Going Home

Hi, we got Ally immigration papers and her visa today. We are going home tomorrow. I have just finished packing what I can for tonight, and hopefully in about 35 hours we will be safely home. Fingers crossed. We have lots of little videos and pictures to compile when we are back. The experinece was definately one in a life time and we have learned so much. Ally is doing pretty well considering and each day getting more and more comfortable with us. She started acting like a normal toddler yesterday getting into everything. I have started having to raise my voice with the Nyet when she found the stove so fun. She is getting used to Thomas and when looking at our pictures today said, "mama and papa" for the first time. All in all we are so ready to get home and the whole impact has not sunken in yet. I won't feel relieved till we are safely back home. Please keep good thoughts for our travels.

Love Christine, Thomas and Allison

Latest news and updates

Moscow

Well everyone, we are back in Moscow now. We got her passport on Friday from the police station. (militia station) Sunday was the 425 anniversary of the Arkhangelsk City and all sorts of festivities had been set up and planned. In fact we almost could not stay the last night at the hotel as it was rumored the President of Russia was coming and had a lot of diplomats and security that needed the hotel. We were told about 3 days before that everyone had to leave. We think however, that plans changed and the hotel could not find us another place to stay, that they allowed us to remain. However, they cut us off from the internet and it was generally annoying. At least we were not out on the street. So on Saturday it was beautiful out and we found a little fair set up. Ally and I road on a little train and Thomas took pictures. She also ate some French fries and got excited to see a person in a bit cat outfit. Daddy bought her a pin wheel and a little car that she picked out from a vendor.

Sunday morning we left the Pur hotel and Arkhangelsk for Moscow. She did really well on the plane but I was a bit uncomfortable. It was a little plane and that had a lot of heat on. So glad to get it over with. We were picked up and taken to a little apartment in downtown Moscow. It looks like a very old building and is very small. Thomas took a video of it. It also has the elevator of terror. We only ride it up as we are on the 6^th floor, and take the stairs going down. It is very small and makes a lot of rattling and chain clinking noises when it runs.

We are glad to have air conditioning, internet and a small kitchen. Although we were pretty tired we ventured out to the main street and found and English restaurant to eat in. We had fresh vegetables and steak, and the best Guinness that Thomas said he has ever had. I even drank some and I won’t touch it at home. It tastes like burned coffee at home. It was an expensive, but glad to get normal food again. There is a McDonalds down the street, but we have not gone there yet.

This morning (Monday) an embassy representative doctor came to the apartment to give Ally a check up and make sure all her immunizations and Dr. reports are in order. That was fine and our representative has taken all the paperwork over to the embassy to submit for us. We are just now waiting to make sure all of it is in order and get an appointment for Tuesday. We will then go meet with them and get all of her travel documents. (fingers crossed) we are close.

We can’t wait to get back home. She is not quite sure of the new places and keeps brining me her shoes and every time I get up to move she jumps up like we are leaving. It will be good to get her home and settled. She loves all of the toys and things we have for her. She has been pretty good about sharing with the other little kids we have been playing with. However at the airport yesterday, a little girl wanted to play with the learning puppy and so I let her. Ally looked a bit funny. Then when she had her cars out the other little kids wanted to play too and she took them away. That was the first time I saw her show possessiveness. I got a look from her a bit earlier as if to say, stop making friends for me, these are my toys. J We have also learned that colder milk is not good in the morning and causes reguratiation. Must warm milk first. J Overall she is doing pretty well for what all is going on. We just can’t wait to get home. We miss you all and our dog Moffitt too. J

Only a couple of steps left and hopefully will be on our way in about 48 hours.

Ally Day

Well, we have Ally now, and so far it is going better than we expected. Tuesday evening we flew to Kotlas on this old twin engine plane that vibrated a lot and did not make me relax. The flight luckily was only about 75 minutes so not too bad. We were greeted by a very talkative Adoption Interpreter named Anna. She was great, and just about the happiest Russian, ever. Our first stop about 8:30 PM was to the orphanage to drop off the outfit for Ally. She was still awake and so we got to see her for about 30 minutes and talk to her Doctor about general habits. There were a few tears as she was not still sure about us.

