Aunt Mary had the bags packed and waiting in the driveway! :)

Just Kidding! After a looonngg trip, we have made it to Arkansas. We left Kiev, Ukraine, at 5:30am Saturday, left Frankfurt, Germany at 12 noon (which was an hour behind Kiev), then left Chicago at 9:30pm Central Standard time. We arrived in Arkansas about 11:30pm and got to Uncle Jim and Aunt Mary's house about 1:30am. Did I mention that it was a long day??

The plane trips were good. The first ride was only 2 hours. The first hour, Tolly was very excited, the second hour he wanted to get up and throw things. This did not make me hopeful for the 9 hour flight coming up. Alina was a little nervous, but she had her soft blanket and Mama next to her.

The flight from Germany to Chicago started out well, the kids slept for the first three hours. They had been up since 3am that morning. The other 5-6 hours was a little different. That's just too long to keep an active little man cooped up. We walked him up and down the aisles many times, tickled him, played with him and tried to keep him in good spirits. Actually there were only a few serious meltdowns, then he'd be ok for awhile. Especially if there was food involved. :) The boy still has not met a food he doesn't like.
Alina was so easy going that Tom and I fought over who got to hold her, and who got to tend to Tolly. :) Just kidding, but we did take turns.

Funny, he was soooo tired of sitting in his airplane seat, but right after we got off the plane, he happily climbed back into his stroller seat. Go figure.

In AR, our two oldest children, Ethan and Phoebe, joined Uncle Jim to pick us up. They immediately went to the new little ones and greeted them. Tolly was shy and just looked at them, Alina was sleeping. On the way home, Ethan sat next to Tolly and got him giggling. It was great to see them together. It's almost surreal to have them all together. This morning, Tolly and Alina were greeted by the other 4 sisters. They both kinda sat aside to take it all in, but by this afternoon they were playing with everyone.

We're having trouble with Alina eating again. She was doing well with what we were feeding her, but as of today has chosen not to eat it. It's probably due to all of the changes going on right now. We are giving her anything she will drink though to keep something in her tummy.

Here are some pics from the kids meeting. We start tomorrow morning for the 1300 mile trip back home. No more planes, we're driving. Our van is now full........guess we need a bigger van. ;)
Thanks to everyone for your encouragement, support, and prayers! We are all very grateful!

A first meeting....

Brothers having a good time. :)

Big Brother Ethan and Alina

Tom, Aunt Mary, Sophie, Holly, Trudy and Tolly

Cousin John with Alina

Asleep on the way home from the airport