Wonderful News

We are heading back to the U.S.S R.

We got the phone call today. We received our court date from Russia. The great news is that we will be spending my son's 2 year birthday with him. Dee Dee and I will fly out at the end of January and we will spend about 26 days in Russia. We cannot wait. Just kidding, we would rather stay a couple of days, it is really cold. I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas. I know ours is wonderful and it is not even here. We have been so blessed this year. I don' think I could ever have a more thankful, wonderful, blessed and ( insert adj.) year.

I wish you all the best and thank you all for your prayers and thoughts over the last couple of months. I will be updating the blog a few times before we go, but look for lots of posts while we are there. I will try to add all of my e-mails to the blog as well for those of you who did not receive them on the last trip.

Lots of love

Brad and Dee Dee

Rested

We have now been back a full week. I am just now feeling rested. I had a Russian cold when we got back and after a weeks worth of sleep I am back going again. My parents took Dee Dee shoping yesterday for Alex. They bought a bunch of cute clothes, I am told. I don't think they want me to see them because they are scared that will send some back. No Barney on my kid.

We are still waiting to hear from the adoption agency. We hope to hear something in the next week or so. My money is on end of next week. I hope all is well and we will keep you updated. I have to go finish putting Alex's room together and clean the garage.

Brad

New Photos

We just updated the blog. We went back a few posts/pages and added photos. If you want to see a lot of the photos you will have to scroll back at least one page.

Thanks

Brad

Beard Gone

Brad likes to grow a beard every year and this year he said that he wanted it for the cold weather in Russia. It was weird b/c I only saw 2 other people in Russia with a beard and one of them was a guy from Minnesota. He and his wife were there adopting a 12 year old boy. They have another son that is in college, but their church sponsored children from Russia to come to the US to visit for a month and they fell in love with the boy that stayed with them.

Anyway, back to the beard...I have never been happier to see the clippers come out last night. I finally get to kiss Brad again. I would give him little pecks with the beard, but I would not get too close to that beard. Not a big fan of facial hair. I don't mind it on other people, as long as I don't have to kiss them.

I attached a picture of his nice clean face!!

Flight Home

We had a LONG flight home...about 11 hours to Atlanta and then we had about an hour wait for our flight to Birmingham. The 11 hour flight was not so good. This older man sitting behind us smelled worse than anyone else that we had smelled in Russia. Every few breaths that you took, you got mouthful of blah. There is a picture that I attached below of Brad's cure for the smell. We really don't understand how people can't smell this on themselves. I guess they like the smell of hot garbage??

In the hour wait in Atlanta, it took about 30 minutes to get back through customs. We bought some vodka in the duty free store in Moscow and then when we got to Atlanta, we had to check one of our bags b/c you can't carry liquids with you in the cabin. If we would have known that we would have to check our bag, we wouldn't have bought anything. We had about 30 minutes to go to the Crown room and check out the Bama game. We got to see the best part of the game...beginning of the 3rd quarter when we scored and tied the game. We got play by play info from a guy on the plane that had Internet service and by the time we took off, Florida was up on us. Once we landed, we found out that we only had 2 minutes left and we were probably not going to win. At least we had a great season and hopefully many more to come!

The other photos below are of the pretty clouds and when we flew over Sweden or Iceland or somewhere up there. When you fly to Russia, they go over the top instead of straight across the ocean.

Flight Home Photos

Home!!!

Well we are finally about to come home. You do not realize how good you have it until you are gone from home for a while. Not being able to talk to anyone except the few that know English make things really tough. Brad and I got along great with only a couple of disagreements. That is great considering you are together 24/7 for 9 days straight.

The region that Alex is in is very boring. You are a prisoner in the hotel b/c it is too cold to go outside and there isn't anything to do outside anyway. On top of that there is nothing to do in the hotel (no gym, only 2 tv channels in English, pay by the minute for Internet, etc.) Before traveling, we were thinking about staying the 10 day waiting period which would mean that you take 2 trips instead of three. Our second trip would be about 25 days instead of making about a week stay for the second trip and then another week stay for the third trip. We would have to stay in Alex's region for about 20 of the 25 days and about 15 of those days will be without Alex. That means that we will be very bored. We are going to have to figure out the price differences in staying or going home for that 10 day wait. Most people that we have met have been going home.

On a better note, this has been a wonderful trip b/c we got to meet Alex and I look forward to coming back so that we can bring him home. I sure hope he likes the beach b/c I want to go there for the next 20 vacations...just to thaw out from Russia.

