We’ve made it to Moscow. Maella did such a wonderful job on the plane, what a champ! It was an almost five hour flight. When we got on the plane I found an English speaking flight attendant who was very helpful. He got me an ice bucket filled with hot water and we heated up a gerber meal for Maella (one of those kind that looks like a TV dinner). It was only 7am, although we’d been up since before 4:30. She ate the mashed potatoes and gravy, chunks of chicken and diced carrots like a pro – she loved them! As we took off her ears bothered her a little but we didn’t hear any cries. A little while later we knew she could use a nap so we laid out our blankets on the seat between us (we bought her a ticket and are so glad we did) and then laid her down to take a nap. She wasn’t real happy about that and cried for a few minutes, I picked her a couple times for a power hug (something she and I do often) and then she fell asleep. Jeremy and I ate our meals and had a small nap before we she woke up (she stirred a bit from time to time). I think she slept for a couple hours, maybe just short of that. Then we alternated walking the aisle, playing toys in our seat, having a jar of banana baby food (she loved this too!), and we even turned on our laptop for a little Praise Baby DVD time. Near the end of the flight she got antsy and during descent my ears were really popping and she was rubbing her ears. I gave her juice from a sippy cup, pulled gently on her ear lobes, and just hugged her and patted her back. Some crying but not bad considering how well she did overall. We told her she was a star, aced that test like a real pro! Thank you so much for your prayers. Keep them coming because the flight home on Saturday will be twice as long.

When we got into Moscow we were tired and so was she. She caught up on her nighttime sleep on the plane, but then missed her usual 10am nap and was now coming up on the time when she’d be having her afternoon nap. The drive from the airport to our hotel was probably about 1.5 hours. I am happy to report there was a baby seat of sorts for her. Imagine something that looks like a 1960’s version of a baby carrier. That got set on the seat and then the normal seat belt was just pulled over top of her and the seat. Very makeshift, but WAY safer than sitting in our lap. She took a little nap and then we had to stop for some passport photos on the way to the hotel (for embassy requirements). While I was in the photo store with our driver doing her pictures, Jeremy ran across the street to KFC and got us each a chicken sandwich and fries. And do I even need to say… our amazing little eater ate bites of chicken from our sandwich, pure chicken, not smothered in gravy or tenderized to a pulp. She got her first taste of French fries, too. :o) I may seem a little over the top with this food stuff but wow, we are just so impressed with our little girl. She’s 13 months old and she eats everything! We’re so used to our boys at home (4 and 6) who are quite picky eaters. What a wonderful and welcome change this will be. And maybe Maella will even teach our boys by example to try more foods.

After the photos we came to the hotel for checkin. We just love this hotel, the Marriott Renaissance. The front desk speaks English, they have a full crib set up in our room (not a pack and play) with sheets, comforter, little pillow. They have free stroller rental and when we asked about how to get one when we go out for a walk she said they’d just bring one to the room for us to have for the duration of our stay. It was delivered within 15 minutes. And if you read our blog on the front end of this trip you might remember Jeremy’s $40 in OJ… I love the included breakfast buffet for adoptive families, as well. The hotel is super nice, very clean and upscale and at $225/night (adoption rate after tax) in Moscow, it’s a steal!

So the hotel is something I love about Moscow. Something I do NOT love about this city… the hospitals and doctors. After a one hour rest at the hotel we were off to have a medical checkup for Maella. I’m not gonna say much about this experience on the blog because I’ve been praying “Father, please help me to just forget this awful experience and release my anger.” The doctor – ugh. My precious, beautiful and very healthy daughter. Ugh. I’ll just say that he was NOT nice. I’ll leave it at that. And now I better say another prayer because I obviously haven’t released all my anger on this, yet.

We now have off until Friday at 1, at that time we’ll go to the embassy to pick up our papers for Maella and then we’ll be all set to head home on Saturday! The hotel offers a free shuttle to Pushkin Square (thank goodness because the subway system we used with our tour guide a few weeks ago, thoroughly confused us). The front desk said it is a short ten-minute walk to Red Square and St. Basil’s Cathedral. We want to take Maella there before we leave Moscow.

Our little sweetheart is still sleeping, taking a nice long nap...