Monday in Vlad

I think the Russian's are on to something with this whole "Women's Day" thing... they had a day off today as well! Sheesh! But no day off for me today -- around 11am it was off to see Tania again. Yea!


This time the social worker, Svetlana, was there and we were able to talk more about Little T's background and some more information on her medical "diagnosis". I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say, her birth momma stinks. Sounds like T had a rough couple first months, but it's all in the past now.

Today started about the same as yesterday - big tears after leaving her room. I got to be very overwhelming to leave a room you hardly ever get to go out of. Essentially she eats, bathes, sleeps and plays in the same two rooms. For those of you "Artem" parent's, T is in the "Duck Groupa" at the top of the Pepto Pink stairs. She may be one of the older kids in her room, and I think possibly if she had not been getting ready to leave, she may have graduated to another groupa.

After jumping on her favorite "low-shet" (Russian for horse, say it like it's spelled there) she started to calm down. The social worker says she likes to "swing" I suspect she means rock. And she said she does this at night too -- which doesn't surprise me since so many before me have told me about this coping mechanism. From there it was 95% smooth sailing! She LOVES the attention - loves "peek-a-boo"/hide and seek type games, and "Uncle Mark", "Uncle Gary" and "Uncle Boo" will like to know that she likes to be tossed in the air. And man when those giggles start - she could melt an iceberg!!

Court is tomorrow -- Svetlana helped me get prepared and was really nice. Icing on the cake was the all of a sudden I had a bloody nose! Thankfully my translator, Elena, was there to help watch T while I got it to stop. Weird. I think I have had like 3 nose bleeds in my entire life.

Update on my social life: Apparently it's "singles week" in Vlad! Haha! I met two other single mom's yesterday that are here. Jeanette, from Davis CA, is my "neighbor" in the hotel. She had court last Friday and took immediate custody of her sweetie - Sophie Elona. Gail, from PA, is leaving today with her new son, Jonathon. She's here on her 2nd adoption! So for the time being Jeanette and Sophie and I will hang out. A friend of Jeanette's will arrive on the 16th, T should be with me starting on the 20th and then Rhonda arrives on the 25th.

Last but not least, I'll try to answer some popular questions. See above for other families. Not in the suite yet - hope soon. I could potentially get Gail's after she leaves. Hotel in Seoul was nice but small. ROCK hard bed, but super handy. I haven't had the stuffed toast yet -- but I promise I will try it SOON!

I will leave you with a tease of what's to come. I can't post any pictures of T just yet -- so you'll have to do with her "haircut". Her adoring fans will have to wait until approximately March 20th! Paka!

Reunited and It Feels So Good

Happy "Women's Day"! Nope - I am not kidding! It's "Women's Day" here in Russia. The closest thing I can compare it to is Mother's Day for all women. The restaurant here in the Vlad Motor Inn is more crowded than I have ever seen before. I should have known something was up because they kept bringing in more and more tables while I was eating breakfast.

So since it's "Women's Day", I guess it's only appropriate that I got to spend my day with Little T! Yea! We headed out on the journey to see her around 11am this morning and arrived at her baby home just before noon. The whole building smelled like they were baking bread. It was lunch time so we waited for a few minutes while T had some food. Finally I heard those little footsteps coming down the hallway. She was here!

As suspected her curls are gone. She's now got what I'll call a "shaggy Dorothy Hamil". No biggie - hair grows! I can tell she'll be fighting those curls though at times in her life -- as even shorter some of it wants to curl! Isn't always when you have straight hair, you want curly and vice versa? Either way, she's as cute as a button.

The first 3 minutes or so she was NOT a happy camper. She must have been thinking - you rushed me through lunch to see 3 strangers? At 2, my guess is she doesn't remember me much from 4 months ago - and I am not sure how many times she got to see the picture book I left. She cried some pretty big tears - but you could tell she was just scared. But after a quick 3 minutes, she started to warm up. And then she was perfection, once again!

We looked at pictures - some of the first trip and some of home, kitties, grandparents, etc. And then she discovered my bag. She wanted to see what was inside and we she could see. It wasn't a nosey, naughty, tearing through the bag, but a curiousity. Sergei, my driver, started a game where she brought an item to him and then he'd say (in Russian), "bring it back to mama". And she did! She even whispered "mama" to me a couple times.

She's VERY inquisitive! She saw the zipper on the little bag that I keep my Flip video in and wanted to see how it works. She then saw me pushing the red "record" button on the Flip - and then she had to do it too! Riley's going to have a lot of "teaching" to do, Jenni - because judging by today -- T is one curious girl!! Reminds me of some girlies I know!!

Court is Tuesday -- I'll keep updating here, because let's face it -- I have nothing much else to do!! Last but not least, it appears my spell check is not cooperating, so please forgive any typos. Paka from Vlad!

Safe and Sound at the Vlad Motor Inn

Finally here! After what seems like days (oh wait! it was!!) I have finally arrived at the Vlad Motor Inn in grand old Vladivostok, Russia! I did NOT get to see Little T today -- as my flight arrived around 2:15pm - and even though I pushed my way through customs and luggage claim (ask Rhonda about her experience last time!), apparently the baby home in Artem suggests 12-3pm as "visiting hours" so there was no time today. Good news is I get to see her tomorrow AND Monday before Court on Tuesday.

I am just getting settled for a bit and will eventually wander out to the restaurant for some dinner and in hopes of meeting some other families - although NO ONE on the Vlad adopt board OR FRUA responded to my post about being in Vlad in March. I can't be the only American here can I?

