Yesterday (Thursday) we took care of the necessary meetings to get official papers to visit the orphanage in Poltava. Sergei did most of the work in the morning, and then we went with him in the afternoon to the government office to meet with the inspector. In the meantime, he had been trying to get a hold of the director at the orphanage where Alona was at. He finally got a hold of him, and he felt that contact had not been exstablised with her (a requirement for him to allow the adoption to proceed) and that she was still not sure what she wanted so he felt it was not something she wanted. This is what we expected. Legally, the directors have parental rights, so he has to approve the adoption. So he agreed to put together the paper saying that contact had not been established. The second paper we need is an authorization to seperate the sisters. He said he had no problem in allowing us to proceed to adopt Svetlana. We had to then meet with the inspector in Poltava in the afternoon and she said that in order to get the papers for seperation there must be an official inquiry from a government authority. So, the inquiry is going to be faxed over to the Mayor's office in the morning, a letter has to be then sent to the dirctor from them, then the Mayor's office/inspector has to respond to our inspector in Poltava. Got all that?! It took us about 5 times to understand what's going on.....
So today (Friday), Sergei left at 6am along with the assistant from the orphanage to drive over the the birth city of the children which is about 4-5 hours away (we think). This is because they only have a photocopy of the court decree removing the parental rights and they need a certified copy for our court hearing. On the way back, they will stop at Kobelyaki to hopefully get the rest of the papers we need. He will also have to go back to the birth city once we have the court decree to have the birth certificate changed.
Monday is a Holiday here - Holy Trinity day, so we hope this all gets taken care of today.
Today, we were able to go back to the orphanage to see Sveta. They had there end of the year show for the school, so we got to see her first performance for us! We couldn't ask for a better orphanage. They truly love the children and have schooled them very well. They have them involved in many activities and learning which was evident from the performances of stories, dance and songs. When Sveta's class came in, she and another little boy led the procession almost as the prince/princess of the class, with majestic music playing for the entrance. As they stood and waited for the rest of the class to enter, we saw her tell the little boy next to her - that's my mama and papa. We couldn't ask for a more wonderful little girl. She has both of our personalities and plenty of her own.
We have pictures we want to share but have been advised not to post them publicly yet since we do not have parental rights and in worst case scenario, something falls through in court - but we believe we are walking in God's will, and it is only a matter of time.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Arrival in Poltava
Hi everybody. Sorry for not posting sooner. You will understand once we explain now.
First, leaving from Kiev to Poltava, we had to wait for our referral papers, which gives us authorizatin to contact the orphanage. We had to leave from the appartment by 9:20pm to make the train, and we were delivered our papers abour 8:45pm. We still had to pay the landlord for one more
night and he came as we were taking our bags out to the car. Not having traveled by train anywhere, we have nothing to compare it to - other than we are glad we bought the entire compartment (4 births) as it was quite 'cozy'. We did have air conditioning though - once the train got rolling. We got into Poltava right around 5:30am. 
We were met by our new facilitator Sergei, who will be with us the rest of the time. So we traveled to the orphanage at 6am to wait for the director. The 'correct' process is that we present the referral letter to an inspector (not at the orphanage, but at the city government office) and they give us legal paper to visit the orphanage. Sometime though the director of the orphanage will go ahead and agree to meet with you without the paper. Sergei had called ahead and the director was suppose to be in at 7am, but the inspector would not be in until the afternoon, so he suggested we go to the orphage and wait for her. So we did. 7am came, 8am came, and she came in about 8:45am. (This is totally normal for Ukraine - they are not time oriented like us Americans!) So we were able to meet with her. She was very nice. This is a very good orphanage. The place is clean, kids are well dressed, doing chores and seem to be happy as they make there way to class. At many of the orphanages, the kids go to school right there - and that was like this here.
After talking with her for a little while, she decided to let us visit with Svetlana for a couple of minutes, which turned into 45 minutes. Svetlana is a very vibrant 6 yr old - almost 7, who is very smart and not shy once she warms up to you. She is in the first year of school (Ukrainian kids usually start around age 6) and we were told she is the smartest in her class. She can even count to 10 in Italian. We bonded quite well with her which is why we think the director allowed us to spend more time with her. She sat on our lap and looked at our pictures and talked quite a bit - too bad we can't understand her without a translator!
Now - here comes the issues........
