Hey friends! I just wanted to take a moment to update everyone on how our family is doing! We have been home 3 weeks (as of 4-9) and have just seen huge improvements in most every aspect of our family life. We really had some huge emotional adjustments when we got home. I think we thought that getting to America would make things so much better, that everything else would be easier too. That was not even a bit true....except that we were so happy and relieved to get to be with all our friends and family again!!! Anyway, we felt like we were never going to see the light at the end of our new, long tunnel. But, we have, praise God! We are all feeling and acting more like a family of 5 instead of just a family of 3 with 2 visitors! Thank you all for continuing to pray with and for us and we ask that you keep that up! We have only made it this far and will only continue to make it with God's grace and help!

Philip is really understanding a ton of English! I accidentally asked him to turn the bathroom light off the other night, forgetting that he wouldn't understand me, and he went and did it! He is often the translator for Ryan...I will explain things to both of them and then he will explain it to Ryan in Ukrainian. He is very independent and wants to do everything for himself, so it is making it a little bit harder to try to bond with him and teach him things. But, we are trying to just be persistent and keep on pursuing him. He is very artistic and loves to do things with his hands. He will sit and draw or color for long periods of time. He seems to really want to bond with Jackson and even said that Jackson was his only brat (brother) one day...not Ryan. He and Ryan both make up their beds almost every morning without me asking. We are currently planning on putting him in a summer program on Tues/Thurs and he will start kindergarten in the fall...we think. We can't afford Briarwood anymore, so they will be at Valley Elementary in Pelham.

Ryan is still smiling. We told you about his smile...it comes after discipline, sickness, tiredness...almost all the time. It often is to get attention, but we don't care. We just enjoy getting smiled at. He tries to take care of us...making sure we are covered up if we are sitting watching tv, making sure we have food or drink, helping out with whatever chore we are doing (laundry, dishes, groceries). He is our little sharer...as long as he has his first, he will give every last one away to someone else. He is more receptive to our help with things, but that makes sense as he his the youngest of our boys. He is still the pickiest eater and we still just keep on offering him what we are eating. We just always have some fruit on hand and he gets rewarded with fruit if he eats well. He and Philip have both been to church with us now...Philip goes into Jackson's class, so he hasn't had a problem. Ryan went into class with no problems, but then cried when Greg picked him up. We don't know if he thought we weren't coming back or what, but we are going to keep on taking them so that they will begin to know that we will always come back.

Both boys went to the UAB International Clinic on Wed. and both did well. They don't appear to have any excessive emotional problems and checked out well physically. Of course, there will be normal emotional issues that arise when bringing home adopted children, but for now they seem to be very healthy otherwise. Philip has some issues with his teeth so we are going to get both of them into the dentist ASAP. They still have to have vision and hearing checks, but the MD at the clinic said their ears did not look like they had frequent ear infections. We are very happy that God has taken such good care of our boys to this point!

Jackson is doing better. We started him off in his old room with both of them in there also. Friends came and moved his bed to another bedroom and got us 3 twins for his room. So, for about a week and a half, they shared a room. This seemed to give Jackson more problems. They would talk and whisper in the room and keep him awake....and I'm sure it didn't help that he couldn't understand them. Now that we have moved him into the other bedroom and into his original bed, he is doing much better. He is playing with them a lot more and actually enjoying them again. He still tells on them quite a bit and we are trying to get that to stop because we know that they are going to stop letting him be around them if they think he is only going to tell on them. Emotionally, he seems to be better as well. He still needs a lot of individual time from both of us and we want to give him that. We are trying very hard to balance his needs with theirs, but since he can understand us and knows how our family used to be, we are really careful to do a little extra doting on him for now.

We are blessed and we do keep on focusing on that....even in the hard times! Praise God on this Easter weekend and thank you Jesus for the ultimate sacrifice you made on the cross! We love you all!

I just wanted to take a few minutes to tell everyone hello and let you all know how we are. Jackson is currently the only one of us who isn't still hacking up a lung, but we have been fever-free since Sunday evening now. All the boys are sleeping well, but Greg and I aren't so lucky. We have been taking meds to sleep, but tried without it last night. I got about 4 hours and Greg made it to almost 6! Hopefully we will both be sleeping more peacefully soon!

Please pray for us if we come to your mind! Our emotions are very fragile right now. I have spent a lot of time in tears and I am just over it. Basically, we are worried about making sure our 2 new sons know our love and know that they are our forever sons. They are equal to Jackson. But, since being home, Jackson is having a little bit more of an issue with "sharing". I put this in quotes because it isn't so much a problem sharing his stuff as it is his time with us, especially with his Daddy! So, we are worried about making sure Jackson still knows how special he is to us! It is very hard work! In fact, I have been so emotional that my Momma is going to hang out with me a bit longer. She has been such a wonderful help to us and especially to me!

We are very blessed and just trying to to keep that in mind! We just need a fresh perspective from our Heavenly Father so we can get our minds off ourselves! Thanks for caring and for your prayers!

Hey everyone! It's 7:20 here....and here is ALABAMA!!!! Any of you who have been following our blog will get that....and any of you reading this for the first time, well I'm sorry you might not get the joke! Anyway, I don't even know if anyone will still go on this blog since it was mostly set up to give updates on our adoption journey in Ukraine! But, Greg and I are quickly discovering that our journey has only just begun...so I guess I will keep updating the blog, because it is a good way for me to collect my thoughts!

Anyway, we had very nice flights with all 3 boys. Ryan got feverish about 30 mins. post the blogging I did on Wed. night asking for prayer for him not to get it! Anyway, he was feverish about 4 hours into the first flight from Kiev to NYC (when the medicine wore off) and he stayed that way the rest of the journey home. I couldn't take any medicine because of those crazy liquid rules, so he basically slept the whole way. Philip and Jackson both slept a little on the last 2 flights. We got to the B'ham airport about 10:45pm and had a joyous reception by a wonderful group of friends and family! It was absolutely one of the best experiences of our lives! I just want to give a huge thanks to all of you who came to meet us....it was so, so, so much of a blessing to us! We left the airport after finding out another "Greg" had picked up one of our suitcases and left his there. So, Jes and Holly were kind enough to drive to Starbucks on their way home and meet him to exchange bags! Thanks guys! Anyway, we spent a pretty good while at the airport trying to find out about the bag and visiting with our loved ones, and we finally crashed about 1am. That was 8am Kiev time, so Greg and I (not having slept on the flights) had been up for 26 hours! I was literally the most exhausted I have ever been. So, we got home and the kids immediately crashed in their new beds...thanks, Starlette, Mary, Dana, and Carol for helping us out with that....and went to sleep. Greg and I showered and hit the bed too. He went right to sleep....I laid there, and laid there, prayed, and laid there...prayed some more, and laid there! Seriously, I slept a cumulative of about 3 hours last night. So, now I have slept 3 out of 48 hours...and now I am sick. Jackson is too! So, I am taking a sleep aid tonight and praying for good rest! Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we are adjusting to life together. Today has been a really good day with our kids and we are blessed....but, we are scared and overwhelmed, too! We just want to raise these kids as God would have us raise them! We love you all and can't wait to see those of you we haven't seen yet!

Hey everyone! It's 9pm here on Wed. night (2pm there) and unless something changes, this will be my LAST post from Ukraine! I can't believe it! I have been waiting for at least, um....., 5 weeks to say that! Hooray!!! We ended up staying in for the most part today because Greg ended up feeling worse last night and this morning. He has also been sleeping with 1 of the kids (rotating nightly) on a hide-a-bed that is pretty uncomfortable. Me and 2 of the kids have been in the much comfier bed in the bedroom. I have offered to change places with him, especially since he has been sick. He said I was too much of a "princess" and this "pea" was way too large! I really had to agree and knew that he would be the one suffering if I had to sleep on it! So, when I woke up at 7am, I came out to the living room and found him in the chair in his pants, sweater, boggin, wrapped in a snuggie! Not good! So, I sent him in to the bed and he was able to rest for about 2 hours. He got up and said he was much better and the fever had broken! Anyway, in case I haven't said it enough, I appreciate the man God has blessed me with so much! He is such a wonderful husband and father and I just wanted to tell you all how much I love and appreciate him! But, enough of the mushy stuff....he is better this evening...I think....he says he is anyway. And he isn't quite so pale! Please keep praying for him to continue to get better!

Philip hasn't had any problems today at all, Praise God! And so far, Jackson, Ryan, and I have stayed well, too! Praise God, again!

