Mission to Moscow This being late Thursday afternoon, we were told we would be out of Moscow absolutely no later than Tuesday, since U.S. Embassy processing only takes place on weekdays and normally takes two working days. If we were very lucky and everything fell into place, we could be finished up before the weekend and on our way back home Saturday. But, as our agency director put it (even before the fiasco which delayed Sari's travel), "The way your luck has been running, I wouldn't count on it."

The way we looked at it, we finally were in a great position--we'd either be home quickly, or we'd spend a long weekend in one of the world's great cities with no obligations other than to have fun with our new daughter.

So off we went to the airport for the flight to Moscow. How would Zoe do on her first plane ride? This one was rough, but it was just a two-hour flight. She cried a lot and wouldn't sit in her seat. Fortunately, the Ural Airlines flight attendants took pity on us and talked with her, walking her around the massive interior of the Brezhnev-era plane.

After arriving at our hotel at about 10:00 that night, we tried to get Zoe to sleep, but she was screaming and crying. Even Mama couldn't comfort her. (I resigned myself to finally watching some good American TV in the other room. It's one of those times when it's not a bad thing that your daughter only wants to deal with her Mama.) Making matters worse, we were told to expect a housecall from an Embassy-affiliated doctor for Zoe's medical exam...tonight!

The doctor, Boris, arrived at 11:30 p.m., a time better suited to a booty call than a routine pediatric medical exam. Zoe was finally calm and close to getting to sleep, so Boris humanely put the exam off until a "decent" hour--6:30 a.m.

In the morning, Boris found Zoe to be in perfect health. He was especially impressed with her speech development--she was talking up a storm for him (in what seemed to be complete sentences), something we really hadn't heard before.

What followed the exam was the expected chaos of running all over the place with our facilitators dealing with paperwork and medical lab tests.

Finally, we caught a break. Zoe's medical lab results made it back to the embassy by their 11:30 deadline allowing us to get our embassy interview (and have Zoe's visa processed) that same afternoon! We and 35 other families were finished by 3 p.m., cleared to take her home...in big metal bird...to America!

While half of me was disappointed that we wouldn't be able to spend substantial time in Moscow, the other half (the one that learned that the nightly rate at the Marriott was something approaching our mortgage payment back home) welcomed the early exit.

But, there was still Saturday. Surely, we'd have time before heading to the airport to do some last-minute souvenir shopping on Arbat Street, set foot in Red Square or maybe even munch on a Big Mac from one of the world's largest McDonald's.

Wrong again. At 7:00 Friday evening, we were told to be in the lobby with our luggage by 4:15 in order to make the 7 a.m. flight out. Sari and Zoe were having a much-needed extended nap at the time, but we needed to eat and pack. So we and the Wolfes had our final Russian restaurant meal...at the American Bar & Grill.

Our total time in Moscow: Under 36 hours, all devoted to adoption business and grabbing whatever sleep we could. We'll save the tourism for the next trip.  ¶ 11:41 PM