Getting Closer To Home

We arrived in Moscow last night after an extremely tearful goodbye to our translators, Marianna and her mom. Marianna was so much help and told me that it is okay to be sad now because it will be short-lived. She was right! Tyler was such an angel on the plane ride. He only cried for a couple of minutes as we were making our descent. I'm not sure if his ears were bothering him or he was just tired because he ended up falling asleep in my arms as the plane was landing. He managed to wake up for the drive from the airport to the hotel but then quickly fell asleep for the night. This morning, we walked around Red Square and the Kremlin. Now he is having a nap while I get a chance to update the blog. We leave for the airport at 7:30 a.m. Moscow time (Saturday morning) and will arrive in Toronto at 1:30 p.m. (Saturday afternoon). We hope he is as good as he was last night on this final ten hour journey. We can't wait to get him home.

What a Good Little Boy

We have survived the first 24 hours! Yesterday morning we started out at the registrar's office to sign all the official documents needed to take to the orphanage and to the passport office. From there we had to stop at a bakery to buy cakes and wine for the doctors, the caregivers, and the social worker. Next stop, Volgograd City Orphanage #4 to pick up our son. Once at the orphanage there were more things to sign and a meeting held with the doctor to learn more about Tyler's routine and what he eats. Basically he gets up at 7:00 a.m. and goes to bed at 8:00 p.m. and has three naps in between. His diet consists of cereal, sour milk, coffee, tea (with some lemon and sugar), cocoa, yogurt, fruit purée, borsch, omelettes, and a bit of meat. It is no wonder he only weighs 19 pounds soaking wet! After leaving the orphanage, we spent the afternoon playing in the apartment and exploring everything around him. He couldn't stop smiling. In typical Shepley fashion we ventured out for supper to our favourite restaurant. He was such a good boy. He sat and ate a plate of mashed potatoes and didn't make a sound. Day one ended with Tyler falling asleep at 7:30 p.m. Day two started at 8:00 a.m. when Tyler woke up - that's right, he slept right through the night. A hair cut went down, a two hour nap, and another trip to the restaurant. So far so good! Tomorrow we get to pick up his passport and fly to Moscow. Only three more sleeps until we are home. We can't wait to see Meg and introduce her to her brother.

Only Seven More Days

In seven days, we finally get to take Tyler from the orphanage and start the journey home.  Before we do that, we do have to get a Russian passport and a Canadian visa for him.  The end is definitely in sight!

The first picture was taken on our first day back.  He is still the gentle, loving little boy.  In no time, he was smiling, giggling, and imitating lots of sounds and actions.  The next picture shows him enjoying a Nutrigrain bar.  The third picture was taken the day we returned to the orphanage after our court hearing.  The caregivers got him all dressed up for us!  You have to love the yellow tights and the hoodie done up - you never know if it is going to be cold in the play room!  The next picture is Tyler sporting a fleece outfit we plan on dressing him in when we get to leave the orphanage.  Thanks Kim and Dave!  I'm sure the caregivers will think that he is underdressed for the weather but we think he looks pretty cute!  The final picture was taken the last day - he was so tired, he fell asleep!

It's Official!

The judge approved our adoption but declined waiving the ten day waiting period a few hours ago. We were quite nervous walking in to court this morning given that we spent almost three hours preparing for court with our lawyer last night. I was quite intimidated by him as he told us to prepare a speech and to memorize the various requests to be made of the court. Although Dave won't admit it, he was a little nervous too. Our lawyer told us the last family's hearing lasted six hours. Fortunately, our hearing only lasted one hour. We were extremely well prepared. After the judge announced his verdict, our lawyer treated us to cigarettes and coffee! We stuck to pop and beer instead. We are returning home to wait out the ten business days. We will return to Canada on November 13 and journey back to Russia on November 20. On November 22nd we will take Tyler from the orphanage with a worker to have his passport photo taken. On November 23 we will pick up all the necessary documents and then take him from the orphanage for good. We are definitely counting down the days!

Here are some of Dave's comments for you to read ...

For those of you at Manulife I have found a bunch of jobs we can use for transferable skill analyses:

Esacalator Watcher - a person who sits all day long at the bottom of a 20 step escalator and watches it go all day from her booth. Sometimes she watches not one but two escalators and cleans the handrails.
Port-A-Potty Attendant - yes someone actually has the job of selling you a few pieces of toilet paper for your moment of need on the toilet. The bonus to this job she actually has an office -yep it's blue and has a door - it's a port a potty - ah the perks.
Leaf sweeper - really old babushkas are assigned to various parts of the city with a broom the size of paintbrush, dustpan and a box. We leave in the morning and they have moved about 20 feet in a 4 hour period.
Subway ticket puncher(s) - 2 yacking women who punch holes in your 30 cent subway ticket after all we would not want anyone ride for 30 cents less.

Privet, Tyler!

There are only a few words that we actually know in Russian, and "privet" is one of them. For those of you that haven't brushed up on your Russian, it means "hi". After waiting almost three months we finally got to see Tyler today. We arrived at the orphanage this morning to be told that visiting hours had changed and to return this afternoon. Needless to say, we were so disappointed. Oh well, what is a couple more hours? We returned to the orphanage this afternoon and were so excited to see him. He was a little uncertain as to what was going on but within five minutes he was smiling and giggling. He has a few more teeth, walks on his own, and has lots of hair. They purposely left his hair long so we can get it cut the way we want it to be cut. Despite the temperature outside being 16 degrees Celsius, he was all bundled up with an undershirt, a long-sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, some girls' tights, and a pair of jeans. He won't know what hit him when he returns to "Chez Shepley" given we like to keep our house nice and cool ( aka an icebox according to D. Hall). He hasn't gotten much bigger since we left. We brought some clothes to try on him and all the 18 month clothes are still pretty big on him. We were allowed to play in the "sensory room" today so we were able to be down on the floor and really play today. He loves the little "Chuck" truck we brought with us. Oh, he also seems to love the Goldfish crackers we brought in - he was double-fisting and stored lots in his cheeks, too. Tomorrow, we have our visit and then we have to prepare for court. The last Canadian couple's hearing lasted six hours. We're hoping our hearing will only last the typical two hours! Apparently we have a so-so judge, so keep your fingers crossed for us!