Beating The Odds

We've had a lot of fun watching Kayleigh & Michael achieve some nice accomplishments this past week or so in some of their activities.  Michael tested for and earned his advanced orange belt in tae kwon do class.  It was his first test with the adult class as he has aged up into that group and he continues to excel in it.  Yesterday was Kayleigh & Alyssa's dance recital and it was wonderful.  Kayleigh looked truly beautiful and did great!

I saw a Facebook post from someone else in the adoption arena that reminded me just how amazingly blessed our family is to have these two kids as ours now, and how absurdly poor the odds were for them.  Older kids rarely get adopted.  Speaking statistically and watching reality play out, the odds are overwhelming that families who adopt will seek babies or younger children.  We had long planned on adoption, and yes for a younger child, but God has His plans and obviously we ended up in a different country, number and age!

Kayleigh was 15 when our adoption finalized and less than a month away from aging out of the adoption system and ending up on the streets (in Ukraine you age out when you graduate 9th grade....).  For kids who end up on their own, statistically they have a 90% chance of failure.  Failure is ending up in prostitution, crime (and subsequently prison...) to try and survive, or suicide to end trying to survive.  She has grown into a crazy beautiful 16 year old, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where her life would have ended up.

To watch her up on stage, looking so beautiful, happy and smiling, surrounded by classmate friends, and surrounded by family afterwards, is nothing short of an odds-defying miracle.  To spend 29 dance routines sitting next to Michael (he did great...) , knowing that he would have simply followed older boys into crime and jail or gotten himself killed, is a miracle.

I am going to hug my kids today.  A lot :)

Happy Mothers Day!

Wishing my beautiful wife a very Happy Mothers Day!  We have five very awesome and fortunate kids who are loved beyond words and are very blessed to have you!

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!

One Year!

Today, one year ago, Kayleigh & Michael walked out of a plane in San Antonio, Texas and into their new life as 2 of the Fab 5 Tansey kids, and newly minted Americans :)  It's been an amazing year as we've watched God totally change their lives!  They are both wonderful kids and it's been a true pleasure to get to be their new parents, we've enjoyed every day they've been here, and are looking forward to so many more!

Pink Slips!

It was one year ago today that all the hurdles were cleared and after 40 days in Ukraine, we became the legal parents of Kayleigh and Michael!  Needless to say we were really, really happy to reach that point in the adoption process, to be done with all the paperwork, waiting, visas, waiting, passports, waiting, home studies, waiting, fundraising, waiting, flying, waiting, translating, waiting, immigration....  you get the idea!

We so very much wanted to get past all the "temporary" pieces of the adoption process and arrive at that point where there was one simple fact: that they were our family and we were theirs!  God really moved in the whole thing from the beginning and to this day, and they have always been a natural fit for us and us for them.  You would never guess they've been with us a year and not their whole lives.  It has been nothing short of a miraculous year as they jumped right into our family life, have been truly wonderful kids, and truly a blessing to get to have and to love.

Both kids have blossomed and grown so much in the past year.  Kayleigh is a beautiful 16 year old girl now who is awesome, super smart, and has the Tansey sense of humor.  She excels in her schoolwork, makes friends easily, is fantastic with little kids.  I love the time we spend together driving home from dance class, hanging out and McDonalds getting ice cream and fries, and our endless games of tag in the car!

Michael is so different than when we met him.  He has gone from a quiet and pretty shy boy to a wonderfully confident teenager.  He's not quite the student Kayleigh is (then, what teen boy is.....) but we can tell he is very smart, and very athletic!  He is a very warm and happy person and a true joy to spend time with.  He's jumped into martial arts with Dylan and I and has excelled, and us three men have a great time together.

Thanks to all of you who have been on the journey with us since its inception and have stayed along as we continue the ride.  It has been truly gratifying to know that God has found a place in the world for them where they may have every opportunity to have a great life.  We are glad we get to be a part of it.