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News 14 Homecoming Story :)

Here we are on channel 14 news!

Maddex Homecoming

Thanks to Heather Waliga for bringing attention to Reece's Rainbow for us!

Day 61

This says it all.

See photos of our homecoming from the lovely KaraBeth of Holden Memories.

...details of our trip home soon, once I'm finished squeezing all my kids and basking in the chaos of our family.

We are blessed.  So very, very blessed.

Thank you to everyone who made this adoption possible.  From people who backed us financially, prayerfully, emotionally, and those who cared for our children when we couldn't be home.  More to come on all the thank yous...I just wanted this out there right now so you didn't think we forgot about you, because we didn't.  Not once.

Day 60!

All our bags are packed, we're ready to go...
Well, mostly.  There's the usual leftovers out still.  But overall, we're ready!

The taxi's here, he's blowin' his horn...
Not yet, but Niko will be here in his giant purple van in less than a 1/2 hour...

I hate to wake you up to say goodbyyyyyeeeee...
Not really- Mr. Sunshine woke us all up at 7!

Cause we're LEEEEEAAAAVIN', on a JET PLANE!
For reals!



Don't know when we'll be back again.
We'll probably visit someday, you know, when all the kids are potty trained and airfares are reasonable.

Oh, babe, I hate to goooooo.
Not so much.  It's been fun, but we are NOT hating to go.  It's time to be HOME!


Home, home, home, home, HOME!!!  Eeeeeeeeee!!!!

Day 59

Look what we found today!

I thought I had packed it somewhere!

We had Z's medical appointment this morning, and frankly, I was a little freaked about it.  He's a healthy kid, no history of any communicable diseases that might bar our entry into the US, but there have been a few adoptive families here who have been detained for several days (weeks!) because of a false positive.  On top of that, we had to wait until the day before our flights left to finish the medical exam and turn in the paperwork to the US Embassy to get his visa that will allow him to enter the US.  If the appointment didn't go well, then not only would we NOT be going home tomorrow, we'd have to pay more change fees for our flights, and I'd already sworn up and down on faith that that was NOT going to happen!

So, no pressure.  Ha!


We waited a bit in a hallway, and then for a bit in a kind of sad excuse for a children's waiting room, and then saw the doctor.  She checked Z all out, informed us of everything that we already knew...told us to have his thyroid tested ASAP to get him on the proper daily meds, and assured us that his heart was "absolutely clear".  Then she filled out a bunch of forms, and told us that his vaccines were up to date as per their standards, and that he had had recent tests for HIV, Syphalis, and TB (maybe for something else, as well...?) and since everything was negative, there was no reason to test again.  She had copies made, we paid, and then we were on our way.

That was easy.

Then we had our appointment at the Embassy a few hours later.  We walked in (no ear buds this time!), handed over his passport and medical information...we waited for maybe 10 minutes, then we were called back to swear that the information that we provided was true.  Then we had his visa within 20 minutes.

That was easy.

The only difficult thing about today was trying to get Z to nap after he snoozed in Niko's van for 10 minutes!

We met the Driedgers for play time at the park (love them!) and then we all went to Mafia for a farewell dinner on our last evening here in Kiev.

(Notice that it has been so cold here that I am now wearing not one of Bryan's shirts, but two...his thermal over my t-shirt, covered in his gigantic sweatshirt!  Bryan commented today- you know, we're not just here for the change of seasons anymore.  It's changed.")

We're really really hoping that both the Driedgers and the Laynes (yup, they are still stuck in Kharkov!!) will be out of here soon...prayers for both of them! 

And us?  Well, we're down to TWELVE HOURS before we're on a plane, headed towards home.  Bliss.



PS- While I was hitting "publish post", Zeke halfway rolled out of bed, and just stood like this, sleeping, until I went over to tuck him back in again.  LOL.  Love him.

Day 58

Woke up again to a sweet boy with morning breath and bunches of kisses, who eagerly awaits us to invite him to climb into bed with us and snuggle under the warm covers until all his energy makes it impossible to stay still for one.moment.longer.!!


Breakfast is a whirlwind of coffee and juice, yogurt, bananas and fabulous poppyseed stuffed sweet rolls (a homemade gift from Babushka).  Our studio apartment is a happy chaos of Teletubbies, Memory cards, yesterday's newspaper, lukewarm showers, and haphazard straightening up (Z-man LOVES to sweep!). 


