Saturday, February 28, 2009

Homecoming!

I so apologize to you, our faithful readers, who have been emailing, phoning, and personally asking for an update to our blog. Yes! we are home. We have been home for 13 days. I will catch you all up on what has happened since we've been back, starting with this post, about our arrival in Sioux Falls.

I wrote this post a week ago - I never got it completed then, so I will post it now. I'm sorry - but it's better late than never!

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Well where did this week go. The last time I posted, on Sat. evening, we had just landed in Chicago, where we stayed overnight.

Sunday morning (Feb. 15), early morning, the kids woke up at 2:30 am, awake for the day. They graciously let me sleep until 5:30, when they tickled me awake. On our body clocks, 2:30 was really 10:30 am, which was very late for them, since they always got up at 7:30 while we were in Odessa.

We enjoyed the American breakfast buffet at the hotel. Even Valya found things she likes. She is very picky, not quick to try new things.

On the way to the elevators I noticed the exercise room, so we stopped in there. The kids loved it, especially Valya. She spent an hour on all of the various machines. She is very physical.

We took the hotel shuttle for O'Hare to catch our 1:00 flight to Sioux Falls. On the way to the terminal we saw Air Force One parked there. President Obama was in Chicago over the Valentine's weekend for something. It was fun to show the kids the president's airplane. Our flight was quick - we actually arrived in Sioux Falls 20 min. early. I was concerned about that because I knew that we had a crowd of people that would be there to greet us and I didn't want to get there before them! I made sure we were the last ones off the plane and we walked slowly out of the concourse to give them more time.

Nancy and Mark greeted us at the top of the escalator. She had asked everyone else to wait below so that we could have a little private time together first. We had all been together only once before, on Dec. 27, when we had taken Sergey from his orphanage in Odessa up to Andreyevo to let Valya and Sergey meet for the first time. After hugs and kisses, it was down the escalator to greet our friends and family. I didn't count but I would guess there were about 30 who came to meet us. What a great time we had. Thanks so much to everyone for coming to meet us. It was unforgettable.

And so we end this phase of our adoptions. Now, we are a new forever family embarking on a new adventure!



9 comments:

Leslie said...

Thanks for the update! I know how hard it can be to blog after the return. We'll be checking in for usdates on all of you!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for allowing so many to follow your story. We are friends of Surgey's from WV. and we love watching the path that the Lord has laid out, unfold for him, and for your whole family. We praise God for your safe return!

ArtworkByRuth said...

Praying you all are adjusting well. We hope to be not far behind you! God Bless!

Debora Hoffmann said...

It is so good to see you all together and HOME! Thanks for updating. I hope you're all doing well...hint, hint. ;-) Naw, I won't bug you again. Welcome home!

Ashley said...

What a great homecoming! Thank you very much for this update. I am so happy seeing all of you home. :)

Kari said...

I've been waiting for an update! I quickly found the way to get our kids to eat anything I put in front of them-sour cream! It makes everything palatable. For the first few weeks they put it on waffles, hot dogs, burritos, chicken, etc., and they would eat anything. They are now getting used to American food and don't use the sour cream nearly as much. Please post more soon!

Julie said...

please replace your profile photo with a new family photo :):):) welcome home!!!!! I've missed you all.. Best wishes for everything. And please keep posting.
Love and Hugs,
Julie

Pam DeFrees said...

It's so good to hear you are home! I thank God that sweet Sergey is adopted! Please tell Sergey Dana, Bill, Misha, and I would love to hear from him when he gets a chance to write.
d7defrees@hotmail.com
PRYVYET SERGEY!!!!! We love you! We are so happy for you!

Shelly and Carol said...

There is soo much info on your blog, very valuable info. We keep referring back to it. Could you please add us to the families - waiting for our dossier to be submitted. Our submission date is Sept 8th.
Thanks
www.theWainwrightFamily.blogspot.com