We are HOME!

It's been a long few days, but we are finally settling in.  A lot has happened in the last few days and I am short on time so I will just talk a little about our trip home and another day I will tell you how we celebrated Dima's first birthday and Christmas with his cousins.

We arrived at the airport with a lot of time to spare because we wanted to make sure we weren't rushed since we were bringing the children home.  We knew we needed more time to check the kids onto the plane since they were just adopted.  Flying from Kiev is like going through Fort Knox with all the security checks.  When Dima and I checked in, they asked for Dima's information.  After receiving our tickets, we had to go through security. We then went to another section where we had to show our passports to another security guard.  This is where the security asked for Dima's court information that we received and to show we had our sealed envelope that we were absolutely not allowed to open until we reached immigration in the US.  We went through this fairly quickly but for some reason the Walk's had an envelope stapled to their kids passports and had to sit down and wait for the officer to go to his office and write information down.  After we all went through this part, we had to go through security yet again before we boarded the plane.  We ended up only getting there about 15 minutes before we boarded the plane.  Good thing Syvette told the drivers to pick us up when they did. 

Poor kids have had a long week of waiting.....

Dima just before his last take off from Ukraine!

We had a direct flight to New York City.  The flight was about 10 hours long but actually didn't seem that long.  Dima and I had a lot of fun in the airplane, he was getting very excited to see his Papa and to finally go home!

Here is a picture of Dima after we landed and is now an American citizen! The smile says it all!

After we landed, we went through Customs and Immigration quicker than I expected.  I could tell Dima was a little nervous when the security guard was trying to explain how he wanted his finger print done and he couldn't understand what he was saying.  He was being very brave as I helped explain to him what the officer wanted.  He has been so amazing through this whole process, I just hope and pray he continues to have this same attitude when he transitions to his new life!