A New Post...Way Over due

Where to begin?? Ethan's Potty Training is going great.....we gave him a big gift of a Dyna City for his cars this morning for how well he has done. I think he is absolutely on board, it's been so long since he has had an accident, and when he does he gets upset with himself. We are so proud of him and extremely happy that we now do not have TWO in Diapers!! GO Ethan!!!

Samara has had some better days with eating, but to be honest she's not the best at eating and is not into food. Not a good thing, but at least she hasn't puked in 5 days....whoohoo...this is a big deal since we were having lots of puking episodes. I have learned her cues a little better...and now know that she just cannot handle much food at one time. Alot less than you would think. She is going to therapy to strengthen her oral muscles and skills. We had her neurology appointment Thursday morning and came away with no new answers, so he just wants to watch and wait to see how much goes away with time. Since all her tests have come back normal he said there isn't any one thing with her that says it's something. He thinks some could be from the orphanage or her sensory problems etc... so I guess we will just wait and see....and do alot of praying!!!!

I have extended my leave and now return back to work on June 21st. It's hard on us financially but Samara really needs the time, and I am thankful that my husband supports this as it means being frugal. Thanks babe.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day and Justin is off work so we are spending time with the family.
Lunch at my mom's and dinner at Justin's mom's. Always busy on the holidays.
I hope everyone has a great holiday!

Don't be superstitious!

So, not to jinx anything, but our little man has decided, somewhat like a light switch going off, that he is now going to really begin going on the "big boy potty" and start wearing "big boy underwear". Unfortunately I was at work when this all went down but Ethan has made huge strides since yesterday in his potty training.

Yesterday Leah called me at work to tell me that he woke up with a dry diaper and wanted to go on the potty, and then when Leah took him to her Mom's (with a diaper on) he went on the potty there too without ever using the diaper. So, Leah's Mom put some Star Wars "big boy underwear" on him and throughout the rest of the day he either went on the potty or out in the yard......boys will be boys! :)

I really needed to mow the grass last night when I got home, so Ethan helped me the entire way riding his 4 wheeler and wearing his safety goggles. When it was time to hit the back yard I turned the corner only to find my son in all his glory watering the weeds.........I was SO PROUD! My first thought was "son, what are you doing", but that quickly led to "good job buddy"!

We realize that this process will not be without "accidents", and last night during his bath with his sister one of those moments happened. Funny thing is that he was worried we would be mad at him so he decided to blame his sister..........however the size of said accident really told us otherwise. After a minute or two of asking and prodding him to tell the truth he finally gave in and confessed.......so cute......all we had to do is to let him know that accidents happen and that telling the truth was ok and we wouldn't be mad at him.

We put a diaper on him for bed (of course) hoping that he would wake to another dry diaper.........and he did, so it was "big boy underwear" again. Unfortunately another accident happened, this time in the kitchen and again it was #2.......uh oh! :)

Since then he's been doing great, and as a matter of fact he's been doing great with the peeing, it's just been the poo poo that he's had his mistakes with, but compared to where we were just two days ago we couldn't ask for anything more. In fact, since this morning he's been wearing his cars "big boy underwear" and even took a three hour nap in them with no issues.......hooray for Ethan!!

Swallow Test.....Back for more tomorrow

Ok so I am way behind posting about the swallow test...I want to start out by saying wow this procredure was pretty amazing. Samara was sat in this chair and all the food I fed her was mixed with a compound and they were watching it on a video screen right there in front of us while I was feeding her. Her classic gagging and couging on food happened while we were there. Thank God. There is nothing worse than telling your Doc something and then while you are there it doesn't happen.
The good thing is she doesn't have a swallow problem...her problem stems from several things. The really bad way she was fed in the orphanage and her very, very immature oral skills or lack there of. She swallows food immediately....or eats very fast. Which is why she gags. If you think about it even if you eat a soft food like pudding your mouth tongues it and moves it around before you swallow. She doesn't. She just swallows and swallows it all. Now with liquid she does it a little differently. She holds it all in her mouth and then swallows it all at once causing her to gag because she is drowning herself. So sad.....So the speech pathologist Rueben, who by the way was absolutely wonderful is seeing her again tomorrow to figure it what to do. We are back to a completely strict babyfood diet. Only very smooth and pureed diet until we get her oral skills better. She's not the biggest fan of babyfood but I am sprucing it up, or I should say trying to.
I am looking forward to the appointment in the morning. Hoping he finds something that no one else has and comes up with a great fix. LOL....wishful thinking.

