Our little guy!

Well I guess it has been a while since I posted anything on this blog. However we were busy getting adjusted to our new life as 3.
The first 2 days were very challenging mainly with our feelings including our Little Guy. But day 3 was a blast and it has been none stop since then. We love it!!!!
It is also very nice to be able to hang out with other American families who are adopting also.
Today is the last day of our 10 mandatory days imposed by the Russian gouvernement.
Monday and Tuesday we willbe busy getting our little guy his Russian passport, doctor 's visit and more paper works to exit the Primorye region.
Wednesday we are getting ready to fly to Moscow where we will stay 7 nights. This time paper works for the United states to prepare is entry :-)
He is currently teething so we hope he will be a trooper in the plane.

Ca fait un bon bout de temps que je n'ai plus ecrit sur ce blog mais nous etions plutot occupes a nous ajuster a notre nouvelle vie a 3.
Les deux premiers jours etaient plutot dur ... je pense nous etions les 3 stresses aux changement de notre nouvelle vie.
Mais le troieme jour formidable et depuis on n'arrete pas de rire. On se regale!!!!
Nous passons egalement nos journees avec d'autre familles Americaines aussi en train d'adopter.
Aujourd'hui, c'est le dernier jour de nos 10 jour imposer par le gouvernement Russe pour etre enfin ces parents.
Lundi et Mardi nous serons occuper a preparer son passport Russe afin de faire notre sorti de la region de Primorye. Mercredi nous partons pour Moscou pendant 7 jours pour preparer son entrer aux USA.
Il fait en ce moment ses dents le pauvre...

Court date

Today was our court day! It went great!! However it was very intimidating! Like being in a Russian movie!!!
We had the judge in front of us, 2 prosecutors, our translator and our social worker. We were asked so many questions ... after that, we had to leave the court room to wait on the verdict!
Our verdict?: "we are officially the proud parents of Baby Spera :-) Of course at the end, I had tears in my eyes ....
We never sweated so much in such a cold country Ha! :-)

Monday we go back to the orphanage to pick up our son and wait for our mandatory 10 days.


Aujourd'hui, nous sommes passes en court de justice!!! C'etait effrayant!! comme dans un film Russe!!
Nous avions le judge devant nous, 2 prosecuteurs, our traducteur et notre assistance social.
On nous a pose tellement de questions...apres ca, nous avons du quitter la salle et attendre le verdict du judge.
Notre Verdict?: "Nous sommes les fiers parents de notre petit Spera :-) Bien sur a la fin j'avais des larmes aux yeux...
On a jamais autant transpirer dans un pays aussi froid :-)

Lundi nous allons le chercher.

Day 1

After a long long flight, as we left home on Sunday at 8:00 am to catch our train, bus in Philly, Subway in NYC, flight from NYC to Keif, Keif to Moscow and Moscow to Vladivostok....arrival Tuesday at 12:45 pm. Yeah!!! As you can image, we slept good! Now it is Wednesday and we are getting ready to go see our little man...prior court tomorrow.

Apres un tres tres long voyage, nous avions quiter notre maison Dimance a 8:00 du mat pour prendre le train, le bus a Philadelphia, metro a New York, vol de NYC a Kief, Keif a Moscou et Moscou Vladivostok... arrivee Mardi a 12:45. Yeah!!!!! comme vous pouvez vous imaginer on a bien dormi! Maintenant on est Mercredi et on se prepare a voir notre petit homme...demain on passe en justice.

Vladivostok

We just arrived at the Vlad Motor Inn in Vladivostok. It is sunny but -10 degrees celcuis. Lot of snow.
Tomorrow we are meeting with Oksana at 8:30 am to go to the orphanage to visit our little boy.

Nous arrivons juste a l'hotel a Vladivostok. Il fait soleil, -10 degrees et plein de neige.
Demain on a rendez-vous avec Oksana a 8:30 du mat pour aller a l'orphelinage pour visiter notre petit bonhomme.

Friday November 13, 2009 Visas are in!!

We got our visas and passport ready to go on Sunday to catch our flight from JFK !!!!

Visas et Passport sont arrives comme prevu. Dimance nous partons prendre notre avion au depart de JFK New York.!!!!!!

Monday November 9th

Our heads have been spinning since we know we need to get ready ASAP.
Steve has to work everyday 10 hours a day until we leave.. so.. I am left with all the packing and making sure I don't forget nothing.
So far, plane tickets- done. visas on their way- Hotel in Moscow -done. Vlad Motor Inn in Vladivostok - no need to worry the agency take care of it for us :-)
Our little boy clothes, toys, medicines and all the above - almost done.
Stairs case secured...almost done.. Steve working on it as we speak. I know a lot of you are very concerned about our first floor stair case...
So I guess getting there..getting there...

