We're Dome!

First Douberly family photo!

We couldn't have done it without Babushka and Dedushka! They were the glue to this entire operation! We love you, Nana C and Papa J. You've only been gone 30 minutes and you are missed by all of us!

Nana C and Papa J enjoy time bonding with their new grandsons

Preparing for our walk around their new neighborhood
Crazy Ukrainian Friends for life!!! (Andrew, Max Bryant, and Alex)

Laura Thoroman...I couldn't even begin to tell you everything she did for us! Mommy missed her eldest boys terribly

Our Homecoming awaits (and waits...and waits...)

Dearest Loved Ones,

We did it! We are home in the good 'ol USA. Dome Sweet Dome (Dome is Ukrainian for 'home'). We couldn't be happier. The boys act as if they have owned the place since Day 1! We love it. Joshua and Jacob have adjusted to being big brothers instantly. They continue to impress us with their helpful attitudes and biting their tongues if the boys wake them up screaming in the middle of the night. (Yes, we have some adjustment issues to work on, but it's ALL GOOD!)

Mom and Dad just drove off (sigh) and I'm nervous if we can handle it without them here. They have been such life savers. They made the boys feel so loved and comfortable that they never cried from homesickness. How amazing! I think maybe I should have brought them with me to help with MY homesickness! They juggled soccer practices, games, social events, laundry, cooking, etc, with such ease, zest and experience. We have heard over and over again how awesome they were with the boys while we were away. God bless my folks!

The homecoming was spectacular. The Thoroman and Bryant families joined my family in welcoming us home. It was such a treat. They made beautiful posters, delicious cookies, lasagna, etc. They even baby-proofed our house for us. When we came in the door, my mom had Laura and Scott go upstairs with me to see everything they had done. I get tears in my eyes all over again when I tell you this. They put together the entire boys' room! They had put together bunk beds for the boys (and had to get the parts themselves because they didn't come with the set!), stripped and painted the walls and made it feel like such a welcoming and warm bedroom for the boys. They/I LOVED it. It was too much. Laura and my mom had gone through an entire closet of junk to organize and sort clothes for the boys. It looked so nice. What have I done to have such beautiful people placed in my lives?

I can't thank all of you enough for the sweet phone calls, emails, clothes, and gifts. Our neighbor, Laurie brought over bags of precious clothes for the boys along with a new big wheel and Legos for the elder boys. Way too sweet! Another dear neighbor, Betsy handmade blankets for the boys. They love them! We also received matching helicopter long sleeve ultra-cool T-shirts from Hammer and gang. I can't wait to get them all in them for a picture. I have them washed and plan on taking the picture ASAP. I just have to round up the entire gang. I could go on and on talking about all of your generosity and I want to. However, Lamar just took the boys out for a men-outing and left me with a few precious moments to finally unpack my bags. (Hey, it's only been 3 days....not bad!)

Please don't be upset if we don't immediately return emails, phone calls, etc. We are still trying to find some balance in giving all the boys the attention they need. That's a huge priority right now.

My last request from you all....Could you all please just take a minute and send prayers of thanksgiving up to our mighty Lord and Savior. He has worked miracles for us and we are forever in debt for his graciousness, kindness, and love. I'm sure you all feel Him touching each of your lives, too. It's so easy to focus on praying to Him when we are in need. Lamar and I want to remember to give Him extra praise and glory during times of happiness and joy as well. He has given us two more gifts that we are just not worthy to have. God is good...

ALL THE TIME!

God bless you all.

Kris

God is good

Dearest Loved Ones,

I would love to beat around the bush or drag this out....but I can't....
WE ARE COMING HOME!!! That's right! We just got our tickets and we fly out tomorrow EARLY morning. We will be landing at Dulles International at 3:45 Saturday afternoon.

Everything happened VERY fast. Yuri hinted there was a very slim chance that if we got everything done today, we MIGHT be able to leave this weekend or Tuesday at the latest. Well, we got it all done! Today we did medicals (the boys were troopers!) and visas at the embassy. We got it all done in time to book some tickets. We will be getting up at 2:30 this morning (if Lamar and I even go to bed...we are REALLY jazzed) to get the boys ready and out the door to the airport.

It will be a very long day of traveling with the boys and we do worry about their sinuses, but every flight and every layover is still a step closer to getting back to my boys, family, friends, and home.

I feel like this is the end of a journey I have so enjoyed taking with each and every one of you. However, I do believe that is the beginning of a new chapter, not just for Alexander and Andrew, but for the entire Douberly Family. We look forward to keeping you updated on the reunion, adjustment process, and the many boyish antics that are sure to come. Oh, I can't wait!!!

