It's Been Fun...

....but it's time to go home now.

Really. We've had a great time. Most of the time, anyway. There were a few spots that we would have thankfully given up, but God had a plan. Sometimes it's really hard to see what the plan is, but I'm sure there was one. :)

It's time to head home. The children are bouncing off the walls at the mere thought of getting to go home. They're starting to drive us all nuts.

Our last full day here was wonderful. This morning we didn't get up til about 8:00 or so.

We ate breakfast, and discussed what our options were for the day. One thing that we all agreed on immediately was that we didn't want to spend our day in our grubby apartment. Unanimous. We ended up deciding to head to Old Arbat Street.

Our professional toast maker toasting our toast on a cookie sheet that had to be washed before we could use it...as did all the dishes. Notice how nice that oven door is? It's so handy to have an oven door that rests on the floor when you open it. Oh. And the disgusting oven floor and whatnot was nearly enough to make us choose to eat out every meal rather than cooking. Who cares how many groceries we had that needed used. Don't worry, Grandma. We remembered your motto....waste not, want not...and braved the cooking.

It was a long walk. About an hour after we left our apartment, we arrived at our destination...and that was without getting lost.

Like the cozy elevator?

It was pretty neat. Lots of little shops to poke our heads in. Everyone was having a 50% off sale. :) Ya think they marked up the prices so they could say they were having a sale??

We more than finished off our shopping. Didn't even know that we were looking for anything in particular when we went. Isn't that the way it works? Maybe that's why Jason doesn't like me to go shopping very often...

We met several young men from Nigeria who were such jolly fellows. It was an odd sight to see smiles...and on top of that the smiles were on colored men. Two things that we just don't see in Russia. And they were so thrilled to see smiles as well. We met three or four of them, and they all could tell right away that we weren't from Russia simply because we were smiling.

We were gone about five hours. Our children are such troopers. Jack Nickolay hung out in the Ergo, happy as a lark. Addie and Will marched along side us for the whole 7-8 miles, happy as larks. Never once did they even complain that their legs hurt. Good thing they like to travel considering their parents keep dragging them around the world.

We keep laughing at all the poses that folks do in front of different attractions around the city. This is the front door of our apartment building. Dad & Jason thought they just had to pose for a picture... :)

When we got home, Dad and Mom headed back out to get our registration papers from the Go To Russia office. It should have been a two minute walk according to the map. However, the sign for their office consisted of a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet with their company name on it posted in a window. They missed it completely and ended up walking about 2 1/2 miles past it. When they reached the end of the buildings they turned around and came back..and there it was. Right where the map said it would be.

They certainly got their exercise today.

Tonight we ate supper. Rice, hot dogs, veggies, and cookies. Cleaned out the pantry.

Then it was time to pack. I despise that job. There really is not one thing that I enjoy about it. I put something in the suitcase and along comes Will to take something else out. While trying to catch Will to get it put back in, here comes Addie with a load of stuff to throw on top. While I dig all that back out again, here comes Jack with some ripped up paper towels to stuff in the cracks. Oh what fun.

It's currently 10:00PM. The bags are all packed and weighing under 50 pounds. We hope. No scales.

Tomorrow morning our drivers are picking us up at 8:00. They were coming at 8:30, but a snowstorm has hit the city. About 2 inches of snow in about that many hours.

Let's hope that it doesn't get too hairy.

Guess it would add another chapter to the book....

This apartment has put us all in the mood to hit the road for home. Last night we sat here trying to work up the nerve to take showers, let alone go to bed. The sheets that were on the bed were actually dirty. Gross. The extra bedding they had in the closet was stained. Dad got creative and found a screwdriver to pry open a padlocked cupboard. Inside that cupboard were sealed bags of towels, sheets, and duvet covers. Score!!! One sheet was used on the bed. The duvet covers were stuffed with the stained comforts from the closet to be used as blankets. The other sheets were used to cover the couches for Addie and Will to sleep on. It worked, and we all went to bed feeling mostly clean. The shower is, thankfully, much nicer than we were expecting. The pressure is super, and there was gobs of hot water. See? We did find something good about it.

So. Here we go. It'll be several days at least before you hear from me again. When we get 'home' we'll be living at Jason's sister's house until our house gets finished. I think right now they are working on finishing the drywall. Thursday they will start re-finishing the hardwood floors. Monday the painting starts. Sometime we need to get to town to pick out new flooring for the kitchen and office.

Anyway. We won't have internet access for a while. If the roads aren't too bad, maybe I can head somewhere to use it, but we'll have to see.

When I am back among the blog world....I hope to do a giveaway to celebrate the homecoming of our newest son. I won't say much..but it is an item from www.147millionorphans.com. Keep watching if you are interested....

Talk to you all back in the states.

I hope.