See you soon!
DD

Russia Review

Today was a nice day. We got up and went to the Doctor today. It was not bad at all except that you have to see 8 different doctors. They are all specialists in different areas. They did tell me my blood pressure was high. I thought to myself, I don't like to fly and I flew 3 times in 4 days, your drivers scare me to death, I have not slept well in 5 days and I am adopting a son in a foreign country, I cannot imagine why it is high. We came back to the hotel and I am having a nice Newcastle and watching the US football game(soccer). We have to be down in the lobby at 9 in the morning to catch the plane at 2:00. We will arrive back in Birmingham at 6:45 so all you bama fans and coachless auburn fans pull us through.

Russian Review

This has been the best trip I have every been on in my life. What an adventure from start to finish. I am looking so forward to the next trip. There were some bumps in the road but seeing my son for the first time takes the cake. Being able to touch him, hold him and play with him was gratifying. I know now what it must have been like to for my father to watch me play for the first time trying to figure things out, it was an emotionial high. I cannot think of a more life changing, beautiful experience. Seeing Dee Dee playing with him and the look of love and excitement in her eyes comes in a close second.

Overall this has been a great journey. The Russian people as a whole are great. They are still stuggling to find their own identity in a former war torn country. I sat and reflected as I looked out my window at this booming city of 15 million in Moscow and I wonder how long it will take for them to catch up. With their biggest export being oil, I cannot imagine it will take to long. And the youth being able learn about the world like they never have before, I see a bright future for this cold war country. Their leadership seems to be working to keep things going forward instead of backwards.

I now can only think about the next time I will be here. We are hoping for the end of January or sooner. There is now a new herizon in my life now, and I cannot wait to see the sunrise with my son home with me and Dee Dee. I want to thank everyone for your prayers, thoughts, and e-mails. We could not have done it without you. And to our family, you guys have been great through this process and we cannot wait to bring your grandson and nephew home.

We love you all so much and cannot wait to see you tomorrow.

Love
Brad

At our hotel in Alex's region

Our hotel in Moscow

"Hot Chocolate"

Per Brad's message in a post below...The hot chocolate is literally melted chocolate.

Red Square

On the way to Red Square

On the move

We woke up this morning at 4 am, which is normal for us and went down to the lobby and signed a little more paperwork. Crazy man showed up a few minutes later and then we were off the airport. The drive today was rather peaceful, there were no other cars on the road and it was snowing. The city scape was so beautiful today.

We made it through the airport check-in with no problems and had about a 2 hr wait to board the plan. The flight on the way back was so much better. We had chicken and pasta for breakfast and then we were able to take our normal naps. There were no loud children and no stinky people near us. We arrived in Moscow about 8:15 this morning. We walked out of the terminal and looked for our ride and no one was there. We sat and waited for about an hour at which point I start thinking, we have no phone that works and I don't speak Russian or read it so I won't be able to figure out how to use a payphone either. About that time our translator walks in and tells us that traffic is really bad and she is so sorry. Well, she was right. It took us almost 2hrs to get to the hotel which was about an extra hr.

We got to the room and decided that we need to go have an adventure. I talked Dee Dee into going to Arbat Street and up to Red Square . Well we grabbed the camera and were off. We asked the lady downstairs about how far it was away and she said about an hour walk. Well, Dee Dee and I are both in decent shape and figured that we could make it faster than that, we had a map and we were not going to stop and shop in the stores. Well, about an hour and fifteen minutes later we arrive at Red Square . We tried to get in and we found out that you need tickets. So we proceeded to the ticket booth to find out that they don't sell tickets on Thursday. They sell them every other day just not today.

Fortunately, we went around back and see St. Basils Cathedral, Lennon’s Tomb, some wishing well and a clock tower. We did spend about 25 rubles trying to ring the wishing hole. We took a lot of photos and we wanted to take a break from our long walk. We went in to a little shop set up next to an ice skating rink in the middle of the square. They had hot chocolate, score, we were so excited. Then we got it. It was literally hot chocolate. It was if someone put a Hershey bar in the microwave and melted it and then poured in a small dash of water just to make it a little more liquid. It was good but you could not drink much.

We decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel. We took a short cut and it only took us an hour. Dee Dee figured it was a total of about 8 miles. I was sweaty enough I believe her. We are now settling down for the evening. It is 5 here and we went to the grocery and got dinner and now going to soak our soar feet and go to bed.

Tomorrow we are getting our physicals and I am sure those will provide some good stories. Oh, we did find a McDonalds 2 blocks from the hotel for lunch. They do speak English, Cheeseburger and fries mean the same thing over here, I was so excited.