We did go out for a bit to just get some air and a little exercise. We ended up going to McDonald's for lunch. To give you a little background, we learned in our adoption preparation that kids who are brought home from an orphanage will often eat anything and will overeat, sometimes even to the point of sickness. They have eaten less than they need for so long, they don't know when to stop. Also, we were warned to watch what we give them to eat...for example, give them Ukrainian food or stuff like soups, potatoes, bread...until their stomachs have time to adjust. Fast forward to our kids who have turned out to be picky eaters. They don't even act like they like the Ukrainian foods we have fed them. So, we finally gave up and decided to try McDonald's today. Philip wouldn't touch anything but fries and Ryan ate 1 chicken nugget and a few fries. They will eat pretty much any fruit we have offered them, but too much fruit will also mess their stomachs up! Oh, they have liked kielbasa...that is what they have called the sausage, bacon, and ham we have given them. But, we don't really know what we are going to feed them at home, so please pray for us to all agree on food soon!

We have finished packing for the most part...only toiletries, a few clothes that are air drying, and the pajamas we are sleeping in! Someone, we aren't sure who yet, will be here at 8am in the morning to take us to the airport for an 11:10am flight to NYC. Please continue to pray for us to make it safely home! We have missed you all so much and can't wait to see you all!

Hey friends! It's about 10pm or so Tuesday night here (3pm there) and we are about to hit the bed. Tomorrow is the first day of this entire trip that we have not had a single thing to think about. The boys are ours now and we even have their travel visas. We went to the embassy today to get the final visas and paperwork and ran into some folks we know from Birmingham who are also adopting. I won't mention names, since I didn't get their permission to do so....but, it was so wonderful to get to speak about 30min. of English with them. You don't realize how much you miss your language...and that gives us yet another thing to think about with our new sons! Anyway, since there is nothing pressing to do here tomorrow, we are gonna act like we are only tourists. So, we are looking into going to the local Kiev circus. We'll keep you posted on that...

But, Philip has been feeling better today. He has not had any fever and has been playing like before, so we think (and hope) all is back to normal for him. Thanks for all your prayers for him. Greg, however, is probably worse. He has developed a pretty yucky cough, which will be enjoyed by all passengers cooped up with him for 15+ hours on various airplanes! He hasn't felt quite as bad today because he wasn't feverish. But, I was able to get him some Augmentin 875mg (called something else of course!) and he started that today. Hopefully, he will feel better tomorrow.

I would like to ask you for prayers for both of us just for our emotional and mental states. This is without a doubt the hardest thing we have ever done and we are a tad bit overwhelmed. To top it off, my job is not secure right now and I am just on the edge. I had about 4 breakdowns with the final being tonight when I literally sobbed for about 5 mins. Greg was of course comforting me and I even got Jackson to crying! I hate that I let myself go in front of him like that...he is such a little worrier anyway. He did his best to make me feel better with a "massage"! Then Mary Margaret called me to tell me something about our work and I broke down again on her! I just never imagined how emotionally draining it would be to be away from almost everyone I love. Even with calls, emails, and blogposts, we just miss everyone so badly! And just the stress of 3 kids...all of them have spilled their drink at least once while eating out....is enough, much less without 2 of them not understanding us and the 3rd one asking us a thousand questions about why the 2 of them are doing this or that.....we are just a bit on edge. So, enough of my sob story....I just wanted to give you a little more details so you could lift us up to our Father. Thank God for His neverending love, guidance, healing, provision, leadership, saving grace, comfort, and mercy! And thank you all for walking with us through this wonderful, but stressful journey! We love and miss you all and will be blessed to get to see you in about 48 hours!

Hey everyone! 9pm Monday here (2pm there) and I have been holding a sick little boy for about 2 hours! Philip was fever-free all day today, including at his doc appointment for his medical. We of course told the doc about his fever last night and he felt it is viral since there are no other symptoms. He said to just treat with Ibuprofen as we have been. But, today he had no fever and I thought things were okay, then tonight he sat in the chair and fell asleep right after his bath. I went over to him and he was burning up! It is absolutely driving me crazy not knowing what he might be feeling....it's like I have a 1 year old all over again in this instance because he can't tell me what is wrong. Anyway, we gave him more Ibuprofen and I just held him and he finally came around a bit. We are hopeful that he will rest okay tonight, but are wondering if we should see the local doctor that Lifeline uses for their adoptive families. Please pray for discernment for us and for him to be well! To top it off, Greg was feverish tonight too! Ugh! But, 800mg of Ibuprofen later and he is no longer feverish! Please pray for all of us to get well and to stay well!

On a good note, we completed the medicals without too much problems except a long wait. Then, we headed over to the Embassy for the beginning of the Visa. They did not approve of the photos of the boys the orphanage gave us, so we had to pack all our stuff back up and head out of the locked gates, get new pics made, then back through all the security to get back in. Jackson was a real trooper for all this, but was about at the end of his rope 4 hours later. So, we asked Andrey to take him to McDonald's and all was right in his world again! This afternoon, we went to lunch and to get a few more groceries since we officially are leaving Thursday. We failed to get the Wed. flight because we were supposed to "officially" accept the tickets 3 days prior to the flight. That would have been on Sunday. The travel agent did not realize this "computer thing" and did not tell Andrey to tell us. So, the decision was made for us as the tickets for Wed. increased even more if we were to buy them today! Greg and I are at peace with this because we think this will be a better route anyway....Kiev/NYC/Atlanta/B'ham. Unfortunately, we don't arrive until 10:30pm, so I know this may deter some of you that were coming to meet us at the airport. If so, we understand...if you still want to come, we will be thrilled!

Well, I will go and try to get the family settled for the night! We love you and miss you, but finally see the end in sight!

Hey everyone! 4:37pm here Sunday (9:37am there) and we are in Kiev! Can't believe it...I really can't. Everything cam together perfectly. Of course, we scrambled a bit to get packed because we were told our transportation would be there by noon and he got there at 10am! So, the rest of the stuff I had not packed is literally THROWN into our suitcases and I don't care! And for those of you that know me at all, know that I am a meticulous packer. I normally can't stand not knowing exactly where something is....and I don't care!!!! That is how excited I am! The boys slept great last night...only about 15 mins. to wind down this time! Then everyone got along fairly well while Greg and I were running around trying to get us out of Zhytomyr! The ride to Kiev was the biggest blessing! Philip and Ryan didn't complain a bit! In fact, Jackson complained the most because we did not prepare to leave at that time and didn't have anything for them to snack on handy! But, Philip fell asleep almost immediately after we began the drive. We thought this was odd because we had only been awake for a couple of hours. After we arrived in Kiev, we realized he had a fever! I gave him Ibuprofen and it did help, but we are of course worried that it is something more serious. Please pray for him, and for all of us to stay well! We are staying in Kiev in a 1-bedroom apartment...it's about 1/3 the size of our place in Zhytomyr and it costs about 1&1/2 times as much as our house rent was per night. And I still don't care!!! We are coming home in 3-4 days and I am just so ready!!! Please continue to pray for a smooth rest of our journey. We go to the American Embassy tomorrow for the required medical exam for the boys. Hopefully, they will also be able to help us out if Philip is worse! We will decide tomorrow whether we will be able to fly out on Wed. or Thurs. based on what the Embassy tells us. We will keep you all posted.

I had not gotten on the computer or the blog at all since my last post, so I read the comments right before this post. Debby and Donald, your posts made me cry. Something about what both of you wrote just set me off today! Thank you both! But, really, thank you all for following our journey, for all your posts that we could not wait to read each day, and most of all for all your prayers. We have definitely felt them. God has certainly stretched us farther than we ever imagined on this journey, and somehow I don't think he is through stretching us yet! We are so, so, so thankful for each of you and your presence in our lives! As always, we love you and miss you and can't wait to see you!!!

Hey folks! 9:08 pm Saturday here (2:08pm there) and we are watching one of Jackson's movies and getting ready to wind down for bed. We all had a nap today, so we are letting them stay up a little later tonight. We have had a much "easier" day today. I put that in quotes because it was still somewhat hard. The language barrier is so huge, but we are seeming to be able to work through it with our version of sign language. On a big positive, both boys are very adept at washing themselves and getting themselves dressed. They can both brush their teeth too, but Momma is a little bit too anal to let them. All 3 boys slept well last night after about 45min. of playing and us trying to get them to wind down. Greg and I didn't sleep very well, but you can imagine the excitement/doubt/worry/joy/fear/anxiety/etc. we are going through. I'm certain we will have more sleepness nights throughout their upbringing. What parent doesn't? Ryan had a pretty good crying spell last night, and that was just different for him because neither of them ever cry when they get hurt. We know that it was probably just him missing his life and the only home/family he has ever known. No crying today though, so we are very pleased. I have been doing some packing off and on today because we leave tomorrow before noon for Kiev. Sasha has rented us a place to stay there and Monday we will visit the American Embassy to begin the final processes before we can leave. Monday we will decide if we can get done and fly out on Wed. or if we will have to wait until Thurs. We are just so thrilled that we don't have to spend another weekend in Ukraine, so either day is fine with us. Pray for Wed. though because that day would be the best, obviously. Jackson has been such a champ throughout all of this...even the part where they have come in and just started acting crazy. We are very proud of him and just keep explaining to him how much we love him and how God has given us enough love for all 3 of our boys! We are going to try to do something special with just him soon after we get home and his birthday party will be on the books as soon as we can get back and get settled. We'll keep all of his buddies posted about that special day! Well, I will go for now! Love and miss you all!

