We are still here!

It has been few days since my last post! Mark has taken over a little while I re-charge my batteries!! You see, you get this super cute baby, who always smiled during our daily visits and was in a great mood even when they are missing a little their nap time, but then you get the change to feed him, clean his boogers, check and change his diapers (he was constipated the first day - so we kept checking for a little present!), and put him to bed several times per day and/or night, and your energies are gone! But life is just great!

As Mark mentioned, on Monday Diego had his doctor appointment for the US visa. Everything went fine until our little fellow decided he had to pee just in the middle of the examination! Yeap, the doctor was cool and just changed the disposable paper table cover without saying too much about it. The whole thing was about 30 minutes, including waiting time and getting Diego out of the snow suit. Then they dropped us to the apartment and Mark went back to the office after lunch to check some documents for the visa application. The weather was a tiny bit nicer, with a hint of sun, but the doctor had recommended to stay inside because Diego still has runny nose. So we stayed put!

On Tuesday, Mark went to submit and pay for the visa application at the US Embassy, while Diego and I stayed at the apartment. Apparently, there were tons of people at the embassy applying for student visas, while the adoption line had just 2 people... After that he came home and we decide to ventured a bit to Old Arbat to get few pics and buy few last minute Matryoshka dolls, but it was chilly so we came back quickly...

And then today... First Mark went to the grocery store with V&V for some essentials including 2 jugs of water, vodka (for my father-in-law, not us, ha ha!), juice, blinis, and some baguettes for dinner... We have a grocery store quite close on Novy Arbat, but it would have taken Mark several trips to carry it all... the only bad thing about going by car, is that it took them FOR EVER to come back with the bad traffic...

Then, after lunch, the whole family headed for the US Embassy for the interview for Diego's visa... We had to pass through a couple of security checkpoints, but they were no big deal... there were quite a bit of Russians waiting for visas, but we headed to a separate area where we found about 4 families waiting for their interviews... We got a bit confused and forgot to get a ticket when we entered, but after figuring it out we got it and in no time our number was called. The lady officer was really nice and just asked us few questions... most of the time she was explaining to us what to do when we arrive in Atlanta. She gave us a sealed envelope, warned us NOT TO OPEN it (its for the immigration folks waiting for us in Atlanta), and then pointed out that we were also receiving Diego's adoption certificate and modified birth certificate with us as his parents. Pretty much she told us to protect those documents with our lives, because if somehow we ever lost them we would have to come back to Russia to get new ones!!!

After that we asked V&V to take us to the Red Square to get the "typical" family picture in front of Basil's cathedral. It was chilly again (surprise!) so our little Diego is all covered with clothes!!