Sunday, August 8th
As mentioned in the previous blog entry, Moscow was extremely smoggy and hot when we arrived. Hundreds of wildfires were raging in the Russian countryside, which covered Moscow in a thick, thick haze. We took a picture from our Novy Arbat apartment window in June (shown on left). We had the same apartment for our last few days of the trip, so we took another picture.
The second photo was taken on Monday, after the smog had cleared considerably. At one point Sunday, we could not see anything beyond the large building on the left side!
Unfortunately, this put a major damper on any sightseeing plans we had. We decided that staying healthy was much more important than getting pictures of Aleks in front of St. Basil's cathedral. We limited ourselves to a visit to one of the restaurants for lunch, and then purchasing groceries for our final stay.
We also discovered that the AC unit located in the bedroom could keep the bedroom comfortable, but only if the door was kept closed. If we tried to cool the entire apartment, it was only slightly less miserable than without. We chose to keep the bedroom comfortable.Aleks didn't seem to mind the heat at all. He loved crawling around everywhere in just a diaper. We didn't feel like the best parents, but it kept him cooler. We focused on keeping everyone hydrated, and keeping him entertained.
The first day, Aleks was entertained by the toys we had brought. However, he soon grew bored of them, and his attention shifted. One of his favorite activities was crawling over to the side of the stove, and looking at his reflection in the steel.After feeding Aleks, and preparing a quick meal for ourselves, we turned in early that night. Staying in the sauna (aka living room) was just too uncomfortable.
Monday, August 9th
Monday morning, Kathy asked if Alan would be okay watching Aleks while she ventured out to the grocery store for more water and Diet Coke. Aleks had been doing great so far, so Alan agreed without any reservations. By the time Kathy returned 40 minutes later, Alan was a nervous wreck!
Aleks' calm demeanor had lasted for about 5 minutes after his mommy left. At that point, he decided he was sick of daddy, and wanted mommy. So he cried. And cried. And cried some more. We learned just how loud our little guy could be when he is upset, and it is definitely LOUD. Toss in a very inexperienced new dad, and it made for a frazzling time.
Our agenda for the day was busy but quick. Our first stop was to get Aleks' visa photos. Tanya, our translator, met us outside, along with a new driver we hadn't met before. He wasn't as friendly as Ilya or Constantin had been, and didn't seem to be too happy working with Tanya either. As we drove to the photo center, he drove very fast and recklessly (even for Moscow standards).
How anyone ever does business in Moscow is a mystery to us. I'll go into detail of our path to get Aleks' visa photos.
We took a side street, another side street, and then stopped at a giant gate that was mostly closed. There weren't any signs on the gate, but we walked through to a large courtyard. After a few turns, we approached what looked like a cellar door in one of the buildings. There was a sign next to the door that said photo, but that was it. We opened the door, and descended into the basement of the building. Down empty hallways we walked, with nothing to indicate that we were going to the right place, except for Tanya's confidence. Finally we reached what looked like an apartment door. We walked in, and Comic Book Guy's Russian cousin was sitting at a desk in front of a very old looking PC. There were lots of tourism-style posters on the walls that were very faded, like they had been exposed to the sun for years and years. However, this room (and the guy working in it) looked like they hadn't seen sunlight since they ventured to Mordor to toss the ring into Mt. Doom.
After the photos were taken and printed, our next stop was at a medical clinic. Before we could take Aleks out of the country, he needed to have a checkup performed by an approved doctor.
At the clinic, there was another American couple getting their child checked also. They were much calmer about the process, as they had already adopted two other children from Russia. While we waited for their checkup to complete, Alan and Tanya filled out the paperwork required for the embassy. While there were a lot of forms to fill out, Tanya knew exactly what to fill out, and how.
We were very happy with our visit to the doctor. We had been told earlier that he spoke English, but his cheerful demeanor was a pleasant surprise. He did a variety of tests on Aleks, explaining to us what he was doing and why. He was joking with us, and entertaining Aleks, through the whole procedure. He seemed to be very pleased with the number of teeth Aleks had, as it showed that he was receiving good nutrition at the baby home.
