Our Golden Tickets!!!!

We finished our first set of Dossier Paperwork!!! I had to go get them Apostilled yesterday in Atlanta- a 4 hour round trip!! Thank God all of our documents were as they needed to be, there was a man ahead of me that said it was his 15th time there! Everything has be exact on the way that the documents were Notarized and put together or they will not Apostille them. I am thankful for the notary in Gary's office that did our Notaries for free, he saved us a chunk of money. And he did everything correctly! I had tears in my eyes as I walked out of the apostille office, this is such a milestone in the adoption process.
The apsotille is attached to the front of each set of documents, they are attached with either a staple or a grommet thing. Georgia used the gold grommets. If these are unfastened in anyway the apostille is null an void, so these things are like gold! I was laughing so hard at someone's blog the other day, she was describing this apostillin process. We have to make copies of everything, and she had to bend back the apostille to copy the documents underneath. She said she was at Staples and a lady who works there walked up and grabbed one of her documents and bent it back, she said she almost jumped the lady! I see why!
We will be mailing this to Russia on Monday-Anastasia's 7th Birthday!

Hello, Happy Friday

Sorry there is nothing new and exciting to post, we are finishing up our first set of dossier paperwork, and hopefully next week I can travel to Atlanta to have all of our documents Apostilled. An apostille it like a step further than a Notary, you notarize it, then you take it to get "Apostilled", it is for international documents, and cost $3 a page!!! And that's a steal, in some states it $20! How many pages will we have? I think around 30, so thank goodness Georgia has bargain priced apostilling!!! What happens then? It is sent to St. Petersburg, tranlated and submitted to the "ministry" Then we start our 2nd part of the dossier paperwork, apostille it, send it to St. Petersburg, and then wait for our first trip date!! I miss her so much, I cannot believe it has been only 1 week since she left. The time is dragging. Life is too easy without her, and I mean that in the best way possible. I have noone following me around the house saying "Mama Dissel Da" There is noone standing at the sink with me in the morning asking me to curl her hair or use my lotion. It is harder than I even expected, I'm not going to pretend it isn't. I look at her pictures every night, and watch the little videos we took of her. Cooper is having the hardest time. He told me "Mama I think Anastasia misses us, and I think she is crying in Russia" I told him "Yes that I'm sure she does miss us, just like we miss her" And he said "Mama, I don't think she will stop crying until we go to get her and bring her home, so we need to hurry up ok?" Break my heart! I explained to him that people can be happy and sad at the same time, and that she has friends and people who take care of her there, and she does not cry all the time.

Rufus

Our hamster, was quite the attraction while she was here. She was allowed to take her out to play with him every night. And when she started miss behaving that is the privilage we took away. I would just say "No mouseka before bed!", and usually that did the trick. I must say she is a sweet hamster, we've had her a little over 2 years, so her clock is ticking.

Middle Names

While at the airport we took a peek at Anastasia's passport to see what her middle name is. I was like, what is that, it looks like a man's name with a ending added to it. Well, sure enough it was. After researching online, I figured out why her name looked like that, and what her father's name most likely was. I'm not going to type it on here for the whole world to see. But we don't know what to do about her name. It's a debate a lot of adoptive parents have, a lot leave it up to the children, and a lot just rename them without asking. We are going to keep her first name, no we are not going to ask her if she wants a new first name. Gosh, when I was 7 I named everything Susie, I don't think a child that age needs to be naming themselves. Just my opinion. Well, her middle name is out-there here in America, I can guarantee noone here could even round about pronounce it.
So, what to do? What if we give her a new name and her father was this super wonderful man. What if we keep it and her father was some sort of monster?

