Moscow Trip 2 coming to an end

As we prepare to head to the airport in a few hours, we say good bye to Moscow for the second time. One more time and our little girl will be coming home. We can't wait to get back here for that reason.

As for the weather back home, hopefully the storm will be light enough this evening that we can land at JFK and then drive home with minimal problems.

Talk to you guys later tonight. See you in a few weeks Katerina!

Travel- Northeast storm

It is beginning to look like Kelly and I just cannot catch a break when it comes to traveling home from Moscow to New York. Last time, as posted after our trip home through the Ukraine, we had a nightmare of a trip. This time is currently shaping up to have potential for re-routing at the least as the weather on the east coast looks bad. Our plane lands in New York at about 5 eastern time today and takes off at 7:30 ish to head back to Moscow. As long as it gets off on from NY, we will at least be able to take from Moscow tomorrow. Hopefully the storm will have passed for the most part by 5 or 6 o'clock tomorrow (Friday) evening so we can land. Then we will just have to drive home in it. No breaks for us on return trips from Moscow. The good news is that it looks like Monroe will not get hit too badly so once we get out of NY we should be okay. As long as we can land in NY.

This afternoon, a Fever & a Very Happy Birthday

After court, we got to bring Katerina to get her photograph taken for her Russian passport and American Visa. She will travel to the United States as a Russian but become an American as soon as we pass through customs.


Unfortunately, we were not able to spend any time with her at the orphanage because she was running a fever of 101. She had received vaccinations yesterday and they were effecting her today.

She handled the car ride pretty well with Kelly holding her. The children at her age, 1 year old today, do not get outside very much if at all.

So we said our Happy Birthdays and good byes and then left not to see our little girl again until mid March when we get to come get her and bring her home.

Happy Birthday Katerina

Court Hearing

So as I posted previously the Court ruled in our favor after hearing from Kelly and me, the head of the orphanage, the representative from the Ministry of Education and the prosecution. The process basically went as follows.

Typical for myself and fellow attorney friends, we rushed to get to Court on time to then have to wait as the judge handled another matter before ours. We then entered the Court which I wish we could have gotten pictures of but cameras were not allowed, unlike the adoptions I had seen in the Juvenile/Probate Courts in Massachusetts. So we rise for the judge (Your Majesty as opposed to Your Honor), they call the case and then one of has to talk. I answered most of the questions as this was something I was more comfortable with than Kelly. I figured if I could handle Appellate judges, I could handle one judge in a matter which was a foregone conclusion.

The questions were simple. Although the Court expected more than just yes or no answers. Why adoption? Why Russia? What will our parenting schedule look like? How did our family react about us adopting? Are we happy with this child? How much money did we make last year? Do we understand her current health issues? Will we keep her current birth date, name and place of birth? The last three are weird. We could have chosen any birth date and place of birth. We decided to stick with her actual birth date and place of birth (Moscow). As for name, we chose to name her Katerina Nargiza Bartolomei. Nargiza, pronounced Nar-gee (hard G) - za, was her birth name so we chose to keep it as her middle name. It means flower in Persian.

The Judge and prosecutor, who wore a uniform unlike our prosecutors, laughed at the pictures of our cats which were included in the photo album for the Judge. She kept a few pictures for the file and gave us back the album after the prosecutor and head of the orphanage had had a chance to look at the pictures. This means the many pictures of our family and friends will not make their way into the Russian Court system.

After I spoke, Kelly spoke to put her name, date of birth and occupation on the record. The judge then said we had two very good professions. The prosecutor stated she had no objection to the two of us adopting Katerina. The head of the orphanage, who was also a doctor, explained to the Court how Katerina came to be in her orphanage and that she thought we were good adoptive parents. The Rep from the Ministry, wearing jeans a hooded sweater with holes in it, then mimicked the orphanage head and that was that.

The Judge left the Court to finalize her decision. About two or three minutes later she came back to say she would grant our request to adopt Katerina and that if we did not agree with her decision we had ten days to appeal it to the Russian Supreme Court. Of course we agree, but technically others have ten days to appeal the decision as well. As such, the judge's ruling does not become official until the ten days pass without any appeal. This is not going to happen considering the circumstances of our little girl being in the orphanage.

