Reunited!

We began our long journey back to Volgograd on Thursday morning. Leah went in and worked half a day, and I prepared everything we would need to leave for the airport, and when Leah got home around noon, we set out for IAH and a Singapore Airlnes jet that would carry us all the way from Houston to Moscow, Russia. Just a sidebar, if you ever have to fly to Moscow, Singapore Airlines is the way to go. It's fairly inexpensive, but they are first class when it comes to amenities. Good food, no charge for new movies and TV shows, and best of all, a change of socks and a toothbrush mid flight! I'm not sure if the socks and toothbrush thing impresses anyone, but you can score big points with me by thinking of the little things, and they do that quite well. We were expecting 13 hour flight, but because of unexpected high winds, it only took us 10 1/2 hours to arrive in Moscow. I had no idea that wind could affect a flight that much. It's a little scary if you think about it....that's why I try not to think on planes. I feel quite helpless on airplanes. The emotion is one that is like no other. If I"m in a car, I feel in control. In a plane, I understand that I have control over nothing except for what movies I watch. You just kind of have to let go and trust in God to make sure you arrive at your destination, and if he chooses not to let you arrive, you have to be ok with that. (All of life is like that, but you get my drift) We landed in Moscow at 12:15 pm yesterday. We were so excited when we saw that there was no line at customs. Last time we had to wait for over two hours in lines full of people who didn't speak our language. It was also my first time in a real foreign country (Mexico doesn't count), so I was very nervous. This time we walked right up to the man in the box and gave him our passports. He spoke English and was very interested in why we wanted to visit Russia. After explaining to him why we were going to Volgograd, he wished us luck and let us pass. We met with our translator/guide after gathering our luggage and found a seat. It was four hours until our plane left for Volgograd so we had to find somewhere to rest. Between trips we bought an IPad...it is the best investment we have ever made. We were able to get wifi in Domodedovo airport and, as I speak, I am typing this blog on the wifi in my room in Volgograd. We also bought a bluetooth keyboard to aid with the typing. It does wonders. My Russia facebook activity has picked up significantly. We will be posting pictures of Volgograd, on facebook, as we go through our trip this time. After waiting for four hours, we were ready to board our plane to Volgograd. the flight is only about 1 1/2 hours so it's not bad. In Russia, when a pilot lands a plane, the passengers all clap. I told Leah that I am not comfortable with landing a plane being an action worth celebrating. It should be a given. People shouldn't be excited when you land safely, you should just be normal, cause landing safely is normal.....but that's just me. We got off of the plane in Volgograd with stairs, and walked straight our into -10 F temperatures. I have never felt anything like that in my life. It was stunning. We also realized that the entire runway was frozen....solid. Our plane landed on a long, wide, sheet of ice. (Maybe the reason for the applause) After processing that, it was off to the car, and off to our hotel room . This time we have a room for two people with one queen sized bed. Beats those three twins we had last time. Snow is falling everywhere! There are piles of snow all along the streets and sidewalks. It's like nothing I have ever seen anywhere. It is so beautiful. I wasn't expecting that.