Here is the explanation I found online:

A Russian name generally has three parts: a given name, a patronymic,
> and a family name.
>
> The given name is like a first name in English. Most male names end in
> a consonant, and most female names end in the sound "a".
>
> The patronymic is the one that's unusual from an English perspective.
> It's name that is based on the person's father's name. It's generally
> formed by taking the father's name and adding -ovich for a man, or
> adding -ovna for a woman (these endings can change to -yevich and
> -yevna if the father's name ends in a "soft" consonant).
>
> The family name is like a surname in English. For a woman, the sound
> "a" is tacked on to the end of the surname, but it's considered to be
> the same surname. There are also some surnames that end in -sky (or
> -ski or -skiy, depending on the transliteration). This changes to
> -skaya for a woman.
>
> Some examples:
>
> Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
>
> His given name is Vladimir, his father's name is also Vladimir, and his
> family name is Putin. His daughter is Yekaterina Vladimirovna Putina.
>
> Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova
>
> Her given name is Anna, her father's name is Sergei, and her family
> name is Kournikova (or Kurnikova if you want a more accurate
> transliteration). Her father's last name would have been Kournikov.
>
> The most common way for two adults to refer to each other is by their
> first name and their patronymic. The patronymic would be dropped only
> in the case of a very close relationship. Using the last name would
> generally be seen as being extremely formal.







So, any input? If we give her a new middle name, I am leaning toward giving her mine, Anastasia Michelle, but that is really long. I don't know!!!
Oh, and if we keep her middle name, her initials would be A.S.S.

Yes Everyone Cried

As everyone knows we had to take Anastasia to the airport yesterday. Who was the first to cry? Cooper, yes you heard me right. As we were waiting in line to check her in, his little lip popped out, his face turned pink, and the tears started streaming "I don't want Anastasia to leave." Oh my goodness, of course that made me cry.
Once all the children were checked in, we got to hang around for a while and visit. We got to meet Liza, Anastasia's good friend who is being adopted by another Warner Robins family. I got a gate pass so that I could take her to the gate since she has to be wheeled. Once they called for all the kids to gather and start walking, yes, most everyone was crying. The thing that got me was seeing the kids crying. Anastasia had already cried several times, but now she was crying really hard, she gave hugs to the boys and Gary and we had to start walking. The orphanage director and I were trying to comfort her, and the orphanage director was looking at me, and said, "Anastasia can come back and visit you in the summer, yes?" I realized then that she must know that we are adopting Anastasia. We were not allowed to tell her, but I think the Hosting people did. So, of course I said "YES, we would love for her to come back this summer." That perked Anastasia up a little bit.
Nastya's Host Dad walked with Anastasia and I because we got seperated from the group due to the fact that we had to take the elevator. When we got to the gate, she cried so hard, I just held her and cried and reminded her that we would see her this summer. She told the translator that she wanted to stay forever with her Mama. She told me over and over, I love you mama, I love you. I love you too, is all I could say. She has no idea how much we love her, as our daughter, and how much work is going into bringing her here forever. It's so hard to not be able to take care of her when she hurts or explain to her that we do love her as a daughter. It's horrible to think that she doesn't know that she IS wanted.
Once I got back to the boys, Cooper yelled out to me "Guess what Mama, next time we see Anastasia we get to keep her!!!" I can't really explain the love these boys have for her, they were so kind and patient with her. What a blessed family I have!
Well, I've got to go clean my house so I can take pictures for our Dossier paperwork.

