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!