We got to sleep in this morning. They have changed the visitation times at the orphanage since we left. We were seeing him from 10-2 am and from 2-4 pm. Now it's just from 12-4, once daily. That is quite the long visit, but we woke up this morning ready to do it. We ate breakfast, then came to the room to bundle up for the walk to the train. We had on thermals, jeans, fleece, gloves, huge jacket, hat, scarf, and face cover. It was still cold through that stuff, but we toughed it out. We remembered how to get to the orphanage from last time, so we went out alone and made it happen. Everything was just as we remembered but snow covered! When we arrived at the orphanage, we met with the doctor and got an update on his health. He is doing great. Pretty much the same as last time, but he has grown a bit. They also let us know he was walking like crazy and talking a lot. By this time, we were ready to stop talking and go see him. They led us down to the music room, and we took off all of our layers until we were ready for his arrival. After about 5 minutes, we heard the door open and he came walking through. He had on a knit hat, a sweater, and a pair of overalls with a gorilla on the front. He came storming into the room and stopped dead in his tracks. He just stared at us, and we just stared at him. The nurses told us they had been showing him our picture book we left him last time, and he was very familiar with who we were. He even knew how to point in the book and call Leah, Mama, and Me, Papa. The look he was giving us was the look you see in kids when they see Walt Disney on ice for the first time. They've seen cinderella in the cartoons everyday, but when they first see her, in person, on ice, they're kind of shocked. He seemed to be experiencing this. He had been shown our picture every day for months now, and now we were really in the room! It took him a couple of minutes of staring, but soon he reached his arms our like he did last time and asked Leah to pick him up. It was then on! He ran all over that room. He was pulling stuffed animals off of the wall and saying the Russian word for "baby" over and over again. We played on the floor, we played by the window, we played by the mirrors, we played everywhere! For 3 hours he was going strong, but in the fourth hour, he began to wind down. We could tell it was nap time. His walk got slower, he would lay down on piles of stuffed animals and rest, and most of all, he wanted to be held and rocked. We took turns doing this. He fought sleep with all he had and made it to 4 with our falling. Right before the nurses came to get him, he reminded us of his love for music. He walked over to a piano in the room, pointed at the keys, and did the dance he showed us last time. Moved his head from shoulder to shoulder over and over again. We told him we didn't play piano, but his DeDe was learning and would play it for him. He seemed to be ok with that. The nurses came to take him away, and he wouldn't let go of Leah's neck. He fussed and fought until they finally got him away from her. We didn't know how to show him that we felt the same way. We are hopelessly in love with him, and four o'clock will always be bitter for us. All in all it was a great visit. It felt so good to see him again, to know he was still there and still waiting on us to finish this process. I had all of these insecure fears about this trip. I was afraid that they would bring us another child and tell us they had adopted him out by mistake! I know it's stupid, but it's what was going on! Thank God he walked through that door holding our hearts. We cannot wait for all of you to meet this remarkable little boy.

Now on to a more serious matter. We explained to you all that there would be a thirty day waiting period between court and when we could being Jonah home. We had not even considered that the judge may waive that waiting period, because we were told it was nearly impossible. Well today, in our first meeting with our lawyer, she told us that she was working on getting him to waive it and let us bring him home with us on this trip. It is still a long shot, but she thinks that because we are the first couple in all of Russia to go to court for an adoption since the new law was put in place, and we started the process under the old law, we may have a decent shot at waiving it. In her words, "maybe he will feel sorry for you and take this into consideration". We are, in no way, counting on this to happen, or trying to sell everyone false hope. We just want to ask you all to pray about this. It has now become something we must think about, and we just want to petition God and ask him to make this so, with the understanding that if he does not, we will still give him all the glory and honor of that decision also. We know he is sovereign, and we know he is in control, so we trust him to handle this. Thank you guys for doing that for us.

This was long, but we had a lot of ground to cover. Thank you all so much for following. You are all special to us, and it means alot that you care enough to read all of these words I we type. We will blog again tomorrow, around the same time, so be looking for that. Hopefully we have new stories and new good news. We love you all.

Going back to Russia!

Wow!! Where to begin? It seems like we just returned from our first trip to Russia! The busy holiday season made the three and a half months go by much faster than expected! As you may already know, we will be flying out on Thursday, the 24th, to head back to Volgograd for court! We are very excited about this, and ready to get in the air! Since the last time we blogged, we have been informed of some law changes in the country of Russia that have affected our adoption. The original plan was for us to be able to bring Jonah home immediately after our court date. We have been informed that, on January 1, 2012, Russia implemented a 30 day waiting period between the court ruling, and when it is made final. This means that we will go to court, come home, and have to return to Russia in early March to bring Jonah home with us. This was quite the blow to our plans. We have everything laid out and ready for him to be with us this month, but that will not be the case. We have made peace with it, and will do what we have to do to make sure that he gets home at the earliest date possible.
We are very excited about our return trip to Volgograd! We will get to visit him twice daily, and even get to take a trip outside of the orphanage with him to do paperwork. We cannot wait to see him again. We have been wondering how big he has gotten, or how long his hair is, or if he will remember us! Thoughts like those have overtaken us since we returned to the states after the last trip.
We are spending this week packing and preparing for a very cold journey to the other side of the world. I was looking at weather forcasts for this weekend, and they are expecting snow. Highs are around 0 degrees F with wind chills of -33f. Needless to say, we spent time in Humble this weekend buying big jackets, thermals, fleece, gloves, ear muffs, hats, hand warmers, and thick wool socks. I'm still not sure if we have enough layers to fight off that kind of cold. I told my agent today that I have never felt anything below around 20 degrees. She laughed, since she is from St. Petersburg Russia, and working out of North Carolina, she thinks it's funny that it stays so warm in Texas. She made me promise to send her pictures of mine and Leah's first experience in the Russian winter. They are also expecting lots of snow this weekend. That will definately be an experience. We have seen Texas snow. You know, the kind that doesn't even stick to the ground. I'm not sure what either of us will do when we see mounds of snow taller than our heads! We will post pictures of this onto our Facebook for you all can have a good laugh!
Our court appearance is on Monday January 30. We are a little nervous, but we have a very experienced lawyer and have been assured that everything will be ok. This process has gone very smoothly. Please pray that it continues to go smoothly. We are in the home stretch now, and we can almost see him in his little bed when we look at it. That's how close it feels. A mere 6 weeks seperates us from completion of the adoption process to the transition of being parents to an adopted child. It never gets easier, but we are excited to be on the journey. Please begin praying for Jonah's adjustment to life in the United States. Pray for patience for Leah and I as he adjusts. We'd like to think it will be seamless, but we know that challenges are ahead.
Thank you all for your prayers. As with the last trip, we will update the blog each day that we are in Russia. Hopefully we have some more good stories for you all! Each of you are important to us. It's amazing to feel the support and love from, not only our family and close friends, but people that we haven't even met. We look forward to sharing our story with you and introducing you to Jonah in the near future.

