Exhausted...but Paperwork 100% Complete!

You know you're exhausted when you get home from work, pull into the driveway, and fall asleep immediately --- even before getting out of the car!

Last night, I was up until 2:30am completing the last 2 documents of our dossier even tho' I had to be up at 5am for work. But we're done!!!! The CA Board of Psychology letter finally arrived yesterday after requesting it 2 months ago and oodles of e-mails and calls later. We finished K's room Monday so yesterday, I put on some finishing touches to put together our "picture montage" that will show the judge that we have a nursery ready as well as pictures of bonding on Trip #1. Here's a little glimpse into what the room looked like 2 weeks ago:

and what it looks like now:

I know K would be thanking Nana and Grandpa D for helping with the demolition/painting and "reconstruction", Millie Claire for her beautiful crib so she wouldn't have to sleep on the floor, Olivia for the beautiful red shoes that she will wear on special occasions, and Nico for the cool jackets and clothes that already adorn the closet.

I personally want to thank my parents for their daily calls of support during the room remodel and dossier compilation. I know if they had their way, they'd be enroute to Russia to tell that judge to move it along -- now!

And last, but not least, I want to thank my dear husband. I've become a hermit working on this dossier up until the late, late hours sometimes only passing when I say good-bye in the morning on my way to work. And he has worked so hard on the room to help make my dream of a pretty room for K a reality. I love you!!!!

The timing of this is perfect: JD and I leave Friday night for FL to visit my family for 10 days. Ahhh, I see sleep in our future! Plus, I hope to now find time to update this blog with some of the things I've been neglecting to do for weeks. One of those things is to talk about Yekaterinburg...a place I never heard of before until we learned our daughter was waiting for us there. Stay tuned! :)

Busy Week!

I got so much accomplished this week before I have to return to work on Tuesday. Mostly, it was spent calling, e-mailing, and picking up information that I've been waiting for for weeks or even over a month! It is sooo hard not being in control and having to rely on others to follow through. The last 2 culprits are the IRS and CA Psychology Board who have had the requests for 3-6 weeks -- just to verify some info. Supposedly both "are in the mail."

My goal was to have our dossier completely done -- capoot -- within 3 weeks of coming home from Trip #1 and we're almost at that point. We should be done by Tuesday (God-willing the "others" come through for us Monday) and then everything goes to our Agency in San Diego. From there, it gets apostilled, translated and sent to Russia to sit on the judge's desk.

Oh, and the big project of the week has been converting our guest room into a little girl's room. JD's parents came over and helped me overhaul it on Wednesday at which time we finished the painting. Now the bead board, chair rail and drapes need to go up in addition to all the frilly things that make it a sweet little girl's room.

Everyone who knows JD knows that his 2nd home is Costco. While there the other day, he saw a DVD he wanted to get K (Sleeping Beauty). Lo' and behold, it had a "free gift enclosed!":

I just can't wait until we can turn it around and it says "The Princess is In"!!!

New Friends

Adopting from Russia is challenging and Ekaterinburg has its own special nuances that don't make the process any easier. For this reason, I've noticed that folks adopting from Ekaterinburg tend to bond and "commiserate" together over the journey as no one truly knows what you're going through until you've actually lived through it. (Mmmmm, kinda sounds like my infertility mantra over the many, many years!)

Earlier this year, I joined the So Cal EU Yahoo! Group and connected with other people who have adopted from Russia. I haven't had the time to yet participate in any outtings or get-togethers, but as soon as things calm down, I hope to get the chance. I do get the chance to keep in touch with several really nice people and keep tabs on how their kiddos are doing.

By joining an Ekat Yahoo! Group, I have "met" some really, really wonderful people who provided us with priceless insight as to what to expect on our first Trip, prepare for the Judge, tips to get through the paperwork, etc. We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts and also hope to meet fellow Ekat "survivors" and their beautiful children.

While in Russia, we had the rare opportunity of meeting some special people.

• Lori, from CA, was there (for what seemed a lifetime!!) to adopt her twin girls. Since it was 2 days before Court, we didn't get to meet the girls but we went to dinner with Lori, her daughter Katy, and friend, Angela. It was such an enjoyable evening even though we just stayed at the Hotel for dinner instead of venturing out to the streets.

Dinner at the Park Inn, Wednesday, 9/24/2008.

Left-right: Lori, Katy, Angela, me, JD.

Taken the evening of the day we met K for the first time.

• We first met Dawn and Jeff from NH at the Dept. of Education when we were receiving our referral for K. It turned out that we were all staying at the Park Inn so we went to dinner Thursday (once again -- at the Park Inn) and had a really great time. Turns out we have lots in common and the most important thing.....their little boy is in the same Orphanage as K *and* in the same Grupa! As I write this, they may be playing together on the playground not realizing that their parents are conversing via e-mail and keeping in touch.

Breakfast Buffet at the Park Inn on Sunday morning, 9/28/2008,

before leaving to come home to LA.

Left-right: Dawn, me, JD, Jeff.

So, this process of going across the world to become a family and bring K home has also brought us together with people we otherwise would never have had the chance to get to know ~~ whether in person or via the internet. But one thing is for sure: I can see and feel the love that all my "new friends" have for their children...and there are so many more children out there who need that love.

Orphanage #6 in Yekaterinburg

I have been completely swamped with the paperwork required to bring K home, hence -- my blogging has dwindled. But before much more time passes, I wanted to document what we learned about the Orphanage that K is in and show you some pics.

Orphanage #6 is located approximately 40 minutes from downtown Yekaterinburg -- out in the country. It is located on the edge of a lake and in a forest in a very tranquil area.

