...you've spent over 20 hours in the air and over 10 hours in layovers...for a total of over 36 hrs. since your last shower, and all you can think about is getting to the computer to tell everyone you made it! Yes, it has been quite some time since I last bathed or slept decently, and here I sit, at the computer, to say "hello!" from Vladivostok!

Actually, Nathan is in the shower right now, so I decided to make good use of the time and blog for a moment.

I didn't keep a 'flight journal' like I did last time, so I probably won't really be able to give you a play by play of our trip here, but I've got a few of the highlights. When we were on the last leg of our flight, I took out my little notebook, to make a bulleted list of stuff to tell you about. I asked Nathan what he thought I ought to write about, and he said, "tiredness."

Which I think is quite apropos...but you know that we're tired, so what else...? I'm gonna follow my list in my notebook & give you a bulleted list. It's a little easier to do that, so bear with me:

• After I wrote my last post, we actually had some drama at our house. It was crazy. We were supposed to meet some of my & N's family in B'ham for church that morning (since our flight didn't leave till noon). Long story short, our bags were in the car...our dogs were out in the back yard, going to the potty. Our dogs accidentally got into the garage. Nathan went outside, thought that they (the dogs) had actually even gotten out of the garage & taken off. He happened to look in the car, and there was Heathcliff, perched on top of our bags. I guess he thought he was gonna just hop in & go wherever we were going! Needless to say, Nathan got upset and it scared Heathcliff. When Heathcliff gets spooked, he loses a bit of bladder control...so yeah, he peed a little bit on our bags & on my jacket. Which, as you can imagine, only made Nathan angrier. We were gonna be right on time for church, but as it turned out, we had to wash one of our bags and my jacket. So we just called everyone & told them that we were running too late. Honestly? It wasn't funny at the time. But I read somewhere, recently, that tragedy + time = comedy. So now we think about it & laugh. But that was some serious stress, right before we left.



• When we packed our bags, we packed as though we were flying Aeroflot the whole way. Delta allows several more pounds of luggage per person...but to keep from being charged by Aeroflot, we just kept our poundage to 44 lbs. (20 kg). We invested (about $10) in a handy luggage scale, and knew that we were really close to 44 lbs...but then the Delta scale weighed one of our bags about 2 lbs. over. Oh well...we didn't do too bad & would just pay for it, when we got to Russia (as a sidenote, the Aeroflot scales had us RIGHT on target, so that was nice!)



• We ended up just meeting our families at the airport...we had some ice cream & visit time before boarding our plane. It was a nice sendoff. Fromn B'ham, we flew to Atlanta.



• From Atlanta to Moscow was pretty uneventful. I slept a lot on the flight (which is highly unusual for me) and Nathan hardly slept a wink (which is not so unusual). We had some very cranky flight attendants - but I won't go into that. We got where we were going, and we ate on the way. That's what matters, I suppose.



• At the ATL airport, we met another family who is adopting from our same region. They had flown through Moscow on their first trip, so it was nice to be able to follow them through passport control & customs in Moscow. We were the only flight arriving at the time, so passort control was not crowded (thank goodness! I've heard that it can take up to 2 hrs. to get through, on a busy day). We made it through in about 15 minutes. Our passport agents were not particularly smiley ladies...but I guess that's par for the course. Our bags came right out, we had nothing to claim...so in all, it took us maybe 20 minutes to get out to the public area.



• Our ride was waiting for us with a sign, but somehow the travel plans got mixed up & she didn't realize that she was meeting 2 families. It turned out fine, because the other family was staying the night in Moscow...so she ran us over to the domestic terminal while they waited.



• At the domestic terminal, we went though an initial security checkpoint, and then we were shown the restrooms, a cafe, where to wait(sit), and where to check in when it was time. Then we were left alone, and we quickly realized that the domestic terminal is not quite large enough for all the people it serves. So in the general sitting area, there were no seats. But we found a tall table in the cafe to sit down. We drank a bunch of water & coke, so that it wasn't awkward for us to be sitting at that table......for 3 hours. We both read our books while we waited, and then Nathan finally spotted 2 seats together in the general seating area. He ran over & claimed them, and then we sat there and waited another 3 hours.



• Finally, it was time to check in for our flight. We had to go through a second security/passport check. Some guard that was standing at the passport check point picked up my passport (after the actual passport lady was finished with it). He scrutinized it, and then asked me something that I couldn't understand (I still don't know if it was in English or not). I asked him to repeat himself, and then he laughed and said something to the lady...I guess they had a good laugh at my expense. Maybe the guy was looking at my picture & told me that I look better when I actually put makeup on & act like I care how I look. Who knows. But I really didn't care...I was through! On the other hand, Nathan went right through with no laughter.



• We checked our bags w/ Aeroflot (again, our luggage weighed in perfectly) and then just had to wait about 30 minutes for our flight. The Aeroflot flight was really nice. The flight attendants spoke English and were kind. We both slept about 3 hours on this flight - which was really nice & helped the time go by fairly quickly.



• When we arrived in Vlad, we got our bags (I'm getting really good at keeping my place in the Russian version of a line!) and were picked up from the airport by our translator. We rode a taxi back to the hotel (my first taxi ride ever!).

And here we are, now, back 'home' at the Vlad Inn! Very glad to be here, too!! The rest of today & tomorrow are our days to rest & try to get our bodies on track for this time zone. And then Thursday we'll get to go see Little I...and Friday will be court. I'll post again later...but for now, I MUST get a shower.

Thanks again for all your thoughts, prayers & comments! More later!

**updated, lest you worry...I have had a shower & feel much better now!