We Have Seen Our Boys!

Well, we have now seen both of our boys! We saw Benjamin yesterday and wow has he grown!! He has put on about 5 or 6 pounds since the end of January. He was also very talkative and he sang a very sweet song about a bear for us. They must sing it all the time in the orphanage. I think it was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. The orphanage staff says he has been eating a lot and I would say so. We watched him eat a whole apple, 3 cookies, and a small individual container of Pringles that we brought in our bag. I showed him pictures of Erin and Sam and I told him only one time who they were and he would tell me every time we came back to the pictures who they were. We didn’t get to stay too long but it was easier to leave this time because we knew we would be back in 10 days. Today we went to see Nathan in Spassk. What a long ride!! The roads were even bumpier than I remember and it took longer than 3 hours to get there. Once we got there Dan was feeling very sick from lack of sleep and allergies. When we got there Nathan was coming in from outside with his group. He wasn’t expecting us and we didn’t say anything to him when he came in. He looked at us and we waved at him. Then he looked back and began to smile the biggest smile I think I have ever seen!! He ran down the hall to wash his hands and then he tore back down the hall and ran to us. I picked him up and gave him a big hug and kiss. He was all smiles. It was time for him to each lunch so we just waited for him. It didn’t take long. He didn’t want to be eating lunch I don’t think. He is still so tiny and I do believe that Benjamin has surpassed him in the growth department. He looks no bigger than the last time we saw him. He is the oldest one of the two but definitely the smallest. I brought a shoe with me from home to get a guess on what size shoes to bring with us next time. His shoe size is very small for his age. I would say I am going to have to go and buy some size 6 shoes for him. The one I brought was a 9 and it swallowed his foot. Mom sent a birthday present for him and he loved it!! It was a police car that made much noise. He played with it the entire time we were there. We spent at least 2 hours with him and then turned around and came home. Again, it was hard to leave but we know we will be back in 10 days. I can’t wait to give him a good bath!! Tomorrow we have court and the judge has changed it from 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM. I am so tired. We have been on the run since Friday non-stop. It is only going to get worse for a while. I hope to get lots of rest while we are home before we come back. I am so ready to bring these little guys home!!!!!

We Passed Our Medicals!!!!!

How interesting it has been here today. We woke up and had breakfast here in the hotel. Wow European coffee is soooooo good! The food was very good and very Russian. Not that the food was different, it was all things you would recognize but just the fact that their sausages taste like really good hotdogs and that they serve carrot slaw, tomatoes and cucumbers for breakfast. I love that but Dan is more of a traditional man and tomatoes and cucumbers for breakfast is just not comparable to bacon and eggs. Funny how we are so different. There was also this bread roll that had kraut in it and I really thought I saw pain on his face when he ate it! I thought it was great!!! After breakfast we walked to the store again (by ourselves and we didn’t get arrested) and bought some more meat and cheese for supper and some water and tea. I even paid with Rubles and managed to speak just a little Russian. It was kind of fun! To get to the store you have to go down some stairs and go through a tunnel under the street and then out the other side. There is this bakery there and it smelled so good but since we had already eaten breakfast we didn’t make ourselves gluttons. Next we met Sasha down stairs and realized we have Wi-Fi in the lobby and got very excited. Now I plan to chat with mom later to see how things are going. After we met he took us to our destination. We walked in this room with 4 other families all with their nice, monster yellow chest x-ray folders in their hands. One couple was from Louisiana, 2 were from Germany and we are not sure where the other family was from since we didn’t really talk with them. The doctors came in a couple at a time and asked us a few questions and one of them took our blood pressure. The others just signed off on the basis of our blood work that we had brought with us. Overall, 8 doctors signed off on our documents and then we handed over the money and they stamped everything with the “official blue seal” of Russia. We are good to go to court now!! I loved talking to all the people in there. The couple from Germany we talked to the most were named Gens and Cornelia. They were from Hamburg Germany. They are adopting a 3 year old boy. The couple from Louisiana were here to adopt the 11 year old brother of a little boy they adopted 6 years ago. They said they had looked for him for 3 years and finally found him. Amazing stories and they all give you chills. God is so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After we got done with all that business which took about 2 & 1/2 to 3 hours we went sight seeing again. Sasha took us to a very old monastery and we saw the graves of many people, some of which died in the 1500’s. He told us that this is the oldest monastery in Moscow and when the Tsar’s were ruling Russia it was common for them to send their wives there when they got tired of them since divorce was not allowed so they could marry someone else. Jokingly Sasha told Dan to remember this place. We all had a nice laugh. I told Sasha that if Dan sent me to the monastery he and the kids would starve to death since he can’t cook!