Hey friends! It's 5:16pm Friday here (10:15am there) and we are just chilling with our boys....all 3 of them. It has already been wonderful...and difficult...and great....and crazy....and we have had them with us about 6 hours.

We'll start with yesterday (Thursday). We had walked down to our local favorite restaurant (Misleevitz--the Hunter) and Andrey (our facilitator) called. He had made it into town and was going to head to the passport office to begin the process. A little bit later he called us and said that he had bad news. Passport office was closed for new passports...those are only processed on Mon-Wed-Fri. He said he was coming to pick us up at the restaurant and head back to the passport office to try to "negotiate" getting it done a day early. So, we went back....no go...the chief of the office had not even come in yet. So, we head over to the notary office to do something else on the paperwork...no go...the notary was out of the office with someone who was buying a home. So, we head to the office to get their ID number updated with their new names. This is kind of like our social security number. I was literally going to burst into tears if that person was out of the office too. Fortunately for me, and for Greg, they were there and we were able to get that done. Then back to notary office where we got that done. So, we came back home and waited another day to get our boys.

This morning, Yari came and picked us up about 10:30am and we headed to the orphanage to get the boys. We got them all changed into the clothes we had brought them and headed out. The director and all their friends were trying to tell them goodbye, and they just ran. We couldn't even get them to turn around. It was pretty cute...I'm glad they don't seem like they will be sad at all about leaving the people they have lived with for the past few years. That may change and we will deal with those emotions as they come. Anyway, we took them to the pizza place for lunch and everyone ate like champs. Pizza, fruit, juice, and ice cream with chocolate for dessert. We were hoping for no upset tummies and so far, so good! We then spent a couple of hours in the car while Andrey was working on the passports. God blessed us today by having the old passports available in this region. Praise Him! We now have their passports in hand and are ready to leave Zhytomyr for Kiev on Sunday. We could have even left today, but felt like the kids (including Jackson) needed to decompress a bit and we didn't want to have to rush packing since we can't do anything further in the process until Monday anyway. But, we have a big prayer request. Our original return flight is set up for Sunday, March 15th. Obviously we are not going to make that flight. So, I called Air France to try to change it. Bad news there...the earliest flight is March 24th.....Greg and I don't think we can stay here that long. They have found us some earlier flights on Wed. and Thurs. but will cost us a good bit more. We just need your prayers in deciding what is the best option for us. We also need your prayers for our relationships and communication with each other. Pray for good rest for us all...we will need it! As always, we love you and miss you and thank God for your friendship and love!

Hey everyone! 7:53pm Wednesday here (12:53pm there)! It's Jackson's 6th birthday today! Happy, Happy birthday to our precious son. We are truly blessed to have him and praise God every day for entrusting him to us to raise! We love you, Jackson!

Tuesday was a long day of travel. We went to Kiev to get Philip's new birth certificate. After spending a couple of hours in the car and fighting through Kiev traffic, we finally made it to the office we needed to get to. Once there, we found out the director of that division was off and wouldn't be back until today. So, Andrey (facilitator) just left all of our paperwork with them and set up to come in this morning. We headed back and had a bright moment at the end of our day when we got to talk to Mary, Starlette, Matt, and Eli on webcam. That made the not so great day so much better.

Wednesday started off rough. Sasha and Andrey drove here from Kiev...with no birth certificate. Turns out there is some new "red tape" the director in Kiev was requiring. Sasha said he has been doing this job for 10 years and has never had to go through this for a birth certificate. However, he was able to accomplish what the director required while Yari, Andrey, Greg, Jackson, and I went to Yi-mil-chee-no for Ryan's birth certificate. It was another 2+ hours on a much worse road to get there. But, we made it and got the new certificate. And Sasha got Philip's and faxed it to the office in Yimilchino, so we got both certificates legalized. I praise God for ending up working the certificates out for us in the time we were praying for. Now, we get to go ahead and start on passports tomorrow. Plus, best of all, we get to bring the boys home with us tomorrow for good. So, we ask that you pray for the old passports to be available in Zyhtomyr---the old type takes about 2 hours to get made. If no old are available, we will have to do new type, which will take 2-7 days. Also, pray for all of us as we officially begin the adjustment to a family of 5! It will be different for us all! As always, we love and miss you!

Hey everybody! It's 7:30pm Monday here and due to no DST in Ukraine we are now only 7 hours apart. So, it is 12:30pm there. Well, we have had a good couple of days. Our driver did not want to work yesterday due to it being Women's Day, so we just had a lazy morning. Then we got dressed and walked to "The Hunter" for lunch. It was all decorated with balloons and even a balloon "8" for March 8th holiday. They gave me a tulip and a glass of some beverage (I'm sure they told me what it was, but in Russian of course) that was pretty good for Women's Day. We then walked over to Furshet (the market) and shopped around in there for a while. We walked back and played with Jackson a little bit and watched "Surf's Up" with him. After he went to bed, Greg and I started season 1 of "24". For all you fans out there, this is one intense show. We watched 4 episodes back-to-back and finally decided we should head to bed! It was hard to stop watching, though!

Today, we got up and Yari picked us up to head to the orphanage. At the beginning of the visit Yarik was able to get Ryan to tell me "Happy Birthday, Mama!" It was super sweet. Philip still would not say it. However, I was trying to say the Russian word for Monday...then I said "Angleeski Monday" and he said the Russian word then said "Angleeski Monday". I almost cried....I know the language stuff will come, but it was music to my ears! The boys were especially rowdy today and Ryan cried when we left. I think they are as tired of us just visiting there as we are. We tried our best to explain to them that we would come in 3 days and take them with us forever. I actually can't believe that special day is almost here! But, today is my birthday and thanks to all of you who have already mentioned it to me.... It has certainly been the best birthday ever as I am getting the wonderful gift of 2 new sons. But, it has also been one of my loneliest! Greg and Jackson have done their absolute best to try to make me feel special today and I do.......but, I miss all the rest of my nearest and dearest. I just wanted to tell you all that this time away from you has just made me know how much I love you all the more! So, I can't wait to see you all!

Please pray for us tomorrow and Wednesday as we will be traveling a good bit to get the boys' new birth certificates. As always, we love and miss you all!

Hey everyone! 7:30pm Saturday here (11:30 am there) and Carol should be somewhere over the Atlantic. She is set to arrive in Birmingham at 5pm-ish today. Sasha came to pick her up about 9pm last night and asked us to go to dinner with him before they left. So, we went to our favorite traditional Ukrainian restaurant and as always it was good. I'm glad we went because none of us had been able to eat much dinner and Carol had not eaten anything because we were just busy getting her ready to go. She had a tearful moment before leaving us....she didn't know if she was sad, scared, or excited. But, she was very emotional either way. We will be glad to get a call from her about 1am our time letting us know she made it safely! We loved having her with us for so much of our journey and we will certainly miss her!

We had a great morning just relaxing and then we had our driver pick us up for lunch and market. After that, we went to visit the boys and as usual here lately they did not want us to go. It is so hard to continue to leave them there, especially since today was our 10th day of the 10-day waiting period. They are completely ours now. However, we are not going to take them out of the orphanage just yet. Monday is a holiday as I mentioned earlier, so none of the final "stuff" can be done that day. Then Tuesday and Wednesday we will be getting their new birth certificates with their new names, birthdays, and us as their parents. One of them is in a town about 100km from Zhytomyr and the other is in Kiev, 100km the other way. So, it will take both days to get them since we will do 1 each day. Then Thursday, we will get the boys and begin the passport process. They will leave the orphanage with us on Thursday...finally! It has certainly been a long journey, but one that is about to come to an end....at least the Ukraine part! Praise God for His gracious provision! We love and miss you all!

