Bad day

Seriously, folks, this day sucks.

Yes, I got two more police clearances. No, my city still will not state on the clearances what cities we were born in. They absolutely refuse. Only our region in Russia is pretty adamant about it. I don't know what the resolution to this will be, but my city isn't going to budge on the issue, so I hope the Russians do.

Got a phone call this morning that a piece of paper from our homestudy agency needs updating. By tomorrow. The woman who has to sign it is at home today, but at least my agency e-mailed me the stuff and I forwarded it on to her at home and it should be done tomorrow. It'd better be done tomorrow. I'll have to drive to east Dallas to get it.

We went and looked at camcorders. Which I need to figure out how to work at some point before we go since we need to upload video while in Russia for our international adoption doctor back here in Texas.

Found another small toy that I think will be good for our visit.

Then, when I went back to Fry's to buy the camcorder and was standing in line with it, the agency director called. We have a two hour window in Moscow to clear customs, change terminals, and make our flight to our region. Our translator/coordinator will meet us outside Moscow customs and fly with us to our region. She is VERY concerned about us making it in two hours. Apparently she says we are supposed to check in with the second flight 40 minutes beforehand and we really only have 1 hour and 50 minutes between flights if everything is on schedule and she has doubts that we will make it off the plane, through customs, and to the gate in 70 minutes.

She told our agency director who told me, that if we are going to try it, we need to not check any bags (you have to claim your bags before going through customs, then give them back to the airline) and we need to get really aggressive in customs, pushing and pleading to get to the front of the line. And we will need to run to make the connection to the other terminal and gate. And he told me all this while I was sitting on the floor near the employee break room at Fry's with a pen and paper in hand. So needless to say, I bought the camcorder and flew home like a bat out of hell, trying to call C the whole time.

We've done transfers like this before...on most airlines, they would probably even hold the plane a few minutes to allow us time. I vividly remember flying alone from DFW to Amsterdam in 2002 and running all the way through two terminals at Newark to get to a plane they were holding just for me. I literally had the very first seat on the plane near the aisle. Seat 1B, and I flew off that plane like there was no tomorrow. I had done the transfer many times before and knew exactly where to go. Rain had delayed us out of DFW. As I ran, huffing and puffing, wearing a heavy backpack and dragging a rolling carry-on down the long deserted hallway of the Newark International terminal the flight attendants at the gate called out to me. Mrs. F? We are holding the plane for you! But that didn't involve the uncertain and unflinching lines at customs.

So I am freaking out and rush home and C left his phone on his desk at work and went into another office for AN HOUR so I couldn't reach him (yes, he got an earful for that) and the only US Aeroflot office still open wasn't answering their phone for two hours and it was NOT a good afternoon.

After finally getting a woman at the LA office, she said that the 2 hours should not be a problem and that they should hold the plane for us on the second flight if necessary to make our connection and C called the Russia office and they told him more or less the same thing and we are now investigating whether we can be considered "transit passengers" and skip customs altogether in Moscow, doing customs when we arrive in region.

This week has just been absolutely one fire drill after another and my stress levels are reaching epic proportions and I'm beginning to think 24 hours of labor and an episiotomy looks like a cakewalk because this...this labor is about to send me over the edge.

I am beginning to wonder if, between our transfer in Frankfurt and our transfer in Moscow, it would behoove me to figure out how to not have any checked baggage. Especially since we are changing airlines (unaffiliated airlines) in Frankfurt and will have to claim our bags, clear passport control and possibly customs (we aren't sure about that one), and check into the Aeroflot desk there in three hours. But it appears we will not have to leave the terminal there, so three hours should be enough time for all that.

And we found out on Tuesday afternoon, after we booked these two separate but interlinked journeys on American and Aeroflot, that C will be let out of his meetings in Michigan at 1:30 Chicago time. He could have made a 6:30 pm Lufthansa flight from Chicago that would have given us one connection and one airline to deal with. But we didn't know that when we had to make our bookings. And we would have arrived in region at 5am the day we start the adoption.

Still, can I swing it with only carry-ons? I managed it for 10 days in Hawaii. It would be a lot easier to do so without having to worry about C's suit that he has to wear Monday.

I need a meal and hot shower and then I'll go see if I can bang out this scrapbooking swap I'm supposed to do.

P.S. C just called. We will be transit passengers in Moscow. We will get an expedited customs process and a bus to the other terminal and our translator will just have to meet us at the gate for our second flight.