On the bus to Kiev....

Yesterday (Friday), Sergei took the letter to the Poltava Post Office to get it stamped and hopefully they would let him deliver it. Well, the first lady he went to did not like the idea the he brought the letter already stamped. She finally agreed to take it and stamp it, but said someone from the post office would deliver it before 3pm. Okay - well he went back a few hours later to talk to someone else to see if he could take the letter - that lady wouldn't give him any help at all. So he went back a 3rd time, and this time with some 'gifts' and this lady went and got the letter and wouldn't give it to him, but allowed someone from the post office to go with him to deliver it to the inspector's office. Hurray! Once that got done, he got the inspector to type up the final conclusion letter, get the Mayor/city official to sign it and the only other paper we needed was to go to a notary to get the request for Svetlana's passport done. He still had to go back and pick up the conclusion letter, so he dropped us off and later, while we were visiting with Svetlana we got a call....all the paperwotk is on it's way to Kiev to be registered! This means it should be registered on Monday and we should have our court hearing for the final judgement within 5 days after that! It's hard to believe that we are done with everything until we have the court hearing (then we will have more to do).

We have had good times spending with Svetlana getting to know her better. She is definetly one organized little girl who likes to have everything in order. We have been trying to work with getting her to learn English and she is a little timid, but she is the type who once she gets going, she will do very well. We got her some alphabet puzzle cards and she loved them - so she likes figuring things out as well. Yesterday morning we also were able to go to the final graduation ceremony of the older kids. We are trying to absorb as much of the culture as we can so we can talk to her about her heritage and the difference in our countries as she grows up. We found out how much she loves fruit and today (Saturday) we took her a writing tablet and some stickers so she could start practicing writing the American alphabet, and she will get stickers as she completes things and as she learns more English. She seemed to like that and got busy writing right away.

We also had a chance to talk with the 'Deputy Director' who oversees the teachers in the Pre-K area and she was able to fill us in on a lot of Svetlana's personality and family history. This will be important for her as she grows up. She did tell us how she has a very good memory, which is why she had so many lines in her graduation show, and that she loves to help do things/help the teachers and is responsible enough that when the teachers need to relay a message to another teacher, she is the one they send because she can remember what to tell them.

When we talked her her sisters caregivers the other evening, we asked if we were able to continue to tutor her in the language, should it be Russian or Ukranian, and they said Ukrainian since the schools teach that now. We had been recommended a website - www.ukrainianpower.com that produces children's material in Ukrainian to help with English before we left and I think when we get back it will be some good things to get for her. So, I guess we will switch from learning Russian to Ukrainian....hope we don't get too confused!

It has also been difficult as we get to know some of the other kids at the orphanage. This is the hard part where you wish you could take some of the other ones with you. We have to be careful as to how much attention we give them, one, so that Svetalana can see a clear difference in how we treat her as opposed to other kids, but two - for their sake. Some of these kids want parents so bad, that you don't want to give them the wrong impression. We have worked in so many camps here and with the kids at our church, that it is hard to hold back from showing them affection, but we've already had kids 'testing the water' so to speak, to see if we are there for them. Even if you tell them why you are there, it is easy for them to misunderstand your intentions.

We thank everybody for their encourangement and partnering with us in prayer. We could not have asked for a better trip!

Waiting and more family........

We have really gotten used to waiting. Sergei had to stay an extra day in Odessa to help the other family so did not arrive back until Thursday morning. We have been blessed with an excellent facilitator though. He is always on top of everything! Tuesday would have been the first day papers could have arrived in Kobelyaki. This was the paper from the inspector in Poltava to make a formal request to the inspector in Kobelyaki, to make a formal request to the orphanage to allow the sisters to be seperated. They requested that the request be sent by mail only - so we've had to wait. As expected it did not arrive on Tuesday. We spoke with Sergei on Wednesday and he said they told him they did not have it. He felt that they probably did, but one person maybe hasn't told the next person who hasn't told the person he was talking to it was there. So, we would take care of it when he gets back. Things happen a lot faster in Ukraine when you are actually present - not over the phone.


He arrived back on Thursday, and immediately got to calling Kobelyaki to insist someone look for the letter more. Sure enough they had it! So now, we've had a few days resting and spending time with Svetlana, and now it's back to paperwork. So, yesterday morning, he called the orphanage and there was going to be the graduation ceremony for the older kids. We found out that the 'Kindergarten' then Svetlana was in is really more like pre-school. They don't consider it 'school'. So we went to the ceremony for the older kids and then went to see Svetlana for a little while. While there, Sergei and Irina (social worker from the orphanage) went ahead and got the letters typed up that are needed and we signed them - this was the court petition to adopt Svetlana. So we signed those, and then we all headed down to Kobelyaki (hour drive). We went to the inspector (with 'gifts' again) and she had gotten the paper ready, and had to get the Mayor to sign it but he was out. He was probably at one of the school's ceremonies (May 31 is the official last day of school everywhere). He arrived back shortly thereafter, signed the paper and then we drove over to the Kobelyaki orphanage with Luda from the inspectors office to present the request letter to them. They had already prepared it, so she went in to deliver the formal request, picked up the formal response, then we drove back to her office. Now she had to do the conclusion letter (?) and then take it to the Mayor to sign, but he was out again. Now, this may seem like a lot, but remember it goes both ways. If you need something done that is not the 'normal' way of having things done, it can work in your favor. All of this is suppose to be done by mail, going back to Poltava. Sergei had suggested that perhaps someone in the post office would stamp the letter for us and we could deliver it ourselves back to Poltava. So, he had called and someone said they would do this for us. So, while we were waiting for the Mayor to come back, we went to the post office with more 'gifts' for the woman who was helping us to make sure someone would be there later after we got the Mayor to sign. That was good. So we went back and waited some more, and the Mayor finally arrived back. He signed the paper, we went to the post office, they officially stamped the letter, and now we could head back to Poltava.

