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12/22/2004: "We made it!"
mood: Wired
Well, we've finally made it!
What a saga this has been!
The flight from Chicago was uneventful. We made it to JFK airport in New York and knew that we had to leave the "secure" area in order to check in with Aeroflot, so we did that only to find that we would not be able to check in until 5:30 when the Aeroflot representatives would be there. So, we were stuck in the international check-in terminal which has very little seating. The seating they do have was right by the door, so a bitter wind (tinged with cigarette smoke) was blowing in on us. We decided to chalk it up as practice getting usede to the cold.
So we sat there for a couple hours until 5:30 rolled around. We waited in a line and were finally able to check in when they told us our flight was delayed 3 hours. They gave us a $20 voucher to get dinner, so that was nice. We went back through security and found a place to eat (Chili's). After dinner we went to our gate to and relaxed a while. We watched a movie on the laptop, read and basically just waited. At some point I got up to go to the bathroom and saw our flight was now scheduled to leave at 11:30 (now a 4 hour delay). By the time the flight actually boarded and took off, it was more like 12:30. It was probably better for us to stay up longer and get a little more used to the time change.
That flight was also uneventful--it was around 9 hours long. The food wasn't too bad, but all the same things we had on our flights back in August. (We did find the last time the the food coming from the US to Russia was MUCh better than the food going from Russia to the US--even though it was the same food. Seemed fresher leaving US)
I slept on and off and probably got about 4 hours of sleep or so. We landed in Moscow around 6pm Moscow time.
Once we got through passport control, we camped and watched expectantly as the baggage carousel wound around the room. We found 2 of our bags and kept watching. When the carousel stopped with a disappointing *thud*, I had a feeling we were going to be short a bag going to Khabarovsk. We consulted the baggage desk and they instructed us to wait a while later. They looked and could not find ours, so after a few hours, they had us fill out forms to be stamped and restamped such that our luggage would be able to be forwarded to us in Khab when it did arrive. Luckily we had a long time before our other flight was due to take off. By the time we finished with the luggage business, however, there really was not enough time to go to the Novatel (hotel) to rest before our next flight. So, we decided, "who needs sleep anyway?" and hung out in the airport a while. At around 8pm or so we decided to head over to the domestic terminal (a separate building from which we arrived in). We arrived just in time to find that our flight to Khabarovsk was delayed 2 hours. So, we sat down and waited again. Just under 2 hours from when our flight was supposed to take off, we heard an announcement that had the workd "Khabarovsk" in it twice. When we noticed people start moving toward the check in area, we decided it must be time to check in for our flight. We were right. We checked in with no problems and sat down to wait again. Our plane boarded pretty much on time and left the ground bye 3am. That flight was nice because there were a LOT of empty seats. We had 3 seats and I was able to stretch out and sleep on my side a while. After our 3:30am dinner, I snuggled down and slept until about 2 hours before we landed (Till breakfast--a tasty fruit filled pastry). We were picked up at the airport last night by Kate and Andrei, from our agency. We called about our bag, and it's sounds like it had been missed and left in New York. It may be on the flight to Khabarovsk this evening, so there is still a possibility we'll get it before court. If not, we will have to borrow or buy clothes for court, since we were lucky enough to have our court clothes in that bag. I do have my shoes, but Adam has none of his things. We will know more about that bag this afternoon.
We had visitors last night, not long after we got here. Kari & Mike (who live in Marshall, WI and whom we met through a FERA, an adoption mailing list we are on) and then Joe & Leigh stopped in on us (friends whom we met through our agency--they live in Michigan) and donated a bottle of water so we could brush our teeth (Thanks guys!!!!) We haven't been able to get to a store yet. Irina called us and told us we would be going to the orphanage in the morning, so I am excited!
Keeping in tradition, I woke up at 4am this morning and, of course, could NOT go back to sleep!! So, here I am now, at 6:10 am wide awake. Adam woke up, also, with all my wiggling. He's watching the BBC news. Yay, we have an English speaking channel!
We will keep you updated on the luggage situation and possibly post some new pictures when we get back from the orphanage this afternoon!
~Crystal
Just wanted to wish you luck in court! I hope it all goes very smoothly and you get to take your little girl home wiht you 
