Monday

What a wonderful day....

We met with a representative from the Russian Ministry of Education at 9am this morning to discuss adoption of a child in Russia. She asked us a smattering of questions about the US, about Russia, why we're choosing a Russian child over an American child, etc. Jon was sweating bullets, but all went very well. We'll detail out the traffic & Russian drivers (Jon will rarely complain about his commute any more!), as well as the hit and run we saw first hand. Oh, and the guy that attempted to break into the car we were sitting in ..... yes, our translator and adoption rep had to get our paperwork notorized, left us in the back seat of the car, and a gentleman attempted to break in. When he saw us, he took off. Again, welcome to Russia!

We weren't able to go to the baby home until 3pm, as the home did not want to interrupt Nakita's daily schedule. Words cannot describe the immediate love that we felt for him when he walked through the doors to meet us. Although he was somewhat leery of us at first, he warmed up quite quickly. Within 5 minutes, he was out of his caretaker's arms, eating cheerio-s with us and playing with the ball that Natalie had picked out for him. Not long after, he was in Becky's arms, playing ball and reading books. He is such a smart boy. He was high-fiving Jon and caught on quickly when Jon told him to give him knuckles (push his knuckles against Jon's). We were there over 3 1/2 hours (most parents are only allowed an hour on the first day) and got to go outside and play with his entire group of "mates". The children are wonderful, they were hugging and playing ball with Jon and we could not get enough of them. It's very sad to see the number of children that are so desperately in need of (and deserve) a loving home. Jon was the first one to say that he wished he could take more home with us (we'll need to discuss that a little more.....)

We have so much to tell all of you about Nikita. We also have several pictures of him and were going to post a few to the blog. However, we've decided to limit it at this point because of some news that we just received. Throughout the adoption process, we are working with our adoption Doctor at Illinois-Chicago regarding specifics around Nikita. Unfortunately, the Dr. just told us that he is concerned about some of the information that he has received from us about his health. It appears that this may complicate some of our decisions about Nikita. We certainly don't want all of you to become attached to this boy, as we have, so are waiting to post photos. We ask that you all please keep us in your prayers. It is so difficult to be here, live this life changing experience and not be able to talk to everyone, the way that we want to. Overall, it has been a wonderful day. We have met a boy that will forever change our outlook on life and how fortunate all of us in the US have it.

Unfortunately, it was also filled with sorrow. We learned this morning about the passing of Jon's Uncle Doug on Saturday night. Uncle Doug, a diehard Missouri Tigers fan, is most remembered for trading barbs with diehard Iowa Staters Jon and his brother Jamie over the years. It is Jon's hope that Doug is golfing with his Dad in Heaven, talking about the thrashing that MIZ-ZOU-RAH put on the Tigers' (and Cyclones') hated rival the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday night. Our thoughts and prayers are with Spencer & Dawn and the entire family back home. We love and will miss you Uncle Doug.

Thank you everyone for your comments. We look forward to logging in every few hours and seeing who has replied. By the way, you all are making us laugh. You can sign your full names...don't have to be initials! (But, we do like the challenge!)

Love to everyone back home!

We Love and miss you,

Beck and Jon

A few photos from Vlad

Hi all!

We are having a quiet day here. We took a walk this am on the beach. Jon dared to try the water and he said it was freezing.


The weather is beautiful. Perfect fall days. Here are a few photos from the inn.






We will post more tomorrow. Lana and Irena are picking us up at 9am tomorrow for our meeting with the Minestry. Wish us luck!

Hugs to all!

Becky & Jon

We are in Russia

Hi everyone....

Our two hour plane trip from Seoul to Russia was a rough.... alot of turbulence. You all know Jon and his "mild" fear of flying.... enough said.

The funniest thing on the plane.... the guy sitting next to us said "Sure could use a stoli." We both looked at him (it was just after Noon) and he laughed and told us "in the US, they say it's 5 o'clock somewhere, in Russia, it's Noon somewhere." Our kind of guy....

The airport was incredibly remote. The was only one runway/taxiway and was very narrow. The wings were out over the grass. The pilot also made a terrible landing (see... Jon's fear of flying). We then parked about 300 yards from the airport building and waited for buses straight from 1950 to shuttle us over. Once we got there, we waited for about an hour to get through passport control. Then, went through immigration and then finally got our bags (they were both there! Hurrah!).

We noticed once we made it through the double doors from immigration, two ladies were ferociously waving. We thought CHI (our agency) would have a sign so weren't sure who these ladies were. Anyway, they ran over to us, gave us hugs and welcomed us to the country. They had our photos from the St. Louis office.... Arina is the CHI rep here (young, speaks some English and has a great personality. Lana is our translator for the week....also young, speaks great English and has a great personality. They talked/laughed the entire way to the hotel.....

Vladivostok is beautiful. It reminds Jon and I both of northeast Iowa and Wisconsin with the leaves changing colors, etc. It's somewhat hilly with very narrow streets, with very FAST drivers. There were several landmarks on our way here....so there were alot of wedding parties on the side of the road taking photos. We also unfortunately saw a horrendous car accident with a fatality. Welcome to Russia!

