Dear All:
As I had mentioned before, our little Maya had caught a nasty cold that later became bronchitis. Well, she did not get any better and we had to take her to the ER and then was later hospitalized. We took her 4 times in less than 2 weeks to the Pulmonologist because we were really concerned that Maya was not getting any better, but on the 4th visit, he told us that he was really concerned and that it was best if we took her to the hospital. Well, I think the best thing we did was to take her to the hospital. She has been there for 3 days and thanks to God we have seen a lot of improvement. We were informed that on top of everything else she caught a virus called, RSV, which attacks the respiratory system.
We were told that she might be released by tomorrow. We can't wait to bring her home. Our lives is not the same without her. Since I've had to work, I have not been able to be with her as much as I wanted to. Luckily, Mauri has been by her bedside at all times. I love that man sooo much!!! Thanks for being so a great dad Mauri!!!!
We are praying for Maya's prompt recovery. I can't wait so see her running and talking, and.... eating of course. The day I see her eating without any challenges, it's going to be one of the happiest days ever!!!!!!!!!!
Well, I have to go for now, please keep our little Angel in your prayers!!
Until next time!!!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Maya's 1st Week of School
Maya's 1st week of school went ok. The first 3 days went really well. Unfortunately, she caught a nasty cold from one of her classmates, so she missed her 4th and 5th day of school. She is doing much better now. We had to take her to the doctor twice because she was not doing well. Her cold became worst and became bronchitis. A word to the wise, be careful if you use saline water with your toddlers and/or infants because Maya stopped breathing (briefly) twice and turned purple because of the saline water!!! Can you imagine what a scare we had. Thank God we made her react right away. We were going to call rescue, but I called her Pediatrician instead. I spoke with the on-call nurse and she confirmed what we had thought, that the saline water had blocked the air way in her nose and that had caused the brief lack of oxygen. We took her to see a Pulmonologist and he gave us medication (free samples) for her asthma and a prescription for antibiotics. Thanks Dr. Alvarez!!!! So, beware of Saline water and small children. The label said it's harmless, but to be honest with you, we are not going to use "ever" again!!!
On a more positive note, I can tell you that Maya it's having too much fun in school. Everytime Mauri goes to pick her up she does not want to go home!!! Can you imagine! Anyways, it is good that she likes school. We pray to God that she will always like it :o).
I will post more at a later time. Take care until then......
Love,
Yadi
On a more positive note, I can tell you that Maya it's having too much fun in school. Everytime Mauri goes to pick her up she does not want to go home!!! Can you imagine! Anyways, it is good that she likes school. We pray to God that she will always like it :o).
I will post more at a later time. Take care until then......
Love,
Yadi
Monday, August 31, 2009
Maya's 1st Day of Pre-school
Hello Everyone;
Today was Maya's 1st day in Pre-school. We decided that it was best for her to be placed in a specialized school where she will have contact with other children, and at the time she will be able to receive her therapies there. Mauri woke up at 5:00am in the morning, he wanted to make sure that his daughter was going to be up and running for her first day of pre-school!!! Maya was woken up by her daddy at about 6:45am.... Poor thing, I think Papi got too excited too early!!! Anyways, we were at the school at exactly 8:45am. That's the earliest of when we can drop her off. We videotaped her going in and while she was greeting some of her classmates. She was sooo happy to see other children. We had a chance to speak with Fanny (her teacher) and to try to get acquainted with each other and to go over what Maya's needs are. When we kissed her goodbye, she was so happy signaling bye-bye!!! She actually wanted us to leave (jajaja), and we wanted to stay with her. It's a bitter-sweet situation, but we need to do whatever is best for our daughter.
I called the school at about 11:00am so wee how Maya was doing on her 1st day of school and they told me that she was having a blast and she was at that moment dancing with her teacher!!! My daughter loves anything that has to do with music!!! We think she will be a great dancer!!!
I will post more later.....
Until then!!!
Today was Maya's 1st day in Pre-school. We decided that it was best for her to be placed in a specialized school where she will have contact with other children, and at the time she will be able to receive her therapies there. Mauri woke up at 5:00am in the morning, he wanted to make sure that his daughter was going to be up and running for her first day of pre-school!!! Maya was woken up by her daddy at about 6:45am.... Poor thing, I think Papi got too excited too early!!! Anyways, we were at the school at exactly 8:45am. That's the earliest of when we can drop her off. We videotaped her going in and while she was greeting some of her classmates. She was sooo happy to see other children. We had a chance to speak with Fanny (her teacher) and to try to get acquainted with each other and to go over what Maya's needs are. When we kissed her goodbye, she was so happy signaling bye-bye!!! She actually wanted us to leave (jajaja), and we wanted to stay with her. It's a bitter-sweet situation, but we need to do whatever is best for our daughter.
I called the school at about 11:00am so wee how Maya was doing on her 1st day of school and they told me that she was having a blast and she was at that moment dancing with her teacher!!! My daughter loves anything that has to do with music!!! We think she will be a great dancer!!!
I will post more later.....
Until then!!!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
MAYA'S 2nd BIRTHDAY
We spent Maya's 2nd Birthday (her 1st B-Day with us :o) at Disney's Magic Kingdom. We wanted to celebrate her B-Day in a very special way, and what it's more special than to spend your Birthday with Mickey and Minney! She had a lot of fun!!!! I will leave you with some of the nicest pictures!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
I HAVE BEEN MIA
Dear All:
It has been two months since my last post!!! Can't believe how fast time is moving. There have been so many events happening in our family, some good, some not so good!!
Let me back track, the first week since we came back, Maya had to be hospitalized, we where at the children's hospital for almost a week. The doctors were concerned because Maya was very malnourished and also because of a dimple they found at the bottom of her spine, and last, because of her port wine stain (birth mark) They wanted to make sure she was ok. Well, we went in on a Friday and we were discharged the following Thursday. Things got a little scary for a little while with so much testing going on and the not knowing what the outcome would be. Thanks to God, after doing about 50 different tests (at least) we were able to have a sight of relief. Maya does have medical issues going on, and I pray to God that with love and care she will surpass them. Right know, we are concentrating on her developmental delays. When we got her at exactly 21 months she would not walk, she was very weak, but you should see her now, she now walks around the house non-stop. She is full of energy. She feels "FREE" Free to run around, scream, and play all she wants. She has become a great fan of "Dora the Explore" She loves the songs. Sometime we listen to her mumble the songs.
We did have the evaluation, as I had mentioned it before with the Early Steps Program. The visit went very well. Maya was fully evaluated. As we had thought, she is behind in most of the developmental areas. Unfortunately, at the baby house where she was, she was being kept with babies younger than her, and kinds tend to imitate what they see and do. Well, that's one of the things that happened to her. Since she was surrounded by 9 - 15 months old babies, she stayed as a small baby in terms of how she talks, eats, moves and acts around other people.
We were informed that Maya is in great need of Physical therapy, Occupational therapy, Speech and swallow therapy.
One of the greatest challenges that we have encountered with Maya are that she does not know how to chew. She only swallows. We try every day to show her to chew, but we have not been very successful at it. We feed her a combination of home cooked meals and Gerber baby food, but for some reason we have to battle with her every time it's feeding time. Most of the time she throws up. Sometimes its a little bit, sometimes is the whole meal. You have no idea of what my Mom, Mauri and I have to endure every time we sit down to feed her. By what we have observed, Maya feels like she is gagging and that's when she throws up on us. There have times I that I end up crying along with Maya. My cry comes out of desperation, frustration and worry. I worry for my child. I worry that if she is not eating well, she won't be able to gain weight. We have been going to her Pediatrician on a weekly basis because there are so many things we are concerned about. We even had to change pediatricians because the first one she had was not what Maya needs. Don't take me wrong, she is good, but with the type of challenges that Maya has, she needs to dr. who is more proactive to accommodate medical Maya's needs. In the meantime, we are awaiting for several appointments at the children's hospital. We have 2 coming up, one for a video fluoroscopy, where they are going to watch her eat and then they will insert a camera to see if she has some type of blockage in the trachea. Then, we have another appointment with a pediatric gastrointestinal doctor, to check for esophageal distress. Well, that's all the time I have for know. I will try to post more later on. Take care everyone.....
It has been two months since my last post!!! Can't believe how fast time is moving. There have been so many events happening in our family, some good, some not so good!!
Let me back track, the first week since we came back, Maya had to be hospitalized, we where at the children's hospital for almost a week. The doctors were concerned because Maya was very malnourished and also because of a dimple they found at the bottom of her spine, and last, because of her port wine stain (birth mark) They wanted to make sure she was ok. Well, we went in on a Friday and we were discharged the following Thursday. Things got a little scary for a little while with so much testing going on and the not knowing what the outcome would be. Thanks to God, after doing about 50 different tests (at least) we were able to have a sight of relief. Maya does have medical issues going on, and I pray to God that with love and care she will surpass them. Right know, we are concentrating on her developmental delays. When we got her at exactly 21 months she would not walk, she was very weak, but you should see her now, she now walks around the house non-stop. She is full of energy. She feels "FREE" Free to run around, scream, and play all she wants. She has become a great fan of "Dora the Explore" She loves the songs. Sometime we listen to her mumble the songs.
We did have the evaluation, as I had mentioned it before with the Early Steps Program. The visit went very well. Maya was fully evaluated. As we had thought, she is behind in most of the developmental areas. Unfortunately, at the baby house where she was, she was being kept with babies younger than her, and kinds tend to imitate what they see and do. Well, that's one of the things that happened to her. Since she was surrounded by 9 - 15 months old babies, she stayed as a small baby in terms of how she talks, eats, moves and acts around other people.
We were informed that Maya is in great need of Physical therapy, Occupational therapy, Speech and swallow therapy.
One of the greatest challenges that we have encountered with Maya are that she does not know how to chew. She only swallows. We try every day to show her to chew, but we have not been very successful at it. We feed her a combination of home cooked meals and Gerber baby food, but for some reason we have to battle with her every time it's feeding time. Most of the time she throws up. Sometimes its a little bit, sometimes is the whole meal. You have no idea of what my Mom, Mauri and I have to endure every time we sit down to feed her. By what we have observed, Maya feels like she is gagging and that's when she throws up on us. There have times I that I end up crying along with Maya. My cry comes out of desperation, frustration and worry. I worry for my child. I worry that if she is not eating well, she won't be able to gain weight. We have been going to her Pediatrician on a weekly basis because there are so many things we are concerned about. We even had to change pediatricians because the first one she had was not what Maya needs. Don't take me wrong, she is good, but with the type of challenges that Maya has, she needs to dr. who is more proactive to accommodate medical Maya's needs. In the meantime, we are awaiting for several appointments at the children's hospital. We have 2 coming up, one for a video fluoroscopy, where they are going to watch her eat and then they will insert a camera to see if she has some type of blockage in the trachea. Then, we have another appointment with a pediatric gastrointestinal doctor, to check for esophageal distress. Well, that's all the time I have for know. I will try to post more later on. Take care everyone.....
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
WE ARE HOME!!!!
Dear All:
Things have been really busy lately. Thanks God we made it home safe and sound!!! Maya is extremely happy in her new home. She is adjusting to her new room and her new family. So far, she is doing wonderfully. She is eating very well. We are making progress with putting her to nap and sleep. We are a work in progress when it comes to giving her a bath. So far, that is one of the most challenging for her because she does not enjoyed being washed. We know that it is a period of adjustment for her, so we are trying to make it a fun experience for her.
We tried to get her a new social security number today, but we were told that we need to wait 21 days before we can apply for one. We were really bothered by that, because to us that does not make sense, but there is nothing we can do, but wait. In the meantime, we turned in all the paperwork to add her to my health insurance. We have an appointment for Friday, April 17 with a need pediatrician, we will see how it goes. At the same time, tomorrow, we are taking her to be seen by someone at the Early Steps Coalition Program (thanks to my sister Ana Maria). This is an organization that will evaluate how she is doing according to her age. We are aware that she is developmentally delayed, but we don't know how much. At the same time, we are very happy that she is showing so much improvement. We have seen that she picks up extremely fast, but we still have to help her and teach her how to walk and how to speak. We are very confident that with love and dedication she will succeed. I will keep you posted. As soon as I have a chance, I post some pictures. In the meantime, take care everyone.... Until my next post.....
Things have been really busy lately. Thanks God we made it home safe and sound!!! Maya is extremely happy in her new home. She is adjusting to her new room and her new family. So far, she is doing wonderfully. She is eating very well. We are making progress with putting her to nap and sleep. We are a work in progress when it comes to giving her a bath. So far, that is one of the most challenging for her because she does not enjoyed being washed. We know that it is a period of adjustment for her, so we are trying to make it a fun experience for her.
We tried to get her a new social security number today, but we were told that we need to wait 21 days before we can apply for one. We were really bothered by that, because to us that does not make sense, but there is nothing we can do, but wait. In the meantime, we turned in all the paperwork to add her to my health insurance. We have an appointment for Friday, April 17 with a need pediatrician, we will see how it goes. At the same time, tomorrow, we are taking her to be seen by someone at the Early Steps Coalition Program (thanks to my sister Ana Maria). This is an organization that will evaluate how she is doing according to her age. We are aware that she is developmentally delayed, but we don't know how much. At the same time, we are very happy that she is showing so much improvement. We have seen that she picks up extremely fast, but we still have to help her and teach her how to walk and how to speak. We are very confident that with love and dedication she will succeed. I will keep you posted. As soon as I have a chance, I post some pictures. In the meantime, take care everyone.... Until my next post.....
Monday, April 6, 2009
FIRST DAYS WITH MAYA ANTONINA
Dear All:
Sorry I have not posted new pictures since "Gotcha Day" last Friday, April 3rd. Things have been really hectic... We are getting to know Maya and she is getting to know us... My post will be brief. We are in the process of getting her new Russian passport, birth certificate and other paperwork necessary before we can leave to Moscow, God willing on Wednesday. To be honest with you we are really home sick and since we already have what we came here to get which was to get our little angel, we feel like.... let's get out of here already!!! Also, we want Maya to start getting used to her new home, her room and her new family. I will try to post some new pictures before we head off to Moscow. Please continue to pray for us, we still need to go through the US Embassy in order to get Maya's visa to be able to enter the US. Take care everyone!!!
Sorry I have not posted new pictures since "Gotcha Day" last Friday, April 3rd. Things have been really hectic... We are getting to know Maya and she is getting to know us... My post will be brief. We are in the process of getting her new Russian passport, birth certificate and other paperwork necessary before we can leave to Moscow, God willing on Wednesday. To be honest with you we are really home sick and since we already have what we came here to get which was to get our little angel, we feel like.... let's get out of here already!!! Also, we want Maya to start getting used to her new home, her room and her new family. I will try to post some new pictures before we head off to Moscow. Please continue to pray for us, we still need to go through the US Embassy in order to get Maya's visa to be able to enter the US. Take care everyone!!!
Friday, April 3, 2009
GOTCHA DAY!!!!
Dear Family and Friends:
It is with the outmost happiness that we present to you the new addition to the Guillen-Codina Family. As you all are aware our daughter's new name is Maya Antonina Guillen Codina. We are so happy that words cannot express how thankful we are to God be be able to have are most dearest dream come through to be the parents of our little Angel. As of today, we are no longer a party of two, from now on we have become a party of three. We Love you and Miss you all. Thank you for all your love and support throughout our journey. Our little angel now sleeps restfully in her crib along her parents who love her with all our hearts. Can't wait to see you all so we can share our great happiness.
Love, Mauri, Yadi & Maya+004.jpg)
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It is with the outmost happiness that we present to you the new addition to the Guillen-Codina Family. As you all are aware our daughter's new name is Maya Antonina Guillen Codina. We are so happy that words cannot express how thankful we are to God be be able to have are most dearest dream come through to be the parents of our little Angel. As of today, we are no longer a party of two, from now on we have become a party of three. We Love you and Miss you all. Thank you for all your love and support throughout our journey. Our little angel now sleeps restfully in her crib along her parents who love her with all our hearts. Can't wait to see you all so we can share our great happiness.
