Well today is the day. We are off to get our kids! We are excited to say the least. It's another long haul but we now have a focus and a goal on something which somehow doesn't make the trip so bad.
We make it to New York pretty easily. The day before was a nightmare with the airports. Flights canceled due to weather. Needless to say, the airport is PACKED with travelers who were canceled from the day before. We got there 2 hours before and thank god for that. We make it up to our gate and grab some coffee and a light breakfast. By the way, NO starbucks by Delta. EWWW! Got a knock off brand, it did the job.
While we were in New York, we were wondering about the other couples and whether or not they made it out as they are east coasters. No more than 2 minutes later did we see Ann looking pretty bedrangled walking towards us. There was our answer. They did not make it out. We go and grab some lunch and head back to the gate to wait with them. We will now be on the same flight to Moscow. Good thing we went back to the gate with them since our time was off by an hour. We were going to go to Chili's for lunch and sit down and relax. had we done that, we would have missed our flight.
The flight over is long. Steve takes some Ambien and is out like a light. I am wired and can't sleep. But again, I have a goal and am just trying to get to it. We hit down in Moscow and it's actually a little after 10am. The flight over is only about 8 hours. We breeze through customs and head towards baggage claim just praying our luggage made it. At one point I am getting nervous as I don't see anything. Finally I see one of our bags and yell at Steve to tell him that it's coming. Thank God!! We gather it up and head out. Julia our translator meets us along with Ann and Dave. She tells us that we won't be on a flight to Orenburg until 9pm that night. Did I happen to mention that it is now probably around 11am. She asks us what we would like to do? We tell her that the other couple is at the marriott and we'd like to go there and meet up with them. She is good with that so we pack up our stuff and hit the road. Traffic is pretty light since it's a Sunday.
We hit the hotel and no more was I through the front door of the lobby when the receptionist asks me if my name is Teresa. I tell her yes and she hands me the phone. I was to say the least, a bit shocked. I know I have had my wild days but those were spent in Pullman, WA and Moscow, Idaho NOT Moscow Russia. It is Christina on the phone. She saw me from the window. Too funny. They come down and meet us in the lobby. We all decide to walk around Red Square and Old Arbat street. By the time this little excursion is over, I am soooooo exhausted I am delirious. We head back to the Marriott where John and Christina have their luggage and where they are going to pick us up at 6:30pm. From the second we hit that lobby and I hit the sofa, I was passed out! I got in probably about 2 hours on their sofa and that did a lot of good.
We all load up in a van and head to the domestic airport. We get our tickets and check our luggage. You can only have 40 kilos (whatever that is in pounds) TOTAL with your luggage and carryon. If you are over, you pay! So Steve goes to another counter and pays $85 dollars extra for our luggage. Whatever! We head down to the gate and wait for our flight. It's on time this trip but it is still going to put us in Orenburg very late at night. The flight is pretty uneventful and I don't get much sleep. It's tight, cramped and uncomfortable. I am just ready to get to our destination. We touch down and are met by our translator Anfisa. By now it is 1am and we wait for our luggage and head off to the host family. We meet the host dad as he is our driver. It takes us a bit to get home as Anfisa is with us and we have to drop her off first. Of course I take the opportunity to pound her with questions. The unfortunate part is that she tells us that we will not be making the trip to Orsk to see Kyle. This means we will not see him before court on Tuesday. Bummer.
We make it to the host family's house which is an apartment building. I am praying that we are not on the 10th floor as we have to huge suitcases along with 2 other bags and our backpacks. Luckily we are on the 2nd floor. We make it through the double door and meet the host family mom. We are staying with Yena and Nurija. They also have a son, Russlan. We put our luggage in our room and am I am glad to see that we have our own room even though it's a pull out sofa. it will have plenty of room for 2 kids and us. We pile in to bed and it's now about 2 something in the morning. We were told that we wouldn't be leaving until 11am the next morning. We will be going to see Brooke at her orphanage. It's off to bed and just the start of a whirlwind week.
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