And toddler makes 4........

We are home in the good ole' USA....and finally a family of 4. We waited a long time for this moment, and we are loving every minute of it. (ok, minus the screaming in Target earlier today...heehee)



Where to begin? Ali and I were in Ukraine for a total of 5 weeks and 1 day, but who is counting? :) There were some moments that I wondered if we would ever make it home. But God got us through it...and your support and prayers were immeasurable. Thank you so much. I wasn't able to post while we were in Kiev due to not knowing where to find an internet cafe' (as they call them there). We drove to Kiev last Friday. We were pretty much on our own as the other 2 American families that we were with were all in different apartment buildings in other parts of town. That was a bit of a bummer, but we survived. Monday morning we were picked up around 7:45AM and we began our visa process. Before you can file for the visa, you have to have them evaluated by a doctor. We had the doctor visit first thing, and then headed right over to the American Embassy. The Embassy visit took at least 2 hours....so you can imagine what that was like...4 children that had not had lunch or a nap and we didn't leave there until 1:00. Ummm, we were all glad when that was over. From there we went to TGI Friday's for a celebratory lunch....I know, I know...how sad but we were all desperate for some American food! After having lunch we were able to head back to the Embassy around 3:30 to pick up our visas. We were so thrilled when those babies were placed in our hands...that meant it was all over and we could all go home!! Hip Hip Hooray! Since we already had our tickets for Wed., we had an extra day in Kiev before flying home on Wed. Wed. morning we were picked up at 4:30AM by one of our facilitators and wisked off to the airport. What a scary ride that was.......remember the driving we described in earlier posts....well it was raining on top of the horrible driving. I was really glad to see the airport that morning. I basically had not slept in around 30 hours or more by the time we finally made it to Houston Wed. night. Actually it was way more than 30 hours because even the days leading up to us leaving I was only sleeping in small blocks of time during the night. You see, Ruslan Clark is an extremely rough sleeper. A very deep sleeper mind you, but a rough one at that. He moves constantly all night long. I was having to stay awake most of the night making sure he wouldn't fall off the bed. I even tried sandwiching him in between Ali and I in the bed and he would even crawl over us (in his sleep) and almost fall off the bed. Ali finally opted for sleeping on the couch. :) So anyway....back to my NOT having slept much prior to boarding the plane...then fast forward 24 hours to us landing in Houston...I was beyond tired! Not to mention we missed our flight in Atlanta and had to wait another 3 hours to BARELY make onto another flight. We were stand by and the only way we were able to make it is that Ruslan had to sit in my lap. Let me just say that I would have had Ali and Ruslan sit in my lap if it got us home. Know what I mean? Oh, here is a not so funny visual for you....and for the weak stomachs...you might want to stop reading....ok, were were all doing fine and had made it through a very long flight from Prague (like 10 1/2 hours) and were making the descent into Atlanta...seat belt lights were on...we happen to hit an air pocket or something and it was very turbulent...all of a sudden Ruslan gets sick all over himself and the seat...I get him cleaned up and clothes changed and look over and Ali has her eyes closed tight (never a good sign) and then she leans over toward me with her hand over her mouth (again, never a good sign) and I have just enough time to grab a plastic sack that one of the flight attendants had given me for Ruslan...and Ali gets sick. Ok, let me point out that I was already feeling sick myself...and if catching my sons...um, you know...in my hands...and watching Ali and cleaning them both up...I was feeling REALLY good at this point. But, thank heavens I was able to get off the plane and make it to the bathroom in the Atlanta airport....before I ended up getting sick. But I have a feeling mine was from some of the airplane food...it was terrible and I felt sick up until this morning. But, after a good nights sleep last night...I felt much better this morning. Was that like way tooooo much information or what? I just thought I would share a bit of what it was like flying from Ukraine to the U.S. with 2 kids. Back to my original point...after all that sickness...we finally get through passport control and customs (which takes a while with an adopted child...you have to turn in a packet of paperwork), and I look down at my watch......LOW and BEHOLD our flight was to leave in like 15 minutes. (keep in mind I am NOWHERE near our gate) Needless to say we missed our flight (I was about in tears from fatigue) and had to wait stand by to see if we could make it onto a later flight. We DID and here I sit...so thankful to be home.



I still have not even begun to unpack...though I shall tackle that tomorrow. Ugh...ugh! But I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Ruslan Clark explore his new home. He has been so cute. He loves Timmy and Happy...though not sure they feel the same. If one of them does something he doesn't like he points at them and says "no"...too funny. We had to make a Target (my oh so favorite store) run today to pick up some boy toys. He (and T.C.) are the new owners of a Thomas the Tank Engine train track. We bought a small starter set and he can't get enough it...neither can Ruslan...heehee. Russie loves anything that makes noise...and lots of it. I am sure we will be adding to the train set in the future. As I am typing he is crying his little heart out because it is time to go to bed and he is having to say good night to Thomas...it isn't going well. It is very hard for him to understand that his toys are HIS and they will still be his in the morning.



Well, we will be posting some new pictures soon. I took a ton of pictures after T.C. left. But it is getting late and my jet lag is still lagging...so I had better close for now!