Our Adoption - Arrival in Russia

Mrs. Beaver:

A quick update before the four kiddos arrive at our hotel.

The chaos of JFK--Glad someone knows where all these planes are supposed to be!

After my prescription snafu, we left JFK without any further glitches. The flight to Moscow was flawless. To our surprise after flying here so many times in the other three Russian adoptions we've done, we landed at terminal we didn't know existed.

We learned from our driver that the building is about five years old. The architecture was stunning--much of the structure is glass. I didn't get any good photos, however; our focus was on retrieving our luggage (all of which arrived), then going through immigration and customs. We said a prayer of thanksgiving when we were able to navigate each of these steps successfully.

The next step was to get our massive amount of luggage to fit in our driver's car.

 

 

While Mr. Beaver and the driver took the bags in and out in an effort to get them to fit, I took photos of the little I could see from the parking garage.

 

Eventually the luggage was wedged into the vehicle like a jigsaw puzzle...

 

 

...we were the final piece of the puzzle.

 

 

We then went to a hotel for about four hours, just long enough for a lovely nap followed by showers before being picked up to go the train station. Across the street from our hotel was a lovely Anglican church. Our facilitator told us that during the Soviet era the building was used for non-religious purposes by the goverment but now is functioning as a church again.

After an overnight ride on the Trans-Siberian Railway, we were taken to the hotel that will be our "headquarters" during the two days were here to see the Fab Four.

Here is the view from our hotel room:

Gotta go--just got called to meeting with government official!!! Next step: meet the kids!!!