Our one month appointment at CCH

So all in all Samara is making progress. She has gained a little weight, her head grew 1/2 centimeter and she is 29 1/2" tall. She had four shots and still needs two more, they didn't want to give them all at once. She had a chest x-ray to check again for TB and it was clear!! YEAH!! So she will take medicine once a day for 9 months for TB and she will be fine. She will always test positive but will have a card that states she is not active.
We also saw OT for her feeding and they have reccomended she is seen weekly for her eating issues...gagging, doesn't chew etc.... We know alot of these issues stem from the way she was fed at the orphanage. We have to try and undo a long time of negative experience that has caused these issues and also decipher what may be sensory related and what is caused from the negative feedings. We will get through this and with the help of some OT and also help me grow is coming out today for her first evaluation with them. My hope is that with both of these resources we can turn her feedings into something fun.
She has a swallow study test on Monday....I'll let you all know how that goes as well.
Please say a prayer for her.

Needed to post some pictures....

My precious Girl...pointing to her little bird.....It's a song we sing! :)
My Little Man.......I Love that Smile !!!

Her first Pool Experience.....So cute!!

His NEW shades...he is so cool!!!

Hey guys look this way....Mommy wants to take your picture!! LOL

What an Angel.....fast asleep!

Asleep in my swing.

So happy...Smiling at My daddy!! Ethan and Samara taking a bath together for the first time!!! They had so much fun!!

A Belated Mother's Day to All the Mother's out there

Yesterday was a long day of running around as usual on a Sunday Holiday. We went to church, then to my mom's for lunch and then to Justin's mom's for dinner.
The food was great, but spending time with the family is what matters most. I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day and took sometime for themselves. I didn't get that yesterday so I am doing that this morning, drinking coffee and posting on this poor blog that I have neglected so bad.
I still cannot believe sometimes that I have two kids. lol :)
Ethan is getting better with his jealousy although I know it may never fully go away. He loves his sister though, even though he can be such a stinker to her sometimes.

Saturday I attended a brunch for CCHIAC (Cincinnati Children's Hospital International Adoption Center) fundraiser event that will take place in November at the Oscar event center. This is close to my heart as we are and will be utilizing so many of these great programs through CCH. They are raising money to fund these programs that wouldn't be possible without support from the community. I am on a couple of committees to gather items for Raffles/silent auctions and then to set up and assemble them on the day of. If anyone has anything they would like to donate no matter how small it will go to a great cause to help all families that come through CCH for IAC help. I am excited to be a part of this, to give a little back.

We have Samara's one month follow up appointment at CCH on Wednesday and then her occupational therapy appointment on the same day as well to figure out her eating issues. Hopefully!!! I'm sure this one appointment will not figure it out. We are going to meet with a swallow specialist and the feeding team as well just don't have those appointments yet. She has some issues with eating, holds food in her mouth for a long time, regurgitates, pukes, won't take a bottle,sippy cup or drink for herself. Feeding time at my house is stressful and she needs the nutrients so my day is filled with trying to get her to eat and drink. I am getting to my wits end with this so I am hopeful they can shed some light on all of this.

Friday was a really nice day and so I got the kiddie pool out for the kids and they played for a little bit. It might have been a bit early but it was so nice out and I made the water warm for them. They had fun, Samara's first experience in a pool.

I will post again after her appointments on Wednesday and let you know what we find out.

Samara is 18 months TODAY!

It's amazing how quickly time flies, yesterday was one month to the day that we picked up Samara from the orphanage. Today she is 18 months old. I cannot believe it. She is a beautiful little girl.
In one month here is a list of her progress:
1.) Walking on her own
2.) Takes a bath
3.) Sleeps well at night (still need to work on naps during the day, she is quite the cat napper)
4.) Babbles Somewhat
5.) Let's us rock her to sleep, (this was great at the beginning and then went through a period where she wouldn't let us)

6.) Gives open mouth Wet kisses - Big improvement from the beginning when she would look at us like we were crazy when we would kiss her. :)

I was hoping that Growth (weight, height and head circumference) would have been one of the above and also her sickness gone. It's hard to grow when you are sick, still on Med's and I still don't think it's going away. :(
Also I was hoping that she would respond to our smile, this seems so simple and I know that this happens at such a young age but when no one has smiled at you, you don't know how to interact . It's not that she doesn't smile or laugh but she will not smile at you if you are smiling at her. You have to tickle her or make her smile.