Then we went to “The Hills” and it was a nice day so we took some pictures and Sasha was right, you really can see almost all of Moscow from there. It was extremely windy. All I could think about was how incredibly cold it must be up there in the dead of winter. We then drove to the middle of downtown so he could show us the house of Peter the Great’s father. We could only see the outside since it was locked but that is ok. It was really neat and it was nestled in right along with new shiny buildings and cars were flying by constantly. Next door to that was a church that was rebuilt in the early 1990’s from a replica of one that sat on the same spot in 1918 which was destroyed in the 1930’s. It is unbelievable how politics work here. Sasha pointed out a building behind the church that Stalin had built to house his top leading officials. It was not uncommon for someone to want someone else’s apartment so he might write a letter to Stalin saying that the person living in that apartment had bad mouthed Stalin and within the next day or two that person writing the letter would have the apartment he wanted because they would kick out the other man. I will leave it at that. Then we came back to the hotel and had our cheese, meat and bread and of course some tomatoes. I am now just waiting until 9:00 PM so I can talk to mom. Tomorrow we leave for Vladivostok at 4:55 PM Moscow time and arrive in Vlad at 8:20 AM Wednesday morning and then we go see Yaroslav. Exciting times ahead I do believe!

We Made It To Moscow!

We made it to Moscow! On time too! Sasha picked us up at the airport around 9:00 AM Moscow time and he took us to our hotel. Here is a great picture of Sasha. Don’t you love the t-shirt? That was a wonderful and humorous thing to see when we got off the plane in Moscow!!! After picking us up Sasha took us to our hotel. It is about a 10 minute walk to the American Embassy and is fairly close to the place where we will do our medicals tomorrow. It is not what you would expect in America but there is hot water and a bed. No air conditioning but right now the weather is just perfect. We checked into our hotel and then headed off to see the Kremlin and Red Square. It is very interesting. Many touristy things mingled in with architecture from the 1600’s. Sasha told us all kinds of stories about different buildings and what used to be there and then what was there now. Most of the time the reason the buildings were torn down was due to political differences. One of my favorites was about a church in the 1930’s that had been there a couple of centuries was torn down by Stalin and then he had a lavatory built on top of where it stood. He said it was to make a statement. I think that goes without saying anything. We visited St. Basil’s Cathedral today and it was a holiday of some sort. I have not been able to look anything up yet so I don’t know what it was. There was a choir singing in there on the bottom floor and it was amazing how the sound carried no matter where you were in the church.

The first meal we ate was at Mc Donald’s which is right across the street from our hotel. It is amazing that you can travel here and have a Filet O’ Fish and it taste exactly the same! You don’t even have to speak the language you can just point to the pictures of what you want!! We had Sasha order for us but a Japanese couple beside us ordered just like that!

Right now I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. We are going to try to stay up a bit more but I am not sure I can do it. Right now it is 6:17 AM in Cape Girardeau which means I have been up for 24 hours straight at this moment because Dan and I woke up at 7:45 AM in New York yesterday and have been up ever since!! I have never been this tired.

You wouldn’t know it but I have had some sleep now so I think I can go on! We wish we had the internet so we could call and talk to the kids. That is always the hardest part of our trips. I am sitting in the hotel in the dark looking at the beautiful lights on the buildings because we are on the 10^th floor and we have windows that go from the middle of the wall all the way to the ceiling. This building is very old and has not been renovated. The walls are 2 shades of very 60’s green and the furniture looks about that old as well. We have tv but it really isn’t worth watching. The Russian’s idea of entertainment is very odd.

