Various updates

As far as the Mohawk vote, we had a very tight runing between NO and NO WAY!!! I think the "nay's" have it.

As far as updates:

1. Still waiting.
2. There are 7 couples from our agency all waiting for "the letter" from Moscow. 2 of them got court dates on Monday. This may give hope that whoever was on vacation is now back.
3. Katie went over to Valentina's house last night. Valentina is the gal from Russia who agreed to come over a few times a week to speak Russian to Zac (once we get him) to give him comfort. Katie said that she is an absolutely wonderful person.
4. We have heard that Zac's birthplace was actually Kaltan not Novokuznetsk. We've done alittle research to find out more about the city.... but it's hard to read all those websites in Russian. We've seen a few pictures, read a few short paragraphs. (translated by bablefish)
5. I'm really starting to get consumed by this whole thing. Every day that passes by, I think about Zac more. I stare at his pictures that we took on the first trip. I have his face memorized. I can trace the exact outline of his tiny fingers. I can feel his eyelids closing against my cheek. I study every picture and video that we have of him. I don't go more than 30 minutes without some sort of thought about him. Even when I'm really engaged into something.

(sigh)

Mohawks?

I was in the DMV on Friday getting a new driver's license and I decided that I officially do NOT like government offices.... truthfully, it's not even a story worth sharing. But for as many hours as I've spent waiting in government offices this past year, I consider myself somewhat of an expert on the topic.

Anywho, while waiting in line, I noticed a mother of three waiting directly behind me. Actually, it wasn't the mother that I noticed so much - but rather her 3 year old son with a mohawk shaved into his head! "Can you do that?" I thought to myself. It was kinda cute, but.... I don't know. It would seem to me that Mohawks are a self expression of rebellion and individuality. Therefore, I'm thinking that the mom should have given herself the mohawk and stayed with something more traditional for her son.

So I'm opening up this one to a poll. What do you all think? Yes Mohawk? or No Mohawk? Please include your comments as well. This should be fun.

Do you think that parents should give their 1-3 year olds Mohawks?
	Yes
	Yes, as long as it's not dyed a crazy color
	No
	NO WAY!!!
	I'm undecided
pollcode.com free polls

Sept 15th?

So, the theme of my posts lately have been "reasons that we're ready for our trip". Today, I thought of the granddaddy of them all. Recently, someone posted that we should put a non-refundable deposit down on a vacation. That would guarantee our departure, right?.

So in that same line of reasoning - we have tickets to the Nebraska vs. USC game this September 15th. It doesn't get much bigger than that around here. USC is ranked #1. Nebraska is going to have their big "turnaround" season. (Yet to be determined...) Therefore, we've got to be traveling by then.... right?

Another reason that we're ready

While we're on the subject of "readiness", there has been an issue that has been "looming" around our household for quite some time.

It is the issue of potty training and having two in diapers at the same time. (We did this with our first two but it was a fairly short time period before Hallie figured things out and we were back to one).

Well, Katie and I are proud to announce that Jake is about 90% potty trained. Which, considering the battle we've gone through, is pretty darn good. And the reality is that this has all transpired in the last week or so. We are very thrilled and now are ready for the call. (For we wouldn't want to go TOO LONG without diapers in our lives).

Every last detail

Hi everyone! This entry is from Katie. Ryan and I want to give you something to read until we finally get our call and can tell you about our second trip, but also don't want to bore you. I thought I would let you know about some last minute details I have been working on since I have the time!

First of all, I wanted Hallie and Jacob to have some special things from mom and dad to get while we were away. So, I purchased a new game (Hungry, Hungry Hippos) for both, a punching bag for Jake and a garage sale Cinderella vanity for Hallie. I also got some posterboard for them to make welcome home signs for Zachary.

Before our first trip, Ryan and I read some books on CD for them to have while we are away as well. The funniest is Ryan's rendition of "The monster at the end of this book."

Keep in mind all of these things are SURPRISES for the kids, so family members please do not tell them these treats are coming!

I also wanted to write a letter to Zachary's birthmom so that if she ever got it she would know that her son is in a home with parents that love him and want to provide for him in every way. I also wanted to thank her for giving our son life. Well, I had a chance to write down my thoughts and my new Russian aquaitance that lives two blocks away is going to translate the letter for me!

But, now I have all this done, so I guess we can get the call tomorrow! We'll see. Katie

The Room

It occured to me today that I haven't blogged much about Zac's room. This may be in part because we've decided to let Zac share a room with Jake. We figure it builds character as well as relationships between the boys. Secondly, Zac is not used to sleeping totally by himself so we thought this arrangement may be helpful. Of course we may end up doing something different... it really depends on how the boys handle it.

Anyway, here's some pictures. Please note the two different tones of green. This is mimick Memorial Stadium's field turf. (Where the Huskers play). Katie and I painted the walls awhile ago. I'll confess that painting that room may have been the most difficult moment in our marriage....just kidding.... but not really.

Seriously, it involved a tremendous amount of patience, measuring and mathmatics. But we persevered and are still married, so it was all worth it.

On a side note related to yesterday's post: We watched High School Musical 2 last night. I must admit that it was pretty good..... OK, who am I kidding? OMG! It was GR8!!!! (sorry my inner Jr. High girl just released itself... I just couldn't resist).

