Dear fellow passengers on Delta Flight 47, Moscow to Atlanta on 2/16. Was the flight as long for you, as it was for us?

You may remember the family of three that was stumbling their way through customs, baggage inspection and check-in? That was us. Our six year old was running circles around us, trying to help with our bags (very cute), but at the same time tripped, kicked or fell over every piece of luggage within a 10 foot parameter of her path.

We thank the agent who led us to the front of the line (for damage control I'm sure) but apologize for you having to wait ages for us to pass through because we had to purchase our daughter's ticket (we don't know how this happened and something we need to resolve with Delta this week and hope we purchased a ticket for $1000 and not $10,000 since we weren't issued a receipt and we were desperate and agreed to pay whatever amount the agent said).

Russian passport control let us through in like one minute. I recommend having a six year old with you whining - I mean chanting - in Russian, "Mama I have to pee!" next time you need to go through security without being questioned. We have learned in the five short days we have been her parents that going to the bathroom is not always a biological need but a reason to get out of something she needs to do, or asks to go when she is bored, or wants to play with the toilet or faucets.... After we got through passport control, we did visit the first (of probably 30) public restrooms of the day.

We had to wait 2.5 hours before we needed to board the plane. If you didn't see the random path of destruction in the ticket line, then you probably noticed a little girl running circles in the terminal corridors, cleaning the floors with her hands and clothes. (Yes, we are very good parents. SVO is so dirty. But we were desperate and had to choose our battles today.)

I was surprised that all three of us got on the plane. There were moments during the pre-plane wait I considered staying in Russia and sending Michael and Rita to the USA since I didn't think I could survive the flight. Alternatively, I considered us all living in Russia for a few years until Rita could understand english... but I was so ready to get home I put on a brave face and got on board preparing for the worst.

And despite being reminded earlier in the morning (in Russian) that she would need to be good... to wear her seat belt, to not kick the seats in front of her, and not play with the tray table... those are the only things she wanted to do. Luckily the stewardesses were really nice and talked to her with authority and got her to behave... but we did understand their Russian enough and hear that they were bribing her with treats and ice cream which we weren't too pleased about but whatever,,, it worked.

I think we managed fine for the first 8 hours of the flight keeping her busy and letting her watch the "too-adult" cabin movies and playing with the headsets (which she put on/off about 1000 times; about 3/4 times needing help from one of us). Then the perfect storm of bad behavior and mama/papa irritation all came together. Yes, I'm sure you remember our family now.

I was the one quietly crying in my seat and saying to my husband "I don't think we can do this" and "This isn't going to work out". (Oh lady with those obnoxious glasses in seat 18C do you really think I wanted an audience at this point?) Thinking back, it wasn't really that bad. And as we stumbled awkwardly through one of our first six year old meltdowns - wait, 35/43 year old meltdowns - we ended up not speaking to each other, and amazingly Rita (and mama and papa) fell asleep for the rest of the flight. (Maybe the stewardess slipped something in our ice cream?)

Customs and immigration in Atlanta was rather uneventful and we celebrated Rita's new US Citizenship with an apple juice waiting for our next flight. This one lasted another 4 hours and we slept the entire time even though we still had quite a few activities stashed away for the final leg of the trip. Kristin and Grandma were at the airport with balloons to greet us which was really sweet.

We had a fun time showing Rita around her new home, and we had some sausages, bananas and toast as a late snack before a quick bath and getting to bed around 11:30PM. Despite all of the sleeping on the plane, Rita was asleep within 10 minutes and slept through the night.

Yes, the trip home was crazy. It had its moments but it could have been alot worse. But now that we are home we are doing very well so far.....