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Photos:

1. "I'm a US Citizen!!!!" Moments after clearing Immigration and getting Visa stamped!

2. Post-Ike breakfast... note the spoon :-) She still won't pick food up with her hands and put into her mouth, but she's VERY enthusiastic about the spoon and is already clumsily feeding herself (with some help)

3. More breakfast

4. Gdansk, Old Town

5. Gdansk, Old Town

6. Paulina seaside in Sopot

7. Sopot

Well, we made it in Thursday night to be greeted by Ike... when we left Poland the forecast still had it heading south of Houston... boy what a difference 18 hours makes :-) The trip was very long, but uneventful. Paulina slept about 30 minutes on the flight to Amsterdam, and then stayed up and kept me company during our 5 hour layover. I have to say, if you must have a layover, Schiphol is a pretty good place to do it. Lots of shopping, "baby stations" everywhere - they have dedicated restrooms with sinks, changing tables and chairs, they even have a baby lounge with soft music and individual little "cabanas" with cribs and supplies... All free of charge. Also, NO SMOKING in the airport!!!! I felt like we were back in the real world. We were seated in the bulkhead row and got the wall-mounted bassinet for Paulina. She slept a total of about 3 hours on the 10.5 hour flight, but was pretty good-natured when awake. She did want to "walk" around a lot so a couple of the really sweet flight attendants would take her every few hours to give me a break. We came through Immigration in Houston and Paulina became a citizen with stamp on her visa :-) The best part was seeing Hayden, Tom, Mamaw and Papaw waiting for us when we made it out of Customs... wow. Such a wonderful sight... Aunt Reagan, Uncle Aaron and cousin Emily were waiting for us at home with a Texas flag cake, welcome home banners, balloons and Papaw picked up Pappasitos fajitas for us... SO GOOD!!!!

Paulina took it all in stride, she didn't seem overwhelmed at all, even when Maddie greeted her with "kisses" in the face :-) I put her down to sleep at 8:30 and she slept all night through 8 Friday morning. We spent the day Friday preparing for the storm - Mamaw had stocked the house with everything we could need, thank goodness since everything was closed Friday!

The storm was a little scary, but no real damage for us, thankfully. And, in case you were wondering, it really does sound like a freight train. The winds lasted from around 10:30pm - 7am - it was really bad from around midnight to 4am. In the morning we'd lost a couple of trees and part of the fence fell down, but all in all... unscathed. We lost power around midnight and yesterday they told us our neighborhood would be without power for 5 days... after hearing that we talked to some friends in Katy who still had power and were planning on heading out there today (Sunday), but around 11pm last night the lights and more importantly, THE AC!! came back on. So 24 hours total - feeling pretty darn lucky all the way around.

I'll get some photos up later in the day, my camera is in the room with Hayden who is sleeping soundly. NEVER wake a sleeping child :-) Paulina is doing so well... she is exploring a lot, she still prefers to be held, but she finds walking around holding your hand an acceptable alternative :-) She seems to be ok with the dogs, she doesn't cry or seem afraid, but she's not in love with them yet either.

More in a bit, going to try and get some of the house cleaned up and stuff unpacked before the kiddos wake up!!

LEAVING IN 13 HOURS!!!!

So, not that I'm not a little emotional about our time in Paulina's birthplace ending, but WE'RE COMING HOME TOMORROW!!!! We have a Polish passport and a US Visa in hand and will get on the plane to Amsterdam at 6:45 tomorrow morning... 5 hour layover in AMS and then we land in Houston at 5:35pm!!!! Thank you, Hurricane Ike!!

Paulina is giddy also, she must be picking up on my relief. We're all going to have dinner tonight, one last round of the yummy potato pancakes with mushroom sauce before heading back to fajitas and 'ritas :-)

I'll post another round of pictures as soon as we're home and have bandwidth again... I'm just all out of patience for the 1 bar of borrowed wireless...

