Sunday in Vlad

Happy Sunday from Vlad!

Today was another good day with Nick. He slept all night.... went to bed at 10pm and woke up at 9:30 this morning (actually 8:30 as Russia went to Daylight Savings Time overnight). This works out quite well for Jon and I (and Nat)....considering we all love our sleep.

We hung out this morning and played. Nothing too exciting.

The weather is getting warmer and the snow has completely melted. We walked to our little market this afternoon and purchased our last few items for our stay here. Then walked to the beach and saw the ocean. Interesting that there were piles of snow at the edge of the beach/water and also some frozen areas in the ocean itself. Something that we've never seen, so we experienced something new with Nick too. We also saw a train on our walk and it fascinated Nick. We occasionally forget that almost everything is "new" to him as he stares in amazement at the people and all of the activity around him.

Jon was (and is) going stir crazy....not a lot to do in Vlad. Definitely looking forward to staying in downtown Moscow.....near the Kremlin and Red Square. Getting out and seeing sights will be great. We saw the weather will be in the 50s which will be great too. We leave here at 1:30 on Tuesday afternoon (9:30 Monday night in Chicago) for our 8 hour flight. We then fly home on Monday 4/7 -- through Atlanta -- and arrive at O'Hare around 8pm. We are both definitely looking forward to getting home. And bonus -- 8 days early! Jon's also pumped because he says we should get home for part of the second half of the men's college basketball national championship game (oh yippee!) He has definitely missed the tournament this year but has kept up on the internet.

Some pics from today......



Jon standing on the snow piles overlooking the ocean.

Jon and Nick checking out the snow -- on the beach!

Becky and Nick visiting our favorite little market around the corner from the Vlad Inn.

Thanks again to all of you for your well wishes. Nick is a great kid and we're having a great time but enjoy the responses and hearing from all of you. It helps keep us updated on the activities in the U.S. (I miss the phone -- and Jon misses his texting!!)

Take care.

Love,
Beck, Jon and Nick

Day #3 with Nikolas

We had a mellow day with Nick and hung out at the hotel... thought we would share some photos!

Nick's first taste of ice cream - he kept signing more and more!!

Our outing to the store... Thanks Lori for the hat and gloves!!

We look at the picture album that we left for him at the baby home and he knows when one of us is out of the room and raises his arm as to ask us where is _____?

Thanks for the comments - they are truely what bring a little home back to us here!!

Our love to all!

Jon, Becky & Nick

Gotcha Day (Night) !

Our Gotcha day started out a little slow. We resorted to watching the first episode of Knots Landing! Very thrilling in case anyone missed it from 1979. Was fun to see though...

We had to wait until Thursday afternoon for Arina to pick us up. She was helping another couple from Alabama on their 2nd trip as well. We left at 2 pm; had our court decree notorized, then had to go to the Dept of Vital Records to have Jon sign Nick's adoption decree and new birth certificate that has Jon and I as his parents. On our way out of Vlad, on our way to pick up Nick, Arina received another call about the Alabama couple's court and a snafu in their paperwork. As a result, we sat in the car for 2.5 hours while they tried to get everything ready for their court hearing Friday at 9:30 am. We sympathized and couldn't imagine them traveling all this way not to have court. (As it turns out, their court went fine and their little guy is adorable.) Finally, we stopped at a grocery store to get a cake for the caregivers and get pull ups for Nick. It was 7pm by the time we hit the baby's home. The doors were locked and no one was in sight. We were a little nervous that we wouldn't get Nick after all. But, Arina worked her magic, as she has several times throughout this trip and let us in through a side door. The Doctor was waiting for us. He prescribed Nick some antibiotic and cough medicine to make him "healthy" for our trip home (Nick has a cold)... so we got that all settled, and in walked Nick with his outfit (shorts, long johns, 3 shirts, and sandals) and came right to Jon. He also the items that we left him on the first trip.... his pic album of the family, a disposable camera that we hope have some shots of his "groupa" and the bear that Natalie had given him. The bear is now affectionately known as "Mishka" (Russian for bear). His caretaker then redressed him in the outfit that we brought along and she started to cry, which in turn made me cry as well. We can certainly see the love that this baby home has provided to Nick over the first 2 1/2 years of his life. We finally said our good bye (paca), left our gifts the baby home and headed back for the hotel.

On the way, we had to stop to pick up Nick's antibiotics. He also had not been fed lunch because the children here are known to get ill on the car ride back to the hotel. They have never been in cars, or any type of "machina" and the uneven roads here are very torn up with pot holes (we thought Illinois was bad, not even close!). To top it off, Nick has never been outdoors at night, so was a little afraid of that as well. He held onto Jon in the car, with a death grip, but all in all, had a great trip back to the hotel.

