Thursday, March 13, 2008

Day Two with our Son

Day two went great! We feel like we are bonding well with our kiddo. He came right to us and we got to play for 2 hours. How in love we are with him!!

We flew back to Moscow after a busy day and today (Thursday) we did our medicals in Moscow. It was painless and we are glad they are done. Everyone was very nice to us. We were lucky to meet another adoptive couple at the clinic and talked with them in between seeing the 8 doctors.

We are free the rest of today and all of tomorrow. We plan to walk to Red Square and St. Basil’s cathedral tomorrow to do the tourist thing. We will fly back home on Saturday. We are looking forward to returning home to finish his nursery and then hurry back!!

We are taking it easy the rest of today as the last 3 days have been so busy and very emotional. We plan to watch movies that we brought with us!!

Important things we have learned for others getting ready to travel

-Keep all registration forms from the hotels inside your passport so at the airport you can prove you were registered where you stayed.
-I would suggest bringing the travel rolls of toilet paper as the hotels quality of toilet paper isn’t that great and if you get sick you’ll want them (thankfully we haven’t been sick, but I can only imagine.)
-Be sure to ask the driver to help you buy water BEFORE checking in to the hotel as the water there is extremely expensive.

Some neat things we have learned while here.

-The potholes really are that bad
-The traffic really is that bad
-Drivers put Vodka and water into their cars windshield washer fluid so when they spray to clean their windshield, it smells like Vodka (keeps water from freezing)
-Do be careful when crossing the street. Although it seems like they really don’t want to hit you they just want to come close!
-Even if there are four lanes for traffic you can expect 5-6 lanes actually running.

Hopefully we will be able to post tomorrow night with our “touristy” photos!! I’ll be catching up with blogs soon. Can’t wait to see how everyone else is. Internet at the hotel in Moscow is pretty expensive so we only have enough for 24 hours. Take care everyone.

12 comments:

ana said...

Glad you had a great time playing with your son. I know you miss him already.

I know you're glad the medical exam is over. We were happy to have that done and out of the way.

Have a safe trip home!

Janine said...

Rachel,

I wish we were in Moscow so we could hook up tomorrow. We are in St. Pete. We will be in Moscow on our second trip..hopefully our trips will overlap then. Glad to hear your visits went well. We got to see our little girl for the first time today. We are thrilled with her..but the feeling was definatitely not shared by her. :-)Hopefully tomorrow she will feel a little better being with us.

Janine said...

Rachel,

I wish we were in Moscow so we could hook up tomorrow. We are in St. Pete. We will be in Moscow on our second trip..hopefully our trips will overlap then. Glad to hear your visits went well. We got to see our little girl for the first time today. We are thrilled with her..but the feeling was definatitely not shared by her. :-)Hopefully tomorrow she will feel a little better being with us.

junglemama said...

IT sounds like you are having a great wonderful time. Please take lots of pics that you can share with us out in BLogland.

Sira said...

Emotional- I can imagine. Can't wait until the nursery is finished!!!

Mama Fish said...

Can't wait to see your "touristy pics"! Thanks for the tips... I will have to rememebr those when it's our turn.

Amy said...

Glad to hear that you had another wonderful day with your son. Take lots of pictures in Moscow. Be safe.

Ron and Dinia said...

Welcome back to Moscow!

We used to laugh that potholes were easier to travel on in Izhevsk during the winter while there is snow. In the spring there are unbelievable! What an unbelievable week you guys must have had! Enjoy the sites tomorrow!

Paka

Dinia

Becky and Keith said...

I'm so glad your 2nd day went so well! Love the travel tips - they are good ones to remember!

Chris said...

There is lots to see in Moscow - do it now before you have your son. It will be a lot harder to do tourist things when you are chasing a little one.

Have a great trip home!

Ryan and Amy said...

Glad to hear all is going well. There really are no words to explain that traffic, are there? So happy that all went well with your little man - have fun and don't miss Old Arabat Street! :)

Christen L said...

Congrats on meeting your son!

Thanks for the tips you've learned for those of us who are behind you in the process. :)

I don't think I've ever actually commented, so you can check out our blog at: http://ellis-family.blogspot.com