Ninth – and final! – Sunday in Siberia

Now it may not be our final one in Russia depending on how things fall in line this week but at least we'll be closer to home by this time next week!

I didn't realize until we started getting comments that I had forgotten to go back and title the blog (so mom, you're right!). I might put one in yet!

I thought I had explained why we have to go to Moscow but maybe not so I'll do again for those of you wondering. And if I have any of this wrong, someone who has been through it can correct! Right now Nathan Genya is still a Russia citizen – adopted by American citizens, yes – but still a 100% Russian citizen so he cannot enter the USA without our government granting that right. (like we had to get visas to come to Russia). We will be getting his Russian international passport to leave the country. It will be in his new name – Nathan Eugeny Ninmann. In Moscow first we need to get clearance from the US Embassy to bring him into the United States. This is a two day process (generally, but could extend an extra day if complications, what complications I don't know but usually it is two days). There we will get the visa put into his Russian passport so he can enter the United States with us. After that is done the next day we will be registering him with the Russian Consulate in Moscow. This is a requirement our agency has, that it gets done while we're still in Moscow. By law you have to register them within a certain number of weeks (not sure what that is) but if we have it done while we're still here it is done – we don't have to worry about it when we're first home and still sleep deprived. I believe that takes one day. Then we can leave for the USA the day after that happens. When we land in Chicago with him he becomes a US citizen based on our citizenship – but he'll still have his Russian citizenship also…He'll have dual citizenship. We will re-adopt him in Dodge County sometime this year so we can get him an American birth certificate and Social Security number but the adoption in Russia is still final and binding. He will continue to have his Russian passport – if he travels to anywhere in the world except Russia will use his USA passport (that we'll have to get him sometime) but if he goes to Russia he travels on his Russian passport. A way of them keeping control I guess, don't really know…

Once we have our travel plans out of IRK I'll be contacting our contact person in Moscow to find out about timeline there and then I'll contact our travel agent in New York and we'll get our flights home booked. While in Moscow we will be staying at a Marriott hotel so we'll be able to sleep in "real beds" and sit on "real couches" and have some English TV – as well as free internet on a public computer. We'll also be messed up sleep-wise so probably will be napping some also! And we also will be able to do some sightseeing and shopping – and eat at McDonalds and drink at Starbucks! I know, I've said that before! We are purposely not letting Genya have a restaurant hamburger until McD's (not MacCafe's here in IRK) so he doesn't get scared off them! LOL

Speaking of messed up sleep – last night Genya woke up in the middle of the night and came into our room. He climbed into our bed between us without saying anything and soon fell asleep. He later became a big wiggly/kicking so Brian moved him back to his bed where he stayed until morning (7:30am) – we again had our "usual morning". I took what I hope to be my final bath. I love the tub here – it's so deep – but usually take showers except on the weekends. So prayerfully this will be my last "bath opportunity" in IRK (might do one at the Marriott yet – was re-reading my journal from past trips where I commented on the nice tubs there). Lunch for the boys were hot dogs, pickles, apple and chips… I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Shortly after that we headed outside. It is warm here again today – probably mid 30's F so there is MUD and WATER EVERYWHERE!

We started out walking down to the riverfront and Genya threw some coins into the river from the bridge. We then headed the same street we had done about 6-weeks ago (when it was probably 60-degrees colder) and it was slightly mucky. But then we had to turn onto a street we hadn't been on before and it was AWEFUL! See pictures – but maybe that doesn't show it enough. I told Genya to remember this walk the rest of his life! LOL We finally got up to Lenin St and took a rest by the Stadium. Genya had a "banana break". After that we went to the supermarket to pick up items for dinner and then went to feed the birds again. A nice, cheap, bribe to keep Genya walking! No birds on heads today but eating out of their hands again! Kathy F, there was a gal there today who could have been your sister – blond, tall, skinny, dressed perfectly – we both thought of you! And she didn't have any birds on her or her daughter's heads!!

We then started the walk back to the apartment – I had bought another microwave popcorn to make once we were home – this time with "cheese". It actually tasted okay! We put Toy Story 1 into the DVD player and played it in Russian – figure this will help Genya understand the plot of the movie better when we play it in English again. He really seems to like these Toy Story movies. He has never fallen asleep for us in the middle of the day – sleeps well at night once he goes to sleep (sometimes that takes awhile – 3 or 4 potty breaks, something else to show us, etc). So we're wondering if he's going to sleep on the airplanes at all or not? The time he came closest to sleeping during the day was in Steve J's car coming back from their house last week Saturday!

I again washed Genya's jacket and snow pants – they've taken a beating the last few days! Glad I didn't do it yesterday! Today he fell down a few times, walked thru the water and mud and walked into a few street garbage cans!

Dinner tonight was salad and pizza (frozen "Fiesta" ones) – I had to guess at the toppings! Turns out I'M not a good guesser – one was "meat" that I had figured out – the other turned out to be salmon and something else… good thing Genya thought that was good LOL! He ate two pieces of that and gave up his meat one to me! He claims he might want more tomorrow – we'll see, I saved it in case.

Andrew called while I was giving Genya his bath – Brian talked to him (Brian thinks he might be slightly afraid of him now since Brian yelled at him last week!) Anyway we are to meet him at the passport office at 10am tomorrow – it's only like 6-blocks from here so we'll walk. Then we'll go to the airline office which is probably another 6-8 blocks away. For some reason he thought we had tickets – Brian said "no, we have to buy some!".

We watched "CARS" a final time tonight before it gets packed away in the suitcase – quiz question… the mini-van that passes Mack early in the movie – what happens to it at the truck stop??