More pictures

OK, I am not sure what has happened to my pictures??  It is weird because on my computer and my husband's laptop, we cannot view the pics, but on my mom's computer, they are still on here.  Will you do me a favor and either comment on here or e-mail to let me know if you still see all of the pictures we posted while we were still in Ukraine?  If most of you can't I may change to blogspot.com soon.  If I change, I'll put a link to our new blog on this site. 

So, here are pictures that we had made a few weeks ago. 

I'll go ahead and write a little update while I am logged on.  The kids are doing so good!!!  They are learning English so fast.  Especially Brayden, He is even saying sentences sometimes!  That is great for only being home 1.5 months.  Abby is a little slower at learning English, but she'll catch on soon :)  They are both VERY smart and bright kids.  They started school a few weeks ago and love that a lot!  Brayden is excelling in Math (I guess because Math is pretty much Universal).  He is in 3rd grade where he is supposed to be for his age.  I figured they would have held him back to 1st or 2nd because of the language barrier and maybe maturity level, but he fit right in his 3rd grade class and is doing wonderfully!  Abby is in Kindergarten.  She just loves it and the teachers love her :)  Although Abby can be a little stubborn at times, her little grin will just melt your heart :)  She is definatesly my little fireball!! 

Abby and Brayden are so excited about Christmas.  Brayden keeps telling me "Christmas......too much days" Abby keeps saying when I tuck her in bed "Christmas......zaftra?" (tomorrow)  And I tell her "No, not tomorrow"  I need to make a red ane green construction paper chain like I did for Ukraine so they can get a better idea of when it is. 

Alyssa, well she thinks she is the "big sister" and likes to tell Abby and Brayden "how it is".  She is doing much better, but after the first week home, I think she realized that her brother and sister were really here to stay and then it wasn't all hunky dory anymore :(  She was VERY jealous and acted out in ways that were definately not in her nature.  We had a rough time for a few weeks, but she has calmed down A LOT and is starting to turn back into that sweet little angel that we used to know. 

Abby, Alyssa and Brayden are in gymnastics.  Abby and Brayden LOVE it!!!  I think Abby may have a natural talent at it.  She is so tiny and will attempt anything (which is scary).  SHe has little muscles in her legs and arms and lots of core stregnth which helps.  Brayden is taking it while waiting on baseball to start up.  He is so excited aout playing baseball.  I was sortof hoping he would play soccer, but he probably got sick of it in Ukraine since that was the ONLY thing he and the other boys got to do in thier spare time.  He calls soccer "Ukrainski football" and our football "Americanski football" which he is obsessed with as well.    Alyssa on the other hand seems to be getting really bored with gymnastics and wants to do dance or cheerleading.  The place that they take gymnastics at has a hip hop/jazz/ballet class, so i think I will put her in that.  SHe has tried just Ballet in the past adn didin't like it, but maybe since there is jazz and hip hop in it she will like it better.  I think she will do good at it because Alyssa can dance better than I could even think about dancing, she is just really shy and only lets her true dancing come out around us.  Maybe she'll get over that soon. 

Well, I've gotta go through my second carpool of the morning.  I have already taken Abby adn Brayden to school and now it is time to take Alyssa to Pre-K. 

I am glad I finally got the chance to update and I promise that I will try to more often.  I am getting a wireless card and a laptop for chrismas, so it will be much easier to get online without dial-up. 

Love to you all,

Chris, Julie, Brayden, Abby and Alyssa

Where are my pictures????

That is really weird!  All of my pictures on the entire blog are erased for some reason???  I'll have some more up in a few days with updates.   We have been VERY busy the past few weeks!! 

The children are adjusting wonderfully.  Such great kids adn we love them so much!

Love,

Chris, Julie, Abby, Alyssa, and Brayden

Here are some pictures.......It's about time huh?

Here are some more recent pics of the kiddos.  THey are of our last days in Ukraine and some are of us at home.  One pic is of the kid's first Mikey D's experience, some of the airplane, one is of Abby and a babushka and her daughter who were trying to get to America.  They really took to Abigail and talked to her for a while.  One is of Sveta saying goodbye to the kids.  We have LOTS more of the kids at home, but they have not been transferred to a CD yet, but we will work on that tonight and I will post them ASAP. 

The kids are doing GREAT!!!!!  They are adjusting very well and seem to be very happy.  I think that I am having to adjust more than they are.  It is hard for me to get used to the "get up early, go to bed early" thing!  They are sure keeping me on my toes!  I have not yet figured out how to work in any "Mama" time yet.  Maybe when the kids start school next week, it'll be easier.  Yesterday I joined a gym to help me maintain the 15lbs I lost in Ukraine.  We went to church Sunday and Dr. Merritt talked about "Procrastination" I think my #1 flaw!!!!!  It really spoke to me and that is one reason I joined the gym!  :)  I always say, "one day I'll get fit and eat right".  Well,  if I don't do something about it TODAY, I'll be saying that when I am 80!  LOL!!  The kids really enjoyed church too!  Of course I had to go by and check on them in thier classes a few times, but everytime I checked on them, they were doing so good.  I think they are definately ready for school now.  They need it, and I need them to go too :)  Today, they are going to the Dr. and I will probably take them to their school tomorrow to see when we can get them tested to see where they need to be placed.  Also today, we are going to get our family portrait made.  I am excited about that!  I'll have to post that picture too. 

They had a blast on Halloween!  Brayden was Batman, Alyssa was a lion, and Abby was a fairy.  (will post pics of that later).   They figured out the "run to the door as fast as you can , grab as much candy as you can and beat the other kids to the next door" routine :)  Now we have enough candy to last us till next Halloween. 

I want to thank ALL of you for your precious e-mails and comments!!!  They meant theworld to us while in Ukraine and I am so sorry I couldn't respond to everyone. 

We will continue to update our blog with pictures and posts.  Please follow along if you want to know how our "post adoption" life is going. 

I would write more today, but I've got to go get the kids ready for the Dr.  now.  Note to self.........Getting up two hours before we have to leave to go somewhere it NOT enough time to get three kids ready.  Atleast 3 hours is required!!! ............Boy, has my life changed, but I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

Love to you all,

Chris, Julie, Brayden, Abby and Alyssa

OK, that is weird.........I just signed on to update our blog and noticed that about 3/4's of this entry is missing, and this entry is supposed to be connected to the one before it.........hmmmmmmm, I don't have time to write it all again now, but I will in the morning hopefully.  I am soooooo tired!!!!!  The kiddos are keeping me very busy!  I am usually up at 5AM and zonked at 9PM.  Promise to update more VERY soon with recent pics.  Stay tuned..........

by the way, the kids are doing AWESOME!!!!!  We are having lots of fun! :)

Love you guys!!!!
Julie

 

 

We arrived at the Atlanta airport and were greeted by lots of family and friends.  It was 11:30pm, and were very suprised to see so many people there.  It was so awesome to see everyone and for them to meet our new family members.  There were lots of hugs, tears and laughs.  Brayden and Abby did so well with all of the "strangers" giving them hugs and kisses.  We "hung out" at the airport until about 12:30am and then went home.  It was so cool to see the kid's reactions when the got home.  First they saw Flip Flop, our outside dog, and played with her for a little bit. 

Well, here we are........we made it home "safe and sound" (Alyssa's favorite saying).  Sorry we haven't updated, our computer has been crashed until last night.  Lets see, hmmmmm.........what has gone on in our lives in the past 4 days............

First of all, let me say that we are having the time of our lives!!!!!  It has been SOOOOOOO much fun these past few days at home!!  Wow, how the Lord has blessed greatly and I wonder if life can be any better than this? 

OK, now that doesn't mean that our kids are perfect, because by all means they are NOT!!  Ha Ha!  :)  Brayden whines more than the girls do combined, Abby is as stubborn as a mule, and Alyssa, well.......she thinks she is the "big sister" because she can speak English and she LOVES to tattle on EVERY thing that they do!!! 

Thursday night..........We started packing up all of our stuff for the flight home.  The kids were extremely hyper, running around, jumping on beds, doing flips, etc.  After telling them to settle down about 137 times, we decided to just let them burn ouit their energy :)  Well, that wasn't a bright idea, because we soon heard a loud crash and glass shattering.  (Keep in mind that we were staying an an old lady's apartment <she was staying with a friend> and this old lady was really protective over her stuff, she told us before we left to pretty much not touch anything.  There was even a giant stuffed chipmunk that the kids were playing with while she was still there and she said "Nyet, Nyet, Ne Nada" and put the thing away where they could not reach it.)  Back to the crash........when we heard it we both ran into the living room and sure enough, a HUGE lamp that was the ONLY lamp in the room was shattered inot a gazillion pieces.  My first reaction was to of course yell and ask who in the world did it, but when I saw the loook on little Abby's face, I knew she was the culprit.  Poor thing was terrified!!!  I asked Alyssa what happened and turns out she was involved too.  The were jumping on the bed/couch and Alyssa "accidentally" knocked into Abby and she fell and knocked the lamp over.  Since Abby was so mortified and was shaking pretty badly, we dicided to comfort her instead of what we wanted to do :)  I told her that it was OK and tat accidents happen, but tried to expain to her that she and Alyssa should have listened to us and stopped horsing around and because they didn't listen, the lamp got broken.  I think she understood.  We told her and Alyssa both that they had to tell the babushka (oold lady) that they were sorry in the morning.  They were both really worried about doing that.  Even the next morning when they first got up, we could hear Abby talking about the babushka.  Well, the Babushka came, we told her what happened, gave her $50, and made the girls tell them they were sorry.  It seemed like she was OK with it.  Whe our driver arrived to take us to the airport, we lugged all of our stuff down the 5 flights of stairs and were all ready to go until I realized that we left our travel alarm clock in the room.  I ran back pu to get it, rang th doorbell, and the babushka answered with a stern look on her face.  I tried to explain to her that we left something in the apartment and she decided to drag me into the bathroom and was pointing to the toilet seat and was almost yelling at me in Russian.  Aparently, the toilet seat lid was broken???  I told her that I didn't know why it was broken (the lid was about 2 mm. thick made of plastic, it could probably break if you shut it hard enough) We did not even have the lid down the entire time that I know of.  I felt bad for her, but decided to make a run for it, besides, we had already have her $50.  I ran into the living room, grabbed the alarm clock and ran right past her saying "Spaceiba, Dasvidanya" (Thank you, goodbye), all while she was still shouting things in Russian.  :) 