I will never be able to adequately express my gratitude for the support we've received from our family and friends, both new and old. You are all so generous and wonderful to share this experience with us. Paulina is truly a joy and such a wonderful gift to our lives... the time here was long and hard at times, but worth every single moment. Love you all!!

FINGERS CROSSED!!

OK, thanks to Hurricane Ike, we were able to change Paulina and my tickets to Thursday departure... now we just have to get that US Visa today... because Tracy's ticket was booked on miles, they couldn't get her on the same flights from Amsterdam and only had a flight that stopped in Newark available, so she opted to just stick around and spend the night in Amsterdam as originally planned. I am feeling pretty guilty for throwing her under the bus, so to speak, and leaving her here... but she offered and I jumped all over it! Her friend is in Warsaw through Friday for work so she's not alone and will hopefully be able to have a fun and kid-free day and evening after we leave!!!

We are picking up the Polish passport at 9:30am and the Visa interview is at 10:30. Provided everything goes as planned, we can pick up the completed Visa at 3pm this afternoon. More after the interview... my fingers are crossed... it would be so good to get home tomorrow night...

bye bye

Well, Paulina and I put Papaw and Hayden on the plane home this morning... :-( Rough morning for Mommy, rough night for everyone. Our last night in Poland was spent in the ER - everything turned out ok, but Hayden did a coffee table dive at Jack's apt (we went over last night to eat pizza and let Hayden tell his new friend, Jack, good-bye). He cut his browbone, just below eyebrow... it was only about an inch long, but bled a lot and was pretty wide so we decided to take him in just in case. Since they were flying first thing today, didn't want to take any chances. The Children's Hospital was phenomenal, we were in and out in less than 30 minutes and the whole thing cost $25USD. Amazing. They didn't do stitches and opted for the steristrips (sp?) instead - he got a giant bunch of gauze taped on top of that and he has actually left it alone as of 5:30am this morning. According to the doc, the strips won't come off and we can remove in 7 days... he clearly doesn't know Hayden. The family from Floriday was so kind and kept Paulina for us while we took Hayden in. When we returned to their apartment, they too were amazed at the speed... and Paulina and their daughter were in the tub splashing together :-) Very happy babies last night, all things considered.

We have the Visa photos and doc appt this morning, Tracy arrives tomorrow, Polish passport appt Friday, train to Gdansk on the Baltic Coast Saturday - Monday, then final Visa interview on the 10th... and provided everything goes as planned, home on the 13th!!! Woo Hoo!!! I wish I'd thought to bring a little American flag for Paulina to hold as she enters the US and becomes a citizen... kind of silly, I know, but great photo op :-)

Happy to hear Houston dodged another bullet (thus far) with Gustav. Hoping everyone is doing well and getting back to school easily!

Little bit of walking

Well, not much new here in Warsaw. Old Town was nice, Nowy Swiat (the nice street on the way to Old Town) was a great walk. Other than that, same story, different day :-) Paulina is walking now, pretty much all the way... only she won't do it on her own without a big show. She has excellent balance and if you get in the floor and scoot along a few feet in front of her (like a carrot!!), she can pretty much walk the whole apartment. However, she NEVER initiates it!!!! Little devil... but she's doing very well and here's a little video of it.

We're ordering Chinese delivery tonight from this great service that's just like Take Out Taxi at home, only much faster... some things are universal :-)

Sorry for the delay in the post! Krakow was beautiful, very storybook'ish. We stayed in the Jewish Quarter which was very charming and an excellent location. We were just a 15 minute walk from the Old Town Market Square, which was enormous and filled with cafes, shops, and... pigeons. This thrilled Hayden to no end!! I think he could chase pigeons all day long... We also took a ride in a horse-drawn carriage, which both kids thoroughly enjoyed. Until it was over and Hayden decided that the horse was "MINE".

