Yes we are back home safe and sound. We got in late last night and then had a busy day with family and friends stopping bye. We'll post another entry tomorrow with more information about moscow and the trip home, just wanted to let everyone know we had arrived safely. Things are going great 
Adam
Adam on 01.16.05 @ 09:28 PM CDT [link] [1 Comment]
Well it's our last night in Khabarovsk. It's kind of sad in a lot of ways, there are many things we will miss even though we are bringing the best part home. There will be many questions she'll have as she grows older that we won't have the answers for. We are glad we were able to spend the time here we have, to get to know the city and the culture she was born to. We want to keep a part of that in her life in some way so it's not forgotten.
Tomorrow we head to Moscow, an embassy appointment and then the flights back home. It really doesn't seem like it's been 3 weeks, time just flew by especially once we had Lidia.
Today we went to a few government offices, got the court decree, the adoption papers and had the birth certificates updated. Tomorrow we get her russian passport before heading out. Everything has gone smoothly which says a ton for Irina and the rest of the AIA staff here in Khabarovsk and elsewhere. Even with the holidays and law changes they've been right on top of everything.
I posted just a few pictures, these will be the last ones until we are home as we won't be dialing in from moscow (no email either after tomorrow). We are anxious to be home, it's silly some of the things you miss (the kitchen, the washer/dryer hehe) but that's why it's home. (crystal had to add "our bed")
ok one more from crystal "donuts" *hint* *hint*
It's kind of weird to have left the country a couple and come home a family, it really seems like we've always had her, odd but it does.
Well we are off to get ready for bed and the big day tomorrow.
Thanks for all the comments and warm wishes along this journey, it's all been a help in getting us through.
Adam & Crystal & Lidia
The Bodette Family (about time! - Crystal)
Adam on 01.11.05 @ 05:27 AM CDT [link] [1 Comment]
Well as it turned out photos are actually tomorrow morning, so today was just a play day. We visited the Blaylock's twice today (to cook lunch and supper since they have a range/oven). Lidia watched Nick in amazement a few times as he played with things in ways she can't do yet Otherwise a nice relaxing day. We had blini's for lunch which i'm going to have to figure out how to make back home (going to need a crepe maker if we can't find the frozen ones like they have here). They are crepes rolled around a variety of fillings, we've had cottage cheese with fruit and some sort of pudding filled ones (like a honey pudding almost). For supper we had some cabbage pelmini and some meat pelmini along with some veggies and bread. I'm going to miss my little rye loaves I get here, may have to make some at home. They are just the right size for little snack bread. Lidia loves all the bread as we let her eat that all by herself (in little pieces easy for her to handle of course). She grabs it in her fist and then attempts to stuff her whole hand in her mouth to get it in but ends up flatening out her hand against her face to get it in her mouth. Sometimes just her fingers go in and she ends up dropping the piece (bibs with catches are a great thing).
Oh note to Grandpa and Grandma (or Auntie Sarah and Uncle Eric), Lidia would love it if someone could purchase a pair of size 3 sneakers for her for when we get home. As it turns out her feet are a bit smaller than we thought and we only have size 4 and 5 shoes. She's wearing the 4's but they are too big so mostly she is just going around in slippers. It won't matter much until we are home, so if someone was looking for something to get she's appreciate it as she's quickly becoming a walker and needs some stability She can go about 4 or 5 steps now if she gets herself stable before taking off. If she doesn't stabalize it's 2 steps and a nosedive on the 3rd She looks like a little drunk walking when she goes for 4 or 5 steps.
I put 4 more pictures into the gallery and created a new Part 4 to keep each gallery from getting too big. Once we are home I'm going to go back and clean it all up a bit and create real thumbnails rather than the current "squished" thumbnails I have up now.
3 more days until we head to moscow, I've been spending some time pulling together info to add a bunch of new sections to this website for Moscow, Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk (the Komsomolsk info from the Blaylocks) so you'll probably see some new links in the menu soon as I start to put that stuff up. I've been getting pictures and info from the Blaylocks to help build out those sections. I figure it will be a big help to other families adopting from our regions. We see the same questions asked so many times on the mailing lists and forums I figured it would be a great help to bring it all togther in once place for easy reference. That and we've gotten to know quite a bit and want to pass on what we've learned to other families. There are things we wish we had known before coming here. (like bring peanut butter as you will not find it here)
Otherwise big Packer game tomorrow so i'll be up to dial in to keep track of that one!
