We are awake.

It's nearly 3:30 am and we are both awake. C has been up for two hours.

We were scheduled to leave DFW at 9:20 am Saturday, and C had to go into work in the morning to finish some project and was late getting back to the house because he had PC issues at work. We got to the airport with no time to spare (we live 15 min. away), but as we were walking into the airport I realized we didn't have our jackets. We were going to carry them on the plane with us rather than pack them and I just clean forgot to set C's out since I never put it on the list (it's hot back home, it's hard to remember jacket weather right now) and left mine in the bedroom. We had a big cushion of time before our Chicago flight, so we moved our flight forward an hour and took a taxi home to get the jackets. Good thing my sleep-deprived self realized what was going on before we got here because it is definitely cold here.

Got to Chicago, had plenty of time to hang and eat before our 5:25 pm flight. On the flight, I had booked C in an exit row aisle seat. There are two exit rows on a 767 and the first one is not good seats. Some of the worst rated in coach (no recline, limited legroom because of the short bulkhead space) and the row directly behind that one is also an exit row and the best coach seats on the plane. So I booked C's long legs into that row where he could stretch out and sat directly behind him because the seat next to him was already taken (by a guy bigger and taller than C). Our seat mates were fine. I was generally comfy, as far as you can be on a 9.5 hour flight in coach. The aisle seat meant I can get to my backpack under my legs with my tray table down...and I can go to the lavatory without disturbing a seat mate, since I don't sleep on planes.

The flight was two hours late taking off because they had trouble installing a software update. While we sat at the gate, I took a 45 minute nap. I had gotten 3 hours of sleep Friday night.

I didn't sleep the rest of the flight and C slept like a baby for most of it.

I spent most of the flight working on fingerless mitts to match a Tudora I knit for one of our translators, and due to a long story I will talk about much later on a knitting post, I have three cabled Princess Mitts. Two left hands that are the same size and one right hand that is smaller. Shoot me now. I am done with the Princess Mitts pattern for a little while. I am going to try to knit her modified Fetchings in time. If I don't finish them, I am sure I will see her on trip 3 when I hopefully come back for N.

So we arrived an hour or so late, and I can't tell you the time because I was completely devoid of clear thought and didn't get the Moscow time math down until after we got through customs. Moscow is 9 hours ahead of Dallas, our region is 10 hours ahead. So. Sleep Deprived. Customs here is an every-man-for-himself kind of thing. There are lines, but long and not very organized ones. There was much waiting. Our one checked bag (with mostly gifts and toys in it and a few clothes) made it. (Also, C was so out of sorts and sleep deprived on our first flight that he almost left the black backpack on our DFW to Chicago flight and I had to send him back onto the plane for it from the jetway. We were on row 7, so at least he could get to it easily.) We carried the chest x-rays that show we don't have TB in a canvas garment bag thingy one of us got from our old company back in the day. It folds in half with handles and is very light. It looks like a Tommy Hiliger artist portfolio, LOL! I didn't want to look like we were carrying x-rays in folders when we arrived because it's like wearing a sign that says, "Hi, adoptive couple wearing ridicuous levels of cash in money belts...please assault us." Plus, the handles made it super easy to carry.

Exiting customs, we looked for Zhanna, our Moscow translator who had met us in April and flown with us to our region and taken good care of us. Of course, there are five hundred people waiting and holding signs and it's a good thing she recognized us again because she cut her hair and I would not have recognized her! She shepherded us to her car, which is SUV-sized and large enough for all our bags. We sat down in the car and the first thing she said was that she had two questions and the first was VERY important.

Did we have our new letter of employment?

New? There was a little confusion until we figured out she an Oksana had never received the one we had done in May that is good for 6 months. It isn't new to us. I was operating on 4 hours of sleep in two day, so I told her we had all the new stuff, but I'd have to look to see if employment was there. I had gone through it all Friday night, and I remember having the letter done and apostilled, but I also thought I had sent it off to the agency months ago. In all the updated requests we have been getting all summer, the employment letter has not been mentioned so I thought THEY had it.

