God bless the U.S.A.!!!

The Embassy visit was a piece of cake! Everyone there was so supportive of international adoption, we couldn't believe it. The employees were sweet to the all the kids there and patient with all the new parents. We were in a room filled with new families, with kids of all ages, and got to meet some new people and hear their adoption stories. When all was said and done, we walked out of there and breathed a sigh of relief, for we were finally finished with all of the paperwork and official business this adoption required. When we returned to the hotel we sat Jax down and explained to him how very blessed he was to be a citizen of the greatest country in the world. All he has to do is put his little feet down and touch the ground at LAX once we land and he is offically a United States citizen. His reply to this information was basically a big smile with a bunch of drool hanging down. Then he threw a toy at his mommy. This kid has a great arm and deadly aim! I've learned that when he's in his throwing mode to only give him soft toys. He's about taken my butt out on more than one occasion - he thinks it's funny!!!
We had dinner last night with the Frala family - another Nightlight family that we've been spending time with, both in St. Pete and here in Moscow. They switched hotels in St. Pete to stay with us at the Petro Palace and after staying one night in their hotel here in Moscow have once again switched hotels! So, now we have our friends here with us again. They adopted a beautiful (and tall) little girl, Ally, aged 13 months, so Jax has a new girlfriend. We put both their highchairs together last night at dinner and got a few pics of them sitting there all cute with their bibs on. It's been nice to have another family to hang out with and share experiences (and supplies) with. We are planning on dinner again tonight and some picture taking here in the beautiful hotel lobby. They've done an incredible job of decorating for the holidays, although their music montage that is constantly playing in one of the restaurants varies from Christmas carols (all instrumental) to the piano theme from the movie "The Exorcist". Nice mix, huh? No, I'm not a huge fan of that movie but my piano brain can't help but remember songs like that!!!!
So, we went sightseeing this morning for a few hours but cut it a little short because it is very, very cold today in Moscow. The clouds have started to move out, although it is still snowing in patches and the temperature has really dropped. So, poor Darren and our driver Viktor had to walk around taking pictures of everything that I really want for our photo albums, while Jax and I stayed in the warm car! Tee-hee! Love playing up the baby-card! We are really looking forward to coming home and seeing all of you. We can't wait for you all to meet our beautiful boy. You will just love his playful personality. He is such a good boy. We are still awaiting the infamous 1st poop....I keep pumping him full of liquids because I'm worried he's dehydrated but all he gives in return are a few "toots". However, judging by the smell of those, we're in for the motherload of bowel movements!!! Yikes!!!
This will be my last post from Russia. We will miss this beautiful and mysterious country but will forever be grateful for the time we had here and the precious child she allowed us to bring home. If any of you have ever considered visiting here we would highly, highly recommend it. It is truly a wondrous place. God bless you all and thank you so very much for your continued love, support and prayers throughout this incredible journey. We love you all....

P.S. We found something interesting, mounted on the wall behing the desk in our room here in Moscow. Darren couldn't help himself so he removed the outside covering from the plastic box, connected to a very thin wire in the wall to see what it was. Judging by every spy movie we've ever seen, IT'S A BUG!!!! You won't believe the pictures we'll show you of this thing. Interesting, huh???? We were just laughing about this one adoptive mother here who keeps saying that "they're watching us.....they're reading all of our emails....they're listening to all of our conversations and recording all of our telephone calls...." We thought she was paranoid, but now........I guess we owe her an apology???? Woo-hoo! I love Russia!!!