The Rest of the Pictures

The train ride was quite nice riding in first class. Honestly, and this is saying a lot since I am incredibly frugal, it was worth every penny.  Here is a picture of the bathroom that was stocked with soap, plenty of toilet paper, and a hand towel.  It even had a rug in it and smelled fairly nice till near the end.

Nolan loved looking out the window.  Though he was pretty excited about everything that was going on, he slept through most of the night.

Here is Oliver a few hours after we were settled in our apartment in Kiev.

This picture was taken our first night in our apartment all together.  Looking at it today, I still think it is one of my favorite photos of the two of them.

If you look close you can see how rosy Oliver's cheeks were.  I think it was either the heat or the introduction to new foods or the continual wiping from all the spit up-- or all three.

This pose crack me up.  Dennis sleeps the same way with one foot over his knee.  Too cute!

When it was time for me to prepare a meal, Nolan was always right there with me to watch.  He still enjoys being in the kitchen when we are all cooking.

Here is Nolan riding an empty water jug as a horse.

This is what Euro Cup 2012 in Ukraine looked like.  Our apartment was only a five minute walk from here.

To break up our long days at our apartment, we would go on walks and stop by this park to play for a few minutes.  Nolan enjoyed it.

Right by our apartment was this old building.  If you look closely the whole inside is thrashed.  At street level the entrance is blocked off with tape but we were able to walk around.  Once we saw that it was aplace that drunks gather we left.

Oliver enjoying his first ice-cream with us.

Finally, time to go home.  Here we are on the first flight.

Leaving the Babyhouse

This is one mangy, scraggly dog that lives right by the baby house.  One day we were walking by and Jon said the word walnut.  Apparently that is one word this dog doesn't like because it began to bark and follow us. "Okay!  Okay!"   "Pecan"  Pecan!"

Nolan loves to play.

This is the bread truck.  Every time we passed by there was a line of people waiting to buy bread.

Nolan sure can be animated!  He is great at playing along with you.

Mr. Blue Eyes.

Here is the fish tank in the lobby of the baby house.

This was the day we took the boys from the orphanage forever.

Nolan was excited to go.

Oliver was sweet as can be and has been ever since.

We tried to get in a few extra precious moments with this sweet little angel.

The boys walked out in matching shirts as brothers forever!

The Open Market

Now that I have finally downloaded all my pictures onto the computer, I will be going back and posting them all. Here we are back in the baby house playing with the boys.

This was during one of Nolan's time ins.  See how he is shaking his fist at Rachel.  One of the caretakers must have done this to the kids-- probably as a joke as if you say I am going to knock your block off , but I didn't find it so funny.

Here we are with another adoptive family from the states.

Oliver learning to play with toys.

Nolan loves to laugh!

Here are pictures of the open market.

Here we are under the street.  Rachel is eating her new favorite ice-cream-- apricot flavored!

Remember The Bibs?

Nolan and Oliver hit it off immediately.  Here is Nolan giving Oliver a kiss.

I was able to hand out the bibs.

Here is a precious little girl that we met and fell in love with.  She is so sweet and smart.  Bless her heart.  She reminded me so much of Dennis with her eye and cleft palate, although hers does not appear half as severe as Dennis' was.  I pray that she is not overlooked because of this cosmetic issue, but that someone sees the potential in her beautiful smile!

And look at this precious little boy.  

And this sweetheart is a lil' pumpkin through and through.

And this little guy is such a sweetie although he seems to be overlooked by the caretakers all the time.  He is a petite boy who needs some extra loving.   I am not sure what his condition is-- his fingertips are blue-- but he responded to me appropriately and enjoyed the affection.

To me he is a doll. :)

And this little guy demands attention and is somewhat of a lil' Houdini.  He slipped right out of this walker as soon as I turned around.  I had to quickly slip him back into the seat before the caretakers saw.

Here is Oliver with his little giraffe.

What a cutie Nolan is!

Here is Rachel washing the stairwell for the 8th floor of the apartment building we stayed at.