Love, Mauri, Yadi & Maya
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Wednesday, April 1, 2009
ONE MORE DAY BEFORE ITS OFFICIAL
Dear Family and Friends:
We have one more day before our adoption becomes "official" We can't wait for Friday to come soon enough! We are really happy, excited and nervous at the same time. Maya has been bonding really well with us. Some days are really good and some are not so good, but she is a small child and that it’s to be expected! She still sick, her cough has gotten a lot worst; we are really concerned about that. I told our translator that we might have to take her to the doctor when we get her on Friday, we will see. We brought several types of kids OTC meds, but don't want to start giving her stuff without even knowing if they are going to help her. At the same time, Mauri its doing better from his cold, but I can't say the same about me :o( I have also caught what Maya and Mauri got, and its hitting me hard!!! I am taking medication, but don't seem to be helping too much! I have been with high fever and I can't really talk because my throat hurts so much! I am praying to be better by Friday, Maya needs us and we need to be there for her (preferably healthy :o).
On a happy note, when we pick her up on Friday, I will be able to post pictures of her and us, before that time, unfortunately it is not allowed (as I have mentioned before). So make sure to check Friday, so you can meet the "official" family of three!!!
Mauri and I are really home sick, we can't wait to go home with Maya. We miss everything, our family, our house, our bed, and how can I forget, the food!!! We can't wait to have Cuban bread with fried eggs (huevo pullado), refried beans (made by Mom), Nicaraguan cheese and mantequilla (it’s like sour cream, but better) and turkey bacon!!! Doesn't that sound really good! Mauri and I are really looking forward to a home cooked meal. Don't take me wrong, there is food for purchase around Tver, but it is completely different than what we are used to. Also there only so much chicken we can eat from the Chicken House (that's the name of the place) or from Milano pizza!!!!
At the same time, we have enjoyed our adoption journey tremendously, not only we get our little angel to come home with us, but at the same time, at least for me, it has reminded me and made me realize (once again) how lucky I am to have a great husband, a loving family (best Mom ever, and 2 wonderful sisters) and great friends who I love and cherish!! To have been able to accomplish our greatest dream of becoming parents, among other things! I thank God and everyone involved for all you have done during our Adoption Journey!
Well, that's all for now, until our next post on Friday. Take care everyone!!!!
We have one more day before our adoption becomes "official" We can't wait for Friday to come soon enough! We are really happy, excited and nervous at the same time. Maya has been bonding really well with us. Some days are really good and some are not so good, but she is a small child and that it’s to be expected! She still sick, her cough has gotten a lot worst; we are really concerned about that. I told our translator that we might have to take her to the doctor when we get her on Friday, we will see. We brought several types of kids OTC meds, but don't want to start giving her stuff without even knowing if they are going to help her. At the same time, Mauri its doing better from his cold, but I can't say the same about me :o( I have also caught what Maya and Mauri got, and its hitting me hard!!! I am taking medication, but don't seem to be helping too much! I have been with high fever and I can't really talk because my throat hurts so much! I am praying to be better by Friday, Maya needs us and we need to be there for her (preferably healthy :o).
On a happy note, when we pick her up on Friday, I will be able to post pictures of her and us, before that time, unfortunately it is not allowed (as I have mentioned before). So make sure to check Friday, so you can meet the "official" family of three!!!
Mauri and I are really home sick, we can't wait to go home with Maya. We miss everything, our family, our house, our bed, and how can I forget, the food!!! We can't wait to have Cuban bread with fried eggs (huevo pullado), refried beans (made by Mom), Nicaraguan cheese and mantequilla (it’s like sour cream, but better) and turkey bacon!!! Doesn't that sound really good! Mauri and I are really looking forward to a home cooked meal. Don't take me wrong, there is food for purchase around Tver, but it is completely different than what we are used to. Also there only so much chicken we can eat from the Chicken House (that's the name of the place) or from Milano pizza!!!!
At the same time, we have enjoyed our adoption journey tremendously, not only we get our little angel to come home with us, but at the same time, at least for me, it has reminded me and made me realize (once again) how lucky I am to have a great husband, a loving family (best Mom ever, and 2 wonderful sisters) and great friends who I love and cherish!! To have been able to accomplish our greatest dream of becoming parents, among other things! I thank God and everyone involved for all you have done during our Adoption Journey!
Well, that's all for now, until our next post on Friday. Take care everyone!!!!
Friday, March 27, 2009
WAITING OUT THE 10 DAYS
Dear All:
Sorry, I have not posted any updates since our final court date! Things have been hectic at the Guillen-Codina family. We are in the process of waiting out the 10 mandatory days until our adoption becomes final. So far, we are in day number 5. We can't wait for next Friday so we can go and pick up Maya forever!!! So far we have gone to visit Maya every morning from 9:30 through 11:30, sometimes until noon. We really enjoy our visits with her... We feel that with every day that goes by we bond a little bit more!!
The other day, formally requesting it to the Baby House Director, we were granted permission to feed Maya ourselves during one of the meals. I had the opportunity to feed her, and to be honest I had mixed feelings about it. The reason why is because these kids are trained to gabble the food in less than 5 minutes....I was happy to see that she would accept the food I was giving her, since in the past we had not succeeded with the Gerber snacks that we brought her!! I had to be careful for her not to choke with the food since she was just swalloing. I know that everyone is entitled to their own customs and opinions, but, the way that they train these kids it’s uncalled for..... Anyways, the important thing is that we were able to see what she eats and how she is fed. That way, it won't be such a shocker when it’s our turn.
We have also been giving her baby juice during our visits. We kind of smuggle it in every morning inside her diaper bag, which we bring with us every time we visit her. We need to be prepared for any situation that may arise (diaper change, clothing change, clean her up, etc.) and so far it has proven very handy. We divide the juice into 2 portions so she won't get full and maybe spoil her meal afterwards.
Thank God Maya is doing better from her cold, but she passed on to daddy. Mauri has been really sick for the past 2 days. Yesterday, he had to stay at the hotel while I went to visit her. I know he really missed her, but it was for the best. We don't want her or the other babies to get even sicker. Maya and I had the entire visit to enjoy one another, well, I enjoyed her more!!! At the beginning she kept looking around looking for her dad, but I told her (eventhough she did not understand) it’s just you and me kiddo!!! We played for quite a while until she started to get restless because she was sleepy.
Until yesterday Mauri and I had a really hard time to have fallen asleep. It had been practically impossible. Granted, that a reception room it’s not the best place to have a kid fall asleep! With all the distractions going on, even I would have a problem sleeping. Anyways. to make the long story short, Mommy decided to be quite persistent and told Maya that I was not going to give up until she gave in. Remember, we are both Cancer, so we both can butt heads, but one has to give in. This time it was her!!!! After carrying her in my arms, covering her with her blankie, giving her a lot of love, rocking her non-stop and singing her lullabies; she finally gave in, she fell asleep!!!!!!!!!!
To see her asleep in my arms was a dream come through!!! I was in Mommy heaven yesterday!!! She dozed off for about 25 minutes until someone woke her up with so much noise, but at least she got to experience a tiny bit of the love and attention that she will receive from Mauri and me. There is so much love stored for her!!! We want to make up for the love and attention that she has never had.... I am so thankful to God for giving us the opportunity to become the parents of our little Maya.
Well, I have to leave you know. I have to go get ready to go visit our little angel. Mauri still under the weather, so it will another day just Maya and me, and I intend to enjoy every minute of it!!! Until my next post.... Take care everyone....
Sorry, I have not posted any updates since our final court date! Things have been hectic at the Guillen-Codina family. We are in the process of waiting out the 10 mandatory days until our adoption becomes final. So far, we are in day number 5. We can't wait for next Friday so we can go and pick up Maya forever!!! So far we have gone to visit Maya every morning from 9:30 through 11:30, sometimes until noon. We really enjoy our visits with her... We feel that with every day that goes by we bond a little bit more!!
The other day, formally requesting it to the Baby House Director, we were granted permission to feed Maya ourselves during one of the meals. I had the opportunity to feed her, and to be honest I had mixed feelings about it. The reason why is because these kids are trained to gabble the food in less than 5 minutes....I was happy to see that she would accept the food I was giving her, since in the past we had not succeeded with the Gerber snacks that we brought her!! I had to be careful for her not to choke with the food since she was just swalloing. I know that everyone is entitled to their own customs and opinions, but, the way that they train these kids it’s uncalled for..... Anyways, the important thing is that we were able to see what she eats and how she is fed. That way, it won't be such a shocker when it’s our turn.
We have also been giving her baby juice during our visits. We kind of smuggle it in every morning inside her diaper bag, which we bring with us every time we visit her. We need to be prepared for any situation that may arise (diaper change, clothing change, clean her up, etc.) and so far it has proven very handy. We divide the juice into 2 portions so she won't get full and maybe spoil her meal afterwards.
Thank God Maya is doing better from her cold, but she passed on to daddy. Mauri has been really sick for the past 2 days. Yesterday, he had to stay at the hotel while I went to visit her. I know he really missed her, but it was for the best. We don't want her or the other babies to get even sicker. Maya and I had the entire visit to enjoy one another, well, I enjoyed her more!!! At the beginning she kept looking around looking for her dad, but I told her (eventhough she did not understand) it’s just you and me kiddo!!! We played for quite a while until she started to get restless because she was sleepy.
Until yesterday Mauri and I had a really hard time to have fallen asleep. It had been practically impossible. Granted, that a reception room it’s not the best place to have a kid fall asleep! With all the distractions going on, even I would have a problem sleeping. Anyways. to make the long story short, Mommy decided to be quite persistent and told Maya that I was not going to give up until she gave in. Remember, we are both Cancer, so we both can butt heads, but one has to give in. This time it was her!!!! After carrying her in my arms, covering her with her blankie, giving her a lot of love, rocking her non-stop and singing her lullabies; she finally gave in, she fell asleep!!!!!!!!!!
To see her asleep in my arms was a dream come through!!! I was in Mommy heaven yesterday!!! She dozed off for about 25 minutes until someone woke her up with so much noise, but at least she got to experience a tiny bit of the love and attention that she will receive from Mauri and me. There is so much love stored for her!!! We want to make up for the love and attention that she has never had.... I am so thankful to God for giving us the opportunity to become the parents of our little Maya.
Well, I have to leave you know. I have to go get ready to go visit our little angel. Mauri still under the weather, so it will another day just Maya and me, and I intend to enjoy every minute of it!!! Until my next post.... Take care everyone....
Monday, March 23, 2009
FINAL COURT HEARING
Dear Friends & Family:
We are pleased to inform you that we passed our Final Court Hearing!!! We are officially the new parents for Maya Antonina Guillen..............yeahhhhh............we are soooooooo happy!!!!!
We had such a long day today, but thanks to God everything went great. The court hearing was very intense and emotional (to say the least). There was a moment were things were not going to great, not because of us, but because of something to do with the final report from the social worker..... Ohhh my, they were talking about delaying the court hearing for who knows how long, we were like, ohh my God, nooooo, please. We started praying soo hard, asking God and our angels to please help us out one more time. Thanks to God the issue got resolved and we were able to move on.
Finally we were given a positive conclusion by the Russian court system and the Ministry of Education in which we were found fit to become Maya Antonina's parents. I broke down crying when I heard the final conclusion; I could not hold my tears. Mauri started to cry too.... There were tears of happiness!!!!
Then everybody congratulated us, including the judge, we could see that she was holding her tears too. This has been one of the happiest days of our lives. We can't wait for "Gotcha Day" when we get to pick up Maya from the baby house forever!!!
We now have the 10 day mandatory waiting period until the adoption becomes official. We will pick her up from the baby house on April 3rd. That day she will be exactly 21 months. We can't wait for that day to come......
In the afternoon, we were treated to lunch in order to celebrate our positive conclusion (as they call it) and to meet the head of the Russia Program (who came from the US yesterday) from our agency and the head of the Moscow office. They came down from Moscow for an official visit. We got a chance to talk to the Russia Program Director, and I can proudly say, that on behalf of Mauricio and I and ALL the parents who have adopted during the past year and a half, I had a very long and interesting conversation with him. He was very nice and allowed me to give him an ear full of just not things that we had to go through with the agency and our program coordinators, but I also gave them specific facts of what some of you had to encounter along the way during your adoption process.
We really hope that he will take some of what I told him to heart, not just for us, because we are almost finished with our adoption process, but for ALL the parents who are currently in the process of an adoption with our agency, but especially for those of you who are currently going through a Russian adoption. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future....
After lunch, we were taken for an official visit to the baby house to see our little angel. We went along with the CHI officials who were also scheduled for an official visit to our baby house. We took advantage of our visit, because while they were talking and touring the facilities, we were playing with our little one. Thank God, Maya is doing better from her cold. We could see a difference from when we last saw her on Saturday. We were very relieved that she is doing better. While they were talking business, we took advantage and we requested our translator if we could be granted special permission to observe Maya while she eats tomorrow during our visit, and of course, we were granted permission......A mother has to do what a mother has to do to help her child :o). We know it is going to be to her benefit, because the more we learn about her and she is used to, the more we can help her out during her transition.
We are planning to visit her everyday at the baby house, while we wait the 10 days. We feel it will be extremely beneficial during her transition while she becomes accustomed to us. At the same time, we were advised that just in case anything comes up (God forbid) we will be there to solve any challenges.
Every time, we visit with her, she continues to get used to us. We continue to see that she is very strong willed. As one of my dearest friends told me, "she needs to be that way in order to survive everything they have to go through at the orphanage."
We continue to talk to her in English. We are teaching her to say Mama and Papa. She knows who Papa is, but she is still not sure who Mama is. I guess because other kids at the baby house see all the female workers as Mama's. I will be patient. My turn will come, when I will be her only Mama........
Mauri and I would like to say THANK YOU to all of you for your kind wishes and kind prayers. Please continue to pray for us, since we still have some roads to conquer. We still have to go through some legal hurdles before we leave to Moscow. Once we are in Moscow, we need to go through the US Embassy for her visa, in order to bring her to the US.......Until my next post.....
We are pleased to inform you that we passed our Final Court Hearing!!! We are officially the new parents for Maya Antonina Guillen..............yeahhhhh............we are soooooooo happy!!!!!
We had such a long day today, but thanks to God everything went great. The court hearing was very intense and emotional (to say the least). There was a moment were things were not going to great, not because of us, but because of something to do with the final report from the social worker..... Ohhh my, they were talking about delaying the court hearing for who knows how long, we were like, ohh my God, nooooo, please. We started praying soo hard, asking God and our angels to please help us out one more time. Thanks to God the issue got resolved and we were able to move on.
Finally we were given a positive conclusion by the Russian court system and the Ministry of Education in which we were found fit to become Maya Antonina's parents. I broke down crying when I heard the final conclusion; I could not hold my tears. Mauri started to cry too.... There were tears of happiness!!!!
Then everybody congratulated us, including the judge, we could see that she was holding her tears too. This has been one of the happiest days of our lives. We can't wait for "Gotcha Day" when we get to pick up Maya from the baby house forever!!!
We now have the 10 day mandatory waiting period until the adoption becomes official. We will pick her up from the baby house on April 3rd. That day she will be exactly 21 months. We can't wait for that day to come......
In the afternoon, we were treated to lunch in order to celebrate our positive conclusion (as they call it) and to meet the head of the Russia Program (who came from the US yesterday) from our agency and the head of the Moscow office. They came down from Moscow for an official visit. We got a chance to talk to the Russia Program Director, and I can proudly say, that on behalf of Mauricio and I and ALL the parents who have adopted during the past year and a half, I had a very long and interesting conversation with him. He was very nice and allowed me to give him an ear full of just not things that we had to go through with the agency and our program coordinators, but I also gave them specific facts of what some of you had to encounter along the way during your adoption process.
We really hope that he will take some of what I told him to heart, not just for us, because we are almost finished with our adoption process, but for ALL the parents who are currently in the process of an adoption with our agency, but especially for those of you who are currently going through a Russian adoption. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future....
