First Few Days Home

We came home to this big welcome sign. Great job kids. Later, Adam played guitar and Julia sang us the song that the two of them wrote together. It was beautiful.

My Mom, better known as Baboonya had a wonderful meal cooked for us. Kotleti, oven baked potato wedges, salad, garlic bread, and a cake--- what a yummy meal to eat after all that plane food.

Paul loves to draw. His eyes lit up when I brought out a big plastic tub of markers and crayons.

Jonny and Annalyn joined Paul and soon Anastasia was drawing and painting too.

Anastasia was not feeling well and couldn't wait to take a nap. Jet lag hit her the worst but now two days later she is finally getting used to the time difference.

Paul is slowly getting to know his new siblings. Jonny and Paul are nearly the same size even though they are three years apart.

Anastasia is so beautiful yet there is a sadness in her eyes that makes my heart hurt. John and I have no doubt that she is missing her friends and her previous life that she had pretty much known all her life. Even though she is going through many changes right now, she has kept it together pretty darn well.

Paul is adjusting great. The first morning I showed him how he should fix his bed-- and I was pleasantly surprised to find his bed made this morning-- and I didn't even remind him. I praised him for remembering and he smiled with pride. Sadly, my little boy is very afraid of our animals. The dogs bark at him because he is a stranger and he is too afraid to let them smell him which I know will do the trick. Anastasia listened to me immediately when they first barked at her and everything is fine-- she even told Paul to let them sniff his hand but he is so fearful--- I am not sure how to handle things. Now he is afraid of our kitten. I had Adam introduce Lizzie our bearded dragon and Paul began to freak out until he saw how harmless she was. He ended up petting her when she was in my lap. I am hoping he will give our two dogs and kitten another try.

We went swimming one morning. That was fun. Back in Ukraine we had asked the kids if they could swim and they both said yes. I guess there definition of swimming is different than ours because neither of them could swim to save their life. But that is fine with me because now we get to teach them!

Bless Julia's heart. She went out and bought these new floaty toys with her own money just for Paul and Anastasia.

Today I took this picture of Anastasia. She is beginning to feel more comfortable in her new surroundings. I got her to smile a little more for the camera.

All my girls are managing to communicate even with the language barrier.

Aren't we blessed with six beautiful daughters?

Sveta, Anna, Rachel, Annalyn, Julia, and Anastasia.

Anastasia loves to swing. Julia swung with her--- trying to get to know her.

I have already had to remind Anastasia that Rachel is 14 and she is not. We had to have the talk why Rachel is allowed to wear make-up and she is not. I think this will end up being the hardest thing for Anastasia-- being the baby girl of the family.
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Back In Ukraine

This is how they slept the night before our flight home.

We ended up in the same apartment back in Kiev. Here we are preparing to leave for the airport.

Waiting to board our plane.

This picture was taken at the beginning of the flight-- before take off. Anastasia did not do well on either flights. I didn't know a person could get airplane sick-- but now I know. Bless her heart.

Paul enjoyed the flight and slept for most of it. He loved the headphones and change the music stations at least a thousand times.

Life is Good

Today is a much better day. Amazing what a full night's sleep can do for the body and mind. We are all doing well and are about to head off to the movies.

Lots of pictures to come after we do fireworks tonight.

Hope you all have a wonderful Fourth of July!

Home At Last!

Yes, we made it home around five in the evening.

I feel old. I am tired. My eyes burn. And I have been running on energy I didn't know I had.

Big sigh.

But it feels good to be home. Seeing all the other kids made my heart sing.

Family was here waiting for us and we all had dinner. My Mom was a huge help while we were gone... but now she went home. She starts a new job on Tuesday praise the Lord.

Anastasia and Paul are doing okay but certainly testing. They too are tired. Anna came up to me and asked if she acted the same way when she first came home. I told her sort of. She hasn't left my side since I've been home.

Off to take a shower and then cuddle in bed with how many kids want to. So far the count is four.

Good night.

Back in Kiev!

This post is going to be chock full of pictures so hope you enjoy!

We were surprised when we were told that we could take the kids' passport photos. These are them-- and they didn't cost us a thing. Pretty cool I think. And the kids couldn't be more beautiful.

Anytime we were at the Internat or camp the kids wanted to hang around us. We didn't mind the company. :)

Rachel and Sveta hung out alot together. Here they are with Pasha.

One day we went shopping and bought all of this for about $35 U.S. dollars. Not bad.

