The lost sheep

Mariana, Anya, Luda, and Yulia at the zoo!

So after being home for a little over a week, it's time to go back to Ukraine to get Sophia.  This past week we have driven over 2500 miles visiting family and friends.  Leaving this time I am filled with all kinds of emotions.  Kind of like a groom the night before his wedding.  But we have spent the last week gathering the family back together, including our dog (which looks very similar to the dog in the orphanage), and the missing person is Sophia.  Lisa is watching over the boys, and Brodie, while I go get our lost sheep, Sophia.

After getting home on Wednesday evening, we hosted a family that is adopting/hosting two very special boys from Ukraine.  This family has 6 biological children and has already adopted 2 more.  They are looking to add the two teenage boys from Ukraine to their mix.  We felt honored to have them in our home and spend time with everyone.

Thursday was field trip day and the orphan hosting program took the kids to the NC zoo.  I tagged along with my boys as I wanted to spend time with the children.  I was able to surprise both Yulia and Anya at the church in the morning.  It took a second for both of them to register the face as they were not expecting to see me in the states.  But then I was dang near tackled as they jumped into my arms.  Both of the girls got to meet my boys and it was a great day at the zoo.  I even got to see Luda again.  The biggest observation I have for each is that without the stress of the orphanage, they are opening themselves up and sharing more.  Obviously, each is doing it to a different degree, but it's nice to see that their hearts are still open to being loved and sharing love.  As Lisa put it, these kids are exploding into childhood.

Friday I managed to stop by the office and change out files for the next trip, answer some emails and make a few calls.  It felt good to engage the brain again.  Even managed to have lunch with a great friend at our favorite Mexican restaurant.  Thanks Chester!  That afternoon we had planned, on a spur of the moment, to take Anya and Yulia shopping for clothes for Sophia.  We made a quick call and also included another wonderful young lady, Lera, who was adopted from their orphanage last year and she was our translator for the evening.  After driving all over Raleigh to pick everyone up, we stopped at Chili's for dinner.  Everyone ate well and we ordered a chocolate chip pie with ice cream on top and 5 spoons.  Anya and Yulia were a little hesitant at first...really we're sharing this?  After the first bite, they had no more reservations!

Mikey's Angels!

After dinner we headed over to Justice to pick out clothes.  I had to veto a few choices as the shorts, and shirts were a little too revealing.  But they accepted it and shifted gears and really helped us find some good stuff.  As a reward, we let them pick out an outfit as well.  They each chose jeans, a button up shirt with a tank top underneath.  Очень круто..."very cool" as they would say.  They also got some finger nail bling, earrings, and I think a necklace.  For her part, we surprised Lera with a magazine that had a poster of her new favorite boy band, One Direction, and she also picked out some vey cool earrings.  It truly was an outing typical of teenage girls.  The backseat was filled with giggles and chatter and karaoke to the pop music.  I look forward to sharing moments like this with Sophia and her friends.

This morning was a little slow and we took our time getting out of the house.  We stopped by B&N to pick up another Russian/English dictionary...I'll probably end up giving it away at the orphanage so they can practice learning English.  We stopped and had lunch at Moe's and afterwards made our way to the airport.  It's hard leaving my family, I love them dearly, but I have to do this to make us complete.  The most comforting words came from my 5 year old, words he just learned in church yesterday.  He said, "Daddy, don't worry, God is always with you."  Thanks Adam.