After lunch, we were taken for an official visit to the baby house to see our little angel. We went along with the CHI officials who were also scheduled for an official visit to our baby house. We took advantage of our visit, because while they were talking and touring the facilities, we were playing with our little one. Thank God, Maya is doing better from her cold. We could see a difference from when we last saw her on Saturday. We were very relieved that she is doing better. While they were talking business, we took advantage and we requested our translator if we could be granted special permission to observe Maya while she eats tomorrow during our visit, and of course, we were granted permission......A mother has to do what a mother has to do to help her child :o). We know it is going to be to her benefit, because the more we learn about her and she is used to, the more we can help her out during her transition.
We are planning to visit her everyday at the baby house, while we wait the 10 days. We feel it will be extremely beneficial during her transition while she becomes accustomed to us. At the same time, we were advised that just in case anything comes up (God forbid) we will be there to solve any challenges.
Every time, we visit with her, she continues to get used to us. We continue to see that she is very strong willed. As one of my dearest friends told me, "she needs to be that way in order to survive everything they have to go through at the orphanage."
We continue to talk to her in English. We are teaching her to say Mama and Papa. She knows who Papa is, but she is still not sure who Mama is. I guess because other kids at the baby house see all the female workers as Mama's. I will be patient. My turn will come, when I will be her only Mama........
Mauri and I would like to say THANK YOU to all of you for your kind wishes and kind prayers. Please continue to pray for us, since we still have some roads to conquer. We still have to go through some legal hurdles before we leave to Moscow. Once we are in Moscow, we need to go through the US Embassy for her visa, in order to bring her to the US.......Until my next post.....
Saturday, March 21, 2009
SATURDAY VISIT TO THE BABY HOUSE
We went to visit Antonina from 9:30 - 11:30am today. We arrived exactly at 9:30, but had to wait for our little angel for 25 minutes. When they finally brought her down, she was wearing one of the outfits we had brought for her on our first trip. She looked so beautiful!!!! She was our little pink riding hood!!! We put her hood and miraculously she left on the entire visit!! We played with her for quite a while which is was really nice. She is still not well from her cold. Unfortunately, she is now developing a cough. We are getting concerned, because we have been told that she has had episodes of bronchitis in the past and she is only 20 months old!!! We are afraid that if they don't start to take care of her cold, she might end up developing bronchitis (God forbid).
Today, we tried to put her for a nap because she was really sleepy, we almost succeeded, but were defeated at the end. She was fighting in order not to fall asleep. We also tried a different type of Gerber cookie, still with no luck. We brought a couple of grapes from breakfast to see if she liked it. I got a little tiny piece from the inside of the grape. When I went to give to her she opened her mouth (quite an accomplishment) and she willingly tried the piece of grape. She really liked the flavor, but ended up spitting it out (again). We tried this about 5 times, with the same result until she got upset and did not want to try anymore!!!
I have gotten to the conclusion that she does not know how to chew. I have already spoken with our translator and I told her that after we are done with court, we really need to watch her eat and sleep. It is imperative for her transition from the baby house to us to know how she eats and sleeps. Otherwise, I am afraid that the change from one place to the other its going to be more traumatic that it needs to be for her. I hope I am not taking things out of proportion; I just need to make sure that her transition is as painless as possible.....
We could tell that she was really hungry and when she started to see the caretakers carrying the pots and pans, she started to get really uncomfortable. We told one of the caretakers that she was hungry, but we were told that she had to wait. Go figure!!
After they came to get her we kissed her goodbye. We were told by the caretaker to come at 4:30, instead of 4:00pm, but we decided not to come because Antonina needs her rest, and to make her go through the whole ordeal of our visit for a 1/2 an hour visit, it will be too much for her. We tried to arrange a visit for Sunday morning, but we were told no :o(
So our next meeting will be Monday after court!!! Please continue to pray for us. We are almost there and we need all the help we can get. Have a nice weekend everyone, I will post some more later.
Today, we tried to put her for a nap because she was really sleepy, we almost succeeded, but were defeated at the end. She was fighting in order not to fall asleep. We also tried a different type of Gerber cookie, still with no luck. We brought a couple of grapes from breakfast to see if she liked it. I got a little tiny piece from the inside of the grape. When I went to give to her she opened her mouth (quite an accomplishment) and she willingly tried the piece of grape. She really liked the flavor, but ended up spitting it out (again). We tried this about 5 times, with the same result until she got upset and did not want to try anymore!!!
I have gotten to the conclusion that she does not know how to chew. I have already spoken with our translator and I told her that after we are done with court, we really need to watch her eat and sleep. It is imperative for her transition from the baby house to us to know how she eats and sleeps. Otherwise, I am afraid that the change from one place to the other its going to be more traumatic that it needs to be for her. I hope I am not taking things out of proportion; I just need to make sure that her transition is as painless as possible.....
We could tell that she was really hungry and when she started to see the caretakers carrying the pots and pans, she started to get really uncomfortable. We told one of the caretakers that she was hungry, but we were told that she had to wait. Go figure!!
After they came to get her we kissed her goodbye. We were told by the caretaker to come at 4:30, instead of 4:00pm, but we decided not to come because Antonina needs her rest, and to make her go through the whole ordeal of our visit for a 1/2 an hour visit, it will be too much for her. We tried to arrange a visit for Sunday morning, but we were told no :o(
So our next meeting will be Monday after court!!! Please continue to pray for us. We are almost there and we need all the help we can get. Have a nice weekend everyone, I will post some more later.
FRIDAY VISIT WITH ANTONINA
We went to visit Antonina on our own on Friday afternoon. We were scheduled to be there from 4:00 - 5:00pm. We arrived at the baby house and we were told to wait. We waited for almost a half and hour before the caretaker brought our little one downstairs. We were a little concerned because we only had an hour visit scheduled. Once she came downstairs we could tell that Antonina had been wakened up from her nap. Poor angel, in we had known she was sleeping; we would not have bothered her. Anyways, she still not feels well. By now she has developed a cold. You could tell that she was not feeling well at all. We tried to play with her and to keep her entertained, but she was tired. We tried to feed her a tiny little piece of Gerber yogurt fruits, but ohh my, we could not get her to chew. We tried so many times, we know she liked the flavor, but she would spit it out every time. So far we have not been successful with the Gerber cookies, nor the yogurt fruit. We will try with a different type of cookie tomorrow. When we got to the end of our visit, they came to take her 10 minutes before we were due :o(
I did tell the Director of the Baby House that Antonina was sick, to see of they would have the doctor look at her, but she told me that the other babies were sick too, that there was a virus going on.... I don't think she agreed with giving her medication and or maybe be seeing by a doctor. I am a little frustrated. I feel like a bad Mom for not being able to do anything. I will post some more later....
I did tell the Director of the Baby House that Antonina was sick, to see of they would have the doctor look at her, but she told me that the other babies were sick too, that there was a virus going on.... I don't think she agreed with giving her medication and or maybe be seeing by a doctor. I am a little frustrated. I feel like a bad Mom for not being able to do anything. I will post some more later....
Friday, March 20, 2009
COURT HEARING #1
We were picked up by our Coordinator at 9:30am. We were joined in the van by the Adoption Center Social Worker and our Translator Olga. Once we reached the Court house, we were told to stay downstairs while everyone met with the Judge in her Chambers. While I cannot fully discuss what when on in closed doors during the hearing (Russian adoption is considered confidential) I can share with you that there was a full review of ALL of the documentation that we were required to turn in, including the new paperwork the Judge required us on our first trip. There was also review of all of Antonina's paperwork from the Adoption Center and the Baby House.
At the beginning of the questioning it got a little rough, but after I started to pray and we asked God and ALL of the Angels to come down and help us, things, believe it or not started to get much better. The mood in the room changed completely...... The judge asked to see the pictures and the photo album we had made of Antonina and we she saw her pictures she was sold!!! She saw the photo album twice and selected pictures from the album herself, even though we had already selected some for her!!! That was a good sign!! The prosecutor also smiled when she saw our little Angel's pictures, and let me tell you, she was not easy to get a smile out of!!!! But she did, so far everyone has fallen in love with her!!!
I would like to formally thank Donnie, my sister Claudia, my sister Ana Maria and my best friend Sol for their letters of recommendation towards Mauri and me. Let me tell you that the judge read them out loud in front of everyone and my eyes started to cry, but this was a cry of gratitude and happiness. Happiness to know that we have a beautiful family and beautiful friends who have helped us and supported us during this long journey. Mauri and I say THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you to all those of you who in one way of the other have assisted us some how while we have gone through our Adoption Journey. We could not have done it without you guys. We are blessed to have you in our lives......
After one hour and forty-five minutes, we were done with the first court hearing. We received the next hearing for Monday, March 23rd at 10:00am (Tver time). We will visit with our little one in the afternoon. We have made special arrangements with a taxi driver to come pick us up. We are also going to visit with her on Saturday in the morning, after her nap and in the afternoon after her last nap. I will post more then. Take care everyone and don't forget to leave us comments. It is the only way to know whose reading our blog. Thank you to those of you who have left comments :o)........
At the beginning of the questioning it got a little rough, but after I started to pray and we asked God and ALL of the Angels to come down and help us, things, believe it or not started to get much better. The mood in the room changed completely...... The judge asked to see the pictures and the photo album we had made of Antonina and we she saw her pictures she was sold!!! She saw the photo album twice and selected pictures from the album herself, even though we had already selected some for her!!! That was a good sign!! The prosecutor also smiled when she saw our little Angel's pictures, and let me tell you, she was not easy to get a smile out of!!!! But she did, so far everyone has fallen in love with her!!!
I would like to formally thank Donnie, my sister Claudia, my sister Ana Maria and my best friend Sol for their letters of recommendation towards Mauri and me. Let me tell you that the judge read them out loud in front of everyone and my eyes started to cry, but this was a cry of gratitude and happiness. Happiness to know that we have a beautiful family and beautiful friends who have helped us and supported us during this long journey. Mauri and I say THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you to all those of you who in one way of the other have assisted us some how while we have gone through our Adoption Journey. We could not have done it without you guys. We are blessed to have you in our lives......
After one hour and forty-five minutes, we were done with the first court hearing. We received the next hearing for Monday, March 23rd at 10:00am (Tver time). We will visit with our little one in the afternoon. We have made special arrangements with a taxi driver to come pick us up. We are also going to visit with her on Saturday in the morning, after her nap and in the afternoon after her last nap. I will post more then. Take care everyone and don't forget to leave us comments. It is the only way to know whose reading our blog. Thank you to those of you who have left comments :o)........
Thursday, March 19, 2009
RIGHT BEFORE OUR FIRST COURT HEARING!!
It is 3:00 in the morning, Russia time, and here I am.... I can't sleep. Mauri is sound asleep, but not me. I am worried about court!! So many thought cross your mind... So many what if... I have to stop stressing myself.... We have come so far... We so badly want this child to be our daughter. We know that God and our Angels are here with us and we pray that they will lead the way for us!! We are good people! We have so much love to give! We promise to be good parents!! The only thing we can do is TRUST that God will lead the way for us and he will help us to say the right answers and that the judge and the prosecutor will agree that we should be allowed to adopt Maya... Mauri and I have done everything and anything humanly possible in order to be Maya's parents. It is up to others now to agree that we are "deserving" of becoming this child's parents. Please continue to pray for us. The judge's name is Svetlana; please include her in your prayers. We have been told that she is tough, but fair.... Until my next post.... Take care....
FIRST VISIT WITH ANTONINA (2nd TRIP)
We visited with Maya Antonina this morning. We were picked up by our Coordinator at 9:00am sharp. He was accompanied by the Baby House Social Worker. It was going to be a monitored visit (sort of). She started asking questions while in the Van on our way to the Baby House. She wanted to give us an idea of what was going to be asked during our court hearing tomorrow morning. Some questions I already knew, but there were a couple of questions that kind of threw me off guard. One of them what happens if (God forbid) something were to happen to Maya in regards to her health. Let's say that she became seriously ill. She said, if it was a biological child you would stick by her, but since this will be an adoptive child, would you renounce to her and giver back. We are like, back to whom????? She is our daughter!!!! Even though we have not gone through the formalities of court, we consider her OUR daughter. So no matter in what type of health status she might be in the future, we are here to stay!!!
Another question was if Mauri and I were to get divorced (God forbid) what would happen?? Would he still consider her his daughter?? Would he assist with supporting the child morally and monetarily? We are like, of course, under US law, Maya will have his last name and it will be our child, whether she was adopted or not!! And by law he would have to help with child support!!!
After she finished with her questions, she told us that she had liked our answers, that if we continue to answer that way, we would do well in court!!
Well, once we reached the baby house, we wanted to see Maya, we missed her so much!!! She was taking her nap and the caretaker woke her up. She was still in her PJ's. Poor thing, I can't believe they woke her up. When I saw her I was a little concerned because she has not gained any weight. She still the same as when we last saw her 5 weeks ago. Her hair has grown a little though! We started playing with her right away. We hugged her and kissed her so many times, she must have felt overwhelmed!! Even though she was a little cranky she started playing with her toys. She immediately recognized her favorite toy from our last trip and she immediately remembers what button to press to hear the music. We were cracking up!!
We visited with her for about two and a half hours, yeahhh. We brought her a Gerber cookie for crawlers, but there was no way that could get her to eat it. The darn thing was really hard!! We broke it in little pieces for her, buy, no, she would not eat it.... We knew she was hungry, but she would not eat it. Her diaper needed to be changed since the beginning of the visit. I felt really bad that I did not have any pampers with us, so I could change her myself. Poor thing, she had to stay dirty for quite a while! Next time, we are brining her diaper bag with us, so we can be prepared.
This time she really opened up to us. There were a lot of smiles and giggles and there was also a lot of crying towards the end. We knew she was sleepy and hungry, but there was not much we could do. We tried putting her to sleep, but there was too much noise and she became distracted really easy. We continued to try with the cookie, but nothing.
We then noticed that she might be getting a cold. She felt a little warm, and her little nose was itching a lot and it was also watery. That's why she was not feeling well!! We told the caretaker, but we think (by her expression) that she thought we were exaggerating. All of the sudden, time was up. The caretaker came and took her away from us. We were like, its too soon.....Let us hug her and kiss her one more time, but they literally took her off our arms :o(
We wanted to run away with her. We cannot wait to get her out of there!!!!
Once we left the baby house, we were taken back to the hotel. Before we excited the van, our Coordinator started to prepare us for court. We told him through the translator that we were going to study all our paperwork and that we were going to be ready for court in the morning. We will be picked up at 9:30 am and the court hearing will start at 10:00am. Please pray for us.... We are in God's hands. I will try to post more tomorrow. Until then....
Another question was if Mauri and I were to get divorced (God forbid) what would happen?? Would he still consider her his daughter?? Would he assist with supporting the child morally and monetarily? We are like, of course, under US law, Maya will have his last name and it will be our child, whether she was adopted or not!! And by law he would have to help with child support!!!
After she finished with her questions, she told us that she had liked our answers, that if we continue to answer that way, we would do well in court!!
Well, once we reached the baby house, we wanted to see Maya, we missed her so much!!! She was taking her nap and the caretaker woke her up. She was still in her PJ's. Poor thing, I can't believe they woke her up. When I saw her I was a little concerned because she has not gained any weight. She still the same as when we last saw her 5 weeks ago. Her hair has grown a little though! We started playing with her right away. We hugged her and kissed her so many times, she must have felt overwhelmed!! Even though she was a little cranky she started playing with her toys. She immediately recognized her favorite toy from our last trip and she immediately remembers what button to press to hear the music. We were cracking up!!
We visited with her for about two and a half hours, yeahhh. We brought her a Gerber cookie for crawlers, but there was no way that could get her to eat it. The darn thing was really hard!! We broke it in little pieces for her, buy, no, she would not eat it.... We knew she was hungry, but she would not eat it. Her diaper needed to be changed since the beginning of the visit. I felt really bad that I did not have any pampers with us, so I could change her myself. Poor thing, she had to stay dirty for quite a while! Next time, we are brining her diaper bag with us, so we can be prepared.
