There and Back Again

Sorry this blog has been radio silent for awhile. Our temporary visas were expiring so we packed our bags, hopped in a company van at about 10 PM Saturday night, July 28th and headed out.

 



Visiting the horses while we waited for the van to pick us up



The girls love feeding the horses wheat



Rain's turn





Mesa's turn for a ride

 

Echo had two turns, of course





We drove all night, dozing whenever we could, being slammed out of our seats, or into our seat belts for those who had them, periodically throughout the drive as we navigated normal Russian traffic.



Mesa all curled up and ready for the van ride to Moscow



We actually made great time driving at night and arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow only 7 hours later. We checked our bags, went through security, grabbed some breakfast, and boarded our Aeroflot flight to New York. We sat on the tarmac for about an hour, apparently waiting on the food? Echo slept for the delay, but awoke right in time for takeoff. Joy.



Luckily Echo was right on the borderline weight acceptance for the stowaway cribs the airplane provides, and I was thankfully positioned on the coveted row 11, which allowed for crib use. This provided amazing relief to my arms and sit-bones by having a couple hours break from holding her for the almost-9-hour-flight.



Echo in her airplane crib. Yay for a break!



We only had about a 3.5 hour layover in NY before we boarded our next flight to SLC. And after the hour delay from the last flight we were cutting it close. Aeroflot notified the airport of our delay and those with immediate connecting flights were allowed off the plane first and sped through Customs, Check-in, Security, and on to our next flight gate. We arrived at our gate just in time for them to start boarding our next plane.









All the girls at the window



Rain in SVO airport waiting for our plane to get to the gate



Whenever we have a luggage cart, this is Echo's preferred seat. The times we don't have a luggage cart, and she sees one, she still tries to go sit on it and get a ride.



Even though we were rushing to catch our connecting flight from JFK to SLC, I still did not miss the incredible feeling I had from the time New York harbor came into view until we were processed through Customs. I had an overwhelming feeling that I belonged here, and that I am so blessed to live in such a special country. I am even more stirred to protect our freedoms which are in such jeopardy. God Bless America!



We boarded our flight and also had another delay at the gate for at least another 45 minutes. But then we were airborne, and 5 hours later, we landed in Salt Lake City at about 10 PM. It is always quite an experience to travel for so many hours, and still arrive the same day that we left. 

Rain's face just about sums up our energy level after landing in Salt Lake



We were going to head out that evening in a rental car to stay with family in Dayton, ID, but 2 pieces of our luggage had been sent out on the next flight and wouldn't be arriving for a couple of hours.  Delta said they would deliver them to Dayton for us, which astounded me, but we thought it was a good excuse to stay the night and get a good night's sleep before driving again. It was by far a smarter decision. We were beat and I don't think the kiddos would have appreciated being confined for even 10 more minutes, let alone a couple hours.



The next morning we were well-rested, had a good meal in our tummies, and were ready to head out. It was fun to visit family and enjoy some good American food--namely hamburgers. After going 2 months without beef, I was really craving a good, juicy hamburger with all the fixins'. Unfortunately, my body rebelled and was so bloated after eating a couple hamburgers throughout the next couple days, that I switched back to chicken sandwiches, salads, and such. I think there might be something to eating meat sparingly.



The girls and I hitched a ride home with my younger brother on Thursday night, while Shane stuck around with the rental car and for another ride home since he didn't fit in the car with us. He also took our Birth Certificates and Marriage Certificate to the State Capitol so they could get some special notary seal called an Apostille. Not sure how it's critical, but Miratorg needed it, "so let it be written, so let it be done."



Shane had his invitation letter in hand for his work visa which will last for the remainder of our time here. But the girls and I still needed to apply for temporary visas again. We had a lot of delays in our visas this time around, not any of which was our fault. The company has a policy that if you unnecessarily extend your stay in the US while renewing visas, they will stop paying you until you return. Well, this happened to us, even though the visa company was mostly to blame. Not to mention the fact that the invitation letter that was sent with Shane is written entirely in Russian, without any instructions about which line to copy to which line in the visa application. But I wrote up a nice timeline showing the delays, the promptness in which we responded to each delay, and how we had done all we could to speed up the process. They acknowledged it was not our fault and paid us. Sigh of relief, because outfitting the entire family in winter apparel, and traveling in general is expensive. We received our paycheck (Thank you Julia!), only 2 days before flying back to Russia.

