Back to the Future - Monday, Aug 8th.

Where does the time go so quickly these last few days?

Let's see Mel left off with our previous weekend, which brings me (Michael) to attempt to rehash Monday through today (Wednesday). Here is Monday, August 8th.

Sunday night we received a call informing us we were going to be picked up at 2:00 PM to pick up Deeana's passport.  So we spent Monday morning packing, and actually managed to go from 6 pieces of luggage to 5 (one was full of clothes for the orphanage). Despite adding some souvenirs and clothes and toys for Deeana, Mel is a packing queen and still managed to pack it into 5. Also, worked on cleaning the apartment and doing laundry for the next family.

Before we knew it, 2:00 was upon us. Andrey met us outside as did our coordinator Irina. Traffic was its usual congestion and about 45 minutes later we were back at the Passport Offices. Once again we took a number and another 45 minutes and Irina and I approached the desk. This time the ladies were a bit more friendly, I quickly signed a few documents and a short discussion about something took place between two ladies behind the counter. When she returned I was handed Deeana's passport! On our way out we picked up some dinner at a cafeteria and got it "subway", which is Russian for "take out".

And we were off to pick up the treats for the orphanage and flowers for the Orphanage Director. We passed numerous grocery stores wondering if they had forgotten. I guess the one we chose is one the coordinator likes to go to.  They had numerous cakes, Irina chose one for the administrators and one for the kids. Next we moved on to the fruit, picking up some peaches, apples, and grapes (big and tiny)...their banana selection was not very tasty looking. As it turned out they didn't have a flower section either.  But we spent over 800 rubles, so we got to pick a prize. Our winning ticket was from bin 1, where we wisely chose tissues.


Next stop a flower shop near our apartment, Irina chose a pot of orchids for the Director.  We were wondering where we were going to put all this, our fridge is fairly small plus it would be even more stuff to pack in Andrey's van the next morning. Andrey kindly took it and left it in his van since it was going to be a chilly evening.

That night we finished packing, cleaning, and putting away the laundry, ate our "subway" dinner from the aforementioned cafeteria.  We skyped Hayden, who is clearly anxious to meet Deeana and for us to come home. And off to bed we went.

Paka,
Michael and Melissa

Posted by Mel at 1:46 PM