Photo Recap Part 2

Ella's First Long Plane Trip (and ours with a child!)





















Ella did GREAT! We couldn't believe how much fun she was having despite hardly sleeping. It seems that many kids (and adults), understandably, get really grouchy when they lack sleep or are woken up from a deep sleep at odd times of day, but as far as Ella was concerned, there was just too much fun to be had. She didn't whine or complain or get super grouchy (save a few moments in her sleep when we had to move her). She stayed up till 2am Cebu time before sleeping a good portion of the first four hour flight and stayed asleep through the transition to the Seoul Airport. Then to our surprise she only slept about 3 hours in two chunks on the one long 12 hour flight from Seoul to Atlanta. She didn't get annoyingly manic at any point, only alert and active. I had tons of new little toys, activities and snacks packed and I didn't even need them all. It really wasn't that bad!

Ella loved having her very own "phone" on the plane. It was great as it kept her occupied for short bits of time. The only problem was that darn attendant call button!

Jet lag wasn't too bad either. We did what we could to keep Ella awake during the day and we lost that battle in the afternoons on the first days in town but even so, when she woke up in the middle of the night we just stayed in bed and turned off the night light so it was pitch black to reinforce that it's still nighttime and each time she fell back asleep. I think the earliest we had to get up was just before 5. 

Ella's First Entry into the United States

What a significant occurrence for us bringing Ella through the immigration line for the first time. I got a little emotional but I think part of that was how tired I was. The immigration officers were so nice to us. We were sent to a back room where we waited for about 15 minutes before they handed us Ella's Philippines passport with a smile and said "Okay, you're all set." We celebrated our little immigrant with a few chocolate treats I had on hand.

Photo Recap Part 1

These are a few photos from right before we left....

With our helper's son, D. She brings him to work occasionally and he and Ella are beginning to really like playing together

 

One of Ella's favorite activities is sweeping. She's quite good at it. She can actually get leaves into the dustpan and then get them to the garbage bin without losing too many (although she's not actually sweeping anything here).

 Hugging the kitten on the TV. I love when Ella tries to pull animals she loves out of books. She puts her hands together over the image and tries to pull it into existence and makes sounds of exertion.

I love how she is leaning into Daddy here.

Home

It feels so good to be home, back into routine and our own space again. We had such a rich, full time in the US and so much of it was wonderfully good but living out of a suitcase gets tiring. It was also a long time to make special exceptions for Ella's food and sleeping each day. Lots of grace in those departments given all the transition. Now that we're home we can get back to some consistency, which is good for all of us.

It's almost been a week and we are over the worst of jet lag, thank goodness. Last night was our first night of good sleep. The first few days after returning we were getting up at 4 or 5 each morning, which isn't that bad but we were also up several times in the night trying to get Ella back to sleep. I felt so bad for Andrey who jumped right back into work and had a ton of stuff he had to be cognitively present for, but he did great and got through those first few long, tiring days without complaining. He's so amazing. Thankfully, we were able to keep Ella awake during the days, which helps her ability to sleep at night. The best part of jet lag is that bedtime is usually really easy as Ella is just so tired from being awake all day that she just crashes.

Getting away is always so good for me personally. I come back with perspective on what's important and enthusiasm to live in line with those priorities. Life is so good! We are so blessed and have much to be thankful for.

Here are a few pictures from the past week just as a teaser. Next, I will start posting a ton of photos from our travels.

In the Seoul airport on my birthday. Yay for 36!

Ella doing my hair. She calls it "hair cut." She gets very focused, as you can see.

Ella is SO happy to be back in the land of the juicy mangoes!

This one is for Auntie Jan, who made Ella (among many other fun things) a cute little dancing skirt. Here, Ella is quite mad that I won't give her the camera to play with.

Mommy and Ella spinning in our dancing skirts. 

Finalized

Thirty-two hours from now we'll be waiting to board our first of three flights back to Cebu. Our time in the US is coming to a close. What a historical trip.

Our sweet girl is now officially a Sawchenko! She left the Philippines a citizen of that country, arrived in the US as an immigrant and will soon return to Asia an American citizen. We completed all we came to do. At times we weren't sure it was possible. We had an Alabama home study, Alabama background checks, retained a lawyer, met with our local adoption agency and appeared in court. We got the adoption court decree, Ella's Alabama birth certificate and US passport!!! We applied for her social security card. All that despite going back a week early! It's truly miraculous that we've accomplished this much in such a short amount of time.

I will share more details and lots of photos of our travels from the past eight weeks in subsequent posts but wanted to at least announce that we have made it this far and have essentially completed this process. In all the waiting and preparation I never imagined this part of the process and here we are, done. What a great feeling. We can just go on with life with OUR little girl. She was ours in our minds and hearts since before we met her but there is just something about her status as our daughter being officially recognized.

The best things about this trip have been:

1. Successful legal completion of Michella's adoption into our family (YAY YAY YAY!!!)
2. The opportunity for Michella to build and deepen relationships with all four of her doting grandparents and to meet and get to know many of her aunts, uncles and cousins
3. The growth in Michella's relationship with her Daddy. There have been some huge leaps and bounds in their relationship because of all the bonus time they've spent together on this trip. This would have occurred anyway but would have taken a lot longer had Andrey been going into the office every day. 
4. Working for an organization that allows us to do this.

 What a gift this time has been!

Michella has continued to grow and develop and change and impress us and pretty much everyone else with her personality and skills. She is so deeply loved and we are extremely thankful for the blessing of being her parents.

We love you, Michella Harriet!!!