There truly is no place like home....

Everything is so precious. My boys. Oh how I've missed them. My towels that I haven't seen in so long. They are soft and fluffy because they've been properly washed and dried. My pajamas. After over 6 weeks in the same pajamas you miss the rest of them. I picked them up and held them by my face because I so appreciated the opportunity to wear them. Does that sound crazy?! Let me back up a bit to share how I finally got back HOME. This will be long but I need to remember this. If you do nothing else go to the part where we get to the US and see what God did for us.

Tuesday night in Ukraine we packed up and went to bed knowing we'd be up at 3am. We hardly sleep all night. Anticipation and a child who flips and flops in bed are not a good combination. We actually got up early and got ready. At 3:30 we scooped Oksana out of bed and went to meet our driver. At the airport we got settled in and prepared for what we knew would be a difficult journey. I was petrified. I had no idea how Oksana would do. I prayed and prayed and prayed that the Lord would help us. Our first flight was decent. We managed to keep any major catastrophes away but just barely. She even slept for about 1/2 an hour. Thank you Lord!

Once in Amsterdam we had a 6 hour layover. She wouldn't let us put her down. We couldn't even sit or she would think we were putting her down and freak out. I understand because I can't imagine how overwhelming it all was but we were dying. 6 hours of carrying around 35 lbs. We'd trade back and forth and back and forth. It was about this time that she also decided that we both had to be in her sight or she would start sobbing and yelling for the person she couldn't find. Makes going to the bathroom pretty hard. About 4 hours in I prayed...please God give us physical strength to do this. We were walking around and saw a children's play area. We decided to let her watch the other kids. She saw a balloon and immediately asked to be put down. We were shocked. She crawled around and played for quite awhile and then I think it all started to get to her and she started to go downhill so we left which didn't go over very well. Still, our bodies had some rest. Thank you Lord.

6 hours later we boarded what would be our longest flight already exhausted. We gave her some Melatonin and thought for sure she would sleep the whole way. She was out quick and we got her comfortable just as the fasten seat belt signs went off. We were hungry so we decided to wait for dinner to be served and then use the restrooms and sleep. Because of her sudden need to have both of us right near her we knew that if one of us went to the bathroom she would go crazy and she would think we would be able to walk her around the plane in which case that is what we would be doing the whole flight. Dinner was served....then Oksana woke up....2 1/2 hours into the flight with 6 hours left to go. No sleep, no restroom break. We couldn't believe it. I had no idea what we would do. Our first flight was only 3 hours and we barely made it. I prayed, please God get us through this flight. She did great. For 6 hours we played and she stayed happy. Our bladders made it. We just drank less. Thank you Lord.

After this flight we were in the USA! We got off of the plane and used the restrooms, fast! By the time we got situated and over to customs the line was a mile long and looked like it would take hours to get through which meant us holding her the whole time. To top it off we were quite sure we would miss our connecting flight to Little Rock. I prayed, please Lord help us we can't do this. Larry found someone and explained our situation. He bumped us over to the wheelchair line with only 4 people in it. We rushed (well after getting through customs because no one there was rushing) to re-check our baggage for our next flight to find out it had been delayed from 7:45 to 8:30. What a relief! We'd be home later than we hoped but we'd go home still. We had plenty of time. Thank you Lord!

We got up to the gate and suddenly all she wanted to do is crawl around. We followed her all over and she found herself a seat to climb up on right between a man and a woman. The man pulled out a ukulele and serenaded her! She loved it. We started talking to the woman on the other side of her about our journey and another man sitting next to her asked us some questions as well. It turns out he and a friend were coming home from Turkey doing work with orphans and they were headed home to Little Rock. Next thing we know the lady at the gate announces that the flight has been moved to 9:30 and the gate has changed. Now we're getting a little nervous. That's a long time to wait around with a very tired child and would get us home rather late. The lady that we met said she was going to the new gate to get info. She came back and said the flight had been moved to midnight. We became frantic. We decided to see if we could get a flight out in the morning and just get a hotel and get some sleep. We found out that the only way to get to Little Rock in the morning was to fly to Atlanta first. That meant 2 more flights, we'd likely be charged, would have to find and pay for a hotel room, we were almost out of diapers, and only had what clothes and few items were on us. That was it. I LOST it. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed in the middle of that airport. Now are you ready for this? While all of this was happening the man who went to Turkey and his friend were discussing that they had to get home that night for a morning meeting. The man's friend has a private jet so he called it to come get them. They had been talking to the other woman we met and offered to take her too. She said "If it means giving up a seat home I'd rather you take home that family with the little girl from Ukraine". He said "We have room for everyone". They approached us and told us the situation. They could get us out of there but it would be late. We'd only buy ourselves about an hour but we were guaranteed to be home. We finally took them up on their offer. Then I can't remember what the man said to me but I remember saying "You're a believer?" He said yes and asked where we went to church. He and the man who own the jet go to our church! The husband of the woman in this scenario is the pastor of a local church that we have friends at as well. We were SHOCKED! Thank you Lord!

We went to the smaller airport and hung out and this is where it got sticky. Oksana had at this point been up for over 24 hours with only 5 hours of sleep and she was WIRED and getting cranky. If we did every single thing she wanted she was fine but the second our plans didn't mix with hers disaster struck. We tried to keep her happy despite how exhausted we were but we did have one meltdown. Even this flight was getting delayed and we were all going down hill fast. Finally the plane arrived and luckily all 3 of us slept on the way home. Larry and I got about an hour and a half and we pulled her off of the plane sleeping at 12:30am. We were in a small private airport near the main airport so they drove us over to meet our family. Oksana had woken up at this point but was obviously still sleepy. It was SO wonderful to see our kids and our parents again! Oksana was half asleep so she just kind of looked at everyone. She cried on the way home because she was SO exhausted. We got her in, put her in PJ's (which she was NOT happy about) and put her to bed at 1:30am. We spent a little bit of time with our family and then we all crashed. Thank you Lord!

Pictures soon.