12/10/05 – We left for the airport at 6:45 AM, in plenty of time to stop by to pick up something to eat and have plenty of time to catch our flight. However, I forgot 1 important item sitting on the bar at the house – my make up! We realized about 15 miles from our house! We turned around and this should have been an omen as to how our trip was going to go!

We flew to Atlanta, then to JFK. So far, no big deal. We met two other couples that were going on their 2nd trip as well and we did get a little sleep on the plane.

12/11/05 Sunday - As we flew into Moscow, the ground was covered with snow! Us being from the South, we rarely see snow, so we were excited! This time going through Customs was a breeze – unlike the 2 hour wait last trip! We gathered up our luggage and met our contact person just outside the glass doors. Off to the Hotel Russia we went. Wow, Moscow was just beautiful all decorated for the New Year and Christmas! The hotel was really nice, with the exception of all the (shall we say) grown up clubs!

12/12/05 Monday - We decided to take advantage of the free buffet in the hotel. I see now why it’s free. Never have I ate Frosted Flakes with warm milk – yuck!

We took a short stroll around outside in the snow and quickly came back in – our chins about froze off!

Our driver and translator met us in the lobby at 4 PM to take us to the airport to fly to Tyumen. This time we went to Domodedovo airport – much nicer than the other airport we went to last time.
As we boarded the plane I felt at ease this time, American music was playing! Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. Then we sat while they de-iced the plane. Tears strolled down my face as all these emotions over came me. Soon we would see our babies!

We landed at midnight and what a beautiful site – Zina!!! I almost didn’t recognize her. She had her hair colored red last time. This time it was blond/white. I broke down crying again, and just hugged her so tightly! As we drove through Tyumen, it was even more beautiful than Moscow with all the lights for the New Year and Christmas. We didn’t know where we were staying, but I had assumed it was at the Cottage like before, but we were going a different way. We passed the Circus and Quality Hotel. Oh no, we must be going to stay with a family or someone because the Cottage is on the other side of town and we were going the wrong way. Then suddenly, I remembered the traffic circle, then saw the Purina red and white checkered smoke stacks from the plant. Yes, we are going to the Cottage!! I can only guess that Zina wanted to show us all the lights in Tyumen, who knows.

12/13/05 Tuesday – we were picked up at 2 PM to go see the babies, at least that’s what we thought! Natasha (our translator) joined Zina in picking us up, and informed us that we were going to a pre-trial to meet the judge. WHAT? We weren’t prepared! We arrived at the court house and sat in front of the judge and answered all her questions –
· What are our names and dates of birth
· Were we aware of all the medical conditions of the babies
· What was our monthly net income
· How did we feel about the American death cases of adopted Russian children
· Why did we choose Russia
· And, since we were still young, what would happen if we had a bio-child. Would we treat these children any different or would we not want them anymore
In answering the last question, I had tears in my eyes. How can anyone not love these children? What kind of question was that? I was told not to show emotion during the court session. I was just so emotional. I was finally going to see my babies today and was nervous about answering questions. Ok, that was over with – off to the baby home!

Wow, how much a baby can change in 7 months, physically and emotionally. They were just beautiful! I’m sure they didn’t remember us, but still we were overcomed with just joy. We played with them and met another couple that had defected from Russia to Germany that were there adopting a 7 mth old boy. Their 10 day waiting period was not waived – I think because they did not request it to be waived.

12/14/05 Wednesday – Today was a busy day. We went to see the babies and took them to get their passport pictures. Poor Rhyne looked like a little pink Michelin man or a pink Mr Staypuff marshmallow in her snow suit! She reminded me of Ralphie’s little brother in A Christmas Story when his mom bundled him up and he fell on the ground and couldn’t get up! Too cute!
After lunch, we went to the grocery store to buy food and supplies for the children. Then back to the cottage.

12/15/05 Thursday – Studied our home study all morning trying to gather all my wits about me to be able to stand in court and speak aloud. I’m terrified about standing and speaking aloud. It snowed every night while in Tyumen. But on Thursday morning, it was snowing during the day. I had remembered that Natasha told us that it was good look for it to rain or snow on an important day, so I took this as a good sign!

Zina greeted me at the cottage with 3 white flowers and sang Happy Birthday to me in English. It was beautiful! She had come along way with her English since May!