So right now it is dark outside but we are downtown so there are many tall buildings, like the one above, and there is a beautiful orange moon in the sky just over the tops of the buildings and you can see the reflection of it in the Moscow river. Very picturesque if my camera would take good night shots. This is a shot from our hotel room window. a Sasha took us

to an awesome little supermarket yesterday and we bought some meat, cheese, bread, tea and fruit. I also had to have some tomatoes. We ate that for supper last night and now that we know where to go we could probably go there ourselves without getting arrested as long as we follow the rules of street crossing. I needed salt for my tomatoes and we didn’t want to pay over $3 for it so I settled for some that had mainly salt in it but also some garlic and rosemary. It was really good on my tomatoes. I am glad I have a lot left over! Today we have our medical exams around 2:30 PM along with 3 other families most of which are from other countries. Sasha said Germany, France and I think UK. It should be very interesting to get to visit with them. Sasha is also going to take us sightseeing a little bit more today. We are going to see a house that was built by Peter the Great’s father. He also wants to take us to see something called “The Hills”. He said on a good day you can see over half of Moscow from there. Maybe today will be a good day.

We took a nice ride on the subway this morning too. That subway system is like nothing I have ever seen before. Those trains were flying and they came every 30 seconds or so. The subway stations are decorated in different themes. One was dedicated to Russian life. Another one was all about Kiev and was supposed to portray the wonderful relationship between Russia and the Ukraine. Wonderful?…… anyway, this particular one that I have a picture here of we don’t remember what it was dedicated to. All we remember is we rounded the corner and there was this picture of Lenin and Sasha said it was symbolic because it was the end of the tunnel and all turns lead to Lenin.

This subway station had the longest escalator I have ever seen! When we got on at the top I could not see the bottom and the same when we got on to go back up. I am not sure this picture does it justice but it was steep and long.

I plan to write more tomorrow after our medicals. Moscow is such an interesting place. I am so glad we finally got to do some sight seeing!

We have a court date!!!

For some of you reading this this is not new news to you but to those who don't know we have received our court date!! Our case worker called us last Monday morning and said, "The good news is we have a court date! The bad news is you have to leave Saturday the 21st!" Wow! so much for having 2 weeks notice!! That is just the way things go sometimes. The important thing is we have a court date of August 27th @ 9:30 AM Vladivostok time. That translates to Thursday August 26th @ 5:30 Cape Girardeau time. After 3 days of being on the phone with the most wonderful travel agent ever (seriously! :) figuring out our travel arrangements we ended up having to leave on Friday for New York and we are now at the Hampton Inn-JFK spending the night. The kids are safe and sound with grandma and I just know that all will be well this time. We will leave for Moscow tomorrow @ 2:20 PM New York time and arrive in Moscow 8:00 AM Sunday morning. Moscow is 8 hours ahead of Cape Girardeau. Now Dan and I are just chilling out deciding our game plan for tomorrow. At least we didn't spend our time running through airports today like the last trip! It was very painless and we even sat right next to a couple from Cape Girardeau that we knew all the way to New York. How funny is that? I had Mexican food before leaving St. Louis so I got my salsa fix before crossing the Atlantic. For those of you who remember the last trip for us you remember about the lack of salsa in Vladivostok! Dan wouldn't let me bring a jar of salsa with me. I was very sad. I did bring some tuna lunch kits and microwavable mac & cheese. I am going to try really hard to blog whenever I can this trip. It becomes harder and harder the closer to Russia we get because we don't always have and internet connection. I can't wait until I can post pictures of the boys!!!

The Judge Wants More

Well, we did hear something by the end of July as we had anticipated but it was not what we wanted to hear. The judge has requested 3 more things. Two of those things our agency will take care of. The other thing is for us. I can't believe I even have to write this. The judge has requested our "marriage certificate" instead of our "marriage license". He or she does not like that it says "license". Frustration of frustrations! Wow, I don't even know what to say. The point here is not to argue over technicalities. The lives of two precious little boys hangs in the balance a little longer because of this request. I think I found (I say this cautiously) what the judge is requesting in my "special box" downstairs. It is a document I have never needed in my 14 years of marriage (our anniversary was yesterday, how ironic) and I will never need it. The Recorder of Deeds has exactly what we need but it just happens to say "Marriage License". This piece of paper I found doesn't say "marriage certificate" but it doesn't say "marriage license" either. Oh I pray that this document will be it! If it is, then we have to figure out how to make certified copies of it because it is the only one in existence. It is not on file anywhere. Oh well, just one more hurdle. Dan and I call it "superior character building". By the end of this we are going to be supreme in the character department!

