We are getting there...

Here are some photos, finally. We don't have any as yet from our time in Russia, but these are better indicators of the girls anyway.

We are finally beginning to feel human again. Lizzy is sleeping well, Addy hasn't decided yet to sleep consistently. Well, she is consistently early in waking. We felt pretty good about things this morning when she got us up at 5:30 if that gives you any indication. Hopefully she is still messed up from a time zone standpoint!

We have shared some incredibly frustrating moments and some incredibly happy moments. We've had all three girls in the bathtub at the same time the last few nights and the happy splashing and shrieking is music to our ears. Especially since we'd had unhappy splashing and shrieking the first couple times we tried to bathe Lizzy. Lizzy's face just lit up tonight when Scott gave her chocolate pudding. She fully appears to think she's died and gone to heaven with the wonders of plentiful food and freedom (pretty much!) to run and play.

Both girls love Rina; she can get them to do things that we cannot without a fight. Rina thinks there are some real high points and some real low points about this whole little sister thing. We've heard her scream on a number of occasions, "Go home stupid babies!!!" but a few moments later she'll be leaning in close to one and saying, "Ya teb-ya loo-bloo loo-bloo." If you leave off the last "loo-bloo" that's "I love you" (phonetically) in Russian.

Whew!

On Saturday night we arrived back into Zionsville with two sleeping little girls. Oh. My. Word. Were we glad to be home!!! We were (and still are) utterly exhausted, and would have been so even if we hadn't picked up two little kids in the process.

The plane trip home was nothing short of excruciating! We had set our expectations low, but apparently not quite low enough. The best part of the trip was coming in to Indy early and getting our baggage immediately so that we were out of the airport about an hour earlier than we'd anticipated.

Adelle (Addy) and Elizabeth (Lizzy...in person she doesn't seem like an Elizabeth) are doing well in their adjustment to their new life. The transition to Indiana time from Moscow time (+8 hours) is difficult (we were up at 2 am for good the first morning), but we are getting there. We had less crying on Sunday than on Saturday, and less today than on Sunday.

Rina is thrilled to be a big sister, though she found out within 2 hours of her arrival back home that it isn't all a big party. Sometimes she wants to send them back, particularly Lizzy who is big enough to get into her stuff and has come to us fully committed to being a 2 year-old.

We were in Kirov with an Irish couple and two German couples who were all adopting. We had camera problems while we were there, so they all took lots of photos for us. We'll post some when we get a chance.

Thanks again to everyone who helped us over the last few weeks by taking care of Rina (number one big need we had), taking care of the cat and dog, watching the house, getting us prepared meals and fresh food, mowing the lawn, etc and etc. I'm sure I've overlooked some major thanks that need to be made. My brain just shut down. I could feel it!

We'll post more later!

Out the Door!

We just sent Rina off with our friend, Donna. Zeke's at the kennel, Scout is ruling the roost in kitty cat heaven at Melinda's house. The house is cleaner than it's been in two years. The car's packed with a lot of stuff, only about one-third of which is clothes. I'd say we're ready! Our flight leaves at 10:30 this morning; we go through JFK and arrive in Moscow about 10:00 am local time. We will try to update the blog when we arrive back in Moscow after picking the girls up.

Thanks for all of your prayers.