Home

Our travels home were long but fruitful. We schlepped the stroller one last time. We could have easily given it away, but Jesse was determined to bring it home, and so we did. We met a nice guy named Alex at the airport who was on our flight. He was born in Moscow, moved to a small village in Mexico when he was nine and then to Miami, South Beach. He was carrying tennis rackets so we assumed he played but not until we got to talking did we find out that he is a professional tennis player who is currently traveling playing the circuit. While exchanging information about ourselves he became aware that we lived in the Los Angeles area. He wanted to know if we knew where Calabasas was because he would be there in a few weeks for a match. Of course we know where Calabasas is we told him, not far from our home. He invited us to come watch him play and we invited him to our home. Looking forward to getting together again. While we were on the plane, Jess and I ventured back to where Alex was sitting. We figured if he was up to visiting it would make the 11 hour flight go faster. Alex wanted to know our story, so there we were in the back of a 737 sharing our unsuccessful adoption story. Not sure if he was just being nice, but he let us go on and on describing in detail our story and letting us relive our agony. He had no idea how therapeutic it was for us. Without notice a woman in the seat in front of us turned around and said she could not help but overhear our conversation. She had alot to say about the Ukraine and how adoptions operate and we welcomed all of her comments. Then Alex and her began to talk "sports", and they realized they both knew someone that Alex was just playing tennis with in the Ukraine. They also discovered that they both live in South Beach within 4 blocks of one another. Soon after we discovered that this nice Ukrainian woman was also a professional athlete, a 3 time GOLD medalist, sprinter. The rest of the flight Jess and I spent talking to these two remarkable athletes who continued to encourage us to move forward and never give up. It was a perfect flight. Landed in New York on time and found our way to the right terminal to check in for our flight to LA. We had a 4 hour layover in NY. Prior to leaving the Ukraine we had been communicating through e-mail with a wonderful woman who lives in NY who helped us tremendously. We sent an e-mail to her telling her we had a layover and we would love to have coffee if she lived close enough. She sent an e-mail back telling us to phone when we arrived that she would love to meet us and asked us how we would feel if she brought her adopted daughter and husband with her. We were so appreciative that she was so sensitive to us and told her we would love to meet the whole family. After we checked in we were heading towards the phone booth to call her when a woman approached us asking us if we were Jesse and Nicole. She had found us without us calling her. What a lovely welcoming back into the US. I started to cry. Here we are in NY with a woman who has never met us but believed enough in us that she came with her family to find us at the airport. No words can express our gratitude. All 5 of us parked our butts on the floor of the airport and got to know one another. It was an event we will never forget. We loved her,her husband and their beautiful daughter. Their story was an inspiration to us. They traveled to the Ukraine 3 times before they found their daughter. And we could see and feel that although it was not easy to find her it was worth every single challenge and road block they encountered. Wish we had more time to spend with them, but have made a commitment to ourselves that we will visit again when we go back east to visit relatives. We also know that this is the beginning of a really wonderful relationship.
Home at last, re-grouping, feeling completely disjointed. Jesse said to me when I woke up, "how are you feeling?" And I started to cry and said, "I just imagined we would be waking up with our child and I would be pouring milk into a bowl of cereal saying, "have as much as you want!" For now we are resting our troubled minds, and healing our wounds before we move forward.
We have received an out pour of well wishes from friends and family. Thank you all, and know that as soon as we work through this we will be in communication. It may take us some time to get back to our old selves but we will get there. One thing is foresure... Jess and I are in this together.