Brad

2nd visit

Hi All,

We had a wonderful visit w/ little Alexander yesterday. I think it is about 3:30am here. My sleep schedule is all messed up. When we get in from visiting Alex around 6:30pm, I crash b/c it is exhausting chasing after him for a few hours and then get in the car w/ someone that drives 100mph on snow and ice. If we hit another car, we are dead for sure, so I just sit in the back seat and pray and try not to look at what car we are about to hit. Seriously, I can't get mad at Brad anymore for his driving and tailgating. He looks like a grandma compared to this guy. This trip not only is to get our son, but it is making me realize that driving on 280 is cake walk. Traffic here and in Moscow is sooo much worse and the people are not patient. They will run over you if you don't get out of the way.

On to the meeting with Alex...He LOVES his Papa. You can ask him where his Papa is and he will point to Brad and smile. He seems to like me too, but you can definitely tell that he favors his Papa. As you read Brad's e-mail below, you will see that Alex's b'day is January 26th and that means he is Aquarian, just like his Mama. He shows signs of being an Aquarian. When I was little, I was VERY independent and I didn't want anyone picking me up or touching me. I also didn't want to share my toys. (I still don't like sharing much, but I am better. :)) He hates being picked up and if you try to see what size his tag says on the back of his shirt, he gets mad at you. He LOVES to play (throw the ball, get you to chase him, blocks). He uses the universal language of grunting and pointing to what he wants. I haven't heard him say anything in Russian, but he understands what they are saying when they talk to him in Russian. They told him to wave goodbye to us when he left and he waved. He didn't cry as much this time b/c his main caregiver was there to take him away and he really likes her. The first day he cried and would not let go of Brad. They had to peal his little hands from the back of Brad's shirt.

The people in Russia are quite skinny compared to the US. For some reason, you are never really hungry over here. I am forcing myself to eat b/c I know I need to, not b/c I feel hungry. Also, I feel like I am drinking a lot of water, but when I use the bathroom, nothing much comes out. I have no clue where all the water is going. There is not a gym in this hotel and I am about to die to go for a little jog. You definitely can't go outside. It is about -15 degrees F and when you go outside the air is so crisp that my lungs feel like a smokers lungs. Brad and I both started coughing when we walked to the grocery store yesterday. It is a really strange feeling. I guess b/c there is zero humidity. By the way, your hair does GREAT over here. You can go days and not wash it and it looks just as good as the first day. My hair gets oily and gross if I go a day w/o washing it in the US, but it is so dry that there is not oil and it looks great.

DD

Tuesday 2nd day of visit

Today has been restful so far. We woke up at about 3 in the morning and hung out until 6. We then went to breakfast. We then came back up stairs and took a little nap before I sent my last e-mail you received.

The good news is that I met a couple from New York. They are here adopting from another institution and he happened to have an extra power converter. Which is wonderful because it allowed us to watch a movie in our down time today. The television is getting old. We only get 2 channels that speak English,not counting MTV which some of the songs are in English. So now I don't have to watch Bloomberg, on how the market sucks, or DTV, the German channel, on how everything is not their fault.

The Kamikaze driver picked u up at 2 today to take us to see Alex. I have learned that his Mantra is "there is no car that I won't pass, when I want", the guy is insane. Anyway, we were able to spend another 2 hours with Alex today. It was wonderful. He was very playful from the beginning, almost like he knew us. He is very smart. He loves to play with those blocks that match with the holes in an object to make them fit. It took a few minutes but he soon got the hang of it and did not want any help. He is also very funny, he does not like to share very much. He will share but on his terms. He is used to other kids trying to steal his toys so he is guarded.

We were also able to check his size and his shirt is a 12 month. So he is a little small but he moves around quite quickly. Also, he had a little poot while we were all playing, it was nice for once that it was not me. In the future I will now have someone to blame it on other than the dog. After play time we went and sat down with the house mother and agreed and signed that we wanted to adopt him.

We are now back in the room resting. We are both still out of wack a little with our sleep. Dee Dee is sleeping right now. Tomorrow we are going to file a petition with the court for adoption. It should not take to long and then I am going to have a beer and vodka. The sad news is that we will not get to see Alex again until after the adoption is final. It could be as long as the end of January, first of February. We did learn that his birthday is January 26th, so we hope we can get him home by his birthday.

I will be checking my e-mail again before we go to bed so I will talk to some of you later.

Brad
6:00 Birmingham Time
7:00 Russian Time

First trip Monday-Tuesday

The room has no t-stat so I had to get up in the middle of the night and open a window, then it got cold. It was and interesting night of up and down trying to keep from sweating or freezing. The down blanket was made of some kind of super geese because even with the window open I was still warm.

