OUR COURT DATE HAS BEEN SET!!!

Just a quick post to let you know that we received a call from our adoption agency this morning and our court date is going to be Monday, January 28, 2008! This was great news for me this morning as I was already feeling "homesick" from Jakob...and still do...but this makes the wait seem less. I couldn't help but wonder this morning if he is wondering where we went...why haven't those people with those NutriGrain bars returned?

We will have to be in Moscow on Saturday, January 26th and will likely stay through Jakob's birthday on January 30th! It will be great to spend his 2nd birthday with him and we hope to be able to do a little party with all the kids in his group. Just a bit of trivia here...I realized just before we went to Moscow this past time that my birthday + Wayne's birthday = Jakob's birthday (i.e. 12th of Sept + 18th of Apr = 30th of Jan.).

So next question you ask....WHEN DOES HE GET TO COME HOME? Good question...we are not 100% sure yet, but we will find out the first week of January. Normally, it is 3.5 weeks after the court date, so our guess is we will go back the last week of February to return the first week of March.

Anyway - I've got to run now to go buy groceries! We have nothing to eat in this house and my stomach is still on Moscow time.

I'll keep posting new news as I get it!

Day 7 - Dec 20...we're back

Just a quick post (if anyone is still checking) to say that we are back home now. Our flights (3 of them) were uneventful, which was good. I actually slept most of the way back...dreaming of little Mian/Jakob and wishing he was with us.

On our flight from Amsterdam to Houston, I actually got up to go to the restroom...and when I returned realized I was still 1/2 sleeping...the reason I got up to go to the restroom was because I thought we were about to visit with Mian so I wanted to get that out of the way so I wouldn't need to go when we were with him.....so sad.

Jakob did keep me laughing the whole way home as I thought of all the great times we had with him and just what a smart, funny little guy he is. It will be amazing to see how much he learns and changes once he is back home with us.

One thing I forgot to mention...yesterday when we gave him the NutriGrain bar (shown in the video), I threw away the wrapper in a sealed trashcan in the room. About 10 minutes later, he actually went over and tried to pry the lid off the trashcan...I think he thought we missed a piece! Poor thing, he really needs more food.

Anyway - I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Year. My letter will be going out late this year, but I've got a great excuse!

Love, Courtney, Wayne, and Jakob!

Day 6 Final Posting for Trip #1 (Dec 19, 2007)

We just arrived back from the orphanage for our last visit with Jakob before heading back.

We had a WONDERFUL last visit! We started out in the smaller room that we were in the first day and then moved back to the larger room about 1/2 way through (as they were doing some sort of play with other kids in the larger room).

In the smaller room, he wolfed down another NutriGrain bar in no time...like he has never seen food before! He has figured out that when Wayne goes into the backpack, that is what he is getting.

When we got to the larger room, Jakob was on fire by then! Very comfortable with us and copying EVERYTHING we did. I was so hot that I wanted to take my shoes off. As soon as I did that, Jakob sat down and pointed to his shoes wanting me to take them off. So I did. Then, because he is so proud of his shoes...he wanted me to put mine back on (by handing each one to me) and then he handed me his shoes to put back on. We did this several times (as I kept getting so hot I couldn't stand it anymore). I also tried just pushing my sleeves up one time for relief...and of course...he did the same! It was so cute!

The other family we had in the room with us this morning came in towards the end. Since the little girl was sitting in the mom's lap, Mian kept coming over and sitting in my lap. Later, the other girl and Mom started to crawl across the floor....who can guess what Mian did then??? Yes, he started crawling across the floor! I'm starting to worry that when he comes home, he'll start howling like a beagle in no time!!!! The other funny thing that happened was the mom went into her bag to get something out, so Mian walked over to her to see what she was getting. We worked out that he was looking to see if she had one of those NutriGrain bars....once he saw it was just toys, he was like "hum."

Needless to say, when the door opened at 6 with one of his caregivers, he was ready to go...as that meant supper time for him. We both gave him big hugs and kisses goodbye and also left the bear and photo album we made him (hopefully it will stay with him...otherwise, there will be some other lucky kid getting to look at our faces all the time...ha ha).

It has not quite hit me yet that we won't get to see him for another month or so, but I'm sure it will either tonight or tomorrow as we leave.

We will use this blog for our next trip as well, so it will continue to be here for those of us that need a little Jakob fix every once in awhile.

We'll be arriving back on Thursday night with Rachael, Rohan and Mackenzie arriving on Saturday, so that will be a wonderful Christmas for us to have them with us!

