First Doctor's Appointment

Maddie Jo and Haylie together
Maddie, Bobbi Jo, & Haylie
Maddie Jo & Haylie
Haylie walking with her new toy!!
Ready to go to Walmart--don't you love that hat!!

We went yesterday to the International Adoption Clinic at the University of Kentucky for Haylie's 1st doctor's visit. They were great with her and she did really well. Dr. Taylor says she may have mild ricketts (which they had told us in Moscow) but otherwise looked pretty good. She is most concerned about her poor weight gain. She is only in the 3rd percentile for weight. She wants to start to really try to fatten her up by increasing her milk intake (and she even said it was great to be putting in the strawberry Nesquik--I was afraid I would get in trouble for that!!) as well as adding Pedisure a couple of times of day. They did stool samples as most of these kids from orphanages have some type of intestinal parasites, and drew 8 big tubes of blood to check her all out. She said we won't have the results back for a couple of weeks. She is also sending us to a pediatric ophthalmologist to have her eyes checked--she thinks maybe her left eye might turn inward very mildly. She said it probably won't require any surgery, but wants it checked out. I have noticed is, but it is very mild and only happens on rare occasions, so hopefully they won't have to correct it surgically!!

We've had a whole week of firsts for Haylie. She had her first "playdate" on Tuesday when my dear friend Bobbi Jo came to visit us and brought her sweet little girl Maddie Jo. She is 3 months younger than Haylie and they were so cute together and played together pretty well. Bobbi Jo brought her her new favorite toys--a toy phone and car keys, a rolling thing she pushes that makes music, and best of all she brought Maddie's push toy trike. It's like a walker that rolls when she pushes it, and she walks behind the handle bars. Haylie took right off on it , and loves walking by herself with it. We are going to borrow it for awhile, since Maddie Jo is off and running and doesn't need it anymore. Haylie's walking skills have improved soooo much already, I think this toy will really help her be walking without any assistance soon.

We also had our first trip to Walmart today!! She did sooooo good, I couldn't believe it. I meant to only stay an hour or so, but like my usual trips to Walmart, it turned into almost 2 1/2 hours. She never fussed at all. My mom made her a really cute shopping cart cover that has 3 toys hanging on it and she played with them the entire time. She has to love to shop if she is my child!!!

It's SOOOOOO Good To Be Home!!!!

Our house all decorated to welcome us home
Aunt Marcia and Grandma meeting us at the airport with balloons
Grandma is CRAZY about her new granddaughter

At Grandma's House

All dressed up for church!!

We've been home almost a week now and it is so very nice to be home. There really is "no place like home". Haylie is doing GREAT!! She is such a good and happy baby, we are so blessed to have her. I thank God everyday for this wonderful blessing he has given us. It is just like she has always been a part of the family. She just fits right in and has pretty much settled down into a semblance of a routine. She sleeps 10-12 hours at night. She's now eating really well, still only baby food and yogurt, and still nothing with any texture, but it looks likes she's already filling out in her cheeks and legs. She knows her name, and her "mama" and "dada" as she calls us. She has already learned a few English words like "uh oh" and "byebye".

We made our first trip to church on Sunday, and she was a big hit. She behaved really well too and was quiet during the entire service--she did however throw several of her toys 2-3 pews ahead of her, hitting some nice men and ladies. They were really understanding of it though!!

We went and spent the weekend with my mom so she and my sisters could spend some time with her. My sister Lisa came up from Tennesee to meet her. There are some great pictures above of the weekend and our homecoming.

I'm really enjoying my time off from work, but the days sure fly by when you are off. I don't have to go back until the middle of March. Haylie has her first doctor's appointment tomorrow at the University of Kentucky International Adoption Clinic. It will be interesting to see how they think she is doing, since I think she is doing GREAT! They are also going to have her evaluated by an ocupational therapist to see where she is developmentally. She is almost trying to walk by herself. She now comes and gets us off the couch, grabs our fingers wanting to go walking. Her muscle tone has improved soooo much just since we got her, it is amazing and is now basically normal. I think she'll be running by herself soon!!

We're Home--Via Scotland!!!

