GRANDMA & MATTHEW

FAST ASLEEP LOOKING OUT THE AIRPLANE WINDOW!

DECEMBER 10, 2005 Going Home Day-- Another adventure in itself!

Jeff and I couldn't sleep- I don't know if we were so excited about finally going home or if we were nervous about oversleeping. We were both awake at 1:30 a.m. We both layed in bed watching Matthew sleep. So at 2:45 I got up and showered then Jeff showered while I finished packing up our stuff (hopefully for the last time). It always amazes me how people (including myself) pack everything so carefully before the trip, but when going home everything is shoved in the suitcase. We checked all our luggage except one carry-on bag with wheels that had Matthew's documents, our camera, portable dvd player, and a change of clothes for Matthew. We also had two backpacks. One backpack held Matthew's toys, food, and diapers, the other held our books and snacks. Nickoli arrive at 4 a.m., while he and Jeff loaded the luggage I changed Matthew's diaper and got him dressed. We gave the keys to the apartment, our cell phone, and its charger to Nickoli to return to Sasha. It seems like a lifetime ago that Sasha first gave us the phone. The streets of Kiev were empty as we drove to the airport. When we arrived we stood around waiting to check-in for our flight. Matthew was wide awake and seemed to be enjoying all the new sights. We ran into Matt and Kristi from North Dakota. They were able to get a flight home today as well with their two new boys, unfortunately they were not on the same airline as us. When we finally got to the front of the check-in line, the woman did not know how to check us in. She took forever (at least a half an hour) looking at our bookings in her computer and looking over Matthew's adoption decree. We even put Matthew on the counter, kicking and screaming hoping that his noise would speed her up. Finally she called someone to help her, they gave us our boarding passes and we headed to passport control on the second floor. We waited up there for 10 minutes and when it was just about our turn the woman who checked us in came running. She told us one of us needed to pay for Matthew's ticket downstairs by the front door(we had already tried to pay her-she said it was already done). So we got out of line and I ran downstairs and stood behind a very old man who was very slowly counting out his money in what I think was German. I was very anxious to get the ticket since our plane was leaving soon. For anyone who comes to Ukraine here is some advice. No matter what the person from the airlines says on the phone, You need to buy your ticket at the airline office in Kiev, not at the airport. It took about 10 minutes to get his ticket paid for, then I ran back to the check-in woman. I cut to the beginning of the line where I waited for the woman to finish up with someone else(another 10 minutes). She stamped the paper and I ran up to passport control. We got back in line. While we were waiting I dug out all the papers we needed to show for Matthew. I had been given a list by the embassy so I was ready. WRONG! They wanted to see his original and new birth certificates, translations, health charts, etc. Then he took the forms and went into an office. When he came back he stamped our passports and allowed us through. Now we were at security where we had to go through the metal detectors, and scan our bags. After that we ran to our gate which was boarding. We went down the cold hallway to what we thought was the plane. WRONG AGAIN! At the end of the hallway there sat a bus, we got in and waited for it to fill up, a couple who had just adopted a three year old boy sat next to us. He was not nearly as fussy as Matthew was being. We drove across a dark runway to our plane. It was very windy and cold as we waited in line to get on. When we were just about to start climbing the stairs to the plane the check in woman came running at us again. Now I was annoyed, but she just wanted to tell us she changed our seats so Jeff could actually sit near Matthew and I. We sat down in the very last row of seats next to a man who did not look happy we were next to him. Matthew had a huge fit when I tried to buckle him in. Finally the stewardess told me to hold him for take off. He fell asleep for about 30 minutes. When he woke up he was a stinker. He was all over, spilled orange juice, and screamed. When that 2.5 hour flight was over we landed in Munich, Germany. They didn't have a gate for us so they unloaded us on the runway into another bus. So now we had to go through security again. We stood in line for ever, Matthew screamed louder than we had ever heard. People were actually telling us to cut the the front of the line. The Munich airport is huge. We walked for several hours and went through 3 security checks before we found the main part. We exchanged 20 bucks for 12 Euros. That only bought a Sprite, a banana, and a bag of nuts. After visiting the exchange once more we all had some lunch and headed off to find our gate. We had to wait to check-in at the main check-in for United airlines which doesn't open until 2 p.m. So we sat down and waited. Matthew enjoyed playing on the chairs and watching the cars out the window. We had to show all our documents again when we checked in. We were given directions to our gate which was 3 more security checks away, each time we had to take off our coats and shoes and walk through one at a time. It is difficult to persuade a 2 year old to walk through by himself. We found our gate, but guess what one more security check. Matthew and I went through and sat down while Jeff went off to buy a bottle of water. He was gone forever, they made him show his passport in order to buy water. Strange. We finally boarded our flight which to my delight had TV screens on the back of each seat. Jeff was seated in the seat in front of me, but Matthew was by the window and I was by the isle. So at least we wouldn't bother anyone. Matthew fell asleep for the first and last three hours of our 12 hour flight. When we arrived in Chicago we had to keep circling because of ice on the runway. We landed and ran to the train to take us to domestic flights. We only had 1.25 hours to get to our next flight and we still had to go through immigration. The lines were huge! There were probably 600 people in 7 or 8 lines. We go in the line titled American Citizens and people with visas. We got out our passports and the sealed yellow envelope from the embassy. We presented all of this plus a customs form to the man behind the window who started stamping things. A homeland security agent (Barney Fife- gun and all) came running when he saw the envelope. The immigration man told him to calm down- it was for a baby. He handed us our passports and we went to get our luggage. Apparently when you fly international you must take your luggage through customs at your first U. S. landing. So we wheeled all our luggage and a screaming toddler passed a woman who apparently was the customs person. On the other side of her, we rechecked our luggage and ran to find our gate, we only had 10 minutes. We found a sign that said our flight was delayed and leaving later. I went to change Matthew into his "meeting Grandma and Grandpa clothes" (overalls), and Jeff went to check us in. He ran into a very nice retired couple who "looked" like nice farm people from South Dakota. They were, they live near where Jeff was born and ironically Jeff's cousin was taking care of their livestock while they were gone. What a small world. The Nebraska girl's basketball team was also there. Our flight was delayed for 2.5 more hours because of ice. We were walking zombies, Jeff and I had been awake for almost 30 hours. We boarded our flight and waited while the de-iced it. Matthew fell asleep with his head on the window watching them. We slept for an hour and then we were in Omaha. We walked down the hallway and there was my mom and Dad. We were so excited to be home. Matthew took to them right away. They had a stuffed puppy and some mini M&Ms for him and a six pack of Mr. Pibb for me. We were very surpised that Matthew didn't scream when we buckled him in his car seat. The drive home was about 2.5 hours and we were so glad to be home. My sisters had cleaned our house and put up the Christmas tree. There were toys and a toy box for Matthew. My Grandma had boughten groceries for us also. Our dog was so excited to see us. We had a snack and all three of us crawled in bed.