We're here!

...the flight was 10+ hours long, we were the minorities on the plane. We guessed that %75 of the flight was Russian. We were flying so far north (over Greenland) that the sun never set! Shannon and I kept watching for the sunset, the sun touched the horizon and went right back up! We had to force ourselves to sleep, the flight provided sleep masks/ear plugs for everyone and shut the shades to simulate nighttime. Shannon threw up shortly before landing, she's ok though! We arrived in Moscow around 10:45am Moscow time, went through customs and our Russian contact for our Adoption agency met us at the airport with a driver. Her name is Luda, very nice & helpful. We immediately went to the Courtyard Marriot/Moscow, checked in and slept for 5 hours. For dinner, we had our first Russsian cuisine. The hotel recommended a place within walking distance, called the Mill. We had a Russian pies (like rolls) with cabage, mushrooms, or meat...very good! Shannon had veal medallions, Mom had pork kabobs, Aaron had roasted duck. For desert we had Russion creame puffs. Tomorrow, we will check out of our hotel at 12:00pm, spend some time touring downtown Moscow (the Kremlin, Red Square, etc). Then, at 8:30pm, Luda (our translator) is meeting us to put us on a Russian airline called Vladivostok (Uncle Roman, hope this one passed your engineering tests!) to go to Abakan, Russia. The flight leaves at 11:00pm, takes 5 hours, and will cross 4 timezones, and is as long/longer than traveling from NY to LA. It's Russia's independence day weekend, Tuesday is the last day they will be celebrating it. After arriving in Abakan, we will be taken to our hotel, and then to the Orphanage to meet Victor. We will be back in Moscow Friday (Thursday for you all), and will post more at that time. We'll try to post a pic here shortly. Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers!