Josh and Sammy

Sammy FINALLY, after almost four persistent years of trying, got Josh to really play with him today. Here's the fun:

My two favorite guys making cookies. Josh reallly loved that.



Vika got a rocking caterpillar from a friend of Josh. It plays music when it rocks. Vika was enjoying her rocking when Josh decided to come "help." She liked that even better. For some reason the boy walks on water for her. He can do no wrong. She follows him from room to room and tries to do everything he does. It's pretty cute.


Here's Josh "helping" again. This time with Vika's Crash 'N Go Raceway. She was quite happy to play with one car and let Josh play with the raceway while she watched.

Josh Week

We're having a grand time getting ready for Christmas. My little guy may explode if he has to wait one more day for jolly old St. Nick. He asks about 20 times every day how many days until Christmas. Here he is all dressed up for his holiday program for school. I was so proud of him. He presented a poem and had a solo to sing. He did fabulous. Unfortunately we have no good photos of the event itself as it took Curt and I both to manage Vika and watch the show. I managed a few photos from my seat but they're very dark and grainy.

His shirt says Big Brother. He's taking his role very seriously.


Josh and I went to a birthday party last week for a friend of his. We played all morning on inflatables. It was so fun.

Christmas Tree

We went to the Christmas tree lot this week to get our tree. Josh had a fabulous time and adopted a small branch to be his very own. He brought it home and gave it sunshine and water. Then he placed it carefully on an end table for decoration. I'm afraid to move it. : )

Random Photos From Our Week

Vika is a happy little girl.....as long as you don't make her wait for her food.



It snowed this week in Cincinnati. Curt and Josh had lots of fun clearing the deck with the remote control blade.


What is it about laundry baskets that kids love? Josh introduced it to his sister this week and it was a big hit.


Look mom! Take my picture. Ummm, okay.

Medical Update

Vika has spent a lot of time in doctors offices lately. She had her 6 hour initial evaluation with Children's Hospital, her audiology evaluation, a follow up with Children's, then yesterday her first visit with our family physician. Overall she's doing very well. No giardia or intestinal issues at all. Children's evaluates 3 stool samples taken 48-72 hours apart so we're pretty sure we're good there. She also passed her hearing test with flying colors. All her tests came back good and her titers confirmed her immunization record. Poor thing did have to have 6 shots yesterday though as we immunize for many more things than Russia does. Nonetheless, she'll have one more round of shots at 18 months, then she's done until she's 5. Yay. She's very cranky and out of sorts today so we're having a lot of snuggle time and extra milk and hugs. It's been a very long day.

Cheerios

Do I not learn? I thought the Cheerios were well out of reach but the little dervish got them and dumped them before I could react. Then the dogs piled on - SNACKS!!! What's a good mom to do but grab the camera and post it to the blog? The dogs are now following her (and her empty Cheerios box) all around. I'm so thankful I have such calm and gentle dogs. At one point Sammy was actually nudging her a bit to get to the yummies under her tush. At least the floor is clean again. Sort of.

Update

There's so much to share this week. Vika is walking. Really, truly walking. Like a biped! She's doing so great. As you'll see in two of the photos below she has also become quite adept at climbing into chairs. She learned this week that chairs are really just bigger steps than stairs - which she's also climbing with abandon. As for her integration into the family, she thinks Josh can do no wrong. She follows him around like a puppy and doesn't protest much when he takes things from her (his parents protest a lot!). This sharing thing is hard! Nonetheless, other than the expected "mine!" battles, they're getting along very well and I'm very impressed that I actually got a few photos of them together to share. I should also note that we discovered this week that Vika loves Indian food. She absolutely devoured my spinach and my chicken tikka masala. I like it very mild so no worries there, but I was pretty surprised that she was so insistent to try it. I gave her a bite and her eyes lit up big as saucers and the shrieking began. It was hard to keep her little mouth full. Full mouth = quiet. The kid can eat a lot too! Next time I may have to order extra. : )

Josh's Birthday

Josh turned 4 yesterday! We celebrated with a spiderman cake, balloons, and presents.




We also took the time to go over his accomplishments when he was 3! He:
- learned to ride a bike
- sat through his first movie
- rode on a private plane
- traveled first class on a plane
- met many cousins
- had lots of quality time with Granny
- learned to play on a big swingset
- rode many adult roller coasters
- had his first dentist appointment
- learned to use the potty - consistently!
- started a new school
- graduated to a booster seat for the car
- learned to play many games on the computer
- was gifted with his very own remote control for the DVD in the car
- learned to be a fabulous big brother

We can only hope that being 4 will be as good! Happy Birthday Josh!

