So, part of the preparations included moving all four of our daughters into one bedroom. Not really a big deal. They were pretty excited about it and I must say, it’s fun to see them all in there together asleep at night. Or giggling together, which is more accurate. Or fighting, which is probably even more accurate. Shocker, I know. I cleaned out the closet and the dressers so that the boys could use them. I even had two old green comforters from when Iwas a teenager that I put on the beds to make the room look more boyish. (see, huz, I knew I would need them some day)
One of the families that is also hosting two boys has eight children of their own already. No, that’s no typo. They are super awesome. Anyhow. She gave me clothes that her boys had outgrown and then I bought a few other things for them (go Target!!) like socks, underwear, toothbrushes, combs, soap, shampoo, deodorant.
And then I tried not to get too excited. I did not want to think about it all the time in case this experience was a total bust. I did a ton of reading (blog stalking) and have found out all that I could about international adoption in Ukraine, the process before AND after.
I didn’t even start to freak out until the night they were to arrive at 10:30 and it was 8 p.m. and I hadn’t showered yet. sigh. I shouldn’t have worried about the shower. My two days without was nothing compared to their week without plus plane travel!
I hired the one of the best babysitters in Eden, again not naming names due to paranoia. She helped me finish cleaning, took care of my kids and even made a welcome sign in Russian to hang in my house. She really rocks. Call me for her phone number.
At the airport we hung out at the back of the group waiting for our team leader. SAC is pretty good at this airport thing. They’ve done it enough that it’s down to a science. The hosting families are broken into 4 groups this year. We are in the blue group. Our leader is the best. Everyone in the blue group is hosting kids from the same orphanage. Smart. Most of these kids in our group will know each other. Comfort for them.
Blue group leader shows up with a bunch of blue balloons. Every host family is given one balloon for every orphan they are hosting, which means we get two. Then we sit around and wait for a while. Later on, I saw myself on the news. I looked pregnant. For those of you who saw the news, no I am not expecting but I probably won't ever wear that shirt again. Anyhow, they bring the first group down and everyone is cheering and happy and then One says, “I see BoyOne!!!” And we are not toward the front at all but everybody sees that we are a blue balloon family and pushes us up front. (this is starting to sound like a dr. seuss book) I see the lady from the foundation looking for us and I get her attention and she brings the boys over. Oh. My. Heck. They are the cutest boys I’ve ever seen. And that’s when they were dirty!! I kneel down and in Russian (I am so proud of myself, thanks to my awesome neighbor who taught me!!) introduce myself and my family. Oh yeah- we only brought One and Two. I've flown with my four kids often enough that I know little kids are usually train wrecks after hour five. And these kids are going on hour 24. In a different country. And lots of them had been airsick. I didn’t want to have to deal with too many emotional wrecks (Three-I'll have to delete that when she is old enough to read). It worked out really well. We stepped back out of the way after someone fluent in Russian talked to the boys for about 30 seconds. BoyTwo was smiling. BoyOne wouldn’t make eye contact. Which was fine. I’m pretty sure we all seemed a little nutso, jabbering in our native tongue, holding balloons and smiling and staring like we were at the zoo or something. And that’s when BoyOne looked at me and introduced me to his friend. Pretty awesome. Then huz pulled out the iphone and we were instant rock stars. Man I love that guy. He’s brilliant. And SAC is also brilliant. That balloon thing was a HUGE hit for BoyTwo. And since the game he was playing involved letting go of the balloons (somehow we ended up with four) and letting them float to the ceiling, BoyOne and his friends would all jump! and try to get them down for him just so he could do it over and over and over. This game sounding familiar to all the parents our there? We were also lucky enough to have one of the four chaperones stay with us in our home for three days. He spoke English pretty well and acted as a translator for us. He also didn’t feel well, poor guy.
As we were getting ready to leave the airport, BoyTwo got a bloody nose (doesn't take long for that dry Utah air to kick in). It took a while to stop, and then we had to clean him up. Then Two had to go to the bathroom. Then One decided to go too. Then BoyTwo needed to go. And then we ran into someone huz knows and THEN we left the airport.
Because I swore I would never own a vehicle with a tv in it, I do. We watched Tom and Jerry all the way home. I hate cartoons. This is a great one though, because they hardly ever speak in the cartoon. It was so fun to hear their little giggles. I guess cartoons are international.
Because I have flown so many times with my kids to see my parents, I have learned a great trick from my mom. She always brings bottled waters and fruit with her to the airport because she knows that we’ll need it. So, I copied her and was well equipped with bananas (a Ukrainian favorite) and bottled water. And guess what, we needed it!!
Bananas were gone that night.
It was so fun to see their beautiful faces. They are truly wonderful children. I was so impressed and even moved to see how caring BoyOne was toward BoyTwo. We had been warned that they may not know each other very well. You see, in an orphanage it doesn’t matter if you have a sibling or not. You are simply placed and kept with members of the same sex that are your age. As the boys had been in the orphanage for about four years, that meant that the younger one was only two when they went there, which probably meant they didn’t know each other. wrong! really, seeing BoyOne be so motherly to BoyTwo was probably one of the sweetest things I’ll ever witness. Thanks for that tender mercy.
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