Well we finally made it back to Lexington on Wednesday the 23rd about 9:30 am, which as it turns out was a day later than planned. We left Moscow without any trouble on Tuesday. We had been flying along without any problems and according to the onboard map showing our progress we were just about over Iceland. The captain came on and said we were going to have to be rerouted to Glasgow, Scotland due to an ill passenger that needed to be evaluated. So he turned the big bird around and flew back to Scotland which took about 90 minutes. Once we landed the paramedics came onboard and checked out this lady and decided she needed to be taken off the plane. Evidently she had had a seizure earlier. We couldn't really hear all the details as she was sitting in the first row of buisness class and we were way back in coach. So long story short, we sat on the ground in Glasgow for about 2 1/2 hours before we took back off. We weren't allowed to get off the plane the entire time. I've always wanted to go to Scotland, but not that way. We couldn't even see out the windows since we were in the middle row of the plane. The bad part was I couldn't call my mom to let her know we would be late because there was not any cell coverage. I even asked several other Americans if they had any cell service and no one did. So, we ended up landing in Atlanta at 8:50 pm--5 hours late. Of course we had missed the connecting flight to Lexington and there wasn't another one until the next day. So, they sent us to a Comfort Inn, which of course we had to pay for. The first room they put us in had no heat so at midnight we had to change rooms. We didn't make it to bed until after 1 am Atlanta time, 9 am Moscow time. A VERY long day.

However, after all my griping, I must go on and on and on about how well my new child did on this plane trip. I can't get over how good she was. She litterally didn't fuss the ENTIRE time. She slept the first 2 hours of the flight, then woke up in such a good moood. She played and played and never cried. We had lucked out and got in the middle of the plane with an empty seat between us, so she could move around and back and forth. She did exhaust her dear old mom wanting to be up and down and all over, but she sure was good. We fed her some lunch and then she slept about the last 4 hours of the flight. She didn't even cry on descent!!!

It was soooooo good to finally be home with our little one. My mom and sister met us at the airport with balloons. As predicted, my dear mother was so happy to see Haylie she cried. They had come out the night before, along with some other dear friends to meet us but of couse we weren't there. When we finally made it back to the house, Marcia & Mary Ann had decorated the front door, mailbox, and garage doors with welcome home posters--it was soo0 nice to finally be home. I'll post some pictures of our homecoming later; Haylie is up now at 3am--she's still on Russia time

We're Coming Home!!!

Exterior Views of our Apartment

View of Old Arbat street
Getting help packing
Its fun throwing clothes out of the suitcases!!!

We spent our last day in Moscow pretty quietly. Haylie woke us up at 5:30 am (again) so it was a long day. She seems to be feeling even better today. She still wouldn't eat anything for breakfast, but ate a good lunch and dinner. We put her down for a nap and did an experiment to see how she would do with Benedryl since it puts some to sleep (what we are hoping for), but hypes others up. Hopefully we won't have to use it, but if she is really fussy tomorrow on the plane we'll give her some Benedryl to help keep our fellow passengers, and us, from going insane from a screaming youngin!! Luckily, she slept really well with it.

Oksana, went and picked up the last of the paperwork today, and she will give it to us tomorrow when they pick us up. Rich went out and got us some sushi for lunch which was really good (yes sushi in Russia). Then when Haylie went to sleep, I went out to do a little shopping for souvenirs. Rich had the pleasure of cleaning up and changing his first diaper while I was gone--and of course it was a dirty one!! He kept telling me he didn't know how when I had offered that he could clean her up before. But he had no choice but to change her while I was gone out shopping. A major accomplishment for Rich!!! I've posted some pictures of our apartment since I've several people email with questions about it. They've really cleared the snow off the walkways and streets. It did warm up a little and melt some too. My mom tells me it's colder back in Kentucky than it is here in Moscow. Still not as cold as in Siberia though!!

