Home Sweet Home

We made it!  It took 24 hours of travel on 3 separate plane rides but we made it home without so much as a hiccup, well except for Annabelle's chronic and rather obnoxious hiccups.   I find the trip headed east is easier since it takes place mostly in the dark, but nothing beats a the trip headed west...I could feel the magnetic draw of the USA, Colorado to be specific, just sucking me in.

We left our home away from home, Karen's apartment, at 4am and I am pretty sure that that is the quietest hour of the day in Kiev.  No one out walking and very few cars on the road.  It was a little bittersweet leaving.  I know that sounds weird, but as hard as the past 10 weeks have been, it has also been a time of amazing growth.  I told Jamie that I remember thinking that it would never end and then, all of the sudden I was going home.  Home, really home!

Both girls traveled like champs.  I was thrilled that our return trip did not require another trip on Ukraine International Airlines (hand me down airlines) rather this time it was Lufthunsa to Munich and then United the rest of the way.  Daria made it all the way to the final leg of the trip before she finally gave in to sleep.  Then, by the time we were landing in Denver the poor thing was literally delirious when I tried to wake her up to put her seat belt on.  I could see it on her face, she had no idea what was happening, who I was or where she was at.  It took a few minutes and several tries before she was able to pull it all together.  But in her normal fashion, by the time we were off the plane she was charging ahead, always wanting to lead the way.  And given that she had no idea where she was going, it made it very cute.  She was the first one up the escalator into the cheering crowd of all our family and friends that were awaiting our arrival.  I think she was eating up every minute of the experience.  Watching her stare up at Emma, the only one she hadn't met, was priceless.  I was so relieved to be hugging Jamie, Emma and Lily...it was real, finally real.

My sweet Emma, while both Lily and Annabelle spent part of the journey with me in Ukraine, Emma was at home.  She was an amazing trooper the entire time.  She matured beyond measure during this time and I am so proud of her.  She stepped up and took care of so much and at the same time kept her grades up, competed at the state swim meet and then started track.  She took great care of Lily each morning before school, helped with house work...she is my hero!  My heart broke for her though when she sent me a text just as my plane was landing in Denver to tell me that she had been in a car accident.  It was just that, an accident but she felt so bad...I was just simply happy that she was ok.  A car is just a car, they can be replaced...our little girls, they are priceless.  Stupid satin, trying to steal our joy...jokes on you, we are still rejoicing!

It has been none stop action since we got home.  On Saturday we had a track meet, a hair cut and of course...prom.  So happy to say that I was there for all of it and I drug Lily and Daria along as well.  I wasn't sure what she would think of it all.  I knew she would be meeting a lot of people who had been following along with our journey.  Bunches of friends I haven't seen in months, lots of people with lots of questions.  She did great!  She loved watching Emma run her races, coming up to me tapping me on the shoulder to make sure I knew that Emma was getting ready to run.  She and Lily went to the park, and basically ran all over the place.  Bad mommy, she got her first American sunburn.  From the track meet it was off to get Annabelle a hair cut.  Again, she had a great time in the spinny chairs at the salon.  From there it was time to get Emma ready for prom.  Daria and Lily spent their time playing basketball, hop scotch and scrabble....while I helped Emma.  I soaked in every moment of it, almost in shock that I was actually home, actually experiencing it.  By the way, Emma looked beautiful!

Today we went to church, Grace Place...the second best place on earth to be.  So happy to be back with my church family after missing 9 out of the last 10 weeks of church.  I did listen to most of them online, but it is so not the same.  Today completed my homecoming!

I am back to my normal duties of life, today I actually ventured off to the grocery store.  What a lovely experience that was.  Not only could I find everything I needed, I could read everything.  No more buying ketchup when I thought I was buying spaghetti sauce.  No more, water with gas vs. water without gas.  And the shampoo and conditioner, they were just that, shampoo AND conditioner.  Not shampoo and shampoo.

Tonight we had our first family dinner, all 6 of us around one table enjoying the first beef I have had in weeks.  Oh it is nice to be married to a chef.  After dinner the girls had a great time playing, it got a little rough but there was much laughing, chasing and tickling going on.  It made my heart very happy, especially when Annabelle and I were goofing around and Daria jumped right in to "protect" Annabelle.  Everyone was ready for bed by 8:30, between the travel and prom, everyone was pretty wiped out.

It is amazing how much more english Daria is already using.  Like I said before, she knows quite a bit of english, but now being surrounded by it all the time...it is just starting to pop out.  We had a delivery of clothes today and it was priceless as we played our little game of "what about this?"  I am starting to pick up on her individual sense of fashion.  As we made our way through the bag, she became more and more animated with her like or dislike of any given piece of clothing.  All the while doing this with an audience of three sisters all of which have such diverse tastes.

This week, we are just going to try to settle in.  Get into a routine of sorts.  I think we will wait a week or so before we put her in school.  Let her settle into life as a Degnan before we throw her to the wolves.  Not really, but we do want her to be a bit more settled into the family before we take on school.  However, I am pretty sure she will get bored of hanging out with me pretty quick.  It is one thing if the girls are around, but me...not so much.

Looking back on the past weeks, it is strange really.  While it has been acutely real, raw really!  It has been a time where on one had, time stood still and on the other it just skipped time.  It seemed to have drug on forever, missing so many things back home.  It was like my "life" was suspended for a time or in some way, it was going on without me.  Yet the depth of emotion was, at times, overwhelming.  I was completely present in my small little Ukrainian world and completely absent from my American world...it is strange, difficult to express really.  The reality is, that I was right where I needed to be.  Right where God wanted me.  The reality is that I have such a greater appreciation for my life, my family, my home, my country...an appreciation that could only be gained through this experience.  For that I am grateful...

For now, I am just simply grateful to be home...home, sweet home.  There is no better place on earth.  The love, the peace, the comfort...only at home do you truly find those things.