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!