HOME SWEET HOME!

Hi, Everyone! We made it home safe and sound on Christmas Eve at 11:45pm. It was a very long day of travel, 24 hours in total, and Luke was a very tired little boy. The Moscow to New York flight was horrendous to be completely honest. Luke was so overstimulated and he just couldn't settled down or sleep. He cried a lot (well, let's be honest again, he screamed at the top of his lungs while crying). Finally, after 9 hours on the flight a Russian man behind us offered to talk to him and Luke's native language was the thing that calmed him enough to go to sleep. We had to wake him up when the plane landed, one should never wake a sleeping baby, right? We cleared customs in a breeze and when we thanked the customs agent he said 'hey this is America, this is the way we do things!' We agree, this is truly the greatest country on earth.
We had a 3 1/2 hour lay over and we did a lot of praying, and asked our friends and family to pray, that Luke would get some much needed rest on the flight to St Louis and God delivered. Luke slept the whole flight and only cried when Papa changed his pull-up and his clothes before we landed.
We came off the plane to a huge group of famiy and friends with American flags, balloons and gifts--it was amazing! Luke did great, visiting with his cousins and friends while we grabbed everyone for hugs through tears. He slept the whole drive to our house and when we got to our home the driveway was lined with luminaries and there was a Christmas tree in the window! We walked in to a winter wonderland--presents under the tree, the table was set, food in the fridge and pantry, stockings on the fireplace stuffed with goodies and the fireplace loaded up and ready to go! The Page Turners, my bookclub did the decorating and presents, thanks girls! Our families had bags of food and drinks here at the house, and some presents for Luke under the tree, too, and our friends at the airport had our car packed with cookies, drinks and a big fruit basket! Our dear friend Jennifer cooridnated all the comings and goings at home and Billy and Jessica put a new deep freezer in the garage complete with meals for the coming weeks--thank you dear friends!
We cannot even describe how wonderful it felt to come home to all the comforts our friends and families had provided! We walked through our house with tears of joy. We told Luke in Russian, you are home, baby and he kept saying doma, home! He walked in his bedroom and exclaimed oooooo! He is a very, very happy little boy and we couldn't be any happier than as his parents. Thank you God.

Pictures As Promised ;-)

Here are some new photos of our Christmas blessing. Parenthood is everything we dreamed it could be and much, much more. Even routine things have such special meaning as we get to experience each first with our little boy.
This first one on the left is one of Andre giveing us a blessing as a family at the Chelyabinsk airport.

On the right is Luke's first naptime with us at our hotel room in Chelyabinsk and on the left he is loving looking out the window and watching the birds we fed on our balcony.

Here he is watching his first Baby Einsteins Video before nap. The photo on the right is during one of his favorite times of the day with us, bathtime!

We're Famous in Moscow :-)

Hello, family and friends! We made it to Moscow with our little boy in tow. We had 13 people see us off at the Chelyabinsk airport, it was so great. Kirill's parents brought Luke a remote controlled machina (car) that lights up and does flips and he thought that was the cat's meow! It was so nice of all our friends to come see us off. Pastor Andre prayed a blessing on Luke, Mark and I in Russian, it was a beautiful moment for us as a family.
Our flight was delayed about 1 1/2 hours, so by the time we got on the plane Luke was already very tired. As we boarded Luke walked quickly down the isle talking about the machina we were on and Mark and I were behind him. The stewardess saw him coming and bent down and held out her arms to him and Luke realized that Mama and Papa were not in front of him--we saw him really cry for the first time. He turned around and reached for Mark and when he picked him up all was well again in his world. The stewardess felt so bad so she gave him 3 chocolates and Luke said Spaciba! (thank you) and all was forgotten----until we only let him eat one instead of all three, he wasn't too happy about that. After about a hour of playing with the safety information card (look out Cousin Tom he may be on your flight someday to check out your plane's safety features!) he finally fell asleep.
When we got into Moscow he was very excited to ride in Vladamir's machina and talked about it all the way to the hotel. He loved seeing all the big Christmas trees along the way. We got settled at our hotel at midnight, a very nice Mariott, and then had to be up again at 6 to go for his medical appointment. Then we dropped off our paperwork for the US Embassy interview tomorrow afternoon.
Now for the famous part! We walked to a grocery store a block away to get out and pick up a few things and a couple walked by and said 'the Robb family?' and we said yes! They are the Park family and they are headed to Krasnoyarsk to meet their child for the first time. They are with our agency and have been following our blog. Please pray that they will have safe travel and divine bonding with their child. We're praying for you Sara & Jeremy!
Next I overheard someone speaking English at the front desk and I said, 'are you an American?' and he said yes! So we started talking and I told him we are headed home after two months in Russia and he said 'oh, we heard about you!' They are with our agency, as well, and have a beautiful 1 year old boy named Gavin. They are all headed home on Saturday, just in time for Christmas, as well. Who would have thought we would be well-known in Moscow :-)
We will post some photos tomorrow, we are so tired and just put Luke down to bed--a very tired little man, as well.
By the way, several of you have expressed interest in helping the Chelyabinsk church purchase windows and we have asked Pastor Andre to give us wire transfer instructions so we can wire the money dontaed directly to him at the church. We will post our home number and email address when we get the information from. Thank you God for sending these faithful givers!

