Friends and Family,
We thought we should put a little in about our first trip to meet Nikolay. For some of you this may be review so feel free to skip this. Be sure to add your comments on the bottom this page. Hit the comments button.

On May 4th, WACAP called and said there may be a possibility of us traveling in May. We were very excited but knew not to get our hopes up. They called the he next day and said there was a possibility we may go in a week or two and to keep our phones handy all weekend. The call came the next morning saying we were leaving in 6 days. Stacy was in the middle of the mall in Mankato with my dear friend Robin and our daughters. Both Robin and Stacy were crying and then of course we realized we needed to go shopping!! Doug and Collin were fishing but thank heavens for cell phones. There was only 6 days to get ready.

the Daubs flew out Friday morning and got into Moscow on Saturday without luggage. It was finally found on Sunday as we flew to Novosibirsk. We thought it was gone again after waiting almost 2 hours. The luggage was taken to the bag office for some reason but hey at least we have it. Flying on Russian airlines is somewhat interesting but we won't go into that. Sunday we went sightseeing in Moscow with another adopting couple from the same agency. Moscow sure has changed since the last time we were here. It is very westernized. They have TGIFS and Dunkin Donuts among other things. The hotel was very nice. Sunday night at 10:30pm we flew out to where we are now. We got in at (5am Novosibirsk time which is exactly 12 hours difference from Minnesota)in on Monday morning. . We spent the morning resting and then met with local adoption coordinator. They told us about Nikolay. The picture they painted was very scary. We were expecting a mentally retarded child who was very sickly. We almost packed up and headed home. When we got to the orphanage, it was a whole different story. In came this little guy, full of life and spirit. His main delay is in speech. He had cleft palate surgery which has caused his not to speak very well. He can make some sounds and words but understands everything you say to him. They assured us with speech therapy and one on one attention, he will be talking in no time. There is over 70 children in this orphanage and they do not have time to give him much attention. We found a way to communicate with him and he can certainly get his ideas across. At first he was shy but pretty soon he was playing ball and doing puzzles with us. He loves puzzles. There was one puzzle that was complicated...ok Stacy couldn't even put it together but Koy-la (how his name in pronounced) worked and worked at it and got it together. He was fascinated with our camera and had to check out the screen everytime we took a picture. As for size, he is wearing 2t and 3ts. He almost 4 1/2 years old.
It is so amazing to look at a little face and know that God meant for him to be you little boy.

On Tuesday, when we saw him, he was more active and began to show off to his new Mama and Papa. He is somewhat of a ham and has many facial expressions. As for his cleft, you can hardly tell. We met with the doctors today and they said he is delayed but has promise. We got to see him two times a day for five days. Each visit is so precious as we try to learn as much as we can about Mr. Nick.

We want to thanks everyone who sent us emails while we were over there. It made us not so homesick. At times we feel so isolated from the world. Doug and I spent most of our free time taking naps, reading or playing cards and watching Russian MTV. There are ice cream stands everywhere so every night we would go for our treat.

Mr Nick would wear us out because he is all boy. He loves to play ball and run. He also likes whatever is in my bag. After the first visit, he figured that there was some cool stuff in the bag that I carry (small toys and snacks). For the first few visits he would shake our hands and keep one eye on the bag. On the last morning visit he just went for the bag and ignored us. I told him to shake our hands first and he made a face at me. Part of me was shocked but the other part of me thought it was funny. The staff are very strict as I said before. They did not want to tell him that we are his new mama and papa. He thought we were his guests. On the last visit , an government official who was there to verify that we spent time with him, told him that were his parents. Nick just stared at us. Within a few moments he wanted Stacy's attention and called her "Mama". Stacy of course, true to form, started crying with joy. Before we left we asked him if he wanted us to be his Mama and Dada and he said yes and just looked into our faces with such a grown up look. We explained that we had to leave him to get his house ready. As we were leaving we both felt such heartbreak. Alls we can do is pray that he does not forget us and that the wait be short to see him.

As for the big question, when do we go back. The answer is we are not sure. There are issues that our agency is dealing with that could slow down the wait. Stacy feels that it will be sometime this summer yet but who knows. We have been busy getting things for him and getting the room ready. He will share a room with Collin and we redid it in a racing theme. We will update this blog once we know.

For those who ask us about giving donations to the orphanage, we are asking for small things like kid's socks. tooth brushes, vitamins and children's tylenol and combs. If you have anything, let us know.

Have a great week!
The Daubs