Our taxi had one casualty. Mom didn't handle the event too well given the realization that Christina was in fact going with us. G'Moms don't do too well when their children are leaving the country, particularly for a terroist plagued country like Russian of late. She did return home instead of making the trip. A few tears were shed ... the ultimate show of love and care. We tried to assure her of our confidence in this trip.

Annetta also joined the ride to the airport. Christina's dad, Phil, met us there while we were waiting on check-in. It was a small family reunion. Steven and Lisa also made the trip from Rocky Mount to see us off. Today is their 11th wedding anniversary and it was a welcome sight to see them as we pulled up to the Delta drop-off area. With all these hands we had little problem maneuvering luggage!

We had little delay with the RDU to JFK flight like we had in July; not as many people around. The skies were mostly cloudy for the trip but we did get a good look at Atlantic City, NJ. As the landing gear dropped on the approach, you should have seen Christina's expression. Carol told her what it was while I was hoping she would say we hit a donkey; you know, this far north, too many Democrats around these parts. :-)

Christina knew she wasn't in Raleigh any more. The number and size of planes at JFK far exceeds anything you'll see at RDU. We lounged at a Sam Adams pub where she could watch the arrivals for about an hour. A quick call to Annetta let her know that all was fine in NY; we tried to call just before departure on Flight 30 but couldn't make a connection. Sorry, Annetta!

We were basically on schedule with Flight 30 leaving for Moscow. The plane was not full this time as in July and few obvious adoption parents. There were quite a few more Russians and most appeared to be business men. Carol's seat had water dripping from the overhead compartment when we got to row 39. They had already called for a replacement but Carol was vowing not to sit there; they relented and she received row 43 ... all three seats. So Christina was able to move back and sit in the middle row of seats with Carol. I retained my row 38 window and told the guy in 38B that 32B was now open (Christina's original seat) if he'd like to move forward; he did. So we had five seats for the trip overnight. That made it a bit more pleasant than our ride to Moscow in July. The flight was uneventful and we landed after 8 hrs and 34 minutes.

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