Is it obvious I have too much time on my hands? I would hate to say how long it took for me to come up with the equivalent for Happy Halloween in Russian. Unfortunately they do not really celebrate Halloween like we do in the states. It sounds like a few bars may decorate. And some people use it as an excuse to drink Vodka. But other than that - nothing. So here we sit eating our bags of candy!
However we are happy to say we still have internet access. We have not tried anything too crazy on the computer. We just have to make sure everything is working for election night. I know it may be hard to believe, but we can not wait. We will be glued to coverage on MSNBC!
Since Todd's practice of speaking loud and slow has not gotten us very far. I have picked up something of a Russian accent. He has busted me on it several times. We had dinner tonight with the Akers (other Kansas family) and Karey said her husband, Geoff, is doing the same thing. Who knows how heavy my accent may be by the time we get home. Todd is monitoring things to make sure it does not progress from a simple accent to speaking fluent Russian.
As I mentioned before we went out for dinner tonight with the Akers. And since it is Friday, we went to Jalepenos Siberia. This will make it our third night in a row eating there. You know it is bad when they not only remember you but remember your order! After dinner, we went back to our apartment and played a card game called Spades with the Akers. This was our first experience playing the game. For those of you unfamiliar with the game it has some similarities to Euchre. And like Euchre I am a much better player than Todd.
Today we went and purchased our return airline tickets to Moscow. We are currently scheduled to leave Krasnoyarsk on November 12th. We were told we will be picking Sam up from the baby home on November 8th (Happy Birthday Jimmy)! While this is still many days away, it is nice to see some light at the end of the tunnel. We are not sure if they are anxious to get rid of us, but they were sure in a hurry to get us to the travel agent before we broke anything else in the apartment. Our representatives will no longer work with families from New York due to some bad experiences. We are afraid we may be the spoilers for Kansas!
It is late here; it is about 10:30pm. We have decided to leave our costumes on and head out one more time to see if we can get any treats. Wish us luck!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
HOUSTON WE HAD A PROBLEM!
Well we continue to have technical problems here in Siberia. Things seemed to be working fine and then suddenly Russian messages appeared and the computer no longer worked again. Our driver, Max, also the Geek on Call seems to have gotten things working again. Todd was watching him work on the computer and saw him stick a piece of paper somewhere in the CPU. Let's just say this computer is on it's last leg. We have to be very careful with the computer over the next few days, because Max is skiing until Tuesday night.
We felt bad that we could not share our "big day" yesterday. We spent the morning working on our computers. Then we decided to take a walk to the supermall. Walking here is something of an extreme sport. Drivers do not yield in any way to pedestrians. In fact, we think they consider us targets.
The mall is very large, but we limited our venture to the supermarket. We noticed that the Russian version of a helpful smile in every isle consists of a security guard packing heat. It certainly gave us second thoughts about squeezing the Charmin. We were so excited to find frozen pizza at the store. We have been finding the simpler things in life are very sweet here in Siberia.
Checking out at any store is always an experience. Todd continues to try speaking louder and slower in hopes they will understand english. We made quite the commotion when our checker was trying vigourously to tell us to get some bags for our groceries. We can only imagine what they are thinking. We plan to return to the mall often. There is suppose to be a bowling alley there; and we will likely go bowling this weekend with some other American families.
Later in the evening, we had dinner with the other Kansas family and our representatives. It was at a quaint Italian restaurant very close to our apartment. It was probably the first time we have felt full since our $40 hamburgers in Moscow. Todd and I tried to memorize a few items on the menu since we will likely be going there often. Let's just call the place "Jalepenos Siberia".
Today we were fortunate enough to be able to travel to the baby home and visit Sam. Max, the computer geek, was our driver. It was a busy day and we could not spend as much time with Sam as we would have liked. While we were there they took Sam to have his passport photos taken. They were the first official photos of him as Samuel Kipper.
We were able to spend some time alone with Sam in a room with toys. It was refreshening not to have multiple government officials watching us interact with him. During our short visit today we have already noticed that Sam shares some of our interests. Like his mother, Sam loves shoes! He seemed very excited to try on all the shoes (kicks) we brought for him. He is also mathmatical. He loves the tape measure and counting blocks. Like his father, Sam really enjoyed playing with cars. He and Todd were busy crashing into one another on the floor!
