Update

COMING HOME TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!

Update

It is Monday around 945 pm here in Moscow. We took a boat tour today for 3 hours!! It was a long 3 hours with a 2 year old! Then we took him to McDonald's again!! He still loves the fries! We were also very brave and took the Metro(subway) in Moscow. I can't even begin to explain the subway in Moscow. But, we made it back to our hotel, that's all that matters!! We are counting down the hours until we leave for Atlanta. It is less than 48 hours! Thank everyone for all of their comments and prayers! Please continue to pray for our flight from Moscow to Atlanta!!

Update

Hello
We went to the flea market this morning! It was very similar to our flea markets, except noone speaks English and it is VERY crowded. We bought a few gifts to bring back with us. We then went to Arbat Street, which is mainly for tourists. They have a Hard Rock Cafe, which was awesome and they have ICE!!! Tomorrow we have to register Drew at the Russian Consulate so they will now where he can be located! Other than that we don't have anything much to do. We are just counting down the days until we get to get on that Delta plane and fly home!! Love you guys, please pray for our flight home!!
Love
Tim and Laura

Update

Hello from Moscow,

Today we walked all the way to Red Square which is about a 40 minute walk from our hotel. On the way we stopped at McDonald's and Drew got his first taste of a cheeseburger happymeal with coke!! He loved the fries the best! It is about 85 degrees here and you have to walk everywhere so we are really sweaty and nasty all of the time. Tomorrow we are going to the flee market with Vladimir. I am not really sure what to expect at the flea market! It is Russia's "independence day" weekend so every night there has been fireworks and parties everywhere! Not much exciting stuff happening here. Drew is doing o.k. He is testing his boundaries with us all of the time. Hopefully this will get better when we get home. Love all of you
Tim, Laura, and Drew

Update Day??

Hello from Moscow,

Well, only 5 days left! Thanks for all the support while we have been here! It has been a very long and eventful trip. Drew is doing o.k. It rained today, so we couldn't get out of the hotel to do anything. Tomorrow we are going to go to Red Square and try to find McDonald's. We will go to a flea market with Vladimir, our driver, on Sunday. A flea market in Russia, this should be interesting. We just can't wait to come home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tim and Laura

Update Day ????

Hello from Moscow,

It is Thursday at 610 pm. Now we are only 8 hours ahead of you guys instead of 12. Drew is doing well! He is a very active 2 year old, to say the least! The doctor came to check him out this morning at our room. This afternoon we had our appointment at the American Embassy. So, now Drew has his passport and his Visa to come back to the U.S. Tomorrow is a holiday here, so we have to wait until Monday to go to the Russian Consulate to register Drew. OH yeah, Greg and Alan will be happy to know that Drew is probably a leftie!! Tomorrow we are going to try and take Drew to the zoo. Everything in Moscow is so expensive that we can't do a lot of activities here. I almost had to give Timothy mouth-to-mouth in the supermarket because I bought a PEOPLE magazine and it was $27.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought Tim was going to die! Love you guys!

Tim and Laura

Update Day 20

It is our last night in Kemerovo! I am so sick and tired of this place! We fly out in the morning at 7 am for Moscow. It is about a 4 1/2 hour plane ride. We have our bag packed with toys and food, hopefully enough to keep him occupied. Drew did well today. We took him to the park and he had his first ice cream! You should have seen his face! He did not love it. It is around 9:40 pm here. We have no air conditioning and it is about 85 degrees. Tim and I have only slept about 5 hours in the last 3 days. It is so hot in our room we can't sleep. Anyway, only a week to go but it feels like an eternity!! Please pray for our plane ride in the morning!! Love you guys

Tim and Laura

Update Day 19

I don't even know where to start! Today was a wonderful day! We picked Drew up from the orphanage about 4 pm. He acted like a different kid as soon as we left the orphanage! He did great the whole 3 hour ride back to Kemerovo. He didn't get sick, didn't cry, and didn't even fuss. He played the whole time with the toys I had brought him and his seat belt. When we got back to the hotel, we came up to the room to let him use the bathroom. Then we decided to go down to the cafe next to our hotel. He ate spaghetti and LOVED IT! We had to stop him from eating but we didn't want to feed him to much. He did great at the cafe! He did run straight into the glass doors on the way out, it was pretty hilarious!! Right now it is 11 pm here. He is laing in his bed looking at me like, what is going on here? He has his stuffed animal from the orphanage that they let him bring with him. He loved his bath, but did not like to have his teeth brushed!! Tomorrow we are going to take him to the park if it is good weather. We fly out early Wednesday morning to Moscow. Please pray for us and him on the 4 hour plane ride back to Moscow! Thanks for all your prayers and please keep them coming! Only 9 more days to go!!
Love Tim and Laura

