All You Need Is Love

Igor came by tonight to give us our final paperwork to take to Moscow and our train tickets for tomorrow. He was amazed at how much Reagan has changed already. He said it reminded him of the Beatles song "All You Need Is Love," and I have to agree.

We had more family time today. It snowed steadily all day (several inches) so Reagan and I stayed in all day. The Russians are very particular about not taking young children out in the cold (even requiring them to wear hats and sweaters outside even in the summer). I didn't want to rock the boat so we stayed in again. We received many stares and whispers when we went out to lunch a few days ago. Parker and Doug played in the snow again this afternoon, and Reagan and I watched from our favorite window sill. I think she may be a scientist some day with the way she was experimenting with sound. She would knock on the window pane, knock on the window sill, knock on the wall, and then repeat. She would try it up high and then down low to see if that made a difference in the sound. Then she wanted to try them all with her feet - all part of learning about her new world!

Tomorrow we are taking the train to Moscow. I'm dreading dealing with all the luggage again, but at least it puts us one step closer to home! We're taking a new train that is supposed to be really fast (4 hours instead of the original 8 hour overnight train). At least our apartment in Moscow has an elevator. When we're there, we will have some type of appointment each day so we're hoping it may make the time go faster. This trip has been long, but it is providing wonderful bonding time for our new family. I'm hoping it will be at least in the 20's in Moscow - who would have thought that would sound warm after experiencing minus 8?