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First, let me say THANKS to all of you who have left messages & emails...we appreciate knowing that you all are thinking about & praying for us!
We made it in a little while ago - we've been at the hotel and trying to settle in for about an hour or so, now. The flight from Seoul to Vlad was not so bad - a little less than 2 hours. And let me tell you, if you ever have a chance to fly Korean Air, I highly recommend it!

Once we arrived in Vlad, we made it through passport control, immigration & customs quite painlessly - the spaces to wait are very small - I think I expected the Airport to be much bigger! For those of you who live in Tuscaloosa, Nathan says that the Vlad Airport is quite a bit smaller than the Tuscaloosa airport, which I found interesting (I don't think I've ever even been to the Tsa airport!) Anyway, once we got through the all the official stuff, we were met by our agency rep & translator who helped us arrive at the hotel safely. In case you're wondering, everything you've heard about Russian drivers seems to be true! But we are definitely in competent hands and we are finally here & lounging in our hotel room.

So there are the quick random thoughts about our experiences today. Tomorrow I will try to write in more detail.


I'm so glad that we had a shower & a bed last night - it helped me to feel rested, and evidently I needed it. I had a meltdown at bedtime last night (only an hour or so of fitful rest in over 24 hours makes for a tired, stressed girl whose only release is a good cry - thank God for Nathan, who can deal with my emotions like no other!) and my nose was so stopped up that I woke Nathan up a couple times, snoring(I can't believe I just admitted that to y'all!). But we did get some good rest last night and feel like we're on our way to being adjusted to the time difference. Good thing we have a day tomorrow to work on recuperating before we start with the really emotional stuff.

In tomorrow's post, I'll tell you more about yesterday.... but for now, I'm going to go ahead & close.

Thanks again for all your prayers, thoughts, and love! We love all of you!