This time she really opened up to us. There were a lot of smiles and giggles and there was also a lot of crying towards the end. We knew she was sleepy and hungry, but there was not much we could do. We tried putting her to sleep, but there was too much noise and she became distracted really easy. We continued to try with the cookie, but nothing.
We then noticed that she might be getting a cold. She felt a little warm, and her little nose was itching a lot and it was also watery. That's why she was not feeling well!! We told the caretaker, but we think (by her expression) that she thought we were exaggerating. All of the sudden, time was up. The caretaker came and took her away from us. We were like, its too soon.....Let us hug her and kiss her one more time, but they literally took her off our arms :o(
We wanted to run away with her. We cannot wait to get her out of there!!!!
Once we left the baby house, we were taken back to the hotel. Before we excited the van, our Coordinator started to prepare us for court. We told him through the translator that we were going to study all our paperwork and that we were going to be ready for court in the morning. We will be picked up at 9:30 am and the court hearing will start at 10:00am. Please pray for us.... We are in God's hands. I will try to post more tomorrow. Until then....
LEAVING FOR OUR COURT TRIP
Dear All:
On Tuesday March 17, we left for the final leg of our Adoption Journey, court!!! We started the morning with being picked up by our brother-in-law Nelson. It was so nice of him to take us to the airport. Thanks a million Nelson!!! We were able to check in and go through TSA without any problems. They started boarding the Chicago flight really early. We made into the place and once we got situated we started napping!! We felt that the flight took forever. Once we finally made it to Chicago we called my sister Claudia so we could meet for lunch since we had about 3 hours to spare. Things did not go entirely as planned (I can't go into all the details) but the important thing is that we were able so see Claudia and Donnie and that we were able to spend some time with them.
Once we were back at the airport, we had to go through TSA again. As soon as we reached our gate, they started boarding for the Moscow flight. The first part of the flight went without any problems. I can only say that regardless of whether you go in first class or coach, it is a veryyy long flight. On the last part of the flight, we had about 1 1/2 before landing, right after we had breakfast; I started to get really sick to my stomach!!! Something I ate from the breakfast did not go well with me (to say the least). I asked the flight attendant if they had Alka Seltzer, but I was told, no sorry. Thanks to God, I always try to travel prepared and we had a small first aid kit in one of our carry-ons. Mauri located it for me. Well, I was sick the entire day after that.
Once we landed in Moscow, we went through Passport Control and then on to get our luggage. For some reason, the luggage took a while to come out. Once we went through Customs, we were stopped by one of the officers and we were asked if we were together, we said yes. Then he asked for our passports and after he went to tell Mauricio that he needed to place the entire luggage inside the x-ray machine. We then realized that what caught the officer's attention what that we were carrying a stroller without a baby, and that made him suspicious!!!! After that, we were able to leave Customs and exit to the waiting area. Unfortunately, our CHI staff got there late to pick us up. Ohh my, I was starting to freak out.... I was concerned more for the language barrier than for anything else. Thanks to God, he showed about an hour and a half later. We then headed straight to Tver. It took 4 hours non-stop for us to reach our destination.... Even though Tver is only 167km from Moscow, the traffic in and out of Moscow is one of the worst I have ever seen. It is worst than in the US, yes, believe it!!!
Anyways, once we reached Tver, we were taken to our hotel. The bellman had a fit when he saw the amount of luggage he was going to carry. It was so funny to see his face. Afterwards I realized why. You see we were given a room in the main building in the 3rd floor and there are no elevators (lift as they call it)!!! Poor guy, I felt bad for him afterwards... We did give him a good tip though!!!
Well, once we got to our room, we were shocked of it's size. It was really really small. We barely fit with the entire luggage. The bathroom is super small. It cannot fit 2 people in it at the same time. We were (well, I was) concerned that it was too small for us to spend 21 days. Mainly because when we get our little girl, we won't be able to move around with her. We did talk to the receptionist (Irina); she was very nice and tried to help us out. I explained the situation to her, but she told me that we had to wait at least a week before we could be moved to a larger room because we were staying too many days and the hotel was booked. She came up to the room with us and she realized how tight we were. I requested to have access to the temperature remote so we could adjust the temperature to our liking. You see, the heater system is too strong and I can't stand it.... We also asked how we could open the windows because they were different from the windows in the other building. Well, between all of us we were able to figure it out. After that I started to feel better. Tomorrow, Thursday, we are off to see our little one. I will try to post more later. Until then.....
On Tuesday March 17, we left for the final leg of our Adoption Journey, court!!! We started the morning with being picked up by our brother-in-law Nelson. It was so nice of him to take us to the airport. Thanks a million Nelson!!! We were able to check in and go through TSA without any problems. They started boarding the Chicago flight really early. We made into the place and once we got situated we started napping!! We felt that the flight took forever. Once we finally made it to Chicago we called my sister Claudia so we could meet for lunch since we had about 3 hours to spare. Things did not go entirely as planned (I can't go into all the details) but the important thing is that we were able so see Claudia and Donnie and that we were able to spend some time with them.
Once we were back at the airport, we had to go through TSA again. As soon as we reached our gate, they started boarding for the Moscow flight. The first part of the flight went without any problems. I can only say that regardless of whether you go in first class or coach, it is a veryyy long flight. On the last part of the flight, we had about 1 1/2 before landing, right after we had breakfast; I started to get really sick to my stomach!!! Something I ate from the breakfast did not go well with me (to say the least). I asked the flight attendant if they had Alka Seltzer, but I was told, no sorry. Thanks to God, I always try to travel prepared and we had a small first aid kit in one of our carry-ons. Mauri located it for me. Well, I was sick the entire day after that.
Once we landed in Moscow, we went through Passport Control and then on to get our luggage. For some reason, the luggage took a while to come out. Once we went through Customs, we were stopped by one of the officers and we were asked if we were together, we said yes. Then he asked for our passports and after he went to tell Mauricio that he needed to place the entire luggage inside the x-ray machine. We then realized that what caught the officer's attention what that we were carrying a stroller without a baby, and that made him suspicious!!!! After that, we were able to leave Customs and exit to the waiting area. Unfortunately, our CHI staff got there late to pick us up. Ohh my, I was starting to freak out.... I was concerned more for the language barrier than for anything else. Thanks to God, he showed about an hour and a half later. We then headed straight to Tver. It took 4 hours non-stop for us to reach our destination.... Even though Tver is only 167km from Moscow, the traffic in and out of Moscow is one of the worst I have ever seen. It is worst than in the US, yes, believe it!!!
Anyways, once we reached Tver, we were taken to our hotel. The bellman had a fit when he saw the amount of luggage he was going to carry. It was so funny to see his face. Afterwards I realized why. You see we were given a room in the main building in the 3rd floor and there are no elevators (lift as they call it)!!! Poor guy, I felt bad for him afterwards... We did give him a good tip though!!!
Well, once we got to our room, we were shocked of it's size. It was really really small. We barely fit with the entire luggage. The bathroom is super small. It cannot fit 2 people in it at the same time. We were (well, I was) concerned that it was too small for us to spend 21 days. Mainly because when we get our little girl, we won't be able to move around with her. We did talk to the receptionist (Irina); she was very nice and tried to help us out. I explained the situation to her, but she told me that we had to wait at least a week before we could be moved to a larger room because we were staying too many days and the hotel was booked. She came up to the room with us and she realized how tight we were. I requested to have access to the temperature remote so we could adjust the temperature to our liking. You see, the heater system is too strong and I can't stand it.... We also asked how we could open the windows because they were different from the windows in the other building. Well, between all of us we were able to figure it out. After that I started to feel better. Tomorrow, Thursday, we are off to see our little one. I will try to post more later. Until then.....
FAMILY GATHERING
Our family gathering went very well. We really had good time. We were really happy to spend some time with family and friends. Thank you to all our friends who brought our little Maya Antonina presents. Mauri and I really appreciate it....
Thursday, March 12, 2009
POSTING OF TEASER PICTURES
Dear All:
I decided to post some pictures of Maya. Granted that I am not posting pictures that directly show her face because we are not allowed to do that, and of course, we would never do anything to jeopardize Maya's adoption. Nevertheless, since the pictures are not showing her face, we are okay with posting them. Isn't she a cutie!!! I don't get tired of saying: we can't wait to see her again!!! We really miss her!!! Until our next post!!!
I decided to post some pictures of Maya. Granted that I am not posting pictures that directly show her face because we are not allowed to do that, and of course, we would never do anything to jeopardize Maya's adoption. Nevertheless, since the pictures are not showing her face, we are okay with posting them. Isn't she a cutie!!! I don't get tired of saying: we can't wait to see her again!!! We really miss her!!! Until our next post!!!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
GETTING READY FOR COURT AND FINAL TRIP
Dear All:
Things continue to be busy at the Guillen/Codina household. Right now we are getting ready for our get together with some friends and family. Our family and friends wanted to get together before we left. It will be this coming Sunday, March 15. As it looks right now, the chances of my baby sister coming are slim to none. I am very sad about that. I wish she could be here to celebrate our happy day. I know, I know, there will be more times to celebrate all together, as a family, but still, I wish she could be here!! She will be with us in spirit! Anyways, both of my sisters have been so kind and generous, they both have gone above and beyond helping us out buying things for our dear Maya! Thank so much Claudia, Donnie, Ana Maria and Nelson!!! Maya, Mauri and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Well, Claudia and Donnie purchased a car seat, diapers, wipes and a feeding chair. Ana Maria and Nelson purchased the play pen and her stroller. I am so excited!!! I get really emotional every time I walk in into her room and I see all those things there. It reminds me that our dream of being parents is becoming a reality little by little. We can't wait to leave on the 17th. We are now 99% packed. We are so packed that we cannot fit anything else. Of course Maya has 1/2 of our luggage (jajaja). I guess that happens when you become parents. Kids get more than half of everything and they also get to be packed first :o).
In terms of paperwork, we have everything for court. All the originals and copies that need to be taken are already in the backpack. My laptop is being checked as we speak, because since it came with us from Russia has been acting weird. I think it might be infected by a virus or something. I really hope Mauri's friend can really fix it for us! I am also trying to leave everything up to date with work, bills and other things. It is not easy leaving so many things ready ahead of time. We have never been out of the country for a month so it makes it a little bit more challenging.
Also, we just send the last "Fee" to CHI, and let me tell you it was not easy to let go of so much money :o(, but like my sister Ana Maria would say "money comes and goes". I also trust that more money will find its way to us very soon :o). Most important thing right now is to bring Maya Antonina home!!! That's what our priority is right now. Well, once I have them, I will try to post some pictures from the baby shower. Until next time!!! Have a bless day!
Things continue to be busy at the Guillen/Codina household. Right now we are getting ready for our get together with some friends and family. Our family and friends wanted to get together before we left. It will be this coming Sunday, March 15. As it looks right now, the chances of my baby sister coming are slim to none. I am very sad about that. I wish she could be here to celebrate our happy day. I know, I know, there will be more times to celebrate all together, as a family, but still, I wish she could be here!! She will be with us in spirit! Anyways, both of my sisters have been so kind and generous, they both have gone above and beyond helping us out buying things for our dear Maya! Thank so much Claudia, Donnie, Ana Maria and Nelson!!! Maya, Mauri and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Well, Claudia and Donnie purchased a car seat, diapers, wipes and a feeding chair. Ana Maria and Nelson purchased the play pen and her stroller. I am so excited!!! I get really emotional every time I walk in into her room and I see all those things there. It reminds me that our dream of being parents is becoming a reality little by little. We can't wait to leave on the 17th. We are now 99% packed. We are so packed that we cannot fit anything else. Of course Maya has 1/2 of our luggage (jajaja). I guess that happens when you become parents. Kids get more than half of everything and they also get to be packed first :o).
In terms of paperwork, we have everything for court. All the originals and copies that need to be taken are already in the backpack. My laptop is being checked as we speak, because since it came with us from Russia has been acting weird. I think it might be infected by a virus or something. I really hope Mauri's friend can really fix it for us! I am also trying to leave everything up to date with work, bills and other things. It is not easy leaving so many things ready ahead of time. We have never been out of the country for a month so it makes it a little bit more challenging.
Also, we just send the last "Fee" to CHI, and let me tell you it was not easy to let go of so much money :o(, but like my sister Ana Maria would say "money comes and goes". I also trust that more money will find its way to us very soon :o). Most important thing right now is to bring Maya Antonina home!!! That's what our priority is right now. Well, once I have them, I will try to post some pictures from the baby shower. Until next time!!! Have a bless day!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
GETTING READY FOR COURT
Dear All:
Sorry I have not been able to post in the last week. Things have been unbelievable crazy. We are currently getting ready to go on our court dates. We finally got confirmation from CHI to purchase the tickets. It took almost a week to finally receive return dates. I was starting to get really nervous because prices were going up. Thank God I sent the visa requests last week, as soon as we receive confirmation for court. Otherwise we would have had to pay additional money for expediting the visas. This time we requested a double entry business visa, which will be valid for 90 days.
At the same time we are getting ready to bring Maya Antonina home and there are soo many things to buy!!! Granted that the furniture in her room has been ready for a little over a year. That thanks to my Mom, and Maya's Godparents, Sol and Rafael. They were all so kind and donated the Crib and the 2 dressers. Thank you Guys!!! But even though the furniture in her room is ready, we still have to buy her clothing, 2 car seats (1 for Mauri and 1 for me), stroller, portable crib, among other things.
We are having a family and friends get together on March 15th and we are also in the process of getting ready for that. I can't wait to share such a special time with our friends and family! We are trying to get my sister Claudia to come, but tickets from Chicago to Miami are soo expensive right now!! I have not been able to find her a good deal. I really want her to be here with us!! We will see what happens. We pray to God that we will be able to have her with us somehow!!!
We are also working on our Family Medical Leave paperwork. I turned mine in yesterday and I am waiting for my boss to approve it. Mauri is in the same boat too. I really pray to God that we won't have any challenges there!!!
Finally, we received the itinerary we will have while in Russia. We will be out for almost a month, yes, you read right, a month.... We leave on March 17, and we won't come back until April 15th. We hope that during the 10 days waiting period, we will be allowed to see Maya Antonina. We can't wait to see her.... We pray she will remember us!! Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We are almost there..... Thank you all for your continued prayers and your support. Until our next post!!!
Sorry I have not been able to post in the last week. Things have been unbelievable crazy. We are currently getting ready to go on our court dates. We finally got confirmation from CHI to purchase the tickets. It took almost a week to finally receive return dates. I was starting to get really nervous because prices were going up. Thank God I sent the visa requests last week, as soon as we receive confirmation for court. Otherwise we would have had to pay additional money for expediting the visas. This time we requested a double entry business visa, which will be valid for 90 days.
At the same time we are getting ready to bring Maya Antonina home and there are soo many things to buy!!! Granted that the furniture in her room has been ready for a little over a year. That thanks to my Mom, and Maya's Godparents, Sol and Rafael. They were all so kind and donated the Crib and the 2 dressers. Thank you Guys!!! But even though the furniture in her room is ready, we still have to buy her clothing, 2 car seats (1 for Mauri and 1 for me), stroller, portable crib, among other things.
We are having a family and friends get together on March 15th and we are also in the process of getting ready for that. I can't wait to share such a special time with our friends and family! We are trying to get my sister Claudia to come, but tickets from Chicago to Miami are soo expensive right now!! I have not been able to find her a good deal. I really want her to be here with us!! We will see what happens. We pray to God that we will be able to have her with us somehow!!!
We are also working on our Family Medical Leave paperwork. I turned mine in yesterday and I am waiting for my boss to approve it. Mauri is in the same boat too. I really pray to God that we won't have any challenges there!!!
