Our trip

So I'm backwards and behind, but I think all mom's of five must feel this way. It has been a busy week trying to transition Miss G and keep the boys happy. Wwe might be getting into our groove. Now about the trip.

We left Seattle at 6am on Friday the 6th and flew to Atlanta, the flew to Moscow and had an eight hour layover. While we were stuck in the horrid airport, where there are very few seats and lots of people, we had some man rubbing his hand over our carry-on and I swear he was going o try and take it. So we gave up the seats we had waited hours to get, to get away from the man. We finally got to get on our plane to Magadan and I was darn happy. Normally I'd be cranky, because the plane is soo uncomfortable and the flight is long and boring, but I was tired and I just wanted to get there! We arrived in Magadan at 10:30am their time, but sometime Saturday in the middle of the night for us, we were exhausted!

We went straight to the baby home and picked up Grace to get her passport picture taken. She cried when she saw us and was none to thrilled to go with us. When we walked into her groupa, 4 little boys came running up saying Mama, Mama, my heart broke! I would have taken each one home with me if I could.We went back to hotel and went to bed, so we would ready and raring to go for court the next morning.

Court was quick and easy, I think 30 minutes total. The best questions were what would we do if we got pregnant again and did we know that Grace would just add more work for us? IF we got pregnant again it would be a true miracle, but one we'd handle just like we handled the other four, thank you very much. And yeah, we're pretty aware of the work that a kid adds to the family, but we're also aware of the love and that far outweighs the work. They granted our adoption and we were raring to go! We went to the baby home that afternoon and Grace cried almost the whole visit, the first trip she cried once or twice for a few minutes at most, so this was new. I don't know if they had been talking to her about was happening, or what but she was definitely not as friendly.

The next day we had Grace with us all day. We had her at the hotel and she cried quite a bit at the beginning, but we took her for a walk and she was fine after that. She tried on clothes for me, took a nap with Daddy and played. She seemed in much better spirits when we got her alone with us in a new environment.

Wednesday we went to the baby home bright and early and collected our new girl. There were many tears that morning, but most of them were mine. I felt so conflicted that day, how could we rip this innocent sweet baby away from all she had ever known? I knew that she was going to better, but I felt so bad for her sad heart. Surprisingly she slept on the way to airport and was happy and content with us after that. She sat very quietly on the plane, she never slept, but was quiet for the flight. When we went through security and they had to frisk and wand me, the security gal was speaking to Grace in Russian, and I thought that would comfort her, but she turned around and grabbed my legs and cried, so I was glad to know she trusted me a least a little.

We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard in Moscow and we highly recommend it, they have the best bed and pillows evah!!!! I am on a quest to get me some of their pillows, I tried to buy one on the way out, but housekeeping wasn't in yet, so they couldn't sell one. Any one who goes there and wants to pick me up a pillow, let me know!!!

In Moscow we had Dr. Boris come exam Grace, she cried when he first got there, but her got her to calm down. We asked about the fact that our girl sweated through her head like nothing we'd ever seen and he said she had rickets (the IA Doc at UW agreed) so we should get her out the sunlight. Scott thought maybe getting her on a bar-b-que spit would help her quicker, he was kidding. So we went to Red square, the Kremlin and St. Basil's to sun our girl. We walked the legs off her little self, because she is the amazing no sleeping toddler. We went back to our room for a nap, all fell asleep and took a 6 hour nap, this did not bode well for the evening.

Friday we went to the Embassy, and met 10 new families, it was so fun, one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We made some friends who flew on our flight to NY with us, yay, and just had a great time sharing stories.

We got up bright and early Saturday so we could begin the long journey home. It took us 24 hours to get back to Seattle and Grace slept for 2 of those. This kid has a will steel, and she is not one to sleep when something is going on. All we cared about was getting to NY and turning in the secret envelope so we could have and official citizen, mission accomplished.

When we got in to Seattle and saw the boys the tears were flowing like a river, they had grown and the were just so excited to meet their sister. They all hugged her and patted her head and welcomed her to her new rowdy herd.

We started the journey on January 15th with a call to AIA, 6 months and 30 days later we are home with the cutest girl in the world. Thank you AIA you have made our dream come true and our family complete.