Lots of you have asked about pictures of Jonah. As soon as the court decision is final (early march) we will be allowed to post pictures on the blog. Until then, it is a violation of Russian law to do so. Just wanted to clear that up. We are not holding out on ya'll, just trying not to get locked up! haha. Until next time...

Court Date!

Well we finally have a court date!!! February 1st we will go to court in Volgograd, Russia. This wonderful news came packaged with some not as good news. As of January 1st Russian laws change and now after our court date we have to wait 30 days for the courts decision to become final instead of ten. This means we will stay in Russia about five days and them come home for about a month before going back to get Jonah. On this trip we will stay about 7 days.

I have told Cory all through the Christmas holidays that the day that I got a court date I would be satisfied but when it came with the additional waiting period I was initially heartbroken until God showed me through some events how sovereign he is. I just want Jonah to be home. The nursery is ready, the car seat put together, the clothes are hung, books sit on his shelves, and the pack-n-play sits in our room. I can't wait for Jonah to be here. I can't believe that in 2012 he will be here. I would say that in 2012 I would become a mother but the truth is that I became Jonah's mom the day I opened his picture for the first time. Since then not an hour goes by that I don't think of him. How could we have known a year ago what all was in store for us?

With new years day being today I can't help but look back and think about this roller coaster we have been on. There have been so many highs and some very low moments but if there is one thing that we have learned its that we are not in control of any of it. God is sovereign. I think in some of the scariest and lowest moments we have been able to really learn to trust him and to really open up our lives and our hearts to let people in for this journey. Thank you so much for reading our blog and following our journey. I keep meeting people I don't even know who tell me that they are praying for us and reading our blog and I am amazed at the way our big God can use anything to bring glory to himself.

Pursing Jonah has taught me more about God, myself, and my husband than anything else I have ever done. I would have never chosen this path for myself, but God led us here. If God is placing adoption on your heart I pray you say yes!

Leaving you guys with a song that I love that's been on my heart for a few days.

Stephen Miller
You are sovereign here

You can make the rain fall on me
Or fly away
You can make the sun shine on me
Or hide for days
You can make the wind cool my face
Or tear apart this place
It doesn't mean You're far away, No


Oh, I trust in You, I trust in You
You are Sovereign here
Oh, I hope in You, I hope in You
You are Sovereign here

You can make the seas calm or rage
And both to praise Your name
You can make the skies fall with flames
To show Your glory
You can break my heart to bring me joy
You can take it all to make me more like You

Patiently Waiting......

The updates haven't come as often as we wanted them to since returning home from Volgograd.  There are many reasons for that.  The main reason is that there hasn't been too much to report.  Since returning home, we have waited for, and successfully received our FBI background checks!  It has been confirmed that we are not, nor have we ever been, wanted by the United States government for anything!  That was good to hear.  We have sent all of the remaining paperwork to Volgograd for translation.  We have received confirmation that it arrived, and is currently being worked on.  Once that paperwork is submitted to the judge in Volgograd, he has up to 45 days to issue us a court date.  We have been assured that he works pretty fast.  As soon as he issues that court date we will be ready to fly!  We cannot wait to go back.  Unlike last time, there are no more nerves.  There is no more uncertainty.  We are full of anticipation.  We cannot wait to finalize this and bring Jonah home.  Continue praying for us as we navigate the remainder of this process.  Pray for Jonah, he is being moved into a new unit in his orphanage and we are hoping he will transition well.  We will update this blog again as soon as we have more news.   You guys who follow this are so valuable to us.  We take comfort in the fact that we are not going through this alone.  We feel like ya'll are going through this with us.  Thanks again and keep checkind back for updates!

