I posted below, but I wanted to add a few more photos...

Lunch for MeMe's birthday... La La and Aunt Sha Sha

Playing in the back yard...

Chucky Cheese with Aunt Kelly and Uncle Dusty...

At the park...

GG and Poppy Pictures...

It has been a fun ride!

We have been home for about 6 weeks now and boy have we come a long way. Alex is learning new words every day and loving his new life in the USA! He is really a great child and I couldn't ask for anything more. When we were in the adoption process, I prayed every day that we were blessed with a child that fit perfect in our family. Well, I got what I asked for b/c he couldn't fit any better with us and the other family members. All of the grandparents, aunts, and uncles all love him to death and get great joy out of seeing him explore, learn, grow and play. He has brought so much happiness to all of us and brings more and more each day.

Now I would be lying to you if I told you that it was wonderful from day one. We had some growing pains. When we first go home, Alex had temper tantrums and tested every boundary possible. The language barrier didn't help much either. After about a week of that, we started to understand each other and things got much easier. I'm knocking on wood right now, but Alex really is a pleasure to be around and very well mannered. He is even almost potty trained. He always goes poo poo in the potty and sometimes he tells us when he needs to go pee pee. We are still working on that one.

The week that we got back we had a doctor's appointment for Alex. It was probably a little early for that b/c they had to take A TON of blood and we were not able to calm him down or comfort him since at that time he really didn't know us too well. We are glad to say that all of his blood tests came back negative. He had hearing and vision tests and he hears and sees great. He has a nystagmus in his eyes where they shake sometimes, but other than that he is in perfect health. They said at this point there is nothing we can do about the nystagmus, but if it gets worse, they can do surgery when he is about 6 years old. Some children with this get better and some get worse. We will just keep an eye on it.

Our schedule is already getting really busy. Alex has 2 b'day parties back to back to attend on Saturday and many more of those to come. He is already a popular little boy. He is just starting to play with the other children that he has been around lately. I know 2 year olds don't really play together too much, but it looks like they are starting to interact some. We try to have playdates with other children at least once a week.

OK, I have said enough in this blog. I promise to keep it up better in the future. See below for some pictures from over the past few weeks...

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.