Trip 2, Day 20: Headin' Home!

A bit tardy, but here's the run down of our return to the US. It began with a wakeup call at 2:15AM. We were off to the airport at approximately 3:30AM. The entire time while in Moscow, our driver had a wonderful SUV that we rode in. This morning, we had a different driver and a different car--something akin to a little Ford Focus that didn't grow up. Our 2 big suitcases were all that would fit in the trunk, so our coordinator had a bag in his lap, Doug had one in his lap, and I had Andrei and the diaper bag on my lap. Cozy! It was about an hour's drive to the airport; you would think that it would be an uneventful trip, but not so. Halfway there, our driver gets pulled over by the traffic police. He was not breaking any Russian law; apparently, the traffic police can pull anyone over any time for any reason and check your "documents." Our driver pulls over, gets out of the car, and takes his passport to the police officer. He comes back, and I'm thinking we'll be on our way. Not so. No the police officers--two of them--are knocking on our coordinator's side of the window. They want to check his documents. Now we can be on our way. Not so fast. Now they want to check the people in the back seats' documents. We hand them our passports. And these two officers start going through all the little papers you're suppose to carry in your passport.

This time, it's not a quick look-see and hand them back to the owner. Now they're reading the registration paper. Our coordinator is saying something to them, but they are not buying it. Apparently, something is amiss. It's dark outside, their voices are getting loud, and all I can see out the window is police #2's fire power slung over his shoulder and around his chest. He's carrying something like an M-16 with about a 100 rounds over one shoulder, and some other rifle thing he's holding in his hand ready to point and shoot. It's like they forgot to turn in their guns after World War II was over. Did you not get the memo? I'm praying at this point. Our coordinator is telling us that we don't have our registration paperwork from when we stayed in Moscow the last few days, and they are wanting that. Well, we didn't get any from the hotel. Didn't know to ask. We thought our registration from Krasnoyarsk was good for the whole trip, but apparently not. Now I am in serious prayer mode. Our coordinator is trying to tell them that we stayed at the Marriott Courtyard. He makes a phone call to the hotel and hands his cell phone to police officer #1, who by the way is only carrying a 9 Millimeter gun with about enough ammunition to decimate a cattle herd in 60 seconds. About 3 minutes later we get our passports back and we are on our merry way. Not a good start to our day to say the least. Oh, but the fun is just beginning.

We check in at the Lufthansa desk, and they can't print a boarding pass for Andrei (again!). The agent spends about 20 minutes on the computer, but to no avail. I leave the line and find a place to set my weary body and Andrei to wait. Now Doug is across the lobby having to buy Andrei a seat. He does that, and goes back to the main counter. Now they can't print Doug's boarding pass because it was tied to the earlier "can't print Andrei's boarding pass" ticket. What??? Time is ticking. We have now been dealing with this whole boarding pass thing for over 2 hours now. Our flight leaves in 30 minutes. I'm praying again. I am having a serious problem with this country and need to leave now. Actually, I am the only one who can leave. They can print my boarding pass, but no one elses. I really think at this point I'm about to flip out, and all I want to do is take my boarding pass and let "the boys" fend for themselves. Finally, a merciful angel types the right thing into the computer, and Doug can get his boarding pass. Thank you Lord!

Now we're off to passport control. Sergei goes with us as far as he can, we say thank you, and now we're on our own. At passport control, the lady behind the glass wants to see our paperwork for Andrei. We hand the packet (not the sealed one) from the US Embassy, and she calls for a supervisor. You have got to be kidding me! They can't find his birth certificate in it with our names as his parents. The supervisor, who is not a smiling woman, (is anyone in this country??) goes through it twice. I'm not sure she knows what she's looking for. Finally, she finds it, and we go on our way. They are already boarding our flight by the time we get through security. Doug looks like he's been hiking in the Mohabi Desert there is so much sweat pouring off him. No early boarding for children (not that we would have made that announcement anyway...) Andrei does great on the plane, and we arrive in Frankfurt 3 hours later.

The flight from Frankfurt to Houston was about 10 hours. Andrei slept maybe 20 minutes. He has now been up over 16 hours with 20 minutes of sleep. I'll just let your imaginations run wild envisioning that plane ride. We arrive in Houston, go through passport control, and then are directed to the Immigration Office to process Andrei's paperwork. Now, I realize that this office probably sees a majority of people of "questionable" character, but we got nothin'. I mean nothin'. I wasn't expecting them to play the Star Spangled Banner and blow a paper horn, but come on, can't you at least say, "Congratulations! Andrei is now a US citizen." All we got was, "You should be getting something in the mail about getting him a passport. I'm all done here. You may go." That's it. Thank you friendly Mr. Immigration Man.

We go to the Continental counter to get our boarding passes; it is the first time we have not had to jump through 9 million hoops to get on a plane. We let the ticket lady know how thankful we are. Andrei finally falls asleep before our plane takes off, and sleep until we land.

We have the most wonderful welcoming party at the airport. I cried when I hugged my girls. It was so good to see them. We had balloons, and banners, and even a limo to take us home. My house was cleaner than it had ever been in its life. We had Bar B Que ordered and waiting for us for our supper. Thank you everyone for welcoming us home. (I hope someone got pictures of the whole thing?? Hint hint!) I was so excited to be back, I seriously could have licked the airport windows.