Tickets & Travel Visas Have Arrived

This morning our airline tickets arrived and yesterday we received our travel visas. We sent our travel itinerary to the adoption agency so they would have a copy of it and know when to expect us. On our way into Russia, we have a very brief layover in Copenhagen and then we fly into Moscow via Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). Hopefully there will be some English speaking folks there in the event we get twisted around in the airport - I have a hard enough time managing Russian!

Last night at 11:30, Dawn went through the clothing we are taking for the kids to see what we should take. She has had their bags packed for three months and the weather is much warmer now getting up to 72-75 in the day time, but dropping as low as 35 at night. It is our understanding that in Russian culture, kids are still expected to wear long sleeves and long pants. Exposed skin apparently will subject you to scolding by the older women in the community. We originally thought it would be frigid when we returned for court, but that will not be the case. So, we are taking jeans, long sleeved shirts for the two oldest and some jumpers with tights for the youngest. We took out the heavy coats and are just going to take light jackets. They take up a lot of space and the weather just does not require it. The weather in Moscow seems to be pretty close to the same as that in Vladivostok so we should be okay.

Motel reservations for the return through Moscow have been made. I have had to e-mail them to see if it will be acceptable to have one adult and two children per room. They have a two person limit per room. I used my Holiday Inn travel points to book the rooms in order to save money - about $1,800. Glad to see ALL those nights on the road were good for something. There is a huge park two blocks away. I believe it is called Sokolniki Park. Dawn's sister-in-law has spent a lot of time in Moscow and she said it was a good place to go. It will provide a nice break from things I think.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. I will go to the bank and get checks for our final payment to the agency and, I will also start the quest for crisp bills. The currency exchangers in Russia will not accept any bills with ink marks (counterfeit detection), folds, etc. They basically have to be perfect. That can be a challenge, so I am giving myself two days to collect the currency. I spoke to the bank a couple of weeks ago and they essentially said they would do what they could. How encouraging...

I have become a firm believer in the power of prayer over the last year and in particular the past few weeks. I have a long list I go through nightly for those adopting and others experiencing some challenging times. If you have such a list, please add us...