God bless you all and thank you for your continued prayers on this last push to get the Douberly family all together.

Love always,

Kris

Joshua's comment

Dearest Friends,

I just went back and found an entry Joshua added after I had read that day's comments. It made me cry. I still sit here with tears in my eyes thinking of him looking for each and every letter on the keyboard as he is sounding out words he's not sure how to spell. My mom says he spends so much time at the computer composing his messages.

His words and message touched me so much that I am copying and pasting it (just the way he wrote it) and adding it as an entry to share with you all.

Joshua, my dear son, thank you for your sweet and encouraging words. I enjoy our Skype time, too, but can't wait to hold you in my arms again. Please continue to be helpful in school. That is the best thing we can hear is that you are helping others. What you write about your brothers is just as special as what adults write, too. Be proud of yourself and what you do. And as always, keep trying your best.

Daddy and I love you very much and we are touched beyond measure that you and Jacob are trying so hard to be good for Nana C and Papa J. Hang in there....we will be home soon.

I love you, dear. Share my long distant hugs and kisses with your brother!

Love,

Mommy

Joshua's comment from Sept 23, 2009

Mom and Dad,Thank you for calling us this morning on skype. It was fun watching my brothers wrestle.Thank you for keeping in touch with us.It really helps me from getting homesick.Well today at school I helped others so much Mrs. Ellington just layed 30 dollars in fake money on my desk!I now have 118$ .School is coming very well.I love reading what you post on the blog.I really can't wait to meat Alex and Andrew.We are keeping you at the top of our minds when we can.I am sorry I can't write a long message about the children like the other adualts can.I am very thankful to have parents like you who can pull through at hard times like this.I love writing in my journal.I know you like it.Nana and Papa went out and bought the big legos today.Nothing big has happened today.Thank you for mentioning that you like what I write.Boy did I bet you had fun at that park.God bless you.Love,Joshua

Project Escape Kiev...Day 2

Have you ever seen such a McSmile?Alex enjoys sharing his first French Fry ever with Daddy
Alex and Daddy on a Ferris Wheel in Kirovograd

Mommy and Andrew have fun at a park in Kirovograd

Good evening,

As I sit down and reflect on our day here in Kiev, it blows my mind that the boys have only been with us for less than a week. Today was incredible! We went the entire day without any meltdowns from Alex. Don't get me wrong...he let us know in his very own special way that he still doesn't dig having showers or his teeth brushed. However, no temper tantrums or fits. Yeah!

The highlight of my day was just now while I was putting them down to bed. We said our prayers. They kneel beside me and while I say the "Lord's Prayer" they do their own sweet gibberish Ukrainian versions along with me. Then, as we laid in bed together I sang them some songs. Even though they have NEVER heard these songs before and have NO idea what I'm singing, they both sang along with me. It was the sweetest, funniest thing I ever heard. I had to wipe tears from my eyes because I was laughing so hard. It was precious. If I can somehow get a recording of this, you too, could be sore in the abs from the laughter. I'll see what I can do...

Tonight we went out for a delicious Ukrainian feast. It still suprises me what the boys will eat. They had egg plant, yellow and red peppers, cucumbers, black olives, borsh (beats and cabbage), and a part of Lamar's finger because it got too close to the trap he was feeding! We then went for a nice long walk and found a place we had heard about that had delicious desserts. The boys didn't leave a crumb! What a treat!

Well, we will catch up more tomorrow. We are both tired and ready to kick back and relax.

Love to you all.

Kris

PS If you want to see more pictures they are posted in a Snapfish album on the side. Enjoy!

Back in Kiev

Hello, all!

I have to share this first. Lamar and I have stayed and become so connected with each of you through our blog, that throughout the day we will say to each other..."Oh, this will be great to put on the blog" or "Don't forget to remind me to share that on the blog..."so and so"("so and so" would be each of you at different times) would get a kick out of this!" We love it! Thanks for staying strong with the comments. I know this may have become a bit humdrum for you, but we still relish each and every comment you take the time to share with us on a daily basis. We fight to get to the internet first to see whom we have heard from. We, too, get excited when we see Joshua has taken all that time and put so much heart into typing his own comments. It thrills us to hear from our faithful followers and we get giddy when we hear from someone new whom we didn't know was following. Yes, we have officially become blog dorks! We can't help it. It's been better than any Ukrainian wine (which isn't really saying too much) or therapy sessions we would need to get through this without you. What I'm trying to say is, "Thank you" from Lamar, Alex and Andrew, and myself. We are blessed to have each and every one of you pulling for us to get home quickly and soundly.

