Saturday

Not much going on here right now. We were planning to spend the weekend at Valya's orphanage in Andreyevo. But there was a huge ice storm Thursday night and the area around Andreyevo was hit hard. You may recall in the last post where I told you how our driver went into the ditch while delivering a document for us. Well, the rain continued on all night and coated everything with a thick layer of ice. Yesterday, our facilitator told us that all of the Odessa oblast (state or region) was under storm warnings, except for the city of Odessa. There is one more document we need to pick up from Mikolaevka and we were not able to do that, so that will delay our court appt. a little. Now, we probably won't be able to retrieve that document until Tuesday, when we go up there again. As far as I know, this is the final document that is needed to send up to Kiev for final adoption approval. Our facilitator ensures us that we will have no problem with the SDA.

It looks like everything is falling into place for us regarding approval for Valya's adoption. Nothing is certain here, however, and I will believe it when I see it. There was a lot of drama and uncertainty the last three weeks, and we are thankful for your support, encouragement, and prayers.

The drama in our apartment has been the lack of internet. We finally got it turned on late in the evening on Friday. Yesterday morning I put in some much needed hours at work. I am now out of vacation time. Every hour I work is another bit of pay for us. Nancy is a bit stressed about this, I not so much. God has brought us this far, it will all work out in the end.

Friday afternoon, we went over to Orphanage #4 to see Sergey and their St. Nicolas (Nikolai) program. Some of the kids sang, and others played their accordians. It was great to see their talent. There is a girl in Sergey's class (6th grade here), Karina, who is a very talented singer. She is being adopted by the Nasekos family, who is also here in Odessa right now. They stayed in the apartment with us for a time but are elsewhere now. We often run across them as there are limited visiting hours. The Nasekos' brought roses for all of the girls in Karina's class and gave them after the program. There will be another progam on Monday for Christmas (I think), then another one on Friday, for New Year's. The children have been busy preparing for 3 programs within a week. They memorize everything.

Yesterday, Grandma Lela, her driver, us, and Sergey, had a late lunch together. We received permission to take him from the orphanage for a couple of hours. It seems weird that he will be our child, and everyone knows it, but it is near impossible to take him out. Grandma Lela was able to pull some strings. Lela asked Sergey where he wanted to go, and we went to a cafeteria restaurant nearby.

In the evening, Nancy and I left Mark at the apartment and went downtown by ourselves. We took our flash drive down to a photo shop to get some prints made, and visited the Aphena Galleriya. This is a 6 floor mall that is very nice inside. Nancy needed some therapy for herself so she wandered in stores for as long as she wanted. I sat downstairs in the food court goofing around with pictures on the computer.

In Thursday's post, I mentioned how the exchange rate was climbing and was over 9 grivna to the dollar. Overnight it tanked. On Friday it was at 6.5. There are rumors in some places that banks were running out of grivna at the high exchange rate. No one seems to know what is going on. We had been accustomed to only exchanging a couple day's worth of money at a time, as the rate had been continually going up. Now it has fallen around the country and everyone wishes they had exchanged more on Thursday. We wonder what will happen next week.

Today, we will hang out at the apartment. It is too cold to do much outside, which is a shame as there is lots to see here. We will go downtown tonight for English church in someone's home. These people are missionaries, school teachers, and employees of American companies with business here. Oh and of course American families here to adopt.

Tomorrow, we will stay in Odessa so that we can see Sergey's program. Then, we hope, up to Andreyevo for a couple of days to have extended time with Valya and her friends. I plan to take lots of pictures so you can get an idea what it is like up there.

I promised to post some pictures onec we got broadband internet. So here are some, they are kind of random. Remember you can click on them to make them bigger.



Here is a picture of a woman receiving a speeding ticket in front of our apartment in Odessa. Here, the policemen do not sit in their cars like they do in America. They park the car and stand next to the road with a little handheld radar gun, about the size of a camera with a big lens. If they want to stop you, they have a baton that they point and wave at you and you need to stop. It is very efficient. They can stop three cars this way and give them all tickets simultaneously. They do this even out along the main highways, which look like interstate highways in America. This time of year, the policemen wear heavy thermal overalls with reflective material on the sleeves and legs. They are very visible and everyone highly respects them. On December 1st, a whole bunch of new traffic laws went into effect regarding speeds, number of passengers, seatbelts, price of fines, and other things. It is very expensive to have a violation now. Oh and the woman pled her case to the policeman but in the end was unsuccessful.



