Sorry, it has been has been a while since our last post. As everyone can imagine it has been a busy two weeks. I wish i could do a big update and tell you all about the flight back and the last week or so but I don't want to write for days. What I will tell you about the flight is that it was very long with no sleep and Alex only slept for 2 of the 22 hr travel. I am very happy to say that he is loving his new home. He is getting settled very nicely. He is so smart. He has learned English very well. He does not speak much yet but he knows what we are saying and he can identify body parts and things he eats. I bought a new SLR camera tonight and he and I played with it while his Mama was out with the girls. I have attached a few photos that I thought were good. We did get time the other day to let him play with some friends of ours kids Conner and Caleb and he did great. He was a little shy at first but then he was playing with everyone. He is still scared of Zoe the dog a little bit. He has pet her a little but that is about it. I hope everyone is doing great and we WILL start keeping up better.

Brad

A few photos

I will update the blog about the way home and other exciting events later today but I wanted to go ahead and post some pictures.

Brad, Dee Dee and Alex

Last Day!

DD’s Input:

We finally made it to the last day in this place. Thank GOODNESS!! We have to meet our ride downstairs in the lobby at 4:30am (Saturday morning Moscow time), that would 7:30pm Friday night Alabama time. We have to travel through Paris with a couple of hour layover and then through Cincinnati with a 1 hour layover…Now this could be a problem b/c we have to go through Immigration and then we have to go to another area b/c Alex isn’t “officially” a US citizen until Immigration goes through all of his paperwork. They will go through all of the paperwork in Cincinnati when we land. This could take a while depending on the lines, so we will need lots of prayers that we catch our flight to Birmingham. The last thing we want is to be stuck in Ohio. If all goes smooth we will land in Birmingham at 5pm on Saturday evening, so if you add up all of those hours, it will be a total of 21.5 hours. That is A LOT of traveling for an adult, much less a 2 year old. We are very anxious about that long travel time, so please pray for us as you go soundly to sleep in your comfy bed on Friday night. We will be stuck in a seat that barely reclines for our “sleep”.

Brad’s Section:

Ok, what a journey this has been. I am so emotionally drained. This is the most glorious accomplishment of my life. I am so happy. What a blessing to have been deemed worthy for the honor of parenthood. It is hard to believe that this process started a little less than a year ago. The time flew by, and yet at times we never thought this day would get here.

We had mostly highs in this process and very few if any lows, mostly just inconveniences. This whole process has been a blessing from start to finish. I cannot use that word enough. Blessing just seems like the right word. God definitely put his hands on this process and our child. What a gift. I want to personally thank all of you for your prayers and well wishes over the last year. We could not have done it without you.

Most importantly our families have been so supportive during this whole process. I have got to say I have the best family, period. That is includes in-laws and extended family. Everyone has pitched in and helped, to have family over at our house painting, cleaning, organizing, taking care of my business, our dog, my car, the babies room and buy groceries. I don’t think you could ever ask for more. Thank you all again so much for everything you have done for me and Dee Dee, we love you all.

This is a wonderful story that I look forward to telling my beautiful son Alex. He is now Peter Alexander Duffy but he will always have a little piece of Russia in him. What a joy it will be to tell him how he was a gift to us from across the world. And what a support structure was behind us to make the whole thing happen. He really is the most precious little fellow I have ever seen. He has such personality and is so cute. I now know the feeling my father must have felt every morning when he came to wake me. Pure joy, to see those innocent eyes look at you and know that you are there to protect him and keep him safe. A look he as never been able to give anyone before, and I can now be proud to be the one to receive it. I must also say I have married the greatest partner on Earth. Dee Dee is so special to me and I love her so much. She will spill her love on Alex like he has never known. To see her holding him and loving on him is a pure joy for me. They are both so special and to have them in my life is incredible.

Thanks again for following the blog to this point. I plan to continue sharing the stories and our adventures so keep reading. I also will be posting pictures in the next couple of days once we get back so stay tuned from that. I will most likely have to get over my jet lag first. We love you and thanks again for everything. Keep us in your prayers as we travel the next day.

Brad

One More Day Left

Today was mildly eventful. My day started out around 4:45. I am still getting used to the time change. Dee Dee got up around 5:30 and pewee got up shortly after. We had the doctor coming this morning at 6:30. He came in and said hello, he spoke very good English. He asked a few questions about Alex and then checked heartbeat, reflexes and hearing and sight. He also measured him. Great news he is in the 25% in height and 25% in weight. He also measured Alex’s head. He is in the 95% in this measurement. I was so proud; I was like “look at the big brain on my kid”. His head is already bigger than my friend Rick.

Dee Dee went downstairs and met with Michael around 8:30 and filled out some remaining paperwork before we go to the U.S. Embassy tomorrow. While she was doing paperwork, Alex and I went walking. The good news is he is ok with plants now. He reached out and grabbed at some fern looking thing. He however is not too sure about Quoi fish. There is a pond in the Japanese restaurant downstairs. We walked the hotel lobby a couple of times and came back upstairs to meet mommy. Dee Dee came back and we got Alex dressed and were off to the mall.

We had pizza and chicken lunch. They also have these juice stands set up in the mall. We LOVE them. They use whole fruit in this industrial juicer. It is so good. We walked the mall for a while, and I looked for some clothes. We went back to the grocery and picked up some dinner for tonight and more water. We get so dehydrated here every time we fly. We are going to rest tonight and play with Alex after his nap. Tomorrow we are looking forward to tying up loose ends and packing one last time for the flight home.

Alex is getting better everyday. By “better” I mean more acclimated to his surroundings. He is starting to understand us more and more. We taught him to untie his shoes. Yes I know it would be better to tie them, small steps. He is also starting to not test his boundaries as much. Today also brought fewer fits and fussing. We are so looking back to getting him home and getting him settled in a routine.

I look forward to my last blog before we get home on Saturday. I hope all is well and the last one will be a long one. So be ready to read.

Brad

DD’s Input:

Alex was such a good boy today and Mama is so proud of him. He has learned to say cracker when he wants his crackers. He still loves the thin hard fiber crackers. They are pretty good for you considering they are crackers.

