Freedom! Sari arrived in Yekaterinburg uneventfully last night and we both got our first night of sleep in a real bed. Birth certificates in hand, we and the Wolfes headed to the orphanage this morning to claim our girls.

Following a tearful ceremony (one which leaves no doubt as to their current religion, if there were ever any doubt), the girls were turned over to us. Zoe was very shy with both of us at first, but knew full-well what was happening. More tears were exchanged with caregivers and other orphanage personnel, and we hopped into the van.

First stop was lunch. We're technically in Asia (by about ten miles), so we thought maybe we'd get some decent Chinese food. Wrong again.

Zoe's first taste of freedom: Egg-drop soup.

The girls came back to the hotel for a nap with the Mamas, but really ended up just playing and trashing the hotel room. The dads finalized passport and travel arrangements for tonight's flight to Moscow.

Zoe is warming up to Papa, albeit by playing mind games with me. I got up at the restaurant for a few minutes, she curiously looked around for me...then made a point to ignore me when I returned. We call that "progress."

Next stop...the two-hour flight to Moscow. No movie on Ural Airlines...time to break out the DVDs...  ¶ 6:09 AM