Feet on the Ground Again

Ellie makes shadow puppets while we pack up at the hotel Sunday morning...

Giving some love to Gyshe

Whew! We made it! I’m so tired – sleeping on the long flight just didn’t happen (thanks, Lufthansa, for smaller than average seats and leg room, and thanks, Reni, for making sure I didn’t fall asleep before you! ;-) ) But, we are here, and I powered through til at least 9:30PM Monday night so I should be able to sleep through the night. Reni took a mega nap this afternoon and just would NOT wake up for us. I can’t say I blame him! One piece of luggage did not make it, but fortunately we split up our clothes between the various bags so we still have stuff to wear – albeit I do not have a winter coat since mine was checked in the bag that didn’t make it! With 2 kids and 5 carry-ons, we just didn’t have an extra hand to carry Nathan’s and my coats.

 Just as we were getting off the plane in Munich we learned that the couple in front of us was on their way to Ukraine to adopt a son! They had left four kids at home in the States and seemed quite torn up about being apart from them (naturally). I wished then that I would have taken the time to chat with them earlier in their flight (they had been super kind with us while we did some seat rearranging mid-flight to accommodate the kids’ sleeping places). It was a lesson learned as I’ve thought about them all day and wished I could have provided more encouragement to them. Half kidding here, but if any of you out there in bloggy world know a couple on their way to Ukraine this week to adopt a son, let me know!

 We had two great meetings with friends today. One we got to surprise because she didn't know we were coming!  We knocked on the door and Ellie threw up her arms and yelled, "Surprise!" before giving her a hug.  Vera literally fell over!  I wish I had time to share more about see Vera and Genti and Shpresa, but I’m about to pass out over the keyboard. I’m also bummed that the images are not loading. Perhaps tomorrow. Thanks to those of you who prayed for our travels! The kids did well over all but we didn’t get much rest, and our landing was a bit scary (it took a couple of passes to hit the runway right), so needless to say, we are happy to be tucked into comfy beds in a warm apartment. Tomorrow Nathan and I head to Darshen, provided snow hasn’t closed the mountain pass.