Day 2 in MosCOW

Day 2 in Moscow. It’s 3:15pm as I write this (about 7:15am in DC) and we are all set. We have Roman’s (Alexander’s) passport and his visa to get into the US. I’m waiting to get confirmation, but I think we’re scheduled on a flight Saturday afternoon, the 26th) that should have us landing in DC in the mid afternoon.  This part of the journey is almost over.

Before coming to Moscow we, and our facilitators, did a lot of leg- and paperwork. What remained to be done was basically confirming the paperwork, having the brief medical examination, submitting the dossier at the Embassy, and then, today, going to the Embassy for our interview.

The medical was at 8:00am yesterday at the hotel and it went fine. Boris, the doctor, said he didn’t look like an orphanage kid, his size and all was good, and alternately called him a sumo wrestler or Buddha-belly. At 11am we met to run over the paperwork, which took all of about 20 minutes. Our facilitator then took the dossier to the Embassy to start that process while the three of us took a walk, and got some lunch. Finally, we all took a desperately-needed nap (thank god!).  Naps are under-appreciated.

Our hotel is very close to a pedestrian street known as “Arbat,” so we had a perfect place for the walk. Yeah, it’s the touristy part of town, but for Alexander it’s all brand new.  On Monday, Moscow hadabout 20cm (8in) of snow and it  caused a bit of havoc. You can see that they’re still working on removing some of it.

Alexander was fascinated by everything, and was happy as a clam in the stroller, talking, singing to himself, and making eyes at the ladies that walked by. One restaurant in the area had someone outside dressed in a sort of cow outfit and Alexander was totally thrilled! He babbled to the cow, waved hi, made some other movements which the cow immitated – it was love at first sight. We took his picture, of course.

Tomorrow we’re going to go to Red Square for some pictures and so I can finally see this iconic spot. Of course we’ll post some of the pictures as time permits.

The Embassy today was interesting. There were about a dozen families waiting. All the kids were pretty good, Alexander included. We’re so lucky that he seems to have a pretty happy disposition. We were at the Embassy from about 10am until close to 1pm (a long time indeed), but he was good, played very well, and only melted down once, near the end, when he was clearly bored, tired, and ready to go. He walked me over to his coat and insisted, in Russian, something that approximates “Roman coat,” and was very disappointed when I did not get it for him to put on so we could leave.

As happens when waiting in lines, we talked with some of the other families. They were there from all over the Eastern US, having adopted from all over Russia, and all had varying experiences.  We again validated that we had it easier than many, though a few had us beat for timing. All were of course anxious to get their visas and to go home. Folks were a little tense, too, because there were some technical issues yesterday that prevented the Embassy from printing visas; if there was a problem today, it would mean waiting until Monday to get the visa since the Embassy is closed tomorrow for Christmas.

So, quickly some other milestone events of the past couple days and lessons learned:

• He’s not keen on baths. To someone outside the room last night, it would have sounded like we were doing something unspeakable to him.  It was a pure scream-fest.
• The first diaper change was a nauseating event. New food meant his digestive tract wasn’t pleased. It was a two person job, with Rachel (bless her) operating and me playing assistant – “I need a towel!”  “Yes, ma’am!” Today’s were smoother thank god.
• The kid loves being outside and seeing new things. He woke up this morning and just as soon as he was dressed he wanted to put on his coat and boots and go outside for a walk.