The airport, well, that was an experience also!!!  To get the kids out of the country, you have to have all of the necessary paperwork to do so.  We knew we had all of it, so thought we were good to go!  An official was thumbing through all of our documents and then asked for the court decree.  We had a copy of it, but he said we had to have to original.  We had 2 originals, but they were sealed up the the documents for when we land in the US (these documents are not allowed to be opened).  He would not let us go and told us we needed the original.  OK, that is when my anxiety started to kick in.  We called Sveta and told her the situation.  She started to panic to and said she would call us back.  Int he mean time the official was calling several people over to ask them if we could get through without the original.  Sveta called back and told us that Leo, our driver, was on the way with the original after he picked it up from her apartment.  Well, the airport is 30 min. from her apartment.  About 10 minutes later, they finally let us through with the copy.  We called Sveta to tell her and she said that she had just gotten off the phone with the US Embassy, and they told her that a copy is all that is required and the man obviouly didn't know what he was doing.  WHEW, big releif!  As soon as a turn around, a lady stopped me to search my carry on.  Of course I had liquids on it.  I was for some reason thinking that they lifted the liquid ban, um...........nope............they took all my liquids out (luckily we still had our check on bags with us at that point so we put them in those).  I did have some hand sanitizer and lotion stashed in a pocket in the bag that she didn't see though :)  It was funny, because in Alyssa's carry on, there was a mesh pocket on the outside that had a ziplock with toothpaste in it and the lady didn't catch that. 

On the plane..........Brayden and Abby were beyond excited to be on the Samoliyot "airplane".  We let Brayden sit next to the window.  I sat next to him and Alyssa sat in the seat across the isle from me then Chis and Abby.  It was so sweet because Alyssa knows I don't like to fly, so she grabbed my hand on take off and said "Mommy, I'll hold your hand, it's OK, you are all "safe and sound" with me"  Awe, how sweet was that??  Take off is the absolute most terrifying part for me!!!!  As we took off I think I squeezed Alyssa and Brayden's hand so hard that it had to hurt them.  Once we got up and settled, I was fine, and the kids were having a ball.  After we ate, I really wanted the kids to sleep, so I gave them benadryll, but it didn't work, so a little later I gave them more, still, the didn't budge.  Well, Brayden did finally sleep for maybe 1 hour and Alyssa and Abby maybe 30 minutes.  Chris and I didn't sleep at all.  On our leg from JFK to ATL, I was sitting in the very back with Abby and Alyssa, both zonked out from the time we first sat down until after we landed.  Brayden was up front with Chris and was playing the Game Boy the entire way home while Chris slept.  Remember me saying the take on the way out of NY to Ukraine was very bumpy and scary?  Well, the take off out of NY to ATL was just dandy, but once in the air, it was 200 times scarrier than that take off to Ukrane.  The weather was bad, so the plane was bouncing around all over the place.  It wasn't like normal turbulence, this plane was on a rollercoaster ride!!!!!  It would drop and then shake and then dip down to the left and then drop some more and then dip down to the right!!!  AHHHH!!  I was mortified, and all I cold do was sit there with each girl layin on my lap asleep praying to God not to take us now!!  It is kindof compical now that I am thinking back on it, but at the time...............Oh no, not comical in the least bit!!!!  I was thinking of poor Brayden up in the front all alone while Chris was somehow managing to sleep through all of this.  The reason I knew it was bad is because the flight attendents all were trying to make it back to thier seats and could barely walk to them.  They even looked a little scared!  Oh, and Alyssa's tray was down with 3 cups of water on it and when we dropped one of the times, the waters bounced off and and landed right on her.  Poor thing was so tired she didn't even wake up.  But, as you can see, we landed all "safe and sound" :) 

COMING HOME....................

I know, I know, I haven't updated in a while.  We have literally had NO time to get to a computer in the past few days.  I do not have much time today either, but I have very good news.......WE ARE IN KYIV!!!!  And even better..............WE ARE COMING HOME TOMORROW!!!!!! 

The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity going from Kerch to Brayden's hometown of Sudak to get his birth certificate.  By the way, Brayden supposedly lived there until he was 6 and he remembers A LOT from this town.  He remembered great detail about his birthfamily and what they would do together.  So far only good memories and I hope it stays that way.  Sudak was absolutely georgeous!!!!  It had to be the most beautiful city I have ever seen in my life!!!!  To get to the city, you drive up winding mountians, very tall mountians.  All of the trees were stunning with bright yellow and orange leaves.  We then ended up in a very cozy little town that was set up on the beach.  The beach was black, but the water was clear and there was a spectacular view of the mountians all around.  There was also a huge castle on top of one of the mountains.  OK, I better stop before I sound like a boring book.  I'll send pics when get home and settled. 

After Sudak, we then went to Simferopol for Abigail's birth certificate.  We had to stay there overnight and we just arrived in Kyiv via overnight train late yesterday afternoon.  THe train ride was a hit for the first ummm...............15 minutes..........after that, it got old real quick.  I'll have to admit that all of my children are troopers now.  Imagine keeping 3 children couped up in a van for 2 days, and then in a train station for FIVE HOURS and then an overnight train until the next afternoon.  Poor things, they had nowhere to burn thier energy, and needless to say, they took all the energy that I had left.  Last night I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open during dinner.  Luckily Chris gave the kids baths, but I had to wash clothes BY HAND after baths.   We were all asleep by 10pm and we had to be up and ready by 7am this morning.  We went to the medical center to get Abby and Brayden checkups (this is required for their US VISA) and then we had an appointment at the US Embassy at 11am.  We got done with that at 12:30 and went to eat lunch at the Potato House and now I am sitting here typing this while Brayden is beside me playing the GameBoy and Chris took the girls for a walk around the city for a few minutes. 

AHHHH...........see what I mean by a whirlwind of activity???  It has been so crazy!!!!  We have to go pick up the children's passports from the Embassy at 4pm (hopefully) if they are not ready, we'll get them in the morning at 8am and we will be on our way to the US at 12pm!!!!!  Our flight lands in NY at 3 something and leaves at 7:45pm for Atlanta, which puts us in ATL around 10 something of Friday evening.  For those of you who want to meet us at the airport, I am sorry it is so late and completely understand if you cannot make it.  For those of you still coming, get in touch with my mother, she will know the exact time we land because we will call her fom NY to let her know.  For some reason the arrival time is not on our itinerary.

That is all I will write for now since I am in a hurry.  Except for this.............We wnet to McDonalds in Simferopol!!  You should've seen the look on Abby's face when she bit into a chicken nugget dipped in Sweet n Sour sauce...........the girl absolutely LOVED it.  Brayden got a hamburger, although he ate it all, he didn't have much to say about it.  He did try a bite of Chris's nugget and didn't like it. 

OK, good bye for now, and next time I update will be in the good ole' US!  Thank you all for your prayers and please pray for us a safe return home. 

Love to you all,

Chris, Julie, Alyssa, Abigail and Brayden

 

OK, I just checked online and our flight arrives in ATL at 10:09PM on Friday.

2 more days

Only 2 more days and we get to leave for Simferopol!!!!!!!!!!  Horray!!!!  We are going to pack up everything tonight and only leave out what we really need.  I bought Alyssa and Abby 2 awesome Russian/Ukrainian fur coats, so we'll probably need to buy another bag just for those :) 

Thank you everyone for your nice comments.  It is so wonderful to hear from everyone.  I wish I could respond to each of you individually, but it would just take too much time, but know that we read each and everyone's comments and e-mails and we treasure them!!! 

The kids are still doing great!  But I think we are all starting to get burned out with the whole situation.  We are all together 24/7 and have been for 7 days now.  Chris, Alyssa and I have been with eachother 24/7 for 4 weeks & 2 days.  Don't get me wrong, it is great to have family time, but it can get tiring sometimes too much of it if you know what I mean.  I do love my family though VERY MUCH!!!!  And I am sooooooooooo very greatful to have them in my lives. 

The kids are still doing better everyday with their English.  Every morning before breakfast we make them sit down and watch either Sesame Street or Brainy Baby...........Yes I know they aren't 2, but beleive it or not, it really helps with thier language skills, especially the brainy baby ones.  If anyone has any spare Brainy Baby DVD's or anything similar that we could borrow for a few months, that would be GREAT. 

I am not going to update much, because there is only one computer available and Chris needs to e-mail pics to Tiffany so she can put them on our blog. 

Oh, and I am feeling much better now, thank you!  The only problem we are having now is runny noses with all the kids and Alyssa and Brayden couging all night long.  We didn't bring any "cough" medicine, so we are going to get some today.  Last night is was so bad to the point where neither one of them hardly got any sleep. 

Tricia, yes, that is the prayer they are saying :)  Brayden knows it by heart now and says it ALL the time, not just at meal times now :) 

We love you all and can't wait to get home!!

Chris, Julie, Brayden, Abigail, and Alyssa

Hopefully only one more week.....

Although it has been so much fun hanging out with the kids this past week, I am more than ready to get back to our lives in America with our new family :)  It is starting to get to me now and being sick for the past two days hasn't helped.  I have been couped up in the apartment most of the past two days, because with my cold, it is just too cold windy to go outside.  It is freezing here, feels like 30 something with the wind, it may be better if I were dressed for the weather, so today we are going to go look for Chris and I sock hats and maybe a scarf for me.  The kids already have all that stuff, so they are fine.

