I've lost track of time. The last 36 hours have been a blur, to say the least, but we're all doing well.
Today we had our first little outing as a family. We went to vital records to get our new Birth Certificates for Nick. Our translator and driver picked us up at about noon today to head to the office. As it turned out, what we thought was going to be a quick trip out took 3 hours. So now we have finally experienced the terrible Moscow traffic that we have seen from the sidewalks, and heard about, but hadn't quite lived it first person.
The office of vital records is about an hour away from our apartment. I couldn't begin to tell you what part of town we went to. Apparently, there are dozens of these offices and you go to the one that did the original paperwork for the child. Our driver and translator had never been to this particular office which explains why we stopped twice on our way there for directions, go figure.
Luckily Nick fell asleep on the drive there and had over an hour of good sleep. We were pretty happy about that since he had missed his afternoon nap on Tuesday and morning nap today. Anyway, we got there around 1:15 and found that they close the office from 1:30 - 3:00. Thank goodness one of the ladies was willing to stay past 1:30 to complete the new certificate for us so we wouldn't have to drive around Moscow for another 2 hours waiting for the office to re-open.
Nick was so good on the trip, which was very hot (80 degrees, concrete jungle, bumper to bumper traffic, no airconditioning) and not much fun for him. He only got fussy toward the end of our time in the car.
When we arrived home we had a snack and we weren't too far off his afternoon nap schedule so I tried to get him to go down. No luck, but almost. We played till about 6pm, then Bill fed Nick, bathed him and bedtime started around 7. The goal was to have him down by 8pm which is his normal bedtime and it took an hour last night. I am happy to report that after about 15 minutes of rocking and humming along to The Shins, Nick went down without a peep. We hope he'll get a good night of sleep tonight because he is lacking on his normal schedule.
Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments and emails the past few days. It means so much to us to hear from you all and we can't wait to see everyone!
Hugs!
10 years ago
5 comments:
Welcome to Moscow traffic! We adopted Artem from the Moscow region and his baby home was 2.5 hours away ONE way b/c the traffic was so bad. Five hours a day of traffic was not fun.
On trip 2 we signed paperwork making our translator our POA so he did all the running around for us on trip 3 and we got to stay out of the traffic and do things as a family. We were very lucky as Artem got really sick in the car.
I hope the rest of your appts go well.
FYI, I'm 99% sure there is a law about posting updates without including pictures of your cute son!
Awww...You are a fabulous family! Meghan you look like a natural! I STILL don't know what to do with a baby! I love this site and love your dedication to Nick. You will blink and before you know it Meghan, you will be rolling your eyes with all the calls Nick is getting from the ladies! Bill, your love and devotion to your family is well...wonderful.
Bill & Meghan, Congratulations, Darlings!! I am so excited for you all! I am also relieved that you now have Nick in your custody with the uncertainty of what is going on between Russia and Georgia. I am surprised you have not commented on it, but maybe there is no a lot of reporting of events in Moscow? I am so glad you guys are exploring Moscow and learning about Nick's culture. It will be important to all of you in years to come. Take care and have a great rest of your stay. We miss you, too!! Megan Karass
Bill, your Dad asked me to share the comment with you that there were times that in order to get you to go to sleep we had to take you for rides in the car.
Hang in there, sounds like you are doing GREAT.
Oh my goodness - I just caught up and he is a doll!!! Congratulations on gotcha day - sory I am so late in commenting! Glad you are doing well and I'm sure the rest of your trip will go just fine!! Congrats again!
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