The SDA told us that she has a half sister - Alona. Ukraine does not allow families to be split up - so we are open to adopting them both. Alona had been moved to a different orphanage because her grades were not that good, and it was outside the city. The SDA called out to the orpahange on Monday to find our her updated information and the director at the orphanage told the SDA that he would not give any informaiton without official papers and that once he got those, he would 'think' about giving her the information! This is Ukraine at it's worst. Even the lady at the SDA called him crazy! He can lose his job for refusing - however, he is just playing hard ball. So, when we arrived in Poltava, we were told that the 'outside the city' is about an hour away. So, no children have ever been adopted from this orphanage that Alona is at. When Sergei called out there, the person did not even understand that she would have to fill out paperwork for us - even going to the city office, they had never done this before, so Sergei suggested we take some 'gifts' with us.
So - off we go to Kobelyaki. We stopped and bought our 'gifts', one for the city official and one for the director. We met with the city official, and spent some time talking with the office assistant Luda, who we spoke to in a little Russian, a little German and a little English. She was even very bold to ask if we were Christians, which she was, so got along that much better. We had to leave and come back because the inspector needed to review all the papers and the Mayor of the city had to sign it, but he was not in his office and his cell phone was turned off. So, he leaves at 4pm, so at 3:45pm we got a call that the Mayor was back, but he would not sign it until we met with him. So we went back to the city office with the inspector and then went to see the Mayor. He was a very nice man and told us that he didn't like to sign official papers for someone he had never met. He likes to meet with people first - makes sense - small town. He was very courteous so now it was just before 4pm and the director of the orphanage said he was leaving at 4pm - so Sergei called him and pleaded with him to meet with us, which he finally did.
This was not a pleasant meeting. We knew it would be tough based on how he treated the SDA on Monday. We will try and be brief. Alona is 10, therefore she has a right to say whether or not she wants to be adopted. We spent about 45 minutes or more with him and during that time, along with a teacher and Alona who came in shortly after we started talking with him. She is very shy. Ukraine has various families that host kids from orphanages and from regular familes throught Europe for the summer. Alona was scheduled to go to Italy in 2 weeks to stay with a family for the 3rd time. All the director seemed to do, was to remind her she would be giving up her trip to Italy with people she had built a relationship with. He was very anti-American in various ways, seemed to still have some allegiances to the way things were under USSR and was very controlling. (Explains why no kids have been adopted from here in the 11 years he has been there). It's almost as if he takes it personal that we are taking one of his own kids from him as he touted his accomplishments at the school. So....bottom line....Alona is too shy to say what she wants, but she thinks this Italian family wants to adopt her (even though they have done nothing). We have to go back tomorrow to get an answer from her, which we think will be no.
What this means is that we should be able to get a letter from the orphanage that says she declines to be adopted, and that will free us up to continue process with Svetlana - unless something else comes up. The court will allow families to split only if there is an official letter from the orphanage from the child that they do not want to be adopted.
We went back to Poltava and have an apartment for the next 2 nights here. Worst case scenario......we go back to the SDA for another referral letter for a different child. However, we do not think that will happen.
Thank you for keeping us in prayer. We are at peace with everything going on - even though you may think it is very frustrating.
First, leaving from Kiev to Poltava, we had to wait for our referral papers, which gives us authorizatin to contact the orphanage. We had to leave from the appartment by 9:20pm to make the train, and we were delivered our papers abour 8:45pm. We still had to pay the landlord for one more
night and he came as we were taking our bags out to the car. Not having traveled by train anywhere, we have nothing to compare it to - other than we are glad we bought the entire compartment (4 births) as it was quite 'cozy'. We did have air conditioning though - once the train got rolling. We got into Poltava right around 5:30am. 
We were met by our new facilitator Sergei, who will be with us the rest of the time. So we traveled to the orphanage at 6am to wait for the director. The 'correct' process is that we present the referral letter to an inspector (not at the orphanage, but at the city government office) and they give us legal paper to visit the orphanage. Sometime though the director of the orphanage will go ahead and agree to meet with you without the paper. Sergei had called ahead and the director was suppose to be in at 7am, but the inspector would not be in until the afternoon, so he suggested we go to the orphage and wait for her. So we did. 7am came, 8am came, and she came in about 8:45am. (This is totally normal for Ukraine - they are not time oriented like us Americans!) So we were able to meet with her. She was very nice. This is a very good orphanage. The place is clean, kids are well dressed, doing chores and seem to be happy as they make there way to class. At many of the orphanages, the kids go to school right there - and that was like this here.
After talking with her for a little while, she decided to let us visit with Svetlana for a couple of minutes, which turned into 45 minutes. Svetlana is a very vibrant 6 yr old - almost 7, who is very smart and not shy once she warms up to you. She is in the first year of school (Ukrainian kids usually start around age 6) and we were told she is the smartest in her class. She can even count to 10 in Italian. We bonded quite well with her which is why we think the director allowed us to spend more time with her. She sat on our lap and looked at our pictures and talked quite a bit - too bad we can't understand her without a translator!
