We started our trip to Eastern Europe on September 9th! Morgan drove us to DFW and we were off to our great adventure...well almost. Our plane to Houston, where we would catch our international flight was delayed. We waited and hoped it would "hurry up." Rob finally spoke, (ever so gently...) with the gate agent, who began rerouting the first two legs of our trip. Just as the agent was about to press the "go" button, we got word that our flight would be moving to another gate to catch a plane that wasn't broken. Okay, it was more complicated than that, but that is the short story. (ask Rob for the long version!).
We flew to Houston, and for some reason we circled the airport for what seemed to be an extra 45 minutes. By this time, we felt for sure that we would be spending the night in Houston. However, a quick trot through Houston Intercontinental (okay it was not pretty at all friends) and we made it on to Singapore Air for our long flight. In fact they had given our seats away, and we held up the whole flight as they moved things around. ANYWAY--we made it. We had a very nice 11.5 hour flight (the airline was nice, but no 11.5 hour flight is actually nice as you probably know--hello Benadryl). Got to our next stop and boarded another flight for another 4 hours to our final destination.
Now, we have never done this sort of thing. So here we sat in our hotel room at 3:00am (to us) and 3:00pm (to you). We face timed all the girls and assured them we were fine, took MUCH NEEDED showers, then...we slept. It was Monday morning, and we did not have our appointment with the DOE until Tuesday morning. So we went into a jet-lagging-loud-snoring-heavy-drooling coma like no other. This again---not pretty. Just sayin'.
Woke up sometime Monday afternoon, and we were STARVING! So, we decided to go to the hotel restaurant. I had read some great posts from others who have adopted in EE and this was typically a safe bet. We fumbled our way through ordering our food (turkey sandwiches) and waited expectantly! What followed was something you just only wish you could have witnessed. As we sipped our Perrier, our waiter brought us a very large plate...with a very small sandwich perched in the middle of the said very large plate. About the size of a dinner roll...with a tiny piece of turkey...a twig of lettuce...and 1/2 slice of tomato. It was, well, delicious! ALL FOUR BITES! Now if you know Rob and I well at all, you know that we do not have, uh, what you would call, uh, "dainty appetites." AT ALL. I mean, brothers and sisters, the hubs and I can put away some groceries. The most pitiful moment probably occurred after we had gobbled our "sandwiches" and sat looking sadly at one another. I had removed my tomato half from my sandwich and it was sitting all by itself on my big plate. Rob's eyes suddenly brightened as he asked, "Are you going to eat that?!?!" "Uh, no," I said with feeling. I quickly got out of the way as his fork came across the table and stabbed that little tomato piece and decidedly rammed it into his mouth. Hungry Americans are dangerous.
So, we decided to go to the local market. Now on Monday,we had asked our very sweet translator, Katia, where the "grocery store" was located. When we finally figured out it was called a "market" and not a "grocery store" Katia kindly smiled and answered. (I think we were the weirdest Americans she has ever seen--at least the oldest anyway). She said probably a 20 minute walk up the street. Well, after our not-so-filling sandwich, we remembered this "20 minute walk" and wondered if we had the calories to endure it. Somehow Rob communicated with the front desk folks and asked if they could call us a cab. (okay go ahead and laugh) and after she gave him a puzzled and confused look (like, you mean you cannot walk 20 minutes you crazy American?) we decided to get our exercise groove on (even in starvation mode) and take the walk. It seemed like it was closer than 20 minutes but this could be because we were still so hungry that we walked quite briskly (for us).
The market was an adventure! We rejoiced over Pringles potato chips and Diet Coke. We branched out and bought cream cheese and crackers. It was quite a "stretching" experience (yes, that was sarcasm).
And yes, you can imagine how we broke into the goodies when we got back into the hotel room! It was like a coed dorm party. Although I never got to go to a coed dorm party because I went to Baylor...sorry I digress.
And so, after our cheese, cracker and Pringles binge... surprise! we went back to sleep.
