Here is a picture of all my boys tonight!

Hoping to have baby A in our Christmas photos next year!

Christmas cookies!

Here are 3 out of 5 of my boys making Christmas cookies yesterday!

Pictures of the orphanage!

We're home!

We got home today and i'm so happy to be home with the boys! Sorry about the lack of updates, but we didn't have internet during most of our stay, so I will give a day by day run down of how our trip went.

Day 1 ( Dec 15th ): We left Austin Texas at 7:00 a.m. and sat at JFK until 8:20 p.m. ! It was the longest day of my life because I was so upset about leaving the boys. I couldn't stop crying :(. We had an overnight flight and arrived in Moscow mid afternoon ( Moscow time ).

Day 2 ( Dec 16th ) : Our coordinator picked us up from the airport and took us to a train ( along with the doctor who was to evaluate our baby ). We had to ride the train for 6-7 hours to get to the region that we were going to. We finally arrived in NN at 1:30 a.m. and checked into our hotel.

Day 3 ( Dec 17th ): We went to the MOE to officially recieve our referral. I'm not sure why, but I was SO nervous about going to the orphanage, and meeting the baby. Our appointment at the orphanage was at 11:30 and we got there just in time. Then the scary part. The orphanage doctor starting listing all of these medical issues, half of which I had no idea of what she was talking about . Then they brought the baby in. She wasn't feeling well because of a fever and cold, so she was crying. The doctor that we brought along with us examined her and said that she had her concerns because the baby was so small. She said that there weren't any signs of FAS, one of my biggest fears, but she was delayed in her motor skills. We spent about an hour holding her because she wasn't feeling well and then the director told us that our time was up.

Day 4 ( Dec 18th ) : We visited with our baby girl again and she was feeling much better. She was SO cute and SO playful with dh. We signed the papers to adopt her and now the LONG wait for a court date. She's loved the toys and books that we brought in. She also tolerated me putting a hairbow in her hair :). We took a ton of pictures and a couple of videos. I'm still worried about her size (she's in 3-6 month clothing ), but i'm sure that she will grow once at home with her family.

Day 5 ( Dec 19 th ): Our last visit with baby girl :(. She wasn't feeling well again, so we did a lot of cuddling. We were so sad to leave her because we know that she needs so much more then what the orphanage can give her, but we had to say our goodbyes. We took an hour long flight back to Moscow for the night. We got in Moscow at 1:00 a.m. !

Day 6 ( Dec 20th ): Time to go home. Our flight wasn't until 3:45 p.m., so we just kind of hung out at the hotel for most of the day. When we got to the airport, we met another adoptive familyhttp://www.rileyadoption.blogspot.com/ and we took the time to chat with them for a few minutes. Their baby boy is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! We took a direct flight to JFK and got in at about 6:30 p.m. ! We then had to stay in a hotel overnight.

Day 7 ( Dec 21st ) : Flew out of JFK early this morning and got home at 11:30 a.m. today!

I guess we're ready!

Or at least I hope we are :). I'm so tired right now, but I have to wait for that last load of laundry to get done before I can go to bed. Anyways, just wanted to say bye {wave} and I promise to post as soon as I can. We're due to arrive in Moscow at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday and then we have to take a night train to the region that we're going to, so i'm not sure when I will get the opportunity to post ( hopefully soon ).

THANK YOU!

I want to thank all of you who have sent me " good luck " wishes. It really means a lot to me. I'm becoming more excited and less scared. I can't believe how quickly time is moving. I feel like i've been really organized, but there's STILL so much to do to prepare! The boys are very excited about grammy taking care of them, so i'm feeling less anxious about leaving them. Nicholas talks about his baby sister all the time. He can't wait to show her around the house and to give her dolls, and all the other misc. stuff that we have gathered for her. I think that he's going to be a good big brother :). I've been gathering toys and blankets for the trip ( see pictures ) and can't wait to bring them to the orphanage. I hope that the babies/toddlers enjoy them. I will try and post tomorrow, but if not, I will definitely post while we're in Russia.

EXCELLENT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are traveling to Russia in 4 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a lot to do, so I will give a more detailed update later, but I didn't want to keep everyone wondering!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still waiting

We still haven't heard anything, but we did get our visas in the mail today.

Testing out the new camera.

Here are a few pictures that I took with our new camera tonight. Nicholas is holding a very special bear. This bear started out in a 1st grade classroom in Massachusettes ( where we're from ) and has traveled around the US over the past few months. We're supposed to be taking pictures and writting about the bears visit with us, and then send him off to the next person on the list. HOW COOL will it be to bring the bear to Russia with us :)??? The kids would get a real kick out of it. I'm HOPING that the news is good tomorrow because we have all of our travel plans in place, my mom is due to fly out on Thursday, and i've made some meals ( froze them ) to make things a little easier for my mom. My SW is hopeful, so i'm trying not to give up just yet. I will update my blog the second that I know.

Still haven't heard anything.

Now that it's so late in the day, I probably wont hear anything until Monday {sigh}.

It's not looking good!

I was in contact with a family that adopted in the same region that we were supposed to adopt in and was told that it's illegal to adopt in Russia if you're an insulin dependent diabetic. I'm not sure what our options are now, but wow. We obviously wouldn't have invested all of this time and money into adopting from Russia, had we known this right from the beginning. I'm still waiting to hear what my SW has to say, but it REALLY isn't looking too good now.

Another problem

While I was shopping at Walmart for our trip to Russia next week, I got a call from our SW. She told me that it might be an issue that my husband is a diabetic. This is incredibly frustrating to me because I feel as though this is something that should have been looked into two weeks ago, before we booked everything . I'm not feeling very good about this, but I will update as soon as I hear something.

There's so much to do!

AND I don't know where to start, so I just thought that I would procrastinate more and surf the internet :). I can't believe that we are leaving in less then two weeks. Here is the itenerary so far.

Sat 12/15: Leave Austin 7:00 a.m. and arrive in JFK at 11:30 a.m.

Sat 12/15: Depart JFK at 8:30 p.m. and arrive in Moscow at 1:00 p.m. Sun/16 ( a couple of stops in between ).

Sun 12/16: go through customs and all that ( 2 hrs) and then we STILL have a 5 hour drive to the region that we will be staying in.

Mon 12/17 : Meet child

Tues 12/18 :Visit child ( do paperwork at some point in time ).

Wed 12/19: Drive back to Moscow ( stay in Moscow over night ).

Thurs 12/20: Depart SVO at 8:00 a.m.

Thurs 12/20: Arrive in JFK at around 6:00 p.m.

Fri 12/21: 6:00 a.m. fly out of JFK and arrive in Austin sometime throughout the day.