On the way home....

We are sitting in the lobby of the Pur Navalok Hotel in Archangelsk waiting for our ride to the airport to begin the journey home.  It is currently 11:55 am on Saturday, October 9.  Today we will fly to Moscow, spend the night and fly out on Sunday morning (10:30 am) to Houston (arriving at 2:00 pm; same day).  We are looking forward to sleeping in our own bed!

Our last post was in the same hotel before flying to Kotlas to meet our boys.  The airport we flew out of was a bit smaller than the one we arrived at here in Archangelsk.  The only issue Rachael had with the airport was the bathroom facility.  It was at the bottom of the flight of stairs, was labeled for women, had a sink and 3 stalls (with doors but no locks) and contained running water and toilet paper.  The issue was the fact that the 'seat' was on the floor (okay, it was a toilet shaped basin imbeded into the concrete floor) and you had 2 choices: to squat or to squat.  Apparently she still has fairly good 'aim' but isn't quite as flexible as she once was.  At least it had toilet paper.....

Chris fared a bit better in the men's room.....

The plane we flew on could hold 19 passengers & 2 in the cockpit.  It was an older model with 'storage space' for the luggage in the back section.  We knew our luggage would get on the plane, because we loaded it ourselves.  No beverage service, not even a steward or stewardess (no room on the plane for them!).  If you were thristy, you had to bring it yourself.  The flight was rather smooth for the hour and a half it took to get to Kotlas.  Our ears kept popping because of the pressure in the cabin, but it was okay.  I will post a picture of the view from my seat later.

Once we landed in Kotlas, things started moving quickly.  We met Dimitri at the hotel before we left Archangelsk, as well as another couple adopting from the same orphanage in Kotlas.  it has been great to have another couple to walk through this process with.  They are from Michigan and are adopting a sibling group of 2 as well (boy & girl).  We met Anya (our translator for our stay in Kotlas) and our driver at the airport.  They took us to the hotel to settle in.  Our room was rather nice (and newer) than some of the others in the hotel.  We had a 'suite' that consisted of a sitting room, bedroom and bathroom.  It was really nice to have the water heater in the bathroom!  I think it got hot enough to boil!  The shower was small (about big enough for one person who didn't turn around or bend over too much).

The 'Cafeteria' was one floor below us (we were on the 3rd floor) and pretty decent.  It was basically a corner area that had doorways, a counter to order from and tables with chairs to sit.  The food was good (once we figured out what to order) but wasn't the portion size we are used to (I think we both have lost a few pounds).  We had pork pieces with potatos the first night and pancakes (we call them crepes) for breakfast the next morning.  Once the girl behind the counter figured out our pointing and broken words, she was very helpful!  Yesterday when we went down for breakfast, they didn't have pancakes.  That was all we knew to order, so she brought out a tray with sliced bread that had cheese & meat slices on it to offer for breakfast.  Was pretty good.  Chai was the beverage of choice for breakfast.  Hot tea is always good when you don't know what else to order.

We were able to spend 3 different times with the children at the orphanage, Thursday morning, Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.  We got to spend about 2 hours each time.  We will tell you about all of that in another blog posting.

We ate lunch in Kotlas at Fortune Cafe both days .  Really good food (when it was cooked all the way through).  Anya joined us both times and we all had a nice time visiting.  Anya is an English teacher and was really excited about using and improving her English skills.  We were really glad to have her help us out.

We flew back to Archangelsk Friday afternoon on the same type of plane that took us to Kotlas (We know it wasn't the same because of the seat covers).  Vladimir met us all at the airport, dropped Chris and I off somewhere to another taxi that brought us to the hotel while he took Heather & Brian to the other airport to catch their flight to St. Petersberg.  We both got some sleep last night (finally!) and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast this morning before packing up and settling in the lobby to wait for our ride to the airport.

We will post about meeting our boys and the time we spent with them later.  We won't be able to post pictures of them until we get them home, so be patient as we will all have to wait!

Thank you for all of your prayers and support.  Please continue to pray as we enter this last phase of paperwork and waiting to bring our boys home.  We have signed papers here to start the official adoption process here, but we still have papers to work on at home (INS approval, FBI clearance, other papers to sign & notarize....)