It is funny to me how quickly Hayden has slipped into big brother mode... everything is "MINE", and every 5th or 6th phrase out of my mouth is "Hayden, please don't hit your sister". etc... Mostly he really likes her and asks for Paulina when he wakes up in the morning and is very sweet to her all day... but sometimes sweet turns into a smack in a millisecond :-)

We picked up a walker / push toy for Paulina on Sunday and she uses it well... until she realizes she's doing it by herself... she also is taking 4-5 steps by herself, so she's doing super well on the walking. I was able to get her to eat some chopped up, super soft green beans and a mashed banana in addition to the jar food yesterday which was good. Still absolutely no interest in putting anything into her mouth on her own, but that will come.

We're going to find Old Town Warsaw today and then the park with our friends from Florida after nap. Only 1 week until Papaw and Hayden leave, which makes me very sad. It will be hard to say bye to Dad, but boy, I am struggling with putting Hayden on a plane without me. I know in my head everything will be ok, but I am going to miss him terribly :-( It is best, he is homesick and needs to get back to his routine, and his daddy and Mamaw and Cousin "Enny" (Emily), etc... we've had to tiptoe around those words to avoid a monumental meltdown here.

Hope all is well at home... only 2.5 weeks to go :-)

Papaw's here!!!

Well, Dad made it! Papaw arrived Sunday, called me on the cell phone from our front door :-) He was a sight for sore eyes. Hayden was ecstatic, and Paulina picked up on it and was in rare form as well. Both kids perked up and Hayden jumped up and down on Papaw's bed with the balloon Mamaw sent for, oh, about 2 hours. And repeated yesterday morning. It's really funny, sort of, when he wakes up in the morning and from nap he is his normal self for about 5-10 minutes and just lies there waking up, then you see him remember that Papaw is here and he starts screaming, "Papaw! Papaw!!". Paulina immediately took to Dad as well and the smiles are coming more and more easily.

We found the children's store Smyk, thanks to our friends in Round Rock. It is awesome. Very good quality stuff for really reasonable prices. AND, and a really great indoor playground with lots of trucks and tunnels and other great distrations. Hayden played for a long time and then Paulina joined and slid on the little slide with our help and rocked on the rocking horse. Anyway, it was really good.

We leave for Krakow on the 8am train in the morning. It's a 2.5 hour ride, Hayden should be beside himself! We are going with Magda and another family adopting a little 2.5 year old boy. Hopefully he and Hayden will entertain each other on the ride :-). "Home" on Friday - going to do Old Town Warsaw this weekend and some of the museums next week. We may give Papaw a hall pass to visit some of these on his own - otherwise, it might be the fast-forward version with Hayden in tow. But, it's worth a shot. Also, the zoo.

Hope everyone at home is doing well and staying cool! I'm kind of glad to be missing August in Houston :-) Take care!!

Saturday in Warsaw

Well, Tom left early this morning... I'm trying to keep my happy face on so Hayden doesn't melt down. We told him last night that Daddy had to go to work and he'd see him in a few days, which technically is true. I'm not going to use the "Papaw" word until necessary! Hopefully not until Papaw is in the taxi on the way to our apartment!! Two is a tough age, Hayden is just beginning to understand abstracts, so things like "tomorrow", "after nap", "in a week", still don't mean a lot to him. But, so far, we're ok. Paulina woke up this morning in a wonderful mood - very smiley, and that helped a lot. It was pretty tough saying good-bye for four weeks... We didn't do a whole lot today because of heavy rain, but we did make it to the store with Paulina in the backpack and Hayden in the stroller. A few people looked twice, I haven't seen a lot of the Baby Bjorns and such here so I suppose I look a little weird with one in a backpack and one in a stroller. Oh well...

Paulina is taking 3-4 steps alone, but she doesn't like it, she just wants to be held a lot. The therapist told us to "make her" have floor time and work on the walking 3-4 times daily. But, wow, is she a Taurus! I already have visions of the teen years in our house :-) Anyway, we do it, sometimes with a lot of protests, but sometimes she forgets that she's protesting and enjoys. We have been to the playground a few times here and she LOVES the swings! She can sit by herself and balance while someone pushes the swing. She also likes the see-saw, as does Hayden. He spends a lot of time in the giant sandboxes, we're going to pick up some sand toys for him on Monday...