Random thoughts about the trip so far...
* I have turned into one of those crazy people who talk to themselves. Ok, well not really in public, but if there would have been a camera or microphone in my room at the Seoul airport hotel you would have thought I had lost it. It's harder than you realize to go for basically two days without really talking to anyone you know!
* It's also weird to be without a cell phone. I left mine at home this time as it was one thing less to carry. I use my phone as a "watch" as well -- so it's hard to get used to having something around your wrist all the time again. I brought my Christmas present watch from mom - a dual time zone watch. Very handy for not having to figure out what time it is back in Michigan! Funny story -- I got her the SAME watch for Christmas.
* Korean Subway food = not so great. I think when I go to a "chain" like that I expect the same taste -- always dissapointed.
* And last but not least for today -- as there will be many more random thoughts... I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE LITTLE T!!!

Man, That's One Big Pond

Whew! What a day. I'd make some crack about flying so long that my arms are tired -- but I'll leave those comments to my dad!

I have arrived in Seoul, Korea. Best I can tell - as I just left my watch back in the hotel room, it's like 3am at home. Something like that. And did I mention I got up at 5:30am? It's technically 4:47 pm here in Seoul, but I am ready for bed. I'll try to hold out for a bit, but I am not sure what the hotel room TV holds in my future...

I did manage to grab a few moments of sleep on the plane. WOW was business class worth it. Ok still WAY expensive -- but the seats are light years ahead of what they cram you into in steerage - I mean coach. I even supported Nestle on the plane -- they served Haagen daz... woo hoo!

So tonight I have big plans with a pillow in my very tiny but nice room at the Hotel Air Garden. (I know you warned me about it Jesse and Jason, but since I was alone this time, I wasn't feeling all that adventurous!) And tomorrow @ 10am it's off to Vladivostok. I have asked to go right to Little T's baby home as it's super close to the airport - but we'll see!

Paka from Seoul!

In the "D"

This will likely be my last post from the US as a "childless" adult! I am at the Marriott by the airport and headed out tomorrow morning! Next stop? Seoul, Korea via Chicago, IL!! I'll try to send a quick post from Seoul.

Paka!

The Final Countdown!

The time is drawing near! I am headed down to the airport tomorrow night and staying at the Marriott before leaving early on Thursday morning. My brain is moving a mile a minute and I am feeling a bit scatterbrained... so forgive me if this post is all over the place!

Leading up to today I had TWO things hanging over my head: trading some final cash for crisp bills AND the fact that my VISA had not arrived yet. I can gladly say that as of 8:30pm - check and CHECK. WHEW! What a relief. It was almost as if planets aligned today.

Earlier this week was a comedy of errors... a money plan I had lined up fell through and suddenly I was left to figure out how to quickly locate A LOT of crisp bills. For any of you that have traveled for adoption, you know this dance. The best plans go awry!! So yesterday it was back to the drawing board. My bank got me about 1/2 way there -- and then I hit a couple others to exchange -- no crisp bills to be found.

Today was a different story -- the bank had TONS of crisp bills. The customer a couple people before me had just come from the Duty Free shop at the bridge to Canada -- and BOOM - fresh bills. When I got home -- my VISA was there! I was nervous that my VISA that was being sent overnight from New York would get slowed down because of the big storm they had. Breathing is good!

The last panic of the day was the 4pm email I got from my agency informing me of 1 final document that needed to be notarized and taken with for the embassy. WHAT? I am leaving TOMORROW! Nothing like last minute. But I'd soooo rather be over prepared than under prepared!! So I took off like lightning to the bank and had no issues getting the final document notarized.

Next stop -- Detroit!

Additional Additions

I have added another family member... and yes, you'll think I am crazy. But there is story behind my madness...

Back in January as the weather was getting really brutally cold here in Michigan. My mother and I discovered a tiny little kitten near her house. She wouldn't let us "get" her, so we started leaving some food out at night and my mom even made a bed for her out of an old computer printer box covered in plastic. Every time we'd get close, she'd run away around the side of the house in some bushes and cry and cry. It was horribly sad. Honestly, it was stressing my mom out, because this little kitten was so young and small and it was getting SO cold at night.

One night mom wandered outside and looked in the box - guess who was inside! Before the kitten could react and run away, mom swooped up the box and brought it AND the kitten inside her house. My mom's neighbor across the street had seen the kitten and asked if it was my mom's. She had said it wasn't, but we were trying to capture it. The neighbor said, "if you can catch it, we'll take it" (they have one cat already). GREAT! We had a built in home for this little homeless kitty.

Turns out the neighbor didn't like having two cats. My mother had heard from a lady at church who also volunteers at a local humane shelter that the neighbor was asking her to take it to the shelter. But since they are ALWAYS full, we didn't think this would really happen.

After Murphy's passing, my mom mentioned the situation and said "we should have kept that kitten". She told me what she had heard, so I asked her to call the neighbor and offer that I'd take the kitten. Guess what? The neighbor had already given it to the shelter lady! Little kitty had already been at the shelter for almost a week! I was floored! So up to the shelter we went, and $75 and two weeks later we had her back! At first I was highly annoyed that I had to pay $75 to rescue a kitten I had already saved once, but while at the shelter she got ALL her kitten shots, tested for diseases AND fixed. That would have cost me MUCH more at the vet.
I thought Roo would have the hardest adjustment... but really, it's been Gracie. I think it's the female competition. I have named the little squirt "Sunny" because she's (get this!) a Red Siberian tiger -- so her reddish orange color reminds me of a sunny day. Plus she's got these really cool striations in her fur that look like sun rays.

This week when I leave for Russia, all 3 of the furries will move down to my moms for the stay. I tease her that by the time I get home, she'll have fallen in love with Sunny -- and Sunny will have another new home. Otherwise, Little T will have her own baby! Here is Miss Sunny...

And here is Gracie's reaction for the first week, plus her plush new bed.