Back at the ZOO...

This morning we had a visitor… it was Dr Boris… he check out Nadia and filled out some kind of document for US embassy, I had to sign it and he left. It was very fast visit but since baby Nadia is super healthy there was no need for any blood work or other tests.
After her nap we went back at the Zoo, it was open again today, yeeey for the Zoo being open, this is only cheap fun I can find for her..
Weather was the best so far, sunny and super warm… we didn’t overdressed and Nadia was the only baby at the Zoo park that didn’t have a hat, gloves and down jacket,
Nadia was the only kid that was able to bend her knees and elbows… I am still in the shock how much clothes these kids wear… that is totally crazy in my opinion… hmmm we did got some bad looks but I did NOT care, my child needs SUNSHINE and she loves it…and her dark hair was hot from sunshine…
She loved being at the Zoo, there is not too much traffic noise and today there was only few families with kids.
We found place on sun that had a small fenced area and I have put her in the grass to play and investigate…. She had so much fun…. She touched every leaf and tried to pull grass, then she imitated me and tried to tan for a few minutes, that was very funny to me and her… she played like crazy with grass and leaves and today she got her vitamin D for sure… and when time came to leave Zoo park, she cried for a few seconds, then we stopped back at the store… we were out of milk again ( it seems to me that we are always out of milk)…once we came home I have put her in the crib just to unload groceries but when I have returned to our room she was sleeping already.
WOW ever day she is better and better child…. This morning I had to wake her up for 8 am visit of Dr. Boris…she didn’t wake up at all during the night and my squeaky bed doesn’t bother her at all anymore…but wake me up every time I try to turn around.
We have only 2 more days left…. And I can not wait till they pass by, we miss tata Brad and comfort our house very much…we have great big yard for her to play and investigate every day….

10 Day wait is over

Time is flying by, it has been already 10 days with my angel.. and every day she gets better and better.

We are very happy today, it is the best day so far...I love when she wakes up calling me momma ... she is happy in the morning just like me...and she talks a lot like me.. LOL
Today she saw reflection of her self on the oven doors and got so happy thinking it is another baby there... It broke my heart, but soon enough she will have her cousins Blake to play with her.
Her crying has stopped and last few days were wonderful, I was simply over smothering her with my love and attention and she didn't know how to go about it, so now I have learned my lesson and there is no more crying almost at all.. sometimes she will wine for a bit ,but that is more like talking to her self..
I am so ready to come home, you can not even imagine...today is 10th day I have Nadia and today is the day when NO ONE can take her away from me EVER... I woke up crying from overwhelming feeling of relief, knowing she is ours forever... it has been long long 5 years of trying for this... it feels like the end of long long marathon... I am happy and exhausted, ready to have normal life once again..

Today we are going to get her Russian passport.... Here is a photo of my angel in shoping cart...

Sunny day in Moscow

It is wonderful day today, it is sunny and warm. I am waiting for Miss. Nadia to wake up so we can go outside to play and get daily dose of vitamin D.
Today we will not overdress ourselves like the rest of the Russians…I hope to heave even more fun in park… we also have to walk back in the store, we are non stop running out of milk.. This child of mine is eating like crazy… I am also adding a full 9 oz bottle of fruit to her diet in between her scheduled meals every 4 hours, I noticed that her naps are lasting much longer and it is much easier to put her down that way. Miss.Nadia is now a true angel when it comes to bed and nap time… we are down to 15 minutes before lids gets to heavy to keep open.. LOL.. I can even leave the room to make her bottle with out having her cry, if she is with me in the kitchen she plays so well with cabinet doors and doesn’t wine any more… I am so proud of her… what a good girl she is…
This morning I had to give her a bath and that was very interesting experience, she cried and cried looking at laundry bucket full of water, so I put her in kitchen sink and that seemed to work much better, she did cry but not hysterical at all… once she was out of water she loved attention of baby lotion and dressing her… she talked to me entire time… even clapped her hands with the song I sang to her.
Ohh she smells so nice now and her hair is a bit curly what makes her look so cute. I can not wait until is a bit longer so I can make her piggy tails…
I am trying to do a load of laundry since last night… OMG .. it is so very difficult… machine in weird shape and has tons of buttons with pictures… Brad told me to press them all and thing will work, well…. It does work but after about 4 hours of washing I can NOT get this thing to spin water out of towels….so I have to squeeze water old fashioned way… and we do not have drier so now we have dripping towels all over the kitchen… LOL
This afternoon we are expecting Miss. Masha to visit us and help with some paperwork, finaly, someone to talk to…
As many of you know I love to talk and not having anyone to exchange my thoughts is very difficult for me, but in the other hand I am lucky to have Aunt Julie that is on yahoo messenger every morning and talks some sense in me.
She is my angel or reason… I love time we have together, she is becoming a true friend and I am so happy and thankful for that…
Nadia is a wake now and we are off to new sunny experience in park…

We are having fun together....