Not a whole lot new here, we are eating a little better - able to stock the fridge and have a real kitchen and table - so Hayden's off the popsicle/ice cream diet and doesn't seem to mind too much :-). Here are a few new pictures... Paulina is loving the baths, as long as Hayden is in the tub also. They splashed and played for almost 20 minutes this morning. She also found our map of Warsaw, unfolded and played with it for a few minutes, then she became extremely frustrated and it was a little funny... I got a little of it on video and I'm hoping the video posts. Connection here is pretty slow...

WARSAW!!!!!

This will be short because we were pretty late getting in to Warsaw... BUT - we had court today, which was actually quite a pleasant surprise... the judge was a very good-humored older man who insisted that we bring Hayden in with us (Paulina stayed at the orphanage because the car seat wouldn't fit in the car... we all rode together with the family from Florida). He was wonderful with Hayden and the whole thing only took about 20 minutes. Everyone was very, very kind and it was just such a relief to have it over with. We won't receive the final decree until the 21 day waiting period is over, but that's just a formality, the judge said, "she is your daughter from this day forward"... :-)

AND we are here, in Warsaw, in our 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment with an elevator and air conditioning. I am so excited I don't even know what to do with myself!!!!

So, it's been a really long, emotional, but super happy in the end kind of day. We'll get pictures and some video online tomorrow... hugs to everyone!!!

48 hours until court... and move to Warsaw!

Some photos of Hayden and the latest Lightning McQueen fan...

48 hours left in Czestochowa!! Woo Hoo!! Actually, the last week hasn’t been that bad. The weather has been brilliant all but a couple of days, and we’ve walked and taken the train all over town. We bought Hayden a soccer ball last Thursday after the soccer game, and he “plays” with Daddy every morning and evening in the park. If we could keep him on the grass, this would be wildly successful… however, he ventures onto the stone paths and his knees stay pretty beat up as a result. BUT, he loves it and is actually getting to be pretty good at the dribbling. The soccer game last week was a nice diversion – Hayden lasted almost an hour, which might be a record, and Paulina was pretty content for most of that time as well. They had riot police in full gear (see photos) surrounding the visitors’ stands… and there were police everywhere around the stadium in general. It reminded me of an Aggie game – a bunch of guys all yelling in unison – of course, we couldn’t understand a word but some of the tunes were familiar (Oh my Darlin’ Clementine, etc). Anyway, it was fun and I think Hayden is hooked.

Paulina will take 3-4 steps by herself as of yesterday… we had been a little lazy on the PT the last few days so she’d started resisting any standing or walking, wanting just to be carried. We picked it back up on Saturday and by yesterday evening she was very excited about it again and would “walk” back and forth between us. I am trying to break the thumb-sucking… the therapist said this was ok to try. I brought a couple of pacifiers and am trying to get her to use them instead of her thumbs. The damage is probably already done to her teeth – she and all the other kids from her room have calluses on both thumbs and both top and bottom front teeth are separated and make a “v” outward from all the thumb-sucking. It’s a self-soothing mechanism, and given that, she’s actually letting go of it easily. She sort of uses the pacifier, but isn’t completely sold on it. We are up to 3 feedings daily with the spoon (2 sweet, 1 veggie – this one is unpleasant). AND, Tom even got her to hold her bottle last night (sort of, she at least would touch it and leave her hands on it, wouldn’t hold the weight of the bottle with them). She is still very, very easy as far as 1 year olds are concerned.

We have court at either 12 or 12:40pm on Wednesday (we have 1 appt and the Florida family has the other). And will drive immediately thereafter to Warsaw and “move in” to the new apartment. It’s a 2 bedroom (woo hoo!!) with internet IN the apartment. On Thursday we meet with the lawyer and notary to get some docs done before Tom leaves, then US Embassy so Tom can appear before leaving, then grocery shopping because Friday is a national holiday and “everything” will be closed.

