The long version of the longest day
So yesterday started about 6 AM, Moscow time - just when Americans were going to sleep Monday night. Dima came to pick us up at 7:30, then we had to pick up Sasha and Mr. Bradshaw because they were flying out the same day, but later. We got a little waylayed, but were still on time.
So we got to the airport, said our good byes and walked in to the departures area.
As you may remember from my first post, Moscow's airport hat two buildings - and they are about 20 minutes away from each other. So we stood around for a good 15 minutes - maybe more - before we realized we were in the wrong building.
We couldn't find any place to buy a phone card to call Dima, so I went to the taxi counter and asked if they had a driver available. This was about 9:40 and our plane left at 10:15.
We got a taxi and tried to get him to hurry, but there was construction. We got to the airport about 10 AM. We ran inside, though baggage check, only to find that there was no departure window for Warsaw. We flagged down another Aeroflot employee and asked her what to do. She pointed us to the employee lounge told us to ask a manager to let us through. By this time it was 10:10 and it was simply too late.
Crap.
The Aeroflot lady said we should go up to the LOT office and ask them about booking a later flight. So we loaded up all of our stuff and went off to find it. It was closed. It did not have hours posted when it would be open.
We went back to Aeroflot and asked them when their next flight to Warsaw was. Tomorrow.
So. What do we do? We could call someone and drive back into Moscow, and then try to get on tomorrows flight with LOT - if there was room. Or we could just buy another ticket from someone else and leave.
We chose the latter. I knew that Aeroflot had a daily flight to New York so we walked up to the window and got three tickets. I think it cost somewhere around $4000. Yeah, that wasn't really in our budget, but for our own sanity, it had to be done.
So now it was about 11 AM and we could go through the line at 1 PM.
At this point Andrei was getting near uncongtrollable. I don't blame him. He already gets overstimulated way easy, and then we were rushing him back and forth through the airport, and I'm sure he could tell that we were getting frustrated too with the whole situation. He would not stop running away from us and into restricted areas. And then when we'd bring him back, he'd start swinging. So we held him sitting on the dirty, nasty floor of the airport - his legs under my legs, his fists in my hands, screaming and crying (just him, although I wanted to). This was definately the low point of the day. So we took out our last resort. Children's benydryl. And i prayed - no, begged - to God that it would not rile him up more, as I had heard so many horror stories of. Well, it didn't jack him up. But it didn't calm him down either. I think it had no effect. But soon enough it was time to move again, and we stood in line to get our boarding pass.
I have never waited in line so much as at that airport. And I kept thinking that everyone else in line was like - please don't let me have a seat next to this kid. I was thinking the same thing! But at least there are seatbelts on airplanes.
Everyone who flew to New York had to have their bags x-rayed, and then also hand checked by a security person. This actually wasn't that bad because the lady talked to Andrei the whole time and it gave him something to focus on. Then we stood in line some more and got our boarding pass. Then we stood in line some more at passport control. I think the lady read every single one of Andrei's documents, but oh well. Then through the duty free shop area. I was a little worried about this part because Andrei is so grabby, but there were mostly stores for cosmetics and alcohol - neither of which interest him.
Somewhere along the way he got angry again but I don't remember what, but we bought some food and ate quickly - since we couldn't bring it into the seating area. Then we had our carryon luggage hand checked and went to wait some more.
Then came the flight. It was about 10 hours long but of course it felt like an eternity. It wasn't overly horrible. Andrei did get angry a few times because if he loses something - he thinks we stole it or something so he gets really mad. So we spent a lot of time looking under the seats for crayons, cars, marker tops, and other little things. Then this wonderful old lady came up and started talking to him. She saw his pictures he had and talked him about whatever in Russian, and took him walking up and down the aisle. She was a god-send. After this they turned off all the lights, but Andrei had no intention of going to sleep. So I gave him some Melatonin for just that purpose and he was out like a light. He slept for about 4 hours, with a few times waking up kicking and crying - I think his ears hurt - he never could figure out how to equalize the pressure and was sticking his fingers in them the whole flight.
We met another adoption family on the flight that had two children from the far eastern part of Russia - a 10 hour flight from Moscow. There was a single dad with a boy too, but we didn't get to talk to them. We tried to get Andrei to talk to the other kids, but he didnt' want to.