The Christmas Tree truck has arrived. They celebrate Christmas Jan. 7, not Dec. 25.



The streets of Kiliya. Kiliya is a mid-sized city in the far southwest of Ukraine along the Danube river. The Danube snakes a long way through Europe and empties into the Black sea near here. The river forms the border between Romania and Ukraine. We needed to visit Kiliya as that is where Valya's sister's orphanage is located. The streets were interesting to me because they were constructed of what must have been hundreds of thousands of preformed concrete slabs. It is a terrible way to make a street - it was incredibly jarring to drive on. But then the Soviets had a way of doing things didn't they.



This is the government building in Kiliya. This is where we were expecting to pick up the Inspector to take her to the orphanage for a tense meeting. As it turns out, instead of coming out with the Inspector, our facilitator came out with the document we needed in just a couple of minutes. It was a miracle.



This is the highway to Kiliya. Or so we thought. Actually, we drove 1/2 hr. down this road only to find out it is not the one. We had to turn around and backtrack to get to the correct one. There are very few road signs and even fewer highway markers. In America it seems like there is a highway marker every mile. Here, there are few to none.



Here are a couple of Orthodox churches under construction out in the country. It is surprising to me, or maybe not I guess, that there is money to build these beautiful churches even when the economy is such a mess here.



People in this area love fish. The markets are full of all kinds - fresh, smoked, and canned. You can even get little fish snacks. Kind of like fish jerky. Here I am with little dried fish snacks. They take alot like...dried fish.



In a notary's office in Odessa. Notaries here are different than notaries we have in the US. Here, they are actually lawyers that draw up documents. In this picture, our dossier that we assembled in South Dakota is sitting on her desk. Our facilitator takes it with her wherever she goes, to present to various people as needed. After your original SDA appointment in Kiev, the SDA will give it back to your facilitator for use in-region. The documents in the dossier are each sewn to their Ukrainian translation sheets, and the complete set is sewn together like a book. The loose ends of all the threads on every document, and the bundle, are taped and stamped with multicolor seals that make it impossible to disassemble it without it being obvious. The little shiny black book to the left of the dossier is something like a journal. I am not kidding every document that was typed out was almost completely duplicated by hand in this book. Nancy and I would have to sign in like 4 different places in this journal, as well as the documents themselves. We always need to show our passports to the notary.



On one of the days we went to see Valya last week, we took her a little gift bag, which had some garland in it. She wanted us to take pictures wearing it.



Tense moments waiting in the car in Rozdilna. Rozdilna is the place where Valya and her siblings are registered. In a throwback to Soviet times, citizens are registered in certain places. We waited in the car for 2 hours while our facilitator discussed things with the Inspector here and the SDA in Kiev. I suppose some day we'll laugh about it. But not yet. I have more pictures of Rozdilna, but I want to make a separate post about the place, because there is interesting history here.



Looking at an I-Spy book with Sergey at #4. The kids really like the book. Note, if your are coming here from America, bring one or two along with you.



Here are some of the kids putting a Lego set together. When the kids went to Kiev for the music field trip last week, they all received a Christmas present of some kind.



Luba and I. She is really sweet. She is gentle and never yells like the other kids. After we first met her, Mark commented that we should adopt her. But she is not adoptable as far as we know. We do know that she has several siblings.



Visiting with Valya last Thurday afternoon. Pictured with us is Lienna, our Ukrainian roommate. She translated for us. Here, we are working on English. We gave Valya a notebook to keep and study. And yes after 13 years I did shave off my goatee. I guess that is long enough.



This is Valya with her best friend Anya. Anya is 15 y.o. and it must be sad to see her best friend moving away. She would really like to come to America. But her time is running out, unless she has younger siblings. Mark is concerned about her and asked if we could adopt her. She is older than him yet he doesn't seem to mind. I don't know, that seems hard to fathom right now. Maybe some of our friends back in Mitchell? Hint hint. Mark understands what it is like to lose a best friend.



Playing with Valya. Hot Potato with her stuffed animals devolved into dodgeball.