Update Day 18

Only 3 more days in Kemerovo!! We leave in the morning to go to the police department for his new passport and to pick up his new birth certificate and adoption certificate! We have been walking a lot today and we actually ran into the other two couples that are also adopting. We went over to their apartment and spent about 3 hours just talking about what we had all been through. It sounds like we have all been through a lot! One of the couples came last year and their adoption did not go through!! So, this is the 5th time they have been here. The other couple had problems in court hearing. The maternal grandfather was still alive and had not "signed off" that the child could be adopted. So, it could be worse!! Everything for both of them is o.k. We are going to try to sleep tonight. We are a little nervous and excited at the same time! Tim is feeding me our supper, which is our version of ramen noodles, while I post on our blog! Such a sweetie!! Please continue to pray for Drew's transition to his new parents and his new life. It is going to be a big change for him! Love you guys
Tim and Laura

Update Day 17

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys one thing! They called me earlier this week and told me that Anna Paige WON the modeling contest!! I checked my cell phone messages this morning and she had left a message on Tuesday. So, I was super excited to heart that. It really made my day!! Love you guys again
Laura and Tim

Update Day 17

Hi guys! Thanks for all of the posts and comments on our blog! We had another boring day today. Tim got up early because he had heartburn issues and a stomach ache. So, we found a pharmacy today and found him some medicine. The only thing we recognized was Gaviscon, so we got that. He is totally fine now. It is sunny and about 75 degrees here. We have watched 3 movies today, yes we are bored out of our minds!! We are taking orders for Russian vodka, if anyone would like any please let us know now! (ha,ha) (not really) We only have two more days until we get Drew. We have to go to the Department of Vital Records to get his birth certificate and to the police office to apply for his passport on Monday morning. We will leave for the orphanage about 2 pm, so it will be a long day. We probably won't get back with him until about 9 or 10 pm. We will have one full day with him before we fly back to Moscow. Please pray for our flight back to Moscow and back to Atlanta!! Love you guys

Tim and Laura

Update Day 16

I really don't know how many days we have been here now! I think it is 16. We have a had a another boring day. It is really pretty here today, it's about 65 degrees and sunny. We have walked around the city most of the afternoon. They have tons of parks for kids here with kiddie rides and vendors. We found one that Drew will like, it is beside the River Tom, which is more like an ocean. We shopped for a while because we have to buy gifts again for all of the workers at the orphanage to take on Monday. We bought scarves and hair clips, which they love over here. We found a store and bought me some new perfume and Tim some new cologne. All of the brand names are much cheaper over here. I don't now why because all of their clothes are about 3 times more expensive. We did have the best meal since we have been here. It is a japanese/sushi bar in town. Tim had some really good sushi and I had teriyaki chicken. It was actually real WHITE meat. The rice was really good too. So, that is about all the excitement one can take for a day!! Stay tuned, I'm sure tomorrow will be unbelievable!! Love you guys

Laura and Tim

Update Day 15

Hey guys! We just got back to our room from seeing Drew! It went really good today. It still took him a while to loosen up, he is a very shy reserved little guy. It will be a big change for him when he gets back to the U.S. We brought him a sucker and he had no idea what it was, he never could grasp the concept that you are supposed to lick it! He kept trying to take the whole sucker off of the stick. So needless to say, Tim ate the sucker. He loved the books we brought him and the matchbox cars. Tim brought him a ball and played with him for a while. He is still very scared of Timothy. He will easily come and sit in my lap, but not Tim's yet. He said Mama after we bribed him with a piece of candy. Tim decided to give him a cough drop! Big mistake!! He swallowed the entire cough drop! I could not believe that he didn't choke! After that, he kept farting so I asked him if he had to go pee, which is Pisit' in Russian. He nodded yes to me. So, I proceeded to take him to the bathroom but it was too late. So, we will still have some potty training issues when we get home. He loves it when we take his shoes off and play with his feet. Today, he had on girls tights in neon green with size 5 shoes which were so tight on his feet. Timothy couldn't even get them back on him. We got to spend about 2 hours with him. We talked with the doctor at the orphange and she says he is ok but he is very wild, always hitting or running into things. Well, I guess well have to wait to see that. We will go Monday afternoon to pick him up for good! By the way, our cell phone is not working. It is around 7 45 pm here. So, if someone would please let my mom and Donna know that would be great! Love you guys.
Tim and Laura