The really great thing is we had her MRI on Tuesday down at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and everything came back Normal. Thank God!!!!
She has an Occupational Therapy appointment on the 12th along with her shots etc... She also has a Neurology appointment at the end of May, It's takes forever to get in and see the neurologist. Even though her MRI came back normal our Dr still wants her to see a neurologist.

I am going to take some more pic's of her today and hopefully post later on tonight.....

Samara has been home now for over 3 weeks....

and we are so very happy. That's not to say that we don't still have so far to go with her but we can see everyday how much more comfortable she is becoming.
She loves to play chase around the house with her brother. It's so neat to watch them play as Ethan will run up and down the hallway and she tries to keep up (she is walking well but still wobbly) she laughs at him running. SO cute, and he thinks it's great that she is interacting with him. They do have some sibling rivalry but that is to be expected. She is so determined. Just like our Ethan.
On the health side of things we are still struggling a bit there, she had her eye appointment on the 16Th and the Dr said she may be a little near sighted. Other than that she did well and he had great things to say. We go back in 6 months to check them again to see if they are getting any worse.
Her hearing appointment was this past Tuesday and she did well, she had some slight low tone hearing loss, due to fluid on the ears. Which meant her ear infection that she was on Antibiotics for, for 10 days didn't take care of it. We went back to the Dr on Wednesday for her ear infection and cold that didn't clear up and she is now on a stronger antibiotic. Ethan is also on an antibiotic for a sinus infection. It's been a rough week of sickness. Poor kids.
When we went to the Dr on Wednesday we went to my regular pediatrician which this was the first time she had met Samara.
I have to be honest I was a little depressed after this Dr's appointment because I was hoping for some weight gain or some sort of growth for our little girl, and nothing!!!! Not even an ounce, in fact she had lost a few ounces. I cried because I felt defeated, I had worked so hard to try and get her to eat good and get her to eat this high fat diet, but shes still sick and we are not sure her parasite is gone either. We have to take her fecal again to make sure. Have to wait 10 days from when she got off her med's for it. We can start this Tuesday.
Our Pediatrician was concerned about her lack of eating, her small size, her very small head size, and it's preemie shape. Also she checked her hips and heard clicking, so we were given orders to go down the hall and get x-rays on her head and hips. Results came back and everything was normal except she has low one in her hips, all that means is that she is very limber and can spread her legs like frog. This will change as she gets older, or maybe not...maybe we will have a little Russian Gymnast on our hands. :)
Our pediatrician is still concerned about her head, so this Tuesday she ordered an MRI for her brain to be done to rule out any damage or lack of growth due to being premature etc.....She will be sedated. YUCK! Poor little baby, at least I feel like they're checking everything now and making sure there are no underlying issues that would might be missed. I would rather catch it sooner than later and get her help, if this is the case. We are hoping and praying that everything comes out fine and proves their instincts wrong.
Either way she is our little girl no matter what. We love her. If you think about it please say a prayer for her. We also made an appointment with neurology for her because it takes a month to get in. If the MRI comes back good I'm not sure we will keep this, depends on what the Dr says.
We also have to take her back to see the pediatrician on May 5Th to check her ear infection has cleared up and she wants to check her weight. On May 12Th she has her one month follow up with Cincinnati Children's to check her progress and to get lots and lots of shots. I am really hoping to get her better soon, I only have 8 weeks off with her and it's already half over and no progress on weight or getting her sickness cleared up. It's hard to work on so many things at once. Bonding, attachment, her health, development, Dr's appointments/testing, a schedule...etc... If we can pull it off I'm going to try and take off some more time if possible. It's hard when you are going unpaid but it's so critical for her right now. A few pics!

Daddy and Me!

I have spirit hands when I walk, keeps my balance. So precious!

I hate that this pic came out blurrry, but I love it still. She LOVES her sit and spin. She doesn't sit and spin, but it lights up and plays music and she thinks its great. Look at that grin on her face!

Two steps back........enjoying some sights.

So, we kind of missed the post of our baby shortened trip to Red Square and the Kremlin, so here is a few of the better shots we got:

Leah And Samara at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Entrance to Red Square


A church by Red Square

One of my favorites..Militia training on Red Square in front of St. Basil's Cathedral

Russia's President's Home at the Kremlin

Guards around the Kremlin

At this point Samara wasn't really keen on being put down and wanted absolutely nothing to do with a stroller, which of course we dragged all the way to Russia, so we had no other choice but to carry her. About half way through our walk she decided that she would take a nap, so needless to say our walk was cut short, but I think that we got to see some really cool sights.

