Travel Dates

We have purchased our tickets and are leaving on October 3rd, and will return October 29th. We were hoping to fly through Seoul, but was unable to use our frequent flyer miles. However we were able to use our frequent flyer miles through Moscow so we only had to pay for our Moscow - Vlad flights! WooHoo!!!

Our invitations have been submitted, and we should have those back the first of the week. At that point we will move forward with the Visa's.

We plan to stay at the VMI again, but have yet to receive confirmation that space is available.

More to come!

Court Date

That's right! We received a call on 09/16/09 at 12:30pm, and our court date is 10/10/09 at 9:30am. We plan to fly out on the 3rd of October and arrive home the end of October.

The Duda family and our new friends Lisa and Glenn will also be in Vlad around the same time we are there. It will be great to have families we have been in touch with throughout this process at our same hotel at the same time.

We are thrilled - and anxious to get back. Now comes the chaos and rushing around! More to come!

Video

Since we have no court date to share, we thought you would enjoy this song from our 'now famous' niece Emily. I have no idea what she is singing, I just heard "Nana and Papa" a couple of times - but it sure is cute!!

Our baby shower

On August 29th, 2009 we were reminded again what a great support system we have along our journey when Bill’s sister Carolyn threw us a baby shower at her home in Baltimore. Several out of town guests travelled to wish us well, and several more who couldn't be there sent gifts. Carolyn went way above and beyond the call of duty for us. She had fantastic food and drink, decorated the house, had adoption related games (Bill won the celebrity adoption guessing game, and is still bragging about it), and she even made chocolates in baby related shapes for the occasion. We really appreciated everything, and it’s not hard to see why Carolyn was Bill’s “Best Man” at our wedding. Our niece Emily helped us open gifts. She was very helpful, and was extremely happy to see all of the stuff her soon to be cousin was getting (As were we!).

Anyway, we want to thank everyone for their contributions to the shower. It’s very humbling to know what a great supports system we have from both sides of our family as well as our friends. It would be extremely difficult for us to be going through the adoption journey without the tremendous support of our family and friends. We’re glad we have all of you to lean on. Thank you for the gifts, cards, prayers, well wishes, hand-me-downs and everything else that has been coming our way.

Hopefully we’ll be putting all of those shower gifts to use soon…..

Moving forward

Our documents were submitted to Court today! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we wait for a court date.

Also, our revised medicals are done, notarized and county sealed on the way to our agency as we speak. After they are sent to the Sec of State - they are off to Russia!

The Moscow Russian Circus is coming to town!

Since the reign of Catherine the Great, the circus has played an important role in the rich cultural traditions of Russia. In Russia, some regard the circus as an art form on par with the ballet or opera, a showcase for highly skilled and creative artists. The Moscow Russian Circus will bring its rich tradition and enviable reputation to the US in early 2010. Read more about the circus, and find tour dates at http://www.moscowcircus.biz/home1.htm.

Update

Unfortunately, our case could not be submitted to the courts yesterday as expected because the documents were not completed by the notary on time; the case will instead be submitted next Tuesday, September 8. The typical notary apparently has been on vacation recently and the alternate notary did not complete the documents on time to submit to court (although the alternate notary has had the documents for some time, and was aware of the date that we needed them completed by).

We are both very disappointed, to say the least. Keep your fingers crossed that they are submitted to court next Tuesday.