Moscow

It has been an eventful couple of days. Yesterday was the low point of the trip, but things have improved today. We took our first train ride (if you don’t count the 20 minutes we rode Thomas the Train in Austin a few years ago). We were a bit concerned when we saw our apartment here in Moscow. The building itself is pretty scary, but the apartment has been renovated. It was pretty overwhelming to be dropped off last night by a driver who didn’t speak English, see the run down building, not have the groceries we pre-ordered and pre-paid for arrive, and not even know where a grocery store was with two hungry kids. We were really questioning our decision to stay in an apartment and were dreaming of the Marriott Grand. Oh how we longed to just call the front desk for assistance! In addition, Reagan was a bit overwhelmed by the new experiences and the train so her reaction was quite upsetting as well.

This morning, we weighed the pros and cons of moving to a hotel and decided to stick it out where we are. Reagan bounced back after a good night’s sleep and seemed much more herself today. It didn’t take long this morning before she was running around, exploring her new surroundings, and playing again. It is a holiday here so we had no appointments today. There was sunshine today and almost 30 degrees (a heat wave compared to some of the temps in St. Petersburg) so we all bundled up to take a short walk. It was so nice to get out of the apartment. Reagan did really great – she was wide-eyed trying to take everything in. Parker loved jumping in the slush and trying to play soccer with blocks of ice and snow.

There is a TGI Fridays not even a block from our apartment so we stopped there on the way back for dinner. Reagan did great in her first experience in a restaurant where you order and wait (the one restaurant we went to in St. Pete was a buffet so it was instant gratification). She was charming the surrounding tables with her games of peekaboo, giving high fives, and having fun. What a cutie!

At dinner, we were talking about the age Parker did different things and all that we took for granted compared to Reagan’s experiences. Parker first went to a restaurant at 6 weeks; Reagan was 21 months. Parker learned to drink through a straw at 4 months, Reagan was 21 months. The list went on and on. It made us pause yet again and be so thankful for the daughter God has blessed us with. We will do our absolute best to give her a full and happy life filled with all kinds of experiences.

Reagan was in bed early tonight – she has her medical exam at 6:45am tomorrow. Yes, that says AM! I can’t imagine a doctor who does house calls, especially at that time of the morning, but that’s the plan. Afterwards, Olga (the Moscow coordinator) is picking us up to get Reagan’s visa pictures taken.

We found out today that since it is a holiday and all of our plans shifted back a day, that we could actually leave on Friday instead of Saturday. We will have to register with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when get back instead of doing it here as planned. We can’t move it to early next week because our visas expire on Monday. We were really excited about the news but were disappointed to learn that the change would cost us almost $2500 with the change fees and the fare difference. As much as we long to get home, we can’t bring ourselves to pay that much for just 24 hours difference.

We’re hoping that since we have a free day on Friday that maybe we can make it to St. Basil’s cathedral. I can’t imagine being in Moscow and not seeing it and the Kremlin.

Picture 1: On the train, getting ready to leave
Picture 2: Woohoo! TGI Fridays!
Picture 3: Learning how to High Five