We had to wait in the lobby of our hotel for 2 hours before leaving Moscow. We did go back to the mall and grocery store. The mall was huge, but every store in it was like a DKNY or Kennith Cole. Everyone here wears black with a little gray. Most of the women have bangs and evidently the mullet never went out of style here and looks like the rat tail just left or is coming back. It is very interesting the cultural differences and similarities. I will say it is not every day you see emo teenagers grabbing a smoke next to a band of gypsy's.

Ok, the trip to our territory was different. We got to the airport and the translator asked if we had locks for our bags, which of course we did not. So we preceded to a guy who wraps your bag with shink wrap for eight bucks. Comforting feeling that was. We then caught a bus out to the plane. We finally get seated and Dee Dee has a man beside her that smells like he just ran a marathon and I have a kid behind me playing slam dunk contest with the tray table. The flight only got worse.

It was a 5 hour flight from 9 at night that landed at 6 in the morning. The kid I mentioned screamed and cryed the entire way. I would have rather been kicked in the crotch by David Beckem than endure that again. Dee Dee and I are convinced that it was a test from God. He sat the spon child of of the Devil behind us.

We Made It

We got to the hotel alive and well. No thanks to our driver Evil Kanevil. This man drove 110 Km the whole way to the hotel. I don't know how fast it was but on the ice and snow covered road at 5 in the morning as he passed people on parts of the street that I am not sure was a road, made me nervous.

The best part!!!

We got up from a nap at 2 in the afternoon and went to the institution where Alex is being taken care of. We walked in the room and you could tell he was a little nervous. But after about 5 min the nurse but him in Dee Dee's lap and left the room. He warmed up and began to play with us. She came in later and ask him who is pappa was and he pointed to me. If I was not so tired I would have began crying. We then played with him for 2 hours. When they came to take him to dinner he did not want to leave, he was having to much fun. They told him to say good bye to his mama and Pappa and he began to cry again. Dee Dee gave him a kiss on the cheek and I went in for a hug. He grabbed on to my shirt with his hands and would not let go. I was so sad to see him go, they said that this is not normal since the children are not normally around men. We then met with the house mother/doctor for about an hour. She gave us as much history as she could and we are very satisfied.

We are going back to the institution in about 4 hrs today and get to play a little more. I will let you all know how it is going. Thank you all again for your prayers and thoughts. I am trying to check my e-mail but the electronic converter my mother sent will not work on computers so mine is dead at the moment and I can only use the business center. I will be checking again tonight.

It is -23C or -14F today so we really need your prayers that Dee Dee does not turn into a Ice cube.

Love

Brad

Roll Tide!!!

We made it to Moscow and so far, so good. We listened to the AL game last night over the Internet (it was midnight here). My sleep schedule is so off, so I was wide awake for the game especially after we were kicking b*tt. We are going venture out again today to the mall and grocery store. We went yesterday and we must blend in pretty well b/c people keep trying to tell us stuff in Russian and we haven't a clue what they are talking about. We got in trouble by the check out lady for not getting our groceries out of the hand basket and she was yelling at us in Russian. We finally figured out what she wanted and then she screamed at me for something else that I did.

Keep you posted...

Love - Dee Dee

We are here

The flight was pretty good, but quite long. I think I slept for about 2 hours. I think DD slept for about 4. I was able to catch up on some bible studies on my iPod. Not bad timing considering I am flying in a large tin can over Iceland. For anyone interested you can download the lessons that are applicable to your life at http://www.churchofbrookhills.com/.

I will say that during the flight I became a little nervous when the flight attendant came over the speaker and said something in Russian and about half the plane sat up and put there seat belts on. They never did tell us what the deal was in English. I don't know if this was a fun Russian trick they liked to play on stupid Americans or what. Needless to say, that lead to me searching my bag for a xanex, which I did not have.

Also, at 36,000 ft over Iceland the outside temp was -86 which is what Dee Dee said it felt like on the plane. It was beautiful to watch the sunrise somewhere over Estonia. The insane thing is that we were watching the sunrise and then a hour and a half later we landed in Moscow and it was 11:00 am.

When we arrived in Moscow we got off the plane and went very quickly through customs. We were met by Michael and hopped in a car with our driver Demitri (Stephen, Quit laughing). Any way, we hopped in the Audi and drove about 45min into downtown Moscow. I will say it is old but there is a lot of progress going on here. Lots of nice cars and new hotels going up in town. I will say that used car lots here look the same as Birmingham, except with more glitter and flash here. Driving on the roads are interesting, in some spots where there is construction the lines that separate the lanes disappear and it becomes like "Dega" when they go 5 wide. It will pucker you up a little bit.

We are in the hotel and about to take a nap and rest. Both of the nice ladies that checked us in were named Olga, go figure. We are going to walk to Red Square tomorrow. It is about 3 miles from our hotel and our flight is not til 9:00 tomorrow night. I will write again after we see Alex.

