Home.

Back a couple of days now and mixed emotions to say the least, on one hand it's great to be back as we really missed Leah, especially strange for Amanda who spends so much time with her to suddenly be away from her for so long.  At the same time though it feels very surreal to have spent so much time and energy and effort in finally getting to the stage where we could meet Will to suddenly leave him again only 3 days later.

Still, we have been told the time will pass quickly, hope so.... only 7 and a half weeks until we travel out again for court!

Pray that he will be preserved in our absence and that the rest of the trips will go as scheduled.  Still a reasonable chance of being back home for good last few days of December!

Anyway, enough chat unto a few pics...

Philip, Amanda, Leah & Will

Finally...

Not hard to make him smile!

As you can see!

Was fascinated by leaves when we went out at first.

Loved playing with the rings.

His 'happy' place, being carried around by mummy and daddy!

Final visit for a while

Nice long visit with Will today, he was tired but still in great form.  It was scorcher again in Moscow so he was allowed another little taste of freedom to whet his appetite for his eventual liberation in a few months time!

A different doctor on today but like yesterday she told us that it was wonderful that he was going to have a home as he was a child that needed lots of attention,  that was obvious again today, whenever we tried to put him down he moaned and fussed until he was picked up and then suddenly he was happy chappy again.

We brought a few little jumpers and t-shirts from home to try on, safe to say that he doesn't appreciate getting dressed, he shouted the place down until we had finished then went back to playing as if nothing had happened.

We also had a wee party for him today, its his birthday next week so we brought him a card and a few small presents, the orphanage celebrates every child's birthday which is very nice, just going to be strange for us now that we have met him that we are going to miss his first birthday.

As chaotic and hassle filled as this trip was its still going to be very sad to leave tomorrow, hopefully the next two months will pass quickly.

Continue to pray that Will will be preserved in our absence and that the next few stages of the process will run smoothly.

5.30am start tomorrow, yuk!

Philip, Amanda, Leah & Will

Stairmaster added to the Baby Gym!

Walking in the home grounds with Will

Will looking at himself on Amanda's phone

Will & Buddies room

Will's birthday card and presents

Fridays Visit

Went to court first thing this morning to submit our adoption documents and apply for a hearing date, all went well and we should get a date for our court appearance in the next week or so, there are two judges who sit on adoption hearings, one who is very formal and insists on reading aloud every word of every document and one who keeps things nice and informal and gets one with things nice and quickly, thankfully we have been placed with the latter!

After this it was on to the baby house, only 20 or so miles away but with the horrific Moscow traffic it takes at least an hour to drive there, the journey home took almost 2 hours!  I have been in many busy cities across the world but there is NOWHERE like Moscow for traffic jams,  roughly 20million people living and driving in a city built for a fraction of that number, yikes!!!

The visit went brilliantly again today, it was pretty warm outside so they let us take Will out for a wee walk around the park, there aren't enough staff to spare anyone to take the children outside normally so it was quite the adventure for him, first 5 minutes or so all he could do was look around in amazement, he was particularly fascinated by the leaves, there are lot of trees in the park and the ground was covered in fallen leaves, as we walked we kicked them up in the air with our feet, he couldn't take his eyes off them.

When we first started out we tried to put him in a buggy but he was having none of it, moaned and groaned until we picked him up then he was happy, for a child raised in an orphanage he is very used to being picked up and carried around, which is not normally the case, when we mentioned this to one of the doctors she told us he was one of the favorites among the carers and loves attention, when they walk past him he tries to grab a hold of their coats on the way past and get picked up, don't think he will struggle for attention when we get home!

One more visit tomorrow then home early on Sunday morning, next two months are going to pass pretty slooowly...

Philip, Amanda, Leah & Will.

Court Building

Room for Adoption Hearings

First pic of Amanda and Will................ sorry

Mosow Traffic at 9pm.... when things are much quieter.

Finally....

After all the frustrations and delays of the last week today could not have gone any better, many prayers answered!

Started early with a visit to the notary for an hours worth of document signing, then unto the ministry for our formal referral offer.  After the last of the formalities were over then it was off to the baby home.

One hour later, almost out into the countryside we arrived at the home, met with his doctors and then finally we were ushered into a little room and a few minutes later Will arrived.  He is fantastic, amazingly happy, smiley baby very active and incredibly curious about us and all the little toys and rattles that kept coming out of our bag.

Hes almost 12 months old, brown eyes and unbelievably curly blonde hair.  He is crawling and pulling himself up he looks like he's not far off walking, it also goes without saying that he is the cutest boy in all of Russia!

Our visit with him lasted for an hour and after a few moments of natural, 'who on earth are you people and what strange language are you speaking' he really warmed to us, he is obviously used to being played with and carried, the doctor told us he is one of the favorites among the carers!