We’re going to check into changing Tom’s ticket to depart on Sunday instead. It may be cost-prohibitive at this point, but it would be really helpful. Hayden is doing well, but it will be really hard for him (and me) from the time Tom leaves (5am Saturday morning) until Dad arrives (5pm Sunday afternoon). If we can’t do it, Magda will arrange for a “nurse” to help me with Paulina Saturday and Sunday so Hayden can get out and romp around a bit. We have decided to send him home with Dad on Sept 2 – Dad sacrificed his first class seat on his trip home so Hayden could fly with him – we are so grateful for this. Hayden is doing well all things considered, but is getting homesick and 4 full weeks without his Daddy would be too hard on both of them. So… everyone please send all your good karma and prayers to my dad, Papaw, on the 2nd! It’s his first time flying with a toddler in a number of years. Hayden is pretty good in general on the flights – but we’ve only had overnights until now. The flight home is essentially all day – they leave Warsaw at 6am and have to change planes in Amsterdam, then get home to Houston that afternoon. If he can get Hayden on the KLM flight to Houston, he’s home free! Hayden should crash for at least 4-5 hours after getting up so early.

We miss everyone so much – I wish Maddie and Roxy could read, because we miss them terribly :-) We did get a little puppy therapy yesterday at our local café – an elderly yellow lab was very cooperative and let Hayden love on him for a good 10 minutes (and us too). Hayden then got to play with the neighbor’s bichon frise in our parking lot. So, it was a good night…

Wednesday - Soccer tonight

Well, it’s Wednesday in Czestochowa and all is well. The temps have cooled off a little bit so we’re sleeping a little better. Our daily routine goes something like this…
7-8a Breakfast and lounging with the kids
8-9a daily trip to market for water, juice, milk, etc.
9-10a Tom goes to internet café to work and I play with the kids in the apt
10-1 Walk and do some sort of activity
1-3’ish Nap (Tom usually works and I either nap also or go for a run)
3-4’ish Movie on computer for Hayden, play and exercise for Paulina
4-7’ish Walk, play in park, KFC, run around park (Hayden is now running at a full sprint for 30 minutes at a time in the park. It’s great because he crashes around 9pm and sleeps the whole night, but it’s getting hard to keep up with him!!!!)
7-9p wind down with movie and go to bed.

Repeat daily :-) This morning we attempted to actually tour Jasna Gora, but Hayden and I were wearing shorts and shorts are not allowed. So, we instead explored the many, many souvenir kiosks along the streets surrounding it and picked up a lovely horse and cowboy toy set, circa 1950, for Hayden. It was the best $5 ever spent! He actually rode happily in the stroller all the way back to the apt and continues to play with them on the sofa. I think we’re on to something that might just change our lives. Last night after a really long walk (and 30 minute sprint for Hayden) through the park, we bought him a popsicle and were actually able to sit down and have a beer at one of the outdoor cafes around the corner. Astonishing!!!! Bribery… it’s the best thing ever!! Undoubtedly we won’t receive any “Parent of the Year” awards for this new technique, but we are in survival mode here and must do what works :-)

Here are a few pictures from our walk last night of the park and promenade. We’re going to a local soccer match tonight, taking the train and everything. It should be interesting… we were going to try and go to Krakow for a night or two, but because we don’t officially have custody of Paulina yet, we would have had to use an orphanage driver which was going to cost a small fortune and give us absolutely no flexibility. So, we’ll just make that trip later in our stay J The crowds are already starting to arrive here for the August 15 celebration at Jasna Gora. Every day there are parades of people making the pilgrimage from other parts of the country. I neglected to take the camera this morning, but there were several groups of high school age kids singing with guitars around the church. I’ll take it with me in the morning so we can get some video to post – very interesting…

Glad to hear Edouard (sp?) didn’t do much damage. BBC World gave it 15 seconds of coverage and said only that the storm provided much needed rain to “drought-stricken Texas”… pretty funny.