We made it to Red Square and the Kremlin, but Red Square was blocked off for the training that is pictured above. We walked through a really cool shopping mall to get to the other side of the square where we were able to get to St. Basil's Cathedral, which was absolutely beautiful, and from there we walked around the Kremliin wall and back to where we started.

We could have done so much more as you could pay to take tours inside the Cathedral and the Kremlin, but with a sleeping child who wanted nothing to do with a stroller we had no choice but to call it a day. Even though we couldn't do more we're extremely happy to have had the chance to see what we did.

St. Basil's Cathedral

Getting more used to my Bath!

Still a little unsure of my bath but I didn't cry this time!!!

HUGE MILESTONE!!

Washing My hair.....

I love Lotion time!
I'm too sexy for this Robe!! LOL

Look at me Pose! This pic cracks me up!!

So I went against the doctors and decided to just make Samara plunge right into a bath. I know some of you might think this is cruel but it only took one bath of crying and now she doesn't cry. We were doing what they said and just letting her watch Ethan take a bath and put her tub in living room for her to play in and get used to etc....but she wasn't any less afraid of water.

So I just thought she needs to know that bath time can be fun and not scary and I figured she needed to realize that after an actual bath and she has.

Although the first time she cried and shook the entire time. I just spoke very gentle and sweet to her letting her know everything was OK. The second time she barely whimpered when I put her in the water and then was fine (see pic's above for yourself).

She didn't even cry the third time. So now she has had three baths and even though she is not completely comfortable with them as evident by how she holds her arms up high as to not touch the water, her third one was last night and she actually splashed the water with her hands a couple of times. She will be a fish before you know it. :)

That's all for now, It's nap time and I need to get her down.

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. We can feel them.

Going to church

So, we are getting ready to go to church and I thought I'd post real quick while Leah is in the shower. I just wanted to say that I am very lucky and blessed to have added this wonderful little girl to my family, we love her so much!

Although right now we have a couple little health issues to deal with I can tell you already how smart this little girl is......since we've gotten her home she has now started walking all by herself and motors all over the house constantly. She already knows her name and already knows how to shake her head no when she doesn't want something.

While playing with her and watching her study what your doing it's amazing to tell that she is constantly analyzing and processing everything trying to figure out how to do it herself. Even while she plays on the floor and discovers things you can see her thinking and learning.

I know in my heart that she will continue to grow and thrive and be everything we hoped she would be when we began this journey.......and if she keeps progressing like this she may even be potty trained before Ethan! LOL Keep your fingers crossed that isn't the case. :)

I'll let Leah tell everyone about bath time (pics included), stay tuned.....

Today was a better day.....Some Pic's

Because It's Tuesday and I need to update....

Well things have been hectic around the Megerle household, Justin has Bronchitus, Ethan has had a fever on off, and Samara isn't eating well and has been very whiney.
She is on Meds for all her sickness so hopefully she we get better soon. Justin is also on meds and well Ethan hasn't had a fever long enough or high enough to see the Dr yet, I haven't gotten sick yet so I I thank God for that, because one of us has to stay healthy to keep it together around here. :)
Samara has an eye appointment this Friday to see if there are any issues with her sight (routine) and more bloodwork.
So let me focus on the good, Samara sleeps so well at night. She goes down around 8:30-9:30 and sleeps until 7:00. Can't ask for more than that. Naps are not as good during the day but we will get there.
Ethan is acting out alot and being defiant. It's been really hard lately but this too shall pass. Hopefully. :)
We have a hearing test scheduled next week for Samara(routine as well) but I need to make sure her ear infection is cleared up first.
We are ALL still trying to adjust. Still only been a week and half since Samara has come home. We are so Thankful for her and Ethan. We love our family and know that even though these are hard times we ARE FAMILY and nothing will change that. Nothing!!

Hello....a little update..

It's Saturday morning and Samara is napping in her swing while Ethan is playing with his new Thomas the Tank Trains (motorized) that some of Justin's Co-workers got him and trying to wake up Samara....He has started to act out because of the new dynamic.
He still loves his sister but not being as loving as he was a few days ago. LOL....that didn't last too long. All in all things are going pretty well.