Our driver did WHAT?!! He slid his car off the road due to icy conditions. We got more time with Valya than we were expecting. It was something of a tense drive out of Andreyevo later.



Our facilitator went to Rozdilna the next day without us and gave us a couple of pictures of the conditions there.



While they were getting ice and snow north of here, we were getting rain in Odessa. They do not have storm drains in Odessa, maybe nowhere in Ukraine. Soviet infrastructure is minimal. Whenever it rains, lakes and puddles forms everywhere. When we walk near Orphanage #4 we have to hop from island to island.



Picture with Sergey. I had to take several shots of this one. Just as I would take the picture, Sergey would tickle Mark in the ribs. He is quite a character.



Getting ready before the St. Nicolas Day celebration. Sergey wasn't part of the program, so he didn't need to change. Other kids in his class, did however. The dorms are locked up during the day and are only open during the evenings. So they were all changing clothes in their playroom. The girls kind of crouched behind the supevisor's desk, while the boys just changed their trousers in the open. There is a hangar in one of the closets with several pair of dark slacks on it. The boys pulled that out then looked for a pair that fit them. Their supervisor, Nataliya, shown in the picture, would help them. Dasha is shown here ironing her outfit. The kids are very responsible with their things. They do not have a parent to do things for them.



At the St. Nicolas Day program. There is an auditorium on the top floor. Some of the children participated in a program where they sang songs in Ukrainian. A couple of the boys played accordian solos. Here is Grisha. Afterward, the orphanage director gave a message. The concert was wonderful and their performance would have made any parent proud. How sad there were none, however, except for us and the Nasekos'. I recorded the whole thing on wide-screen DVD from the front row. If you're a family coming for one of these children soon, you can pay me large sums of money for a copy. But it will be so worth it. You see we have this big expense right now...






Grandma Lela came to the program. She is an American missionary who has been in Odessa about 15 years. She has given love to kids when there was no one else to do it. Many times she helps provide for their medical needs as well. She has prayed for these children for years and is thrilled when a family comes for them.



After the program, we had a time of visiting. Michelle came by with penpal letters. The kids love that. If you would like to be a penpal, send me an email and we'll see if we can get you more information.




Waiting for Sergey to come to take him to lunch. The have a wall with artwork. They have some good artists in the orphanage.



On the way to eat lunch. We had four of us in the back seat. Sergey needed to sit on Mark's lap.



Lunch with Grandma Lela and Igor, her driver today. Igor is a gentleman from her church.

Thursday

Day 1000 without broadband - or so it seems. Today (Fri.) is the day that the internet company says that they will come to turn on internet access in the apartment. It will be nice to get fast internet. A couple of days ago, we believe there was a power surge and their router and two laptop power supplies were destroyed. So, add a surge protector rated for 220V to your list of things to bring with you to Ukraine. One other note along these lines. Ukraine has 220V power plugs, not the 110V that we have in America. You may be surprised to learn that most modern electronic devices you might have in America will work just fine in Ukraine. A simple plug adapter is all you need to be able to plug your devices in here. But before you come you will want to check the fine print on your device to look at the rating. There are converters available that will step down the voltage from 220V to 110V. I destroyed the charger for our personal DVD player. It is the only device we brought that was not rated for 220V. One other note, bring some of those 3-prong to 2-prong plug adapters along. Most of the Ukrainian plug adapters I've seen only accept the 2-prong plugs. I had to cut off a tab on our extension cord so that the 3-prong plug will fit in.

On the adoption front - Our facilitor has had success securing approval for valya's adoption here in the Odessa region. Now Sergey and Valya are both at the same stage of paperwork. Today, our facilitator will send everything up to the SDA in Kiev for final approval. All adoptions in Ukraine must have final approval from the SDA before you can have court. So we are hoping for a fast approval. I talked to our facilitator this morning and she said that she hopes we can get a court date before New Year's day, but it might be the first working day after. We will have to remain here in Ukraine until we have court. We will come home after court without the kids, as the adoptions will be stalled due the Ukrainian government shutdown during the holdays. I will come back in mid-January to complete the process and bring them home.