Well, we’ve made it a week… 1 down, 6 to go J I’ve decided to break the time here down into smaller increments:
9 days until court and move to Warsaw
2 weeks until Papaw arrives
4 weeks until Tracy arrives
I’m hoping this provides some relief from the homesickness…also, we’ve been told that Warsaw will have far more to do… more distractions equal less free time to dwell on home!! We’re still not sure where we’re staying, but there is another family here from Florida adopting a little girl from the same orphanage. They will be staying at the Residence 1898 in Warsaw and it sounds WONDERFUL!! All the comforts of home, plus privileges at the Hyatt pool. That would be a really nice change for Hayden. He misses swimming (and Maddie and Roxy, so he’s stalking every dog we come across… and there are plenty of them!).

So, for as much as I’m whining, Czestochowa is actually not that bad… our apartment is across the street from a wonderful, enormous park where Hayden plays every morning and evening. The park surrounds Jasna Gora, and they are having events almost every evening leading up to the August 15 Pilgrimage… concerts, etc. On Thursday they had a choir and marching band – Hayden was ecstatic, Paulina was a little overwhelmed. It’s hard to remember that so much is new to her, so things like marching bands are probably terrifying. She is such a good baby… she sleeps every night from 9pm – 7 or 8am, naps a good 2-3 hours around noon, very rarely fusses at all and if she does, she just wants to be held. We’ve been using the backpack to carry her around town and it seems to make her quite happy. We can literally walk around for a couple of hours and she just babbles away, no complaints. Hayden on the other hand has started wanting to be carried also… probably a little jealousy, totally understandable, but he’s a Big ‘Un and a little too big to haul around for very long. But as long as he gets a few hours every morning and evening to explore, he’s pretty happy also, especially for a 2 year old!! However, we are rapidly running out of things to do that will entertain the whole clan – there are a few museums that look interesting, but I can only imagine Hayden’s reaction!! Speaking of which, I really, really must know what these Europeans do to have such well-behaved, quiet children. Seriously, they’re all so damn GOOD. Even the other 2 year old boys… they just walk along with their parents, they don’t run yelling into the streets, they sit quietly at the cafes as their parents eat and drink. As if it wasn’t painfully evident already, our little banshee lets everyone within earshot know we’re American!!!! Ugh!

We broke down and ate at KFC last night – it’s at the end of the pedestrian mall, about a 25 minute walk from the apartment. So Hayden played in the playground along the way and then chased pigeons. Then we all ate a well-balanced meal of fried chicken, coleslaw and fries (no biscuits, sniff sniff). Paulina will eat the sweet jar food from a spoon once a day… this is an improvement over no jar food and no spoon at all. They were fed everything via bottle with a giant hole in the nipple. So soup, cereal, whatever, through a bottle. The fact that she’ll let us feed her anything with a spoon already is pretty good. We’re going to work on some of the veggie jar food next… although I can’t really blame her for not wanting it, it’s gross. Maybe we’ll cross that bridge once home in Texas, armed with a high chair.

That’s all for now, here are a couple of photos from the apt. Another note about Hayden... he's completely dependent on the bottle again - undoubtedly because he's seeing Paulina with it, so we're just indulging him while we're here. This is a lot for a 2 year old to handle, so if he needs the bottle, the bottle he gets. We keep forgetting to take the camera on the evening walks but will try to take some photos tonight of the park and pedestrian mall… it’s pretty neat.

Saturday in Czestochowa

So, I just spent the last 20 minutes typing 2 pages worth of updates, describing every moment of the last week, taking full advantage of my first minutes online in a LONG time, and somehow managed to erase every bit of it. !#$%^&**

Here's the condensed version, moved to apt on thursday after being in limbo from Monday-Thursday. We essentially got custody of Paulina thursday afternoon... with VERY little, actually NO ceremony. Originally the orphanage director, Bernadetta, was supposed to bring paulina to the apt Thursday afternoon... but Magda called and told me to take a cab alone to the orphanage and pick her up. So I did, one of the caregivers drove us back to the apt and dropped us and a Pack & Play at the front door. I think she said "bye". Paulina has been a trooper, pretty much as long as you hold her, she doesn't cry at all :-) However, after 2 days and 2 nights, she is starting to explore the living room and kitchen on her own, crawling over every square inch. She did this once yesterday evening for 20 minutes or so, and a couple of times today. She naps from 11-1 and sleeps 9pm - 6:30am, pretty much without waking. After spending more time with her, we think she is closer to 4-5 months delayed, but she is a sweetheart, and is slowly starting to smile a little bit and giggle (with a LOT of effort on our part).

