July 6, 2009

We touched down in Vlad around 11:30am. After we claimed our luggage, we went outside where we found our Driver, Vladimir. I wanted to know right away if we had an appointment with the DOE and if we could also go to the baby home but he didn't seem to understand me. After we got into the van, he put Tonya (our agency rep) on the phone and she explained to use that we would go to the hotel and check in, then we would meet her to go to the DOE to receive formal permission to visit the little guy. It was too late in the day to visit the baby home so we were sad that we had to wait until the next day - but glad we could get the appointment with the DOE out of the way.

We checked into the Vladivostok Motor Inn, washed our hands and off we went to pick up Tonya and go to the DOE. The woman there asked us several questions. Did we have children? What experience do we have with children? Are we willing to accept a child with minor correctable issues? What is our child preference? Where did we work? What were our job titles? How would we take care of him after the adoption was final? Would he go to a babysitter, or would one of us stay at home with him? Did we have supportive family nearby? Finally, she gave her seal of approval and we signed a couple of documents and left. I have to admit, this part was a little stressful! We were told that we could see him from 12 -3 Tuesday - Friday at Artem. Our Driver was going to pick us up the next day at 10:45am.

After we got back to the VMI, we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant. We had pizza and a club sandwich. I didn't realize I had ordered a 16" pizza (oops), but it came in handy the next morning for breakfast! We went back to the room and fell asleep by 5pm, we were exhausted from the 13 hour time difference.