All in all it was a relatively easy and quick process. As I told Kelly when we decided who would speak, the Court room is one place where I feel comfortable. We really wish we could have taken pictures. The Court house and court room were very nice. It also housed their intermediate level appeals court (Mass. App. Court or the Circuit Appeals courts equivalent). Makes me think about the Massachusetts Appellate Court/Supreme Judicial Court house and the US Supreme Court which are absolutely beautiful inside.

At the end, I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, very little had changed as we will not get to bring Katerina home for another two plus weeks. Part of me though was near tears (this is a big step as tears do not come easy for me) as we were now parents. This beautiful little girl is now our responsibility to care for and provide for; to give her as much as we possibly can and help her grow up a good, kind, caring child, young adult and adult. The people in the court room congratulated us as Momma and Poppa. We will go with mom/mommy and dad/daddy but here in Moscow it is Momma and Poppa.

She is our little girl now. Our little Katerina!

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!

Some time around 10:30 local Moscow time this morning, Kelly and I became parents.

For Kelly's parents, this means they are grandparents for the first time. For my parents, it means they are grandparents again.

For my siblings and their spouses, you are aunts and uncles again!!!

And to my many nieces and nephews, you have a new cousin today!!!

I will post more on the process later but for now we are eating lunch and then heading out to get Katerina's picture for her passport and visa.

Big day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big day. We have court in the morning and then get to see Katerina in the afternoon. I think we will even be bringing her out to get her passport picture taken in the afternoon. We are told that the hearing should last about 45-60 minutes. It starts at 9:30 so hopefully we will be finished by 10:30 so we can take care of the other necessary business.

Taking Katerina to get her passport picture will be strange. It will be the first time we have to take her anywhere. I am not sure what this will entail and who will be accompanying us, if anyone. But it will be a big step in the process of completing the adoption and taking her home next month.

Two visits

We got to see Katerina twice today.

The first visit was tougher than our visits in December, especially for me. For the first time, she seemed a bit frightened of me and cried at times. Especially when Kelly was sitting with her and I was standing in the room. We were also in a room just off of the sleeping quarters which meant Katerina could hear her care givers. She certainly looked their way a lot.

The second visit was better. She was still at times a little more suspect of me but had was much better and had no problem being held by me. I think she is going to be Mommy's little girl at least early on.

Now on to news about Katerina. She seems longer now. She is crawling although we did not see that. She even walks a little bit when someone holds her hands out in front of her. She certainly likes to stand. Each time we left she stood in the crib/play pen at the door and looked at us. with a little help from the care givers she even waived good bye.

Meeting Garrett for Dinner

Kelly and I are also meeting a friend we met on the nightmare of a return trip form the last visit for dinner this evening. We are looking forward to seeing Garrett on a regular sleep pattern. When we met him he had been holed up in a Ukranian airport for 2 days.

Two visits today

We get to have two visits today with Katerina. We are also much closer to the orphanage which means we can come back to the hotel after the first and have lunch and relax on this overcast but warm day in Moscow (high of about 34 today).

Sleep Patterns Continue

Another normal night for me in Moscow. We arrived at about 4 pm and I was sleeping 5 pm. Woke up to answer a phone call and then back to sleep until about 8. Here is where it continues the pattern from the last trip. Fell asleep at 1 am. I woke up at 4 am. Then went back to sleep at 7 until 10 am. The good news is that 9 hours of sleep is a good thing. The bad news is it would have been nice to sleep through the night which I did not do the last time we were here either.

Kelly on the other hand slept through the night for the most part.

We've Landed

We are in our hotel and about to nap before eating dinner. I got minimal sleep and Kelly got a decent amount of bad sleep so a nap will be a good thing for both of us. The flight was uneventful after the one hour delay in taking off.

Good news is we definitely get to see Kat twice tomorrow. Hopefully we will also get to see her Thursday afternoon but will not know that until we speak to our contacts here tomorrow.

Will post more after I have had the chance to sleep some.