Apt is very nice, new, but on the 4th floor (no elevator) and no A/C... since it's reaching almost 90 degrees daily... the afternoons are a bit steamy :-) But we're adjusting - we're directly across from an enormous park that surrounds Jasna Gora - TONS of room for Hayden to play and explore. He and Tom are troopers and are taking everything in stride. I am getting pretty homesick at the idea of having to stay another 6 weeks, but Tom tells me this usually goes away after the 2nd week... we'll see... I do now understand why no one here has a weight problem. You pretty much wall your as* off!!!! And no one but us seems to eat. Talk about feeling like a lazy American, but in all honesty, Europe is kicking my butt :-)

Here is a video of Hayden playing with his baby sister for the 1st time. And one of me at the orphanage on Tuesday... Please excuse our goofiness and the condition of the apartment. We're sort of operating in "do or die" mode, with no attention to grooming our housekeeping, actually, that's kind of nice :-) This is so much more of an emotional roller coaster than we could have anticipated. The experience in and of itself is filled with so many highs and lows, but add the language barrier, a foreign country, and nothing familiar, it's pretty tough. Don't want to sound like too much of a wimp... the time here will start to pass more quickly as we establish a routine, but it's more than we expected. Hugs from Hayden and holding Paulina seem to take the edge off, but it will be really, really good to get home. We miss everyone and thank you again, so much, for all your encouraging words and emails. Love, K

WOW!

What a difference 24 hours makes... after a long journey, lost luggage, an interminable afternoon and evening, a 10'x10' hotel room, and a late night trip to the Polish equivalent of Costco for a change of clothes for me (Tom's luggage made it, the bags with my stuff, Hayden's stuff and Paulina's stuff didn't!)... we got a good 10 hours of sleep and finally met Paulina. She is beautiful and so sweet. I'm not exactly sure how to describe seeing her for the first time, and can undoubtedly not even approach conveying it in words... but it was amazing, lots of happy tears and hugs. Hayden gave her a hug and kiss, a couple of times, he was super!

We spent most of the morning with her, playing in their "therapy" room, which was a large room with lots of gym mats and LOTS of toys, including a tricycle which was great for Hayden. We held her most of the time and she took a short nap on Tom's lap. She was super quiet and seemed wary at first, but VERY observant. When she woke up, I think she decided we were ok, she relaxed a lot and started babbling a lot and playing with the toys. She can crawl like a champ and wants to walk everywhere... she can't quite do it alone yet, but with even a few weeks practice she'll give Hayden a run for the money :-)

Nap time at the orphanage is 12-3, so we went back to the hotel to let Hayden sleep also. He has been a champ, by the way. When everyone woke up, we returned to spend the rest of the afternoon with Paulina. We stayed outside this time and she perked up even more. Hayden started running laps around the yard and she wanted to join… she can’t walk on her own yet but is VERY determined when you hold her hands.

We are unfortunately in a hotel right now, and the director at the orphanage will not allow her to go home with us until we’re in an apartment, understandable. So, Magda is working on it – hopefully we’ll be settled by tomorrow afternoon and she will come to stay with us on Wednesday. Fingers are crossed – it was really hard to leave her twice today… she cried, and we cried, it’s just tough to leave…

Going to try and sleep now – more later in the week. This silly blog thing is timing out when I try to upload photos so hopefully I can find a land line and get some on tomorrow...

FINALLY!

OK, 22 hours and counting :-) At least until our flight leaves... Hayden just left with Mamaw and Papaw to spend the night so Tom & I could pack and get everything ready to go. We're also going to have dinner at Pappasito's since it will be awhile until we see Mexican food again!!