Update Day 14

Not a whole lot to update today! We went to the grocery store to buy some more bread, other than that we haven't done a whole lot of anything. We are getting a little crazy over here! We get to see Drew tomorrow, we leave at around 8 am and it takes all day. We bought him some matchbox cars and a ball to take him tomorrow. We can't leave it with him because the other kids will take it. We will get about 1 1/2 hours with him. Pray that he warms up to us a little better tomorrow. I hope when he sees us again that he will remember us and be a little more laid back. We will be able to pick him up for good on Monday. We will leave for Moscow on Wednesday morning and be there for a week. Thank all of you for the emails and blog comments. Only 2 weeks to go!!
Love
Laura and Tim

Update Day 13

Well, we have almost been here for 2 weeks! Only 1 week left in Kemerovo and then 1 week in Moscow. It will be better in Moscow because they have things like KFC and McDonald's. It is kind of like Atlanta except everybody speaks Russian!! Tim's underwear has just finished drying. Some kids on the street asked why we had kites flying out our windows. But then we explained those were Tim's underwear and his ass is just really big!! We haven't done anything today but watch a couple of movies and play cards. We will get to see Drew on Thursday and then on Monday we will get to pick him up for good. Say a prayer that he won't get carsick on the 3 hour drive back to the hotel. He has never been in a car before and probably never seen one. He is still really scared of Tim and I, so pray that he warms up to us quickly. We love all of you!!

Tim and Laura

Update Day 12

Boring Day! We tried to sleep late because it was raining outside. Then we went to exhange our American money for rubels (russian money). We had to pay our hotel for the remaining days. Then we walked to the grocery store. In the grocery store we overheard someone talking English. We immediately ran around the corner and followed them up to the register. Turns out, they are over here for an adoption also. It was 2 couples from Toronto, Canada. They have already adopted from here before, but there orphange is different than ours. We are going to try to meet with them sometime this week if we see them again. Tim and I have hit a low point. We washed our clothes in the bathtub today!!! So now Tim's underwear is hanging in the window of our hotel for all of these Russian ladies to see!! We will know tomorrow when we get to see Drew again. Please keep emailing and commenting on our blog, we love to hear all of those comments! Love you guys
Tim and Laura

Update Day 11

Not much to update today either! It has been raining all day and it's about 65 degrees. It kind of feels like our fall. We have watched a movie, played rummy for the 1,000th time. Tim is out right now trying to find me some food, bless his heart. I have one ravioli left and one ramen noodle left. We don't have a microwave so we use the coffee pot to boil the water and heat the food! You should see Tim in the bath/shower. It is pretty hilarious!! He barely fits, frankly I don't know how he can even wash himself! Hopefully tomorrow we will find out when we will get to see Drew again. And again, Thanks for blog comments and emails everyday!! YOU don't know how much they help! Love you guys

Tim and Laura

Update 10

Well, there is not much to update! We stayed in until about 2 pm, then we decided to go out for a walk. We walked to a local mall to kill some time and spent the rest of the afternoon sitting out on a bench in front of our hotel! Sounds like fun, I know, try to keep your seat. We are so thankful for peanut butter and Chef Boyardee!! However, we haven't been able to find any more peanut butter over here. We are almost out of what we brought. All of our food supply is about to run dry. So, I guess I will be attempting some Russian food. Luckily, down the street is a coffee shop with an american menu. They know us very well by now. Tim and I have officially been together for around 260 hours NON-STOP. We didn't spend this much time together on our honeymoon or ever for that matter. We have actually done pretty good. Thank God for beer and vodka. (ha, ha) We are just trying to pass the time as quickly as possible. Please keep emailing and commenting on our blog you guys don't know how much that means to us. Thanks again for all the prayers! Maybe our next blog will be more intersting. (I doubt it)

Love you

Tim and Laura

Update Day 9

Today we got to see Drew! It was a long 3 hour drive to the orphanage and 3 hours back. We got to spend about 1 1/2 hours with him. He was very shy and scared for the majority of the visit. Towards the end, about the last 5 minutes, he finally began to open up to Tim and I. He is a very stubborn little boy. He didn't look very good today, he had a black eye and multiple abrasions and bruises on his face and back. They keep telling us that he is a fighter, so he must be getting into fights with all the other kids. He hasn't grown at all. His clothes were 12 months and his shoes were size 5, which were a little tight. So, we hope the 18 months clothes we brought him will do. I am going to attempt to post a slideshow of pictures for you guys. If it doesn't work, I'll just post a few of the best ones. We don't know when we will get to see him again, possibly Wednesday. Overall the trip was good, just seeing him like he is makes me worry. But I know in time after coming home with us he will be better! Thanks for all the prayers, emails, and comments. I only get an hour a day on the internet which is what I look forward to the most. I am more homesick than I have ever been. We are just trying to take it one day at a time. Love you guys!