We are doing great, in past few days I have figured out how to put her in sleep with out complete melt downs.. it is actually very easy… I feed her very warm bottle of food and then I simply sit next to her crib and occasionally pet her back… it takes about 15-20 minutes and she is a sleep… Lucky momma Ivana !!!!
She is definitely coming out of her shell more and more ever day… she is so very funny… Nadia talks to me non- stop and sings la- la songs most of the day… hmmm that is as long as we keep on her schedule… if we are about to miss her nap time she goes crazy wild…. So, we keep up with naps and we are having an angel baby for now.
I think that she misses kids a lot, today at store she saw few small toddlers playing and she wanted to escape out of her shopping cart very badly… we can’t wait to get our cousin Blake to teach her all of his day care tricks… LOL
Well…. We have another 5 days here, and they are going to be very busy days.
I am looking forward to our return home more than I can describe….
“Baby ergo” is great for short walks but at this point my body is very sore from her weight and we are able to make only to the park and store today…. But weather was awesome, sunny and warm, so we played in park for one hour…
Well I am going to call Grammy and Grandpa in TN to let them know we have figure out sleeping routine.. Then it is time for dinner and bed…. Lets hope it is easy like last night..
I love every minute we have together, every day I wake up with my eyes full of tears of happiness and joy, looking at her calling me momma and smiling, then I take her in bed with me and we snuggle for a few minutes till she fully wakes up…she is the best baby ever in my opinion, I could not imagine any other way..…

DAY # 1- girls alone in Moscow

Nadia and I are now alone in Moscow City.
Daddy Brad has left for USA today,to get everything ready and to get Nadia's medical insurancefor October 1st.
We are here to stay till next Saturday 27th. It is going to be long 9 days till we meet him again.
I had anxiety all night thinking how are we going to do all alone in this big Russian world, but I have to say that feeling is all gone now.
Baby Nadia and I are having so much fun, this morning we went to have a nice cup of coffee. She was so good in coffee shop, and then we took a 1hour walk but we were back home for 1st nap at 10 am. She slept for entire 1, 5 hours... wow I was amazed and we had NO problems going to sleep. Aunt Shelle told us a trick where I lay down next to her crib and cover my eyes.... IT WORKED, IT WORKED... YAAAAY FOR AUNT SHELLE.
After Nadia's nap we took another short walk outside and we went to Nadia’s favorite place , groceries store... LOL , I strolled her around for an hour in shopping cart, she was singing and babbling entire time, even Russian people were laughing at her songs. Then mommy bought her first CD with Russian baby music so she can dance tonight...We were back home for her 2nd nap... and she went down the same way, but this time she was making singing noise till she fallen a sleep... ohhh she has just super cute personality...
After nap we are going out again... for a short walk. We are going to see handcraft show in local mall...and then we are going to play music and dance together....
we will keep you all posted...

We are doing great

It has been 6days with baby Nadia and we are doing wonderful, all three of us.
Nadia got used to us very quickly and she is coming out of her shell more and more every day.
Yesterday we took her in the store again and put her inside of shopping cart, She loved it so much, she was laughing and babbling entire time, people in the store we looking at us ... she was super funny smiling to everyone, looking very important to her self... LOL
Brad and I are figuring our different ways of putting her down for sleep, it has been quite a experience but I think we finally got it. We decided that the best way is to put her in her crib and softly taping her back until she falls a sleep is the best way so far.
Yesterday she had her first pudding; it was yummmmyy... today we are going to try with fruit baby yogurt.
Brad is leaving tomorrow morning to go back in New York. He needs to get her on our medical insurance ASAP, and if we do not apply till end of next week she will not have insurance till November.
Next week is going to be very busy for two of us, we have to go and get her Russian passport, Nadia needs medical exam for immigration purposes, and we need appointment at USA embassy to get her immigration paperwork and all other documents.
Weather has been awful entire time so far, it is cloudy every day and it is cold, but baby Nadia doesn't mind it at all, she loves being outside.
On Tuesday we will be able to post all of her photos.