My Cup Runneth Over

We have our boy! Praise God! We picked him up yesterday around 3:30 and he couldn't wait to change his clothes and leave with Mama and Papa. He was so good on the way back to Chelyabinsk, he didn't like the seat belt, but he handled it remarkably well.

We got to the hotel and fed him his first meal--he had instant potatoes, a boiled egg, 1/2 an apple and a glass of milk. Then our friends came to see us and we had a pizza party, he was quite a ham!! Kirill and Naia brought him some balloons and he loved them! He played and played with Manning and Abagail Goldman.

After the party we gave him his first bath and he loved it. He splashed around like every three year old does. Then it was off to bed, he did, great wimpering a little at first, until I figured out that he needed to use his potty. After that we walked back to bed and he sucked his thumb and went to sleep next to us. He slept through the night, tossing and turning a lot but never waking up scared. He woke up this morning and looked at Mark and said PAPA! and smiled really big--it was precious. I asked him in Russia do you want to eat and he said DA! So his first breakfast he had porridge with bananas (Thanks, Lynn!), an apple and a big glass of milk. Today Mark will go to the passport office to submit his paperwork and Luke and I will stay here. Then we will check out of our hotel and go pick up the passport when it is ready and head to the airport to fly back to Moscow! Yipee! We'll post again from Moscow tomorrow.

Pree-vee-ett Mama!

This is a video of how Luke greets us when we get to the orphanage to see him, what a blessed family we are! Pree-vee-ett means hi in Russian. It is such a joy to see that he is so excited to see us and waiting for us to arrive. He was very excited about some new balloons in the playroom and couldn't wait to show them to us.




The second video is a greeting from Pastor Andre, someone that has been so incredibly good to us and a true joy to spend time with. We filmed this video on the coldest day yet and it shows the open spaces that they are raising money to fill with new windows. We would love to see this prayer fulfilled as it would make the completion of construction go much faster once the windows are in. We have asked Pastor Andre for a way to send money to help with this large expense and we know God will rain blessings on them for the work that they are doing here. If you are interested in buying a window please ask us how.
The last photos are for you, Moe and Angela, a true Russian tea party hosted by Kara at her home yesterday! I finally got to have my tea party, just in a different part of thr world. We had Russian teas, cookies, homemade pumpkin pie & banana bread (from Kara's Kitchen), Russian chocolates called Bird's Milk and tangerines (compliments of Lena).
We will pick up Luke tomorrow, praise God! We'll post some new photos of our first night as a united family tomorrow night.

Celebrate Good Times!

We have had much to celebrate and be thankful for this week. First, we got to see Family 1 off to Moscow from the airport. Pastor Andre prayed a blessing over Mocksim (Alek), Scott and Lynn. It was a special moment to see this family complete and on their way to Moscow to finalize their adoption at the US Embassy.

Second, the Bergstrom family had a successful court appearance yesterday! Praise God!! They are now in their 10 day wait and will get to pick up their son on Christmas Day, what a Christmas present!