OK, now that I have sounded so drab..............let me talk about a few good things.  The kids are all doing GREAT!!!!!  They are all getting along very well and all seem to be very happy :)  Brayden is still opening up to us more every day.  We have moved the TV into our bedroom along with the kids too.  We have no heat except for one electric heater.  We are all piling in our room so we can stay warm.  Last night, we watched Pirates of the Carribean.  Brayden LOVED this movie, he layed in our bed with us and wanted to cuddle with us.  So, even though during the day, he acts so independent and "big", there is still a little boy inside who needs to be loved and held :)  Abby and Alyssa are still the best of friends.  They copy eachother with a lot of things they do.  I think I am going to put Abby in gymnastics when we get home because she is definately a little monkey :)  She loves to flip and climb pretty much anything.  It is bad at the same time though because she is ALWAYS getting hurt.  She jumps off of things that I would never think about jumping off of, she doesn't think twice about doing a back flip when she doesn't know how to do one.  Last night, se was on the bed and decided to jump to Papa while he was turned around.....................not good...................he didn't know she was coming and she fell and twisted her ankle.  It was very scary at first because we thought she broke it, but when she ended up moving it we were very relieved.  It never swelled up or turned blue, but I woke up about 5am to her sniffling.  Poor thing was laying there crying quietly becuse she was in pain.  Alyssa was awake too and said "Mommy, her foot hurts really bad"  I gave hersome tylenol and put her in the bed with us and she fell back asleep for a couple of hours.  She seems to be fine now thank goodness. 

We went to the beach yesterday with Irina.  It was so pretty there looking out at the big ships and seeing Russia on the horizon.  We didn't stay long because it was really cold there and I started to feel really horrible.  The kids found a few shells, skipped rocks, and Abby and Brayden enjoyed their time with Irina.  She is such a sweet lady with such a kind heart for kids.  We are going to see her once more before we leave for Simferopol (which will hopefully be Monday).  We may be in Simferopol until Tues or Wednesday at the latest for more paperwork.  Good news............. there is a McDonalds there!!!!  YEAH!!!!!  I can get a Fish O' Fillet ( It is by no means a Turkey, Basil & Pesto Frescata, but it will do)  And then we'll be on our way to Kyiv hopefully by Wednesday if not sooner.  I am hoping that we will be able to leave for America next weekend. 

After the beach, we went to the grocery store and then I went back to the apartment and rested and read a book for a few hours while Chris took the kids out for a walk. 

I am also proud of my kiddos because they do not seem to be picky eaters.  Alyssa has even started to eat more things now :)  Abby LOVES salad................YAY!!!!!!  Infact they are all eating salad.  Brayden and Abby both LOVE mayonaise.............they will dip anything in it and eati it alone it you let them.  I fixed speghetti last night and they all three cleaned thier plates.  I wonder if that is the first time they have had speghetti?

They are learning more English words everyday.  So far they both know by heart.........Hello, Hi, Good Morning, Good Night, Please, Thank you, Your Welcome, Excuse Me, I'm Sorry, Yucky, Yummy, Yes, No, Okay, Let's Go, Shoes, Pizza, Computer, Music, Juice, Fanta, Coca Cola, Macaroni, their ABC's., numbers 1-10.  That is all I can think of so far, but I am sure there are more.  Oh, and the prayer that we do before meals (a cute rhyming one that Alyssa learned at school) They know the hand motions and a few words in it. 

Better go now, we never had a chance to climb the mountian the other day, so we are going to try it today (although I am NOT up to it with this cold). 

Having a BLAST in Kerch..........

I typed up a long entry yesterday and it obviously didn't post, so here I go again............

Look at the previous entry for recent pics......

We have our whole family together now!!!!  It is so much fun, we are having a BLAST :)  Yeah, I know, this is the "honeymoon phase"  but for now, I am lovin' it :)  The kids are so great and I thank God so much for bringing us all together. 

We picked the kids up Saturday morning..........they were so excited to leave and to come with us!!!!  They left their lives there and didn't turn back.  I figured since they were older, they would be a little sad, but they were not at all!!  I was sad a little and even started to cry when Abby's caretaker hugged me and told me to have a good life with our children. 

Brayden............He is doing so well.  He is such a sweet boy, but is having some probems when it comes to not getting his way all the time.  Since we have a communication barrier, he doesn't understand why he can't play the gameboy ALL DAY, or watch movies ALL DAY.  When we tell him no, he will pout and then get over it a few minutes later.  Other than that, he is being so good!!  He reminds me of my nephew Dawson so much!! :)  I think they will get along great when we come home.  We have been letting all 3 children sleep in the same room, Brayden on a cot and the girls in the bed.  Last night we let Brayden sleep with us and he was so excited.  He is bonding more and more with us every day, and us with him.  He is so sweet because he has no problem helping me in the kitchen (he likes to set the table) and he says "Thank you Mama" after he is done eating.  He loves to play in the bath :)  You would think he has never had one before as happy as he is in the tub.  Yesterday we went to buy the kids hats (it is getting very cold) and while at the store we let Brayden pick out 2 toys.  We have so many girl things with us and I think he was getting bored.  He picked out a spiderman figurine and a remote control "Machina" (car).  He LOVES his car and plays with it all the time now :) 

Abigail...............She is just a sweetheart!!!!!!!!!  For those of you who know Alyssa, and know how sweet she is, Abby is the same way :)  She LOVES to cuddle!!!!!!  She is so excited because she knows that tonight she gets to sleep in Mama and Papa's bed.  We are going to take turns with all the children every night.  ALyssa and Brayden are a little shy, but Abby, she is FAR from shy.  She has the most beautiful smile that will melt your heart!!!  She smiles at everyone and will talk to anyone (which can be a bad thing sometimes).  This morning we were sitting by the ocean and there were older men out there fishing.  She ran up to one of them and just started talking to him about his fish and started picking them up and playing with them (yuck).  The whole time she was talking to him, she was grinning at him and he just smiled back at her.  I don't think that anyone who meets her wouldn't fall in love with her :)  She is just ALWAYS so happy and loving!!!  She has the sweetest little voice :)  She takes after me when it comes to allergies!  Our apartment is right above another that is being remodled and from all the vibrations, we have dust all over our bathroom.  I mean, it it a thick layer of white dust, it is horrible!!!  I clean it up as good as I can, but it is impossible to get it all.  Alyssa and Abby were taking a bath the other night and I guess from being in there too long, it was too much for her.  Her nose was running and her eyes were watering.  After she went through about 20,000 tissues, I gave her 2 benadryll.  Well, that knocked her out cold, but atleast it dried her up :)  The next moring her allergies were bad again and her nose was raw from all the tissues.  Also, her nose bled twice yesterday.  Does anyone know if that is normal??  We were thinking about taking her to the Dr., but today she seems to be doing fine. 

Alyssa................She is my little trooper!!!  She has done SO GREAT this whole time we have been in Ukraine!!!!!  She hardly ever complains and is loving having her brother and sister to play with.  Alyssa plays very,very,very well with Abby!!!!  They are great friends :)  So far there has been no fighting between them.  Brayden kindof does his own thing most of the time. 

Oh, and no more sleeping in for me :)  The kids are up bright and early every morning jumping on us and wanting to eat.  

Today we are going to take them on a hike up the mountian and then to eat pizza again.  We had it for lunch yesterday too.  They LOVED the pizza and Brayden asked if we could eat it againtoday. 

One more week and we should be headed to Simferopol to try to get train tickets for Kyiv.  I am excited about Simferopol..............there is a McDonalds there!!!!!!

Gotta go now, Abby is climbing all over me and the kids are hungry.  But not before I check e-mails and comments. 

Cindy...........Since I don't have time to e-mail, I will tell you on here...........Sveta talked to the director and he said we would have to ask the secretary since she should have the information.  She is on sick leave and will be back by Monday the 23rd.  She will ask her then.  Oh, and the director LOVED the pictures!  He said he remembers you and that your daughter was tired??  Maybe she was sleeping when he saw her??

Renee from FRUA............The director's name is different than what you told me.  Were they in the Kerch Boarding School on Apryl Street?  He looked up their names and didn't find them, but said the secretary will have the info for children who were previously at the boarding school.  I'll let you know what I find out Monday.

Love to you all and please continue to keep us in your prayers!!!
Chris, Julie, Brayden, Abigail, and Alyssa

 

Everything is going so perfect.........

I am sitting here almost in tears right now just thinking about our family and how we will all be together for good tomorrow.  By the way, the director said that we could get our kids tomorrow.  YAY!!!!!  That is a huge answer to prayer!!!  Words cannot express how happy I am!!!!!  :)  Sveta told Abigail and Brayden this morning that they would be staying with us after today.  They seemed very excited, especially Abigail..........she was smiling so big and you could hear the excitement in her voice.  This morning we took them to get their passport photos and to get ice cream.  They had a blast!  We are all going to have so much fun together.  However, I must say, that the sibling rivalry has officially begun.........today in the ice cream parlor, Alyssa was begging for Abby's ice cream because hers wasn't the "exact" color as Abby's and she liked Abby's better.  I wasn't about to give in to that, and she eventually got over it :) 

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for your nice comments!!!!  I miss you all so much and can't wait to come home!!! 

I will update more tomorrow when we have the kids to let you know how that is going. 

Love,

Chris, Julie, Brayden, Abigail, and Alyssa

Our family of three is now a family of FIVE.........

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We had court today and we are now officially the parents of Brayden Sergey and Abigail Elena :) :)  The judge liked us very much and said that we look like a very nice couple.  The court hearing only lasted about 30 minutes.  They asked Chris a few questions about his buisiness, our income, etc.  And they asked me a few, like how we are getting along with the children, how we are communicating, about school when they get home, etc.  We felt very comfortable the whole time and not the least bit nervous.  Alysssa was allowed in the courtroom with us and she did very good!  That could also be for the fact that she knew she was getting an ice cream afterwards if she behaved.  She sat very still for the first 10 minutes, and then she fell asleep :)  So, we celebrated court afterwards with an ice cream in the cold windy weather.  I am not sure if I mentioned this or not but the weather has been pretty hot the whole time until aout 3 days ago, the temp dropped about 15 degrees.  I hear it is even colder in Kyiv. 