We arrived around 8:30 pm, played catch, fed him (lots!), read, etc (thus no blog last night) and he laid down in his crib at 10pm. Not a peep. We're lucky. He slept until 7am this morning....was awake a couple of times with a cough but nothing too big.

Today was a great day getting to know one another. As all parents say, their children are intelligent, and Nick is no exception. Although he doesn't speak much (cleft pallet -- which isn't noticable), he understands very well and is cognizant of everything around him. He is very independent and does everything on his own time (hmmm...remind you of anyone) . He eats very well -- on his own, is already potty trained (yea!), dresses himself, knows kleenex and blows his own nose and carries arounds his toys like he's never gonna let them go! :) We've played -- all day -- watched a couple of Baby Einstein videos, and he's now ready to go play with some of the other kids that are here. It's busy here. Which is great :) .

Jon had a busy afternoon. He went to get the visa and passport pics developed of Nick, then notarized, then to the passport office to apply for Nick's passport, then to get those docs apostilled, then to Vital Records Dept again, then to the notary, then to the Ministry of Education, then to Aeroflot to change the flight to Moscow for next week (they were closed so he's going back tomorrow) and then to the grocery store. Needless to say, he's enjoying a Bud "Heavy" as I write this.

It has been an excellent week for us and we continue to thank God that Nick has joined us. We thank all of you as well for your thoughts & prayers. We wouldn't be here without all of you making us stronger. We cannot wait to get home to see Natalie and have Nick meet all of our wonderful family and friends.

Our Gotcha evening - with his caretaker

Nick shoveling - literally - bananas in for dinner
Watching out our hotel window for his "meow-meows" - all the wild cats live behind the building.

Hugs and love,

Beck, Jon and Nick

It is official !!!!

This has truly been one of the greatest days of our lives....

Jon was up at 3am today, worrying about the court date. I was up at 6am. Honestly, both of us were quite nervous about the entire process. We watched "Old School" to take our mind off of it for awhile, which was a great reprieve. We also happened to be flipping channels and found the Russian version of an American sitcom classic. Quite funny.... we will attach a quick view for all of you when we get home....a good laugh (takes too long to upload here!)

Lana (our translator) picked us up at 12:30 this afternoon. We had to get one "last" document notarized and then it was off to court. We arrived about 1:15 and my husband immediately started pacing (not unusual for all of you that know him). The building was dark (loss of power occasionally we're told) -- not to mention that up until 5 years ago, it was a psychiatric hospital. Somewhat nerve-wracking.

Court started promptly at 2pm, with the Judge, backup Judge, Prosecutor, Social worker, Lana, Jon and me. The Judge asked us a series of questions about work, our family -- parents, siblings and Natalie, friends, the adoption process, Americans adopting from Russia and of course, our little Nick. She spoke with both of us, then individually as well. Lana told us to expect the Judge to be incredibly stoic -- all business -- no smile, etc. Well.....the Judge didn't know my husband. Jon had her in stiches -- smiles and laughs within 10 minutes, while in the meantime attempting to convince her that she needed to waive the 10 day wait period and that we needed to get Nick home to see our Dr. asap. Interestingly enough, the power came back on during his dissertation! During the hearing, we had convinced the Prosecutor that it was in Nick's best interest to waive the extra 10 days, and the Social worker backed us up as well. Both told the Judge that they agreed with our request to waive the additional 10 days. The Judge then asked us to clear the courtroom. She called us in about 15 minutes later, and told us that she officially granted us adoption of Nick. Both Jon and I started to tear up.... and then told us that she waived the 10 day wait period....which she never does. What a wonderful day for us..... We thanked her repeatedly for the gift that she had just given us.

So, tomorrow afternoon, we will pick our son up at the baby home. Both of us are excited, and anxious. We can't believe that after 30 months, the adoption journey has led us to Vladivostok, Russia and we are now ready to take our son home with us. It is finally here! We expect this will be quite a transition for him.... and for us. We haven't had a 2 1/2 year old for some time, but am certain it will trigger our memories .... starting tomorrow night. The hotel here has upgraded us to a suite (a second room for Nick) so that will be nice as well.

We aren't sure of our travel plans at this point. We should learn more tomorrow, but we will definitely be home much earlier than expected. YEA! We most likely will travel to Moscow early next week and spend a few days (maybe a week?) there to finalize paperwork at the American Embassy, and then fly home to Illinois. More to come.....

As we write tonight's blog, we have already enjoyed a North American New York steak dinner (Jon) and seafood fettucini (Becky)..... and have sipped some Russian champagne (unfortunately, most of it had to go down the drain (not so good)) and are now onto our Merlot (Jon) and Chardonnay (Becky). We are celebrating and have toasted several times tonight....to our family, our friends, our lives. Again, we thank all of you for your thoughts, prayers and support throughout our entire journey. Without all of you, we wouldn't have been able to make it. Each and every one of you are important to us and we can't wait for you all to meet Nick very soon. God has truly blessed the Sipes family!

