Our ride showed up and we were off to the medical exam. It was in
a building that was situated among a lot of apartments. We arrived at what looked like a large apartment building and inside
there was a long line that I gratefully found out had nothing to do with us. We wove through a couple of hallways to the office.
Inside there were several families already waiting to see the doctor.
We took seats and Oksana went and talked to the desk.
It wasn't long before we were called in and the doctor had us take
off Katya's clothes and put her up on the table. He weighed her on a baby scale, just having her sit in the little baby holder.
"31 pounds" he proclaimed. "Oh she's a skinny mini". He said something
to her in Russian then told us he told her that he wasn't going to give her any shots or hurt her, all he was going to do
was look for her tickle spots. He ran his hands up and down and pushed and prodded on her, all the while pretending to look
for her tickle spots. She giggled a lot.
He proclaimed her very healthy but said her tonsils were a little
swollen. We said she had been coughing a little. A nurse came in and took her away for a chest x-ray that would tell us definitively
about what sort of exposure she had had to TB.
It was tense time waiting because I was worried maybe she still
had TB and they wouldn't let her leave the country. Or perhaps she had badly damaged lungs. Anything I could find to worry
about.
At this point Jeffrey struck up a conversation with another adoptive
parent who was holding her one year old baby. She smiled as Jeffrey played with her baby.
Without warning Jeffrey turned to me and said "Mommy, isn't that
an ugly baby?"
I checked to see if the floor would open up and swallow me. No such
luck.
Jeff apologized profusely, I admonished Jeffrey and my little darling
said again.. "But Mommy. it IS an ugly baby isn't it." No such luck kid, you're not dragging me into this discussion.
The mother was so nice about it. She smiled and said "Oh well
WE think he's cute"
I was when she got called into the office and we were left to glare
at our son who happily struck up another conversation with a different family, this time however without placing
judgment on their child's looks.
The X-ray came back shortly and after the doctor looked it over
he said that any concern for her having TB was overblown and it was likely she never had it at all. He said her lungs were
clear and healthy. Relief is a sweet thing.
We went back to the hotel where we decided to have lunch at their
Japanese restaurant "Tokyo" and had a delicious and extremely expensive lunch.
At 1:30 our driver showed up again and took just the 3 of us (me,
Jeff and Katya) to the American Embassy for the final paperwork. Emily stayed with Jeffy in the room.
Oksana was not allowed to come with us into the building so we went
in alone.
Inside we paid for her visa and then sat and waited. We talked to
several other families. Two of them were also bringing home older children. One family was picking up their 7 year old daughter
who they had hosted the previous summer and another family was bringing home 2 girls who were probably about 9 and
12. They said "We're older so we started older". Its nice to see the older ones going home.
At exactly 2 PM a very American young man came out and explained
what we would be given and what we had to do with our paperwork. He said as soon as the plane touched the ground in
the United States our kids would become citizens. Then he said to watch for our number and then step up to the window.
We were the second to be called at the first window. I was expecting
an interview or at least for tem to ask us questions.
But it was nothing like that. All they did was give us the paperwork
and made sure we knew what to do with it. The young american man was the one who helped us. He reminded us 10 times not to
open the manila envelope that was to be given to the INS in New York. He said if it was open when we got there they would
send us back to Russia. Then he said he wasn't joking.
The whole thing took about 5 minutes and before we knew it we were
back in the car and heading for the hotel.
Our driver dropped us off and told us they would be back to get
us at 9 AM to take us to the airport.
At first when we got back to the room I was gung ho to go sight
seeing. Until I looked out the window and it was snowing.
Oh well.
I didn't have the clothes or the stamina to face that weather so
we settled down and watched Aladdin and Shrek 2 on TV.
By dinner we were pretty hungry but didn't want to spend too much
since lunch had been a small fortune.
At both ends of each even numbered floor there was a small cafe.
After checking out a few different ones we found only one on our floor had a menu with some English.
I asked first if they took Visa (yes) then asked if the prices were
marked in rubles. (I had a bad experience with that on the first trip and wasn't going to make the same mistake twice).
Yes the girl said... those are rubles. WOW I thought... only $5
for entrees.
We ate well and the food was delicious. I couldn't get over the
prices. 120 rubles for an large delicious salmon steak.
The kids got restless and since Emily joined us late and hadn't
finished yet I sent Jeff back to the room with them and Em and I stayed for a bit.
I asked for the check and when it came it seemed rather high. I
paid but kept looking at the bill trying to figure out how she over charged me. I gave Jeff the itemized receipt when we got
back to the room and asked him to figure it out. He looked at me and said "Well.. yes the salmon was 120 rubles..... Remember
when you asked her about the price, if it was in rubles and she said Yes but then pointed to the other side of the menu where
there was another number and said 'That's grams'? Well she didn't make it clear that the rubles were per 100 grams, not that
the food was only 100 grams."
Well I did it again. Paid way more than I wanted to. The quick bite
to eat, so we didn't have to spend too much ended up costing us over $100. Each plate that I thought cost about $5 actually
cost $20 each. That's including the kids chicken dinners.
Live and Learn. The problem was I thought I had
learned already. **SIGH**