 

There are lots of adventures (and pictures) to post of our 6 weeks in the States which will have to wait until a later post. It was so good to be home among family and friends.



On the reverse, it is strange to lose a day in traveling. We flew out late Sunday night, September 16th, caught our connecting flight in NY, arrived in Moscow, waited an hour for our company drivers, and then had an extra long 9 hour drive back to the farms. We went to bed and woke up to Wednesday, September 19th. So strange. 



Echo entertaining herself while we waited for airport food on our trip back to Russia



The Kid Playground at Las Vegas Airport



Love this little face!



 

The girls playing on Dad during our 8-hour layover at JFK

 

Dad-Approved Entertainment

Waiting some more at JFK



Landing in Moscow at Sheremetyevo Airport



The two things that greeted us when we first walked back into our house was the smell and the flies. We had forgotten some dirty dishes in the sink when we left 6 weeks ago that we knew were going to be bad, but even after scrubbing those, the smell was inextinguishable. After a little sleuthing, we found the real culprits to be the pea trap and other such plastic drain tubes and pipes under the sink. The smell is slowly improving with each load of dishes I wash.



The second item was the flies. They were everywhere. Hoards of them were along the ceiling corners and doorways, but even more of them were dead - EVERYWHERE. All the floors were littered with their little black carcasses. And the remaining population must have mutated in our absence, because now they have become a horrid little biting army. Normal little house flies that bite! Hard. They leave bite marks that swell and itch. Even Shane, who is typically unbothered by mosquitoes, horse flies, and other large pests, has been plagued with fly bites.

Flies camped out all over the house

 

Notice all the black spots on the floor.

 

A quick sweep of the floor in one room

Mesa and Echo must have both picked up a bug before we left because they both started to get sick on Thursday. I think it might be croup. Mesa has a more severe case. Between hot shower/sauna treatments and what medicine we have on hand, we will see if we can beat this, because basically we are on our own medically. It really is a blessing how much confidence the Gospel gives us. There is no way I would have attempted this adventure without having the Priesthood with us. I'm so thankful that Shane is a worthy holder of the Priesthood and that the Lord blesses us so much with its power.



Now we are finishing unpacking and settling back into the routine here. Shane has jumped right back in and has been busy every day with preg-checking and moving cows in and out to pasture. The girls and I have been fighting jet lag and illness, as well as jumping right in to our next challenge: Homeschooling.



But that's enough for now. We are alive and well. 

The Adventure Continues

The first few days were pretty much a ram-shackled mess of trying to change our day for night, unpacking, and finding things to eat because Shane’s truck had been moved to a company office while he was in the States and we couldn’t get to any grocery stores.

Luckily one of the other American families was just headed out to renew their visas back home in Idaho, so they dropped off their extra food and took Shane on a late grocery run where he bought the last box of milk and the last loaf of bread there. But it was something, and we were grateful.

Unpacking was moving along. The girls were happily reunited with their meager toy collection. I’m happy to report my casserole dish made the trip safely. Along with my sewing machine. Yes, I brought it with me.  As I was starting to get to the bottom of our luggage pile, I soon realized that we were still missing a piece of luggage. It was one of the most important ones, too: The FOOD bag. Oh, yes, somehow we had left Moscow without the bag containing all my spices, baking powder, peanut butter, Shane’s beloved Ranch mix—everything. It might not seem so bad, but the grocery stores don’t even carry VANILLA here. One of the Americans found powdered vanilla in one of the bigger cities, which technically, the Company won’t even let us drive to. So, no vanilla, no cinnamon, no Italian seasoning, chilli powder, seasoned salt, zilch, nada—A deathly blow to my amateur cooker’s heart.

