Officially Sean's parents!

We were up early and on the road by car for 5 hour drive to Bryansk. No train this time. Our driver was Konstantine and we rode in his nice BMW. We arrived and checked into our hotel at 11:00. The Chernigov was a much nicer hotel than last one we stayed at in June when we were there. We rested for a bit and did some shopping as we had to buy dress pants for Patrick... he left his at home. We got his bryuki and then we were on the road again to see Sean in Klintsy, about a two hour or so ride by car.

Let me say how wonderful our visit with Sean was! We had such a great time with him. He was a different little boy! We spent an hour and half with him and we got to see him smile and laugh for the first time. I was so happy to see his little teeth. What a smile he has. His caretaker showed us how he likes to be tickled on his belly. Well that was it, I started to do it and he was laughing, giggling and making all kinds of sounds. We were cracking up. Patrick got to rough house with him a little. Sean liked going upside down. He gave his father a soaking..wet his pants (Sean not Pat!) Our visit came to an end, but is was great to say to him we will be back to get you in 10 days. After all the hours in the car it was so worth it!

We rode our 2-3 hour trip back to Bryansk and arrived back at dinner time. We went right to our Italian restaurant for our pizza & beer celebration! Of course it was non-stop talking about Sean and how great our visit was. Then it was off to bed for a good night sleep.

Today we had breakfast down stairs in our hotel, Olga said it was included in our stay. So we gave it a try. Well lets just say we got a taste of Russian food. Chicken legs and mashed potatoes, coleslaw, cheese and pepperoni. Bread and of course a bowl of oatmeal more like farina as it had milk and butter in it. I thought it was good. Patrick was not too crazy about it.

Then we were off to court at 12:00. Patrick and I had a women judge and she was very nice. In fact Patrick was the only male in court. The whole thing took about 50 minutes. Patrick and I both got up to speak. I only had a few questions to answer, but Patrick had more to answer. Olga said the judge liked us. I think they liked talking to him about his police work. So we became officially Sean's parents. I got bit emotional in court, but we were so very happy. At the end Olga showed the judge a picture of three other Bryansk children that I brought from Adrian to Olga. She and the other women all smiled and were happy to see them so happy and healthy.

After court we had lunch at our beer and pizza restaurant in Bryansk as we had an hour or so before we got back on the road to Moscow. We also discovered they had wi-fi. We came home to our apartment in Moscow around 8:00 pm. Very tired but glad to be in one place for a while. We will explore Moscow later in the week.


Pictures to come soon!

We are in Moscow!

We made it to Moscow @ 2:00pm their time. We were so happy to see Olga when we landed. She took us right to a medical center and we had our 8 doctor medical marathon. We are healthy as far as they are concerned (and the court!) We are now back at our apartment, which is not too bad. We have a computer and all the things you would find in apartment. It is great we can leave our things here until we can come back for the 10 day waiting period. Tomorrow we are off to see Sean, but it will be an early start- 6:00 am! We will stay the night in Bryansk and it's off to court on Wednesday at 12:00. Wish us luck! We can not wait to see Sean! We are off to get some much needed sleep, it has been a long day. Thank goodness for a Russian McDonalds, our first meal!

Trip # 2

Back to the USSR!


We are leaving tomorrow for Moscow. We are so excited and overwhelmed with joy! We can not wait to see our Sean again! We received our passport/Visa's on Friday. We spent the weekend packing and getting the last minute details done. Patrick put the locks on the cabinets and the new gate is up on top of the stairs. I am anxious to get the court part over with and to be officially Sean's parents. Next post should be from Moscow!

Wish us luck! We are coming Sean!

New Court Date!

Breaking News!

Olga went to Court on Monday and found out the judge was going on vacation for 40 days! We think Olga must be part Irish as she charmed the judge into changing our court date from October 6 to next Wednesday, September 30th! We are now leaving this Sunday September 27th.

I hoped we would be back home to celebrate Sean's birthday and now we will be. Thanks to (Mc)Olga we got the earlier date. Between Olga and our travel agent, we feel very grateful to have them helping us.

