Settling in

Our last flight went well... Rather turbulent throughout, my seat passenger sounded like she might have had pneumonia and they skipped over us with dinner... But we had to stay in our seats anyways, the gentle rattle of turbulence could be considered a massage by some and I was able to have a lovely conversation, only mildly stunted by our language barrier with Marina once I let go of my fear of getting sick and began praying for her;) I was even able to share some of the throat lozenges I brought along... I so wanted to council her about what to do to relieve the suffering... But couldn't due to our language barrier. Once a Pharmacist, always a pharmacist;)
Once we depressed our stewardess button, our meals were brought quickly;)

We exited the craft and walked to terminal. As we looked around, I spied the familiar faces of Yelana and Serge... Serge called out to Tim as he almost walked past him in the crunch of the crowd. I say crunch because there is no personal space here... I think it is 4 feet in America, but in other countries... Maybe 4 cm.

We got our bags and they brought us to the apartment. Oh my!! The building itself looks newer or at least a little brighter on the outside, but still so different. There is a large playground just across the road.

And the apartment is beautiful!! There are 3 keys to get in... One magnetic, one huge skeleton and one normal for us looking lock... Our room number starts with a different number than the floor we are on;) the elevator, though small compared to what we are used to, is quite adequate, clean and well lit.

We walked in the apartment and I felt as if I had walked into a Marriott Suite with a full kitchen. So beautiful. Will try to post pictures.

We were given a few hours to freshen up, eat breakfast and then go to our MOE appointment. We chose skyping with Eli over breakfast... Oh my do I miss that sweet little son of ours!!! It was soo good to see his face and blow hugs and kisses to the other side of the world!!

We got everything unpacked and put away, Tim put together a little movie of Eli for the MOE and then time to go.

We walked in, through nondescript halls until we reached a door. Feeling like we were in the back hallway in The Matrix, it was hard to know which door we were going to stop at. Yelena stuck her head in one door and told us to wait a minute. We spoke quietly with another Yelena, our translator for the appointment, and also the translator for our post placement docs for Eli.

The appointment went so very well. They were very encouraging and felt that our being return adopters to the same region and having proven ourselves with our first adoption, it may be a little easier for us in court. Please pray about this. Government tensions are running high and the stress is trickling down to affect placing the children in homes. Moscow has already suspended adoptions pending action. We are praying to ring our daughter home soon!!

She was soo very encouraging to us, enjoying seeing pictures of Eli now. We saw pics on her board of several families who were there the same time we were. The Dini's, Goeppner's and Jerger's.... All families we traveled with over 4 years ago.

We were able to find our daughter's full name and birthday, and she is in the same baby home Eli was in, so we will have the same team in court;)

After a wonderful time with Tatiana, we went to lunch at the Oceanview . The food was wonderful!! We realized it was the first meal we had eaten since our lunch in Columbus before we left Sat am... Except for the lovely meals on the planes;)

Now we are desperately trying to stay awake until bedtime around here... We stopped at the bank, the mall...(wow!!! I have never seen so many shoes!!!) and the grocery store. Heading out to the flea market in a bit;)

Thank you for your continued prayers!! We go to meet Ksenia tomorrow morning. Tatiana looked at us and wished us her best wishes for Ksenia to bond with us... She could see we already had a strong place in our hearts for her.

So, off we go to the market;)


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