The Journey

3:45am: Wake up and prepare to leave to the airport in Salt Lake

7:00am: Take a seat for our flight to Arizona. Arizona you say? Is that really on the way? NO. But we made a layover in Phoenix for an hour and a half where we let Maddix run around before getting back on the flight to New York.

4:00pm (NY time): We hopped off the plane knowing we had a 6hour layover before the final leg, but not knowing if our luggage was going through to the next flight, or if we had to pick it up. We wondered around trying to find someone that could answer our question, while in the meantime carting around 2 carry-on bags, 2 backpacks, too hot coats to where at the time, and the stir crazy baby. Well, everyone sent us down to another person they thought could help us out until we finally found out that yes, our bags would just be put through to Poland and that we were free to board the airport down to our terminal and wait to check in there... Maddix started to have enough at this point.
7:30pm: Travis had been standing in line for check in while Maddix and I ran around and played with some little friends he made. He hugged the little boy and even tried to hug and kiss the little girl his size, then he hit a wall and didn't want to move anymore. So we loaded our stuff up and made our way to the next line.

 (Everyone thought he was just the cutest being carted around like that)
11:00: We took a seat on the oldest, dirtiest, and scariest plane I've ever been on. They put us in the seats that are the first row behind first class so there is no seat in front of you to slide your bags under, the flight was so over booked that we had to keep almost all our stuff at our feet for the whole 9 hour flight. Oh and we didn't get that seat we were told we'd get for Maddix. As everyone filed in we were lucky enough to sit next to a Jewish Youth Groups... I mean JEWISH, with two Rabi's who though they were just hilarious and when some Polish woman started yelling at their group to move their bags and share the room they just made a joke and showed their group that they were above being polite. There was even a Jewish boy (all in yamika's) with a v-neck shirt and a Jewish star hanging all around his curly dark chest hair popping out EVERYWHERE! Maddix was So fed up, it being his second day of travel and we could barely get him to watch a movie (especially because we were forced to use headphones, which he doesn't like)

The flight took a million years, it was loud, hot, broken, and down right disgusting, but it finally ended and we landed into Warsaw, Poland.
2:00pm (Poland time, 8hrs ahead of Utah): We searched all over our seats, gathered our stuff and made our way to the baggage claim... and we waited. We gathered all our bags, but one. After waiting and waiting, Maddix's bag never came. His bag with his diapers, food, toys, clothes, books, blankets, and meds did not make it through on the flight. I accompanied a very nice worker to the other end of the airport to file that our bag was missing, only to realize Travis had all our info. I sprinted back to the other end of the airport, got the papers, and sprinted back to the bagging desk. They were a bit frustrated that we didn't have a stable number, or address they could use, but we gave them our hotel info and they said they'd have our bag driven and dropped off once they could find it... great.
4:00: Frantic that they representative from the school wouldn't have found us and left, we rushed to the pick up area of the airport and Thankfully found him waiting. In fact, there was Travis' whole school group. We waited another 2hrs for the last kids to show up after their flights were delayed, then we boarded a "greyhound" type bus and headed to Lubilin.
2 1/2hrs later: We were told that these three people in charge of all the students were going to drop off all the students at their dorms and then take us to our hotel... but that didn't really happen. The school failed to get the students actual dorms and took them to an empty apartment building and began to contract them all in apartments. While there, the ppl in charge were worried about the -15 degree's f and having Maddix outside so they insisted I waited in on the bus while they took Travis to see if he might want to contract one of the apartments as well. When they walked away the bus driver turned to me and started yelling in Polish and pointing to my bags then to the bus doors. I went to hop off and one of the leaders insisted that I stay on the bus, and everyone went inside. Not sure if I'd end up at the hotel tonight or an apartment right away I sat and tried to comfort the screaming baby who was extremely tired. About 15mins later the bus driver had had enough of the pity party and started to pull out of the parking lot, with Maddix and I inside it! His wife began, I assume, to chew him out and he stopped, but moments later when a Pizza mad showed up, one of the leaders came and collected the pizza and made no gesture to me, both the drivers lost it. He threw my baggage off the bus and told me to get off. Thankfully Travis came out with another guy and we collected everything and went in.
We decided that the apartment was too much for what we could afford (especially since the loan money wont be here for at least another 4 weeks) and asked for a cab to the hotel. They called us a cab, exchanged us some cash (blessedly) and set up some people to come take care of us tomorrow.
When the cab came he was furious to see all our baggage and started yelling in Polish again (does everyone yell in order to communicate these days?) and drove off. So another cab was called, a bigger one, and he took us to the hotel. When we got there he began to ask us questions and pointing around and we were so stumped. Eventually we got him paid and got checked into our hotel... I feel more safe now than I have since we left. I desperately want to sleep but also don't want tomorrow to come because I'm terrified to start another day.
Well that's all for now. Here are a few more photos of our goodbyes to make up for all the writing I did. No one wants to read all that I'm sure:

Miss everyone already.