Departing

Hi all, we have been very busy preparing for Anastasia's departure tomorrow. She also had her dental work done yesterday. She did so awesome, they were impressed by her.
She has been crying telling us "no airport", and she says "ohhhh, my cody-bug" That is is one of my nickname's for Cody. I was crying with her, but at that point had to laugh. She loves her brothers, especially Cody. And I must say, they have been so sweet to her, beyond anything I ever expected. What wonderful boys I have!
We went to school with Cooper one day this week, which she loved. She has taken a liking to Cooper's teacher from the beginning. She also really likes Cooper's "girlfriend" Madison. It was a great day for her. During story time, she sat between the girls who were most dressed up that day, and all she did through the whole story was look at what they were wearing! I was trying not to laugh out loud.
Her English has exploded the past 2-3 days! Beyond what we ever expected. It's so sad she has to go back and lose all that she's learned, hopefully she'll retain some of it. Some of her favorites right now are "stop it", "come on", "hold on", "in a minute", "Ginger go potty", etc...
We had a Birthday Cake for her tonight, I tried to explain to her that her birthday is in 2 weeks and that she would be 7, not sure if she understood or not. But she was so excited that it was for her!
We haven't had much more of the behavior issues, she knows Mama don't play, and she corrects herself quickly.
She told the orphanage director that she wanted to buy a gift for her grandmother. We were told that her grandmother had passed and her grandfather was alive but too elderly to care for her. Maybe it's the other way around? We really hope that if she is alive, that we will be able to meet her, and get information and maybe photos for Anastasia to keep. I don't know what her parents were like, if they suitable or not, but no matter, I would still want her to have photos of them, it's part of who she is.
We are going to miss her so much. I hope the time goes quickly. This time with her has been such a gift. Having a child added to your family for a month then taken away is very hard. Children are so full of life, having one not there changes the whole household. Although I've tried to spread myself out well, I know the boys need some extra Mama time. It's kind of like having a new baby in the house, so she needed extra attention.
Please pray for our family tomorrow. Cody says he is going to try not to cry, but that he might! Cooper says he just wishes she could stay longer.

Our God is an Awesome God

Just wanted to give everyone an awesome update on the little girl Liza we had sent an email out about. I got a call yesterday saying there was a couple, who had gotten the email and was very interested. That couple is right here in Warner Robins!!! For their privacy I'm not going to go into detail about who they are. But they went to meet her today and are moving forward!!!! All that we needed was email, prayer, and a lot of heart, and a little girl whose future was at huge risk has found a home!!! And a family with a lot of love to give has found a daughter! Once Anastasia and Liza are both home they are going to flip over the fact that they get to be in same town nd visit each other!!! Can you imagine! This is one of Anastasia's closest friends. God is so good and when you are open to what he could do through you, even if it's just sending an email, you never know what could become of it!!

Updated Cost

As we get ready to write our second check to the agency I decided to update our "cost analysis"

I know alot of people are curious about costs, especially those who run across this blog and are thinking about doing what we are doing. As our costs occur we will post them here, along with a summary of future costs.

Application fee for Homestudy 100.00
Local background checks (2, one for me and one for Gary) 40.00
Fingerprints
Mailing the fingerprints to the proper places 17.00
Money orders for fees to cover having the fingerprints processed 66.00
9/1/08 Payment to Homestudy Agency 700
9/2/08 "Down Payment" to Hosting Agency 750
Passports 232
Final Homestudy Payment 700
10/15-11/1 Rest of Hosting Fee through donations, thank you Aunt Kelly, Uncle Dave, Papaw and Memaw 1400
10/15 Adoption Agency Application Fee 500
10/15 INS I600A FEE 830
10/30 First Installment of Adoption Agency Fee 5,500
Apostilled Copies of our Marriage Certificate for Dossier 59

Mandatory donation to Hosting Agency 2,250
Apostille cost for first set of Dossier 80
Last Minute Visas 715
Airline 2000.00
Hotel 600.00
Adoption Agency 4500.00
Total so far: $21,049.00

Known Costs for the future:




Adoption Agency Fee 13500.00
Travel Plane Tickets 2nd Trip 2800.00
Plane Tickets 3rd Trip 1500.00
Anastasia's Ticket Home 1000.00
Translator 1st Trip 900.00
Translator 2nd Trip 900.00
Translator 3rd Trip 900.00
Driver 1st Trip 800.00
Driver 2nd Trip 1000.00
Driver 3rd Trip 800.00
Hotel 2st Trip 1500.00
Hotel 3rd Trip 3500.00

Food 1st Trip 500.00
Food 2nd Trip 700.00
Food 3rd Trip 700.00

"Donation" to Orphanage 1000.00
Medical Exams for Gary and I in Russia 1800.00
Her Visa and Passport 400.00
Yet To Be Paid 32,400.00

Estimated final cost: 53,500

We have had 2,590.00 in donations
And we raised 400.00 through a garage sale

Starting our Dossier Paperwork!!!

