Let me explain ... the one thing Stephen and I REALLY looked forward to was walking through the doors after going through customs at JFK and seeing the faces of our parents, sisters and the signs and ballons welcoming Roman and Maxim home. We always thought of it as the "going into labor phone call" and well since we never got to do THAT ... we couldn't wait to share this final leg of our journey to become a family with those who had been through the worst with us!!!
I started planning our trip home from JFK in July 2009. I contacted various limo companies in New York and New Jersey for prices and found a company that was willing to work with us on pricing. Now if you are familiar with NYC and JFK airport you would understand that part of what I needed was a way to get our two families (parents and sister) from our house to JFK and then return with all of us back to the house. JFK is crazy to try and negotiate if you are not familiar with the airport so a limo was the best way. By August I had secured a limo company and being the Type A that I am I had every detail in place ... or so I thought! The very last email I sent before boarding the plane on October 24, 2009 was to the limo owner to finalize all details and giving him all contact information for my mother and sister and reminding him that they would all need to be picked up and that they would bring the car seats for the boys! Well as they say ... best laid plans and all that!!!
On November 14th ... we boarded Delta airlines in the Moscow airport to JFK in New York, with Maxim and Roman .. they were amazing on the 11hour flight!! They played, slept and ate and hardly ever made a fuss ... excellent travelers!!!
As soon as we landed in New York I turned on my cell and texted my sister ... EXPECTING she would text back "We're Here" ... instead I got "Call Me" ... this was NOT good!!!! In a nutshell the limo company SUCKED ... they never showed at the agreed time to pick up our parents and my sister and THEN tried to say that was NOT the plan ... well that's is to say until my sister started reading the emails back to him with the agreement! So at this point it was to late for any of that to happen and since they didn't have car seats in the Town Car for the boys the limo service was cancelled and Stephen's sister jumped into our Expedition with her husband and my mother and made the journey to JFK to get us! Again, Type A me had put the boys car seats into our truck before leaving just to get used to driving around with them ... GOOD THING, Huh?!?! The only problem ... we live 1.5hours with traffic from the airport, the plane was early so you guessed it ... we walked through the doors of customs with no signs, no greetings and no balloons .... we had our sons ... we were home and very, very tired and now we had to wait outside of departures for our ride entertaining two children who were probably just as confused as we were!!!!
WELCOME TO NEW YORK
No welcome home picture outside of customs for us BUT instead a more traditional New York picture ... us outside the departure doors in front of a trash can with all our luggage, strollers and the best gift anyone could ever wait for ... OUR SONS!!!! It wasn't the ending we imagined but at least it ended with us coming home with the two boys we had waited sooooo very long for and I hope someday when the boys read this blog they can find the humor in what on that day was just a real kick in the pants!!!
Now that we have been home for a year I've come to learn it doesn't matter so much as how you get there but just that you GET THERE. It took us longer than we ever could have thought to fulfill our dreams of having a family but WE DID. It was not the road we expected to travel for becoming parents but in the end WE DID ... we are parents and one year later we have experienced some AMAZING highs with our boys and along the way a few lows but HEY, isn't that what parenthood is all about!!! One year has passed ... there were some days I never thought we'd make it or I'd ever know what sleep was again, okay so I'm still not sure what sleep is but isn't that what those teenage years are for ...PAYBACK :-) .... just kidding ... we made it from start to finish and in the end that is what really matters!!!