We will have to have the letter 'officially' stamped at the Poltava post office tomorrow and then we can deliver it to the inspector in Poltava. This way, it appears that all protocals were followed and that it had 'officially' been mailed. Of we had to wait for the mail, it may have taken another couple of weeks - this is what we mean by things working in your favor with a system that is not quite there yet.

After we got back into Poltava, there is one more major thing we had to take care of. Svetlana has another sister, Neelya, who is being taken care of in a home. This is a very good thing, that she is not in an orphanage. Ukraine only recently has had things begin to change into more of 'foster care' than orphanages. So this was a Ukrainian family who could afford to take one girl in. We had to go and get a paper signed that gave us permission to adopt her sister. So we went and met Neelya and her caretakers. This ws very difficult for us. Neelya looks a lot like Svetlana and she is a very smart 8 year old who is completely aware that she would not be able to visit her sister anymore. Apparantly they take her to visit Svetlana once a month. We were very much 'drilled' by her caretakers - which we would too if in the same position - to find out what our intentions with Svetlana were and where she would live, what type of school would she go to etc. Over all, everything went extremely wel but was very emotionall. We made new friends and now have permanent ties with a family in Ukraine and her sister. It was very difficult when her 'father' looked at us and said - 'promise me one thing - that you will never hurt her'. Now what we didn't realize - was that her sister - Neelya - was the one who had to write the letter to give us permission to adopt her sister. We are almost in tears as we are typing this. Imagine having to do this with someone in your family. She completely understood what she was doing, and we will have to plan to come back and visit them - we could not keep them apart from each other. We have their address and they have ours, so they will be able to keep in touch with each other. Afterwards, they served us food and juice, fruit and dessert - very much Ukrainian hospitality to go above and beyond what is expected. We will be getting with them to go out for dinner once Svetlana is in our care and we can share those last moments with each other.

Well, it has been a tiring day - both physically and emotionally - but it was a good day. We hope to have our court hearing by the end of next week now. Please keep us in prayer as we continue to get to know Svetlana and bond with her, and try to help her start learning some English now which will help her make the transition easier to America.

Answers to prayer

It is pretty cool how God has arranged everything...we hooked up today with Natasha, who is the translator for the Pastor at Calvary Chapel Poltava. Since the missionary couple that normally goes to the orphanage is out of the country this week, they gave us permission to go over instead. Natasha met us at the orphanage and Grant and her went to teach the 5th grade class. Suzanne went with Svetlana as they did not want her going over to the area of the school for the older children. We knew when we came this would be more than just an adoption trip but that the entire adoption process has brought us into people's paths that God had arranged, and this was no different. I think the most difficult was after Grant finished the Bible study and then they started asking more questions like why we were there etc, so he did share that we were there to adopt and of course they wanted to know why no one wanted to adopt older children? What do you say to that? At least he could share that we did persue adopting her older sister but that she was not able to be adopted......so they wanted us to tell ALL OF YOU BACK IN AMERICA TO COME TO THEIR ORPHANAGE FOR THEM. Seriously - this was what they actually said to us.....so start praying.......... On Sunday, Pastor Eric also told us how us coming was an answer to prayer because they have been praying that people would come from the U.S. to adopt the children. We get answered prayer and so do they!

Tomorrow Sergei will be back and we will find out what is happening with the paperwork that was sent off to Kobelyaki where Svetlana's sister is at. We hope it is already on it's way back to us.

Paka...............(see you later)

Time to share

Okay....we got some other opinions, and the not sharing pictures until after the court hearing (2-3 weeks away) is more superstition than anything else. So, we would like to share some photos of our daughter-to-be.............Svetlana. Paper work is already in progress, we are just praying for a smooth road to the courts.

You will see also the director of the orphanage in the one picture with all of us...please note that adult Ukranians usually do not smile in pictures, so please know she is usually smiling all the time and has been extremely warm and friendly and helpful to us.

There are 11 pictures as follows:

These are from the second day we met her. We went to take pictures of her to take to her sister to see if that would make and difference with the director there. We already knew at that point that God had led us here though.


These are from her 'graduation' school show (nice Birthday present for Suzanne - eh?)

These are from the square in Poltava a couple of blocks from our apartment

These are just playtime with her

On our own for a few days......

It is now Monday here. Sergei left last night to go down to Odessa to help another family who has completed their 10 day waiting period after their court hearing. We expect him to return on Wednesday morning. So we are on our own for a few days - but we have been able to get around and go to the store by ourselves so we should be fine.

Saturday, we were able to visit Svetlana again and spent some time with her inside since it was raining. We are able to visit between 10-12n or 4-6pm, so we usually go at 4-6pm. She is still too excited to sit still, and do anything other than run!

We also had been told there was a Calvary Chapel here in Poltava, so we looked it up on the website. The information hadn't been updated for a while, so with Sergei's help we were able to find the phone number in the phone book, called and got the address. It is only a short walk from where we are staying so we were able to go to service Sunday morning. The church is still run by an American pastor, and we met some of the families that are here as missionaries. We also found out that they have been doing work at the orphanage Svetlana is at. That is also an answer to prayer. We are not sure if Svetlana has had any exposure to Christian teaching, as it sounds like they have been working with kids a little older than her, but we actually have an opportunity to go with them to minister to the kids. So we will find out more about that this week. Yesterday, we visited Svetlana and just went to the playground with her. We hope to be able to go today, but we will be without a translator - so it should be interesting.