Moscow, The Last Stop

We are in Moscow until Thursday the 28th. Today we had our last legal bit of paperwork to do at the American Embassy. Nothing that bad just a few signatures and we had to be sworn in. We had our appointment at the Embassy for 2PM with about 15 other families adopting from different agencies but because of the little chicken man they wanted us to come at 2:45 after the rush. It worked out to our benefit because we got right in signed our papers got Logan's entry papers and Visa and we were off, a total of about 25 minutes.

I was going through all of our documents and there really is a lot of cool stuff in there. We have a new Birth Certificate that has Jeff and I listed as the parents. We have a lot of info on his Birth-Mother for him, I think it is great just in case he wishes to find her one day. I know a lot of people ask questions about why he was given up for adoption and we have decided that is pretty personal information that only Logan and us have the right to know, so we will not be sharing that info with anyone. Also, it is funny to me when people say, were are his real parents, well that would be Jeff and I, the only REAL family that he will ever know. It takes more than just giving birth to be a parent, believe me I know a lot of people that have given birth and should not have custody of the child/ren.

Today before our Embassy visit the Chicken Man and I went for a walk while Daddy took a shower, Logan loves it outside and was getting very restless. He sits in his stroller just looking around and kicking his legs, he also gets very vocal. He does not say a lot, he has learned how to say Mama and Dada and yesterday he learned how to say hi. My mom wanted to say hi to him so I put the phone up to his ear and now he walks around putting his hand up to his ear and says eye (hi), it is just to darn cute. He will be strolling down the street just waiving hi and saying eye, love him!

After our Embassy visit the 3 of us walked down to K,L&J's and we took a stroll down Old Arbat street. It is really cool, a lot of local artist, musicians and shops and of course out of all of the great restaurants all of us Americans wanted McDonald's, there is nothing like a quarter pounder w/cheese to make you feel at home again :). The guys went into this store where Daddy found his boy a Russian hockey jersey and this lady came walking out telling Kim and I congratulations on our adoptions, she said she knows that it is a difficult thing and she was very happy for us, we were very taken back by this because this is not the normal feeling around here. Who knows maybe she once placed a child for adoption but she was very excited for us, it really made both of us feel great. It is strange here nothing is kept cold, even the milk and yogurt can be bought warm, ugh, that's just nasty. Tomorrow we have our last day here and no appointments so we are going to take a walk to Red Square to get some pictures of Logan, I just want to let him run around the park on some grass, I cannot wait to see the look on his face when he touches it for the first time, of course it is nothing like the carpet his Daddy keeps at home but it will do for now.

We have really been trying not to over-stimulate him, which is not easy to do he has had such a structured life and very little activity so I am sure just walking down these busy streets are a lot for him. We have kept his toys to just a few board books, stacking cups and a musical toy, he loves music. The T.V. and radio have been pretty much off. We are having some poop problems so tonight we changed his diet to some very blan things, oatmeal or rice cereal mixed w/apple sauce, banana, Cheerios and he is taking some soy formula, no more apples juice for him, I know he will be upset about this because he loves his juice (even though it really is mostly water), I pray it works.