During the examination, the doctor's assistant was typing up the report needed for the embassy. Even with waiting for the other couple's visit, we were finished at the doctor's office much quicker than we had anticipated. This turned out to be a very good thing.
Our final stop for the day was the embassy. Tanya needed to drop off our paperwork, so that we could get an appointment for the next day. We were not allowed to go with, so we waited in the car with our driver. His car did not have air conditioning (of course), so we had two choices: Sit in the back seat of a small vehicle with a squirmy, bored 11 month old, or Stand outside in the heat and smog. Eventually, heat and smog won out.
After what seemed like a very long wait, Tanya returned. Because of the weather, the embassy had been turning people away, telling them to come back tomorrow. Tanya had to explain our situation, and beg for our paperwork to be accepted. Otherwise, we would have been stuck in Moscow for at least 1 more day beyond our planned departure date.
I want to stop here, and just show my appreciation for the work that our Russian coordinators performed. Although there were some surprise changes that took place, the amount of work and care that they put into our adoption was very special to us.
After the photos, medical, and embassy visit #1, we were dropped off back at our apartment. There was still plenty of the day left, but once again the heat and smog prevented us from venturing out farther than the grocery store.
Tuesday, August 10th
This was our last day in Moscow (and Russia), and it was bittersweet. Although we were excited to be finally going home, we loved spending 3 weeks on the other side of the world.
When we went down to the street to meet Tanya that day, we were happy to see that the smog was finally starting to lift. In addition, the temperatures were a little cooler than they had been before (I believe it only got to 85 that day). Since we were only a 10 minute walk from the US embassy, we felt a bit silly having a driver take there. However, that was part of our daily fee, so we accepted the service.
Once we arrived at the embassy, we were on our own. We approached the secured area, and proceeded through multiple checkpoints. Alan was a bit surprised, as all of the outside security guards, and some internal security guards, were Russian. We always thought that since it was "American soil", that meant that all employees were also American.
Once inside, we were required to surrender our cellphone. We walked through massive, empty hallways and proceeded to window #4. Although the instructions had implied that there would be long lines of people at windows 1-3 and 5-6, there was no one in line at any of those windows. Eventually, we moved to another waiting area, that was filled with 5-6 American families who were adopting. Aleks crawled back and forth through the room, while we waited for our turn to approach the counter. Once there, we spoke with a very nice man who checked our information, and finalized Aleks' adoption papers. We received a large manilla folder, that contained all of the information needed at American customs. He was very adamant that we do NOT open this folder, as doing so would greatly slow down the process.
We were also instructed to wait in the lobby until everyone was processed. There was additional information we would be getting. This was where we got our first real surprising news of the trip. As the embassy representative was speaking, he mentioned something we had not heard before.
As a male citizen of the Russian Federation, Aleks is required to perform 3 years of service in the Russian military. This obviously cannot be enforced while he is living in the United States, but it could be if he returned to Russia between the ages of 18 and 35. The exception to this would be for him to visit the Russian embassy in the US and formally rescind his citizenship before traveling to Russia. We cannot perform this action for him, so it would have to occur after he 18. This was important for us to know, as we had always assumed we would visit Russia with him at some point in the future. If he's underage, we're safe. But if we visit after he's an adult, there could be trouble.
After that, the rest of the information was fairly standard. We gathered up Aleks, and left the embassy. We returned to our apartment, and had a celebration. Both the Russian and US governments had cleared (almost) all hurdles to finalizing the adoption!!!
That night, the heat finally broke. Around 10pm, a thunderstorm blew through Moscow, cooling the air and cleaning the skies. It was a "go figure" moment. We'd just experienced 3 weeks of record breaking temperatures, and on our last day it was going to become comfortable. Oh well.
Next up:
The final post of the trip! The Long (long long LONG) road home.
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