Wow

WOW! I'll say that backwards Wow. We had an amazing group of friends, family, coworkers and fellow adoptive families meet us at the airport. Thank YOU! Yes the kids are already into the clothes, toys and food. What awesome friends you all are.

Home!

Even made me (Jim) cry thinking about it all this morning.

If we are this excited to bring the kids to our home I can only imagine the celebration when God brings all of (us) his kids home.

Race to Freedom - Three new Americans

We are in America at Teresa's folks. Relieved to be out of Ukraine with our children. Teresa was able to sing I'll be home for Christmas with only minutes left. The kids were good on the flights. They went from orphans to spoiled Americans in less than a week. The final tally: 4 trips a total of 91 days in Ukraine over 14 months. Blessed with three wonderful kids.

Recognized Grandma and Grandpa from their pictures and took to them right away. Little slower when big brother and girlfriend arrived. We are managing pretty well with communication. Tomorrow in our own beds.

The idea of giving kids gum to help with take offs and landings should include the warning to take the gum in about twenty minutes. Sasha decided it should be saved for later by putting it in his hair.

If it weren't for bad luck....

I'd have no luck at all.

Another one day delay. Ukrainian passports are only allowed one western european city per flight. Ours had two. The travel agency says that they were aware of this just not the agent that booked ours. They will have us on a new flight tomorrow at no additional cost.

Almost Done

We have all our documentation. The kids are legally ours. Just in case we didn't think so they have been taking more than two hours each night to get to sleep. We will be able to fly soon but due to the holidays and the snow storms on the east coast we will only get to the US, home will still be a few more days. Teresa's folks will have all of us at their house for Christmas while we wait. They are excited. Just wait until we have a long bed time. The pictue is Alex (Sasha) he is the youngest and seven years old.

Plays well with others

All five of us had a very good tuesday and everyone was in good spirits/played well together. All of us but Teresa like being on the floor, Nadia and Sasha both think Papa makes a good pillow to lay on while watching videos. Can't wait to post some pictures, just waiting until it's official and we check them out of the orphanage. Each day now I am saying this will be the kids last Wednesday in an orphanage.

Please keep Richard and Cindy (another Colorado couple adopting in Ukraine) in your prayers. They are getting the court delay/run around just like we did. For more information you can check out their blog from the blogs I follow.

Some great lines that they have added to my adoptive parents lexicon.

Radiator Roulette-Drying your clothes after washing them in the bathroom sink.
Wheel of Torture-For the Ukrainian adoption process (We've all bought enough vowels, and I'd like to solve the puzzle)

We have seen the sun on two days this week. Not bad after two whole weeks without seeing it at all.

Music for a meltdown

Well both of us parents and at least one of the kids reached a mini-meltdown day. It just gets tiring. So this morning I decided it was music time. I started with some comfort/inspirational music. Some Amy Grant from 20 plus years ago. “Love will find a way.” (Which I do believe) “Angels” (Beyond the walls an endless prayer is being lifted for us) “In a little while” (We’ll be home) and “Ageless Melody.”

For no particular reason other than we like kids and cartoons I put Chris Rice’s “Cartoon Song” on (What if cartoons got saved)

Then I needed a little more irony. Yesterday for the first time in two weeks we saw the sun. Don’t worry, today it is cloudy again with a dusting of snow. So what could be more appropriate than John Denver’s “Sunshine on my shoulders.” And as long as we are playing Denver why not “Rocky Mountain High.” Sticking with the weather theme we moved on to America’s “Horse with no name” (It felt good to be out of the rain wandering the desert, the desert was also a good metaphor for our emotional feelings)

Then “Yellow submarine” never thought the song made much sense but then again we are in Ukraine. The Rolling Stones “Start me up” because, well nothing ever seems to get started around here. “Magic” by Kenny Chesney, we could use a little and hey I needed something other than Rock.

ELO’s “All over the World” because we are. Supertramp’s “Take the long way home” I think we made that choice when we picked Ukraine. And Chicago’s “One more day” (NOT)

And last, but not least, Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” since I will be the only one of the five of us when we get home that can say this.

Feel free to toss us some of your favorites.

3 1/2 hours in Court

Some families get through Ukrainian adoption court in 30-45 minutes. Ours lasted 3 1/2 hours.

We have three kids!! We are now starting our 10 day waiting period for the court decree to become official.

We still haven't seen the sun since 10 minutes before we landed last sunday. But it is about as bright a day as we have seen.

One (Last?) delay

Our court has been delayed another four hours. We will be in court at 3 pm tomorrow. (Tueday, December 8)

Teresa is feeling a little better but is still coughing and afraid she'll get kicked out of court.