Besides being really surprised, we were excited because we thought we were going to get to see Maddox twice on this trip. However, that was not what was going to happen. Apparently there is no administrative staff at the orphanage on the weekends, so visits aren’t encouraged. But, because it is required that we visit Maddox once more before court, they had to get us in sometime. Saturdays are better visiting days than Sundays, so we were off to see Maddox on Saturday. Since it was his nap time when we arrived in St Petersburg, they took us to our hotel first. We checked in and had 1 hour before we were leaving. We took a shower and tried to wake up. We left at 3:15pm for the orphanage and got there about 10 minutes to 4pm. When we arrived he was having his snack, so we waited. At 4:20pm they brought him out to us. Of course, he was crying and didn’t want to stay at first. But, Keri just picked him up and we started talking to him. He was dressed to go outside, so we went for a walk. He held our hands as we made circles around the orphanage yard. We gave him some animal crackers we had brought with us and he liked them. He had one in his hand, but always wanted us to feed him one instead. It was apparent to us that he either remembered us or they had been showing him the pictures because he warmed up to us really fast and we had him smiling and laughing…which he hardly did at all last visit. He would play games with us like peek-a-boo. Also, if we leaned into him, he would lean into us and then we would touch heads. We would say “bonk” and that really made him smile and even laugh. He also would reach out and touch our noses or ears and we would then touch his…that became a game that made him smile. Or he would hold out his hand and Britt would wrap his hand around Maddox’s hand and shake his arm gently. That really made him laugh and smile. Overall the visit was really great! We are still smiling and talking about the visit to each other today. We did also manage to try on the set of clothes Keri brought to see what size he would be in so we know what clothes to bring next trip. He is right where we thought he was…somewhere between 12-18 months size. That helps in being ready at home.
"BONK"
Saturday, April 4, 2009
We Saw Maddox today
When we arrived at the airport in St Petersburg, our interpretator said that we were going to be going to the orphanage today...they usually don't like visitors on weekends because of staffing, but we are required to see him once more before court (twist our arm). So, after dropping off our luggage at the hotel and quickly cleaning up, we left to see Maddox. We are really tired right now, so the full story will be in tomorrow's blog, but we wanted to put out a picture of him smiling...we got lots of smiles and laughs from him today.
Tomorrow we have nothing adoption related so we are going to do some sightseeing. So, check back tomorrow for the details of our visit with Maddox and our upcoming court hearing.
We have arrived...
3 Apr 2009 – 3:15pm – 35K feet high – east of Chicago but still over the US
We are on the 2nd leg of our 3 leg flight to St Pete. We have had some pleasant surprises so far on this journey. When we were boarding in KC for Chicago, the agent took our boarding passes, ran them through the scanner and then said, “wait a minute…” He asked the other guy if he had the “singleton” boarding cards and ran 2 other cards through. Then he handed them to me and said, “enjoy.” I looked down and they were for seats 1A and 1B…FIRST CLASS!!! That was great. I had never rode in 1st class before. They even served us drinks in glass glasses…I told the flight attendant that we don’t even drink out of glass glasses at home. Then when we got to Chicago, they couldn’t seat us together, but said they would work on it. Right before we boarded, Britt went and got our boarding passes and they did manage to get us in the same row. When we got on the plane, our seats were in “economy plus” which is just like economy but with 5 extra inches between the seats. Last night United wanted $98 each for us to upgrade to “economy plus.” I never really thought 5 little inches would make a difference, but it does.
We are on the 2nd leg of our 3 leg flight to St Pete. We have had some pleasant surprises so far on this journey. When we were boarding in KC for Chicago, the agent took our boarding passes, ran them through the scanner and then said, “wait a minute…” He asked the other guy if he had the “singleton” boarding cards and ran 2 other cards through. Then he handed them to me and said, “enjoy.” I looked down and they were for seats 1A and 1B…FIRST CLASS!!! That was great. I had never rode in 1st class before. They even served us drinks in glass glasses…I told the flight attendant that we don’t even drink out of glass glasses at home. Then when we got to Chicago, they couldn’t seat us together, but said they would work on it. Right before we boarded, Britt went and got our boarding passes and they did manage to get us in the same row. When we got on the plane, our seats were in “economy plus” which is just like economy but with 5 extra inches between the seats. Last night United wanted $98 each for us to upgrade to “economy plus.” I never really thought 5 little inches would make a difference, but it does.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
And we're off....
We are all packed, and ready to go....
We are headed back to Russia tomorrow for our court hearing on Monday. We get to see Maddox on Sunday and we are excited, but know that he will probably not remember us.
Please pray for a smooth trip for us, a good stay for the kids and that the judge will approve our adoption.
We are headed back to Russia tomorrow for our court hearing on Monday. We get to see Maddox on Sunday and we are excited, but know that he will probably not remember us.
Please pray for a smooth trip for us, a good stay for the kids and that the judge will approve our adoption.
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