Weeee!!! Look at the big city!

We had nothing adoption related planned today, so we set out to see the city. Our hotel is a perfect distance, as it turns out, from Red Square and also from the tourist area, Old Arabat. We thought we were headed to Old Arabat first, but when we saw the Kremlin (way in the wrong direction!), we thought, well, since we are here, we'll swing by there!

It was rough trying to read these signs in the Cyrillic alphabet since I know about 3 of the letters. I taped the alphabet on our bathroom mirror at home, but I guess that 6 months of looking at it every day didn't do much. Some of the signs have the English version of the street name underneath, but my maps (we had 3!) only had Russian, so it was seriously like being in a foreign country or very similar. LOL!

So, today taught us what it will be like for our baby girl when we take her home. Everything is new and confusing and takes so much energy trying to make sense of the sights and sounds of every day life, outside of the orphanage.

Front of our hotel, Courtyard Marriott (notice the ample parking our front)

View from the restaurants hotel, looking across the street (we don't know what church this is)

A real live babushka

Parking in the lines is for wimps

More thinking outside of the box parking (does a sidewalk have a right-of-way?)

This is a parking lot, but I have no idea how the folks at the back ever get out!

As I mentioned yesterday, traffic is bad and people do not yeild for pedestrians and they drive as fast as they can when they can (I didn't see any speed limit signs, but maybe they look way different than ours). So, to get across the street, there are a few crosswalks, but mainly you either run for dear life or use one of these underground walkways, which would be especially nice when it's a blizzard outside. The first picture is the sign indicating the walkway.

Now, this is what happens when possibly you are under the influence of some outside substance and you try to cross the street the old fashioned way. This poor guy stood here for several minutes, and finally someone let him across. Cars and buses were whizzing by him and I thought for sure that on Day 2 of our trip that I would witness my first fatality.

Since there were no police witness reports to fill out, we made our way over to Red Square. On the way we found a sign we could almost read: Sbarro! I'm not a huge fan, but it was very comforting to be able to see something familiar. (It's on the left on the green awning.)

Next we see the Kremlin. It is massive and pictures do not do it justice.
The second is the corner of Kremlin with Cathedral in background.

Then, as we started over the hill, we see what is surely a mirage...

This is St. Basil's Cathedral, my favorite of all of the buildings we saw. It is just breath taking! The next time you see this, it will be one of our new baby girl and me as it's tradition to take one before you leave for the U.S.

The top of St. Basil's

Across from the Kremlin in Red Square is the Gum Department Store. It is 3 stories of all kinds of shops from Hermes to Levi's

Inside of Gum

I'm not sure what this massive red building is, but it sits opposite of the St. Basil's in Red Square.

While we are on the topic of buildings, it looks like when they are renovating them, they make a copy of what the building looks like and then attach it to the outside while it's being redone. Seems like a lot of trouble if you ask me! This building was huge and completely covered with a fake cloth front.

Next we headed to the tourist area. It is a pedestrian street called Old Arabat with all sorts of souvenir shops and restaurants. We got some great stuff for our son and some keepsakes for our daughter.

We ate at a cafeteria/buffet called "Moo Moo" but they spelled it "My My." You'd think Americans have never crossed their threshold. We did our best job of pointing and saying, "Eta paraloustra," which means, "That please," but they wanted us to call it by it's name. Well, we didn't play by their rules and showed them! I ended up with this horrid olive broth soup that was supposed to be cheese soup and some weird meat dish that look deceptively good all covered in cheese. Dan had some sort of meatloaf (we are hoping of the cow variety) and some potato things and he said both were good. We both had cranberry juice that was yummy (they only seemed to serve juices, no milk from a moo-moo?). I would like to go back and point to some different things. The prices were excellent, so worth a trip back to try some other mystery dishes.

Inside of My My (maybe it's My My for, "My, my, that olive broth is awful!") They have the cutest high chairs w/ cow spots. I've heard that high chairs of any kind in restaurants are rare.

Any first trip to Russia blog isn't complete without a comment on the fashion. Here are some pictures of women with skin tight jeans (hey, if I were a size 00, I might go for it, too!) and red spiky heeled boots. Check out the last lady attempting to haul her luggage around in those heels! I hear they even wear them when it's icy out!

