Here...again!

At 7pm we took off from LAX en route to Moscow. The flight over on Aeroflot was a pleasant surprise. This time we had individual monitors with movies and video games, unlike the visits to Elijah. Also, they have a camera mounted on the front of the plane and you can watch takeoff and landing live while it's happening. Sara doesn't like these parts of the flight to begin with, so this put her a little over the top. Not much sleep happening on the flight over, so we were pretty beat when we reached Moscow. We had 2 1/2 hours to get to our domestic flight to Krasnoyarsk. Everything went without a hitch. A lot of improvements at the airport from 2 1/2 years ago, so we had a much easier time of it. Slept a little on the flight to Krasnoyarsk, arriving at around 6am Sunday morning. It was pretty much a 24-hour endeavor. But we are here, and now that the travel portion is complete, the excitement begins. I couldn't help but laugh as I drove the 30 minutes from the Krasnoyarsk Airport to the hotel. All the familiar sites. Even greeting our two helpers at the airport. It didn't seem like any time had passed since we were last here. And I am pretty sure that stepping into the orphanage is probably going to be the same. But the visit will be new and unique. I thought about Alexander as we were landing, and how he has no idea that a new life awaits him. Just any old day for him. How many times do we wake up in the morning thinking that this will be just "any old day", and not even realize the potential that it holds. One of my "any old days" lead me back here for a second time, a place I never imagined I would return to, at least not in this fashion. Embrace your "any old day" and make it something special...

Off to the orphanage tomorrow morning!

JP

(Also, I totally forgot that Russians clap for the pilots when the plane touches down. Classic. I think I'll start a trend in the U.S.!)