Once we got back from the mall which was a much better experience than yesterday, we put Alex down for his nap. He went right down with no complaining…He was worn out. This room is just one big room so we stay in the same room with him as he sleeps. Not much wakes him up, so we are still able to watch TV and pick up around the room.

Once he woke up from his nap, Brad was still asleep, so I fed Alex his snack (pieces of banana and pieces of an apple and of course his cracker). As he was eating he kept tooting, so I figured it was about time to potty, so I asked him if he needed to potty and then I went and got it out of the bathroom and brought it to him. He went and put it back in the bathroom and came back to eating. He ate a little more and then he grabbed his snack and took it to the bathroom. I asked him again if he wanted to potty and he pulled on his diaper, so I took his clothes and diaper off and right when he sat on the potty he had an explosion. After that I thought it would be a great time to give him a bath. He had a great bath. He wants all of our shampoo, soap, and conditioner containers and I let him play with them. He gets mad because he isn’t strong enough to open them. I am going to be in trouble when he can open things.

We have a picture album full of pictures of family and friends so that he can get familiar with faces. He points to everyone and wants us to tell him their name. He just started doing this. He really loves pointing to GG (my mom) and LaLa (Brad’s mom). He always points at them for some reason. He has never repeated anyone’s name except for Mama, Papa, and Owee (our dog Zoe).

Well, it is a little early for wine (4:45pm), but Brad and I decided we needed a glass anyway. We are starting to understand why a lot of parents have to have wine in the evening. This parenting stuff is hard work. He is full speed except when he is sleeping. Even the doctor said he was very active. We said, “You are telling us?” We have been chasing him around for a week now.

We are so excited to get out of here, but a little nervous about the travel on Saturday. Pray for us because we need it!

Love,
DD

Back in Moscow

Hello from Moscow. We had a long day. We are now only 9hrs ahead of you guys. I hope it helps us get used to the time difference. I don’t want to bad of jetlag. Well I am sure everyone wants to know how the flight was. We will get there in a minute. Dee Dee and I got up at 4 am this morning. We made sure everything was ready to go and then at the last minute woke up Alex and got him dressed and ready to go. We met Alexander out front. I am glad we did not bring another suitcase because it would not have fit in the car. We road to the airport with backpacks and small bags in our lap. Once we got to the airport the day of chaos started. Our translator tok us to the ticket counter to get checked in. I tried to explain to both the translator and the stupid ticked lady that we had three tickets. She said no tickets until we paid for the overage on our baggage. I tried to explain again that we were not over because we had three tickets and three bags. She did not understand and said we had to pay. So I went over and paid.

I went back and to the counter and gathered our tickets. She handed us our tickets and we went to security. While standing there I realized that that I was correct and that idiot only gave use 2 boarding passes. Well, with all said and done I was right and Aeroflot was wrong. What did I get for it, a headache and I lost 35 bucks. We made it through security fairly quickly and without problems. I thought everything was going smooth.

We boarded the plane at which point I realize that our travel agent booked our seats in two different sections. Fortunately it did not matter because it was not a full flight. We were about to take off and our first outbreak. Alex did NOT like his seat belt. We had a little fit until take off. Once in the air he calmed down a little bit. Breakfast was served and we all got a little food in our stomachs. After that we had problems again. It was one fit after another. We would give him stuff to play with and then he would drop it under the seat and we would not be able to get it (screaming). He would throw something trying to be funny and I would not get it since he threw it (screaming). He just decided to scream (screaming).

After lunch Dee Dee and I had it. I took him to the bathroom and changed his diaper and made sure it was clean. That actually went smoothly. We sat back down and instead of his normal cough medicine he got Benadryl. I am not sure if you should do it but it worked. He slept for 2 hrs. It was great. There was a little tossing and turning but it was ok. We arrived 30 min late to Moscow and our luggage took 30 min to come down. You should have seen us. I would have taken a picture but I had now more hands left. I had Alex in a stroller, a suitcase, a backpack and another bag on top of the suitcase. Dee Dee was dragging a suitcase about her size and her backpack along with some of Alex’s stuff. We looked terrible.

We were met by Michael right when we got through the concords. We were so excited that we did not have to wait. Well wait in the airport is what I should have said. We got in the car and all loaded up and were off. We were not off very far. We sat in traffic for 2 hrs before we got to the hotel. I forgot to mention, Alex took a dump somewhere around the airport. So we are in a hot van with Alex sitting by me and the only adjective I can think of to use to describe it is smoldering. My nose still hurts 8 hrs later. We finally made it to the hotel around noon. We gave Alex a much needed bath and put him down for a nap.
We went to the mall not to long after and got lunch and a few supplies for the evening. We are now going to chill in the room. Alex is going to be early. We have a doctor appointment at 6:30 am. Dee Dee is telling me that I have a dirty diaper to change so I wish you all the best and I am going to change I hope a pee diaper and drink some wine.

Brad

DD’s Input:

Let me just tell you. I hope we do not have too many more days like the one we had today. I know that is a lot of traveling (12 hours total from leaving our Region’s hotel to getting to the Moscow hotel) for anyone much less a 2 year old. I’m not looking forward to Saturday where we will have a total travel time of about 19 hours. Please pray that it will be an easy trip and Alex will be on his best behavior.

Last Full Day in Region

DD wrote about the first part of the day:

I am so proud of Alex because after every meal we put him on the potty and he goes poo poo and pee pee. He sits on there and sings while he goes. I leave him on there for about 10-15 minutes and then he is finished. Our daily routine has been great so far today and Alex has not really whined too much. He has been singing a lot today. Of course, I have no clue what he is singing, but we try to sing along with him.

Our room smells so bad and I can’t wait to get out of here. Between Brad’s feet and just poo poo smell, I’m about to die. I just sprayed some air freshener in Brad’s shoes b/c we have no baby powder. I’m about to stuff some tissue paper in them and pack them away so I don’t have to smell them anymore. He normally doesn’t have smelly feet at home, but I don’t know what the deal has been over here. Maybe all the wool socks that we wear…You know those are always kind of smelly.