Update

All is well at the Jamison household. A bit chaotic but in a good way. We have so much news to share. First, Vika and Josh are getting along quite well. Not perfect, but much better than I had feared. Here he is helping her to figure out the air vent in our hallway.


Josh has decided that babies are very cute - when they're sleeping. Otherwise they're just too loud! I have to agree. The girl can shriek! He asked for and received a doll so he can be a good daddy to a quieter baby. He's been fairly diligent about feeding her and putting her to bed when Curt or I do the same for Vika. It's very sweet.




More big news is that Vika took her first real steps yesterday. She was looking at a piece of paper and just took off toward me without thinking about it. Her eyes lit up with glee and there was no stopping her. Here she is going from our train table to her playpen. Pretty cool! I knew it wouldn't take her long.

Tazmanian Devil

We're exhausted. Exhausted! This little tazmanian devil never stops. And she has no filter for danger so we're on constant alert. We've learned to close doors to limit the space she has to explore and we're remembering now that Josh wasn't always so good about leaving things alone when we told him to. Here's the little devil changing all our hard earned settings on the german washing machine.

Funny how you forget. My OB told me that women were programmed to forget childbirth. He said if we weren't our entire species would go extinct in a generation. What he failed to mention is that we're programmed to forget all the painful stuff. For example, I have a vague recollection that we couldn't keep socks on Josh. I think we solved that issue by dressing him in onsies until he was almost two. Funny but true.

Now we have the same issue with Vika. She loves to remove socks. We put her shoes on - they come off too. We've tried distraction, a stern "no!" and everything else we can think of, yet everytime we look at her she's done it again. I wouldn't care at home but the floors of this apartment are filthy. Really, if my floors with a 3 year old, 2 dogs and 2 cats are cleaner than this, you know it's bad, right?

I'm also thinking alot about our transition home. Vika has been through a lot in the last two weeks. We've taken her from the only home she's ever known and taken her to the hotel in Kaluga, then the apartment in Moscow. Now in just two days (YES!!!!) we get to take her through about 22 hours of travel to get home. I'm dreading this trip in a big way. Vika is very affectionate as long as she can dole out the love on her terms. She hates to be constrained. Even getting her to stay in a high chair long enough for her parents to inhale egg mcmuffins is a stretch. She's a free spirit and wants to stay that way. Holding her in our laps for this flight may be a nightmare. At least we're flying business class so that should help. I keep thinking that if we can just keep her constrained for take off we can take turns walking her about the cabin. We can walk for 11 hours for the first flight, right?

Embassy Visa Interview

Today we had our Embassy visa interview. It went well and Vika was granted her visa to leave the country. It was pretty interesting to see all the families and all the babies and children being adopted. It was nice to be able to talk to them and swap stories. Vika got pretty cranky with the waiting. She has a very low tolerance for boredom and a high streak of independence and strong will and she decided she'd had enough. She should fit right in but Curt and I are bracing for impact.

Photos

Tonight we risked our very first restaurant meal since we picked up Vika. She did pretty good. We ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe. Food was terrible but they were playing Elvis and Vika rocked out to it. She was literally dancing in her high chair. She also really liked the balloon and coloring book. Sorry the photo is so dark. The flash photos are too washed out.




Who needs entertainment when there's a washing machine? I remember Josh used to do this too and it was just as funny!





Yesterday we finally gave in to one of the street artists on Old Arbat and had him do a charcoal drawing of Vika. It's really good and probably will be one of our most treasured souvenirs. Now we have to figure out how to do one of Josh and have them both framed. Maybe Rashida too? Click on this photo to enlarge it and see how adorable she is here. Quick! Look fast - it doesn't last long. : )

Embassy Physical

We had a busy day today. We got up early and went for Vika's embassy physical. She has to have this to get a visa to leave the country. She did great - showed the doctor and everyone in the building that her lungs are very developed! The doctor told us to buy a shotgun to keep the boys away (huh?) and to not pick her up when she cries or we'll create a drama queen. I almost fell over laughing as I understand from blog stalking that both of these sayings are part of his routine and many many parents hear the same thing. He didn't say she had flat feet - that's the other thing that most parents seem to hear. He gave us a sealed envelope for the Embassy, charged us just over $100, and we were on our way in about 10 minutes.

