Trip 2 Day One

Hi All!

Well we made it to Bishkek! I'll give you a run down of getting here and our first day.

We arrived at the counter in Boston to find a relatively unfriendly woman who wasn't pleased that we had so many bags and that they were so heavy. I explained the whole orphanage thing and tried to give her my letter but that did no good. She made me put each bag on the scale then take it off and she weighed the next one. Her scale, when nothing was on it, said .8lbs but there she was telling me I was a bit over. Ummm, fix the scale peeps! Anyway, eventually she asked where Kyrgyzstan was, she said she had heard of many places but not Kyrg. She asked why we were going (I guess she wasn't listening when I explained it the first time) and I told her. From that moment on, a new woman. She was sweet and chatty and very helpful!

The Boston to London flight was uneventful until we got to Heathrow. They made us circle around which didn't suprise me but then they said we couldn't land, there were too many planes and fog had reduced how fast that the planes could land after each other so we have to go to Gatwick airport 25 miles away. So we fly over there and then get refueled and are supposed to be on our way in 20 minutes. Well then they tell us that no planes are landing but alot of taking off. They said we had to wait and that they didn't know if or when the fog would lift and that if we missed our connection we 'd just have to take the next flight, nothing that they could do, it ws weather. So as time wears on I am crying because they won't let us off the plane to take the 90 minute bus ride to Heathrow, they won't check my connection to see if it is late, and they have no clue when we will get to go. This went on for OVER 2 Hours until finally they said we could go and we landed at 11:45am had to switch terminals, go through security, get boarding passes at the BMI counter and be at the gate to leave at 1:30pm. It was insane but we made it!

The second flight was totally uneventful, lots of empty seats on the plane so we had the seat in between us free and we also had exit row which was nifty. We arrived to find out that 2 bags and our stroller were missing. Thank god I put things for myself in every suitcase and carried on an outfit for Aidai. My mom's clothes got here, I have 2 changes of clothes, extra shoes. Our gifts made it and a few toys for Aidai that I had thrown in last minute. And of course all of our medicines and such were in carry-on so we have all that. This is the extent of the clothing that I have:



I contacted BMI and it does seem like everything will be here on the next flight Tuesday morning so now I just hope it all gets here early enough for me to grab what we need for Aidai. We do have Aidai's gotcha day sweater that was made by Josh's mom, Kim. My co-worker Michelle gave me shoes for the orphanage that were passed down from her daughter and luckily one pair is a size nine so if the bags don't make it in time I do have an outfit and shoes for her. I was struggling with the amount of items we decided to carry on but now I am really glad we lugged it all.

Today we (Maria, Jennifer, My mom and I) hit the town and loaded up on essentials at the Beta store and I saw our friend Gulzalda. We have been in contact with her via email since our first trip. She works in the gift shop there and is an absolute doll. She was soooo excited to see us again and can't wait to meet Aidai.


We bought more things from her. I bought a key chain, historical book w/photos on Kyrg, a doll, a book and CD about Kyrg musical instruments and a wall hanging.





Then we went to visit A, another mom who is here on her pick-up trip. We tried to do her a favor and get some medicine for her little one but we couldn't find the pharmacy which was "right around the corner".

Then we headed to Zsum where we did some more shopping. There I bought a purse (cause I forgot to bring one) and I little kids "learn the Russian alphabet book" for Aidai to have in the future. My mom did some shopping at Zsum and Beta too. On the way home we stopped for a late lunch at the Italian place. We came back here and took a nap for a few hours and we are now just hanging out.

Tomorrow we may go somewhere in the AM and then the coordinator is supposed to come by in the afternoon.

Overall a productive day and one day closer to Aidai!

Elizabeth