Tonight A Taste of Russia

We had dinner at a new restaurant that just opened in December in Cool Springs called "A Taste of Russia".  We tried all the traditional dishes...borsch, pelmini (looked like tortellini, tasted like a wonton), potato piroshki (I thought it would be similar to a potato pierogi but it was more like a Michigan pasty with the baked crust), cheese blintzes and chicken Kiev.  We even ventured out and tried Kvas, which is a yeasty, non-carbonated drink served at room temperature that tastes like a combination of dark beer and tea but is actually made from fermented bread.  It kind of grew on me by the time I got to the bottom of the glass.  We enjoyed it and will be back again to try new items.  I had read on some other blog that all the food in Russia is always served with a sprinkling of dill and this restaurant was no different.

The Room

We've got Thomas's room ready for him.  I was really happy that we were able to re-purpose so much stuff from elsewhere in the house. We bought the crib, the play carpet and the curtains. John painted the rocking chair, the bookcase and the small shelf.  The small armoire used to hold all my sewing supplies, it was originally designed as a jewelry armoire but its the perfect size to hold little boy clothes. The bookcase is a family piece as my grandmother had it as a young girl, my mother used it and I had it in my bedroom growing up to hold my books.  John did a really good job of stripping off the 1970's green paint and re-painting.  

We added some new drawer pulls and the bookcase looks pretty modern for being on its 4th generation.

New Year-New Blog

With the start of a new year, I have decided to chronicle our experience in adopting a toddler from Russia.  To get you up to date, we decided on a Russian adoption in May of 2008, we spent June starting the homestudy process with Catholic Charities of Middle Tennessee and choosing an international agency Catholic Social Services of North Carolina (CSS).  In July, we started collecting paperwork for both the homestudy and the Russian dossier.  In August, we completed everything and got all of the documents notarized, certified by the county and then apostilled by the state of Tennessee.  Everything was sent over to Russia and we quickly got a referral for a wonderful  little boy that we decided to name Thomas.  We awaited travel dates to go meet him and we waited.  Halloween came and went, then Thanksgiving passed us by. Then in December, we heard bad news that we had lost the referral due to a Russian database issue and that our referral had never been placed on it, so he was not available for International adoption.  The holidays are now over, and with the new year we are starting over.   We await a new referral and a new adventure for 2009.