We are still on schedule to leave for Moscow on Monday, Oct 1st. Today Michael went down to our agency to drop off the passports. Apparently for this region we need special adoption visas which are an additional $150 per visa.

I heard from all of the Moscow doctors today but decided tonight to hire Dr. Ageeva due to her responsiveness and Ronda's recommendation. (Ronda and her husband brought home two little ones from Ekat about 2 months ago.) This is a huge relief!

We also got our airline tickets. We decided to go with the non-refundable tickets because they were so much cheaper than tickets you can change. If something changes in the next couple days, then we'll need to pay the change fee & fare increase (if applicable) but I can't believe the cost will go higher than the changeable tickets. Fingers crossed! What did you guys do?

Oh, we are flying direct from LAX to SVO on Aeroflot. On the way back we fly SVO to NYC (Aeroflot) and back to LAX (Delta). Hmm, that may be a pain to switch airlines?

And we talked with the family who is traveling with us. We were able to arrange a similar itinerary. We are all planning to stay in Moscow until Sunday at the Marriott Grand. I found a great offer (cheaper than the adoption rate by 1900 rubles)... 7000 per night which includes breakfast, a bottle of wine and fruit plate on arrival! It's the Escape Romance package.

Work knows, business trip cancelled, and projects have been delegated.

Tomorrow the agenda isn't as full. We'll make sure Thani is signed up to go to the cage-free play ranch. (Michael took Thani and Yoshi for their annual check-ups today.) We need to make sure we'll have enough cash. And I need to review all of the U of Washington information and decide if we are going to consult with them.