I hope you all have a great Saturday,

Brad and DeeDee

Russia Bound

I was going to upload the Russian flag but I thought everyone would think that I was going to France. They look a lot alike. Anyway we are going to Russia next Friday. That is the day after Thanksgiving and my Dads 60th birthday. Thank all of you for your prayers and support. We are looking forward to giving at least one update while in Russia. We will talk to you all soon.

Brad

Russia

I cannot say a whole lot over the blog, but we are going to Russia. We are so excited and we are leaving soon. I will give you all the details when I see you or after we get back. Thanks for all of you support and I will talk to you all soon.

Brad and Dee Dee

Radio Debut

I will be on the radio on Thursday. Give a listen if you get a chance. I will be on Jox around the 11 oclock hour I will update everyone when I know an exact time.

Brad

A great weekend

We have had a great couple of weekends. We had the pleasure to have my buddy Brian and Candice come in town with their son Jay. We had a blast and Dee Dee got some practice with changing dirty diapers. I don't have any pictures of this weekend but I do have some from the weekend before. We spent it with our friends David and Michelle and their children Conner and Caleb. It was a great first birthday party. Dee Dee and I are trying to get as much practice as possible before our baby comes.

Brad

Again, waiting

Yes, we are still waiting. Today makes 2 months and a week that our paperwork has been in Russia. We are looking around the house to see what changes need to be made to make sure everything is perfect. We have his room ready except for furniture, only because we don't know how old he will be and we are looking to make the basement into a playroom.



It is to the point now that every time that Dee Dee calls me during the day I get a little excited, that's not to say I don't get excited anyway, but I keep thinking it is "the Call". I know it will come sooner than later, but I cannot contain myself. I hope you all have a great weekend and you need to get out and vote.



You have no right to complain about anything unless you cast your vote.



Good Luck,



Brad

Still Waiting

Well, we are still waiting. Tomorrow marks 2 months that our paperwork has been in Russia. We hope everyday that the phone will ring with good news. We hope to be able to share great news with everyone in the next couple of weeks. The average waiting time is between 2 and 6 months. Dee Dee has had some correspondence with other families online in different blogs and this seems to be the norm.

This past weekend we were in Virginia doing a walk for JT. He is one of Dee Dee's step moms cousins who has Lou Gehrig's disease. This a great cause and everyone should get involved and learn a little about the disease. www.jtwalk.org

Brad

Still Waiting

Ok, tomorrow marks 2 months that our paperwork has been Russia. We have had very little contact with the agency in the last month. By our calculations this means that we should be coming up soon on the list. We are both very excited and very tired. Just waiting by the phone is getting a little old. The nice thing is that we have been out of town or very busy the last couple of weeks so it makes the time go by.

Sorry it has been a little while since the last post. This weekend Dee Dee and I did go to Virginia to a family reunion. It was a lot of fun. We did a walk for JT. He is a cousin of Dee Dee's Step mom. He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. If you have time please check out his website. www.jtwalk.org.

Brad

No News

Well, it has been another week and still no word. Dee Dee and I are so excited and ready to hear somthing. We are hoping that we will hear something in the next two weeks or so. We will continue to keep you all posted.

We are a little excited that the Russian dollar has droped in the last couple of weeks so at least that is good for our travels.

Brad

GREAT NEWS

Great News Today. Last Thursday I made an important decision based on the our current trip to Russia. I have pulled my yearly beard growth out of retirement. I am looking forward to staying warm in Russia.



All jokes aside, we did get a phone call from the adoption agency on Thursday evening. They were not giving us a referral yet but did ask us a few questions that would lead us to believe that we could be getting one soon. We will let you know as soon as we know something.



I have attached a future picture of me in 6th months.



Brad

Class/Fingerprints 2

I thought I had finished school about 12 years ago, that was not the case. This weekend Dee Dee, her mom, my mom and dad all went down to UAB for adoption class. It was extremely informative. A lot of what was talked about were things Dee Dee and I have already read, but for our parents it was great. Our folks finally got a better understanding of what we have been trying to tell them about institutionalized children.

Dee Dee and I both are a little upset though, we found out that we are going to have to get up to 6 shots. And that's not alcohol. We are also going tomorrow to get our last finger prints made. This should be the last big thing we have to go and get to leave the country.

Brad

Paper Work

We found out on Thursday that the paperwork is finally in Russia. We are so excited. It should be translated this week. As soon as it is translated we are in a 2 to 6 month waiting period. We will keep you updated. Also we will be in adoption classes this weekend at UAB. I will let you all know how it goes.

