Last Day!!! The trip home....

Last Day! The trip home….


I awoke from pure excitement at 0629 (my alarm was set for 0630)—The day was finally here!!! We are going home! I let Max sleep until the last possible minute, while I made breakfast, and finished up the last details of packing our carry-on luggage. I looked across the room in dread at our car seat. I knew this “carry-on” would be more pain than it was worth, but I also knew Rebecca would not be happy if it was “conveniently” left in Kiev!
After I staged all our gear by the door, I ate some breakfast and looked at my watch. 0700- half an hour to go, until Yuri arrives. I woke Max from a peaceful slumber (he sleeps in on the last day of course ☺ ) , fed him some breakfast, and got him dressed. I wondered if he suspected that this trip wouldn’t be our usual walk to the park in the morning. We took the elevator downstairs for the last time with all of our luggage---I was sighing in happiness as I surveyed our one piece of checked luggage and two backpacks. I started going over mentally how what my game plan was going to be for check in and security.
Yuri was right on time outside, and we climbed into his sporty Honda Accord.
The drive to the airport is only 30 minutes, but I don’t know why I expected it to be uneventful. This trip, like every other was not to be without it’s own drama…..
After a few minutes went by, I noticed Yuri’s gas gauge was on “E” , and he had 1 mile to go before empty in his display window. Yuri said—“don’t worry, there are at least 20 miles to go after Zero, and I want to go to the SHELL station on the way to the airport where I have coupons for free gas. We won’t make it all the way there, but I can stop at another gas station on the other side of the bridge [across the Denieper River] “ I immediately thought to myself, “Great, we are going to run out of gas in the middle of the bridge and I am going to miss my flight” . We got to the other side of the bridge, and I saw a gas station coming up with a sigh of relief—but Yuri passed it up! “ I said “Yuri, you are going to run out of gas—why did you not stop?” He replied “ooops! I forgot, hopefully we make the next one.” We are now “below” zero, and the “miles to go before empty” screen on his dashboard display does not even say “Zero” anymore! Yuri started driving very carefully—maximizing the his coasting down hills, and no abrupt accelerations (he was worried now). So I sat there as if I were in some Seinfeld episode and chuckled about the ensuing Choas that was my life.
We coasted into a little gas station on fumes, and I finally breathed a sigh of relief. But then Yuri only got 2 liters of gas! He wanted to make sure he used his coupons. I don’t blame him, because gas is expensive—but maybe how about 4 liters?!? We were now back to looking at Zero miles to go until empty—“ahhh plenty of gas”. A few miles later, we came to the shell station and filled up with Yuri’s coupon, and were finally looking at a full tank of gas. Phew! The rest of the arrival at the airport was easy. Max was strangely quiet, just taking it all in. I talked with Yuri for a while, and thanked him for everything. He really made all this possible with his expert handling of all our paperwork, and coordinating contacts in Zaporizchya region. I was sad to bid him farewell, but excited to get on that plane!
Check in was easy, there were no big lines yet, I think we arrived in enough time to beat the rush. Max tried to bolt for an interesting stairwell once, climb on the scale for our bag, and climb on the belt through the scanner at security—but other than that he was great. Passport control and Delta both wanted to see all of our paperwork, and I had the court decree, passport, and birth certificate ready to show them. It took about 10 minutes, and they gave us our exit visas, with a big “KACHUNK!” of their stamp—a sound I had been waiting to hear for about 40 days! While we were waiting for our flight to board, Max played with matchbox cars on the floor, and our friends the Kennedy family showed up in the boarding area. Their girls yelled “MAX!!” and ran over to him. When he looked up, he got this big smile on his face, and the four of them played for the rest of the time. It was so cute.
Boarding time finally arrived, and it went without incident. Max was great. He happily followed me down the jetway, and aisle without any fuss. Once we got to our seat I strapped him in for a minute or so, and got our carry-on situation organized so I wouldn’t have to keep jumping up to the overhead bin. In retrospect, I should have just checked the car seat. He did not want to sit in it, and it took up a lot of room in the cramped 767-ER cabin. I gave him some animal crackers though and he was happy. I thought he would be happy just looking out the window, but he was more happy to play with the window shade, and keep it closed most of the time. I tried to interest him in the goings on outside, but he would have none of it. After about 30 animal crackers, I cut him off. He was not happy, and started to throw a fit. I was nervous about vomiting though, so I stood my ground for a while. After takeoff, I decided that he was too upset, so I just let him have the bag. He immediately calmed down and sat there happily eating his animal crackers. In fact , the only times he fussed during the 10 hr flight was when I would restrict him from doing something he shouldn’t—like grabbing a passenger in the seat in front of us. He also got to play with the Kennedy girls a few times, and that helped break up the monotony. He only slept for about two hours though! I was exhausted by the time we reached JFK (swine flu central station). Max must have been too, because he immediately threw his backpack down and asked to get on my shoulders!
I made him walk through passport control at JFK. He grabbed on all the blue line ropes corralling all the passengers, and I had to fight him free after every turn in the line. Poor little guy—he just wanted to be free ! Passport control was easy, the immigration officer took my sealed envelope that the Kiev embassy had given me, and then the officer showed me where to go next . We went to another office where they wanted to take Max’s picture—but I already had extra pictures of him ready to give them (Thanks Helen and Yuri! ) so that process only took two minutes. Then we were on our way to collect our baggage from customs and re-check it in for the domestic flight to Norfolk. I decided to check the car seat this time, and agent helped me out with no problems.
Max was not as easy during the next trip through security. He was ready to run around and stretch his legs a little. Not so easy in the security line with TSA.
Luckily, I kept a good grip him and he never go far when he did escape occasionally as I tries to put my belt back on. Finally, we cleared security, and then Max was happily up on my shoulders as we strode through the airport to our next gate. We arrived at the commuter gates with an hour to spare. Max and I just decided to stay away fro everyone and just washed our hands a lot so we wouldn’t risk catching the flu!
The best thing about the last flight home, was that it was strangely right on time for JFK-- Thank you God! But the last flight was a little miserable, because Max was exhausted at this point. Everything seemed to be the end of the world for him. Tray table up / Tray table down/Window shade up/window shade down-- both made him cry and throw a few tantrums. He was just so tired that he did not know what he wanted. We finally made it to the Norfolk and stopped off at the nearest bathroom for Max to change his shirt, and wash one more time before hugging everyone with JFK germs.
The reunion was wonderful. Ava screamed “DADDY!” and sprinted down the hall to me, and my twin girls Keeley and Allyson rushed into my arms. Max recognized Rebecca and gave her a big hug. Our friends the Thoroman’s and the Douberly’s came down as well to witness all the fun. It was great to see everyone!
The rest of the evening we chatted about our adventures, and Max went to sleep in his new bed without a fuss—he was exhausted!
Sunday was a wonderfully relaxing day. The children played like they were old friends. Max is adjusting well so far, and the girls are so excited to finally have their new brother. Monday was a little annoying though—I came out to go to work, and my car had been stolen from our driveway in the night!!! “ARE YOU KIDDING ME!??!?” (I yelled down the street). So, at least we ended our journey the way it started---Chaos!

We will be giving more updates as we jump all the next hurdles with Max, and figure out the whole car situation……Love,
Team Chaos