afternoon at the swimming hole

Today was a warm day in Zhytomyr.  The kids wanted to go to a local swimming hole so that is where we headed.  It is surrounded by the forest, so it is a nice setting.  One can sit in the shade cooled by a nice breeze.  The water was much cooler than I thought it would be.  I guess that I am getting soft in my old age.  We had a blast and it really cooled us down.

We spoke with Oksana today.  It seems that the head inspector has decided to have a small committee sign off on the separation instead of just having her name on it.  This could take place on Wednesday or Thursday.  So we will wait and see.

Tomorrow we plan on taking our 4 kids into town for a treat before they head out to camp

prayer request:  that the separation for Alona happens soon, that God would watch over our business at home while we are away.

Isaiah 8:13

The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread,

2 weeks and counting

Yesterday was a slow day.  We visited the kids.  There was a church group that came up to spend the day with the kids.  They had a picnic for them, and then some of us went down to a creek where the kids were able to play in the water.

Today we got some great news.  Oksana met with the head inspector this morning.  The inspector assured Oksana that she did not see any reason that would prevent the separation of Alona from her siblings.  There are some formalities that need to take place then she will sign the form.  It could be signed tomorrow or in a couple of days.  Tomorrow would be just great for us.  We had some phone stuff we had to take care of so we went to the indoor mall.  We spent a few hours there, Leticia got a manicure for $6 and we found a good place to eat lunch.  Then we took a bus from the mall to the orphanage.  I need to take a picture of the van/bus that we road.  This was the first time we had taken a bus from the mall to the orphanage.  It went well.  O/W we spent the rest of the day with the kids.  We also found out today that at least Maya and Kolia will be going to the summer camp.  That starts on June 3^rd.  That will make our visits with them a bit more difficult.  Alona will still be at the sanatorium till June 11, and then she says that she will be going to her aunt’s house.  Vika we are not sure about yet.  We hope that she is allowed to stay in town.  We will see.

Prayer request: that Alona's separation forms will be signed quickly


Isaiah 10:1-2
 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, 2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.

Fun day in Zhytomyr

We went up to the orphanage late morning today.  We brought along a badminton set that we had brought with us to play with the kids.  They seemed to really enjoy it.

We also finally had the time to go visit Vika and Snizhana, the sisters that we hosted summer 2009.  We still love these girls. 

Then we finished the evening with the infamous dinner at Alla's mom.  Had we know earlier during the day we would have fasted until dinner.  She had enough food to feed an army and it was all good.  We ate way too much.  For dessert alone, she had 6 items.  She is so funny.  We had two teachers join us along with Alla and we had a great time.  I will not be able to eat for a week to keep my calorie count at baseline.  What a treat!!  Many thanks to Alla's mom.





Prayer request:  continued health, strength and encouragement.

Jeremiah 49:11

Leave your orphans; I will protect their lives. Your widows too can trust in me

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.

back in Zhytomyr



We got our referral letter for Alona today.  As you can see from the pic, the Mullins were there with us to get their letter for their Alona.  This picture was taken by a woman from Richmond Va.  She and her husband were there to adopt as well.

We got back to Zhytomyr at about 7 pm.  We have been using a driver named Vasyl.  He is the driver we used when we were here January 2010.  He has a great van with AC.  He is a safe driver, punctual and he is cheaper than most drivers.  I would highly recommend him to anyone coming to Zhytomyr.  He is also a believer to top that off.

We got word from Oksana who is off working with another couple that the separation for the twins from the 3 siblings was approved and signed.  We should be traveling to that town again on Friday to get the final directors signature.

Tomorrow we go meet Alona officially.  Though we have met her unofficially, this will be a great day for her because this time we will start the process for getting her adopted.  She will be very excited and so will we.  We hope to then be able to visit her 2 & 1/2 y/o brother who is not available for adoption.

Boy, it looks like I may get to bed before midnight.

 Isaiah 58:10

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 

successful second SDA appt.

Our second SDA appt. went well.  We will get our referral letter for Alona (Helen) tomorrow and then we are off to Zhytomyr again.  We had dinner with the Mullins again today.  On the way to dinner we encounter this lady with her cat and dog on a stroller of sorts.  My wife thought it was too cute so she just needed to take a picture with her.

