And Jill makes three...

We arrived in Moscow Wednesday after a pretty easy 8 hour flight. You gotta’ love a direct flight from Chicago! After collecting our 50 pound suitcase full of gifts, we went straight to the orphanage and Baby Jill. She looks great! Her rash is much better and she’s standing up on her own and she just acts like a different child. She is much happier and involved in the play which is quite a relief. After playing with Jill and handing over our gifts, we checked in to the Marriott Courtyard, grabbed a quick bite and went straight to sleep. We were exhausted! Despite having bulk head seats, neither of us slept much on the plane so by the time we hit the bed, we’d been up more than 24 hours.

Today, Thursday, was our day in court. Vlad picked us up along with Jules and David, another adopting family from our agency. Jules and David are adopting a cutie little girl, Clare, and live just outside of St. Louis. We were here on together on trip 1 and the moms (and Aunt Jill) will travel together on trip 3. We are having fun sharing this journey with them! Anyway, back to court… The courthouse was exceptionally nice - so different from Saratov or Arkalyk! It could have been a courthouse in any large U.S. city. The judge, a female, was easy on us. The 20-minute hearing felt good and exciting versus intimidating. In the end, the judge declared us parents of Anara Jill Giddens and wished us well. So, now we are officially a family of five: a one year old, two year old and three year old! And, I have a little girl!!!!!

Vlad directed Tim and I to a great pizza joint for lunch and from there we took the Metro (subway) to visit Jill again. During this visit, we took her out of the orphanage to a photo shop for her U.S. passport pictures. She was really curious about all the cars and people, not scared, just curious. Her eyes took it all in and her head was moving around not missing a thing. She may be the quite/observant type. Afterwards, we spent over two hours hanging out with Jill. We tried to entice her with Gerber Puffs. Not interested! Oh no… not another picky eater!

For our Florida buddies: We now join Pete in eating crackers in bed! Picked up cheese, crackers & grapes, along with a few beers, and ate in bed while watching the Hallmark Channel. Yes. We are hard up for entertainment tonight! It’s raining here and walking out to eat just didn’t appeal to us tonight.

We’ll see Jill again in the morning before catching our flights back to St. Louis. It’s been a quick but successful trip!

Paka, paka from Russia!

Happy 1 Year GOTCHA Day, Jacob

Today is Jacob's 1 year Gotcha Day... the day he arrived home and forever became part of our family. My favorite memory of that day was JC greeting his new little brother for the first time at the airport saying "Jacob, you remember me? I'm your big brother!". We celebrated last night and enjoyed yet another cake. Happy Gotcha Day, Jacob!

Tim & I leave tomorrow for Russia. We'll be away for approximately 80 hours (Tuesday - Friday) and 30 of those hours will be travel. Good times :)!

Court is Thursday!

Ready to Go!

Purchased gifts last night, made plane tickets & hotel reservations for both trips yesterday, finalized arrangements for the boys in our absense, picked up crisp new $100s from the bank (which turned out not so easy & I'm grateful for my banking "connections"), and hugged the FedEx man when he arrived today with our passports/visas! We're ready to go!

Confirmation - Court July 31st

It's a-go! Tim & I will leave for Moscow one week from today, July 29th. We'll arrive on July 30th, attend court on the 31st and will be home August 1st.

Aunt Jill and I are booked to fly to Moscow on August 9th and return home August 16th with Baby Jill!

It's getting really close now!

Happy 1st Birthday, Baby Jill!

We're with you in spirit! Happy 1st Birthday Anara Jill Giddens! We cannot wait to bring you home.

We celebrated Cousin Brian's 23rd birthday today after church. After blowing out all 23 candles, we lit two for Baby Jill. JC & Jacob joyously sang Happy Birthday and couldn't wait to blow out her candles. The DQ cake was a big hit resulting in both kids literally licking their plate... who is teaching these kids manners? I see charm school in their future!

