Day 55

We woke up to the sweetest little face this morning...at 8:30, BABY!  Zeke stirred just the teeniest bit this morning around 6am, but then turned over and fell back to sleep, contentedly sucking away on his thumb.  A couple hours later, he rolled out of bed, and sleepily walked over to our bed, and snuggled in under the covers with us.  Melt my heart!

Today is our last day in Kharkov, and it's really bittersweet.  We obviously want very badly to get back to our real lives, to be with ALL our boys.  But at the same time, gosh- we have totally made a little life for ourselves here...and leaving Kharkov means that Zeke says goodbye to his birth family.

We met his birth parents this evening for coffee at McDonald's (our plans to take Zeke to the playground fell through with the cold rain that started today).  Lily and Grig came up to the apartment with a ton of stuff for us.  They brought some incredibly thoughtful gifts for us, as well as some clothing and shoes for Zeke.  We had a really nice time- chatting through Tatyana, watching Zeke just be incredibly cute.

 Above- Us, Zeke, Grig and Lily.  Below- Tatyana, us and Zeke.

 And we knew it was coming- the goodbye.  I'm not gonna lie- it was hard.  Even though they know that he is going to a place where he will have a very, very good life...they are still saying goodbye.  Words just don't do it justice.

We finished packing up the apartment next, and Zeke fell asleep for a little bit.  The next thing we knew, we were dragging two months of our lives out into the hallway and into a tiny elevator- 2 suitcases, 2 duffle bags, 1 backpack, and 4 plastic Billa bags filled to capacity.

Valentin and Tatyana picked us up, and we met Nate and Diana and Babushka and Dedushka at the train station.  What a group we made- all 9 of us, hands full of bags, Zeke holding onto both of his grandparents' hands as we made our way to our compartment.

 Diana and I- we are so happy to have been crossed paths with her and Nate and her family here :)

We made it to the compartment- all 9 of us, still, playing this kind of tetris-esque game of fitting everyone in and out, hugging, and good-bye-ing all over the place.  

The most difficult part was saying goodbye to Zeke's grandparents.  We know that they hold a very, very special place in his heart.  It was emotional. Very much so.  

The good news is, even though it was a difficult goodbye, kids are resilient.  And by the time we started our journey on the train he was good as gold (and, btw, every time we say train, Zeke drops whatever he is doing to sign the word "train", and then "open doors" and "close doors"- like on the Metro.  So cute!)

Here's to 8 hours on the train, sharing a bench bed with this wiggly little dude.  Couldn't think of a better way to cross Ukraine :)

Goodbye, Kharkov.  It's been real!