Life on Marz - Our First Month at Home

Greetings from the red planet!  We have been home for a month now and things are going very well.  Of course, adjusting to our "new normal" takes a bit of energy for all of us, but all-in-all, we are incredibly satisfied and just so thankful to be living through this special time together. 

The remarkable thing about the past month has been how perfectly natural everything feels most of the time.  Vitalik and Lera have easily claimed our family and our home as their own.  All five of the kids just believe the whole thing.  There has been no notable jealousy between any of them... they live, laugh, love, cry, irritate the crap out of each other, laugh some more.  I think that all-in-all, the seven of us are really enjoying this whole new life together, and honestly could not imagine it being any other way.  It is really beautiful ... noisy and chaotic most of the time, but beautiful for sure! 

The kids are doing lots of bike-riding and skateboarding, back-yard soccer, and playing with cousins and friends.  We are going through neosporin ointment and bandaids with such vigor that Eugene seriously needs to consider investing in the companies that make both products. 

Since we arrived home so late in the school year, we have decided to informally home-school until fall, at which time, Lera will enter 7th grade and Vitalik, 8th grade.  The new kids' English is coming along very well, and the little brothers and cousins enjoy using the few Russian words and phrases that they are learning.

Here are a few photos from our first month at home together. 
First, from our arrival at RDU on April 9th, 2011.  It was a glorious homecoming for sure!!

Virtually all of the people in this photo, foreground and background, were there to greet us. 

Excited brothers with cousin Krystin.

Anxious friends, cousins, and brothers.

Here we come!  It was really amazing to be welcomed by so many special loved ones!!!  What a special moment!

One of those there to greet us was Lera and Vitalik's friend Yarik (David) from the same school in Ukraine. 
He had arrived home in America only a few weeks earlier. 

RDU Parking Grarage... heading home.

This photo was taken during our first few minutes at home as a family of seven!

Our first month at home together has included LOTS of back-yard fun!

Friends prepared so many awesome meals and treats that we didn't have to cook for at least a week.  This beautiful "Welcome Home" cake was made by our friend Julie.  It was delicious!!

Bleeding Brothers!  Very proud of their first cycling scrapes together!

Zendi, the youngest of our NC brood, adores her new cousins and they seem to enjoy her company as well!  She and Lera are really good pals!

Feeding apples to the horse who lives over our back fence.

Vitalik and little Zendi chillin' and watching TV together.

Lera poses with dear friend Eleni... aren't her new glasses pretty!?

Lera enjoyed being reunited with Angelina.  Angelina was also part of the group of kids who came from Ukraine to NC last summer.  She joined her new family in America a few weeks before we got home with Lera and Vitalik.



OK, so with all of his awesome tricks, Vitalik had managed to live this long without breaking a bone... and after only 8 days in our home, yep, you guessed it... a broken collar bone from a cycling accident on our street!  This picture perfectly encapsulates his "recovery phase."  You should have seen the tricks that kid could do with one arm in a sling!  :o) 



Vitalik and Lera's first experience with the Easter Bunny! 

In our back yard after church on Easter.

Ten good-lookin' cousins - Easter 2011.  :o)

Farewell Ukraine

Today is our last day in Ukraine, and I have to say that while we will obviously be glad to get home, there is much that we will miss about this place.  For sure, our time in Ukraine with Lera and Vitalik has been incredibly precious, and we truly have savored it.  There have been many pillow fights, wrestling matches, many good meals at cafes and at home.  We have walked through the underground (literally) markets of Simferopol and Kyiv, eaten ice cream cones and totally amazing street-vendor hotdogs, watched a lot of Russian film on the computer, and they have done lots of enthusiastic and hysterical singing and dancing to music (Russian and English)... often when we wished they would just sit still and be quiet!  I don't imagine that we will ever again have time with just the four of us, and it has been a real pleasure.  Still, obviously, it is now time for us to go home and become a family of seven... and begin enjoying a new joyful chaos.

Tomorrow morning at 2:30am Kyiv time, we wake up to catch our car to the airport and begin the approximately 26 hour process of getting home.  After we complete this last leg of our journey, the travel statistics for this adoption will look something like this:
- Travel Began: January 15, 2011
- Travel Ended: April 9, 2011
- Number of Trips to Ukraine:  3
- Total Time Away from Spencer, Heath, and Mason:  About 40 days
- Total Distance Traveled:  approximately 32,000 miles
- Total Number of Airplane Flights for each of us:  18
- Total Cost ... Honestly, a bargain at any price!!

Here are a few photos from our last few days in Ukraine...

A few days earlier, before hopping the 15-hr train from Simferopol to Kyiv.  Here are Lera and Vitalik with our amazing driver.  A very special man who visits the orphanage often and truly loves these kids.  He served as our driver, and also as our Russian tutor... he made our time in Ukraine incredibly special.  Saying goodbye was bittersweet. 