We aren't going to see Brayden and Abby tonight because it has gotten too late, but we did get to see them this morning.  We pulled up to the orphanage about 8am to go get their blood taken.  They looked so sweet standing there waiting on us with a caretaker.  Their eyes were as wide as saucers as they got into the van.  When they sat down they had a grin on their face and the grin was on their face the whole way to the hospital.  They were just amazed, registering all of what they saw into their little heads :)  When we got to the hospital, we walked into a hallway and waited for them to call them in one by one.  Abby went first and came out about 2 minutes later like nothing ever happened.  I couldn't believe it, I was for sure that she would atleast have tears in her eyes.  Then when it was Brayden's turn he was the same way. 

Tomorrow morning we are taking them to get their passport photos.  A little bad news is that the director of the orphanage is in Simferopol until Saturday.  So, we may have to wait until Saturday to get the children.  Sveta is going to call him tonight to see what he says.  Our 10 day wait will beover on Sunday the 22nd and we have a few papers to pick up on Monday the 23rd.  If all goes well and we pick up the papers on that day, we will hopefully get to leave on the overnight train that evening and arrive in Kyiv on the 24th.  That is IF there are train tickets available for the 6 of us.  If not, we may have to wait a day or two, or we could fly.  So, if we get to Kyiv on the 24th as planned, we could "possibly" be free to come home by the 26th.  And that is IF we can exchange our airline tickets for the 26th.  I, however, am not holding my breath and am assuming that we will not be home until atleast November 1st or so.  We'll see, but I don't want to get my hopes up.  But most importantly is the fact that we had court today and the children are officially ours :) 

Thank you all for your prayers!!!!!

We will update more tomorrow hopefully.

Love,

Chris, Julie, Brayden, Abigail and Alyssa

Not much to update for now.....

We don't have too much to update for now except to say that everyone is doing fine and that our translator got the paper needed for court from the Adoption center this morning.  She will leave on the overnight train this evening to be here tomorrow for court.  Also, tomorrow at 7:45am, we are taking Abby and Brayden to get some blood tests done that are necessary for the US Embassy in Ukraine.  It will be neat to take them in a car for the first time with us, but it is kindof bad that it has to be to get a needle stuck in them :(  We will then take them back to the orphanage and go home to get ready for the court hearing.  I can't wait!!!!  I just can't wait to hear the words from the judge that officially we are the parents of Abigail and Brayden.  When I heard those words in 2004 about us being Alyssa's parents, I just started crying.........It is such a cool feeling, it is kindof like finally giving birth :)  Other adoptive parents know what I mean :) 

We are falling in love with these kids more and more every day.  Two days ago when we had to leave Abby, she almost started to cry.  The look on her face jsut broke my heart.  Hopefully Thursday will be the last time we will have to leave them...............oh, I forgot to say that we will not be able to get the children until Friday because the director of the orphanage will probably not be there by the time court is over, and he is the one who has to approve it. 

There should be a few pictures on this blog in the next day or two.  They are just random pics of the kids. 

Please say a huge prayer for us tomorrow!!!  And thank you all for the comments and e-mails!!!

Love,

Chris, Julie, Brayden, Abigail and Alyssa

Three siblings finally reunited

First of all..........BRAYDEN GOT A BATH..........YAY!!!!!!! :)  And he was in fresh clean clothes!!!!

Saturday we got all 3 of our kids together for the first time.  They played really well together!  So far there has been no fighting, but I know that will come in time. All 3 children are completely different in the way they act, but they all look so much alike. We have had them together 2 times now and so far they pretty much do their own thing.  Except for when we do things like play chase, or kicking a soccer ball around.  Hey, at the rate we're going, we'll have enough for our own soccer team in a few years :) JUST KIDDING!!!!

Yesterday, Abigail fell down and she was trying so hard not to cry.  She was fighting itback with all that she had, but when Chris picked her up and cuddled with her, she let it out a little.  It was so sad, but it was neat to see Brayden's reaction to her getting hurt......you could tell it bothered him really bad.  Oh, and Brayden is calling Dina, Abigail now :)  Well, most times, but we have noticed that when he doesn't call her Abigail, he calls her "Dinka" I think it is sortof like a pet name?  Alyssa is still calling Abigail "Dina".  She says she likes it better :)  It is cute how Abigail and Brayden pronounce Alyssa's name. Brayden calls her "Aleesa" and Abby calls her"Ally-Issa" It is just their accents. Their accents are very cute...........Brayden calls himself "Brayden" but rolls the "R" in his name :)  I also noticed that instead of Sergey, his friends and caretakers call him:"Sarosha"??  Maybe another pet name??

Alyssa has mastered a few things since we have been in Ukraine.  She has learned to play the gameboy VERY WELL and can beat boards on Donkey Kong that I can't even beat.  She is pullup free now! Hallelujiah!!!! I will still put them on her on the overnight train and the airplane though (just in case). And most importantly, she has learned to tie her shoes!!!!!!!  She is so proud of herself, and we are so proud of her as well :)  She has been such a trooper while here and has not complained about the 400 miles that we walk each day. Well, she complained the first day until Mommy had a long talk with her telling her that basically she had no choice and this is how it was going to be for a while.  Since then, pretty much the only thing she used to complain about is sitting in the internet cafe for so long...........that is when the mastering of the gameboy took place :)  Now, she looks forward to the internet cafe :) 

As far as court, we will have court on Thursday at 2pm.  Please pray that it goes smoothly and again, that we'll be able to get Abigail and Brayden for the 10 day wait. 

I almost forgot..........2 days ago, we climbed a mountian that is in the middle of the city.  There are steps that go all the way to the top. We has themost beautiful view from up there looking down on the town and at the sea.  We are posting pictures of that along with apicture of Chris and Alyssa riding a horse, Alyssa riding a power wheel 4-wheeler, Alyssa riding on Papa's backpack, and a few of the children. 

We are having fun, but we are VERY ready to come home!

Let me say to 2 little girls out there.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!! Kylee and Madison, I hope you had wonderful birthdays and I am sorry that we missed them.  Alyssa had a great birthday, we asked her on that day, if she could do anything for her birthday what would it be, and she said "Eat ice cream"  :) LOL!! So, we walked to the store and bought her an ice cream and she was very happy :)  Also, Sveta,our translator, got her a gift. She bought her some cute hair clips and bows and a card.  That was very thoughtful of her.  On my birthday, Sveta got me a very pretty red wallet and nail polish. 

OK, I gotta go now, need to check our comments and e-mails.

Only 3 more visits to the orphanage to go!!! YAY!!!!!

Love,

Chris, Julie, Brayden, Abigail and Alyssa

Hanging out with the kids.....

Brayden is out of the hospital!!!!!!!!!!!  Finally, but he has still not had a bath :(  If he doesn't get one by today, we are going to say something to the caregivers about it.  We give him a wet wipe and let him wipe himself down whenever we see him, but to not have a bath and to still be in the same clothes for over a week???? YUCK!  We have more good news though............today, they are going to let us take Brayden to Abby's orphanage!!!  So, we'll have all 3 children together for the first time :)  I am curious to see how they all interact.  We are hoping for only 5 more days or less of visiting them and we'll have them with us full time. Please pray for us to be able to get them for the10 day wait, it is all up to the orphanage director. 

The children in both kids groupa's are so sweet! It was so sad yesterday because one little girl in Abby's group told me that she wanted to come to America too :(  I told her that her Mama and Papa would come one day. I didn't know what else to say. In Brayden's groupa there are 7 yr. old twins that are just great boys :) We had fun with them too yesterday.  Their names are Vova and Sasha and they are adorable :)  A 14 yr.old boy, Sergey, walked up to us and I noticed that he had a shirt on that said "The Least of These".  It is a christian organization ran by Rich Richmond and his wife.  They take a team a few times each year to Kerch and a few other cities in Ukraine to spread the gospel to the children.  www.theleastofthese.org  Well, Sergey pulled out a bible that he was given, I am guessing, from this organization. He was so proud of his bible.  I asked him if I could see it, and Chris and I looked through it. It is written in Russian, and this kid had obviously been reading it because it had markings all in it along with lots of pieces of torn paper bookmarking different passages. It really touched our hearts. What the Richmond's and their teams are doing is working, God Bless them!!!

While it is fun hanging out with all of the kids, we really do need our time to bond with our kids.  And that is really hard to do when all of the other kids are around.  Maybe today we'll try to take them to a place more private so we can interract with just them for a little bit, and then at the end of our visit we can play with all of the children. 

Yesterday, while visiting with Abby, we let her listen to music with headphones.  At first she was grinning from ear to ear, and then she started to sing really loud :)  The songs are children's songs that are in Russian and English. She sang the Russian part well and actually did pretty good on the English part.  I think she is going to learn English pretty fast :) I guess we'll see :) 

The mesquitos are very bad here at night. We have been keeping our balcony doors open while we are sleeping because it gets hot.  Well, it is not worth the 10+ bugbites we have the next morning.  I would spray with bug spray, but it would be gross to get it all over our sheets.