Blogging is just not my talent

I know I am not the best blogger in the world. It is not that I don't like to blog I just don't have time. Laundry, kids and life seem to take precedence. I just wanted to write a little bit of an update for those of you who have been wondering. It seems like forever since we were last in Russia. We have had so many things happen since returning. Of course in April we weren't even sure if we would ever see our boys again thanks to the woman who thought it was just fine to return her adopted child to Russia. God is faithful in everything and we have learned many things since then. God is sovereign in all things including allowing the woman to return her child. ALL things are held in His hands, good OR bad. He has used that woman's sin to bring Himself many praises and much glory through His believers and my prayer throughout this ordeal has been that many unbelievers would come to know Him as well.

Today is the day our documents go to court. We don't know when we will hear anything about when our court date might be scheduled but hopefully it will be soon. We have done everything we are supposed to do so far. Our documents are finished and we are praying that the judge will not want anything else from us. I am not sure what else we could provide!

We have the boys room ready. I will try to post pictures. We have an amazing story about the beds. On July 2nd I was in the pharmacy waiting for a prescription to be filled (no, I don't fill all my own scripts :) and there was a paper in there. I found the want ads and there was one for wooden twin bunk beds listed for $300. I got excited for some reason. Maybe it was because we really needed the beds and it was getting desperate, but then again, maybe not. Nothing like bringing your children home from Russia with no place to sleep! So I called. This family was so nice. I asked about the beds and whether or not they could come apart and be used as twin beds. They could and so then I began to get really excited. I told her that we were adopting and then she began to get excited. When Dan woke up that evening I asked him about the beds and I told him I thought we should go see them. He wasn't as excited about it as me and I knew he really didn't want to spend that money because we just really didn't have it to spend. He agreed that we would go look at them. We got there and again, this family was just different. You could tell they really loved God and they were just so loving. We decided we would go ahead and take the beds. She then told us that the dresser could go too if it would help us. Wow, would it ever! Then she asked us if we had any sheets. My answer was no. She said we could have all of the bedding that went with the beds if we wanted it. Wow again! So we got everything loaded up (mattresses included which were in perfect condition) and I got out the check book. She and her husband were standing there and said, "When you called this afternoon we knew that you were supposed to have these beds. We have decided that this is our gift to you and we want you to have it all. You don't have to pay us for anything." I just started crying. Wow, wow, wow, wow! What else could we say? God provided again. It was a blessing to both of our families.

I am so thankful that I serve the only true God. The one who loves, provides, shows compassion, is faithful in all things, is just, is righteous, holds all things together but yet cares for His own in the smallest of details as in the case of this bedroom furniture. I hope that someone will read this blog and that this testimony of who God is will speak to them so that God might reveal Himself to them and that they would be changed forever. Once He speaks to you, you will never be the same again.

Last day in Russia

Today is our last day in Russia for the next 4 months. We arrived in Moscow yesterday afternoon (Saturday, March 6^th) and spent the night at the Park Inn right next to the airport. It is a nice hotel and we got a complimentary breakfast this morning which was very tasty. The food is very good here and very fresh. This morning I had broiled tomatoes with cheese, a bread pudding with peach compote, small sausages which were more like mini hotdogs but were better than any American hotdog I have ever had. I also had some fruit and the most awesome coffee EVER!!!! Chad, you would love it! It tasted like the coffee I make at home with my machine that Dan got me for Christmas so now I know that my machine really does make coffee like it is supposed to. MMMMMMMMMM…………………….. Dan is getting ready right now and I am just catching up on some writing. We are leaving the hotel at 9:00 AM and our flight leaves today at 12:00 PM. We will be arriving in New York at 3:00 PM. Did somebody say this is going to be the longest day I have ever had in my life? Literally? Our flight is about 11 hours long so to leave only 3 hours before your arrival time at destination is, well, very thought provoking. We should be arriving in St. Louis around 9:30 PM Sunday. I am ready. I miss Diet Pepsi and my salsa. Don’t get me started again. Yesterday’s flight from Vladivostok was good. The plane was really nice and each seat had it’s own tv screen. I watched a couple of movies which helped to pass the time. There were several babies on the plane and they were a bit restless but what do you expect on a 9 hour flight? Dan and I were both pondering in our mind what it will be like to travel such a long distance with two 3&1/2 year old boys in a few months. I am not too worried about Ben but Nate? I am not so sure. We may have to bring the Dramamine. The only problem with giving children medicine like that is sometimes it has the opposite reaction that it is supposed to have. Wow, I don’t even want to think about that!! It will be fine. Most people are very kind I have noticed. It has been a great trip. I am looking forward to coming back. I just wish it wasn’t so far! If we could just go the opposite direction instead of going through Moscow It would take half the time. However, there are things that have to be done here in Moscow at the embassy that can only be done by coming this way. Maybe next time we will be able to sight see a bit here in Moscow. At least it will be summer time and hopefully no snow storms will block our paths the next time. I am looking forward to seeing Vladivostok in summer. Winter we were told was the most ugly season and I would have to agree. I have never seen snow on the side of the road that was 4 feet deep and totally black. Very dirty. Summer, have been told, is very nice. You know it is harsh when the Sea of Japan’s coast is frozen solid. Well, I am going to sign off. I am looking forward to those precious boys being apart of us. They already are of course but until they are in our house it will be very hard. We love you Nate and Ben. Kisses and hugs and mommy and daddy will be back for you very soon. Sweet dreams until then.

