The men of Team Huss are coming HOME!!
The only thing pending is picking up the boys' passports and going to their final Embassy appointment, which is all scheduled to happen tomorrow (Thursday)! Their flights are booked for a Friday morning departure from Kiev!
Scratch that. God had other plans. They DID get their passports and finish their final Embassy appointment on Thursday (today). However, they can't pick up their Visas until Friday (tomorrow) morning. SO, we had to change their flights. They are now arriving on Saturday afternoon. The remaining info below has been updated to reflect their new flight.
We want to invite everyone to the airport (Houston Intercontinental) on Saturday afternoon (April 26th) to welcome them home. They will be arriving at 2:20pm on United Airlines Flight 105 from Munich. We're guessing it will take them about an hour to deplane, go through customs and immigration, and get luggage; so, they should be walking through the arrival gates at the international terminal by 3:30pm! (that's just my estimate...)
Keep in mind that our boys speak very little English, so don't expect any conversation to happen. But I'm sure they will appreciate smiles and "welcome" signs.
After the greetings and pictures (Valik is going to hate all of the pictures I plan to take!), we'll head to our house to begin settling in as a family of 7. So, even though it will only be a bit of time that you'll get to see them at the airport, I know they would love a warm welcome. And once we're settled and they have adjusted to the 8-hour time difference, we're happy to have visitors so y'all can get to know our boys a bit more.
Thanks for ALL of your love, prayers, and support. When they land on US soil, our real journey begins...so please keep 'em coming! ;)
Everyone loves a cool "coincidence" story, right? Well, I actually call these type of things "winks from God." Things that aren't necessary for Him to do, but He does them because He's in the details and loves us. These are just dates on the calendar, but they mean so much more to us!
September 17th
2009 - the day we felt called to adopt --read more about that here (NOTE: it was actually the 16th for us, but with Ethiopia and Ukraine being 8 hours ahead, it was the 17th in both of those countries)
2009 - a very significant time in our boys' story (my vagueness is on purpose...it's none-ya business)
2010 - the day Eden was born in Ethiopia
2014 - the day our dossier for our boys' adoption was sent to Ukraine
April 1st
2013 - the day we began the journey to our boys--when Ben shared with me about his recurring dream (read more about that here)
2014 - the day we stood before a court in Ukraine to officially make the boys part of Team Huss
Back-to-Back "Forever Family" Days (April 15th, 16th, 17th)
April 15, 2014 - the date on our court decree for Valik, Vlad, and Slavik--when the appeal term was over and the boys became forever ours!
April 16, 2012 - the date of birth of Callie Jeanne--she entered the world and became forever ours!
April 17, 2011 - the date we picked Eden up for the final time from her transition home in Ethiopia--forever in our arms!
NOTE: Those in the adoption community will realize that these back-to-back dates also mean that our adopted kiddos experience their "trauma-versaries" at the same time. This is going to make for some interesting Springs from here on out...please pray for us to be able to give them the support they need. For those not familiar with that term, it's such an interesting and sad thing that children from hard places deal with. Their internal clocks just know when something traumatic happened in their life (for international adoption, that can be when they were separated from birthparents, when they leave their birth country, etc.). Their behaviors get really cray-cray during this time (my scientific explanation), and they often don't know why. Even kiddos adopted at birth will deal with this. Eden was home with us when she was 7 months old and she still has major trauma-versary behaviors (we're going through it right now, so please be patient with me as I parent her during this time).
Hi friends! Sorry for taking so long to update all of you on our timeline. I'm home now and (mostly) adjusted back to Central Time. Here is the latest on bringing our boys home...
Short version: If everything goes smoothly, Ben and the boys will be home on April 30th! So please PRAY for PERFECTION in the PROCESS. ;)
Longer version: These are details (as we understand them) about the remaining process to bring them home...
{We're currently in the mandatory waiting period after we passed court on April 1st.}
1) Court Decree - Ben and Yana (our translator/adoption process guru) will pick up the court decree in Volodarka on April 15th.
2) Birth Certificates - Ben and Yana will travel to pick up the boys' new birth certificates. Our boys were born in 2 different towns, but luckily they are only approximately 3 hours from each other. In total, this step of getting birth certificates will take approximately 2 days.
3) ID Codes - Yana will change the boys' ID codes in Kiev. It takes 1 day to do this.
{If these steps go according to plan, they should be completed by April 18th.}
4) Passports - Ben, Yana, and the boys will all go to Kiev to submit some documents, take their passport pictures, etc. If the other steps are done by the 18th, then the passports can be done on April 21st.
{The passports take 4 work days to be completed. This timeframe will also be when the boys start their goodbyes at the orphanage. After those 4 days (so, hopefully April 25th), Ben and the boys will move to Kiev.}
6) Visas - Ben will schedule his appointments at the US Embassy (they require 2 appointment days--one to review the document and the next day for the interview appointment). If all is going as planned, these would happen April 28th-29th.
7) Fly Home - It looks like we're shooting for April 30th as their departure date!
Thank you SO much for all of your excitement, prayers, support, and love!
