Green light

  Today we received the green light to visit our son. This is a big step in the adoption process and thank goodness we sailed through it. We visited the Ministry of Education with our translator and received our official referral letter. This is a letter (in Russian) that invites us to go to the orphanage and meet the child. After we visit with him at the orphanage over the next 2 days, there is a line at the bottom of the letter we sign if we intend to proceed with the adoption. Let's hope it will have our signatures on it shortly.  This official meeting took all of 5 minutes. We were prepared to answer many questions but none were asked. We did find out a few more details about our little one but will review all of the information tomorrow with our physician, the orphanage director and adoption team. All signs are very positive and we are hoping for the best. So tomorrow is the BIG day we have been waiting for.

  At 11:00am we head to the orphanage to meet our son. We are ready to see him. I am dying to hold him and see his face. I am not sure how he will react to us, as we are strangers to him. I can only hope he will warm-up to us quickly but have to be realistic about it. I know how my children normally react to strangers so I am keeping my expectations of him low. We will take lots of pictures and video but will be unable to post any until the adoption is finalized.

  Today we spent the day touring Moscow. We have walked all over the city and had a great time sight-seeing and shopping. We visited the Kremlin, Red Square, St. Basil's Church and shopped on Arbat street. The architecture is amazing. It is a very old city with much history. We visited two churches built in the 15th century. The walls were covered in hand-painted murals of Christ. They were breathtaking. In one church there were tombs of princes inside dating back to 1436. Red Square is enormous and of course the famous St. Basil's Cathedral is beyond beautiful. We ate lunch at McDonalds outside of the Kremlin which we found quite ironic. We headed to Arbat to shop and buy some memorabilia for our son. Everyone here has been very nice and helpful. We are learning some language and a little about Russian culture. We want to be able to share this with Bryant when he is older.


Here are some pictures of our day

St Basil's Cathedral

Assumption Cathedral

Jeff in front of Bell Tower Monument of Ivan Terrible

Heather at Bell Tower

Finding Mickey D's ouside Kremlin (in background)

The Annunciation Cathedral

Old Kremlin Wall

 

Red Square

Heather St. Basil's

Entrance to Red Square