The Embassy

This morning we had pancakes....pancakes! With real syrup! Aeniah-Natasha had two helpings of yogurt...she really loves yogurt and was very excited about getting that. Then we went for a small walk and took in some sights.

This afternoon we went to the US Embassy here in Moscow. Again, with American passports, you get to just walk to the front of the line. Fortunately, the immigration portion for adoptions was not super busy. We walked in and sat in a room with a bunch of other adoptive parents and their children and while we waited Brandy and I met a new single mom who is adopting her first child. She got delayed in her region for 7 weeks! We became very thankful for our 3 weeks at that point. It felt really good to just sit and talk with other Americans and to deal directly with American officials. They had a little play area for the kids while we waited and the Director of Immigration just wandered around and talked with couples and chatted...it was really cool. When our number was called, we went to the counter, made an oath that everything in our packet was acurate and true and a few minutes later we were waltzing out the door again with our daughter's entrance visa. The whole process only took an hour and a half.

Aeniah-Natasha will indeed hold dual citizenship with both the United States and with Russia. We originally had the understanding that she would lose her Russian citizenship, but this is not the case. So after we land in America and go through passport control and immigration, she'll officially be an American (and a Russian). How fun is that?

After the Embassy visit, we went walking again and went to buy Aeniah-Natasha a traditional Russian dress and headress. She will look so cute in it! Along the way, we bought her a banana and discovered she can really pound those down...she'll fit right in with our other kids at home! Here's a picture with both cheeks full and wearing her Russian headress upside down. She liked wearing it like a visor instead of a crown.


Tomorrow we board a plane...Aeroflot has a direct flight from Moscow to LAX and is only 12 hours...awesome. Then a short drive home. Please pray for safety and for Aeniah-Natasha to be patient as we wait for our plane, enjoy the ride, be calm, to sleep a bit and to just have fun. Oh, and you can pray for patience, sanity and creativity for me and Bran as well.

See you when we get back!

Love, Nate and Bran