What happened today...

Nowadays we are constantly checking emails assuming we are going to get information or instructions from the agency, the INS, the travel agencies, and so on. Well, today we heard from every single one of them.

The INS news were good. The one specific form required to bring an orphan to the US, and which has to be approved by the INS, was approved just a few days ago. The INS office advised us that we could either pick-it up or they would put it in the mail today so Chris went downtown and got it, just to be on the safe side and no risk getting it lost in the mail. The same authorization form was already sent to Moscow letting them know we are approved to bring a foreign orphan into the US.

We should have gotten this form a while ago but I "overpaid" the INS when I sent the request. Instead of them processing the form anyway and refunding the twenty bucks later, I got my check and original form back about ten days later letting me know that due to the overpayment they could not process my request. Crazy!!! Not that I want to complain about anything, after all things in general have gone pretty smooth for us since we decided to embark on this journey.

We also purchased our tickets to Germany; the portion from Germany to Moscow then to Perm is reserved but we are not supposed to pay for the tickets until we get word from the Moscow representatives that our itinerary is approved by them. Today we were told that we may not hear from Moscow until the 8th since Russia is celebrating holidays in anticipation for their Christmas day on January 7th. - Can't blame them! we all know how that goes :)

It sounds like there is more than just a layover in Moscow. Supposedly we need to go through Customs in Moscow, get our luggage and transfer by bus to another terminal to catch the flight to Perm. The word is that we need to spend about five hours in Moscow to be able to do this. I heard today that you can see the other terminal but it can take up to an hour to get to it because the Moscow airport area is really busy with traffic and travelers. I am crossing my fingers that the immigration line is not an issue. I have read that some people have experienced up to three hours in line.

Tomorrow we are getting instructions to start preparing Part II of the dossier. That means lots more paperwork, paying fees, trips downtown, but on the bright side tomorrow is one day closer to meeting this precious baby :)