The Longest Day

Our trip home was a huge day. From the time we woke up in Sofia until the time we went to sleep at home covered about 28 hours, all in the same calendar day. The girls were both excellent travelers, and the trip was much easier than it could have been, but it was still quite an adventure nonetheless.

We had been warned that there was heightened security at the airport and that we should be there at least two hours before our flight time to allow enough time to get to the airplane. The extra security was triggered by a terrorist bombing on the Black Sea coast a few days earlier. Since our departure time was 6:55 AM, this meant a very early morning. The alarm was set for 3:45, but we were up before it went off. Emily Cate woke up while we were getting ourselves dressed, so we got her ready, then she helped Carolyn get Madelyn up and ready while I finished loading the car. Not sure what took so long, but we were out of the hotel at 4:45 and made it to the airport around 5:00. There was definitely heightened security!

The front of the Sofia airport terminal is essentially a very long hallway with ticketing and baggage check-in on the right side, and the arrivals lounge with all of the rental car desks on the left side. Right in the middle is the entrance from the main parking deck and the escalator for departing passengers to go upstairs for security screening. The rental car parking lot is on the extreme left of the terminal, so we entered at the end of the arrivals side. After dropping off the car keys, we hit our first security obstacle. They had roped off a big "no man's land" that divided the arrivals lounge and parking entrance from the ticketing area, and there were a bunch of people just standing by the rope in what looked like a line. It turned out that those were people who were there to see somebody else off, and security was just controlling access to ticketing and limiting it to departing passengers only. We found a narrow corridor around the roped off area and asked one of the security guards there if we could get to ticketing. He checked our passports and let us through without any problem. Emily Cate said something to him that apparently charmed him, so he even sent us on with a smile and a kind farewell. At the other end of the little corridor was the main departures entry from the sidewalk outside, and we had to show our passports again there before we got admitted to the actual ticketing area.

Once we got there, everything was fairly normal, though somewhat chaotic. The baggage check process is done not just by airline, but by destination as well. When we found the line for our Air France flight to Paris, the signs were very clear that you had to have boarding passes before you got to the counter. I tried the kiosk using our passports for identification, but that didn't work. We decided to get in line anyway, then I went back for a second shot at the kiosk. It found us by using confirmation numbers, and I was able to print boarding passes, but only for the flight to Paris, not the connection to Atlanta. Back to the line for baggage check, and when we finally got there, the agent was able to take care of everything, get our bags checked all the way through to Atlanta, and print our Paris to Atlanta boarding passes for us. Our experience in leaving Sofia both trips has been that the baggage check-in process is rather slow, and they have to process everybody on the flight regardless of whether you have bags to check or not because that's where the airline checks for valid passports and visas for all connections and the final destination.

After we got our bags checked, we went and stood in line to get upstairs to security. The security checkpoint is right at the top of an escalator, and they do the passport and boarding pass check at the bottom in order to control the crowd at the top. Security actually went very quickly, we had no problems communicating with the girls about what they were supposed to do, and we cleared that hurdle quickly. The final hurdle was passport control, and we almost got thrown a curve ball there. I handed the passport control officer our passports, and after looking at them, he wanted to see the "documents" for the girls. My first thought was that he wanted to see the immigration visa packages, so I pulled them out. It wasn't what he was looking for. He wanted the "Bulgarian documents". Fortunately, I had all of the documents we had picked up at FNA on our last visit in the carry-on, so I just pulled out the stack and handed it to him. Turned out, what he needed to see was the original copies of the new birth certificates that were issued listing us as the parents. He was just trying to make sure we had the right to be taking the girls out of the country. That's obviously a very good thing, it was just something I wasn't expecting, so there was some momentary panic until he found what he was looking for. The lesson for others in this process is to make sure you carry all documents with you at all times. You never know what someone will ask for.

After passport control, we made a quick stop at the restroom, then on to the gate. We got there just as they made the initial boarding call and so we got at the back of the line that was already forming. I was holding Madelyn at the time, and after standing in line for maybe a minute, I noticed the gate agent motioning for us to come up to the counter. She had spotted the girls, so she was calling us up to the front for pre-boarding. So we essentially walked right onto the airplane with no waiting at the gate. This was a huge blessing because we weren't sure how Emily Cate was going to react to getting on an airplane for the first time. As it turned out, I think she was on it before she even realized what was happening. She sat with me on the plane, and Carolyn and Madelyn sat a few rows in front of us. Emily Cate was fine with the airplane until it started moving. Then she began to get nervous. As we taxied out, every once in a while she would see something out the window that excited her, and she would point it out to me, but otherwise she just wanted to sit quietly with no one bothering her. Once we got airborne, I tried distracting her with computer games to no avail. After 10 or 15 minutes, I pulled out some of the craft supplies we had and tried to interest her in decorating some foam butterfly cutouts with stickers. At first, she didn't want to participate, so I started working on one myself. After about four stickers, she got interested and started having fun. When she finished it, she wanted me to take it to mommy. The next one she wanted to take to mommy herself. Somewhere during the second butterfly, we also made a trip to the lavatory. After that, the whole flying thing was no big deal. She completely ignored the landings, and getting on the plane in Paris was no problem at all.

