7:41 PM Moscow time

Thanks for everything. Indeed, we are fine. However, we were in the subway on that same line and passing that same stop just 2 days before. (We took Wednesday off to sightsee.) The mood around here is pretty somber, and it is interesting to see how Moscovites deal with adversity.

Guess what??? We sprung Mary Katherine Olga from Dom Rebyonka 21 on Friday, and she could not be happier. She loves apples, green apple juice, bananas, chicken soup (but not chicken chunks), steamed carrots, yogurt, and she eats very well. Her bathtime was a bit traumatic - she was shaking and screaming. I swear that child has only been sponge bathed. I was even in the bathtub with her, and she couldn't wait to get out. After her bath, Thad brushed her teeth while I held her and again, I don't know if anyone ever brushed her teeth - at least not on a regular basis. This is proof
positive that I know I am saving her - at the very least from rotten teeth. After bath, she received her first massage from Mama and Papa, and
boy, does she love to have lotion on her body. Poor sweetie, when we got her today and finally were able to look at her (in all her glory), her legs and
arms were so dry that they were flaking when you touched them. After bath,
brush and lotion, we were keyed up so it took about 20 minutes to calm down and go to sleep. (I think that is pretty good considering it is her first night. We have heard horror stories and experienced one with a family whose daughter finally wore herself out around 2:30 a.m. and had night terrors.) Therefore, Thad and I believe that we did pretty well considering.

Yesterday, we were up at 5:00 because we had to get the birth certificate and adoption certificate for Frank Payne Sergey signed in his hometown of
Zaliningrad (Green City), which was 30 miles from Moscow. Also, we ran into some trouble today with a new police chief that has refused to sign the Certificate of Citizenship for FPS. Apparently, the police chief is new and doesn't understand that even non-Russian citizens can adopt. Therefore, we are having the orphanage director and facilitator have a meeting with him on Monday morning to show him MKO's Certificate that has been executed by another police chief. Please pray that this will all go well on Monday because we need this for our embassy interview to get FPS's visa.

The official meeting of brother and sister occurred at 12:30 p.m. Moscow time on Saturday. Quite interesting to say the least because MKO was doing her own thing as usual. She sent a few good smacks, but all was well. FPS will be getting a run for his money for sure.

Again, thanks for your kind thoughts and support.

Georgia and Thad

P.S. If all goes as scheduled, we'll get FPS on Monday. We should be out
of here on Friday, and can't wait to have some Louisiana cooking.