One Week To Go

It has begun, the pile of stuff I can't forget has started to build on our bedroom dresser. I leave in one week and I'm slowly but surely getting things checked off of the "to-do" list.

My visa arrived today. I used Go To Russia for my visa and for Randy's letter of invitation and I will NEVER EVER use them again. They have been terrible. I paid for 8 day processing of my visa and it ended up being 11 days to process my visa. We paid for GTR to issue Randy an invitation to travel and mail it to him in Abu Dhabi so he could go to the Russian Embassy in Abu Dhabi and get his visa. We were told it was mailed on June 21st but after a week of nothing arriving I called GTR and they said DHL returned it back to their Moscow office without any explanation. GTR said they would mail it again on June 28th and then told us they mailed it but wouldn't provide us with a tracking number. Several phone messages to GTR went unanswered and Randy called DHL in Abu Dhabi and DHL said they have not had any shipments for Randy all the way back to June 15th and said they did not have any reason to return it. After waiting three more days, Randy called the GTR Moscow office and found out they never mailed it all along.

I contacted Peace Travel, who we used to rent our Moscow apartments for Artem's adoption, and within 10 minutes I had a return email from Dmitry saying, "Hello Susan, so good to hear from you again." The man remembered us after 2.5 years, despite the hundreds of people he deals with a year. Within a day he was able to get Randy an invitation to travel and get it sent to Abu Dhabi. It cost us, it cost us dearly, $190 for just 2 pieces of paper, on top of the $70 we paid GTR, and now that Randy will only have a couple days to get a visa, he will have to pay the expedited cost at the Embassy. Like I said, we will NEVER EVER use Go To Russia again.

Enough of that, hopefully Randy will be able to go the the Russian Embassy on Sunday and get his visa issued and we won't have anymore visa issues on this trip.

Randy's parents will arrive here on Wednesday afternoon. They will take care of Artem while I am in Moscow. Since we picked Artem up from the orphanage on April 12, 2008 I have never been away from him for more than 5 hours and I've never been away from him overnight. I'm not sure who is going to cry more while I'm gone. Artem and I are tight, we're like peas and carrots, and even though I'm excited to meet our next child and excited to have a little time off from Mommy Duty, I don't know what I'm going to do without my little shadow. We'll be able to keep in contact with Skype; Artem's used to skyping with Randy everyday, and I have some paper hearts with handwritten messages on them that I'm going to scatter around the house for Artem to find while I am gone, but still, I'm going to miss that little guy.

I'm starting to get those worries about how I'm ever going to love another child as much as I love Artem, am I going to be able to give Artem enough time when the next child comes home, and trying to figure out how I'm ever going to survive Walmart on payday with two children under four. I know thousands of mom's do it all time and with a lot more children, but right now, those are my worries.

So, one week from today, I'll be on the plane to Moscow minus a certain little boy that decided he wanted to potty train himself on a sixteen hour flight from Atlanta to Dubai and I haven't flown by myself for so long I don't know what I'll do with all of that free time. I hope I don't try to cut the food for the passenger sitting next to me. That could prove awkward!