Finally, we received the itinerary we will have while in Russia. We will be out for almost a month, yes, you read right, a month.... We leave on March 17, and we won't come back until April 15th. We hope that during the 10 days waiting period, we will be allowed to see Maya Antonina. We can't wait to see her.... We pray she will remember us!! Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We are almost there..... Thank you all for your continued prayers and your support. Until our next post!!!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
NEWS FROM THE JUDGE
We received an email from the Tver staff (read below). We GOT A COURT DATE!!!!
Dear Yadira,
Thank you so much for keeping us informed about the documents and thank you again so much for your time and efforts that you take in order to prepare them ASAP.
Thank you, we received all the documents that you sent us over the week-end. As soon as you have all your documents apostilled, please e-mail them to us so we could show all the documents notarized and apostilled to the judge. Please hand carry the originals for the trip to Tver with you.
We met the judge today and based on the review of your documents the judge scheduled the court hearing for you for March 20, 2009 at 10:00.
We are going to forward the information about your travel dates to Moscow and St. Louis offices, and we’ll write to you regarding arrival date and your schedule for this trip later today.
Best regards,
CHI – Tver Team
Things as you can imagine are a little crazy...... There are soooo many things that need to be taken care of. We know that we have to leave on March 17, 2009 from the US in order to get to Moscow the following day. That's all we know for know. As soon as we know more, I will let you know. Thanks to everyone for your continued support and prayers....
Dear Yadira,
Thank you so much for keeping us informed about the documents and thank you again so much for your time and efforts that you take in order to prepare them ASAP.
Thank you, we received all the documents that you sent us over the week-end. As soon as you have all your documents apostilled, please e-mail them to us so we could show all the documents notarized and apostilled to the judge. Please hand carry the originals for the trip to Tver with you.
We met the judge today and based on the review of your documents the judge scheduled the court hearing for you for March 20, 2009 at 10:00.
We are going to forward the information about your travel dates to Moscow and St. Louis offices, and we’ll write to you regarding arrival date and your schedule for this trip later today.
Best regards,
CHI – Tver Team
Things as you can imagine are a little crazy...... There are soooo many things that need to be taken care of. We know that we have to leave on March 17, 2009 from the US in order to get to Moscow the following day. That's all we know for know. As soon as we know more, I will let you know. Thanks to everyone for your continued support and prayers....
SECOND WEEK BACK COMING FROM TRIP 1
MEETING WITH PSYCHIATRIST
The meeting with the Psychiatrist went super!!! We could not have been any happier. We brought the Dr. the photo album of Maya that we prepared for court on our way while driving to Tampa. It looks so cute!! We filled it with stickers and most of the pictures we took of Maya. The first thing the Dr. did when she saw the photo album was to ask to see it. Once she saw the pictures of our little girl, she was sold!!!! Everything ran so much easier after that. We whole meeting with Mauri and I in the same room took about one hour. We were so glad that things had gone so well!! The Dr. promised to send us all the paperwork completed and notarized within the next 24 hours. Since I had already checked her credentials I knew that there was nothing to worry about! This trip was meant to be, and most of all we were in God's hands. We hit the road as soon as we finished the appointment with the Dr. By the way, her name is Dr. Jillian M. Glass. She is a Board Certified Psychiatrist and a Board Certified Psychiatrist. We truly recommend her. Her web address is: http://www.jillianglassmd.com/
We got home very late, but it did not matter to us. We were happy to know that the biggest obstacle had been overcome. We should hear news tomorrow from the judge. I will post more later. Until then!!!
The meeting with the Psychiatrist went super!!! We could not have been any happier. We brought the Dr. the photo album of Maya that we prepared for court on our way while driving to Tampa. It looks so cute!! We filled it with stickers and most of the pictures we took of Maya. The first thing the Dr. did when she saw the photo album was to ask to see it. Once she saw the pictures of our little girl, she was sold!!!! Everything ran so much easier after that. We whole meeting with Mauri and I in the same room took about one hour. We were so glad that things had gone so well!! The Dr. promised to send us all the paperwork completed and notarized within the next 24 hours. Since I had already checked her credentials I knew that there was nothing to worry about! This trip was meant to be, and most of all we were in God's hands. We hit the road as soon as we finished the appointment with the Dr. By the way, her name is Dr. Jillian M. Glass. She is a Board Certified Psychiatrist and a Board Certified Psychiatrist. We truly recommend her. Her web address is: http://www.jillianglassmd.com/
We got home very late, but it did not matter to us. We were happy to know that the biggest obstacle had been overcome. We should hear news tomorrow from the judge. I will post more later. Until then!!!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
FIRST WEEK BACK FROM TRIP 1
FIRST WEEK SINCE LEAVING OUR DEAR MAYA
Wow! Time has gone by too fast this week. We hit the ground running as soon as we came back Sunday morning. First, Maui and I returned to work, and it was like we had never left the week before. It was just work, work, work, but it is what it is! As soon as Monday hit, I started calling Psychiatrist’s offices to see if we could make an appointment with a Board Certified Psychiatrist. Ohh, my, I started to encounter the same problem we had encountered the first time, before we found our current Psych dr., no availability, and no willingness from either the dr. or the dr.’s staff to assist you. Every time I would call, I would either get a response like, we have nothing available until the end of March, the dr. does not do deal with those types of cases (adoption related) or, it would take at least 4 to 5 psychoanalysis session’s before the dr. could come up with a diagnosis! I called at least 15 dr’s before I started to get desperate. I started posting on adoption chat boards. I first posted a message on the CHI Russia chat board, then on the yahoo, Tver chat group, then my friend (A) recommended for us to post a message on the FRUA chat boards, since FRUA reaches so many people around the US and abroad, we had a bigger chance of finding a Psych (Board Certified) who had dealt with adoption before. Well, I will tell you that we received some responses, some good, some not that good. One of the parents’s recommended a dr. from Jacksonville. We called his office; first they told me that they could fit us in on the following week, then, when I told them why we needed the appointment ASAP, the lady on the telephone changed her tune and said that actually, that Friday was a cancellation, and that they had nothing until sometime in March. I told the lady, I was going to have to call her back. I had to see if we could get plane tickets to fly to Jacksonville. Well, then we got another dr’s info, from another parent in one of the chats, but the dr. was a psychologist, not a psychiatrist, so we could not use him. I even checked with the Tver staff to see if could use a psychologist, instead of a psychiatrist, and the answer was NO.
Well, even our own Psychiatrist, dr. I (one of the most wonderful dr.s I have ever met) was trying to help us out through a colleague of his. He told us to give him a couple of days to help us find someone. Then, my friend A recommended her dr. from Kansas City, MO. She and another adoptive family, the I’s had used them. He was familiar with all the paperwork and there was a possibility he could assist us. Then, the question aroused of whether Russia would accept a dr.’s credential and/or evaluation from a different state. I turned the question to our program coordinator at CHI and at the Tver staff. I only received answers from the CHI coordinator and the answer was NO, the judge will not accept Psych evaluations from a different state. At that point I was feeling desperate, I was to the point, that I was going to contact one of local TV stations asking them for help, but all of the sudden, on Wednesday morning, one of the parents from the FRUA chat boards answered my post with information from a dr. in Tampa, whom they had used with their adoption a while back. I immediately checked her credentials through the web to make sure that she was legit and that she had the credentials we needed. Ohh my, I love the World Wide Web!! I turns out that she was what we were looking for. I called her twice asking her to call me back. This time I did not want to scare her with so much information upfront, so I was very careful with my messages. I did tell her that we were from Miami and that we needed an appointment with her and that some parents who had dealt with her in the past had recommended her. After the second message she called me back. I spoke to her for about 10 minutes. I explained to her our situation. I also told her that she was our only hope and that we were desperate and without her assistance we could not bring our little girl home. She was a little taken off by our conversation; she told me that she was going to help us out. She also said that she was going to try to fit us in on Sunday, February 22, 2009, but that she had to call us back with a time. I was beyond thrilled. I called Mauri and my friend A with the news. Well, as the dr. had promised, she call us back with more information, she will see us from 4:00 – 6:00pm on Sunday, She also gave me the link to download some forms that we needed to fill out from her website so we could bring them to the appointment. I also asked her if we had t bring our Notary Public with us, since all the paperwork has to be notarized, and her response was that it was not necessary since her office manager is a Notary Public, she would notarized everything for us. I would like to thank our Notary Public, MA for willing to travel to Tampa with us; we really appreciate everything you have done for us!!! Thank you….
Well, I went ahead and made a hotel reservation so we could leave Saturday in the early evening and we could come back to Miami after the sessions, late Sunday. I felt that it was going to be too much for Mauri and I to go and come back on the same day, since we have to travel at least 5 hours each day. I will let you know what happens with our Psych evals! God willing everything will go as planed so we could bring little Antonina home.
Ok, now we move from dealing with the Psychiatrist drama to dealing with the judge and the additional paperwork drama. Finally on Tuesday we received news from Tver in regards to the list of documents (additional) the Judge was requesting for court. What was our disappointment, that the judge was not giving willing a court date until we came up with the paperwork? I emailed the Tver staff telling them that they will have ALL the paperwork notarized, apostilled, scanned and in their possession by no later than February 28, 2009, to please try to persuade the judge to give us a court date. Tver answered back saying that the judge wanted to see that we were able to come up with the additional documents before she could give us a court date! I was beyond upset, that would mean to have to wait 2 weeks without any dates and then, we would have to wait and see until when she would schedule a court date. We are concerned not for us, but for or little girl, because the more time she spends in the baby house, the more developmentally delayed she stays. Well, for those of us who know me, you know that I will move heaven and earth (sort of speak) in order to bring Maya Antonina home. Well, I spoke to our social worker and I explained to her that we needed the documents that she was going to provide for us by Friday, February 20th and that we were on a time crunch! In the meantime, the paperwork that I needed to produce was in the works. As soon as I started to receive it and/or produce it, I started emailing it to the Tver staff so they could start translating it for the judge to see our willingness! Granted that some of the paperwork has not been apostilled yet, but the Tver staff said to just email what we had so they could show the Judge that we meant business. We received the paperwork back from our social worker Lori on Friday, as requested, THANK YOU Lori. She has been more than amazing with us, and we have nothing, but good things to say about her and her agency.
I went ahead and scanned all the paperwork to the Tver staff. now, we only need the Psych paperwork and we will be ready for court. I also sent and email to Olga, our translator to ask her if our coordinator had had a chance to meet with the judge. Well, she responded yesterday, Saturday to let us know that they were not able to meet with the judge on Friday and that Monday, February 23, 2009 was Army day in Russia, and therefore a holiday, but that they had made an appointment to see the judge this coming Tuesday to show her the paperwork and hopefully get a court date from her. Please pray for us, that we can get good news on Tuesday with a court date for at least the middle of March. I will keep you posted. Take care and God Bless you All….. Until then!!
Wow! Time has gone by too fast this week. We hit the ground running as soon as we came back Sunday morning. First, Maui and I returned to work, and it was like we had never left the week before. It was just work, work, work, but it is what it is! As soon as Monday hit, I started calling Psychiatrist’s offices to see if we could make an appointment with a Board Certified Psychiatrist. Ohh, my, I started to encounter the same problem we had encountered the first time, before we found our current Psych dr., no availability, and no willingness from either the dr. or the dr.’s staff to assist you. Every time I would call, I would either get a response like, we have nothing available until the end of March, the dr. does not do deal with those types of cases (adoption related) or, it would take at least 4 to 5 psychoanalysis session’s before the dr. could come up with a diagnosis! I called at least 15 dr’s before I started to get desperate. I started posting on adoption chat boards. I first posted a message on the CHI Russia chat board, then on the yahoo, Tver chat group, then my friend (A) recommended for us to post a message on the FRUA chat boards, since FRUA reaches so many people around the US and abroad, we had a bigger chance of finding a Psych (Board Certified) who had dealt with adoption before. Well, I will tell you that we received some responses, some good, some not that good. One of the parents’s recommended a dr. from Jacksonville. We called his office; first they told me that they could fit us in on the following week, then, when I told them why we needed the appointment ASAP, the lady on the telephone changed her tune and said that actually, that Friday was a cancellation, and that they had nothing until sometime in March. I told the lady, I was going to have to call her back. I had to see if we could get plane tickets to fly to Jacksonville. Well, then we got another dr’s info, from another parent in one of the chats, but the dr. was a psychologist, not a psychiatrist, so we could not use him. I even checked with the Tver staff to see if could use a psychologist, instead of a psychiatrist, and the answer was NO.
Well, even our own Psychiatrist, dr. I (one of the most wonderful dr.s I have ever met) was trying to help us out through a colleague of his. He told us to give him a couple of days to help us find someone. Then, my friend A recommended her dr. from Kansas City, MO. She and another adoptive family, the I’s had used them. He was familiar with all the paperwork and there was a possibility he could assist us. Then, the question aroused of whether Russia would accept a dr.’s credential and/or evaluation from a different state. I turned the question to our program coordinator at CHI and at the Tver staff. I only received answers from the CHI coordinator and the answer was NO, the judge will not accept Psych evaluations from a different state. At that point I was feeling desperate, I was to the point, that I was going to contact one of local TV stations asking them for help, but all of the sudden, on Wednesday morning, one of the parents from the FRUA chat boards answered my post with information from a dr. in Tampa, whom they had used with their adoption a while back. I immediately checked her credentials through the web to make sure that she was legit and that she had the credentials we needed. Ohh my, I love the World Wide Web!! I turns out that she was what we were looking for. I called her twice asking her to call me back. This time I did not want to scare her with so much information upfront, so I was very careful with my messages. I did tell her that we were from Miami and that we needed an appointment with her and that some parents who had dealt with her in the past had recommended her. After the second message she called me back. I spoke to her for about 10 minutes. I explained to her our situation. I also told her that she was our only hope and that we were desperate and without her assistance we could not bring our little girl home. She was a little taken off by our conversation; she told me that she was going to help us out. She also said that she was going to try to fit us in on Sunday, February 22, 2009, but that she had to call us back with a time. I was beyond thrilled. I called Mauri and my friend A with the news. Well, as the dr. had promised, she call us back with more information, she will see us from 4:00 – 6:00pm on Sunday, She also gave me the link to download some forms that we needed to fill out from her website so we could bring them to the appointment. I also asked her if we had t bring our Notary Public with us, since all the paperwork has to be notarized, and her response was that it was not necessary since her office manager is a Notary Public, she would notarized everything for us. I would like to thank our Notary Public, MA for willing to travel to Tampa with us; we really appreciate everything you have done for us!!! Thank you….
Well, I went ahead and made a hotel reservation so we could leave Saturday in the early evening and we could come back to Miami after the sessions, late Sunday. I felt that it was going to be too much for Mauri and I to go and come back on the same day, since we have to travel at least 5 hours each day. I will let you know what happens with our Psych evals! God willing everything will go as planed so we could bring little Antonina home.
Ok, now we move from dealing with the Psychiatrist drama to dealing with the judge and the additional paperwork drama. Finally on Tuesday we received news from Tver in regards to the list of documents (additional) the Judge was requesting for court. What was our disappointment, that the judge was not giving willing a court date until we came up with the paperwork? I emailed the Tver staff telling them that they will have ALL the paperwork notarized, apostilled, scanned and in their possession by no later than February 28, 2009, to please try to persuade the judge to give us a court date. Tver answered back saying that the judge wanted to see that we were able to come up with the additional documents before she could give us a court date! I was beyond upset, that would mean to have to wait 2 weeks without any dates and then, we would have to wait and see until when she would schedule a court date. We are concerned not for us, but for or little girl, because the more time she spends in the baby house, the more developmentally delayed she stays. Well, for those of us who know me, you know that I will move heaven and earth (sort of speak) in order to bring Maya Antonina home. Well, I spoke to our social worker and I explained to her that we needed the documents that she was going to provide for us by Friday, February 20th and that we were on a time crunch! In the meantime, the paperwork that I needed to produce was in the works. As soon as I started to receive it and/or produce it, I started emailing it to the Tver staff so they could start translating it for the judge to see our willingness! Granted that some of the paperwork has not been apostilled yet, but the Tver staff said to just email what we had so they could show the Judge that we meant business. We received the paperwork back from our social worker Lori on Friday, as requested, THANK YOU Lori. She has been more than amazing with us, and we have nothing, but good things to say about her and her agency.
