Pre-Dawn Sewing Party

One of the latest things the girls have been enthusiastically engaging in is embroidery. As you saw in the pictures of the museum at the orphanage, embroidery is a significant part of the culture. The girls were exposed to the art while they were at the orphanage and they went crazy over some supplies that Stan's mom and some dear friends had already passed along to us. We had everyone set up with their own embroidery hoop, cloth, needle and embroidery floss when they asked if they could keep their embroidery stuff in their room. They had been sewing so diligently and quietly all afternoon, how could I say no?

A little before 6 a.m. this morning, I noticed there was a little more light in the hall than normal, so I went to investigate. All three girls were in Olena and Julia's room having a little sewing party. They were bitterly disappointed when I broke it up to have them get back in bed for a little longer. My estimate of just how long this party had been going on when I arrived got longer as the day went on, especially when the meltdown count sky-rocketed. It was a really good day to have a husband who works out of the home. I definitely benefited from some tag-team parenting today.

The challenges of the day seem pretty small when I think about how many sweet moments we had as well. Here are some pictures to document some of them.Stan and Olena went out for a haircut early this morning. They both came back looking sharp.

The girls had their first chance to try out a new soccer ball.












And as the most enthusiastic new Hoosiers, they did a great job shooting hoops.










After the early start to the day, Olena didn't make it to 8 p.m.

Moving Past Jetlag

This morning was the first morning since we've been back that the girls all slept past 4:30 a.m. Starting my day closer to 7 a.m. leaves a little more energy in the tank at the end of the day to do things like post on the blog. So far, apart from half of us being sick, the adjustment is going amazingly well. We know there are so many of you praying for our family and we are deeply grateful.
The girls are working hard to learn about their new home (how do you turn on the faucet in the bathroom?), new foods (what does banana flavored instant oatmeal taste like?), new rules (What buttons can I touch? Let's see what happens if I press this one), and of course, new words (What does 'giggling' mean? Mama is always looking at us and shaking her head and saying something about it). As kids who spent some of our formative years in different cultures, Stan and I are fascinated by the kids' process of discovery in their new environment. I've started a list of things that they find amazing and exciting.
On Monday morning I started home schooling them in English. I was able to pick up three workbook in Ukraine for the beginning English student with instructions in Ukrainian. The first step for them is learning a new alphabet with new sounds. There is some overlap, but then there are also letters that have a very different sound in the Cyrillic alphabet then they do in the Latin alphabet. There are tons of free online sites for children who are learning English and I have a few DVD's that we are using as well. We've been practicing writing their full new names. This was fairly easy task for Maria to master, but when Julia saw 'Danielle' fully spelled out in her exercise notebook, she looked a little overwhelmed. They are latching on to their new names, though. When our friend came over to drop of some meals this afternoon, all three of them introduced themselves by their middle names.
Well that's about all the energy I have for this evening, so I'll wrap it up with pictures.

Our first meal together at home.















The girls LOVE fresh fruit for snacks










They finally got to try out the swing in the back yard that they saw in the pictures we showed them while they were still living at the orphanage.

Home at last!

After 4 straight crazy days (Wed leaving the orphanage and taking a 17-hour train ride, a stressful Thursday morning at the embassy then figuring out family life in an apartment, Friday doing a 10-hour marathon between the hospital and the embassy, and a 24-hour travel day on Saturday) we are finally home. Thanks so much to the friends and family that set up our house and provided food so we could just slide right into life here; we feel very supported even though we have seen only 4 people so far. It is too bad we haven't been able to video all the kids' reactions to various things, but it is obvious that all 3 are really loving life here after just half a day. And for us it is pretty surreal to be back here. More than ever, I am appreciating stable internet, a comfortable bed, a proper shower, and a bunch of other things about our house.

Julia is the most expressive, but Olena is smiling nonstop here and often giving Julie impulsive hugs (she is very affectionate and easy to please and was an absolute joy for the last few weeks and on the trip), and Maria was pretty overwhelmed by having her own beautiful bedroom and is obviously happy though still quite quiet. Just after Pete and Beth and my parents left us alone, Julia was sitting at the counter and I asked her if she wanted an orange, an apple, or a banana, and she said, "Orange, apple, AND banana." I was just starting to get that when she caught a glimpse of what was in the drainer and started yelling, "Pomidorchka, pomidorchka, pomidorchka!" (a diminutive word probably best translated "cute little tomato"), setting all 4 of us laughing. A similar thing happened at lunchtime today when I pulled some Polish kielbasa off the grill and she just about came through the glass shouting "Kovbaska (little sausage)". Another classic: taking a sip of Coke in Frankfurt, exclaiming "Cacacochka!" (not a real word, I think, but close enough), and giving the bottle a delighted and passionate kiss. They did get a peaceful start to the day, all three snuggled together under blankets on the loveseat in front of Sunday morning cartoons. Maria and I had a good time together later in the backyard filling up the birdseed and getting the deck cleared off; she insisted on doing all the shoveling while I got the grill going.