Now - here comes the issues........
The SDA told us that she has a half sister - Alona. Ukraine does not allow families to be split up - so we are open to adopting them both. Alona had been moved to a different orphanage because her grades were not that good, and it was outside the city. The SDA called out to the orpahange on Monday to find our her updated information and the director at the orphanage told the SDA that he would not give any informaiton without official papers and that once he got those, he would 'think' about giving her the information! This is Ukraine at it's worst. Even the lady at the SDA called him crazy! He can lose his job for refusing - however, he is just playing hard ball. So, when we arrived in Poltava, we were told that the 'outside the city' is about an hour away. So, no children have ever been adopted from this orphanage that Alona is at. When Sergei called out there, the person did not even understand that she would have to fill out paperwork for us - even going to the city office, they had never done this before, so Sergei suggested we take some 'gifts' with us.
So - off we go to Kobelyaki. We stopped and bought our 'gifts', one for the city official and one for the director. We met with the city official, and spent some time talking with the office assistant Luda, who we spoke to in a little Russian, a little German and a little English. She was even very bold to ask if we were Christians, which she was, so got along that much better. We had to leave and come back because the inspector needed to review all the papers and the Mayor of the city had to sign it, but he was not in his office and his cell phone was turned off. So, he leaves at 4pm, so at 3:45pm we got a call that the Mayor was back, but he would not sign it until we met with him. So we went back to the city office with the inspector and then went to see the Mayor. He was a very nice man and told us that he didn't like to sign official papers for someone he had never met. He likes to meet with people first - makes sense - small town. He was very courteous so now it was just before 4pm and the director of the orphanage said he was leaving at 4pm - so Sergei called him and pleaded with him to meet with us, which he finally did.
This was not a pleasant meeting. We knew it would be tough based on how he treated the SDA on Monday. We will try and be brief. Alona is 10, therefore she has a right to say whether or not she wants to be adopted. We spent about 45 minutes or more with him and during that time, along with a teacher and Alona who came in shortly after we started talking with him. She is very shy. Ukraine has various families that host kids from orphanages and from regular familes throught Europe for the summer. Alona was scheduled to go to Italy in 2 weeks to stay with a family for the 3rd time. All the director seemed to do, was to remind her she would be giving up her trip to Italy with people she had built a relationship with. He was very anti-American in various ways, seemed to still have some allegiances to the way things were under USSR and was very controlling. (Explains why no kids have been adopted from here in the 11 years he has been there). It's almost as if he takes it personal that we are taking one of his own kids from him as he touted his accomplishments at the school. So....bottom line....Alona is too shy to say what she wants, but she thinks this Italian family wants to adopt her (even though they have done nothing). We have to go back tomorrow to get an answer from her, which we think will be no.
What this means is that we should be able to get a letter from the orphanage that says she declines to be adopted, and that will free us up to continue process with Svetlana - unless something else comes up. The court will allow families to split only if there is an official letter from the orphanage from the child that they do not want to be adopted.
We went back to Poltava and have an apartment for the next 2 nights here. Worst case scenario......we go back to the SDA for another referral letter for a different child. However, we do not think that will happen.
Thank you for keeping us in prayer. We are at peace with everything going on - even though you may think it is very frustrating.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
SDA appointment
Hi all...sorry for not posting yesterday after we had our appointment. We had some things to discuss and then we couldn't get to an internet cafe.
So, yesterday we had our appointment with the SDA (The Ukrainian Adoption Agency). We met with the psychologist and the interpreter who both were very nice and helpful. They spoke with us just for a few minutes, asking us why we wanted to adopt, and then they began to tell us of the children on the profiles. The profiles that they had pre-selected for us we did not feel were children God was calling us to, so they had to go and look in the additional books they have of the children's profiles. We learned that part of the reason for us putting the information on our applications/dossier papers was so that they could have time to verify all the information on the profiles by calling out to the ophanages. Since we asked to see additional profiles of children, she had to call out to the orphanages and speak to the director, to verify the information they had was correct. So our appointment was a little longer than normal, about 45 minutes.
At the end though, we decided to travel out to a city called Poltava, which is about a 4 hour drive east of Kiev. We will be going by train (less expensive) so it will take about 7 hours, and we will go overnight when the train is not that full. So we leave this evening around 10pm and will arrive in Poltava tomorrow (Wednesday) morning about 5:30am.
