The people that got us through

Well today is our last full day in Khabarovsk. Tomorrow Lena comes at 2:00 to take CS and Paypay to the passport office to pick up the kid’s passports. Then we leave for the airport at 4:00 for our 6:00 flight. We are really hoping for a happy baby on the 8 hour flight to Moscow. Please pray for me.

We spent our last day out on the town. We took a walk this morning just to get out of the apartment. Pickle took a short nap and Irina paid us a visit. She brought all of our Embassy paperwork and Pickle’s original birth certificate and Adoption certificate. We also got copies of the photos that were taken for his passports. We are calling them his mug shots. Quite funny!

This morning I started to do some packing. Pickle helped by kindly unfolding the clothes that I had so nicely folded. Pickle snatched a pair of CS’s underpants and I went out to the living room to find where he had stashed them. No where to be found. I went back into the bedroom to find my boy wearing his dad’s underpants. He was also so nicely trying to wear a pair of mine as a shirt. And oh yes… I did get photos. Am I going to post a photo? Hell NO!!! Would you want a photo of your dirty underpants on the internet? I didn’t think so. I can say, though, that it was probably the single most hilarious moment of this trip. I was laughing so hard I was crying.

This afternoon we took one last trolley ride into town to meet another American couple. We met Debra, but her son was napping so we didn’t meet Ron or Nikolai. We had a nice chat and then were off to find the Archaeology museum. We walked into this tiny little museum and found a woman sitting at a desk. She tried to tell us it was the Archaeology museum. We kinda figured by the sign outside. We paid 280 rubles for the 3 of us. I asked if I could photograph and she said that would cost me 100 rubles. Fair enough. I was so glad I did pay to take photos. I got one that is simply priceless. The museum is upstairs in this building and at the top of the stairs was the little lady we had heard about. In all museums there is a little woman that makes sure you pay enough attention to each and every exhibit. Sho nuff! She took one look at Pickle and scooped him right up to show him the displays. He did not care at all. We were free to look around at the displays while the lady watched my child. It was quite nice! She saw that we had paid our rubles to photograph and she made sure we did. One or the other of us had to pose with Pickle at each of the non glassed in exhibits. She took Pickle from room to room and told him about the artifacts and taught us that Riba is Russian for fish. We told her that CS was an archaeologist and she said that Pickle would grow up to be an archaeologist like his daddy. (gawd I hope not) Pickle loved the museum. He ohhed and ahhed at all the artifacts. Man this boy is going to be a smart one!! Woo hoo!!!!! My priceless photo was of Pickle and his little museum buddy.

We took the trolley bus back to the apartment and are planning on enjoying a quiet evening at home. Lucky for me the Khabarovsk Amur Hockey team started pre-season (or regular season) and their games have been on TV. In fact there is one on right now. Man they suck.