We're Here!

We arrived in Moscow this morning shortly after 10:00. Our flights were uneventful except my video screen didn't work so Steve and I just traded seats periodically during the flight. After we went through passport control, customs, and got our bags, we went to find Andrei, but Sergei was there to pick us up. Since he doesn't speak any English, he called Andrei so we could talk to him, and once again we are reminded that when adopting internationally it is paramount that we be flexible! As it turns out, we were not able to get Katie today. Andrei said it's because no one is open on Sundays. However, when we were here for our second trip we were able to go to the orphanage to see Katie on Sunday. Apparently, we can visit her on Sundays, but not pick her up on Sundays. Also, Andrei mentioned several times on our last visit that when we arrived here, we would be able to get her immediately. To us, immediately would have been today. Instead, immediately is tomorrow morning. Andrei is picking us up at 9:00 in the morning, and we will go get Katie first. Then we will go to the Ministry of Education to get the letter that we need to apply for her passport. Then we'll go get her picture taken for the passport. Then we'll go apply for the passport. This will probably take all day, and so Katie will probably not get much of a nap, and she'll probably get pretty cranky and scared with that being her first day with us. However, she may surprise us. We'll let you know tomorrow.

When we got to our apartment at around noon, we were pleased. This is by far our favorite apartment we've stayed in (It's also the most expensive, but not by much). The other two provided shelter, a bed, and warmth, but they were pretty basic. This one is much more comfortable and spacious. Instead of having 3-4 tiny tiny rooms with narrow hallways, it is a studio apartment with a partition separating the bed from the living area, and the kitchen is along the opposite wall from the bed. The sofa folds out into a bed as well, so our plan is for one of us to sleep in the bed with Katie, and for the other to sleep on the sofa bed. We may change this plan once we get her, but this way we can put her to bed at a good time and we can stay up a little later without both of us trying to sleep on the sofabed. It's pretty small.

Our apartment has a little play area / park right behind it that will be perfect on nice days to let her play. We also have a supermarket right around the corner, which is very convenient. We didn't walk around much today except to get some groceries. Instead we both took pretty big naps. We may not be able to sleep much tonight, but we'll hope for the best. We also may not sleep much tonight because we are so excited to be getting her tomorrow.

The boys are at the Lake House at Table Rock Lake, so they should have a fun final week before school starts. Please pray that the remainder of our trip is safe, that Katie adjusts well to living with us, that all goes smoothly with her passport and the embassy, and that the conflict in Georgia has no affect on this process whatsoever.