Thanks again, everyone, for all of your love and support.

Merry Christmas everyone and have a safe New Year!

Love, Courtney, Wayne, and Jakob

Day 6 - Mid-Day Posting (Dec 19, 2007)

Hi Everyone,

We decided to head back to our hotel this afternoon between our morning and afternoon visit, so thought I'd do a quick blog.

We went to the orphanage around 10 AM this morning to see Mian (Jakob). He seemed a bit shy again this morning, but we had a good play for about 30 or so minutes before the caregivers came in to start decorating the room for Christmas (with full on loud talking in Russian). This was a bit of a bummer because as we've seen, Mian is just like his big brother, Rosco....very nosey....has to know what is going on...what everyone around him is doing, so his attention was all over the place. He either wanted to be up and in the action or sitting in his Mama's lap (which I didn't mind one bit)! Of course, we were fine with it...he has probably not seen people hanging Christmas decorations before, so it was all new to him.

As I said before in an earlier blog...he is such a boy! One of the guy workers was drilling something into the wall, set the drill down, and Mian was all over it! Totally in awe with the drill and with any other gadgets (I've already mentally noted that he is not allowed to shop at Home Depot or Best Buy alone with his dad).

One other couple came in with their 18 month old daughter (who was HUGE compared to Mian...he is a little shrimp). They are on their 2nd visit with their court date this Friday. It was good to see that they are almost done with the process (end of Jan for them). Anyway - we are about to head back to the orphanage, so better start posting videos / photos from this morning.

Until then....Courtney, Wayne, and Mian (Jakob)!

P.S. While I'm waiting for the video to upload...I'll add a bit more about Moscow itself. The city center is SO CLEAN (the buildings and streets). They keep the streets spotless and there are essentially no homeless people wandering around. They do have homeless people, but not just sitting around anywhere and everywhere, so it is really nice. Also - we've never seen so many matching coats and hats in our lives....and women in high heel boots! They get very dressed up regardless of the occasion! I've not seen one person in tennis shoes, jeans and a shirt (except for us) :)

The traffic here is NUTS! Traffic laws have been thrown out the door and it is every driver for themselves. The drivers have not figured out what the re-circ button does in the car, so you are inhaling car fumes left and right. Smoking is also extremely popular here (only about $2 for a pack of cigarettes, so you can see why). If we were to stay much longer, we would probably each have to subtract 2 years from our life expectancy.

Bonus blog from Day 5

Ok, people...I hear you....

You've asked for more videos, so I'm going to upload a couple more from Day 5!

Mom - I saw that you asked about the clothes. We are donating 12 brand new, warm pajamas along with 12 pairs of socks. These will be for the kids in his group. We also brought a few boxes of NutriGrain bars for the kids as well. They will get all of these items this morning. We are waiting to give him the Turpin 25 shirt on the 3rd visit when we are coming home (to make sure it stays with him). As far as the bear with our photo on it...he seems very uninterested in it, but we will leave it with him anyway as he might take to it later when there aren't all the other distractions.

We will post more later this evening. (Note: It is 6:22 AM now and probably won't be for another 12 hours before we post...so Mom, no need to refresh so often...such a caring babushka...grandmother)!

Love to all!

Day 5 - December 18, 2007

Hello Everyone!

We have received lots of emails and comments on our posting from yesterday and they have all been so beautiful! Thank you so much for thinking of us, sending us your good vibes, and being just as emotional! Jakob has the biggest fan club in the world!

We had another great day with Jakob (Mian as we call him here since that is all he knows)!

Before going to the orphanage, we had to go to a government office to fill out some paperwork (one very important document we signed was the one saying that we want to proceed and adopt him as our son)! We also met 3 other families adopting through our agency (2 of them are back for their 2nd child), so it was nice to meet all of them and hear their stories.

We then headed to the orphanage and got about a 30-40 minute visit with him before he had to head off to his nap (they have to keep on their schedule)! When he walked in to see us, you could tell that he recognized us from yesterday. I called his name and held out my arms and he came straight to me and gave me a hug and let me hold him. The caregiver seemed very happy to see that...she is really sweet and so good with Jakob. She has also started referring to us as "Mama" and "Papa" when she talks to Jakob about us and has pointed out that she thinks Mian and I have the same face. We were in a different room than the day before (much larger), so he spent a bit of time looking around that and acting a bit shy. Tickling always seems to do the trick.

