June 2013

Lienna 2013 high school graduate!

Christmas 2012

Christmas 2011

November 2009

two years later....Estes Park, Colorado

WE ARE HOME! - June 3, 2007

(posted Monday, June 4 at 10 pm)

The shirts are the Ukraine soccer team uniform. It is a popular souvenir.

We landed in Sioux Falls at 10:45 am on Sunday, June 3! It was good to be home. We are trying to recover from jet lag but have lots of things to catch up on. I look forward to seeing so many people and catching up on what we have missed. It is really a strange feeling to miss a whole month. We have to jump in to the summer activities and get Tanya and Lienna settled and learning English. I also have to go back to last Tuesday and blog our last week in Ukraine before I forget too many details. I will try to do a little of that each day. We had no access to any internet and didn't even have time to get our computer out. So stayed tuned.

Heading Home!

Saturday, June 2, 2007

We are packed up and very ready to go! Here we are watching our last Ukranian TV early in the morning while waiting for our driver. We had an 11:00 am flight out of Kyiv.
God blessed us with very helpful Delta people at the airport. They showed our family of six right where to go and the process went very smooth. While waiting for our flight some young adults were practicing their English with a little help from us. It is fun to help others when so many people in Ukraine had been helpful to us .

Nine and 1/2 hours from Kiev to New York.

We got to New York at 1:30 pm EST. It was a 9 1/2 hour flight. We got through customs and Tanya and Lienna officially became US citizens. During our layover, I went to try to get some plane tickets from Cinncinati to Sioux Falls for Tanya and Lienna. After a long wait, they were no help. We boarded at 4:00 and sat on the runway again in New York for 2 hours.

We got in to Cinncinati and I started my search for the Delta ticket counter while Jon went for luggage. Again God provided for us weary travelers since it was now 3:00 am Kiev time and we had gotten no sleep. As I was trying to find my way around, a couple helped me find the ticket counter. The ladies there were also very nice and helpful and did get us some tickets to Sioux Falls - not cheap though. There were only four seats left on the flight so we were thankful to get them. I was so tired and ready to get home that I offered to sit in the bathroom if we could just get on the flight. If we would not have gotten the tickets, Jon or I would have had to get a later flight with Tanya and Lienna or rent a car and drive 20 hours home. Again, God provided.

We got a shuttle to our hotel and were surprised to find out our driver spoke Russian and very little English. I got a chuckle out of it. It was ironic because we were just looking forward to being in the US where we could speak easily. That is nothing against Ukraine of course, but after traveling for a month and being weary and in a foreign country we just wanted to know we could find food and water for our larger family. I have learned that it takes alot of energy and work to communicate. Of course, that is something we will all continue to experience over the next few months but at least we will have food and shelter in our home. We got in to our hotel at 10 pm (now 5 am Kiev time and time to wake up). The desk clerk also had a strong Russian accent. They were helpful in finding us find a bigger room for our larger family. The clerk smiled in surprise when I said "spezeeba" (thank you in Russian) out of habit. He was also probably glad to hear his native language.

We slept very little that night due to the time change and had to leave early to make our flight. We had a packed flight and we were seated all over the plane. (literally, Tanya in the front corner and Amber in the opposite back corner). We told the attendent that two of our daughters didn't speak English so he could come and get us if he needed something. Before we took off, he had all six of us sitting together! He was so nice and we had a great visit with him.

We landed in Sioux Falls at 10:45 am on Sunday morning! We were thrilled to see family and friends waiting for us!