Back from Russia

I only have 5 minutes to write this, but if I don't do it now I will never find the time.
We have been back from Russia 2 weeks today.  It feels like a long time ago we were there, but feels like only yesterday I held my 2 son's in my arms and said goodbye.
I think I cried most of the way home on and off.  It was a horrible feeling, one I knew going in to this would be hard, but you really never know until you face it.
One of our boys "Mr A" was smiley from the start, and made games with us as soon as he could.  He is active and has a sense of humor.  He did get quieter as the week went on, especially being sick.  "Mr I" his brother was very serious for the first couple of days and we never saw a smile until day 3. Well, that melted our hearts until day 4 when we new we had to say goodbye, but we knew he would think we would be back again tomorrow.  He crawled over to 'his papa to be', lay on his chest and rubbed his face.  It made us happy and sad, you kind of feel like you have tricked them in a way.
We thought we would be back to get them in 2-3 months, but have now been told it is more like 4-5 months.
It is so hard when you see how they are living, the caregiver is crying because she is grateful they will be out of there soon, and you can't speed things up.
So we are happy and sad, and can't wait to go and bring them home, they are not well and need some good food, love and sunshine.

Train station

I will add more photos when I have time, I wish I could show pictures of the boys, but you will have to wait till after court on our second trip, until then, their identities are secret according to Russian law.

Hospital where they live

A church in Vladivostok

Hospital entrance

Train station

Vlad Inn where we stayed

Outside Nakhodka city where the boys live

Vladivostok

Vladivostok

Hospital/orphanage

Vladivostok

Vladivostok

3 days till we leave

Well it is 3 days till we leave Tauranga for our journey to Vladivostok Russia.  I am starting to get serious butterflies in my stomach now.

For those of you of my friends who are the praying kind and have asked me what to pray for, these are a few things:

• We will know the right decision on choosing what child is right for us/have a peace
• Safe travels, flights all connect and bags won't get lost
• our kids that are left home especially Chanel who doesn't understand whats going on will be safe and happy
• A smooth process

Those are kind of the main areas I guess on my mind.

Thanks for all the love and support , it so makes a difference  xxxx

Quick Update

Well it is all finally happening, we are leaving in a week (28th October) to meet our referral.
There is so much to get organized and so much emotional energy involved in this.  I haven't slept properly for days, all mostly excitement.
It will be so nice when we are home again, and can actually tell people.  I can say this, we are still laughing about the referral, quite a curve ball.
So this is a bit more excitement and intrigue with it than we thought :)

We have NEWS!

Well I am super excited that we actually have a referral as of this morning.  We are not allowed to know who as yet because it has to be approved by social welfare, but in a few days we should see ??? face.
At the moment we do know gender and age, and nationality.  So we will have another little asian face in our family.  (sorry we can't give details)
Travel all going smoothly, will mean we have to be in Russia in three weeks.  We are very relieved and happy, that soon ???? will be un-orphaned, and we will blessed with another child.  Happy days!!!

Waiting for the phone to ring

This week I rang the adoption agency about something really unexciting, not expecting to hear anything, because even though our homestudy is in Russia it has to be translated etc for a few weeks longer before it goes to the MOE  and they start finding a child for us.

WELL........She said "no" all the translation is finished and this week they have been talking about children for us.  She said we wont find out this week because she has other families over in Russia at the moment, but fingers crossed it maybe next week.
Hence to say we are so excited at the moment.   I don't know if I will be able to go out next week, I think I will be waiting by the phone :)

Update

I found out today that our documents/homestudy is on its way to Russia.
It is funny that each step, even paying agency fees etc, feel like we are getting closer to our Child.
We have been told it possibly will be quite quick given we are open to a big age range and either gender.  The other referrals that have been coming in have been between 2 - 4 weeks after the documents arrived, and then we have to travel two weeks after.
So now that everything has left New Zealand, we have lots to plan and think about, even down to names.
And I really need to up my Russian language practice!

So close

Our paper work is so close to being in Russia,  each day feels like a week.  It should be with our internal affairs for a few days, and hopefully by the end of the week I will be posting that it has landed in Russia.  Well I hope so anyway.  Each step that we can tick off means we are closer to meeting our child, and we are getting so excited/impatient.