Schneider Family Adoption Story

Monday...Last Day!

2006-11-20T11:51:00.000-05:00

Last night Angelina didn't sleep that well until after 4:30. So when the alarm went off we didn't get up. Alex was coming for us at 7:45, and we didn't wake up until 7:15!! We hurried! First to a Dr's office for a medical exam to make sure she's healthy enough for the embassy to approve her visa. When Alex talked to the Dr earlier he said she wouln't need any extra bloodwork, which would make us stay an extra day. Well, when we got there this morning, he said she needed bloodwork done. We were absolutely sick. To change our tickets would cost lots extra, plus we were so ready to leave! We got the blood drawn which was an awful experience. Then Alex called the embassy, and they said they would let us submit the paperwork, even without the results of the bloodwork. So we drove speedy quick to the hospital to get the results. Then we sat and waited for about 2 hrs. for the paperwork. We were ready to try anything to get that visa. Well, we got the paper, and headed for the embassy. There we soon had a regular baby central. There were about 8 other couples there also. We all had a great time comparing stories and kids. (Of course Angelina was the cutest;-) ) It was absolutely GREAT to be in an American embassy and to see English signs and be able to talk to everyone. When we got that visa packet we felt like we'd won the lottery!! One couple from Kentucky is on our flight tomorrow. We walked to McD's for supper. We leave for the airport at 8, and our flight leaves at 12:25. We are 8 hrs. ahead of you. We feel like God answered prayers again, by allowing us to leave tomorrow. Alex said he has never been able to do this before. Can't wait to see some of you tomorrow night, and the rest of you sometime soon, we hope!

Sat. and Sun. in Moscow

2006-11-19T09:03:00.000-05:00

Hi! We arrived here at 8:20 am very tired. Angelina took 2 naps, and did great, considering that we hauled her partway across Russia. We went to a grocery store and bought some food for the apt. Then Alex took us to his 5th floor flat. It is fine, liv/bed., kitchen, and bathroom. He left us there after lunch, and came back the next morning. So we had plenty of time to relax. Angelina relaxed in the apt. and played. She is so tough...so many strange places day after day, and 2 people she is just learning to trust. She woke up early, about 4:30 Moscow time. We are 3 hrs. earlier than Novo. So we had a long morning! And it doesn't get light until maybe 8, so we started to wonder if it would be dark forever. We signed paperwork this morning and then went sightseeing. We saw the Red Square, Kremlin, watched the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier, and went into a beautiful cathedral. We ate lunch at McDonald's. It is the largest in the world. The fries and cheeseburgers tasted delicious!! Yes, we are lonesome.:-) Angelina loved the fries, ketchup, and cheeseburger. Tonight we will walk to a nearby rest. for supper, and then spend the eve. here. This restaurant has Russian pancakes, so we will get some of those. Even McDonald's sells them for breakfast. We also had them on the plane. Tomorrow morning we have to be at the Dr's office at 8, so we won't sleep in, ha, ha. Only one more day!!!!!

Friday News

2006-11-17T08:49:00.000-05:00

Good evening! Except for walking to the metro station to get Angelina's visa picture, we have been home all day. We got her passport today, so we will leave for Moscow in the morning at 7:00. Probably up at 4:00.:-( We gave her a bath today, which she did not enjoy at all. She still does not like her clothes or diaper changed. Something about it makes her feel threatened. She has not been feeling the best, and took two naps today. But tonight she has been acting very wild. I was tickling her, and she started belly laughing. That is the first time she has laughed that hard. Olga said, "and you thought she didn't have emotion!" After getting her pic taken, we went to a grocery store and bought a cherry cake. Arkady, his wife Vica, and Aleksey's ate it with us to celebrate. Of course we had tea, too. It is much colder...we are leaving just in time. Sun. it is supposed to be around 0. We want to sightsee in Moscow, but I don't know if weather will permit. If we don't have internet access there, we will not blog again. Hopefully we do. America will be the most wonderful sight! We're ready to get on that plane for Atlanta...wish we could come on home tommorrow. Three more days!!! Adam, did you have fun at the sale barn...we can't wait to see you! You have a sweet little sister.