After the physical we went to the US Embassy to submit our paperwork. It was accepted and we have an appointment for 2pm tomorrow for her exit interview. The Embassy should issue her visa on the spot. There is definitely a benefit to having a child in Russia. When we entered there was a long line to go through security screening. The security guard took us straight to the front of the line and let us through. Nice.

To end our morning we went back to the most fabulous grocery store in the area and re-stocked our provisions. We even found microwave popcorn! Only half of it popped (I'm not sure our microwave gets hot enough) but it was heaven. We're loving the Russian adventure and food but we're following all the typical safe food practices and only eating hot, cooked food or processed, packaged food (bread, cookies, etc). I'm dying for an apple - or fresh veggies. Of course here it might cost $5 for that apple. I'm not sure if it's a function of Moscow, or of the particular grocery store we're shopping at, but my goodness things are expensive. A small tray of 3 tomatoes was more than $10. We didn't buy it as it's fresh food that isn't peeled, but still. Ouch. A mocha (mokka) at starbucks is $8, a very small jar of maple syrup was $20, and a 1/4 gallon (roughly) of ice cream was $12. It's still cheaper than eating out, but wow.

Night Night Reality

I've received a great many emails about how lucky we are that Vika sleeps so easily so I thought I should probably confess that the minute Curt put her down the howling started. She was sound asleep, but the radar turns on when she loses body contact and she shrieks like she's possessed. I'm very conflicted about bedtime. With Josh we followed a modified attachment parenting style. He wasn't attached to my hip full-time, but we didn't let him cry much either. We were very attentive to his needs. I believe strongly that you can't spoil a baby and that they generally cry because some need isn't being met. When they're older that's another story altogether. My conflict comes in that we seem to make things worse when we attend to Vika's cries at nap or bedtime. The attachment parent in me wants to address her every whimper, but the very tired, jet lagged parent knows that if she cries for 1-2 minutes and I leave her alone, she'll go back to sleep. And I desperately need sleep. So does she. I also know if I pick her up, pat her back, or acknowledge her in any way it'll be at least 30 minutes to calm her down again. So....the issue is building attachment versus practicality. Feel free to weigh in. I'm listening.

Night Night

All bathed and ready for bed:

Two minutes later:

More Russian Adventure Musings

I've been thinking lately about what it must be like to be illiterate. We pretty much are - here at least. That's a hard thing for two over educated people like Curt and I. It's hard to not be able to read signs and figure out whether an establishment is an office, store, or restaurant. We really don't want to just blunder into a place only to find out that it's a private office. In the US stores are pretty easy to identify. They usually have large windows with displays and inviting front doors. In Kaluga display windows are pretty rare. It's not that the buildings have no windows, they're just small and high - no good for displays. They're also often covered. It gets cold here and windows wouldn't help to keep the place warm. The doors to stores are typically very large metal doors like you would find in a warehouse - with many locks. It would never occur to me that I could walk through those doors without a guide to show me. They're quite intimidating. There was a very large 4-story mall just a block from our hotel in Kaluga and we just found it during our second trip. We must have passed this building 20 times but never noticed that it was a store. And it's a great mall with good food too.

Even the official government offices are the same. In Kaluga, to get to the passport office you enter through a side door in a dark alley. That's the official entrance. The same was true for the registrar's office to get Vika's birth certificate. I would have never found that door. It's sort of like the concept of a front entry is unknown.

The same is mostly true of our apartment in Moscow. We're right on Old Arbat, but we're at the back of the building. There's no door that opens to the street - just the back alley. And there are locked gates between buildings so we can't get to the street that way either. So we have to go through our back alley and around the block to get 20 feet from where we sleep. Funny. When we do go around we end up right at Starbucks and across from My My's so we really are right in the heart of things. It's just an odd way to get there. Our apartment building has an entry, then the apartment itself has two front doors. The first is a big metal security door that locks with a key. The second is an interior wood door with a deadbolt. It makes me crazy that we're literally locked in. We'd be doomed in a fire, running around trying to find the key to get out. If we succeeded, it's just as hard to get out of the building. It took us probably 5 minutes to find a tiny little button you have to push to unlock the door to get out. And it doesn't always work. Even when I knew where it was it still took a few minutes of pressing this button continuously before it would let me out of the building. Still, it's either this or a dour security person on duty. I think I'll take the door. Here's a picture of our apartment entrance (although it could easily be a store). It's the one in the middle.

