Once we were all packed up, and we had the girls and dogs dropped off, we headed to New York for the evening. Keiffer had to work that day, so we didn't leave until late. The drive took about 6 hours and we arrived around 11:30pm. We didn't have much luck at all with the hotel Keiffer booked. Although it was right there where all the other airport hotels were, it was in a ghetto area and there were only about 20 parking spots for the entire hotel. It didn't help that it was like 19 degrees outside, plus wind chill, so we were pretty cranky with the whole situation. Our room was on the bottom floor right next to the front desk, and the halls wreaked of cigarette smoke, and marijuana. Our room had a no smoking sign right on the door, but I am pretty positive people have not listened to this rule. The room didn't smell very bad, so it was doable, but we were very happy to book it out of there in the morning!
We arrived at JFK in the morning, which was Valentine's Day! A perfect day to travel for the love of our children! It also just happened to be the day that my younger brother's wife was in labor with their first child, so it will forever be a day we won't forget! I was having massive anxiety about how we were going to get our luggage into the airport, and then through security! Between Keiffer and me, we needed to get 4 50lb suitcases, 2 carry on cases, 2 backpacks, 2 car seats, a stroller, a baby, a 3 year old and Tennyson's backpack and carry on luggage!!! God blessed us with a cart right there in the parking lot, so we were able to load it up in true Marino fashion, as high as could be with bungee cords holding everything together.
Keiffer showed up an hour or so later, and we got some food to eat and were ready to board. The agents at Aeroflot were very accomodating and let us board the plane first. 3 points for Aeroflot!
The car seats fit into the airline seats, but they were a little too upright. We fixed that by stuffing magazines underneath the front of them to recline them slightly.
The flight was as good as can be expected. They gave Tennyson a little backpack with toys and activities and handed us slippers, eye masks for sleeping, and earphones for the televisions. Each seat had it's own pull out tray on the side of the seat, and a personal televison that pulled out when you needed it as well. Hmm, how many points is that for Aeroflot now??
We got very little sleep, maybe a total of 1 hour. The kids stood up a lot, walked around in the leg room in front of us, played on the floor, and ate snacks. The airline offered us a baby bassinet which hooked to the wall in front of us, but Penelope was too big for it. What an awesome feature if our baby had been smaller! I was very impressed! I'm losing track of points for the airline, so isn't it obvious that we made a good choice regarding our airline?! They fed us two meals during the flight, which were pretty good. All of the flight attendants spoke English and Russian, so it was easy to communicate. many times they would forget we were American, and would start speaking Russian to us, but as soon as we began speaking, they would rephrase and speak in English. All of the information given on the overhead speaker was first given in Russian, and then again in English.
The only upset we had on the plane was when we first got on and hadn't even got in the air. We were just getting settled in and Tennyson was so excited asking questions about when we were going to be up in the air, and how he couldn't wait, and how we were going to Latvia. This woman right behind Keiffer was speaking in Russian, and then switched to English rambling about how our kids were being loud, and so Keiffer turned around and asked what she was saying. She said to him in English amongst other things, "You know there are other people on this plane, you should really try to keep your kids quiet because you don't own the airplane!" Keiffer responded with, "My children are 1 and 3 years old. There is no way I can keep them quiet. You don't own the airplane either." She said some rebuttle and Keiffer just told her that he thought she was being rude and was in a bad mood. We had heard her yelling at someone else who was putting her carry on in the overhead compartment when boarding, that she should let everyone pass her to keep the line moving. Very rude!
The flight lasted about 9 hours, and we landed in Moscow. As we got off the plane we saw a whole area of the terminal of seemingly Russian Orthodox Jews putting on a bunch of ceremonial clothing. It was very odd to see, but pretty cool. We had to go through customs where they checked our passports and ran all of our stuff through scanners again. We were only in Moscow for a few hours before our next flight, which was on a smaller plane and was only a quick 1 hour and 20 minute flight to Riga. We opted to check our car seats this time and just let the kids sit on the seats.
When we finally arrived in Riga, it was 10am local time, so 3am Eastern time. We were pretty tired but were amazed that we were all still doing so well. Especially the kids who were fully alert. The sun had gone down on the airplane, and came back up before we landed. A very strange experience. The owner of our apartment named Alexandrs came to the airport to pick us up. A good looking tall man, who reminded me of our A. When he spoke, his accent was a familiar sound which I missed hearing from A. He picked us out a van cab and we drove about 20 minutes to Old Riga where our apartment was. Lots of old buildings, old cars, and a whole lot of ice. The temperature there was in the 20's and the rivers there were frozen. A light blanket of snow that had turned to ice covered most of the city. We arrived at our apartment on the corner of a busy cobblestone street, where the city buses run.
There is a rickety old elevator in the middle of the building that is just large enough for about two
people to stand in. It was perfect for bringing up our luggage. Surrounding it is a spiral staircase.Our apartment is on the third floor and has two doors with two separate keys to open to enter. It is really cool, and makes me feel safe in this building. We also need another key to open the door downstairs to get into the building. Inside is a huge open floor plan with 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a huge living room and a bathroom. The kitchen has a washer and drier combo machine, and also a separate drier. Most apartments here in Riga don't have driers, and they have drying wracks instead. When looking for and apartment, it was essential we found an apartment with a drier for our three week stay and 4 kids!
We woke to sunshine and a 19 degree day, and were ready to get out and see the town! We were thrilled for our adoption journey to officially begin in our kid's country!! 
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