Sorry for the delay!

Hi all, we've got the boys from the orphanage and after much celebration and packing, we climbed into the train back to Kiev, only this time we needed two sleeper cars side by side.

Picking up the boys from the orphanage was like a scene from a movie. We brought them new clothing that we had bought at an open air bizarre and little suitcases too. The danced and swung their new clothing around as we showed them. Next they went back to their sleeping quarters and put everything on (and I mean everything, Ruslan returned with two turtlenecks plus a sweater, because I had sent two with him hoping he'd decide which one fit best.)

After gifts and flowers with the orphanage director we headed to their sleeping quarters and into a small delapidated classroom where we held a farewell party. I took pictures for the boys with their classmates who were all beautiful children. Before leaving to Ukraine my friend, Bob, warned me that whenever I go to the pet store I want to take all the cute animals home with me and that this would probably be worse. It was. If anyone is at all interested in adopting from here, they should hurry up and do it. These beautiful children all need a loving family.

After all the merriment, we returned to our flat in Lugansk. This was definately a riot. The boys ran around the flat saying "wow" about everything. Eventually, I went into my bedroom to change. There was a knock on the door and I turned to look and see Ruslan smiling at me. I motioned for him to close the door, and he did, only to return a second later. The door swung open with a loud "bang" and now both he and Valik were standing there amazed and smiling. I had to call for Nick to get them so I could finish dressing. Getting them to bed is a story matching this. To say the least, we finally got them to bed very late and everyone was exhausted, especially the parents. More soon.