Our adoption agency finally acknowledged us!!! I know they get the job done, and we are so greatful for them, but they do not operate in a way that is works with my personality. Just another way God is stretching me I'm sure. But we get to start our Dossier paperwork, yeah!!! So we just got back from the Post Office mailing our request for our Apostilled Marriage Certificate. We think the Dossier will take 2-3 weeks to gather, then it will be sent to Russia. Once that arrives, is tranlated and submitted, people usually make their first trip in 1-2 months, so we will see.

Ms. Attitude

Yes, she is a girl, she is so much different from my boys. We had to read tons of adoption information while doing our homestudy, they should have information on "girl attitude". She likes to challenge me, of course she is testing her boundaries. I get "no mama no", in the cutest most defiant Russian accent. Oddly enough like every mother knows, the expression on her face when she says it angers me and is really cute at the same time. She also does a long "MOoooom", you know the kind a teenager does. She is quickly learning this does not fly in my house. She will say no to any request we make of her sometimes, like to brush her teeth, simply I'm sure to test us. Last night she kept up yelling that she wanted to watch TV when we got home, well, it was late everyone was going to bed, she kept on, and refused, so I told her it was straight to bed then, no stories no nothing. She refused, so Gary picked her up and placed her in her bed. She started crying, jumped out of the bed, ran into the bathroom, slammed the door and started getting ready for bed. She then came out and told me she was sorry.
We are going to miss her Russian so bad when she loses it. It is so adorable, and she has a "lazy russian", so it sounds french-like. We really hope to keep her Russian once she's home forever, but we hear they lose it so fast, hard to believe, we'll see.

I'm trying to think

What we did all week after Atlanta. We took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese, I don't think she has ever been. The first game she went to was the skiball. Well, I can't really describe what she looked like when she first started playing it. It hasn't seemed that the CP affects her arms, but she was having a hard time, the ball was going in the next lane, behind her, on the floor, everywhere except for where she needed it to go. But she stuck with it. And yes, everyone was staring, I could care less, I was laughing my head off and trying to teach her how to do it. She tried and tried and listened to the tips I gave her, and by the time we left there she was rolling that ball up that lane!!! All while having her knees bent so she could prop herself up against the side of the game (she can't stand on her own, even though she can walk on her own)I took a video of it I will try to post it.
I now some people have asked us about what she can and can't do. Well it's really varied. She walks, but it's not real pretty. She can't stand on her own. When she falls, which is often, she has to crawl to something to pull herself up. She is very strong. She can go to the bathroom on her own, but most of the time I go with so I can make sure all is actually landing in toilet, because she can't really push herself all the way up onto the seat. I'm not sure if she could dress herself if she had to. Her legs don't bend like ours, it's like dressing a barbie doll, really, because that's how her feet are. She usually "W" sits, she sits with her knees bent, feet behind her when she is on the floor. She can't climb a slide then get her legs to where they need to be, so head first it is, no joke!!!
IT the muscles in her legs that are tight that is the problem, that is what she will have surgery on. She does not let her legs slow her down, and I can tell she longs to walk normal. She will show me how she can walk "normal like", she puts her hands down to her sides and gets her heels as close to the ground as possible. Ms. Iowa last year has the same kind of CP as Anastasia has, if you look up the video of how she walks.
Also when she is tired, her toes don't clear the ground, the shoes we bought her 2 weeks ago are shredded at at the toes.

