Saturday, October 4, 2008

Saturday, October 4th

Our travelers arrived back in Ekat today and found that their internet access is not working.  Lori asked that I update her blog (this is Lynn again).  As mentioned earlier they are back at the flat in Ekat.  Tomorrow they'll visit a circus and they've scheduled sightseeing for Monday.  They plan on getting passport photos for Camryn and Courtney on Tuesday.  Tuesday is the Resolution Day (the day in which the formalities are over and the girls are for sure coming home)  so on Wednesday they'll pick them up and go to the hotel in Ekat.  They'll fly to Moscow on Thursday.  From there, they're just a few steps away from home.  They need to meet with the Embassy (probably on Monday), and then start their journey home.  They hope to leave Moscow and arrive in LA on Wednesday 10/15, but if things go super great, it could be a day earlier.  Just knowing they'll be home some day that week is exciting!  

Lori will update with all their exciting news and adventures when she can.  We're hoping for photos when they arrive to the hotel with the girls on Wednesday (10/8).  

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Thursday 3PM

Another great day in Chelyabinsk. Today we took the bus to Katy's orphanage and it was such a good thing to do. The chief doctor greated us and then the caretakers came in to see Valeeva Katya. They all rememeber her and you could just see the love and pride in their faces. At first it was a little intimadating for Katy but then she seemed to loosen up a bit and enjoy the attention. I'm really glad we were able to do that as I didn't realize how important it would be to all of her caregivers.

Other than that we've just been walking the City and been seeing all the great sites. Megan and Angela are keeping me entertained and are a great help with Katy. We'll be here Friday and leaving Saturday to get back to Ekat and then we'll have email again.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

From Chelyabinsk

We don't have email but Sasha is letting us use her internet card for just a few minutes. I wanted to just quickly say that we are really have a great time in Chelyabinsk. I miss the girls but it is great to be here and Sasha is really showing us the City in a way that I didn't see it before. We've ridden the train from Ekat, the bus and trolley here and walked what seems to be the whole city. It's come a long way in the 3 years since I've been here. Stacy - you would be shocked at the additions! Katy did very well with only a couple of issues. I really miss the girls but we will be back in Ekat soon.

Gotta go - Sasha's making us a great vegetable dinner right now!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Monday 9/29 - 12:30 PM

Yeah - Mimi's here and so is Sasha. We have a full house which is really nice. Katy, Angela and I went to pick Mimi up at the airport (Ekat) and we were allowed into the baggage claim area. When Katy saw Mimi she took off running into her arms. She was so excited to see her! It was very cute - I was actually a little envious of Mimi!

This morning Sasha took me to the train station to purchase tickets for our trip to Chelyabinsk. We leave around 3:30 today (accompanied by Sasha) and then will stay in Chelyabinsk until late October 4th. Viktor will be picking us up and driving us back so we can see the Ural mountains from train and from car. We're going to visit Katy's orphanage and all of the people who helped with her adoption. Should be a nice trip.

We probably will not have internet access while there so the blog and email will probably be quiet for a while. If there is a way to get it then we'll be active again.

When we get back we're off to the circus and then sightseeing. Looking forward to that too.

Megan is walking around the flat saying it looks totally like Ikea - all the furniture here and the other flat is from Ikea . . . they arrived here about 3 years ago and are now all the rage since it's such good quality in comparison to Russian furniture - according to Olga anyway.

We had a long afternoon waiting for Megan but we'll go into details later. Aeroflot decided to help out those who had short layovers between flights and then wouldn't give any information to those waiting. Got her here on time but we had to trust in her savvy to find her way to Ekat which, of course she did. But, It was a little while before I could breath again but all's good now. Even the agency didn't know that Aeroflot would do that so they were there waiting for a long time (3 hours I think!) - something new learned each time.

Off to pack for our little trans-siberian train ride . . . I've wanted to do that for years and years but all across siberia - not just 4 hours. These days, 4 hours is enough!

Angela's Thoughts . . .

Megan arrived last night as scheduled thankfully. We got a call form Olga that she never showed at the Moscow airport. Lori and I were slightly freaking out considering that Lori gave her specific directions about where to go. It was two hours after her flight had landed and they still didn’t know where she was. The only person that they release information to about a passenger is the police. So we had no way of finding out if Megan got on her second airplane. We were so worried because when you arrive in Moscow you have to go to a different airport to get on a flight to Ekat. We sat for two hours thinking of all the ways that she could have found her way to the second airport.

Maybe….. she had been talking to someone on the flight from New York and he/she had told her about the bus that you can take.

Maybe… she never got on her flight at JFK… but wouldn’t someone have called us to tell us she didn’t make it?

Maybe . . . she was still stuck in passport control…. Nope, Jane (the translator in Moscow) went to check and no one was in passport control.

Maybe . . . she couldn’t find Jane and she is just sitting somewhere in the airport….. again no- Jane had them page her multiple times.

Maybe….. because, she is travel savvy she just found her own way.


But why would she have not followed Lori’s directions…..

Ahhhh what are we going to do?????

Do we call the police?… Do we call Megan’s parents?…. Is it really necessary to have her parents completely freaked out because we don’t know where she is? Especially because there is a good chance she just found her own way and is on her flight to Ekat.

Well, what ended up happening is that because Megan had only a two and a half hour lay over the airline had an area for people that had less than four hours to go thru passport control quickly. When Megan went thru they kept everyone together and took them on a bus to the next airport. Nothing that Lori had described to her was the same. Megan kept looking for Jane but didn’t see people with signs to pick people up anywhere. It was not the same area that the other passengers go thru. She didn’t even have to get her luggage, the airport people just did it all for her.

During her flight she had made a friend that spoke both English and Russian and she was taking the same flight to Ekat that Megan needed to be on. So Megan figured if she stayed with her that was her best bet. Especially since nothing was as Lori described because of her short layover and having to go thru a different area then we had arrived at. Lori was extremely relived that Megan made it okay. I think Lori’s exact words when we finally saw her were “OMG I think I’m going to faint”.

Also, yesterday, Sasha (the coordinator that helped Lori with Katy’s adoption) came to Ekat to visit and travel to Chelyabinsk with us. We went out for dinner at this little Italian place that is just a block away form where we are staying. We really got lucky when they had a server that spoke a little English. We ended up getting pizza again and it was also really good. They make their pizza very different here. It is very thin and has almost no grease on it, we like it. Sasha doesn’t speak any English so it is kind of interesting to watch her and Katy interact. Katy speaks to her in English and Sasha speaks Russian to Katy. It is actually a little amusing to watch because most of the time, somehow, (I think mainly thru body language) they understand each other. Lori and Sasha communicate thru computer that translates everything. So it has been pretty quite, well except for Katy playing.

So all is fine - Megan is here and we are off to Chelyabinsk with Sasha today. We have a 4 hour train ride that should be interesting and I am excited to see a different city. We also may be able to go see Katy’s orphanage. :o)