Where was I?

Oh, yes. Back to blogging. I know it's been a few days, sorry. It's been pretty busy here - as you can imagine - but never fear, I will now recount our travels from the Motherland to my beloved United States. We got up at 5:30am - well, Tyler got up at 5am - to prepare to leave. The taxi was on time at 6:30am outside. We had to be to the airport by 9:30am and the traffic in central Moscow is SUPER busy, so we wanted to leave in enough time to get there. 30 minutes later, we had arrived. Somehow I was fine paying $100 for a taxi ride that would take 3 hours, but for 30 minutes...it seemed a bit steep. However, there was no throw up on the taxi and we were there by 9:30am, so I guess it worked out. That also meant that we had some 2 1/2 hours to kill before checking in our luggage...the boys were mostly entertained by long walks and eating some bread that we had brought. In hindsight, the boys were super well behaved, although I think I was paranoid to lose them or to have them stolen - so I kept them close at all times.

I think the Moscow airport has something that ALL airports should have - if they don't already: a playroom. That's right, parents out there, this airport has a playroom! It's full of toys and the kids loved it. I loved it! We met another family who was bringing home their two kids that they adopted from another region - can't remember which - a sister and brother, ages 4 and 3. It was nice to chat with them about their adoption and we ended up sitting next to each other on the plane, so we had someone to empathize with talk to.

About a day or two before we fly home, I noticed that Silas never wanted me to hold him when we were out and about. It began to eat at me as he was constantly crying and holding his arms out to Tyler to hold him. Tyler was very sweet and sensitive to me and my emotions. Whether it was the fatigue on the long 10 hour flight to NY or this issue with Silas, alone, I don't know - but at one point I lost it and just bawled like a baby on the plane. I said I wanted to go home to my 3 children who I knew would want for me to hold them. I had been waiting for more children and now the baby (2 years old is the closest that I have) didn't want me. At all. It was heartbreaking. Tyler assured me that with time it would change and that I would be home with Silas all the time during the day, etc, etc, etc, but it didn't help me right there and then. For the record, Calvin DOES want me all the time, so it was a funny thing for me to complain when I had a boy who was constantly vying for my attention. And since we have been home, Silas has certainly given me plenty of loving, so I'm fine now. Below are some pictures that Tyler took the day before we left Russia.

 Lenin's grave - they keep a flame burning at all times.

A guard at Lenin's grave - there are always two.

And so, after we landed in NY, we hurried to get through customs and by the time we picked up our checked luggage and went to recheck it for our flight, they said we wouldn't make it in time, so they booked us on the 7pm flight - we were supposed to arrive in Orlando at 7pm - and we arrived at 11pm. The second flight was better because we all slept. In fact, I remember taking off and the next thing I knew, we were descending into Orlando. Thankfully Calvin slept, too, as I wouldn't have been able to watch him. And no throw up either flight. This is significant, as Calvin had thrown up on both car rides prior to our flights. We were just prepared for him to throw up at any moment. And I asked a nice stewardess to explain to Calvin (in Russian) to throw up into the bag that we had for him.

Danielle, Anna, and Maggie arrived at the airport to pick us up. Jana was kind enough to come sit at the house while Iryna and Keith slept. We made it home around 1am and we all crashed. At that point, it had been 28 hours since we woke up in Russia to leave, and I had only slept for 2 hours of that. It was so good to be home and sleep in my own bed. The boys fell right asleep, too, which was great for us.

We woke up about 7am and had breakfast together before Tyler had to run to work. And our first couple of days have been fabulous. I know that you want to read more about it, but honestly, my time is up and since I have more limited time now, as you can well imagine, I won't be able to update both this blog and my main, Jill, THE WARRIOR blog, so from now on out, check onto that blog for updates. Thanks for your support! Calvin and Silas are finally HOME! :)