The women are for the most part very slender here. I've heard 2 theories: 1) The food prices are outrageous---who would eat ice cream if it were $30 a pint in the states! That would do us all a favor! and 2) Many of them smoke. So, I will just give up ice cream and start smoking? Nope!

Lastly, I have to end with a very cute shot of a boy in a snowsuit on Old Arabat. It looked like his grandmother was also in attendance, hence the obligatory snowsuit in 50 degree whether! I saw several other children and they just had on coats w/ mittens and hats that covered the ears and no babuskas yelled at them.

So that's all for this episode of "Wee, look at the big city!" Stay tuned for tomorrow when we meet our Russian Sweet Baby!!! (Again, spell checker isn't working, so fend for yourselves.)

We Are In Mockba!!!!!!!!!!!

We are finally here!!!!!!

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? As you all know, we left Friday afternoon from the Oklahoma City airport. I thought we should take a photo to document this momentous event. So, we took a photo and I thought, "Wow, I had no idea I was looking that tired and run down! I look terrible!"

Okay, flash forward to this morning. We look like the "before" and "after" from some "Just Say No To Drugs" campaign!!! It's painful to view it, so please look at it through a paper with only a pinhole, if you dare. For those of you wondering how we were holding up, well, judge for yourself! LOL! The sad thing is that I really thought I was looking half way decent (you know the wonders showering and brushing your teeth can do!) and I actually thought I was smiling for the picture! LOL!

BEFORE

(Like a label is needed?) AFTER

Okay, so we left Oklahoma City about 15 minutes late (not bad by today's standards). However, I use the word "left" loosely because just about the time we should been heading down the runway, a lady hit the flight attendant button (no, thankfully not the actual flight attendant). So, the plane stopped moving, which is never good. The flight attendant checked on her and tried to coax her into staying on, but she wouldn't hear of it. She was feeling ill, from what we could gather 5 rows back. I've never witnessed this (and why not make this super important trip the first time, right?), but after a few more minutes, they actually opened the cockpit door out there in the middle of the tarmac and let the lady off to go in an ambulance. Then, a gentleman from the back said he needed to go with this person (I guess he didn't want her to have all of the fun). The pilot then announced that we will have to wait while the baggage handlers went thru all of the trillions of pieces of luggage (and I'm sure their suitcase was some odd color like black so it stuck right out) to find their luggage.

Finally we took off and got to Chicago about 20 minutes before the flight to London left. This airport is interesting. It appears hi-tech, yet, you have to wait in line to get on the trolleys that drive you around in the complete longest point from "A" to "B" possible. I guess they missed this day in school. They would count off a certain number of people and then let you walk downstairs, which I'm sure the folks with bum knees were love-ing, toting their carry-ons.

After strolling around the tarmac singing, "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood..." we finally got to our terminal and bolted like lightening to our flight. That flight was 8 hours and thankfully basically uneventful. We had a row of 3 seats to ourselves, which was glorious! Also, TVs in the headrests which was marvelous! The family behind us did have a baby that had a tendency to scream for minutes on end at the top of her little lungs. What is it with people wanting babies? LOL! Also, the mother and father both asked Dan and I to put our seats up as it was taking up too much room. I was like, whatever, dude, we are still in a free country as of right now and near as I can tell, these seats only recline to the strictest regulations mandated by the Federation Aviation Dept. of Seat Backs Association and I'm not about to sleep sitting bolt upright for the next 8 hours. He learned to live with it. :)

Trip Tracker: The red line is the trip from Chicago to London. The first one shows us finally flying over land. The second shows us flying into London. If you look waaaaaay far to the right, you can barely make out "Moscow."

Once we got to London, we had an 8 hour layover. We used donated airline points (thanks, Mom and Jerry!), so you can't beat free, though you also get what you pay for! LOL! We spent this time eating and trying to not fall asleep sitting up. We took turns leaning on one another to sleep for a few minutes at a time.