Hey everybody! It's 4:30pm here Friday (8:30am there) and we are just slowing down after a very busy day. But, first off, yesterday....we visited the boys and had a great visit with them. They were both loving and seemed like they didn't want us to leave. We had our driver tell them it's just a few more days until they can come with us! Afterward, we had lunch at McDonald's (Carol's request, not Jackson's if you can believe it) and walked around the mall ("Caravan") for a bit. We got a few more toys for the 3 boys (puzzles and magnet-art--so cheap) and got a sweater-jacket thing for Greg. Now he will fit in better with the Ukraine men! We found out some not so great news that because of a Ukrainian holiday ("Women's Day--if you can believe it") that falls on Sunday, March 8th, business will be closed on Monday. Yet one more day of sitting and waiting for us to get to start our paperwork to leave. God is really growing us through this whole experience! Anyway, today we got to the orphanage and it turns out they were having a program for "Women's Day". It was so great to get to be there for that. I got lots of pics and video that I think our boys will love to see for a long time to come! The older kids Philip's age were all dressed up and did various songs and speaking parts. Of course we didn't understand a word of it, but it was still great to see. And Philip and Ryan were both dressed so cute for it! It was a very fun visit...once again they didn't want us to leave! After lunch at the potato house we headed back home and quickly got to work trying to make arrangements for Carol to come home early. You heard me right....this morning she came down and told us that she loved us very, very, very much but that she had made the decision to go on home. So, we told her we supported her and appreciated all she had done for us so far. So, she will be arriving in Birmingham at 5pm tomorrow afternoon! I did tell her that I am a little jealous! Greg said that Jackson and I could come on home and start getting things ready there and that he would get Philip and Ryan home by himself. But, honestly Jackson and I don't want to leave Greg, Philip, and Ryan. So, we will stick it out together and still pray for God to get us home as soon as possible. A lot of you have been asking for dates and we honestly don't know. We think that at the longest we should be here would be leaving on Saturday, March 21st....and believe me I think that is the longest. We are very prayerful for Tues, the 17th or Wed, the 18th. Please keep us in your prayers....our spirits are very tender right now. We have such moments of elation and such moments of sadness back to back! As always we love and miss you all!

Dobre Day! Good Day to you! It's 5:19pm here (9:19am there) and we are just sitting here...literally just sitting here. Yesterday was a "Groundhog Day" kind of a day. For any of you that know that movie, it was just the same as most days have been so not much new to tell you all about. The boys were definitely cute...all 3 of them. We offered to let them play with the trucks we had brought them before that they love...and they chose those foam animal stickers and coloring again. It was a pleasant, wonderful surprise! By the way, if any of you are in the dollar store and see some of those foam stickers, pick some up for them please. I'll pay you back. Seriously, they love them...and Jackson is very willing to play that with them. Anyway, we just came back to our home away from home in Zhytomyr and sat some more! Today, we walked to our favorite restaurant since Andrew (facilitator) was using our driver to do stuff for our paperwork. So, we got very muddy but got some good exercise and some sunshine, which was wonderful! But, after we got together with Andrew we found out that he thinks the rest of our adoption journey is probably going to take us farther than our March 15th flight date. Maybe 2-3 more days than that. We know that this is just the journey that God has us on to bring our boys home, but boy it's starting to drain us! We would like to ask you to pray for us and pray specifically that God will expedite our process as He sees fit! We shared a little bit of this with Sasha and he said the Ukrainians have a saying which translates to "It's wonderful to be a guest, but more wonderful to return home" and that is definitely true for us! I know that years and maybe even months from now this time will seem like a brief moment....just like the past 5 years of begging God for another child is hopefully going to seem. But, that doesn't seem to help the homesickness and helplessness that we (me, Greg, and Carol) are feeling. We need a spiritual and mental boost from the Lord. "Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength" Isaiah 40:31, "Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which trenscends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:4-7, "I lift my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and Earth. He will not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber. In deed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you. The Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." Psalm 121.

Thanks for loving us and praying for us and walking with us on our journey. We love and miss you all...as always!

Hey everybody! 6:32pm Monday here (10:32am there) and we have just finished our mac 'n cheese! We are winding down for the evening and are getting ready to play some Trouble with Jackson, but I thought I would put a post on! We had a lazy Sunday morning then got bundled up and walked to eat some lunch and to the market. While we were eating, it started snowing those huge, feather-like snowflakes again so we just walked around some shops killing time until the snow let up. We then grabbed our groceries and began the trek back home. The weather here is quite unpredictable (for us anyway) and so naturally it began warming up as we were walking. The warmth was nice, but it melted our road and we had to bog through the mud again to get home! Yuck! I really will NOT miss this mud everywhere! We bought some Ukrainian "hot dogs" which we had for dinner last night. They were home-baked bread, kind of like a crescent roll, with a "hot dog" in the middle. It didn't taste like our hot dogs, but it was okay. We watched "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with Jackson and called it a night. We got up this morning and went to the orphanage for the early visit. We took some foam animal stickers that we had brought from home and they were a big hit. The boys all played with those stickers for about an hour and a half! It was great....we needed a calm, easy visit to prove again to us that they do know how to sit still! HaHa! After the visit, we went for pizza and headed home! It was an early day for us, so the afternoon has somewhat dragged. We are just so ready to come home and get started with our "new family" life. We also can't wait for you all to meet our new sons! Well, we will go for now....we love you all!



By the way, we can't believe we missed such a nice snow at home....but, believe us we are ready to get away from the snow for a while! Hope you all got to enjoy it before it all melted!

Hey everyone! 6:35 pm here on Saturday (10:35 am there) and Jackson and I have just enjoyed a grilled cheese supper. Not sure what Greg and Carol are going to dine on tonight, though. Anyway, we have had a good couple of days. Friday, we went to the orphanage early and had a good visit. We weren't able to go into our normal room with the boys so they let us go into a "rec room". There was some really cute exercise equipment, small basketball goals, bowling sets, balance beams,and even a foosball table. We had a great time playing with them yesterday. We took bananas for the boys to snack on and Philip gobbled his up and was back playing in no time. But, Ryan and Jackson were both savoring theirs a little bit more....so Ryan was sitting down and said "Jackson, blah blah blah" and patted the seat beside him. So, I told Jackson he was trying to get him to come sit with him. Jackson did and it was so cute....I'll post the pic! But, I was very happy because it is one more sign that they are actually going to bond! Afterward, we ate pizza and asked Yari (our driver) to take us shopping at what looked like a flea market to me from the street. They have a few of these in town, but he took us to the "best" one and told us they call it a bazaar. For all my fellow travellers to Ecuador, it was just like the shopping we did at the market there. Booth after booth with tons of people shopping. It was great. The only thing is, I was expecting more stuff like in Ecuador....handmade jewelry, crafts, art work, etc. But, really it was mostly clothes, coats, and shoes. It was amazing....these booths on the side of the road with furs, leather, and designer knock-off clothes. We loved it! We definitely want to go back there to look some more. We bought the boys some tobaggans for when they leave the orphanage with us. After that, we went to the market and home. We bought a rotisserie chicken for dinner and it was delicious! We are all going to miss the food here, even Jackson. But, we certainly want a chance to get to miss it because we are finally home!

Today, we went back to the orphanage again this morning. We ended up going into the main room in Philip's age wing of the orphanage. So, we got to see how they sleep and see their little toiletry area where all their toothbrushes, towels, washcloths, and a bar of soap were lined up. It was really pretty cute! We had a fine visit today, but the boys were kind of rebellious. We think they are already starting to try to push us to see how far we will let them go. You all know us....not very far! HaHa! But, overall it was a good visit and we got Ryan to repeat a ton of English words and numbers to us. Philip repeated the number "18" finally, but that is all he would say! I know that will change when he gets to America and has only English spoken to him! We ate burritos at the Potato House today and Jackson had ice cream for dessert. I had the "hot chocolate" that I have fallen in love with. It is so thick, you eat it with a spoon. Greg and Carol had their Macchiatos they have fallen in love with. When we left the restaurant, it was coming the biggest snow we have seen here. For me, it was the biggest snow flakes I have ever seen. I told Jackson the angels were having a pillow fight in Heaven because it literally looked like feathers falling from the sky. It really was beautiful....and still life went on. People walking and riding all over. We told Yari that Alabama would be shut down for days with that kind of snow! Anyway, we love and miss you all....as always. More later!

Hey everybody! 6:34pm on Thursday here (10:34am there) and we have just gotten home for the night. Our facilitator went to court for us this morning to proof our birth certificates for us. He said it is very difficult to correct any misspellings or incorrect birthdates after the official copies have been made. He said everything was correct already and no changes had to be made! Then he and our driver picked us up and took us to exchange some money first. Lucky for us (not for Ukrainians), the Grievna(spelled like it sounds to me) has lost value since we arrived. We had heard that the exchange rate was around 5 grienva per dollar last year. When we got here it was 8.15 grievna per dollar. Yesterday, it was over 9 per dollar. We heard it is going to cross 10 per dollar before we leave to come home. We are getting such good deals on our food and stuff for the boys. But, we have also heard that prices will soon start to go up because of the poor exchange rate. Anyway, just wanted to give you all some details about our money because some of you had asked. After changing money we went to lunch, followed by some delicious ice cream, and then back home for a bit. Yari, our driver, picked us back up and we headed to the orphanage. Today was a fun visit with the boys. We took them some special trucks (Jackson, too) and they all 3 had a blast playing with them together! Ryan had a little temper tantrum and Greg just held him until he stopped. Then, he wouldn't let go of Greg for the rest of the day. That made Greg so happy because he worried about being too tough on them too soon! They all 3 climbed on Greg and he carried them around....it is the best work-out he has gotten while he has been here. Then Philip got down on the floor and started doing push-ups....up on his toes and everything. Greg got down and did some with him and Jackson, too....a child after Greg's own heart! He said the "Perfect Push-Ups" would be proud of Philip! We really enjoyed ourselves. Carol has made us a calendar to count down the days until we get to come home....so today was day 1 of the 10-day waiting period. One day down, only 9 to go....at least until that part is past us! We love and miss you all!

