Friday, March 12, 2010

Gotcha

Well plans have changed and the passports were done at 5 today so we went straight to the orphanage and got the boys. What a crazy scene!

Since I wasn't expecting that today, I didn't have a small bag set apart with just the stuff I needed to take them so we had to drag the entire big suitcase inside and up the stairs to the tiniest office ever. Here I had to open this gigantic suitcase and try to dig out an outfit for each boy along with their coats and boots and snacks for the ride and toys. Now imagine that it is 700 degrees in there and you have a 2 and 3 year old walking in and on the suitcase trying to get to the very loud noise making toys on the table next to you. Now listen to those loud noise making toys over and over and over again while you try to undress and re-dress them and get them all bundled up in their winter gear. Absolutely comical!

So we finally got out of the orphanage at 6pm and got on the road for the 6+ hour drive back to Moscow. Now the roads in Russia in the winter time leave something to be desired. I will give them the benefit of the doubt since it is winter, but I suspect they aren't much better in the summer. So now all 4 of us are sitting in the back of this big conversion van bouncing all over the place as our driver races out of town as if he's Mario Andretti. Did I mention there are no such things as car seats in Russia? And no seat belts in the back of the van to tie them down with even if we had them. So we are bouncing around (like heads banging on the roof bouncing) and the boys just think this is a riot. They are in an all out full belly laugh every few seconds while Jim and I are praying that we get to the highway soon which, while still pretty rough, is a dream compared to this.

Shortly after we started bouncing down the road, Tanya, our translator, started handing me the boy's paperwork which included their daily schedule and I see that dinner time is 6:15. Of course they were not given dinner before they brought them to us so we pulled out our snacks and they began inhaling bananas, applesauce, cheddar bunny crackers and some beef jerky that I had for myself.

So you know what happens next right? It took precisely 60 minutes from the time we left with our children for me to be puked on. Elijah had almost finished his cheddar bunnies when he started to cry and hold his mouth. We thought maybe he had bit his tongue or his cheek because of the bouncing. Just as Jim was trying to see what was happening, he hurled all over himself, my leg and the floor of the van. Ah yes- all the joys of parenting right from the get-go. :-)

So we stopped to get him cleaned up and then let them watch a video before they fell asleep. They are both sleeping as I write this and hopefully that will continue once we get to the hotel which is still a couple hours away at this point.

Tomorrow we will begin the process of doing what we need to do for the US Embassy so we can finally come home next week.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

1 comment:

  1. Great post! I was always scared by the driving, so I totally understand. I hope you are all back and adapting well.

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