Hello from Moscow! We got back from VL early this morning and have access to email again.

So our last post ended a few minutes before heading to the town of VL. The photo above was taken in our 1st class cabin on Sunday night. It was a long 10-hour train ride to the town. Most of the time we only saw trees and small houses along the way... covered with fresh, white snow. It was beautiful. I think I slept about two hours the whole night.


We were picked up at the train station at 7AM by our driver and translator and taken to our hotel in the town center. It wasn't luxury but close to the orphanage and there was a great coffee shop close by where we had three of our four meals.


We had time to shower and have breakfast before heading to the orphanage at 9:30AM. We were able to spend 3 hours with M in the morning, and 3 hours with her in the late afternoon. I will write more in the next couple of days about our visits with her. But all in all, we had an absolutely wonderful time with her. She's a very beautiful, smart, engaging and active girl. Dr. L traveled with us from Moscow (we are so glad we had her along) and she was able to review M's medical records.

We were also to able to visit with M on Tuesday. About 2.5 hours in the morning, and 1.5 hours in the afternoon before we had to go to the local notary office to sign the petition to adopt her!!!

A couple of hours later we were back on the night train to Moscow. We arrived early this morning and were met by our coordinator's Moscow translator. We all went out for breakfast and reviewed the additional paperwork we'll need completed and in Moscow by Dec 19 so that we can try to get a late January or February court date. (Our coordinator will be meeting with the judge on Dec 20.) We have minimal paperwork to complete so we should be able to make this deadline.

Today we went over to Detsky Mir (Lubyanskaya pl) to check out children's clothes and toys. We also had dinner - pelmeni, borscht, mushroom soup - at Cafe Pushkin (famous/popular Russian restaurant).

We will be staying at the Marriott Grand until Saturday. I promise another 1-2 posts about our visits with M. We couldn't be more happy and excited about our new family!

Thanks for all of your great comments - we have enjoyed hearing from everyone.