The London airport should have been named "The Mall of London and Oh, If You Are Interested, as a side line, We Fly International Flights Out Some Times." It was literally like a high end mall. When we got off of the plane, there was no board telling you what gate to go to for your next flight. It only gave terminals for that airline and even then, the directions were like the scarecrows arms in Wizard of Oz pointing in opposite directions. We came across an airport employee of some sort (he had a vest, so we figured he knew what was up) who was helping some other poor, lost soul and asked him for directions and what we were supposed to be looking for. He told us to wait in the lounge and they would announce the flight 30 minutes a head of time. Then, he turned and went down the hall, disappearing like the Great and Wonderful Wizard of OZ behind the magic curtain.

We found the lounge/mall. There were all kinds of stores there: Burberry's, Whiskies of the World, Borders Books, Cashmere City, to name a few. We found the screens where we thought surely our gate assignment be. Nope. There was a sign over it saying that 30-40 minutes before the flight, they would change the board and possibly announce it as well. Also, next to that was a sign saying how long it takes to walk to each gate, ranging from 5-20 minutes!!! Okay, that would only leave 10 minutes lag time if you got stuck with the 20 minute walk with only 30 minutes notice! So, instead of walking to our gate so we could relax, sleep, whatever, we were stuck in Mall of London style seating with other exhausted folks, trying to stay away, on edge that we would miss the gate information. There were hundreds of people walking around casually, shopping at the mall, as if they literally bought a plane ticket just so they could have access to the shopping. Next to our domain was guy standing in front of a new Ferrari selling tickets for $20 pounds (I guess) to have a chance to win it. A better bet would be that this guy takes off after he's gotten all of the money he's spent on the car, plus another huge amount.

Okay, so after obsessively checking the board when it neared the 30-40 minute mark, we finally got the go ahead and left the shopper's paradise and headed to it's airport annex, where they keep the gates. When we arrived, somehow there were already 100 people in line at the gate!!! Something tells me that the locals know how to check in online and got the gate info. ahead of time. Our flight was supposed to leave at 3:40. By this time it's about 3:30 and the line hadn't started to move. Clearly, the airport/mall views these as "suggested" times to leave and if it's not convenient (like what if there's a big sale at Burberrys????), then it can happen at a better time, later on down the yellow brick road. We ended up leaving at 4:40, an hour late!!! We sat on the tarmac forever because our leave time had expired! DUH!

So, we had a very tight connection at the Vienna airport of 35 minutes, which everyone SWORE would be PLENTY of time because it's a small airport. Well, I'm no mathematician, but 35 minutes is not enough time when you are an hour late. Once we landed, we had to go to the service center and re-book Vienna to Moscow for this morning via Austrian Air.

Austrian Air, I must say, did put us up in a very nice hotel (Which beats the heck out of the time I missed the last flight out of OH once and got to stay 20 minutes away at a former Holidome.) right across the street from the airport and gave us overnight bags with a new t-shirt! We were pretty much covered on all toiletry items (thanks, Jean!), but that shirt was soooo welcome after spending 2 days of sweating in our shirts. If you are ever going to have to stay over when missing a flight, I highly recommend Vienna and Austrian Air because they did take good care of us and it was very easy to get up this morning for our 6:50 a.m. flight (which turns out to be another "suggested" time) and walk across the street to get there in plenty of time.

We felt like the hotel room was rigged up as some sort of evil IQ test. We were soooo tired beyond belief that closing a regular door was a challenge. Well, it seems in Austria, their doors are hinged on the actual door frame, so when closed, it looks like the door is way too big for the frame and surely isn't closed! I tried and tried to "close" it, and thought, "Wow, I'm hallucinating now because the door wasn't this big when we got here!" Finally, I figured out the situation and got it closed. The next thing was that you have to put your room key in this device by the door or the lights won't come on. Here is a picture.

The next task was to alert our driver who would be meeting us in Moscow that we wouldn't be there and to let folks back home know we had a little snafu with travel plans. Tried as we might, we couldn't make a call to Russia! This hotel doesn't accept international calling cards and then even with the front desk's explaining, we still couldn't get the call to go thru to the driver. I'm sure being haggard and hallucinatory played no part. I did get one off to the agency in the US and one in to Mom, both of which were $20 US. Well worth it, though. I miss my cell phone and we are thrilled to have Internet access again! Wheee!!!

I was never so happy to see a sign than when I saw the gate info. at the Vienna airport this morning!