This just in.....Jackson lost tooth #2! Can't believe it...2 teeth in 3 days!

It's 4:15pm Wednesday here (8:15am there) and it is official! We are now a family of 5!!! I still can't really believe it.....maybe won't officially believe it until we are back in Pelham! But, we didn't get to see the boys today.....court took a little longer than expected due to a problem with a juror not showing up. Then our driver had already gone to the orphanage this morning for some paperwork for us. So, we just decided to wait until tomorrow so that we can surprise the boys with the official news then! Court was about what we expected.....a bunch of talking we couldn't understand with Andrew whispering some of it to us. We did get questioned as to why we wanted to adopt and how we thought Jackson would do with the addition of 2 brothers. The judge was very happy to find out that Jackson is here with us and has already gotten to enjoy time with his brothers. Overall, it was not quite as nervewracking as we had prepared ourselves for. The judge was actually cracking jokes with our translator and posed in a picture with us at the end. After it was over, he wanted to ask us a couple of questions.....they ended up being about our economy and our camera.....both of which we know very little about. HaHa! Anyway, all is well and we are so excited! Thanks again for all your support and love.....we really couldn't make it without you!

Philip Dean Maxwell ---- 09-13-02

Ryan Gregory Maxwell --- -8-15-04

And Jackson's birthday falls right in between on 03-11-03. Things are certainly going to be very busy at our house! God has richly blessed us!!!!

Hey everyone. 8:54pm here on Monday night (12:54pm there) and we just finished a game with Jackson and are winding down for the night. We had a great visit with the boys today. We had bought them each a coloring book with corresponding stickers to match up to numbers in the book. Those boys (including Jackson) worked on those books for about an hour! It was great! But, we have a really big prayer request for Philip (the oldest). He is not very interested in speaking any English with us right now. Ryan was repeating numbers for us today as Iwe were helping him with the stickers and Philip said one number after he heard us praise Ryan so much. It was actually funny hearing them try to repeat our southern accents! Anyway, Philip began writing out the Cyrillic alphabet and making Ryan repeat him. He would correct him if he didn't do it the right way. Our translator was sick today and didn't go with us, so I got our driver Yari to ask him if he was ready to learn English and he said "in America". So, I guess he's not going to try before then......well, we would like you to pray with us that his attitude softens toward learning English a little bit. Obviously, he is going through a lot of changes right now and we want to be very patient with him....but, we would prefer that the English comes sooner than later! We had pizza again for lunch....Jackson's request and headed on home. We have just spent the rest of the day hanging out together.

But, the biggest part of the day was probably my baby losing his first tooth. It has been extremely loose for our whole trip, but today it finally let go and came out. Unfortunately, the tooth washed down the drain of the sink. Greg was helping him brush his teeth and he saw what he thought was a lump of toothpaste and washed it on down the drain! So, we went ahead and gave Jackson what we thought the tooth fairy was going to give him for his first lost tooth. We gave him 40 grievna (I spelled this how it sounds) which currently equals around 5 dollars. He can't wait to spend it! He has already got his eye on a couple of build-it-yourself robots that are 20 grievna each! One more day to go before our court date! We love you and miss you all!

Hey everyone! 8:19pm Sunday here (12:19pm there) and we are just winding down for the night. We did go to the orphanage yesterday. We got to see both boys and we had a good time with them. We took tattoos and put them on them. It was really cute to watch them try to keep them from rubbing off the rest of the time. There is an Italian family who are here adopting a little boy and we keep on seeing them most days we are at the orphanage. Yesterday, they were actually there for our entire visit, so it was neat for all 4 boys to get to play together. We had brought nuts (our boys are crazy for pistachioes) and they had brought gummy bears, so all the boys did a great job sharing with each other. We took the shoes and clothes we had bought for the boys and tried them on them. They were so excited and so eager to help us get them out of their clothes and into their new ones. They were also kind of in awe of the tags on the clothes. I'm assuming they have never had brand new clothes of their very own! It was really neat.....they did not want to take them off, but our driver helped us explain to them that they would get them soon! After the visit, we went to eat pizza. It was delicious as always. After that, Yari (our driver) took us to a local book store. We were able to great some great things to help our 2 new boys once we get home. We also got each of the boys a coloring book with stickers and we got us a pocket-sized Russian to English book. Then we came home for the rest of the day. We had a good time playing some of the games we brought with Jackson. Today, we got up and I cleaned the house a little bit. The landlords had not left us any kind of cleaning product, so we bought some at the market. The bathroom had not really gotten dirty, but there was lint everywhere. We have to air dry all our clothes, even our towels, and I guess our clothes dryers really help out with the lint on clothes at home. Anyway, we now have a clean bathroom again, especially the toilet which Greg cleaned for me, and it feels great! After that, we went for a long walk. The ground has finally frozen, so it is no longer muddy out front. We walked for quite a while, then ate and shopped around a bit, then walked home! It was so cold! But, we were very bundled up and made it pretty well! We got home and got warm and took a rest! Later this evening, mine and Greg's small group (Sunday School Class) called us from church. They all got there early and called us on speaker phone! It was so wonderful to hear from our dear friends. They have been a constant source of support and love for us throughout this whole journey and we are very grateful for them! God has really blessed us with a great group of friends! Of course, it made us even more homesick! But, our journey is a little over half-way completed, so hopefully it is all downhill from here! Well, as always we miss and love you all! Can't wait to see you!

Hey everyone! It's 8:15pm here (12:15pm there) and we are just relaxing. We had a great day today. We left the house about 9:30 this morning to head to visit the boys. If you remember, we did not get to see Ryan (the youngest) yesterday. We found out today that the caregiver basically forgot to bring him to us. We did not ask yesterday because we did not have a translator with us and we really felt like he was outside since we saw so many kids outside yesterday. But, the director was very apologetic for it today. Anyway, we did get to see them both today. One of the caregivers brought us in a bag of Legos to play with. All 3 boys enjoyed playing with them, but especially Philip and Ryan. Once again, we were excited that they can sit and focus on a project. A really sweet thing happened between Ryan and Jackson. Jackson was over the legos and was flying his "airplane" he made around. Ryan got excited and tackled him, then he stomped his plane and broke it apart. Of course, Jackson got upset. He was a little teary and I was hugging him and trying to explain that Ryan is just very excited and he didn't mean to hurt his feelings. Ryan came up and gave Jackson a hug and kissed him on the cheek! It was an apology without any words and it made Jackson happy! It made Mama and Papa very happy, too! We also took another activity book and Philip loved working the activity pages. It was great. Carol had her photo album with her, so we were able to show the boys their cousins (McKinley and Cameron) and their Pops. They were all smiles! It was a great visit!
We left there and went to lunch at our favorite restaurant. Then we did some shopping at our favorite market. It is a supermarket, but it has all kinds of smaller stores located in the building with it. We bought both Philip and Ryan coats and bought Ryan some pants and some shoes. We feel like Philip can wear Jackson's clothes we have here and Ryan can wear his shirts. Then when we get home, we will have the project of pulling out all of Jackson's old clothes we have stored for them! Greg is finally happy that I kept everything!
A few of you have asked about our remaining schedule.....I will try to give it to you, at least as best as I can. Our court date will be on Wed, Feb. 25th. After that there is a 10 day waiting period that starts on the 26th and it's calendar days, not just work days...thank goodness for that at least. The 10 day period is in place for any parents or other family to appeal the court decision. We are fortunate to not have to worry about an appeal as our boys are from an abandonment situation. We will give you more details on their whole story once they are ours. But, we still have to wait the 10 days. That will take us to Sat, March 7th. Then we will have 3-4 more days in Kiev while we have American Embassy "stuff" to do concerning passports, visas, etc. (really don't know what all) and a medical exam. Then we come home. I don't think we will make it home by my birthday (the 9th) but I hope that we are at least traveling home by Jackson's on the 11th! Once again, please do not 100% count on any of these numbers except the court date. But, these are my best guesses! We can't wait to see you all!

