Long Journey HOME

Part I:
My alarm went off at 2am on Tuesday morning. (7pm EST Monday) I had slept for a total of one hour and my time to sleep was over. Our Kiev facilitator knocked on the door at 2:40 and we scrambled to get the kids awake, dressed and out the door with all our luggage. On the way to the airport Aaron said, "Awww… I'm going to miss this city. It was actually much better then I thought it would be." The boys chattered non-stop the entire ride to the airport. Remember it was only 3am by this time.

First flight: Kiev to Frankfurt -

We really enjoyed flying Lufthansa. They gave the kids all sorts of special activities and treats.

The kids did great. Only Ethan made the wise choice to sleep during this flight.

Part II: We had a four hour wait in Frankfurt. I went to buy some water to share and discovered that it was $7 for a small bottle of water. No thank you! Thankfully I had their plastic water bottles handy to fill up at the water fountain. This wait felt really long. Darin took the kids for several walks. I did a couple laps with kids, but mostly sat like a lump. We played uno and "go fish." It's so cute to hear Irina say, "Do you have… ?" in her little accent.

 Irina was very happy with the cards she was dealt. She is a very competitive card game player!

Rides on the people mover

Part III: We boarded the plane for our flight from Frankfurt to Newark, NJ. 8+ hours on board.

So glad we all had seats together!

I have to say that this was probably the hardest part of our trip. It was not one of Irina's finer moments. (Or mine for that matter!) The overstimulation from the buttons to press and noise and sounds caused her to regress quite a bit. The way that manifested for her was in very toddler like, loud behavior. That's all I'll say in the interest of protecting my daughter. This photo was snapped before I began to lose my patience.  I have to say that Darin was amazing with her. Setting firm boundaries, but not letting her behavior get under his skin. I'm so thankful that we are in this together.

Part III. We arrived in America around 4pm EST. Ukrainian time it was 11pm and we had been awake for about 21 hours. We quickly made it through customs and immigration. Irina's paperwork was processed and she was officially declared a U.S. Citizen!!! I couldn't take a picture because no cameras were allowed.  We made it to our gate within 15 minutes of boarding. Virginia here we come!

We arrived in Richmond to the best welcoming party ever. Pictures to come! (If you took pictures, will you send me some?) It was 7:34pm EST and 2:34am Ukrainian time. Stay tuned for photos of our welcome party, Irina's first glimpses at her new room and photos of our first day together in the USA. No more time on the computer for me until tonight. And yes, they were all up and ready to go at 6am even after a 10pm bedtime.