TRAVEL

Traveling home was a LONG trip. We left Kiev and Saturady afternnon and flew to Amsterdam, Netherlands to catch a connecting flight. PARENTS TRAVELING AFTER US DO NOT FLY HOME THROUGH AMSTERDAM!!!! Long layovers are very common in Amsterdam. We had a twleve hour overnight lay over. We arrived in Amsterdam at 8:00 Pm Saturday and were not flying out until 8:00 AM Sunday, this was not a problem when Russ and I were traveling alone last trip. We stayed in a very nice hotel, Te Sheraton, which is connected to the airport by a tunnel so it is very easy and a nice place to stay. HOWEVER this trip homw even though we had reservations to stay there we were not permitted to stay there. When we arrived in Amsterdam we were told that Heather and I could stay at the hote, but not Ana. Ana's visa was for the US and even though we had her adoption paperwork and we do not even need visa as American citizens she was not permitted to go through (her American citrizenship did not com einto effect until the plane tires toich US soil). There was another lady with an infant who she adopted from Ethiopia who was told the same thing. So we got to spen d Twelve hours overnight sitting in an airport awhich made the trip much more tiring! There are two Yo tels at the airport that you can peay by the hour to sleep in (they are rooms similar to a cruise ship) problem is they are all booked and they always book up quickly. A direct flight from Kiev to NYC and then catching a connecting flight to wherever you are going is a much better option.. shorter, cheaper and not the hassle of other boarders. On our flight home there were 4 other coupkes flying home with children they adopted from Ethiopia and all had the same problem as we did. The airport was full of people attempting to sleep in chairs. The picture we are posting is Heather's attempt to sleep, it was 4:00 Am and I was laughing so hard I could hardly take the picture. She was so exhausted she didn't even know I was taking a picture. The black hood is a shirt from her carry on bag. I told her she looked like she was trying to meditate. LOL