We Are Home and All Is Well

We got home on Saturday night about 12:30.

Things are going well and Anna is doing great.  The kids are so excited for her to be here.  It is just awesome when I think about how they had all prayed for her for months and she is finally here; an answer to our prayers.  Sometimes I catch them just looking at her and I wonder what they are thinking.  Anna just chatters at them like they know what she is saying.  The boys all ask Peyton what is she saying?  Peyton may be getting a little tired of translating.  We have already taken a trip to Wal-Mart and she was amazed.  She loves playing outside and loves our kitties.  She tries to do whatever the kids are doing; swinging, basketball, tag etc.  She hasn't attempted to ride a bike yet.  I can't imagine a 16 year-old not knowing how to ride a bike.  We will fix that if she wants.  She has tried everything I have made to eat.  The kids get such a kick out of her eating sunflower seeds,  She is a pro at cracking them with her teeth and getting the seed out; all in one motion.  The boys crack one to her 10.  They just laugh and laugh.  She is really just adapting so well.  Obviously there are things that we need to work on but nothing major yet.  She has always had someone get her clothes out and tell her what to wear each day,  so getting in the closet or drawer and picking out clothes for the day is going to take time.  We haven't started to work with her on English.  I'm trying to figure out how best to do that.  One step; one day at a time.

We roasted hotdogs (yuk) tonight and they all had a good time.  Here are a few pictures.

~Tina

Yes my sweet husband
 is yawning.  It was a
long almost 3 weeks
without mama.

We Got It!

We got the passport with the stamp and we are going home tomorrow!!!!

Thank you to all of you who have followed, prayed for us and cheered us on.  We surely couldn't have done it without you and God.

We are so excited!!

I will continue to post here although maybe not daily like I did while we were here in Ukraine.  If you want to know when I post,  just put your email in on the top right of my blog and it will send you a notice.

~Tina

Well, "Definitely" Not

So for this to be a positive post, I will say that I am positive we did not get the passport today. Although I was told "definitely" tomorrow ( meaning today) I guess definitely doesn't mean the same to everyone.  I am not sure why I believed "definitely"because this adoption has been no where near "definite" at all except for the fact that Anna has definitely been great!

Anna and our facilitator travelled to Zhytomyr this morning and arrived to the passport office around 10 am.  The passport had not arrived yet and so they waited.  The time came and went for the package to arrive from Kiev with the passports in it so the reply, sorry come back tomorrow.  They will have to stay the night in Zhytomyr and tomorrow the passport with the background clearance "should be" in.

I am cancelling my flights for tomorrow (Friday) and hope to get a flight home for Saturday or Sunday.  If we don't get the passport tomorrow, it will be Wednesday before we can fly home.  The US Embassy is closed on Monday for Memorial Day so it will be Tuesday before we can have our final appointment with them.

God's timing; perfect timing.  He "definitely" has a good reason for all of this and that is a definite I can believe.

~Tina

Enjoy this video and DO LIFE BIG.

Good News

Anna will travel out to Zhytomyr with our facilitator tomorrow.  She was supposed to go today but the passport is not in.  The facilitator said it will "definitely" be in tomorrow.  We will go to the embassy in the afternoon and you know what, WE ARE COMING HOME on Friday.  Oh my goodness that sounds so awesome!

I'm so glad that God is so faithful!  This has been such a hard trip for me. But God showed me He had it on a daily basis.  Not sure who followed our other blog when we adopted Peyton and Caleb but God revealed Himself to me through butterflies.  So many times I would doubt and second guess and there would be a butterfly in random places.  It would be on a picture in a restaurant, on a woman's skirt passing by, a waitresses' hair clip, or dangling from the mirror of the taxi we would get in. Too many odd places to be a coincidence.  I reminded Peyton of that story and she said you know mom I have been seeing butterflies around us now.  I said I know Peyton, it's God's way of showing us it's gonna be ok.  He's got this. I'm glad Peyton got to experience this and hope she will remember for the future.

Did I say Friday we are coming home?  Yes!  The boys back home are so excited.  Please pray for our travels.  It may be busy on Friday with it being a holiday weekend.  We are going home!

(It rained today so not many pictures.)

~Tina

Do you see these things?  They are flying
off the trees.  Some days they are so thick
we get them in our mouth.  If you have allergies
be glad you are not here.

Can you see them in the air in
this picture?

See the rain clouds.

Happy Birthday "James"

First I would like to say Happy 10th Birthday to our first foster child, "James".  We love him dearly and miss him every day.  Hope you have a great birthday buddy and many more!

Anna continues to do great and is watching us to see how we do things.  She's not afraid to try and copy us and I'm so glad.  Peyton brought a word search book and Anna is sounding out the words in that.  She's doing pretty good but some of the English letters look the same as the Ukrainian letters just with a different sound.  I am so thankful she is trying.  I don't think it will take her too long to learn English as desire is half the battle.  She sure LOVES sunflower seeds.  She can crack them faster than I have ever seen.  I think we are going to have to stock up on those.  : )

Enjoy today's pictures.  Believing we will get good news tomorrow.

