Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Three Airplanes, Two Days, One Big Adventure Has Begun!

After two long days of travel, we have arrived safe and sound in the capital city of our son’s country!  We are so excited to be here!  Everything has gone wonderfully so far.  The planes were crowded, the layovers were long, my feet are swollen, and we are having a marvelous adventure!  
the airport

We got off the plane, walked through the dark, windy, cold evening (yes, it was one of those airports where you walk down the steps and outside!)  piled onto a crazy-crowded shuttle bus, poured into the airport, got that first stamp in our passports (I’ve waited my whole life to get a stamp in my passport!) and were met by Niko, our wonderful driver.  He took us grocery shopping:

took us to our apartment, got us settled in, and we promptly fell asleep for the next nine hours!  I can’t even tell you if the bed was comfortable or not!  We just had to sleep! 
our living room


first dinner in our lovely little kitchen


bedroom

bathroom

washing machine in the bathroom

So we woke up around 5:30 this morning, cooked up some eggs, pancakes, and ham, and enjoyed our first morning in our son’s country with a leisurely breakfast.    Niko picked us up at 8 am for our appointment.  We drank very strong coffee from a little coffee truck while we waited.  


Then we went up some stairs, into an office, sat down on a couch, and there on the little table in front of the couch were files!  With photos stapled to the fronts of them!  

Oh, the photos.   I didn’t expect to see such cute little baby pictures, and we were especially thrilled because they allowed us to keep two.  I just can’t get over how sweet this little face is.  
Gideon's baby picture!!!
 Be still my heart.  I am hoping to share another photo with you soon, as well.  You'll just have to wait patiently for that one!  


We were asked a couple of quick questions:  “Tell us about your family?” and “Why have you decided to adopt children with special needs?”  Then they read to us out of the files.  We didn’t really learn very much about the boys that we didn’t already know, but there was some information that was important.  So now the next step is to wait until tomorrow, when we can go pick up the boys’ referrals.  Then normally parents hop right onto a train and go directly to their children’s region to meet the child, but in our case, things will go a bit differently.  The director has asked us not to come until after the New Year.  So we will be waiting here for a few days and heading down on the train on the 2nd.  Then we *should* be able to meet the boys on Tuesday morning. 

In the meantime, we just wait.  We are in an awesome apartment right in downtown K**v.  We went to a Ukr**nian buffet for lunch, and then we took a nice meandering walk (translation:  we got a little lost!)  We are going to head out again this afternoon and use the WiFi at McDonald’s (if you’re reading this, you will know I have found success with getting internet!)  We are supposed to have internet in our apartment, but that doesn’t seem to be working.  Neither is the water, but at least we got nice hot showers in this morning before that stopped working!  J  We are also hoping to find a place to buy a map of the city so we can spend the next few days exploring! 

We have been able to meet up with a couple of other lovely Reece’s Rainbow families while we have been here.  That is pretty awesome, to be able to share this journey with other families!  We shared lunch together and we even have cell numbers so we can stay in touch during our stay.  I am hoping to meet up with some other families during our stay here, also. 

In other news, I miss my kids like crazy and I can’t wait to hug the stuffing out of them again!  They are in good hands with my parents, so I know I have nothing to worry about.  It just doesn’t help me with the missing them.  I sure love those little sweeties!   And I sure love these little sweeties over here!  And that is why we are here, on the other side of the world, that feels like a whole different world.   To gather my sweet children together.  

10 comments:

Julia said...

???? I didn't know you were getting TWO?? Is that for real?? Yeah!!

Nan and Dan said...

love the picture!!! omg! what a blessing :)
have fun, enjoy the weekend. They really love to celebrate new years there!!
hugs!

Jed and Kimber said...

Okay, I'm officially dying to know who your other little one is going to be!!!! Come on, out with it! :) Gideon's baby picture is very sweet. Have a fun New Years!

Sarah said...

Aww! He is soo cute! So glad you got there safe and sound, can't wait for pictures of you meeting the boys! And let me know when you can share ******'s picture, and I'll put it up on the sidebar. :)

{ MELBOURNE ROAD } said...

sooooooooooooo excited for you guys Rachelle!
Lori

Marie said...

Glad you made it there safe! Looking forward to hearing more!

Holly said...

YAY! So glad that you are there!! The pictures are awesome and I can't wait to see more!!!

Anonymous said...

Praying that every duck is standing in a row when you get to region. Thanks for the update!

Laura said...

Yippee for Gideon and a little child who must remain nameless. :) Yippee for families! And Gideon is going to sleep tonight with no idea his mommy and daddy are so close to him.

Natalie said...

Yeah I'm dying to know who Micah is too!!! I love Gideon's sweet baby pic, can't wait to see Micah's as well.