BIG changes in our life

Guess where Ben and I have been since my last blog update???

RUSSIA! Yes, we spent 9 days in a foreign land. Wondering why? Not for vacation that is for sure.

Making her Johnson Family Blog debut......

Our soon to be daughter

Veronika, age 10

Ben and I decided to turn to adoption in April 2008. We chose an adoption agency and started the process in July 2008. We set out to adopt a 2 or 3 year old little girl. Then in June (2009) the adoption agency that we are using brought 6 Russian orphans to Iowa for Camp Hope. That is when we met Veronika. Long story short, we formally met her at 6pm one night then by 10am the next morning we decided to adopt her. Ben and I both felt a strong connection to her.

Here she is with the other Camp Hope kids

She spent the night at our house while at Camp Hope so this is the first family photo

We frantically made travel arrangements, applied for visas, wrapped up some loose ends and were on the plane heading to Russia two weeks later. We will have to make 2 or 3 trips to Russia before we can bring Veronika home. So trip #1 was from July 4-13th. Flights were fine and train ride was fine. We spent the first two days in Petro having medical appts. That was interesting, keep in mind we don't speak any Russian and we look very American. But we had a nice translator who helped us tremdously. After all the medical appts, we went to get Veronika at her orphange that was about 180 miles away. We were able to talk with her medical dr, orphange director and primary caretaker. No big issues to be concerned about, a few small issues that are by all means manageable. When she saw us, she ran to give us a big hug.

Veronika and two of her friends at the children's home. The little girl who is kneeling beside Veronika is being adopted by a family that lives about 10 miles from us.

After we finished at the children's home, we headed back to Petro. We were able to spend the next 5 days with Veronika before she had to return to the children's home. During that time we went to an aquarium, doll museum and did some shopping. We had quite a bit of free time at the apartment also. Ben worked with Veronika on her English by doing workbooks with her and reading books. She has had two years of English in school so does know a little bit of English. The language barrier was tough at times but we were able to communicate the important things. We taught her to play Go Fish, Crazy 8's and Slap Jack. Some games are classics no matter where in the world you are...we played tic-tac-toe and marbles. We went to a DVD store, she picked out several Russian kids movies so we watched a movie every night before bed.

The most important thing we did was file our paperwork with the court system. We will go back to Russia for an adoption court date in a few weeks. Then we have a 10-14 day waiting period after court before we can bring her home. Right now, we are thinking that Ben and I will come back home to wait out the waiting period. Ben will return no matter what, someone was to work. I don't really want to stay that long in a foreign country by myself. So, I will fly back to Russia after the waiting period, pick her up then head to Moscow to apply for her visa. As soon as we get the visa.....we are coming home for good!! It will be a busy end to the summer.

I know...you want to see photos. Unfortunately, she doens't like getting her picture taken unless someone is in the picture with her. This is how most of the pictures of her turned out.....

She made this sandwich all by herself. Too big for her mouth but she did eat the whole thing. Thick slice of bread, ham, cheese, cucumber, bread, cheese then more ham.

I was quite surprised (but happy) when she grabbed a cucumber and ate it plain. Finally, someone to eat veggies with me.

Many hours spent playing cards

Doll Museum - I would really like to get some Russian fairy tales. All these dolls were from all the different tales.

We took a long walk along the water.

This was taken right before she headed back to her children's home. Sad to see her go. But she knows we will back for her.

We had a hard time eating the food over there. Nothing tasted right plus we didn't eat any meat because they don't keep things very cold. We didn't go out to eat very much. We bought groceries and I made our meals at the apartment. I did learn how to make blinI which is similar to crepes. You can stuff them with just about anything. At a restaurant, I had blinI stuffed with salamon and white herb sauce. Ben had blinI stuffed with bananas and chocolate. I made it for breakfast a couple mornings. We ate them with a couple different things butter, jam, sugar, and mashed potatoes. A couple odd things about drinks, most of the water in stores was carbonated -YUCK and drinks were rarely served cold. Everything was served at room temperture including beer. We never once had ice. I asked for ice one time, they had no idea what I was talking about.

I ordered a Shrimp Salad at a restaurant. I was told it was a salad with shimp, sour cream and tomatoes on it. I really do not like tomatoes but I figured I would just pick them off instead of trying to order the salad without tomatoes. When my plate came, it wasn't my idea of salad at all....two big tomatoes with a sour cream and shimp dip. I ate a little of the dip but stayed far away from the tomatoes and their gross slimy seeds.

Anyway, we made it back home. Very happy to see Ryan. We missed him so much. I was so happy to see his smiling face at the airport. It took a couple days but we have caught up on sleep and are back to normal for now.

It seems like a long wait before we can see Veronika again. We are trying not to think about it too much though otherwise it makes ya kind of sad.

If you have any questions about Veronika, please ask. I like talking about her.

We were hoping to meet a 2 or 3 year old little girl to adopt while we were in Russia but unfortunately they didn't have any little girls available at the time. I was greatly disappointed for many reasons. We are going to focus on Veronika for now and maybe one day a little girl/boy will join our family also.