On Wednesday I took Samara back to Children's to have her TB test read, She did have a reactive result, which means she has the TB virus, either a result from being vaccuinated or being exposed to it. Anyway the good news is she is not contagious so no one can catch TB from her. She had chest x-rays which came out rather cloudy, but since she has a cold we will repeat them in a few weeks. We also found out that she has Giardia (parasite) this is a big reason why she is so small and is not growing like she should. So the good thing is we are treating this and hopefully she will get rid of this soon and be able to start eating better and keep the nutrients that those parasites are taking away. Our poor little girl has been through so much and God only knows how long she has had all of this. So it's no wonder she was labeled with "Failure to thrive".

We are praying daily that she will get better soon, we are already seeing a difference in her and we have only been home a week. Her hair is growing and I think she may have gained a little weight. Please when you pray say a prayer for her. Especially that we find all of the issues she may have so that we can get her better.

She is on Meds that are for 10 days so we do not go back to the Dr's for a little while.
I still have to take her for hearing and vision appointments but I cannot make the hearing appointment until her ear infection is gone.

Ok gotta go she just woke up and is starting to fuss....I'll update in a couple days

Home...Busy...and Loving Life as a family of 4

We landed in New York on Friday April 2nd at about 1:40pm and went through customs where our little Samara became an American citizen, she actually has dual citizenship until she is 18 and if she wants to continue to have citizenship in Russia she will just need to keep up with it. We will leave that up to her. I have neglected the blog so bad and I am sorry for that. These last 4 days home have been nothing but busy!

In New York I got Samara cleaned up from our 10 hour flight and into her "coming home outfit", See pic...At least she looked good. Justin and I needed sleep and showers. LOL

She slept 6 out of the 10 hours on the flight. What a trooper. She did so good.

We met a couple while waiting at the airport to leave Moscow who were bringing their beautiful forever son home and on our flight. They took this pic for us. They were the nicest couple. We wish them all the best with their little Elijah!

When we arrived to CVG at about 7:35 we were greeted with so many wonderful family and friends. It was an emotional reunion and first time meeting of our new addition. There were banners, gifts and oh so many tears, but good ones.

Ethan just absolutely loves his new little sister. He calls her his best friend. So cute, it's only been 4 days so I know it won't last forever but right now it just melts my heart. He wants to be the big helper, he is doing so good with her.

When leaving the airport I was really worried about our drive home since this would be the first time Samara would have ever been in a car seat, wow she is such a trooper. No fussing...just rides like a champ. This is not to say that she has liked it every time since then but she does really good. The drive home was surreal, All four of us in the car, one big family. I was so happy at that moment. It was the best feeling.

At home I was hoping she would sleep through the night but her schedule was flipped upside down. I got her to sleep about 9:45 and then was ready to get up at 3:30am..So I didn't get much sleep. We were up till about 7 am and then I woke Justin up for him to take her so I could get just a couple more hours of rest. At 9:ooam Ethan came to wake me up so I would make him pancakes, so of course I did. All in all not as bad of night as it could have been.

Saturday we took Ethan to Jump Zone for Nolan's Birthday Party, even though Justin and I were too exhausted, I know it was a good thing for Ethan. With us being gone for over a week and then bringing home Samara his world has been rocked so we wanted him to get to do something all by himself. He had fun, then we had to go to the grocery store to stock the fridge. It was very empty. Made several stops to get some last minute things for Easter. Then went home to try and get some rest.....we were so exhausted. This time Samara slept through the night or until about 5:30.

Sunday we all got up and had muffins for Breakfast and went to church for the first time as a family of 4. Samara did ok for part of the service but then had about enough. We then went to my parents for Easter Lunch and spent time with my family. It was wonderful.....everybody is smitten with her. Then we left my mom's and went to Justin's Moms and spent the evening with all of his family and had Easter Dinner. It was great to spend time with everyone and they gave us so many nice gifts. We have the best families, very loving and supportive. We were gone all day, got home about 9:30pm and went straight to bed. Samara slept great, got up a little after 6 am.

