Poking, Prodding and Photos (Moscow Trip 1 - Day 6)

Today was a very uneventful day! By uneventful, I mean I have no pictures to post and no Peanut stories.

We left our flat at about 9:50 and headed to one of the Moscow Hospitals for our 8 doctor medical in which, ironically, we only saw 7 doctors. :-) We started with a panel of doctors - there were 4. One checked our heart and lungs, one asked us a few questions (nothing hard - they were so easy I can't even remember what they were!), one checked our skin and the other checked our reflexes.

Funny story about the reflex doctor. She was an older lady who seemed very unhappy to be there. The rest of the drs smiled and laughed a few times. Anyhow, the reflex lady walks up and has the reflex tool about an inch away from my forehead. I had a little panic moment thinking "holy cow! Is she going to hit me in the head with that?" (Keith did too!). She pointed to it and then moved it to the right. I continued looking forward. Apparently, my eyes were supposed to follow. :-) All I kept thinking was "Thank the Lord she didn't wack me with that thing!". Then it comes time for Keith to have his reflexes done. So he's sitting on the bench and she wacks his knee. No movement. I trying to tell him via osmosis "Kick you leg!" but she wacks him again and nothing happens. Well, he's so tall that his feet are touching the floor so she shoves him up against the wall so he dangles a little and finally his legs kick out. PHEW! If we failed the 8 dr medical because of reflexes I would have been very embarrassed.

After the panel of doctors we met separately with a Narcologist, Dermatologist and Pyschologist. It was very easy actually. The psych was a sweet, sweet lady who spoke a decent amount of English. We all liked her very much. We paid our 36,000 rubles and went on our merry way.

K (our translator) took us to Cathedral of Christ the Savior and this time we went inside. Wow, wow, wow. Absolutely gorgeous. K told us the history. The original church was destroyed and I can't remember why. :-) (I'm such a history buff). They ultimately put a swimming pool in it's place. Ultimately in the early 1990's (yes, 1990's, not 1900) they rebuilt the cathedral to be a replica of the original. When you look at it, you would think it had been there for hundreds of years.

She also took us to a little store. You would never know it's there. It's in an old mansion. We bought a few souvenirs and then headed to the digital photo shop. We didn't have to take the Peanut out of the orphanage to make his passport/visa pictures, instead the director gave us one of his photos that we could modify. I could start my own photoshop in Moscow. The guy had a scanner, photo printer and a computer. It cost us 860 roubles (should have been 650 but he printed his passport pics in color by mistake). The man wasn't very nice. We asked to keep the color ones and he charged us for them. He was just going to throw them out, but whatever....

K and V dropped us on New Arbat street near the sub-terrain walkway so we could go to the baby store that was there. We wanted to leave our little guy with diapers after the diaper incident on Wednesday. I'm sure you all are wondering why he isn't potty trained. Well, he is the youngest in the orphanage and everyone else is potty trained. When they got him, he wasn't potty trained and with 27 other children, I'm sure it's hard for them to take the time. It's okay with us though - it give him a chance to be a "baby" with us for a little bit - something he probably hasn't been for a while.

We bought 210 diapers and 6 puzzles which we'll give to the baby home as a donation. We also bought more cheerios - honey nut cheerios to be exact. And yes, my boy can eat ALL of them tomorrow. :-) As a matter of fact he can even have the animal crackers we have left. I'll have to draw the line at the beef jerky.

Tomorrow we'll head to the orphanage at 9 again. K is going to explain the the Peanut that mom and dad have to go home and get his brother and also get the house ready for him to come home. She'll also tell him that we'll be back very soon to get him. She said she'll tell him that a few times throughout our visit so that he understands. We also plan on speaking to the psychologist to make sure she continues to tell him about us. My only regret is that we were unable to get a photo of the 3 of us printed by the time we leave to give to him.

We're excited to get home because we know the quicker we get home, the sooner we get back! :-) We've decided to stay through the 10 day wait on the next trip. After seeing how well the Peanut has warmed up to us each day, we think it's very important to see him for a few days before we take him out of his home.

Well, I'm sorry I have no pictures! We couldn't take pictures inside the church which was a big bummer.

Night!
Becky

P.S. We had dinner in the flat tonight. We stopped and Susan's favorite rotiserrie chicken place and got 1 chicken and 4 doughnuts all for 175 rubles. I made pasta and sauce and we picked at the chicken. The donoughnuts are TO DIE FOR!!!!!!!!! We're glad we found them on our 2nd to last day here. :-)