and then there were four!

I wrote this yesterday, but forgot to post it :-) Thursday and Friday were very, very long days. We spent all of Thursday in Nick's car driving from here to there to get applications and documents done. 9 hours in the car with very little a/c because we were stopping so much. To top it all off, we didn't finish in time to pick up Micah like we were supposed to. Friday started the same way, 2 hours here, 2 hours there, but when we got to the orphanage at 1:15, it didn't matter anymore. Even 5 more hours of papers and waiting couldn't stifle the joy we had leaving that property with Micah in tow. None of us had eaten anything since breakfast, but no one complained because there was such happiness from that moment. Micah was so excited to see us, he just kept squealing and touching our faces. His primary caregiver, Oksanna, was very sad to see him leave and even brought tears to our eyes. When we got back to the apartment, it was time for Micah's first bath. He was so excited, he just kept splashing and laughing. We ended up with more water on the floor than in the tub! The sight of him and Nathan sleeping side by side was such a blessing to my spirit. We are currently on our way to Kyiv by train. We paid extra for 2nd class tickets so that we would have a working window or MAYBE air conditioning....but we have neither. So, we will probably lose 10 # in sweat alone, but we are ready for this part of our journey to begin! Leaving Sumy was harder than I thought, really because of the relationship we now have with Nick. It was very hard to say goodbye. However, we had a long conversation about what the Bible teaches about getting to Heaven, and Christianity. After we left, Nick called and said that he is now sure that he will see us in Heaven! We rejoice with the angels today that this man we consider family is our brother in Christ now. We are also so thankful that our other new friend, Holly, is letting us stay with her this weekend since there are no rooms available in Kyiv because of their "Victory Day" holiday. It constantly amazes me how God orchestrates things in such a way that his children's needs are consistently met. We will get to go to church with her in the morning and spend the afternoon with Yana(adoption coordinator) shopping and exploring. I don't know how i will do it, but Monday morning Nathan and I will leave Brent and Micah behind and head home. please pray for all of us as this will be a very tough transition for our family. Hopefully this will be short-lived and our family will be together again soon.

Extended Family

Well, today did not go exactly as planned. It took us 4 hours in Bilipillya to get 2 documents. It was supposed to be only 1-2 hours. This was before we went to Trustenyets (1.5 hours away) to get his new birth certificate and id number. We did not get back to Sumy until 5:30 and the orphanage closes at 5, 40 minutes away from Sumy. SO, we weren't able to get Micah tonight. We are going first thing in the morning to pick him up! So since I don't have anything special to say, I want to take a minute to tell you all about our true Ukrainian dinner experience. Nic's mom invited us to dinner last night. When we arrived, she was so excited and had all of her best dishes set out for our meal. I WAS able to learn how they make their version of crepes and even made a few! We had chicken & mushroom crepes, caviar crepes, pork casserole, mashed potatoes, egg salad, fresh vegetables, mushroom salad, and chicken soup. To top it all off, we ate homemade pirogies (called vireneky)! To drink, we had homemade cranberry cocktail. The food was delicious and the Zakharchenko family was wonderful company that showered us with gifts. I always knew that I have Ukrainian roots, but now I have a Ukrainian family. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Philippians 3:20

And so it is woven...

Sorry its been so long since i updated :-) i would say that i haven't had time, but that would be dishonest...i just haven't remembered to do it! Most of you know by now that the judge did not choose to shorten our stay in any way. She said that she felt like granting either request would be illegal. I can't fault a woman for being honest... So, what does this mean? Well, Ukraine has lots of holidays, as we are finding out, and because of two 3 day holidays in concurrent weeks, our process has been delayed, yet again. We will officially become Micah's parents on May 3! However, Nathan and i are travelling home on May 5 and I will work solo (with assistance from volunteers) for the remaining time until Brent and Micah make it home somewhere around the 16th and we will be off for a few days to get adjusted to our new family. We feel like this is the right decision for Nathan (so he can go back to school) and for FBCH since they were banking on us being home by then and our blessed co-workers have been stretched quite thin in our absence. This is not to say that it will not be excruciating to leave Micah only one day after he is officially mine, but i have two sons to think about now :-) Our visits are getting better each day. Micah knows who we are and is consistently responding to his new name. He LOVES playing outside - although playing in the grass is frowned upon and this behavior is the current source of blame for his new cold...shame on us! But even though he was feeling bad and just wanted to be held today, he would still look at us with those big brown eyes and we could just see the completeness in his expression. We didn't get to play today since he was not feeling well, but sitting in that room, with him nestled in my arms while he was holding brent's hand and we were singing to him was perfect. I know there will be times in the future as we deal with his delays and limitations that i will wonder why God chose us for Micah (I'm just being honest here), but I will always look back on this time and KNOW that it is God's plan. Because looking into those eyes and seeing that smile, I see God's grace and feel Him weaving our family into beautiful tapestry in such a way that our four threads can never be separated again! "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

The little things...

