Update from the Marriott!

What a trip it has been to get here!

I have recovered from my stomach bug, or from something I ate. It was a rough 3 days (and rough Russian toilet paper!) and I was a little disappointed that we could not finish touring Moscow. We left on Monday from Moscow for Bryansk and took the late train. We departed at 6pm. We arrived close to midnight with no sleep on this trip. We watched a movie instead on our DVD player.

We checked in to Chernigov Hotel very early Tuesday for the night. I thought to myself this is our last sleep alone as a couple as tomorrow we would be a family of three! We woke up in the morning and went downstairs for breakfast. We waited for Olga to get back from court to get our paper work, what was supposed to take 10 min, turned in to two hours. We went to the passport office to pick up Sean’s Russian passport and the staff was out to lunch. So we went out to lunch for an hour. We went back to meet Olga and she finally arrived another hour later.

Olga informed us that we would inherit Sean’s Russian savings account…great!!! He has an account being a ward of the state. Actually we wanted to give the money to the orphanage as it is in great need of funding. His five thousand rubles averaged out to be about $133.00. Olga called orphanage social worker to see if the bank would be open when we got there for us to sign papers for Sean’s bank account from the state to be signed over to the orphanage. Olga wanted to know if we wanted to wait one more day. I said no I want to go and get him (actually it sound more like a threat… Pat’s thoughts!) We left at 3pm and arrived at 5:30 pm at the bank and signed over the papers.

We finally made it to Klintsy Baby Home (orphanage). I did get back my photo album that I left and was happy about that. I also was given a couple of baby photos of Sean.. The rest of the time was just a whirlwind. We rushed in to get Sean and were brought to a room that resembled a hospital room. Sean came in and the care taker took his clothes off in such a rush, I thought the building was closing! She asked for Sean’s clothes (through Olga.) I had to rush through the diaper bag looking for everything. In the meantime Sean was fussy crying, but no tears! So with his new American duds on, I was handed Sean and with a quick good bye to his caretakers, we were out the door! It was the fastest (and greatest) part of the day!

Sean was great in the car. He has his serious Russian dour face on, but then we got him to smile. He would sing babble and giggle for us on the ride. It was 8: oo pm when we returned to hotel. It was right to bed for Sean, too late for a bath. Patrick got a pizza to go, because Sean was too tired to stay in the restaurant. So off to bed we went. Sean and I slept in the same bed.

He tossed and turned in the bed all night. He started at the head of the bed and ended at the foot of the bed. I was watching him most of the night. In the morning we played and then I fed him breakfast. H enjoyed the oatmeal that I brought for him. He is a good eater. He liked using a cup to drink. Then it was time for his bath. Not happy with bath time. We had our last breakfast at the Chernigov; Sean sat on my lap while mommy ate some of her breakfast. I did not care for the oatmeal this time it was like germ wheat. Also potato salad and one egg with a hamburger patty under it. It tasted like meatloaf. Pat stuck with tea and toast…his main meal thru the trip!


We left with Olga and our new driver (Victor #2) to pick up Sean’s passport and then two more stops. The last stop was to take pictures of Sean for his American visa. We went in and he was not having any part of this. Sean does not like his picture taken. He always puts on his face. I call it that because I have seen it when I try to take his picture. I think he thinks what is she doing with that device that’s pointing at me and the light makes hurts my eyes! He had a little meltdown in the shop. A few minutes later he calm downed enough to have it taken. It was very warm inside the shop too. It seems that every place we went in to was so warm. I was cranky too. We finally were on the road to Moscow by 1:00pm. Olga suggested we take a car back instead of the train.

We were happy about that until our 4 hour car ride turned in to 7 hour car ride. We arrived at 8pm. Traffic in Moscow was terrible! We had to drive by the Kremlin and there was a diplomat in the region so we were stopped in traffic for an hour at least. The running joke was the Russian President wanted to go out for Chinese food for dinner and his security group stopped all traffic. It was horrible.

Then our driver announced that he did not know where our hotel was. We were like oh my god… NO! Patrick and Olga both knew how to go but could not convince Victor #2 to drive us there. He made a wrong turn a half mile from the Marriott after we waited in this horrible traffic jam and was heading back the way we came from. I just want to jump out of the car we were only 10 min from our hotel and I felt so bad for Sean. Olga was on the phone with all kinds of people. So with that Victor #2 (Patrick wanted to push him out and drive himself!) Victor #2 then turned around and drove back by all the previous traffic we waited in for nearly an hour and a half as he decided he would find a taxi cab driver to get us there. So Olga got out a few times and was asking taxi drivers on the street and finally found one that would take us.

So back in the traffic jam we went once more. Did I mention this car was smaller than the one we drove in for 6 hour plus in! Sean was absolutely fabulous for this car ride. He only fussed a few times. Remember Sean had not eaten supper or lunch! I was so happy to get to our room. We fed Sean his supper and he was still hungry so he ate two additional bowls of oatmeal! It was so nice to have a king size bed and to be back with Western TV, English speaking people, a great ,great bathroom with all the enmities of home. We slept pretty well, though I would keep waking up to check on Sean. He was in a little bed and we had to put pillows on the sides so he would not fall out. He managed to roll off the back and I sprung across his bed to grab him. He did not mind at all. Back to sleep and then we were up early for the doctor visit.

The doctor came at 6:45. Sean did pretty well with his exam. The doctor said he was physically healthy and pointed out his molars were coming in, which we knew. The Russian doctor spoke excellent English and mentioned he studied medicine at Harvard. We told him about our close physical location to Yale. He enjoyed that fact and was well aware of the Yale-Harvard competition. After breakfast, we spent the morning playing in our bed before it was bath time again. We made it downstairs for lunch. Sean had mashed potatoes and warm milk. He did well with lunch but got a little fussy because it was his nap time.

Upstairs we went for his nap. In the meantime the hotel brought us a crib for him. That worked out much better. After his nap we took a nice walk to Arbat Street. He enjoys his stroller. We do have internet access but we have to pay for it hourly. It is great to be able to Skype with family at home. We talked and saw Molly and showed her how to run the dishwasher! Sean also talked to Molly and she is the first family member to see him in live living color! It was great to see Molly and then Goldie ran in. Pat called for Goldie via Skype and Goldie ran thru the house looking for him! We are very thankful to Molly as she has been our house, dog, cat(s) sitter for us! Friday we are off to the American Embassy for some visa paperwork to be completed and then home on Saturday!

Friday afternoon and Sean has got his American Visa!! Hooray! Embassy was great as it took only 50 minutes. We met five other American couples adopting Russian children and we all got the green light! So it’s off to the airport tomorrow at noon!

We leave on Saturday at three PM Moscow time to catch our plane. Wish us luck that Sean does ok with that new adventure. Next post should be from home. I will post some pictures of our little guy in the next post.