Dec 21, 2009

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Nothing much is happening with the adoption right now. With the holidays things have certainly slowed down and now it's time to wait. Things have been busy with Christmas right around the corner so we haven't had time to sit and dweel on the fact that she won't be here.
We know that she will be here with us soon so we are trying to do what anyone who was pregnant with only weeks until delivery would do....just enjoy the last few weeks as a family of three. Then life changes. :) We are ready though!!!! Very Ready!!!

I wanted to wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! I hope it's memorable and you enjoy the time with your loved ones!!

Dec 16, 2009

Paper Chase Over...Hopefully!!!

Well since I posted last my agency called to let me know they were missing a document. Arghh....I triple checked that packet. Oh well..things happen for a reason Right?? It's ok though it all worked out, so our paperwork should be going to Russia either today or tomorrow. I think the paper chasing might be over. I hate saying that as now I'm sure I'll get another phone call. :)
Christmas shopping was pretty successful over the weekend. Only have two more gifts to get and already know what those are. Thank God! I am so excited about this Christmas even though Samara will not be home for it. Ethan is at such a great age and it's going to be fun. My new task is to bake lots and lots of my homemade Chocolate Chip cookies. Some of Justin's co-worker's are buying them from us so we can raise money for our adoption. I am going to be very busy in the kitchen.I guess that's all for now....

Dec 9, 2009

Dossier # 2 In Route

We sent out our Dossier paperwork today and our agency should recieve it tomorrow morning. As long as everything is there and correct they will over night it to Beacon House. So our Paperwork should be sent to Russia on Friday, although it won't land in Russia until sometime next week. Next all the Documents have to be translated and then a court date will be set. Since the holidays are almost here and Russia celebrates their Christmas on Jan 7th, my agency doesn't think we will hear anything until mid to late January or later. Hopefully not later. Now it's more waiting but with the holidays coming and Ethan's Birthday in January, we have lots of things to occupy our time and our minds. I am way behind in my Christmas shopping as I usually do the majority of it the day after Thanksgiving and well since we were in Russia that didn't happen. My plan is to knock most of it out this weekend. We shall see how that goes.
Justin and I just want to say THANK YOU to all of you for your thoughts, prayers, support and kindness. It's so wonderful to have our friends and family supporting us through this journey. We love you all.

Dec 7, 2009

Working On Dossier # 2.....

We've been busy ever since we got back working on Dossier # 2. We had physical's again on Dec 1st and got the results back from all our bloodwork today..HIV/VDRL/TB Scan ..we are still all clean..:)
Justin picked up the letter from our pediatrician saying that Ethan is healthy and would make a great big brother. :)
We got Finger Print Cards at the Jailhouse, Proof of Home Ownership from the bank and the list goes on.
So we have everything we need now we just have to get it all Notarized,(Thank God for Vicky who does this for us, she has been a god send)Certified at the court and then apostilled in Columbus. Once this is completed we can make the copies and send to our agency and then wait to hear back about a court date. We hope to have Dossier # 2 in our agency's hands by this Friday.
We both miss Baby Y like crazy..

Nov 29, 2009

Leaving Russia Today....Feeling Bittersweet

Even after posting a book last night I still left out alot of good details....Like the weather here..It's actually unseasonably warm 30-40 degrees and rainy ...It should be snowing. Our Driver Val said that it had been 40 days with NO sunshine, a record here. So that's why when we were on our way to the orphanage and the sun came out, I thought wow this is a good sign. It made us smile. Funny how little things like that make you feel warm inside. I never really gave you much details about our little princess Samara..she has the biggest blue eyes..just like her brother and blonde hair. When they brought her out to us she was wearing a bright pink romper and a pink bonnet with bear ears and some cute pink booties. They really dressed her cute for us. You wouldn't believe the amount of clothes they put on these babies and it's not ike it's cold in the orphanage. They have the heat cranked up. They believe that dressing them up so warm will keep them from catching colds but she has a pretty bad cough and runny nose. We were prepared for that though. She was so engaging. She would gaze at us and put her tiny little hands on our faces. She loves her daddy's facial hair. She played with his hair a long time. Justin was saying Mama to her over and over and she started to try to pucker her lips like she wanted to say it but it never came out. She was trying though. We can tell though that she is a fighter and is doing so well for her very hard start in life. Even with how good she is doing she still needs alot of help to get up to speed and some medical attention. We are thankful to be the ones to give her that chance. Ok sorry for starting to write another book. There is just so much I want to say....I'll sum it up this way so my title of this post will make since.....We look forward to coming back home because we miss Ethan so much it hurts...but at the same time it hurts us to leave her here. I keep telling myself it won't be too much longer but 2-3 months right now seems like forever.....

