We have been blessed with two special daughters and two sons from Eastern Europe. We welcome you to follow our journey as a family of five, waiting to travel and pick up #6, with the ins and outs of family, education, farm life, and love!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

We finally made it!!!!

     Okay, bear with me on this.  I'm a newbie to this blog stuff.  This is a job I have no problem letting my lovely wife, Cara, do.  But since I'm (Doug) the one in Ukraine you're stuck with me for a few days.  There you have been warned.... (But Cara added a few tidbits in italics parenthesis!)
     It was a long day Sunday/Monday.  I don't know where Sunday ended and Monday began, but I think it was somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.  All I know is when we landed in Kiev, made through passport control and customs, we where ready to relax, but first we needed train tickets.  Traffic was horrible, one of the worst I've ever seen, but Nikko did a great job fighting his way through it.  After we got our tickets to Kharkov, we finally arrived at our apartment.  Once showered and cleaned and a couple of phone calls it was time for bed.  The alarm would be going off early as our ride to the train station would be at our apartment at 5:30 am.  
    Nikko showed up on time, as  usual, and we made it to the train station early. (They took the early express train to Kahrkov, takes 6 hours to get there) The train ride was uneventful, and well, just a typical train ride.  We arrived and were greeted by Edward who took us to our apartment.  Oh, yeah I forgot to mention that it started snowing, and then turned to rain.  Not a nice day out at all.  We got to the apartment we settled in and ate a quick lunch.  We then headed back out the door, to go see Eli.  The moment this Papa was waiting for.  The weather was just a little bit of rain and a little bit of snow mix when we left.  After leaving, and having the discussion that an umbrella really wasn't needed for this amount precipitation, our hoods and hats would be enough, it started to poor down rain.  Cold, cold rain.  Lets just say we regretted the conversation of not taking our umbrella's.  We arrived at the orphanage water logged and cold and proceeded up to Eli's room.  I asked to see him and received a look like I had three heads.  I politely asked again and the lady told me she would get the doctor.  Great, I tell myself, I just trudged all the way over here in the pouring rain so I could see my son, and now their going to tell me he is sick, or back at the hospital for observation, or who know what.  Suffice to say, my mind was going 100 miles per hour and temper wasn't far behind.  Finally after about ten minutes the doctor came up and asked us to follow her.  She took us to the same room where Cara and I had last seen him 10 days ago, the quarantined room.
     Eli just wasn't himself today. I don't know if it is from being by himself in a small room for 10 days with no one else around or what, but he was just a little down.  The only thing he wanted was his pacifier, and that was it.  I couldn't get him to laugh when I tickled him, make funny faces at him, or anything that usually works to make him smile.  (He missed his Mama....where was she anyways??)  Kind of hurt my heart to see him that way.  He was also real raspy still in the chest.  That really worried me too.  So after a couple pictures and a visit of about and hour we put him back in his crib, handed him his toy, which looked like he had lost, and were about to leave, when suddenly he sprang to life.  He started dancing and cooing, like the Eli I had seen a couple weeks ago.  I guess he just needed the right toy, or for His Papa to get ready to leave!!!!

      We trudged back through the rain and made to the apartment.  We settled in, dried off and warmed up as much as possible.  Soon after that Nate called to see when he could come pick up the package his brother had sent him through me.  So about 5:30 he arrived here and we talked for a bit before we decided to go out for some supper.  Pizza Bella won out as the place for our dinner so that's where we headed to.  Dinner was great, and after that we headed to the Rost for some grocery shopping.

     Tomorrow we start the finalization of Eli's adoption.  The final push...Its been been a long, hard, time consuming, and very expensive road.  The stakes are high and the cost is great. This is the reality of any adoption.  This is our family's way of showing and sharing the gospel.  It has helped me to better understand a fathers love.  It has shown me just how much God loves each and everyone of us.  It shows me just how far he was willing to go to adopt us, to make us His own.  It has shown me His heart.... As I was sitting there today, waiting at the orphanage for the doctor to come back, with in my own mind bad news.  All I could think about was the grueling, 10 hour flight over, the four hours of sleep the night before, and the 6 hour train ride.  Then 45 minutes of trudging though the flooded streets, in the cold and rain.  I JUST WANTED TO HOLD MY SON.  That's all I wanted to do.  The worst case scenarios came into my mind, as I thought of my troubles just to get here and then to be denied the one thing that kept me going.  Then I thought about God, and what he endured to watch his own Son bear the wrath stored up that was meant for you and me.  All so we could be adopted.  All so we could be His.  Oh, how his heart must have ached.  There is one thing you don't want to mess with in this life, and that is a Fathers heart.  For we will do anything to get to our children.  There is no journey to hard, nor cost to great.

The girls and I are marking off each day on the calendar until Papa, Grandma, and Elijah come home.  Mila asks "Papa be home today?"  and Hannah reminds her not until the day with the pink writing!  We are preparing for a little man in the house, talking about what toys we need to put away as soon as we are finished with them (crayons?!) that a little brother could get into.  We'll be ready!

3 comments:

Laurie said...

Tears in my eyes- bring Eli HOME! You did good, Doug!! Give Nate and Diana hugs for us :)

rosedel said...

You did a great job, newbie or not! Thanks for keeping in touch.

Roxy said...

What an amazing testament of a father's love! And so, very true. God is with you and soon you will have your little man home with his family, where God has always known he should be. Blessings... from our family to yours.