Photos @ last!!! Part 1

Traveling to Kemerovo after landing in Moscow, here we had several hours of layover in Moscow and our anticipated coordinator never showed up so we had to be resourceful and find out way to Terminal 2 from Terminal 1. This entails taking a bus or taxi to the other terminal as they are some distance apart. We had someone here try to flease us out of $80 USD to take us there, but upon inquiry we found that the airport runs FREE shuttle buses between these terminals every hour so we took one of them. At times you feel like sitting ducks in such places; not speaking the language, all your luggage has to be moved along with you, everything is so strange.

After reading and hearing horror stories about Earoflot Airlines ( I was calling them Air-o-flop) (Once the original and only airline in Russia from the Soviet Union era) we were utterly surprised to board a brand new Airbus A320 plane on our flight to kemerovo from Moscow.

Traveling through the Siberian countryside, these shanties are typical country side dwellings.

Arriving at the babyhouse to meet the boys. They recently renovated the outside of the baby house. This is one of our drivers with Mary basel.

The festivities are set, let the party begin! Armenian Cognac and the works. In Russian culture you have to participate in two rounds at least to remain within the bounds of society. One shouldn't waste such quality cognac.

Meeting the boys in the play room after the party. Jen is holding Demitri while I try to reacquaint with Drew.

The Goldstein Family that we are traveling with, meeting their daughter after the party. Andy is thinking "shouldn't we have taken a boy instead?"

Drew saying "pahcah" (goodbye) to his caregivers one last time. I think this happened about a dozen times.

Dressing Drew for the Great Departure. At some point in this part of the process you return all of the babyhouse's clothes that the children your adopting are wearing and dress them in your own provisions. Drew isn't sure what is happening here but, he'll take the attention none the less.

Demitri all changed, bundled and spoken for, ready to head out. At this point he was sheerly absorbing attention and didn't cry much yet.

Drew turning on the charm at the Traveler's Coffee Cafe. He managed to communicate to lots of people here, something we can't even do. Today, he was sitting in the back seat of our taxi with us and in Russian asked the driver (Vladimir our usual driver) if he couldn't come sit in the front seat.

Demitri not yet sure of babushka Mary Basel. (Grandma)

Hanging out in the check in part of the airport in Kemerovo with the boys and waiting to fly to Moscow. The first time the boys would ever fly on an airplane, what would await us flying with them (lots of kids get motion sickness etc. just from driving in cars because they are not used to it.) we didn't know but it turned out very uneventful and the kids were well behaved.

Have you eve wondered where the 12million people in Moscow live? In dilapidated, run down, old apartments like where we are staying in now. People come out of these inner city slum quality places dressed to kill and get into fancy expensive Cadillacs,  Mercedes etc. Yes, it doesn't matter what your home is like as long as you come dressed for success and driving shiny, first class wheels here.

Today marks a major turnabout in events; after three brutal, teeth grinding, feet stomping, hair pulling, nail biting, brain wrecking, sleepless days/nights we see major light at the end of the tunnel. Here Jen is posing with the boys in our apartment after hours of playing "wack the balloons with the water bottles" and getting tossed in the air by daduska ( Ben Vetter grandpa) and myself, Drew was laughing so hard his tummy ached, Demitri the musician who rocks, taps and dances to any sound that appears to be rhythmic finally came around and participated in meaningless frivolous activities too.