Our Brief Break

Our 10 day wait period is nearly over.  After our court day and an extra day in Kiev, we flew home.  Can I just say at this point that the flight home was not what I would call comfy or relaxing?  We were up by 2:00 am (Kiev time)  to catch a 5:25 flight to Frankfort.  Then we had a 6 1/2 hour lay over followed by an 11 hour flight - economy seating of course.  There's nothing quite like sitting between 2 broad shouldered men for 11 hours...  Once back in San Francisco, we waited (and waited) for our luggage.  It was, of course, some of the last to arrive.  Finally we sank into the very comfy seats of the car picking us up and headed home.

Greetings at home were wonderful and enthusiastic!  Screams and hugs and kisses abounded - even the dogs got in on the action.  My mom fixed a gourmet dinner of chicken nuggets and orange chicken.  This revived my tired body enough that I ended staying up until 10:00 pm - a total of 30 hours awake.  One would think that I would be so exhausted at this point that I would sleep through the night.  Not so.  I was up from 2:00 am until about 4:30 am.  I ended up sitting in a 3 x 3 space of my closet blogging, catching up on mail, and sorting through donated clothes.  I finally fell asleep for a couple more hours.

The week home was filled with normal Mom activities - taking kids to school, soccer practice, homework, laundry, dentist, etc.  My mom, bless her heart, decided to stay for the second trip so she could meet her new grandkids.  My dad decided he needed to get home and take care of some things there.  Mom picked up the slack of everything my oh-so-tired brain couldn't handle.  She also learned to drive the mini-van in traffic.  Not the most comfortable thing for her, but she did great! 

The hours the kids were in school have been filled with a myriad of errands.  We decided we wanted to give gifts to various people who have helped us in the Ukraine, so I was shopping for about 9 people.  I also needed to make sure I had clothes for Misha and Anna to take with us.  There was also the matter of finding more crisp $100 bills to take on our second trip (more about money later).  I still needed to unpack, evaluate what needed to be brought for the second trip and repack.  We have had many generous people donating clothes for us to bring to the orphanage and we are bringing packages for other families.  All in all, we are leaving with 3 large suitcases, 2 smaller suitcases, a duffel bag, and our personal backpacks.  

Ukraine, here we come - again!