on Moscow

Overall, I will say that we enjoyed our time in Moscow. It felt so much easier than Irkutsk. When you've heard about how expensive that city is - you have NO IDEA! WOW!

GENERAL RECAP


TUESDAY
The next day, we went to the Embassy to get Anya's visa to come into the U.S. When we were checking in, the Embassy employee greeted us with ,"oh YOU are the famous Friend family! It is nice to finally meet you!" So funny...if we were ever to become famous, this is NOT how we would have wanted it to happen!

There were about 5-6 other families there on this day getting visas for their newly adopted children. In the past, I've heard stories from other people that there have been up to 30-40 at a time there!

Met several nice families. One from Michigan, another from Georgia, and another from somewhere else I can't remember right now (sorry!). One lady I met had heard about us. She was a FRUA regular. (Frua.org). It's funny what people say to you, and the look they have on their face when they know of you -but meet you for the first time.

It was nice to chat with our contact at the Embassy - she is such a nice person. Really...very helpful, has a big heart.

From the Embassy, we went sightseeing. Red Square etc. It was a beautiful day, nice to walk around!

Got back to the hotel at about 6pm. Our coordinator guy came into the hotel with us to settle the fees. And, of course, his final bill was several hundred dollars more than what he told me - and what we agreed to. I called him on it. At this point in our trip, I was so tired of "oh, another hundred dollars" being added in. Yes, I would pay it again ten-fold to bring Anya home...but this seems to be a blatant attempt to get more money out of emotional people who just want to go home.

I think his conscious got to him. After we paid him and went to dinner, he was waiting for us in the hotel lobby. He was concerned that we were upset about the fee thing (um, ya think?).

Bottom line? We are sleeping well at night. Not sure about him.

WEDNESDAY
So, on Wednesday morning - we gathered our things, and flew home. We had a few delays in New York, but it was HOME!

We had so many people waiting for us at the airport when we finally got home at 11:10pm, Wednesday night. I thought for sure no one would be there, so I didn't even think about brushing hair, or anything like that. Well, as we walked through the gate tunnel - I saw balloons and TV cameras (yikes!).

...more on that later

and will post some Moscow pics later.