We had smuggled in a few cookies for Sam to eat. Like his father he made quite a mess. We were busted when a caretaker came in and noticed his messy hands and face (Sam's). Needless to say we pulled "a deer in the headlight" moment and pretended we did not know what was going on. She left mumbling something in Russian. Let's hope she can not appeal our petition. We were having a great time until it was time for us to leave. Sam cried. We would like to think it was because he wanted to stay with us. However it could be because it was nap time. We choose to believe the former.
After returning from the baby home, we headed out for dinner. Can you guess where we went? You got it! Jalepenos Siberia. We even ate the exact same thing we had last night. We are trying to talk them into free chips and soda refills.
We plan to spend the rest of our evening getting ready for Halloween. We plan to go trick or treating as two Americans unable to communicate with those around them. Again we will be sporting the deer in the headlights look!
We hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween. We are hopeful that we will continue to have internet access. However do not worry if we do not post. Remember - Max is off skiing until early next week. Take care all!
We felt bad that we could not share our "big day" yesterday. We spent the morning working on our computers. Then we decided to take a walk to the supermall. Walking here is something of an extreme sport. Drivers do not yield in any way to pedestrians. In fact, we think they consider us targets.
The mall is very large, but we limited our venture to the supermarket. We noticed that the Russian version of a helpful smile in every isle consists of a security guard packing heat. It certainly gave us second thoughts about squeezing the Charmin. We were so excited to find frozen pizza at the store. We have been finding the simpler things in life are very sweet here in Siberia.
Checking out at any store is always an experience. Todd continues to try speaking louder and slower in hopes they will understand english. We made quite the commotion when our checker was trying vigourously to tell us to get some bags for our groceries. We can only imagine what they are thinking. We plan to return to the mall often. There is suppose to be a bowling alley there; and we will likely go bowling this weekend with some other American families.
Later in the evening, we had dinner with the other Kansas family and our representatives. It was at a quaint Italian restaurant very close to our apartment. It was probably the first time we have felt full since our $40 hamburgers in Moscow. Todd and I tried to memorize a few items on the menu since we will likely be going there often. Let's just call the place "Jalepenos Siberia".
Today we were fortunate enough to be able to travel to the baby home and visit Sam. Max, the computer geek, was our driver. It was a busy day and we could not spend as much time with Sam as we would have liked. While we were there they took Sam to have his passport photos taken. They were the first official photos of him as Samuel Kipper.
We were able to spend some time alone with Sam in a room with toys. It was refreshening not to have multiple government officials watching us interact with him. During our short visit today we have already noticed that Sam shares some of our interests. Like his mother, Sam loves shoes! He seemed very excited to try on all the shoes (kicks) we brought for him. He is also mathmatical. He loves the tape measure and counting blocks. Like his father, Sam really enjoyed playing with cars. He and Todd were busy crashing into one another on the floor!
We had smuggled in a few cookies for Sam to eat. Like his father he made quite a mess. We were busted when a caretaker came in and noticed his messy hands and face (Sam's). Needless to say we pulled "a deer in the headlight" moment and pretended we did not know what was going on. She left mumbling something in Russian. Let's hope she can not appeal our petition. We were having a great time until it was time for us to leave. Sam cried. We would like to think it was because he wanted to stay with us. However it could be because it was nap time. We choose to believe the former.
After returning from the baby home, we headed out for dinner. Can you guess where we went? You got it! Jalepenos Siberia. We even ate the exact same thing we had last night. We are trying to talk them into free chips and soda refills.
We plan to spend the rest of our evening getting ready for Halloween. We plan to go trick or treating as two Americans unable to communicate with those around them. Again we will be sporting the deer in the headlights look!
We hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween. We are hopeful that we will continue to have internet access. However do not worry if we do not post. Remember - Max is off skiing until early next week. Take care all!
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| Jalepenos Siberia |
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| The Mall |
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
WE ARE FAMILY!
We have fabulous news! Things could not have gone better in court today. The judge approved our petition to adopt and now we just have the ten day waiting period. During these 10 days the court's decision can be appealed. However we have been told this very rarely happens. It looks like all your good thoughts and prayers have paid off. We cannot thank everyone enough! We feel a huge relief after getting our court decision today. Hopefully we will sleep tonight.