Kotlas was nicer than we remember from February. As there was green growth and we understood a bit more Russian. We go to the hotel and while waiting for the receptionist to copy our passport information; a very drunk Russian started happily talking to us. It was funny trying to communicate and talk thru Anna. We found out that #8 on the Redwings is from Russia, we think. It was pretty funny, but by this time we just wanted to get to our rooms. We had the suite that our friends had last time, and it was so much nicer than ours the first time. I told her than she had no reason to complain. You have to keep in mind that this is still no more than you would expect at a general Inn. We did have one bed instead of two twins; that was strange after so many weeks of having my own. We took a few pictures and will post them eventually.

Anyway, we could not sleep and were awake early. We went from euphoric to panic every so often. By 6:45 am we were on our way to the orphanage to get Ally. She was all dressed and ready for us. Both of the kids were given a juice box and a grocery store bag. They kept those bags like it was all they owned. At the time; I guess it was. I gave Ally the same toys that she got the first time; a My Little Pony and musical seahorse. She kept them either in the bag or her arms for the trip. There were zero tears and she was awesome. We got her on the plane and she even understood a bit of my Russian speaking to her. (come to mama and take my hand, etc.) We boarded the same plane from the night before, but this time it was not full. (8AM) This was not one where seats are assigned, they just check off like 30 numbers when you check in, no boarding passes. Very low tech.

During the flight she played with her musical seahorse and I got out my Ipod to show her. She did not like/understand the headphones at first and her favorite was pressing the buttons. So when she did her songs thru the headphones she would not wear them at first, but kept putting the ipod up to her ear. Eventually. She understood the headphones and played with all of those things for the rest of the flight. She sat quietly and we were so happy. It was better than we had ever imagined as she was so shy and this is such an incredible change for her.

We got back to our hotel and it took a while to get checked in, but we got a suite this time with a living room and we like it a lot. We are both sitting on an actual couch while I type this. We have missed real furniture. Thomas got us some lunch and we played with some of Ally’s new toys. One very cute thing I have to mention is that she has this little wooden puzzle with sea animals of different shapes. She would try and piece and would turn them to try how they fit in the space. Every once in a while instead of turning the piece she turned the whole puzzle board so that the piece fit the way she had it.

There were only a few tears when we tried to put her down for a nap. We did get her to sleep about 30 minutes, which I think was good for a first day. The other little boy was so wound up that he was hyper all day and did not sleep. We went out for dinner and again she was good. She does try to stuff a lot of food in her mouth if you let her. She also will need some dental work done. I am going to make an appointment tomorrow for when we get home. Her bottom teeth are fine, but her top are very rotted. She takes a while to chew. We got thru a bath, but she was pretty scared stiff about it, and brushed her teeth, but did not know about spitting the water out. So I need to research about how to say that tomorrow. She went to sleep pretty easily tonight, just rocked and watched a couple Russian cartoons. She had to be exhausted.

So tomorrow is another day and on Friday we are supposed to get her passport. So we are getting closer and hoping to be home late on the 1^st still.

Last Full Week in Ark

Well we are into our final full week here and still don’t feel like parents. I am getting so tired of waiting and telling people we will have her soon, but we will. It is Sunday here in northern Russia and the sun finally came out after a few chilly, gloomy days. I felt like taking a few pictures. These are pretty much local scenery around Arkhangelsk. Some of the highlights from our week include; Thomas trying caviar for the first time on Friday and finishing our 1,000 piece puzzle. We did a bit of shopping, but not too much. On Friday, to celebrate our ten business days being over, we went with the other family to a new Armenian restaurant. It had the shislek or grilled meat that we had at the beach last weekend. It was pretty good, but more of a bar/club atmosphere and pretty smoky. That is where Thomas could cross caviar off his life list. He thought it was a bit salty and weird to break open/chew the little eggs. He had enough. He will try just about anything though.

Some days were pretty slow and we just ventured out to find dinner or do a bit of grocery shopping. We have pretty much accepted being here and don’t feel nervous going out anymore. People look at us, but just out of mild curiosity. Thomas has been writing a survival guide and will post when he is finished. One thing that makes me a bit sad is all of the stray dogs around here. Most of them look like German Shepherds so it breaks my heart that I can’t help them and makes me miss Moffitt more. I guess she is having a good time with Grandma and Grandpa and riding in the boat.