Getting our daughter

2006-11-16T08:24:00.000-05:00

This morning we got ready to go to the orphanage to get Angelina. We waited and waited on Arkady...we were ready to go! We gave a cake to the Dr. and then when Angelina was finished with her lunch, they brought her to us. She was all dressed up in a frilly white dress...like a bride, they said. I started to change her into our clothes and she began to cry. She doesn't like her diaper changed either. We got the outfit from the orphanage that we saw her in the first time. After collecting everything and saying goodby and thankyou, we took her. She looked so scared. It was her naptime, so she fell asleep in the car, and slept all the way back to the flat. We fed her, played with her for a while, and then she started to suck on her fingers...she was tired again. So I rocked her for a while, and then Kevin did. She fell asleep for Kevin. He thought that was great! After she woke up, she has been very happy. It is so much fun to play with her. We are falling more in love every minute. She is wearing the pink outfit you gave, Pam. She is so cute!;-) Got to brag a bit. She has a cough and runny nose. Hopefully it doesn't get any worse. We brought antibiotic along, so I will put her on that.

Angelina Claire is Ours!!

2006-11-15T02:57:00.000-05:00

All of our prayers were answered! The judge said yes! Aleksey took us to the court house this morning and the chief Dr. from the orphanage, Xana, (the interpreter),and the social worker were all there also. Aleksey could not come into the courtroom. Kevin was the only man in there. We waited nervously for the judge to arrive, and all at once she came rushing in and court began. Kevin had to talk first, and he didn't understand that he was supposed to give his speech then. So all his worry for nothing. I had to talk also, and each of us got asked a lot of questions. First by the judge, and then by prosecuter. We were veru nervous, and it seemed like we didn't give good answers. But in the end the judge granted us the adoption, and waived the 10 days. All the things we worried about didn't even come up as questions. Answer to prayers.... This afternoon we will stay here, maybe go shopping, I hope. Tommorrow morning we will take cakes to the Dr. and caregivers in the orphanage, and take Angelina with us. I can't believe she is actually our daughter! Now we will wait for her passport. If we get it Friday, we will fly to Moscow on Sat. morn.

Tuesday News

2006-11-14T12:05:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Maybe I'll be able to post a little more tonight. I was wrong about her taking the pacifier...today she would put it in her mouth for a bit, and then through it down. Of course that was a game because then we would pidk it up again for her. She sucks on her 2 middle fingers when she gets hurt or wants to cuddle. We went sightseeing into the country today. We saw a typical village that makes Grifton look posh, a grain elevater, a JOHN DEER dealership, and a new development in Novo where the rich are building new homes. We ate at an Italian restaurant for lunch again. We had delicious pizza. It is baked in a huge brick oven. Very gourmet. This pm back to the orphanage again. It was the last time we will visit her, until we go back to get her. Tomorrow at 10:00 is our court hearing. That will be 9pm in NC. Kevin has to make speech telling all about us and why we are adopting and he is stressing about it. I can't believe that the day we have dreaded and looked forward to is almost here. Please PRAY that it will be successful!! I know you all are. We will try to post the news, but it may not be until you all are sleeping. Thanks for all the emails. Yes, Kevin says that is his deerstand.;-)

We are back in Russia!

2006-11-13T07:15:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!
Sorry we have not blogged until today. When we got here, we found out Aleksey's daughter Sonya was in the hospital with pneumonia. He is staying there with her,and has the computer with him. So we are writing this from an int. cafe. Everything went fine with our flights. We got to Novo early Sun. morn. and came back to the flat and crashed until noon. After lunch, Arkady took us to the orphanage. Guess what?! Angelina remembered us! She came right to Kevin, and held out her arms to be picked up. She just cuddled up to us, and let us love up on her for awhile. then she was ready to play. Hi Adam! Rhonda, she likes a pacifier. :-) More later.

Court Date!!!!!