Well, it's 8:05pm Thursday here (12:05pm there) and we are amazed at how late it is. For once, it seems like it should be earlier....I guess that means today passed a little quicker than most! We started off the morning with a morning visit to the orphanage. Our translator/facilitator was not getting into town until later today, so we just had our driver pick us up and take us on out for a visit. We had a great visit with Philip (the oldest) today. Ryan did not come into the room...there were lots of kids outside in the snow today, so we think he must have been outside. But, without our translator we just don't know. We don't think anything was wrong since the director was all smiles. Anyway, Jackson had a wonderful time playing with his brother! We took a seek and find book (thanks, Dana) and both boys loved helping each other find the items on their pages. I still haven't been able to get Philip to say any English words, other than our names. We'll keep working on that. He even pointed to a picture of Carol we had on the camera and called her baboushka (sp.). It was really cute. We took a snack for them today. They always love that. Philip promised to give Ryan his Fruit by the Foot we took him(thanks again, Dana) since he wasn't in there. Lots of hugs were given all around!
After we left the orphanage, we went to pick Andrew up from the bus station. We saw a lot of interesting people there while waiting on him. One man was so impaired he couldn't walk. It was about 12 noon. It made us sad! We got Andrew and went to the Potato House. We all got pork spare ribs and baked potatoes mixed with mushrooms, cheese, and sour cream. Jackson got a chicken burrito....not like we are used to, but still good. It was all delicious, actually! I made mention in the picture that the locals consider this fast food.....we didn't understand that at all. It was obviously nothing like American fast food. But, I was especially excited because I was able to actually get some Coca-Light there. I know all my Diet Coke junkie girls understand my obsession with that! After lunch, we went to get some money changed over and had a chance to visit the statue of Lenin in the town square. Joseph Schell had researched Zhitomir for us and said all the hip travelers are visiting the Lenin statue. We immediately asked our driver to take us there. Actually, when we asked our translator to find out from our driver where it was, he was confused. Our pronunciation of Lenin was just like Lennon, as in John. He laughed and quickly corrected me....it's Le'-neen with the accent on Le! No charge for today's lesson on how to correctly pronounce an evil Communist dictator's name! Then we had to sign some more paperwork with Andrew. After that we have just hung out at home. We have the option of going to the orphanage both morning and evening, but the orphanage is about a 30-40 minute drive from Zhitomir. The driver was only negotiated with for 1 visit a day, so we really try to make the MOST of that 1 visit. So far, this has worked well and it always seems like both boys are excited to see us. I have forgotten to mention that the drive to the orphanage town is beautiful. On the way we pass a large lake/river that is almost always frozen. We have seen people ice fishing, playing with their dog, and riding their bikes on the frozen water. I think they know what they are doing, but it scares me to death! Plus, the town where the orphanage is located is very small. Almost every day we have seen a horse-drawn buggy going to or from town with various supplies. Don't forget it's somewhere between -10 and -2 degrees (that's negative 10 to negative 2 degrees) Celcius and these men are just out driving their buggies around! Well, I will go....love you all!

Hello everybody! It's February 18th, which was my Daddy's birthday. He has certainly been on my mind a lot today. Just wanted to say how much I miss him.....and I know a lot of you do too! It's 7pm here (11am there) and we have just finished our first McDonald's while here. It was delicious....better than home actually. Probably because we haven't had it for a while. Carol, Jackson, and Greg are playing Trouble, but I opted out of tonight's game so I could post on our blog. I didn't post yesterday because we didn't end up making it to the orphanage. Our facilitator (Andrew) used our driver all day and did all the necessary paperwork, etc. to try to establish us a court date. They did actually pick us up and take us to get pizza for lunch! Once again, it was delicious! Then we did a little walking tour of the Zhitomir area right near the pizza place. Yari (our driver) finally picked us up and took us to the market for a few necessities. Then home. Today, Andrew came over from Kiev and finally got to speak with the judge. We have a court date....11am on Wednesday, the 25th. Not as soon as we had hoped, but we are still very pleased to finally have our date set. We ate lunch, shopped around a bit, then went to visit the boys. Carol went with us today and it was a good day for it. There was a man there who played the accordion while the kids sang and danced. Our boys were not interested in doing it with their classmates. They were actually drawing and coloring with Jackson over on the side of the room and didn't want to stop. They sat there involved with that for about 30 mins. while all that crazy activity was going on.....at least we think there is not any risk of ADD or ADHD right now. Anyway, the man who was singing on the accordion called both boys over and had them sing the song by themselves....I was so excited and was able to get it recorded on my camera. I will post on the blog once the court date has passed. Anyway. he then called a group of 10 kids up to do a specific dance to some Russian song he played. Jackson and I were sitting across the room so I could take more video.....I thought it was so cool, but Jackson said "This is the weirdest thing I have ever seen". I explained how different their music is.....he still thought it was weird. Ha Ha! Then, the man called all the kids up and has me, Greg, Carol, and Jackson come over and form a big circle. Once again, we could not get our boys to participate....too busy coloring. Anyway, he played a song on the accordion that we recognized....it was the Chicken Dance. So there the 4 of us were helping the man teach the Chicken Dance to the orphans. Man, you have never heard the Chicken Dance song until you have heard it played on the accordion! Anyway, the kids were all over us, each wanting to hold our hands. It was so cute. After the room emptied out, we had some play time with the boys and Jackson. The boys were extra crazy, which was "exciting" since it was Carol's fist visit. I can only hope they will be a little less wild for our visit tomorrow. Greg and I just keep referring back to our training (thanks Lifeline) that taught us all these different levels of emotions the kids will go through. Pray for us and our emotions/nerves/moods with our boys and with each other as outside stress can certainly lead to fighting with those closest to you. By the way, we got there today and got into the playroom and there was a huge pile of hair sitting in the middle of the floor. Obviously, it was hair cut day. Then, our boys came in to the room and both had hair cuts that were more like Jackson's current cut....and more like we were expecting them to have from the beginning. I was a little sad to see their hair go, but it will grow out by the time we come home! Love you all!

Hey guys! It's 7:10pm here (11:10am there) and we are just lounging around. Greg is reading (yes, I said reading), I am playing on the computer, and Carol and Jackson are currently playing with Jackson's Lego Star Wars guys. I don't have a lot new to add today, but thought I would just blog enough to let you all know that we are doing well. It is colder here, so the mudpuddles have frozen out front and it much nicer going out. I know that sounds weird, but it is so nice not getting our shoes filthy...even if it is much colder out! Some of you have asked about our colds and we are all over those and well. I just forgot to put that in a blog. We did visit the boys today and Jackson had a blast once again with them. He asks us every visit why we can't just go on and take them with us now. We always tell him how much we understand his feelings!!! Our facilitator, Andrew, is currently waiting on the results from the medical exam this region of Ukraine requires. The boys were examined last Tuesday and the results are supposed to take no longer than a week per the orphanage director, so please pray for those to be there tomorrow. We cannot get our court date without them! Well, I will go for now. As always, we love and miss you all!

Hey everybody! Sunday at 5pm here (9am there) and we have just returned from an afternoon out. Our driver (Yari) came to pick us up at 1pm and we headed off to eat some pizza. This was Carol's and Jackson's favorite meal we have had here. It was absolutely delicious....some of the best pizza we have ever eaten. I still like the Ukrainian food better because it is different....probably the same reason Carol and Jackson love the pizza...because it isn't! Anyway, it was quite tasty. We then asked Yari to take us shopping. We were meaning the cheaper, more flea markety, more traditional shopping. But, we couldn't make him understand that....he speaks only a little English. So, he took us to a brand new indoor mall. It did hold the only McD's in town, but we ended up not being hungry for it....so we will have that splurge another day. Anyway, I am very hot while inside here. And I did not bring a short-sleeved shirt. So, I wanted to look for shirts. We went to a trendy, upscale-looking clothing store called "Reserved". I was prepared for high prices and small sizes. But, I was able to get 3 short-sleeved shirts for $17....no lie. It was great. Now I can be cool while my family doesn't freeze because I have the window open as wide as it will go! Anyway, we then went to our normal market to buy some groceries. For all of you that know how little Greg and I cook at home normally, we have already been to the market more times this week than we went all last month! Of course it helps that I work in a grocery store and can bring home the essentials after working! Anyway, we bought Jackson a small Lego set at the market and he and Greg are working on it now. Plus, Jackson has gotten Carol addicted to one of his video games, so she was even playing it this morning without Jackson asking her to. Thanks again to Christie for loaning us her Nintendo DS for our trip....now they can both feed their video game addiction! Back to business tomorrow, so I will let you all know how it goes. Our next step is getting our court date....please pray for it to be soon! Love to all!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! It is 6:32pm Saturday night here (10:32am there) and we have certainly had a day of LOVE! Ha Ha! We have not left the house today, but it has been nice. Jackson did sleep in a tiny bit....until 8am, so we had a pretty restful night. Then, we got up and I got all his Valentines together that his special friends had made him. He was so excited and read each one! He was especially excited about the princess ones...haha! Anyway, Greg and I got him a Valentine too. We got him some used games for the Nintendo GameBoy that will also fit into his Nintendo DS. He was very excited. But, he did want to know where we got them. So, we told him we got them before we left home. About 30 mins. later he said, "Why have you made me wait for all these days since we've been here?" HaHa. We reminded him that they were a Valentine's Day present and he said "Oh yeah. I forgot." Never satisfied, huh? Anyway, we did some laundry and actually cooked dinner tonight. We cooked spaghetti, but when we were at the store asking our translator for sauce he said, "We use ketchup". We kept questioning him and he kept on saying that. So, we went over to the ketchup and they have all these different kinds with different seasonings added. So, we chose one that said it had extra peppers and onions flavoring it. We did end up enjoying it....but, it was nothing like ours at home. It tasted like Chef Boyardee, so Greg and Jackson really enjoyed it. HaHa! We also added English Peas for a green. They were crunchy. Pretty bad I must say, since I don't love English Peas anyway. We wonder if they just eat them that way or if they cook them all day long? Don't really know. Anyway, we have our driver set up to come get us tomorrow for lunch and shopping. Then, we are probably going to splurge and get McDonald's on the way home for dinner tomorrow night! Ha Ha!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we finally decided on names. We took so long because we were thinking we would try to come up with names that were at least close to their old names. But, we ended up just going with names we like and if they want us to call them their Ukrainian names for a while, we can. The oldest is Slavic and he will be Philip Dean Maxwell after my Daddy. He will be called Philip. The baby is Rusic and he will be Ryan Gregory Maxwell after his Daddy. He will be called Ryan. Hope everyone likes those names because we are happy with them and we really struggled for a while! So, our boys will be Philip, Jackson, and Ryan! Well, I hope to hear all about all of your Valentine's Days soon! Love you all!