 If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. Isaiah 7:9b

2nd SDA appointment

This morning we went with Oksana to the small town where the sibling’s brothers live.  This is the town where the kids were legally separated from their parents.  Thus, it is here where we must obtain legal separation from the twin siblings.  The social worker in charge was very pleasant and upbeat.  She seems to feel that we should not have any problem with the separation.  She said that they were in favor of adoptions.  The committee in charge will meet on Wednesday to decide if they will sign off on it.  Then the director will either sign it on Thursday or Friday.  The social worker will call Oksana to let her know.
We got word that our second SDA appointment will be tomorrow, so we made our way back to Kiev today.  We got in about 5 pm.  We had dinner with the Mullins who are here to adopt an Alona of their own.  It felt great to visit with friends and neighbors.
On Wednesday late afternoon, we should get the formal permission to visit with Alona.  We will then head back to Zhytomyr.  We will be back at the orphanage Thursday morning to officially visit Alona, and then her separation proceedings will begin.  Alona's separation should all be in Zhytomyr.  She has a 16 y/o brother who is no longer at the orphanage and a 3 y/o brother who is not available for adoption at this time.  After Thursday we hope to be able to go visit the 3 y/o.

Prayer request: 1) for continued good health, 2) favor with the government officials.

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.  Isaiah 6:3

learning to travel by bus

Today we went up to the orphanage late morning.  The plan was to go to the outdoor and indoor malls.  Our driver took us to the orphanage to pick up Vika, Kolia and Alona.  Unfortunately, the people at the sanatorium did not let Alona go.  I was so proud of her because she did not even pout for a second.  We told her that we would be back to see her when we got back.  Vika had invited Tonya, Svieta's sister (Svieta was adopted by Shelle and Kevin in 12/10) to come with us.  Even though the people at the sanatorium did not allow us to take Alona with us, they did ask us to take this rather large lady to the bus stop.  So all 6 of us got in the car and we had the driver drop us off at the bus stop.  BTW, I finally met a not so nice person working at the sanatorium.  It turned out to be the female doctor that was in charge today.  She refused to shake my hand and she spoke to me in a not so pleasant tone.  Oh well, such is life.
So off to the outdoor mall we went.  Boy it was crowed.  We went to several places and found some tennis shoes for Kolia.  Turns out his feet are much larger than Vika gave him credit for.  After that we walked over to an indoor mall.  It is a nice big mall with an indoor skating rink.  For lunch, Letty and I got out voted so we ate at McDonalds.  Go figure.  Vika says that the food at the Ukrainian McDonald taste better than the ones in the US.  But then Vika says everything taste better in Ukraine.  We will see what she says after a couple of years in the states.  She’s a doll!!
We finally made it back to the orphanage and went over to see Alona.  We feel like Pied pipers, because we have all these kids follow us around.  It is great.  The kids are so much fun.  They are constantly doing something to keep us entertained.  Alona was in a great mood.  We visited for a couple of hours.  Then it was time to head home.  Now the real test on whether we would be able to get home by ourselves on the bus.   The kids, minus Alona, walked us to the bus stop.  Our bus just happens to be there when we arrived.  While Letty was giving the kids hugs and kisses good bye, the bus started to move.  She quickly jumped in as the door was closing.  She did make a comment to the bus drive.  Hopefully she won't get us in trouble up here.  The savings for taking the bus was significant.  It cost us 50 Hyrvnias (~ $6.00) to get to the orphanage with the driver, it cost us 3 (~38 cents) to get back by bus.  We will be taking the bus from now on if we do not have any official business.
Tomorrow we leave at 8:30 to go to where the sibling’s twin brothers are.  We will find out what we will need to get the separation papers signed.  We should also find out when our second SDA appointment for the official visit with Alona will be.  It may even be tomorrow afternoon at which point we would have to leave to Kiev from the other location.  So we will be packing a small suit case tonight just in case that is the case.

Prayer request: 1) that all go smoothly tomorrow.

But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.  Isaiah 5:16