There was a little glitch in Sergey's paperwork yesterday that could have caused a large delay in his paperwork. By Ukrainian law, children receive their father's surname when they are born, even if the mother is not married. But Sergey has his mother's surname. While no one down here cares, the SDA would have thrown a fit. So our facilitator did some investigating here and found a document that the mother filed to change his surname to match hers. That is fortunate because without that document it would have been a hassle.

Yesterday, we left at noon to see Valya, along with one of our roommates, who is Ukrainian, to translate for us. We thought there was some kind of party or something for St. Nicolas day, but we learned after we got there that it was that the children would be receiving gifts under their pillows during the night. Also, all of the children have stockings, which will be filled with fruit and other small treats. Each child will also receive 10 grivna. At today's exchange rate, that is about $1.10.

From day-to-day we never know exactly who our driver will be to take us to Andreyvo. We had a pleasant drive yesterday with a Christian man who spoke English. He is 37 y.o. and had quite a story to tell. I don't want to tell all of the details on the internet, but I will tell some of it. He was baptized when he was 16 y.o. When he was a young man, he served in a special forces unit of the Soviet army. One time there was a riot somewhere and his unit of 30 men was called in to quell it. They were ordered to shoot innocent people and he refused. Later, he had to go before his superior officer and he thought that he would go to prison. He shared his faith with him. Eventually, it turned out that he did not have to go to prison and the men in his unit only wanted him to preach to them. He became some kind of chaplain and he said all of them became Christians. Later in life, he became a pastor and started 2 churches in northern Ukraine (by the way, they say Ukraine here, not The Ukraine, as that is the Soviet name). After turning them over to others to lead, he moved down here with his family to Odessa. He has been here for 3 months and is listening for a clear calling from the Lord about what to do here. His brother-in-law is the regional director of YWAM for all of Ukraine.

We had a conversation about adoption with him. It is good to get the perspective of a Ukrainian. He and his wife are in fact interested in adopting a child in Ukraine to add to the 2 teen girls that they already have. In fact, many Ukrainian citizens want to adopt. There is an economic crisis here, however, and many people are afraid to adopt at this time as they are not sure that they can survive as it is. We asked him about foster care in Ukraine and he said that it is taking them a long time to get it going. There was a program on TV recently on the subject of bad families that take in foster children just for the money and then neglect them. The government takes the children back when they learn of these situations. Families that wish to adopt or do foster care here are required to take classes before they are allowed to. Well that is what he told us, you may have heard otherwise. One other thing I will note in passing. I have heard from more than one person here that if the Orange party stays in control (they are the pro-West democratic party led by President Viktor Yushenko), then foreign adoptions will eventually cease. If the Communists gain control of the Parliament (called Rada here), foreign adoptions will continue. There is also a socialist party, somewhat led by the popular Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She will eventually run for president against Yushenko. It is unclear what will happen with foreign adoptions under her leadership.

Regarding the economy here, the exchange rate for the dollar is going through the roof. The dollar is in high demand. When we arrived in Ukraine three weeks ago, the rate was 6.80 grivna per dollar. Yesterday it was 9.05. For years, it had been 5.0. This is great for Americans coming here, but the underlying reasons are disastrous for Ukrainians. Basically, public confidence in the grivna is sinking. Imagine you are a Ukrainian and you see the rate on the dollar going up. Wouldn't you like to get your hands on some? If someone would have bought a dollar three weeks ago, and sold it yesterday, he would have had a 33% return on his money. In three weeks. So, as the dollar goes up in value, the demand for them goes up, causing the value to go up, causing the demand to go up, etc. The cycle probably won't stop unless the government intervenes.

As the economy worsens here, I can imagine that the orphanages will start swelling with children coming from homes that can't afford to care for them. I have posted before that it is estimated that 90% of the children in orphanages in Ukraine are not here because they have no family, but because the family they have cannot care for them. Children in this circumstance are not adoptable. In this case, the orphanages are boarding schools.

When we talk with the evangelical Christians here, they are upbeat that this as a time of great opportunity for the Christian Church in Ukraine. After the country gained independence in the early 1990'si there was a short period of spiritual revival as the shackles of Communism were removed. Shortly after, the society became extremely materialistic, as you can imagine. Think about how life was under Communism, with shortages of consumer goods, and inferior quality. Now, the Christians say, God is getting Ukraine's attention again. As we drive in the country, we have seen Orthodox churches under construction.