Some of the several friends who came to the train station in Simferopol for a lovely send-off. 
Have I mentioned that these kids have been well-loved?  :o)

 

Getting on the train to leave Simferopol was the hardest part so far for all 4 of us. 
There was not a dry eye among us as we waved goodbye out the train window.
"Eto Trudna.  (It is hard.)"

Being adopted can be exhausting.  Here at 10am in our Kyiv apartment, even Eugene's stinky feet did not make Vitalik budge.  Later, when I tried singing to wake him up, he coined a favorite new phrase, "Mouth Off!"

Lera in the kitchen making sliced apples... microwaved to make them warm and soft. 
I loved them... Eugene and Vitalik, not so much!

Lera enjoying "kasha i musica" (cereal and music).

Vitalik helping to give dad a haircut... notice Vitalik's very stylish Ukrainian haircut...
soon-after made America-ready at his request, "It is no-good - America." 

Vitalik getting his hair trimmed. :o)

Lera in one of her favorite positions. :o)

Eugene found this cap and just had to give it a try.  Oh yeah - he looks awesome! 

We did a good bit of walking around the truly beautiful city of Kyiv.  None of our pics were great.  All had eyes closed or someone frowning, so here is the best shot we have! ;-)

Vitalik and I have lots of fun comparing gymnastic abilities.  He has far better tricks but I am still pretty good at stretching - which seems cool to me only because he thinks it is.  :o)

Vitalik doing an ariel (cartwheel w/ no hands) -- Ne trudna (It's not hard). 

Vitalik demonstrating pretty decent flexibility himself. :o)

Goofy family in the kitchen.

Our Week in Simferopol

 Wow!  No time to blog!  We are all happy.  There have been normal ups and downs, but we are feeling very fortunate thus far considering the enormity of the changes these kids are dealing with.  It has been really precious to have this time as a family of four.  Once we get home to the rest of our noisy brood, things will be very different...also awesome, but very different!  So we have been trying to treasure each minute of this special time, beginning to bond with our two precious teenagers!!

Here are a few photos from our very special week in Simferopol together.  Tomorrow afternoon, we hope to have their new passports in hand and be heading to Kyiv on the 15 hour trian to begin US Immigration processing. 



Vitalik master-minded this meal with me as his assistant.  It was so cool, he totally knew what he was doing and it turned out great.  Fried potatoes, garlic, onions, and kiobasa with a side salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions... and of course, bread. 
Me: "Should I add salt?"  Vitalik:  "Potom (later)... maybe 10 minutes."  The boy had patience in the kitchen (something I always lack) and it turned out to be the best meal we've had in awhile!




Vitalik and I had fun practicing gymnastics together... i.e., stretching.  He was very impressed with my flexibility, but I'll tell ya, I sure can't do this!!  Moi spina eto stara! (My back is old!)





Lera and Dad made lunch one day of awesome grilled cheese sandwiches with chips and apple slice.



Lera's new doll, which she named Eleni. :o)

Lera's favorite spot in our Simferopol apartment... in front of the TV.  We've been letting her enjoy it more than we usually would while all of the programming is in Russian! 



Both kids are enjoying practicing English using Rosetta Stone software.  They think the sentences sound so hillarious!  Lera Still cannot say "The girl is drinking." without laughing hysterically!  They are both doing great with learning English.  Vitalik speaks a lot more than she does just because his personality is more extroverted.  She understands a LOT though, so we will have to begin watching what we are saying around both of them!



God's timing brought V&L's missionary friend Esther back to Lezevoyeh only 3 days before they left forever... just in time to hear their great news and give them her contact info to share with their new parents.  She and her friends have been visiting, writing to, loving, and praying for Vitalik and Lera since they were about 8 yrs old. 





Games with missionaries Esther and (her new husband) Jason at their Simferopol apartment.

 

Looking at photos of L&V dating back to 2004!!!  Even a few video clips!  An AMAZING unexpected blessing that they (and we!) will have photos from these years, and even contact with missionary friends in Ukraine and America who remember them as beautiful sweet children!  Just Priceless!!!



After lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Black Sea.

 

an overlook at the black sea




at the black sea

 
  

Enough photos!  Ne Yeshyo! (no more!)




Enjoying her new IPod Shuffle, a gift from our dear family friends in America.



Diggin' the tunes on his new IPod shuffle.




At a Simferopol park which featured strange dark artwork.  Vitalik loved it of course!





We woke Lera up from a nap to go on this outing.  She cooperated, but she NEVER pretends to be happy when she is not!  I admire that quality in her, although, sometimes, a little pretending might be nice!! ;-)



Lunch with dear translator missionary friend Natalya on our last day in Simferopol.