Weather

Was just looking at the forecast for the next 4 days in Moscow. Woo Hoo!!!! Weather looks great. Tuesday 25; Wednesday 32; and, Thursday 36. Can't ask for much more than that.

Here we come again!!!

We are shortly to be on our way to see you Kat. Step 2 is here and soon you will be home! We can't wait to see you Wednesday.

Moscow Trip 2 Coming Quick

We are just a few days away from traveling back to Moscow for our Court date. Hopefully we will be able to see Katerina after the court hearing because it is her first birthday and that would be sweet. We will get to spend time with her the day before her birthday. But with the Court date being on her birthday, I do not know if we will have time to see her on her birthday.

This time we are taking a direct flight from JFK to Moscow. There will be no stops in the country that I shall not name (Ukraine :) ). Just take off from NY and land in Moscow.

Still a few things we have to do prior to leaving but we will take care of those things this weekend and be ready to go for Monday.

For the second time, Katerina here we come.

Katerina's Room

So this one is the glider, bureau/changing table and her crib to the right.

I had to post this one because it is the stuffed animal we got while in Munich during our horrible trip home from Moscow on the first trip.

This is one of our baby shower gifts. I think you have to be a civil engineer to put it together correctly on the first try. Although it might have helped if my wing woman (kelly) read the instructions a bit better :) . Hopefully this will not scare Kat because there is so much going on. It is quite cool though.

For those of you who have seen Rush live, this is like Neil Peart's drum set. Everything spins. The whole thing spins. The seat spins. I want to give Kat a pair of drum sticks and just let her go to town. (I would also like to state that that last statement in no way means any family member should consider buying Kat drums. Thank you).

Another noise making toy which we hope she loves.

Baby Shower

Kelly had a family baby shower yesterday. We received an amazing amount of gifts including toys, car seats, stroller, a ton of clothes, and a bunch of other things. She has another one scheduled for this coming weekend for hospital friends.

All I can say is Thank you. For my family members who gave us more than we could have expected, I say wow and thank you. It was kind of weird being in the room taking photos while Kelly opened the gifts. Every one in the room, besides Kelly and I and my niece, had kids. "Oh that is a good thing" or "definitely good to have that" made me feel good about the gifts we received. So once again thank you to all and especially Sonya, my mother, Kelly's mother and my step-mother who put the shower on. THANK YOU!

Visa & Travel

We have sent out our applications for Russian Visas today. This time we will be able to get a double entry because the two trips are within 30 days. Saves us a little money but more importantly just saves us from having to fill out the application again.

We also have our flights booked and a hotel for the first trip. Have not booked the hotel for the second trip yet because we need to confirm a crib and that we can be in the same type of room. When I searched for rooms they nearly doubled in price by adding an infant to the search. Seems crazy but we shall see.

AND NOW WE DO!!!!!!!!!!!

Kudos to our agency who corrected the small problem from yesterday with speed and precision. And most of all, with minimal delay. Instead of the 19th our court date is now the 25th, Katerina's birthday. I think a great present for her and us. As important, and in some ways much more important, we were given our dates for trip 3 which is the last trip: March 13 - 20. This means on the 20th of March, Katerina will fly for the first time and land on American soil with us. She will have come home to her new home and new life here in Connecticut and the United States. We are quite thrilled. But now, lots of work to do because of the visa applications.

We Almost Had A Date

Well we got world from our agency that we had a court date scheduled for a few weeks from now. Unfortunately they forgot the fact that we had told them we were unavailable from February 16-23 because Kelly's partner is on vacation. We had told multiple people about this and apparently it slipped their collective minds before they called and told us that our court date was smack dab int he middle of February 16-23. This is a major let down for us because it means bringing Katerina home will be delayed at least a week and possibly 3 or 4 weeks. Also because our agency knew this and should not have even called with the date but rather just addressed and corrected the issue. At least then we would have just thought that we were waiting a little longer rather than they screwed up.

I will add as an attorney I understand Courts give out dates but they are always flexible when people cannot be present for certain reasons.

So, in a nutshell, we are disappointed but know it is coming. She will be home soon.