Maksim is 10 months old today!

Today is June 29th. Maksim is 10 months old today!! He is probably celebrating with his pals at the baby house... or maybe he is drinking from a cup for the 1st time ... taking a few steps closer to walking on his own. We wonder everyday how he is doing and how he will have changed since the last time we saw him. In the meantime we are waiting for our court date in Kemerovo, getting our paperwork completed for our dossier and baby proofing the house! We can't wait until he is here!!

Haircut for Mom

Barbara decides to cut her hair. After years of growing it out! She decided it was time to cut it off and donate it. She went to her long time hair stylist Luigi and cut off 12 inches to donate to "Wigs for Kids." They take the donated hair to make wigs for children with cancer.

Welcome Home!

We made it home. Mom (Bunny) was there to pick us up from the airport! It was so nice to come home and get a hug from MOM!! She was so excited and couldn't wait to hear all the details. We were so glad to be home and to see everyone and show pictures of little Maksim. We also couldn't wait to get home to see our other little babies..Joey and Buddy! I couldn't wait to smother them with hugs and kisses.

Last day in Moscow

What a trip!!! Thank goodness we finally had a good nights rest... we loved our hotel!! We stayed at the beautiful Moscow Marriot Royal Aurora, it is just behind the Bolshoy Theatre and walking distance to the Red Square. Today is our last day in Moscow before we fly back to Amsterdam. So we decided that we wanted to pick up a few souveniers before we left Russia. We went to a well known market, called the Yeliseev's Food Hall to pick up a few goodies. I have a feeling a few bottles of Vodka and chocolates will manage to make it in our luggage. Russia is also well known for their caviar, although not sure how well that will travel. Eugene then drove us to a flea market which is just on the outskirts of downtown. It was another beautiful day and David and I had fun walking around outside talking to the vendors and looking at all the fur hats, matryoshka dolls, and other Russian souveniers. It was getting late and we hated to leave, but I have to say we were anxious to get home and share our experience with everyone. Eugene drove us to the airport and said goodbye, and he said with a smile " I will see you soon!" They have told us that it was going to be about 8 weeks until our court date in Kemerovo. We can't believe we have to wait so long, but we know it will fly by, and before you know it we will be back over here. (At least that is what we keep telling ourselves) We boarded our plane to Amsterdam, which we will spend the night and take the morning flight back to Detroit.


Moscow's most famous delicatessen, now known as Yeliseev's Food Hall. In 1820 it was home to Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya.In 1898 Grigoriy Yeliseev bought the building, and had it lavishly redecorated with stained-glass windows, crystal chandeliers, carved pillars, polished wood counters and large mirrors. It now stocks a wide range of imported and Russian delicacies.


The Flea Market in Izmaylovo Park.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Everyone!
We wanted to wish our father's (Bill, Dave and John) soon to be Grandfather's a Happy Father's Day! Hope you are having a wonderful day. We are back in Moscow for another fun filled day of touring the city with our friend Eugene (driver/interpreter). We wish we could be with you, but we will be home soon. And a special note to my wonderful husband, thank you for the trip of a life time! You are my best friend and you are going to make the most wonderful father.
Love,
Barbara

Back in Moscow

We arrived back in Moscow. Eugene was waiting at the airport to greet us. It was good to see our new friend again. Even though we were sad we had to leave our little one in Kemerovo (still not sure of what we are going to name him yet) we took great comfort in knowing he is getting great care there. It is such a different feeling on the way home than on the way here. We were so anxious and nervous on the flight over to Kemerovo, not knowing what to expect. Now we know him.. what he looks like..and getting used to the idea that one day soon he will be coming home with us. It was really happening after all this time!! So many years of waiting and praying to have a child of our own and now that day was here. I don't think it has set in yet..but we know the next 6-8 weeks are going to fly by and we will be back over here before we know it.
After Eugene drove us to our hotel to change, we went out in the city to explore. It was a beautiful day in Moscow!

The following images were taken at the Alexander Gardens. Designed by Osip Bove in 1821, these gardens are named after Tsar Alexander I, who presided over the restoration of the city, including the Kremlin, after the Napoleonic Wars.



The Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer. At one point the cathedral was the tallest building in Moscow, the gilded dome rising to a height of 338 ft dominating the skyline for miles around.

A vast statue of Peter the Great,completed in 1997 by Zurab Tsereteli, stands tall on the Moscow River.

