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!

September 10, 2008

Consulate & Medical...

We have made it to Kiev!

We arrived via the overnight train at about 10:00 this morning. I must say I have experienced the best and worst when it comes to the train. Our first train ride was a new train, clean, orderly, and comfortable however, the last one - last night....OMGoodness! Nasty is the only word for it. Our cabin even smelled of pee pee so needless to say the window was open all night! Hey, it was all an experience and I wouldn't trade 1 nasty train ride for the precious cargo I now hold!

Ella finally fell asleep last night on the train at 1130ish...she was way over stimulated. She rocks herself to sleep, sucks her thumb, and wakes me up to go potty.

We hit the ground running...off to the consulate to fill out a couple more forms and pay the fees ($400.00). Then to the medical exam but enroute, Ella got sick - motion sickness? Really, she was in motion for 16 hours at this point between taxi, train and taxi. Our translator "N" made a quick dash to the pharmacy for some motion sickness pills...in about 40 minutes she was a new kid. Finally, we make it to the medical exam. It is not your average American medical facility...then again it is not America. The whole process was less than 45 minutes and $85.00. Ella is a healthy 34 pounds and 42.5 inches tall.

We'd love to hear from you at

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Lisa, You must be just so exhausted you poor thing. I am glad to hear Ella came though her motion sickness alright. Good luck with the rest of your stay in Kiev. Have a wonderful flight home. I am looking forward to seeing some more photos of you all with updates on your journey together as a family of 6. Take care. You are in our thoughts. The Mahers

11/9/08 00:07

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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.

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