I'm back....online

I don't even really know how to start this post, so I'm just going to take the easy route and give you a run down of what I've been up to.  Just a warning: This blog post will not be mostly borning, not well written, full of typos(I have a sleeping baby in my lap and no desire to proof read), un-witty(that's probably not a word, but refer back to when I said that this would not be well-written), and over all just a list of what I've been doing everyday.  I'm sure that tomorrow's blog post will be better, if you rather just save your time and hold out for that(then again, there are no guarantees that it will be better).  Here goes.

Saturday: To start the day off on a great note, Kellen woke up with over 102 temperature.  Nice.  Not exactly what you want to see when you are about to take you kid out of the country.  After a little bit of thinking it over, Josh and I decided that he was still better off going with me to EE than he was staying home sick and without his mama.  I MUCH rather have my sick baby with me, rather than away from me.  Our only concern was what if he got really sick in a foreign country. We decided the odds of him being really sick were slim, and it was best for me to just take him(best for him and for me).  Most fever related things that my children get are viral, so those type of things just have to run their course anyway.  Infact, Ray's bladder issue is the first illness that has called for anti-biotics in any of my children.  I know that might sound crazy to some, but honest to goodness, Ray is the only one of my children who have ever had/needed anti-biotics.  So, we thought the chance of Kellen needing medications were pretty slim and the best bet was to just take him with us so that he could be with me.  Doesn't ever child want their mama when their sick?  Infact, when I had pneumonia a few months ago, who do you think I called when I started feeling really bad? Yep.  My mama.

We got to the airport 2 hours before our flight.  The line to check-in with our airline was looooooong.  Knowing that after we checked in, we still had to make it through security, and then find our gate, the odds of us making our flight started dwindling.  The check-in line was sloooow moving.  After about 20 minutes I wondered if we would have even had the chance to check our bags before our flight departed.  45 minutes before our flight was to start boarding, there were still about 15 people ahead of us in the check-in line.  I was pretty much thinking that we were down for the count.  Then all of the sudden it was our turn.  I don't even know how the line moved to fast, but it did.  We got our boarding passes and booked it to security.  The line was longish there too, so I was still having my doubts that we were going to make it.  But things went swifting there too and before we knew it we were through security.  With ten minutes to spare, we rushed to our gate, which luckily wasn't too far away, and even had time for a super quick pit stop before we boarded.  We made it! Whew!

We were very blessed to get a one-stop flight this time, so we flew straight to Germany.  Since Kellen wasn't feeling well, he slept the majority of the time and did very well the little bit of the time that he was awake.  We had a very short lay over in Germany.  The Frankfort airport is huge and German security is tighter than the US(no kidding).  We arrived at our gate only a few minutes before our flight boarded, but at least we made it.  Kellen slept the majority of our second flight too.  By this time I could tell that he felt really rotten. He hadn't eaten anything in I don't know how long(that time change thing really messes me up), and he was burning up.  I was giving him fever reducer every six hours because he was on fire, but it wasn't lowering his fever all that much.

Sunday:  We arrived in country.  Nico, our driver, was waiting for us.  We changed some money and headed for our apartment.  When we got to our apartment we had to leave some of our bags with Nico because our apartment was on the 5th floor and the building had no elevators.  Nico made some kind of comment about it being a soviet building, therefore it had no elevators.  Who knew there was a corolation? 

Anyway.  The apartment was old.  Definitely built during soviet times.  But it was clean and it had a bed, and that was all that mattered to me.  It also had internet, but I was too tired to really care.  I was too tired to do anything but send a quick email to Josh and update my facebook status.  Kellen, after sleeping all day/night(once again, the time change thing throws me off), he still slept all night at the apartment.  Sick baby.

Monday:  Nico was there, bright and early at 6am to get us for the train.  Kellen slept for almost the whole train ride.  My mom slept alot too.  While they slept, I worried.  I had a long laundry list of things that I was worrying about.  Some where around hour 3 of the train ride, I decided that I needed to stop worrying and start figuring out a game plan.  I went through my worries one by one.  I devised a game plan for each of them, so I wouldn't worry so much.  The worries that were "un-fixable" I made myself choose to quit worrying about them, since they were out of my control.

All that thinking made me tired, so I slept off and on the rest of the train ride.  When we arrived in the region, Roman was there to meet us at the train station.  I just love Roman and was so glad to see him again.  Roman brought us to our apartment.  It is in the same building we were in last time we were here.  Very nice and very convenient.

Kellen slept the rest of the day....and night.  My mom and I napped some and then I showed her around the mall that is attached to our building.  There is supermarket in the mall, so we got some groceries, cooked, and ate supper.  When we got to the apartment, I tried to connect to the internet, but I couldn't.  I thought that I would give it some time instead of bugging Marina(our in region facilitator) right off the bat.  We never got the internet working though.