We have all day today and then tomorrow we can start paperwork. Our representative is flying up from Moscow today to help us get thru all that stuff this week. Tuesday night we fly to Kotlas and drop off clothes for Ally at the orphanage. Really early Wednesday we pick her up and go right to the airport for an 8 AM flight back to Ark. It is sort of annoying in the fact that with the hotel and Visa registration we have to check out of this hotel and then check back in. So we have to pack up all of our stuff just to be gone for about 14 hours. Luckily only one of our friends is going to Kotlas so the husband and little girl are letting us keep our stuff in their room for the night. We are hoping to just take a couple of small bags with us and keep it simple. This is the older smaller plane and will be a bit of a nervous flight. I am sure it will be fine though. We are also nervous and excited to finally get Ally. I am sure we will learn really fast how unprepared we are. I have not been able to pick up as much Russian as I will need so will be carrying papers around with me for a while I suspect.

Anyway, we then have the rest of the week in Ark to wait on her passport. Then a week from today we fly down to Moscow and get thru the last steps before coming home. The US Embassy trip is the last part. We should have a bit of time for sightseeing there and then we can’t wait to get home and join in the summer.

Saturday

Hello Everyone, We have completed the 10 business day wait, so starting Monday we can start filling out paperwork and getting her documents. This week has been pretty boring and we have been just walking out for a bit of shopping or finding resturants. We did find one new one and think maybe a Chinese one today. We will have to go back to try that one either later tonight or tomorrow.

The weather is colder and gloomy the last few days. Good for taking naps and such. It still does not get dark though. Thomas did most of the work, but we finished our 1000 piece puzzle yesterday too. :-) Apparetnly he is obsessive complusive when he gets started on a puzzle.

Anyway things will start happening in two more days and still planning to be home late on the 1st. We can't wait and are so ready to come home.

Business Day 8

Hi Everyone, We are pretty bored today. Last weekend we had fun doing some sight seeing, but this week back at the hotel. We did find a sort of fast food resturant today and tried it out. It was okay, but not like home. They have this one resturant that is called the Log Cabin and I think is supposed to emulate American in the late 1800's as there is a picture of an old map of the US on the wall and that was the first place we found french fries and grilled ham and cheese. (sort of - it was one piece of bread with sour cream, ham, cheese, and of course dill all over the top. ) I am really craving Chinese food too, we can't find any. I guess there is one Japanese sushi place but not really wanting to go there yet.

We have two more business days for anyone to contest the court hearing and then Monday start with paperwork for the new Adoption Certificate and Birth Certificate. Then we fly out Tuesday night to Kotlas and pick her up first thing Wednesday morning.

Hopefully everyone is having a good week and will talk to you later.

General Thoughts

While spending time with the other family we have come up with a few you might be in Russia if’s.

If Riley (other families 4 year old) asks why her bathwater is green.

If Wrangler jeans cost $130 and is the high end brand to buy. (Stephanie tried on a pair and noticed that they were 4,000 rubles and she asked at the hotel about the price. The receptionist told her in a serious voice,” if she wanted the Wrangler brand she was going to have to pay for it.” )

Every time you ask for water, you have to specify, “no gas.” (carbonated water is big here.)

If you notice that all berries seemed to be called forest fruit. (I do have some really good forest fruit tea)

P’s are R’s B’s are V’s and H’s are N’s. (such a complex alphabet puzzle)

Thursday

Hi everyone, there is not much new to report. Yesterday was just beautiful here and we spent about 3 hours out walking. We found a flea market but mostly they had clothes and shoes. Russians are very into fashion. We strolled back along the shore and then took naps.
We also found a resturant called the Log Cabin that I had french fries and Russian grilled cheese. Which means one piece of bread with some ham cheese and dill on top. It was still fairly good. They put dill on everything. I wonder if I will need to plant some dill when we get home.

Thomas also misses Mountain Dew and Jalapanos. (sp)

Today it is rainy and we just went out to the grocery store. We bought a big puzzle so we can keep occupied with that. Tomorrow is a holiday here, so I am not sure what will be open or not.

Oh one thing I was going to mention is that on the airplane from the US, the Russian Dr's boarded and took all of our temperatures before we could deplane. That was interesting, but luckily no one was sick. They had ear scanners and was a bit weird.

Till then, counting the days.........

Indoor Camping

Thomas has decided staying in Russia is like camping indoors. Today I filled the bathtub and did our laundry in there. We have clothes lines thru the bathroom. One interesting thing is all the hotels that are nicer have these warming racks for their towels. So that helps. We also have paper plates and plastic silverware and such.