Brad

Paper Work

I will keep you updated this week on the paperwork. Currently the paperwork is in the adoption agency's hands. It will be sent this week to be translated. I will let you know as soon as I find out.

Brad

Great News

Today was the end of one of the long chapters in the Adoption process. We have now completed all of our paperwork. Dee Dee and I went down to Montgomery this morning and had every document that was notarized, apostilled. This means that every notary was authenticated by the State of Alabama. We had 81 forms to be apostilled and above is what $405 will by you in paper.

We are so excited!!!!!! By the way the first picture above is the parking lot 5 blocks away from where we needed to be. There is no public parking in Montgomery. If you have every been down to, or near the courthouse, there are a lot of spaces but they are all reserved for someone. And that someone was not us.

With all of that being said we are now sending our paperwork to the adoption agency for their review and then it should go out this week to Russia. Next it will be translated and then we will be on the short waiting list I hope for ALEX.

Moving Right Along

We are excited to say that we should have all of the paperwork finished up by the end of this week. We went to Columbiana this morning to get a certified deed to the house and then we went to the Shelby County Sherrif's Office to get them to write letters for us. We are going to send all the information back to our adoption agency and hopefully they will tell us that we are "good to go". After that we can take all of our 55 documents down to Montgomery to get apostilled. They have to sign off saying that the notary is a true notary. It is $5 per document apostilled, so more money to spend there. Nothing is free in adoption. Brad and I are hoping that everything will be finished up by the end of next week and sent on to Russia. Russia usually takes 30-90 days to get you a referral, so we hope our waiting time is more on the 30 day side.

Below, I included a picture of Conner and Caleb (Michelle and David's boys). David had a job transfer up to Muscle Shoals, AL and we don't get to see them as much as we used to. We miss you guys and come visit anytime!

Adoption News

I was so busy last night that I didn't have time to tell everyone the good news. Alabama usually takes about a month to review the home study, but I found out yesterday that they approved all the paperwork on July 29th (2 weeks early) and everything was then sent to Atlanta. Atlanta/Immigration usually takes about 3 months to approve everything, but I found out today that for Russian adoptions, you do not have to wait for Immigration to approve the paperwork before you travel for the 1st time to Russia. That means that once I get the dossier finished up (which should be by next week) that we can go ahead and send it to Russia and they usually take a couple of months to send you a referral (a child referred to you). Once they send us a referral, we will be able to travel and see him.

We are definitely on schedule to have Alex home by the end of year, so keep praying for us!!!

Sorry

Sorry guys! Dee Dee fell asleep last night before she could post. She is going to update tonight. I may be needlessly typing this but I have gotten a couple of phone calls. The good news in the short run is that our paperwork is already in Atlanta.

But received more good news today and I will let her explain it to you.

Brad

Birthday Weekend

Hello all, I hope everyone had a great weekend. Dee Dee and I are splitting up the blog tonight. She is writing one about the great news we received today. However you already know about it because you just read it. So, I am so excited and I take back what I said about the State of Alabama the other day.

Anyway we went up to Smith Lake this weekend for our good friend Suzi's daughter Elle's 1st birthday. The party was covered in pink. Lots of Pink. We had a great time, there was a cotton candy machine, snow cone machine, Bouncy house (see picture) and a mini horse. Dee Dee and I got to interact with a lot of children and watch them play around the pool. By the way some of the children were older than others. Speaking of, Brooke, Suzi's cousin brought her 3 month old Tori and Dee Dee did not put her down almost the whole time and she was even changing diapers. I was excited to see that she liked doing that, Gross.

We also got to watch the UFC fight that night in the movie theater, that is the way to watch a fight. I was fortunate enough as well that Brian was there with his bad ass ski boat. It had the tower and huge stereo system. I was able to wake board for the first time on a tower on a pro-comp board, wow, what a difference it makes. I was able to get real high on my jumps. While we were on the boat Brian introduced Dee Dee and I to Surfing. I must say Dee Dee is a natural, she got up on her first try. It took me three, and yes I know I look PALE. It is a little different not being attached to the board. It was so much fun.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you all soon. I know we will probably miss our boy's first birthday but I look forward to his first birthday with us. It looks like it will be sooner than we thought. Also I am proud to say that watching Dee Dee around children she is going to be a natural mother, she looks so cute.

See you soon,
Brad

Hello

Hello all. It has been a while since our last post. I am so sorry. Things are a little slow right now. We are kind stuck in that fun waiting period. Currently, things are in the wonderful hands of the state of Alabama. Our State is the only State in the USA that has this checks and balances system for adoption. Basically, it means that our state does not trust the federal government to do their job and they would like to double check us first.