Here's a little tidbit of what we saw each day as we walked up to the doors of our daughter's temporary "home," as she now knows it.

This is when we walking up to the Orphanage for the very first time with Lydia, our translator, and Dr. Khouloudis, the International Doctor we flew in from Moscow to examine K.

This is the playground where all the children play frequently.

This is the main entrance to Orphanage #6. The music/playroom is on the second floor -- the set of windows directly above the middle doors.

You'll see that there is quite a large playground with several play houses. One day, we saw many children out there playing on the see-saws and "jungle gym" waving to us and yelling "hello" in Russian. Even on a snowy day, the children were out there playing -- yet bundled up like Ralfie's brother, Ricky, in "A Christmas Story." I pray each of these children find a loving family.

At this particular Orphanage, the children range in ages 1 - 4 years old and per our translator, there are about 10 - 14 children in each "Grupa" with 3 caregivers and a doctor assigned for each grupa. (Hey, wouldn't it be nice if that was the ratio of healthcare providers to patients in US hospitals???) Every day, the children are weighed, temps taken and examined -- which made for very, very thick Medical Report files for each child

Each "Grupa" is named after a cartoon character and K's "Grupa" is Kolobok. For those not familiar with the fairy tale, this is the short story of Kolobok. Not such a great ending, eh? Here are a few pictures of K's specific Grupa room (we weren't allowed in so we just peeked):

Kolobok! This is the door that leads to Grupa 5.

A sneek peek inside -- only able to see lockers with names on them. Assuming the lockers had the names of the children...but it was in Russian so we couldn't tell for sure.

The one thing that really impressed me about the Orphanage is how pristine clean it was. No peeling paint, no torn up carpeting or flooring, drapery hung properly and even the ceiling tiles were brand new. The toys and furniture were all in very good condition. I guess I had just expected things to be different. But then again...this particular Orphanage is only 1 1 /2 years old!

A Day in the Life...

According to our translator, their day usually starts at 6:30am and begins with toileting, breakfast, play and then am napping from 8:30-10:30. After more toileting and a snack, they can play until lunchtime at noon. Then play, toileting, snack, pm naptime, playtime, and then dinner around 6pm. After that comes bathing (not sure as to the extent of this, yet), reading time, toileting and night-night. No wonder so many of these kids are potty trained so young! I can also see why these children respond well to structure...something to keep in mind for when we bring K home.

When we played with K in the music/playroom, we were usually the only ones in there except another couple was there a few times with their little one -- awaiting Court! Here are a few pictures of the music/playroom where the children participate in sing-alongs, dancing, and puppet shows:

The very first interaction with K was when she would take balls out of the pool and hand them to us.

After hurricane "K" got into the balls and bag of toys we got her!

So -- do you almost feel like you were there with us? I just wanted to give you a brief idea of the environment that our little angel is in. In fact, the one comfort we do have during this wait is knowing that she is in good care and in a safe, clean place. God bless those who are taking good care of those little ones!

What's up with the arm, you ask?

I forgot to mention in my last post how my right shoulder is doing. (See post dated Sept. 18 for details...)

Two days before leaving to go to Russia, the Orthopedist gave me a shot of cortisone in my right shoulder to ease the discomfort from the final diagnosis of "Calcific Tendonitis". The cortisone along with the anti-inflammatory meds made it possible so I virutally had no discomfort on the trip -- thank God.

It's still a tad sore when I wake up sometimes but I'm doing range of motion exercises daily, staying away from lifting anything >10 lbs., and I'll see the Orthopedist again on Oct. 10th. I'm off of work due to the lifting restrictions until 10/21. Instead, I've made doing the adoption p/w my full-time job. That along with looking at K's pictures every spare second I can!

Back in the U.S. of A!

"What happened? No more blog entries?" OK...so you've been wondering what I could possibly be up to since I haven't blogged since we returned from Yekaterinburg. Let's just say I have never felt so jet-lagged in my entire life! I guess it has a lot to do with the time change and emotional rollercoaster of the last week, but as soon as we returned....we got down to business to get things done.

I was up for 30 hours straight traveling home...thank goodness for the little personal TV sets each airline seat has on Air New Zealand! I tried to sleep but only got a few minutes here and there. Watched 4 movies and numerous TV sitcoms. Oh, and free wine...even in coach!

We got home late Sunday and were greeted at the airport by JD's parents -- what a wonderful surprise! Ever since 9-11, it's such a bummer to get off the plane and not have someone there waiting for you so this was a nice treat to make it out of Customs and see them there. It was late so we only got to show them a few pictures on our computer.

The next day, we headed down to San Diego to see 3 more doctors: Infectious Disease, Dermatology, and the Psychologist. Tomorrow (Sunday), we're heading down to San Diego again, stay overnight at my Great-Aunt Katie's in prep to see the Addiction Psychiatrist/Psychiatrist and Neurologist on Monday. Then we are DONE with doctors!!

We have a few more outstanding forms to complete and license verifications to receive but we've been plowing through all this paperwork with the hopes of having it all done in the next few weeks. Some of it is out of our control (waiting for letters from the State) but we're getting close! Then we send it off to the judge and wait until she decides to look at it.

In this next week, I hope to add info to this blog that will include tidbits about our trip: the City of Yekaterinburg, the Russian People, the hotel, and the other PAPs that we met along the way. It was truly a WONDERFUL experience and I'm so glad I have this as a vehicle to document it all -- 'cause my brain is fried about now!

Taking off from Yekaterinburg Airport, September 28, 2008. We'll be back!!