At 10 AM the judge came into the court room, but we were still waiting on the prosecutor. In the court room was the court reporter, the Social Worker, the Director of the Baby Home, Zina (our coordinator), Natasha (our translator), and the judge. Finally, the prosecutor arrived and everything got started. Court was a breeze. Nothing like the pre-trial. We didn’t have to really answer a lot of questions, mostly the SW, director, and prosecutor spoke. Then the prosecutor’s cell phone rang, boy did the judge give her a look! About 10:30, the judge went to her chambers to look over everything. Jody and I have determined that everything seemed that it was already decided and all of this was just to go through the procedure. At 11:00, the judge came back and granted us custody of Rhyne Alissa and Jacob Taylor and waived the 10 day waiting period! She snickered over the fact that our pediatrician letter had the babies American names on them instead of their Russian names, as if we already knew what her decision would be. She also snickered, and wished me a Happy Birthday.

Off to do paperwork. First up was the birth certificates. We went to the Vital Records office and we witnessed a wedding. Nothing like the city hall weddings back home! It was very nice with a 2 man band, dancing, and everything! The lady that presented us the birth certificates wished us lots of love and happiness as family and congratulated us.

Next, we were off to get their adoption certificate. This lady was super nice. She also gave us a speech giving us well wishes and lots of love and happiness. Everyone we met was so nice and generally cared about us and was happy for the children.

Then we went to the airline office there in Tyumen and got the babies plane tickets to Moscow. Jake’s was free but Rhyne’s was 2900 rubles. The whole town amazed me as we drove through it.
Ladies wearing fur coats and hats, men wearing coats and hats, but not covering their ears – what’s up with that? Also, their street brooms were sticks bound together – literally twigs that were cut or broken from trees. It’s as if we stepped back 20 – 50 years.

Next we went to the internet café where I sent emails home to family and friends. 7 ½ rubles for 10 minutes – a lot cheaper than a phone call, plus everyone was sleeping back home.

After that we went to a tea shop and bought the director some handmade tea that she likes – 800
Rubles!! Must taste really good!

Now it’s off to get our babies! We took the cakes that we bought for the workers, the director’s gift and all the little Clinique bags that I made up for the workers in. The director was not there. She was at the court house for another adoption – this time to a French couple. The director's assistant - who is also the doctor there - expressed appreciation for the gifts. She especially liked the 30 stocking caps that my Granny knitted for the children in the orphanage. She wished many more years of good health and wellness for my Granny for her generousity.

We went down to pick up our babies, and there they were – all ready and bundled up, ready to go! We got a group picture of all their friends and caretakers, and off we went. We made a quick stop off to the passport office to get the babies’ passports started.



Back at the cottage, Zina had arranged a special dinner for my birthday and our court victory to become a family – chicken and fried potatoes! She made several special toasts to us and it was just priceless.









Here's Zina and Natasha having dinner with us at the Cottage.






That night the babies did not want to sleep. Jody and I rocked each one for about 30 minutes until they finally went to sleep. Jody didn’t sleep all night. He kept watching their cribs to make sure they were still breathing. You couldn’t miss poor Rhyne – she snores like a freight train!

12/16/05 Friday – ok frustration is kicking in. The kids want to cry and do not want to sleep! They are sick with colds and green stuff coming out their noses. We starting giving them Benedryl – as indicated by our pediatrician. At 4 PM, Zina came to pick me up so we could go get the babies’ passports. She bought the babies two books. One that is an alphabet book in English and Russian, and the other is about the museum there in Tyumen – part of their heritage.

