Travels

Dennis left for our (his) third and final trip to Russia to pick up our children.

He left on Saturday 9/1 & arrived in Moscow on Sunday early afternoon, he was dropped off at the train station where he commented how nice his accomadations were - what?? Both of our prior trips the rooms were by far nothing much at all much less nice but not this time - Dennis said it was nicer then our last hotel
 !@!##  Anyway I'm glad for him - he deserves all of the comforts afforded him for being the most amazing husband and an even more an AMAZING father!!

To save costs Dennis was going to travel on the 10 hour overnight train car by sharing it with 3 other folks....... he was a bit concerned about this but was going with the flow and again much to his surprise he  had a comfortable train ride in his own car with a full bed and travelled pretty well to Tambov.

He arrived on Monday morning & was picked up brought to his hotel, showered took a trip to the courthouse and in the afternoon went to see Angelina & Anthony.......I was so happy to hear that Angelina sreamed in delight when she saw her Poppa and ran over to give him a big hug........Anthony also smiled happily and eased his way over to give his Poppa a hug..............................we are thrilled they were so happy to see him and  according to Dennis they have been explaining to the children that Poppa is coming to pick them up to take them home to Momma..............Dennis also said he believes they are referring to the children by our chosen names which is awesome!!!

Dennis did have to take them for passport photos AGAIN - this is the 4th time - seems our Coordinator didn't like the last three rounds of pictures - not really sure I get this but as Dennis keeps reminding me we have to go with it - but still they are children and it is for passports how good could they really be!?

On Tuesday morning they needed to take him to the childrens birth town to pick up their birth certificates - this was an hour and half drive each way & since they left at 7:00 AM poor Dennis did not have coffee before leaving and I'm sure he was cranky and did imply in his email that he might strangle the translator but more on that later......he survived the trip and documents were retrieved and then onto immigration they went and then a visit with the kids was on the schedule for this afternoon.

On the subject of our plans to have someone for Dennis to help with travelling to Moscow with the kids and help him on the trip we found out right before he left that the person they chose (we hired) does not speak English.  I was pissed and asked how do you think this will work for Dennis - how will he communicate with her since the whole idea was to have her to  help him communicate with the kids? Seems that this is the best they could do.........needless to say I am not happy but feel at least the kids will have the comfort of someone who can explain things to them.  She will travel on the overnight train & stay with Dennis and the kids in the apartment in Moscow for the 3 days while they get the Visa's and do the kids medical SOS appointment and the Consulate - he will also have the translator while in Moscow.  The caregiver  will stay until he gets to the airport and then Dennis is on his own - hopefully and I pray that the kids will be OK and that the travelling will be uneventful for all three of them.

That is all I have for now.................................

Dennis took the children to the park after the passport photos and look how cute they are!!!!

DND