Tim and Laura

Update Day 7, I think

So, we have been in Russia for one week today. It feels like about a month. We don't have anything to do during this 10 day waiting period. We are just praying that these days pass quickly. We walked around the city trying to find pizza but had no luck. It is crazy over here, the sun doesn't go down until 11 pm. So, even if you want to go to sleep it's hard because it's still daylight. We won't get to see Drew until Friday instead of Thursday. I hope to take a lot of pictures for you guys on Friday and post them on the blog, (if I know how.) We found what we might call Wal-Mart today when walking around the city. It was very similar to our Wal-Mart. Upstairs from the Wal-mart was a mall. Tim was very excited because a pack of camel lights is only $1.oo over here. We will leave here, Kemerovo, on June 10th. We will then have a week in Moscow. So, officially we will leave Russia on June 17th. Thanks for all the emails and comments on our blog. That's about all I have to look forward to all day. So, please keep sending them. Also, please keep praying for us. We love all of you. Laura and Timothy

Update Day 6

Today was our court date! We had to go to court before the judge to petition to adopt our son. It only took about 40 minutes. The judge did not waive the 10 day waiting period, so that means we are stuck here for another 2 weeks before we go back to Moscow. Then in Moscow we will have another week. It is cold and rainy here in Kemerovo. The temperature is in the 40's and 50's. We will be able to go and see Drew on Thursday. It is a 3 hour drive there to the orphange so I don't think we will get to stay for a long time. We don't know when the next time will be when we can see him. Maybe we will know more after Thursday! Thanks for all your prayers and please keep praying for us that this time will pass quickly!

Laura and Tim

Update Day 5

It has been a long trip already! We flew in to Kemerovo from Moscow on Saturday. We are 12 hours ahead of you guys back in the U.S. Our court date is scheduled for Tuesday the 26th at 11 am. Say a special prayer that the judge may waive the 10 day waiting period!

Day 3 Update

Hi Guys,

Today was a long day! Tim and I both woke up around 3 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. So, we watched movies until breakfast time. We had our doctors appointment today. It lasted 3 hours. Tim and I had to be examined by 8 different doctors; an oncologist, a neurologist, an infectious disease dr., a pyschiatrist, a psychologist, a dermatologist, a pulmonologist, and a general medicine doctor. Oh yeah and we had to have labwork done AGAIN and a chest x-ray!
Not a very fun day. Tomorrow we leave Moscow for the region, Kemerovo. It is a 4 1/2 hour plane ride. We will be there for the majority of the trip. Our actual court date is Tuesday the 26th. After our court date the 10 day waiting period begins. Thanks for all your prayers and please keep them coming!

Love
Tim and Laura

Hi Everyone! We just landed in Moscow about 2 hours ago. The flight was long, about 10 hours, but it was good. Before we could get off the plane, everyone had to have their temperature taken, which was pretty hilarious! Apparently, here in Russia they are freakin' out about the swine flu. So, this Russian lady came around to every passenger on the plane and took our temperatures. No one could get off until everyone's temperature had been taken. We are staying at the Sheraton here in Downtown Moscow. The sandwiches here only cost about $25.oo. So, we opted to go to the Sbarro down the street for a slightly cheaper pizza. Tomorrow, we both have doctor appointments, or basically physicals performed by russian doctors. Then we will leave Moscow on Saturday evening for Kemerovo. It is about a 4 1/2 hour plane ride to this region where Drew's orphanage is. Our court date is for May 26th, which is Tuesday. Thanks for all of your prayers, they have really helped us so far. Especially after I freaked out a couple of times on the plane ride! Pray that they could possibly waive the 10 day waiting period after court. Pray that Timothy and I don't kill each other. Thanks for all of the followers so far! We will keep you updated as much as possible!

Love you guys,
Tim and Laura

On April 30th we received a call from our Adoption agency that we had a court date to come and get our son! The court date is set for May 26th in Kemerovo, Russia. We will be leaving the U.S. on May 20th and are set to return on June 17th. We hope to use this blog to stay in touch with all of our friends and family. We will try to keep it updated daily while in Russia. Please use this to keep in contact with us as well! Thanks and we love all of you!