We had many things going for us today. It was the judge's birthday and our courtroom number was 5. We started an hour late, and we think they may have been anxious to get back on schedule. Our hearing only lasted about one hour. It was a little uncomfortable in the courtroom. We were told to look up at the judge but we were listening to an interpreter sitting beside us. There was also a representive from the baby home, a social worker, the court secretary and a prosecutor in the courtroom. Near the end of the hearing the judge asks all the officials to give their recommendation of our petition. After we got all of their positive responses, the judge asked everyone to leave the room. We waited for a few minutes in the hall before we were invited back into the courtroom. At that point the judge announced that she was granting our petition!
We apologize for the lack of a post on Monday. We were experiencing technical difficulties. We were without internet access for about 24 hours, and you have no idea how isolated we felt in Siberia. We were so excited to tell you about Sam, but had no means. Our representatives were nice enough to send someone over to the apartment today to fix the computer while we were in court.
Our visit with Sam was wonderful. He has grown a lot since June. We are not sure if it was the fitting of his clothes, but he seemed to have gained some weight. That is good news since he is somewhat small for his age. They say he weighs 9kilos, but we have to check it out for ourselves. I think he may be a little bigger. We think the 9kilos is from when he was last weighed in August. As we prepared to leave the baby home we bumped into one of the families that we saw during our medical exams in Moscow. It turns out 3 of the families there that day not only went to Krasnoyarsk, but also ended up at the same baby home. All three of us also had court today.
We will have the ability to visit Sam during the 10 day waiting period. The visits will have to be coordinated with the baby home and a driver. We were told our driver would be Max. He is the boy friend of the "college girl". Per our representative "he can be trusted". Our representative plans to review our dates tonight. We should know tomorrow what day we can pick up Sam from the baby home for good, and when we may be able to go back to Moscow. We are dealing with a couple of Russian holidays as well as Veterans Day. The Russians holidays are November 3rd and 4th. (Apparently they celebrate Todd's birthday here? Todd is anxious to see what they have prepared for him) The US Embassy in Moscow will be closed on November 11th for Veterans Day.
The next 10 days will be trying for us. Up to this point we have been very busy traveling and preparing for court. While we will visit Sam a few times, the rest of the time it will be just US in the apartment. This is where our food rations and entertainment selections will be tested. Please expect long boring blog posts during this time. Feel free to email us as we will have lots of free time and enjoy the connection to home. If any of you ever travel to Russia we will return the favor. SPA-SEE-BAH (thank you)!
We had many things going for us today. It was the judge's birthday and our courtroom number was 5. We started an hour late, and we think they may have been anxious to get back on schedule. Our hearing only lasted about one hour. It was a little uncomfortable in the courtroom. We were told to look up at the judge but we were listening to an interpreter sitting beside us. There was also a representive from the baby home, a social worker, the court secretary and a prosecutor in the courtroom. Near the end of the hearing the judge asks all the officials to give their recommendation of our petition. After we got all of their positive responses, the judge asked everyone to leave the room. We waited for a few minutes in the hall before we were invited back into the courtroom. At that point the judge announced that she was granting our petition!
We apologize for the lack of a post on Monday. We were experiencing technical difficulties. We were without internet access for about 24 hours, and you have no idea how isolated we felt in Siberia. We were so excited to tell you about Sam, but had no means. Our representatives were nice enough to send someone over to the apartment today to fix the computer while we were in court.
Our visit with Sam was wonderful. He has grown a lot since June. We are not sure if it was the fitting of his clothes, but he seemed to have gained some weight. That is good news since he is somewhat small for his age. They say he weighs 9kilos, but we have to check it out for ourselves. I think he may be a little bigger. We think the 9kilos is from when he was last weighed in August. As we prepared to leave the baby home we bumped into one of the families that we saw during our medical exams in Moscow. It turns out 3 of the families there that day not only went to Krasnoyarsk, but also ended up at the same baby home. All three of us also had court today.
We will have the ability to visit Sam during the 10 day waiting period. The visits will have to be coordinated with the baby home and a driver. We were told our driver would be Max. He is the boy friend of the "college girl". Per our representative "he can be trusted". Our representative plans to review our dates tonight. We should know tomorrow what day we can pick up Sam from the baby home for good, and when we may be able to go back to Moscow. We are dealing with a couple of Russian holidays as well as Veterans Day. The Russians holidays are November 3rd and 4th. (Apparently they celebrate Todd's birthday here? Todd is anxious to see what they have prepared for him) The US Embassy in Moscow will be closed on November 11th for Veterans Day.