Another Russian oddity is heat. The buildings we've been in have been heated to be way uncomfortably hot. Each room, however, has a small window that you open however much you want to adjust the temperature to your comfort. Seems like it would be easier to turn the heat off or down but we have no controls. I don't know if this system is everywhere, but it was like this in Kaluga, in our first apartment on our first trip, and in our apartment now. Three points is a trend, right? I'm not sure about Moscow but in Kaluga they have central heat. There, however, "central" means that it's generated at a common plant in town and piped to all the houses. That's why there's no individual control.

Hello Moscow

We made it to Moscow yesterday and checked in at the office. Our Moscow representatives, Svetlana and Irena, were so very happy to get to meet Vika. Actually the entire office filed through to meet her. Everyone is so supportive and helpful we feel blessed to be with this agency. We also met our driver/guide last night. He took us to an amazing grocery store that is very nearby. This store is so far from our experience in Kaluga that it's like being on another planet. I am very glad we had the Kaluga experience to see how most Russians live, but I have to admit I'm delighted to be back in the land of Starbucks and gourmet groceries. We found pizza with prosciutto, fresh hummus, roast chickens, and fresh bread in every flavor. And that was in a 6 minute shopping trip. I imagine we'll be back. Last night was just for emergency rations as our little eating machine had eaten through most of her baby food at an alarming clip and needed more.

As for our accomodations, we planned ahead and rented a great apartment in Moscow, but given our last minute change of plans (leaving Kaluga 4 days early), and the fact that it wasn't available early, we had to either find a different place to stay for our first two days in Moscow or change apartments entirely and stay in one place. We opted for the latter. Our new place isn't nearly as nice, but it's spacious and it has location, location, location. We're right on Old Arbat, the main pedestrian street with oodles of shopping, restaurants, vendors, etc. It should be a fun place to be. We haven't been out yet because Vika isn't feeling well.

She was a bit lethargic last night but had missed most of both naps due to travel so I wasn't terribly surprised. While at the grocery store I gave in and bought some apple juice. She was delighted and drank an entire diluted bottle greedily. Then threw up all over me. Joys of parenting, eh? Today she's a bit feverish but reacting well to infant Tylenol. Thank goodness for overpacking for contingencies. There were a few very important items I forgot, but overall we did pretty well.

For other families traveling soon my biggest advice regarding items to bring are ziplock bags - bring an entire box of gallon size. You'll need them. We use them for everything - storage of food, bread, liquids in suitcases, wet washclothes, etc. Also bring washcloths. It's pretty hard to clean a baby without them. We brought two and it's not enough. Also be sure to make up a medical kit with common baby needs including Tylenol and Mylicon. You'll be so glad you did when you don't have to use an internet translator to figure out dosages. Also, and I can't stress this enough, get and fill a prescription for elimite cream. It's so much better to have it and not need it than to find out it's not available in Russia with or without a prescription.

One surprise in our apartment is that our washer is a German model, with all instructions in German. The apartment manager couldn't help us with how to use it so again we turned to our friend the internet and painstakingly translated the available word on the panel. I think we have it figured out now. Of course we're only doing emergency laundry as there is no dryer and drying clothes on the drying rack leaves them crunchy. I hate that.

I'm sure there's more but I can't think of it at the moment. We're still terribly tired and a bit brain numb. Jet lag kicks butt. Add a sick baby to the mix and no one sleeps.

Snowsuit

I'd like to send a very large thank you to my bloggy friend Amy, who sent me a beautiful pink snowsuit for Vika. When you pick up a child here you're pretty much required to do so in a snowsuit if it's under 70 degrees F. I wish I were kidding. Nonetheless, it's pretty cold here this week. Not freezing, but in the 40s with a brisk wind. We find ourselves under constant scrutiny from the older women here. They look at us, look at Vika all bundled up like a snow bunny and nod approvingly.
.
We made the mistake one day of going out with her in her snowsuit, but we kept her shoes on rather than the snowsuit booties that attach to the suit. When she sat in the stroller about 1/16" of her bare leg showed and you would have thought the world was coming to an end. There was an all out search for a blanket and we weren't allowed to move on until she was properly covered. Lesson learned. Fully covered baby in public. Got it.
.
That being said, Russians are very tolerant and indulgent with babies. At least that's our experience thus far. Even at McDonalds the staff rushed to get a high chair and to open the door for the stroller. It's really nice and we feel very welcome with her everywhere. People with babies are also expected to go to the front of long lines. Also nice.

