Brrrrr....

We went out to do some adventuring around Moscow this morning and it was cold! Not the best weather to be walking around aimlessly in a city of 10 million people. We are back at the hotel now for a break.

Here is Teddi in GUM, an upscale mall in Red Square. This building was built in the late 1800's and has been used primarily as "trading rows" or shops. It was used briefly by the soviet union as office space and was used to display the body of the wife of Stalin after her suicide in 1932.

A closer picture of Teddi at St. Basil's cathedral.

Back to Moscow

Today we woke up and spent the morning stolling around the town in our region, buying souvenirs, and taking some pictures. While leaving a cafe we think that a gypsy woman put some sort of curse on Teddi. Don't know what she was saying, but she was looking into her eyes and rubbing her sleeve. Only time will tell. Here is Teddi with the lady in the souvenir shop. She was very nice and spoke pretty good english. The other is a picture of me with our hotel in the background.

We left for Moscow at 11:00 a.m. local time. After 3 hrs, we arrived safely at our hotel, key word being safely. We cannot believe the traffic here. They take 3 lane roads and fit 5 cars wide. Unbelieveable.

Once back at the hotel, Teddi immediately got on the phone with Wells Fargo in an attempt to get the last remaining piece of documentation that we are waiting on for our court appearance. This has been a real hassle. We have pretty much gotten no response at all from Wells Fargo...that was until Teddi worked her magic. After at least an hour, it looks like we finally found someone in that company who cares enough to help!!!! Amen. Must have been the voodoo magic from the gypsy.

The predominant religion in Russia is Russian Orthodox and there are churches all over the place. Here is one that was directly across the river from our hotel in the region.

There are several American couples who are adopting staying in this hotel so we were finally able speak in english with someone. Yeah!!! We made friends with a couple from Pittsburgh who is here adopting their second child from Russia and had dinner at....wait for it....TGI Friday's! It may have been the best cheeseburger that I have ever had. One can only take so much potatoes and borscht. Some young Russians were at the table next to us and were very friendly. We shared some good laughs with them. Unlike many Russians, they were very supportive of our adoption. Unfortunately, some Russians are strongly opposed to American families coming over here to adopt "their" children. Mostly the older generations, I believe.

Well, its off to bed for now. Tomorrow we will spend sightseeing in Moscow. Stay tuned.

Final Day at Orphanage

Today was hard. We had to say goodbye to our son. We met the judge today and answered some basic questions. It looks like we will be able to return for court on March 23rd, which is great. This is an unordinarily quick turnaround for a court date. We are still waiting on one piece of paperwork required for court so pray that we get this document in time!

Here is a picture of the orphanage. We have been told that there are approximately 100 children, ages 2 months through 3 yrs. You would never know it though. We have been there several times and it is very quiet. We rarely hear or see other children. We have been able to peek in his room where there appears to be around 15-20 other little ones. They are broken out into rooms based upon age. Each room seems to have roughly 3-4 women caretakers. They do a great job and seem to care deeply for these children. They are doing the best with what resources they have, which doesn't appear to be many.

We had two visits at the orphanage today and they were great (except for the fact that we both nearly vomitted upon entering the building due to the smell. Don't quite know how to describe the smell, but it takes some getting used to). He was in a great mood as usual. He smiles at nearly everything and everyone. We must have disrupted his napping schedule because he was very sleepy.

Got in our first car accident of the trip as well. Although, as you will see from pictures of the traffic, it is amazing that we didn't hit another car or pedestrian; instead it was a hand rail.

Tonight is our last night in the region and we will return to Moscow tomorrow morning. We will do some sightseeing and then return home on Sunday. We'll post more pictures tomorrow in Moscow when we have better internet service. Can't wait to see you all.

Shane and Teddi

Day #2 with Little Guy

Our visit with little guy was different today. Instead of seeing him twice, we were able to visit from 12:00 to 5:00. He is very interested in what is going on around him. As soon as we got him to sleep he was awakened by some of the caretakers walking through the room. He does not like to miss anything. He is a happy little thing. We also met with the social worker while we were there. It was harder leaving him today. Tomorrow we will meet with the judge.

The other family we mentioned in our previous post left from the region with their girls today. So exciting! They are headed back to Moscow to process more paperwork.

Now we are off to dinner...possibly back to the mystery cafe. They do have good pastries! Yum!

Meeting #2 with "Little Guy"

This afternoon we were able to go back to the orphanage. There is another family here with our agency on their third trip. We rode with them. They are adopting twin girls who are about 13 months. Our visit with little guy was a little shorter than the morning visit. We played in a different room with the other family and their girls.

He is such a content little thing. We will be off to dinner at the same cafe in our hotel building. We don't really know what we are eating, but it is pretty good. :-)

We meet our son!

We met little guy this morning. It was incredible! He is the happiest little thing! We spent quite some time with him. I rocked him to sleep in my arms just before we had to leave him. It was amazing. We played. He reached for me close to the end of our visit with him. He is beautiful! He is already crawling. He doesn't have any teeth yet...he's a 'gummy' little thing. They told us his name, but Russian law prohibits us putting that information along with pictures of him on the internet until he is officially ours. Shane and I want to honor that. We will not be changing it, though. Leaving him this morning wasn't too hard simply because he had fallen asleep and it was like I had put him down for a nap...and I also knew we would be back this afternoon.

Day 1 in Russia!

We made it! After the scare the night before our flight with the flight change, we flew out of New York with no problems and it looks like we made it out just ahead of the blizzard. Whew! The flight was fairly uneventful. Teddi slept most of the way which should help with the jet lag.

We landed in Moscow and were met prompltly by our coordinator and our driver. That was a relief. After a 1 hour drive from the airport to our hotel in downtown Moscow, we were exhausted, but thankful that we managed through the traffic alive.

Once at our hotel, we ventured out for a bite to eat. We found a little cafe down the street from the hotel. We had no idea what we were ordering and it turns out we think we ordered the lunch special because when we asked for a menu, the waitress replied, "A menu lunch??" To which, I replied, "Yes, Lunch". And the next thing you know, a big Russian waiter is bringing us soup, salad, and a meat and potato dish to eat.

From there we went to Red Square to do some sight seeing. Below is a picture of Teddi in front of Red Square on the marching pad with St. Basil's Cathedral in the distance and the other is a picture of me in front of Lenin's tomb (I think??). Not so good with the cryllic alphabet yet.

Well, we are going to try to stay up for a little while longer in an attempt to get on Russian time so wish us luck. We meet our driver tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. for our ride to the orphanage to meet our son!!!!