After our morning visit, the driver took us to a place to get lunch and then over to Victory Park (memorial and museum to celebrate the Russians winning WWII...along with all the other allies who think they won it by themselves as well...ha ha). We then went back around 4:30 for about a 90 minute visit before heading to meeting up with an Accenture colleague and his wife for dinner.

A few more things we learned / noticed today about him...
- He loves things with handles so he can carry it around...it appears to make him feel important to be lugging something around! He would carry around the box that had shapes in it, the photo book we had for him with a handle, or a Leap Frog ABC radio with a handle on it....so funny!
- He loves music! Yesterday he loved playing with a xylophone. Today it was a tambourine and also a music microphone. He typically has one music instrument in one hand and toy with a handle in the other.
- He loves NutriGrain bars! We decided to try out a strawberry NutriGrain bar with him today. Wayne broke off little pieces and he would suck on it for a bit, swallow it, and then look at Wayne with his big brown eyes as if to say, "I'm ready for my next bite..." Wayne gave him about 1/2 in the morning. When he saw Wayne put the other half away, he looked down at the table and started picking up the crumbs on the table and eating them...poor thing!
- He has already started playing "association games" with us. On the first day, he would push the Eeyore character on the Winnie the Pooh music book and Wayne would do a little dance with his upper body. Today, he kept pressing that one button over and over again and would look at Wayne every time to see him do the dance. Wayne has already started something he wished he hadn't... He associates me with cuddling and likes to sit in my lap (same association the beagles have with me...which is fine by me as I don't have to do a retarded dance each time....ha ha)!
- He loves to point out his shoes. We think maybe he does not wear them that often, so when he does have them on...he is very proud.
- When he is ready to move on to something different or is thinking...he uses both hands and taps all of his fingers (either on the table or on his stomach)...it looks like such an "old man" thing to do and is so funny to see a little kid doing it. Sometimes he seems like such an old soul to me.
- And as most 2 year olds do...he likes to play hide and seek as well as chase.
- And as most boys do...he likes to bang on things. I think we'll have to get him a little tool box to carry around with some things he can bang on...maybe that will help keep the beagles quiet!
- Most importantly...we noticed a huge difference in his interactions with us! Yesterday, we never saw his teeth as he would grin but not fully smile. Today, he was all teeth...huge smiles and laughing!

Well, I know this is a long posting and I appreciate those who made it this far in the post!

Tomorrow will be our last 2 visits with him before we head out on Thursday (sniff sniff). I have to honestly say that is will be hard...but now that I've seen the pristinely clean orphange and the amazing staff there...and especially how he lights up when he sees the women who have raised him thus far...I feel like he WILL be ok until we are able to return. He is in good hands...physcially and spiritually!

Lastly - our agency rep has said that she is trying to set our court dates this week and thinks we will likely return the very last week of January for court. It would be great if it happens then as his 2nd birthday is January 30 and it would be great to do a little party with him at the orphanage!

We're off to bed now, but we will post more tomorrow!

Love to all - Courtney, Wayne and Jakob!

P.S. Catherine - please kiss the beagles for me...not cheating...I mean on the mouth :)

Day 4 - December 17, 2007

TODAY WAS THE DAY...WE FINALLY MET MIAN (a.k.a. Jakob)!!!

We started our day very early (5:30 AM) as neither of us could sleep. We got ready, ate breakfast at our favorite little cafe, and went for a walk. We met the driver around 9:30 AM and made our first stop at what we thought was the orphange. It was a really nice red building and he called to say we were a bit early...only to find out that was not the right place (it was a govt. building we will go to tomorrow). We then spent another 45 minutes driving to the real orphange...which from the outside was not as nice. The inside; however, was spotless...very clean, neat, organized, not what we expected (we were pleasantly surprised)! We met with the orphange director and had a chance to ask some questions (this was after starting and stopping about 10 times with interruptions...we've become very patient).

After being there about 30 or so minutes, we were taken into a small room that they use for speech therapy that also had some toys in it. A few mintues later, Mian the munchkin came walking through the door. They said some things to him in Russian and then he waived to us! I quickly pulled out a book that made noise and he was in! He came over and started playing with it immediately. Everyone else saw he was ok and left us there with him to play for the next 90 minutes. We had been told that he might be a bit shy with Wayne as he does not really see men much, but that was not the case. Wayne turned on his charm (ha ha) and Mian was drawn to him immediately. We played with books, crayons, toys, more toys, etc and had a wonderful time with him. He is just such a sweet boy! We can't wait to fatten him up a bit as he is a bit skinny (and I'm dying to get him a decent hair cut). We brought an Old Navy outfit to hold up to him to see how it would fit. The 18-24 month old clothes seem to be about right...maybe even a little big for him at this point (especially his short little legs...think he'll be taking more after Wayne than me in that area). His Russian outfit said 24 months and fit about right...also maybe a little big.

