Special Visitors

The evening of the last day of school we got a surprise telephone call. It was Olya, the wife of our good friend and facilitator of our adoption. We knew that Kostya, Olya, and their son Nikita were visiting the US because we received an email link to pictures. We had missed the email detailing their plan to visit the U.S. and asking if we could spend some time with them because I'd used a hotmail email for the adoption since AOL isn't as compatible with Kostya's email address. So were we sad we missed out on making plans ahead with them and excited it still worked out that they were visiting another local family they had worked with so we could see them.

Michelle from From NC to Ukraine, her four delightful kids (including sweet and adorable Mary), and the Farkovets family joined us the next day at a Sprayground for a picnic lunch and time to catch up. The spot was close to Kevin's work so he was able to take a couple hours for lunch and join us. It was great to see old friends and get to talk with Michelle too. Thankfully all kids need to communicate is water and laughter, so the kids had a ball with Nikita!

One of the funniest parts of the visit was when Tate sat down next to Nikita and I told him to say something to Nikita in Russian. I figured he would say hello. He looked right at Nikita and said, "Machina!" (That means car.) We were all laughing, including Nikita who understands basic conversational English pretty well. Silly Tater-tot. Nikita actually liked to play with Lily best of all. She is very giggly and knows how to have a good time. They played in the fountains together for quite a while. Nikita told Olya, "Lily knows how to have fun!" I thought that was sweet.

As we chatted with Kostya and caught up I said it was a good thing they were visiting when they were because we were leaving in a week to head down to Disney World. They got a surprised look on their faces and said, "So are we!" We made plans to meet back up in Orlando. That made it a bit easier to say good bye to them on that day. :) What a fun coincidence. They also tried to talk us into heading out to California in July. They will be visiting some other friends out there then and that is where we are from, but we will likely not be headed out to California this summer.

Michelle sent me these first two pictures. Thanks, Michelle!


(That is Mary, the little firecracker down in the corner of the picture. If you want to read her adoption story you can click the link to the blog Michelle keeps. She is a much more faithful blogger than I am and she has great advice and anecdotes for adoptive parents. :) )















Can you see why the kids all adore Kostya? He is so playful!

Thanks for the visit Kostya, Olga, and Nikita!
If anyone is interested in getting in contact with our wonderful facilitator from Ukraine you can find him at the Ukraine Christian Adoption website.