You Remember Those Hertz Commercials?

What would a trip to Novokuznetsk be like for the Ginsbergs if there wasn't some sort of adventure right?

The day started out great for us in Moscow. We walked around Arbat a little bit, had McDonald's (again) and waited until 7pm for our ride to come and take us to the airport.

We packed up our bags and went outside at 7pm to meet our translator and driver and as soon as we got outside, it started pouring. Our flight was leaving at 10:05pm. The drive was expected to take about an hour.

"Expected" was the key word.

Now for those of you who have been following from the beginning, you know that we've described Moscow like Los Angeles on steroids. Millions of people in millions of cars all going apparently to the same place.

Long story short, we start looking at the clock and it's 8:45 and we still haven't gotten out of the city limits and still have quite a commute to the airport. We (more like I) are getting extremely nervous.

We keep quizzing our translator, "are you sure we're going to be ok?" Her response, "sure, sure, no problem."

So it's now 9:21 and we finally get to the airport. Crap!!!!

The airport has those automatic arms where you have to take a ticket before you can enter with your car. Our driver, thinking he's pulled a fast one, goes to a line with virtually no cars.

There's a reason for this...it's out of order. And of course 14 cars follow us because they think we're so smart and they may get in quicker as well. So backing up was not an option and we're running out of time.

So open go the doors and two white Americans and a Russian translator jump out of the car in the middle of a jillion cars and grab our stuff.

For all we know, the driver is still stuck, trying to back up.

We book it (80's term, follow along) with luggage and stroller in hand for the ticket line. We're dodging traffic and people. I'm trying to keep up with them considering I was the lucky one who had the 70 pound suitcase.

We get inside and look at the monitor, trying to find which desk is our check-in. Brandy and I are of course no help considering everything is in Russian.

Mia, our translator, finally finds the right desk and bam we're running again looking for desk number 176.

We finally maneuver around a million people. I'm pretty sure I ran over at least 4 people and made it to the desk.

Throwing down our passports, the lady behind the counter says in Russian, "you guys are lucky. We are closing check-in after you."

30 seconds later and we weren't on the plane. But we weren't off the hook yet. We check our bags (no fee for overage) and it's onto our gate.

This is where the Hertz commercials come in. Those of you that have seen me run know I'm not the swiftest of foot. Not today y'all.

Brandy and I felt like OJ running through the airport. We were bobbing and weaving. Hurdling and spin moving people.

We got to our gate at 9:52 and got on the tram to go to the plane. We made it! But would our luggage? It's not like there are 14 flights a day where they could throw our luggage on the next flight.

So we get seated and finally catch our breath. We're supposed to take off at 10:05 and the pilot comes on and announces something over the loud speaker. We had no idea what it was because of course it was in Russian.

It was obvious, we were being delayed because the engines go off. Great! All that running for nothing.

Two hours of sitting on the plane later, the engines come on and we're on our way. Apparently it was due to the weather.

The flight was uneventful, 4 hours of listening to music and playing soduko (for me).

We landed in Novo at 8am and met our translator who's name surprisingly wasn't Natalia. I was so shocked I didn't really pay attention to what her name really was. She just told us we would be meeting Natasha (Natalia, for those of you who remember our first trip).

She did tell us though we would be going to the hotel to check-in and immediately going to the orphanage to see our little man. You want to see two faces light up immediately?

We checked in and had about 6 minutes to change out of our grubbies and into orphanage clothes for the 30 minute drive to the Baby Home.

In the car with us was a couple from Germany who went to court today and said it was about 20 minutes. And good news, they waived the 10-day waiting period. One more prayer for that please.

We got to the Baby Home and met with the director who updated us on a few things about Baby Neil. They did say he a some kind of cyst removed a couple months ago but from what we understand, it was pretty common for little boys to have this.

So it's off to a play room and one of the caretakers brings down our little man. He has seriously grown about a foot since we saw him last. Tall and skinny. In fact, I asked Brandy under my breath, "is that him?" I didn't recognize him. He is more beautiful and cuter than ever.

We got to play with him for about an hour. He smiled and laughed, hugged and played. He took right too us again. He was such a happy baby.

He's walking but not very sturdily yet. A bit wobbly but he'll get there.

After the hour, we kissed him and told him this was the last time we would be giving him back so we could leave. The next time we see him, we're taking him home. And we can't wait!

So it's off to get something to eat and then to bed. We're being picked up at 7am for the 3 1/2 hour drive to court. Court is at 11am and if all goes well, we'll be parents and returning back to the region.

Then we will go back to the orphanage Friday morning around 8 to pick him up before I have to go back to court to pick up his passport while Brandy gets to spend the day with him.

Thanks for all your continued prayers. They were definitely heard and answered. We'll check back in tomorrow after court.

Love y'all.

Coby and Brandy (our second to last night as just the two of us)