Last day in Vladivostok

It has been snowing all day today. Right now the flakes are so big and it is beautiful. We have had a good day today. We started the day off by going to see Ben today. He really likes Thomas the Train. Him and Dan played in the floor for a long while. The room we were in was so small that was hard to move around to play really good. After we said goodbye to him for the last time we made our way downtown in major traffic to go to the notary's office. Evidently notaries are very few and far between here and it takes a long time to get in. Since our adoption coordinators know them well we were able to get in quickly. We still had to wait for a couple of hours so we had to leave our passports there and we headed back the way we came to go to the mall for souvenirs. We bought the funniest things for Mom, Erin and Sam. They are the same as the picture I posted yesterday of the flower thing in the car cup holder. So many cars have them and they run on solar energy. The sun makes them bounce up and down. They have every thing you can imagine. We also ate lunch there with Lana and Irina. They had a cafe on the top floor that was like a cafeteria. It served Russian food which was very good. There was nothing American about it except for the Coke fountain machine. It was such a strange thing to find in a mall! I am sure the food was much healthier than in our malls though and much tastier too if you like Russian food. Sorry Mr. Mike, Russian food does not involve many fruits and veggies! After we left the mall we drove back toward downtown and found another souvenir shop that sold all kinds of nesting dolls. They were much more reasonably priced than at the mall. The shop was down this narrow little alley that only a native Vladivostokian(?) would know about. We finished up our shopping there and headed to the notary. It took about 15 minutes and we were done. Our trip here is basically over now. We just have to make it home and fill out much more paperwork and wait for our court date to be scheduled. That will take at least 3 months. It will go fast. I have much peace about leaving. I know God is in control and all will be well. I am so very thankful for that knowledge. Without it I would go insane! Now I am waiting for laundry to dry so we can have some clean clothes to wear home. Our plane leaves tomorrow at 2:15 PM and we will spend the night in Moscow and then head the rest of the way home. I miss the kids but not as badly as I thought I would. I think I have been too busy to think about it. I have thought about Diet Pepsi and salsa though. I have really taken these things for granted!! Ha Ha. I have had I bottle of Diet Pepsi the whole time we have been here and it is almost gone. Salsa can't be found anywhere! Ughhhh! Only 2 more days, 2 more days!

What a great day!