Love,
Beck and Jon

We are here!!!

Happy Winter from Vladivostok to everyone back home! (We loved the snowman that the children made outside of Nick's baby home - check out that hair (no, not Jon's!!).

We made it here through 4 airports, 2 red eye flights, 1 soup nazi and 1 (almost) lost bag - well redirected through yet another airport that is.

We started off Saturday morning in the snow....thankful that our flight took off -- on time -- from O'Hare to New York JFK (especially since 400+ flights had been cancelled the day before). A quick layover there (comparitively...only 3 1/2 hours) with a "couple" beers at Chili's and Jon's last chance to eat a hamburger for 3 weeks & we cheered on the lady Cyclones to victory (although they lost on Monday night) and we were off.

The JFK - Moscow flight wasn't bad (Jon had his plane drugs so that helped both of us -- immensely) as it was incredibly long & we sat next to a guy who snored the whole way! Needless to say, Jon and I could not for the life of us sleep at all!! We did meet 3 other couples who are adopting from Moscow. They were all on their last leg as well, so it was nice to chat with them. They had previously stayed at the Marriott in Moscow, so we got a few hints and tips for when we arrive there after our stint in Vlad - such as don't eat the breakfast buffet or it will run you about $90 bucks!

Side note: Delta now carries "Stirrings" - so Tina I toasted to you!

Anyway... 10 hours later and we were on the ground -- landing during snow -- and only found 3 of our 4 bags (of course the one missing was the bag with all of Jon's court attire). We waited and went to baggage claim when it didn't arrive (a little difficult to communicate that we lost a bag in Russian) but she asked our last name and immediately knew who we were. Our "lost" bag was misrouted to Atlanta... who knows why. We decided we stick around for another 45 minutes to see if it made the flight coming in from Atlanta, otherwise they would send it on to Vlad in about 3 to 4 days. By the Grace of God, that blue suitcase was one of the first to come off the conveyer belt!

We finally found our driver, who was just about to leave as he thought we missed our flight. He had to drive us from the International terminal to the Domestic terminal where we sat in one location for 8 hours - yes 8 hours - and this airport isn't like any US airport. It was brutal - I mean really really really really brutal. Jon fell asleep at the table, everything was in Russian and no one spoke English including the table cleaning lady who yelled at me in Russian and then grabbed my carry on and my purse from the table and threw them on the floor. Fun, fun! Finally we could check into our flight (quite an adventure and paid $80 because our bags were 5 pounds total overweight), got on our Aeroflot flight (a Boeing 767 of course because my husband will only fly on a Boeing or an Airbus :) ) and we both proceeded to sleep for quite a few hours. This flight was 8 hours, but we were soooo tired that it really didn't matter how it was or who was talking.

We finally landed in Vlad (Monday 11am // Sunday 8pm Central) - again, in snow. The ladies were right here for us and they took our bags and laughed when they asked me what I had packed. I told them you never quite know, plus for 25 days, I thought I'd packed light!

We came back to the hotel, showered, unpacked and tried to watch a movie but gave up. We napped from 3-8pm - ate a quick bite then went to bed from 11-7:30 this am.

We went to see Nick this morning, after more snow, we picked up Lana (our translator), our social worker Svetlana and our driver Alex took us to see him. I think he really remembered us - or our snacks - and came right over. I'm not sure if he has grown any, maybe just filled out a little. It was so good to finally hold him once again and he gave us sweet hugs. The 35 hours of travel was more than worth it and we wouldn't change a thing!! We didn't have much time to see him today just about 30 - 45 mins.

We are all prepped and ready - I hope - for court tomorrow at 2pm (Tuesday 11pm Central). Please say a quick prayer that all goes smoothly and we ask that you think of us if you are Night Owls and still awake at that time. The power of prayer! Lana said that we really have a nice judge and she hopes that we can get the 10 days waived, so we'll keep our fingers crossed but we aren't holding our breath.

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes and prayers. We will let you know how tomorrow goes. We ask that you continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We can't wait to bring Nick home and see all of you!

Love,

Beck and Jon

Less than 24 hours!

We are off to pick up brother in less than 24 hours. Yikes, as I sit here still doing laundry! I think I have everything that I need to pack, now I am just not sure how it will all fit in 3 suitcases. I am sure we will be a sight coming through the airport with all our baggage. We've also decided to take an umbrella stroller for the return leg. I think we will be happy that we did this when we are waiting in one of 4 airports - UGH!

We want to thank everyone for this journey and keeping in touch with us when we are gone - it means a lot to know we have such a strong support in the states!

Becky & Jon

Vladivostok Countryside

This was done at high speed! We loved seeing the colorful little houses. Everyone had a tin/metal roof. We really wondered how they stayed warm in the harsh winters.