Final Day in Vlad and trip Home - Sept. 7 9/13/2007
Friday was a wonderful day if not a bit long. It started out rather stressful in that our registration papers had still not been submitted from the hotel. These are papers that are required for us to demonstrate our presence here. We were checking out of the hotel at 8 am and the registration papers were brought in by a woman at 8:05. Talk about cutting it close!
Anyhow, so we checked of the hotel after enjoying our final breakfast there - I’m going to miss that yummy porridge. The weather had taken a turn and it was dark and rainy outside, but this was really kind of a refreshing change not only from the stuffy hotter weather Vlad normally has this time of year, but from the God-awful hot and dry weather from home. A day of rain is just what we needed.
We had our typical drive out to Ussurisk with the weather being the only difference, and our visit with Anna was also nice because we spent the whole time inside with her on a mat on the floor. She was wearing a darling light green outfit and she appeared to have been washed. It was sad to think this was the last time we’d see her for a couple of months, but it was also a sweet visit. We showed her the pictures we’d had made for her and gave her the pink picture purse to keep. We had fun playing with a balloon and some other toys, too. When we were finished we thanked the caregivers and gave them the toys we had brought as well as the one-time use camera we had brought for them to take pictures of her for us over the coming months. They were so kind to us and grateful for the toys, even though we felt they weren’t much. Pictures from this visit are here.
We also said our farewells to the head doctor and she said we are very welcome to bring Adelina with us on our next trip. We were glad for this because we had been told that some orphanages will not permit outside children onto their grounds.
Final farewell to Anna and then we were off and headed back towards Vlad. We stopped and had a lovely lunch at the Minutka Cafe with our driver and translator and then it was on to the airport for our return flights home. We arrived a bit early and there was a big hoopla in the airport as a pair of newlyweds were apparently leaving for a honeymoon. There were masses of people making lots of noise and the happy couple were still in their wedding digs. Eventually we were permitted to go through immigration, check in, and then it was through passport control. Then we waited for our flight. We had been checked all the way through, but discovered our seats were not together on the long flight over the Pacific, so we got those changed. Unfortunately, we were now seated on the inside seats, but at least we were together.
The flights home were largely uneventful. Our first flight left at 5:30 pm and arrived at 6:00 pm (2 hr 30 min. flight). The next flight left at 7:30 pm and arrived at 2:45 pm on the same day (after 11 hours in the air), and our third flight left at 6:05 pm - still Friday - and arrived in Phoenix at 7:30 pm. So 20+ hours in flight and we arrived just 2 hours after we left. Talk about jet lag!
It was nice once we arrived in Los Angeles, as we were able to make phone calls again freely on our cell phone. We connected with some family (our parents) and then spent the next hour trying to arrange for someone to pick us up at the airport in Phoenix when we arrived - it was the one detail we’d failed to plan for in advance. In the end, Kenda came through - thanks Kenda! We came home and crashed hard.
Saturday we picked up Adelina from her host family. She had had a wonderful week, and they had taken great care of her. She really understood what we were doing and where we had gone and did not get upset or anxious at all. We were so grateful! And she was very excited to see all the pictures and videos of little Anna.
Sunday Steve and I started coming down with a cold. We figured out it had come from Anna, who had a bad runny nose the whole time we were visiting. At least it’s all in the family! 
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