We are in Moscow, Russia!

We arrived safely in Moscow on Saturday afternoon around 1:30pm local time. We had two great flights on Lufthansa airlines (Boston to Frankfurt, Germany to Moscow, Russia). While in Germany, we were somewhat unaware of the current exchange rate between the US dollar and the Euro and we quickly realized afterwards that we spend about $50 US Dollars for breakfast (for 2 eggs, ham, OJ, coffee, and a few croissants; not to mention the $5 bottle of water...ouch!)

We were met right at the airport by our translator (Tanya) and driver (Sergei). The driving here is absolutely crazy. There are lines painted on the road, but we don't believe at this point they serve any real function because drivers don't like to stay in just one lane. Despite the "Days of Thunder" like driving, we could not have asked for a better "crew" to work with while here.

We got settled in our hotel room and then ventured out across the street to a local shopping mall to buy some bottled water, and to get something to eat. At the mall's food court they have a McDonalds, Sbarro Pizza, KFC, and a Chinese Wok. We both could not sleep on the plane flying over here, so by the time we got settled in out hotel, we had been up for approx 28 hours straight without sleep. We finally went to sleep around 6pm local time on Saturday and slept until 8am on Sunday. I cannot remember the last time we slept over 12 hours. Needless to say we are now officially accustomed to the local Moscow time (8 hours ahead of EDT).

On Sunday morning, Tanya and Sergei (translator and driver) picked us up at 11am and took us on a 5 hours sightseeing tour around Moscow (took over 200 photos just in these 5 hours). We both learned more about Russian history in these 5 hours then what was ever taught to us in school. Moscow is an AMAZING city with a wealth of great history. Words cannot explain the overall atmosphere here, and the local people have been great.

We have posted a few pictures of our sightseeing trip below.

It is currently 7:00am (Moscow time) on Monday, and we are preparing to see our new son for the first time today. We have an appointment scheduled at the Ministry of Education this morning at 10:30am. At the MOE we will receive our "child referral" and will then head out to the orphanage to see him for the first time. We are both very excited for today's events.

Today is expected to be a long day; however we will update the blog when we return tonight....stay tuned!