An Orphan No More - Part One

I have been informed that my blogging skillz suck with regard to this trip! lol...sorry guys!

I'll begin at the beginning. 

On October 13th Dave and I headed to the Memphis airport where we met another couple who was traveling to Russia to meet their daughter for the first time. We flew with them from Memphis to New York where we had a 5 hour layover. We decided to blow off the airport for a bit to see the city since it was Dave's first time in NYC!

The time came to head back to the airport and meet back up with our friends who were also on our next flight! Onward to Moscow!

The flight from New York to Moscow suuuuuuuucked! I thought I was going to die. Those of you who know me know I don't mind being uncomfortable but this discomfort was off the chart for me. The plane was HOT, like boiling hot. That could have partly been due to the cold I was coming down with but it seemed like everyone was sweating their bootay's off. On top of that, the flight staff was pretty rude. They got mad when we asked for water! It was a long, crazy uncomfortable flight, and since we're talking about first world problems: the video game system wasn't working which meant I couldn't play Pac-Man. I know. A real tragedy. :)

So we get to Moscow (YAY!!!) and hug our friends goodbye, only to meet NEW friends! We met Jeff and Deanne in the airport going through security. We couldn't decide which line to get in, so we finally settled on being diplomats for the day and got in line. WHOO HOO, we picked right! We find out they're going to be on our flight to Kenzi's region, then we find out we're staying in the same hotel, then we find out their staying in the room next door to us, then we find out they're friends with our OTHER friends who have court the same day as us!!! Whoo hoo! 

Gotta love making new friends!

So we get to the airport and it is WAY more awesome than we expected. Our first visit...the airport was...um...let's just say it had...character...yes...character! lol  This time though it was NICE!!!

So we wait, and then we see them! Our Dasha and Sveta!!! We love them SO much and really missed them! We couldn't wait to give them their presents, so we did in the car on the way to the airport. We got Dasha some chocolate and a bottle of Victoria Secret perfume. She LOVED it! She loved my VS perfume on the first trip so when we got to the airport to go home, I pulled it out of my bag and gave her the rest of my bottle, and promised to bring her another one the next time I saw her. <3 We got Sveta some chocolate and some VS lotion, we think she liked it. :) The next morning we were getting our gifts ready to go to the orphanage and realized we brought too many so we gave Dasha and Sveta more gifts. I gave Dash more chocolate and the lotion that matched her perfume, and Svet some Starbucks coffee and a travel mug from Starbucks...they were pretty happy!

Ok, so back our arrival in region...we went straight from the airport to the hotel to get checked in, then straight to the orphanage to see our girl. We look TORE. UP. in these pics, as we had just traveled 2 days and were on no sleep. Poor Kenzi was pretty sick too which broke our hearts. :(

We went to the orphanage with our friends who we shared a court date with, and while at the orphanage we met another family who was working with a different agency, but who also had court the same day as us! We would later learn that all four families (including Jeff and Deanne, our next door hotel neighbors) all had our medicals on the same day, at the same time, but more on that later!

 Our friend with her sweet girl.

Fast forward to visit 2, our monkey was feeling a little better! 

After our visit, we headed off to do a little sightseeing, have a little lunch, then....our medical exams! (I'll tell you ALL about them in part two!)