Patrick and I made the decision that this will be our second and final trip. We will be staying the entire 3 weeks. Lucky for us Patrick could get the time off from work and my job will now be raising Sean. We are looking forward to staying in Moscow in our apartment that Olga has arranged for us and to do some sight seeing while we wait out the 10 days.

So today I had to tell work Friday is my last day. I have been busy with phone calls, packing and just running around getting the last minute things done. I hope I pack everything I need. This is the third schedule change for us. So this is how our itinerary stands now.

September 27 -Leave the US

September 28- arrive in Moscow

September 29- medical exam, and overnight train to Bryansk
September 30- visit our son
September 30 - court, overnight train back to Moscow
October 1- 10 - stay in Moscow for the 10 days
October 11 - train to Bryansk at night
October 12-13 in Bryansk- pick up Our son and paper work. One of those day will be "Gotcha day"
October 14-17 in Moscow to get more paperwork completed at American Embassy
October 17 - fly home - Home Forever!

The wait has ended! THE CALL CAME!

We finally got the call for our court date. It was wonderful getting the call while my sister was still here to celebrate with me. We both were laughing and jumping up and down while I was trying to call Patrick to deliver the news that we will be leaving for Moscow on October 3rd as it stands right now! There is always the chance things could change.

I can not believe "NO MORE WAITING" and Patrick missed the date only by one day on our bet!

I will have more details later next week, when we have a conference call with our case worker.
I had to go to Mystic today to get another copy of our marriage license. We hope that will be it for paperwork!

Thank you for all your support during, this what seemed like a never ending wait.

We are coming Sean, hold on just a little longer!
Love, Mommy & Daddy

Wonderful Baby Shower & weekend!

My shower was this past weekend! What a wonderful time it was! My sister-in-law Mary had everything so nice.. It was so nice to see all my friends and family and the have them there to celebrate such a special occasion. Everyone was so generous, it was overwhelming. It was great having the Jersey girls there and Moni, who came from Pa. Sean has everything he needs for when he gets home. Big thank you to my sister in law Mary, who had it at her house and to my sisters who jumped right in to help and also to Anna for her help as well. The food was great and I also had such a beautiful cake! My sister started to cry when she saw it. I just loved it! Thank you to everyone, I am so happy you are all apart of our Journey to bring our little boy home!

This is on the Tee shirt, It's great to be home!

Thank you Mary M. for my cake!

The weekend fun continued with my sisters being here from NJ. We went out shopping for clothes and a Halloween costume for Sean! We had a ball picking everything out.. The monkey costume won out. He will look so cute in it. This was the first time I was feeling a little confident he would be home for Halloween. I did put a call into my case worker on Friday and she said we should get a call this week. :)

July and August updates!

For those interested in the monthly updates, There were no referrals for July or Aug. 2 children arrived home in June and they were from Moscow and Voronezh. 4 children arrived home in July. They were from Bryansk and Yekaterinburg and St Petersburg.

2009, 21 children have arrived home to WHFC families so far this year!

This recent call in session was pretty good, Jennifer Doane ran the meeting and said "the beginning of the end summer slow down has begun". They have been very busy with families traveling but no new referrals. But based on the current trends most families with a dossier complete could wait on the average of 5-9 months.

On average, families wait 3-8 months between their first and second trip, depending on the region and circumstances of the case. Judges are more closely scrutinizing cases and requesting many more documents, which has lead to increased waiting times between the two trips.

Safe keeping!

We keep holding on!
Our little boy!


Some updated news: It has been a little over two months since we left Bryansk. We heard from our new case worker and we did get a little information from Olga our translator who was recently at the baby home. Sean got another doctor's examination and is healthy and doing well.

Sean;
You have a journey to make, to parents who are waiting and praying for you. We think of you every day! We are so looking forward to the day when we can come and get you, as it has been two months since we saw your sweet face. The summer is almost over and fall will be here, so it won't be long and we will be back to Bryansk to get you. What adventure it will be for you,.. car, train and a plane ride! I had lunch with your mum mum yesterday and she said she prays for you everyday to come home to us very soon! We miss you!
Love, Mommy & Daddy

My mother in law is very dedicated to her church and I know she often has prayers said for Sean.

"The Lord watches over you
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore." -- Psalm 121 5-8