Its Official-3 more Days!

Another eventful day here in Moscow. Got up early again, Maks slept 11 hours and woke up at 7:15am. Not bad! We stayed in the apartment this morning and ate breakfast here. We had made it to the grocery store yesterday and found eggs (not easy) and bread. It was nice to have home-cooked breakfast. Maks took a nap for 2 1/2 hours this morning and by the time he got up we had to get him ready for our US Embassy appointment and head out the door. It was an interesting process. For some reason I thought everyone who worked at the American Embassy would be American. Thats not true. Some were, some weren't. After going through several checkpoints and a few security screenings we made it to the back of a long line. Apparently they set a 2pm appointment for lots of families adopting. There were 2 lines, one for Russians requesting a Visa to travel to the US and then one for Adoption, Family Issues and something else. You have to go to the cashier first (shocking) and pay $400 for the American Visa for Maks. Once we did that we waited in a waiting room with a bunch of other families for our "interview". The interview was a 3 minute process where they reviewed Maks's information, asked that everything we claimed on our forms was correct and explained that someone would be out to speak with all of the families in a few minutes. They also told us it would be a 30-45 minute wait for our Visa.

It was a great room to be in. Made me feel so much better about our struggles. There were probably 15 other families there from the US who were adopting from Russia with their children. We got to speak with several of them. One thing was clear, everyone's path to Russian Adoption was different. Some families waited close to a year for a referral, some waited months. Some families waited a few weeks for their Trip 2 date, some families waited months. Some families had to stay the rest of the week to register at the Russian Consulate (ok, just the Sandras and us) and everyone else is going home tomorrow and registering back in the USA. One thing was very consistent. Every set of parents or single parents there looked just as overwhelmed and frustrated as us. We talked to a couple from Michigan who had adopted 2 twin boys from Siberia near the Mongolian border who said their kids screamed all the time and were always yelling in Russian. They had to take them to the front desk of their hotel to find out what they were saying! Another little boy was screaming throughout the whole group presentation part. It was a nice kinship of sorts.

A lady came out about 5 minutes later to describe the process to everyone. Letting us know to keep the document envelope sealed until we reached the US, where to go, what they would do etc... A few things I didn't know...

1. Maks will keep his Russian Citizenship forever, unless he officially renounces it through the Russian Government
2. If Maks comes back to Russia between the ages of 18 and 35 he could be drafted into the Russian Army, apparently Russia requires all men to spend time in the military. If he comes back even for a 2 week vacation he could be drafted. (So Maks will NOT be coming back to Russia between the ages of 18 and 35) :)
3. If we have trouble with our layover in Copenhagen, we can't leave the airport. It will be like that movie "The Terminal" with Tom Hanks. Maks is traveling on a Russian passport, not an American one and he would need a Visa to visit those European countries and won't be allowed to leave the airport.

Anyway, the good news is that we got the Visa and are cleared to travel. We're still in Russia for the next 2 days to be registered with the Russian Consulate. Many other families do this in the US. Adoption Ark prefers that we do it here so that there are no problems with the process that will affect to outcome of other family's adoptions. Fair enough. So we were able to change our tickets to Friday.

A few notes about that.... DO NOT EVER USE BEST TRAVEL FROM NAPERVILLE- they treated us like second class citizens and would not help us change our tickets. They basically told us that they had already spent too much time on our case and would have to charge us fees. She also said there was nothing they could do. So Jason called Scandinavian Airlines himself and got ahold of some very great people who were able to help us change our tickets to Friday and keep our business class seats. THANK YOU SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINES! I would HIGHLY recommend them!!

I'm going to end this post now as its really long. I am going to do another one today though for other families who may be traveling to Russia for adoption soon and are thinking of renting an apartment. There are some things you should know!

3 more days and we will be home!!!! WAHOO!!!!!!