The infamous headquarters of the KGB on Lubyanka Square.

A panoramic view of Moscow city at observation point in Sparrow Hills.

Moscow State University..or as David liked to call it MSU!!

Leaving Kemerovo

We are preparing to leave Kemerovo to fly back to Moscow. Another airplane ride..every 2 days we are getting on a flight that is at least four hours long. Yikes, we like to fly but this is crazy. We rarely sleep due to all the time zone changes. Not great for Jet Lag. Oh well.. it was so worth it!!

Kemerovo

We are leaving Polysavo and heading back to Kemerovo. Below are a few photos from the Siberia region on the drive back from the orphange. When we arrived back in Kemerovo we had to fill out paperwork for the Department of Education in Moscow. It is quite the process, but we are trying to be patient and understanding of the steps we have to take when adopting in Russia. After that we took a walk around the city's main square made up of government offices, including the KGB regional offices and a large statue of Lenon. We have learned the Kemerovo region is the coal mining capital of Russia. Siberia has more combined natural resources than any where in the world. Tomorrow we fly back to Moscow...another plane ride can't wait!
p.s. the sun is still up, I don't think it ever gets dark here!!

Dear Maksim

Dear Maksim,
We can not tell you how fortunate we are that you have you come into our lives. You are a little angel sent from above! You have no idea how happy you have made us and we have only known you for a short while. We are sorry we have to leave you for awhile but we have to get things ready for you at home. Everyone is waiting with anticipation and so excited to meet you!! You are in wonderful hands with all the loving women taking care of you. They love you and will watch over you until our return. You are a brave little boy and will discover and learn so many things in the next couple of months, we can hardly wait to see you again and see how much you have changed and grown.
Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Day Two with Maksim

Today was a wonderful day with Maksim. We had a few hours again today to play with him. He was in good spirits!! He seemed to recognize us and feel more comfortable with us. He is so fun to watch!! Caregivers seem to really adore him...and so do we!! I showed them photos of his nursery at home and told them that David did the paintings of the animals...they of course want him to paint a mural at the baby house on our next trip here. The director was impressed with David's knowledge of the area and his great attempt at speaking Russian. We couldn't believe how quickly the time went .. it was time to leave again. Maksim smiled at us and waved goodbye, it was so hard to leave him, knowing it will be quite a few weeks until we return. But we take great comfort in knowing how well he is cared for by everyone at the baby house. The director and all the caregivers were all very kind to us and made us feel so welcome.




Maksim with one of his caregivers.

David with Naolezhda, she is the Director and Chief Pediatrician at the orphanage.

Introducing our little boy!!!

We have been matched with an adorable little Russian boy, his given name is Maksim. He was born on August 29, 2006.
He is healthy little boy and oh so inquisitive at 9 1/2 months. He has blue eyes and light brown hair. He just woke up from a nap and was a little shy when they brought him into the room. He sort of checked us out and hung on to his caregiver (Tatyana). He was a little apprehensive meeting all these new people for the 1st time. It didn't take long before he was playing and having fun from all the attention! He is very strong and is sitting up, crawling and can pull himself up to stand. We were in the music room, where he likes to play with the instruments. He seems to like to play the drums..we know Uncle Bill will be anxious to teach him how to play. When David would make little noises, Maksim would focus and try to copy him. We spent two hours with him, even though he kept an eye out for Tatyana, he started to warm up to us. He even said dada!! We feel so fortunate and blessed to have the opportunity to have him be apart of our lives. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. We are still thinking of a name for him..will update soon.

Polysaevo Orphange

We arrived in Polysaevo, Dale (Eugene) Earnhardt got us there in an hour and a half! We met with the orphange director/doctor. She was a lovely Russian women, who didn't speak any english. Thank goodness, we had Lana, our translator with us. We discussed all the medical history and health of our child. She was very specific and made us feel at ease. You could tell she has a great love for these children and is concerned about their well being. The orphange was all a buzz with caretakers running about. They were having some work done on the outside and inside of the building, but in general it was very clean. Well it was time to meet little boo. Our next post will be photos of our son to be!!


Our driver Eugene.


David and Lana walking outside the baby house (desky dom).


The orphange play ground.