Alright...now to start sharing things I tried to remember throughout the day!

Our train ride to Kiev...where do I begin? Our cab driver and new friend, Nikolai, picked us up 40 minutes late to get to the train station. They don't tend to mind being late because they cut time out by not slowing down to get over the potholes. This wouldn't be an issue at all if the kids were buckled saftely in 5 point safety harnesses. But they were not. Alex, Andrew and I were bouncing around the backseat like a bunch of monkeys. They thought it was great! The bigger the bounce, the better the ride. I was quickly replaying in my mind where I had strategically place barf bags and wipes for the trip. (Thanks for the heads up Bryants!) However, they weren't for the boys...they were for me! Luckily I didn't get sick, I just turned a few shades of green.

Since we were now running late, We ran from the Taxi to the train. Alright...if you had seen us, you would have laughed hysterically that I chose to use the word "ran". Picture this...Lamar is carrying THREE shoulder bags, pulling two large bags and somehow has a stroller balanced on his head (or was it under his chin?). I really didn't take the time to look to see HOW he was carrying all of our stuff. I was holding Alex on my hip, Andrew with one hand, and an awkward overstuffed pillow I think between my knees. It's really a blur at this point. OK.. we really weren't "running" at all. In fact we had one-legged 100 year old women carrying 3 bags push us out of their ways.

Getting to the train proved to be easier than getting up on the train. We had 3 minutes! It was the fastest three minutes EVER. Lamar and I were pushing and pulling and tugging and dropping. It was crazy. Meanwhile, the boys were angels. They just hung on (for dear life) and enjoyed their surroundings. It's so precious to see in their little faces how exciting and new everything is. They must get sick and tired of me snapping pictures of them all the time. I just don't want to ever forget this true sense of "awe" they are both experiencing...no matter how crazy and chaotic it gets sometimes.

Of course when we get on the train, our seats were taken by some Ukrainian people that chose to spread out instead of staying with the assigned seats. The train is moving and Lamar and I are standing in the aisle with the boys trying to figure out how we are going to get our seats back. It's 3 hours and we can't stand the whole time. We were being ushered to sit and we signaled our seats were taken. They moved the (not-so-happy) people out of our seats so we could sit down. Dirty looks were being thrown our ways left and right. To top it off it was at least 100 degrees in there. We were boiling! (especially poor Andrew who runs on ultra-high). We were settling in our seats and I was stripping layers of the boys so they wouldn't roast. One of the women whom we had dis-placed, told me in Ukrainian anger, to put their coats and hats back on. I signaled with the international "no" by shaking my head. She proceeded to continue chewing me out that I was taking off their coats and I needed to put them on like her granddaughter was wearing. I looked down at her poor granddaughter whose cheeks were flushed and face was sweating. She looked like she would suffer heat stroke with all the layers she had on. Again, I shoke my head "no". She shrugged, gave me a dirty look and said something in Ukrainian that I know was reference to me being a horrible mommy. Now here's where I wish I could say I took the high road and just smiled and looked away...but I didn't. I could blame my reaction on the chaos getting onto the train, the heat, or my nerves just being ready to explode, but I did something I'm afraid to admit. (However, if I don't confess, Lamar would be sure to tattle on me later because he is still shocked I did it). I mimicked her! (Yes, pull out the hot sauce). I copied her shrug, look of disgust and underbreath mumblings. It was bad. Now here I am FACING knee to knee with this woman whom has just insulted me and I in return (and in shame) insulted back. It was going to be the LONGEST three hours ever. I closed my eyes and prayed. Honestly, at first I prayed for patience and that the woman across for me might turn into a pillar of salt...hey! It's happened before! Then God worked on my heart and my prayer changed from that of asking for patience to that of asking for forgiveness. I had behaved like the stereotypical ugly American and no matter what she had done, I really shouldn't have responded the way I did. I realized then and there I had to do something. I pulled out a peace offering. I took out some Animal Crackers and I offered them to her granddaughter. I knew she would refuse them, but I had to try. As I suspected, she immediately said, "Nyet (no)" but her granddaugher REALLY wanted them. Bless her precious (over heated) little heart. She won her babushka (grandma) over and we broke Animal Crackers and became friends. The rest of the ride was beautiful. We tried communicating with each other. We shared our treats, they shared their color pencils. Life was good and peace was restored once again. (However, I must say,it got sooo hot on the train that the grandaughter AND the babushka took off all their coats and hats. I'm not telling you this because I like to say "I told you so", I'm just saying it to complete the facts of my story.)

