Day 5 as parents

Well, here we are - day 5. It's Tuesday afternoon here in Khabarovsk. We're making out well, went to the park yesterday and let Kayta roam for a while. We're going to the zoo this afternoon and Alec (our driver) is bringing along his 7 year old nephew. It should be a good afternoon. I've taken over 150 pictures and still growing - I'll post them online once we get home. We are enjoying our daughter but it is time to go home - we miss our cats, american TV, our bed, even our jobs. We still have 9 more days here then another 5 in Moscow. This is going to be rough but I'm sure we will make it. Svetlana (our interpreter) is doing everything she can to make sure that our stay here is as pleasant as it can be. I got to see the Railway station today (drove past it) - was kind of interesting to see. I'll try to get some pictures before we leave. More in a few days.....

Day 2 as parents

We've survived or first 2 days as parents.. Katya is such a sweetie. She is
feeding herself and loves her sippy cup. She likes to ride in the stroller too.
We're dealing with the dirty diapers, temper tantrums (mostly when she is
tired), etc. pretty well. We just had to put her to bed (12:30) for her
afternoon nap a little early since she started throwing her bread around (she
was tired). We're sticking to our guns and not letting her win, even when it
means she throws a tantrum, she still doesn't win. She does sleep through the
night once she cries herself to sleep - she does not like to be put to bed, no
matter how tired she is. She calls us Mama and Papa now and knows "Book" real
well. and "govgov" is her word for any animal. We went to the museum this
morning and she loved the stuffed animals. We saw Gizmo's distant relative
(asian leopard). We're going to the park this afternoon if it isn't raining. I
got smart and hit the local version of Super Fresh and bought some bread,
fruit, juice, soda, and yogurt. It cost 928 rubles (about $35) - a little more
than one meal would cost if we ate out. We're trying to eat out only 2 or 3
times a week to conserve funds. I'm updating the weblog when I can - probably
going to be every other day or so. I better go, have lots more to check up on.

Today is the day!

Today we have our court day to get Katya. We're getting excited now that it is
finally here. Yesterday we got to spend a few hours with her and we enjoyed
seeing her again. We hated to have to leave her but it is the last time, we
should have her in our care after the court date if all goes well. She didn't
want us to leave her yesterday, she put up big fuss when it was time to go.

We got to tour the Kremlin on Wed. It was pretty neat to see it. There are th
eworld's largest cannon and bell here, the bell is like 15 feet tall. We got
lots of pictures while we were there.

We learned yesterday that Tatiana (our coordinator here) is a Neurologist, and
the translator is a fiber optic endoscopy surgeon.. Its amazing what you can
learn about people...

Well, today we leave for Russia. We're all packed and just waiting for the time to get here now. We're both excited and anxious about going to Russia again. I can't wait to get there and bring her home....

Almost ready to go

We're just about packed and ready to go - I just went & unpacked all the suitcases and repacked them. I managed to get it all into the 3 suitcases without overstuffng them this time. Now we just have to deal with the overweight fees on the domestic flight. Fun Fun Fun..... 2 days to go!

I think for the first time last night, the adoption finally started to feel like a reality. We started packing our clothes and we went into Katya's closet and started packing clothes for her. That's when it really started to sink in. I'm gonna be a dad real soon - next Friday to be exact!

 

I had one heck of a crazy day yesterday. I went all day at work, then at 5:30 started a conference call that lasted for 2/5 hours, then had to deal with other problems at work till 9:00. Then at 9:30 Fred calls me with a broken radiator hose, so I jump in the Jeep with lots of water and a roll of duct tape and set off to find him (I know where he exited but not what road he is on). By the time we were done, we had the hose fixed (Duct tape is wonderful), and discovered that the head gasket was blown so I had to have his Jeep towed. I got home at 2:00 this morning. On top of that, I had to be at work at 8:00 and have been in a training session all morning. I am so tired right now.

 

Got our Visas

We have our visas and airline tickets, we're all set to go! YAY!

Time's getting short...

Less than a week to go now. We have 1 small suitcase and almost one large suitcase full of donations to take with us. This is a good thing. Now we just have to get our clothes packed in there too.

We had a great day today - we had a surprise baby shower... Didn't get as many people showing up as I would have liked but we had it the same..... I'm also starting on building Katya's computer. She'll have her own computer as soon as she comes home so we can get her started on educational software.

Not too much in the way of new stuff happening lately. About a week till we head over to Russia. I mowed the lawn today, got more propane for the grill, and am building 2 computers from spare parts, one for Amy and one for Katya. I got our cash for the trip and monday will fedex the check for our domestic (Russia) airline tickets and hotel bill, etc. Its an expensive trip, nearly $12000 by the time everything is added up.

11 days to Russia!!! We're almost there, we're getting the donations together for the orphanage and getting stuff packed for the trip. I'm getting a litle excited now, It won't be long now......



I had a bit of a scare Tuesday - I thought i had Pinkeye... turns out it is just allergies, what a relief.

I had a bit of a busy weekend. I helped Fred move his office on saturday. That was an adventure, we had to set upo terminal server to get them in to the old office for the next 2 weeks because the T1 got delayed. I was dead tired yesterday, I actually considered going to bed at about 5PM I was so tired.

We're getting real close to heading to Russia now. Katya's room is almost finished, now it is time to start packing. We're starting to see donations from some people, and are starting to put it together and figure out how we're going to pack it all up.

We went to TGI Fridays last night to see a friend off on her way to Florida. We had a good time, its a shame she has to leave us.

Well, another hectic day at work... Been busy lately with all the new software changes that we have been working on.

Looks liek we got the airline pricing to get o Moscow.. $1000 a person round trip.. ouch! how is it that it costs no more to fly the jet but they nearly double the fare in the summer? makes no sense. You'd think that they would raise it in the winter when there are less people flying.