Counting the hours

Posting from: MarKuel, Khabarovsk, Russia
Local time: 2:45 pm, Friday, September 15, 2006
Weather: Perfect. Warm sun, light cool breeze, no mosquitos.

We are packing! Joyfully gratefully merrily packing! 24 hours from now we will be at the airport and I don’t care how long or cramped or bumpy the flight is, we won’t be in this flat. It is a Domodedovo flight, but our tickets say El Al. We are still puzzling over this. There is a huge “Jewish Autonomous Region” near Khabarovsk, so that may be the connection.

This morning we hiked over to the Children’s Mart yet again and bought some hand puppets and little cars and tiny hair toys and marveled at our children’s good behavior. Jamie and I have been very consistently crabby when the children whine for stuff and we often take away something, figuring that the privilege of whining should cost something. This paid off when we were at the store as they figured that the puppets in Mama’s basket were worth more than the joy of wheedling. This is especially hard for Andy and we notice and appreciate his hard work.

On our way home our driver (running ahead of schedule) passed us on the road and whisked Jamie away to the passport office. He came back bearing two lovely red passports which means that we are now free to go.

In case you are wondering why we are dawdling here in Khabarovsk, here is a recap. Though court was on Aug 31, the decree did not finalize until the 12^th of September. We were then able to use the decree to acquire amended birth certificates. The birth certificates were necessary in order to acquire passports. The passports are necessary in order to travel to Moscow. We have to go to Moscow in order to get Visas in said passports so that we can travel to the U.S. As soon as we land in the US, the children are US citizens, and the red passports and the visas within are no longer needed.

Don’t look for another blog until Sunday, which is Saturday US time. We will be in transit all day on our Saturday.