Arrive in Kemerovo

We finally made it to Kemerovo in Siberia, known as the capital of coal miners! We arrived at 6:00 am this morning and we have not slept in 24 hours. It was cold, dark and raining. David and I joked that with all these stops are baggage was going to end up somewhere in Siberia...we laughed and thought for once that is where we need it to go. We must have been slap happy! We are definitely exhausted, we have not really been able to sleep since we left Detroit. I think that was 3 days ago. We managed to get our bags and were greeted by our translator Svetlana and our driver Eugene (who drives like Dale Earnhardt). We arrived at our hotel, only to discover there was no HOT WATER!! The whole district was without hot water and was not going to have it up and running until the first week in July. At this point we were delirious and didn't really care, David of course trying to make me feel better said "it would be just like camping". However, Lana could sense I wasn't prepared to camp...so they drove us to another hotel outside the district. We have yet to see anyone in the streets... I was bit worried. We pulled into a building that looked like an office building, infact they do have offices on the first 3 floors. Our room was on the 4th floor...no elevators!! But we did have a shower with hot water. They dropped us off so we could take a nap and freshen up before we went to the baby house. However, we couldn't sleep, it was light out now and we were too anxious about meeting the little guy. In a few hours they were going to pick us up to take us to the baby house in Polysaevo, which is 2 hours away. We couldn't believe after all this time we were on our way to meet our little one!!

Moscow Day Two

While we anxiously await our flight to Kemerovo. Eugene was nice enough to show us some of the sights. In the morning we toured around the Red Square ("red" meaning "beautiful" in Russian) which was laid out in 1493. From its initial function as a marketplace, the gradual constuction of monuments in the 17th century made it a focus for demonstrations. In October 1917 it was stained red with the workers' blood. It was eventually pedestrianized in 1990. The above photos are some of the historical landmarks: St. Basil's Cathedral, The Kremlin, Kazan Cathedral, GUM (Russia's largest department store) and the State Historical Museum.


The beautiful St. Basil's Cathedral was built by a man who, according to legend, was afterward blinded by Ivan the Terrible so he could never build anything so fine again. Multicolored onion domes and a lbyrinth of chapels linked by an ornate corridor.


Gum the largest department store in Moscow. David and Eugene prevented me from going inside..oh well too excited to shop!


Here is David working his magic with Tsar Nicholas II to get in to the Kremlin to have an audience with President Vladimir Putin.





The Kremlin the Citadel of the Tsars, headquarters of the Soviet Union and now the residence of the Russian president, for centuries the Kremlin has been a symbol of the power of the State. The Saviour's Tower used to be the Kremlin's main entrance. We also saw the changing of the guards that happens every hour at the monument to WWII outside the Kremlin wall.


Kazan Cathedral is a sweet little church. David and I went inside to light a candle and say a prayer that everything goes well tomorrow in Kemerovo.

After a fun day of touring Moscow, we are back at the hotel waiting for Eugene to take us to the airport. We depart Moscow at 10:00 pm and arrive the next day at 6:00 am in Kemerovo, Siberia. We are exhausted, excited and nervous all at the same time. We are counting the hours until we see our little boy.

Welcome to Moscow

Tuesday, June 12. We made it! It was a long flight..but a nice one. We were greeted right outside of customs by our driver, Eugene. He is very nice! He is a Detroit Red Wings fan! So he and David bonded immediately!! :) We made it to our hotel around 4:00 pm. We are staying at a Marriot close to the Red Square. It is a beautiful day, sunny mid 70's. We thought it would be a good idea to go for a walk around Red Square. Lots of people out and about. 12 million people live in Moscow!! It is a beautiful city! Red Square is packed with people..it is a national holiday today, they tell us it is similar to 4th of July. It is a new holiday, started about 5 years ago, when they established their new Constitution. The statue is Marshal Georgiy Zhukov a hero from WWII and the red building behind us is the State Historical Museum at the far end of the Red Square, (There are more than 5 million exhibits inside). After about 5 miles of walking and a nice dinner and a few vodka and tonics. It was time for bed!! We couldn't believe we were still standing after 36 hours. We will check in soon. Tomorrow we are taking in the sights with Eugene before our flight to Kemerovo.

Доброй ночи - Good Night

Layover in Amsterdam

Waiting for our flight to Moscow. We are having a cup of coffee in the KLM Royal Crown Lounge. Love this airport! People are so friendly here. We are a little sleepy..did not sleep to well on flight. Too excited!! 3400 miles down and 1500 to go to Moscow...Detroit Metro to Moscow Airport a total of 26 hours.