Surprise and the infinity plus million hug

Here we come boys!

I have not been updating the blog as we were traveling back to the states to see our boys. Just in case my oldest was following along, I did not want to spoil the surprise. It worked!

We woke up Friday morning at 3:30 to the most wonderful smell, сырники (sirniki)! I wish I could describe this awesome dish. It's kinda like cheese cake cooked in the pan. Thank you Lena and Chess for the wonderful dinner the day before, the great conversation late into the night, and HUGE THANKS for breakfast in the morning! I am so excited that y'all are finally starting your adoption journey in Ukraine after two years of setbacks, heart brakes, and random delays. We are praying for a boring, straightforward process from here on out.

Our new driver showed up at 4am and whisked us away to a very busy airport. We were anxious to get the journey home started. Our return flights were on time and the longest layover was 3 hours in the US as we had to go through customs. This made it as relatively painless as it could be. We were met at the Raleigh airport by our good friend Karen with red, white, and blue Hawaiian leis. Thank you Karen! We arrived back home and we were greeted by the rest of her new expanded family. So very cool to see and hear their new son Daniel Ruslan Kochies! We quickly settled into the house, turning the AC, the water pump, and water heater back on. We got unpacked, sorted mail (it's amazing how much junk mail we get), found a few checks and got into the truck to get something to eat. Sleep came fast and hard that night. We actually slept in a bit and woke up with a sleep hangover.

We had coordinated with Luda's host family to go visit her in Charlotte before we headed north to see our boys. We weren't sure when we might see her again and we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. So glad we did. Luda is "exploding" with joy and is having a great time with her host family. We called Sophia and let Luda talk with her. In typical teenager fashion she quickly takes the phone and settles into a long conversation. We had to get the phone back after 15 minutes as I'm sure they would have talked for hours...$$$! We said she could talk to her again on Thursday from the zoo.

We left Charlotte and drove to Christiansburg to meet my folks for dinner. It was quick, but felt good to chat with them and share some of Sophia's pictures from her childhood. We also got to share a lot more background information that we don't put here. They are excited to see their new granddaughter.

Adam really missed us!

From there we started the long trek north. We broke it up into two days, staying the night in Scranton, PA. We finally made it to Lisa's sister's house around 4pm and went inside to get our long overdue hugs. Alex was the first to see us and says to Lisa, "What are you doing here?" and then quickly jumps in her arms. Adam came around the corner and backed up a little falling down, then quickly gets back up and gives me a great infinity plus a million hug. I don't think he let go of me for a good five minutes. He was so happy and it felt good to hold him in my arms. I missed this more than I had imagined.


This morning we had our usual morning cuddles and wrestling. I can't wait to mix in our daughter!