Nos tetes ont pas arrete de tourner depuis qu'on a eu la nouvelle qu'il faut nous preparer au depart ASAP.
Steve travaille tous les jours 10 heures par jour jusqu'a la veille du depart...Donc je dois toutes seul preparer nos valises. et rien oublier.
Pour l'instant, billet d'avion - fait. Visas en progret. Hotel a Moscou - fait. Hotel a Vladivostok pas besoin de m'en occuper notre agence le fait. :-).
Toutes les affaires du petit..presque fait...La cage a escalier a securiser Steve y travaille... je sais beaucoup de vous vous faite du souci au niveau de notre cage d'escalier plutot dangereuse...
Donc, je suppose on va y arriver....

Court date

it is official we have a court date for November 19th.
We will leave Philadelphia on November 15th arrive at Vladivostok on the 17th.
December 3rd, we will leave Vladivostok for Moscow and stay a week there as we need to get our little boy's visa and all the papers needed. So we will come back home on December 11th.
Steve's birthday is on the 7th, so I am so exited we will celebrate in Moscow with our little prince. :-)

C'est officiel, notre date pour passer en justice est le 19 Novembre.
Nous quittons Philadelphia le 15 Novembre pour Vladivostok jusqu'au 3 Decembre pour aller a Moscou pendant une semaine pour faire tous les papiers necessaires du petit.
Nous sommes prevus de rentrer le 11 Decembre.
L'anniversaire de Steve est le 7 Decembre donc on se rejouie a celebrer a Moscou avec notre petit prince :-)

Phone call..Appel telephonique

Hier a 8:45 pm nous avons recu l'appel telephonique de Linda. Notre date pour passer devant le judge est le 18 ou 19 Novembre. Linda nous a aussi annonce on a le bon judge. Apparament l'autre est plutot dur!! Maintenant il me faut faire la demande de notre visa Business Helico Presto!

Yesterday we received Linda's phone call at 8:45 pm. Our court date is schedule for November 18 or 19th. Linda told us we have the good judge. Apparently one is pretty mean!!

Now time to apply for our business visa ASAP!!

One year already! Brief recap of the year!

It is already one year and 2 weeks since we officially sign the contract with our adoption agency.

We had many ups and down but we are very fortunate to have a great Agency!
The downs were really out of control of our agency and they always find a way around.
To give you a brief update of our year:
* October 17th we sign the contract with an Adoption agency in Florida.
because they are in Florida and we leave in Philadelphia, we needed our home study to be done here in PA.
So November we started our home study with a local agency here. (I will not disclose their name... you will see why later).
Because of the Holidays, our HS was done by on January 29th.
Our Floridian Agency was so anxious on us to be done with our HS as they already had a referral for us: A 8 months old boy from Vladivostok.
So you can only imagine how happy were were!
We mailed our dossier #1 the next day ...arrived in Florida the next and needed few days to get it all Apostille and another week to reach Vladivostok.
Well that is when it went all down hill from there...(looking at it now I think it was just meant to be that way..)
Our HS agency ( in PA) just got placed on the red Russian list prior we could be registered by the Department of Education of Vladivostok, which mean we could not be registered in Russia at all. (Being on the red list it means Russia does not want to do business with you anymore).
Since again our Agency is from Florida they could not take other our HS.
So in a hurry we had to find another company in the Philadelphia area that was not on that list and that was quite hard, who will take other our home study ASAP!
More money of course and time lost. Anyway a month after we were able to finally get registered so we could do our first trip.
Well well.. problem #2, the little boy did not have all the papers needed to be applicable for adoption..to make a long story short, in June we find out a Russian family took him as foster parents.
So back to the wait list.
Beginning of July, we received another referral for a little boy in Siberia. Well one hour after we received the referral that one went down the tube also... our HS #2 was also on the bad Russian list!!! So our dossier could not be transferred from one province to another...crazy!!!!!
So our dossier had to stay in Vladivostok and we we had to wait on a child from that region.
At this point, we had to start to believe in faith! The first 2 referrals was just not the right one...there was a reason...
Mid July we received another referral: a 14 months old boy and his sister 3 years old. At least this time they did not emailed us pictures unless we were ready to accept two kids at once.
I know a lot of you thought that was great!! But really going from no kids to 2 kids with different ages!!! That was way to much for us!! so we declined right away knowing they will get the perfect parents capable in taking the challenge.
So we waited and waited until August..you going to say it was not much of a wait...well let me tell you it seems like centuries when you are waiting and do not know when you will receive the call.
So the call came and this time, we feel strongly he is the ONE!!!!
As you all know we meet him recently and now back on the wait. Ha!

November 1st..begining of a new month

Today is November 1st! we are hoping this month will be the month we will come to pick you up.

Yesterday was Halloween and for the first time we did not celebrate with little children... we are waiting for you.. so as much as we still had fun to go to an adult Halloween party, we are also hoping it is the last one.

Hopefully next year the 3 of us we will all go Trick or Treats together :-)

Aujourd'hui, nous somme le 1er Novembre. Nous esperons ce mois ci sera le mois ou nous viendrons te chercher.

Hier c'etait Halloween et pour la premiere fois nous n'avons pas celebrer avec les enfants...nous t'attendons...malgre que nous avons passes une super soiree d'Halloween pour adults, nous esperons aussi que c'est la derniere.

On espere l'annee prochaine nous irons tous les trois ensemble faire le Trick or Treats :-)