Tuesday & Wednesday

We've started all the US Embassy processing. On Tuesday morning, I went to the US Embassy, which is in walking distance of our apartment. I was there to turn in all of our paperwork, request a visa for Thomas and get an appointment for the following day to finalize all the immigration paperwork and pick up the visa. Since Thomas is a Russian citizen, he travels on a Russian passport with a visa to visit the US. The great thing is that once we land in Atlanta, he automatically becomes a US citizen, thanks to all this paperwork we're doing ahead of time.

The process took about 15 minutes. There was no one there and I mean literally, I was the only person in the building besides our agency representative and everyone who worked there. It was kind of offsetting to have 2 empty rooms filled with a hundred chairs each and places for long lines to form, but not a single person.

In the afternoon, John went with our driver and translator to officially sign the book at the Ministry of Education. They are the ministry that oversees adoptions and issues the referrals. He was back within the hour.

Thomas woke from his afternoon nap after 4. We were getting hungry and only had pasta and sauce left to cook but didn't really want that for dinner. John walked next door to the TGI Fridays to get take out. He was back in about 5 minutes saying they didn't do take-out. So we were debating on what to do for dinner with Thomas in tow. We were tired and hungry and decided to risk dining in at TGI Fridays rather than getting take out from somewhere on Old Arbat. We were there at 4:30 and there was only one other family there eating. We ordered quickly, figuring Thomas would not last long before getting fussy. He did great. He is just so fascinated and curious to watch all the people around him that he was very quiet. It turned out about 10 times better than I was expecting. I was expecting to be eating in shifts as we entertained a fussy baby. Funny enough, TGI Fridays does do take-out. The lady, who told John earlier that they didn't, came over and said she made a mistake.

After dinner, feeling re-energized, we got the stroller and strolled the neighborhood. We walked for awhile past all the embassies and eventually swung back around to New Arbat. We passed the grocery, we usually go to. John ran into the grocery to re-supply for our last 2 days, while Thomas and I waited outside with the stroller.

On Wednesday, we had our Embassy interview at 2, so our morning was free. We wanted to see the Metro. The Moscow Metro has beautiful stations, with different themes. Some stations were built in the 1930's and have art deco chandeliers, lots of plaster work, murals and stonework. We packed Thomas up in the Ergo carrier (which is excellent by the way...very comfortable and Thomas likes it) and rode the metro. We stopped at about 4 different stations, waited for the crowd to clear and then took pictures and strolled the stations. Thomas fell asleep. The metro was great. A ride costs 22 rubles which is roughly 70 cents US, and once you get on, you can ride the entire system as much as you want stopping at whatever stations you want. There was a large tour group from the US (Viking River Cruises) visiting the last station as we were getting off.

Our driver picked us up outside the last station. Our translator said we needed to have a family picture. We then drove to Red Square to have the traditional family picture in front of St. Basil's Cathedral (the cathedral with fancy colored domes). We drove back to the apartment to have a little lunch, a diaper change and a rest before the Embassy appointment.

At the Embassy, we again just sailed through. There was one adoptive family in front of us, picking up their papers. After waiting a few minutes, it was our turn. The guy at the window was very nice. We answered a few questions about how our trip was going. We confirmed Thomas's information, signed some documents and he told us what to expect at immigration when we fly to Atlanta. We got Thomas's passport with the US visa and a packet of papers to give to immigration and were on our way.

Thomas fell asleep in the car on the way back. We got him in the apartment and back to sleep. Dinner is in the oven (baked fish, french fries and I'll heat up some peas). We may stroll tonight as the weather is nice.