Got the Visas!

I am ready to go now, we got the visas bright and early this morning! I was a little disappointed though in the beginning, when we opened them it was our passports and a piece of paper, with our registration on it.  I was like wow, we paid $300 a piece for these? Then Randy opened the passports and we saw the stickers!  The real visa!

We have all our paperwork together and now we just have to wait for Sunday to come!  I also got a call from our Agency today to see if we would hand carry some dossiers over to Moscow with us, I gladly said yes!  Glad I get to help out another family. 

Paka for now!
Denise

It's all coming together

We are almost there, the best part is, when we got back from picking Camden up from school I check our bank acct. online and FedEx had debited our account which means our visas are on their way back to KC.  Yesterday I went to go pick up our money, and they assured me that all the money was good.  I took their word on it.  Never again.  When I got home I went through it all. Our agency stated that we had to have money printed after the year 2000 and no stamps, writing, marks etc on it.  Well when I went through it, 1 bill was printed in 1996, and 6 bills had little smiley faces stamped on the back of them.

So today after Randy and I dropped off Camden at school we went to a different branch and exchanged out our bad bills and also got a medical Power of Attorney signed for my mom since she is taking Camden next week.  Then we went to Nebraska Furniture Mart and bought a backpack laptop carrier to put the laptop in.  I also have room to put the camera and video camera in it.  So no camera bag to lug around.  Then we went and picked up a money belt and electric converter from Trisha from Adventures!  Thanks again.  We also went to Wal-Mart and got all our travel size everything we need.  I did forget the Tylenol PM though.  I will need that, since we will be traveling SOOOOO much, I don't sleep well if I am not in a bed.  Planes, trains and cars, forget about it.  I have to be drugged to sleep. 

It is all falling into place, now I just need to figure out what I am taking!  I am a last minute packer, and so is Randy, we will probably be packing at Midnight Saturday for our Sunday A.M. flight. :-)

Happy All Saints Day

Yep, this is the holiday that is delaying our visa by a day.  Don't know anything about this holiday, but oh well.

Russian Holidays!

Freaking out!  Ok, just a little bit, I sent our visas off for 3 business day service, sent it Thursday, they received it Friday. Should be done by Tuesday right? Nope, Nov. 1st is a Russian holiday so they don't work that day, so they won't have it done until Wednesday, so I won't get it back until Thursday.  Cutting it close in my opinion.  Next time I think I will find a place that does two day service, or I will make sure that there are no Russian holidays hindering my visa application!

Our Trip

This is what our trip is going to look like..

Nov. 6th Leave KC and fly to Cinci. OH, then Cinci. to JFK, JFK to Moscow arriving on Nov. 7th.
(side note, we could of flew straight to New York, but then would of had to change airports, Newark to JFK, not interested in that,  the tickets we got were a $1.50 more than straight to New York.)
Then overnight train to Kirov arriving on the 8th. 

Hopefully a shower before we go to the orphanage!

Two visits each day on the 8th and the 9th, sign papers, and overnight train back to Moscow arriving on the 10th.

Flight from Moscow to JFK, then JFK to Cinci, and an overnight in Cinci.

Leave bright and early on the 11th and fly home to KC, and to our little man. 

Not a lot of time with our princess, but my view is, the faster we get home, the faster we get to go back and bring her home for good!

We are gone for 6 days, but only staying 2 nights in a hotel!  We are going to be EXHAUSTED!  Randy is going to have two recovery days before he has to go back to work, hope that is enough.

Ready! I think...

Well I got the visas in the mail today, good thing I called the company last minute, because she told to me to include our ID numbers and passwords for the online application, probably to fix any mistakes we made.  This information was not on their websites on what to include so I am so thankful I called.  The only problem is everyone at that office is Russian and their accents are so hard to understand over the phone! 

Our bank got the money thing taken care of, I called a bigger "branch" and spoke to someone who had done this before and she said she would have our money for us by Tuesday.  Wahoo!  Now all I have to do is pack, and go buy her two outfits, one in 18 months and one 24 months to see what size she is!  Any suggestions on snacks?  I am taking puffs and yogurt melts.  Any other good suggestions?

Visa Application-OH MY HEAVENS!

That thing is INSANE!  I am surprised they don't ask for a blood sample.  I am just floored at how long it took me to fill it out.  For those of you who finished before July 2011 they changed the application system, to where it has to be filled out online, don't know what it was like before, but WOW!  The thing I am worried about is it asked for my current employer, well I am a stay at home mom, I don't have one, but it would not let me move to the next page without a position and an address of my current employer.  So I just put stay-at-home mom and my home address.  Any other SAHM's have this same problem?  Did I do it right?  Also, the question on how many countries have I been in during the past 10 years!  I had to call my mom to help me out, to see if certain trips happened in the past 10 years.  Randy is going to be miserable on his, he took a 5 week backpacking trip across Europe and Israel back in 2004, so he will have fun filling in all those countries!

I have almost everything squared away except for the Visa and our crisp new bills.  Our bank was like WHAT?!?  They will try, but no guarantees.  Yeah!  Flights are booked, and I didn't sleep a wink last night, I think drugs are going to be in my immediate future.