We arrive in Warsaw around noon on Sunday. Magda, our facilitator there, will pick us up and we'll drive the 2 or so hours to Czestochowa. We may have to stay in a hotel for the first few days... hoping not, but sounds like there may be an issue with the apartment until August 1. Not perfect, but in the grand scheme of this journey, no big deal! On Monday, we meet the regional adoption officials first thing in the morning - my understanding is that this is essentially the first hearing in the adoption process. We then meet the director of the orphanage, and then finally, Paulina. If all goes well, we could get custody as early as Monday!!

Hopefully our next post will be less of me rambling about preparation and more good stuff!!!!

are we there yet?

So, Lina called today with tough news. There was a personnel change at the adoption center in the region where Paulina is located. They have a new director and she is not available for our current dates, and the adoption cannot proceed without her. So... we're delayed about 2 1/2 weeks. New schedule is:

7/27 arrive in Poland
8/12 1st court date
9/13 travel home with Paulina

It was horribly disappointing at first, but after having the afternoon to process it, and after successfully rebooking all the tickets, it doesn't seem so bad. Actually, the schedule is easier - it is less time total for Hayden and I away from home, and it allows more time to get the paperwork done after the 21 day waiting period. It's also 2 1/1 weeks more to learn Polish :-)

Thanks to everyone for all the support...

More details

OK, we now have tickets to Poland, I can cross that off the list. We're all leaving on 7/9, Tom is returning to Houston on 8/3, hopefully if everything goes as planned we'll all return on 8/30. We'll be staying in an apartment at the orphanage in Czestochowa 7/10 - at least 8/2. Depending on the size of the place, etc. we may move to Warsaw after that.

We'd been talking to Hayden about getting a little or big brother or sister since we started the application process last year. But since we received the referral, I'd been kicking into high gear and showing him Paulina's picture as much as possible and telling him he's getting a little sister. I'm 99% sure he didn't get it - but this morning, I said, "you're getting a little sister like Rosie, on Caillou" - and the light came on!!! I KNEW Caillou would eventually be good for something!!!!

Nine days????

Hi everyone! Well we got the call yesterday afternoon telling us we had to be in Poland on July 10 to meet Paulina on July 11. WHAT????? We're traveling in nine days???? So I haven't slept much since receiving the referral on June 17, but I may as well forget about it now (or magically produce a whole lot of Ambien).

I'm now frantically on craigslist trying to find another crib, little girl bedding, etc., etc.. Paulina is currently living in an orphanage in Czestochowa, Poland. This is south of Warsaw and is considered the most beautiful part of the country. It's mountainous with lots of picturesque little towns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cz%C4%99stochowa , http://www.krakow-info.com/czestoch.htm

So, logistics! Tom, Hayden, and I will depart July 9 - arrive Warsaw July 10 and travel by car tot he Czestochowa. Paulina is living in an orphanage there - we'll meet her on July 11 and the bonding period will officially begin on July 14. Hopefully the judge will allow us to have custody sometime that week, otherwise, we will visit her as much as possible daily at the orphanage. Our first court date is July 31. After that, Tom can come home. Hayden, Paulina and I have to remain in Poland until August 29 to get the final adoption decree in Czestochowa and then the US visa in Warsaw. We'll get an apartment in Czestochowa 7/11 - 8/1, and then 8/2 - 8/30 in Warsaw. I was fortunate enough to find a family in Round Rock who just completed their Polish adoption in January of this year, and they have been a HUGE help on the logistics part and understanding what to expect daily. It has been an enormous comfort just meeting someone who has done this before us. Because the program in Poland is so small, there aren't a lot of online resources or support, so it's been a little tough finding information...

So, that's all I have for now - we still have to book tickets and all that good stuff... if anyone is going to be in Europe this summer, hop on a train and come visit us :-) We're going to try to update this at least weekly while we're there.

PS - we're taking the house in Houston off the market and putting off the construction on the new house. ENTIRELY too much going on to go there right now!!! I am hugely relieved.