~Tina

This tells about the above picture.

This is the same clock we took a
picture of earlier.  It now has flowers
planted around it.

This bun is black because they put
octopus ink in the dough.  There are
also pink buns.  Beet juice is used in
that dough.  

Day 14

Here are some pictures from today.  Can't believe we have been here 14 days this trip!  We have been Skyping every day, for a few days now, back home and that has helped a lot.  Not too many tears but oh those sad faces that break my heart.  If you are helping in anyway to take care of my family while I am gone, know that I so appreciate it!

~Tina

Anna finally caught one of the cats
by our apartment.  Peyton kindly told
her, you need to wash your hands when
we get inside.  Ha ha!  That girl takes
after her momma.

Just Another Day

Nothing new today.  We are on day 13 of this trip and Peyton and I are just so done.  Anna just smiles and goes with the flow.  I'm so thankful for that!  We try to walk around each morning and afternoon.

Today and yesterday, in fact until 11 pm last night, there is a large group of people gathered in the open area by St. Michael's church.  (The one with the angels on the wall)  There are people singing and others giving speeches.  I'm not really sure what is going on but we are staying clear of that area.

We are still believing that we are getting Anna's passport on Wednesday and going home on Friday. Anna will travel out to Zhytomyr on Wednesday with our facilitator to pick up her passport.  Peyton and I will stay in Kiev.  On Thursday morning we will head back to the US Embassy for our second appointment.  We will then get a sealed package from the embassy with all of Anna's paperwork in it that will allow her to enter the United States.  We are excited for that day!

~Tina

Peyton had to get a picture of this store
front.  Can you guess why?  If you guessed
lots of pink, you would be right.

  

This cat is made of forks.  We saw this
when we were here in 2010 and was
glad to find it again.  There are a few
less forks but still so cool!

Sunny Day

Today we were glad to wake up to sun.  We ate breakfast in and then went out for lunch.  After that we walked around, took some pictures and then headed back to the apartment to Skype with Gary and the boys.  Please say a little prayer for my guys.  It's hard with mom being gone.

Hope you are enjoying the pictures. 

~Tina

We got to hold this falcon but no
pictures or we had to pay.

This tells about the statue above.

 

 

 

Embassy and Medical Appointments

We went to the US Embassy this morning and that went sooooo smoothly!  All of the paperwork was in order and we will return next Thursday morning to finish up after we get Anna's passport on Wednesday.

We then went to her medical appointment and because she is 16 they did the x-ray instead of the skin TB test.  It turned out fine.  Yaaaa!  They also had to take blood and we will get the results from that when we have her passport. We will then get the medical form we need to give to the US Embassy.

So such a great day!

I have no pictures today so I will just post one I have posted before.  It is cold and windy and just started pouring down rain.  So we will stay inside for now. 

Anna is doing great; I just couldn't ask for her to be any better.  I haven't started trying to work with her yet on English but this girl is starting to understand some of what we say.  She is so shy when we Skype with the family but here in our apartment she just chatters away at us.  Peyton gets such a kick out of her chattering because if you know Peyton you know she is not much of a talker.  I know some others that have adopted teens that don't want to take showers, well not Anna.  She's happy to take showers and be clean. I'm thankful for that.  Now, of course, everything is not rainbows and sunshine as there are things that we will have to work on that were not taught to her at the orphanage.  I'm waiting until we get home for most of that.  I just want her to be happy and comfortable right now.

God is good and I'm glad He blessed us with Anna.

~Tina

 

Bored

I know, how can anyone be bored in Kiev but well, we slept in and it has rained off and on today and it is cold.  Who knew we needed to bring a winter coat to Ukraine in May.

 So after coloring, playing cards, playing on the tablet, what else is there to do but go eat and buy some groceries and snacks.  Let me tell you Anna could eat ice cream and candy all day long if I let her.  She doesn't mind asking and takes it well when I say maybe later and we move on.    

Tomorrow we go to the US Embassy in the morning at 9 am and to Anna's medical appointment after that.  She will have to have the skin TB test done.  We will go back on Monday to have the doctor look at it.  This test is something that all the older adopted kids have to have done.  Please say a prayer that it will be ok. 

We got to Skype with Gary and the boys this morning before they went to school.  Carson and Caleb are ready for mom to be home.  Carson was telling Anna privet (hi) and paka (bye).  The first thing he asks when it's his turn is where's Anna.  Caleb says, why she not talking.  Cash he sits and waves and says hi and tells me all the things going on that I think dad would rather he not tell.  : )  Oh my how I miss them so but this is only a season.  We will be back home soon and this time here will fade.

I have a few pictures from today.  Anna is not smiling but I promise you she is happy.  The girls were so bored that they took a video out the window of the birds on the ground eating bread.  I haven't been able to get it to download yet.

Enjoy!

~Tina

This is at the top of the big tower above.

The girls are in the center.

Peyton thinks she is on vacation. Ha!

 
 

This doorway doesn't mean anything
to Anna right now.  But this is the door
that leads to the SDA where we first
got her file and permission to go and
visit her.