We landed in New York about 7 PM. As soon as we landed I called JetBlue to see if they had any open seats on their 9PM flight to Chicago. They did, but couldn't book over the phone.
First we had to go through passport control - the US citizen line. The officer there opened Andrei's immigration packet from the embassy and asked us some questions and then took us to the Immigration office. We waited for about 20 minutes and then got Andrei's stamped passport and we were off. We quickly got our luggage, sailed through customs and went to find JetBlue ticketing. It was in a different bulding, so we had to take the shuttle train. That was easy enough except when we were getting off, Andrei didn't follow right away and then panicked when the doors started shutting and we had to grab him by the collar and yank him though. I think it scared him. It scared me.
We finally found the Jetblue boarding line, and then ticketing. We got in just in time I think. After we got our boarding passes, we went straight through security and found our gate. Andrei and Brent had just sat down and I went to get us some food when they called for boarding. That was cutting it close.
So we boarded and Andrei was enthralled with the personal TVs on the back of each seat. Me too. I got to watch The Grinch in English! The flight was a short two hours and we talked a lot with the flight attendant, since we were in the second back row of the plane. JetBlue was the nicest airline we have ever flown on - lots of leg room, good snacks, personal TVs - too bad it doesn't fly out of Milwaukee.
I will say, that my favorite part of the trip was flying out of NewYork at night. It was beautiful seeing all the lights of the city.
We landed in Chicago at 11 PM and my parents were waiting at the bottom of the escalator. Andrei ran down and got big hugs and then Brent and I got both got big hugs too.
We collected our luggage and was on our way home.
There were a few surprises (good this time) when we got home but I will post about them later tonight.
Andrei wanted a bath and then we all finally went to bed close to 3 AM. The cats woke me up at 7. Blech. Andrei got up shortly after, and now he's not making any noise, so I should probably check that out.
Anyway, we come to the end of one journey, and the beginning of another. Andrei is a joy this morning and remembered his room and all of his things. He hugged us tight before bed last night and I think he knew he was home. It's a good place to be.
So we got to the airport, said our good byes and walked in to the departures area.
As you may remember from my first post, Moscow's airport hat two buildings - and they are about 20 minutes away from each other. So we stood around for a good 15 minutes - maybe more - before we realized we were in the wrong building.
We couldn't find any place to buy a phone card to call Dima, so I went to the taxi counter and asked if they had a driver available. This was about 9:40 and our plane left at 10:15.
We got a taxi and tried to get him to hurry, but there was construction. We got to the airport about 10 AM. We ran inside, though baggage check, only to find that there was no departure window for Warsaw. We flagged down another Aeroflot employee and asked her what to do. She pointed us to the employee lounge told us to ask a manager to let us through. By this time it was 10:10 and it was simply too late.
Crap.
The Aeroflot lady said we should go up to the LOT office and ask them about booking a later flight. So we loaded up all of our stuff and went off to find it. It was closed. It did not have hours posted when it would be open.
We went back to Aeroflot and asked them when their next flight to Warsaw was. Tomorrow.
So. What do we do? We could call someone and drive back into Moscow, and then try to get on tomorrows flight with LOT - if there was room. Or we could just buy another ticket from someone else and leave.
We chose the latter. I knew that Aeroflot had a daily flight to New York so we walked up to the window and got three tickets. I think it cost somewhere around $4000. Yeah, that wasn't really in our budget, but for our own sanity, it had to be done.
So now it was about 11 AM and we could go through the line at 1 PM.
At this point Andrei was getting near uncongtrollable. I don't blame him. He already gets overstimulated way easy, and then we were rushing him back and forth through the airport, and I'm sure he could tell that we were getting frustrated too with the whole situation. He would not stop running away from us and into restricted areas. And then when we'd bring him back, he'd start swinging. So we held him sitting on the dirty, nasty floor of the airport - his legs under my legs, his fists in my hands, screaming and crying (just him, although I wanted to). This was definately the low point of the day. So we took out our last resort. Children's benydryl. And i prayed - no, begged - to God that it would not rile him up more, as I had heard so many horror stories of. Well, it didn't jack him up. But it didn't calm him down either. I think it had no effect. But soon enough it was time to move again, and we stood in line to get our boarding pass.