Friday

We had another good night. Again Vika woke at 5am and again I picked her up and put her in bed with us. She grabbed her blankie and snuggled right in. She woke again at 8am. Bliss. I don't get to sleep till 8am at home - ever. Her first nap went great, but we're trying to get her down now for her afternoon nap and its not going so well. I'm torn between wanting to attend to her every need and knowing I'm setting up a pattern of manipulation that I won't sustain long-term. I don't know what the answer is, but for now we'll give her whatever she needs. I just need to keep remembering that no matter how well she's doing, she's a 14-month old baby who just left everything she's ever known.

.

We found a fabuous place to eat today. I can't tell you the name but they had a sign on the door promising an english menu so we went in. They couldn't find the menu but did have someone there who could tell us what they had. It's sort of the Russian equivalent of fast food and we could get it to go! That's pretty unusual here. They have no concept of "to-go." Anyway, the restaurant makes filled pancakes - blintzes really. I had chicken salad and Curt had ham salad. They put the meat into the pancake, roll it up and grill it. Yum! We also ordered apple pancakes. They put fresh minced apple with cinnamon and sugar into a pancake and grilled it. Oh my goodness. Double yum. Even better? No Dill!!!

.

Vika is eating well, and the girl can eat! She downed 2.5 jars of baby food for lunch today. She probably would have eaten more but I just can't believe she can eat so much. I did offer her a few cheerios again and today she took them. Just a few, but it's a start. She also had tiny pieces of muffin for breakfast. Again, not much, but it's the first solid food she's had so we need to start small.

.

A few photos of our day - this one shows that she's truly our daughter. She's obsessed with our computers, cameras, ipod, blackberry, etc. She can't get enough.

Her favorite activity is dismantling our food shelf. It makes her very happy to take everything down, then empty every box. For some reason oatmeal is particularly satisfying to empty the package.

.

Her other favorite thing to do is to watch herself in the mirror. She'll sit still for 2 to 3 minutes. A miracle.

A bloggy and CSS friend asked me for the children's tea recipe I talked about below. Unfortunately it's just a mix you buy in the store. It's called.....wait for it......children's tea. : ) They do have various flavors. We bought camomile, thinking that it should be particularly gentle. It comes in a canister and is formulated in very easily mixed granules. That's it for today. Tomorrow we go get Vika's passport - prayers are welcome that it will be ready when promised. Then we go to Moscow! Yay!

Vika had a good night and slept well - at least until 5am when she woke up screaming. I picked her up and was surprised that she was amenable to rocking and snuggling. I got her calmed down, sat her in the bed between Curt and I and handed her her blanket. She promptly grabbed it and snuggled down between us. She dozed on and off until 7am when I could finally justify getting out of bed. Nap time was still a challenge but she did finally take both a morning and an afternoon nap. Here's a photo of her in full joy mode. I love it when that happens.

This evening we decided to take our chances and walk to McDonalds. It's about a 20 minute stroll at a good pace and we thought Vika might love a good walk in the stroller. She did, but that was completely eclipsed by her discovery of french fries. Wow. The kid loves french fries. This is amazing because before tonight we couldn't get her to eat solid food at all. She munches pureed baby food just fine and eats a lot, but put a cheerio in her mouth, or a Gerber puff, and well, did I mention before about the shrieking? And yet tonight she ate several french fries and some hamburger meat. I tore off tiny bites from my sandwich and she munched that right down too.

Now we just need to figure out what she'll drink. She's having no part of formula or milk. She'll drink some children's tea* but not much. I'm holding out on juice on principle. I just don't think small children need it. Of course I might rethink that philosophy soon.

* In Russia the children drink tea formulated for them. It's an instant drink that they drink in their bottle. We bought camomile but need to remember to ask our translator for the dilution mix. We don't know how much tea or water to use so we're guessing at this point, according to our taste.

Random Musings

Dill. I've had enough of it to last a lifetime. I've never minded dill. It's not my very favorite but I use it on fish and in stews. I've had enough though. Dill seems to be to Russians what green peas are to the English. It was a running joke for us in London that everything had peas on or in it, but at least peas are relatively easy to remove if you don't like them. Maybe it's just Kaluga - I can't be sure as we only spent a few days in Moscow on our first trip and didn't stay there at all on our second. I can't escape it. It's everywhere. I ordered french fries yesterday. Yep - they came sprinkled with dill. Our pizza had it as a vegetable in large quantities yet didn't mention anywhere on our menu that dill would be a prominant ingredient. I ordered a hot pot of roast pork, potatoes and roast vegetables. It was green with dill. It was even prominent in a ham omelet I ordered. If there's one Russian phrase you should learn if you travel here it's definitely "hold the dill please."

