Thankful for So Much!

A whole new meaning to a love/hate relationship :)

We Are Home!!

OWe made it!! The Clark family is officially a family of 5!  So tired! Goodnight!

I wonder if she'll ever not flash the peace sign :)

Get me off of this plane!!!! 

Will this flight ever end!?!?!

Music!!!!!

"I love to fly, I love to fly, I love to fly!"

A flight attendant helped Gerry pass the time (during DeAnna's meltdown)

Water!!!!

We're Coming Home!!!

Made it to the Embassy just in time! Tickets booked. USA bound. Arriving Saturday at 12:55 - woo hoo!!!!  Goodbye U! Maybe we'll see you again someday :)

Ok, Now We May Pass Out Cigars!!!

Just got a call from the Embassy!!  Visas are printing!!!!

Hoping and praying we can still get a flight!!

Close But No Cigar

We are in the capital now; we arrived on Monday morning via overnight train (aka hell on a track). Gerry did great :) but DeAnna had heat exhaustion before we even left the station :(. We finally got her cooled down with ice bottles and cool towels, and settled down for the night - ha ha ha! DeAnna slept a whole hour!

We arrived at 5:45 am and hung out at McDonald's until the medical clinic opened and spent the rest of the day at the clinic. Then Embasdy next day. Then clinic. Then Embassy! Phew! What a week!

I received the girls' U passports yesterday and finished up at the U.S. Embassy - except there was an issue with printing the visas for the girls :(. And now I'm finding out that it is a worldwide issue :(. We had the perfect flights lined up for Saturday morning, arriving at the same time Grant will be arriving from a trip.  But if we don't get visas in the next 2 1/2 hours, the earliest we could get them is next Tuesday (Monday is a holiday), and then maybe fly on Wednesday.  I know it's only 4 days but it means more room/board time in country and higher flight prices x 5 - boo hoo hoo. Plus, we are SO READY to come home! This has been a tough week in lots of ways. The girls leaving everything they've known; mom, Gerry and I have been away from home for 2 months; and lots of behaviors emerging - to put it nicely. Let's just say that I've been kicked, hit, pinched, spit at, spit on, cursed at (in a foreign language), bruised, given the stink-eye, and yelled at. At least there's no poop and pee involved - yet! I'm kinda just done at the moment and was so looking forward to going home. 

There are a of couple other adoptive families here in the city, and last night we were able to meet up and go to dinner :) And one of the adoptive moms and her teen daughter are within walking distance :). She is actually the person who walked us through all of our paperwork and adoption process, and her daughter is from the same orphanage as Dasha!  It is such a blessing and comfort to have them here!!

Hopefully we'll hear good news soon!!

Don't complain about public bathrooms ever again (the train!)

Gerry street dancing :)  they gave him his own stage time :)

At a restaurant between appointments - boy, DeAnna can eat!!

Pizza For Dinner!!

Pizza for dinner!! There is a very nice pizza restaurant 2 bus stops down. We should have been going there to eat about 4 times a week!! Dasha's first time eating pizza at a restaurant :). Little Miss DeAnna ate 3 pieces of pizza, drank a giant glass of juice, and ate a huge bowl of ice cream!! (I was more than a little nervous when she spun and spun and spun on the merry go round at the playground when we got back to the apartment!!) 3 pizzas, 5 drinks and 5 fancy desserts = $15. Can you say shell shock if we ever go out to eat again when we get back to the U.S. 😳  Today was a better day than yesterday :) -  not sure what I'll do when I get home and Mom isn't there to help - yikes!  DeAnna needs to be supervised every second!  And she is very tall!  We keep putting things up on higher and higher shelves, but then I can't see where things ended up!  

I started packing today for our trip to the capital on Sunday.  It's like a mind bender to figure out what we can leave here, what we should take with us to the capital and then leave, what needs to come back to the U.S., what we need easy access to on the train, which clothes we'll need for the next two days and which we should wash (remember, everything has to line dry and the washing machine is about 1/5 size of those in the U.S.). Oh and let's not forget about the myriad of toys we've collected over the last two months :). Will Gerry really remember saying, "yes, mom, I know that we won't have room in the suitcase to take this toy back home with us. If you buy it, I will leave it here for the next family." Hmmmmm???? 😉

Yesterday just Dasha and I took a quick trip to the grocery store.  I got a text from Mom: please call me with your US phone, DeAnna is very upset (the ONE time I forgot to bring my local phone along 😞). The day before, DeAnna stayed with Mom with no problems. Well, the next day was a different story.  She was distraught that I had left her but did finally calm down after I talked to her (with Dasha's help!).  The people on the bus probably thought I was pretty weird as I made kissy noises over the phone for her like 20 times :). When we were walking back to the apartment, she was looking out of the window and I heard "MAMA, MAMA, MAMA", laughter and saw her jumping up and down like crazy. I guess she does realize that I am her mother. I was thinking that she perceived me as just another caregiver (that she'd call mama) for this moment in time.  Was I wrong, or what?!

Our evening ended with music from Kutless (contemporary Christian group) filtering in through our windows; they were performing down the street from our apartment!! Wish we would have known ahead of time :). 

Well, I better get to sleep - tomorrow is another busy day :)