After dinner, we packed back up for the trip home. They are picking us up at 8:30 am for a 1 pm flight. Oksana said we had to leave so early because the traffic is so bad it can take us 1-2 hours to get to the airport. We still have 3 bags, but it is a lot lighter for the return flight. Hopefully we won't have to pay the overage for weight this time. I had a little helper packing. For every item I would put in, Haylie would pull 2-3 out at the same time. And then she just laughs like it was a big joke. So this will be my last post from the good old Soviet Union. The next time I post, we will be back home in Kentucky--yeah!!!!!!!!! We can't wait to start settling in with Haylie. I am off work for 2 months, so hopefully we can get her back on a routine, once she gets over the jet lag which will undoubtedly happen with the big 8 hour time difference. Rich has to go back to work on Friday, so since we're coming home early he will get a couple of days to get rested up.

The only downside to leaving early is that we were supposed to meet up with another couple on Wednesday who are in Kemerovo right now doing what we did last week getting their little boy. We had really looked forward to meeting Chris and Carie from Michigan. We so enjoyed meeting Dave and Stacy on our last trip, we missed having another couple with us this trip. So we hate that we won't be able to get together with them. But home awaits!!!!!!

It's a Snowy Day in Moscow

Jammie Pictures

Haylie LOVES the flipper--she'd never even seen one and seems knew automatically what to do with it. She has to fight over it with Daddy
In the pink marshmallow suit again

We had a pretty quiet day today. Haylie woke us up at 5:30 (she's still on Kemerovo time which is 4 hours ahead of Moscow time.) She seems to be feeling much better today. Still a little fussy, but played for hours by herself. She still isn't eating much though. She LOVES her fruit juice and yogurt and will woof it down, but not much else. Before she got sick she was eating baby food pretty well and would take a bottle of formula at bedtime, but the last 2 days we can't get anything down her except juice and yogurt. It's hilarious actually, she'll see me coming at her with anything else beside the yogurt and will clamp her mouth shut and grab my hand, or the spoon and push it away. And she's a strong little twerp. I've even tried holding her hands down and force it in her mouth and there is just no going there. Strangest thing is, even when she's feeling well, she will not eat anything solid or that has any texture. They told me they were feeding her pureed food in the orphanage, but said also bread & crackers. I don't believe. She just spits out anything that needs to be chewed. And she has a whole mouth full of teeth. There were some little tiny bits of fruit in the yogurt and she keeps the yogurt in and spits out the fruit. We tried Cheerios and Gerber puffs, and she just makes a horrible face and spits it right back out. If you hand it to her, she won't put it in her mouth, just carry it around, all day!! At this rate, it's no wonder she has only gained 1 pound in the past 4 months.



We woke up to light snow flurries, but by early afternoon there was at least 6 inches of snow. I walked out to the grocery and the native Russians were all out just like it was nothing. That much snow that quickly would shut Lexington down for a couple of days. Up on the old Arbat there were litterally throngs of people out walking around, even a street performer dancing in the muck and snow. No big deal.



The big news is that we do indeed get to come home early on Tuesday. All of our paperwork will be done by Monday afternoon. So, we decided to head on home. It's not outrageously expensive to change the tickets and even though the last two nights of the apartment are nonrefundable, we feel like it's worth it to be able to come on home. We are both homesick and really want to come home as soon as possible. Being here really makes us appreciate home and how lucky we are that the Lord has blessed so greatly. We appreciate everyones comments on the blog--makes us feel closer to home and those that we love and is so nice to know people are thinking of us.

Trek to Red Square

A Happy Girlie
In her bib overalls
Sleeping on the LONG walk to Red Square
At the Kremlin
Daddy's having a GREAT time above!!!

Mommy and Haylie in front of St. Basils Cathedral below

The famous "pink pot"

We decided to do some sightseeing today. We wanted to go to Red Square since it was closed the first time we were here for a military appreciation week and we only got to walk around the outside. So we packed Haylie up in the Hip Carrier and took off. We were told it was about a 20 minute walk. Well it was actually more like 60 minutes to get there. On top of having to heft the baby that far, it was about 18 degrees with light snow intermittantly falling and a brisk wind. Needless to say, by the time we got there, Rich who was toting Haylie was not a happy camper. We all were wrapped up like snow mummies and Haylie was in the pink snowsuit, so we weren't too cold, but we were exhausted just having to go that far.