You are going to have to be patient for a few more days to see some pics as we want to get home and show all our pics and videos to Leah first, after that i'll put a few on the blog.

Such a relief to have finally met him and for the visit to have gone so well, God is good!

Philip, Amanda, Leah and Will!

PS: Oops, just realized I accidentally posted the title before I finished writing the blog, i'm not that cruel!!

Outside the Baby Home

Very fit babies in Russia!!

Grounds of the baby home

Tomorrow is the day!

Looks like we are good to go, after 7 whole days in Moscow doing very little we are finally getting on with things, we have an appointment 12pm tomorrow afternoon with the ministry officials then shortly after that it unto the baby house to meet Will!

With Leah we were told not to post any pictures to our blog until we had been through court, not sure what the rules are for Russia but I'll find out, start praying if you want to see pics of Will tomorrow!! ;)

Tired of walking so we ventured into the heart of Moscow today on the Metro, our basic plan of tapping strangers on the shoulder and pointing to our metro map and grunting in a Russian accent seemed to work pretty well and we only got on the wrong train once during the whole day which wasn't bad considering the total journey from our hotel and back again meant that we had to take 6 underground trains in total!

Few pics of our adventures below, till tomorrow...

Philip and Amanda

Quick visa update, its good news!

Just got an email from Masha to say that they have been able to get our visa sorted, just need a quick visit to a notary on Thursday and we should be good to go.

Thanks for all the texts and messages and to all who have been praying, it's really appreciated by Amanda and I.

Keep praying that we will have no further complications and that our sanity holds out and we can finally meet Will on Thursday!!

Philip and Amanda

More delays...

Just got another email from Masha our coordinator.  It seems the ministry official we were due to meet tomorrow has been called away on urgent business and now won't be available for our meeting until Thursday the 6th.

I've been able to change our flights and delay our return to Sunday however our visa expires on Thursday.

Masha is going to try to find out for us if we can extend our visa while we are here though when I search online this doesn't seem to be an easy thing to do.  

Pray that Masha is able to sort this out for us and that we are indeed allowed to stay in the country an extra few days and that we will, eventually, meet our son...

Patience, patience...

I really wish I was writing about how wonderful it was to finally meet our son today, instead I'm writing to tell you about yet more frustrating delays!!

Masha phoned us this morning to let us know that as our meeting with the ministry was at 5pm on Friday afternoon there had been no time to get our documents across to the right department that day and that the documents only arrived this morning meaning that it would be Tuesday before we could have our meeting!

It means that the earliest we can see him now is Tuesday afternoon, we also have a very busy day on Wednesday with notary visits, formal application at court, etc, meaning a short visit on Wednesday as well then home early on Thursday morning.

Seeing our son for only a couple of hours was not what we expected this trip however we know that Gods hand is in control and that His timing is perfect! Court mandates that we must have at least 8 visits before our hearing so this means that rather than a flying second visit we must be here a full week before court, visiting him every day before we are eligible to have our hearing. This time will be much more important for him and us than an extra few days now when it will be almost 2 months before we see him again, still disappointing though....

With nothing else to do today we ventured into Moscow for a wee walk around the shops, in summary, Moscow is veeerry expensive...

Hope for better news to report tomorrow!

Philip and Amanda.

Block of flats near our Hotel, build on stilts during the Soviet era, just to see if it would work!!

Nice sunny day in Moscow, sanity levels receding!!

Christ the Redeemer Cathedral, the artwork inside is breathtaking!

Ministry meeting tomorrow?

Ok, after what seems like weeks in Moscow the big day is nearly here! We must wait until tomorrow morning to hear if the ministry will schedule a meeting with us that day in order to formally give us permission to start the adoption process and finally meet our son. There is a possibility that the meeting won't take place until Tuesday but we pray that won't happen and we can actually get to the real reason for being here!

Medicals went well on Friday, after a hearty breakfast of juice, porridge, bread, sausage, eggs, cheese, fruit, boiled potatoes, fried chicken and a wee cake we were ready to head out. (Amanda may not have had as hearty breakfast as I did!) The building itself was very plush, plenty of marble, paintings, wood panelling, etc, back in Soviet times it was a private hospital for high ranking government officials and their families. Some are indeed more equal than others!

Over the course of the day we were x-rayed, had blood taken and were generally prodded and examined by amongst others a,

Dermatologist
Pulminologist
Narcilogist
Oncologist
Physiologist
Immunologist

and also two other 'ologists that I can't quite remember now.

At the end of the day we got the all important piece of paper which we need for court and the only thing which came out of the whole experience in less than perfect health was my wallet!

We find out in the morning if our meeting will go ahead tomorrow, pray that all goes well.

Update tomorrow!


Philip & Amanda

Medical Clinic

St Basils Cathedral in Red Square

Amanda and Katya (our translator)