I went ahead and scanned all the paperwork to the Tver staff. now, we only need the Psych paperwork and we will be ready for court. I also sent and email to Olga, our translator to ask her if our coordinator had had a chance to meet with the judge. Well, she responded yesterday, Saturday to let us know that they were not able to meet with the judge on Friday and that Monday, February 23, 2009 was Army day in Russia, and therefore a holiday, but that they had made an appointment to see the judge this coming Tuesday to show her the paperwork and hopefully get a court date from her. Please pray for us, that we can get good news on Tuesday with a court date for at least the middle of March. I will keep you posted. Take care and God Bless you All….. Until then!!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
TRIP BACK TO THE US
TRIP BACK TO THE US
I woke up at 4:00am, I could not sleep, and I was desperate to head back home. We were also sad to have to leave Antonina, but sadly, the only thing we can do is pray for a quick return. We thought we were going to be able to have breakfast, but unfortunately, we were picked up before the restaurant opened for breakfast. We were picked up by our coordinator, it was really cold and it had snowed the night before. Mauri and I felt asleep right after we got into the main road heading to Moscow. All of the sudden, it started to snow really badly, I started to pray for safe arrival to the airport. We encountered at least 10 accidents on the way to the airport, it was kind of scary to see soo many accidents along the way. Then, we started to get concerned that our flight was going to be delayed because it was snowing pretty badly. Finally, after 3 ½ hours we arrived to the airport, we said our thanks and our goodbyes to Alexey. We then headed into checking in and let me tell you that the Domodedovo airport is different to what I have ever seen in terms of security. Thank God we were able to go through all the hurdles without any major challenges. Our flight was delayed over an hour and I am now blogging from the plane. I am trying to catch up with posting in the blog, since I had not been able to do it during the last 2 days. We were lucky that we were receiving internet signal in our room, but for some reason, we did not get a strong signal during the past two days. Our plane landed in Chicago, at the O’Hare airport. We went through Immigration and Customs without a problem (Thank God). We then took the little train to concourse 3, so we could then take our flight to Miami. We had some dinner while still at the airport; we had not realized that it was still Valentine’s Day, so we wished each other a Happy V Day. By the way, Happy Valentine’s Day (even if belated) to all my wonderful friends and family). Our flight to Miami was completely sold out. As always, it was delayed a little. Finally, we boarded and as soon it took off, Mauri and I dozed off. We woke up about a ½ an hour before we landed. Thank God we arrived home safe and sound; we do miss our little girl. Things seem different around the house (even though nothing has moved). I think it’s because now we have met our little princess, and now we can relate her little face with things in the nursery and around the house over all. We pray to God that we will be able to come up with all the new paperwork that the judge it’s going to request, more specifically being able to find a Psychiatrist that will be willing to provide us with the paperwork we need. Please continue to pray for us. We cannot thank you enough for your continued support, and please continue to leave your comments. It makes my day every time I see that one of you left a comment. I will keep you posted…..
I woke up at 4:00am, I could not sleep, and I was desperate to head back home. We were also sad to have to leave Antonina, but sadly, the only thing we can do is pray for a quick return. We thought we were going to be able to have breakfast, but unfortunately, we were picked up before the restaurant opened for breakfast. We were picked up by our coordinator, it was really cold and it had snowed the night before. Mauri and I felt asleep right after we got into the main road heading to Moscow. All of the sudden, it started to snow really badly, I started to pray for safe arrival to the airport. We encountered at least 10 accidents on the way to the airport, it was kind of scary to see soo many accidents along the way. Then, we started to get concerned that our flight was going to be delayed because it was snowing pretty badly. Finally, after 3 ½ hours we arrived to the airport, we said our thanks and our goodbyes to Alexey. We then headed into checking in and let me tell you that the Domodedovo airport is different to what I have ever seen in terms of security. Thank God we were able to go through all the hurdles without any major challenges. Our flight was delayed over an hour and I am now blogging from the plane. I am trying to catch up with posting in the blog, since I had not been able to do it during the last 2 days. We were lucky that we were receiving internet signal in our room, but for some reason, we did not get a strong signal during the past two days. Our plane landed in Chicago, at the O’Hare airport. We went through Immigration and Customs without a problem (Thank God). We then took the little train to concourse 3, so we could then take our flight to Miami. We had some dinner while still at the airport; we had not realized that it was still Valentine’s Day, so we wished each other a Happy V Day. By the way, Happy Valentine’s Day (even if belated) to all my wonderful friends and family). Our flight to Miami was completely sold out. As always, it was delayed a little. Finally, we boarded and as soon it took off, Mauri and I dozed off. We woke up about a ½ an hour before we landed. Thank God we arrived home safe and sound; we do miss our little girl. Things seem different around the house (even though nothing has moved). I think it’s because now we have met our little princess, and now we can relate her little face with things in the nursery and around the house over all. We pray to God that we will be able to come up with all the new paperwork that the judge it’s going to request, more specifically being able to find a Psychiatrist that will be willing to provide us with the paperwork we need. Please continue to pray for us. We cannot thank you enough for your continued support, and please continue to leave your comments. It makes my day every time I see that one of you left a comment. I will keep you posted…..
LAST DOCTOR'S VISIT AND VISIT W/ THE JUDGE
LAST DOCTOR'S VISIT AND VISIT WITH THE JUDGE
Today, we were picked up at 10:00 to go see the Narcologist, you see, here in Russia, everyone who is seeking for a job is required to be cleared by the Narcologist in order to receive clearance. When we got there the place was packed, we waited until our translator registered us and went to pay for the visit. They reviewed our lab results that we brought from the US. We were required to go through a 10 panel drug test, among a full blood and urine check-up. Once we were allowed to go in, we were asked several questions and then we were cleared. Once we were through with all the medicals we felt relieved, we thought, we are now one more step closer to completion. We were then taken back to the hotel, and we were informed that at 2:15 we were going to be picked up to go see the judge. Well, the coordinator, showed up a little bit late. We were told that he was at the adoption center, we imagined that he maybe was trying to register another family. Once we were picked up, the coordinator had to go pick up some papers needed for the judge. Once we reached the court building, we were told that we had to wait for the judge. We were also told that the meeting was going to take place in her chambers. What was our surprise that when she saw us, she said that we were going to meeting in one of the courtrooms. We were so nervous, we did not know whether to make something out of it or not. Well, we went back downstairs to wait for her. Once the judge came in she asked for our passports. She immediately saw that we were born in Central America and she started bombarding us with questions. She wanted to know whether we had renounced to our country of birth (citizenship wise), we told her that we were never asked to do that. She was not very happy with our answer. We also told her that we have been living in the US for more than 20 years, and that the US was our home country. Our coordinator asked her a question about our Psychiatrist’s credentials, and she kept saying nyet, nyet, nyet. We knew something was wrong, but we could not ask any questions. At the end she got up abruptly, she said she had to review the documents first, before she could issue a court date and walked out on us. We were in shock, trying to analyze what had just transpired. We expected a court date, and, instead of getting one we were informed that there were additional things that we had to take care of before we could be considered for a court date. I was really upset and bothered. After all the paperwork we had to get ready for the preliminary court hearing and for court, she was changing things around without a valid reason, just because she felt like it. We know have to wait until next week (hopefully) to get an additional list of documents (whatever she feels like requesting, in addition to everything we have already turned in) and if we are lucky, we will get a court date. At this point, we don’t know when we will be returning and that its heart breaking. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do. Please continue to pray for us, we are not even close to finishing our journey in order to bring our little girl home. Tomorrow we head back to Moscow to take the flight back home. I will post more tomorrow. Until then…
Today, we were picked up at 10:00 to go see the Narcologist, you see, here in Russia, everyone who is seeking for a job is required to be cleared by the Narcologist in order to receive clearance. When we got there the place was packed, we waited until our translator registered us and went to pay for the visit. They reviewed our lab results that we brought from the US. We were required to go through a 10 panel drug test, among a full blood and urine check-up. Once we were allowed to go in, we were asked several questions and then we were cleared. Once we were through with all the medicals we felt relieved, we thought, we are now one more step closer to completion. We were then taken back to the hotel, and we were informed that at 2:15 we were going to be picked up to go see the judge. Well, the coordinator, showed up a little bit late. We were told that he was at the adoption center, we imagined that he maybe was trying to register another family. Once we were picked up, the coordinator had to go pick up some papers needed for the judge. Once we reached the court building, we were told that we had to wait for the judge. We were also told that the meeting was going to take place in her chambers. What was our surprise that when she saw us, she said that we were going to meeting in one of the courtrooms. We were so nervous, we did not know whether to make something out of it or not. Well, we went back downstairs to wait for her. Once the judge came in she asked for our passports. She immediately saw that we were born in Central America and she started bombarding us with questions. She wanted to know whether we had renounced to our country of birth (citizenship wise), we told her that we were never asked to do that. She was not very happy with our answer. We also told her that we have been living in the US for more than 20 years, and that the US was our home country. Our coordinator asked her a question about our Psychiatrist’s credentials, and she kept saying nyet, nyet, nyet. We knew something was wrong, but we could not ask any questions. At the end she got up abruptly, she said she had to review the documents first, before she could issue a court date and walked out on us. We were in shock, trying to analyze what had just transpired. We expected a court date, and, instead of getting one we were informed that there were additional things that we had to take care of before we could be considered for a court date. I was really upset and bothered. After all the paperwork we had to get ready for the preliminary court hearing and for court, she was changing things around without a valid reason, just because she felt like it. We know have to wait until next week (hopefully) to get an additional list of documents (whatever she feels like requesting, in addition to everything we have already turned in) and if we are lucky, we will get a court date. At this point, we don’t know when we will be returning and that its heart breaking. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do. Please continue to pray for us, we are not even close to finishing our journey in order to bring our little girl home. Tomorrow we head back to Moscow to take the flight back home. I will post more tomorrow. Until then…
DOCTOR'S VISITS
DOCTOR’S VISITS
Today we were picked up at 9:30am to start the medicals. We were taken to a medical dispensary to see the Psychiatrist. We stopped to buy some chocolates for an old lady that works at the dispensary registering patients. Let me tell you, for those of you who have never been to Russia, I can tell you that these visits are more than you can bargain for. We are so lucky to live in the United States, to have jobs and to have health insurance (for those of us who are blessed to have health insurance). Anyways, we had to stand in line in order to get registered. When it was our turn, the lady that registered us was the sweetest old lady I have ever seen; she kept caressing my hair and saying kind things in Russian. Once we were registered, she gave me a kiss and wished us good luck. I will always remember her. I later found out that the lady was adopted herself, and she appreciates the foreign parents who go to Russia to adopt their children. She realizes that we are there to offer them a better life. I think she is one in 10,000. Well, we got to be interviewed by the Psychiatrist, she asked us how long we had been married, the reason why we did not have kids, among other things. Once we were done with her we drove kind of far to the tuberculosis specialist. We had to bring the x-rays that we had taken in the US. After that we headed to the city hospital, ohh my goodness, I was not prepared for that experience…… As soon as you walk in, there is this terrible smell, I cannot even describe it, but it is one of the worst smells I ever experienced. We had to go and be registered. After that we were taken to have an EKG. Well, the EKG machine is so old fachion, they still use cups as electrodes and plastic pliers to put on your ankles and wrists. They asked us who wanted to go first, and I volunteered Mauricio. I wanted to see what it entailed. Well, he had to take everything from the waist up. For him it was pretty uneventful, when it was my turn was when it became an issue for me. You have to get undressed in front of two Russian ladies, our interpreter, and on top of everything you have people peeking in the room while you have you boobies in the air. I was soo embarrassed…. And at the same time I was annoyed at ourselves, I tried to be prepared, since my friends had already warned me about this procedure, that I brought a disposable cover all the way from the US, and guess what, we left it in the van!!!! I could not believe it!!! Anyways, I had no choice, but to go ahead with the procedure, I just covered my eyes, and said to my self, I am never going to see this people again!!!. After we were done, we were taken to another part of the building to see the Neurologist and the Medical doctor. They were both female doctors, they both performed some tests and filled out our paperwork. After that we went to visit 3 other doctors. The last 3 were pretty easy. We were told that the last specialist was not available until the next morning. We were also informed that the judge was not going to be available to see until the next day in the afternoon. We are so hopeful that we are going to get a court date, but we will see what happens tomorrow. In the meantime, we were taken back to the hotel. We were so tired that we went right to sleep. Have I mentioned that I have been suffering from insomnia, I wake up in the middle of the night, and I can’t sleep after that. I have only been sleeping 3 to 4 hours at the time. I miss my bed terribly…. Our hotel is very good and clean, but, yes there is a but, the beds are so hard, worst than rocks. Maybe that’s why I can’t sleep. I will post some more tomorrow, until then.
Today we were picked up at 9:30am to start the medicals. We were taken to a medical dispensary to see the Psychiatrist. We stopped to buy some chocolates for an old lady that works at the dispensary registering patients. Let me tell you, for those of you who have never been to Russia, I can tell you that these visits are more than you can bargain for. We are so lucky to live in the United States, to have jobs and to have health insurance (for those of us who are blessed to have health insurance). Anyways, we had to stand in line in order to get registered. When it was our turn, the lady that registered us was the sweetest old lady I have ever seen; she kept caressing my hair and saying kind things in Russian. Once we were registered, she gave me a kiss and wished us good luck. I will always remember her. I later found out that the lady was adopted herself, and she appreciates the foreign parents who go to Russia to adopt their children. She realizes that we are there to offer them a better life. I think she is one in 10,000. Well, we got to be interviewed by the Psychiatrist, she asked us how long we had been married, the reason why we did not have kids, among other things. Once we were done with her we drove kind of far to the tuberculosis specialist. We had to bring the x-rays that we had taken in the US. After that we headed to the city hospital, ohh my goodness, I was not prepared for that experience…… As soon as you walk in, there is this terrible smell, I cannot even describe it, but it is one of the worst smells I ever experienced. We had to go and be registered. After that we were taken to have an EKG. Well, the EKG machine is so old fachion, they still use cups as electrodes and plastic pliers to put on your ankles and wrists. They asked us who wanted to go first, and I volunteered Mauricio. I wanted to see what it entailed. Well, he had to take everything from the waist up. For him it was pretty uneventful, when it was my turn was when it became an issue for me. You have to get undressed in front of two Russian ladies, our interpreter, and on top of everything you have people peeking in the room while you have you boobies in the air. I was soo embarrassed…. And at the same time I was annoyed at ourselves, I tried to be prepared, since my friends had already warned me about this procedure, that I brought a disposable cover all the way from the US, and guess what, we left it in the van!!!! I could not believe it!!! Anyways, I had no choice, but to go ahead with the procedure, I just covered my eyes, and said to my self, I am never going to see this people again!!!. After we were done, we were taken to another part of the building to see the Neurologist and the Medical doctor. They were both female doctors, they both performed some tests and filled out our paperwork. After that we went to visit 3 other doctors. The last 3 were pretty easy. We were told that the last specialist was not available until the next morning. We were also informed that the judge was not going to be available to see until the next day in the afternoon. We are so hopeful that we are going to get a court date, but we will see what happens tomorrow. In the meantime, we were taken back to the hotel. We were so tired that we went right to sleep. Have I mentioned that I have been suffering from insomnia, I wake up in the middle of the night, and I can’t sleep after that. I have only been sleeping 3 to 4 hours at the time. I miss my bed terribly…. Our hotel is very good and clean, but, yes there is a but, the beds are so hard, worst than rocks. Maybe that’s why I can’t sleep. I will post some more tomorrow, until then.
