WE'RE HOME!!!!

From the time we left our apartment at 3 a.m. Kiev time Wednesday, July 8, to the moment we walked over the threshold of our house, we logged an impressive 24 and a half hours of travel. All of us had started coming down with a cold the day before, and Garth and I didn't sleep the night we left. We were exhausted! Garth says that most of Thursday and some of Friday felt like waking up from a coma.

We were thrilled to be greeted at the airport by Cousins Dave and Anna and Uncle Joe, the Rogé family, the Volf family, and the Christofferson family. (These three Colorado families have all come home from Ukraine in the last year with their children, eight in all.) Elaine and Lisa were reluctant at first to talk with anyone, but then the children started chatting with them in Russian, and it was hard to tear them away.

When we arrived home, we were greeted by Cousins Lori and Wesley and Aunt Jennifer. Thank you, sweet family, for the wonderful welcome home! They had adorned our bannister with streamers and balloons, and there were balloons and scriptures tucked into nooks and crannies all over the house. I found a scripture verse when I sat down at the computer this morning, four days later. We were treated to burgers and fries for dinner, and there was a surprise cake in the fridge and ice cream in the freezer. And my sweet sister had made two special welcome home bags for the girls complete with locking journals, High School Musical stickers, pens, and shirts in the girls' favorite colors. What a hit they were!

The day we traveled was Lisa's birthday; she is now 14 years old. We have two 14-year-old daughters--AHH! We have not been able to celebrate her birthday yet, but we look forward to doing something together with family soon.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support for us on this journey. Garth and I were in Ukraine for a total of eight weeks. Yes, you read that right. We never thought that we would be there so long! We had wanted to blog more while in Ukraine, but we were so busy with the adoption process and then when we had the children living with us during the 10-day wait and afterward, that there was very little time. It seemed that whenever we had a little time to blog, the Internet was not working. In the coming months, we would like to tell more about our experience in Ukraine. There are so many stories to tell, some happy, some heartbreaking. We feel we need to tell them, but it will only be as time allows. So check in on our blog from time to time.

Please keep us in prayer during this time of transition. I would be remiss if I led you to believe that everything is rosy all the time. We know that things will get better with time, but transitions can be very hard. Pray for wisdom for us as we parent our daughters--and for our sanity!