The rest of our Atlanta Trip

We really had a good time in Atlanta. I saw my first Target with an escalator-say what? Yes, for real, I must live a really sheltered life. We took the kids swimming in the hotel pool twice, they loved it of course, we froze our butts off, but it was worth it. Anastasia loves the water. Hopefully she will be home by summer, and we can get her in swim lessons. We took the kids to the children's museum, Cody was a little bored there, but we did have fun. From there we decided to go the the Aquarium, it's not my favorite place, the Atlanta aquarium is over rated to me. We love the Chattanooga, TN one a hundred times better. But we decided to go ahead and go cause the kids really wanted to. As we were walking up to get tickets, a lady stopped and asked if I already had tickets, I said no, and started walking away, and she grabbed my shoulder and said, I do, here you go, now you only have to buy tickets for the kids, then she walked away. I was in shock, I did not have time to give her more than a quick thanks! That saved us over 50.00!!!! What a blessing. Anastasia loved the aquarium. Afterwards we went to the Atlantic station. They had fake snow, which the boys loved, Anastasia hated, literally she got really angry, and pulled her hat down over her face. I guess when you live in a place like Russia fake snow is not amusing!! We ate a the California Pizza place-yummy. Anastasia and I shared a chocolate souffle thing for dessert which was very funny, it was like combat dessert eating. She likes to eat as much as I do, and she was not going to let me have more than her!!! We had a really great mini-vacation,

Sneaking in a little blogging

Anastasia went to the post office with Papa, so I'm going to type a quick entry. I am doing this more for me than you. I wished I had journaled with all my boys, but I never could get myself too. Know that I can type it, it's easier, because unlike my handwriting, I can go back and read what I write. or type, whatever!
This past Saturday we went to Atlanta for 2 nights. Saturday Anastasia took Ekatrina (the assistant director from her orphanage) to Nutcracker at Fox Theater, it was fantastic, we all had a great time. Ekatrina was beyond sweet. I was so nervous, but I had nothing to be nervous about. After the show Gary and the boys met us for dinner. Everything went smoothly. The entire visit Anastasia talked and talked to Ekatrina, and you could tell she is one of those kids (like Cooper), who always has something to say. She must miss talking so much, I know I would!!! We laughed at her at dinner, in addition to her kids meal I got her a side salad, well it was huge!! Bigger than her head, but she ate the entire thing. Ekatrina and I just kept laughing. Then Anastasia told Ekatrina that she (Anastasia), is the "Eating King" Well, that is no lie, the girl can eat!!! She would even make a face like she didn't really like something, but keep eating it.
I gotta go, Cody just woke up from his nap, he's got a horrible ear infection, the Dr.gave him something for pain, and he threw it up all over the place. She said it might upset his stomach, well she was right, poor thing. Nothing seems to be helping the pain.
Type at you later

Christmas Day

Everyone has been asking how Christmas Day went. It was great!! We had told her the night before that Santa was coming that night. Cody was the first to wake, I heard him a 7:20, and we had told him that he had to wait until 7:30 to wake us up, and he did. All the kids loved all their presents. We cut back some this year. With Anastasia only being able to take back so much, we didn't want our boys to get more than she did. I'm glad we did, because much more and she would have been overwhelmed.
Her favorite present of all was the one that Cody bought her from his school Christmas Shop, I had given him 20.00 to shop for the family, and he did a great job. He bought Anastasia a pink heart necklace, it came in this adorable little box, she adores it. Puts it on first thing every morning. That and the 2 bracelets that came with the Hanna Montana shirts Papaw and Memaw sent her.
She loved the pink Hello Kitty backpack that we got her to take back with her on the plane. Of course it has pink sequins on it.
The boys favorite gifts were their "make your own lightsabers" from Papaw and Memaw. And of course Cooper adores his Batman Lego for Wii. That and the lightsaber were the only 2 things he asked for.
After opening presents we did our tradition of Cinnamon rolls. We just lazed around and let the kids play with their toys. Gary introduced Anastasia to the Wii. She loves the Nerf shooting game.
I made a turkey and our friends Amanda and Greg came over for dinner with their baby Ava. She tried everything on her plate. She did not like the Sweet Potatoes or the pumpkin pie.
Daddy got the new Star Wars game for Wii, and Mama got a new wireless keyboard and mouse, which I love!!! Daddy said my other keyboard was too loud, it would keep him up when I was on the computer at night and he was trying to sleep.
I think her first experience with Santa was magical. Although it is sad to me that it was probably the first.