So, it's 6:26pm Friday night here (10:26am for most of you) and we just got back from a visit to our boys in the orphanage. We are actually glad it's the weekend. We have not had a single day since our arrival that we have woken up without an alarm clock. Hopefully, we will sleep well tonight and then can just snooze for a while in the morning....if Jackson will allow it! We are going to miss seeing our boys, though. We had a really fun visit today. We learned that the Russian word for brother is "brat---pronounced Brot" (once again, no idea on spelling) so we asked both boys about Jackson being their brat and they said "da"! They both called us Mama and Papa and both called him by name. It was really cute and really sweet. The oldest boy (Slavic for now) had drawn a picture of a clown and he wrote some words on there. We asked what it said and he said "Slavic blah-blah-blah". We couldn't understand the blah-blah-blah of course...maybe he said Slavic's clown? Anyway, it made us realize that he already knows his letters....and a lot of them are different to ours. For example, a R here is a P. At TGI Friday's, the Oreo dessert said Opeo! Anyway, we are going to have a job ahead of us re-teaching him his letters! Only with God's help, of course. We went out to lunch before going to the orphanage, so Carol got to get out of the house for a while too. We plan on hanging out here tomorrow, unless the weather is better. If it is, we plan on walking to a park nearby. Otherwise, we have set up for our driver to come on Sunday and take us to get pizza and go shopping. Our paperwork is in processing and we are still prayerful that we will get a court date late next week....please pray for that with us. But, we will have to give our names to our facilitator by Monday, so I will let you all know what we decide! Love you all and miss you so much!

Hello, everybody! It's about 3:20 pm here (7:20am in Alabama) on Thursday. Greg, Jackson and I went back to the orphanage today and we had a blast. Once again, the oldest boy (Slavic) came in first and he and Jackson played like crazy. The orphanage director said that he talked about Jackson and already loved him! Then the baby (Rusic) came in and we had a good time playing with him too. Slavic and Jackson would hide from him and we would say "Where's Slavic? Where's Jackson?" And he would look for them....Jackson, too. It was so cute! Jackson and Slavic both had red cheeks and sweaty hair from running around so much. It was so fun. We picked Grandma up and went to lunch. Then, we walked around the marketplace some more. It is misty and cold today, so after that, we just headed home. We think the boys will just mostly be able to wear Jackson's clothes home, except we need to buy them both shoes and a coat. We are planning on staying here in Zhitomir this weekend, but think we may travel back to Kiev for at least a day trip next weekend. We will keep you all posted, though! Many hugs and kisses!

Good evening everyone! It's 10:36pm Wednesday here (2:36pm in bama) and we are winding down for the night. First of all, I want to send out a huge thanks for the scrapbook that Mary Margaret, Starlette, and Christie made for us and that a lot of you contributed to! It has been a total lifeline for us and I have just not mentioned it because I have not felt my words even could describe how this book makes me feel! But, thank you all again! You are wonderful!!!! Today was a big day....we took Jackson to meet the boys. He was nervous and so were we. They brought in the oldest boy first alone because the little one was outside with his class. That was great because the oldest boy is quieter and more reserved. He and Jackson had about 15 min. to play alone together with the motorcycles and cars we brought. It was great. Then, when the youngest boy came in it fell apart a little bit because he was excited and running around a lot. We got a balloon and kicked and hit it around like a soccer ball. It was still very fun. Both boys were excited to find out Jackson is their brother and both gave him hugs (well, really they let him hug them)! It was great. Jackson had been a little indifferent toward them up to this point, but tonight he has been talking about them and how much he is going to teach them. He looks like a giant next to them...probably almost a whole head taller than the oldest boy! I can't wait to see what they look like next to Matt McDonald!!! Anyway, they will catch up to him. But, we told him he is going to be like the oldest for a while, even though he will not be the oldest in age. He was happy to go and asked to go again tomorrow. We left Carol home, but she enjoyed her time and watched one of her movies instead of having to watch one of Jackson's. We picked her up after the visit and all went to lunch and to the market. We have just hung out together this evening, so we have gotten some rest! We have a washing machine in our home, which is wonderful! No drier, though, so we just have to hang out a load then wash another one when that load is dry! Still a blessing to have the washer! Many of you have asked about names....and we don't know. Seriously, we don't! I promise I will tell you their names once we know them! We love and miss you all!

Dobre dei--Good day! No idea of the spelling, though! HaHa! It's 8:46pm here on Tuesday (12:46pm in Alabama) and we are just hanging out again. Jackson is working on a little bit of his school work, thanks to Mrs. Evans and Briarwood. The rest of us are just chatting and watching him. Well, today was another busy day. We went to the notary and filled out the official paperwork to begin the adoption. We then went to see them and played a little bit outside. We had a very good time with them. We plan on taking Jackson to meet them tomorrow (Wednesday) so please pray for that meeting. We just have complete peace in our hearts and minds that pursuing adoption of these 2 little boys is God's plan for our family. Every step since the initial referal has pointed directly to them. Even the place God has blessed us to stay is amazing! Obviously there are still so many things that have to be done so we are trusting God to continue with us each step! We are counting on all of you for your support and love as we go through some major changes in our family! We can already tell that a lot of you are experiencing the same fears and worries that we are.....and that just shows us how much you love us. So we do just beg you to stand with us as we bridge the gap in these 2 little boys' lives. We can't wait to watch what God will do for all of us next.

Well, it's 7pm on Monday, the 9th here (11am in 'bama) and we are just doing a little hanging out. Greg and I went to visit the boys today and the visit was awesome. They are both so beautiful and seem to be really healthy. The health report from the orphanage was very good...both are intellectually developed where they should be for their age. But, this is relative to where they should be since being raised in an orphanage for the past couple of years. They were both very loving and willing to play with us both. The orphanage director actually asked them both separately but in front of us if they would like for us to be their "Mama and Papa" and they both said "Da--yes" without hearing that the other was even being asked. It was wonderful. Both had smiling faces and lots of laughter. The orphanage is actually very nice and I think the boys have been well cared for...at least as well as they can be in this situation. Carol and Jackson actually stayed home while we went today. We are planning on taking them later after we have had an opportunity to bond with the boys first. I think Jackson is a little bit disinterested in it all right now because he is having a hard time thinking about what it will be like. He did say he was very happy we weren't getting a baby....I guess it is a good thing that we didn't get pregnant! The boys actually look a little bit like Jackson, we think. Big, blue eyes on all three! We will be glad to post pics on the blog of them, but we can't until they are officially ours after the court date. We have been trying to keep Jackson occupied now that we are in the region and can't just walk everywhere like we could in Kiev. We have played lots of games...thank goodness for travel sized games! Jackson is actually recording our time right now and it's pretty funny hearing Greg try to coach him on what to say on the video...you will all love seeing it, I'm sure. We got Carol a new curling brush today since Greg accidentally melted hers when we plugged it up in Kiev. We used the converter...but, it still melted. Anyway, I think she will be a little bit happier with her hair now! Well, I will go for now and will blog again soon.