Desperate people do desperate things. There was a time here when you could feel very safe walking on the streets of Odessa. But now crime is increasing. Recently, there was a bus in Odessa that was robbed. Men with guns ordered everyone on the bus to turn over their money and jewelry. Yesterday, our facilitator, a young lady, was mugged across the street from our apartment. She had tried to exchange money, but the line was too long. She left that store and was on her way to another when a man accosted her. She was able to push him away and yell for help, then he ran away. If you come to Ukraine you will want to do your best to blend in and not look obviously American. Don't carry large sums of money with you.

But I digress. I was telling you about our driver. When we arrived at Valya's orphanage, we learned that our facilitator had requested that we take a document from Andreyevo to the government building in Mikolaevka, which is about a 15 minute drive, WHEN IT IS DRY. We left with Valya for another building, and he left for his car. We noticed that it had begun to rain harder. It was raining a little on the way up. We didn't think anything of it. We had planned to stay an hour with her, but that came and went. Then another hour. We called our facilitator and asked her if she had heard from our driver? Yes, the rain had turned into freezing rain and he had slid off the road into a ditch. He was by himself, and in this part of rural Ukraine, it is pitch black at night. There may be a house scattered about here and there, but they do not have yard lights like they do in America. She told us not to worry as he is a Ukrainian and he can figure it out. We finally got a call after 3 hours that he had arrived at the orphanage and was ready to take us back. We asked him how did he get the car out of the ditch? He said he did not know, it was a miracle from God. Another man had come by, but he could not push it as he could not even stand on the ice. On the way home I was very concerned that we would not be able to get out of Andreyevo. It is kind of in a valley and there is a lot of uphill driving to get out of there. His car was rearwheel drive and more than once we fishtailed. But thankfully the road was rough enough and even sanded in a couple of places, and so we made it out. Sometime I want to show you a picture of the little sand piles they put next to the road here on hills. It is much different than America. Meanwhile, our facilitator was very worried for us. Later, she told us that 5 years ago an American couple was out in weather such as this and died in a car accident. The husband was killed in the crash, while the wife was transferred to Germany where she died after 2 weeks in a coma. They had a child in America, and the children they came to adopt in Ukraine are still in the orphanage now.

We had more time with Valya than we were expecting and that was fun. This time we got to meet her best friend, named Anya, who is 15 y.o. She wants to come to America. Last year, her best friend Lienna was adopted by the Tolly's, and now her best friend Valya is being adopted by us. It is very hard for her. Email me if you want to know more about her. We will try to find out more information.

We got to see the wilder more-physical side of Valya. We had given her a teddy bear when we first met her, and she brought that back to our playroom when she went to retrieve Anya. She had also brought a tiny stuffed animal for Mark, which we brought home later. Somehow, we got into a game of tossing the animals back and forth, like hot potato, which became very fast-paced and involved all five of us. I can tell you she has a good throwing arm. While we were with her, we also went over some more English, started to teach her Dutch Blitz, and played Uno. Dutch Blitz is very popular at #4. With her competitive spirit, I imagine Valya will enjoy it too. We also measured her for clothing as well.

When our driver came back for us, it was time to go and we each hugged her. When Valya hugged Mark she gave him a big bear hug and picked him up off the ground and carried him a little ways. Oookaaay... I think she is going to be a feisty one. It should be interesting when we add Sergey to this mix.

We will go to see Sergey today. We are making arrangements to stay in Andreyevo for the weekend. I have not taken any pictures of the orphanage or of Valya's friends. Will try to do that. I am sure many of you are interested in that orphanage. It seems to be a MUCH happier place than #4. #4 is just downright depressing.

Well I've rambled long enough. I Wish I could show you pictures, maybe at the end of the day today if we get broadband going again.

Christmas is less than a week away and there is not much here indicating that. There's a few Christmas lights around, but nothing like America. We miss that. Hope all is well with you.

Glimmer of a Plan

We continue to make progress with Valya and Sergey's paperwork. Yesterday, we stayed home all day while our facilitator worked for us.

She took Sergey to visit his 19 y,o. brother, and both of his grandmothers. All of them are required to approve Sergey's adoption. She was successful in obtaining the required signatures. These signatures clear the way for Sergey to go to court. He has no property issues, so he is easy. We hope to return to these relatives again to meet them, take pictures, and get contact information so that Sergey can communicate with them if he wishes. Maybe they will come to court. One of these grandmothers is in poor health.