Now aren't all of you wondering why we picked the name Zac. Could it be b/c of Zac Efron??? (Same spelling and everything)

Another week

Well, it's Friday. No word of a court date. So we'll make it through the weekend and try again Monday. I should mention that our agency DID call us yesterday but it was nothing more than saying that we're still waiting. It WAS very nice to hear from them. Once again, they are a great agency.

So this weekend we'll pass the time watching High School Musical 2. (Yes, I'll confess that I'm excited to see it..... I'm not ashamed..... well, maybe alittle..... but not so much that I won't put it on the blog).

Happy Birthday Zac

Today is Zac's 22 month birthday. For those of you that are mathmatically challenged, Zac's birthday is October 16th. Of course, we WILL have him home by his 2nd birthday. That's not even a question... right?

Anyway, we're thinking of you today, little buddy. (and everyday)

Happy birthday Pasha!

US Embassy

To all of you adoptive parents: (aka - PAP's... but as I've discussed before, I'm not a big adoption acronymn dude)

We caught wind of some helpful info about what to do once your adoption is done and you're trying to bring home your son or daughter. (DD or DS... ahhh! there I go again.)

Here's a link to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow: http://moscow.usembassy.gov/consular/consular.php?record_id=adoptions

This will give you a headstart as to what you need to do before you go on your second trip.

We're excited that we found this when we did. (...especially because we're going to get our call tomorrow.... right?)

Done with paperwork?

These past few weeks we've had to round up a few more documents for the final trip. Some of it is updating our dossier, some of it is for the judge when we go to court, and some of it is for the US embassy when we bring Zac home.

Well, today was a big day b/c (we think) that we've officially gathered up every last piece of paper needed to finish this adoption. (Let's not bring up the post-placement stuff... we'll just enjoy the moment for now).

Of course, it wasn't without a battle. Katie went to Lincoln (about a 1 hour drive) with the last 4 documents to be appostilled. 2 of them were appostille worthy. The others.... apparently were not worthy. They had to be re-notarized. (The right way.... I bet you didn't know there is a right and wrong way to notarize something!) So Katie drove herself and the two kids back to Omaha to renotarize the documents and then turned right back around to Lincoln again just to get everything done. (Yea Katie! Thanks for being so awesome!)

So now we're done. (with paperwork... sort of)

Katie said that she got teary-eyed when she got the last document done. I don't blame her. It's been quite the ride. Now we'll wait for the courtdate. (Tomorrow maybe?)

I'm back

OK Everybody. I'm terribly sorry for last week. As I re-read my posts I realize that I sounded very "dark". Although I am bummed out that we haven't gotten our court date, it's not like I'm not moping around the house in slippers, skipping work.

So I'm recommitting myself to blogging. It is my duty to provide fun, entertaining, informative information regarding the Russian adoption process. I'd hate to let down my peeps.

Here are some interesting things that have happened as of late.

1. We received a 2nd Russian letter. It was identical to the first. Same story. It's nothing, but still wild to get a letter from Russia ...in Russian.

2. We found a woman in our neighborhood (living about 2 blocks away) who is from Russia and therefore speaks Russian. (In fact, she is specifically from Siberia) Katie talked to her tonight and they discussed the idea of her coming over to our house the first few weeks so that she'll be able to talk to Zac and give him the comforting Russian words that he may need. How great will that be? (Side note: She used to work for an adoption agency. That makes it even cooler.)

3. Katie stumbled upon a cool Russian book that we decided to purchase. We really liked it because it is an informative book about Russia that chooses to focus on the positives of their country, culture and history. Check out: http://www.motherlandbook.com/

What the....???

Today was interesting. We received a letter in the mail that was 100% Russian. Could it be?

Well, to make a long story short, we had heard of two other people that received a letter similar to this. We think it is some sort of notice from another region that we were registered in before we received our referral. The letter said something about not having children available. Obviously, this doesn't apply to us as we've already received a referral from a different region.

Nevertheless it's pretty crazy getting a letter postmarked from Russia and ALL in Russian! (Interesting side note: The postmark was June 9th!!!! Exactly 2 months ago. Do they still use the Pony Express??!!??)

We've been told that our courtdate will NOT be in the form of a letter mailed to our home here. Instead, it will go to our agency. Whether that's the US address or the Moscow address, I'm not exactly sure. We do know that the government has to MAIL whatever it is we're waiting for. Today's letter has given me little assurance as to the speediness of their Postal Service.

.... so we'll wait some more.

post

I've been meaning to post for the last few nights, but I've been going 100%mph. We had a baby (toddler) shower for Zac on Saturday. It was wonderful. I want to include pictures but it's a pain to download right now, and it's past my bedtime.

I still wanted to post SOMETHING b/c it's been a few days. Obviously, no court date yet. Which is also why I'm too depressed to blog anything. I just don't feel like blogging this week.

Big news

GUESS WHAT?!?!

just kidding. We didn't hear anything today.

So I'll take this time to talk about a great cause. Check out: http://www.gatesfoundation.org
You should all donate money to this cause because they are really running low on funds....

OK, so I'm totally kidding. Although I do like most of what the Gates Foundation supports, I was just trying to be funny b/c my last couple of posts were more fund raiser rally cries than an adoption story.

The problem is that we have nothing to report. In the mean time, I'll just have to keep coming up with random stuff.

Side note: Today is Jake's 3rd birthday. Happy birthday buddy!