About Our Family

El Paso, Texas, United States
We are James, Lisa, Patrick, Christian, Carson, and Ella Payne a military family serving our country via service in the U.S. Army. Jim and I have been married for 18 years and have 3 wonderful home grown sons -Patrick, Christian and Carson. We recently adopted our beautiful daughter Ella Grace Ana from Donets'k, Ukraine in September. Jim and I began our Army life together at Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas and every assignment thus far has extended unique opportunities and challenges for our family to grow and learn; to become a stronger, committed, and a prepared Army family. Having recently lived abroad for six amazing years, we cannot express how thankful we are for the opportunity to have represented our great country and to discover the cultures and customs of other countries; to become close to the people and learn from them; to open our hearts and minds to the unfamiliar languages and way of life in other countries. Having now moved back to the United States, we are looking forward to discovering what new adventures await our family. Rest assured, wherever the Army sends us we will continue to serve you and our country proudly. Army life, we wouldn’t trade it!

August 17, 2008

We Have Arrived....

We have arrived in Kyiv!
It was a long 36 hours of traveling with only 1 lost bag...mine! We will contact our facilitator later today for our appointment time tomorrow. Check back later for updates!

Later.....2030 hours
Our appointment is in the morning tomorrow!
My bag has still not made it and there appears no sense of urgency on behalf of the airlines to find it. Luckily, we are staying with Rob & Teri and I was able to wash my travling outfit for rewear tomorrow.
Our phone number:
From USA 011-38-098-327-3256
Within Ukraine: 80-98-327-3256
We'd love to hear from you at

4 comments:

The D'Antuono Family said...

Glad you had a safe trip! So sorry to hear about your bag. Yikes! We will be thinking about you during your appointment! Best of luck! Keep us posted!

17/8/08 06:52
Michelle said...

So glad you are there!!!

17/8/08 08:03
Zack, Jenn and William said...

Glad you arrived safely, even if you're missing a few things! Praying all goes well tomorrow.

17/8/08 16:48
Staci and Damon said...

Glad you arrived safely (even if your luggage hasn't)! Best wishes on a wonderful appointment! Update as soon as you are able!
Staci

17/8/08 19:11

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This is our "spot" we began at the beginning of our journey in May 2007, to adopt a child from Ukraine. In August 2008, we traveled to Ukraine to bring our daughter/sister Ella Grace Ana home; and on September 12, 2008 we did just that.

While our journey to bring her home is complete, our journey together is just beginning. We will continue to keep our spot here, posting as frequently as we can; and keeping you updated on our next journey in life...maybe a second adoption is in our future.

Please join us by following us by clicking on the "Follow" link to the left and posting your notes at the bottom of any post we have made.

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