Last day in Moscow

temperature today: Moscow -17 C, 1 F

This is our last full day in Moscow. We do our best to translate for the kids that tomorrow we will be going home on the airplane. We decide for lunch to walk to a McDonald's we saw not too far away. It is cold! Before we make it out of the hotel, a middle-aged hotel employee sees us heading for the door. He stops me & tells me it is very cold today. He says that L needs thicker pants. We were warned by a number of people that strangers in Russia will scold you on the street if they think you did not bundle up your children enough. I smile at him & say OK. I head back up the elevator (their new favorite toy) & to the room w/ L. We put on her snow pants & grab O's as well. Before we head out, we put O's snow pants on, too. I'm sure to spot the employee on our way outside & say thank you as we leave for our walk.

It is cold, but it feels good to be outside. We make a stop at a bookstore & let each of the kids pick out a book. Thank goodness we warmed up inside because the McDonald's ends up being farther away than we remember. It's crowded. Finding a table for 4 isn't going to be easy. Lucky for us, two woman are just leaving & offer us their table. When one realizes we speak English, she asks where we are from. She's a lawyer & has done adoption work in the past. She is happy to hear that we have adopted these children & that they are siblings. This is a question we are always asked in Russia, "Are they siblings?" I think because it's popular for Russians to have only one child, siblings are less likely than a single child to be adopted by a Russian family. It's nice to hear Russian people speak positive about Americans adopting here, especially given the pending ban.

Corbin waits in the long line to order, although it's hard to make out exactly where the line is. We plan to order a variety of items since we don't know yet what they will eat. He ends up w/ most of the food we wanted. There are certain items that Russian McDonald's staff seem to understand easily: Big Mac, Fries, Coke, etc., but most Russians don't speak English & the same is true here at the Moscow McDonald's. Corbin decides to just take the order as is since the line is long & he's already struggled once trying to order in Russian.

The kids seem excited at the sight of the food although I'm sure they have never had McDonald's before. Before long, we notice a young woman sitting at the next table staring at us. I'm guessing that she's not too happy w/ either the fact that we are Americans or that we just adopted Russian children. After a short conversation, we decide it's just best we finish up & head out.

OH MY GOODNESS, it's cold!!! I'm so glad that we put snow pants on the kids because my legs are frozen! We get back to our room & soon after our driver arrives w/ the kids' visas. What a relief! We eat, get ready for bed & Skype one last time w/ the kids at home. L & O decide that maybe this IPad voodoo isn't so bad. Soon they are showing off all of their belongings for their new sister & brothers. T, J & H play along by oooing & ahhhing at everything. Finally, it's time to say goodnight & call it a day. Can't wait to get home :)