Today has been a good day. We woke up and called home. Sam and Erin are doing well. I think Grandma is doing well. Not quite sure. Erin and Sam were picking on each other during the entire video chat. Everything seems to still be the same at home! :) We left with Lana and Irina and went to the baby home here in Vladivostok. Our sweet little boy is so little!! He is really cute and is the total opposite of the other one. He is very smart and opened up much more today. We will go see him again tomorrow and then we will officially sign the papers to say we will adopt them. Yesterday when we got ready to leave Spassk City orphanage Nate began to pucker up. It just about broke my heart. We know he has not had individual attention like that before and so much of it at one time. He loved it. He was expecting us to come yesterday and when we got there it was nap time. He saw us coming down the hall and was already out of bed with just his shoes and his underwear on getting ready to go with his nanny to get his clothes on. As he was walking down the hall he had such a happy, confident little stride and it just melted my heart. Anyway, as we got ready to leave he began to get upset so Lana our interpreter called him over and sat down with the scrapbook we brought for him and explained who everyone was and that it was his to keep along with the lion puppet and the truck toy we brought. She told him that we would be back to get him when the grass turned green outside. He left us with a smile and with that same little walk as when we got there. Three and a half years is such a hard age because they do know what is going on and they do understand when they are not wanted and that makes it hard to leave and reassure them that it is not going to be forever. After we got back today from the baby home here in Vladivostok we ate lunch in the Vlad Inn Restaurant and then we went for a walk down to the water. Our hotel is very close to the water which is the Sea of Japan. There were people way out on the frozen water ice fishing. I was afraid to go very far. I had visions of breaking through and Vladivostok is not a place I want to be when I pass on! Tonight we will just hang out here in our room. It is the first time we have been able to do that since we got here and we will be leaving day after tomorrow. Wow, what a whirlwind trip. We were expecting that though. We wish we could just take them home right now. Russia is such an interesting place. The things I am most intrigued by is the way people drive and the way the Russian people are in general. They are very quite people. The women really like shiny things, high heels (even on 2 inches of ice) and they walk all over the place. They have some of the most beautiful buildings interspersed with drab Soviet Style buildings. Most houses I have seen are very run down and are painted very bright colors. It is like they are trying to make something that can never be beautiful into something that they think is beautiful. They also like little things in their cars that bob up and down that are activated by the sun. It is the most bizzare thing I have ever seen. We are so close to the Chinese border so we have seen a lot of Chinese people as well. More than I thought we would see. I asked our interpreter about the Chinese and she said they are to the Russians like the Mexican’s are to the Americans. That pretty well summed it up I believe. Well, guess I will go rest a bit. Hopefully I can write a little more tomorrow before we leave.

Finally we are here!

