Nearly done....

Here it is. The end of yet another day in the land of Russia. I can't believe that we have been here for four weeks and three days already.

It seems like so long ago that we left our house.

But. Here we are. On the countdown. Only one more full day here to be spent in whatever way we choose. Who knows what we'll end up doing.

This morning Dad and Mom headed off once again for their early morning walk. We stayed in bed to catch up on our beauty sleep a tad.

Our cooks (Dad & Mom) fixed our breakfast of pancakes and scrambled eggs while Jason and I started packing our bags.

Our driver, Paul, (Val is sick) picked Jason, JN, and I up at 10:45 and off we went to the US Embassy to get Jack Nickolay's visa. No problem. The 'interview' that's required really wasn't much of an interview. We had to affirm that the documents were correct, had to sign a document, and verify that his picture and information on the computer matched him. That was it. His visa was approved, and we returned to our seats to wait on the visa to be printed.

There was only one other family there with us....adopting a set of twins. How fun! By the way. If you are that family and you read this....I'd love to have your blog address!!!

Then. The fun began. Because we had to change our tickets, we also had to change our lodging dates here in Moscow. The apartment that we had reserved was only available from Thursday through Monday. That meant that today we had to move. Paka Tverskoy Boulevard.

The move took quite some time. Paul brought us here when we left the Embassy. No, wait. He brought us here when we left the Russian Consulate.

Our first apartment was pretty decent. Nice big rooms. Two bedrooms. Nice clean kitchen. Large orange bathroom. Second floor...there were only four.

This apartment? Not so lovely. We're on the eighth of nine floors. One bedroom. Kitchen in which the dishwasher doesn't work...we already flooded our floor. Black bathroom. Dirty kitchen. Stove door falling off its hinges.

We decided we're getting more of a taste of Russia. But really, it's probably still not a true picture. All I know is that right now, when we're sitting here thinking about going to bed, none of us are brave enough to actually crawl into bed. The hide-a-bed that Dad and Mom were supposed to sleep on is caved in on one side....who knows where they will sleep tonight. We're not even brave enough to take a shower. We feel grubby just sitting here.

Believe it or not, we just called the Marriot to see if they had rooms available. They do. For only $1500 per night. Wow. That'd only be $3000 for the two nights that we're here.

I guess we'll brave it.

We are spoiled people. Our house may have flooded, but we know that it's going to be fixed. Our house may be little, but we all have our own bedrooms. Our kitchen may be old, but it's kept fairly clean.

We are spoiled.

The elevator up to our floor is an experience in itself. We can just barely all fit inside it. Poor Jack Nickolay screams every time we even step foot inside. Can't say as I enjoy it too much either, but it beats hiking up eight floors of steps....

We ate supper about 3:30 and took off to explore our new area. Our new street name is Tverskaya Yamskaya. We're in building 28. Easy to find. There's a Starbucks right across the road from us.

Our walk took about 2 1/2 hours.

Now we're tired.

We're praising God that one more step is done in getting Nickolay home.

And our current living situation is making us thankful for our nice houses back home.