Back Home Safe and Sound

Greetings everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days. In Moscow at the Holiday Inn the internet is expensive, so we didn't purchase any internet cards. At McDonalds you can get thirty minutes of free WIFI, but by the time Drew Payne and I were done sending e-mails, we ran out of minutes so I couldn't do a post. Anyway, below is what I intended to post from Moscow...

Greetings from Moscow everyone! We made it safely! We were sad to say goodbye to friends in Vlad yesterday, but were eager to move on to the next leg of our journey--Moscow. However, we were not looking forward to the long 9-hour flight from Vlad to Moscow. We left the Vlad Inn at 11AM on Tuesday morning to head to the airport. On the way we picked up Lana so that she could se us off at the airport. Timing worked out very nicely. Lana helped us get checked in, then she bid us farewell. We made our way through security to the gate and only had to wait a couple of minutes before they started boarding our flight.

The boys were very excited to get on the airplane. Clarion and the boys had the three middle seats and I sat across the aisle from them. It worked out ok. Poor Clarion had the blunt of taking care of both boys. I helped as much as I could. We gave Sergei a small dose of Benadryl when we got on the plane. Slav is pretty smart and wouldn't go for our trickery. He wouldn't take the Benadryl. The Benadryl made Sergei very tired, but unfortunately he had a very hard time getting comfortable which made it very hard for him to actually sleep. He did manage to sleep a little bit, but definitely not enough. We both took turns walking him up and down the aisles of the plane. We learned that he gets very scared when you flush the toilet in the lavatory on the plane. Sergei was a little cranky the first few hours since he was uncomfortable and couldn't sleep, but actually did quite well for the rest of the flight. Overall, I'd say Sergei did very well on his first plane ride.

Slav was great on the plane. There were only a few moments of frustration. Aeroflot Airlines gives a little kids pack to the children on the flight. In Slav's kid's pack was a puzzle of an airplane. He insisted on working on it right after takeoff, before he could put his tray table down. Well, it made for interesting puzzle work. He was tired and cranky as he worked on the puzzle, but he and Clarion finally finished it. After handing the puzzle over to me, I accidentally spilled all of the pieces. So now we are several puzzle pieces short. Anyway, Slav made a couple of friends during the flight, a guy probably in his twenties and an old man. Slav talked to them for at least an hour, maybe more. It was cute. They kept smiling at Clarion and me as they talked to him. You could tell they thought Slav was a great kid. We had two meals on the flight. Both boys ate very well. All in all, none of us got much sleep on the flight. We were all thrilled when the plane touched down in Moscow. We were taken by surprise to find it quite chilly and rainy in Moscow. Clarion and I were both in shorts, the boys in pants and short sleeved shirts. Thankfully we had their jackets along.

Once we got to baggage claim, there was an excruciatingly long wait for luggage. The conveyer did not even start running until about 45 minutes (seriously!) after we got there. It's the longest I've ever waited for bags at an airport. What really stunk was that both boys had to use the bathroom, but the toilets were on the other side of security. After waiting for about 10 or 15 minutes we finally decided that Clarion and the boys should exit and hit the toilets and look for Mia, our CHI interpreter. I waited for the bags for another half hour. Finally the bags came. Grabbing your bags from the carousel at Russian airports is always an interesting experience. Everyone crowds in and just kind of shoves people out of the way when their bags come. As soon as I had the bags I made may way out and was met by Mia. She took me to the car where Clarion and the boys were waiting. We had about a 1 1/2 hour drive to the hotel with Moscow traffic. Slav dosed in the car for a bit. Unfortunately when we arrived at the hotel the boys were wired. The other bummer of a thing is that embassy paperwork needed to be filled out right away (which I expected) so that it could be submitted early the next day. So, Clarion and the boys hung out in one of our rooms and Mia and I worked on paperwork in our other room next door. Mia informed me that CHI would submit our paperwork for us on Wednesday and we would have a free day in Moscow. However, CHI is very busy with numerous families in town this week, so we would be unable to get a driver from CHI. After Mia left with the paperwork, Slav and I crashed in one room and Clarion and Sergei in the other. Thankfully they brought a little pack 'n play for Sergei to sleep in.

Today (Wednesday) we decided to brave the Moscow Metro subway system and venture out to Red Square. I spent an hour or so this morning planning our route. Thankfully a Metro station is right across the street from our hotel. We were a little nervous, but we made it. The Metro is cheap and fairly easy to figure out, despite the fact that nothing is in English and the attendants really don't speak English. We counted the number of stops until we came to the stop where we needed to get off. When we exited the train and made our way back up to the surface, there was the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer, staring us in the face. It was really great! We took a few minutes and got our bearings and started toward it. It was definitely a challenge to walk with two little boys in the cold, wet weather, trying to balance a travel guide, digital camera and video camera. I've got to hand it to my family. Clarion did great, often having to carry poor little Sergei, just so we could move a bit faster (and sometimes just to keep hold of him since he sometimes just darts off after a bird or after something else). The boys also did well with three hours of walking in the cold and off-and-on misting rain. Anyway, we did the quickest tour of the area anyone has ever taken. From Christ the Redeemer we walked along the Moscow River toward the Kremlin. We walked along the perimeter of the Kremlin through Alexander Gardens. There were a lot of beautiful flowers. We saw the tomb of the unknown soldier and the Russian guards standing by. We walked from there to Red Square where we finally got our shot in front of St. Basil's Cathedral. It was cold and wt and Slav kept saying, "ustal," which means "tired." So we took a few pictures, even one outside of Lenin's tomb (which was unfortunately closed). We quickly made our way down the rest of our route, past the statue of Karl Marx and then thankfully we spotted another Metro station which would take us back to Sokolniki where out hotel is. It was about a ten minute ride on the metro. We're quite proud of ourselves for venturing out and braving the public transportation in Moscow. I wish we would've had more time. If the weather had been better we might have stayed out longer.







As I said, we're now home safe and sound. We'll give another report soon when we have some time. The boys are still quite wired but Mama and Papa are tired. Thankfully my (Joel) parents are here to lend a hand for a few days. Thanks again to all of your for your prayers throughout our journey. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

P.S. - More pictures from our trip coming soon!!!