Well, we are here! What an experience. Let me start at the beginning. Saturday we began at 5:30 AM from Cape Girardeau. We drove to St. Louis to catch our plane and then it began. We arrived and waited. Because of the day before, there were delays everywhere, especially with Delta. I began to really wonder if we were going to make it. So finally our flight took off but it took off 40 minutes late. This of course put us a few minutes late in Detroit and we only initially had 35 minutes to catch our flight to New York any way and now we only had 15 minutes. We got off the plane and started running. We got to the gate and there was no plane. We turned around and found a flight board and the plane had been redirected to another terminal. We started running the other direction. When all was said and done we had run 35 very long gates and got to gate 57 and the plane was there but everyone had boarded and the door was shut. I almost broke down from sheer exhaustion and disappointment right then. The flight lady was still there and I ran up to her barely able to talk and managed to get out something like, “Oh please can we get on this plane we have boarding passes?!!!?” She gave me and Dan a not-so-sympathetic look and started typing on the computer as we were standing there trying to recover. She made a call and we were allowed to board the plane! We were sweating like crazy and my face was red from running half way across the airport. Totally embarrassing! Anyway, we got on the plane and then we waited, and waited……and waited……and WAITED! The captain couldn’t figure it out. He initially said we were waiting on some baggage which in retrospect was probably ours (funny but not funny) so in essence we probably made the plane late. Finally we were allowed to take off after 1 hour and 20 minutes of waiting. Guess what? That put us in New York 15 minutes before our scheduled take off for Moscow. What next? Well it came while we were on the plane to New York, somewhere over the Great Lakes. Dan says, “Where is the camera bag?” “I don’t know, you had it didn’t you?” “Yes, I did. It was strapped to my bag and I took it off when we got to the Delta gate in Detroit after running.” We immediately realized the camera was still sitting at gate 57 on the check in counter. Panic ensued once again. The flight attendant came by and we told him what had happened. He was such a nice man and knew what happened to us before hand when we boarded. He took our information and said he would call it in and we would probably get it back. It might just take a while. It wouldn’t have been so bad but Mom’s camera was in there too. If we don’t get it back we will just have to get her a new one. Ok, by now I was not having such a great day. We get to New York, FINALLY, and pull up to the farthest gate away from the terminal we need to be to catch our next flight of course, and the terminal hookup would not work. We were trapped on that plane for 30 minutes AFTER landing. The captain was very angry and frustrated. His comments kept getting more and more sarcastic each announcement. It was funny. What could you do but laugh? It was more of a hysterical laugh though. Anyway, while we were sitting there, computer guru Dan whips out the cell and pulls up Delta flight schedules and Praise God from Whom all blessings flow, our flight to Moscow had been delayed for 1 hour. We finally made it off the plane after actually having sat on that plane before take off and after landing a total of 2 hours and 20 minutes which was longer than the actual flight itself, and made our way like a herd of cattle to a shuttle that drove us around to terminal 3. It must have been a new driver because he passed terminal 3 and the security agent on the shuttle banged on the glass and started yelling at him and he backs up. What else? We were really laughing now! We got off, ran up a never ending terminal ramp and Delta people kept motioning us this way or that way. It felt and looked like a marathon, I’m not kidding! We finally made it to gate 13 just 15 minutes before the plane boarded for Moscow. We got on and totally crashed. Emotion, panic, excitement and all of those emotions were rolled up together into one. I was exhausted. Our flight was very cramped for the 9 hours and 35 minutes but hey, we were on that plane! Whoo hoo!!! The flight went well and we landed in Moscow, made it through boarder patrol and amazingly enough we went to the baggage area and like a shining ray of light our bags came sailing out of the back and then all was well. We couldn’t believe after all of that our bags actually made it. God is so awesome. We walked out and Alexander was there. What a great sight he was to see! He was so excited we were there. We told him about our camera dilemma and we bought one in the airport. Not a bad price. Same as in the States. Then we went over to the hotel and instead of sight seeing we checked in for the afternoon for a nap and a shower. That was so very nice. About 5:30 we caught the shuttle bus to Terminal D at the hotel. It is very strange to be in a place where hardly anyone speaks English. So we got there and no running this time. The plane to Vladivostok was on time and went off without a hitch. I couldn’t believe how quiet it was in the Moscow airport. The terminals were full of people but you could almost hear a pin drop it was so quiet. I guess Americans are just really loud people. The flight was the same way. We and another woman who is here adopting as well were the only Americans on the plane. The stewardess kept forgetting to ask us in English what we would like but by half way through she would remember and smile at us. Funny. We arrived and got off the plane. Dan stopped to take a picture of the plane and a guard came over and scolded him. I guess in some ways Russia will always be in the past. Our coordinator and interpreter Irina and Lana were waiting for us. We found our bags and amazing as it sounds, our journey began. We hit the ground running again but in a little bit different way. We checked into our hotel (Vlad Motor Inn) and got to stay for 30 minutes before leaving for the Dept. of Education to sign an official document to see the boys. We then went to the baby hospital to see Ben. They told us he wasn’t feeling good and had a cold. They went to get him and brought him in. He was soooooo little! He looks just like his picture. He had on a Christmas sweater with Santa Claus buttons on it, beige pants with flower designs on them, a blue & white checkered shirt underneath the sweater, pink socks and white sandals. He was adorable. He is very smart. They tell us he is very sociable with the other kids and is very curious about things. They laughed and said, “He is like a monkey! A little trouble maker!” Ahhhhh, just like Sam, no? He reminded us a bit of Sam as he sat there and played. His little hands were everywhere. He said the names of things and organized blocks. His fine motor skills are excellent. I took a picture of him and showed it to him and he smiled really big and said his name So he recognizes himself in a picture which is good. We gave him some crackers, a little toy truck and a tiger puppet. He pretended to feed the tiger and the cow toy sitting on the table. That was good too. We found out his mother and father had lost parental rights for many reasons. He will flourish in a loving environment I am sure. Yesterday and today both we made the long 3 hour trip to Spassk City orphanage to see Natel. He is an amazing kid! Very smart, eager and loving. We will definitely need some boundaries! We made our official decision on Nate today and the papers have been drawn up. We spent 3 hours with him today and 2 hours yesterday. We have lots of pictures and videos. There is so much to tell and I am always so very tired at the end of the day. Tomorrow we got see Ben again and then the next day we will probably make our decision. I will write more as I have time and energy. It has been and awesome but extremely tiring trip. One funny thing I must say is that we called Dr. Hoffman's office today and asked if we could send him some video of Ben for him to give us his opinion. The nurse told us he was in Mexico on a mission trip. Dan whips out his phone and tracks him down because if he was in Mexico he had to be with Jeff Smith and sure enough, he was. What are the odds of finding your pediatrician in Mexico when you are in Russia? God is on our side is all I have to say! That is so AWESOME! Thank you, thank you, thank you Dr. Hoffman! You are a good man!!!!