Days 26, 27, 28 and 29...the week in review.

I am back..my children reminded me the other day that I have now been here 30 days, not the 26 that I thought. I started my blog on the third of October, but we technically did leave on the 1st, so I have skipped a few days in the blog. Well, what a week. It has been exhausting, rewarding, exciting and sad all rolled into one...in a nutshell I traveled to Dnipropetrovsk and went to an amazing museum with a few of the missionaries serving in this area. Traveled all over the southern part of Ukraine getting birth certificates, and ending the longest 10 waiting period which culminated in me FINALLY getting he boys. (We did it Dave, they are ours). Monday we head back to Dnipropetrovsk to get passport photos of the boys and then we are are told it will take 3 working days for those to be completed, if ALL goes well. We are waiting for a background check to be done on Bogdan now, because he is over the age of 14 he needs this done under his old name of Bogdan Bohen and then under his new name of Bogdan Joshua Moore, go figure. Then once we receive the passports we will go back to Kyiv for medical checkups, paperwork to be finished at the American Embassy and then HOME!!! For those who have done this before, does that sound about right? Am I forgetting anything? We were able to get so much done on Friday and Saturday that Oksana thinks we may have shaved 5 days off our stay, perhaps we will be able to head home around the 7th or so. I am hopeful, but not expecting too much, things can and do change daily around here. The boys were officially ours yesterday morning. I was told to pack some food for them because the sanatorium wasn't going to feed them if they were going to be leaving...so sad. Anna, the orphanage lawyer picked them up for me. Bogdan arrived with a small bag consisting of a pair of pants, two shirts, a sweater, one pair of shoes, his school work and one stuffed dog. Ruslan just had the clothes on his back, it sure was not a whole lot for being 12 and 14 years of age. When we arrived home last night they were so hungry, they are constantly wanting to eat. I'm worried they are going to make themselves sick...I'm needing to really watch what and how much they eat. Earlier today Constantine brought over a tv and DVD player for the boys, and as I type this I can hear them in their room laughing at Tom and Jerry I brought from home, it's the best sound ever. Bogdan acts as if he has just come out of a 14 year coma, he touches and is amazed by everything and about every 20 minutes or so, and I'm not exaggerating, he asks me, "No sanatorium, home mommy?" I reply, "Home, no sanatorium." He still can't believe he is actually with me...

When they woke up this morning I had them scrub themselves raw and when they got out of the shower instead of putting on the nice CLEAN clothes I brought from home, they put their old filthy clothes back on, I told them I needed to wash their clothes and to change, but they still don't look any better. The clothes I brought simply drown them, but hey, at least they are clean and they smell so good.

Today we went back to the sanatorium because they wanted to "present" some little gifts they had for their friends, yesterday they were not able to really say goodbye. I will have to post about what happened, because I get so teary eyed thinking about it. I cried the whole time. These children love each other so much and they were saying goodbye to "family", it was more then I could handle....I'll write more later

Christy, after having the boys with me now for a good 24 hours, I think you now need to start a blog entitled, "Is this normal when...?" Boy do I have so many questions...any advice from you moms and dads who have done this before would be so greatly appreciated at this time. THANKS!!

Tonight when I tucked the boys into bed and kissed them goodnight, Bogdan asked me again, "Mommy, no sanatorium?" No, Bogdan you are ours...no sanatorium.

Loves and kisses xoxo

Pictures from the museum.

This is a picture of the wall in the "Dark Room". Notice in 1939, alone,over 1,340,000 Ukrainians were killed. Actually during WWII over 20 million were killed and that number doesn't even include the ones that died during the famine and in prison.

A few of those that were killed...

In the "Dark Room".

Yura, Sister Hardy, Elder and Sister Roach...love them.

This is my little Arturo. This day I taught them the fine art of playing baseball. They found this piece of wood for the bat, it actually worked wonderfully. I know I slaughtered the rules David, but they will never know.

Facilitator Oksansa and Constantine. He is the owner of the house we are renting and he was also our driver for the day. We are eating at McDonald's. They wanted American food and I wanted Ukrainian...I was out voted 2 to 1.

The boys receiving their birth certificates with their new names. Bogdan Joshua Moore and Ruslan Edward Moore, they sure have nice ring to them, don't they?

Skyping David and the kids our first night together. I tell you...I think I know what we need to get Bogdan for Christmas, a camera.

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