The Cluttered Pantry

Two toddlin’ girls now the proud owners of US Immigration stamps and paperwork are currently running circles in the hotel room to blow off all that pent up energy we stored up while at the embassy.
We’ve hit a pretty good grove, managed naps and meals and traversed some pretty nasty results of mistakingly thinking that [...]

Wow…and we mean WOW!
The six hour flight lasted seven and a half hours with a delay on the ground then multiple circles around Moscow before finally…finally…finally landing to much applause by the passengers of the plane.
All in all, we did really well. Mark experienced his first diaper change at 30k feet and it was [...]

Tuesday night in Chita, our last night in town. The day was great, with super last visits with the kids. As we grownups are becoming antsy and a bit impatient to get the show on the road, we sense the same feeling in the Henderson girls too—-like, if zhanna could communicate in English, today [...]

A wonderful wonderful day!
Playing with our daughters…little voices practicing words in English…little mighty hands throwing a ball so far that we think we might have a future solution for the whitesox bullpen if they can get over that whole “throws like a girl” myth…trying on little crocs on tiny feet (which lead to spending our [...]

Sunday today, mostly sunny, but the sun comes up late, stays low, then departs early—throws the bodyclock off….that, and the waiting. For what? Well tho the adoption happened on Friday, the kids are all still staying at the orphanage, and we can’t see them on the weekend—no visiting during weekends. That means we’re all [...]

It’s official. Zhanna Natalya and Elena Catherine are officially Henderson’s
The very very very nice judge, with no objection from the district attorney nor from the representatives of the Ministry of Education has waived the ten day wait!!!!
We are waiting for Sean and Sandy to finish their court appearance and then we are off to [...]

What a whirlwind of a day! We awoke in moscow Wednesday morn and ventured into the gray skies towards the mall. Some walking, some shopping, some caffiene, then back to hotel for late checkout, $8 cokes with complimentary second-hand thick cigar smoke, then out into the bumper-car experience that is moscow rush hour [...]

So, the delay turned out to be a problem with the wing which after many yellow vested mechanics came and banged around on It was fixed to the satisfaction of our pilot (who kept going outside to check on the progress in person.).
In the end the magic tail winds wisked us through the sky over [...]

Hmmm. If youvlook at the two flight path Fotos you’ll see that we still haven’t taken off. Same number if miles left to go but local time has shifted a bit.
It doesn’t seem to be a good sign when dudes come outside on the gangway to watch the repairs. But, we will say [...]

We’re off! On our way to the airport on a rainy rainy Chicago day.
The men made of dirt are putting the finishing touches on the master bath (no more closet sized shower to bump our elbows in!)
Bobbi’s mother has brought a big bag of yarn and the most adorable winnie the pooh she made [...]

Six days until we fly off to go get the girls, the list of things to do is silly long and we are super busy with the business.
To keep the stress levels down we’ve resorted to playing with all the new toys, I think the dogs will actually be grateful to have the girls here [...]

So, the final touches are being put in place for the playroom and nursery. The light fixtures came in today and are now illuminating the space perfectly, so no more action required from the men made of dirt.  I spent the afternoon placing decals on the walls to create little fun scenes for the [...]

16 days until we fly out to Moscow. It’s raining cats and dogs here in Chicago, so the combination of being stuck indoors and what I can only describe as some sort of nesting instinct has led to a case of house scrubbing the likes of which this big home has never seen.
As I crawled [...]

You say it’s your birthday? Well it’s my Birthday too! (man that song will be stuck in my head for the rest if the day.)
What a joyous day. Today, Jordan proves that it is possible to survive being a teenager and celebrated his 19th birthday! Our long standing tradition of [...]