I have never waited in line so much as at that airport. And I kept thinking that everyone else in line was like - please don't let me have a seat next to this kid. I was thinking the same thing! But at least there are seatbelts on airplanes.
Everyone who flew to New York had to have their bags x-rayed, and then also hand checked by a security person. This actually wasn't that bad because the lady talked to Andrei the whole time and it gave him something to focus on. Then we stood in line some more and got our boarding pass. Then we stood in line some more at passport control. I think the lady read every single one of Andrei's documents, but oh well. Then through the duty free shop area. I was a little worried about this part because Andrei is so grabby, but there were mostly stores for cosmetics and alcohol - neither of which interest him.
Somewhere along the way he got angry again but I don't remember what, but we bought some food and ate quickly - since we couldn't bring it into the seating area. Then we had our carryon luggage hand checked and went to wait some more.
Then came the flight. It was about 10 hours long but of course it felt like an eternity. It wasn't overly horrible. Andrei did get angry a few times because if he loses something - he thinks we stole it or something so he gets really mad. So we spent a lot of time looking under the seats for crayons, cars, marker tops, and other little things. Then this wonderful old lady came up and started talking to him. She saw his pictures he had and talked him about whatever in Russian, and took him walking up and down the aisle. She was a god-send. After this they turned off all the lights, but Andrei had no intention of going to sleep. So I gave him some Melatonin for just that purpose and he was out like a light. He slept for about 4 hours, with a few times waking up kicking and crying - I think his ears hurt - he never could figure out how to equalize the pressure and was sticking his fingers in them the whole flight.
We met another adoption family on the flight that had two children from the far eastern part of Russia - a 10 hour flight from Moscow. There was a single dad with a boy too, but we didn't get to talk to them. We tried to get Andrei to talk to the other kids, but he didnt' want to.
We landed in New York about 7 PM. As soon as we landed I called JetBlue to see if they had any open seats on their 9PM flight to Chicago. They did, but couldn't book over the phone.
First we had to go through passport control - the US citizen line. The officer there opened Andrei's immigration packet from the embassy and asked us some questions and then took us to the Immigration office. We waited for about 20 minutes and then got Andrei's stamped passport and we were off. We quickly got our luggage, sailed through customs and went to find JetBlue ticketing. It was in a different bulding, so we had to take the shuttle train. That was easy enough except when we were getting off, Andrei didn't follow right away and then panicked when the doors started shutting and we had to grab him by the collar and yank him though. I think it scared him. It scared me.
We finally found the Jetblue boarding line, and then ticketing. We got in just in time I think. After we got our boarding passes, we went straight through security and found our gate. Andrei and Brent had just sat down and I went to get us some food when they called for boarding. That was cutting it close.
So we boarded and Andrei was enthralled with the personal TVs on the back of each seat. Me too. I got to watch The Grinch in English! The flight was a short two hours and we talked a lot with the flight attendant, since we were in the second back row of the plane. JetBlue was the nicest airline we have ever flown on - lots of leg room, good snacks, personal TVs - too bad it doesn't fly out of Milwaukee.
I will say, that my favorite part of the trip was flying out of NewYork at night. It was beautiful seeing all the lights of the city.
We landed in Chicago at 11 PM and my parents were waiting at the bottom of the escalator. Andrei ran down and got big hugs and then Brent and I got both got big hugs too.
We collected our luggage and was on our way home.
There were a few surprises (good this time) when we got home but I will post about them later tonight.
Andrei wanted a bath and then we all finally went to bed close to 3 AM. The cats woke me up at 7. Blech. Andrei got up shortly after, and now he's not making any noise, so I should probably check that out.
Anyway, we come to the end of one journey, and the beginning of another. Andrei is a joy this morning and remembered his room and all of his things. He hugged us tight before bed last night and I think he knew he was home. It's a good place to be.
posted by Tracy at 7:02 AM
3 Comments:
Welcome home!!!
Enjoy your time together cocooning and learning how to be a family together. :)
So glad you made it home! It sounds like it was more than challenging, but you really, really made it. Congratulations!
Grandma hopes that you will continue to post. It helps to know whats going on with little Andrei and how he adjusts to having parents; and 2 sets of grand parents.
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