WE'RE HOME!!!

Our last night in Ukraine was very challenging with Slava. He has not had a nap since we took him from the orphanage, so he's pretty over stimulated and over tired by the evening. We had to go to the US Embassy to pick up his visa and there we met 2 other Christian families picking up their children's visas too. One family had been there 8 weeks and the other just under 4 like us. We were thrilled to walk out of there knowing the only thing left to do was hop on the plane to come home. Our friends, Stepan & Oksana, stopped by around 7pm to say goodbye. They were able to teach us some important Ukrainian phrases to help us with our wild child. And they confirmed what I'd been suspecting about him. We'd noticed he often said this one word, with a devious smile on his face, and we didn't know what it meant. After a while I started suspecting it was a bad word. And I was right! He was so out of control Wednesday night and nothing we tried seemed to help. Stepan & Oksana both spoke to him and he seemed to understand, but nothing we do (time-outs, stern voice, hand swats) works, he just laughs at us.

We left our apartment at 3am rejoicing that we were going home. Our flight to Frankfurt was only 2 hours long and Missy & Wayne sat next to Slava (we drew straws and they lost....only joking!) Jordan and I sat a few rows back with a woman who was also returning from an adoption, but her husband was bringing their boys home after the 10 day. During that 2 hours I realized that much of Slava's behavior is very similar to Jordan's 4 years ago. Only Jordan wasn't a swear-bear! Well maybe he was but since he was only 3 no one could understand him! Anyway I felt encouraged because Jordy is now a very loving, kind, and gentle (but still busy) boy. The other revelation I had was regarding what to do with his naughty word issue. And I got this idea that maybe good old fashioned soap in the mouth might help. During our 3 hour layover in Frankfurt he decided to use his naughty word (which he repeats several times while looking at us) and since I didn't have soap with me I used an anti-bacterial wipe. He did not like the taste of this! I had Missy explain to him that every time he said that word Mama was going to clean his mouth with it. I sat next to Slava on the 8+hour flight to Washington DC, but Wayne, Missy, and Jordan were just across the isle from us. This turned out to be a blessing because 2 of our tickets were several rows ahead and not even together. The flight attendant had them sit with us in the very last row because she said whoever had those 2 seats probably would prefer to sit farther up and trade with us. But no one ever came so Missy and Jordan stayed with us! I know people were praying for us because Slava did amazingly well the entire trip. When we first boarded in Germany I handed him the ear-phones and showed him the jack and the outlet and I turned on the music. He spent the entire first hour just plugging them in, taking them out, plugging them in, etc. When the meal was served he ate, took his "sleepy cocktail", went to the bathroom, and fell asleep. Well, sleep came after we went about 10 rounds with the bad word and the anti-bacterial wipe. Don't worry, I only wiped a little on his tongue and it was just enough to make a point. Missy reminded him that every time he said it Mama was going to do it. He then slept for 2 hours, woke up and Papa took a turn sitting by him. All in all he did very well. When we landed he asked me "do doma" which means "home?" I had to explain that we had one more air plane to go. When we landed in DC I was concerned that it would be a mad house and all the flights would be delayed because of Thanksgiving. When we arrived at Immigration (to sign in our little immigrant) there were only about 8 people in line in front of us. We flew through there, customs, rechecked our luggage and found our gate very quickly. And the airport was practically empty! During the trip Slava showed signs of bonding with us which is also an answer to prayer. He wanted me to pick him up and when I did I cradled him like a baby. He said "LaLa" which means "baby". So I made up this little song "Slava-LaLa" and he loved it. I had to keep doing it during our layovers and he's still asking for me to sing it. Our flight to Albany was on time and we even arrived 15 minutes early...so early that our family hadn't even arrived at the airport yet! All in all it was an emotional trip. On the flight to DC when I saw the map on the screen which shows the location of our airplane I started to cry. Wayne thought I was overwhelmed with Slava, but I said, "no, look, we're more closer to the US than we are to Europe." And when we landed in DC I must say there's no greater feeling than landing on American soil...plus we could read all the signs at the airport! Thank you all for praying for our flight home! Your prayers were answered! Slava spent the rest of the evening exploring his new home and we ate our Thanksgiving dinner. We had many visitors who were as excited to see Slava as we were to see them. When I laid Slava down in his bed he pretended to be a dog, probably because he met our family pup, Kashi. It didn't take long and he settled right down, started to rock a little bit, and fell sound asleep. I'd asked Andrii if he'd sleep with him because Mom and Dad were so exhausted and we really needed a good night sleep in our own bed. Slava got up around 2:30am to go to the bathroom and we made sure he knew it was NOT time to get up. He went right back to sleep and slept until 6:30am. We all slept well and it was a good thing because Slava was nonstop all day. We've opted to skip the naps and just put him to bed at 7 or 8pm. After a day of exploring, time-outs, lots of eating, some more "anti-bad word" wiping, lots of Slava-LaLa singing, and a bath which his big sister, Anna, enjoyed giving him, he's finally asleep. He barely made it to 7pm. He discovered Papa's I-Pod and head phones and started walking around listening to some good Christian music. He kept announcing "music-a" and even wanted me to sit next to him while he listened. Then he went over to the couch, laid down, and fell sound asleep listening to Third Day. We carried him off to bed and Andrii offered to bunk with him again tonight. They share the same room, but this way if Slava wakes up Andrii will be right there; At least until he gets acclimated. So now I'm off to spend some time with my big kids before I head to bed myself. Jordan is spending the night next-door at the Anderson's. I think he needed a break from the whole thing. Until Slava settles down, learns some English, and learns how to play, it will be hard on Jordan. Jordan so much wants to play with Slava, but Slava doesn't know how to play. So I guess that's yet another prayer request.

We cannot thank you all enough for all of your prayer support every step of the way. I've got more pictures to post and so much more to share. I will continue to blog our adventures for those of you who would like to continue follow it. Good night, and God bless!