Beginning of Something Beautiful: Beginning of Something Beautiful!

Our day started at 2:00a.m. when our attorney's husband picked us up to take us to the Kiev airport. It was cold as usual and we were all up and ready to start our journey home! I took this cute picture of Bryan and Yana at the airport before we got on our plane.


Yana was barely awake!

Not sure I should share this but we laughed and laughed about this right before we got on our plane. We were sitting in those chairs and a little girl walked right passed us and threw up all over the floor. We then went to stand in line to get on the airplane but stood and watched about 5 people walking fast to get on the plane each one not looking down. We saw men slipping and falling on their backs with vomit all on their back side! Then when that man would get up and keep walking another man with a shopping bag walked by and fell right in the middle of it! It was disgusting but hilarious at the same time! We laughed and laughed about it! Too bad we didn't record it because we could win some serious money!

Yana did really well on the airplane ride back home. That little girl was so tired and slept most of the way home. She and I sat next to one another on the airplane ride to San Antonio. When the captain said we were close to landing in San Antonio I asked Yana if she was ready to be in Texas and she was all smiles! Bryan and I talked about just feeling overwhelmed when we landed at the airport. The fact that we couldn't believe that we had finally been able to bring Yana home. This has been such an amazing and challenging four weeks and it will take some time to fully wrap our minds around all the things we have seen and experienced. We did know for sure that we had witnessed first hand the power of the Holy Spirit present and very real with us!

We were so blessed by the welcome Yana received at the airport! When we came down the escalator at the airport the first people we saw was a group of girls from Yana's orphanage that had been adopted by several families in our surrounding areas. They were screaming her name! They were holding signs and flowers to give to her! All I can say is praise God! What an amazing and Mighty God He is to not only place these girls in families but also all of the families live within an hour of one another! I also have to share some history about these girls. Many of these girls were in the same class in the orphanage together. When these girls began being adopted they prayed for their friends back in the orphanage that they also be adopted. God listens and answers prayers and these group of girls are a testimony to that!

We were also welcomed by amazing family and friends that have been with us and who have supported us in every way of our adoption of Yana! We are truly blessed by the best Nana and Papa, JoJo and Great Papa, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends! Thank you so much for all of your support because I know without a doubt that God orchestrated every detail and every person in this journey. Thank you God for providing me with a family and answering my prayers as a little girl when I truly missed having my family around me! God has listened and answered my prayers with now a husband that loves me and supports me even when I show him a picture of a 14 year old little girl and ask him, "What do you think?" Of course this is also right in the middle of waiting to adopt a son. His first statement was, "This is instead of our son right?" My response to him was, "I don't think so!" I have known Bryan since junior high school and he has been with me through so much in my life. What a blessing that God allowed me to meet him so early in life. I am also blessed with four amazing girls and a new family that has truly taken me in as one of their own which I am truly grateful. God is so good! God has shown me clearly that He has the power to transform and restore life to a broken world and restore hope and a future even after tremendous loss. I am truly blessed! Thank you for praying for our family. Thank you for praying for Yana! I know our journey as a family is just beginning. I don't expect our lives to be easy or be without struggle but I do know that I am not in this alone. Love you all! Please enjoy our pictures!