The hotel put the Americans all on the same floor and sometimes it feels like college with an open door policy when we stand out and all talk and meet each other in the hallway. The other two couples when to court today and are on their way back to Moscow to go home. Right now, I am not sure if sitting here waiting is better or worse than the 35 hour travel time to go home to wait the 10 days.

We did a bit of exploring and shopping today and tomorrow there is a flea market Thomas wants to check out. It is a bit of hike, but what else do we have to do. He did get Ally's plane tickets yesterday even thought we don't have her new birth certificate yet. Our first documents with her new name. Again, we just do what we are told. :-)

Keep the comments and emails coming - we are starting to get home sick a bit.

Getting to know Ark

Well we have started another week.  Today/Monday has been good and busy so far.  We met two other couples who have arrived for their court hearing tomorrow.  One is from Farmington Hills, not far from us and one originally from Romania, but has been living in NY for the last ten years.  Both of them are adoption little boys from Kotlas.  We spent a couple of hours chatting as we were waiting on instructions to buy Ally’s plane tickets.  For some reason Dimitry (or facilitator) wanted us to go to a woman he knows to get the tickets today.  However, the Aerofloat (airline) office that used to be in the hotel is not here anymore.  So after having to call him we had to wait in our rooms for instructions on where she had gone.  Since we don’t have custody of Ally yet and her name is different, it is normally hard to get tickets.  We just do and go where we are told.  J 

 

A couple of things I am going to ask a Russian person about is why all the trees in a park are painted white from the bottom to about four feet up.  Then a lot of the tops are cut off as well.  At about fifteen feet, the trunks are just exposed at the top and little branches sprout from the edges. 

 

The locals seem to take curious glances at us, but do not really stare.  We don’t really feel  much animosity here.  We felt more on display at Kotlas.  That was a smaller town.  It is really hard to describe how we are different as there are different kinds of people here.  Thomas thinks it is our faces are rounder and sometime smiling.  But pretty much,. Everyone notices us as we walk by.  A lot of the women wear heels and tight clothes, but not all. Most of the people are very skinny as well.  I have noticed a lot of different hair styles, but no curls.  Usually their hair is up or straight.   I wonder what they think of us, but assume just like, oh look, Americans.   There are a few Norwegians at the hotel.  They speak English and are working on getting a large Yacht ready.  We met the skipper and he was telling us about this has been a long project and they won a trial with the Russians and now they are having trouble getting all the parts they need to get going.

 

Anyway, another interesting thing is a lot of the music here is American, and in English.  Sometimes we hear Russian, but mostly pop songs from the 80’s and 90’s.  For example in the restaurant we were in last night, they had all these American videos on a screen, and I know that the locals who don’t speak English did not understand.  But wonder what they think of it.

 

The kids are all wearing hats, and it has been a bit chilly here, maybe in the 50’s.  Since Ark is on the water there usually is a breeze as well.  I did buy Ally a cute sun hat and a couple pair of those cute tights.   I still need to find a little stroller and a kids toilet seat cover thing.  I guess I have plenty of time.

 

Okay well enough for today.   Hope everyone is doing well at home and please send emails.  It is going to get boring here.  

 

Love Christine & Thomas. 

Saturday

And the waiting begins.   Today is Saturday and we pretty much just explored the downtown of Arkhangelsk.  We got out about 10 am, but nothing really opened till 11.  We did find a larger grocery store and got a few more things to drink.  And I found some Pantene J    We walked around for over an hour and then came back to the hotel.   After a break, ventured out again.  We found a couple of malls and kids stores.  I got a couple pair of cute tights and an outfit for Ally.  It is hard to tell a mall around here unless you can read the signs I guess.  J   For the most part they look like any other 4 story building that could be offices or apartments.  We walked around a couple more hours and were beat.  So we took the rest of the afternoon off, and just got back from eating at a psydo Italian restaurant.   I had minestrone soup, but it was more like thick tomatoe soup with kidney beans with spices and cheese on top.  It was good, but different.  Also the pasta with meat, had no tomoatoe sauce at all. It was good, but had carrots, onion and some cream sauce.  So the food is defiantly different.  Thomas has been experimenting as last night he tried dried reindeer meat for an appetizer and today, rabbit with potatoes.  He did mention that he had the best salmon steak ever as well.  They are very heavy on seafood here, not so good for me.

