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....

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.....

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.

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....

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)........

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....

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.....

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....

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!!!

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!

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!!!