The trip went better than I was expecting. We were in the air for about 12 hours (almost 3 to Frankfurt and at least 9 to Chicago). Julia had a little trouble during the layover and around hour 8 over the Atlantic. Lufthansa gave fantastic food service and nicer kiddie toys on both flights than I have ever seen, even when airlines were more full-service when I was little: nice stencils in a classy cloth bag, chocolates, playing cards, and a painted wooden baby bird on a steel carabiner. Maria hurt her hand trying to get out of the plane bathroom, which dampened the last part of her trip, but she was a trooper and she is fine now. All three slept the whole 3 hours of the van ride home from Chicago. Everyone slept through the important hours of the night, too, although Julie needed to help Julia a little at the beginning and around 4:30. I made sure I didn't sleep after Frankfurt, and I was able to sleep until 8, and then Julie got some extra sleep while I kept the girls busy.

We know there is going to be a lot of adjustment and work for all 5 of us in this next chapter, but it feels incredible for all the craziness, dangers, and uncertainties in the adoption process and orphanage to be over. There were so many ways that God's hand was obvious on this trip and, in retrospect, over the last 3 years to bring these particular 3 precious girls into our family that we are pretty overwhelmed with thankfulness. All the waiting, effort, and pain were definitely worth it.

Olena's teacher had a hard time saying goodbye.

Taking visa pictures on Thursday

Wiped out after the first embassy visit

Visas

Medical exam this morning, visas this afternoon, dinner with Benzels, then packing. Some seats opened up so we are getting 2 hours of sleep then getting up to catch a 5:30 am Saturday flight!

Trip to Kiev, First full day together

It is hard to blog for two days that were so full, especially on my smartphone, but I'll give the highlights at least before we crash.

We are all 5 in Kiev after our first appointment at the embassy, Val is on the train with girls' passports in hand, and the embassy expects to give us visas tomorrow at our 2 pm appointment. Tomorrow the only other thing needed is medical exam; we need to be on the street at 7:30 am to meet Val and go to the hospital. Rebooking for Saturday would have cost $8000 so we have reserved airplane tickets for Sunday, which has the benefit of giving us a day to rest after a 3-day flurry. We are back in civilized Kiev, which allowed us to have excellent Italian-style pizza for our first family meal (not counting bread, cheese and snacks on the train). This is the first time we have overlapped in Kiev with our friends the Benzels, and it is the time their assistance is most appreciated. It is no surprise that watching Julia is a fulltime job; she has arms an inch longer than you think and a mystical fascination with buttons (she locked herself in the bathroom, rang the neighbor's doorbell, and came a quarter inch from wiping out some embassy info I walked 30 minutes to get). She is also one of the happiest and most affectionate kids you can imagine, and says thank you (in Dutch) for every little thing you do for her; she also has surprised me by doing a better job than her sisters at the "Point to the ___" game we play to teach them English words without their having to say them. Other than that, things gave gone very smoothly, although some of our plans in the last couple of days are being made on the spur of the moment by Val, which has caused unnecessary stress and easily avoidable problems.

The biggest adventure today is that we had no money to pay for visas since we had given it to Val earlier, and our credit card bank had mysteriously blocked our account (both our banks did that last summer even though we had specifically authorized them before our trip); I spent 90 min trying to get that taken care of with some very unusual challenges. Just as I was finally able and ready to get the money, Julie and the kids met me in the street; the office had decided they could accept it tomorrow.

On Our Way

We are expecting to be on our way to pick up the girls in the next few minutes. We just found out it would be possible to have our facilitator stay behind to pick up the passports and fax them to the Embassy while we are in the train with the girls. This will move up our plans by a day with the potential of leaving Saturday. As you can tell, plans are always in flux.
We expect to be in transit for the next 24 hours or more and won't be able to post updates during that time. We'll let you all know how the day unfolds soon after we are settled in Kiev.
Thanks for your prayers.

Full final day in Perechyn

It's 1:26 am so I don't think I'll have time to do justice to all the things that happened today. I'll skip a lot of little errands and a lot of planning and replanning with the facilitator as things unfolded. The highlights: we got things rolling at the vital records office as soon as it opened at 9, and got birth certificates around 3, so we are now in fact their parents. We notarized and submitted passport requests, and the person in charge said she would get our app ready even if she had to stay up at night to do it. Unfortunately it was not done before the end of the day so we can't leave for Uzhgorod first thing, so it will not ready until 10 at least tomorrow since it needs legalizing. We still hope to get passports tomorrow and take the night train, but flying on Saturday is not realistic.

At 4 we called the travel agent from a cafe to work on changing tomorrow morning's flight. Late tonight w talked more and he got Lufthansa's permission to cancel our flights but not rebook till Thursday when our departure date is more certain.

At 4:30 wegot to orphanage and started our 3 parties. 2 of the teachers cried, they really are a lot more than teachers, and the kids loved the food and favors, and we got lots of pictures of kids with classmates that will be special. Big success there thanks mostly to Julie's prep. We were called away to sign a bunch of papers in the director's office basically requesting the girls' release.

At 6:45 we left and spent a delightful 4 hours at Sheila and Max's home over a home-cooked dinner, the best way to get to know them better. Then walked home in the cold, finalized plans with travel agent, and packed. At 1:50, it's time to get some sleep before another big day and short night.