Monday was Samara's Dr's Appointment at Cincinnati Children's Hospital International Adoption center. Her appointment was at 10am and lasted 4 hrs (we knew it would be this long) She was seen by a round of Dr's on psycho social, occupational therapy and infectious diseases. We also saw a social worker on attachment and bonding. It was long but very informative appointment. First most of you know from my previous posts that she has been sick. We found out she has an ear infection and a bad cold so she was put on a strong antibiotic. It seems to already be working. Our little peanut is below the 3rd percentile on all measurements, head, weight and height. In IA (international Adoption) terms that means "Failure to Thrive" Sounds horrible doesn't it? She is just malnourished and too tiny for her age. She is technically 17 months old but because she was born 2 months premature her gestational age is 15 months. So when they charted her on all of her motor skills she charted at about 12months...not bad only 3 months delayed. That is really good. On her speech she is charting at about 8-9 months. This is the big delay, but we are working with her and can already see a difference in the way she is babbling and communicating with us. So many little quirks that she does, we were unsure of what they meant and some worried us but we were told that those are normal for an institutionalized child and are all sensory things. This was such a relief to hear. To be honest we got such a good report, they are concerned about her size and want her to have a big growth spurt so she has been put on a high fat diet. The social worker was amazed at how well she was trusting us and attaching. We have been praying and God is really working here because this was something I was really concerned about. The social worker said she had NO concerns for her attachment but still wanted us to continue our "only Justin and I are the care takers ".

We were so happy with the report, we still will not know about any of the infectious disease results for awhile...They took 10 viles of blood from our little girl. I was worried this was going to hurt her and I cannot believe they can take that much from such a tiny person. It was painful for me to watch. :(

Today was the first day with No appointments but No less busy. I will try and update more frequently and definitely post more pic's..sorry for the long book...I just had alot to update on.

Introducing...Samara Hope Megerle

Not feeling very good.....so fussy...Poor little Girl
Just precious.....I LOVE MY BIPPY!!!!! Just like my BIG brother did.....

Happy Girl....At least in this picture...:)

She usually likes her hats

Hello World.....My name is Samara Hope....

So pretty...

Gotcha Day...In the car!!!! Daddy was so happy and me too....

Wow, what a whirlwind this trip has been....we are so happy yet very exhausted. We have wanted to post so many times on the blog but do not have internet in our room..it's $40.00 a day and free in the lobby....so it's free for us...too rich for my blood.

She has been very fussy and not feeling well. She is sick and teething...not a good combination, and her world has been turned upside down. She is with two new people, car rides which she has never had, plane ride , living in a hotel room and all new food. Whew, I would be fussy too.

Gotcha Day was crazy....we left Sergei's at 10 am and then a three hour drive to the orphanage and the entire way we were nervous, excited,anxious and happy. Our stomachs had a million butterflies. When we got there we went over her schedule for eating and sleeping...which by the way has been all messed up...another reason to be fussy.

Anyway, they brought her too us in another crazy outfit and we were told to change her into her clothes that we brought. We were being rushed to do it quickly, so we could leave. It was so strange. I wanted to get a bunch of pic's but there was No time, however we pretty much video taped the entire event, so not a total loss. It kind of sucked to be rushed so much but at least we got to leave with her this time, which was so strange and yet so cool.

We got into the car and drove straight to the airport for our flight back to Moscow. What a crazy drive that was. Sergei was speeding and driving like crazy. We were so car sick by the time we got to the airport. On the flight Samara did ok.....she had some fussy moments but all in all was a good girl..she never napped by the way, the entire drive or flight, and needless to say was so cranky by the time we got to Moscow when Val our driver picked us up. She did finally fall asleep in my arms on the way to the hotel...but woke up once we got there. We tried to give her a bath which did not work. She was absolutely petrified and started shaking and crying..so we gave her a sponge bath instead..oh well, we will try again. She does not like the stroller either...scared of it as well, so what a waste it drag it over here. Oh well you never know until you try. I will say though that we have met alot of other adoptive parents and all their kids like the stroller. LOL Oh well, for those of you who know Ethan well at all, he was never like any other kids in things he should like or didn't like, so we have another one. LOL

I have so much to tell but poor Justin has been trying to console our little pumpkin butt since I started typing this and just keeps walking around because if he sits she crys...oh lord she is quite the little miss priss already... I guess calling her princess was a good call. We had her Medical checkup on Monday which went pretty good. Boris was her doctor and he said she is not very delayed on her motor skills, but does have Rickets (which is very common) and he did make mention that he thought she was probably a favorite in her orphanage because of how well she interacted with him and she wasn't afraid of such a hairy scary man. LOL

Yesterday was our appointment with the US Embassy and we recieved her Visa to come home on!!! YEAH!!

We also met Kevin and Amy from CA who have court to adopt their cupcake on Friday. We had dinner with them on Monday and they were so great. It was so nice to talk with other couples who know what you are going through. I cannot wait to see pic's of their cupcake....actually they did show us some from their first trip and she is such a cutie. I wish them so much happiness. Can't wait to read more of your blogs!!!