Any way, with that being said. We should have our paper work in to Georgia in the next week or so. Once they have it we will still be waiting, but things will be moving on our end again. It should provide us with plenty to talk about.

In the interim we have been to a lot of time with children the last few weeks and this weekend is no exception. We will be out of town at a one year old b'day party. I hope all is well with everyone and look forward to seeing you all soon. If anyone needs their car detailed or knows someone who does please send them my way, Russian travel is not cheap. I am just kidding, not really. Also to all of you men out there who listen to Jocks radio listen for my new ad's next week and let me know what you think.

Brad

Duffy's Return from China

This week Brad's mom and dad returned from about a two week trip to China. Lynn went for work. She is a microbiologist at UAB and she had to do some seminars over there. Bob tagged along for the ride. What a long ride it was because the flight was about 12 hours each way! They said they had a good time, but would probably not be returning. I guess seeing it one time was enough for them. Below is a picutre of the traffic in China. They said that there were tons of bicycles and they would ride right along with the cars. Our cities might look like this soon if gas prices get much higher.

Beverly's birthday was also this week and we celebrated with her kiddies at the bowling alley. She has a 12 year old boy named Jackson and a 10 year old girl named Sarah. Brad didn't bowl very good the first game (all the girls beat him), but he came back to beat us all in the second game. I forgot to bring my camera to the b'day party, so I just attached a picture that I had of Beverly. Next time I won't forget the camera!

Atlanta Practice

We just got back from Atlanta yesterday for our anniversary. We had a fantastic time. We arrived in town Saturday night and stayed with Dee Dee's step mom and sister. For those interested we made it in time to see the UFC pay-per-view fight where Rampage lost. Anyway we spent Sunday at the mall getting Dee Dee some new clothes and then off to Brians House.

Brian and his wife Candice just had a son a few months ago named Jay so Dee Dee and I were able to get a little practice in babysitting and taking care of Jay. This was the cutest kid ever. He never hardly cried and we kept him up late so he slept all night. They also had this neat gadget that you could not only listen to him sleep on the monitor but you could also watch him as well. I love technology.

Any way after a few poopy diapers and Dee Dee and I both getting bit by the Parakeet. We we out for margaritas and then to bed.

The next night was spent at the Dave Mathews Concert, awesome. We had great seats and the parking wasn't bad so we were able to escape right after the show. We stayed at the Ellis downtown. This is a new hotel and is Very nice. If you go to Atlanta I recommend it.

Anyway all said and done we had a great time over there and tomorrow night starts back to Russian lessons and more paper work for us. I hope all is well with everyone and next anniversary we will be celebrating with our new baby.

Brad

We received written confirmation that Brad's fingerprints are approved!!! I have a better idea to how the process works from here. Our social worker will send the home study to ICPC in Montgomery who then sends it to USCIS (Immigration) in Atlanta. I was explained that ICPS is like the “middle man” between our Agency and Immigration. Alabama is the only state that has this "middleman". In Every other state the home study goes straight to USCIS and the process isn't as long. The process can take awhile. It is my understanding that it usually takes ICPC about 4 weeks to process the received final home study and Immigration may take up to 90 days. We now have to start gathering documents for our Russian Dossier. Once those documents are together, we just wait for USCIS to get back w/ our approval. We can't send anything to Russia until we get approval for USCIS.

DD

Great News

We received great news today. We got verbal confirmation my fingerprints are to be sent to us later with week. This is one of the big hurdles we are trying to get over.

On a side note, today is my third year anniversary with Dee Dee. I am definitely happier than I have ever been, and my life is finally coming in to focus. I feel so blessed to have married her three years ago. I am now looking forward to the 4th year in that we will begin raising our new baby boy.

Now that our home study is done we can continue work on finishing our dossier. I look forward to updating you all on more information as I get it.

Brad

Small World

A friend of mine told me the other day that a coworker of hers told her she was adopting from Russia. It ends up that her coworker is using our same adoption agency and the same home study agency and had our same social worker come to their home the day after she came to our home. There are many many more similarities in the stories, but I won't go into detail. If we keep on the same track, we all could be traveling to Russia together. My friend plans to introduce us so that we can compare notes since we are going throught the exact same things. Who knows maybe their child and our child will be friends???

We still have not received Brad's fingerprints back, so please pray we get those back soon b/c we are stuck until those come back in.

That is all for now. Have a wonderful weekend!
DD

Final Home Study

Tuesday night we had our last home study visit from our social worker. She asked us a lot of personal questions, like how our childhood was and how we met and our relationship and how we solved problems and all of that fun stuff. She said that we passed w/ flying colors, so now she is going to write up the report. She said she will have that ready for us next week which is great considering she has a month to write it.