See everyone in less than a week now!
Adam
Adam on 01.09.05 @ 04:39 AM CDT [link] [No Comments]
It's hard to believe we head to moscow in only 4 days, it really doesn't seem like we've been here that long. Having Lidia with us is just making time fly now. I put 4 more pictures from today into the gallery (part 3). I made our last trip to the big grocery today to get a last few items, just one more trip to the medium store for diapers and we should be set for the rest of our time here.
Tomorrow the kids go for photo's for their russian passports as we start to get all the paperwork in order. Just a bit here and then our embassy appointment in moscow and we are all set.
Lidia is definitely getting used to us now, she's taking food much better (and at a slower pace happily). She is nolonger afraid she won't get anymore if she doesn't eat it all at once. She's eating mostly table food with some rice cereal, jarred veggies/fruit and formula. She likes the milk formula so that should make the plane rides a lot easier. She fell asleep on me on the bed today before early nap and then fell asleep in Crystal's arms tonight before putting her down for the night. She's liking her baths a lot too and it helps calm her down at night before bed. Just took a picture of Lidia asleep in Crystal's arms so i'll upload that one here in a few too so it'll be 5 pictures now
She seems to do good with other people, she's a bit shy at first and stays close to mom but she opens up after a bit and then starts having a good time.
Tomorrow should go by quick then just 3 more days. While we are having fun here we are ready to be home too. The apartment is not what we would call "childproof" so we have to keep a pretty close eye on her at all times.
Monday i'll have to dial in when I get up to "watch" the packer game It starts at 7:30am on Monday for me Refresh, repeat until the game is over hehe
Adam
Adam on 01.08.05 @ 04:19 AM CDT [link] [No Comments]
Well the rest of the day went pretty good. She napped for about an hour and a half and then we watched the Return of the King while she entertained us/herself on the bed and floor. We then ate supper, ham and eggs for mom and dad and baby dinner in a jar and kefir for Lidia (kefir is like a more liquidy yogurt that you drink like milk, they say it tastes like buttermilk and is good for the kids - probiotics).
I had my little adventure at the store today hunting down Kefir and cottage cheese (she is used to that too) and some more jars of baby food (veggies this time). I also got the joy of my first yucky poopy diaper 
(defintely learned to change as quickly as possible before she sits down).
She's down for the night now, crystal was able to rock her to sleep after about 15 minutes and she seems to be down for good now even with the tv on softly so that's good. Just putting her right into the crib is going to take some time yet till she gets more comfortable, but that's ok as it's a great bonding experience. We'll also be messing her back up in a week anyway when we head to moscow and then home 2 days later.
All in all the next week should go good, we'll get our routine established and things should go great until the airplane rides which will be a whole new adventure.
Tomorrow we get to meet Nick and Zach for the first time so we'll have a whole bunch of munchkins to entertain us.
I posted some more pictures just a bit ago including her second bath experience (the first is on video and 35mm). She definitely doesn't mind baths and even had some fun tonight so that's great for us too.
Oh she also is happily drinking the milk based formula! Just didn't like the soy (not that I blame her by it's smell alone). This will make the airplane ride *much* easier being able to just use formula on the trips.
That's it for tonight, we'll probably watch some tv or read some and then crash ourselves. Tomorrow should be a fun day with the other couples as they get their own kids for good now too.
Adam
Adam on 01.06.05 @ 04:58 AM CDT [link] [2 Comments]
Wow--We are parents!!
