One week home

Tonight will mark one week since Victoria has been home. It has been an exciting week for all of us. The first two days were hard on me with the jet lag, but by Friday I was feeling good again. Victoria seems to be adjusting well and is picking up more and more English each day. She seems to understand almost everything we say, and she is working on the words she needs to communicate with us. Morgan is very patient with Victoria and is very excited to be a big sister. I pray that their relationship will continue to grow and that they will become not only sisters but great friends. It is definitely an adjustment for all of us and we are working through what it means to have a new little person in our home, but we are very happy and feel very blessed.


Victoria's appointment with the pediatric infectious disease doctor went very well. I really, really love this group! I can't say enough good things about them and they seemed equally as impressed with Victoria. She was such a trooper with all of the blood drawing and she just sat very calm and quite while they examed her from head to toe. We go back in 3 weeks to review the results of all the blood work and discuss what medications we will be starting. We will also be seeing the regular pediatrician on Thursday.



Here are a few pictures I took yesterday (I am putting together my adoption announcements).

Victoria is an American!

We finally arrived home around 10pm Tuesday night after a long day of travel. Victoria only had a few minor melt downs on the plane, but other than that travelled well.

She has been slowly adjusting to her new home. She is sleeping pretty well. She is waking up a little earlier than I'd like, but at least she sleeps during the night. She was very scared of the dogs the first night, but now will not leave them alone. It is going to take some time for us all to get used to the new family dynamics, but we are happy and together!

Victoria has her first doctor's appointment this afternoon. I will update with how that went when I can.

I will also add some pictures soon, and a longer post about everything when I have more time.

I can't believe we are all finally together!!! It is such an answer to prayers.

We're coming home!!!

Have to run - the cab's on the way, but our waiver was approved!!!!

We are picking up Victoria's visa on the way to the airport! We will be home tonight.

Thank you all for your prayers.

Prayers needed

Well, it is now 3:15pm here and we still don't have Victoria's visa. The Embassy is still waiting for the approval from the USCIS in Moscow. We still have a few hours today and a few hours in the morning tomorrow and we could still make our flight. If we don't get it I guess I will have to change my flights again. Most likely my Mom will go home, but it looks like the next flight Victoria and I could get on would not be until Thursday.

Please pray that we get this visa!!!!

On top of things

I have been very, very impressed with the US Embassy here in Kiev. They are very on top of things. I received a phone call before 9am to let me know that they had the part of the waiver back from the CDC and would be forwarding to the USCIS in Moscow. They said there was a chance that we would have the visa before the end of the day today. If not it will be Monday. That will work perfectly for us to make our flight on Tuesday!

Victoria's first trip to the zoo

It was a beautiful day in Kiev, so we took Victoria to the zoo.

She really liked looking at the animals, but she DID NOT like the petting zoo at all!!!! I think the animals were definitely better to her behind the safety of the fences. The ones in the petting zoo were much too close for comfort for her. She really, really liked the rides that they have (no different then her sister Morgan).

On waiver news - I got a phone call while we were at the zoo from the US Embassy that they had confirmation that the CDC had received our waiver. They expected to get the CDC's part back by late today or early tomorrow. I did not get another call, so I am assuming they will get it tomorrow. They said they will forward it to the USCIS in Moscow (the "local" office for Ukraine) as soon as they have it back from the CDC. I received an email from the USCIS that they would process our waiver as soon as they had it. So, so far so good. If the CDC gets their answer back to the Embassy tomorrow it should also get to the USCIS tomorrow. Please pray that everything goes quickly!!! I really would like to have our visa in hand Monday so I'm not stressing about missing our flight on Tuesday!

Here are a few pictures from today (I won't post any animal pictures since I did that in my earlier zoo post from when we took Morgan)

New departure date

Well, we changed our return tickets to Tuesday, Sept.15. I also purchased Victoria a ticket. Of course they only had business class available unless we wanted to wait until the end of next week, so although it is costing much more than I had hoped, Victoria will travel to the US in style!

Please say a prayer that we have Victoria's visa by Monday or early Tuesday at the latest. The few people that I have had contact with that went through the waiver process in Ukraine recently had their visas pretty quick. I hope the same is true for us. Sept. 15 will be 7 weeks from when I left home, so I am more than ready to get home! I really like it here, but I miss home and my family more than I like it here.

We are planning on taking Victoria to the zoo tomorrow, so stay tuned for pictures!