 

We had a seven and a half hour layover in Paris, and based on our past experiences with Charles de Gaulle airport, we were dreading it. As it turned our, CDG redeemed itself to a large degree and proved to be pretty nice after all. The problem was that both of our times in that airport before had been outbound from Atlanta to Sofia. We had arrived at 6 AM both times for a 4 hour layover at what, to our body clocks, was midnight to four AM. No airport looks good at three in the morning. Also, the terminal that the Sofia flight departs out of is an older terminal set up for smaller aircraft with destinations typically in Africa or South America. It is cramped, uncomfortable, and there isn't much selection for food or activity, especially with kids. This time, we were spending late morning and early afternoon at the airport, so we weren't as tired. Also, the terminal where the Atlanta flight departs is much larger and newer. It is designed for larger airplanes, so the gate areas are much larger and spread out a lot more. They have more eating options, including a food court, and there were more things for kids to do. In fact, as we were going through security, one of the security agents on the front side gave each of the girls a Scooby-Doo book about traveling, and as we came out the other side, there were ladies handing out activity/coloring books and colored pencils. It was a much different atmosphere. We ate two meals there, had a snack of ice cream, the girls colored and made more butterflies, and Madelyn took a nap. The whole layover actually went very quickly.

 

The Paris to Atlanta flight was very long - about 9 hours. They pack the early part of the flight with beverage and snack service, then a lunch meal, so, combined with some craft activities and computer games, and several trips to the lavatory, it wasn't too bad. Madelyn settled down to sleep about four hours in, and other than a restroom break or two and a few fussy moments where I held her and walked around a bit, she slept until we were getting off the plane in Atlanta. Emily settled down about an hour later, and I woke her up about 30 minutes before we landed and gave her some ice cream they had served as a final snack.

 

When we got to Atlanta, since Madelyn was asleep and we were almost at the back of the airplane anyway, we just waited until everyone else got off. We headed down to immigration and passport control, and stopped in a family restroom for a quick change of clothes, a hair fix-up, and a potty break. Then we headed out for our entry process. The vice-consul in Sofia had advised us in the visa interview to find a DHS official at immigration and ask where we needed to go so we didn't end up waiting in two lines. Atlanta has stewards posted in the immigration area to help people find the right line, so I asked one of them where I needed to go. He sent us to the regular US citizen passport control line (which was huge at the time), because we were US citizens. After getting in line, I figured out that these stewards were not DHS personnel. They were the same folks they use for things like wheelchair assistance, and I wasn't feeling real confident that his instructions were right. So, I found a lady in a suit who looked much more official, and asked her. That turned out to be the right thing. She directed us to the far end of the immigration area to the line where they process aircrew and diplomats. It is also the same line where they do immigrant visas. There was only one couple in line ahead of us, so our wait went away. She followed a minute behind us when we got to the right line, and asked me for the visa packets, the passports, and our customs declaration card. She took the whole package to the desk, handed it to an immigration officer who wasn't currently attending someone, and he started going through the packages immediately. In less than 10 minutes, everybody was cleared into the US, and the girls had become US citizens. It was very easy. Baggage claim actually took longer than anything else. When we found the right carousel, the bags from the flight were already on it. I found our smaller suitcase immediately and pulled it aside. Our larger suitcase turned out to be a minor issue, though. We watched the carousel go around 5 or 6 times, and no suitcase. We asked a passing airline official and she said there may still be bags to be loaded, and we needed to give it more time. I was already trying to spot the lost baggage desk and getting annoyed that I was going to have to go through that hassle. There was another group of people looking for a missing bag as well, and one of the men spotted a row of bags on the floor next to the carousel on the other side from where we were standing. I followed him over, and sure enough, there was the bag. So, with all luggage in tow, we went through customs, handed in our declaration card, and we were out into the arrivals lounge. It all went very smoothly except for the bag being pulled off the carousel.

When we got out to the arrivals lounge, our other five children and both sets of grandparents were there to meet us. Emily Cate and Madelyn were so excited to meet their new sisters, and they both took to their brothers immediately. I was pleasantly surprised at how eager Emily Cate was to be picked up and carried around by her brothers, especially since they are all so big, but she warmed up to them immediately and reacts to them the same was as Caroline and Elizabeth. It probably helps that she has them to set the example of her, but there was no reticence on her part at all.

After a short visit at the airport, we said goodbye to grandparents and headed for home. The hour and a half drive was torture for me since I was exhausted from traveling, and of course there was the obligatory traffic jam south of Atlanta just to make it that much worse. We got home around 11:30 or so, and the girls were welcomed by balloons on the mailbox and a big banner with more balloons in the kitchen. After a quick exploration of the new house, everybody went upstairs to the new bedroom and got ready for bed. Caroline and Elizabeth were also excited about the new room because they were getting to move in there for the first time as well. After all of that, everybody went to sleep quickly, despite all of the excitement, and it was a good night of rest.