Last night I cooked the best meal yet! I stirfried chicken with bellbeppers, garlic and onions in butter, oil, and an AWESOME spice packet that I bought. I have no idea what is in the spice packet, except I do taste ginger in it.  Chris told me to buy aboiut 20 of these packets to take home:)  I also cooked my MIL, Caroline's famous frenchfries:)  I cut up potatoes very thin and cooked them in oil on a high temp for about an hour. They were so crispy and chewy! YUMMY!! Oh, and I made some crab salad with crabmeat, seashell pasta, peas and mayonaise. I think we will probably just cook in the room everynight, it is much easier, and cheaper than going out to eat. And the food is much better too :)

Well, I better go for now. I haven't read the comments or e-mails yet, but will in a minute! Again, thanks for them, we look forward to reading them :)

Oh, and I have had a few people ask me about the toilet pictures!! Don't worry, they are NOT the toilets in our apartment.  The latest is of a public toilet in Kyiv, and the toilet on the overnight train.  Trust me, the pictures do the toilets no justice. Imagine what you see in the picture accompanied by a smell so bad that you could not imagine. But just so you know, the toilets are NOT like this everywhere, only a few of them we have been in are like this, and there are some that are worse too :) 

It is hard for me to explain the pictures on our blog since I am never sure which ones are going to make it to our blog.  A couple of the pics from a few entries ago, you saw a lady with each of the children. This lady is Irina, the angel who was "looking out" for our kids for us until we could get there.  It was so great to meet her in person.  She is a wonderful Christian lady who truly cares for children.  The pictures you will see next (maybe in a day or two) are of our trip to Yolichka (Alyssa's orphanage) One she is standing in the bathroom of her old groupa and the other one is when one of her caretaker's saw her :) The others are of Brayden and Abigail, and one is of me and Alyssa with the Black Sea in the background. We are less than a minute walk from the ocean, but since Kerch is a port city, there is no beach, just a wall.  It is still neat to walk by the sea though, just to feel the breeze from the water and to watch fish and jelly fish swimming by.  When we get the kids with us, we are going to get a taxi to take us to the nearest beach.

Yeah, I know, I said I had to go............so I am really going now.

Love to you all,

Chris, Julie, Brayden, Abigail, and Alyssa

Could someone FedEx me a Frescata from Wendy's Please???

Hi everyone!!  We came to the internet cafe earlier this AM so we would have more time to read e-mail and journal.  Hope everything is going well back in the US.  Is there anything new happening back at home?  We have NO access to English channels on our TV so have not heard news in over a week. 

We went to Simferopol yesterday and we had a nice visit at Alyssa's orpanage.  Unfortunately, there was only one caretaker there yesterday that we remembered, but it was well worth the trip.  I swear, I thought the caretaker was going to have a heartattack when she saw Alyssa :)  She grabbed her and hugged her so tight (it scared Alyssa) but I thought it was so sweet. We have a few pics of it that we'll post soon.  We let Alyssa walk around the orphanage grounds for a little bit.  She remembered a little I think.  We then gave the director pictures of Alyssa (we made a little album of her growing up).  He was very happy to recieve the pictures.  We also gave him pictures of another little girl who was adopted from Yolichka about the same time.  Her mother and I keep in touch via e-mail.  He oohed and aahed over the two girls for a while along with a few other people that were in the room.  If you are reading this (Gianna's mom) our translator asked him to please let us show the pictures to her caretakers and we would give the pictures back.  He said that he didn't think the ones in the picture were working that day and he would show them to the groupa later.  Sorry that we couldn't do it ourselves so we could let you know their reactions.  But, if it makes you feel any better he was VERY glad to see them.  :) 

After the orphanage visit, we went to Chelentanos, a pizza place we always ate at when we were there in 2004, and got 2 pizzas and 2 salads to go.  We then dropped our translator off at the train station............she had to go back to Kyiv to translate some documents to be submitted at the SDA.  She will come back right before court next week and then leave again after court.  So, we are on our own now, but we can still call her everyday and she will get us a taxi to go to and from the orphanage.  After the train station, we were on our way back to Kerch, a long 3 hour drive.  Chris and I watched a movie and Alyssa played the Gameboy the whole way.

When we got home, we realized that we still had enough time to visit one of the children.  We decided to visit Sergey since he was still in the hospital and was so sad the day before when I told him that we wouldn't be there on Wednesday.  We rode over to the hospital to suprise him.  He was VERY excited when we walked in the door!!!!!  He ran to me and gave me a big hug and then he showed us how his balloons had popped and how his beachball had a hole in it.  :(  Chris decided to rip up the beachball into strips and tie them together.  We played "tug of war" with the "rope" for a while, it was fun.  One of the nurses then came in to take Sergey's temperature.  She was talking up a storm with us and Sergey was just laughing telling her that we don't understand Russian. He then was telling the nurse that we he was going to America with us, and that we were his Mama and Papa and Alyssa was his sister.  He was so excited while he was telling her this.  When the nurse left, we went through a Finding Nemo work/color book that we had left with him.   He did a few word searches and then I wrote the English Alphabet.  He knows almost every letter and can even sound out words already :)  I am guessing he is learning this in school.  Oh, and last night, Sergey really came out of his shell!!!!!  I tickled him one time and that was all it took :)  Mama, Papa, Alyssa and Sergey were having a tickling match :)  It was so much fun and I have never heard Sergey laugh so hard!!  I finally had to call it quits and we sat down and I tried to exlain to him about his new American name.  I told him that Dina's new name was Abigail and that his was Brayden.  He seemed to be OK with it, if he understood what I said, that is :)  We had to tell him goodbye because it was getting late. He was sad, but he told me that we was going back to the boarding school tomorrow (today).  Well, he said "internat and zaftra" Internat is another name for orphanage or boarding school and zaftra means tomorrow.  So, we are HOPING and PRAYING that he will really be out of the hospital today.  I really don't think I could have taken visiting him in that place another day.

Abigail................what a fun, crazy, silly and precious cutie pie she is :) :) :)  She is going by her new name now and when I ask her what her name is, she tells us "Abigail".  She'll put on my sunglasses and say"American Girl" (her caretaker taught her that).  She loves to be chased, yet loves to be held.  She loves to run up to you and flip all over you, yet loves to cuddle.  I can't wait to see her again today, I missed her so much yesterday.  Alyssa and Abby played very good Tuesday.  They collected snails, there is a wall at the orphanage that have TONS of snails on it.  The girls must have had about 20 or so in a pile. YUCK!  Then we played with a soccer ball that we bought at the market for a while.  After that Chris hid behind on one of the buildings and while the girls started running, he jumped out and scared them.  Abigail was laughing so hard and she go so tickled and told me (in Russian and hand motions) exactly what happened, but she wsa laughing so hard she could barely talk :)  Alyssa, Chris and I were cracking up laughing at her laughing............it was hilarious!!!  LOL!! 

I can't wait to see all three children together.  I don't kow when that will happen yet because Abby's orphanage is so far away from Sergey's.  Well they are in walking distance, but about a 10 minute walk.  We may have to wait until after court.

As far as food, we are eating in the room for dinner most nights.  Last night after Sergey's visit, we ate our Chelentanos pizza, crab salad and pickles.  The two nights before, we ate meatless speghetti (can't find ground beef here) It actually turned out pretty yummy.  Tonight, we are going to have leftover pizza and the little bit of speghetti that is left.  I told Chris the other day that the FIRST thing I want to do when we leave the airport in Atlanta is to go through the Wendy's drivethrough to get a Turkey & Basil Pesto Frescata!!!  I am craving one so badly right now!!!  :)  So, if anyone wants, could you FedEx me one please??  Ha! Ha!  Just kidding..........well sortof :)

Thanks Teri and Jess for the comments about the clothes, I'll have to try the bleach thing for sure, although I do like the color of my shirt :) 

Laurel, I don't know why you can't see the pictures???  They usually show up in the upper right hand corner of each entry.  Let me know if you still don't see them.  Sometimes it takes a while for them to load.

Tom, thanks for getting me in touch with the missionaries in Simferopol.  Unfortunately theycould not make it to the orphanage while we were there, but left a few pitures with the orphanage director.  There weren't any of Alyssa in them, but tell them I said thank you for trying to help.

Cindy,  I showed the pictures of Evan to his groupa and they LOVED looking at them.  All the kids and 2 caretakers were gathered around the table for about 15 minutes looking at him, pointing at them and saying his name.  When the caretaker gave the pictures back she told me thank you and was very sincere you could tell :)  When our translator gets back, I'll tell her to give them to the director. 

Nikki, not sure if you read the journal or not, but any news yet???  I've been thinking about you.

Mama, how is flip-flop and Casey? 

Tiff, THANK YOU for posting pictures!!!!!  We are sending you more today. 

Everyone else, THANK you for your comments, prayers, thoughts, and everything else!!!  We are ready to come home, but it'll be a while :)  Looks like we we probably won't make Halloween, but atleast we'll make Thanksgiving..........we have A LOT to be thankful for this year!!!

And most of all..............THANK YOU GOD...............thank you for bringing our family together!  I love you!!!

Love to you all,

Chris, Julie, Brayden, Abigail, and Alyssa

 

Having a great time.......

When we started trying for our family in 2002, I would've NEVER guessed that 2 years later we would be the proud parents of a beautiful 3 year old Ukrainian girl who has and still is blessing our lives more that I could've ever imagined.  And now, soon to be the parents of the sweetest 8 yr. old boy in the world and the most adorable little 6 yr. old Ukrainian beauty............I just can't beleive it!  The Lord has truly blessed our family!!!

The visits with Abigail and Brayden are getting better everyday.  Sergey/Brayden (we are still calling him Sergey for now) is opening up to us more and more each day.  He is still in the hospital, but we are now allowed in the room with him.  We even got to take him outside for a little bit yesterday to play ball.  I think he is a natural little soccer player :)  Alyssa gave him a flower yesterday and later on in the visit, he put the flower in my hair.  He is so sweet :)  The communication barrier is pretty hard, but hopefully he'll learn more English words each day to make it easier.  He started learning English in his classroom this year, but the only words he knows are........boy, girl, teacher and Umbrella :)  He talks to us in Russian and I tell him "Ya ne Penimyou" (I don't understand) and when we talk to him he will sometimes say the same thing to us.  Yesterday we blew up 2 balloons.  I drew a face on one and wrote "papa" in Russian on it.  Sergey thought that was so funny, so he drew a face on the other one and wrote "mama" on that one.  I can't wait unil he gets out of the hospital, the building is so horrible!!!  A building like this in America would be condemed.  Also, he had been in the same clothes since he has been there and they haven't been washed, and his toilet is broken and doesn't seem to flush.  We are going to see him after we leave the internet cafe, I am hoping when we get there, he will not be there anymore.  I would much rather visit him at the boarding school. 