 

Otherwise we have noticed that a lot of the trees are cut right in half about 15 feet high and the parks, are not groomed at all.  Lots of overgrown grass and weeds.  I took a couple of pictures.  We are learning a few more Russian words and I am sure will have a log of them down by the time we leave.  Which will be in too many days.  I think 25 till we are on our way home. 

I will post pictures on various sites tomorrow. 

We have a daughter (in 10 business days) :-)

Adoption granted – we have a daughter.  Alevtina will become Allison Morgan on June 22^rd, and we will pick her up from the orphanage very early the morning of June 23^rd.  

We just got back from court and are feeling very relieved, and happy.   We were a bit nervous before going, not only because we were going into a Russian court room, but our driver was a bit late in picking us up.  Then the other hearing was over a bit late and we were stilling outside in the car when our hearing was to begin.  We were rushed up four flights of stairs and the proceeding started within about 2 minutes.  Hardly time to catch our breath and get last minute instructions.  

 

There was  our interpreter, the court secretary, the prosecutor, the orphanage representative and the Ministry of Education representative.  The judge was a woman and walked in to the courtroom.  We all stood and introduced ourselves.  A few statements were read and we gave our speeches.  Each of the other members had speeches and a few questions.  The judge did not ask Thomas any questions, but asked me two.  One was if it upset me and our marriage that Thomas was not working, and the other was if I felt I could provide for the family.  She looked at the picture book we brought and each of the representative said that giving Ally to us was in the best interest.  The judge left for deliberation and we had about 5 minutes to relax.  We showed the pictures to the prosecutor (lady) and the court reporter.  They liked them.   Once the judge came back she granted us custody of Ally after ten business days have passed. 

 

So now we have lots of time to explore Ark and learn Russian.  We have only gone a few blocks so far to find a small grocery store.  The buildings we have seen are very different than home. They are run down and lots of apartment buildings.  The closest I can equate them too are ghetto like places of south Chicago or Detroit.  They look a bit nicer than Kotlas.  The hotel is definitely nicer.  We like it fairly well, although I am having a hard time getting used to being offered vegetables and meat for breakfast. 

 

The grocery store was different.  It as nice to buy things like bananas and Thomas found Lays potato chips and he bought bacon flavored as well as mushroom flavored ones.  I stuck to normal ones.  He is also experimenting with the local candies and Nesquick flavored cookies.   Soon we will go exploring other stores and such.  But overall feel fairly safe. 

Day 1 in Arkhangelsk

Hello everyone, we are in Ark and are already experiencing new things. It was a very long journey starting with a 6 AM flight to DC, then a 9 hour wait. The flight over to Moscow was fine. However we had to be driven to the other airport in Moscow which is on the other side of town and took 90 minutes. Moscow is very spread out and large. It looks like a normal larger city but with different billboards and older and strange trucks and cars. Some normal things you pass like car dealerships and movie theatres. It reminded me of like Dallas or Houston. Nothing like St. Petersburg which is all very older and tightly close together.

We then flew out about 3 hours after getting to Moscow to Ark. That was a small plane, but fine. We had to be bused out to the plane that was about 50 yards from where we got on the bus, and the bus was not there so we had to wait about 10 minutes just to get on the bus. Even the little 4 year old girl traveling with us, pointed at the terminal and looked with a question why we had to do that when the plane was right there.

So after about 35 hours of travel we finally got to a room with a shower and bed. It was nice. We have an appointment to prepare for court in a couple of hours and will go to court in about 24 hours. We think we might venture to the grocery store in a few to see what we can find. We are pretty much on our own with the exeption of being told when a driver is coming to get us for appoitnments.

Write more later.

Getting Ready for Trip 2

Hello Everyone, Thomas and I are getting ready to leave for our second and hopefully last trip to Russia. We leave on June 2nd and will arrive in Moscow on the 3rd. We are to be in court to finalize the adoption of Alevtina at 11 Am on June 5th in Arkhangelsk. She will be renamed Allison Morgan Pilarczyk. We then have a ten business day wait for anyone to contest the hearing and then we pick her up from the orphanage. We will keep posting as we can thruought June. You can experience our Russia trip with us.

Love, Christine & Thomas