Moscow

We were awake on and off most the night so when the alarm rang we were ready. Got a call from JJ to make sure we were up and ready to leave… we were getting there. Got Genya up and dressed (when it was still night as he reported) and Andrew in the taxi arrived almost on time! It was a little hard saying goodbye but not too much! We somehow had overweight luggage – and that was even without weighing our carry-ons! So Brian went off to pay that charge (took a bunch of our rubles to pay it!) and we were on the way through passport control.

The flight left on time and was very LONG but very comfortable. We wish we would have flown Aeroflot before! Genya was given a little gift bag upon boarding and loved the orange baseball cap the best – wore it the rest of the day! Genya was a good flyer if a bit antsy. Never dozed a second but turned the reading lights and air fans on off/on off about 10,000 times at least. Also had to go to the toilet every 45-minutes. We were in the bulkhead seats so it was a LONG walk to the back of the plane! We got served a "dinner" meal around 7am IRK time so that was the start of our weird eating schedule today.

The plane landed safely and on time in Moscow and we were met by Vladimer, the same driver who has met us before. We met up with Philip (coordinator) after being in a HUGE traffic jam for a long time. Genya had fallen asleep for a bit on the way even tho he denied it (we have pictures)! Within minutes of being in the car Philip took all our paperwork and reviewed it in the car. (Brian was impressed by the multi-tasking!) We went to get Genya's pix taken as we needed it for some purpose and then went to the medical doctor for Genya's exam. It was quite short and he reviewed his medical history and signed the form we need for the embassy. We paid this in rubles also so that wiped out our "big bills" so had to stop at a ATM a little later to replenish! While there Philip asked if they had seen the new biometric passport yet and they said "no, this is the first one"… hmm – Philip hadn't seen one yet either he said. He's also suspicious of the whole procedure and some of the things that happened but nothing we can do about that now!

We then went to the Marriott to check in and got our room assigned. We signed some of the forms that Philip will be presenting to the embassy on our behalf tomorrow. Genya was drinking some water at the time and for some reason felt obligated to tell Philip "mama drinks peeve" (in Russian but I understood it) – Philip laughed, said now it starts! It was about noon Moscow time by now. After settling in quickly to our room we went to find something to eat – we were hungry! We walked towards Red Square and found a McDonalds – yep, we ate there! Brian and I had Big Mac's and fries and Genya had a hamburger happy meal. We enjoyed it all.

We then continued walking and found ourselves at Red Square and St. Basil's Cathedral. It was a bright sunny day so it was wonderful to look at. We snapped some of the obligatory pictures and continued our walk. We were heading back to the hotel now tho as it is quite a long ways to where we were. Good thing we trained Genya for walking in Irkutsk! He did pretty well considering! Got carried by Brian a few times but not too many.

We stopped at the grocery store up the street for a few basics (soda/juice) and found salsa and chips so that will be our dinner tonight. Genya is having a banana, maybe two. He hasn't eaten much today and is all off schedule. In the car from the airport he did throw up two times! Not bad (wasn't stinky or anything, mostly water) but messy enough – had an extra shirt in my carry-on as I was prepared if it would have happened on the plane… So put that shirt on and within 5-minutes threw up on that one. That one stayed on the rest of the day tho LOL

We were just settling down for the evening (5:00pm local time) and had given Genya his bath (big, deep bathtub!) when the phone rang. It was Philip and he said he was just reviewing the documents and Nathan's middle name is missing in English on his passport. I said I noticed that, along with the last name being spelled differently than ours (one less N), but I was told it's the Russian that matters – Philip said the Embassy might not agree as they're being extremely picky and might tell us to get the passport redone. He said this was no one's fault, especially not ours, and will argue about it tomorrow. So today's prayers will be that there not be a problem for the US Government to accept this passport that we waited SO LONG to get! (What gets me is that the RUSSIANS accepted it and would let him go anywhere with it but the USA might not accept another country's official document? What if someone did that to an American? Maybe I'm thinking too hard on this tho).Philip said I should still contact the travel agent to arrange us flights out on Saturday so he must feel somewhat confident. I asked if our contact inside the embassy would be any help and he said that that man is not the decision maker anymore (due to transfer of responsibilities from the Dept of State to USCIS (immigration)). But he again sounded ok, if not overly confident, that things would be fine. Me, as with everything with this adoption, once it's done then I'll feel confident! Said something about going without a middle name if needed or saying his middle name doesn't really matter – it is THERE but only in RUSSIAN, not ENGLISH) but my brain was faded already by that part of the conversation. This news on top of lack of sleep and jet lag is not a good thing!

Genya was quite wound up but is really sleepy too – he looks so wiped out! I hope he stays awake a little longer and then sleeps awhile into the morning! We'll be getting a call between 10-11am local time saying how the embassy interview went. Not sure of any other plans for tomorrow yet.

(Genya did fall asleep when I went to the computer)

This is a shorter report of a very busy day (we crammed more into the past 18-hours than we had done in the last few weeks but I'm a little tired and have to go yet to the public computer to post this and contact the travel agent also. And we didn't find any Corned Beef and Cabbage so we'll have to wait for that when we get home! We did find a Mexican restaurant tho that had its sign written in English!

Our phone number here is:

007-495-258-30-00 – we're in room 512 (they speak English when the answer the phone, or at least when you talk in English) – we are now 9 (nine) hours ahead of you!

So this will be how you reach us:

1-800-367-9241

150-763-2808

011-7-(4952) 58-30-00#

Pictures will have to wait for awhile as we're on a public computer and I'm too tired tonight tho so will try either when I[m up in the wee hours or tomorrow day!