Once we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted by several other guests from Canada, New Zealand, etc. In fact, they invited us to "The White Rabbit", the bar in the hotel for some cocktails. We'll plan to catch up with all of them later this evening.

The hotel is near the ocean - a quick 2 minute walk. We already have ventured down there. The ocean is beautiful and some of the scenery was interesting... including men with speedos on (it's 50 degrees) and 15 year olds drinking beer on the beach. Fill you in with more later.....

We are so excited to meet Nikita on Monday morning. We go to court at 9am (5pm CST Sunday). Please pray for all of us and wish us well.

And Happy Birthday Pat Pat, hope you had a great one!!

We're in Seoul!

After a 14 hour flight from O'Hare to Seoul, we landed this afternoon at 4:45pm local time (2:45am in Chicago). Both of us are all over Korean Air.....the flight attendants were phenomenial...primarily because they had our first Budweisers (Bud Heavy - but not really an issue) to us about 15 mins after we took off. We continued on Buds and wine, for free, for the duration of the flight. Needless to say, it's was Jon's best flight ever. They fed us every 3 hours (large meals) and Jon was thrilled it was "good beef". He's eating away, thinking that he may not be eating much over the next week. Seriously though, Korean Air has exceptional service. We had our own 10 inch tv screens and were able to chose new movies, comedys, news and play Nintendo games. We also had a seat between us, so Jon chose to spread out and lay across all 3 of the seats - including mine. Always thoughtful!

Needless to say, we are both exhausted. Jon's patience is at an all time low. We've been having some difficulty getting this message to everyone because all of the internet cafes at the airport are Korean, and we hadn't been able to connect to any American websites.

We leave tomorrow morning for Vladivostok and will post photos, etc once we get there....probably within the next day or so. Please continue to check in and pray for us.

We hope everyone at home is doing well and we'll talk to all of you very soon.

Love, Beck and Jon

We're in Seoul!

ㅈ

WE GOT THE CALL!!

Hi everyone!

We finally received the call last Wednesday, Sept 26! As I was tripping over Molly and Louie (our labs) on my way out the door to pick up Natalie, Marti (our Children's Hope Rep) was calling.... yet again. I figured that it would be more paperwork.... as usual. She asked how I was.... which perked my interest.... and said that we were needed in Russia for an appointment with the Ministry of Education on Monday, October 8th. As I was writing everything down, it dawned on me that the travel was the following week. ARRRRGGGGGGHHHH!!!!!! And to top it off, Jon was in Duluth, MN (a lovely place from what I hear :) ) on business. So thank goodness for cell phones, I texted him .... WE HAVE TRAVEL DATES!....and of course, I got a call back in 30 seconds! His awesome boss, Mary Jo, told him to call me (she's been living this adventure with us the last 2 years), called the trip short and he came home to help me plan the trip of a lifetime!

We are leaving on Thursday! Our flight is at 1pm Central from O'Hare direct to Seoul, South Korea. It is about a 14 hour flight (pray for Jon!) and thanks to Tina Kennedy (my wonderful friend), we will have a few movies to watch! We arrive in Seoul on Friday at 5:00pm - a world away, not to mention a day away! (It is 14 hours ahead of Chicago time). We will spend the night in Seoul on Friday - (yes I think after this we can be on the Amazing Race and do fairly well!) then our flight leaves Seoul to Vladivostok, Russia (located on the far eastern side of Russia, directly above North Korea) on Saturday October 6. We are so excited and anxious to meet "brother"!

Once in Vladivostok, we are staying at the Vlad Motor Inn. A very cool hotel, fairly remote from the city - and managed by Canadians, with imported North American beef, so my incredibly picky husband is thrilled they have hamburgers and chicken fingers (oh, and American beer & wine!). You can see it by going to www.vlad-inn.ru. The weather should be decent (coordinates are similar to Boston) and we have a link on the side of our blog to let you know the time and weather!

As we continue with our journey over the next couple of weeks, we are going to try to write every day! We can't post pictures of "brother" until after court on our next visit, but we'll post updates as often as possible.

Thanks to each and every one of you for your support over these past 2 years!! We are so thrilled that God has led us down this path and we look forward to sharing it with all of you.

Hugs and love!

Jon, Becky and Nat

Lastest and Greatest

The most recent news is we have our visas - which we hope means we will be able to travel this summer. We still haven't heard any news as to accreditation, but we shall see - crossing our fingers that will happen in July!

Our agency had given us a few re-do's too.... medical - (mine was a nightmare - ugh! I think I went back 5 times - We hope to not be BILLED 5 times tho- Jon's was cake -which is goood too since he Looooves going to the doctor.) I even went downtown and had everything apostilled( which is to verify that the notary is indeed a notary - I never knew it existed - and now I know who works in the office) in just ONE trip - which never happens and I didn't even cry! - which has happened twice before - I am becoming a pro.

I will write more as more comes available -and most definitely if we hear ANY word about brother!!