Red Square was indeed open this time and it was packed with people. Rich really wanted to see Lennins tomb and I wanted to see St. Basils Cathedral. We were wondering around, I'm sure looking like lost tourists when this woman walked up to us and asked if we spoke English. When we said yes, she asked if we wanted to see Red Square and Lennins tomb without standing in line and have a private tour. So, we said sure why not. I asked how much and she told us 1200 rubles. Well everything I had read said to never take their first price, so I tried to bargain with her, but Rich said that's fine... turns out she did a really good job and it was great that she happened along. We never would have figured out even how to get into the tomb. It's pretty bizarre. This guy has been dead since 1930 and his body is supposedly still perfectly embalmed and under glass. We are dubious though--sure looked more like a wax statue. They have all these strict rules to get in, like no talking inside, no hats, no bags or cameras even in the bag, and you can't stop and look. You have to keep walking by the body. We never could have figured all that out ourselves without her telling us. So it was actually a very enjoyable little tour and worth the price.

We then walked down to St. Basils Cathedral which is on the other end of the square. By this time it was really windy and cold, and Rich's was not having a good time, as you can tell in the pictures above. Haylie did pretty well throughout the ordeal and only got fussy a couple of times when she got hungry. Never complained about the cold in the pink marshmallow suit.

We were so tired by the time we finished seeing the cathedral, I didn't think there was anyway we could walk all the way back. We ended up taking the subway back to our area, which saved us. It was pretty difficult to figure out which train to take though. I've ridden on subways all over the world, and I must say this was the most difficult to navigate I've ever been on. Once we finally figured out which train to take, turns out it was only one stop away. By the time we got back to the room, we had been gone for 5 hours in the cold, and when we started out we thought it would only take about 1 1/2 hours!!

When we got back we all took a long nap. I feel like a terrible mother, because after that Haylie who has been kind of fussy the last 2 days, really started acting like she doesn't feel well. She was running a low grade temperature and just lying around. It was really kind of pitiful. She keeps pulling on her ear, so I'm thinking she may have an ear infection. She also wouldn't eat much at all for lunch or dinner. She finally went down for bed after some tylenol, so hopefully she will feel better tomorrow.

I apologize about the potty pictures. My mom wanted me to take a picture of the one we are using here, so she can see if she can find a similar size one for home for us, so that is why there are pictures of a pink plastic potty chair.

First Trip Out and About

Today was a pretty quiet day. Rich had to go out with Dimitri to get some paperwork for Haylie's registration. That was the last we have to do. Something else to complete her registration needs to be done on Monday, but Oksana will do that. After that we are apparently finished. She told us we could actually go home Tuesday instead of Thursday, so we are looking into changing our plane tickets. If it's not too much, we will head on home. The apartment is prepaid and of course there is no refunds, so we will have to eat 2 nights if we do leave early--but will sure be worth it. I'll keep you posted.

We stayed in most of the day. We did go out at noon because the cleaning lady was supposed to come then. So we bundled Haylie up in the pink marshmallow suit and used the Hip Sling. It is most assuredly easier than just carrying her, but she is still a load if walking very far. Which we did. That stroller sure would have come in handy!!

We walked over to the Old Arbat area which is a pedestrian mall-like area with lots of shops and restaurants. We probably walked about 1/2 mile to you guessed it, McDonalds. We weren't sure how Haylie would do for her first restaurant experience and knew McD's was kid friendly. Only thing was, they didn't have one single high chair anywhere. I fed her before we left, so she just watched us. She did really well. Next we walked next door to the grocery store in the area. It was a really nice, two story store, with a flat escalator you can take your shopping cart on--pretty neat. We just bought some bread (no white wonder bread here), yogurt, juice, and water.

I also got what I thought was butter for the fresh french bread. However, turns out what we got is some kind of dry cream cheese-like concoction. Thats what happens when nothing is in English and I can't read Russian.

Don't think my little girl is feeling very well. Can't tell if it's from teething or maybe a ear infection. She's just be lying around most of the day and pretty fussy. A dose of tylenol perks her up. She didn't eat much of her dinner either. But is still using the little potty like a champ--I can't get over it. She can't walk yet, but is pretty well potty trained!! Hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow since we are going to try and walk down to Red Square (where again the stroller would have come in handy!!)