LAST VISIT TO BABY HOUSE FOR TRIP # 1
LAST VISIT TO THE BABY HOUSE FOR TRIP #1
This morning we started the day by going to the notary to sign the formal petition to adopt Antonina. We are so excited; we are going to be parents to a little Russian Princess!!!! We were at the notary for almost an hour, while they prepared all the necessary documents. Once we signed everything we were taken back to the hotel. We were told that we would get a last visit with Antonina. We wanted to say good bye (temporarily), and we wanted to leave her the photo album that he had prepared for her with pictures of us, my Mom and Dad, my 2 brothers and my 2 dearest sisters. Well, there was a little problem; we were told that if we wanted to go to the baby house we were going to have to take a taxi! We were a little bothered by that, just because we don’t know the language, but after some back and forth with the coordinator, we agreed that our translator Olga, would graciously accompany us, and in return we said that that we would pay for her to be picked up and dropped at her house. We felt that it was the right thing to do. Well, since we had a little more than four hours before we could visit with Antonina, We decided to venture out into the city. Let me tell you it’s been snowing every day, so the streets and. the sidewalks are frozen, so it makes it very hard to walk, not to mention that it’s freezing :o). Anyways, we decided to buy some souvenirs, and then we wanted to go to a pizza place called Milano. Thanks to our friends the G’s who were so kind to leave us a deciphered map of Tver, we were able the places relatively easy. We started by the Matrioska store, were they sell the famous nesting dolls, hand painted lacquered boxes, among other Russian arts and crafts. The place has some wonderful arts and crafts. We bought some things for Antonina’s room, the cutest hand painted rattle I have ever seen, a lacquered Russian princess depicted on the box. This will represent our little bundle of joy :o). Then we passed by the Chicken House, the Russian version of KFC. We found some other restaurants, but we did not venture in. We took some pictures until we got to the pizza place, we were so happy we found it. After not eating well for the first few days we wanted something good. Mauri ordered a ham and cheese pizza and I ordered a Hawaiian pizza. Right before we were leaving the pizza place, it started to snow again. Did I mentioned that we were a little far from the hotel! Well, we started to head back and while we were walking I fell on the sidewalk, and then Mauri fell too. It was a very awkward, but funny situation. Thank God we did not get hurt. Finally we got back to the hotel, we were really happy to be back. About a half and hour after we got back it was time to leave to see Antonina, our translator Olga was there with a hired car. Once we reached the baby house, we noticed that they had a full house yet again. There were several couples visiting their babies. Since there were no rooms available they took us to a hallway and brought us a small padded mat so we could play with Antonina. The hallway was pretty crowded, even for Antonina, but we tried to make the best out of our visit. We played with her for about an hour, but her meal time and naptime were running late and she started to get restless, which we understood. As soon as she starts to hear those pots and pans, it’s like, get away from me, we need to eat!!! We got a glimpse of how they line them up to eat, let me tell you it’s a little bit disturbing. Don’t take me wrong, we know the caretakers are doing the best they can, but at the same time it is very difficult to see how they line them out to feed them all at the same time. They only get a certain amount of time to eat and if they don’t do it within their allotted time, they will stay hungry and even if they cry, they won’t feed them separate. We can’t wait to take her home so we can feed her and take care of her. Well, we had to say our goodbyes, we told her, and we will see her very soon. We were heartbroken to have to leave her, but he have to remain positive that we are meant to be together. Tomorrow we are supposed to have our medicals. We need to visit 8 specialists in order to get cleared for the court hearing. In the afternoon, we are supposed to see the judge. I will post more tomorrow.
This morning we started the day by going to the notary to sign the formal petition to adopt Antonina. We are so excited; we are going to be parents to a little Russian Princess!!!! We were at the notary for almost an hour, while they prepared all the necessary documents. Once we signed everything we were taken back to the hotel. We were told that we would get a last visit with Antonina. We wanted to say good bye (temporarily), and we wanted to leave her the photo album that he had prepared for her with pictures of us, my Mom and Dad, my 2 brothers and my 2 dearest sisters. Well, there was a little problem; we were told that if we wanted to go to the baby house we were going to have to take a taxi! We were a little bothered by that, just because we don’t know the language, but after some back and forth with the coordinator, we agreed that our translator Olga, would graciously accompany us, and in return we said that that we would pay for her to be picked up and dropped at her house. We felt that it was the right thing to do. Well, since we had a little more than four hours before we could visit with Antonina, We decided to venture out into the city. Let me tell you it’s been snowing every day, so the streets and. the sidewalks are frozen, so it makes it very hard to walk, not to mention that it’s freezing :o). Anyways, we decided to buy some souvenirs, and then we wanted to go to a pizza place called Milano. Thanks to our friends the G’s who were so kind to leave us a deciphered map of Tver, we were able the places relatively easy. We started by the Matrioska store, were they sell the famous nesting dolls, hand painted lacquered boxes, among other Russian arts and crafts. The place has some wonderful arts and crafts. We bought some things for Antonina’s room, the cutest hand painted rattle I have ever seen, a lacquered Russian princess depicted on the box. This will represent our little bundle of joy :o). Then we passed by the Chicken House, the Russian version of KFC. We found some other restaurants, but we did not venture in. We took some pictures until we got to the pizza place, we were so happy we found it. After not eating well for the first few days we wanted something good. Mauri ordered a ham and cheese pizza and I ordered a Hawaiian pizza. Right before we were leaving the pizza place, it started to snow again. Did I mentioned that we were a little far from the hotel! Well, we started to head back and while we were walking I fell on the sidewalk, and then Mauri fell too. It was a very awkward, but funny situation. Thank God we did not get hurt. Finally we got back to the hotel, we were really happy to be back. About a half and hour after we got back it was time to leave to see Antonina, our translator Olga was there with a hired car. Once we reached the baby house, we noticed that they had a full house yet again. There were several couples visiting their babies. Since there were no rooms available they took us to a hallway and brought us a small padded mat so we could play with Antonina. The hallway was pretty crowded, even for Antonina, but we tried to make the best out of our visit. We played with her for about an hour, but her meal time and naptime were running late and she started to get restless, which we understood. As soon as she starts to hear those pots and pans, it’s like, get away from me, we need to eat!!! We got a glimpse of how they line them up to eat, let me tell you it’s a little bit disturbing. Don’t take me wrong, we know the caretakers are doing the best they can, but at the same time it is very difficult to see how they line them out to feed them all at the same time. They only get a certain amount of time to eat and if they don’t do it within their allotted time, they will stay hungry and even if they cry, they won’t feed them separate. We can’t wait to take her home so we can feed her and take care of her. Well, we had to say our goodbyes, we told her, and we will see her very soon. We were heartbroken to have to leave her, but he have to remain positive that we are meant to be together. Tomorrow we are supposed to have our medicals. We need to visit 8 specialists in order to get cleared for the court hearing. In the afternoon, we are supposed to see the judge. I will post more tomorrow.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
BABY HOUSE VISITS 3 & 4
BABY HOUSE VISIT# 4
We made back at 4:30 to meet with Antonina and the Inspector. We were told that she works with all the baby homes and orphanages in the region. She is considered a very important person. She is the one that will speak on behalf of Antonina at court. Anyways, she started going over Antonina’s file, telling us as much information as she could about the mother and her grandparents. There is no known information about her father. We know that Antonina’s mom abandoned her at the hospital right after birth. That’s all I can share for now (due to confidentiality issues). She also asked us questions about us, why we decided to adopt from Russia, if we had decided to ADOPT her (which the answer is YES), how long have we been trying to have a child, among other things. Then she saw how Mauri was interacting with Antonina (since I was the one answering most of the questions). The she said that she wanted to see how Antonina interacted with me, so we started playing. After that she started laying with Antonina, then she made some notes in her file and told us that completed our interview with her. After she left, we has a little bit more time to play with Antonina, but she was getting tired and hungry since she was missing her meal and naptime. Her caretaker came down to pick her up and asked us if we could buy diapers, wipes and baby cream for her and we said yes. We were told that we were to have a last visit with her before we were to depart back to the US. An interesting thing happened when we were about to leave, one of the US couples that I had mentioned before that were there to visit with their 2 little girls happens to be Melissa, she is one of the mom’s who belongs in the Tver yahoo chat group. She came to me and said, are you Yadira, and am I, yes? She goes I am Melissa, do you remember me? And I go, of course, yes, from the chat groups, you see we had been emailing back and forth, and also my friend AG had been helping her with some information that she needed. Am like, what a small world. They have their court date very soon, so does the other couple that was there. Well, that’s all for now. Tomorrow we are to meet with the Notary to formally sign the petition to become Antonina’s parents. Please continue to pray for us. We miss you all very dearly!!!!
BABY HOUSE VISIT# 3
Well, this morning we headed for our third visit. Again the inspector could not meet us. We were told that she was going to be available to observe us in the afternoon. So that means that we will get to see Antonina again today :o). As soon as we walked in we realize that there were 2 other families who were visiting their daughters. One couple was adopting 2 girls at the same time. I am not sure if they are siblings. I asked the mom hold they were and she told me that one of them was 12 months old. If you saw them, they were very cute, still tiny. I am not sure what it is with Russian little baby girls that they are so small. Maybe it’s to do with what they feed them. Anyways, the other couple was waiting for their little girl too. I had seen their little girl in the database so I recognized her right away. Well, since the room where we were supposed to use to visit with Antonina was so full I requested to be taken upstairs so we could see her interact with her group. At first they told me that was not allowed, but you know me, I was polite, but persistent. It was very important for Mauri and me to see her interact with her peers. Well, finally the Deputy Director agreed and they took us upstairs to a room where we were going to have our visit. Then we were taken to the room next door to see her interact with the other babies. We told the director that we were going to be as invisible as possible, that our only intention was to see her interact with others. All the babies were still in their PJ’s. They were working as a group with the Psychologist. They were 2 babies with Down syndrome who are mainly kept in their cribs, if you only saw what we saw, it was heartbreaking. Then we got to see the babies interact with each other, they were so cute. Antonina did very well, she was the one who kept following the exercises that the Psychologists was giving them, we were so proud of her. She was doing very well. For the first time I felt like a proud Momma. She learns quickly, that’s why we are confident that she will do well. What she needs is a lot of love, perseverance and dedication. Well, after we observed, we were told that she was going to be changed and was going to be taken to the next room for us to play with her. They brought her in one of the outfits that we bought for her. It had “Daddy’s Girl” written on it and it’s purple. She looked so cute. She favors Mauri so much that she is starting to build a little bit of trust with him. You should see them play. My heart melts when I see them together. What can I tell you about Mauri, he is very happy, and so am I. Well, we played for over an hour, and then it was time for her meal and then naptime. You should see how restless she becomes when she starts to hear those pots and pans with the food, it’s like, ok people, I already entertain you, so now it’s time for me to go eat :o). We said our goodbyes and left to be taken back to the hotel. We are do back at 4:30 to meet with the Inspector.
We made back at 4:30 to meet with Antonina and the Inspector. We were told that she works with all the baby homes and orphanages in the region. She is considered a very important person. She is the one that will speak on behalf of Antonina at court. Anyways, she started going over Antonina’s file, telling us as much information as she could about the mother and her grandparents. There is no known information about her father. We know that Antonina’s mom abandoned her at the hospital right after birth. That’s all I can share for now (due to confidentiality issues). She also asked us questions about us, why we decided to adopt from Russia, if we had decided to ADOPT her (which the answer is YES), how long have we been trying to have a child, among other things. Then she saw how Mauri was interacting with Antonina (since I was the one answering most of the questions). The she said that she wanted to see how Antonina interacted with me, so we started playing. After that she started laying with Antonina, then she made some notes in her file and told us that completed our interview with her. After she left, we has a little bit more time to play with Antonina, but she was getting tired and hungry since she was missing her meal and naptime. Her caretaker came down to pick her up and asked us if we could buy diapers, wipes and baby cream for her and we said yes. We were told that we were to have a last visit with her before we were to depart back to the US. An interesting thing happened when we were about to leave, one of the US couples that I had mentioned before that were there to visit with their 2 little girls happens to be Melissa, she is one of the mom’s who belongs in the Tver yahoo chat group. She came to me and said, are you Yadira, and am I, yes? She goes I am Melissa, do you remember me? And I go, of course, yes, from the chat groups, you see we had been emailing back and forth, and also my friend AG had been helping her with some information that she needed. Am like, what a small world. They have their court date very soon, so does the other couple that was there. Well, that’s all for now. Tomorrow we are to meet with the Notary to formally sign the petition to become Antonina’s parents. Please continue to pray for us. We miss you all very dearly!!!!
BABY HOUSE VISIT# 3
Well, this morning we headed for our third visit. Again the inspector could not meet us. We were told that she was going to be available to observe us in the afternoon. So that means that we will get to see Antonina again today :o). As soon as we walked in we realize that there were 2 other families who were visiting their daughters. One couple was adopting 2 girls at the same time. I am not sure if they are siblings. I asked the mom hold they were and she told me that one of them was 12 months old. If you saw them, they were very cute, still tiny. I am not sure what it is with Russian little baby girls that they are so small. Maybe it’s to do with what they feed them. Anyways, the other couple was waiting for their little girl too. I had seen their little girl in the database so I recognized her right away. Well, since the room where we were supposed to use to visit with Antonina was so full I requested to be taken upstairs so we could see her interact with her group. At first they told me that was not allowed, but you know me, I was polite, but persistent. It was very important for Mauri and me to see her interact with her peers. Well, finally the Deputy Director agreed and they took us upstairs to a room where we were going to have our visit. Then we were taken to the room next door to see her interact with the other babies. We told the director that we were going to be as invisible as possible, that our only intention was to see her interact with others. All the babies were still in their PJ’s. They were working as a group with the Psychologist. They were 2 babies with Down syndrome who are mainly kept in their cribs, if you only saw what we saw, it was heartbreaking. Then we got to see the babies interact with each other, they were so cute. Antonina did very well, she was the one who kept following the exercises that the Psychologists was giving them, we were so proud of her. She was doing very well. For the first time I felt like a proud Momma. She learns quickly, that’s why we are confident that she will do well. What she needs is a lot of love, perseverance and dedication. Well, after we observed, we were told that she was going to be changed and was going to be taken to the next room for us to play with her. They brought her in one of the outfits that we bought for her. It had “Daddy’s Girl” written on it and it’s purple. She looked so cute. She favors Mauri so much that she is starting to build a little bit of trust with him. You should see them play. My heart melts when I see them together. What can I tell you about Mauri, he is very happy, and so am I. Well, we played for over an hour, and then it was time for her meal and then naptime. You should see how restless she becomes when she starts to hear those pots and pans with the food, it’s like, ok people, I already entertain you, so now it’s time for me to go eat :o). We said our goodbyes and left to be taken back to the hotel. We are do back at 4:30 to meet with the Inspector.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
SHORT UPDATE
Dear All:
Sorry we have not been able to post anything in the past 2 days. Things have been really hectic. We have gotten a total of 5 visits with Antonina. Everything is going well. Tomorrow we have to go through Russian medicals, where we have to visit 8 specialists. In the afternoon we are supposed to meet with the jude for a preliminary court hearing. Please continue to pray for us. I will post more in detail about the last three visits, as soon as I have a chance. Also, the internet at the hotel has been down a lot and that makes it very hard for me to post. Well everyone take care. Will post more soon.
Love,
Mauri & Yadi
Sorry we have not been able to post anything in the past 2 days. Things have been really hectic. We have gotten a total of 5 visits with Antonina. Everything is going well. Tomorrow we have to go through Russian medicals, where we have to visit 8 specialists. In the afternoon we are supposed to meet with the jude for a preliminary court hearing. Please continue to pray for us. I will post more in detail about the last three visits, as soon as I have a chance. Also, the internet at the hotel has been down a lot and that makes it very hard for me to post. Well everyone take care. Will post more soon.
