We’re home and Hello, Summer!

We returned from our trip to Eastern Europe last Monday at Midnight. Talk about tiring! Our trips to and fro were 27-30 hours long, including 3 legs on airplanes and 3 layovers, each way.  Here we have Jeremy with “Bon Ding” in Paris. Don’t ask. It’s an inside joke.

The hardest part isn’t the 8.5 hour leg that crosses the ocean. It’s the layover before the last leg, then that final four hour flight. Remind me to never book flights that have us stopping at JFK airport again, unless we have plenty of time to go see the city! UGH…we were there for 4.5 hours. It was really cold and loud in the terminal, the wi-fi wouldn’t connect, and we were TIRED. Or at least I was. Jeremy sleeps like a baby on airplanes and even in airports. Me?  I think I may have slept 2 of the 30 hours.  But we made it home to our kiddos safe and sound. The best part of going on a trip so far away is coming home, isn’t it? It was so fun to sit in the living room with the kids at midnight and talk about our week.  They had been scattered around to Grandparents and friends’ homes, so we all had some catching up to do and we all felt “complete” again, being together. 

Someone asked the other day if we had fun on our trip. “Hmmm”….I said. “I don’t think ‘fun’ is the word.” International adoption is no picnic. It’s exhausting, emotional, and a little scary.

Especially when you’re a) in a car and/or  b)trying to wing it without a translator. This was our fate on Saturday and Sunday, when our in-country coordinator/translator was off work.  Our cute driver, Nicolai did his best to understand our English words, but it was pretty pathetic trying to communicate.  This picture was taken while we were waiting for Hazel at the orphanage on Saturday. Nicolai insisted on standing by the picture of baby Jesus breast-feeding. I think we would have really loved this guy had we been able to communicate.  

The city where Hazel lives is definitely not a “destination.”  This is the prettiest part of the whole city. The big river.

  

This is where you shop for anything from food to electronic parts to clothes.  Most of the stores are behind glass. You go up to the little window and tell the lady who sits behind it what you want.  Not an easy thing to do when you can’t speak her language.  We had some interesting experiences just buying bottles of water.

It was all very interesting, and the people were nice. At least the ones we could speak with.

The main reason for the trip was to go and get to know this little one, though.  And that we did!  She’s full of spunk and energy, cute as a button and will fit perfectly into our family.

So we’re happy! Our court papers will be filed soon, and we’re told we’ll probably head back for court at the end of July. We don’t know if that will be our last trip or not. We are PRAYING like crazy that it will be.
In the meantime, it’s SUMMER! 

On our calendar:

• Sadie is going to Las Vegas with her friend and her family next weekend.
• Story time every Wednesday afternoon at the library for the 3 youngest
• Extended School Year for Anya every Monday and Friday morning in June and Aug.
• Possible swim lessons (we really need this for E and A.)
• Niece, Danielle is getting married in a couple of weeks!
• Landon has a landscaping job that will last throughout June.
• Sadie has Girl’s Camp the last week of June. I’m a Young Women's leader and would love to go. Don’t know how to swing that.
• July is the month of camps and conferences for our two teens: Landon has Especially for Youth in Logan one week, a basketball camp the week after that and a 50-mile high adventure hike with the Teachers Quorum the next week. Sadie has Girls’ Retreat in Logan, too. (those two still have some money-earning to do to pay for all this!!)
• We’re having a camp out with Jeremy’s family in Cache Valley the first of July.

All that with another trip to Eastern Europe thrown in, and all the planning and coordinating that goes along with it. Whew! I have a feeling the summer is going to FLY.  And to think that by summer's end, our family will should be complete with Hazel. Yeah!