Moscow trip, part 2

(Note: I added a photo to yesterday's entry. )

Wednesday: After two days of running all around with our own feet, we hired a driver for a few hours. That was a nice break! Jaan was very disappointed, because somehow when we told him that a car was coming, he assumed that meant Uncle Pavel from Kovrov would be the driver, but he got over it and enjoyed riding with a different "uncle." It took longer, because of the traffic, but we could just sit while he drove us to ZAGS again. We still didn't have a official enough marriage license, but we had the other documents, and we were hoping to try what they recommended at the embassy: registering Raia's birth as if I was a single mother, and then declaring that Will was the father.

The ZAGS lady was pleased with our two new documents, but refused to register us as unmarried (which would have been the standard way to take care of this problem. We know of other people who have done that.) According to her, we are married, just not married enough to register a baby. Argh! She also refused to marry us there so that we would have a Russian marriage license. (ZAGS handles marriages, so she could have done that.)

So, we went back to the guest house for one more night. . . and more Veggie Tales for Jaan. His special treat each night there was getting to watch one of their Veggie Tales videos, something he had never seen before. The next day a team was coming in, so we would have to find another place to stay, since we wanted to wait in Moscow for the decision of the higher ZAGS authorities and lawyer, as well as for the official marriage license from my parents.

Again, to be continued. . . .