Finally We Arrive in Far East Siberia..... Magadan!!!

What a wild and exhausting airplane ride this has been!! We finally arrived in Magadan on Thursday evening, fatigued beyond belief!! Listen, I have personally birthed 5 children, a couple of them were extremely difficult labors.....and compared to this process, redtape and travel, THAT was a piece of cake!! My hat goes off to all of you who have endured this very difficult process of foreign adoption. I have such incredible respect for you and your perseverance!! In my book, you are all Heroes!! But........just as in having a difficult labor and the pain that is experienced, one look at that precious little new life, and all is forgotten. So it is with this trip. We were able to meet the boys on Friday, January 12, "little A." in the morning, and "big D" in the afternoon, and as soon as we saw them and spent time with them, all of those feelings of trials and frustration quickly vanished. They are beautiful, sweet boys, both with very, very unfortunate life circumstances. More on the boys later...............

The plane we were able to purchase a fare on out of the Domodedevo Airport in Moscow was ancient. We were herded like cattle and it was a real "free-for-all". People were pushing and shoving, and yelling at one another trying to be the first to get their luggage checked. It acutally reminded me a lot of being in New York with the taxi drivers yelling at one another, only, I could not actually understand the cuss words since they were yelling in Russian. Once we were finally "coralled" on the plane, we took off. Wayne and I were in the business class, because those were the only 4 remaining seats on the entire plane (seats 6a and 6b). Of course, we are both idiots and thought the "0" in front of the six was actually an 8!! We are thinking "WOW...they sure have LONG planes in Russia for us to be in row 86!! HA! Well, after we made it to the back of the plane, and saw the last row was #28......we had to fight our way back to the front past all these hot, sweaty Russians in their fur hats and coats, and it was only around 35 to 40 degrees.....very warm for Moscow this time of year!! After great difficulty we arrived to our correct seats and it was time for take-off. Just as we are lifting off the ground, the wall (with the curtain you pull) that separates business -class from first-class suddenly fell down on the first row of passengers!! YIKES!! We were on some 1960's or 1970's plane with "ALPHA AIRLINES" written in English. It was such a nightmare, and we had these thoughts of horror flying over Siberia. We looked at each other wondering if we would ever really arrive in Magadan, and arrive safely. We trusted the Lord and did finally arrive!! Siberia is BEYOND cold!! The city of Magadan is actually on the Artic/Pacific Ocean, and it is totally frozen. I do not know how one thrives in this environment of such cold and little daylight. The sun rises around 10:00am and sets again by 3:45. It is dark at 4:30 pm. But yet, the people here seem content with their life and go about each day as if there is really no problem at all. It is amazing. We do apologize for being behind in our posts, as we had some e-mail difficulties in Magadan, plus the adapter we brought with us ( to use this brand new lap top purchased SPECIFICALLY for this trip!!) apparently was not useable for notebooks!! HA!! So much for the eleventy-seven movies we brought with us and paid overweight charges in our luggage ($2000 rubles)!! We have made the best of it however. Wayne and I spent a lot of time discussing the children, and making some very good observations about those who are less fortunate financially, or those who just lead a different life, and have a very different lifestyle. He and I are so blessed to have had parents that gave unconditionally to us, and who loved and cared for us. From my very youngest memories, I knew I was loved. Thanks, Mom. Unfortunately, it is not so for all in this world.