Laundry Baskets and Water Bottles

Tennyson has some wonderful toys.  I am sure all of you parents are familiar with this.  You buy so many toys that have all of the bells and whistles and your child finds the most odd things to play with.  When we were in in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Tennyson got the biggest kick out of playing with our water and coke bottles.  He would take them all down from the table and put them either on another table or on the floor.  He would then put them all back on the original table.  He did this over and over.

Now that we are home he has found that it is a lot of fun to move the laundry basket from one side of the room to the other and back.  Fortunately he has only done this with an empty basket.  It amazes me how long he can occupy his time with an empty laundry basket.

Now he is playing with his band in a box that a friend gave him.  He is working out what all he can do with the tamborine.  He has drummed on it and now he is looking at it funny.  You have to wonder what goes through their little heads.  Very cute.  He does seem to respond to Classical Music.  I need to get him a keyboard next.

Making Progress

Well Tennyson is starting to accept Dakota, but he is still scared of Arizona.  At least he isn't screaming bloody murder every time Arizona stands up or moves an inch.  Tennyson is adjusting well.  This morning he is playing with his legos that my parents got him.  He really likes to organize his toys.  We also went for a walk around the neighborhood.  Even though we went at 8:15 AM, I almost died from the humidity. (I hope this humidity means that we will get some rain today.)

Today we start working on a schedule.  Tennyson keeps trying to take short naps, but I am keeping him active so he has a good afternoon nap.

Oops, I gotta go.  Tennyson just crawled in my lap and it is time to read.

Adios!

Welcome Home Tennyson!

We finally made it home.  I did not have access to wi-fi in Moscow so I couldn't upload a picture until today.  We were suppose to be home last night, but we missed our connecting flight in Washington DC.  We had to stay in yet another hotel but at least it was a decent one - Hilton.  We went to bed last night at 8:30 PM so we could get up at 3:00 AM to catch our 6:30 AM flight.  I finally got home this morning around 9:15 AM.  I was so glad to be home.  However, now the exhaustion has hit me.  Everything is going great with Tennyson except he is super scared of my dogs.  He doesn't want them near him.  I am hoping that time will help.  I have already found out that the Cartoon Network helps.

Thank you everyone for following this blog through my journey to find Tennyson, and for all of the kind words and support.  I feel so fortunate to have found him.  We are now a family!

Rachelle

Back in the USSR! Oops, I mean the Russian Federation

Today was another beautiful day in St. Petersburg.  We have been busy seeing the sites.  We do not get to pick up Tennyson until Tuesday morning, so in the meantime we are just seeing everything we can.  Today we went to Peterhof.  It was one of the Palaces of Peter the Great.  It has fountains everywhere and is absolutely amazing.  It was very peaceful, but very expensive.  We are finding that we need to be frugal because there are so many tours we can take that we will run out of money if we aren't mindful of what we are spending.  There are still a lot of places to see, but we have 3 more full days to see them.  We are getting anxious for some Tex Mex, but know that we won't get any until we get home.

On Wednesday I received Tennyson's Birth Certificate and yesterday we went and applied for his Russian Passport.  We will get the passport next Wednesday right before we go to Moscow.

I hope everyone out there in blogging land are doing well.  Catch up soon!

Much Better!

Thank you all for your kind words.  I had to return to the ER early Monday morning but I think they gave me the good stuff because I finally started feeling better around 1PM and could make the decision to come to Russia.  That's right, I made it.  We landed a few hours ago and I am so happy it worked out.  I improved a lot on the plane which is a miracle in itself and felt pretty normal by the time we got here other than being exhausted.  So I don't have any other news.  It is late here so I am going to go to bed and make sure my road to recovery continues.  I will update later in ther week.

Chow!

Rachelle

UGH!

I am heading back to Russia tomorrow evening and I have been super sick all weekend.  I went to the ER yesterday and I had to get IV fluids because of dehydration and very low sodium.  It was a short term fix.  I keep spiking a fever and feel awful.  I had huge plans for the weekend.  I had so many last minute things that I needed to get done and did not get anything done.  It is very frustrating.  My last weekend to be at home alone and I was totally unproductive.

Ok, enough complaining.  I get to go and get my son tomorrow.  Very Exciting!

