The long awaited Day 20 post

Sorry, jet lag has been my major nemesis this time around and I have been just miserable.  Dasha also has not taken kindly to the time change but it is getting better.  I go to bed when they do at night, and I nap when they nap.  I am finally catching up. 

So Day 20, we got up around 7 am and got the kids ready to go, our driver was picking us up at 9 to take us to DME.  We ran out of drinkable water so I sent Randy and Camden out to get some water and they got back around 8:20 and said are you ready? The driver is here.  So we left and got packed up in the car to go to the airport. 

We got there so early that United wasn't even checking in yet for our flight so we just hung out and walked around for a while until it was time to check in.  We got checked in and then we proceeded to passport control.  We were standing in the line that stated passengers with children and were waiting.  A woman came up to me and started talking to me in Russian, I tried explaining to her that I only spoke English.  So she demonstrated that I needed to cut to the front of the line since we have children.  So we did, and no complaints.  Interesting philosophy.  We did have to show our adoption paperwork, but Randy took Dasha through, so I didn't have to deal with it.  That made me very happy, less stress.  I took Camden through. 

We get to our gate sit down, feed Dasha lunch, and go buy ourselves one expensive pizza and spent the last of our Rubles.  Then the most annoying part happened.  I don't know why, but every time we leave Russia, they make you take all our bags and leave the gate area, and then go back through a check-point again with your passports, it's not like they haven't been checked 4 times already!

So we get on the flight, and the seats are 2-3-2, so I am in the middle with the kids, and Randy is sitting on one of the side aisle seats.  We got Economy Plus seats and they were wonderful!  5 more inches of leg room, is amazing.  Dasha slept a little more than we wanted, but she did very well.  We did see her temper a few times.  Mostly when the seat belt signs came on and I had to hold her and she couldn't move around.  The girl has a set of lungs on her. 

We got to Washington D.C. and went through customs, it was very quick and painless.  We handed over our sealed envelope from the US Embassy and he said, Congrats, you will get some papers in the mail in a few weeks.  So off we go to get our bags.  We rechecked our bags and then had to go through security AGAIN!  All 3 bags we sent through got searched and they made us open Dasha's baby food to make sure it wasn't hazardous.  They told me next time I needed to take the food out.  By this time we had 22 minutes until our next flight and I was not in the mood for a lecture from the TSA.  I stated that they needed to post on their signs that baby food needed to be taken out, as they are NOT a liquid.  So we booked it to our gate, and amazingly found out that our flight was delayed for an hour.  So we were able to get some dinner which was so nice. 

The final 2.5 hour flight Dasha slept the entire flight in Randy's arms and Camden slept the last hour, we landed in KC and my parents were there waiting for us to take us home.  Dasha did very well with the car seat, just a few whines and it was the first time that she sucked her thumb other than going to sleep, so she was definitely nervous.    We got home, got the kids ready for bed and crashed.  Then the jet lag hit.  I went to sleep at 10:30 and woke up at 1:15.  Was awake the rest of the night.  Kids were up at 4 and 5 respectively.  More to come as I get over the jet lag still....