HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT!!

today is Scott's birthday!! Have happy day honey!! I was so thinking Max would be here to help me celebrate!!

No news on a court date....yet....

Modern Techology takes pictures of new baby only hours old to send to other family members who could not be there.  

Chuck and Granddad Doug 

Jennifer and Gabrielle

Today we welcomed Gabrielle Skye Gettig

to the world. At 3:20pm Sunday August 21, 2005 Chuck and Jennifer had a baby girl! She weighted in at 6.9 and 19 3/4 inches long. She is a beautiful baby and everyone is doing well!

August 17th update

Today is Max's 11th month birthday. I had a weight on him and he is still under 15 pounds. Such a tiny little thing. He did gain a half of a pound and grew maybe alittle over an inch.
His head cm and his chest is growing too but he is still rather tiny for his age. I keep reminding myself he was a small 36 week newborn at 4.6 lbs. He should be a few pounds heavier even with that diagnosis so I am concerned and want to get him home to follow up his medicals.

The judge told our coordinator on Tuesday that he has registered all the paperwork and Valdimir is to wait for a letter or a phone call now and he should not bother the judge again. Not good news again here folks. It was very depressing to hear this this week. We so wanted to get a date so we could travel soon. We also heard the judge takes vacation till the end of September! That was very bad news! We still are unsure when he leaves for his vacation so I have a tiny little bit of hope he might say come next week, but I doubt it. So it might be October before we go back.

We are in the process of updating our homestudy as it expires on Sept 14th. It is not much to do but again will cost us. Thank god Diane said she would accept the medical form I had completed by the PCP before. That was the good news for the week. I would hate to go back there and deal with them again. I still need to find a new one. That is such a pain in the butt.

Here is our new (to us) 93 Nissan Pathfinder. We needed to trade Scotts old Rodeo baby in....it did us good for about 6 years but it was time to say goodbye. So what do think of our new to us suv? My first thought was it is very blue. I was uncertain of the color however the good thing about it is I can find it very easily in the parking lot. I kinda like that.

Okay for those who remember my picture from Italy where I said I wasn't smiling because you could see my braces. I wanted to show an update of my smile. I got my braces off last week on the top and I am thrilled with my smile!! The bottoms come off in about 2 months so it wasn't all that bad now that I look back!  

August 11th update

It has been 6 weeks since we have been home from our first trip and meeting Max. We were hoping to have a court date by now.

The climate in Russia is still very bad. Since I posted the horrible news of the death of the little two year old, there has been another couple charged with starving their 7.5 year old son to death.
He died in January and after a 6 month investigation they arrested the couple last Friday. This was again bad news. It is hard to believe that things like this happen all over the world but they do. Again the parents said this boy had digestive problems and cystic fibrosis and he was fed. So it will be jury who decides what is the truth. It hinders the adoption front greatly.
Once again I can understand both sides. Still thousands of children die in the hands of their parents in Russia every year as well as in the orphanages and the media doesn't get a hold of that story.

Meanwhile we wait...Max will be 11 months old on August 17th. We were hoping to have him home by his 11 month birthday but that does not look like it is going to happen. The sad truth is he is laying in his crib most of the day doing nothing. Not knowing his life is going to get better someday soon.

Our coordinator went on his scheduled appointment to talk with the judge last week only to get turned away and told to come back next week. So we wait again for another week to hear if we need other paperwork or we get a court date. Let hope it is the latter of the two and next week we will know a date we can return for Max. In the meantime I am going to update our homestudy paperwork which will expire on September 14th. Too close for comfort for me.
We have heard through the grapevine that the judge goes on vacation the end of August. Not good news for us. My only hope at this time is he sees our coordinator next week and schedules our court date for the first of Sept on his return. That is my prayer at this time.
I have asked if it is possible to get an update on Max. I would like to know his is gaining weight and thriving. I asked for an update photo of him so I could see how he is doing. I was told that they would ask if this can done. We will see.

August 4th update

Yesterday Vladimir saw the judge but could not go over our paperwork because he is still waiting for the last of it from our agency. Probably the POA they forgot or the last doctors medical license, I don't know. The judge did see the paperwork of the other couple who went with us to Yaroslavl. They need two more documents.

Valdimir is scheduled to go back and see the judge on August 9th to go over our paperwork.

We hope to hear then when our court date is or if we need any other paperwork. I pray we don't!