We arrived in Ukraine on November 27, 2013. We returned to America on January 15, 2014.
49 days. 7 weeks. That's a really, really long time. We were in Ukraine over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.
When we started the process of adopting from Ukraine, we were told it could take anywhere from 5-8 weeks for the in-country portion of the adoption. I don't think it was possible at the time for me to comprehend what that amount of time would really feel like. Justin spent several years in the military and said this was similar to his 5 trips overseas with all the "hurry up and wait."
What did we do those 7 weeks? The short version: the first and last few days of our trip were busy with paperwork and appointments. The vast majority of our trip consisted of a daily one hour long visit to the orphanage. Each day we went on a walk around our neighborhood- some days these walks were miles and miles long. We tried a lot of the restaurants around our apartment building. And if I am being honest- I spent a lot of time looking at the calendar and counting down the days till we could go home with our girl.
We've now been home 5 weeks. Most days it feels like our time in Ukraine was ages ago. There aren't adequate words to describe how thankful we are for Nadiya and how dearly she is loved by our family.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Beautiful Chaos- Part I
The week before Thanksgiving we got the exciting news that we would most likely receive our travel dates on either the 28th (Thanksgiving) or the day after. I was betting we would be invited for our first appointment on 12/18. I was mentally prepared to have as little as one week's notice, but thought we would have anywhere from 2-3 weeks to make final preparations for our extended time overseas.
On Saturday, 11/23 we had a wonderful fundraiser- our final one! My aunt and uncle opened their beautiful home for an evening of dessert and silent auction fun! People were very generous and our matching grant was completed. We went home that night feeling blessed and excited. I was looking forward to a memorable week- Thanksgiving and THE phone call!
Monday morning the 25th I was feeding EJ her breakfast... At 8:30am my cell phone rang in the next room. My heart skipped a beat but as I ran to the phone I told myself, "Don't be silly- it wont be THE call- not for a few more days." Sure enough, it was! Nancy and I exchanged greetings and then she dropped the bombshell. "I have some shocking news. They want you to be there this Thursday. You have to leave tomorrow!"
Nancy laughed as I ran into our bedroom where Justin was still sleeping. "Wake up! You have to
wake up!" We had very little time to make a decision. Nancy explained that if we had to decline the appointment, which seemed reasonable given that we were in no way prepared to leave the next day, it would be a risk. We would delay our process for an unknown amount of time. The thought of saying no to meeting our new daughter the next week made me sick.
We promised to call Nancy back as soon as we could decide. We went over the "cons" of leaving the next day- biggest of which was getting the time off work approved for Justin. Ideally his employer wants 3 weeks notice... We figured they wouldn't be crazy about 24 hours. After a few minutes, Justin told me, "I'm sorry babe, I just don't think we can do it." My eyes welled up with tears but I agreed that whatever he decided was best.
We kept talking, praying, and calling our closest loved ones for advice and wisdom. Finally we made our decision. LET'S DO IT! And so the countdown began- 24 hours to shop, pack, purchase plane tickets, arrange things with the house-sitter, get things settled with J's work, cancel therapies and appointments, and figure out how to get the very large amount of cash we needed in hand for the trip. (Our Reece's Rainbow account money would take 2-3 days to transfer over, thus meaning we couldn't get it in time)
To be continued...
On Saturday, 11/23 we had a wonderful fundraiser- our final one! My aunt and uncle opened their beautiful home for an evening of dessert and silent auction fun! People were very generous and our matching grant was completed. We went home that night feeling blessed and excited. I was looking forward to a memorable week- Thanksgiving and THE phone call!
Monday morning the 25th I was feeding EJ her breakfast... At 8:30am my cell phone rang in the next room. My heart skipped a beat but as I ran to the phone I told myself, "Don't be silly- it wont be THE call- not for a few more days." Sure enough, it was! Nancy and I exchanged greetings and then she dropped the bombshell. "I have some shocking news. They want you to be there this Thursday. You have to leave tomorrow!"
Nancy laughed as I ran into our bedroom where Justin was still sleeping. "Wake up! You have to
wake up!" We had very little time to make a decision. Nancy explained that if we had to decline the appointment, which seemed reasonable given that we were in no way prepared to leave the next day, it would be a risk. We would delay our process for an unknown amount of time. The thought of saying no to meeting our new daughter the next week made me sick.
We promised to call Nancy back as soon as we could decide. We went over the "cons" of leaving the next day- biggest of which was getting the time off work approved for Justin. Ideally his employer wants 3 weeks notice... We figured they wouldn't be crazy about 24 hours. After a few minutes, Justin told me, "I'm sorry babe, I just don't think we can do it." My eyes welled up with tears but I agreed that whatever he decided was best.
We kept talking, praying, and calling our closest loved ones for advice and wisdom. Finally we made our decision. LET'S DO IT! And so the countdown began- 24 hours to shop, pack, purchase plane tickets, arrange things with the house-sitter, get things settled with J's work, cancel therapies and appointments, and figure out how to get the very large amount of cash we needed in hand for the trip. (Our Reece's Rainbow account money would take 2-3 days to transfer over, thus meaning we couldn't get it in time)
To be continued...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)