Alex just went down for a nap, so Brad and I are going to start packing up b/c we have to catch our flight at 7am. That means we probably have to get up around 4:30am. Hopefully Alex sleeps on the way to the airport b/c I really don’t want another vomit incident. We have to meet the interpreter at 5:30pm today so that we can pick up Alex’s passport and then we are done with all the paperwork here. We have some more paperwork to complete at the Embassy in Moscow and then we are out of Russia on the 14th!!! You don’t know how happy we are to almost be done with this process and home with Alex for good!

Brad wrote about the second part of the day:

I must start off and defend my feet. Yes they smelled a little bit. Yes Dee Dee and I laughed so hard we almost woke Alex up last night. Yes they would have raised the dead. With that said. Wool socks and Nike shoes in constant workouts with no washing machine to fully wash your socks = really bad smelling shoes. It is not so much my feet as it is the shoes might need to be tossed. With that said I cannot defend my son’s bottom or this stinky hotel room.

About mid morning I went to the store again and bought a few last minute things for the flight tomorrow. We also needed a little more food for him since what I bought yesterday Alex has decided that he does not like today. I wanted to take him for a little walk before lunch to burn some energy before nap time. Off we went down the hallways. Every floor has book shelves and he always wants to stop and look at them. I finally gave in and sat down. He brought me and him a book and went through each one until we went finished the shelf. I had to stop there I have not idea what the books said and there were no pictures. I like pictures. I have also discovered that Alex is scared of plants, especially big ferns and leafy plants. (Mom clean them out) I finally got him to touch one of them and everything seemed ok. That is until we got the next one. I have to teach him that every plant is the same and not to be scared of every single different plant. There are a couple of billion plants on earth so this may be something we work on later. Good thing he likes water.

Well I thought about writing about the trip to get his passport but that is boring. So in closing I think I will say a few things about Siberia. It is cold. I mean real cold. No one hear speaks English and it is difficult to get around. On the positive side of things this place produced one of the greatest things in my life, a beautiful son. This place provided me the opportunity to be a father to this wonderful young child. I could not be any happier. What a wonderful opportunity this has been to share with so many people. I do look forward to telling him about his heritage. This is one of the most beautiful places in Russia during the summer and actually quite nice during the winter, when it is not -35c. There is a lot of history here and the people are very proud. They just want what everyone wants which is a better way of life. And very much like Americans they are not always happy with who is in charge but trust that it will get done better next time around. I am proud my son is from Russia and will tell him what a great culture he came from.

We are now packed and going to go to bed and get up at 4:30 for our flight back to Moscow. We should be in the hotel over there around noonish, depending on Moscow traffic. It is very much like New York City.

1 more day in Siberia, Thank the Lord.

Well we will start with last night before bed. I decided that Alex needed his diaper changed before bed. Dee Dee has been diving all over the diapers for some reason, and I wasn’t complaining. I thought it would be nice to beat her to it. Well, no good deed goes unpunished. As soon as I got his diaper off a large stream of pee shot at me. That was awesome. I love pee and fluids all over me. Dee Dee just laughed because in two days I have been puked on peed on and almost pooped on.

We put him down and we watched part of a soccer game and then went to bed. Fortunately we slept great last night. I think I only got up once and Alex slept all night. We woke up and did breakfast downstairs. While we were down there we ran into the couple we met the last time we were here from New Jersey. They have a court date tomorrow. It was nice to see them and we are going to meet them tomorrow and give them ideas on where to eat and some of the places we have gone the last two weeks. We came back to the room and did the normal diaper changes and playtime stuff. Alex has decided that he likes for me to chase him around the hotel room. He also likes to be tossed around like a rag doll. He also has decided he likes to YELL baby very loud. It was so cute about 4 hrs ago now I have taken my second Tylenol.

I am looking forward to Moscow in so many ways. After playtime and before nap time I went to the store. Dee Dee gave me a list of things to get. We did not think it a good idea to take Alex out with him having a little cold. So off I went down the street and picked up all the stuff on the list, except diapers and wipes. I looked all over that small store for them and they were not to be found. I came back to the room and dropped off what I had bought and left again. I had to walk to the other store which is about 6 blocks away or so. Not to bad except it was -26c today. That is so cold. Fortunately they had diapers just not his size. So I bought a size to big and some whips and said a few choice words and was on my way back. Like I said before I look forward to Moscow and for that matter Birmingham. I will be so glad to be back home.

Just before nap time he discovered money. He loves to play with change and playing cards. Sounds just like his father. We put him down for his nap with very little crying and then Dee Dee and I took our little hour nap. We were going to wash clothes while he napped but we fell asleep watching TV. Once again there was a double feature of Rambo III followed by Chuck Norris Delta Force 4. That is why we went to sleep.

Dee Dee second half of day:

Brad is correct, the little man loves money. Brad showed him how to put it in his pocket and now he is obsessed with pockets. He wants to put the coins in my pocket and gets upset if I am trying to clean up and he can’t get to my pocket. He puts all the coins in my pocket and then takes them all out…one by one. He then puts them (one by one) in his pocket. After about 47 times, it gets a little boring, but anything to keep him occupied.

Overall we had a great day with him. Since he can’t talk, he whines a lot when he doesn’t get his way. While Brad went to the store, Alex took a bath. He probably stayed in there for about 45 minutes. He cries when it is time to get out. He cries when it is time to come in the room from walking about 20 laps down the hall and back. His pouting usually only lasts about a minute, so that is good. He sure does laugh a lot though. He loves when you throw him into the pillows and pull his feet out from underneath him while he is standing on our bed. I know it might sound a little cruel, but he lands on soft pillows and he loves it.