Thank You all for your prayers and thoughts. We have felt them and needed them. We are so homesick. Today and tomorrow are FREE days here, meaning we do not have any other appointments....we are waiting on the consulate to register her. We will get it back Thursday afternoon so we can leave on Friday.

We will try and post again ......Sorry I had high hopes of posting everyday but hasn't been so easy.

Spending the night "True Russian Style"

I'm not going to share all the details about our night that we stayed with our Driver Sergey and his wife Luda's nice Russian home, who were so nice and very accomadating. They fixed us an absolutely wonderful dinner, Chicken, Fried Potatoes (these were excellent), Russian coleslaw (which I actually liked), vegetables from Luda's Garden that she had jarred from her Garden.. Tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles...YUMMY!!
It was all really good. Then after dinner Sergey took Justin for a "Real Russian Banya" (Shower) ( but I am sworn to secrecy from Justin) LOL, so he will have to tell you all about it if he will ever speak of it again. After Sergey showed Justin how to shower Russian style...Justin showed me...Oh LORDY...Poor Justin.
The next morning they made us a huge breakfast...Eggs over Easy, something like cottage cheese but not really, bread, butter, cheese, fruit, summer sausage, bologna....and of course coffee and tea. They were so nice and so very sweet. We will never forget this experience or their hospatality.....After breakfast we headed to go pick up our princess......to be continued.....

Trip #3 Details......Bringing our daughter home

We leave March 26th from CVG at 1:55pm and fly through JFk and then onto Russia.
We arrive in Russia on the 27th at 10:10am. We have a little bit of a layover and then our next flight is at 3:00pm to Samara.
We arrive in Samara at 5:50pm and we are staying the night with Sergei. Not sure how this is going to be, but we are up for the experience.
We will get up early Sunday the 28th and drive the 3 1/2 hrs to the baby home to pick up our daughter!!!! I can't even believe it! It feels so surreal.
We then will get back in the car (without a car seat which still disturbs me) to drive straight to the airport to catch our flight back to Moscow. We arrive in Moscow at 7:30pm on the 28th.
We will then head to the Courtyard Marriott in Moscow where we will stay for 5 nights. We will be there having Samara's Medicals done and our meeting with the embassy. The really cool thing is we will be in Moscow at the same time another adoptive family that we have exchanged e-mails and blogged with, Amy and Kevin who live in LA, so we will all get to meet. They have Court in Vlad the day we leave.
We will leave Russia for the last time on April 2nd, but this time with our daughter in our arms forever. April 2nd is Good Friday.....this will forever have a different meaning for me!
We leave Moscow at 12:05pm and arrive in JFK at 2:25pm where Samara will hit US soil for the first time and become an American citizen. It will be quite a cool thing! We then arrive home at CVG at 7:35pm on April 2nd. Remember there is a big time difference here...
Not too bad...I can say that now.....not sure how I will feel after our 18 hrs of travel with a new little one. :)

Welcome home......

Well, we're back home now for what will be I'm sure a very hectic and rushed couple of weeks before going back to bring the princess home. Our trip home was both exhausting and exciting, and of course very long! I'm not really sure who missed us the most though, Ethan or Quinn, but I'll go with Ethan.

One really cool thing that happened though, is once we made it through all of the security at the airport in Moscow Leah ran into 2 couples who were taking their adopted sons home. One family was from Dayton OH, and the other from Florida. One boy named Maxim was 4, and the other boy was 23 months old. Both families were very happy and were quick to share their stories with us, and this of course helped to reaasure us that the grueling court session earlier in the day was not only worth every minute of it, but not nearly as tough as at first it seemed.

Our flight from Moscow to New York was filled with children who were all in the back of the plane near us, and all of whom which played together very well the entire flight. Not only did this make us miss our little redheaded monster even more, but filled us with anticipation for our next trip. It was a great reminder of how lucky and blessed we've been over the last 8-9 months and how much fun we'll have when the princess gets home.

We were greeted at the airport by Leah's mom, Ethan, Dylan and Evan as our flight arrived early at CVG. Timing was great and we went right from the baggage claim to the van and on the road home. Upon getting home we made a little dinner and spent some time with Ethan before I finally gave in to the exhaustion (did I mention Leah slept for almost 4 hours on the way home from Moscow?) and passed out on the couch.