Nov 28, 2009

Better Late than Never.....What an emotional 4 Days

So our big idea of blogging everyday hasn't woked out. Couldn't get on WIFI from Samara or Syzran. We are now in Moscow and THANK GOD they have a business center so I am able to post. What a whirlwind trip this has been. I'll start with our flight to Paris from CVG...Uneventful but long. I got a ;ittle bit of sleep and we watched the movie 500 Days of Summer....I wouldn't reccomend it but hey it was something to watch. They played two more movies but I slept through them and Justin watched most of them. So our flight from Paris to Moscow was extremely terrifying. First off our flight was slightly delayed by about 20 minutes or so. When we were finally allowed to board we soon found out why our flight was delayed. They were transporting a prisoner on our aircraft and he was surrounded by about three policemen.He was shouting in Russian the entire flight...we found out from some people sitting behind us that he was saying "I don't want to fly anywhere I want to Die here". He repeated the same phrase very loudly a couple hundred times. People were very upset and to be honest I was quite scared. Well we made it off alive so it worked out ok. Once we got to Moscow we were met by our driver Val who by the way is outstanding!!! He took us to what they call here their Mall. I bought a flat iron with a russian plug ( I had to have it):). We then had some tea and coffee at a pretty cool tea house. We just chatted a bit as we had 4 hours to kill until our next flight to Samara. We then ate dinner at TGI Fridays in Moscow. Kind of Funny! The flight to Samara is relatively short , only 1 1/2hrs. I was exhousted and I slept almost the entire time. Poor Justin cannot get comfortable on those small planes as his legs are so long and his knees dug into the seat in front of us. So Sasha(Translator) and Sergei (Driver) picked us up as our plane arrived at 12:10am on the 26th (Thanksgiving Day). Grabbed our luggage and drove straight to the Azimut Hotel. We got there at about 2:00 am and we had to be back downstairs to meet Sergei at 8:00...you do the math...not much time t get any sleep and well we were not real tired. With a nine hour time difference our bodies were in complete shock. We tried forever to use our calling card and get online. Never could get anything to work. We were both so frustrated. So we tried to sleep a little bit. I couldn't sleep at all and well Justin can sleep just about anywhere.except the plane. :) after a little sleep and some much needed breakfast we waited for Sergei to srrive so we could go meet with the Ministry of Education. I was only expecting about a half an hour meeting and well was I wrong. First we met with the physcoligist where we had to answer about an 88 question test. Talk about nerve wracking and then we were asked a bunch of questions about "Do we believe in Corporal punishment" etc...Then we had to do a color test. Out of these 6 colors which ones describe you best. Then there was the paper that had funny figures all over a tree and the little figures were doing a bunch of things like swinging, hammering ,hiding etc.. and we had to pick which figures we were and which figures were Ethan and the child we have never even met??? What?? Then we were asked to be Artist and each draw what we thought our familiy would look like if it were complete. Let me just say this we are not getting any awards for our drawings. LOL So after that grueling hour we then met with Tatiana the Ministry of Education. She is a bt intimidating but I think we did pretty well because at the end she gave us permission to go meet Baby Y!!! Yeah after that is was off to the notary and then back to the hotel. We took a quick walk around Samara down to the Volga River to take some pics but didn't stay out long as it was sleeting and we were so tired after not sleeping. So we went back to Azimut and ate some lunch in hotel Pizza and Wine restaurant. Pizza was pretty good. We were both falling asleep at the table and decided to go up to the room for a much needed nap....We slept for 8 hrs....AHHHHHH it was so good. So we got watched a movie on the computer and then went back to bed. LOL The next morning was the big day....Driving to Syzran to meet baby y. Sergei was running about a half hour late but we were on the road by 9:35am. We picked up Sasha and drove 2 1/2 hours to syzran. This time wegot to ride in the Lexus. Thank God. If we would have been in that van for that ride I think I would have cried. LOL Driving in Russia is so different that USA. I'll fill you all in later on that. We also had to pick up the Social worker when we got into syzran before arriving at the orphanage. Arriving at the orphanage was surreal. My emotions set in when we were lead to a hall way with pink walls and pink and purple Elephant curtains and were told to wait here and they would bring her to us. Then it hit me. Everything we had done leading up to this moment was about to be placed in our arms. I was crying before she ever entered the room. When they brought her in my first thought was OMG she is so cute and so tiny. (By the way Brittany...Kambrie is bigger than our little gir LOL) So we were so surprized by the fact that she sat up by herself, she can crawl, she can pull herself to a stand position and can take steps when you hold her hands, although she's not a big fan of this. The doctor had very good things to say about her. Our biggest concern all along has been the size of her head, as the AI Dr here expressed concern and well her head is quite small but so is she. She looks like she is 6-7 months and she will be 13 months tomorrow. That's right her birthday is October 29th 2008. We got to be soend three SHORT hours...It goes by too quick. We went to our hotel in Syzran ate dinner and tried to sleep. We slept 3 hrs and then I couldn't sleep so I tried taking a bath and well that didn't really work either, so I did what all great wives do if I can't sleep then he needs to be us with me. LOL wasn't really that bad I just needed to talk to him about my emotions from the day. So we spent the next two hours just trying to put our heads around the days events. We got up and went back to the orphanage this morning and got 4 more hours with her. Oh by the way I forgot to mention. She never cried when they brought her to us. I was so scared that she would and she didn't. She took well to cuddling, kisses and hugs. She even laughed alot.With tickling and playing around. It was a good feeling. She is a beautiful girl. Leaving her today was extremely tough. When they came to get her we kissed her goodbye and I just lost it, I couldn't control the tears but Justin was there being the strong person for me. I'm losing it now just typing this.We are now back in Moscow and we will leave Russia tomorrow at 12:10pm. Ethan Mommy and Daddy are coming home and we miss you like crazy. We will see our friends and family soon. So if you didn't pick up on it we did agree to adopt baby Y...Who we are naming Samara Hope Megerle. We will share pic's on here only after our court date which is when we go back. Do svidanya (Goodbye in Russian) I think I spelled it right.