Tuesday:  Roman picked me up at 7:30am.  We then went and got Marina, and then proceeded to run around like crazy ALL DAY.  I didn't get back to the apartment until 6:30pm.  We got alot done though, so it was worth it. 

Normally, parents are able to get all the paperwork to begin the processing of their adopted child's passport, in one day.  We are adopting 3, so that makes more of all the paperwork.  Plus, my kids are in two different orphanages, which makes for more paperwork.  Plus, Josslyn was born in a different city, which makes for more paperwork.  All that to say, it was a given that it was going to take us more than one day to do all the paperwork to get my kids passport processing. 

One of the thing we had to do was pick up some paperwork from Josslyn and Danil's orphanage.  Every little item of paperwork takes forever to prepare because their book keeping is all done by hand.  While we were waiting for the papers to be ready, I could hear some children in the hallway.  I had not seen any of my kids yet and I was dying to see Danil and Josslyn since I was right there in their orphanage!  I knew that we were in a big rush and on a very tight schedule, so I was trying to be patient.  When I heard the children in the hall I wanted to peek my head out so bad, but I refrained.  Then I heard someone say Josslyn's name!  I just couldn't resist!  I peeeeeeked my head out of the door and I could see Josslyn's groupa coming down the stairs at the far end of the hall.  I couldn't see Josslyn though.

Then I saw her!  She was bringing up the rear of her group.  She was making her way down the stairs while peering over the railing to see what those ahead of her were doing.  I was SO torn.  I wanted to run and snatch her up, but I didn't want to disrupt the group headed out to the playground, so I just kept peeking around the door at her.  But she saw me.  Despite the week and a half time lapse, since I saw her last, and the fact that she could only see part of my face peeking around the door at the end of a long hallway, she recongnized me anyway.  Her face when she saw me was priceless.  I will NEVER forget it.  Her jaw dropped a mile and she let out an audible gasp.  She looked like she couldn't believe her eyes.  I couldn't resist any longer and stepped into the hallway so that she could see that it was really me.  She quickly stepped down the last few steps and started running towards me.  She ran straight into my arms and held on for dear life.  The whole time the nanny was yelling at her(rather harshly).  The nanny couldn't see me, so she had no idea why Josslyn had decided to bolt.  The nanny did not look happy with me, so I carried her back to her group, smothering her in kisses the whole time.  She didn't want me to put her down, but she relented and obeyed her nanny.  As I walked back to the offfice I could hear her yelling to all her friend's that her mama was there.  Priceless.  I just could not stop smiling after that. 

Kellen slept all day and ran high fever.

Wednesday....wait, that's today, right?? 
Roman picked me up at 8am and we went non-stop until 5:00pm.  Not as bad as yesterday, but still very tiring.  The major pluses of the day were 1. we did all the necessary paperwork to get the kids passport processing(takes 4 business days to process the passports), 2. I got to see all the kids!  Infact, today was a day of several firsts.  I not only got the see all three of the kids together for the first time, but I also got to take them outside of the orphanage for the first time.  Both went well. 

Parker and Danil's reaction to seeing me were not quite as positive as Josslyn's though.  Parker burst in to tears and said he wanted to go back to his group.  Nice.  And Danil just kinda acted like he didn't care either way.  Better than Parker, so I'm not complaining. 

While Parker was upset to see me, Marina calmed him down.  The language is the barrier with us and Parker.  He responds well to everyone who speaks to him in Russian.  Not so much so with English.  Infact, he rejects English all together.  Roman told him, in Russian, "When you are with your new mama and papa and you are thirsty and want a drink, all you have to do is say, 'drink'".  Parker said, "I can't remember that."  Roman said, "It is easy.  All you have to say is 'drink'".  Parker emphatically replied, "I CAN'T remember that."  Marina said tha the is very verbal for his age, so the language thing is what is causing the barrier between him and us.

We brought Danil and Josslyn back to their orphanage first.  Parker perked up big time when we pulled up at the orphanage.  That was his home, up until a couple of months ago when he was transferred to the older kids orphanage.  When I got back to the car Roman told me that Parker likes that place very much.  He told Roman, "This was my best.  I had many friends when I was here."  Roman told me that Parker misses that place very much.  I was so sad for him.  So many life changes for such a young boy.

Kellen is much better today.  He did sleep most of the day, but his fever finally broke and he is done with that, which is a relief.  I am so glad that my mom was here and I could leave with him her the past few days. Even if he had not been sick, it would not have been good for him to be with me the past two days.  We spent alot of time sitting and waiting in various offices.  Not a good environment for a 14 month old.

Tomorrow, I get to actually visit with the kids.  Danil and Josslyn in the morning and Parker in the afternoon.

I just might take a few pictures and post them too.  I guess I failed to mention, that the internet wasn't working until now, so that is why I haven't blogged or emailed anyone until now.   Oh, well.  Now you know.  It is very late here, so I'm going to go for tonight.  If I still have internet tommorrow, then I'll blog again....