Back Home

We are back home after a loooooooooooonnnnnngggggg day and a half of flying.  Yep we had an early flight out of St. Pete and a long layover in Frankfurt.  The fact that we were able to hang out in the Lufthansa lounge made the layover much better than it would have been.

Today is catch up day.  Thank you all for the sweet words of congratulations.  I have never been so excited about anything in my life.  Just one week from tomorrow I will be flying back to Russia to get Tennyson.

I'm a Mom!!!!!

I am still in St. Petersburg on my second trip.  I am leaving shortly to catch the plane home.  This trip was great.  My petition was approved for adoption.  I will be coming back to Russia on June 7th to pick up my son.  I don't have pictures to put up just yet.  That probably won't happen until I return and get him.  I still respect the Russia laws of not sharing information about him until he is in my arms for good.

I have 3 great visits with him this trip and we really started to bond.  We played in the Orphanage playground and had a lot of fun.  He is a big healthy boy and I feel so fortuntate.

Well I gotta go and catch a plane.  Cheers!

Thank You

Thank you for the well wishes.  I have had three times the amount of time to get ready for this trip, but I keep thinking I am forgetting something.  I have checked my lists and I seem to have everything.  I think I am better in crisis mode.

Getting Ready!

I am leaving next Monday to go back to Russia.  I have been super busy getting things ready around the house.  I found out that I have to take more pictures of the child's room to show how I have set it up for the arrival.  I think I have everything organized.  Now I just have to take the pictures and get them developed.  I think I have everything ready for the court trip including my speech.  Yep, I have to give a speech to the court.

Time is really flying by.  In the meantime I have been dealing with 2 sick dogs.  I may have mentioned before that my oldest dog was diagnosed with lymphoma about 3 weeks ago and she isn't expected to live very long.  My other dog has diabetes and we can't seem to get her insulin balanced.  She also has a staff infection.  What a pain!  Their vet bills are about to kill me, but they are just like my children so I will do whatever it takes.

Bait and Switch!

I am running really bad when it comes to customer service lately.  It seems like I can't get one thing to go the way it is suppose to if I need someone else to do it.  For instance, I hired someone to clean my house.  They came 2 weeks ago and charged too much, but I was hoping that I would get what I paid for.  I am not going to say how much I paid for the first cleaning.  They did a pretty good job but complained about several things about my home and my dogs who were outside during the cleaning.  (I did kind of kick myself for paying too much.)  Well when they were here I asked them to email me a receipt and her contact information.  I didn't really want to have to search the internet for her number and I had failed to write it down (I wasn't at the house when the cleaning was done, I had someone else there).  She never sent the email.  That doesn't seem like such a big deal because I have my check as a receipt.  Also, when I arranged for the first cleaning I told the owner of the company that I would need bi-weekly cleaning.  No problem right?  I didn't hear from her and I didn't have her contact information since I had asked her to email it to me with the receipt.  So I looked her up and found her with some searching and sent an email to the contact email.  I asked in the email if they were coming back this Wednesday and verified the agreed upon price of $80 to $85.  Shortly after I sent the email the owner called me and said she would be here today around 11:30 AM.

So they came today, arrived late like the first time, and did the cleaning and again complained about several things.  I am glad I wasn't here, because I would have told them to shove it.  I have a very nice home and I am not very messy.  I know it is a big job, but not that difficult.  So when they were finished and my mother (who was here to let them in) was writing out the check she was told that it was $110.  WHAT!!!  There is a big difference between $80-$85 and $110.  My mother argued with her and tried to call me, but I wasn't available.  Finally they settled on $90.  

I was pretty mad when I found out about this Bait and Switch.  It is unethical and illegal.  Since the owner made a big deal about being a long time member of the Better Business Bureau, I think I will be sharing this information with the BBB tomorrow.

This is just one example of how bad my luck has been running.  I am tired of people not following through on promises.  It is frustrating.  Needless to say, I will not be having that cleaning company back at my house.

I hope your luck is running better than mine.