I went ahead and sent in the I600A today and once the government processes that they will schedule us to be fingerprinted by the FBI. Once all that comes back then we can send the mounds of paperwork to Russia and then they will send us a referral for a child.

The social worker said that if everything goes as planned, then we should be traveling around Dec/Jan. She is going to also handle our post placement visits. (If you adopt from Russia, you have to have 5 post placement visits that last up to 3 years once you return w/ your child. They require this b/c they want to make sure the child is doing ok.) The first visit is 45 days after you return from Russia w/ your child, so she said she will probably see us again around Valentine's Day.

We are excited to get yet another thing checked off our list. We will post again the next time something interesting happens!

DeeDee (This is my first post...I will try to be more on the ball in the future.)

Learning Russian

WOW!!! Tonight Dee Dee and I started our Russian lessons online. I just don't have the words to describe how hard it was. I will tell you that Rosetta Stone is pretty cool. I really think in six months we will be able to speak a enough to get around. The Russian language isvery interesting I will say that.

Well tomorrow night is the last night of the home study I will let everyone know how it goes.

Brad

Home Study Part I

Last night went great. Our social worker came over about 7 o'clock. To date it was probably the most informative meeting that we have had. She not only has three biological children but also has an adopted girl. She was able to give us a lot of information about international adoption and to tell us the differences and similarities between her own children, which we found very interesting.

We found out that the first meeting is more of her giving us information and the second meeting with her is more about her asking us personal questions, like how we are going to discipline. We learned that adopted children can have attachment issues, so it is good to have the child sleep in your room for a while and it is good to give him a bottle, even if he is too old for a bottle, so that the child will get attached to the parents. This is the opposite of what you would do for a biological child.

Another point to our meeting was to make sure we did not live in a card board box. Also, to make sure that we did not leave all of the shotguns, pistols and machine guns out. We don't want our little boy coming home and starting a cold war. Just kidding.

I guess in retrospect there were a lot of things in the meeting I had just never thought about that could be issues in raising an adopted child. I look forward to the challenges and the honor of raising this beautiful child in America. Dee Dee and I both are excited and nervous about the next couple of months but we are definitely looking forward to the plane ride home with our new son.

We have one more meeting with the social worker next week were it will be a little more one on one. We will keep you updated as things go.

Thanks

Bradford

Big Week

Monday night is a huge night for us. We have spent all weekend cleaning the house and getting things in order. The first of two visits from the home study social worker starts tomorrow night. We are looking forward to it with nervous hesitation. We know that all is well and that we are doing everying right but this is just one of the final big steps before we send all of our paperwork off. I will let all of you know how it goes on Tuesday.

Thanks again for your prayers and continued support.

Brad and Dee Dee

Meeting

This weekend was great. We met with a rep from the Adoption Agency. We learned quite a bit. A few local parents brought their adopted children to the meeting. They were so cute. We were able to ask a lot of questions and got a lot of answers we were looking for.


Next week is the home study. Please keep us in your prayers. I hope everyone has a good weekend.

Brad

Slow Week

This week has be rather slow in regards to the adoption. We are still completing yet more paperwork and trying to get things together. When I say we of course I mean Dee Dee. I am just there for signatures, I evidently don't have the greatest handwriting.

We did however finish all of the painting for the house. The baby's room is painted and the hallway upstairs. The new carpet should be in this time next week and then we can move on to ordering the furniture. This weekend I did find out that the company we are using, is having a 1 hour seminar at the Vestavia Library around 1:00 for those that might be interested in adoption. We will be there.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and we will talk to you soon.

Brad

Changing Companies

This week Dee Dee and I decided on an International Adoption company. They are one of the best and have the best reputation. We also have met a few couples that have used them successfully. We also learned this week that we will be making 3 trips to Russia to pick up the new child.

The first trip is the meet the child, then we come home for 4 weeks. We then go back to Russia for another 7 days and then come home for 2 weeks. Last, we go back for 12 days and then we get to bring our new son home. We could not be happier except for the all the travel.

Welcome

We Are Adopting

We are going on an exciting journey over the next year. Dee Dee and I have decided to adopt a child from Russia. This is the greatest time in our life and we are looking so forward to the trials and rewards ahead of us. We will be going to Russia at least 2 or 3 times over the next year. Currently we are doing our home study. All of our paperwork is finally done and now we have begun the first of many waiting periods.

We are looking so forward to sharing this part of our lives with you over the next year. Please pray for us as we can use them all. Dee Dee will be writing some of the posts and I will write a few. You will be able to tell the difference because I don't proofread very well. Let us know if you have any questions and as we get pictures we will post them.

Brad