Love,
Mauri & Yadi
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
SECOND VISIT WITH ANTONINA
BABY HOUSE VISIT #2
We visited Antonina for a second time today. We were supposed to be observed by the inspector, but she was still in court, so they told us that we will visit her for a little while, but just us and our translator Olga. Well, they brought her down with one of the outfits we bought for her, she looked adorable!!!! This time it went a little smoother, without so many interruptions. We got to play with her. We discover that she is really taken with sounds. She was a little more comfortable around us too. We asked for medical assistance and we got to talk to the neurologist and the child psychologist. The neurologist went over her medical history with us and everything seemed within reason. When we got to talk to the Psychologist I started asking questions. At first she was a little apprehensive and on the defensive side, but as our interpreter started translating what some of our concerns were, she became more at ease (thank God). She admitted that at the beginning when she started working with Antonina she thought that she was not going to progress developmentally. One of the reasons is because she has been institutionalized from birth. Her mom left abandoned her at the hospital three days after she was born, and the only “home” she has ever known is the baby house. After we talked she started playing with her to see how she reacted to some (developmental) exercises. Let me tell you, I am no expert, but those people are not up to standard :o(
Don’t take me wrong, I am nobody to criticize them, I am only stating my opinion. This visit it was kind of short, it was the end of the day and all the workers were going home. So her caretaker came to get her because it was meal time. They asked us to buy diapers and wipes for her. We will go tomorrow to buy them. We have so much to think about to tonight. We have to weigh the pros and cons to see if we can provide Antonina with whatever care she needs. We know that we are in God’s hands and he will guide us in the right direction. We thank you for continue to keep us in your prayers. We will post more tomorrow when we go for the third visit.
We visited Antonina for a second time today. We were supposed to be observed by the inspector, but she was still in court, so they told us that we will visit her for a little while, but just us and our translator Olga. Well, they brought her down with one of the outfits we bought for her, she looked adorable!!!! This time it went a little smoother, without so many interruptions. We got to play with her. We discover that she is really taken with sounds. She was a little more comfortable around us too. We asked for medical assistance and we got to talk to the neurologist and the child psychologist. The neurologist went over her medical history with us and everything seemed within reason. When we got to talk to the Psychologist I started asking questions. At first she was a little apprehensive and on the defensive side, but as our interpreter started translating what some of our concerns were, she became more at ease (thank God). She admitted that at the beginning when she started working with Antonina she thought that she was not going to progress developmentally. One of the reasons is because she has been institutionalized from birth. Her mom left abandoned her at the hospital three days after she was born, and the only “home” she has ever known is the baby house. After we talked she started playing with her to see how she reacted to some (developmental) exercises. Let me tell you, I am no expert, but those people are not up to standard :o(
Don’t take me wrong, I am nobody to criticize them, I am only stating my opinion. This visit it was kind of short, it was the end of the day and all the workers were going home. So her caretaker came to get her because it was meal time. They asked us to buy diapers and wipes for her. We will go tomorrow to buy them. We have so much to think about to tonight. We have to weigh the pros and cons to see if we can provide Antonina with whatever care she needs. We know that we are in God’s hands and he will guide us in the right direction. We thank you for continue to keep us in your prayers. We will post more tomorrow when we go for the third visit.
FIRST VISIT WITH ANTONINA
BABY HOUSE VISIT #1
Sorry, we did not post anything yesterday. The truth is that it was a day filled with mixed emotions, both happy and sad. Well, let me start from the beginning. We were picked up at about 9:30 to go to the baby house for our first visit with Antonina. Since the baby house is within Tver, we drove for about 15 minutes. Once inside, we were asked to have a seat in a small reception area while we waited for the Baby House Director to come talk to us to go over the medical information for Antonina. At first is so much information that you feel a little overwhelmed. You see, Antonina was born at 36 weeks, right at the beginning of the 8th month and she was born with some complications, which I cannot go in great detailed (we are not allowed to talk about that). Well, in the middle talking to the director the caregiver brought Antonina to us…..Ohh my God, we wanted to drop what we were doing to carry her, so Mauri got her while I continued to make notes. We got to ask a series of medical questions that we had, but only medical. The baby house social worker or inspector as they call it was supposed to be present on the first visit, but she was busy at court. So we were told that we were going to go for a second visit in the afternoon in order to be observed with the Antonina by the inspector. Once we were finished with the medical director we got the one on one with Antonina, oh my God, our heart melted, when we got to play with her. Antonina is 19 months old, but she is soooo tiny, she looks like a 9 month old baby, instead of a 19 month old. She is so skinny and fragile. When you hold her, you worry that you might “break her” by carrying her. Like I said before, they brought her down, she was wearing a blue party dress. Don’t take me wrong she looked so cute, like a precious little doll. I immediately requested if we could change her clothing that we wanted to put her in one the outfits we had bought for her. At first they said no, then after they agreed. Well, the first outfit was too big for her (12 month); the second outfit that we tried did fit her well (9 months). She looked adorable. We took a lot of pictures, but unfortunately, we cannot post them, for confidentiality issues we are not allowed. We video taped her playing with some of the toys we brought for her. She had fun with the one that has music, she starting dancing and she looked happy. We taught her to throw kisses and she learned quickly, it melted my heart when she will bow her head for me to kiss her. It is an amazing feeling. Mauri and I are somewhat concerned because she is so malnourished and she is developmentally delayed about 7/9 months, and also she cannot walk yet. She walks with assistance (when you are holding her hands) but she cannot do it by herself yet. They will allow us another visit in the afternoon, I will post more later. Thanks for checking in on us….
Sorry, we did not post anything yesterday. The truth is that it was a day filled with mixed emotions, both happy and sad. Well, let me start from the beginning. We were picked up at about 9:30 to go to the baby house for our first visit with Antonina. Since the baby house is within Tver, we drove for about 15 minutes. Once inside, we were asked to have a seat in a small reception area while we waited for the Baby House Director to come talk to us to go over the medical information for Antonina. At first is so much information that you feel a little overwhelmed. You see, Antonina was born at 36 weeks, right at the beginning of the 8th month and she was born with some complications, which I cannot go in great detailed (we are not allowed to talk about that). Well, in the middle talking to the director the caregiver brought Antonina to us…..Ohh my God, we wanted to drop what we were doing to carry her, so Mauri got her while I continued to make notes. We got to ask a series of medical questions that we had, but only medical. The baby house social worker or inspector as they call it was supposed to be present on the first visit, but she was busy at court. So we were told that we were going to go for a second visit in the afternoon in order to be observed with the Antonina by the inspector. Once we were finished with the medical director we got the one on one with Antonina, oh my God, our heart melted, when we got to play with her. Antonina is 19 months old, but she is soooo tiny, she looks like a 9 month old baby, instead of a 19 month old. She is so skinny and fragile. When you hold her, you worry that you might “break her” by carrying her. Like I said before, they brought her down, she was wearing a blue party dress. Don’t take me wrong she looked so cute, like a precious little doll. I immediately requested if we could change her clothing that we wanted to put her in one the outfits we had bought for her. At first they said no, then after they agreed. Well, the first outfit was too big for her (12 month); the second outfit that we tried did fit her well (9 months). She looked adorable. We took a lot of pictures, but unfortunately, we cannot post them, for confidentiality issues we are not allowed. We video taped her playing with some of the toys we brought for her. She had fun with the one that has music, she starting dancing and she looked happy. We taught her to throw kisses and she learned quickly, it melted my heart when she will bow her head for me to kiss her. It is an amazing feeling. Mauri and I are somewhat concerned because she is so malnourished and she is developmentally delayed about 7/9 months, and also she cannot walk yet. She walks with assistance (when you are holding her hands) but she cannot do it by herself yet. They will allow us another visit in the afternoon, I will post more later. Thanks for checking in on us….
Sunday, February 8, 2009
TRIP TO TVER, RUSSIA
Dear All:
Sorry we could not post from the Chicago Airport while we waited for our next flight! You see, my sister Claudia and her boyfriend Donnie picked us up at the airport. We then went to have breakfast. After that we went to the outlet mall to look for insulated winter gloves for me. I have been looking for the right type for quite a while and I had not been able to find them. Well, this time we did, we went to the Spider store and we found my gloves. We also found gloves for Mauri. I was also looking for a hat (per say), but I did not want any winter hat. I wanted something that looked good me. We we went to a couple of stores, until we came accross a store that had some nice hats. So, Claudia and I ended up getting the same hat :0). After that, We rushed out of the mall, then went to pick up our stuff to their house, and then we rushed to go have lunch. time went up so fast that before we knew it it was time to go have lunch. Anyways, we went to this place that we like, Famous Daves to have chicken and ribs. We ate there and then we rushed to the airport because we were running late. Finally we got to the airport, we said our goodbyes, we ran to our councourse, go through security, just to find out that the computer had picked us for additional security screening. Well, let me tell you, that was very interesting to say the least. We went through the same thing in Miami, but TSA Miami was nothing compared to TSA Chicago. For a moment I though that we were going to miss our flight, just because we had 5, yes, 5 TSA officer going through all of our stuff. Don't take me wrong, I know they are just doing their job, but, they got everything out from our carry-ons, so I think they over reacted a little bit. Anyways, after TSA screening we ran to our gate L8, just to find out that we were right in time. Yeahh, we were heading to Moscow.... I won't bore you with the details from the flight. Just let me tell you that it was long and a little uncomfortable, but ohh well. The important thing was getting to Moscow safe and sound.
Well, 10 hours later...... When the plane landed, we realized of my goodness, we are in Moscow. We also said to ourselves, oh my Gosh, this has been a long trip!!! Dima, our driver picked us from the airport. When we exited the aiport we felt the cold air, and yes, it is freezing (to say the least). We headed directly to Tver. I guess that because of the weather we took longer than other couples. It took us 4 hours to reach Tver. By the time we got to the hotel we were beat. Thanks to our great friends (A & K) we were able to venture out to buy some gorceries and kind of walk around. A & K were so thoughtful that they left us a translated menu, a deciphered map of the city and some rubles for us to be able to buy some things. You see, dollars are not accepted at the stores here. It is forbidden for citizens to exchange foreign currency outside a bank. In other words, they cannot and will not am to accept our dollars.
Thanks A & K, you guys were life savers.. When we go meet our little girl tomorrow, the staff will take us to exchange dollars.
Well, I got to go to sleep, tomorrow is going to be a great and beatiful day for us.... We will get to meet our future daughter. It is excciting and nerve racking at the same time. Please continue to pray for us. We are in God's hands. I will post some more tomorrow. Thankyou for checking our blog.... Please leave us comments so we can know who's following our blog :o).......
Sorry we could not post from the Chicago Airport while we waited for our next flight! You see, my sister Claudia and her boyfriend Donnie picked us up at the airport. We then went to have breakfast. After that we went to the outlet mall to look for insulated winter gloves for me. I have been looking for the right type for quite a while and I had not been able to find them. Well, this time we did, we went to the Spider store and we found my gloves. We also found gloves for Mauri. I was also looking for a hat (per say), but I did not want any winter hat. I wanted something that looked good me. We we went to a couple of stores, until we came accross a store that had some nice hats. So, Claudia and I ended up getting the same hat :0). After that, We rushed out of the mall, then went to pick up our stuff to their house, and then we rushed to go have lunch. time went up so fast that before we knew it it was time to go have lunch. Anyways, we went to this place that we like, Famous Daves to have chicken and ribs. We ate there and then we rushed to the airport because we were running late. Finally we got to the airport, we said our goodbyes, we ran to our councourse, go through security, just to find out that the computer had picked us for additional security screening. Well, let me tell you, that was very interesting to say the least. We went through the same thing in Miami, but TSA Miami was nothing compared to TSA Chicago. For a moment I though that we were going to miss our flight, just because we had 5, yes, 5 TSA officer going through all of our stuff. Don't take me wrong, I know they are just doing their job, but, they got everything out from our carry-ons, so I think they over reacted a little bit. Anyways, after TSA screening we ran to our gate L8, just to find out that we were right in time. Yeahh, we were heading to Moscow.... I won't bore you with the details from the flight. Just let me tell you that it was long and a little uncomfortable, but ohh well. The important thing was getting to Moscow safe and sound.
Well, 10 hours later...... When the plane landed, we realized of my goodness, we are in Moscow. We also said to ourselves, oh my Gosh, this has been a long trip!!! Dima, our driver picked us from the airport. When we exited the aiport we felt the cold air, and yes, it is freezing (to say the least). We headed directly to Tver. I guess that because of the weather we took longer than other couples. It took us 4 hours to reach Tver. By the time we got to the hotel we were beat. Thanks to our great friends (A & K) we were able to venture out to buy some gorceries and kind of walk around. A & K were so thoughtful that they left us a translated menu, a deciphered map of the city and some rubles for us to be able to buy some things. You see, dollars are not accepted at the stores here. It is forbidden for citizens to exchange foreign currency outside a bank. In other words, they cannot and will not am to accept our dollars.
Thanks A & K, you guys were life savers.. When we go meet our little girl tomorrow, the staff will take us to exchange dollars.
Well, I got to go to sleep, tomorrow is going to be a great and beatiful day for us.... We will get to meet our future daughter. It is excciting and nerve racking at the same time. Please continue to pray for us. We are in God's hands. I will post some more tomorrow. Thankyou for checking our blog.... Please leave us comments so we can know who's following our blog :o).......
Friday, February 6, 2009
FEBRUARY 2009 (CON'T)
Well, the past few days have been non-stop. We still cannot believe that we are leaving tomorrow morning!!! We have a mix of feelings, between being excited and being nervous at the same time. Everything is packed!!! We cannot fit anything else inside our luggage. We have had to fit all our stuff, the baby's stuff, and some gifts for the baby house in 2, 50lb pieces of luggage and 2 carry-ons. I know it sounds like a lot of luggage, but when you put everything together, the clothing, the winter wear and other things. They take a lot of space. And if you know how We are also taking our laptop, video camera, and photo camera so we can take pictures of Antonina. We leave at 6:00 from Miami to Chicago, then we have to wait for 8 hours before we can get on our plane to Moscow. The good thing is that we will get a chance to spend time with my baby sister Claudia, her boyfriend Donnie and their dog Buddy. We can't wait to see them!!!
I will try to post more tomorrow. I think that there is free internet at the Chicago airport. I will try to post more then. Please continue to pray for us. Until then...
I will try to post more tomorrow. I think that there is free internet at the Chicago airport. I will try to post more then. Please continue to pray for us. Until then...
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
FEBRUARY 2009
Things continue to be crazy in the Guillen household. Between packing and weighting the suitcases, and then having to rethink and repack some things (sorry Mauri), trying to make sure we are not forgetting anything. We bought some cute outfits for Antonina. We hope that they will fit her. We are trying to estimate what size she is based on her current weight (about 14 pounds) so we purchase for 9 months and 12 months, but the truth is that we would not know for sure until we meet her and we take some measurements. We are waiting for paperwork to arrive today and tomorrow. We have been using Fedex so much in the last few days. Today, we are expecting the 18 Apostilles we sent to Tallahassee and tomorrow our passports along with the visas. We also expecting the warranty deed to be sent back from Tallahassee, one its been Apostilled and Incumbent. Mauri has to run to the police station today because yesterday I realized that his FBI fingerprint clearance will expire on February 18, and we need a "fresh" FBI clearance for court. Mine expire on March 16, but I pray to God that court will be past us by that time. You see, fingerprints expire every 90 days, along with our medicals. Some things are valid for one year, while others for 90 days.
My brother-in-law Nelson was so kind as to let us borrow his Vonage account so we can call home via internet. He installed and tested the software for us. Thanks Nelson.
Things are also crazy at work, there so much to leave ready before the trip. I am not getting to much sleep these days. Time goes so fast, that I don't seem to have enough time to do all the things that I have to, but God will provide whatever we need. Well, that's all for now, I will post again before we leave for Russia on saturday. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.
My brother-in-law Nelson was so kind as to let us borrow his Vonage account so we can call home via internet. He installed and tested the software for us. Thanks Nelson.
Things are also crazy at work, there so much to leave ready before the trip. I am not getting to much sleep these days. Time goes so fast, that I don't seem to have enough time to do all the things that I have to, but God will provide whatever we need. Well, that's all for now, I will post again before we leave for Russia on saturday. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.
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Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, Red Square