We even bought these cool balloons. They are huge once they are blown up.

One night for dinner we bought Shashlick and I warmed up canned peas and made some rice pilaf. Too bad the meat was like jerky it was so dry.

Here we are in front of the court building. The director was really nice.

Caleb totally got into the Ukrainian role of hand washing clothes. He even suggested us selling our washer and drier to save for future adoptions--- LOL John's funny sense of humor.

We were blessed enough to visit this building three times-- insert sarcasm. This is where we had Anastasia and Paul's new birth certificates made.

Inside there was this nice children's library.

There were also a few statues and a memorial wall listing all the names of people that had died fighting in different wars.

This is an above ground sewer system that we drove under.

This is one of the many electric trains we saw here in Ukraine.

Come time to pick up the kids from camp, only I came because we all wouldn't fit in the car. The director had to come so that she could sign Anastasia and Paul out and pick up their clothes--- because they didn't belong to anyone else but to the Internat. Anastasia was wearing a pair of high heels that the director didn't recognize and so she was chewed out and told to give the shoes back. That is when I gave her first pair of shoes for her very own. I took lots of pictures like these so that Anastasia and Paul would have lots to remember.

Anastasia had a lot of friends in the Internat and though she was excited to leave she has since had her moments of sadness-- and tears have flowed. All we could say is that we understand and love her and her sadness will soon disappear.

When it was time to change Anastasia and Paul into their new clothes it was a special moment. For them because this is their first outfit that they can remember having for their very own. For me because it felt like dressing my newborn baby in their first outfit.

Paul liked looking at himself in the mirror. The shoes that the girl standing next to him is wearing are the shoes that Anastasia was wearing when the director yelled at her.

It was sweet the way her friends wanted to help make her look pretty for her departure to start her new life. A part of me wanted to be the one doing it, yet I felt this was something they needed to do between them.

Sasha is a boy we met who has graduated school and is heading off to college. Rachel wrote him a letter and hopes to be pen pals. He is such an amazing young man-- I think he will be just fine.

The director had lots of business to take care of while she was there signing out our kids. Besides finding out why one of the boys jumped off the balcony and broke his leg, and a few of her older kids ran away and were caught drinking under age, I asked her to take this last picture with Anastasia and Paul.

Here is a group picture.

I asked our facilitator to share what I had to say with these older girls. "I want you to know how much God loves you. He thinks you are all beautiful, fantastic, and have a special purpose in this world. Don't resort to drinking and smoking when you can do so much more with your life. When you are sad please remember that God is there for you and will always love when you think no one else does."

The good-byes kept on and on. It was hard to leave all of these wonderful other children behind.

On the car ride home, Paul got sick. Poor guy-- has gotten sick a few more times since. On the ride home, I had our facilitator read the letter John wrote to Anastasia and Paul since he could not be there with us at that time. It was nice to have the director hear and see her smile.

At home, we had McDonald's for them and it was sweet to see them share. Paul woofed down two cheeseburgers!

They enjoyed watermelon, peaches, Pepsi, McDonald's, and ice-cream for their first meal with us.

I brought each of them their own backpack with their own clothes. They were so thankful and looked through them many times. There first bathes I will never forget and neither will they! The kept on and on about how nice the water felt.

John filled out all of our forms for the Embassy ahead of time so we wouldn't have to do it there.

Don't the three of them look sweet together?

At the train station we saw this kitten. It was so cute. I showed Paul how to play with it with a piece of torn fabric and the kitty entertained us for the 1/2 hour wait.

It was nice to see how gentle Paul and Anastasia were with it.

We could only get one compartment with four beds for the train to Kiev. Rachel and Caleb rode back with our facilitators. The train was very nice-- it had air conditioning and a fairly clean toilet.

Anastasia and Paul were so well behaved on the train. They drew and then we ate dinner. When Anastasia wanted to go to bed around nine pm I noticed that she didn't look well. I felt her and she was very hot so I gave her some Tylenol.

We all got some sleep on the train.

At the medical appointment today, Anastasia had a deep cough so the doctor insisted on her having a chest x-ray. Clear-- but we were told that she has acute bronchitis along with a bunch of other malarkey. Yes I think she is sick but no I do not think she is near death like the doctor was acting. Another thing that made us a little disappointed in this doctor was what she asked our kids. "Are you sad to be going to America?" It was nice to hear Anastasia answer her No!

Please, please, please pray us home! Our itinerary has only one stop and we hope to be home by noon California time. See you back in the good ol' USA!