We went to dinner in the bar and that is a totally different experience than when we went by ourselves before we got him. We could barely eat our food b/c he wanted all of it for himself. Keep in mind that he already had a large bowl of baby food and a lot of fruit. He still wanted our food too. Needless to say we didn’t get to enjoy our glass of wine. We decided to bring our glass of wine back to the room and finish it there. When we got in the room Alex had a look on his face like he needed to poo poo, so I put him on his little potty and about 5 minutes later he had filled it up. We decided to do another bath since he loves them so much and he kept pointing in the bath and grunting/whining. He took another 45 minute bath. While in the bath, I gave him his toothbrush so that he could learn to brush his teeth. He loved the taste of the toothpaste (bubble gum flavor), so he liked putting it in his mouth and sucking on the bristles. He didn’t want to give me back his toothbrush either. I finally got him out of the tub and lathered him up with lotion…He loves being rubbed down. He loves massages on his back…just like his mama. When we took the adoption class at UAB, they told us that usually the children from the orphanage like to touched hard (like massaging) and they don’t really like the light tickling that most children that haven’t been in an orphanage like. This is correct with Alex. He will sit still for an hour and let me massage his back when he is in the mood. He also loves for us to rock him.

Another thing that he hates which is kind of funny is that doesn’t like for any of his skin on his legs showing. If his pants come up a little and show skin, he gets upset and lets us know to pull them down. He better get used to showing some legs in the Alabama summers. Right now he is taking Brad’s coins and hiding them under the rug. He doesn’t want anyone else to steal them from him.

It is about time for his bedtime and quiet time for Mama and Papa. We have one more full day in this region and we leave for Moscow about 5am on Wednesday morning. Our plane leaves at 7am and we arrive in Moscow after a 4.5 hour flight at about 7:30am Moscow time. It will be interesting to see what kind of schedule that he gets on in Moscow. We will have to get him adjusted to Moscow time.

Sunday

Another Day down…

DD wrote about the first half of the day:

We gave Alex some Motrin before bed last night and it might have the “hyper” effect on him b/c he seemed kind of wired. We finally got him to bed about 10pm and his bedtime is 9pm. He slept great until the Motrin wore off around 3am. He woke up and started coughing, so we gave him some meds and he went back to sleep until 8am. We went to breakfast and he ate some rice cereal and some pancakes (Russian pancakes are made out of potatoes). We came back to the room and we were changing his diaper and the 2nd vomit incident. All the juice he had just drank came flying out along with some breakfast. We decided to put him in the bath and he LOVES it now. He doesn’t want to get out. He played in there for about 20-30 minutes. After that he didn’t seem to feel great. We figured he was constipated since he has not pooped since we got him on Friday night and it is now Sunday around lunch time. I sat on the couch with him and rocked him and rubbed his tummy for about an hour. After that, I decided to take a shower. While I was in the shower, Brad brought Alex in there to see if he would potty. Brad sat in there with him and about 5 minutes later, we had a poopy. We were sooo excited…1. he got relief from being constipated 2. he actually went in the potty! Brad left the poo poo in the bathroom with me while as I was still in the shower and whew, I could have used a gas mask.:)

Brad wrote about the second part of the day:

Well post the little poop, we played in the den for a couple of hours. He loves to throw the bottle cap. I run and grab it before he does and he thinks it is the funniest thing ever. We did this for about an hour. He just laughed and laughed. I also threw him around a little which he is a big fan of as well. It was almost nap time and I told Dee Dee that he had this strange look on his face. I know this face because I have made it before. I said time for another diaper change. Score, I think this one cleaned out the bowls from the last day. It weighed about 2lbs. WOW!!! It did NOT smell good. We got over that and put him down for his and Dee Dee’s nap. I tried to sleep but I am so sleep deprived that I could not go to sleep so I watched Rambo 1st Blood in Russian. Not too bad. After everyone’s nap it was time to go out.

We decided to walk down to the toy store and get some lunch. When I say walk of course I mean Dee Dee and I, Alex got a free ride in my arms. This seemed like a good idea the first block, but by the 6th my arms hurt. We made it in the toy store and went straight to the Lego’s. They have them behind some small wall. While I we tried to get someone’s attention Dee Dee found what appeared to be big Lego’s. They looked great nice and big and we won’t loose them on the airplane. After the toy store we went down 4 more blocks to California Pizza Kitchen. I am now a little sore and ready to eat. The place was packed but minus a little language issue I got 4 pieces and a drink for about 6 bucks. We shoveled it down and were off back to the hotel. We made it back fairly quickly because I thought my arms were going to fall off.

We got the room and Alex wanted to keep walking in the hall which is normal. I went in and rang out my sweater and undershirt from all of the sweat. I burned all of the pizza calories on the way back. This is a great way to loose weight. After Alex’s hall excursion we decided we would get out the new Legos. Well they turned out to be Blego’s. It looked like some locals made these. They are very hard to get together and are sharp. So basically we just bought our son his first toy he can’t use or a weapon, not sure which. They have entertained him though. He has had us put them together and then he has been kicking them and he just threw a couple at the TV. We just gave him dinner and now we are trying to keep him settled as not to generate another vomit. However he just walked over here and gave me a couple of blocks and he either farted on me or just took a deuce. Dee Dee says it is pay back for me doing it to her. That is poot not poop. I don’t know why poop seems to have dominated the last couple of blogs. We are just not used to all of the extra fluids. I went from thinking my kid was permanently constipated to now I think he has IBS. Man, I had to stop blogging to change another diaper.

Well we are about to try and start winding him down a little bit. Bed time is still an hour and a half away but he is rowdy. I am going to try and sleep tonight. I have two sore shoulders, a sore arm, a herniated disk, a sore back and wild man pulling at my pants again. Everyone have a wonderful weekend and well will see you soon.

Brad.

1 Down 5,839 till college

1st Full Day with Alex

DD started off the blog:
Alex slept through the night except for waking up one time and cried for a few seconds. I went and calmed him down and he fell right back to sleep. He has a cold, so he coughed a lot through the night. He also tossed and turned a lot. Brad and I didn’t get much sleep at all…maybe a couple of hours. Every time that Brad or Alex rolled over, I woke up…and that was constant all night. We are going to give him some medicine before bed tonight, so hopefully he doesn’t cough as much.

