Back in Ukraine - Sunday, October 19

Steve, Mallory and I made it back safe and sound to Ukraine on Wednesday, October 15. We miss Madison so much as she is home with Nannie and Grandpa, and continuing on with school. We ended up back at the same apartment we had prior to leaving Ukraine. The familiarity is nice. It is great to see Alla again too, as she's become very special to us.

It was wonderful to see Coleman again and spend time with him at the orphanage. He was excited to see us too. The language barrier doesn't block the expression of excitement! Alla mentioned, and Steve and I believe too that Coleman seems different now; that our interaction together has changed, for the better even so. It's neat to see that Alla noticed this as someone looking on. We felt that our times together on our first trip were good, but that we're bonding even more so now. One of the staff at the orphanage told Alla that Cole was found at times looking at the door with sadness on his face, as if he was missing us. Although we would not have wanted him to be sad, we were glad to hear that it seemed he missed us. Alla was unbelievably kind as, while we were home in the US, she took candy and a toy to Coleman and said they were from his Daddy and Mama; and left another set of candy and a toy for a staff person to give to him from us on another day. What thoughtfulness! (We feel that she has 'taken care' of us in so many ways.)

We found that Coleman likes doing puzzles and is quite good at them. He also enjoys building things and it's neat to see what he creates. We bought him some other toys and are looking forward to giving them to him. We have seen time and again his willingness to share the food we bring him with other adults and children with whom we are sharing our play space. Alla even mentioned how 'he's not a greedy boy' which we're so very pleased to see. It is a HUGE deal for a child coming from orphanage life to share their food with someone else. Alla has given us some great suggestions and one of them was when we are at home to always leave some healthy snacks out where Coleman can, whenever he wants to, get something to eat. I'm sure our girls will love the continuous access to snacks enjoyable as well!

We talked about getting Cole's haircut when he would be with us, but no need to do that now. The orphanage took care of that along with what seems like all the other boys! Steve said it's probably a whole day event when they decide everyones' hair is getting cut!

We have some great photos and want to share them with you, but need to find a way to upload them in the internet cafe without putting our personal photos on these public computers. Hopefully, we'll soon be able to share our son's contagious smile with those who haven't seen our photo album at home; and for those who have, you'll see some new photos.

Our court date was on Thursday, October 18 and things went really well. It was about a 15 or 20 minute in courtroom process. When the judge said, 'Eberly, Coleman Viktor' that's when I (Kelly) teared up just to hear his named announced officially. Coleman is officially our son now which is very exciting!

Alla is now in Kiev and will return to us next Sunday. This is typical for your translator to leave during the 10-day wait period. She's got things all set up for us with our driver to take us to the orphanage, etc.

We are now three days into our 10-day waiting period and boy are we waiting. Things are going really well on our second trip, but we are feeling ready to go home already! Yesterday was a tougher day with homesickness, but after talking to family at home, it felt much better. Mallory says many, many times each day that she misses Madison. We knew she'd miss her, but we didn't know her feelings would be so strong and with such longing. One of our friends mentioned in an email how the Lord is 'El Roi', the God who sees. The same God that sees Madison at home, sees us in Ukraine and is caring for all of us. We've found such comfort in these words of encouragement.

God is so good and we feel His love all around. We are still in amazement as to how He has led us to our son and cared for all of the details surrounding our trips. Thanks SO VERY much to all of you that have helped us in so many ways - praying & words of encouragement, helping with logistics, giving toys, books, clothing to Coleman, offering to care for our children, letting us borrow things for our trip, sending emails half way around the world, etc. We have felt such love. We miss you all and love you so much!