Ok, now for the one not so cool thing that happened...........we made the decision to let Ethan sleep with us last night as a treat (more for us than him) for being a good boy while we were gone. I'm not sure how many times he told us he missed us soooo much, and loved us sooo much before he went to sleep, and to show us just how much he missed us he woke us up at 3:30 to give us our wlecome home present...............................a belly full of a 3 year old's vomit!!

Disgusting.............the poor kid puked all over me, the down comforter (which was destroyed and went immediatley to the garbage can), the bed and himself!! A bath for Ethan, a shower for me and and a hasmat unit treatment for the bed lasted about an hour before we retreated to the living room and the couch and blow up bed to resume our sleep. So after that extremely long day of travel and fatigue, we were given our gift of love from Ethan!! Welcome Home :)

It's Official.......The Judge said YES!!!

After almost 2 1/2 hrs of grueling questions and alot of questions we were not prepared for, the Judge finally said Yes. Thank You GOD!!!
The day before when Svetlana was preparing us for court we went over the article about the little boy who was killed by his adoptive parents in Pennsylvania and other questions that would be asked of us, she also said court lasts about an 1 hour. We were nervous but felt prepared. Poor Justin has known all along that most questions are asked to the man and Svetlana even reiterated that to us this morning, and well that was true.
Justin did get most of the questions but neither him nor anyone else was prepared for some of the questions that were asked of us. Even Svetlana herself was shocked and we could see that everytime the judge would ask a question that Svetlana was not prepared for ...her eyes would get as big as saucers when she would start to translate it to us. I have to hand it to Justin. He did very well considering all of these questions, that even Svetlana and everyone else for that matter, were suprised about. I was freaking out a bit when the questions seemed to never end. Sometimes the answers we gave were not detailed enough and she would ask for more. This is funny because when prepping for court we were told to answer the questions but not too much detail. LOL....We felt so confused!

So here is the funny part...do you all remember the psychology evaluation we had to take when we were here on our first trip? Well, apparently Justin and I didn't pass it all that greatly. LOL.....The psychologist recomended that we seek phsychologicl counseling. I wish you all could have been in the court room when the Judge asked Justin "Why the phsycologist would reccomend this"...Poor Justin..He was like...UHH...UHHH...I don't know???? LOL....
My jaw was on the ground when this happened.....Anyway, the really funny thing about it is that Tatiana, the Minister of Education that we spoke with on the first trip, stood and said that she herself had not passed such a test and that people they would not expect to pass the test did. So she was basically saying that the test was a joke. Anyway, to make a long story short there were three people there on our behalf along with our translator. The Minister of Education Director, the social worker and the orphange doctor.

All three of them had nothing but wonderful things to say about us and how we bonded with Samara and what a great relationship we had, and they all did not understand why the phsycologist would have such a reccomendation.
Even the orphanage doctor made a statement that she believed that Samara felt our love for her from the first visit, because in the three months we were gone she had grown more quickly in a short amount of time than usual. Gaining 2lbs and growing 1 1/2" taller. I was so choked up over that and I am so glad that they saw how much we loved her even though we had just met.

The hardest part for me to listen to was hearing that in the entire time Samara was in the regional databank, only 11 Russian families had looked at her file/Medical records and nobody wanted our precious angel. It made us sad but we believe there is a reason for this and that reason was she was meant to be with us.

So now we wait out the 10 day waiting period from home and we will be flying back here on 26th of March to bring our beautiful princess home forever. We will get to Samara on the 27th and stay one night (Sergei has offered us to stay with him).....before driving to the baby home to pick her up. Wow, we thought this was so nice and such a sweet gesture, and how cool will it be to see how an actual Russian family lives. We will pick her up on 28th (Sunday) and drive straight to the airport to fly back to Moscow where we will stay all week finishing up all the legal processes. We will fly home on Friday April 2nd, two days before Easter and Samara will be an American citizen as soon as we land on US soil. We are just elated about this....We will be home for Easter....Another prayer answered. Thank You God!!!

We are in Moscow now and I am down in their business center typing this because the internet is not free, and well...we are being frugal...so I cannot upload any pic's and I know I said we would but I promise we will once we get home.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and wonderful words and thoughts....We are just in heaven right now.

One more thing...this means that if you have e-mailed me, I am not able to get your e-mails at this time. By the way Britt....we could not get onto see the video you made of our boy. What a bummer, but we can't wait to watch it. Thanks for doing this for us!!!