We are waiting to give you information on who we are visiting until we are sure that we have chosen correctly and that we are moving forward with everything. Please pray that we would bond quickly and the directors at the orphanage would not give us any problems with visitation.
We are excited about going and hope you are too!
So, yesterday we had our appointment with the SDA (The Ukrainian Adoption Agency). We met with the psychologist and the interpreter who both were very nice and helpful. They spoke with us just for a few minutes, asking us why we wanted to adopt, and then they began to tell us of the children on the profiles. The profiles that they had pre-selected for us we did not feel were children God was calling us to, so they had to go and look in the additional books they have of the children's profiles. We learned that part of the reason for us putting the information on our applications/dossier papers was so that they could have time to verify all the information on the profiles by calling out to the ophanages. Since we asked to see additional profiles of children, she had to call out to the orphanages and speak to the director, to verify the information they had was correct. So our appointment was a little longer than normal, about 45 minutes.
At the end though, we decided to travel out to a city called Poltava, which is about a 4 hour drive east of Kiev. We will be going by train (less expensive) so it will take about 7 hours, and we will go overnight when the train is not that full. So we leave this evening around 10pm and will arrive in Poltava tomorrow (Wednesday) morning about 5:30am.
We are waiting to give you information on who we are visiting until we are sure that we have chosen correctly and that we are moving forward with everything. Please pray that we would bond quickly and the directors at the orphanage would not give us any problems with visitation.
We are excited about going and hope you are too!
Monday, May 21, 2007
Monday 5/21/07 - Our appointment day!
Our appointment is scheduled for 12n today. We will be shown profiles of children, make a selection, and then they will give us a referral letter tomorrow which is the authorization to visit the orphanage. Check back later and we will post what happened at our appointment and hopefully some pictures.
Sunday 5/20/07 Back to Kiev
Sunday, we went to church at Calvary Chapel Pryluky. We met one of the girls there that offered to translate for us. Pastor Vlad was also someone we knew from the camps. We actually met him when he was still going to seminary.
Right after church, Nicolai picked us up and we left to go back to Kiev, via the airport to get our bags. All 4 bags were there. We have never been so happy to see luggage.
We got an apartment in Kiev for 2 nights, near the soccor stadium for anyone who knows Kiev. That's all we know about the area. Grant said the Ukraine is a country of contraditions. Sometimes you will have a really nice restaurant or hotel, but everthing else in the area would be run down/falling apart.
Our apartment was no different. As we road up the elevator to the 6th floor, listing to the chains in the elevator in a 4' x 4' area, we thought we were really going to get a better understanding of what means to live in Ukraine. When the landlord opened the door for us though - the apartment was beautiful - western standards. There was English magazines, so we presume he usually rents out to Americans. Hey - we even have washing machine. 
We spent the rest of the evening walking around to find a store for food, and then getting ourselves prepared for our appointment on Monday.
Right after church, Nicolai picked us up and we left to go back to Kiev, via the airport to get our bags. All 4 bags were there. We have never been so happy to see luggage.
We got an apartment in Kiev for 2 nights, near the soccor stadium for anyone who knows Kiev. That's all we know about the area. Grant said the Ukraine is a country of contraditions. Sometimes you will have a really nice restaurant or hotel, but everthing else in the area would be run down/falling apart.
Our apartment was no different. As we road up the elevator to the 6th floor, listing to the chains in the elevator in a 4' x 4' area, we thought we were really going to get a better understanding of what means to live in Ukraine. When the landlord opened the door for us though - the apartment was beautiful - western standards. There was English magazines, so we presume he usually rents out to Americans. Hey - we even have washing machine. 
We spent the rest of the evening walking around to find a store for food, and then getting ourselves prepared for our appointment on Monday.
Saturday 5/19/07 Wedding in Pryluky
We will make several posts to keep it more of a daily update.
This past Saturday, we had the opportunity to go to our friend Lyosha's wedding. We had such a great time.
They did not have most of the Ukranian traditions since the traditions have non-Christian roots, but the amount of food they had puts Italians to shame! What was also so great, is we saw so many people we knew! 
Most everyone that we had developed friendships with from the EEO camps was there, and we also found out that Yuri our facilitator was Oleg's best man in his wedding few years ago. So we know that there was more to us going to the camps than what we thought at that time. We also got to know 2 other families who are missionaries out in Chernigov and Negin. So we were very blessed to be able to celebrate their wedding with them.
Before we left for the wedding though, we had called for our bags and they said they weren't there. Ugh! I had borrowed clothes from someone at the church so I would not have to wear jeans and Grant borrowed some shirts from our friend getting married. But, 30 minutes later we got a call that they were there! Praise God! We would not be able to get them before the wedding - nor would we trust them since we would be leaving the following day, so we decided since we were moving around to much thawe would just get them ourselves tomorrow on the way back to Kiev.