Last night we had Celebration Dinner- Part 3 at the Dragon Chinese restaurant. After about 15 minutes of trying to read the Russian menu we managed to order a great meal. We had fried rice, pelmenie (fried Russian dumplings), beef stir fry, calamari, chicken soup and sushi--and lots of Pepsi.

We were supposed to visit Luke today, but our court rep didn't call the director until last night and she said they are very busy today and cannot accept us. So we will visit tomorrow instead. We are getting ready to go see the new church that is under construction with Pastor Alexi and Pastor Andre and then we are going to Kirill and Nadia's for a home cooked meal.

We'll post more soon---stay tuned!

When in Rome....

Saturday we participated in a Russian Banya, we blogged about what we anticipated it would be, so let me make a few clarifications, corrections and additions. There were 12 of us that participated, we started out by going to a private room which has a big recreation area, a sauna room, a shower/bucket area, a changing room, and a bathroom. We changed in to shorts and then went in to the sauna--the hottest sauna I have ever been in. There are 3 tiers, the higher up you sit the hotter it gets, so we were staying on the bottom tier. After working up a good sweat we went out to the shower/bucket area and you pull a chain and the bucket dumps ice cold water on your head, to cool you down! Then you run back to the sauna to warm back up. Then someone comes in and beats you with Banya branches (oops not a banya tree!), which are actually Birch tree branches.

We took lots of breaks and ate a bunch of great snacks in the rec room (fruit, chips, soda, chocolate, Kvoss {Russian drink}, and cookies).

Sunday we met with our translator to give her paperwork for Lukes visa and passport, yipee! Then we went to the Goldman's for dinner. Their friends from church came over and the husband, Igor, made homemade borscht--yummy!

Unfortuntately, I (Danette) caught a cold over here. We visited Kostya today, he was expecting us, so I tried to stay back and let Papa do all the feeding, playing and hugging! No small feat! We are going to wait to visit again 'til Thursday, so hopefully I will get well by then--and not pass it to Mark.

Enjoy the photos from our last few days--keep the comments coming we love them!

First Car Ride

Today we had our first car ride with Luke, it was a very special moment for us as parents. Kirill drove us, along with his group leader, to the passport photo office in Troitsk (about a 25 minute drive from his orphanage). He was such a big boy, he let me set him on the chair and he smiled for the photo, but the man taking the picture said don't smile! Then we got to take him on a little walk while the photos were developed. He held my hand, walked right along with us and looked at the snow with us, such a good boy.

We got back to the orphanage at the time our visit is supposed to end, but they let us stay an extra hour so we could play. We had brought two tangerines and some juice and forgot his cookies at the hotel. He ate both tangerines as fast as I could peel them and then ran over to the backpack and jumped up and down, looking for more to eat! Papa to the rescue--he had Kirill zip him over to a little kiosk store and bought a whole bag full of goodies. Luke grabbed it from him when he walked in with it and started tearing in to the bag of crackers and tea cookies. He ate and ate! Mark bought us a snack, too, and he asked him to bring it to me and he said MAMA! here!!

We left at 1pm so he could take a nap and we made our way back to town just in time to rest and get ready to go see the Nutcracker ballet with 'the gang'. It was beautiful and the girls really enjoyed it, the boys....well....let's just say they made it through!

Tomorrow we will take part in a special Russian bonding experience. It's called a Banya and you go with friends and sit in a sauna and then you either roll in the snow or plunge in to a cold pool. Then they lightly smack you (seems like a contradiction in terms, huh?) with Banya tree branches. There are lots of snacks and drinks and it is supposed to be a really good time. We'll post some photos of it tomorrow when we get back. Til later, have a great day, we're headed to bed :-)

Beautiful Snowy Day

It was a beautiful snowy day here yesterday, lots of snow and very, very cold at least -10 even though the forecast said 4! We went to visit Luke and he was a very active 3 year old, eating everything and into everything :-)
He certainly likes to ham it up for the camera now.

He will also look in the mirror and say Kostya eee (and) Mama eee Papa!

Mark reads his Curious George book to him and he says GEEOORRGGG! and smacks the photos of the monkey with a stuffed monkey he has in his hand!