The next 10 days will be trying for us. Up to this point we have been very busy traveling and preparing for court. While we will visit Sam a few times, the rest of the time it will be just US in the apartment. This is where our food rations and entertainment selections will be tested. Please expect long boring blog posts during this time. Feel free to email us as we will have lots of free time and enjoy the connection to home. If any of you ever travel to Russia we will return the favor. SPA-SEE-BAH (thank you)!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
If it is Sunday - - It is Meet the Reps!
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| Our apartment kitchen / dining / office / living room |
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| Our grocery store |
We were a little concerned tonight at dinner. We reviewed our documents after ordering. There is some confusion regarding one of our documents. After discussing the issue, our representative asked us how long before our Visas expired. We hesitantly replied that they were good until January 2009. He seemed please with our response. To put some fire under him, we further informed him that our Pop-Tart supply would only last until mid-November. Let's hope that moves things along.
Tomorrow morning we will travel to the baby home to visit Sam. We are very anxious to see him again. We can't wait to see how much he has grown. It is a two hour drive each way, so we will probably only get to stay for an hour. After getting back to Krasnoyarsk, we will be busy preparing for court. We did confirm during dinner, that we have been assigned to the nicest judge. That is great news! Court is scheduled for 11am on Tuesday. We are now 12 hours ahead of central time. They moved their clocks back an hour this weekend. Please think of us Monday evening around 11pm. Oh what the heck - we will take your prayers anytime we can get them!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Live From Krasnoyarsk - - - It's Saturday Night!
We made it to Krasnoyarsk. We are so happy to be yet another step closer to finalizing everything. The weather in Moscow was very mild. Things seem nice here in Krasnoyarsk, but they tell us we are expecting snow tomorrow. We were excited and hope we do get some snow! Todd is planning a few salt sales calls while we are here. Never hurts to have a little snow on the ground during the pitch!
We had quite an experience checking into our flight for Krasnoyarsk. Usually an interpreter goes with you. However today we just had the driver. He sprinted through the airport and took over for us at the airline counter. We simply smiled and passed along our luggage; and before we knew it we owed 7000 rubles for being over weight on our bags. We had planned to carry on a couple of the bags. Instead they were all checked in. We stood there and watch all our bags go down the beltway. The bags we planned to carry on contained important adoption documents, our laptop, our dvd player and all our dvds. Needless to say we were very anxious about whether we would ever see these items again. Someone must be looking out for us because we did not lose a single item!
Dasha (one of the college girls now a lawyer) here in Krasnoyarsk picked us up at the airport. Her english is very limited. However this did not prevent Todd from constantly asking her questions. The poor thing was a little overwhelmed. I had another "little talk" with Todd and hopefully this will not happen again.
During Todd's inquisition we think we may have gotten some good news. We may have been assigned to the nicer judge for our case. I guess his constant badgering may have paid off at long last. We want to confirm this with Sveta the interpreter. But we were very excited and hopeful that things may go well for us on Tuesday morning.
When we asked about our accomodations we found out that we are staying in an apartment again. She told us it was a NEW apartment. We knew we would not be staying in our old apartment because the other family from Kansas is already staying there.
We are writing this blog from our beautiful apartment. It is much newer than the last one; and the neighborhood appears much nicer. However, we are holding out our final judgement until we can see everything in the daylight. When we arrived here it was already dark (Krasnoyarsk is 13 hours ahead of central time). We took a walk to the supermarket to get a few things for dinner tonight. We could not find any JELLO. However I am enjoying a peanut butter sandwich tonight.
Tomorrow we are supposed to be meeting with Sveta. During that meeting we should find out our plan for Monday and Tuesday. We also hope to get together with the other family from Kansas. We have no idea where we are other than there is a huge mall within walking distance. Please do not send us any "wish lists" unless you send rubles for the additional baggage charge.
We can not tell you how much it means to know everyone is praying for us. When we think about this entire process it can be a little overwhelming. We have chosen to try taking things one day at a time. We look forward to posting to this blog daily as a way to release some tension through a little humor. We greatly appreciate everyones comments and emails. We are now in SIBERIA - so please do not stop.
