Russian doctors & Notaries

We are picked up early w/ a list of doctors to see. We meet someone at the hospital who is supposed to help us mitigate the doctor visits...I'm unsure exactly what this means. She seems nice. There are long lines in the lobby. We skip the lobby. Since we are not Russian citizens, we have no file & they have no way to get payment from the government for us. We go directly to each doctor's office. The buildings look like they are out of a 1940's American movie. They are old, but clean. I am surprised that each doctor actually does all the work. Their nurse sits across from them in another desk. The offices are very basic. There are no computers. Everything is handwritten, in blue ink, signed & stamped. At first, this system seems totally chaotic to me. But after a little while, I begin to see how things work & realize it's just different from what I'm used to. Inside the hospital building, patients walk to each doctor's office. Actually, this makes sense!

Other differences I notice- 

There were no shades on the windows, which is fine, until They ask you to take off your clothes.

I'm asked to pee in a cup. They point to a small closet behind me w/ a curtain. There are 4 buckets, but no toilet or toilet paper.

Things can get lost in translation! They were confused as to why I regularly see a dermatologist for skin cancer if I do not have cancer & Corbin tried to tell the neurologist that he IS a doctor! Awesome!

We were able to have our lab work & X-rays done in the US. This is great, but also meant that we had to hand-carry these X-rays through 4 airports, a train, several cars & many taxis. We look a little ridiculous carrying these large X-rays around. At the hospital, our translator tells us that we could have brought them on a disk, which is interesting since we didn't see one computer in the entire building. When all the doctor visits are complete, we notice that no one asked us for them...figures.

Next, we head over to the Notary's office. A court appointed translator meets us there. As she chats w/ our adoption agency translator, she pulls out a computer disk...it's a floppy! Good thing we didn't bring our X-rays on disk! I'm not sure where we would have gotten a floppy disk.

Finally it's our turn. Our court appointed translator asks us to review the document, which is in both Russian & English. We do & sign the bottom. It is now official! We are petitioning the court for the adoption of L & O. We now wait for the court date to be set...yeah! We board the train back to Moscow & hope to see our luggage upon arrival!