We found out another thing that Alex does like his Mama. I hated going to bed as a child, but once I was asleep, I didn’t want to wake up. Alex doesn’t like going to sleep and it takes a lot to wake him up. He can sleep through anything. I put him down for his nap around 12:30 and he cried for about 3 minutes and then went to sleep. We had to wake him up around 3:30 b/c he was still sound asleep.

We found out that he loves fruit…just like me. At breakfast he ate slices of pineapple, apples, peaches, pears and probably a few other fruits. He ate one big jar of apple sauce today and one big jar of some meat, potato, carrot baby food stuff. He likes juice, but he likes it watered down…Thanks for that suggestion Trixie. He doesn’t seem to like milk at all. Another lady we met that adopted from this region said that her son wouldn’t drink milk either. He still hasn’t taught himself to suck, so he doesn’t like the sippy cups, he only likes to drink out of regular cups.

We had to go get his passport picture made today and then after we did that the driver dropped me and Alex off at the hotel and Brad had to go for about an hour or so to go sign documents. Alex and I got some good quality playtime together while Papa was out. Alex has always (since day one of meeting him) favored his Papa, so he asked about Papa a few times while Brad was gone. We played and he wore me out. I’m beginning to understand how my friends with toddlers stay so thin. Brad and I haven’t been able to eat much b/c we are too busy trying to feed him and keep him happy and we run around chasing him all day.

Brad’s blog:

I must say I need a little sleep and a Beer. Like Dee Dee said above I know how people with kids stay thin. The little guy wears me out. It has truly been a wonderful experience so far and I know it will only get better. I have noticed the child is a bottomless pit. He eats a lot of food and has not #2 yet. I don’t know if his stomach was empty but this is going on 24hrs with no deuce. Any way enough of the potty talk, I guess I should be happy I don’t have to change a poopy diaper.

I had to go with the translator and Svetlana today. I am not sure what I was doing or signing. All I know is it had something to do with the passport and birth certificate. Our new translator Oxana (spelling) took me to the bank to get money exchanged after the errands. Bart, I am trying to talk her into moving to Alabama for you. I came home and we put Alex down for a nap. After his and my nap we did bath time. He did not like it at first, but once in the there he thought it was the greatest thing ever. He splashed around and enjoyed it. We do have pictures for later in life. After bath we went out to the store for more supplies. On the way home we stopped in the park and took pictures. Alex and I also went down the slid once or twice. We came back to the room and for the last 2 hrs he and I have played tag / chase. He has the most infectious laugh I have ever heard. I was worn out an hour ago but his laugh makes me chasing him.

DD is giving him a drink right now. We are trying to get him using a sippy cup but he does not like it. He continues to drink out of a glass or try to pour a water bottle in his mouth. The later usually ends up on him and in the floor. We are now going to try and wear him out before bed. I have never been happier to be tired. I know he does not know exactly what is going on but I love it. He puts a smile on my face even when he is crying, which is almost never. We are still trying to figure out some things. I guess it would not be fun if you knew how to do everything. Well I guess I am going to get back to the Dad thing. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and feel free to send emails and advice if you like. We enjoy reading emails they keep us going. Dee Dee forgot to mention one other thing they have in common they are both very ticklish.

Brad

Gotcha Day!

Today is the Day.

Brad’s part:
So far we slept in and ate breakfast and worked out. Not much different than usual. It is now about 2:00 in the afternoon and we are in a little bit of a panic because we don’t know if he will like the food we have for him. We are getting ready and going to go to the store and buy some extra stuff to eat and drink for tonight and in the morning. We just don’t want to not have something. It is going to be a little difficult getting him home at 7 and trying to feed him and then get him settled for bed. I am making this short due to the fact I am sure I will have plenty to write about later.

DD’s part:
We met our translator in the lobby around 4:30 and while we were down there we met an American that lives here (he, his wife and 2 kids) and teaches English classes. He said he has been trying to get in touch with us for a few days b/c he likes to hang out with Americans when they come here. He likes to show them the town. We met him a little too late because we were leaving to go pick up our boy and it will be hard to tour the town with a child. He has an apartment that he rents out to people visiting so if anyone reading this blog comes to this region, we know how to get in touch with him.

Anyway, on to getting Alex…We were in rush hour traffic, so it took us longer than usual to get to the orphanage. We finally got there around about 6pm and the orphanage doctor and Alex were waiting on us in her office. She told us to change him into our clothes. We were a little scared b/c he always hated us touching his clothes when we checked the tags for sizes. He was a little whiney, but the doctor said some stuff to him in Russian and calmed him down. We finally got the 3 layers of clothes on him. (woo hoo) That was a big step for us!

Brad carried him out to the car and he was a little hesitant about getting in, but Alexander strapped him in a car seat and off we went. Alex’s eyes looked like a deer in headlights once we started going. There are a few ways to get to the orphanage and on the way home Alexander decided to take the one that has about 500 potholes. He tries to dodge some of the potholes, so he swerves a lot. This is not good for a child that has never been in a car before. About 45 minutes into the ride Alex starts puckering his lips, so we thought he was about to get sick. You mix Alexander swerving all over the road and the heat on 95 degrees with Alex in 3 layers of clothes, you get THROW UP. Yes our first throw up incident. Thank goodness Brad was sitting next to him and not me.:) I pulled out the baby wipes and Brad started cleaning it up. After another 20 minutes we finally got to our hotel.

Brad’s part again:
Well after only 40 min as a parent I was puked on. Oh the Joys of parenthood. Fortunately it was not too bad and like Dee Dee said, most of it was on me. We got him in the room and his dirty clothes off of him. He was pretty easy to change. While naked, we went ahead and did a diaper change. That was my first of many. I learned in the first 20 minutes he knew more Russian than I thought. He said a few things and then figured out we had no idea what he was saying and started pointing. We tried to feed him a little since he lost his dinner in the car. He loves my fiber wheat finn crisps. I cannot believe it since I almost break my teeth eating them. We tried to get him drinking out of sippy cups, that did not work and when it did, he did not like the juice we put in it. He doesn’t know how to suck yet. He does like goldfish crackers. He shoveled them in his mouth like he had just found crack. We played with toys for a while and he ran around trying to figure out where he was. He is very smart. He got the picture book out that we made him and went page by page and said Papa or DaaDa. Not sure about the later, since they normally say Papa but I will take what I can get and I am glad he could tell who I was in the photos. He also started saying Mama. Dee Dee was excited about that.

