Trip 3 - Thursday

Daniel had another great nite Wednesday. He slept all through the nite with no problems whatsoever.

Katia went without us Wednesday and got Daniel's Russian passport and his re-issued Russian birth certificate. This re-issued birth certificate lists Mary and I as his parents and it supercedes his original birth certificate.

Thursday was spent doing some final paperwork. I (Greg) had to go to the Notary to have some documents notarized and then all of us went to the US Embassy for our Visa/Exit Interview. The interview is more of a formality than anything, but it's a critical point in the whole process. The results of the interview is a immigration visa that goes into Daniel's passport which allows him to travel to the US. This, plus a sealed packet of paperwork which we deliver to the Customs officals in Atlanta all go together to making him a US citizen once we arrive in Atlanta.

It was cool seeing all the other adopting parents there in the Embassy. I would estimate there were 6 families there going through their interviews.

I wasn't aware of this but Daniel will have a dual citizenship, US and Russian. He doesn't 'loose' his Russian citizenship when he leaves. In the future he'll have the ability to travel back and forth between the US and Russian, if he so desires. Only potential drawback to that is if he's ever in Russian and the military is 'called-up' and they draft, he could be drafted.

Getting his travel visa and his paperwork pack from the US Embassy is the last essential step here in Moscow. Only thing left to do today is to go to the Ministry of Education, who oversees the orphanages in the Russian Federation, and sign a document that takes Mary and I off of the list of potential adoptive parents. Plus it is customary to take the Ministry staff a box of candies or flowers as a sign of thanks. Whole thing should take no more than 15 minutes.

Rest of the day will be devoted to packing and preparing for a 14 hour trip home. Current plans have us in at TRI at 8:14pm Saturday nite. If the weather is warm enough here, we'll go out today and take Daniel for a walk. He's been fighting a cold so we don't want it to get any worse.