Abigail..........she is such a little princess :)  SHe loves it when I do her hair, except for yesterday, she wanted to do it herself.......LOL!!  She put it in a ponytail, but since her hair is so short it was falling out on the sides, so she added about 10 clips on each side.  She seems to be into fashion :)  She is really good with Alyssa and acts like she is her big sister and tries to help her do things like climb trees, and other things on the playground.  Abigail could climb anything she was wanted to with enough determination, Alyssa on the otherhand isn't as strong in her arms yet.  But Abby helps her out :)  It is so funny to see Abby acting like the big sister when she is a smaller, it is cute :)  Alyssa got a little sad yesterday because Abby wasn't into being wild and running around, hmmm........maybe she is getting sick??  Just kidding, but atleast she has a calm cuddly side :)  When it was time to go Abigail started to act up a little. She didn't want to go inside, well at first she refused to go inside until I picked her up and made her.  While saying our goodbyes, she acted a little sad.  The other times she would cheerfully say "Dasvidanya" (Goodbye) and run inside.  This time it wasn't like that at all.  That is exactly what Alyssa did when we were visiting her at her orphanage.  At first she was fine with us leaving, and then it got harder everyday.  So hard to the point that I would leave in tears and she would be crying as well.  I know it will proabably be like that this time too.  We have 10 more days of this and then we get them for the 10 day wait after court (Lord willing). 

We tried to post pictures again, but it did not work.  So far the only thing that has worked is sending them to Chris's sister and she posts thembut for the past 2 days we can't even do that.  We are still tryin Tiff, so be on the lookout for some in the next couple of days. 

Tomorrow, we are going clothes shopping for Sergey.  For those who have asked, here are his measurements:

Chest 25"  Waist 24"   Inseam 21"  hips 27"  Height  51"  Foot 8"

According to the chart I have, he would be a size 8 I think and a shoe size 2 in shoes

Abigail measures:

Chest 21.5"  Waist 21"  Inseam 17"  hips 23.5"  Height 43"  Foot 7"

She should be a size 5 and a size 11.5

We are going to Simferopol on Wdnesday to visit Alyssa's orphanage.  It is a 3 hr. ride there and 3 hr. ride back, so we won't get to see the kids that day. We probably will not get to post again until Thursday, but we'll try to do it sooner.  The connection here is sooooooooooooo slooooooooooooooow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Thankseveryone for your e-mails and comments :)  We enjoy reading them "when we can" but may not be able to respond to each one because of the connection. 

Oh, one more thing.......What do you get when you wash a pair of dark blue jeans with whites????  A very pretty shade of blue actually :)  What was I thinking?I have no clue, but now my white shirt, Alyssa's white shirt and tights and a few pair of tighty "whities" are a powder blue color :)  LOL!!!!  It looks good thought because it came out very nice and even! 

Gotta go see our boy now!  Hopefully you'll see some new pics of our cutie pies soon (if we can make it work)

Love,

Chris, Julie, Alyssa, Abigail and Brayden

I have a few minutes to update again, so I will write as much as I can.  We are trying to post pictures to our blog today too. 

Kerch is such a beautiful, cozy little city.  It is right on the black sea, and our walk to our apartment from the city is so nice.  We walk right by the water and to our left is an amusement park (it is not working right now though).  The weather had been nice so far and pretty hot during the day and cool at night.  Today it is chilly and it looks like it is going to rain.  Our apartment is very very nice!!!!  We have hot water and a washing machine so I am in heaven :)  I cooked a meal in our apatment last night (baked chicken, macaroni and cheese, and garlic bread).  It was very good.  Oh, and Alyssa has become very good friends with a baby kitten outside of our apartment.  The kitten is so cute, she is black and looks just like our cat, Casey.  Alyssa has named her Casey James :)  I told her her name was Casey Junior, but I guess she forgot and is calling her Casey James now.  This morning she gave her some milk and put her back to bed (a small shoe box with a shirt inside)  For now our translator is staying with us, but will go back to Kyiv during our 10 wait day after court.  Speaking of court, we won't be able to have court until the Thursday the 12th.  Unless for some reason we can get our paperwork before then, but it will definately not be before the 9th. 

OK, about the kids........

Sergey(Brayden), let me just say that he has got to be the sweetest little boy in the whole world!!!!  As you know, he has the measels and is in the hospital..............well, we went to see him yesterday.  Poor thing has been by himself in a small room with nothing except for a bed, a window, a chair and a peice of candy.  They do feed him, but he had NOTHING else.  When we got there, Sergey smiled so big when he saw us, it was like he was releived or something.  We couldn't go into is room to get close to him, but we stood in the doorway.  We had a goody bag for him (cookies, juice, mini magnadoodle, and a kids magazine)  He was SO excited to get that, you would've thought it was Chrismas :) Sveta had told Sergey the first day we saw him that it was Alyssa's birthday on the 29th.  And you know what he did?  He walked up to Alyssa and handed her that one peice of candy that he had and told her happy birthday!!!  I just about cried, it was so sweet :)  He had been waiting for us all day to get there so he could give this candy to Alyssa :)  We are going to see him again in a few minutes, we have more goodies for him.  I can't wait!

Dina (Abigail)..............she is SO much fun :)  Never a dull moment around her :)  She is so energetic, but proved yesterday that she could be still and cuddly.  I fixed her hair in little pigtails and it was so cute :)  We tried some of Alyssa's clothes on her and they fit her perfect. But the sad part about that was she thought the clothes were for her to keep, so she took them to her cubby and we had to tell her that she would have to wait until she was with us to wear them. We are going to see her today at 4 after we vistit with Sergey.  Alyssa can't wait because she loves playing with her :)  Abby will talk to Alyssa in Russian and Alyssa will talk to Abby in English, it is so funny, but they seem to understand eachother.  Abby will talk to us in Russian too, although she knows we don't understand.  She just laughs when we shrug our sholders. She is such a great little person and I am so blessed to have her, Sergey (Brayden) and Alyssa in my life!!!!  I'll update more tomorrow when I have some more time, we have to leave now.  My sister in law is supposed to be putting pictures on our blog for us, so maybe you will get to see them today.  Chris has put one on here(takes forever).

THANK YOU ALL for your suggestions and advice about Alyssa's croup.  She is getting much better now.

Love,

Chris, Julie, Alyssa, Abigail, and Brayden 

Met the kids!!!!!!!

First, let me apoligize that I do not have any pictures for ya'll.  I have been trying to post them for the past hour (we are at an internet cafe), and it is not happening tonight.  :(  I will try again though. 

So, we met our children!!!!!!!!  They are great!!!  Yesterday, we met Dina first.  She was so excited to see us!  She ran up to me saying, "Mama" and I hugged her and it felt so good to finally hold her in my arms!!!  Then Alyssa came up to her.  Dina smiled at her and our translator told Dina that Alyssa was her sister.  They  grabbed hands and just looked at eachother smiling.  It was so cute :)  When Chris was done videotaping, she went up to him and hugged him too.  Dina, she is definately not a shy one!  She talks so much, I just wish we could understand her.  We played for a little while and then it was time to go see Sergey.  They told us that the Measels were going around in his group and 6 were already in the hospital with it.  One had gotten better and was about to be released.  Well, it turned out that Sergey had a cold, so was in a different building seperated from the other children.  When we got to where he was, he was acting very shy, sort of stand-offish.  He was smiling at us though and he finally came and sat next to me.  All of his friends were around and being VERY wild and teasing him a little since his mama and papa were there.  Sergey interacted with Alyssa a little by showing her a dog that was at the orphanage and they were both petting him.  I could tell that Sergey didn't feel well though.  It was time for us to leave, so we said out goodbyes. 

Today we ran around and did paperwork all day, and then went to see the children late this afternooon.  We went to see Sergey first while the other children would still be in class and we wouldn't be distracted.  Well, guess what???  It turns out that HE has the measels now too :(  He is in the hospital and will be there for 7 days they say.  We are allowed to go visit him there, but can only wave to him through the window and send him stuff.  I feel so bad for him............no wonder he wasn't acting himself yesterday.  Poor thing :(  Please pray that he gets better soon.  We then went to see Dina.  The other kids saw us yelled to Dina that we were here.  You should'veseen her.  She ran outside so fast and ran right up to me so fast and jumped into my arms.  Then she ran up to Papa and she threw her up in the air.  There were to chairs where we were and she sat in one of them and saw Alyssa.  She told Alyssa to sit by her.  She actually said "Alyssa", I couldn't beleive she remembered her name :)  She and Alyssa played so good for a while.  I think Dina wore Alyssa out, she is DEFINATELY very active!  Well, I think they ended up wearing eachother out because they both came up to us sweating and sat down for a while.  We showed Dina our pictures of home, family, etc.  She loved to look at those.  Dina downed 3 juice boxes, while Alyssa only drank half of one.  Oh, and since you can't see a picture right now, she is about an inch shorter than Alyssa, and her feet are about a size smaller too.  We measured her, but left the measurements in the car.  I will let ya'll know her sizes tomorrow (for those of you who asked).  I guess I won't know Sergey's for another week or so :(  I really hate that we are missing out on this bonding time with him, but there is nothing we can do about it. 

As far as how long we will be here, the judge is out of town until Monday, October 9th.  We shoiuld have court sometime that week (we are praying for that Monday).  After court, we have to wait the manditory 10 days (the kids should be able to stay with us during this time), and then a day or two (hopefully) later we will be headed back to Kyiv and we will have another 2-4 days there, and then be heading home.  So, we are thinking, hoping, praying that we will make it home before the end of the month. 