Lidia is doing wonderfully, considering we have taken her from everything familiar. Yesterday she fussed a little bit when we put all the snow gear on her (who can blame her?). The car ride was uneventful, but she was starting to get irritated by the time we got to where we were going (again I think it was the snow gear) She ate well for snack and dinner. Bath time went great. No tears. She did get a little nervous when I poured water over her head to rinse the soap out. Otherwise, once we took her out of the tub and dried her, she played the typical "Catch the naked baby!" game. She posed for her first bare-butt shot (and her first shampoo mohawk). Then it was into jammies and on to trying the formula. We are wanting her to take formula, at least while we are here, for convenience's sake. It is easier to take with us to airports and you don't need to refrigerate it since it's in powder form. It would make air travel easier. We first tried soy, at the suggestion of our translator, however she made quite clear what she thought of that stuff. We didn't have any milk-based formula, so we borrowed a bit from Brian & Alicia. It was an American brand... but she drank it (a bit haultingly, but she finished 4 ounces). So today, Daddy went to the market to get some milk based formula, Russian style. Hopefully she will drink this. If not, I guess we will try weening her into it somehow before we go. We will figure it out.
We started trying to go to sleep around 8:15 or so last night. We cuddled for a while and I could see she probably was not going to really fall asleep in my arms (we have no rocking chair or good place to hold her to sleep). After a long bout of cuddling, I just put her down and left the room. She didn't even cry, just went to sleep. She slept pretty good. Woke up once around 1:30am. I was able to get her back to sleep and then she slept through to 8:30!
Today she has been in a great mood, but she is denying the sleep. She skipped her 10:00 nap entirely. We decided to go ahead and let her push it off, since it was getting close to Noon with no signs of her giving in. Then we ate lunch. She is not entirely sure about my food choices. I am sure it's not exactly what she is used to eating, but she is eating most of it, even if she is slightly irritated at the whole thing. At breakfast she discovered how great cheerios are. Lunch was just some baby food out of the can/jar.
At around 12:30 we started preparing for a nap. She will not let me lay her in the crib quietly today (I am not at all surprised). I think she has finally realized that this place is not what she is used to. She had a very dazed look when she woke up this morning and looked around. At any rate, we tried cuddling and such and she liked it, but was not giving in to sleep. After about 45 mins I finally decided she really needed to sleep, so I laid her down, said goodnight and left the room. She was quite unhappy about this, but I had made her so sleepy that she only had the energy to cry for about 2 minutes. After that she settled down and went to sleep. Hopefully she will not fight bed time as she did nap time.
Adam and I got the typical sleep of first time parents with a new baby in the house--very little. Oh she slept fine (other than waking up the once), but every time she moved or made a noise, we heard it. She cries out periodically in her sleep, too. Plus there were dogs barking outside. Hopefully we can relax a bit more tonight
Hopefully she takes a good nap so her mood stays high this afternoon.
Our friends should be arriving in Komsomolsk right about not to pick up their children! (It's 2:00 as I am writing this--I may not post it till Lidia wakes up, though)
I suppose I should go for now and enjoy or bit of quiet for the afternoon.
Crystal on 01.06.05 @ 04:49 AM CDT [link] [1 Comment]
She's ours!!
We are home from the orphanage with out little princess. She seems to be taking everything well so far other than a little fussing when we got her all bundled up to head to the apartment (picture of her all bundled up in the gallery).
She's had a snack and an afternoon nap here so far with no problems. We'll see how the night goes but she seems to be adjusting ok. Still lots of smiles and happy noises for us
Tomorrow the other two families here with our agency go to Komsomolsk to pick up their children so they'll all have playmates
It's amazing to finally have her, just watching her crawl all over exploring her new environment. We're drastically changing her life though she doesn't know it yet. It still seems so unbelievable for us.
There are a few more pictures in the gallery, we'll post updates pretty much every day now until we head to moscow next week on wednesday.
Hope everyone had a great christmas and new years we sure did!
Adam
Adam on 01.05.05 @ 01:45 AM CDT [link] [5 Comments]
This is our last day as a couple. From tomorrow on we will be a forever family. It seems so surreal to say those words. We have waited so long that I can't quite believe it. This is such an emotional time. I am excited, nervous and elated all at the same time. We are taking this little girl from everything she has ever known. This will be such a life altering experience for her--for all of us. I only hope that in the future she'll look back and be happy that she joined our family. I know there are no words to describe how happy we are to have found her, finally.