Mark took some really great photos on the way there, the scenery was just breathtaking. We also took some photos of some our favorite cottages in his town.

This one was taken just outside his orphanage in front of the tree where we took our Christmas picture last year.

On the way back we stopped in the forest and Kirill took some photos of us.

These last photos are of the trip home, the trees absolutely glistened in the sunshine, and the churches in the snow were so beautiful.

Today we had a wonderful day of rest and tonight we are going out for a celebration dinner with the Platters and Kirill and Nadia to an Italian restaurant.

Tomorrow it's off to see our boy! Love to all!

It's Official!

We had a successful court appearance! Our son is offically Luke Konstantin Richard Robb, praise the Lord!! We will now do the 10 day in country wait. We will spend a week in Moscow and will fly home to the states on December 24th, Christmas Eve--we can't think of a better day to be home. We get in to St Louis around 9pm, we'd love to see some friendly faces when Luke touches US soil and becomes a US citizen.
Thank you all so much for all the prayers for our family during our extended court time.
We love you.
The Robbs, now Mark, Danette & Luke

Court Continued

We answered questions for two hours at court today, and all things considered it went very well. Unfortunately, a paper we had notarized and given to our court rep a few days ago got lost, so they continued court until tomorrow when we can bring a new copy. We went to the notary and got the new copy as soon as we left the court house, so we are prepared to bring it in the morning at 9am. At that time the judge should issue his final decree.
Our orphanage director and our inspector both spoke with favor of us and how well we have bonded with Luke. The director said that she talked with him and asked him if he knew that we are his parents and he said 'yes, I love Mama & Papa.'
While we had hoped to complete court in one appearance we are so thankful that God gave us the words to answer the questions and that He has brought us this far.
We will post again tomorrow as soon as we can.

The Lord is Enough

While we are waiting for our court time at 2pm today we think about and rely on passages from scipture. Here are some we are strengthened by if you all want to read them along with us.
1 Peter 5:6-10
Phillipans 4:6-7

No matter what the out come of our court appearance today we KNOW it is God's will, and we praise Him for it.

We realized a long time ago this was not just about our family but this jorney has been about many other Christians growing in their faith thru watching these trials and tribulations. We can not thank you enough for your kind words and your prayers. They have meant a lot to us over the last 3 years. I hope in the end, no matter the outcome you all will continue your walk with the Lord and grow everyday. Remeber today is His will and there is a reason why we are here and you are following this so intently. I wish I could say it is because of the desires of our heart that brought us here but more and more we realize we had nothing to do with this. We are used as an arrow from His quiver to deliver His message. Even though this path has been very trying, it has been nothing short of miraculous in our lives and we cannot begin to thank the Lord enough for this window of opportinity we have been granted to glorify His name. While going thru this I am reminded of a a phrase our Jewish friend told us once......" Lord This is Enough" meaning if the outcome is not as we desire then Lord this has been enough. It was enough to lead us out of Egypt, it was enough to part the Red Sea and if nothing else is done, this has been enough to sustain our trust in the Lord. Even though our traditional Jewish friend and us have two different beliefs, I still like that phrase and I think about it often.......Oh and by the way Dan, Jesus lives....I tought you would like that!

Day of Prayer & Preperation

We are spending today in prayer and preperation for our court appearance tomorrow. We are now having our appearance at 2pm local time (3am Missouri time). We think this is because our translator teaches on Monday mornings.

This morning I got to go with the girls for a spa day and it was a really nice treat. We got pedicures and massages, a great preperation for my mind and body!

When I came back to the hotel I quizzed Mark with anticipated court questions as he had been studying while I was gone. He will quiz me one more time before we turn in for an early night.

Here are our prayer requests for tomorrow:

Favor with the Judge

Successful court proceeding completed in one appearance

For God to give us wisdom and the words to answer the Judge's questions confidently

To be Kostya's forever family

Our friends Scott & Lynn, Kara & Dwayne, and Pastor Andre will be gathering together to pray for us during our court time-we are overwhelmed at their love and support.

Thank you all for your prayers for this special day for our family.