12/17/05 Satuday – heading off to Moscow! We packed everything up and all 4 of us were feeling lousy due to the colds. I had 2 layers of clothes and snow suits on the babies. When Zina came, she said that wasn’t enough. It was cold outside and they needed those footie leggings. Ugh! It’s going to be 85 degrees on that plane, and the babies are going to be roasting! Well, this is going to be the first part of a horrible day! I was already feeling like I was a bad Mom. I cried all the way to the airport. At the airport, the babies wanted to run everywhere and cry when we tried to refrain them from running around. The plane ride was horrible. The kids cried and fussed the whole way. They weren’t scared, just didn’t like being contained. We learned the hard way that they get no more suckers for awhile. Sugar seems to stem the temper tantrums. After touching down in Moscow our troubles continued. We were juggling our carry on luggage and carrying these babies in their snow suits. I think our terminal was at the opposite end of the airport from the baggage claim. We were sick, hot, and could not hold these children anymore! We gathered our luggage on one of those carts and I pulled out our passports because in Tyumen we had to show them to claim our luggage. In Moscow, they did not need them so I stuck them in the outside pocket of my diaper bag. Our contact person was 30 minutes late in meeting us and we were literally ready to fall in the floor. Jody asked her to push the luggage or take a child, we couldn’t handle both any longer. She was also there picking up 2 other couples from MN. After putting our luggage in the van, someone grabbed up my diaper bag, put it in the back, then handed it to me. When we arrived at the Hotel Russia, the driver grabbed my diaper bag again and me and Rhyne headed into the hotel. I think I forgot to mention that we took strollers, but left them in Moscow being that we would not need them in Tyumen. We also asked that they meet us at the airport with the stollers, instead they just left them in the van.
Ok, Maria, our contact, asked for all of our passports. I reached in the pocket for our passports and only pulled out 2 blue ones! WHAT!!!!! Where’s the babies’ passports???????????? I quickly ran up to Maria at the reception desk and screamed “Do you have my babies’ passports???”!!! What happened to them? Somebody please help me! A man with the other couple went to check the van to see if somehow they fell out – he came back, nothing! I was panicking, the babies had really dirty diapers on, and we were sick, tired and ready just to come home! Maria wanted to question us and go through our bags there in the lobby. Jody yelled at her and said will us not having their passports prevent us from getting a room? If not, then get Vladimir on the phone, tell him to meet us in the hotel room. Once there, he demanded that someone go down the hall and get us something to drink, as we were about to pass out. Rhyne had a mess all over her, so did Jake. We washed them off in the shower, and actually threw Jake’s clothes away. Vladimir made phone calls to Zinaida (Zina), the Tyumen airport, the Moscow airport, and to the driver – having them look everywhere for the passports. He and Maria left and it was just the 4 of us again.

We even got a phone call from our agency. Apparently, Maria called her because of the situation. She tried to calm us down, but that did not really comfort us.

Needless to say, Jody and I got no sleep that night. According to them, no couple has ever lost their children’s passports – that is until we came to town!


12/18/05 – Maria showed up around noon. She had wonderful news for us - the passports had been found underneath the floor mat in the driver's van!!! The babies had been fed breakfast and lunch, but Jody and I were close to passing out due to not eating for almost 2 days. Jody apologized to Maria for the way he talked to her the night before. Maria said she would stay with the babies if we wanted to walk to the market to get a few items and a breather. We did go to the market and to the hot dog stand. Wow, what a difference that made! We felt so much better with food in our bodies and a little bit of freedom!!! Vladimir and Maria were working on our Embassy paperwork in our hotel room when we got back.

12/19/05 - Off to the doctor we go! We met the famous Dr Boris. He examined Rhyne and said she was a true drama queen, “Better go ahead and move to Hollywood”! He also said that she had crocodile tears and if we gave into her drama, we would be doing it until she was 25! Then, Mr Jake was up. I don’t remember any comments on him, but he was a true trooper. Rhyne weighed 24 1bs and 31 inches. Jake weighed 22 ½ lbs and 30 inches.

The best part of Moscow came – the GUM ( their mall). We ventured out and got great pictures of St Basil’s Cathedral and finally found the mall. Inside – Sbarro’s pizza – we had found a little piece of heaven in Moscow!!! It was so good, we went back through the line for seconds! The mall was decorated beautifully for Christmas/New Year, and I bought a few items to put up for the children.

12/20/05 – Ok we are running low on diapers. Jody stayed with the babies and I ventured out to find diapers. In Moscow, there are tunnels underneath the roads that you have to go into to cross a lot of busy streets. I got down in one tunnel and it went on forever. I back tracked and made a mental note of a flower stand where I entered the tunnel. I exited the tunnel and located a pharmacy across the road ( a few blocks from the hotel). There they were – HUGGIES!!! By the way, I made a point to wear all black/gray, a hat, and not to look anyone in the eye on my venture out.

Later that afternoon, it was off to the Embassy! Our driver was late because President Putin was leaving the Kremlin heading to the Carribean. Vladimir joked that he hoped they would keep him for a while!
The Embassy turned out to be a breeze. On the ride there, it amazed me at all the casinos that were in Moscow. We saw quite a few in Tyumen as well.

