Coming Home

Today was long. We traveled for at least 24 hours with an off and on very cranky four year old. All things considered he did pretty well and is now officially a US Citizen. Now however, if you'll take a look at the time stamp it is 2:55 am and I am exhausted but instead of sleeping I am sitting on the couch watching Toy Story while Sam plays with toys and we try not to wake Daddy up. I thought not having a baby would mean I got sleep. Not so much. Also, it's crazy that Toy Story 1 was my little brother's favorite movie for a very long time and I can still recite whole parts of it. Weird how the brain works. Anyways, it's good to be home, although I don't know that the cats would agree.

Not Luck Just God

So we had a little bit of a rough day today. We walked all the way to the Kremlin which was about 25-30 minutes each way with Sam, and then we ate at TGI Fridays. Personally, I could have done without both, but I guess we should at least try some sightseeing on the trip. We have not gone sightseeing at all this trip except if you count going to the orphanage, downtown St. Petersburg (to court & vital records [what incredible sights, in deed]) & Priozersk. Sam did fine, but it was definitely not easy with him wanting to go pee and us having to find somewhere in a foreign country with a public restroom. Thank you McDonald's by the Kremlin.

Anyways, now I will tell you the real story of the day. We went out to find this pizza place that we were told about, and could not find it. So we came back to the hotel, and ordered room service. I went to the store to get some drinks, because we are not paying the ridiculous amount for room service drinks (they already were charging a ridiculous amount for the food). Anyways on the way back from the store, I felt this sliding feeling, and I checked to see if my wallet or passport had fallen out. They had not, so I just kept walking. I got back to the hotel and realized that was the money belt, and this was after a couple of minutes. Oh crap! So I ran out of the room as fast as I could under the arms of the bellhop who had just knocked at our door, and sprinted back to retrace my steps. Praying the whole way, but really all I could even pray was, "Oh God please..." But God did please and our moneybelt was just lying in front of the store in plain site with a light showing on it. I picked it up and hugged it, and thanked God. I ran back to our hotel, because I assumed that Carrie was probably freaking out and looking for the money belt. She was. But God was watching out for us, and I can only think that it was God. Praise God! (And yes, I forgot to take my blood pressure medicine today. Guess what I did when I got back to the hotel clutching the money belt in my hand? Took that medicine.)

Long story short, PRAISE GOD!

Made to Moscow

We made it Moscow. We are staying in a "posh" Marriott. We didn't have a choice they booked us there. We left our apartment at 7:45 this morning. We got the airport at 10:15. Our flight left at 11:50, and we got to Moscow at 1:20. We then spent another 2 1/2 hours in the car getting to our motel. Poor Sam didn't get lunch because we were scared he might get motion sickness like he did the morning we picked him up from the orphanage.

He did very well for not getting any lunch and flying his first time on an airplane. We were ready to get dinner when we got the hotel, but we had a meeting with the contact here, and then once again we were ready for dinner, but we had a doctor come to our room next from the US Embassy for Sam. So by the time that was over, it was 7 pm. We made it to the hotel restaurant and that was cheap, however, it was here and Sam was running on empty about 4 hours earlier.

Oh I forgot to mention Sam was scared and woke up at 3:30 and didn't get back to sleep. We are tired. Poor guy.

Thanks for all of your prayer and support.

Sam sings the ABC's

Anyone wanna hear Sam sing the ABC's? You know you want to!

Макдоналда (McDonald's)

So we had our first trip to McDonald's today. Sam was very good and ate all of his cheeseburger. He got a Happy Meal, but we held his toy until the end of end of the meal. He was very excited that he got a car. We took a couple of pictures of him with his Happy Meal box when we got back home.





Later we went to the park as we always do in the afternoon, and there were a bunch of boys playing (with realistic toy guns). But Sam made a new friend. A little boy a couple of years older than him with the exact same coat. They rode the slide together, and chased each other around the playground. It was really funny, and I am glad that he found a little friend. As we were leaving, I think Sam told him that he would see him tomorrow, but I don't think that boy will be there, because his parents will be at work and he will be in school.

In parenting news, we decided to give up on Sam's naps, and we implemented a quiet time hour. He is right at that age where he really doesn't need a nap anymore, and so we just started putting him to sleep earlier. He is a little grouchy around dinnertime, but that is only a little bit before his bath which is only about 30 minutes before he goes to bed. It is better than him not going down at night, because he is not tired from his nap. We also moved up his bedtime from 9:30 to 7. And he has been falling asleep at about 7:30. They told us that his bedtime at the orphanage was 9:30 to 10:30. That is a little too late especially since that is my bedtime. We tried moving him out of our futon bed and onto the cot that is in our room, but he fell out of it at about 11:15. He was ok. He said, "Mama, Papa" and I picked up and put him in our bed and he just went back to sleep. Sam sleeps like a rock.... a radioactive moving rock.

Things that are completely and totally adorable:

- My little Russian singing short snippets of the ABC's. He knows about five random letters and just walks around the apartment humming to himself.

- How much he LOVES the bathtub. The minute we say the word bath he runs around the apartment stripping off all his clothes.

- How he wants to give us kisses all the time and will just walk up to me and say "ya te-bya ly blu, mama" (I love you mama).

In other news, I think I'm learning more Russian than he is English and he's definitely getting more sleep than me. I think God gave us three cats to prepare us for surrendering all of the bed space to someone half our size. At one point I woke up and he had his head on my stomach, his legs draped over Tim, and his hand on my face. Who knew he would turn into a little mini whirling dervish at night.

We are absolutely ready to come home now though. Every time we go some where we get asked if we are going to America. It took an entire day to explain that our cars weren't here but in America. I don't know how we're going to explain the fact that Moscow is not America.

Still, I love being a mom. God created me for this, even when it's hard. And he's revealing himself to me more and more everyday. Even the fact that going to bed last night shrank from an hour and half to fifteen minutes was a miracle much prayed for.

We love all of you and can't wait to get home so you can meet our little miracle.

Signs I Have Been in Russia Too Long

1. When I close my eyes at night all I hear is Russian, and I don't understand half of it.

2. When the computer does something I don't want it to do I speak to it in Russian.

3. I am able to figure out who else sticks out like a sour thumb, and is not from Russia.

4. I wake up thinking this futon isn't so bad. Especially when you have three people on.

5. I am not really completely bothered by going to the store anymore.