Day Three

I am going to try posting everyday. I hope to use these entries as a record of our time so we can share it with our son later. If I get too detailed, just skim it over. =) We got plenty of sleep last night. We went to bed around 7:00pm and didn't get up until 8:00am. We were so tired so we slept well. The evenings/nights are not very dark this time of year so we will see how sleeping goes the rest of the trip. We had the breakfast buffet at our hotel and we met another American couple adopting. They have their court date tomorrow as well. They are adopting a little boy and a little girl. They had just arrived from Kotlas on a train, so they needed to rest. We spent some time exploring Archangelsk. The nice lady at the front desk gave us a map, but it wasn't very helpful because we didn't see any street signs. We managed to find a store with groceries on the lower level and a "Sears" looking area on the upper level. Oh, I almost forgot. JJ forgot to pack any type of jacket! It is nothing like it was in January, but is still cold here and slow was falling off and on all day. We had to visit the clothing stores we found back then and get him something so people wouldn't think he was the crazy American who never gets cold. We found an Ecko hoodie with rhinos and bling on the zipper. It was 50% off. He looks a little silly, but I guess it works. Okay, back to the large store. We walked through almost the whole store. I was amazed at the quantities and varieties of items. They had 3D TV's, vacuums, and so many blenders. Downstairs they had all kinds of food. We picked up some snack items and sandwich making materials. We even found some Lays chips. We came back to the hotel for lunch. We finally tried Borsch and it wasn't bad. It was nothing like my memories of beets from grade school. We rested in the room and then headed to the ministry of education. The other couple was just leaving their meeting, but the head gentlemen had not arrived. They had to wait to complete everything. He came a few minutes into our meeting. In the meantime our translator began going over all the documents that were prepared for court. Our hearing will be tomorrow at 11:30am. We went over when to stand, what the court room looks like, who will be present at the hearing, etc. We each have chance to speak, but JJ will do most of the talking. He is somewhat nervous. I have tried to reassure him that he talks for a living and he will do great. We got to see our little guys early picture in his file. He is so stinkin' cute! I was very happy to hear that we get to take copies of those documents home. When all our questions were answered we came back to the hotel and then went out to eat with our new friends at a nearby restaurant. It was so nice to talk to someone who A, spoke English, and B, knew what we were going through. Well, it is time to get some sleep before the big day tomorrow. We are ready to hear "Dah".