Home's not home without Jonah...

Well we've been back from Russia for about 15 days. We are waiting on Russia to give us a court date to come back. They are waiting on a paper from us from the FBI saying we're not criminals so that they can set a court date. Unfortunately government agencies aren't really that interested in how much we want them to hurry up and send us this piece of paper. We couldn't get the document earlier because they expire every few months and when we applied for it they sent us only one copy instead of two, and Russia won't translate the document until we can send them both copies. Oh and once we actually get the second copy of the document from the FBI we have to mail it to Washington DC to be apostilled. This will take another 7 days. Needless to say this situation is tough to deal with because all this bureaucracy.
I think about Jonah all the time. I think about how rich my life felt with him in it and how much I just want to see him smile at me. I wonder what he’s doing. I wonder if he is sick and if he is I wonder if someone is holding him like I got to do that day at his orphanage. I wonder how cold it is there and if he is getting to play outside in a puffer suit.
We are starting to fill up our house with things for Jonah. He had a beautiful shower from my coworkers and some friends are giving me a shower this weekend. We bought lots of new picture frames and put Jonah in them all around the house. But even with all the new things in our house, it just isn’t home without Jonah.
Please continue to pray for us. That God would comfort Cory and I. That God would protect Jonah and that so very soon we will be able to be together as a family. Thank you all for all your support. I can’t explain how many people have walked up to me in a store or at school and told me they are reading the blog and praying for us. Thank you all. We love you and can’t wait until we can introduce Jonah to you all.

Almost Home!

     Ahhhh, the words we have been waiting to say.  We are going to be heading back to Houston tomorrow.  As much as we have enjoyed this trip and meeting Jonah, we are ready to get back to Hull.  Of course, we wish Jonah was coming with us, but since he cannot, we are anxiously awaiting to board our plane in the morning.  We arrived in Moscow last night around midnight and were met in the airport by our translator, Margaret.  It was cold and rainy, and we had to catch a cab out to our hotel.  Airports in Russia are regoinal, so eventhough we were in the Moscow airport, it was about an hour drive to our hotel.  We arrived and were immediately taken back by how beautiful this hotel is.  It is a Marriot and everyone speaks English, and our room has a king size bed.  We have been sleeping on two twins pushed together since arriving in Volgograd, so the king was like being in Heaven! 
     Yesterday was our last day in Volgograd.  It was also Jonah's birthday and the day we officially filed the documents with the Volgograd courts to become his parents.  We signed the official paperwork to change his name in Russia from Stadnikov Nikolay Andrevich to Jonah Nikolay Elder.  It was a pretty cool event.  We realized that October 31 was becoming a big day for him.  In 2010 it was the day of his birth.  In 2011 it was the day we legally filed to be his parents. In 2012 it will be his first birthday party in the US!  We have come to terms with the fact that he has to stay here for now.  It was very sad to leave him at the orphanage, but we had no choice.  Hopefully we will be able to return in January to pick him up.
     Next time we update this blog we will be back in Hull.  It has been a long, whirlwind, 10 days, but we wouldn't trade any of it for the world.  From the uncertainty of the first night when we arrived in Volgograd, to the unexplainable feeling when we first saw Jonah being brought out of that crib, to the anxiousness we both feel as we await the long flight home, it has been amazing.  We will try to update weekly now that we will be back home.  As we get news, you will get news.  Please do not stop praying.  We cherish the friendship and support we have gotten from you all throughout this time.  Thanks so much.  Goodbye Moscow....Until next time.
    
    

It's a small world after all!