We had to "officially" name them this morning.  We wanted to talk to the chilren about it first, but had no choice since the judge needed to know for court.  So there names are

Brayden Sergey and Abigail Elena

Yes, I know, we changed Dina's middle name................We couldn't decide on Abigail, or Alena, so we decided to use both and Chris requested that we changed Alena to Elena (he thought it was prettier) and it is her birthmother's name.  For now, we are still calling her "Dina" and we will probably continue to call Sergey, "Sergey" for a little while until they are with us for the 10 day wait. 

Alright, that is all for now.  I will try to type more detail later, it is just hard at the internet cafe.  Maybe I can figure out how to type on our laptop and transfer it to a computer here. 

Please, please, please pray that Sergey gets better soon and please pray for everything to go smoothly so we can get home with our new family :)

I haven't checked e-mail in a couple of days and I will check all of them tomorrow.

Love,

Chris, Julie, Alyssa, Abigail and Sergey

 

Last entry before we head to Kerch....

I figured since we had about 30 minutes to spare, I would update one more time before we head off to Kerch.  We are leaving soon to go get our referral letter and then go eat dinner before we board the 8pm train. 

First, let me ask all of you to pray for a couple of things.  #1-Alyssa is sortof sick.  She is not acting sick, but she has a very croupy (like a whoping sound) cough, if that makes since.  She is losing her voice too.  This happened to her 2 years ago and we had to go to the emergency room to give her oxygen because her airways closed up.  She does not have asthma though, they called it "the Croup".  If ANYONE has any "home remedies" to make this go away, PLEASE SHARE!!!  Luckily I stuck some liquid Albuterol in the luggage before we left "just incase" but there is not much, we will use it until it is gone.  I have heard of a really hot steamy shower to steam up the bathroom, and it'll help to open the airaways, but that is just not possible here.  Please pray that it doesn't get any worse, and she gets better soon.  #2-Please pray that we will have no problems getting the referral letter and we get there in time to see the children tomorrow afternoon.  

As far as what we did today, not much really.  We packed and then went to eat lunch at a cafeteria called 2 geese (or something like that).  It was really stressfull.  I won't go into detail, but Chris got nothing that he pointed at on his plate.  The food was pretty good.  Alyssa wouldn't eat, probably because she is sick.  Well, she had no problem eating chocolate when we got back to the room :)  And guess what??  I have food pictures today!!!! 

After lunch we went to the park.  Alyssa caught butterflies and chased peigons for about 2 hours.  We pretty much just relaxed on our last day together with just the 3 of us :)  It was such a pretty day to sit outside.  The leaves are starting to fall now.  It is VERY beautiful!!! 

OK, I better go now.  I have attatched a few pics of Alyssa at the park.  And Tiff, I got Alyssa to take a picture of us and I attatched it above.  She did pretty good!  Happy now??  :)  The first picture is of her sleeping lastnight, I just love it when she throws her arms up over her head while she is asleep, it is so cute.  And yes, she sucks on a blanket at night, very hard habit to break!  She started it in the orphanage for security.  Chris wanted to attatch a picture of how they water the flowers at the park.  It is kindof funny how they do it, just drive around in truck with a water hose out the window :)    And of course, my famous food pictures :)

We will update more hopefully tomorrow after we see the kids.  We are VERY excited!!!!! 

Love,

Chris, Julie and Alyssa

DETAILS.........

OK, before I write anything else, I will answer the question you have all been asking.........The Mtn Dews did not make it, because I made Chris take them out of our luggage before we got to the airport :)  I just didn't want to risk it!!! 

As you read before, our appointment went more perfect than I could EVER imagine.  I think it helped that we had Alyssa with us, because it sortof broke the ice.  The SDA is a little different than the NAC because your translators are not allowed back with you, but we felt very comfortable.  For those of you who remember the old NAC, it is NOTHING like it.  There is no "scooby doo" hallway you wait in.  It is definately not as busy as the NAC either.  We first sat in a little foyer area waiting for them to call us back.  Then a really cute girl who was our SDA translator, called us back, she spoke very good English.  She lead us back to a little room with a couch and a little round table.  They already had Dina and Sergey's files layed out on the table.  Poor kids, they looked HORRIBLE in the pictures :(  Dina looked like a little chubby boy and Sergey, well, he looked allright, buy neither of them looked ANYTHING like they do now, especially Dina.  I can see the resembelence of all three siblings though.  Luckily they let us take pictures of their pictures and we have attatched them above.  They are blurry, but glad we have them since they are the youngest piccs we have of the kids.  Dina is 3 in this pic and Sergey had just turned 6.  OK, back to the appointment, we sat down, and the psycologist first asked us questions about Alyssa.  She asked if we were happy to be her parents and if she was a good child.  Of course we told her yes.  She asked if Alyssa was happy to soon have a brother and sister, and we told her YES.  Then we showed her pictures of Alyssa from when she was first adopted until now.  She really liked to see those.  She then asked us if we still wanted to adopt Dina and Sergey????  We told her, "um...............No...........I think we have changed our minds, we pretty much just came here to sight see"  JUST KIDDING :)  We told her "OF COURSE"  It always puzzles me why they ask those kind of questions :o)  She then read their files saying they were both very healthy and said there was an attatched letter stating that they both wanted to be adopted.  She then told us that she was very happy to know that Dina and Sergey would be reunited with their sister, and to be going to a nice family.  We told her "Spaceba" (thank you) and that was pretty much it.  The whole appointment lasted about 10 minutes if even that.  Oh, and remember me being SO WORRIED about our paperwork a couple of weeks ago?  Well, she said our paperwork was perfect!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!  So......now we have  to wait on our referral letter before we can go to their region to start the adoption process.  We should get it tomorrow at 6pm, and then catch the overnight train to Simferopol at 8pm.  By the way, we got tickets for the train (I was very worried they would be sold out.......they usually are to this reigon).  The only problem is, we are split between 2 cabins.  4 people fit to one cabin, so we are hoping that 2 people in one cabin will be willing to trade cabins so we can all 4 be together.  If not, it is OK, atleast we'll be on our way to see our kiddos!!!  I am so excited!!!!!!

After our appointment, we didn't do much, just went to the store to buy Alyssa and Dina a belt for their jean skirts.  They are a 4T, but for some reason it is falling off of Alyssa, so I am sure it will fall off of Dina too since she is smaller than Alyssa.  We then went to eat at Uno Pizza, and I forgot to take a pic of our meal.........what was I thinking :)  So, no food pic today ya'll. :)  We also went to a playground earlier, but had to leave because, no joke, 2 VERY young boys, about 4 and 7 were trying to sell us stuff on the playground.  I told the older one that I didn't understand Russian, and he just wouldn't accept that.  He wouldn't leave us alone, and the younger one was yelling at Alyssa, so we just left.  Very sad :(  Oh, one more thing.........speaking of sad.........there was a young homeless lady in the streets yesterday begging for money with her sick little boy in her arms.  The boy looked almost dead.  My heard just hurt SO MUCH for this boy and I could barely look. I distracted Alyssa so she didn't see it. 

Back to today, we came back to the apt. early because Alyssa was exhausted!  We are gonna crash early tonight and get up early to pack and enjoy our last day in Kyiv for a couple of weeks. 

Oh, and I can't promise that I'll update as much as I have or with as many pics while in Kerch.  We have to go to an internet cafe there and the connection is VERY SLOW.  But, we will still update, I DO promise that!!!! 

By the way, the other pictures above are of the SDA (new new adoption center), a toilet in one of the malls (yes, you put your feet on the sides and squat) and a couple of Alyssa.

Goodnight, and thank you again so much for your prayers!!!

Love,

Chris, Julie and Alyssa

We had our appointment!!!!!!

Just a very quick update to say we had our appointment this afternoon and it went VERY GOOD!!!!!!!!  We are leaving on an overnight train tomorrow night to go see our children.  I'll post detail later, we are about to leave to take Alyssa to the park.  THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH for the prayers!!!!!!!  They worked! :)

Love,

Chris, Julie and Alyssa

Today I got up at 8am and Chris and Alyssa slept until 10.  Again, I cooked Alyssa eggs and she drank "fresh cow milk" :)  Then we washed a huge load of clothes in the bathtub!  Boy was that a chore!!  They are still hanging outside to dry, but suprisingly the jeans are more dry than the other clothes, kinda strange???  We then got ready to go out to lunch.  It was so beautiful today, probably in the mid 70's and sunny!  We went to a WONDERFUL place called the Potato House.  It is so neat........you get a hot baked potato strait from the oven and they whip up the insides with cheese and butter.  You can either eat it plain or add toppings.  Alyssa had hers with dill and cream sauce and mine was with a creamy cheese and garlic sauce.  YUMMY!!  Oh, and Chris ordered a ham sandwich, but since it had lettuce, tomatoes and some sort of cream sauce, he wouldn't eat it.  This meal with 2 cokes cost about 6 dollars.  After lunch, we walked to independence square.  This is where it seems like all of Kyiv hangs out........they shut down the streets on Sunday there.  We sat for a while and people watched.  Then we went to a both to buy a small Ukrainian Flag and some blue and yellow Ukrainian ribbons for the girl's hair, and I got a pair of sunglasses.  Alyssa wanted ice cream, so we went to McDonalds and all got one.  Alyssa and Chris got plain vanilla cones, and I got a carmel sunday.  The sundays were cool because they come in cups made out of a cone.  For 3 ice creams, a medium fry and a coke, it was $3.    After McDonalds we took Alyssa to the park.  At the park, she rode a real camel for $5.  She loved that!  After the park, we went back to the room to rest for about an hour before we headed out to meet about 20 others from the US who are adopting too.  It was fun talking to the other families tonight. Our dinner was pretty good too..........I got a pasta dish and Chris got a filet & baked potato.  We paid $40 for our meal tonight though, but it was good.