2006-11-09T22:39:00.000-05:00

Our court date is Nov. 15. We are leaving tomorrow Nov. 10 and arriving in Novosibirsk Sunday Nov. 12. Just a brief update. I'll let Lynette write the details.
Kevin

Our last day in Novosibirsk

2006-09-30T10:19:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! Today we did the usual...visited the orphanage. We only went one time today. When we got there, there were 2 new families visiting little boys. They both spoke Spanish. I'm not sure where the one family was from, but the other couple were from an island close to Spain. They had adopted a liitle girl from Russia about 6 yrs. ago, and now were getting a son. Spain is where the majority of the kids get adopted to from this orphanage. So with us that makes 7 families who came to meet their children this week. Seven more kids that get good homes!! We had fun with Angelina today. She is more comfortable with us, and her little personality is starting to emerge. She has here own schedule, and when she gets focused on something, you can't get he to do anything else. She sets her mouth in this determined way, and sticks to what she wants to do. We finally gave her one last kiss and squeeze, and left. How we wanted to take her with us! We came home this afternoon, and Aleksey prepared documents for us to sign. We will tell you her name when we get home. Got to keep you in suspense. Later on this afternoon, we walked with Aleksey to his church an went to a store. Then Olga and the girls joined us, and we walked to see some more sights. Tomorrow morning we leave Novosibirsk at 7am. That would be 7pm on Sat. night for you in NC. We wil arrive in Raliegh at 9:50 pm on Sun. night, 26 hrs. later. Anyone jealous? We leave on Sun., and get home on Sun. Say a prayer for our safe travels!

Friday's Story

2006-09-29T10:06:00.000-05:00

Hello! It's ten at night here...and you all are busy starting your Friday. Today it was more of the same. We went to the orphanage, played with Angelina a bit, and then watched her speech pathologist, as they call her, work with her. This lady was what we would call a therapist kind of. She used toys to teach her how to follow instructions and improve her motor skills. A woman came also to talk a bit to us, and see how we interacted with Angelina. This lady will also be present at our court hearing to give her impression to the judge. In the late aft. we went back again. Everytime we see her, we have to play a bit to get her to warm up to us again. She definitely has a different temperament then Adam. There is a couple and a woman adopting from Sapain here visiting their children also. We all hang out on the floor of this big playroom. It would be very funny to an observer because we all are doing everything we can think of to win our kids over. These poor little children only understand Russian, and we chatter away in English, the others in Spanish, and on the sidelines are the people from our adoption agencies speaking Russian. Tonight for supper, Aleksey's took us to a restaurant, kind of like a cafeteria. We have ate lots of good food since we got here, but Kevin told me about 10 times today that he would give ANYTHING for a cold DR. Pepper and a hamburger!! We have not had iced drinks since we were on the plane. When we pull a bottle of CocaCola aut of the fridge, Aleksey shakes his head and says,"these crazy Americans!" Adam, it was neat to talk to you this morning. We love and miss you!

We said yes!

2006-09-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

Hi! This morning we went to the orphanage again. We played with Angelina for while. Found out that they call her Gyala. She paid no attention to her name, so we knew they didn't call her that. She warmed up to us pretty much. When we left, her caregiver reached for her, and she turned to Kevin instead. He was pretty pleased with that! :-) We came home, had lunch, and went back at 4:30. In the aft., we played with her for about 2 hrs. She is a very busy little thing. She gets focused on something, and does it over and over, like stacking cups, or picking up balls. One of us will pick her up, and then the other one holds out our hands. She goes back and forth, thinks it is a game. If you could have seen her yest. morning and then tonight, you would believe in miracles! And best of all we got her to laugh!! No small accomplishment with an orphanage child. By the time we left tonight, we knew we could not say no to her. Thanks for all your prayers... I know that is what helped us to make our decision and fell good about it.

