Back to Official Business…

Greetings to everyone from here in sunny Vlad. Today was a busy day for the dads. Steve, Chris and Irina (one of our incredible coordinators here) met up at 9am today and were off take care of some of our final orders of business here in Vlad. Our first stop was at the Notary office, then on to court to pick up our official court decree. The next stop was at one of the Vital Statistics offices for Steve to sign off on Victoria’s Birth Certificate and Certificate of Adoption (it felt very good to finally see these documents!). After a short stop at another Vital Statistics office for Chris, we were on to the Passport office to request Victoria’s Russian passport. Typically, this process takes weeks to months. However, for international adoptions, the process is expedited (1 day turnaround). We then made two quick stops; one at Vladivostok’s main Vital Statistics office and one at the Ministry of Education (the office that oversees all adoption referrals in Russia). The last stop for the day was our final trip to the toy and food store here in Vlad. All-in-all, it was a 4.5 hour outing (for the dads this felt like about 2 hours….the moms might agree that it felt more like 8 hours. Hahaha…).

Sharon and Victoria had just finished lunch, so we sat down and listened to some music (more specifically, to a CD with Russian children’s songs that Sharon had picked up earlier in the week). Victoria really enjoyed the songs (most of which appear to be associated with Russian cartoons) and she sang along with a number of them. Have we mentioned that this kid is adorable?

Well, our days are finally in single digits. Including today, we’ll be home in 9 days (so, technically 8 days) and we leave for Moscow in a day and a half. It will be great to move on. However, we are very thankful for our time here at the Vlad Inn…which actually represents our first home as a family. Tomorrow, we three are off to pick up Victoria’s passport, then we head to her US Embassy required doctor’s visit.