Dear Friends,
How is everyone this great Lord's Day? We are doing well. It's 7:15pm here (11:15am in Alabama). We're sorry it has been so long since we have posted, but I was trying to wait until we had our official first meeting with the boys on Monday. We felt like you all would like to hear from us and we would love to hear your comments and sweet words, so I went ahead and wrote. We did go to the orphanage yesterday (Saturday), but it was not an official workday so we did not get to meet the inspector yet. Our meeting with the inspector will make it 100% official that we are pursuing adoption of these boys. However, this is Sasha's home town, so he felt confident that we could at least meet the boys. We went to the orphanage director and she allowed us to meet the older boy (Slavic--for now). Let us just say, he is absolutely precious and gorgeous. I cried a little, but didn't let him see. There were 2 other little boys out there with us and they just grabbed our hands and pulled us with them. We played for a moment on the playground while Sasha and the director talked. But, our short visit had to end and we took them back inside. Then, we were leaving and he was outside with his class. They all ran to us and asked who we were visiting. So, I told them we were there to talk to everyone. But, Sasha got down on Slavic's level and spoke with him and asked if he liked us and he said "Da!--yes!". Then he asked if he would like for us to come back and he looked at me and said "Da!--yes!". So, we are so excited! Today (Sunday) we got up and packed up and left our room in Kiev! We drove to Zhitomir and met up with Sasha's friend Sasha. Seriously. That is a very popular male nickname in this part of the world. He had found us a house to rent! We really did not know what to expect, but the house is absolutely great. It is really large and brand new. The owners built it for an investment to rent it out. And the next 4 weeks here will cost us less than 1 week at the hotel in Kiev did! (we hope we don't use it all-hee hee) Praise God from whom all blessings flow! He has truly provided above and beyond all our expectations! We ate a delicious dinner...I mean it when I say I have loved the food and I think Greg, Jackson, and Carol have all enjoyed it too! We just want to tell you all how wonderful Sasha has been to us. He has spent so much time and energy making this go as smoothly as possible and we really appreciate him and his staff. Well, we will sign off for now. I will post tomorrow afternoon after our first official meeting with both boys! Love to all!

It is 8:26pm Friday evening here (12:26pm Friday afternoon in Alabama for those of you confused by the time differential) and we just got back from dinner at a cafeteria whose name I cannot spell or pronounce! It was mostly traditional Ukrainian food and we actually enjoyed it...even Jackson. Funny story, Jackson and I were in the cafeteria line getting our food. We were being helped by a girl with very limited English....she told us that a small bowl of something that sort of looked like salmon-colored cream cheese spread was "salad". So Jackson, being a lover of salad, grabbed it up. We took it to the table and all tried it and it was actually good....but not at all salad. We all liked it so what did it matter? Jackson even liked it so much he said he could eat it all day every day! Well, Ben came and met us to visit and we were telling him about it and he said some Ukrainian word sounding like "sah-lahd" and we had thought she was saying "salad". Anyway, it is some kind of pork fat spread that you put on bread or meat sandwiches. Sounds gross...but we liked it, so we put it on some bread and it was even better! I thought once again how Jim Lazenby and Keith McDonald would be suffering for the cause over here! HaHa! Anyway, we had a pretty laid back day today. We did go to the SDA and got our official paperwork for the referal. We will get up tomorrow morning and head out to Zhytomyr(Zhitomir--pronounced jee-toe-meer)...directly to left of Kyiv (Kiev) on our blog map. There we will have an opportunity to meet both boys and interact with them a little bit. We are praying for a clear sign from God as to how to proceed from there. Jackson and Carol will be hanging out here for the day as we will need the first time to be just me and Greg. We will be back late tomorrow afternoon, though, and will let you all know what happened. I wanted to jut let you know that we are feeling much better/happier today as we are just so glad to have our Heavenly Father preparing our way. Every step of this trip has been pretty much exactly how we would want it....he might just be giving our little family a different look than we were prepared for! I was trying to make this blog a little shorter, but I wanted to at least give you all a little Melanie and Greg humor so you would know we are okay! Love to all!

Hey everybody! It's about 8:35pm Kiev time here. I think our posting time doesn't show up correctly, so I will always try to tell you what time it is here as I am posting. Well, we have had a long day of emotional highs and lows. Greg and I hardly slept last night (Carol and Jackson said they both slept well at least). We didn't know if it was due to excitement, nerves, or just being so off our schedule with the 8 hour time change. Anyway, we woke up early to get ourselves ready and have breakfast with Carol and Jackson before our appointment. Ben and Sasha came to pick us up about 10:15am this morning. We made it to our SDA appointment early, so we had lots of time to chat with them and really feel like we know them a little better now. Anyway, we got into the appointment and the first file offered to us was an 8 year old twin girl and boy. Both were so beautiful and healthy, but we were trying to get a younger child. So, she kept pulling out files, but all the while she and Sasha were speaking to each other in Ukrainian and all we knew were there were lots of "niets" (no's). So, finally she pulled out a file of a beautiful 4 year old little girl. Our hearts soared. But, then Sasha began to share with us how there had been problems previously with two other families who had visited her. I will share all the details later....but, our hearts plummeted. Then, she brought out a file of 2 beautiful little boys, ages 4 and 6. Obviously this was not the way we pictured our family...but, we did not want to limit God in any way. So, after some tears were shed (mine) over all the files she showed us of kids who need parents so badly, we realized that God knows the plans for us and we are going to try to let him lead us to our kid/kids. The orphange where the boys are is about 60-70 miles from Kiev, so we are going to drive there on Saturday without Carol and Jackson (we think) and just visit them. We will see how they respond to us and how God leads us to respond to this referal He has provided. We will keep you all posted as to how things go that day. We did ask Jackson how he would feel about 2 brothers and he really didn't give us too much....for all of you that know our boy, this is not really surprising. We asked Carol what she thought about 2 more grandsons and she said she loves little boys...clearly since she has 2 of her own. Our hearts were thinking a girl would be a wonderful addition to our little family, but I know we would love some little boys too! Please pray for us. We had really hoped this decision would be easier to make. We prayed that we would know instantly in the appointment and maybe this is God's idea of us "knowing" His plans and following through with them. Either way, we are certainly acutely aware of what a blessing this opportunity is and we know that you all will support us with so much love for whoever God adds to our family! Thanks for all your comments....keep them coming please. It really makes us feel like you are here with us!

Howdy folks! About 6:08pm here and we are discussing dinner. Hope everyone there is doing well....we miss you all terribly! We are having a good time, but we need your prayers. Jackson was sick with a cold before we left and Greg and I have both caught it. We don't feel great and are just stuffy headed. Please pray for us to get better...it's kind of sapping our energy right now. We did go out for a while today with our new friends, Chris and Ellin Cosper. They are also here adopting and are even staying in our same building. They were here a day ahead of us and have helped us so much with their experiences. We did a little bit of sightseeing today and ate pizza at the food court at the mall. Not quite like ours, but very good nonetheless. We met another facilitator today named Ben. He was very nice and answered a ton of questions for us. He is very familiar with Brook Hills and knows a lot of people who worship there, so we had a lot to talk about outside of the adoption, too. We woke up to snow this morning and it was so beautiful! We all feel like we are staying warm and you all know how hot natured I am, so I have even been too warm at times. Unfortunatly, the boots Carol (Grandma) bought for our trip are not waterproof, so her feet got wet. She may try borrowing mine or might buy another pair...we'll see how it goes. Finally, I want to ask you all to pray for our big SDA appointments tomorrow morning. This is where we will get our referals, so it is a very important day for us. The Cosper's is at 9am and ours is at 11am. That will be at 1am and 3am your time, so please lift us up before you hit the bed tonight. We'll let you know how it goes. Have a great day everyone!

Hey everyone! We're here. We had a pretty good journey and Jackson was excellent. We had to say some quick prayers at the Paris airport because we got held up to re-check our carry-ons. Jackson and I ran to the gate while Greg and Carol continued putting our bags all back together. Thankfully they held the plane for them and we made our flight. God was in control all along. Alexi and Sasha took wonderful care of us at the airport in Kiev. Then, Sasha brought us to our home away from home. We have two rooms and they are very nice. We are blessed. Now we are going to take a little rest because we have slept about an hour since Sunday night!

Good morning, everyone! So, it is finally here.....6:50am on Feb. 2nd. Happy Groundhog Day! I guess I will always remember this date for more than one reason. Anyway, Greg's mom Carol will be traveling with us and we are so excited to start our journey this morning. Carol (Grandma) and Big Rand (Pops) will be here to pick us up at 7:30. Just wanted to say one last goodbye and tell you all how much I love you. We will post about our trip and arrival as soon as we can!

Hey everyone! We are in the final stages of packing for our journey. Thanks to all who have loaned, given, bought, etc. stuff to us for our trip. We are blessed to have such wonderful friends and family to walk through this with us. If I don't have time to post again tomorrow morning, I will post as soon as possible after arriving in Kiev! We love you all and please pray for us. We know God has our trip all planned out already....He just has to take us on it!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know that my wonderful husband set this blog up all on his own. I think he did a wonderful job and I just wanted to give him all the credit for our site! We are still working on getting it all set up so that we can keep you all informed. Please pray for us over the next couple of weeks as we prepare our family for this journey.

This site will cover the journey of our family as we adopt in Ukraine. Our travel date is February second. More to come soon.