He started to get cranky and it was time for bed. Somehow that ended up being my job. As soon as he got above the crib the tears started pouring. How heartbreaking is that? We just took this beautiful child from his home and everything he knows and now he thinks we are leaving him again. I picked him back up and told him it was ok and kissed him on his forehead, he squeezed my neck as hard as he could. I think the poor child thought I was leaving him forever. I sat there and rubbed his head for a few minutes and then decided to give it about 5 in the other room and let him cry it out. Sure enough in about 4 he was done and went to sleep. I walked in and checked on him a moment ago. I must say what a reassuring feeling looking at your son lay sleeping, so sweet and innocent. I am now in the other room grabbing a bite to eat and about to go try and get some sleep before our big day tomorrow. I must say I am already jumpy. I heard a noise that must have been in the hall or in another room and jumped up to check on him. I hope my blood pressure is going to stay down. I am sure everyone is at work and I am sure you can all understand the late post. Thanks again for all of your support and prayers. We still need them.

We will post pictures of him as soon as we get back in town.

Last day.

The wait is almost over. Today is the last day for the next 18 years of no responsibility. We are so excited we cannot hold it in. We have been waiting for tomorrow for almost a year now and cannot believe the day is finally here.

We have had a pretty busy day today. I went downstairs after breakfast and asked to have our room upgraded. We wanted a bigger room so that when Alex comes tomorrow we will have a little play area and more room to roam. We also wanted to make sure they knew to bring a crib to our room in the morning. There was a little language barrier at the front desk. I could tell she was not real sure what I wanted, so she handed me a piece of paper with a room number on it and said go. So I walked up stairs back up to the room trying to figure out what I had just done. About 5 min later a lady came to the door, took me to the room number that was on the paper and showed it to me. She then said “Yes”, and I agreed it was a room. Just kidding, I told her it was what I wanted. I then went back downstairs to sign the paperwork and get the keys. The lady at the front desk gave me the keys, but when I tried to pay she said later and sent me on my way.

Dee Dee and I started to pack and get everything ready to move to the bigger room, when there was a knock at the door. The head house lady asked for my new key and gave me another set of keys. She said we were moving to a different room. We started moving our stuff before they told us to change rooms again. We got everything in the new room and it is much bigger and a little nicer. The bed does not make popping spring noises every time you move which is nice. It also does not feel like I will need a back adjustment in the mornings now.

We went back to California Pizza Kitchen today. It was very good and we like the American discount. We then walked back down the street to the Toy store. Maybe I am a little naive but, when did Lego’s start costing $35.00 bucks. I just wanted a few for Alex to play with on the plane and all they had were 60 buck boats and $100 cities. The cheapest I found was a tub that made something for $35.00. I decided to hold off and see if I could find something else for now. I guess I will end up getting them before I leave but it hurts.

I know before I get the e-mails that kids stuff is expensive and that I better get ready. But I just did not think Lego’s were 40 bucks. Trust me I have bought a lot of stuff already. Anyway we left the toy store and went down to the grocery. We picked up a few things for us; juice, yogurt, bread and other items for Alex. We finally made it back to the room where we took a little nap. It is now dinner time and I think we are going to chill in the room and eat here. I think it is best to spend a quiet evening in the room and enjoy the peace as much as possible. Just for the record I just took a sip of evidently what turned out to be plain Activia yogurt. Oh my God, I could not make it to the bathroom fast enough to spit that out. Who eats that pud? I spit half of it the floor. That is the worst stuff I have ever tasted. I would have rather put corn in my mouth. I asked Dee Dee what she was going to do with it and she casually said give it to Alex. Poor kid is in trouble. Granted that is probably better than the junk they have fed him in the orphanage. Well, wish us luck. We are going to call our translator Ludmilla in a little while and find out what the schedule is for tomorrow. I hope they bring him to us.

Talk to you on Gotcha Day.

Brad

DD's input:

It is now 8pm our time and Ludmilla just called and said that we meet here at 4:30pm tomorrow to go over to the orphanage and pick Alex up. On Saturday, we have a lot of paperwork to take care of, so we have to meet them down in the lobby at 9:15am. So I guess most of our day tomorrow will be waiting to go pick him up. We have to pack all of his clothes b/c they strip him out of the orphanage clothes and put him in the clothes that you bring. We don't think that Alex has ever been in a car, so we wonder how he will react to Alexander's driving. I've been in a car millions of times and I am still scared when I get in the car with him. We will post again tomorrow night and let you guys know how everything went.

DD

8 down 2 to go

Happy Birthday Dee Dee,

Today started off as a good day. We slept in a little bit. I think after 2 weeks we have finally gotten used to the time difference. We went to breakfast, ate a little, and then came back to the room and went to see Alex.

I must say the boy was winey today. He wanted to do everything now and was grunting for every toy there. He was really trying to test his boundaries. It is tough to work on things when there are still house mothers in there watching. It is not that they are watching us; they are just in there with other children and we can either let him cry it out or give him what he wants and then we will deal with it when we get home. Over all it was a nice time. He still pats me on the head when we leave and says dada. Then the ladies say something and then Papa. I don’t know what he is saying or if he just cannot say the letter P. But I am pretty sure he knows who we are. We finally get him forever on Friday. Tomorrow we are going to take it easy and get a few things in order before he gets here.

Tonight was Dee Dee’s 32nd birthday. And what a birthday it was. How many husbands would fly their wife around the world for dinner in Siberia at a German Restaurant? Not only that, but would bring her over here to adopt her first son. I think I am up for an award. I told her about this at dinner. She said the adoption was great but she would rather be flown somewhere tropical for her birthday next year. I got a laugh.

