A Day in Moscow & the 8 Doc Medical Exam

It was really nice to have some free time this morning before officially beginning this trip. Since we did not have to meet the coordinator until 12 noon. We spent the time sightseeing around the Kremlin, Lenin’s tomb, and St Basel's Cathedral which is so cool looking. We had no time to go shopping in the G.U.M. shopping center but it looked really beautiful and I got to window shop a little. Took lots of pictures but it was freezing out, snow on the ground and the streets and sidewalks were basically a sheet of ice. So slippery it was like ice skating without the skates. We saw all we wanted and still had time for a short nap before we had to check out and meet up with the coordinator. Here are some pictures of us acting like tourists:


At noon we packed up the van and headed out. We tried to go down to Old Arabat Street to walk around and eat lunch but traffic was a nightmare and we could not find any parking, even after circling for ½ hour. So we decided to go closer to the Medical center since we were running out of time. We ate at a little Italian Place. Food was good. What we hate and are so not used to any more is the smoking in restaurants. It is so gross.

The American Medical Centers was 2 blocks away and we arrived a little early for our 4 pm appointment. What we were told was a formality and would only take 30 minutes turned into a 2 ½ hour event. We sat in the waiting room and waited to be called in to see each of the 8 doctors. These included a Pulmonologist, infectious disease, dermatologist, neurologist, psychiatrist, addictionist. Most of them asked us one or 2 questions and signed the papers. A couple looked in our mouth, felt some glands, took blood pressure. Nothing exciting. What took so long was the waiting. We had brought with us the results of our blood tests and TB chest x-rays so that we would not have to do those things in Russia. (I have no desire to have Russian needles in my arms). Thankfully the clinic is very new looking, really clean and very American in style. We felt very comfortable and many of the doctors spoke English. It turns out that the doctors had wanted us to bring the actual chest x-rays with us. We only brought the sheet of paper stating the conclusion (that our chest is clear and normal, we do not have TB) they were concerned and wanted to take another x-ray but somehow we talked our way out of having that done. Also, Mike’s blood work did not look complete and they had wanted to take more blood to check for Hepatitis. But once I showed them our Vaccination documents (Thank god I had thought to bring them with me-Mike had to run out to the van to get them out of our documents folder) the doctor said it was good enough. Yay- We finally got out of there by 6:30.

We had brought with us all of the gifts for coordinator and orphanage staff as per our agencies request. Of course our coordinator now tells us that we should not have taken them until the last trip to not be seen as trying to bribe anyone. So, she has graciously offered to hold them in her apartment for us during this time until we need them on the third trip once we are able to take the girls out of the orphanage. Pain in the ass but at least it gets them out of our hands and is one less thing we need to carry with us on the last trip.

We dropped the bags off at coordinators house and headed to Tver. It is night time, dark, icy etc. Took a long time. We finally got in around 11 pm. We are exhausted but starving so off to the 24 hour cafeteria for a quick dinner and now to bed. Exhausted but sooooooo so excited to see the girls tomorrow. I haven’t even had any time today to think about them, what will it be like to see them again, do you think they will remember us? Did the caregivers show them the photos of us that we left for them? Did they use the disposable camera to take pictures of them? So many thoughts running through my head. Well, goodnight. Tomorrow I will hold my daughters in my arms again. Sweet dreams.
Melissa