Hansen's Coming Home

Yesterday was a day for airport arrivals.  Sunday night I took Ira and headed to the airport to see Ranee Hansen and her new son, Myck come home.  When we got downstairs there was no one there except for Andreas, who we'd walked in with.  After some checking we finally found out that they'd gotten delayed in Germany which had made them miss their flight in Denver.  What ended up happening was they found a mouse on the plane so they had to get everyone off and find a new plane.  Since 747's aren't just lying around (Dale's words :)) it took them 4 hours to take off.  They got put up in Denver and arrived yesterday morning at 9:45.  I'm so glad I went!  At first I was worried something else had happened because I didn't see anyone with signs or balloons.  I finally went up to the one guy that looked familiar and sure enough, it was Dale. :)  Welcome home!

Coming out

Dad gets a big hug (sorry it's blurry!)

Ranee and I were filming each other. LOL

Is picking someone up a kid thing?  My youngest does this too!

Hugs!

:)

There were balloons and a sign after all!

I have to have one shot like this every time.  It's become tradition.

Yea!  Happy family!

Even happier with grandparents. :)

Kim Coming Home

This week has been full of friends coming home.  Two more are left as well.  Sunday night and Monday night. :)  I hope I can make both of them.  Sunday may be iffy because I've got something I go to every Sunday night at 8.

I totally forgot to get a picture of me with Kim though.  Drat.  Surely we'll all be getting together once the last batch of people over there now come home.  After these next two come home there are still three to come home soon-ish.

At our first SAC meeting before the hosting program it was mentioned that some of our best friends were going to come out of this program.  I didn't really believe it as I sat there by people I didn't know.  Now I'm a believer.   (Go ahead and insert the Monkey's song...LOL)  You can't go through something like this and NOT become close to the others.  Not only the ones going through it at the same time, but others I've gotten to know through the process as well.  It gives you a bond with them that is unbelievable!

Andy and Vitaly

Kim and her mom

Happy

This one was a little blurry, but still cute.

Happy to be home!

Greetings

Vitaly

Sahsa

More fun

Kim and Andy with their 10 kids. :)

Since I've gotten one of these from the other, I had to get one for Kim.

All the extended family too

Everyone!  Vern had to help me get both Ira and Little One in the picture.  Stinkers.

With Vern and Nanette

Okay...REAL Pictures

So you guys will actually believe I'm a real photographer...here are some of my favorites from the shoot I did last week.  This kid LOVES trains.  I'm not sure how to get that white border off.  I like it on snapshots but not my pro stuff.  Ah well.

Shaw Family Coming Home!

Yesterday I had the wonderful chance to take the girls and go see Kerry and Victoria come home from Ukraine.  Kerry and I, if you remember, became quite good friends during the hosting program.  They never actually hosted, but fell in love with Victoria anyway.  Just as a side note, SAC wanted to take Ira away from us (for the program) to let them have a chance to host.  After praying about it I told them no, although I'm sure they could have if they'd really wanted to. LOL  Kerry and I tended to confuse people a lot since they thought she was me and the other way around.  I guess we should have been sisters! :)

Anyway, her blog has the most amazing pictures and very nice posts.  It's been quite the journey for them since Victoria turned 16 before they could get over there, which meant different paperwork for them and such.  Her's was a pretty quick time frame in Ukraine, which was really good since she left her 3 boys here in the states while she was there.

Here are some pictures I took. :)

The crowd

More crowd

Cute sign

2 of Kerry's boys wanting treats :)

Gary Ceran, taking pictures as usual

Kerry's son

My timing was off.  I took this because both Gary and Andreas were taking pictures. :)

Spencer gets a hug from Victoria

Kerry with her youngest

Kerry and her 3 boys

Greetings

Even Kerry gets a hug

Introductions

Hugs from her sister

Ira and Victoria.  Little stinkers wouldn't even talk to each other. :)

New family!

With grandparents

Anne taking pictures :)

All the family

It was fun to watch Kerry's sister try to keep this little guy still for the picture

Gary trying to sneak pictures of Kerry

Should have been sisters!

What a fun afternoon!

In other news, I got my Rosetta Stone Russian program yesterday and am dying to try it out!  I'm hoping it's not too hard to learn, but we will see.  I've never learned a 2nd spoken language before so I've never had to worry about how I say things. LOL  I'm excited to try and talk to my friends over there though. :)

I also got to Skype with Masha again.  Man, I miss her. :(  I'm always homesick for Ukraine after I talk with her.  It was so fun to see her though and I even got to meet her mom!  That was awesome. :)  Now I just need to go back so I can give her a hug. LOL  Hopefully soon.

Shop 'Till You Drop

This weekend has been fairly eventful.  Friday I met my mother-in-law down at the Gateway and she got Ira a bunch of new clothes.  We had fun shopping together and a she got a lot since they had some fun things on clearance.  Finding things that were modest was a little hard, but we managed okay.  Ira was pretty good about it when I told her she had to have sleeves and shorts couldn't be too short.  She says she doesn't like capris though so that might be interesting to find her some shorts that are long enough for me, but not capris.  LOL  Amy told me that with her girls they just know that Mom has to like it or they don't get it.  I told Ira that too.  If we both like it, it's a go.  If one of us doesn't, then it's a no. :)

We were also finally able to get Ira a dresser.  She was one excited girl!  And I'm glad that she now has a place to keep her stuff.  Getting her to keep it looking nice may be a different story though! LOL

Weather here has been winter.  I don't like winter.  Even though it's logical that at least if you're cold you can put a blanket on or something to keep you warm, I will take 100 degrees and humidity over snow any day.  Interestingly enough though, I went running in the snow on Saturday.  I'd meant to go Friday, but by the time we got home with a dresser it was too late.  Since the snow wasn't letting up at all, I went ahead and ran anyway.  I was wet when I got back, but happier.  I was wondering where my newfound love of running was coming from, but Andreas I believe, got it right when he said on Facebook that "Running: aka-Freedom." :)  Little does he know how right I think he might be! LOL 

We did our usual shopping after I'd gotten back from running.  Costco, Wal-Mart, etc....  Ira found some super cute jammies at Wal-Mart that I may just have to go get as well.  It's Mickey and Minnie holding hands and the shirt says, "Happiness is being loved." :)

Church was a challenge again today.  I had to literally walk behind Ira with my hands on her shoulders and guide her into Sunday School.  She is happy and really seems to enjoy it once we get in there, but getting her in there isn't so easy.  Hopefully that will get better soon.  Or at least soon-ish. :)

Tomorrow we begin another new week.  Mom will start coming over to do school with us and that will be nice.  Hopefully it goes well and there aren't just fights with her instead of me.  We will see.

I'm excited that another friend comes home with her new daughter on Tuesday!!!!