Glad to be home...for a minute!

Well, we have been home for one night and now we are heading out again!  We will be heading back down to Oregon to get the girls and throw a quick birthday bash for Hadley's 1st  B-day!  We are pretty much exhausted already and I'm sure that the 4 hour trip down isn't gonna help matters much.  I can't wait to see the girls though, I feel sick because I miss them so much!  Poor Cole had to go to his first Doctor's visit this morning.  (I'm sure he'll be eager to go back again - NOT!)  He had to get some blood drawn and we have to do all the fun stuff like a stool sample.  He has been such a good boy though, and we have had a lot of traveling with him!  A nearly 10 hr. flight home was hard for me to take but he handled it wonderfully!  He was really excited to enter the airport and be in "AMERICA!"  It's funny, I don't know what his concept is of being an American but he hasn't stopped talking about it.  He also keeps talking about Tennis...watch out Anna Kournikova!  He has been having a ball playing with all the toys...even Hadley's baby toys!  He slept great last night.  He just got up to go to the bathroom once then I could hear him playing with his car's in his bedroom this morning.  He's a pretty self sufficient little guy and is good about cleaning up any messes that he makes.  I can't wait for all of our family to meet him.  We could not have found a better little boy to fit in with our family.  He has a lot of personality and a good sense of humor and is quite curious and smart.  We have had such a wonderful adoption experience and I wish everyone else out there that is in this process - Good luck!  We are really happy we did this.  We found out when we were leaving that adoption will be changing over in Ukraine. We are feeling very lucky about our timing.  It sounds like "Adoption," will go from being under, "The Board of Education," to being under something like, "The Board of Health and Youth."  Nastya said that the Director is gone and someone is filling in, in her place to sign all the paperwork and what not until the changes are made.  Apparently our petition for adoption was signed along with 30 others by the "fill-in person," which is why our paperwork went through rather quickly. We wish Oleg's team good luck and hope that everything works out and that they're still able to work in this industry.  We feel it is in the best interest of the children in Ukraine's orphanage system that they still work in this field!  They are doing everything they can and working very hard to place these children in loving homes.  Sergei said that everything is really up in the air at this point but that he thought anyone who already had dossiers in would still be allowed to adopt until whatever date they set for the close down.  He said that they still don't even know a definite date of when and how all these changes would be taking place but that it had been iminent with the new presidency.  I don't know exactly what this means for anyone still hoping to adopt from Ukraine.  I would just say, follow your heart but also have a back up plan.  We are really glad that we chose to adopt in Ukraine and that we met and worked with so many wonderful people.  I would just also think about the possibility of maybe choosing another country later in case you didn't get your paperwork in by whatever deadline Ukraine sets for these changes to take place.  There are so many cute, healthy, smart kids in Ukraine, I hope their government makes their chances for adoption their number one priority.