We won't be having court tomorrow since our paperwork was not completed in time, but we will hopefully find out tomorrow that it is all done and can have court this week. I will. You posted, but that is not what I want to write about today :-) Sometimes i think that, in life, we get so focused on the major outcomes or goals that we forget to appreciate the small blessings and victories that lead up to them. I want to take this time to share with you some of the "little things" we are thankful for. Before we left home, Brent spent a lot of time reading the blogs of others who had been through the Ukrainian adoption process. i was mostly interested in what to expect living in a foreign country for so many weeks and the majority of the information i received led me to believe that LOTS of people spoke English and that Ukraine was, in general, very tourist friendly. It took about 3 minutes away from the airport for me to think, "why would they lie about that?" The truth is, very few signs are in English and we have met only a handful of people that speak English...especially outside of Kyiv. I suppose in the US, we don't have signs in multiple languages - except Spanish:-) and no visiting foreigner would expect us to speak their language, but i definitely had other expectations. Thankfully, our adoption agency provides us with a translator whom we can call at any time for ANYTHING. Our first full day in Sumy, i had to call her to explain to our driver where we wanted to go, what we wanted to eat, and what salt was. It was ridiculous. I called her 14 times that day. She joined us for the next week to facilitate meetings and whatnot, but i found myself dreading the day she left. Then we met Nic. He is our landlord (and driver to the orphanage, now) and he speaks excellent English. He is very kind and tries very hard to do everything in his power to make us feel at home. He bought a router so that we could have wifi, translated menus so that we could order food (technically, he orders food for us), he hauls us around wherever we need to go, and walks around with us to talk to salespeople, for WAY less than any other taxi driver. Most importantly, he has downloaded countless praise and worship songs for our 40 minute daily drives to the orphanage and he found us a church with an English translator! God has truly blessed us with Nic and i think that God has plans for us to bless Nic by helping him grow spiritually. I also want to tell you about Ed. It turns out that we are quite popular at the orphanage. All the boys want to get a look at us and try to talk to us everyday. A few interrupt our visit for 10 minutes at a time to talk to us, which can be frustrating because we only get 2 hours and they eat our food and mess with our belongings...and even though they know we don't understand them, they ask us a never-ending stream of questions :-) Then, there is Ed. Ed visits us everyday, but instead of talking incessantly, he says very little with his mouth and uses his hands to communicate. At first, i think he just wanted to make sure Micah was okay, but now i think he enjoys our company and is mesmerized by our family dynamic. He has been in an orphanage for his whole life (20 years!) and in Bilopillya for 15. He has never experienced a family and has seen only 1 other person adopted. He comes in, says "hello," plays with Nathan and Micah, picks up after them, offers to take our trash out, and never asks for anything in return. He is truly a blessing to be around. It seems that love communicates in any language. My last "little" thing may seem silly to some, but don't judge until you've spent any length of time in a country surrounded by people you can not effectively interact with :-) We have people who consistently provide us with entertainment and companionship via the internet. I am talking about our friends who leave us messages on Facebook, or play Words with Friends, Drawsome, and Scramble with friends on a regular basis, and talk to us on skype. You have to understand that we spend a lot of time in our apartment and this interaction - online or not - provides us with a link to home and it is priceless. I get so excited when i see that somone has taken the time to comment on a picture, or leave me a message on my timeline. It makes my day brighter and seems to make the time go by quicker, and for that i am truly grateful. It turns out that when they all come together, "little things" aren't so little after all :-) Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Make room, my heart

Each day we visit with Micah, he plants himself deeper and deeper in our hearts. His little face lights up when he walks into the visitation room and he squeals with excitement. I think he is starting to understand what is going on more and more because when we left today he was looking back and forth between us and the lady taking him away with a strange look on his face. I long for the day when we don't have to leave him behind. The judge set our court date for April 17, which means our papers have to ne processed in Kyiv in 5 working days. Please pray that this will happen because if not, we will have to ask for a continuance and who knows how long that will take. The judge also said that their area does not do expedited judgements which means that we will have to wait the additional 10 working days after court before we can take him out of the orphanage. Please pray that he will have a change of heart so we can come HOME! Also, pray for the three of us as we struggle to adjust to this strange environment. We could really use some American company...any takers? ;-) "Because He has turned His ear to me, I will call out to Him for as long as I live." Psalm 116:2