After the Embassy, Jody stayed with the children again, and I walked back up to the mall. I thought I remembered an Old Navy/Gap store there where I could buy Jake a coat instead of him wearing his snowsuit, but I couldn’t find the store. The main reason for going was Sbarros pizza! Got a to go order and back to the Hotel Russia I went!! By the way, the closed the hotel down 12/31/05 for demolition - I guess we closed the place down!!!

12/21/05- Finally, leaving Russia!!!! It had snowed again last night (like everynight) but this time it seemed to be deeper. Sergei picked us up at the hotel and off to the airport we went. The roads were icy and extremely busy – we slid a lot on the roads going to the airport. Jake slept, Jody slept some, Rhyne dosed, but did not really sleep. I just looked out the window and tried to take in all the sights of our children’s home land. When we arrived at the airport, we were so glad a porter was there to help us with the bags. It was well worth the 500 Rubles that we gave him!!!!! Due to the bad weather we sat on the plane while they de-iced it for about an hour. The plane ride wasn’t the best, but it was much better than the trip from Tyumen. I had to make several trips to the bathroom to change the babies. Jake slept some, but Rhyne likes to observe everyone and everything.

We arrive at JFK at around 4:30, and went through the Customs line and then to the baggage claim area. After picking up our bags and then turning around and putting them back in another baggage area, we only had 10 minutes until our plane departed for Cincinnati. I asked the Delta lady at the desk if there was anyway that we could make the flight. She called upstairs and said the plane was still there, and for us to run. Run, we did!! Thank goodness Jake did not fall out of his stroller, because I did not have him buckled in!!! We got to gate 2 and the plane was still there. However, the Supervisor indicated that we had already been rebooked on another flight to Cincinnati at gate 18 – right across the aisle. OK, no problem, just as long as we could get home. We went to gate 18 and they indicated that we were not in the system, so we went back to the Supervisor at gate 2. He swore he had us booked and they must have took us out of the system. He said, no problem, we’ll book you to Atlanta through LaGordia and I’ll take you downstairs to the shuttle bus. I was thinking what a nice gesture for him to go out of his way to help us. We go downstairs through the service elevator and it’s around 5:50 PM. He was nice enough to sit us in an area out of the cold draft of the automated doors so the babies would not get cold, and that he would come get us when the shuttle bus came. Here’s where his nice gesture cost us – he never showed up!! At 6:45 PM, Jody asks a Delta rep at the counter when the shuttle bus was scheduled to arrive. Her reply – “that bus came at 6:00”. YIKES!! What are we going to do???? After tracking down 3 different Supervisors with Delta, we finally had to end up spending the night in NY. Thank goodness I brought the babies a change of clothes! Jody and I were just out of luck though!

12/22/05 – We were picked up at 5:00 AM at the hotel by the shuttle bus and arrived at LaGorida airport at around 5:30 AM. What we failed to remember is that this was probably the busiest travel day of the year! We showed the Delta rep our tickets and asked what line we needed to be in. He pointed to the longest line and I was thankful that our departure wasn’t until 9:00 AM. Midway through the line, we asked the same rep again if we were in the right line (it seems that we were in the Security line), “Yes, everyone has to go through this line”. After and hour of waiting in line we finally made it through, only to find out we were in the wrong line – we had to go through the Delta line first!!! Not too good. That line was looking about as long as the line we just went through. Luckily we found another Supervisor that took pity on us and helped us out. Back to the original line we went. This time it took 2 hours to go through it. The babies had on dirty diapers and had been really good up until the last 30 minutes of waiting in line. We made it through the line at around 8:40 AM, and off to the bathroom I went to change diapers. Poor Jake had really messed up his cute overalls, and I did not have another change of clothes. I know the people the 2 flights had to smell us coming. We probably had the “Pigpen” look from Charlie Brown. Oh well, stinky baby or not, we were going home.

The flight to Atlanta was ok, but the flight to Greenville was oh so WONDERFUL!! The babies were the best they had been in all the 12 days. They interacted with everyone and were just so happy. I think they must have sensed our enthusiasm of being on the last leg of our trip to be going home!!!

2:00 PM – TOUCHDOWN GREENVILLE!!! We’re home!!!! As we exited the plane, we made a mad dash to the bathroom for a final diaper change before their debut. We were tired and exhausted, but seeing all of our family members and close friends waiting for us with banners and balloons just re-energized us and we had the biggest feelings of emotions and love just pour over us. People that we didn’t even think would be there, were there (this was the middle of the afternoon, so a lot of them had to take time off from work, just to see and meet us, hmm, I mean the babies!).