We had quite an experience checking into our flight for Krasnoyarsk. Usually an interpreter goes with you. However today we just had the driver. He sprinted through the airport and took over for us at the airline counter. We simply smiled and passed along our luggage; and before we knew it we owed 7000 rubles for being over weight on our bags. We had planned to carry on a couple of the bags. Instead they were all checked in. We stood there and watch all our bags go down the beltway. The bags we planned to carry on contained important adoption documents, our laptop, our dvd player and all our dvds. Needless to say we were very anxious about whether we would ever see these items again. Someone must be looking out for us because we did not lose a single item!
Dasha (one of the college girls now a lawyer) here in Krasnoyarsk picked us up at the airport. Her english is very limited. However this did not prevent Todd from constantly asking her questions. The poor thing was a little overwhelmed. I had another "little talk" with Todd and hopefully this will not happen again.
During Todd's inquisition we think we may have gotten some good news. We may have been assigned to the nicer judge for our case. I guess his constant badgering may have paid off at long last. We want to confirm this with Sveta the interpreter. But we were very excited and hopeful that things may go well for us on Tuesday morning.
When we asked about our accomodations we found out that we are staying in an apartment again. She told us it was a NEW apartment. We knew we would not be staying in our old apartment because the other family from Kansas is already staying there.
We are writing this blog from our beautiful apartment. It is much newer than the last one; and the neighborhood appears much nicer. However, we are holding out our final judgement until we can see everything in the daylight. When we arrived here it was already dark (Krasnoyarsk is 13 hours ahead of central time). We took a walk to the supermarket to get a few things for dinner tonight. We could not find any JELLO. However I am enjoying a peanut butter sandwich tonight.
Tomorrow we are supposed to be meeting with Sveta. During that meeting we should find out our plan for Monday and Tuesday. We also hope to get together with the other family from Kansas. We have no idea where we are other than there is a huge mall within walking distance. Please do not send us any "wish lists" unless you send rubles for the additional baggage charge.
We can not tell you how much it means to know everyone is praying for us. When we think about this entire process it can be a little overwhelming. We have chosen to try taking things one day at a time. We look forward to posting to this blog daily as a way to release some tension through a little humor. We greatly appreciate everyones comments and emails. We are now in SIBERIA - so please do not stop.
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| New apartment complex |
Friday, October 24, 2008
Doctor, Doctor, Give Us The News!
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| Moscow Friday's |
We celebrated with a late lunch at TGIFridays. If you ever get to Moscow, you have to try their chicken strips. They are worth the trip!
We are busy repacking our bags for Krasnoyarsk. We are leaving early tomorrow morning. We found out that the other Kansas family got some good news today. The judge finally approved the adoption of their son. Unfortunately they did not get the 10 day waiting period waived. They were hoping they would since they have been here since early October. As many of you know, court has not been going very well for families. Please keep us in your prayers.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
BACK IN THE USSR
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| Moscow Marriott Grand Hotel |
The flight was fine. We were on an old plane so we did not have our individual tv monitors. They did show a couple movies and a few shows, but it was limited. The rest of the time we (Lori) stared at the screen showing our flight path. Fortunately the plane was not full and we were able to spread out and get some sleep.
Our ride from the airport was an hour late. So after the two hour drive from the airport to the hotel, we were exhausted. We got some sleep and then Todd worked on setting up our communication system. Basically he called Sprint and after a couple hours finally got his cell phone working. If it is similar to the last trip, he will have to do it all over again when we get to Krasnoyarsk.
Right now we are hanging out in the hotel eating $40 hamburgers and drinking $7 pepsi lights. Todd limited me to two 8oz bottles. They are much cheaper if you buy them from a vendor off the street, but we want to stay in the room and enjoy our modern amenities.
Tomorrow around noon we will be going to the medical clinic for our examinations. From what I have heard it is a fairly simple procedure. Hopefully everything goes okay and they clear us medically.
We will be leaving for Krasnoyarsk on Saturday morning. We want to thank everyone for their emails and comments. They really are a great source of entertainment for us. Here in Moscow the only english television stations are Animal Planet and CNBC. So please keep the emails coming!
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