One of the Russian interpreters (and HR personnel), who also helps with all our travel plans, tried to get the airport to just deliver the suitcase to the company office in Moscow, but it was a no-go. Shane would have to appear, in person, to claim it. That meant another trip back to Moscow. There just happened to be a new couple flying in to Moscow a couple of days later, so it was determined that Shane would take that van shuttle to Moscow when it went to pick them up. We had a couple of days to settle in a little more before he left, and Shane was able to pick up some groceries so I could feed the girls until he got back.

About 5 PM the night Shane was supposed to leave, the power went out. Shane told me it was typical for the power to flicker, or occasionally go off for an hour or two. No worries, he said, it will probably be on by morning. The van driver pounded on our door that night at midnight (June 7^th). After a quick goodbye kiss, Shane walked out into the night, and then I was alone.

I went back to bed, determined to be prepared to tackle the next day. When I awoke, I went to the kitchen to cook some eggs—one meal I was confident I could cook, and confident that the girls would eat. But lo and behold—still no power. Of all days for the power to be out, it would be the one where I was completely alone with very few meals I could cook without power. For breakfast, we ate some Russian cold cereal with boxed milk.

I spent the morning pouring through my Russian phrase book trying to piece together some fragment of a sentence to find out about the power. I noticed a group of people by the office and the girls were momentarily distracted, so I slipped out to go ask. Tatiana, the farm administrator, didn’t even bother to try to understand my butchered Russian. She called an interpreter. You almost need another interpreter to understand the interpreter’s heavily-accented English. I think he said something about them working on it, and it would be fixed in about an hour. I breathed a sigh of relief—maybe it would be on in time to cook something for lunch.

About an hour later, 3 Russians came and started banging and drilling in the attic. Slightly confused about how this would fix my power, I just went about trying to entertain the girls. Soon they left and still nothing. Our growling stomachs told us that it was past lunchtime. No peanut butter and jam sandwiches since the peanut butter was in the LOST bag. No stove top meals, no microwave rescues. I wasn’t even sure when the power would resume, so I had restricted the girls and myself from opening the fridge or freezer doors unless it was dire. Even then, it was only cracked a little, and then quickly closed. I didn’t want the food that Shane had just bought to spoil, so I tried to conserve as much of the coolness of the fridge. That cut even further into our meal options. The bread, milk, juice, jam – all in the fridge. I think we ate some crackers from the cupboard for lunch.

I had no internet, so I couldn’t Skype Shane for help, or anyone else. The girls were getting restless, even after a walk outside to explore. So I chanced using some of the battery of my computer so the girls could watch a movie. It provided some diversion to our hunger. Soon I had to get a new bottle for Echo. I opened the fridge door, and groaned when I could feel that the temperature in the fridge matched the temperature of the room. I didn’t want to check the freezer and lose what coolness I had in there either. I grabbed a loaf of bread and some juice, and shut the door to my now-warm fridge.

Dinnertime was looming and still no power. I gave the girls more juice and crackers, and we started another movie. A little after 5, the lights flickered and turned on. I breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly put a pan on the stove to boil some water before it went out again.

Then the girls and I had dinner, and went to bed. Shane got home around Midnight that night with our last piece of luggage. A 24-hour trip, with about 18 hours of it sitting in a van, all for one suitcase. But we were excited to get it, and even more happy for the power to be on and our Dad to be back.

Some pictures of the first few days:

The Unpacking - YAY!



Helping Dad build their bunk bed



Helping Mom unpack.

Echo has mastered the art of putting herself in the center of activity

Another entertaining use of the empty suitcases

Baby Bananas!

The girls were ecstatic and ate them all in one day

Echo was being creative and using the dust brush to comb the doll's hair



I wonder who's hiding in there...




PEEK-A-BOO!




Having lots of fun with Shado's clever play boards



Thanks Aunt Shado - we've had hours of fun already!

Picking flowers

Reminiscent of a Renaissance moment



Echo's dramatic Shakespearean pose: "Romeo, oh Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?"



Picking flowers has become a favorite pasttime

Mesa was lucky enough to get a quick ride when Daddy stopped by the house.