We are still trying to post pictures. Probably tonight....Thanks for praying for us.
This past Saturday, we had the opportunity to go to our friend Lyosha's wedding. We had such a great time.
They did not have most of the Ukranian traditions since the traditions have non-Christian roots, but the amount of food they had puts Italians to shame! What was also so great, is we saw so many people we knew! 
Most everyone that we had developed friendships with from the EEO camps was there, and we also found out that Yuri our facilitator was Oleg's best man in his wedding few years ago. So we know that there was more to us going to the camps than what we thought at that time. We also got to know 2 other families who are missionaries out in Chernigov and Negin. So we were very blessed to be able to celebrate their wedding with them.Before we left for the wedding though, we had called for our bags and they said they weren't there. Ugh! I had borrowed clothes from someone at the church so I would not have to wear jeans and Grant borrowed some shirts from our friend getting married. But, 30 minutes later we got a call that they were there! Praise God! We would not be able to get them before the wedding - nor would we trust them since we would be leaving the following day, so we decided since we were moving around to much thawe would just get them ourselves tomorrow on the way back to Kiev.
We are still trying to post pictures. Probably tonight....Thanks for praying for us.
Friday, May 18, 2007
We've Arrived!
We finally made it! We know it's been a few days since we left, so we will bring you up to speed on what's been happening.We left Wednesday on time after spending hours and hours of packing and getting very little sleep. We didin't get everything done that we wanted to, but hopefully everything we needed to.
The last few days have seemed like "hurry up and wait", where we have to be somewhere, or get something done, so we try and be as efficient as possible, then something gets in the way and we have to wait - whether it be hitting every stop light on the road or standing in the only line in the store that is not moving. Leaving on Wednesday was no different. We made our flight on time from Ft. Lauderdale to New York, where we had to change planes, but when we checked the board for the gate, they were already boarding! So we ran to the other gate - made it (but completely out of breath)! So we taxied out, and the pilot announced that the storm that had just passed was still in the flight path and we were going to have to wait until it cleard....so 2 hours later we finally took off. So, we just had a little extra time to sleep and to get to know the woman sitting next to us, who was Ukrainian and had previously gone to Bible college in the U.S.
We arrived in Kiev only about 1 hour late, but our bags couldn't run as fast as us to make the connection and they wanted to go sightseeing in Paris, so they told us they would be arriving later. We had the VIP service in the airport and we are glad we did to help us with the bag problem. We met Nicolai our driver who took us back to the office where we met Yuri, one of our facilitators. We got set up with our cell phone and went to lunch at 'pyzata xata' for some great Ukrainian food.
This is the time of year when there are a lot of exhibitions in Kiev, so most of the hotels were booked. It took a while, but Nicolai actually helped us find a hotel at a reasonable rate.
While talking with Yuri, we found out that we know some of the same people at the EEO office in Ukraine and he had been a counselor at the camps one summer - we actually think he may have been at one of the camps we were at before! Will have to check our pictures. Pretty cool how God arranges everything - certainly better than what we could ever do ourselves. It was through those camps that the Lord developed our love for the kids in Ukraine.
We were on our own at the hotel, and went out to an outdoor market and a grocery store to get food for dinner. Good to get our feet wet a little speaking what little Russian we know.
As we sat downlast night to do our devotional, we just laughed when we saw the verse....because it is such perfect timing it give us that much more confidence that God is in control. The verse was: " We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You" 2 Chron 20:12 How appropriate.
Today we traveled out to Pryluky for our friends wedding on Saturday. It is about a 2 hr drive from Kiev. Our friend Lyosha met us when we got in and took us over to the hotel where he made resevations for us. Wonderful hotel - Hotel Alexandria. We still have had quite the experience, since Delta still has not gotten our bags to us. We had to come out to Pryluky with no clothes except what we are wearing. Surprisingly, clothes are more expensive here than in the U.S. so we did not want to draw from the funds we have for something such as clothes. We went over to the church where they were decorating for the wedding and met some of his friends, and one of the girls has loaned me some clothes and he loaned Grant some clothes as well. We are very grateful for their hospitality.
So, hopefully our bags came in this evening. Main concern now is having proper attire to where to the SDA appointment on Monday. We will try and upload some picture next time we post...there is only one internet cafe in Pryluky and we just happened to find it while out walking around.
Keep us in prayer so we keep our flexibility up for whatever God is working out.
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