Thanks to our new friend Dinia, we were able to cross another "To Do" off of our list today.   As you may remember last week we rode out to the end of the green line of the Metro but were never able to find the bus that was supposed to take us from there to the Mega Mall.   Well today, Dinia & her excellent driver ’Dimer took us out there and we got to shop at our most favoritest store in the world...   Ikea!   I know, I know, it may seem strange to come all the way to Moscow and then want to shop at an Ikea, but hey, it’s a thing we do.   We always go to Ikea stores anytime we’re near one and this was our first foreign Ikea.

Moscow Ikea


We bought a few wooden toys for Liam from there and one of those bead mazes that you always see in doctors’ offices to leave at the baby home.

We walked around the Mega Mall for a bit and went to a grocery market located inside Stockman’s department store.   The store is similar to a Dillard’s or Macy’s, so we thought it was kinda strange that there were groceries there too.   They had a lot of American-brand foods in there and we bought some salsa & tortilla chips!   My Tex-Mex cravings are getting the best of me and I’m hoping that the spicy salsa might also help Rob fight off his cold.

We ate lunch in the food court at the Mega Mall.   Can you guess the name of this chain restaurant?

Pizza Hut in the Moscow, Russia Mega Mall


After the Mega Mall we stopped off at a Metro Cash & Carry store that is similar to a Sam’s or Costco.   We found another little toy there for Liam.

On the way back to our apartment, Dinia invited us up to see her very nice apartment off of Tverskoi Blvd.   She also gave us a fluffy little Rat backpack (2008 is the Chinese Year of the Rat) for Liam that is so cute!   We just can’t get over her incredible kindness towards us.   She’s also extended her hospitality to any other adoptive families staying in Moscow.   She goes to the Ismailovo market (that we went to last Saturday) most weekends and has offered to take any of the families interested.   I have her contact info if anyone is interested and I’ll pass it on to the CSS office as well.

A few of you have asked if we’ve visited Liam during the 10-day wait.   Unfortunately no, we haven’t seen him since the day before we went to court.   The decision was ours though, we were told that we could visit him some but we decided to not do so for a couple of reasons.   Of course, there’s the expense of the driver & translator for each day we visit — and at the most we’d only get to spend an hour or so with him — but the main reason is that we were told how much it upsets their routine and confuses the child when you leave after the visits.   We figured our little guy has been through enough already and since the visits would be more for our sake than his, we decided to just tough it out & wait.   It was a tough call, but it seemed like the right thing to do.   The 10-day count starts the day after court and every day except Sunday counts, so ours will be up and we’ll get to pick Liam up this Friday.   I can’t believe we’re only 2 days from having him forever!   Also, we will be allowed to post pictures of him after that too, so get ready!!!   :-)
 

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