Meeting Yaroslav in Atlanta

The kids from the Ukraine flew into NYC on the 29th, and stayed the night at a church in New Jersey.  From there, they were split up, and flown to an airport somewhat closer to their final destination.  For us, that happened to be Atlanta.  After going around and around trying to decide if we should make a vacation of it, and all drive to Atlanta, or if I should go, or if Lance should, we finally determined that I should go.  Lance was starting a new job, and I really didn't want to go by myself with the kids, so it was settled.  Lucky for me...one of my best friends (Kristie Jensen Seawell) from high school lives in one of the suburbs of Atlanta.
It worked out perfect.  I had been so stressed with work, church responsibilities, and the idea of introducing an unknown child into our family, that I needed a break.  I flew into Atlanta on Thursday morning, and didn't pick up Yaroslav until Saturday afternoon.  I really had a lot of fun with Kristie and her family.  Thursday happened to be her husband, David's, birthday.  I'm not sure if I was a party crasher, or if they were happy to have me there, but I had a great time.  They took me to Stone Mountain, which is very cool, as you can see from the photos.

You can see that we tried to be good posers, but it's hard to be serious with Kristie.  She's just too much fun!  They hold a laser light show there after it gets dark.  It was very well done, and I'm glad I got to see it.
We spent some time living in the 80's, and laughing about anything and everything.  We love the fact that the neon hair bows are coming back in style.

We look just "fetching" don't we?!
Among other things, we spent about two hours at the Dentist's office.  That had to have been the highlight of my stay with them.  Okay, so maybe not, but it wasn't a bad thing.  I just happened to be there when the whole family went to the dentist.  Unfortunately, I missed out on the most exciting moment at the dental office when David, and their son Nathaniel got in a wrestling match, and almost broke the toy box.  I really should have waited a few more minutes before stepping out to call Lance.
Being there a couple of days before meeting Yaroslav gave me the opportunity to relax, and be distracted so that I wasn't feeling overly anxious.

On Saturday afternoon, Kristie took me to the airport to meet the kids' plane.  It was really exciting and a little scary for all of us. A family from San Antonio asked me to bring the child that they are hosting back with me.  His name is Anatolii, and he happens to be the same age as Yaroslav.  I think that it was good that the two of them were together.  It probably helped them feel a little better about getting on, yet another plane, with a stranger.  I almost wrote "a strange lady", but I didn't want anyone to expound on that topic.

 The posters that I made to welcome them to America.  I'm sure they couldn't read them, but it's the thought that counts, right?

 Seeing Yaroslav for the first time.  The photo is a bit blurry because I think I was shaking.  For these kids, it was still the middle of the night.  They were exhausted.  The chaperon told me that I was taking some good boys, that were very polite, and would do what I asked.  She also mentioned that Yaroslav is very shy.

 Yaroslav and Anatolii together.  That is one of the chaperons in the background behind Yaroslav.

 We sent some clothes to New Jersey so that he would have something clean to wear after such a long flight.   For some reason it was fun to see him wearing something that we had given him.  One of the program facilitators said that he was really happy when he was given the package from us. Most of these kids don't even come with a backpack.  Yaroslav didn't have anything with him.

  Here they are on the plane on the way to Texas.  It took all of 5 minutes for them to fall asleep.  It was a relief for me considering that we had two hours to kill in the airport before our plane left.  I was worn out from trying to communicate with/entertain them.
We arrived in Austin at 8 pm.  We took Yaroslav home, let him take a shower, and thought that maybe he would be ready for bed.  Instead, he played Mario Kart with the kids.  Video games...the universal language of kids.