Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Coming home!

The paperwork issues are resolved, we have court tomorrow at 2pm, and we're flying home Saturday morning!

Yesterday was the boys' first visit with the girls. To minimize all kinds of potential issues, we left the boys at the orphanage playground outside with my mom while we went in to get the girls, then took the girls out to the playground. Dima is absolutely in love with Eve. He follows her everywhere and wants to hold her (nevermind that she's got to weigh 2/3 of what he does). Zhenya and Dana immediately hit it off and spent the entire time playing on the slides and swings. They are definitely two peas in a pod. The boys didn't seem to have any issues with the orphanage, so this morning we took them for a second visit with their sisters and took them inside to see where the girls live.

Zhenya went with Mark to get Eve and Dima went with my mom and me to get Dana (her room is closer to the entrance so it's a shorter amount of time to be in the orphanage) then we switched it to take the girls back, so that both boys have seen where each of the girls lives. Neither of the boys seemed to have any issues with the orphanage or being there. It has brought up some interesting discussions, but so far no negative reactions. In fact, this evening when Mark and I went to visit the girls again, as soon as Dima heard we were going he went to put his shoes on so he could go too. :) The three oldest spent the entire time today playing on the slide and going down together. Mark got some great video that I will post when we get home--right now I'm too tired to fight with the computer to get it on here. :)




We changed our flights today and will be coming home on Saturday, arriving in St Louis about 10pm. The flight change went smoothly enough except for a small hitch early on that I will rehash in another post. I'm very pleased with Delta's service and we only had to pay the change fees--no fare difference. Tomorrow we will get to visit with the girls in the morning, have court in the afternoon, and then be headed back to Kyiv. We'll have one extra day of sightseeing in Kyiv (we're planning on eating at Mister Snack and going to the Embassy). The current plan is to return to Kyiv on or about April 27. We should have about a week and a half of paperwork to wade through and then we'll be coming home for good--with the girls!

Pics from our afternoon visit with the girls (without the boys):



Pictures from today's visits:

12 comments:

Valerie said...

YAY!!! I finally had the chance to sit down and catch up on your adventures in Ukraine and I am SO, SO happy to see that things are going to well. I can't wait until you have your sweet girls home with you! We will keep you in our prayers as you attend court tomorrow and fly home on Saturday!

Tami said...

YEA!!! Sounds like everything is going smoothly. Glad to hear the boys did so well with visiting the orphanage. God is so good at protecting our hearts, isn't He?! :) We'll keep you in our prayers tomorrow.

The Flying Eagle said...

Courtney, Saturday night is a just a tiny bit tough for me. Only because the marathon is the crack of dawn the next morning and I would have a tough time getting the car back to my parents. But if it does not work out with your other ride possibility --- absolutely, we can figure something out. David or maybe my Dad can get you. Or definitely if something falls thru call me on my cell and we will make sure one of us is there.

The Flying Eagle said...

Courtney, Saturday night is a just a tiny bit tough for me. Only because the marathon is the crack of dawn the next morning and I would have a tough time getting the car back to my parents. But if it does not work out with your other ride possibility --- absolutely, we can figure something out. David or maybe my Dad can get you. Or definitely if something falls thru call me on my cell and we will make sure one of us is there.

The Flying Eagle said...

Courtney, Saturday night is a just a tiny bit tough for me. Only because the marathon is the crack of dawn the next morning and I would have a tough time getting the car back to my parents. But if it does not work out with your other ride possibility --- absolutely, we can figure something out. David or maybe my Dad can get you. Or definitely if something falls thru call me on my cell and we will make sure one of us is there.

Leslie G said...

Sounds like things are going very smoothly! I'm so glad the boys haven't had any issues with visiting the orphanage. I was wondering how all that would play out.
Praying for safe travels home and then back again!

Rachel said...

I am so glad that the boys are enjoying their new sisters! I can't wait to see pictures of all of you together! Hope you have a safe trip back!

Zack, Jenn and William said...

Great news - glad everything was worked out. I'm guessing you're probably in court as I type this - praying that all goes well. Can't wait for the next update!

Jenn

Shannon said...

Courtney - While your home are you going to take that time off or are you going to come back to work? Let me know I want to try to get these outfits to you...Email me when you get a chance :) Can't wait to see pictures of the girls.

orphans4me said...

Wow! Great news about the kids getting along well, about court still being tomorrow and about coming home on Saturday!
Joy,RR

orphans4me said...

Oops, court is TODAY not tomorrow. That is just wonderful.
Joy

Christy said...

The girls are gorgeous. The pictures of them with the boys are so adorable. Glad things are going well.