Well, everyone woke up a little bit more rested although it was another early morning with the 4 of us up at 5:30. It was then a lazy morning just hanging around our hotel room.
Maxim picked us (John, Laurie & Baby Girl) up at 10:30 to go to the US Embassy for our exit interview. It is comforting to visit a little piece of home while over here and it was the exact same process as with Andrew. While we were waiting, several more families showed up for the same reason. In all, there were 7 families having exit interviews and heading for home tomorrow. Another agency's coordinator said she has never seen more than 2 families there at the same time - everyone is very anxious to be going home given recent events. We were assured at the Embassy that we will have no problems tomorrow at the airport, but everyone will be much more at ease once we are home.
After the Embassy, we returned to the hotel to pick up Andrew & Laurie's parents. Maxim drove us over to the park that has the statue we visited with Andrew (in 2010) of the ducklings. The park was covered in snow and it was a slippery walk but worth it for the photo op :)
From the statue, Maxim took us to an observation overlook area to see the city. It was pretty cold out so we didn't last for too long there. He then took us to Arbat street. This is a road that is closed to vehicles so it is only for pedestrian traffic. We visited a souvenir shop so we could buy some final Russian momentos and then headed back to the hotel. Baby Girl wasn't having a very good afternoon - she was hungry and tired as she didn't really get to take a nap today. We returned to the hotel around 3:30 and just hung around for the rest of the afternoon.
Baby Girl ended up going to sleep around 6:00 and the rest of us ordered room service for dinner. After dinner while we packed, Grammy and BupBup entertained Andrew by playing "Go Fish" - he's becoming quite good at it however he has trouble holding all of the cards in his hands so then he starts putting them in his toes.
We are in for a fun time when we get home because Baby Girl watches Andrew's every move and does her best to mimic him. Since he is a crazy kid, looks like she will be too :) We were worried about him being jealous but so far she is the jealous one. Anytime Laurie is doing anything at all with Andrew, Baby Girl starts crying and does whatever she has to in order to get to Laurie and push Andrew out of the way. He handles it pretty well but then he can just go running to his Daddy or Grammy or BupBup...so, it will probably be a little different once we are home.
Maxim is picking us up at 8:30 tomorrow morning for the airport. Our flight leaves Moscow at 12:35pm and we land at JFK at 2:15pm - gotta love that time difference. Since Delta doesn't have any flights from JFK into Pgh after 2:15, we are spending the night in NYC before returning home. Depending on everyone's mood/level of fatigue, we might try to go into the city to see the Rockefeller center Christmas tree and have dinner. Our flight is scheduled to land in Pgh Sunday morning at 9:45!! So, in 48 hours we should be home!!!
Maxim picked us (John, Laurie & Baby Girl) up at 10:30 to go to the US Embassy for our exit interview. It is comforting to visit a little piece of home while over here and it was the exact same process as with Andrew. While we were waiting, several more families showed up for the same reason. In all, there were 7 families having exit interviews and heading for home tomorrow. Another agency's coordinator said she has never seen more than 2 families there at the same time - everyone is very anxious to be going home given recent events. We were assured at the Embassy that we will have no problems tomorrow at the airport, but everyone will be much more at ease once we are home.
After the Embassy, we returned to the hotel to pick up Andrew & Laurie's parents. Maxim drove us over to the park that has the statue we visited with Andrew (in 2010) of the ducklings. The park was covered in snow and it was a slippery walk but worth it for the photo op :)
From the statue, Maxim took us to an observation overlook area to see the city. It was pretty cold out so we didn't last for too long there. He then took us to Arbat street. This is a road that is closed to vehicles so it is only for pedestrian traffic. We visited a souvenir shop so we could buy some final Russian momentos and then headed back to the hotel. Baby Girl wasn't having a very good afternoon - she was hungry and tired as she didn't really get to take a nap today. We returned to the hotel around 3:30 and just hung around for the rest of the afternoon.
Baby Girl ended up going to sleep around 6:00 and the rest of us ordered room service for dinner. After dinner while we packed, Grammy and BupBup entertained Andrew by playing "Go Fish" - he's becoming quite good at it however he has trouble holding all of the cards in his hands so then he starts putting them in his toes.
We are in for a fun time when we get home because Baby Girl watches Andrew's every move and does her best to mimic him. Since he is a crazy kid, looks like she will be too :) We were worried about him being jealous but so far she is the jealous one. Anytime Laurie is doing anything at all with Andrew, Baby Girl starts crying and does whatever she has to in order to get to Laurie and push Andrew out of the way. He handles it pretty well but then he can just go running to his Daddy or Grammy or BupBup...so, it will probably be a little different once we are home.
Maxim is picking us up at 8:30 tomorrow morning for the airport. Our flight leaves Moscow at 12:35pm and we land at JFK at 2:15pm - gotta love that time difference. Since Delta doesn't have any flights from JFK into Pgh after 2:15, we are spending the night in NYC before returning home. Depending on everyone's mood/level of fatigue, we might try to go into the city to see the Rockefeller center Christmas tree and have dinner. Our flight is scheduled to land in Pgh Sunday morning at 9:45!! So, in 48 hours we should be home!!!
1 comment:
We are praying for safe travels and will be relieved when you are back home. Joyce & Pastor
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