Alona's separation

Yesterday we woke to a temp. of 50 F.  It felt great.
Oksana was back again with us this morning after taking a 12 hour train ride to Kiev, then a 2 hour bus ride from Kiev to Zhytomyr.  I know she does not get paid enough.
She went straight to the social workers office and they signed off on allowing us to visit Alona.  We went up to the orphanage and our kids and the other children were happy to see us again.  We waited for Oksana to get forms sighed and copied.  Then we went to the sanatorium to get Alona's hand written letter stating her desires to have us adopt her.  As we starting to walk on to the sanatorium grounds, she spotted us and came running to meet us.  Hugs and kisses is the norm for this child.  I hope that continues when we get back to the states.
She was eager to write her letter.  We sat there with her and visited.  Oksana is very good about asking the children questions.  I guess after 10 years of doing this she can read the kids well.  She asked her about both her older and younger brothers.  Oksana said that Alona really does not want to talk about the older brother because he has been delinquent since he left the orphanage for technical school.  She is worried that he may interfere with her adoption.  After visiting with her, we were off to the town where the separation of the 3 siblings from their twin brothers took place.  We were supposed to go on Friday, but Oksana got a call from the social worker stating that they would not be there Friday so we should come today.  It took us about 1 hour one way to get there, and 5 minutes to get the form.  This is actually the last form that we need for this separation.  Now we start Alona's separation.  The biggest problem here is that no one knows where her 16 y/o brother is.  Because this sibling actually lived with Alona at the same orphanage, they prefer that the he sigh a statement stating that he approves of the adoption.  O/W some kind of entry must be made in the paper work stating why this type of statement is not included.   Oksana states that the social worker could state that this child has been delinquent and thus was not available to provide a written statement.  She said that Friday we should go up to the regional social workers office and see what they might require for Alona's separation.
This morning we were off at 9 am to get papers notarized for Alona's separation.  Then we headed to the regional office to see what they would require for this separation.  The chief social worker was not available because she was at one of the many ends of school celebrations.  The assistant was a very nice lady.  She pulled the kids file that included Alona and her two brothers.  This is the first time we had seen pictures of her younger brother.  He is a cute 2 & ½ y/o.    Her older brother Alosha we had visited with early on through Skype.  We have not talked to him in over a year.  It is tough to look at pictures of siblings of a child that you are adopting and know that they need help too, but you can't take them with you.  As we studied the pictures Leticia began to tear up.  She had to sit down because it was all she could do not to start sobbing.  The assistant social worker told us not to feel bad about the siblings because we were doing a good thing for Alona.  But how could we not.  It is who we are; it is why we are here.  God is Always Good.  The assistant feels that we should not have a problem with the separation.
The orphanage had their own end of school celebration, but we missed it because of the official meetings we had to have this morning.  We did make it back in time to take a couple of pictures of the kids.
Our eldest child Vika was off to spend the weekend with her friend Tanya at Tanya's aunt’s house about 2 hours away by bus.  We saw her off at the bus stop with a large group of kids.
We spent the rest of the afternoon with the kids both at the orphanage then at the sanatorium.  Having to go to the sanatorium has allowed us to meet so many more kids.  There more kids at the sanatorium than there are in the orphanage.
Tomorrow we will try to go visit Snizhana and Vika, the two little girls that we hosted the summer of 2009.

Prayer request: that Alona's separation gets approved quickly

Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.