Heading Home!!

I am very much ready to go home, that is for sure! On this trip to Russia my life has changed forever! I now am not only the proud mother of a wonderful son, but equally a proud mother of a beautiful daughter. It has been a long road to finally get here to this point of bringing my daughter home with me. I have truly been blessed! I am excited to get home and for Tori to meet her brother and her pets! I am happy for her to become part of my family and enjoy all of our traditions and celebrations as a family. I pray that I am a wonderful mother to Tori and God gives me wisdom and guidance in raising her and meeting her needs.

Tomorrow we leave Vladivostok at 5:30. We have a 2 and a half hour flight to Souel, Korea. A two hour lay-over there and finally an 11 hour flight to LA. By our clocks here, we will be flying at night. On the longer flight hopefully Victoria will think it is bedtime and sleep for the duration. That will be good for her, as it is a long time for a little person to sit and ride. It sure would be a lot easier if I could just wiggle my nose or click my heels together three time and we are home!

When I return, I will not post every day. I will post updates though! Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, e-mails, comments and support. That has meant so much to me! I truly appreciate my family, I have an amazing family that Tori will now be a part of. She has been blessed. Families that are in the process, no matter what stage, don’t give up, keep moving forward, stay motivated, and stay positive. There is a child that needs you! Remember your sacrifices of moving through the process are minor, truly minor, in comparison to the life of a child.

Paka (bye) for now!

Just going to post a few pictures that I took today, our last day here….WOOOHOOO!

We have been trying to befriend this dog since we have been here. We even brought it food one day. Finally on the last day here, it decided to come over to us. Tori was fine at first, but then was a little overwhelmed, unsure, and wanted me to carry her.

Of course after we became friends, we had some trouble getting it to go on it's way!

Big oyster! She threw it back in the water. There was still something in it, not sure if throwing back in helps....

Head first, on stomach, down the slide!

Not a small slide either...little daredevil!

Almost Time.....

Tomorrow will be our last full day in Vladivostok. I am looking forward to getting home. Today we walked, of course, to the beach and store twice. The weather was nice again, in the low 70’s. It is amazing how much the tree growth has changed just since we have been here. When we first arrived everything was just brown and dead, also some sporadic ice patches around. Now, the trees are budding and blooming and we are beginning to see lots of green. There was more thunder and lightning tonight and it rained for about 10 minutes.

Today we met another couple here from Long Beach. They were able to bring their son back to the hotel this afternoon. He was not able to be with them for the 10 day wait. Also, Heather and Fred (from Canada) were finally able to get their daughter from the orphanage. They came by and visited our suite tonight. Nadya is 14 months old (I think) and a very happy little girl. She will be meeting her 6 year old brother when she finally arrives home. Tomorrow Ken and Gloria will be arriving. I have not met them yet, but they got in touch with me through this blog.

As you can see, my list of blogs I am following has expanded. When I left home, I had one family on the list that I met on my first trip. Now I have added a few more to my list, just from meeting people here or from people getting in touch with me because they have either already been through this process or are currently going through it. It really is pretty amazing to learn about other peoples experiences, journeys and to see how their children are developing and progressing after they arrive home. I welcome the friendships.

I may have shown Tori a YouTube clip of “Five Little Monkeys” today and yesterday one too many times! She is now jumpin’, jumpin’ jumpin’ all the time! Also, after reading the Overstreet blog and learning that Blake had an ice cream, I thought I might dare give Tori ice-cream today…

OK, so here is the deal…..my child (as with everyone else's) came with instructions when she was handed over into my care. Part of these instructions included that children must not have anything cold. “Cold is just bad for their glands!” Seriously, milk is served at room temperature, no ice, no cold water, no cold food (ice-cream) and so forth…strange, I know. In the room we have been giving her cold stuff. In public, the Russians don’t have a problem with letting you know what they might think you should and should not do with your child so, I have been following “the rules” while in public. Not today though. We walked to the store and ate an ice cream on the way home. =)

Jumpin' jumpin' jumpin'......Ok I will even admit it...yes, she has also been jumpin' on the bed! =)

Dogs

Today was really just a beautiful day in Vladivostok! The sun was shining, lots of people out and about. We walked to the beach this morning after saying goodbye to Amy, Randy (Amy’s dad) and Walker. Amy is a second grade teacher in North Carolina. She is also a foster parent of a little boy back home, that we enjoyed hearing so much about.  She in now the parent of Walker, a 20 month old. They are now headed to Moscow to finish paperwork and then finally head home next Saturday. The people I have met and connected with on this trip have been amazing and I am grateful for that.

We walked down to the beach, parked the stroller and walked. We had a pretty long walk for a little pair of short skinny legs, but of course she was an active participant. We came back, had lunch, played for a bit at the hotel and walked again. This time to the beach and the store. Victoria certainly has no fear of dogs at all! This is good, as I have two. I was a bit worried about the dog thing. Now I am just worried about her approaching a dog that I know nothing about. At the beach, a girl was throwing a stick to her dog and of course joining in was Victoria, chasing the dog. The dog was lucky enough to just miss her grasp each time she reached for it….Ugh!! Sounds cute, but for the rest of the walk, I made sure when we were approaching a dog she was holding my hand or I was holding her. I guess I did not expect her to go after them. Lots of people bring dogs to the beach here, which is great! Honestly though, no leashes and such. They all seem pretty well behaved, but that is observing them without the threat of a 3 year old yanking on a tail. Trust me, she has no fear and really goes after them. I just felt I did not want her to develop any sort of fear, if possibly one (dog) decided they did not like the attention she wanted to give, before she even got home to meet Lucky and Charm. Oh yes, and meeting all the other dogs in the family!

We had 10 or 15 minutes of thunder and lightening tonight. No rain as of yet though. Victoria was already asleep when this happened. She sleeps very well. I cut out the nap altogether and she seems to be doing just fine without one. She goes to bed around 8:30 or 9:00 and gets up at 8:00 or so. She usually wants to have a big drink of milk or water in the morning and then has been crawling in bed with me cuddling. =)

I pray all goes well tomorrow (Monday here) at the US Embassy with my paperwork. I am really eager to get home and don’t want anything to hold that up. I miss Dylan, my dogs, my bed and just want to get Victoria home too! Oh and by the way, I call her Tori when I speak to her, just Victoria when writing here….I suppose I can change that….

She loves having a bath!

Oooops! Right on the "living room" floor.

Hotel playground, yesterday...