US Bound…

After a 5 hour flight delay trying to leave Siberia Wednesday, we finally made our way to Moscow. Valera was quite the ham on the plane. He hadn’t had a nap and wasn’t interested in sleeping on the plane either. He enjoyed grabbing the hair of the people sitting in front of us and screaming just for the sake of hearing the sound it would make. By the time we got to the Marriott in Moscow he was completely “cray-cray” as the girls say. He was laughing, crying, and swinging from the panic handles in the car…all at the same time.

The hotel here is great and we have a crib for him, so we all got some rest. Valera slept 14 hours and then we took him for his medicals . We saw 4 other American families at the Dr office and even met a family from Pawhuska, OK adopting two boys over the age of 10. Very cool. Great people.

The Dr’s diagnosis of Valera was “spoiled and ‘drool-itis’”. He could tell Valera was an orphanage favorite because he shows no fear of adults and he’s got a good sized belly :). He also is drooling a lot from cutting back teeth right now.

Our coordinator was able to race us from the Dr appt to the US Embassy to get ALL of our documents submitted with only 4 MINUTES to spare so we could have our interview today and fly home on tomorrow! YAY!

I’ve taken the girls to KFC, McDonalds (twice), Sbarro, and Starbucks so they both think that Moscow is better than Siberia.  I personally liked the low key slower pace in Tomsk.

Today was a great day that included the visit to the US Embassy with Valera.  He was a great boy and enjoyed watching all the other orphans being adopted by American families.  We were there with about ten other families and are all cleared to come home tomorrow.  Valera will officially be a US citizen when they stamp his papers tomorrow upon arrival in the States.

Anyways, everyone is in a great mood because we all know we are only a few hours from bringing our entire family HOME!  (we are of course considering our Benadryl strategy to help the 11 hour flight go by for the little guy

Thanks again for your love, support, and prayers,

Chris