Trip #1 - The DOE Meeting

Okay, back to our trip...That was Day 1 - Wednesday. Day 2 - Thursday went perfect but for breakfast! We got up, and I ordered room service for breakfast before our big day. As Mike and I have breakfast, and I ask him to do the conversion for 2800 rubels that I had signed for the bill, I learned I just spent over $100 on breakfast. Yikes! (That didn't happen again) After that, we met the driver in the hotel lobby, and off we went for our appointment with the DOE. We understand this meeting is to get an official referral and authorization to go to the orphanage to meet our referral. We are taken to a parking lot and are introduced to somebody else, but we cannot understand the introduction (as the driver nor her speak English). We wait a few minutes, and the translator arrives. We now understand that we have met our coordinator. We are off. Things could not have went better. Walk in, I say "Dobre Ootra" (good morning in Russian), Inspector joked on how long did I practice, he looked at our passports, and signed the form. Wow! That was easy. We sign some documents, and off to Baby House #3 we go to meet our son.