We heard from Lorien on Friday. Our court is now tentative for July 31st. We should have confirmation on Tuesday.

Possible Court Date!

Only two weeks after meeting Baby Jill, we think we have a court date. It's not definite yet, but we're tentative for July 30th or July 31st. Can you believe it? Talk about F-A-S-T! What a dream situation! Especially, since we're worried about Baby Jill's skin in our absence!

The Russian courts impose a 10 day appeal period and we've selected to return home after court to be with JC & Jacob. This means we make a total of three separate trips to Moscow but it drastically reduces the amount of time spent away from the dudes. This court trip (trip 2) is only 3 nights and our third "pick up" trip will be 7 nights.

Speaking of "pick up trips". More good news! Aunt Jill will travel with me to bring Baby Jill home. Assuming one of these court dates confirm, Jill & I will travel to Moscow on August 9th and return home with Baby Jill on August 16th. Talk about exceeding expectations... August 16th is exactly 4 months and 1 day after signing our contract to adopt with Lighthouse. I absolutely, positively cannot believe how quick Lorien & her team have made this happen! And, it's been very pleasant too!

My sister (Aunt Jill) has always wanted to go to Moscow and I am so excited we'll experience this adventure together. It seems appropriate Aunt Jill be an integral part of bringing her namesake, Anara Jill, home. Of course, that leave four munchkins without mommies for a week but my parents have enthusiastically agreed to help with kid-care so between GG & Grandpa, my favorite babysitters, Lizzie & Amanda, and Tim by night, the kids will have a blast! (Note: Uncle E will be in California during this time otherwise he'd be on night duty as well. Thanks, E for agreeing to let Jill travel with me!) Cannot wait to bring Baby Jill home!

I've put airline reservations "on hold" and we hope to have news of court confirmation before Monday. More to come!

Data Bank Picture

Hi Everyone!


I found Jill's picture on the Russian Orphan Data Bank, a photolisting used to promote adoption throughout Russia. This will likely be the only "baby" picture we have for her.



On an interesting note. In Russia, families are provided apartments in which to live. These apartments are registered to the family. What that means is, if your grown children want to, they (and their family) have the legal right to live in your home.... forever! Now, don't get me wrong. I'm looking forward to having my children here, but let's hope they're on their own after college! Vlad, our facilitator in Russia, confirmed it's cost him a small fortune to purchase two apartments for two of his grown three daughters. Plus, he had to purchase an apartment for his ex-wife. But, the end result is they live on their own, not with him in his 1,000 sq ft apartment (large for Moscow!). The third daughter doesn't want to move out and may not since the apartment is much more spacious than anything Vlad can buy for her. I believe he's hoping for a good marriage with a large in-law apartment! Another note, purchased homes are considered personal property and are excluded from the homesteading law.



I mention this because Russia is internally promoting adoption and the number of children available for adoption outside of Russia has declined over the past year. A new law, helping Russian families choose adoption, states adopted children will be given an apartment by the government at age 18 rather than the child being entitled to their adopted parent's home. That being said, more Russians are adopting with less worry of having their kids home forever.



I never mentioned (shame on me!) the lovely couple we met during our first trip. Jules and David, Lighthouse clients, met their sweet baby girl, Claire, while we were meeting Baby Jill. Claire is in a different baby home from Jill so we didn't roam Moscow together but did stay in the same hotel and met up for dinner twice. What's so random is they live in city only about 1 1/2 hours from us! I'm very much looking forward to getting together with their family after the adoptions are complete! Plus, I'm hoping we travel together again for trips 2 & 3!



Lorien, from Lighthouse, has asked us to update our medicals in preparation for court. Rumor is, our judge may be on vacation in early August so our agency is working towards an end-of-July court date. That's pretty optimistic but who'd have thought we'd have met our daughter only 2 1/2 months after we applied! More to come but for now, I need to call for doctor appointments!