September 12th:
We woke up early because we were excited that we were able to bump our original return flight plans from Saturday to this afternoon. We really wanted to stay and bring Vanya home, however with there being about 2 full weeks of waiting on documents and then up to another week to week and a half of stuff to do afterwards, we decided to go back. Rachelle was really starting to miss Andrew and he would actually start crying for her when we would Face Time him in. It has been close to 3 weeks and it was time. This allows me to go back to work for a couple of weeks, before heading back to finalize the Adoption and finally be able to bring Vanya home.
We walked down the street around 9:00 am looking for a cup of coffee and something to eat. We found a little vendor store that also had donuts, we were all about that. It was a cool morning and we tried to find somewhere in the sunlight to sit and soak in our last couple of hours in Ukraine. Sasha was scheduled to meet us at the apartment around 11:00 am so he could take us to the Airport. We started back about 10:00 am and as soon as we get to the Apartment, Sasha calls and is running early. He picked us up about 20 minutes early and off we were to the Airport.
We stopped at a McDonald's on the way to the Airport for a quick snack. It is uncommon that we saw for anyone to help another out in the short time that we were there. The reason I bring this up is there was a guy holding two trays trying to leave the main part of the restaurant going out to the patio area. I opened both of the doors and Sasha made a comment how nice that was for me to do that, cause that just doesn't happen here. Rachelle told him that I try to do that as much as possible, and he was still beside himself.
We then loaded up and went on to the Airport. We got there a little before two hours prior to our flight. As we were standing around waiting to see what Gate our flight would be leaving, a guy about our age was standing within hearing distance of our conversation and vice versa. He started talking English so I asked him where he was from. He was from New York and on his way to Odessa, down by the Black Sea. His wife is from Ukraine and her family lives down in that area. Sasha told us that it was easy to tell that he was an American, cause he too had his sunglasses up on his forehead like I am known to do. Bob made a comment that he was getting ready to get on a bus to the Kiev train station. Sasha then offered him a ride, since Sasha was going that way after he made sure that we made it on to our Gate. Bob was very thankful and I was actually proud of Sasha for offering up the ride. Perhaps in some way me doing such a simple act of opening a door for someone, carried over to Sasha to asking Bob if he would like a ride. Hmm, only God knows...
They finally flashed the Gate number so off we went to the correct Check-In lane to get our Boarding Passes and Check our luggage. When the guy gave us our Boarding Passes, he also handed us a couple of coupons. I had no idea what they were for, however we were just thrilled that we were able to get our flights out this afternoon. We said our "Good Bye's" to Sasha and off to Passport Control we went. Still confused exactly what the Coupons were for, until after we made it through the checkpoint. I guess that when I bumped our flights up it gave us Business Class seats instead of Economy. So the Coupons were for the Business Class Lounge area. This was definitely a first for both the two of us.
We walked in and there was hardly no one in there. The seating was very comfortable and there was a full service bar as well as bottle beverages. I went and got a couple of Coke's and went up to the counter to pay, and the guy behind the bar told me that everything in here is free. REALLY??? You know how it is when EVERYTHING is Free, there is ALWAYS this ONE PERSON who wants to take advantage of the situation. No, it wasn't me; however this one guy would walk up to the counter and take like 10 to 15 pieces of little candy bars, walk back to his seat and dump them into his computer bag. After a few minutes he would do it again, and again, and again...I guarantee he made no less than 7 trips back and forth. There was one point I thought about going up the counter myself, picking up the basket the candy was in, taking it to him at his seat and then just pouring the whole thing in his bag. However as funny as that sounded, Rachelle would not let me do it.
We boarded the plane and we were on the 1st row. This means that we will also be one of the first ones off when we land in Poland to so we can make our connecting flight that much easier. As soon as we were in the air, they brought us a nice lunch on ceramic plates, and actual silverware. We were used to the paper plates and plasticware, so this was a welcome change as well.
Just like we anticipated, when the plane landing in Poland, we were off in no time. Then it was through Customs and Passport Control then on to our Gate awaiting the long flight to Chicago. Rachelle and I were still just in awe about the treatment and position the seats had been from our first flight.
We were finally boarding the plane to Chicago and as we walked to our seats we realized that we were in the middle section, instead of on one of the outside sections. Rachelle sat in the middle, me on the isle. We were on the 2nd row behind the First Class Section, however nothing like what we had just experienced. The lady sitting next to Rachelle was older and she couldn't sit still practically the entire 10 hour flight. The lady that sat in front of her had a two year old that cried for practically the first 3 hours of the flight, until she finally fell asleep. The gentleman that sat in front of me had a cat with him in a crate. There were a couple of infants behind us a couple of rows back that would make up for the crying when the little girl in front of us was not crying.
Luckily I had a few movies that we could watch on the iPad, so that helped pass the time for some extent thereof. The thing that I kept telling myself was to not get in a hurry and that we will get to Chicago when we get there. Knowing that we had a 13 hour layover, I had called my brother earlier in the week asking him of where we should get a hotel room until our flight from Chicago to OKC mid morning on Thursday. He informed me that there was a Hilton right on the Airport and that he would get us the room. That was SO NICE for him to do that!!!
FInally, we landed in Chicago...Off to Customs. Rachelle did a Terrific job picking the fastest line. Then we were off to Baggage Claim. After we picked up both of the Bags, then it was on to one more Customs checkpoint then off to the Hotel. As we approached the Security team, the Officer asked me "Are You Living the Dream?" I replied that we were and that we were so thrilled to be back in the United States of America. He then took our Customs paperwork and then took the time to tell us what terminal our flight in the morning will be taking off from, what stop we needed to get off on while riding the Tram, that will take us straight to the Hilton. It was really nice for him to take a couple of extra moments to help us!!!
Upon walking up to the Check-In Desk at the Hilton, a gentleman walked up handing us a couple of bottled waters and directed us to an attendant behind the counter. Customer Service is something that we hadn't had that much of while abroad and it was sure a welcome treatment!!!
We took our bags to the room, and then went back downstairs for some dinner. The Spaghetti and Meatballs were AWESOME!!! We enjoyed a drink and a desert as well. Our Waiter was so polite and courteous, that I made sure he got the tip he deserved. We were finishing up the desert and our drinks when he came back and thanked us again in reference to the tip we gave him. We thanked him again for providing such a wonderful experience.
Rachelle had to get a report done so off to work she went as I stayed behind at the Sports Bar catching up on Sports Center. I stayed for probably 30 minutes, part of the reason was to stay out of Rachelle's way so that she could stay focused on getting her report done. As I was sitting there I realized that I had gotten up in Kiev, Ukraine at 6:00 am on Wednesday morning, and even though it was Wednesday evening in Chicago, it was getting close to 6:00 am Thursday morning. I had been up for practically 24 hours, minus a couple of naps on the plane. So off to the room I went. She was finishing up her report when I got to the room. American Beds, especially those in Hiltons and Marriott's are AWESOME when you have been sleeping on 4 inch mattresses that you can feel the springs. AWE, Good Night!!!
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