Back to Russia

I will be going back to Russia in 2 weeks.  It will be a quick trip, no running around Europe afterwards.  This will be my court trip then I will turn around 10 days later and go back to get the child.  I have been feverishly getting the house ready.  Today I put together 4 photo collages, reorganized my closet, empty the child's room closet, moved a book case, ran a few errands, washed 3 loads of laundry, and starting installing baby proof items in the house.  It was a busy but productive day.  Next weekend is the shower and I have some friends coming in from out of town who will be staying in my house, so I had to do some cleaning also.

I still have a lot to get done tomorrow.  Sunday is typically yard day, so that is what I will be doing.  I also have to do some more baby proofing.  I need the work week to start so I can get a break.

This weekend will be my last mother's day without being a mother.  Very weird but very exciting.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers!

Sic 'em

Funny thing happened today.  I went and bought a new dresser for the child's room.  I had it delivered because I sure couldn't carry it up to the 3rd floor.  So there were 2 big strong delivery guys who came to deliver the dresser.  I put the dogs outside so they wouldn't get in the way.  I apparently left one of the doors unlocked and one of my dogs can open the doors from the outside.  When the big strong guys were inside my dog opened one of the doors and both dogs came in.  Before they could even get inside one of the big strong guys ran (yes ran) into my restroom and slammed the door.  It was hilarious.  I just quickly grabbed the dogs by the collars and put them back outside.  The delivery guy stayed in the bathroom until I told him the dogs were outside and the door was locked.  I got a good laugh out of it.

Proud to be an American. Go USA!

I am always proud to be an American but my heart is swelling more than usual this evening.

Ding dong the witch is dead, the wicked witch, the witch is dead.  Ding dong the wicked witch is dead!

Hurry Up and Wait!

I really don't have much to report.  I continue to spend each day consumed with everything I need to do to get ready for a child.  Some of my wonderful friends have planned a baby shower for me in a few weeks.  I sure never thought I would have a shower thrown in my honor.  I am really amazed and thankful for the support I am receiving.  I still have several things to do around my house to get ready and I will work on those things this weekend.  I had my brother over here earlier this evening to show me how to install the baby proof cabinet pulls.  I thought I was stupid because I couldn't figure them out.  Well after several minutes and a lot of frustration he couldn't figure it out either.  To both of our defense there weren't any instructions included in the package.  I will have to look it up on the internet.  I also have some gates to install at the top of the stairways.  I better get this stuff done before my next trip.

I hope you all are safe out there from the terrible weather we are having around the US.  Here in Houston we keep hoping for rain while other parts of the United States are flooding.  Crazy!

Adios!

Back in the USA!

Well Russia was great.  The people were nice and the city was beautiful.  Sorry that I can't give any details, but the trip went as planned.  I will be going back in a month or so.  I have been so busy since I returned that this evening is the first time I have had a chance to breath.

We did take a side trip to Munich after our visit in Russia.  Munich was awesome.  We did 4 tours in 2 1/2 days.  We were exhausted, but enjoyed every minute of it.

Catch up soon!

Russia Here I Come!

Spring is HERE!

One thing I love about living in the south is that there are no chances of snow and ice by this time of the year.  We had a beautiful weekend here in Houston.  I did a little yard work and completed my taxes. Woohoo!  I also worked on 3 paintings that will go in the child's room.  I am going with a music theme.  It will take me a while to finish them, but I will post a picture of the paintings when I finish them.  I have also been working on some adoption paperwork here and there.  The paperwork never stops.  I need to plant some trees to make up for the ones I am killing with all of this paperwork.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Shopping Today

I went to Best Buy today and bought a camcorder.  I didn't have a clue about what to get to I bought a Sony.  I tend to be a Sony loyalist.  Sounds weird huh?  Anyway I then went to Babies R Us.  I felt like a fish out of water, but I was amazed at how many fathers were there walking around with their babies trying to hit on women.  It was funny.  I don't know if I will ever feel comfortable in a baby store.   I didn't make it to Home Depot to look for paint today.  I will try to venture out again tomorrow.  I have ti be more productive.

My life is changing fast

All - I cannot give any details on the blog, but I will say that I have received a referral for a child and things are moving forward.  I will not be blogging much other than to say when I am traveling and stuff.  Please don't ask details about the child, I cannot give any.  I need to protect the child's privacy.  Needless to say, I am very excited.

Adios for now!

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

There are some exciting developments happening.  Very exciting.  Stay tuned.

RP