The following are excerpts from a journal that my husband kept on our second trip to Russia in 2005.  I love this man deeply and had no idea he was even writing until he shared it with me much later!

November 17, 2005 – 10:30 am:  We are flying to Cincinnati.  It’s starting to dawn on me that in about four days we will meet our new son and daughter.  I think we are all a little nervous, yet excited.  I wonder if they know we are coming?  I wonder if they would care?  Do they even know what is going on?  All I can say is that life is about to change for us and for them.

November 19, 2005:  Tonight we met with a bunch of people who were in Moscow to adopt.  We all got together in the lobby of the Marriott.  We went to TGIF’s for dinner – how American!  Everyone had a great time.  There were about 15 people and everyone discussed their adoption stories.  The stories are all different and most are not easy or smooth.  Right now we believe we won’t get the kids passports until the Monday after court – I’m nervous because our visas expire on Saturday.  We are all freaked out!!!  I am just trying to remain calm about it all.

November 20, 2005:  Tonight we leave for Kemerovo.  DS1 is doing homework while my wife packs and unpacks bags – over and over.  We had a nice big van to go to the airport.  I didn’t think we’d be able to take off – the weather is crazy.  At the airport no one would tell us where to go and we got charged for our bags being too big.  Miraculously, DS1 saw a sign flash Kemerovo.  That take-off was scary, but we went up and away…we’re almost there.

November 21, 2005:  They picked us up at 12:30 to meet the kids.  They took us to Andrei first.  We went to the director’s office and they brought in several people including his caregivers.  The MOE lady also showed up.  It was an intense 20 minutes, not what I was expecting.  Then, Andrei came in and he was all smiles.  Finally, we got to meet our child and he was perfect.  He was bright, smart and seemed to be a delight.  The meeting went well, except the MOE was like a drill sergeant with her questions.  Then, the three of us headed over to meet our daughter.  She was beautiful.  The meeting went much smoother with no drill sergeant.  Actually, we just met Anastasia;  we did not see the director or anyone else…very weird.  Her glasses were horrible, they have to go!  She did a dance for us and recited a poem.  We were impressed.

November 22, 2005:  We first went to DDs orphanage today.  She looked better today and was without the glasses.  We played with her for about 2 hours and even took her out to get her passport pictures.  The was an exciting moment, we felt like we were starting to get somewhere.  We took her back to the orphanage and then headed to lunch.  Off to see DS2…He came flying into the room.  He was much more outgoing than the day before.  He was very excited adn ready to leave with us.  We spent about an hour and a half with him and we were ready to leave.  There is only so much you can do in the confine of a small hallway!

The rest of the days flew by and we did, in fact, get out of Russia in time!  Now, my husband is a loving and firm father and a companion to me through any hardship or victory!

Read more about our lives at http://www.kretzklan.blogspot.com/