More pictures

Hello everyone. We are doing good but at this point counting down the days until we head home. We have only 3 days left until we start the long trip home. The duration of the trip is about 24 hours. Tomorrow we go to the US Embassy to take care of the documentation to get Max into the USA.

Max is eating really well. He is trying all sorts of new foods. So far, bananas and yougurt are his favorites. We do need some work on sleeping though. He is awake quite a bit at night. Not sure why - could be a lot of things but our best guess is it is just all the newness.

I put up some more pictures. We took Max out for a stroller ride around the apartment complex yesterday. Not sure if he liked it or not but he didn't fuss at all so I think he liked to take everything in. Also put one of him playing it up with Greg - he loves it when we play with his feet. He plays with everything - as you can see - even diet Coke bottles!

Hello

Hello everyone. We have a couple more pictures of Max to show. He did NOT like his bath at all (as you can see) we have no idea how he took baths before so it is hard to tell if this is something new or not. The other pictures are some of Max's favorite activities. He loves peek-a-boo and he really loves to stand (with help) and shuffle around. We think he will be walking soon. He loves to pull himself up.

Things are getting better for all of us. Max doesn't like to be held but sat with Steph for about an hour this morning. We have been spending our time feeding him and playing with him and we think he is starting to realize that these people aren't going anywhere so I might as well make the best of it!

Yesterday we bundled him up and took him out for a walk and to grab some food and go to the store. I don't think he blinked one time as he took in all the new sights, smells and sounds. It was really nice here yesterday - almost 40 degrees and sunny. Sad when that is considered nice but it felt like Spring to us!

We are really excited to get him home. We only have three days left before we start the long trip home. Looking forward to introducing Max to all the friends and family!

The first 48 hours with Max

It has been an eventful first couple days and nights for all of us. The first day and night was spent in a very tight motel room and Max did not sleep well at all (and his parents didn't sleep at all) Hard to blame him as everything is new and he was probably scared. Plus he has some teeth coming in and is still fighting off an infection in his chest. After a restless night and a mistake by Mom and Dad of giving him a nap too early we were on our way from Yaroslavl to Moscow (normally a 4 hour car ride). Max did ok the first couple hours but then started screaming. He had a full belly and a clean diaper but we think he was just very tired. The looooong trip took even longer though when we were in minor fender bender on about a 5 lane road in Moscow (that the Russians make 7 lanes). Needless to say Max was not a happy baby after being in the car for 5.5 hours to try to get to Moscow. After we got here last night he went to sleep and had a much better night 2. We think he is starting to adjust to us some. It is difficult because Max is not used to the attention that we want to give him. He is used to getting a couple bottles a day and a couple diaper changes a day. He is not used to two people fussing after him although he does seem to appreciate having a full belly and a clean diaper. It is going to be a tough adjustment - he doesn't really like to be held or rocked to sleep - he has grown used to figuring out ways to comfort and calm himself. He is not used to playing with others and with toys so we are trying to help him adjust as smoothly as possible to all the newness in his life. He is crawling and with help loves to stand up and take a couple steps. We are still trying to find that magic routine for him. Overall it is going well - maybe a little more difficult than we expected but we are confident we will all adjust to each other in time.

I attached a few pictures of Max. One of them is when we got him back to the motel the first time in his brand new coat (that is a little big!). Another is of his favorite activity which is standing up and checking things out and the other one is just him saying hi to everyone.

This morning we had a visit from a doctor who prepares immigration medical documentation for the adoption. He made a much appreciated house call. He doesn't see anything wrong with Max that won't heal with a little tlc. The rest of our time will be spent at the apartment in Moscow. We meet with our agency at 12:00 on Sunday to prepare documentation for the US Embassy. On Monday we all go there for an interview and to get Max's citizenship documentation in order. That takes a couple days to process and we pick it all up on Wednesday before heading home on Thursday.

We hope all is well with everyone. We are really looking forward to being home. It has been a long trip and we are looking forward to Thursday.

Made it back to Moscow

Hi everyone - just wanted to write a quick note to say we made it back to Moscow. We are back in the apartment which is sooooooo much better than the hotel we were at in Yaroslavl. It was an eventful day and we are beat - Max is sleeping already and we are heading to bed. We will update with details and pictures tomorrow.

Welcome baby Max!

Today we welcomed baby Max into our family. We went to pick him up this afternoon and he was crying when they brought him into us. It was his naptime (they may have woke him up to bring him in) and he is teething. Steph did a great job of rocking him and getting him calmed down and to sleep on the way back to the motel. After that we had some good play time and Max had his first meal with us. He has just gone to sleep for the night so I guess we survived day 1! We will update with some pictures and more info tomorrow when we get back to Moscow.

tomorrow's the day!!

Our agency representative is picking us up tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM to go pick up Max! After we pick him up we have some stops to make to start the citizenship and registration process. We will update the blog tomorrow as soon as we get the chance. We are looking forward to it!

Gypsies and Record Snow!

Yesterday we rode to Yaroslavl from Moscow during a large snowstorm. We were kind of nervous riding as they really have no place to put the snow so the roads were not great. The snowstorm started when we got back to Moscow from Rome (on Friday) and it snowed pretty much straight through Monday. According to this report Moscow recieved almost 25 inches of snow over the few days and it is a new record snowfall. Sure glad we could be here for it!(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8529506.stm)

We made it safe and are all checked into our motel in Yaroslavl. We spend today (Tuesday) here then tomorrow we get to go visit Max. On Thursday we pick up Max and bring him back to the motel before heading back to Moscow on Friday. We are really looking forward to visiting him tomorrow but more looking forward to taking him with us on Thursday!

It also seems that we have new experiences almost everyday on this trip. Yesterday when we got into Yaroslavl our driver stopped at McDonald's so we could grab some lunch. We got our food to go only to be surrounded by a pack of Gypsies on the way back to the car!!! Our driver shouted at them (in Russian) and we kept walking. He told us to never talk to Gypsies!!

Everything is going very well - we can't wait to pick up and visit Max over the next couple days. We will try to update tomorrow sometime after visiting him.