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.