Back To Ukraine

Well, today is kind of a sad day and happy day at the same time for our family. Jason is in the air and on his way to Ukraine as I type. We were all sad to not all be going back together and to be apart for so long, but happy that this will be another step closer to Anna & Vitali coming home. The last time Jason called was around 1:30 p.m. our time and he had already flown from Atl to NY and was about to board the plane in NY to go to Ukraine. He was doing good and had stopped at a Duncan Donuts in the NY airport to get his fill, before changing to a whole different food :) Sergey will be waiting to meet up with him as soon as he gets to the Ukraine Airport and then he can just be guided around (that is our favorite part when we could just let someone we trust tell us what to do and take us there. Probably one of our most used phrases with Sergey is you don't even have to explain where all we need to go today, just take us there and we will follow. We knew that he was working his hardest to help us get home with the kids.
Jason will be in contact with Grant & I every day and he has asked me to type his post on the blog for him (There is not as much time to post while in Ukraine as you would think and if he has extra time, he said that he will try to post also, but otherwise I will relay his messages. Even though he may not be able to type out the post, he will be reading each comment left on the blog and he will post new pics as he can.

Pics:
1. So I told you that Novograd Volinsky (the town where their orphanages are located) is the oldest city from the Old Soviet Union~ This is a way of transportation there...you see it everywhere in this town. Some do have cars, but mostly they ride bikes or their horse and carriage. In their courthouse they still use rotary dial phones and a lot of things from the past. It kinda makes you feel time warped to the past. Cool huh?

2. Mel, Grant, Vitali

3. We LOVE this pic...the day that we were waiting awhile for them to bring Anna out to us, we began looking at pics they had on the wall in the orphanage entrance. Guess what we found...an old pic of Anna and her friends at the orphanage!!! This may not sound like much, but normally when you adopt from Ukraine, the adoptive family never gets any older pics of the kids that they are adopting. They only have the current pics they have taken starting from the meeting day. Well, the first picture and only pic that we had ever seen of her from the past was at the SDA on our appointment day. Her head was shaved in this pic they showed us that day and of course you have seen that it has grown since that pic, but when we saw this one below at the orphanage, we recognized her right away because she looked about the same age as the SDA pic they had showed us that day and her hair was just beginning to grow out where it was shaved (by the way no hair is common in the orphanages for boys and girls...I'm sure it makes for easier upkeep. We think she looks precious and we took a pic of the pic on the wall and were excited to find it. We asked her if she played basketball and she said no, that they just posed for the pic. She is on the front row, 3rd from the right.

4. Pic of all of us (Vitali just woke up from his nap :)