First trip Monday-Tuesday

The room has no t-stat so I had to get up in the middle of the night and open a window, then it got cold. It was and interesting night of up and down trying to keep from sweating or freezing. The down blanket was made of some kind of super geese because even with the window open I was still warm.

We had to wait in the lobby of our hotel for 2 hours before leaving Moscow. We did go back to the mall and grocery store. The mall was huge, but every store in it was like a DKNY or Kennith Cole. Everyone here wears black with a little gray. Most of the women have bangs and evidently the mullet never went out of style here and looks like the rat tail just left or is coming back. It is very interesting the cultural differences and similarities. I will say it is not every day you see emo teenagers grabbing a smoke next to a band of gypsy's.

Ok, the trip to our territory was different. We got to the airport and the translator asked if we had locks for our bags, which of course we did not. So we preceded to a guy who wraps your bag with shink wrap for eight bucks. Comforting feeling that was. We then caught a bus out to the plane. We finally get seated and Dee Dee has a man beside her that smells like he just ran a marathon and I have a kid behind me playing slam dunk contest with the tray table. The flight only got worse.

It was a 5 hour flight from 9 at night that landed at 6 in the morning. The kid I mentioned screamed and cryed the entire way. I would have rather been kicked in the crotch by David Beckem than endure that again. Dee Dee and I are convinced that it was a test from God. He sat the spon child of of the Devil behind us.

We Made It

We got to the hotel alive and well. No thanks to our driver Evil Kanevil. This man drove 110 Km the whole way to the hotel. I don't know how fast it was but on the ice and snow covered road at 5 in the morning as he passed people on parts of the street that I am not sure was a road, made me nervous.

The best part!!!

We got up from a nap at 2 in the afternoon and went to the institution where Alex is being taken care of. We walked in the room and you could tell he was a little nervous. But after about 5 min the nurse but him in Dee Dee's lap and left the room. He warmed up and began to play with us. She came in later and ask him who is pappa was and he pointed to me. If I was not so tired I would have began crying. We then played with him for 2 hours. When they came to take him to dinner he did not want to leave, he was having to much fun. They told him to say good bye to his mama and Pappa and he began to cry again. Dee Dee gave him a kiss on the cheek and I went in for a hug. He grabbed on to my shirt with his hands and would not let go. I was so sad to see him go, they said that this is not normal since the children are not normally around men. We then met with the house mother/doctor for about an hour. She gave us as much history as she could and we are very satisfied.

We are going back to the institution in about 4 hrs today and get to play a little more. I will let you all know how it is going. Thank you all again for your prayers and thoughts. I am trying to check my e-mail but the electronic converter my mother sent will not work on computers so mine is dead at the moment and I can only use the business center. I will be checking again tonight.

It is -23C or -14F today so we really need your prayers that Dee Dee does not turn into a Ice cube.

Love

Brad