Valya's paperwork continues. Our facilitator remains guarded but she says that things are looking good right now. We don't know what all is going on behind the scenes here, but we are thankful for their dedication to giving Valya a new life in America.

There is another complication that has arisen with Valya. We have learned that she and her siblings own a house somewhere in some village. Valya's share is 10 square meters. If she were the sole owner of this home, it would be very complicated because the home would have to be sold before we could bring her to America. Because she has 4 siblings, though, we are hoping that we can just sign her share over to her siblings. Property issues cannot be dealt with until after court, so we cannot get started on this yet.

Our facilitator has told us that if things go well, we could have court as soon as next week. That would be fantastic. Our plan is to come home after court and leave the kids here in the orphanages until mid-January, when I would come back and bring them home. Our facilitator would work on resolving Valya's property issue while we are in America. The reason that we would come home is that the Ukrainian government will pretty much shut down during the holiday season, which will end in mid-January here. There would be absolutely no paperwork progress during that time. Once we have court, the kids are officially ours by Ukrainian law. The orphanages are under no obligation to allow them to remain there, and in fact, may refuse. So this is just an idea, but we hope we can do it. All of this, of course, is tentative. This being Ukraine, they have a way of foiling your plans.

After court, the tasks remaining to bring them home include:
- Removing them from their orphanages.
- Resolving property issues.
- Acquiring new birth certificates, with their new names.
- Acquiring domestic passports for the children. All Ukrainian citizens have a domestic passport.
- Getting medical exams in Kiev. Required for US immigration.
- US immigration exit paperwork at the US Embassy in Kiev.

Yesterday, we pretty much stayed at the apartment. We had Mark working on homework until 2:00, then we walked down to #4 to see Sergey. We spent time there playing games until 5:00, when they all had to go work on homework.

I headed downtown to buy a new wireless router for our apartment. I mentioned yesterday that the router burned up. I think what happened is that they had a power surge. One the the roommates here lost her laptop's power supply as well. I ended up buying a Linksys router, the same one that we use at home. Wow electronic equipment is expensive here. It was $120 after tax. This same router at Walmart is $79. There was 20% tax on it. They need to call the internet company to get the internet configured again, so we still do not have broadband yet. Thus, no pictures again today.

Sergey came back from their field trip to Kiev. Sergey didn't enjoy it. For one thing, someone stole all of the games he took with him. We don't know what kind of games he had, but whatever they were, they're gone.

Today, we will go to spend a little time with Valya. It is a 2-hr. trip each way. One of the roommates here, Lienna, will come along to translate the activities for a St. Nicolas celebration they have today.

That's all the news for now. Sorry no pictures, hopefully we'll get broadband turned on today.

Battling for Valya

Yesterday, we had a very long day visiting three different towns for Valya's paperwork. At the end of the day, we were all tired. But we had a good day with positive results.

We started out by visiting the Inspector in Mikolaevka, which is the government seat controlling Valya's orphanage in Andreyevo-Ivanovka. She is the one in that building with the large soviet logo I posted about before. We took the important document that we had gotten the day before over in Kiliya. That was the miracle document I wrote about. She and our facilitator talked about stuff for awhile, not sure exactly what, then we were told that the mayor wanted to ask us questions.

The actual mayor is in the hospital and had been for some time. In his place now is a deputy mayor. She was very friendly. Her office was large. There was a conference table along the wall near the windows. She sat at a desk at the far side of the room with the Inspector seated at a small table directly in front and to the right of the desk. We and our facilitator were seated on chairs on the opposite side of the room.

She started out by asking us how do we like Ukraine. We commented that the land in this area is very much like where we live. We also come from a farming community.

Next, she asked why are we adopting more children, and why are we adopting from Ukraine specifically? Why not America? She also asked us about the foster care system in America. We don't know a lot about that, but we know a little. We think she was very interested in that because the Ukrainian government is pushing foster care very hard here. The rumor on the street is that Ukraine will shut off all foreign adoptions next year. Time will tell. That seems crazy, but it has happened in other countries, such as Romania. The Inspector noted to her that Valya is happy to be with us.

