We made it!

For those of you who have never taken an international flight and especially have never taken one with children, it can be pretty brutal.  Our adventure began at 4 AM on Tuesday when my wonderful parents came to pick us up, we picked up the kids out of their beds, and drove to the Mobile airport.  We checked in just in time for our flight to depart to Atlanta and then got on another plane to JFK.  At JFK we had to claim all our 9 suitcases, walk about a mile with our bags to the "air train" and then recheck them to Khabarovsk.  If JFK airport has a Facebook account, I would "dislike" them.  We heard the final boarding call when we all ran to the gate which of course was at the very end of the concourse.  Fortunately, we were headed to Moscow so that meant that all the Russians were also boarding at the final boarding call.     When we arrived in Moscow 8 hours later, we were pleasantly surprised as we were in a different airport than usual (they have 3), and going through customs felt like a Western European country compared to entering Russia in Khabarovsk.  We were able to go to a hotel and take a 4 hour "nap".  After our rest, we picked up sleeping kids and rode back to the airport for our second 8 hour flight to Khabarovsk.  We arrived local time around 7 AM.  The kids were really excited to my pleasant surprise when we landed.  They were doing a little jig in the airport parking lot saying "Yea - we are in our Russian home!"  We have survived our first 2 days almost and already bought Peanut a bike, rode bikes by the river, been to the Central Market, been invited by friends to go to Orthodox Easter services and lunch, and eaten lunch at one of Scott's Maltese friend's Italian pizzeria.  We were even able to sleep a full night last night including the kids.  I am sure this has to do with people's prayers for our trip and adjustment for which we are thankful!  Coming back was a whole lot different than the first time we came over last May.  Not only are the kids a year older and traveled better, but we were able to come "home" to a familiar apartment, place, and stuff.