PICS

Travel to Region.

So we left for Karkov by train Tuesday night, slept on the train and arrived at 6:20 am. Got picked up at train station and drove 200 km to orphanage. We got to see both kids. Found out that they are both healthy and have no heart problems. They have a really nice orphanage it even has a pool and a school. We were told that they just returned yesterday from a camp in country for special needs kids. These photos are from the train and our new room. We were very lucky to find this place there is literally no lodging and we almost had to stay at a lady from the orphanage house. We will be staying here until Sunday night when we go back to Karkov ans catch the train back to Kiev for Vlad's referral and then return until court to the region with the kids. Both kids took very well to us and we had a good visit. They are treated just like the other kids and are expected to keep. They cut Alyssa's hair and it looks just like my sweet Allie back home. Vlad is a little smaller then we anticipated, the clothes will be baggy on the way home, he might end ud getting hand me downs from Noah.

Got our referral for alyssa!

So we got our referral paperwork this afternoon for Alyssa which means we get to go see the kids. We are leaving tonight at 10:20pm for Karkov. Good thing we slept until 2:00pm this afternoon, we were up early in the morning talking to the kids back home. It is tough being away from them. So we found this really neat little pizza place tonight for dinner and I think we will probably eat there again when we come back. Here are some more pics of the pizza place and around our apartment. Looking forward to meeting the kids tomorrow. Yulia said that they are so excited that we are coming for the kids because the workers faught really hard for them to have one more chance to be placed and we are their last chance. She said we will love them so much they are very smart and great kids! That's good cuz we are only used to having great kids!! Love you guys!! So the Sonny with a chance. So I am sure that you guessed one of the channels is Disney. We are getting a kick out of watching their music videos. The picture of the pizza place has all these girls in front they all where skinny jeans and high heals, I don't know how they do it. Well better go get ready to leave!

We are there!

So we made it to kiev allright, all the flights went perfect connections and layovers were great and meals on the plane were very good. Lufthansa was a great airline and they took very good care of us. We arrived at 2:30 Kiev time and were meeted at the airport by Nico who was very nice and he took us to exchange money, get some water and brought us our apartment. From there we crashed so that we would not be tired for our appt this morning. At the appt we found out that Alyssa was abandoned at birth and parental rights were sighned away then. Sad to think that anyone could just walk away from their child. We got a few pictures of her, one baby picture one from about a year ago and one from April this year. Serge our representative tried very hard for them to give us both referrals at once but they would not do it. So we wait for our documents tomorrow between 4-5pm and then it sounds like we head after that to the orphanage. We will be able to meet both children but then after we fill out the paperwork for her we will have to come back to Kiev to get the second referral, so that should delay us only about 2 days.

READY SET GO!

Getting finished packing and making sure we have everything. Seems like I am forgeting something. The kids did not want to go to bed and were crying. It was so hard to watch them cry, we are going to miss them so much. So muching the last few weeks with school starting, Grandma and Grandpa coming and Mom and Dad leaving to get their new brother and Sister. Pray for patience for my mother and father in law and safety for our travels please. It all is not sinking in yet not sure when it will all hit me.

We Have A Date!

So today we got our travel date! August 30th at 9am. So we will be leaving on the 28th to go get the kids. Now we get crazy and start getting ready. To busy to write more right now lots to do.

Preparation Continues

So this weekend we finally got moved into our new room in the basement Yeah! It does feel a little weird being downstairs but hopefully it will help Kevin sleep better with his crazy shift work schedule. Girls room is painted and dressers are done and filled with all their clothes. Stille need to find a canopy top for Alyssa bed but that is easier said then done. The dressers we were so lucky we got hem at a University sale for $10.00 each and sanded them downand they were solid maple, so we clear coated them and they are beautiful. We are trying to get everything done and realy hoping that we will get our travel date this week, we have a sneaking hunch that it will be the first week of school. Which means everyone else has to be ready and all the school paperwork filled out and back pack, lunch boxes and sports schedules ready. Keeping me busy enough that I have not had much chance to think about travel and get nervous, but finally I am letting my self get excited to go get the kids.