We are here!!!

Happy Winter from Vladivostok to everyone back home! (We loved the snowman that the children made outside of Nick's baby home - check out that hair (no, not Jon's!!).

We made it here through 4 airports, 2 red eye flights, 1 soup nazi and 1 (almost) lost bag - well redirected through yet another airport that is.

We started off Saturday morning in the snow....thankful that our flight took off -- on time -- from O'Hare to New York JFK (especially since 400+ flights had been cancelled the day before). A quick layover there (comparitively...only 3 1/2 hours) with a "couple" beers at Chili's and Jon's last chance to eat a hamburger for 3 weeks & we cheered on the lady Cyclones to victory (although they lost on Monday night) and we were off.

The JFK - Moscow flight wasn't bad (Jon had his plane drugs so that helped both of us -- immensely) as it was incredibly long & we sat next to a guy who snored the whole way! Needless to say, Jon and I could not for the life of us sleep at all!! We did meet 3 other couples who are adopting from Moscow. They were all on their last leg as well, so it was nice to chat with them. They had previously stayed at the Marriott in Moscow, so we got a few hints and tips for when we arrive there after our stint in Vlad - such as don't eat the breakfast buffet or it will run you about $90 bucks!

Side note: Delta now carries "Stirrings" - so Tina I toasted to you!

Anyway... 10 hours later and we were on the ground -- landing during snow -- and only found 3 of our 4 bags (of course the one missing was the bag with all of Jon's court attire). We waited and went to baggage claim when it didn't arrive (a little difficult to communicate that we lost a bag in Russian) but she asked our last name and immediately knew who we were. Our "lost" bag was misrouted to Atlanta... who knows why. We decided we stick around for another 45 minutes to see if it made the flight coming in from Atlanta, otherwise they would send it on to Vlad in about 3 to 4 days. By the Grace of God, that blue suitcase was one of the first to come off the conveyer belt!

We finally found our driver, who was just about to leave as he thought we missed our flight. He had to drive us from the International terminal to the Domestic terminal where we sat in one location for 8 hours - yes 8 hours - and this airport isn't like any US airport. It was brutal - I mean really really really really brutal. Jon fell asleep at the table, everything was in Russian and no one spoke English including the table cleaning lady who yelled at me in Russian and then grabbed my carry on and my purse from the table and threw them on the floor. Fun, fun! Finally we could check into our flight (quite an adventure and paid $80 because our bags were 5 pounds total overweight), got on our Aeroflot flight (a Boeing 767 of course because my husband will only fly on a Boeing or an Airbus :) ) and we both proceeded to sleep for quite a few hours. This flight was 8 hours, but we were soooo tired that it really didn't matter how it was or who was talking.

We finally landed in Vlad (Monday 11am // Sunday 8pm Central) - again, in snow. The ladies were right here for us and they took our bags and laughed when they asked me what I had packed. I told them you never quite know, plus for 25 days, I thought I'd packed light!

We came back to the hotel, showered, unpacked and tried to watch a movie but gave up. We napped from 3-8pm - ate a quick bite then went to bed from 11-7:30 this am.

We went to see Nick this morning, after more snow, we picked up Lana (our translator), our social worker Svetlana and our driver Alex took us to see him. I think he really remembered us - or our snacks - and came right over. I'm not sure if he has grown any, maybe just filled out a little. It was so good to finally hold him once again and he gave us sweet hugs. The 35 hours of travel was more than worth it and we wouldn't change a thing!! We didn't have much time to see him today just about 30 - 45 mins.

We are all prepped and ready - I hope - for court tomorrow at 2pm (Tuesday 11pm Central). Please say a quick prayer that all goes smoothly and we ask that you think of us if you are Night Owls and still awake at that time. The power of prayer! Lana said that we really have a nice judge and she hopes that we can get the 10 days waived, so we'll keep our fingers crossed but we aren't holding our breath.

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes and prayers. We will let you know how tomorrow goes. We ask that you continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We can't wait to bring Nick home and see all of you!

Love,

Beck and Jon