We will go around 1:00 tomorrow to pick her up.
Today all of us went on a little walking adventure to find the baby store. It was a nice store with many items to choose from. I was keeping my eyes out for a little knit hat. I am going to see if the orphanage will let me take the little blue hat they have been putting on her if I give them one to replace it. It would make a great memory. We shall see.
The walk was nice. It was very cold (around -7ish when we left...but I think it warmed up by the time we got back). All that fresh air made me tired, though. When we got back we all watched The Fellowship of the Ring. Now we are on a break for dinner and we will watch the first half of The Two Towers. Then it will be off to bed to wake up to our first day of parenthood!!!
We will try to post tomorrow night before we go to bed to tell everyone how she is doing...
Crystal on 01.04.05 @ 07:25 AM CDT [link] [4 Comments]
It is already January 3! It's hard to believe that 2005 is already here. On Friday (New Year's Eve here) we managed to make it through the entire current star wars pentalogy. We started around 9am and finished the last one at around 11pm. (With breaks for lunch and dinner in there, of course). By the time we finished, we were all much too tired to stay up and ring in the Khabarovsk New Year. I went to bed and dozed off, but you could certainly tell when it was midnight! People were lighting fireworks all around us! The noise was crazy. For probably a full hour after midnight all you heard was fireworks. Most of them were just set off by individuals. Much like the ones we can buy at home, except they probably have a lot of them that would be considered illegal at home. They were shooting off mortors and things that lit up in the sky. The noise was crazy. I was too tired to get up and look out the window, but I saw many of them even without getting up. At any rate, New Year's is a bigger holiday here than their Christmas (which makes sense, considering they were banned from practicing religion for so long).
On Saturday (January 1st here) Leigh and Joe invited us all to their room to ring in the East coast New Year at 3:00 (midnight in Michigan) with a glass of champaign and they made dinner for all of us. It was some sort of stir fry type dish with rice and veggies, peanut butter and oil. It was very good! For dessert Adam had picked out a birthday cake for me at the market. We even had a candle! It was quite comical. I can tell you I never expected to celebrate my 26th birthday in Russia! The cake was different that what we have at home, but was very good. We think it had kiwi fruit in it! It was hard to tell, but it was definatley a fruit. After dessert, Brian and Alicia headed back to their apartment (they were feeling kind of icky) and we played some Euchre with the Blaylocks. Over all it was a fun day.
Yesterday we slept until after 8:00. I think our bodies have finally adjusted to the time change. We're able to stay up till around 11 without being dead tired and I can finally sleep past 6:30! It's easy to sleep late here, though, since sunrise is often not until around 9:00! It also gets dark early, so there is not much daylight in the winter. At any rate, we got up showered, then went down to Joe & Leigh's to borrow their cooking facilities. We ate something that I think are called Blini... They're like little thin pancakes stuffed with cottage cheese and, in this case, strawberry flavoring of some sort. They come frozen at the grocery store and you just thaw them and fry them up. It was delicious! Afterward we "watched" a live play-by-play of the Rose Bowl on the internet. It was basically just someone typing in all the plays, so even though we couldn't see the picture, we had an idea of what was going on in the game.
In the afternoon, Adam and I came upstairs to do laundry! I did the washing in the bath tub and the rinsing, he did the wringing out of the water. We had to stop after 2 "loads" because we ran out of places to hang our wet clothes! We will have to try to finish today. Hopefully we won't have to do much more major laundry after this. I forgot to take a picture of it all, but I will try to this time around.
In the evening, we again borrowed the Blaylock Kitchen to make some pelmini (pasta, stuffed with something. In this case it was meat, but it also comes in cabbage, potato, and other varieties--very good) for dinner.
After that, we went to Brian and Alicia's to watch a movie. We watched So I Married and Axe Murderer and American Wedding. Funny flicks.
After that it was back "home" and to bed with us.
I am not sure what we are doing today...
Only 2 more days till we bring Lidia here!!
I will add a few more pictures under the "part 2" section...
Crystal on 01.02.05 @ 06:29 PM CDT [link] [No Comments]
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