Going to the orphanage

2006-09-27T09:11:00.000-05:00

Hi! It's Wed. eve. here. Kevin is feeling a bit under the weather...hope it is nothing serious. Wow, let me tell you, the good ole USA will be looking mighty geat to two Russian travelers come Sun. night.We are staying with Aleksey and Olga and their two little girls, Sonja(4) and Diana(1 1/2). They live in what they call a flat on the 9th floor of an apartment building. They have a nice house, and are taking very good care of us. This morning, the driver picked Aleksey and us up, and we went to meet the Ministry of ED. official. A translater by the name of Xana, met us there too. After officially excepting the referral, Aleksey called the orphanage and got permission to visit Angelina. We were shown into a music room, and after a while a caregiver came in with her. she looked exactly like in the pictures...scared out of her wits. After talking a bit, the lady plopped her down on the couch beside me and left. We talked to her and tried to play with her, and absolutely no response, except to stare. She thawed out a bit, but not much in the half hour we were with her. Then we visited the chief DR. of the orhanage, to find out her history. After going home for lunch and resting we went back for another couple of hours. After trying our best to charm her, she started to show us signs of her personality. And yes, we got her to smile, finally! We will go back tomorrow again. I've read over and over again that bells won't ring or angels sing when you meet your child for the first time. That is very true! Of course they want us to decide for sure if she is ours. Please continue to pray...we are feeling very in need of your support at this point.

Traveling to Russia

2006-09-26T03:16:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Well, first of all, we arrrived safely in Novosibirsk this morning at about 6:oo. Now for a rundown of what happened before that. We actually got to Raleigh in plenty of time. Amazing for us! :-p There were problems in NYC, so our plane was late leaving out of Raliegh. We had plenty of time, so it was OK. We were dissapointed that we didn't really get ot see much of NYC...just the skyline off in the distance from the airport window. As soon as we boarded the plane in Raliegh, you could tell we were headed for a different place. The plane was full of many types of people speaking many languages. JFK airport is like being in a foreign country already. We felt like real NC country folks trying to find our way around. We finally located the Aeroflot check-in desk, where everyone was chattering away in Russian. As soon as we walked on the plane, the greeting was "Zdras-tvoy-tyeh". (hello) All the announcements were in Russian, then in English. It's a strange feeling to be the minority. Kevin has developed a new understanding for his Mexicans. We sat on the runway 2 hrs. before we took off for Moscow. We were expecting to get supper on the plane, so hadn't eaten yet. Were we ever starved! We finally ate around 11:00 that night. One neat thing about the Russians is they love hot tea. So after the meal is done, the stewardess' bring around hot tea for everyone. On your meal tray is plastic tea cup. After eating, we got as comfortable as you can on a plane, and slept. We got into Moscow about 2pm on Mon. After fumbling our way through passport control, we got to the baggage area, and no luggage. So after wondering around awhile, we went out through customs. There was Alex with our names on a sign. He finally found a lady to help, and she all at once said to come with her. She took us to our suitcases. Answer to prayer. We spent about 4 hrs. in a food court in the airport before we went to the other terminal to board our flight to Novosibirsk. Quite something to be left in a place where hardly any signs are English, and all we heard was Russian. We boarded our flight at 10:30pm. It was an absolutely huge plane--it could seat 350 people. We arrived in Novo at 5:30am. While we waited for Aleksey, a man came up and tried to tell Kevin we were to go with him. I was very skeptical about him, and all at once Aleksey aappeared and was introducing himself. The first man still was insisting we were to go with him. Who knows what would have happened to us! He brought us back to their flat, and we sacked out. Today has been really weird... hungry and sleepy at strange times. We'll be glad when we can go to bed and wake up properly. We haven't been able to access our e-mail, so if you've posted we haven't read them. But we can still send to the blog. Remember us tomorrow as it will be the BIG day.

The countdown...

2006-09-23T22:59:00.000-05:00

I can't believe we are finally this far in our adoption journey. Tomorrow, Sept. 24, we fly out of Raliegh at 1:45 pm. We fly to NYC and then at 7:40 we start out over the ocean! Our flying time will be 9 and half hours to Moscow. We will be in Moscow for 9 hours, then leave for Novosibirsk, Siberia where our little girl is. When we get there it will be 5:30 am on Tues. That would be 5:30 pm for you in EST. Lots of you have said that you will be thinking and praying for us. Thanks... that means so much. We will hopefully be able to update this on Tues.

Getting ready for first trip

2006-09-21T17:47:00.000-05:00

Got our visas back today so we can actually leave. Two more days to get packed and ready to go

2006-09-19T20:02:00.000-05:00

We have got our referral. Yeah!!! We are traveling Sunday the 24th.

Welcome

2006-04-12T20:34:00.000-05:00

We just created a blog. It wasnt even that hard. Hope we can keep it current throughout the adoption process. We are looking foward to our referral.