Kiev Trek

After an exhausting trip, we touched down at Dulles on Friday afternoon and were greeted by record heat. But who's complaining? We're a family, and we're home.
On Sunday, Irina celebrated a belated third birthday. Her mommy and daddy are already wondering where they're going to store all of the gifts that she keeps getting. But she's having the time of her life....

Our last day in Kiev ends where our first day began: at McDonald's, where Irina had her first taste of America today, in the form of its famous french fries. The extra value meal tasted extra special today.
The past few days have been a blur. Monday was all about hustling down to Donetsk, the provincial capital, to get Irina's paperwork completed, which included a new birth certificate and an Ukranian passport. For a while, we weren't sure how we'd get...

No returning Irina to her caregivers. It's just the three of us, on a train, headed for Kiev, after a long day of getting all of the paperwork processed.
We feel elated; our family is official! What's more, it's Irina's third birthday today. She's celebrating by watching the Ukranian countryside pass by, on her Momma's lap. It's a good birthday....

Oksana arrived this morning, and we decided to visit a monastery. We drove about an hour outside Kramatorsk. We visited a beautiful, centuries-old place nestled along a riverside; it's called the Sviatohirsk Lavra. It's considered one of Ukraine's holiest...