Leaving Vienna, heading for Moscow!!! (Again, on the tracker, it's waaaaay over on the middle right)

Austrian Air is very colorful and Ronald McDonald like. Also, this flight was wonderful because there were only about 10 people on the whole thing. And with the service, it was like a private jet.

The food was awesome! It was like traveling back in time when meals were hot, tasty and served with a smile, not a sneer. I actually burned my tongue on the eggs this morning!

Finally, we arrived in Moscow!!!! This tracker above shows us almost there. These next pictures a some of my first glimpse of Russia and of the airport.

These next pictures are things we saw on the ride from the airport to the hotel. The driver didn't end up getting the message that we weren't able to come in, so he waited until 3 a.m. for us!!! Anyway, needless to say, we didn't have a driver waiting on us when we got in today, so we took a cab. All of the drivers, not just cab drivers, drive like they are runnin' from the law!!! It's incredible, their driving skills. I took a lot of pictures so that I wasn't looking out of the front window, as it was quite hair raising. The drivers actually do work together, though. For example, if they both need to go around someone, they just share the lane, driving side by side. Thankfully, we were prepared for this experience.
These buildings are of apartments. There are many, many of these. They look like no one could possibly live in them (double click to view larger), however, I have heard that they are quite fantastic on the inside. They are left over from the communist regime.

Bet you can't guess what this is! Oh, yeah and it was raining when we were driving like bats out of hell. Thankfully, the speed on my camera is very quick!

This is the "Run, Don't Walk" sign. Pedestrians do not have the right of way! There are tunnels to go under the street and over in busier locations.

Some '80's band called Deep Purple is playing here soon. Dan remembers them from yesteryear...

And, they don't build'm like they used to. This is how they clean off the sidewalks here (even in snow/ice, I've heard). It's literally a stick with tree branches tied to it. Then another guy comes along with an old milk carton like container that's been cut in half, also on a stick and sweeps the leaves, etc. into that.

We made it safe and sound and even all of our luggage showed up! Come hell or high water, we are here at last to meet our baby girl! We are all tucked in at the Marriott Courtyard. We visited a little local grocery store and then it started to rain, so we came back to the hotel. Tomorrow, we are going to Old Arabat, the tourist area to see what we can see...so stay tuned!

P.S. The spellchecker is on vacation, so good luck reading this! :)

We are on our way!!!!!!!

We leave this afternoon at 2:30 for Moscow (via Chicago, London and Vienna!)!!!!!! The time has finally arrived for us to travel to meet our baby girl! We arrive in Moscow very early Sunday morning. Tuesday is the day we meet our baby! We will update again asap.

The Final Countdown!!!

If you have the speakers on your computer on, you've noticed that I changed the song to "The Final Countdown!!!" YAY!!!

Three days until we head to Moscow! We leave Friday afternoon and will finally arrive Sunday early morning.

Six days until we meet our daughter!!!Our appointment with the DOE (Department of Education) is Tuesday morning (which is Monday evening US time). These are the folks who give us our referral. They show us a picture of the baby and ask if we want to go meet her. Then, we are taken to the orphanage. We will go over her health background and then will meet the baby, along with a doctor who specializes in international adoption medicine. We will post pictures as soon as possible of our baby girl. Then we head back home on Thursday.

We don't have any information on the baby, other than she is 12-24 months and healthy. We aren't sure what we are going to name her. We will see what she is already named and then go from there. Hollycita Lou Who (after Candy Lou Lou) has been suggested, but I believe we will go a different direction. LOL!

This is our first trip. When we get the court date in 1-1 1/2 months, Dan and I will go back for court for a few days and will get to see the baby again and then come back home. Then, when the 10 day wait is over (mandatory after all court decisions), Mom and I will go over and bring the baby home. Dan will stay home with our son.

These are questions that we get a lot, so I'm trying to answer them all at once on here. :)

Going Private

We will be making the blog private very soon. We are going to have to limit invitations to immediate family to make sure that everything proceeds as it should in Russia. I'm sure everyone can understand us wanting to keep the adoption on the right track! :)

Thank you all in advance for your understanding and patience! I know what it's like to stalk some one's blog and be able to follow it throughout the process, so please be patient and we'll be back online soon...