Vika - We Got Her!!!!

Without further ado, and before I get any more "hate mail" I would like to introduce Eva Victoria, or Vika as we will call her. Getting a clear picture of this little whirlwind is quite a challenge. I'll keep trying.

We received fabulous news today. We made it back to the passport agency and were able to submit Vika's passport paperwork. Even better, it will be done this Saturday at 11am. So we'll be able to go to Moscow 4 days early. Yay! Next Monday and Tuesday are Russian holidays so we're dead in the water for a long weekend, but we should be able to get her physical and submit her paperwork to the US Embassy on Wednesday, have our exit interview and get her visa to leave the country on Thursday, register her with the Russian Embassy on Friday, and we're done. We've already checked with Delta. There is no availability to change our flight to Saturday, but we can move to Sunday!!!! I'm so excited to be coming home early. Josh is in very wonderful hands but it's killing me to be separated from him.

.

Today was a challenge. This very bright and clever girl is also very inquisitive and never stops moving and checking out her surroundings. She's also very independent, and extremely strong willed. I'm very glad we have some experience with this age or we might think that she's possessed. She has a shriek that goes through my soul and will let it loose at the slightest provocation. Can't put her fingers in the outlets? Shriek! Not allowed to bang on mommy's computer? It's all over but the shrieking. You see where this is going. I think this one will need lots of love and firm boundaries.

.

We did possibly learn one thing today. We put her down for a nap. Shriek!!! When it was bedtime I just put her in her crib sitting up and left the room. She grabbed her blankie, laid down and went to sleep. I left the door open so she could see me working. That seemed to do the trick. No drama. Let's see if it works tomorrow - that's the real question.

Adoption Update

We are now in Kaluga but it took awhile to get here. We got about 3 hours into the flight and turned back to JFK due to low hydraulic pressure. Good thing we did as the pilot told us later than when he shut the plane down it lost all fluid. That would be pretty hard to fix in Russia, leaving a plane stranded, not to mention another plane full of people. Delta got us another plane and crew (and a $200 voucher each for the inconvenience) and we took off again 8 hours late.

Our driver and guide were waiting for us when we arrived in Moscow. We were pretty worried about that given that we were so very late. We braved Moscow traffic and passed two accidents with fatalities on our 3 hour drive to Kaluga. We got checked in just fine and found that although the nice suites with kitchens are not available, we do have a two room suite with a living room and separate bedroom. We went out and bought a cheap microwave ($85) and we should have the necessities for hotel camping. We brought a lot of dry food with us this time and supplemented it with a trip to a great grocery store just a few blocks away.

We got to visit Vika twice on Monday. She's doing great. Not walking yet, but very eager to do so. I anticipate it being a matter of weeks before she joins the bipeds of the world. On Tuesday we went to the baby store to stock up on baby food and supplies to keep us busy while we waited for our court decree to be ready. Apparently we can't just go get it on the appointed day. Our facilitator goes to the court and camps out until the judge does all her morning business and waits until she gets a chance to sign the document. We didn't get it until 2:30pm.

We made a mad dash to the registrar's office for Vika's birth certificate and official adoption papers, got everything signed and got out in about 20 minutes. Then we dashed to the passport office where we were given number 57 (31 was the current number being served) and told that just one passport officer was working that day. At 5:20 a staff member came out to tell everyone waiting that they would take just two more applications that day - numbers 56 and 57! YAY! We were in! Our joy was short lived though when no one in that office knew how to process a foreign adoption passport. The director of the office was called in and he rejected our paperwork citing the need for one additional stamp that our facilitator had never needed before.

We'll try again tomorrow for the stamp and to submit the paperwork. The inability to submit the passport paperwork bodes ill for being able to leave early, but that's why we built extra days into our schedule. I'm so glad we did. At this point we're still pretty composed and able to deal with all the surprises.

We'll also be able to pick Vika up in the afternoon. We could get her in the morning, but somehow going straight to wait in line with her at the passport office doesn't sound like much fun. When we finally get our paperwork submitted, we wait - probably for 7 days. Then we head to Moscow for more out-processing. I'll be sure to let everyone know how tomorrow goes. I hope I can finally post a photo too.

Angie

Fun Day Outside

Gratuitous photos of my cute kid. : )