Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Here

We are here in Moscow and all is well. Our flight was very smooth (although there is NO leg room on Aeroflot!) The direct flight to Moscow made such a difference. All of our luggage made it safely with us, and that is a special blessing as we were traveling with 11 suitcases plus carry-ons.



Now, before you flip out on our over packing, I need to tell you that only 5 of those were ours, the others are for Clara's cousin Nina and her family that live here in Moscow. I must admit my stress and a bit or irritation at all of this luggage. We were packed in our minivan like sardines, looked like a movie going into the airport and through security, and I had this nagging fear that we would be at the Moscow airport looking everywhere for Nina. This was not at all the case. Everything with the luggage went smoothly, we only had to pay $200 total to bring all of the extra bags, Nina and one of her sons Sasha were all smiles and spotted Clara right away. And they must have had to wait a while since passport control took FOREVER.

The smiles on Nina and Sasha were worth every bit of stress and headache. And we got to meet family...priceless.

And for the record, Barrett did AWESOME! His Nintendo DS lasted every minute he was awake on the plane. We are having a bit of a bummer as his DS won't charge even with the converter here for some reason. He will survive though, he is proving to be a wonderful traveler!
I am letting Phil, Clara, and Barrett sleep in for a FEW more minutes, (it is 6:30am here) but it is not easy for me to do so. I am so eager to get out and see the sights before our train ride this afternoon up to Nizhny Novgorod. We plan to see Red Square and Barrett has McDonald's in his mind (and maybe Starbucks too!)

We are missing Maggie and Maryn like crazy but had a wonderful surprise to get an email from Maggie this morning. Thanks to all who are sending messages, we are so thankful for the ability to stay in touch.

We will write more tonight after our full day.

With much love,
Phil, Melanie, Barrett, and Clara


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My heart is so full for you all! I hope the rest of your time there goes well! Thank you for sharing this experience with us! We love you guys!

Lindsay said...

So glad you are there, safe, and so full of smiles. After reading your last post (The Crazy Place) I wish I had sent you off with a package of the greatest gummy bears over..HARIBO! I will have you a baggie when you are all back. Thank you for keeping us posted-it is pure joy to be praying for you!

Tracy said...

Glad you made it there safely! You must be on the overnight train right now :). I was thinking, if you want, you can take 1 or 2 photos out of the album and give them to the judge. I'm sure that she would enjoy it!

Chrystal said...

Sending you our love and prayers. Remember, you will go nowhere tomorrow that the Lord has not already been.

Love you!
The Mocabees