     Today started off a little different than the rest of the days.  My blackberry rang at 7:30 am telling us it was time to wake up and start our day.  We got ready and headed down to the restaurant about 8:30 am, as we do every day, and began to eat breakfast.  Then a funny thing happened, I looked at my watch and saw that my watch was reading 9:50 am and my blackberry was reading 8:50 am.  Apparently, the country of Russia decided that this year, they were not going to set their clocks back, and no one told Verizon.  We had 10 minutes to get to the orphanage or risk missing one of our visits we had planned today.  We are not allowed at the orphanage without our translator, and if we were late and she thought we were not coming, she would leave!  We left our plates full of food and dashed out of the restaurant and into the street.  We made our way, as fast as we could, down the street until we reached the underground train.  Luckily, we only had to wait for a couple of minutes to get on the train.  When we got off of the train, we quickly moved above ground and made a mad dash for the orphanage.  We were in luck!  Our translator was still waiting outside and told us she would've waited for the whole two hours since we had told her we were coming!  We had made it, 15 minutes late, but we made it.  Record time actually. 
     We made our way into the orphanage and once inside we saw our little man.  He was sitting in the lap of one of the nurses, eating oatmeal.  When he saw us he smiled really big at Leah, and stuck his arms out as if to say "come get me momma!"  We had a great visit this morning.  He seemed to be feeling better, and was playing like crazy.  He loves to crawl to Leah, then lean and get me to hold him, then two minutes later reach our toward Leah.  We call this his "hot potato move"!  He just loves being passed around and held.  As with all of our visits, this one ended too soon and we left and headed back toward our hotel.
     Since we left without eating breakfast, we decided to go eat lunch.  We went to our spot, Grand Pizza, and Leah had soup and I ordered a dish called "Grand Pancakes".  I was expecting pancakes like in America, but I got a very thin pancake like thing that was wrapped around chicken and cheese.  It was amazing.  Like nothing I had ever had before.  Those of you who know me know how picky of an eater I am, but in this country, I haven't come across many things that were not good.  Russians know how to do food, especially if you can figure out how to order it.  After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to rest, and when we got to our room, our room key didn't work anymore.  Add this to the list of strange occurances today.  We went back down to the front desk and told them it wasn't working.  They asked what room number, and gave us a new key.....that's it.  It made us feel really secure!  haha
     Our second visit today was less eventful.  We went to the orphanage and saw Jonah.  We got to play with him in their music room, which made him feel right at home.  I"m pretty sure we have the next Justin Timberlake on our hands. This kid loves all things music.  Any toys that play music, anything he can beat on to make a beat, anything he can dance to, he loves it all.  Once again, upon arriving at his area, he lit up and reached for us when he saw we were there.  He is beginning to recognize us when we come in .  That is very exciting for us and for the nurses who are with him.  They all want him to be happy and want us to adopt him.  I was a little worried that they wouldn't want us to have him, but they have been great.  Even when he was sick, they kept coming out and telling us why he wasn't playing because they were afraid we would change our minds and want another baby.  It was sweet.
     Tomorrow is the day we have been dreading.  The morning will be a celebration of his one year on this earth, and tomorrow evening will be the time that we have to leave him until we can go home and return in a month or so.  We are very sad about this, but we are both coming to terms with it.  We understand that this is just the process and we have no choice but to do what they tell us we have to do.  We do not want him to feel like we are not coming back, but we have both decided that he is too young to know.  We have been praying for God to comfort us during this time.  This afternoon when Jonah was playing I noticed something that I knew was God comforting me.  Jonah has this horse that plays music.  It plays Old MacDonalds Farm, a few other songs I do not know, and It's a small world.  His favorite is It's a small world.  Every time he hits that button and that song comes he just smiles and dances as fast and as hard as he can. This song must've played about a million times today.  While watching him play it and dance a thought hit me.  It really is a small world.  Compared to the vastness of the universe, and the depths of the heavens, this world is very very tiny.  The God who created this small world and this HUGE universe loves Jonah and he loves Leah and I.  Even though we feel like we are worlds away from our son when we leave, we are really only a short distance.  That distance gets even shorter when you think about the fact that God will be holding us both and Jonah in his arms bringing comfort during the seperation.  It meant the world to me.  It really is a small world.  It took a 1 year old with a toy horse to drive that point home.  I am not sure if we will be able to post tomrrow night.  Our flight to Moscow leaves at 9:05 pm and we won't get to our hotel until nearly midnight.  I will do my best so be looking out for it.  Until then I leave you with this..it seemed appropriate...

it's a world of laughter, a world or tears
its a world of hopes, its a world of fear
theres so much that we share
that its time we're aware
its a small world after all

its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small, small world

There is just one moon and one golden sun
And a smile means friendship to everyone.
Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small small world
We love you all.