WE MADE IT TO MOSCOW

We are sitting in the Moscow airport awaiting our next flight to Kemerovo. Our journey had been going quite well until I mentioned in New York how I was crossing my fingers...... then of course I jinxed us. Our flight to Moscow was initially 45 minutes late departing due to an "electrical problem". Then, after we had been flying for about an hour we had to turn around and head back to New York as the "electrical problem" was still an issue. We then were fortunate enough that Delta brought in another plane which left about six hours after it was initially scheduled to depart. Our bodies are kind of screwed up right now as we flew overnight from the US, but arrived here in Moscow at about 4:00pm. We did not get to sleep much as it was just too uncomfortable. I felt awful for Chad as I was cramped, so I can't imagine how he felt. On our flight from Minneapolis to New York we met a marshal from Homeland Security. He was really nice and asked us all about our adoption process.
Once landing here in Moscow, we were delighted (yes, I used the word "delighted") to see how clean and modern the airport here in Shremetoyo (sp?) is. The terminal is new so everything is clean (including the bathrooms) and many signs are in both Russian and English. We changed our clothes and brushed our teeth and got a snack after our driver/translator assisted us in checking in our luggage for our flight and getting some money exchanged. I can't speak for Chad, but I was sweating BIG TIME when we went through passport control. Chad went first, and he kept looking back at me to help him answer the questions. Unfortunately, I only know Russian phrases you would use with young children. I don't think the young passport control guy would appreciate if I asked "peeska?" "poopka'? (pee? poop?) I guess I could have said meenya zavut Cheryl Gipson (my name is Cheryl Gipson). They have Pepsi and Diet Pepsi here in the vending machines which isn't bad tasting but we have not hit the jackpot yet with any Dew or Dt. Dew... we could only hope. I guess this may be a good week to learn how to wean myself off of my addiction to the sugar buzz that is rotting my teeth. I will keep the updates coming for all of you Stateside.