So, our train ride ended with not a single disturbance...other than a few giggles and laughs...from our boys. They were troopers. We got to our apartment (same building as before but higher up....nicer view!) around midnight and the boys STILL hadn't gone to sleep. Needless to say, they crashed quickly and they crashed hard.

They were still up and ready to go at 6:15 a.m. That's not enough sleep for two boys who are seeing the world from new angles! Lamar thought it would be a hoot to take them to McDonalds for the first time in their lives. There's not that many kid-friendly things to do here in Kiev, so I agreed. C'mon! Every kids has got to experience a Happy Meal at least once in their lives! And they can say their once experience of McDonalds was in Ukraine! Well, they loved it! I think they would have eaten the box the Happy Meals came in if we let them. We do think is was their first hamburgers ever. They didn't know how to hold them or to eat them. Andrew turned his sideways and everything fell out, so he ate after separating out the layers. Too funny. I hope they enjoyed their moments because tonight it's back to borsch (beat and cabbage soup), salad and chicken. Yumm!

We walked around the underground mall in attempts to burn off a mere fraction of our 2 million ingested calories. Unfortunately, Alex decided to have a meltdown because we wouldn't let him touch every car we passed along the street. Oh, can that boy scream. It turns many-a-heads. Of course, we don't acknowledge the melt down or temper it with treats. We ignore it which makes it get louder and bigger and causes even more heads to turn. I swear people thought we must had just beaten our son. They do NOT like children crying here. (Did you experience this
Rebecca and Sam?) Babushkas kept stopping us left and right in attempts to calm down our son with treats, sweet words, etc. Lamar practically ran them all down. I was very proud of him. He was on a mission to get our son home and into bed. The poor little guys was done! That long and loud walk home was such a frustrating and hair-pulling experience. However, the moment he finally calmed down we had him apologize to all three of us. He had to say "sorry" and give each of us kisses, and he did. It melted my heart and erased a lot of anger. Isn't that amazing how that works? Oh the joys!

Well, as much as I would love to sit here and type more, I must take advantage of this down time and do about 100 lunges, 50 sit ups, and 75 squats to burn off each fry I ate. (Oh, will I be sore tomorrow, or what!)

Love you all and have a great week. We will keep you posted...thanks, again for keeping us posted as well.

As the Bryants so eloquently said, now we are fully involved with 'Operation Escape Kiev'!

Much love,

Kris

First days with the newbies.....

Too, too funny. Wild times and priceless moments of challenge filled these past couple of days with our new sons. We are trying to soften the edges on our parenting, but the little one (Alexander Yarik) will paint you into a corner very quickly. His hot temper demands immediate attention (our will against his 2yr 6mo will), and the poor kid just can't get over that we will simply not back down from the big bad man that he is.

Our second youngest son, Andrew Nikolai (Kolya) is a pure joy who is only mildly difficult at his absolute worst. Like any kid though, he will still crawl under folks' skin if they let him. Like our Joshua at home, he is verbally relentless until you either politely tell him to hush or you give him what he seeks. He is easily the most sensitive of the four boys and must be watched closely by the hurt feelings police. He will not be overt about his tenderness; rather he'll just find a quiet place to shed silent tears while trying to talk himself back in the game. At night, the poor thing appears to be worried that if we leave him in the bedroom without falling asleep with him that we will not be there in the morning. This must be the emotional scarring from a year and a half in the orphanage. Maybe he still remembers (even if subconsciously) his mother and the circumstances which drove their family apart. The kid is sweeter than the day is long though. Kinda like his dad - sensitivity and sweetness - God bless him. Andrew really has no idea what is in store for him when he gets home - he will be very happy.

Our youngest one, Alexander Yarik, is quite the pistol. He is relatively undersized for his 2 and a half years (think 18 month old size) but he more than makes up for it with sheer grit and determination. Of course, with those traits come the requisite stubbornness and single-minded behaviors as well. We are still trying to figure out this poor kid's internal clock when it comes to feeding time and nappy's house. This guy will absolutely shut it down and just squat when he has had enough of any situation not to his liking IF CAUGHT AT THE WRONG TIME. Today he just off and threw a couple of tantrums as we approached his normal nap time of 1PM. I think he must've lost approximately 1.75 liters (we are in Europe) of tears, snot, spit, and sweat as he struggled with us on the way home from a little amusement park. We thought that once home he would crash from utter exhaustion considering his colorful display all the way back. Alas, we were so very alarmed to find that he has an easily-tapped extra reserve for fit-pitching. Eventually, he did pass out from self-induced oxygen starvation and took a nice little nap. Tonight at dinner we had a huge turning point. He started to pitch a fit when we wanted him to eat his main dish before his banana, but he quickly realized the battle of the wills would not be won by whining. We feel well on the way to obedience, but we know there are many tough but fun days ahead.

