Facing East

It's been three weeks since my last posting. In that time, Renee and I encountered another couple of speed bumps on our adoption adventure — not true road blocks, but enough of an impediment to slow down the process. Ultimately, though, we were grateful to learn that our final pending document was approved by the Department of Homeland Security and is, even now, wending its way through the federal bureaucracy to the U.S. embassy in Moscow.

The big news, though, is that today is departure day. We leave on United flight 926 at 6:45 Saturday evening heading back to Russia and Genevieve (a.k.a. Syevinch). After a brief layover in Frankfurt, Germany, we arrive in Moscow just before midnight Sunday night. Weather reports indicate that Sunday will be the coldest day in the coming week with a high of 19° (although it'll be closer to the low of 9° that late at night). We are, however, grateful that the snow is expected to let up for our arrival. So when I ask you to send warm thoughts, I will intend it in every sense of the word!

Monday is a bit of a free day, allowing us to settle in to our new apartment and either fend off or give in to jet lag resulting from the 11-hour time difference. Given the temperature, I suspect Monday will be a lazy day in our exceptionally pink high-rise. (I'm already resolved to the expectation that my dreams for the duration will consist of princesses, puppies, My Little Pony®, and other cute, pink-inspired things.)

After a lazy Monday, we have a very formal and intimidating Tuesday in court. We have been told that the court proceeding is a mere formality—one final step in the arduous task of adoption. Regardless, I'm still less than thrilled in preparing for the event. And while it is not the case that Genevieve's return home with us will hinge on providing just the right responses to the judge, it will be very difficult not to think in those terms in the moment.

Assuming all goes well in court, we are then faced with keeping ourselves preoccupied during the mandatory ten-day waiting period before we're allowed to take custody of little G. Our hope is that we will be able to visit her most days of those next two weeks, but the reality is that this will be at least partially determined by our ability to access transportation to the distant orphanage. We may also try to squeeze in a short visit to St. Petersburg by train — or rather, I will attempt to work on weakening Renee's resistance to the idea and then we may try to squeeze in a short visit.

Following the waiting period (and countless crossword puzzles, cribbage games, and mindless episodes of That '70s Show in Russian), we will be granted formal custody of our daughter, magically turning Renee into a mama and me into a papa without the discomfort of childbirth and HMO forms. (I will refrain from comparing our 28-month wait to pregnancy but reserve the right to debate this point in future postings.)

With this overnight change of status, we must also learn how to react and respond to a 16-month-old living, breathing little human being and allow her to acclimate to us. They say experience is the best teacher, but I suspect "they" never sat in a pink apartment in subarctic climates with a tearful toddler. Seriously, I fully expect instinct to kick in, and while it may be challenging, frustrating, and heartbreaking, I know that it will be the most wonderful thing for each one of the three of us.

I will continue to keep you posted on this next exciting phase of our little adventure. Please keep an eye out for updates and please feel free to write back to us or post your comments directly to the blog site, as I know that sending and receiving e-mail will undoubtedly be one of the more rewarding distractions in our period of patience.

And don't forget those warm thoughts....

Much love,
Larry & Renee

P.S. For anyone keeping up with the earlier postings, I did succeed in steam-cleaning the carpets, but I neglected to get photos. I will, however, be sure to get video of reseeding the lawn when that happens and make it available on this site.