The trip home / Settling in / Bad news

Well, we've been home a few days now and I hear from various readers that they are anxious for an update. Its been a VERY busy week trying to get un-jetlagged and into a daily routine, but it's starting to feel like things are beginning to run more smoothly day by day. The kids really thrive on structure and schedules, so we are attempting every day to keep it consistent with meals, naps and playtimes and all. This morning I realized for the first time how much slack time we had before we got the kids, now it seems like every move needs to be planned to get everything done every day. Oh well, the kids are making it worth it with the little things they do and the progress they are making getting used to us and their new surroundings.

I'm going to post the pictures in chronological order starting with the morning of when we left Kiev leading up to this evening:

This is a picture of the kids in the hide-a-bed in Kiev the morning before we left. Don't they just look like a bed of puppies all curled up together in a bed?! :-) They were so crashed it seemed a shame to wake them.




Here's the Livingston family at the airport, not sure whether it was Warsaw or Chicago.





Here's a shot of Uncle Tim discussing the "sim-a-LOOD" outside that we were about to take off in. Note the tails on our smaller passengers, the backpack/leashes were a godsend in the airports.




Another shot of Tim with Alex, on the plane. The kids were great on the short flight from Kiev to Warsaw. Not so much on the 10 hour flight to Chicago.




JoEllen looks though paperwork while Talia eats both their meals on the plane.







Here's what we like to see in our little world travelers. I think Vala got about 30 minutes sleep on the 10-hour flight, which made for a LONG trip for everybody.








The Livingston family having safely arrived in Kansas City around 10pm on Saturday.







Grandma (my mom) and the girls. Vala's eyes are barely open after 26 hours of travel.

Grandpa (my dad) and Alex, with the new sehBAHkah Grandpa gave him.






Here are the kids totally crashed in the back of the Sequoia, finally at home. Getting them to bed from this point was not a pleasant task, they were like whiny limp little noodles.


Taken on Sunday after a good night's rest, here are the kids in their new coats from Grandma and Grandpa. They think it's pretty cool that they now have clothes of their own they don't have to share with other kids.



Sunday afternoon there was an adoption family potluck gathering at our church, so we took the kids to meet other adopted kids. Alex was quite enamored with Tim's daughter Anastasia, who also spoke Russian just like him! Check out the look on his face.

Tracy Adams and her kids came over while they were in town to play with the kids. The new favorite game now is "duck, duck, GOOSE!" The Loethen kids as well as the Hange clan have helped welcome them home too.



Tonight we had a grand impromptu gathering of guests over who showered the kids with gifts and attention. Here's Alex in his new hoodie getting a hug by Alan Bell.





The Wall family also dropped by this evening for a photo op.









Bad news back home

The euphoria of finally getting the kids home was dampened a bit on Monday when I found out that my job was impacted by a layoff that occurred while we were gone. I still have my job and benefits, but I'm down to 50% time/pay, which is a bit of bad timing to say the least. Especially since JoEllen quit work in August to stay home with the kids. The upside is I'll have more time to spend home with the kids during their first few weeks while I try and find a new job. Also it seems that money just keeps rolling in either from BBQ sales or other means, we are truly blessed and this latest turn of events just shows that Someone is still watching out for us. :-)

Stay tuned for more!

Keep on reading for more updates. We'll try and post more details about daily life and funny things that have happened as things settle down a bit. Hope this helps bring you up to date!

Da svidania!

Papa John