Update after long long time

Hallo to all of you,
We have opened our blog to public now. Sorry, for not keeping with all of the news but there were too many things happening in past weeks.
We meet our baby Nadia on her 1st birthday August 6th; we even celebrated with cake and one candle.
The moment we saw her we knew she was our long waited child; she seemed so healthy and happy.
Sorry but there will be no photos until court decision comes in full affect, next week.
We had court hearing on Friday September 12th, it all went very fast. Mrs. Judge was late for hearing over 1.5 hours and once she arrived at 5p.m entire process didn't last more than 15 minutes... ohh we cried and celebrated at the same time... later that night we met with our dear friends Shelle and John Pendergrast, they had baby Luke with them. he is super cute toddler... smiling all the time... we also met Jena and Pete who are in Moscow to bring their two children home, they also had a court date few days before us.
Mrs. Judge and orphanage director were so nice that they allowed us to keep Naida with us for 10 day waiting period.
That was awesome from them so, Saturday 13th (our lucky #) we went to bring Nadia home with us. She was very happy baby and didn’t mind leaving her only place she knew till then.
Two of her favorite care givers were there.
Mrs Lyudmila and Mrs. Marina, they both cried as we were leaving, that made me cry too.
On the way home we stopped to take Nadia's passport photos. She was totally fine with new places and events.
We got home (our Russian apartment) and she had to take a nap, no problems at all. First night she slept OK till about Midnight and then she woke up. She needed new diaper and her bed was all wet, so I took her in my bed. I watched her all night sleep… she is so beautiful to me…
Tata (dad) Brad went many times to the local store that day and evening, but on the end we had everything she would need for the night. He is trying as hard as me to find the best way with her. She loves to hung out with him, they make faces together and then laugh bout that together.
Nadia is used on very tight schedule and we were told to try to keep that as long as we can.
So that is what we are doing now. She takes two naps a day and eats every 4 hours, but she also sleeps 10-11 hours every night.. That is awesome for me.
We are taking short walks with her every day and she already loves outside... She laughs entire time while outside, she is pretty interesting.
Brad and I are still learning how to go about many little things, but every day we are doing so much better.
Yesterday, we tried to alter her schedule to one big long nap, but we ended up with very very cranky and tired child, so today we went back on doing what she is used to, and she is doing great...
I am exhausted at this point and I am going to sleep like a happy mommy…
We will keep you posted as we catch some time, in her busy schedule…
and photos will come after Tuesday when our 10 days is expired and NO ONE can take her away from us...

WE ARE ON THE WAY TO RUSSIA !!

We are packed and ready to leave.
Bags are in the car,
Brad is making final check ups around the house and I had to sit down to take a break. Surprisingly we are both very calm and in good spirits.
Our flight leaves Boston at 7pm, we are driving to Boston this morning.
It is raining in Saranac Lake, we had wood stove going last night and we hope for some sun in Russia.
I am not sure if we are going to be able to access Internet during our travels but I will try.
Well .. I Have to run now, Brad is ready to leave . I keep repeating to my self ... we are going to meet our daughter Ana on the other side of the world and I am still having troubles realizing that this is not a movie , it is our life and it is all for real.... ohh how wonderful..
T T Y L.... got to go now....

Pollock's Luck and Magic Phone Call

It was mid day ,Tuesday and I was getting my office ready for the start of our 2 week vacation in Croatia, and trying to pack for the trip.
I have already set up my mind that we would travel in late August or early September, so I was focusing on getting by for next few weeks and didn't think about possibility of this kinda call.
and then.... phone ring... it was THE CALL we expected for 4 years.
I could not believe my ears.... on the other side was Lorien saying that we should to be in Russia by Tuesday, August 5Th and that there will be wonderful little girl waiting for us there.
Ohhhh I have to admit ... it was quite a special moment in our lives, can't say that we ever felt this way..
Baby is a "blind referral"( not a lot of information about her before travel ) and all we know about her is that she will be 1 year old on August 7Th and that day we should sign her papers and give her our name.
New plan is to leave from Boston on Sunday evening, we will be in Russia on Monday afternoon. We have rented a small apartment for our stay , it has free Internet and phone calls to entire world.
Tuesday (5Th )will be a BIG day for us. We will get her medical information and referral . Then we will go to visit her. We hope for more than two hours of visitations.
Even if we think that she in good health , we will have Dr.Boris make a exam and confirm that she has no health problems. We will also try to have our USA pediatrician "on call" to confirm that her medical record have no RED flags.
Wednesday(6Th) , we will also have right to visit with her and spent some quality time.
Thursday( 7Th) , is THE DAY when we shall sign petition to adopt her and give her our name, and we will celebrate her 1ST BIRTHDAY TOGETHER.
And from this day on, we are counting days and hours again till we meet to stay together forever. Court date is about 4-6 weeks after 1st visit .SO we hope to bring her home in September.
We plan to leave Russia on Friday (8Th) and fly over to Croatia to visit with my parents.
We will return to USA on August 13Th 2007. as it was scheduled before THE CALL.
I will keep you all posted...