Surreal in general means bizarre or dreamlike.

As I sit here this AM after another successful trip to Russia. I just have to make some notes before they become lost in the activities of the upcoming weeks ahead. First it truly is amazing the power of God. Hands down for Him to have pointed us on the this journey of adoption and to lead us directly to our daughter. Amazing!

This trip included a great stay at one of the Marriott hotels in Moscow. The people were really nice, way over the top. I mean for a Midwesterner like myself to be able to travel 6000 miles and feel half way at ease is kinda remarkable. Hats off to Marriott.
The Winter Olympics. There was a channel on TV that brodcast the Olympics 24 hours a day, it was great. It was broadcast in english. I know more about the olympic games then I ever did before. I even think curling is now exciting. :-)

The snow! What more can I say? It was the most amount of snow that Moscow has EVER received, over 2 foot. Can you imagine if that would have hit STL? Forget about it, we would have had the National Guard in here with a state of emergency declared. :-) The folks in Russia, just dug out and went to work, drove, walked, rode the Metro, just basically carried on with their lives.

Court, what was a very nerve racking lead up; but ended up being a very pleasant experience. The judge and members of the Russian Federation court system, saw that we had every good intention to love and cherish this little girl. I truly believe that our huge photo album was a hit in court, they passed it around from person to person. I was asked the bulk of the questions which consisted of basic family information. Amy ended up with a total of 4 questions; which she was thankful for. LOL

Traveling from Moscow to STL is always a bit of a challenge. You start your morning at 8am in Moscow leaving the hotel traveling in traffic that is indescribable. You ride for about an hour and a half to get to the airport. Get through check in and wait for the flight. Around noon you take off for the Washington DC. The flight is roughly 10 1/2 hours. Its great if you can sleep, but at times its challenging. The flight home is daylight the entire way. Landing in DC around 3 o'clock on the same day, clearing customs and then checking in all over again for your flight home. Yeah... Long day. :-)

The only thing I can say is that in a couple weeks. We bring our daughter home! It won't be long now! Praise God!

Praise God, its offical. She is ours..

Court went great!

Everyone seemed to be very happy that Victoria has a mama & papa.. :-)

I will wait to post her pics until our gotcha day! Which we hope will be two weeks from today!


Tomorrow we travel all day.

Today is a busy day!

Pray for Pink & us please.

More news to come!

Record snowfall for Moscow

Thousands of snow-clearing machines have been working to dig the Russian capital Moscow out of a record-breaking fall of 63cm (nearly 25 inches).
After a weekend of heavy snow showers, the regional weather centre announced that the previous record of 62cm, set in 1966, had been broken.
Snow ploughs were due to make three clean sweeps of the city on Monday.
Drivers were asked to leave their cars at home but rail services are said to have been unaffected by the weather.
A Moscow railway spokesman said that 4,471km (2,778m) of track had been cleared of snow on Sunday.
In all, about 15,000 snow-clearing machines were deployed in the city of about 10.5 million people, backed by 8,500 dump trucks and about 5,500 street-sweeping personnel.
Monday's three scheduled sweeps were due to take place at 1000 (0700 GMT), 1300 and 1700.
A police source told Interfax news agency that Muscovites had largely heeded calls to avoid driving and there had been no significant increase in traffic accidents.
Weather forecasters were predicting that the snow would die out overnight, with Tuesday set to be a clear day.

Man do we have some stories to tell about this trip. :-)

Snow & a Marriott

What more do you need? :)

Lots of snow in Moscow! Still snowing! All is well.

Keep our daughter in your thouughts and prayers..

More news to come!

First leg complete...

Waiting on the second leg to begin. :) Thee next leg is just a quick 11 hours over the pond.

Happy Ash Wednesday...

Well.. we didn't get packed. Quite a hectic night. At least we got the suitcases out of the basement :-)

Today will be a better day! Bball practice, haircuts (have to look good for couurt) and then rush to church for Ash Wednesday. In case there are those who would like more info on Ash Wednesday, please follow http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=3904

More news to come!

Let the packing begin!

Tonight we are packing!!

2 suitcases... 1 1/2 for Amy and 1/2 for me.. :-)

So ready to travel!

February Birthday Party at the our house!

Our first birthday was Miss Brooke!

Mrs Lisa was next.

Mr Tommy, with the Other Woman.
Mrs. Buffy

Mr. Brad

Pinks baby sitters inspecting her room.

Easy Bake Oven baking.

Thanks to everyone who came over! See you in March!

Hold on tight!! Let the ride begin!!

FBI paper work is showing to be delivered today!!!

We are on the move! Praise God. Flights booked! CHI handling the hotel. We are Russia bound!!

WE GOT OUR COURT DATE !

THANK GOD

We just got the best phone call in the world!! Anna called and we have a date for court!!

.

Just to pass the time along....

Thanks to Mel!!! For sending me the link to the pics from our shower!!!

Want to thank everyone that came! Want to thank everyone for their well wishes!

The Fridleys's are so blessed to have you all as friends!

The cake that had 3 of the Disney characters on it.. The picture doesn't do it justice!

Miss F, soon to be Mrs! With most of the kids that she has taught from ILS.

Amy with some of her helpers. Pink is gonna have some many firends here age. Even some that speak Russian. :-)

Miss F and her crew again. This was durring rob your neighbor..

Amy & Karen.....With Tommy caught in the photo...

Miss F with all of my babysitters!

Wentzville's most influentual men! Or at least thats what we tell ourselves! LOL The gracious cohost Brad, Russian princess father Eric, and yours truly.

Gerry & Lisa, super friends, looking great!

The Fridleys!

Pink's Babysitters!!! YEAH

Snow!

A picture of why our overnight return envelope will not be "overnight"...

Man do we have lots of stories to tell when this is all said and done..

Be safe in the winter weather!

FBI Background check completed!!!!

Thank you God!

Thank you to all that prayed for the paper work to be completed.

FBI said that due to weather they were unsure about the overnight shipping, but we should have it at the latest by next Tuesday.

We are so close!!!!

What a weekend!...

It was supposed to be a weekend of house cleaning....

It ended up being a weekend of snow, sinus/ear infections, having an accident in my own driveway, house cleaning & Super Bowl. Why settle for just one when you can have some many? LOL

Thanks to anibiotics, I can actually function without having the room spinning on me. :) Which means I shouldn't be bumping into any more trees hopefully anytime soon. LOL My white stallion as it is referred by some (2001 Ford F250) has been dropped off to be repaired. Miss that truck already!

Missed two great Super Bowl parties we were supposed to attend, but I figured I should keep my germs to myself, no need to spread them around.

Did some deep cleaning of the house today. We moved appliances, furniture and toys; to make sure the house was clean.

This week the STL area might be in for a little more snow, personally I ok without it.

Praying really hard this week for the FBI paper work to be sent back. Also like to keep my dad & my BFF's dad in everyones prayers. Healing through the power of prayer or positive thought!

Pink, mom & dad cleaned your room today! We are so ready for you!

Applying for visas!

We finally have some more paper work to keep us busy! We are applying for our visas to travel back to Russia.. Thank God! Please keep our daughter in your prayers and thoughts.

Good News...

We spoke with the FBI yesterday and our paper work starts process today and it should ship back to us "overnight" in the next few days. Praise God!