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.