Moscow airport

We have arrived...or should I say, we arrived around eight hours ago. For this posting it is 7:30 p.m. Moscow time, 12:30 p.m. EST. Depending on internet service, we will upload this to the blog then. DST Russia happened this morning at 2:00 a.m while we were somewhere over the North Atlantic Sea. Delta airlines was a little tight on the leg room, but the staff was very nice, maybe that should offset one another. Flight service included dinner last night and light breakfast this morning. That was a nice change in the "routine" during the 8.5 hr. flight.

We arrived in Moscow airport, and, with our new friends we met sitting in front of us who are returning for their court date, and our other couple from our adoption agency, we made our way off the plane into the airport. I must admit, I felt a high level of fear here. It took quite a few pep talks with God as we walked off the gangplank into the unknown. We wound around through the airport, following signs in russian, very glad this other couple had taken us under their wing. We came down the steps to a large room with the little custom booths at the far end.

The couple I mentioned earlier was with the 4 of us. The wife leaned over to me and said how nice this was. The last time she had been here it was dark and chaotic. They had put in a dropped ceiling and lighting and painted lines on the ground so everyone was standing in orderly lines, waiting their turn to enter the Motherland. We made it through without incident and followed the crowd to get our luggage.

We stepped outside the area where the luggage was, and there was a man holding a sign that said Swingle/Goeppner. It was Vladimir :) He speaks little English- but a whole lot more English than we speak Russian :) He loaded us up and we drove about 1 mile to the Novotel Hotel.

Wow- it was amazing! It had the large lobby that extends to the roof with the glass elevators to ride up to your room. It was very posh! Vladimir handed me his phone, motioning for me to talk. I said, "Hello?" and found I was talking to Phillip, the gentleman who made all our arrangments. He had items for us to take with us to Krasnoyarsk- paperwork and such, and he said when to meet Vladimir later that evening to go back to the airport for the next flight.

We had adjoining rooms with the Goeppners. We really enjoyed our time with them. We shared our photos of our sons and spoke back and forth between the rooms until we both settled in for some shut eye.

We enjoyed a nice Russian version of Don Pepe's mexicano at the Novotel hotel just before we checked out.

Currently, we are waiting in very smoke laden Moscow airport for AeroFlot flight #779 to Krasnoyarsk. The airport here is sort of confusing for us non-Russian speaking folks. Vladamir, our driver was a Huge blessing to make certain we are were we needed to be and standing in
the correct line.

We arrived around 10:00 a.m. this morning, checked into the Novotel hotel and crashed. Sleeping on the aircraft in totally over rated. Checked out of the non smoke filled hotel at 6:15 p.m., to wait in a hazy environment. We should arrive in Krasnoyarsk around 6:00 a.m.
Monday morning. Not sure if we will be able to stop at our hotel before the MOE appointment, so we are dressed for the occasion. Praying the next flight will be kind to the business attire.
The weather has been very overcast today. The temperature is about 30 degrees F. Forecast for Krasnoyarsk is calling for measurable snow during our three days visit. Chris and Penny Goeppner are excited about the snow, being from south Florida. We are tired, but on the flip side, very excited about seeing our son for the first time. The MOE meeting will be torture! God willing, it will be short and we will get to spend as much time as possible tomorrow with him.