As we sat in Moscow traffic (Sunday afternoon traffic here makes the 405 in Los Angeles look like Daytona), C got the dossier file out of the black backpack and I started going through it. I have copies, but no originals, which meshed with what I remembered. I have a book-style thing with plastic sheets in it that I fill with papers and I have each plastic sheet marked with a Post-It of what is in there. I went through each pocket to double check. No original.

In the meantime, my 24 hour Bonine has worn off and I regretted not taking more with breakfast on the plane like I usually do because I was feeling sick and we were in stop and go traffic and it was warm in the car (cold outside) and the sleep deprivation was not helping. So I chewed up three Bonine and drank a bottle of water in the car and tried to survive as I hit the wall in a big way.

Zhanna called Oksana (who is in our region) and they are working to try to find the employment letter, but it was Sunday, so they weren't going to make much progress until today. We looked up e-mails last night and I was asked by Michelle to Fed Ex it directly to Natasha in the D.C. office back on May 28th so that it could be hand-carried in to Russia. I remember doing this because I had to mark the envelope a certain way and I have a copy of the document and apostille. I only made copies when I was about to Fed Ex the originals.

If they can't find the originals, I don't know what will happen. I am trying not to think about all this. It is out of my hands and I know they will move heaven and earth to find that paper. The time difference and distance is a killer, though, if it is not here in Russia already. Zhanna and Oksana are determined that we are finally here and they will do whatever it takes to get us a positive outcome on this trip, but I know that ultimately it is not up to them, especially if we can't locate the document. By the way, the judge goes on vacation Thursday. She did not take vacation back when we were told she was...apparently that was a ministry of education person or someone else that is needed for the court hearing. So that is why our court is on Wednesday instead of Thursday. Usually our agency requests court on Thursday so that the timing on all this works out better. As it is, we are rushed in some areas and don't have much time to recover from missing documents or other unexpected issues. It's all a finely timed process here.

So then Zhanna told us that the caregivers at the baby home have been worried that we rejected N because we haven't come back for her. Zhanna and Oksana have assured them that we are in love and want to come, but we have had to wait for the Russian side. Zhanna said she is happy, healthy, walking, and "very independent minded". I love that she is developing. She turned 14 months on the 15th and since we can generally expect 3 months of delays for every 3 months of institutionalization, this is good news. I am sad we missed her first steps and I a little worried about a 24 hour journey home, much less alone, with an "independent minded" toddler who doesn't know me from Adam. This would have been easier had this all happened in May on so many levels. She was 10 months old in May and not walking.

Other families have done first visits, court, and gone home since we came in April. We have taken far longer than anyone else because of this Uzbek mess and everyone is relieved to have us really and truly here and going to court. We have been in a holding pattern way longer than all the other families. Zhanna told us the E True Hollywood Story of what has been going on with court and why the judge wanted what she wanted and it isn't too far off from what we have been told, but we are a little frustrated that communication seems to be such an issue. By the time Oksana experiences it in region and then the info goes to the Moscow/DC offices (which have Russian speakers) and then it gets to Brent/Michelle in San Diego and then to us, a lot gets lost. Things that confused us all summer now make more sense and we now have a better understanding of what has been going on here while we waited half-way around the world.

We are staying at the Holiday Inn Lesnaya, which is around the corner from the Marriott Tverskaya, which is a popular hotel with adopting couples. The Marriotts were all full. We have a nice suite with a living room/office and a bar and two TV's. C is flipping channels although he was watching news earlier.

I was so exhausted I was ready to pass out (and nearly did in the lobby) when we got settled in our hotel around 5 pm yesterday, but I stayed awake and we went in search of rubles and food. Found an ATM, got the rubles, then as we walked down Tverskaya Street, I realized we had left our dictionary and phrase sheet in the hotel. The Cyrrilic alphabet being what it is, it isn't easy to figure words out on our won, so we decided we needed point and eat food and found a Sbarro where we could point at pizza and hold up two fingers. We felt very much like ugly Americans, as the only things we know how to say are thank you, yes, no, and good-bye. Will not go forth without the dictionary/phrase sheet again.

C accidentally picked up sparkling water at the market last night that we walked to after dinner, and I must say brushing one's teeth with sparkling mineral water is....different.

It's 5 am now and I need to try to sleep again. Our translator and driver for today are picking us up at 11 for our medical exams, which Zhana says usually last 4-5 hours. I will be taking knitting.