Pictures of Russia & We Have Progress After 11 Weeks!!!

St. Basils Cathedral, Moscow
Homes in countryside on way to orphanage
Countryside near Novokuznetsk
Prokopiesk Orphanage where Haylie is living

Red Square, Moscow
Red Square in the rain
Gardens near Kremlin
Park surrounding Kremlin, Red Square
GUM Department Store

I just heard from our Adoption Ark coordinator that our release letter has been received finally. This was the last step needed before the judge could set the court date, and for some reason our release letter had kind of been MIA. I was soooo discouraged yesterday after I spoke with Alina. I kind of felt like we were getting the run-around. She just kept telling me they didn't know where the release letter was and all we could do was wait for it to get back into the region from Moscow. In the mean time, the people we went on our first trip with as well as at least 2 other couples who traveled after we did already had a court date. In fact Dave and Stacy are in Moscow as we speak and already have finished with court. Alina said yesterday that she didn't think we would hear anything now until after the first of the year....needless to say, not what I wanted to hear.

So when she called today and left a message that she had just been notified about the release letter, I was shocked. I do feel much better, because having the release letter indicates all of the needed paperwork is in order and we can proceed to court. I still don't see it being possible to get a court date before the end of the year since things really slow down with the holidays. The US Embassy will close from Christmas to New Years, and then the Russians celebrate their Christmas holiday from December 28 until January 15. But at least we can see light at the end of the tunnel!!! I'll keep you posted.

In light of this progress, I thought I would post some of the pictures of Russia we took on our first trip. I had forgotten I had never posted any pictures. In September, Moscow was georgeous (even in the rain) with beautiful flowers everywhere. I just looked on the weather channel website and the current temperature in Moscow is a high of 12 degrees, low of 0 with snow showers predicted all week. So we probably won't be able to get out and sightsee too much, especially with a baby.