Doma! (Home)

After a long day of trouble-free travel (our plane arrived an hour early and we breezed through US Immigration in NY) we arrived at Richmond airport and were greeted by Robin D., who gave hugs all around. We collected our stuff and piled into the van. We pulled into the driveway around 9:30 pm, having left Kyiv 19 hours earlier. Ahhh...home!

There was a fridge chock full of prepared food, groceries (thank you Kathy M and Robin!!!!!!! WOWOWOWOW!) and a lovely strawberry cake (thanks Art and Terri!!!!!) waiting for us, plus some sweet English and Russian 'welcome home' signs made by Ella. As we unloaded, we noticed our lawn had been mowed (by Stan and Art) and the brick pathway tidy as can be (weeded by Libby!!!!!!! WOW!). The girl's rooms all had beautiful flowers and balloons from the Doucettes. Kate and Taylor led Elizabeth to her new room and spent a few minutes exploring. But, with everyone so tired, it was all we could do to find our toothbrushes and PJs and tuck everyone in. (Shadow is still enjoying the company of fellow canine Ginny, and Ginny's people Fran and Rick...Shadow returns to us later today! Talk about troopers...THANK YOU Fran and Rick!!!!!)

This morning, Kate and Elizabeth played air hockey and with the GameCube and are currently riding bikes while Taylor is sleeping in. We will likely head to Busch Gardens (beating the Memorial day crowd) in a little while and then complete our unpacking...and do some laundry!

Special thanks to so many people for accompanying us on this journey. We are so happy to be home!!! Your prayers, emails, phone calls and kindnesses have meant the world to us. Thanks for making this one...easy!


Photo: Touchdown in New York...the moment Elizabeth became an American citizen.