So this is the story of how we met Micah. It all begins with a 4.5 hour car ride to Sumy from Kyiv. To say that Ukrainian roadways are in a state of dis-repair is like calling the Lincoln memorial a statue. Our driver had praise and worship music, which was nice, but we couldn't sing because the road was so bumpy :-) Our apartment was far from town, a tribute to 1975 Russian decor, and not very clean so the weekend was very long. We did get to share in worship with my dad's church thanks to their internet streaming. Monday started off very early and with SNOW! We drove to the orphanage and were astounded at how big it is! They serve 150 Boys! When we started our meeting, we were told that Dmitri was sick and had a fever so we would not be able to visit with him. We were disappointed, but we received a lot of good information from the director and caregivers. We were able to see him for a minute, but he was sleeping and did not want to be woken up! We were given a picture of him from December and he is very small. When we told the director and our translator that we wanted to go ahead with the adoption, they were shocked, and we found out that they have only had one adoption at the particular orphanage! How sad... When we returned to Sumy, we moved to a new apartment that is much nicer, with an English speaking landlord, but no wi-fi :-( We were not allowed to see Dmitri on Tuesday because of his cold, so we spent the day at the apartment going crazy without anything to do besides watch Russian TV and play Phase 10. We did make a trip to the market next door and I am not exaggerating when I say that everyone in the store stopped what they were doing to stare at us when we passed by. However, it is nice to have a market next door and walk instead of calling our translator to call a taxi. Our landlord is amazing and brought us a router and installed it last night, YAY! Today, we went to the orphanage at 9am and were able to visit with Dmitri (soon to legally be named Micah) for 1.5 hours. He was very sweet and playful. He really is very small, about the size of a 2 year old because of malnutrition, but he is adorable and got along well with us and Nathan. He had gummy snacks for the first time and loved them! I tried to give him pretzels, but the bag was the same color as the gummies and when he realized that it wasn't the same food, he hit it out of my hand :-) He really wanted to go outside, he kept hitting the window, but it was too cold and muddy. We were very sad to leave him, but thankfully he seemed to be oblivious to what was going on, which made it easier. We can't wait to go back tomorrow! I have a few prayer requests, as always. I found out that we can't take him from the orphanage until one week before we go home, so he could be there for up to 4 more weeks! (worst case scenario) So we need our friends to start praying that the paperwork in Kyiv would be processed quickly and that the judge would order an immediate decree of adoption (this would overrule a 10 business day waiting period between court and us taking him out of the orphanage). We are ready to go home! Not having anyone to visit with and nowhere to go gets old real quick! Also, pray that we would find more reasonable transportation to and from the orphanage as $30 a day is not going to be possible long term. Thank you for your continued prayer and support, see messages and comments really make our day go by! May He give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed. Psalm 20:4

Appointment...check!

well, after months of anticipation we had our appointment today!  We viewed approximately 15 profiles most of which were extreme medical challenges.  We have chosen a boy named Dmitri (which was my Ukrainian great-grandfather's name) who is a few months younger than Nathan and according to his paperwork, he does not have significant medical needs and has the typical motor and psyhological delays associated institutional living.  We will leave Saturday at noon to travel the 350 kilometers to the region where his orphanage is and will meet him on Monday.  We are praying that this is indeed the child that God has for us and that when we get to Bilopillya on Monday there are no significant problems that we feel can't be overcome in our family situation.  A specific prayer request is that, assuming we find that Dmitri will be okay with us, we need to find decent lodging in the village where he is located.  Currently, we are going to be staying in Sumy, which is 30 minutes from the orphanage and that will be expensive traveling to and from the hotel to visit Dmitri for 10-14 days.  the village where he is located has only 18,000 people and in a third world country that means something very different than it does in the US.  also, please pray for the three of us.  we are having a difficult time getting used to the people and culture here...Nathan is already asking to go home :(  on the upside, we have met some amazing Christian people (who speak English!) that have been taking great care of us.  I will keep you updated as much as possible,but until then, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,and all these tings will be provided for you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself...
Matthew 6:33-34a