Stay tuned for Tuesday and our visit to the Minister of Social Development and our first visit to the orphanage!
We flew to Houston, and for some reason we circled the airport for what seemed to be an extra 45 minutes. By this time, we felt for sure that we would be spending the night in Houston. However, a quick trot through Houston Intercontinental (okay it was not pretty at all friends) and we made it on to Singapore Air for our long flight. In fact they had given our seats away, and we held up the whole flight as they moved things around. ANYWAY--we made it. We had a very nice 11.5 hour flight (the airline was nice, but no 11.5 hour flight is actually nice as you probably know--hello Benadryl). Got to our next stop and boarded another flight for another 4 hours to our final destination.
Now, we have never done this sort of thing. So here we sat in our hotel room at 3:00am (to us) and 3:00pm (to you). We face timed all the girls and assured them we were fine, took MUCH NEEDED showers, then...we slept. It was Monday morning, and we did not have our appointment with the DOE until Tuesday morning. So we went into a jet-lagging-loud-snoring-heavy-drooling coma like no other. This again---not pretty. Just sayin'.
Woke up sometime Monday afternoon, and we were STARVING! So, we decided to go to the hotel restaurant. I had read some great posts from others who have adopted in EE and this was typically a safe bet. We fumbled our way through ordering our food (turkey sandwiches) and waited expectantly! What followed was something you just only wish you could have witnessed. As we sipped our Perrier, our waiter brought us a very large plate...with a very small sandwich perched in the middle of the said very large plate. About the size of a dinner roll...with a tiny piece of turkey...a twig of lettuce...and 1/2 slice of tomato. It was, well, delicious! ALL FOUR BITES! Now if you know Rob and I well at all, you know that we do not have, uh, what you would call, uh, "dainty appetites." AT ALL. I mean, brothers and sisters, the hubs and I can put away some groceries. The most pitiful moment probably occurred after we had gobbled our "sandwiches" and sat looking sadly at one another. I had removed my tomato half from my sandwich and it was sitting all by itself on my big plate. Rob's eyes suddenly brightened as he asked, "Are you going to eat that?!?!" "Uh, no," I said with feeling. I quickly got out of the way as his fork came across the table and stabbed that little tomato piece and decidedly rammed it into his mouth. Hungry Americans are dangerous.
So, we decided to go to the local market. Now on Monday,we had asked our very sweet translator, Katia, where the "grocery store" was located. When we finally figured out it was called a "market" and not a "grocery store" Katia kindly smiled and answered. (I think we were the weirdest Americans she has ever seen--at least the oldest anyway). She said probably a 20 minute walk up the street. Well, after our not-so-filling sandwich, we remembered this "20 minute walk" and wondered if we had the calories to endure it. Somehow Rob communicated with the front desk folks and asked if they could call us a cab. (okay go ahead and laugh) and after she gave him a puzzled and confused look (like, you mean you cannot walk 20 minutes you crazy American?) we decided to get our exercise groove on (even in starvation mode) and take the walk. It seemed like it was closer than 20 minutes but this could be because we were still so hungry that we walked quite briskly (for us).
The market was an adventure! We rejoiced over Pringles potato chips and Diet Coke. We branched out and bought cream cheese and crackers. It was quite a "stretching" experience (yes, that was sarcasm).
And yes, you can imagine how we broke into the goodies when we got back into the hotel room! It was like a coed dorm party. Although I never got to go to a coed dorm party because I went to Baylor...sorry I digress.
And so, after our cheese, cracker and Pringles binge... surprise! we went back to sleep.
Stay tuned for Tuesday and our visit to the Minister of Social Development and our first visit to the orphanage!
Hello Donna. My name is Shelly and i just met a gal from your church who works as a nurse at Cook Children's Hospital. I have adopted my 5 children from Ukraine and four of them have Ds. My little Carrington's original name was Anastasia. Best of wishes with your adoption. If you would like to chat please email me burmanshelly@yahoo.com
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