Nov 22, 2009

T minus 2 Days

Busy, busy and busy....My brother Mike and his wife Julie who live in Boston and we haven't seen in a year are in town. We spent last night with them and plan on spending some time with them tonight as well. It's so good to see them and catch up. They are going to take us to the airport on Tuesday. We appreciate that!
Well we still have a few more things to get before we will be ready to leave but we are getting closer. We are so excited and it still hasn't completely set in yet that in 5 days we will be meeting our daughter. Seems surreal. Not sure when it's really going to hit me. We are going to miss Ethan tremendously and miss spending the holiday without our family but I think this is going to be a Thanksgiving we will never forget and a very THANKFUL one too!

Nov 17, 2009

T minus 7 days

The count down has begun, there are so many things we need to get...international calling card, set up skype account, AC Adapter for Russia, Microphone for my lap top, toys and outfits to take for Baby Y and I'm sure I'm forgetting somethings......Spoke to Andrea today (she is the Russian coordinator at our agency) who by the way is absolutely wonderful she said that Svetlana (our coordinator/translator in Russia) just had a baby 3 weeks ago and needs Diaper Rash cream with Zinc Oxyide...They cannot buy it in Russia so we are taking her several tubes. She filled us in some logistical things so when we arive in Russia we know what to expect. Honestly there are so many emotions going on in my head right now I don't know what to think. I'm actually more calm than I thought I would be...of course we still have 7 days until we leave. LOL
I'm having trouble sleeping at night but that's because I don't know how to turn my brain off at night. I took Nyquil last night hoping that would work.....it didn't. When I got up and looked in the mirror today...I was thinking wow I don't have anything in my makeup bag to make these bags under my eyes look any better and well the look on my bosses face and comment from him this morning confirmed how bad they looked. Funny thing is Justin can sleep through anything. That stinks when you cannot sleep and your husband is laying next to you snoring. LOL

Guess that's all for now...Off to WalMart and Target...

Nov 14, 2009

So much to do......so little time....

It's Saturday and we spent the morning/afternoon trying to raise some money with another yard sale(our 3rd) to help with the expenses of our adoption....not a successful day as we only earned a whopping $7.00 :( ....the weather was beautiful but I think it was just too late in the year.
We have a Brand New Budweiser Grooler for Sale if anyone is in the market or knows anyone who would be. Great Christmas gift!!! Had to put it out there. ;)
We are so grateful at how fast the adoption is moving since we didn't even expect to get a referral until after the first of the year but since it has come so fast we are now scrambling to make sure we can get the funds we need.
We were banking on having more time to come up with all the money and well you can't always predict. I cannot believe tomorrow will be 9 days until we leave. This trip we don't need to bring too much. We are saying prayers and keeping our fingers crossed that we will get it all together in time.
OK....off to get Ethan into bed..Guess that's all for tonight.

Nov 12, 2009

WE GOT THEM......WE REALLY GOT THEM!!

I'm sorry it's been SOOOOOOO long since I've posted you must have thought I ended the blog as quick as I started it! :) Things have been quite busy and hectic lately.
Anyway on to the exciting stuff....On Monday the 9th we received travel dates to go meet little Baby Y. We are just so excited we cannot put it into words.
This year we have much to be thankful for as we will be in Russia over Thanksgiving meeting Baby Y. We leave Cincinnati on Nov 24th and return on the 29th. We will be at the orphanage on the 27th and 28th.
Getting the travel dates on Monday was awesome but extremely nerve wracking. I had to leave Tuesday morning for Pittsburgh for work. So Monday night Justin and I were scrambling to get things completed before I left but there was still much to do.
Thank God I work with such caring and wonderful people who understood that I was working under a deadline to book tickets, request visa's and reserve hotels.
So I am back now and continuing to prepare to leave...I cannot believe we leave in 11 days to meet our daughter.

Oct 28, 2009

Waiting for Travel Dates.....Where we are now....

Well all I can say is "Wow", we started this process when we signed with our wonderful agency on June 28th. It has been a whirlwind of mounds of paperwork and appointments.
Our agency received our Dossier for Russia on Sept 28th and on Oct 13 we recieved our first referral, unbelievable. We accepted our referral who we will refer to as Baby Y on the 16th and are now waiting on travel dates to meet her. Our agency thinks we will travel either the end of November or the first two weeks in December. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Why we started a blog?

We wanted to start this blog so that our family and friends could follow along in our journey and find out what is going on in our adoption journey from one day to the next. This blog will be our main communication while we are in Russia so that everyone can be apart while we are abroad. We hope that this will help our family and friends feel like they are with us on our journey.