Photo Recap Part 5

Fun times with Grandma and Grandpa

Andrey's parents brought their RV, affectionately called "The Coach" by Dad, and "Sylvia" by Mom, from Nova Scotia to Washington, D.C. to meet us for the annual conference we attend together every Spring. How fun for Ella to see them again. She ran to them excitedly when we found them in the hotel lobby that Spring day. They hadn't seen Ella since before Christmas so they were pretty excited as well. Reunions are fun!

We had the privilege of having them around for the most part of our two-month trip. They would meet up with us wherever we were, spend some time with us, then take off on their own for a week here or there. How fabulous for us to have them with us for part of our time in the DC area, North Carolina, Alabama and Atlanta. We had groupie grandparents on tour with us and we loved it!

After our time in the DC area, we got on the road headed to Alabama. We took three nights and four days to make our way there, spending a bit of time in the Carolinas on the way down.

Ella enjoying the road trip in the Coach...

Grandma helping out with keeping Ella occupied during the long day trips

 

Fun with stickers!

Grandma couldn't resist the sticker fun

Grandma graciously submitted her head of hair for Ella's special "hair cut"

Out for a walk at a campground in South Carolina. Couldn't get Ella to walk very much.

"Driving!"

Sweet times with Grandma

Grandma and Grandpa take to the lake. What a beautiful place. Lake Hartwell, SC.

Love Grandma's meals and Grandpa's BBQ on the road!

Grandpa and Ella chilling out after dinner

Grandma & Grandpa hung out with us at my parents' place in Alabama a few different times. They went with us to Birmingham for Ella's court hearing, which I will post about separately. They even endured a wild reunion with all my relatives, spend Easter Sunday with all of us and joined on a road trip to Atlanta to pick up Ella's passport. They are troopers!

Grandma played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Ella sang and played along. As the song ended she would yell, "Again! Again!" They must have sang it 10 times.

Never a bad time for some Grandpa goofiness to get Ella smiling.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for being present for so many memorable times together!

Photo Recap Part 4

We spent a couple weeks in the DC metro area with the organization my husband works for. He had some work to do at the headquarters office and I got to hang out with our friends with kids for the first week. The second week was busy with an annual conference and staff retreat.

The weather was gorgeous! Apparently they had some of their first nice spring weather during our stay. Good timing. I love this part of the country in the spring - the blooming dogwoods and cherry blossoms are delightful!

One highlight for me and Michella was getting to go for walks to the park every day. Our friends live near a paved trail with numerous playground options within 10-30 minutes walk. We got out nearly every day. This is something I only dream of having in Cebu so we took advantage of it.

Our friends had a very new baby and graciously invited us over for a meal. I learned very quickly what happens when I hold a baby. Ella got extremely jealous! She immediately threw herself on the floor in a tizzy. Oh my, you would think the world was ending! Although I was disappointed that I didn't get to hold the newborn, I was flattered by her jealousy. After all, I am HER Mommy! The fact that she is claiming me as such is evidence of how far we've come. Each time I would encourage her, "Yes, baby I am ALL yours. Don't worry sweetie. I'm not trading you in for anyone!"

We were so amazed at how comfortable Ella was at each new place we stayed/visited. Here she is running around our friends' apartment, making herself right at home.

Daddy and Ella had some nice reading moments together. Ella's interest in books is just beginning to grow. It's so fun now that she'll actually sit still for a few minutes and look at the pictures in the book, let us read to her and talk about what she sees.  

At a beautiful retreat center in Maryland

Our dear friends whose home we stayed in just had a baby. Ella got to see his mommy breastfeed him many times and soon was copying what she saw (she also started wanting me to pretend breastfeed her). Look at that excellent positioning and perfect cross-cradle hold! Here she is telling me that the baby is eating.

Getting confident, now with hand on hip. This feeding thing is easy!

Ella LOVED baby O (unless I was holding him)! There was a tinge of panic in his eyes when she got close though, sometimes a little too close. I think Ella would love to have a baby brother or sister!

Our God-daughter K got to be good buddies with Ella. She was very gracious to play with her and let her tear her room apart playing with all her toys. K's brother J was also really great with Ella. After we left it was clear that she missed them as she would talk about them often. Still does. Thank you L family for letting us take over your house! We miss you!

Photo Recap Part 3

ALABAMA

After weeks of talking about going on a big airplane to Alabama, we were finally there! It was great finally getting to meet Papa! I saw his face so many times in pictures and heard his voice on the phone every week for months that I knew who he was right away. On our first night in Alabama Papa was cooking something on the grill and I really wanted to see what it was, so I reached for him so he would pick me up and he did! Pretty soon Papa was doing funny things every day to make me laugh. He even taught me a new word, arm pit! Papa played a fun game with me and always ended in him tickling my arm pits and yelling, "Arm pit!"

I think Papa learned pretty quickly how much I loved chocolate because he would hide treats for me and tell me to look for them. What fun! Sometimes Papa and I would play together. Before we came, Mimi and Papa got a bunch of toys for me to play with.

 

Papa has a tractor and he took me for a ride! 

One of the toys Mimi and Papa got for me was this really big Bugs Bunny! It's taller than I am!

 

One thing I discovered in Alabama was how much I love pecans! Mimi and Papa had lots of pecans but they were still in the shell so I needed help cracking them open. Papa was so kind to stand at the counter with me and crack so many pecan shells so I could eat them.

I love my Mimi!! She took such great care of me while we stayed in her home. She took me for walks and sometimes we would go play on the slide. She also rocked me on the porch swing anytime I wanted. I love that.

Right after I got my new American passport, I went to my first baseball game! Papa even got me a ball!

I learned to drive this cool four-wheeler. Daddy taught me how to steer and although I came close, I didn't hit Mimi's car.

I LOVE being outside! I got to go on lots of walks with Mommy and Daddy. Sometimes Papa came too.

On Mother's Day, Mimi cooked us a big breakfast and then we gave her a gift. The mug with "Mimi" on it is from me.

Mimi was so nice to buy foods like I liked to eat. One day, she even found yellow mangoes, similar to the mangoes we have in Cebu! I was so happy!

I also got to meet many of my Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Aunt Tonya bought me this fun dancing skirt and microphone. I'm just trying it out here...

On Easter, nearly all of my American relatives got together for a family weekend. It was so fun having some bigger cousins around to play with.

One day, Mommy found these fun masks and we just had to try them on.

When we first arrived in Alabama, it was cold enough for Papa to make a fire in the fireplace. In the mornings, I would sit with Mommy and Daddy and watch the fire while I woke up. I've never seen a fireplace before. I loved feeling cozy and warm.

There were lots of leaves outside so Daddy took me to play in them.

Definitely my favorite thing about being in Alabama was getting to be outside all the time with lots of space to run and play. Oh and also the dogs. and the slide and the swing. All my favorite things were outside.

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!!!