We took a morning adventure out to the Metro and to the Rochen factory store (HOLLA!), and also found a cheap extra suitcase from a street vendor that we can fill and check on our way home (because the 4 plastic Billa bags will NOT cut it for the plane ride!). 


We had time for a quick nap before meeting up with our new friends, the Driedgers.  Dave and Tara are from Canada (eh?) and have been here just as long as we have.  The Canadian process takes longer than ours, and so we will probably take second place to them for Longest Uninterrupted Ukrainian Adoption Process.  We'll have to give up our tiaras and sashes, but, you know, it is what it is. 

They have their 2 boys and now 1 more boy with them, so we all went to a playgound tucked away next to a church.  It was awesome watching all the boys play together (check out their blog for pics of the playground!).  Highlights:
*We discovered that Zeke will stay in one spot, completely occupied for 20+ minutes, if he is in a sandbox.
*Max, the Driedger's newest addition, taught Zeke how to do a hieney dance- probably the cutest thing I saw all day.
*Z-man following the older boys on the slide, participating in play with them as a total equal.  Love :)

We headed to Ny3ata Xata for dinner- which was interesting with 4 kids, and a stroller at prime dinner time, but we made it.  We also discovered that Zeke likes buckwheat.  Who knew?

THEN we sampled the McCafe desserts (cheesecake anyone??) with a to-go order and a really really long walk up a steep hill to their apartment (who needs a gym when you have a stroller with a 40 pound 4 year old??) and had some good down time just relaxing, chatting, and sharing photos. 


We made it back to the apartment in record time (downhill!) and had a few minutes to Skype with Ian and Gaga and Papa before bedtime.  Can't wait to talk to them in real life...in TWO DAYS, BABY!  Zeke's totally wiped out, and fell asleep almost upon impact with his pillow. 


Tomorrow is Z's medical appointment, and our second Embassy appointment.  Please pray with us that everything goes smoothly, and we end up with a visa at the end of the day (NOT the credit card!) and we are cleared to fly out of here Tuesday morning.






Leaving you with some random  photos:

Catching up on the current events:

 Our Kiev apartment is up this hill on the left:

 Max and Z were fast buddies.

It's not Hershey, PA...but it still smells like chocolate!

 Zeke (and Bryan) made the transition to the stroller today.  He was doing really good with all the walking for the first day, but we've noticed that he's been getting worn out.  Bryan's been carrying him on his shoulders a LOT, and Zeke's been sitting down on the sidewalk in the middle of all the pedestrians and refusing to move...so it made everyone happier when we broke out the stroller and gave the both of them a break.

 It's kind of cold outside right now...not ideal for drying laundry.  I just thought this was a funny picture of our apartment.  This is real life, people.  If I had turned around, you'd see that I was standing in the kitchen taking this photo.

 Chase totally sleeps like this, too!  Bratikas! (Brothers!)

 View of Independence Square from the bottom of our hill.

Day 57

Saturday in Kiev=a bunch of people out.  It looks like a festival or a concert or something from Independence Square all the way down to TGIFriday's.  I don't know if this is something special, or just a regular Saturday, but it was a different pace and that's always nice.


We set off after breakfast (and after lukewarm showers...um, not sure what's going on with our hot water heater..eeps.) and walked down the street.

And now, it's time for my Ukrainian Travel Tip for Stupid Americans:
If you see guys like this at a festival, they aren't like the ones in the US, where they are friendly and kind to the kids, and there for photo ops as they travel throughout a carnival or amusement park.  It's not Disney World, here, people. 

Sure, they're nice at first.  They gave Zeke high fives and offered to let us take his picture (he loved it, can't you tell?  For about 5 seconds, and then he wanted OUT of there).  Heck, they even convinced ME to take a photo with them (yay...just what I wanted to do...).

And then they TOOK OFF THEIR HEADS and asked for money!  And when Bryan, who is well meaning, and was going to give them maybe 10 grivnia for their time, took out his money from his pocket, they saw the 50 grivnia bill on top and said, "It's 50." EACH!  I'm sure we were totally taken- and we tried to talk our way out of it..but language barrier plus a squirmy kid= no time for negotiating or wanting to be harassed.  Screw you, Giant Monkey and Off Brand Winnie the Pooh.


Learn from our mistakes, my friends.