Late Breaking News: We had our best evening yet tonight. First, there was no whining at dinner (mentioned above). Next, we had a great Skype with Aunt Teresa. We also had no tears during shower time as the boys shared the shower with their Mom. (Trust me, she could make a grown man cry though). Anyway, night-night time went swell too - no separation tears from Andrew tonight. Our translator Katja has been relaying to him that we will be there in the morning-time no matter what.

There's more to come later......

Gotcha Day

Just in case you missed Josh's comment on the last blog....WE GOT 'EM!!!!! The two new rats are sleeping in the room right next to me and I swear life just keeps getting better for our
family. This road has been long, but today was worth every drop of pain and agony of the last 21 months. Just a little insight here......

First off, many of you know the various delays and false starts we experienced during the process. We nearly had a referral last summer, but the facilitator couldn't make it happen in Kiev. Something about a bad rain storm that scared everybody away - including him obviously. We stuck by this first facilitator for another six months or so until he failed us yet again. We then switched to Yuri Safonov - sort of a God-send if you ask us.

Don't ever mistake what this whole adoption business acutally is - you guessed it...strictly business. Only the most persistent of facilitators get the referrals and only those good facilitators have the contacts to make the adoptions happen without fanfare. Of course, those same facilitators demand the highest fees and get them solely because they produce. We actually believe Yuri to be one of the good ones who can balance the cut-throat world of adoption with making sure the right kids are placed with the right parents. Thanks be to God for bringing him into our lives.

That said, I want you all to know that God had his hand in this right from the beginning. One of the children we just adopted today was all of nine months old and still with his mom when we started down this road. Heck, these two weren't even in the orphanage until June of last year. To top it all off, they weren't eligible for international adoption until a scant one week before we met them. AND, there was a Spanish couple who met them just before we did but couldn't pull off bringing two children home. They fell in love with the boys, couldn't take them both nor could they split them. We also hear rumblings there was a couple just hours behind us who were devastated when they found out the boys were already referred to us. You can see just how small this window was that God opened for us.

I guess that all set the stage for today. We arrived back in court at 10AM seemingly only a few hours after leaving yesterday afternoon. Court went reasonably well - just a little longer than expected. The judge appeared to be grilling us; we later found out he was so fascinated with our international background and overall life experiences. He just wanted to talk to us for a nice long while. Kristina managed to win him and all the ladies in the room with one very key statement. She was asked how she would provide for five men in the home without a daughter to help her with the house work. She smartly but politely replied that she was merely training our boys
on how to be the best future husbands possible. There were no-kidding gasps quickly followed by smiles of adoration from all the Ukranaian ladies. They then quickly turned a very smarmy eye to the judge who sheepishly and IMMEDIATELY changed his line of questioning. The only thing about me that he found quaint was that someone who had been in the military for this long did not have a big belly to only sit behind a desk telling people what to do. I told him to just give me couple of years and that would be the case.

Anyway, court ended and we went home to finish a little more shopping. We then picked up our translator and headed to the orphanage to complete the transfer and "take delivery" of our precious cargo. We packed up some new clothes for the boys and sure enough, the ladies at the orphanage watched us strip our new kids to their birthday suits (sorta apropos). The ladies promptly hauled away their old clothes while we clad them in true Douberly-wear....track suits. They may be comfortable now, but little do our children know of the miles ahead of them on the treadmill, bicycle, and elliptical in those very track suits. We then gave the boys' classmates a whole heap of fruit and fruit juice in lieu of the traditional cake (too sweet for this orphanage apparently) and we left for our apartment.

The night has flown by so much more rapidly than our other evenings here in Ukraine. We cooked dinner, cleaned up, took baths, sacked the quarterback, drank some beer, and looked at the pretty girls walk by. All in a night's work for a Douberly if I may say so myself. They performed all their new tasks with utter distinction and will be certain to attain "man" status in record time. Alexander Yarik does seem to have an aversion to the shower and brushing his teeth - pesky personal hygeine. Andrew Nikolai exceeded all expectations and is well on his way to achieving "kid of the month" in some social circle somewhere.

If you are still reading at this point, God bless your soul. I could ramble on for hours like this, but I will spare you all until tomorrow. The only thing I do want to share is that an irrepressible feeling that has been lifted off my shoulder. Every Ukrainian woman with a scowl seemed to be the lady who would simply swoop in right before court and take the boys from our grasp with a claim to motherhood. Gone are those pressures and now I can get back to the serious business of cutting the fool with my four urchins.

Thanks for staying with us on this magnificent ride so far....more to come later.