Thursday - Waiting on Referrals

Hello to everyone!! It is about 4.00a.m. at home. Here it is noon. I cant say we are adjusting well to the time here.

I miss my kids so bad at home. Things are going slow here, so we really have a lot of time on our hands to watch the clock and think about what everyone is doing at home.

We thought we would get our referrals yesterday, but they said because there are three, that we had to wait until 5.00 today. When and if we get them today we will board a train tonight and ride to Odessa for 9 hours.

Then tomorrow, Friday we will get to finally meet our new babies. We did get to see there pictures yesterday. Elisa the oldest is named Elizabeth, they call her Liza. She was so pretty. It was a current picture. The 2nd baby Vanessa was named Victoria. They call her Vikka. It was her baby picture where she had no hair, then Arthur , he still had his same name, but his baby picture was so cute, he was so fat!! It was funny.

As Im writing my husband just pulled my daughters tooth out. She is wondering how much money the Ukrainian tooth fairy brings her!!

While we were at the super market yesterday a gentleman kept talking to us when we told him we spoke English. He then got really excited and started speaking english the best he could. He was a very sweet man. He bought us chocolates,and walked us home. There we gave him our address. He said he wanted to continue to keep in contact with us. We are having a good experience with people here, we just feel a little left in the cold. We stay all day in our apartment because we don't know what to do here while we wait, or we go to the mall and try to get food by pointing to what we want!!!

Oh, also when we had our appt. yesterday they told us that Elisa, the oldest had already had her heart surgery. That was good news!!

Emma, my youngest is complaining that her throat hurts so Im going to get her some medicine now. Please just pray that we get our o.k. to travel tonight because this is getting really boring just waiting here!!

I hope everyone is well back home. Let me know if you would like me to bring something back, Love, Leah

Tuesday afternoon here

Hello to everyone

We are doing well here! I am very homesick today. Everything we have had to eat is so unusual to me, and very nasty really. Tony doesn't seem to mind.

Our apartment is very cute, but we are ready to go to Odessa. They say we might get our referral tomorrow so that we can take the train there and see our babies early Thursday morning. Im really hoping I do better there. I did not expect to be so homesick. I have half my kids with me so it really doesn't make since. I guess people not understanding me is getting really frustrating as well.

Tony and Grace went to bed at 3.00a.m. and slept until 2.30 . I did fine with that part of this trip. I adjusted well to the time change.

Well Im going to try to skype my daughter now so Ill write back tomorrow. Thanks, Leah

Day 2 - Way Too Early in the Morning

It's 3am over here and all I can think of is...... WHY AM I AWAKE AT THIS HOUR? I was awake for 30 straight hours and got about 4hrs of sleep last night. Gracie and I (Tony) got up at the same time and couldn't go back to sleep. The travel yesterday went great. Flights were smooth and people were friendly. I got searched in Germany and thought I lost my wallet, but Leah has just thrown it in her purse. Leah did awesome on the flights and only got scared a few times..... Once we arrived here we were met by a driver who brought us straight to our apartment. It's very nice on the inside and has a balcony overlooking a busy street with lots of people and cars. We're at a very active intersection near a mall and a grocery store. After arriving here, the driver took me to exchange some money and showed me where I could find things. The people here are very nice, but move extremely fast. This is not an "excuse me" or "pardon me" culture, rather people move very fast and you would be wise to stay out of there way.
Our time at the grocery store was more about avoiding getting run over than shopping. Buying groceries was interesting to say the least. After a few minutes of trying to figure out what things were, we decided to just go for the essentials; eggs, bread, milk, cereal, hot dogs, bologne, ketchup, pasta, and coke. When we arrived back at the apartment, we realized that the bologne was actually cheese (don't ask) and the milk was some sort of yogurt (we think). We're not sure what the hot dogs really were, but they were mushy and smelled funny. So we put a little cheese on them and covered them in ketchup. The coke was good though..... Even the water is not "water".... it is some sort of sparkling water. We're going to pull out the old translation book today and give it another shot at the store.

Today we will meet our facilitator today and discuss our court appointment for tomorrow. We've been told that there is a cool circus right around the corner from us, so we may try that this afternoon. If all goes well, we will be on a train to meet our kiddos within a few days.... hopefully no later than Friday. The weather is cold, but not nearly as cold as we thought. It's a little below freezing, but no ice or snow to speak of.

At the Ariport

We're at the airport right now and are a few minutes from getting on the plane. In less than a day we will be in Eastern Europe preparing to meet our new kiddos. Many things have happened in the last few days to discourage our trip, but we feel stronger and more confident than ever. God is so faithful and we know that He is traveling with us. The girls (Emma, Noelle, and Grace) are doing great so far. It was a sad goodbye when we left the others at home, but we know we will see them soon. The tears of sadness will be followed by tears of joy when we return with our babies. Please keep us in your prayers as we walk the final leg of this journey......

Leaving Tomorrow

Well, this is it!! We fly out in the morning at noon.
I am leaving with excitement to meet our babies, but a little fear as well. We have friends there right now that have had a very hard time. The people there did not like Americans and where trying to hurt her husband. Its really freaking me out a little bit.
My oldest daughter at home will be bounced around from one friend to another while we are gone, so Im a little worried about how she deals with everything while we are gone. I'm going to miss my kids so much. I have never ever left them even once in my life. Its really the hardest thing Ive ever done.
We will be posting as soon as we get settled into our apartment there. So I guess by Tuesday we should be able to post again. On Thursday of this week we should get to see our babies, then we will post pictures for you to see.
Thanks everyone again for your support. We have had many ups and downs here, but its all coming together now. Please pray for a safe flight as I do not do well with planes at all. Please pray for our entire journey. Thank you all. Ill write soon!! Leah

5 days left!!!

I am running around like a crazy person trying to figure out the last minute things I need to get done before i leave. I'm hoping everything goes well there, but the way this process has gone I am not really expecting that to happen. I got an email today from a friend over there now not telling us exactly what has happened, but that it was not at all what they had expected and they were asking for alot of prayers. My heart goes out to them and I will continue to pray for them, and I can only wonder if that is warning for what we face there as well.

We bought a new laptop today to take with us so we can continue to try to update everyone once we get there. I am so excited to finally meet our new babies. I still am trying to figure out how Tony and Faith my oldest are going to bring them home by themselves. I think he will be o.k though. Tony is really good with the kids.

I will write again before we leave but as of now it will not be until Sunday at 12.00 a.m. We will fly home on the 27th of December. We will not be doing a private blog so people can continue to read this one. Thanks so much, I'm going to re-pack my bag for the 3rd, or 4th time now. Night Night, Leah

5 days lwft