We got dressed and went to this nice restaurant across from our hotel tonight. The food was incredible. We really enjoyed it. We had salmon and sushi, good wine and some stuffed cheese and shrimp appetizer. It was great. I think she enjoyed it very much. She is so looking forward to Friday as I am. We are going to get a good night sleep and sleep in tomorrow and then get ready for life to change for the better forever. We are so excited and blessed to finally be where we are. Thanks again everyone and we will touch base with you tomorrow.
Brad

DD’s Daily Input:

Yes, as Brad mentioned Alex was not in the greatest mood today. Maybe he is tired of us just visiting and ready for us to take him out of that place. :)

We had a fabulous dinner and the atmosphere was great. It was so cute and felt so comfortable in there. I really felt like I was in a little German place. Even the girls had on their German tavern costumes. I attached a picture for an example. The place was dark and we ate by candlelight. There were other people in there and they were taking shots of vodka followed by a swig of some red juice that they drink over here.

After dinner we walked next door where they have an ice sculpture park. It is so neat b/c there are tons of kids out there and they sit on these little plastic plate type things and slide down the slides of ice. One of the slides is huge and kids would slide a really long way. Brad and I need to find some of those plastic things so that we can try it. We might have to start on the kiddie slide and then move up to the bigger ones. We also saw a lot of teenagers out walking around and hanging out with their bottles of vodka. Yes, they walk around with the bottles and not even in a paper bag. I couldn’t believe that so many people were out on a Wed night, but we figured that since it is only just under freezing (which is warm compared to what it usually is) that people decided to get out and play a little bit. Once we get Alex on Friday, we plan to take him out there and let him experience the ice sculptures and take a few pictures.

Some of you have asked when we are getting home and we leave here on Feb 10th for Moscow. We have to wait for some documents in Moscow and then we are scheduled to leave Moscow for home on Valentine’s Day (Feb 14th). We get a full week with Alex before we have to get him on the 15 hour flight home. Hopefully we can teach him a little discipline before then. By discipline, I mean to understand what “no” means. :)

I had a great birthday considering I am not in my favorite place on Earth. Thanks for all of the birthday wishes that I received. I loved reading each and every one of them!

Love,
DD

7 down 3 to go

7 down and 3 to go

The photos are of the sunrise at 9:00am on the way and the town were Alex lives in the distance past the rear view mirror.

What a wonderful day. First off, I am feeling a little better. I really don’t want to get sick over here. Most importantly, today we got to see Alex again. It was great. We walked in the playroom and as soon as he saw us he came right over. About the first 45min we were there, he went back in forth between our laps. He was loving the attention. Some other children came in the room for their play time while we were in there. He would rock or dance in our lap while they music played. He was so cute.

After a while we let him down and run around the room. He played with his phone and his new book. The book makes a lot of noise and he likes noise. We learned new things about him today. For instance, when he is told no in Russian, that means keep doing it and laugh. He thinks it is funny when he knows he should not do something and does it anyway. Its official, he is a normal 2 year old. He also had a little tantrum today. He was using the video camera as a phone and Dee Dee took it away from him. He did not like it and began to pout and cry a little. That lasted long enough to distract him into doing something else. He had a great playtime today and we are going back one more time tomorrow. We were able to see if some clothes fit and it looks like everything will be the right size. Today when it was time to go, I was carrying him and he clenched up around my neck and did not want to go, but after they bribed him with food he was gone.

We got back to the hotel room and ate a little lunch and watched the last of the movies we brought. We have now watched every movie at least once. We took a 30 min power nap and just finished watching the AC Milan soccer game. Beckham played today and had 2 of 3 assists in the game. It was a very good game. We are now going to get a little dinner and take it easy. I am starting to feel a little low so I am going to take a little more medication and go to bed early. I hope everyone is having a great week and don’t forget tomorrow is Dee Dee’s Birthday. So big party over here for anyone who wants to come.

Brad

DD’s Daily Input:

We really enjoy seeing Alex, but there is a price to pay to go play with him. We have to pay Alexander $100 and we have to pray that we get there in one piece. I think I have finally figured out the lanes of traffic here. They have no lines on the roads, so it is kind of hard to understand what is going on. It looks like if there were lines, there would be 3 lanes; one lane on the right side going one way and one lane on the left side going the other way. There is also a center lane that is for people on either side of the road to use to pass other cars. That is all fine except that when two cars on both sides of the road decide they want to both use the center lane to pass and then it is like playing chicken. It was really foggy this morning on the way to the orphanage and Alexander enjoyed playing chicken in the fog. I sat in the back seat and talked to Jesus every time he decided to use the middle lane.

From our visit today, we got to see a lot more of Alex’s personality. He likes to test his boundaries and if he doesn’t get his way, he starts pouting and getting upset. Brad told him not to hit the toy on the wall (he was banging it like a drum) and when he got in trouble, he just laughed and laughed and then he would do it again and again. We finally realized that if you just ignore him and he doesn’t get attention for doing it, then he doesn’t do it anymore. He knows when he isn’t supposed to do something and before he does it, he will give you a look like are you going to get on to me for doing this. It is hard to keep a straight face because it cracks me up when he laughs.

Another thing that he does is he is so protective of his toys. He loves his cell phone that we gave him and he takes it everywhere. If he wants to go down the slide or do something where he needs to put his phone down, he will go hide his phone in the corner and then go slide. After he slides he goes directly back to the phone to make sure it is still safe. When he heard other children coming into the room to come play, he ran as fast as he could to his phone so that no one else could get it. We are interested to see how Zoe and Alex get along b/c Zoe likes to steal toys and hide them.

Brad bought us a $5 bottle of wine at the store the other day and he just went down to the bar for them to open it for us. Put it this way, it tastes like a $5 bottle of wine…not the greatest. It was made in Bulgaria. There isn’t much to eat in the room besides bread and cheese, so I guess that is what we will have for dinner…yummy.

Take care,
DD

Down Day

6 down 4 to go

Today is not a great day. I am feeling a little under the weather today. I have some sort of sinus crud. I took some of Alex’s baby expectorant and a couple of BC powders and I am starting to feel a little better. I am putting myself into a positive state of mind that I am going to get better over night tonight. The good news is that we get to see Alex tomorrow. Dee Dee and I went through all of his clothes today. This kid has some good looking stuff. We are going to take a few outfits with us tomorrow to make sure everything fits.