OK, better go now, we are about to watch a movie. 

I have attatched pictures above. One is of the goofy highchairs they have in one of the restaurants.  Alyssa had to sit in one because the table was so high!  Ther are a few more of Alyssa in independence square and of her riding the camel.  The last ones are of our meal tonight (I am taking a pic of every meal) and of the group of families that met tonight. 

We've got our appointment at 2pm tomorrow, 7am Atlanta time.  PLEASE pray that everything goes well.   

More tomorrow..........

Love,

Chris, Julie and Alyssa

Beautiful day in Kyiv......

I think we are adjusted to Ukraine's time now.  It is so weird to think that it is only 1pm at home, it is 8pm here and we are about to head out for dinner. 

This morning Alyssa and I woke up at 2am wide awake.  I don't know why, but since there was no way that either one of us were going to go back to sleep, we took some benadryl and went back to sleep until 10am.  I wouldn't normally do that, but I KNEW that we both needed our sleep after not getting any the night before.  She and I slept on the fold out couch and Chris slept on the big bed.  When we got up,  I fixed Alyssa eggs for breakfast.  Chris and I didn't eat...........I'm not sure why, but I don't have the appitite here like I do at home.  Alyssa had milk with her eggs, and the milk we bought was in a bag, but the problem with that, is that we had no container to put the milk in when we opened it, so we had to pour it all out. :(  I didn't try the milk, but Alyssa said "Mommy, this milk tastes like it came right from the cow".  Now, how would she know that??  She ate breakfast and we got read to go out for the day.  I wanted to eat lunch at a place we had ate at the first night we were in Ukraine in 2004, it is an Italian place on the Left Bank next to Hotel Slavutych (fellow adoptees know this hotel).  It was a journey to get there...........we took the metro to the stop that is closest to the restaruant, then we had about a 2 mile hike to get there and we stopped a lot along the way.  Once we stopped at a flower bed where there were hundreds of butterflies.  These butterflies were cool because you could pick them up and hold them.  Alyssa met a friend there and they were piccking up butterflies and handing them to eachother.  It is amazing with the language barrier how well the girls played.  I'll attatch a picture of them together.  When it was time to go I told Alyssa to tell her "Paka" (bye-bye).  Alyssa told her and they girl frowned and said in a sad voice "Paka". 

We finally made it to the restaurant and it took about an hour to get our food.  Well, Chris got his food right away, he ordered a calzone.  Alyssa's chicken and my gnocci took about an hour to come out.  This is why I had to go to this place, becuase of the amazing Gnocci.  It is sauted in a butter sauce with blue cheese and basil.  VERY YUMMY!!  I attatched apic of it above as well.  After our 2:30pm lunch, we hiked back to the metro and took it to the HydroPark.  The Hydro Park is a really neat place.  There are beaches that line the Dnipro river, lots of restaurants, vendors, and kiddie rides.  Beleive it or not, there were LOTS of people laying out on the beach even though it is only about 70 something.  Alyssa had fun on the bumper boats and motorized cars.  It is so funny though, because where she had the most fun was on these wooden animals in a grassy area in the Hydro Park.  We sat there for about an hour while she played on these things.  Oh, and she met a friend here too.  They girl was talking to her in Russian, and she was talking back to her in English.  They had no clue what one another was saying, but somehow got thier points across.  I have also attatched a picture of  them. 

After the HydroPark, we rode the Metro back to where we are staying and went to the market to buy a few more things.  Things are so cheap here.  We bought milk, bread, yogurt, 2 packs of cookies, pastachios, 2 small bags of chips, 2 cokes and 3 fantas all for $7.  We are in the apartment right now and Alyssa is playing very contently with her My Little Ponies. She wanted to watcch TV, but we are definately putting a limit to that here.  We told her only TV in the morning before we head out and at night before bed.  I may end up limiting it more than that.  The way of life is so different around here, it is a very simple life.  All you really have to do is to go outside and enjoy the nature, walk, play on VERY simple playgrounds, eat, and just enjoy eachother.  If I let Alyssa watch movies whenever she wants, she won't want to enjoy the "simple way of life" with us :) 

Allright, I gotta go, we are going to eat at Cheletanos, a pizza place right down the street (very good salads here).  I'll check e-mail when we get back.  Oh, and some have asked me how we have wireless.........truthfully, I don't really know, we must be getting it from someone who has a router in the area.  We were going to try to figure out how to get AOL dial up from the room and then Chris found out we could open IE through a wireless connection.  I don't know if we will continue to have this the whole time, and I am almost positive we will not have it when we ge to Kerch, but for now, I am LOVIN' it!!!  :)

Inaddition to the pics of Alyssa and her "friends" and my food :) I have also attached a few pics from the plane, our apartment, etc.

Thanks so much for everyone's comments and e-mails, makes us feel "at home".

Love,

Chris, Julie and Alyssa

In Kyiv

We have wireless access in our apartment!!!!!!!  How cool is that????  :)

Well, we made it safe and sound!!  This entry is not going to be long, because I am about to fall asleep while typing this.  I guess jet lag is kicking in. 

As we were at the airport in Atl. waiting for our flight to NY, we met a wonderful couple who is also adopting a girl from Ukraine.  We had been talking through e-mail and knew we would be on the same flight, but it was nice to meet them in person.  Our Delta flight to JFK was uneventful, we then boarded the Aerosvit plane for Kyiv.  We had to wait on the runway for 1 hr. before we took off.  When we took off, OMG, it was so scary!!!  I hate flying as it is, but when the plane took off and started wobbling side to side, my anxiety kicked in!!!  It wasn't just me who noticed, most everyone else on the plane were scared also, you could sell by their panicky remarks.  Thank GOD the plane leveled off and we were just fine.  :)  Alyssa did great on the flight, she liked the part where we went through clouds.........she called it the "land of the care bears".  I told her that she probably wouldn't see any care bears since they like to hide from people.  She was determined to find one though :)  She slept most of the way to Kyiv.  Poor thing, we have been on the go ever since we landed this afternoon, that she crashed when we got back to the apartment just now.  Chris and I didn't sleep very much so we are VERY exhausted as well.  When we landed, we met our translator at the airport, and she took us to our apartment.  We dropped our stuff off and headed to buy a new sim card for our cell phone.  Therefore, we have a new number 011-38-096-445-7882.  We then went to the market to buy a few things for breakfast.......yogurt (they have Acticva here, YAY!!), bread, eggs, butter and milk.  Sveta took us back to our apartment and talked to us for a little while and we gave her some of the things she and her friends requested for us to bring.  After she left, Chris and I unpacked our things and then headed out into the city to eat dinner.  We went to a great Mexican place called the Tequila house.  I had an AWESOME bean and cheese buritto, Chris had 4 beef tacos and Alyssa had Chicken soup.  Everything was great, but oiur bill was $50!!!!!  WAY too much to pay here!!!  I told Chris we have to eat much cheaper the rest of the time.  You can buy a dinner for 3 at a lot of restaurants for 7-10 dollars total.  So, we will be tightwads until we meet about 20 other American families who are adopting at IL Patio on Sunday night.  After dinner, we went to look for a phone card, but couldn't find one.  Then we went by a playground to let Alyssa play for  a little while and now here we are, all very tired and asleep, well I am about to be.  

I will say one more thing before I go.  The people are so beautiful here!!!!  Everyone is so dressed up and just naturally good looking people.  They are all so tall and skinny.......  probably from all the walking they do!  Maybe if we are here for a few more weeks, it'll rub off on me too :)  I wouldn't mind loosing a few lbs :)

And I thought I wasn't going to write much :)  

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your comments and e-mails everyone!!!!  We LOVE to hear from you!!! 

Leaving on a Jet Plane, we don't know when we'll be back again.......

Hopefully in a few weeks :) 

Well folks, only 15 more hours and we'll be on our way!!!!!  We will be flying Delta to NY and then a direct flight on Aerosvit Airlines to Kyiv, Ukraine.  I can't beleive the day has finally arrived!!  We had my family come over last night and my grandmother cooked a good homemade meal for us.  Then tonight Chris's family came by to eat and spend some time with us before we embark on our life changing journey!  It was so nice to see everyone before we leave.  Alyssa was so excited tonight.  When I tucked her in bed, she said "Mommy, when I wake up in the morning, we are gonna get on the BIG airplane, it's gonna be so much fun."   I realized after I left her room, that it was the last time I would be tucking "just her" in bed at our house.  I am so ready to go, we are ALL ready!!!  I have been waiting for this moment to come for so long. 

We have everything packed now.  We have one large rolling duffle, one medium rolling duffle and 3 small back pack carryons.  The duffles are exactly 50 lbs each.  I hope our scale is right, because that is all that is allowed per bag on our flight.  Oh, and Chris threw in 2 Mtn Dews on the checked luggage. PLEASE someone respond ASAP if you think that is a bad idea.  He put it in a ziploc bag, but I am worried that with cabin pressure, it may explode.  That would be an UGLY sight if we got a blown up Mtn Dew on everything in our luggage!!!!!!  I will check the comments in the morniing before we leave to see what ya'll think.  BTW, they don't sell Mtn Dew in Ukraine and Chris thought it would be a good idea to pack a couple. 

OK, so I guess that is all for now.  We will update again from Kyiv.  We will be arriving in Kyiv at 11:10am (4:10am Atlanta time) on Friday.  Please pray for us to have a safe and smooth journey.  I can't wait to see our babies again!!!!!  Incase I haven't posted this already, we are having our appointment at the adoption center in Kyiv on Monday the 25th and will not be able to get the necessary paperwork to go see them until the 26th and will hopefully catch the overnight train that night and will be in Kerch on the 27th in the afternoon. 

I'll write more Friday.

Love,

Julie, Chris and Alyssa