WE ARE HOME!!!

Hi everyone, Just as it says, we are finally home and boy does it feel good! From the time we left our apartment in Kyiv Wed. morning to arrival in Mpls. it was right at 24 hrs of travelling. Briley did very well on the first three hours from Kyiv to Munich, but got a little rambunctious on the long flight to Chicago. From Chicago to Mpls. she stayed in our laps and was fine the whole way. We have a whole lot that we want to fill everyone in on, from all that happened in Kyiv that we weren`t able to expound on before, to how everything is going now. I think we`ll do the "hows everything going now" post this time and do a "Journey recap" next time.
After saying our goodbyes in Kyiv to our Kentucky friends and our translators on Tues., we were ready to leave Ukraine. As miserable as we had been over there, there was still a touch of remorse when we were driving down the freeway at 4 in the morning to get to the airport. We had met some very nice Ukrainian people that we now consider our friends and we will more than likely never see them again. We will however keep in touch with them through e-mails. Our U.S. friends that we met over there will have to put up with us as we will definitely stay in touch with them.

The arrival in Mpls. was great!! Tory and Collin met us at the terminal with the "Welcome home Briley, mom, and dad" signs and with Kenny and Judy there as well. Briley was wide-eyed and pretty quiet but didn`t make a fuss. The trip home took a little longer than it should`ve because we had to stop and get a gallon of American milk. That too was great!! Had three glasses when we got to our house and I wasn`t even thirsty. After a late night of "welcoming back" with the kids we finally got to lay down on an American air bed. ahhhhhh. Every bone in our body thanked us for coming home to a decent bed. We let Briley sleep with us so as to not rile her much on the first night. Well, about 30 minutes later I hear little footsteps coming up from the basement and then we had 4 in bed! A little while later there were some more little footsteps making their way up the steps and before long there was 5 in the bed. Not totally unexpected but it made for a crowd!! Thank goodness it is a king size bed because with anything smaller we might have had issues with someone falling out. Mom and Dad didn`t argue a bit!! It was just nice to be home with the boys. Thursday was uneventful as all we did was stay home and restock our cupboards with a trip to HyVee. That was in itself very nice, being able to see a well stocked supermarket with everything that you may want and more!! The prices were a little higher than what we have been used to but we`ll take it!! On Friday I went back to work while Gail took Briley over to Kenny and Judy`s to meet her new babushka and her new dedushka(grandma and grandpa). That went well as Briley took to them right away. On Saturday we took the whole crew to Collin`s basketball tourney in Austin and things went really well there for Briley too. Today we took her to Church and she did very well. She even "boogied" a little bit on a couple of the hymns.
On Thursday we will be taking her to an eye doctor to see what steps need to be taken to correct her lazy/crossed eye. We have been assured that this is not going to be a problem but still look forward to having this fixed. As far as her thin hair goes, it has been getting thicker and a little darker since the day that we started smuggling in meat and food to the orphanage. Her scabs are clearing up very nicely and we hope that a little outside type playing will help her color a bit.
The only issue that has come up with her is her extreme reluctance to lie down and go to sleep. She slept 15 hrs a day at the orphanage and here we have a hard time getting her to sleep 8 hrs at night and to get an hour or 2 nap in the afternoon. We think it might be all the stimulation that she has been getting by being out of the orphanage and once everything calms down a bit it should go better. The boys have taken her under their wing and will be wonderful brothers. If they can keep the other boys away from her until she reaches the age of 24 I`ll be satisfied!!
We will be continuing with updates and as I said earlier, we will be giving a recap of our entire trip. Until then , we have two months of mail to go through and hope that there isn`t too many bills in the pile, we have to bring Briley to the daycare with Gail with her a couple hours at a time to acclimate her to that environment and try to show her more things that she has never experienced at a comfortable pace. There is one quote by Collin that you might appreciate. One morning when we were skyping the kids, Judy asked us how Briley looked with all the chicken pox blisters. Gail told her that between the blisters, shabby clothes, thin hair, pale skin and the lazy eye, Briley truly looked like a little orphan. After we had hung up Collin turned to Judy and asked " Just what do they expect Briley to look like? She IS an orphan!!!" We are still chuckling over that one.
Take care,
Gail and Craig