For lunch today we walked a couple of blocks past the toy store and went to California Pizza kitchen. Americans get 10% off. I thought that was a nice gesture. It was very good and much cheaper than at home. I think 3 slices and a drink were around 5.50 or so. While we were out we saw a few stores we might want to stop by in the next couple of days. I think we are going to take it easy for dinner maybe so yogurt or something small. I am going to take some more medication and watch a movie and take my 3rd steam shower for the day and hope I feel better.

For those of you who had money on the Steelers sorry for those who had the over like me good job. Dee Dee and I did get to watch the Juventus lose to Caglairi 3-2 (soccer). It was a very good game. Not as exciting as the Super Bowl but it was the only thing to watch. Everyone should be at work. I hope the weather is nice there. We are going to see Alex in the morning and we are so excited. I don’t know if this will be the last time or if we will see him on Wed. as well.

Brad

DD’s Daily Input:

Since Brad was feeling a little crappy, I went to run the stairs by myself for the morning workout. It is getting easier and easier everyday and for those people reading this that work with me. I am going to be flying by you in the stairway from now on and not even have to deeply breathe. For those of you that do not work with me, all my peeps at work take the stairs up to the 7th floor and by the time we get there we are about to die. Even some of the people that run everyday are huffing and puffing by the time they get to the top. Since there isn’t much else that I can do here, I will master the stairs.

After we got back from lunch we did BodyFlow. This is a class that they teach at the YMCA and it is very good with a mix of yoga, Pilates, meditation, martial arts, tai chi, and probably a few others. I need all the help I can get on my flexibility. This class is an hour long, so it helps pass the time.

I guess that is all the info that I have for today. Happy Monday!

DD

5 down 5 to go

Half way point

We are inching closer to the day our son comes home. Dee Dee and I are counting down every morning. He is such a positive aspect of our life and we are ready for him to join us. I must start off my saying thanks to all of the family and friends back home in Birmingham that are still helping us get the house ready and taking care of my business. Thank you all very much.
Well last night Dee Dee and I were going to go to the bar and get a couple of beers and hang out on our last Saturday night. We went downstairs to discover that the bar is closed on the weekend. That was not what I wanted to see. I was looking forward to a hot meal and a cold beer. Instead we went downstairs and in the lobby we found that they sell wine. So we bought a bottle of French wine very cheap and went back up to the room for bread, cheese and wine. Not a bad evening after all. That is until Dee Dee made me watch the Notebook. That is the saddest movie ever. I told her that is the last time I will watch it. I don’t know why people enjoy watching movies over and over that make you cry. Now Dee Dee does not cry during movies but I do, and I don’t enjoy it.

This morning we woke up late and went down for our normal breakfast and came back up for our morning work out. We decided to go walk to this new grocery store we were told about, a few blocks away. We started walking and about half way there remembered that we don’t speak or read Russian which would make it difficult to figure out if we passed it or not. Grocery stores here don’t look like our grocery stores and there are no windows so that you can see in to see if you are going into the right place. Fortunately we saw people walking down the street with bags and followed them to the store. It was about the same as the store we go to except the extra meat, cheese, and pizza. Unfortunately we don’t speak Russian so I could not tell them what I wanted and how to slice it. We did find one thing there very good, Rotisserie chicken. This was the best thing I have eaten in Russia since I arrived. I loved every bite. We saved a bunch for dinner or lunch tomorrow.

Dee Dee did some more laundry today and I tried to figure out why the DVD player stopped working. This is not a good thing. We can watch them on the computer but it does not have loud volume and it makes it difficult when we are trying to do yoga. Anyway things could be worse. We are going to take it easy the rest of the day. We are watching an indoor soccer / football game right now. I think there is another one to follow this one, which will be nice. I also just saw online that Georges St. Pierre won his UFC fight last night. That is awesome for me.

Other good news is that the interpreter called and said that they will be picking us up Tuesday morning to go see Alex. We are definitely looking forward to that. Well as usual I hope you all have a great day and go Pittsburg. We are going to try and watch a little bit of the game on the computer downstairs in the business center.
Brad

DD’s daily input:

Mom told me that her, Kelly (my sister in law), Karla (Kelly’s mother aka Mamee), Jan and Debbie (aka Baby Doll), all went over to our house on Saturday and got us organized and cleaned everything. Mom even painted our laundry room that was full of lint and dust. Brad’s mother wanted to know what we needed at the grocery because she was going to stock our fridge for when we got back. Brad’s dad is taking care of Brad’s businesses while we are gone and he is even taking care of our #2 baby (Zoe). Suzanne and Elizabeth let me borrow their DVD player and gave us 500 kiddie movies for when Alex gets home. (By the way E-Beth, we are going to probably have to buy you a new DVD player if we can’t get yours back in action. We were doing our “Biggest Loser Cardio Workout” and all of a sudden it stopped working.)

Our jaws are dropping at how helpful everyone has been over the past few months. We always knew we had wonderful family and friends, but we never in our wildest dreams ever thought that we would be so blessed. About 25 of our girlfriends threw the best baby shower on Earth (I will post pictures of that party when we get home). My “Wednesday night running group” friends bought all of the jackets and shoes for our donation to the orphanage. I have met other people that have adopted from our region and they are providing much needed information. I mean, we really don’t have words to explain how thankful we are to each and every one of you.

My mom always said that it takes a village to raise a child and Alex has the best village ever. He doesn’t know yet how lucky he is to have the support group that he will have once we get home. My mom is going to keep him one day a week and Brad’s dad (Bobert) is going to keep him the other 4 days. I have already signed him up for Mother’s Day Out that starts in Sept. He will go there from 9:30-1:30 Mon, Wed, and Friday assuming that he is ready for that. Mom is going to take him on her way to work since she opens her store at 10am and Bob will pick him up at 1:30. I know that Alex is going to be soooo close to his grandparents and I know the grandparents are going to enjoy loving Alex! We can’t wait to get home so we can share Alex with you all!

Love,
DD