We were even able to use some Russian with him (he pointed to Rosco and Bailey when we asked him in Russian where the dog was, so that was good). He is definitely a boy....loves building and stacking things, was not really into the stuffed bear we had for him...and when he heard a truck outside, he wanted to look out and see it, so Wayne had to lift him up so they could watch the truck go by. Wayne and I both felt he was very quick to catch on to things...he mimicked everything we did, followed our direction if we showed him how to do something and was also very polite in letting us know when he was ready to move on to the next thing! When he was sitting on Wayne's lap, I said to him "good-YEH Papa" (where is Papa) and he pointed to Wayne and said "Papa!" Not sure how he knew that or if he has just seen that in books, but I was impressed. Of course, Mama did not work out but hey, we've got time. Wayne says we have to work on Daddy next as he does not really want to be called Papa...I told him that maybe when we start to call Mian Jakob he can work on that as well :)

I've included some videos and photos from today. We expect to get in 2 visits tomorrow, so hopefully that will be the case.

After the orphange, we just had the driver take us to Gorky Park where we had lunch and watched ice skating before heading back over to Arbat Street. Sitting in the hotel is pretty boring, so we are trying to get out as much as possible despite the cold and snow.

Thanks to everyone who has sent comments through...we've read them all and love getting them!

Make sure you click the play button on the 2 pictures below as they are videos (adding this comment in as some folks have been missing it).

We'll post more photos tomorrow!
Love, Courtney, Wayne and Mian (Jakob)

Day 2/3 - December 15 & 16, 2007

Hello everyone! We are alive and well in chilly Moscow! We arrived on Saturday, December 15 around 5 PM with little to no dramas (which is what you like when you are traveling). We did not do much on Saturday evening as we were totally exhausted by the time we arrived and just watched a sub-standard movie on the Hallmark channel and ordered in some food from the hotel. It was very exciting for us to see a view of the Red Square from our hotel window!

On Sunday (after a good night's sleep), we ventured out for a full day of walking to see the city. We went to a great cafe down the road (for those of you who have seen the movie "Elf", this place should have a sign on their door saying "World's Best Cup of Coffee!"). We then headed to Red Square and went to the Lenin Mausoleum (first time I've seen anyone that old that has been embalmed...sort of creepy), St. Basil's Cathedral (despite what the photo shows, the cathedral is not like the leaning tower of Pisa), GUM (Russia's largest department store with all of the top, most expensive brands...came out empty handed, duh), and other sites in the area. We then headed over to the old KGB headquarters before circling back to the Kremlin where we went through the cathedrals and the State Armoury museum. It was then off to Old Arbat street where they have lots of shops and cafes. We ate at a Russian buffet style restaurant (luckily they had the food listed in English as well) and then stopped for a good, ol' cup of coffee at Starbucks (if you ever doubted the Wayne could not sniff one out in Moscow, shame on you)! Lastly, we went in to the Hard Rock Cafe to buy my mom a souvenir pin to add to her collection.

Back at the hotel, we got a call from our local agent for the adoption. We'll be meeting the driver at 9:30 AM tomorrow and we'll head straight to the orphanage from there. They've said we may only get 1 visit in tomorrow, but we will try to push for 2. We just finished off our night by listing about 6-7 questions that we have for the orphange (as we will likely only have a translator with us tomorrow). We had to narrow it down to the few, most important (so we decided to take off questions like..."Can he color inside the lines" and "Is he good at fetching beverages out of the fridge"). Lets face it, you have to keep your sense of humor during the adoption process or you'll just go mad.

We're off to bed now...counting the minutes until we meet Jakob! Until tomorrow...

Day 1 - December 14, 2007 - Flight to Moscow

As we were sitting in the Houston airport, waiting for our flight to depart (to Moscow via Amsterdam), we decided the best way to inform everyone of our travels and also document the journey for Jakob would be through this blog.

We have a 16 hour journey ahead of us, but it will be THE best Christmas present we could ever ask for.

While excitement is the ultimate emotion we are feeling right now, it is still a bit surreal that we will get to meet our son in just a couple of days.

We will keep you all posted on our travels once we get to Moscow...and of course, videos and pictures will follow!