Met with adoption coordinator and orphanage director to discuss the court
hearing planned for the following day. Toured downtown with Dennis and
saw maternity hospital where Julie was born.
Here is a day by day account of our second trip.
Departed New York JFK for Moscow at 6:25 PM
Arrived Moscow around 11:50 am. The stroller we brought was left behind in NYC, probably because they marked it as fragile. Delta said they would be able to get it to Khabarovsk at a later time, but that they had no way of getting it from the airport to Birobidzhan.
It was Easter Sunday for the Russian Orthodox church. Met translator and driver and toured around the city visiting Red Square, the Kremlin, Victory Park, and other parks. May is a beautiful time of year to visit Moscow. The weather was warm and tulips were in bloom everywhere We had a 12 hour lay-over and the time passed very slowly because we were so tired. We departed for Khabarovsk around 10:45 pm.
Arrived in Khabarovsk about 1:25 pm and drove directly to the orphanage in Birobidzhan to see our little girl. It was a nice reunion, although we're not sure she remembered who we are.
Met with adoption coordinator and orphanage director to discuss the court
hearing planned for the following day. Toured downtown with Dennis and
saw maternity hospital where Julie was born.
Saw Julie a little in the morning and again from 3-5:30 in the afternoon.
Since our stroller hadn't arrived, the orphanage
provided one and we took Julie for a walk. She has four teeth breaking through so she
was a little grumpy.
Had the court hearing to make everything official. Everything went very
smoothly and the 10 day waiting period was waved in favor of getting Julie
settled in with her new family. Svetlana is now Julia Svetlana Kinahan!
Here is a picture of the court building.
Did some other miscellaneous errands including picking up birth
certificate, adoption certificate, passport photos, and applied for
Julie's Russian passport. Here is her passport photo.
Visited with Julie from 3-5:30 in the afternoon.
Visited with Julie in the morning and afternoon. Went for a walk and later fed and changed her for the first time.
Walked around downtown Birobidzhan taking in the Victory Day celebration. Took a ride to the top of the mountain with the TV tower to get a view of the city.
Followed basically the same routine each day. The orphanage has specific they will let you visit. Mornings from 10:30-12:30 and afternoons from 3:00-5:00. We visited Julie every opportunity we had. In between visits we had long lunches, explored the town, and shopped for gifts for our host and coordinator.
Our stroller arrived! The travel company arranged for another family
already traveling to Birobidzhan to bring it with them. Believe it or not
this made quite a difference. Julie seemed a lot more comfortable riding
in this stroller and relaxed more when we went for walks.
Long walk in the morning with Julie. Played in the music room for a while. Still having difficulty feeding her. Everything is OK until the nannies sit down with you and suddenly she won't tolerate us feeding her.
Spent some more time with her in the afternoon.
Took representative from the orphanage shopping in the local baby store and purchased two strollers and a walker for about 2200 rubles (about $66). Also bought some supplies for the trip home.
Oh, one more thing. Like other Russia cities, Birobidzhan has a city wide hot water system, similar to how we provide electricity. This morning, they shut that system down for a week for repairs and maintenance. Galina, the lady we were staying with, prepared a large pot of hot water which we used to clean up with. We mixed some of the hot water with cold tap water to get the right temperature, then poured it over our heads like a shower. We did this every morning for the rest of the time we were in Birobidzhan.
Another long walk with Julie in the morning. Later we picked up Julie's Russian passport - we're ready to travel!
Some friends we met on the first trip, Julie and Mark, arrived in town today to pick up their little girl Irina.
Said good byes to some of the nannies. They were both happy and sad - happy that Julie was going to a good home, but sad that she was leaving them. We promised to write and send pictures.
Picked up Julie at the orphanage around 7:30 AM and left town for Moscow. Talk about butterflies in your stomach! We were both very nervous.
Julie was a pretty good traveler. In the car, she was fascinated by the
scenery going by and then took a short nap. The plane ride was similar,
but she was a little cranky after her nap. We had our first attempts to
feed her on the plane. We first tried some rice flour in warm milk but
this was quickly rejected, as was some Russian baby food consisting of
chicken and vegetables. Finally we tried some cookies mashed up in milk
like they used to give her for a snack and she ate that. Big sigh of
relief!
We checked into the President Hotel in Moscow and ate dinner at a nearby Irish restaurant. It was nice to have a steak, some fries, and a beer. The hotel is was actually very nice and modern with large rooms. They provided a crib in the room for Julie. There is a descent restaurant in the hotel that has a nice buffet breakfast that will satisfy most American tastes. Dinner is available in the dining room or through room service, which is what we did. There are also a couple of restaurants nearby. You will find a supermarket around the corner for misc. items for the baby, bottled water, yogurt, etc. There are some great views of the city from the higher floors.
The seven hour time change from Birobidzhan to Moscow was particularly difficult for Julie. The baby took a nap when we arrived, but then did not sleep very well that night. She woke up around midnight and was up the rest of the day.
Julie is showing quite an appetite. We've fed her large portions of rice cereal mixed with fruit and also some yogurt. Our fears about her eating are beginning to fade. Now our concern is keeping up with her desire for more. She has quickly figured out where we feed her and nearly drags us to that spot for more food.
We had an appointment with a doctor in the morning and Julie was given a clean bill of health. A little later, we had her picture taken for a visa to the US.
Put the baby down for a nap around 2:00 and decided to just let her sleep until she woke on her own. She didn't wake up until the next morning after sleeping for 14 hours.
More eating. Had to go buy more yogurt and jarred fruit.
We went over to the US embassy to process paperwork for Julie's visa.
All the appointments we had happened to conflict with either nap time or meal time, so its hard to establish any kind of pattern. Our poor girl is also pretty beat up by the 7 hour change in time zones, but she's being a real trooper considering what we're putting her through.
Again put the baby down for a nap in mid afternoon. This time she slept 16 hours!
Headed to the Airport for our 1:50 pm flight. We had two seats on the
plane and had requested a bassinet for Julie. Unfortunately they didn't
have any available. We later learned there is only one bassinet and there
are many couples traveling with small children so your chances of getting
one are pretty slim. So we figured we'd keep Julie on our laps during the
10 hour flight. This wasn't such a good idea. Julie was over stimulated
and over tired and did nothing but fight and scream for the first couple
of hours. Nancy asked the man sitting in the same row with us if he could
find another seat and fortunately he did (wouldn't you?). Things got
better after this, now that Julie had room to play with all the toys that
come with the meal service - plastic spoons, cups, trays, etc. She
eventually settled down for a fitful nap. If your going to attempt
anything like this, I highly recommend spending the cash on the extra
seat.
We landed in NYC about 3:50 pm and were processed through immigration. Julie is now a citizen of both Russia and America. Our driver showed up a little later and, after installing the car seat, we headed for home.
We arrived home and the began to get settled in. Julia was excited to see our house, and Nancy and I feel she understood that she was finally home.
