Happy V Day!

I'm up too early this morning and see a Facebook post from our friend Alex back in Ukraine that it is V Day there.  V Day is Victory Day in Ukraine that marks the end of World War II.  We saw the memorials there in Kyiv and Zhytomr while we were there and it's a big deal there (as were the memorials!).  For all of the challenges their country may be going through, Ukrainians have a deep sense of national pride (the ramp up of excitement for the Euro Cup and the game they won in it, you'd be blown away at how excited they were....) and a true love for their country.

For us it held a special meaning as that was the day we got in the plane with our two new family members and watched Ukraine disappear under our 737 as we flew to Germany on our first leg of our journey home.  It was a very early morning heading to the airport (we were hoping it would be open as it was a national holiday, and the whole country pretty much shuts down for a holiday...).  Our driver Leo there in Kyiv got us all squished into his VW van and to the airport, and was so good in getting us and our bags to ticketing and all the way to security.  That was a nervous point as we had the super duper papers inspection for Kayleigh and Michael as we were taking them out of the country!  All was good (we're trying to make sure we give the checkpoint guy the right papers which is a bit tricky considering their in Ukrainian....) but did it right and off we went to the gate.  It was a chilly morning but a delightfully short walk to the plane (they don't pull up to the building, you take a bus out to the plane on the tarmac....)

Adoption is a long and stressful process and for me, the fat lady wasn't going to sing until that plane left the ground (you never know what weird curve ball will come your way....).  It would be hard to express the feeling of the wheels lifting up off the runway, and being able to look at our 5 kids all very excited for the long, victorious flight home!