Getting Ready for Russia

Pasha was our translator and driver for Artem's adoption. We love Pasha and his wife Masha and have kept in contact with them since we brought Artem home in 2008. Pasha is going to be our translator again for this adoption and with our trip a short two weeks away, I figure it's time to get ready mentally for Russia. I'm not talking about preparing for the cigarette smoke, warm sodas, or crazy driving; I'm talking about Pasha's ring tone on his phone. A phone that rings non-stop the entire time we are with him and a phone that has the world's worst song as it's ring tone.

The singer Peter Nalitch is a popular Russian folk singer and made this song and video as a joke, but it caught on and became very popular in Russia. The first 20 times I heard it, I thought I was going to go crazy but I have to admit the song is kind of catchy and by day three in Russia when I had heard the song 274 times, I started to like it and now when I hear it, it brings back such good memories.

So it's time to get mentally ready for Russia. I've played it 4 times tonight. Only 270 more playings to go before I leave and I'll be ready!

Moscow Bound!

We got the news today that we need to be in Moscow by July 11th and will meet our child(ren) on Monday July 12th! We have 22 days notice to travel which is more than double the 8 days notice we had with Artem.

I've spent the afternoon booking flights and arranging visas. I was able to get myself an upgradeable ticket on Delta and hacked into Randy's frequent flyer account borrowed some miles from Randy's account and got myself booked in First Class for my flight. Thanks Sweetie! Randy will join me in Moscow after an easy 5 hour flight from Abu Dhabi.

We are excited but very cautious since things are very different in the Moscow Region this time around. The Russian fostering program has significantly reduced the number of children eligible for adoption to foreigners and we are well aware of the fact that we could come home empty handed. Of course we hope to meet our newest family member(s) while there, but we have to have our hearts and heads ready for everything.

Artem is already reminding me that he wants "two baby brothers" and I told him there is a chance that he might get a baby sister instead of a baby brother. I asked him what his thoughts were on having a baby sister and after a long pause he replied, "No, no sister, just bring home a baby penguin instead." *sigh*

171H

Our 171H arrived this week and we can't believe we didn't have to get a Senator involved this time to help us. What a difference from when we applied for Artem's 171H. We sent our second 1600A application to Lewisville, TX on April 9th. I had my fingerprint appointment on May 24th and our 171H was in our mailbox on June 9th. That's eight weeks five days total to get our 171H. What a relief to have that form.

And we got a little news from our agency that we may have travel dates this coming Friday. :)