We had Mark along with us, so she asked, how is it that he can be here and not in school? We explained how he is doing homework and exams here and we email them back to his teachers. She took interest in this subject. She went on to ask, does he do his studies if he is not forced to? No, we have to get on him to make sure that he gets it done. How do we punish him if he misbehaves? We take his privileges away, such as computer and video games. She was amused by our answers because she has a 12 y.o. son of her own and she has the same issues and does the same punishments. She observed that children are the same everywhere.

Finally, she admonished us to always help Valya to remember her heritage. We told her that we are taking pictures for her to remember her home country. She wanted us to take a small Ukrainian flag on a stick. They looked around for one in the office but they could not find any extras. We chuckled about that because we told her that in fact we were already planning to do that anyway. They sell them in the markets here that cater to tourists. I told the mayor that we have a saying in America, you can take the girl out of Ukraine, but you can't take Ukraine out of the girl (OK not exactly that saying in America but I know you've heard something like it before). She and the Inspector seemed to like that.

We said our goodbyes and we were off to see Valya. Andreyevo is a 10 min. drive from Mikolaevka on a rural country road. It is paved, but not great. The countryside is beautiful and must be gorgeous in the summer. Mikolaevka is nestled in a shallow valley. As you leave Mikolaevka for Andreyvo, you climb out and there are sweeping vistas of farmland on rolling hills. Wheat is the dominant crop here. In all of the areas in the Odessa region we have been to (which is the largest in Ukraine, by the way), winter wheat fields are everywhere.

Our facilitator said that she had documents to take from the orphanage back to Mikolaevka and that she would drop us off there to spend time with Valya while she was gone. This would be our first time with her without a translator. We knew beforehand that we would be seeing her, so we prepared a gift bag for her of scented shower gel, lotions, and dainty chocolates. We could not find the colored tissue paper like we have in the US for gifts, so we bought a shiny Christmas garland to help fill the gift bag. She was pleased with the gift and insisted that we all pose for pictures with the garland on our heads. Her personality is starting to show. We had also brought munchies along, such as snack crackers and Clementines.

Our facilitator had suggested that we spend time teaching her some English, so that is what we did. We had a notebook along so we took that out and I wrote some simple English phrases out. I made them interactive such as,

Valya, are you hungry?
Yes, I am hungry.
No, I am not hungry.

I also drew pictures of some nouns, such as pants, blouse, socks, and shoes. I know the Russian letters pretty well now, so along with her help, I also wrote the pronunciations in her letters, along with the correct English spellings. She does know the English alphabet so that is helpful. I am not a great artist. When I drew the picture of a shoe, it had a flat bottom. She took the pen and drew a high heel on it. We got a kick out of it because the young women here wear high heels or high heel boots. She is in for a shock when she sees the way women dress down in America. Our time went quickly, then our faciliator was back and it was time to leave again. We are told that they have a St. Nicolas celebration this Thursday and we are invited. So we will see her again soon. We will bring along a tape measure so that we can figure out her clothing sizes. We will need to provide all of her clothing at the time that we take her out of the orphanage. We also want to get her a special outfit for court.

From there, we went back to Rozdilna, which is the town where Valya and her siblings are registered. It was necessary for the Inspector in this place to approve of the separation of Valya from her siblings. When we arrived there, our facilitator told us to wait in the car and if she needed us, she would call for us to come. We said silent prayers for her. She was gone a long time, maybe an hour. We had brought algebra homework for Mark to work on, so we were able to keep him busy. She came back and said the Odessa regional office was going to call back in 1/2 hr. So we continued to wait. Then she left again and was gone another 1/2 hr. When she came back we could tell that she was very drained. Intense discussions had taken place which involved our facilitator Oleg, up in Kiev. We can only guess at what took place but it was obvious that it was a battle. In the end, she said a good result came. In her words, she said it was more good than bad and so far, it looks like we will be able to adopt Valya. If the adoption process is like childbirth, we are in the most intense moments of labor right now.

There is one more Inspector that we need approval from. It is the Inspector where Valya's brother is. He is in an orphanage for very sick kids. This is the same place where Valya's sister will be transferred to when she turns 16. Our facilitator says that securing that document will not be difficult, and we will not be needed. In the end, we will have secured permission from 4 different Inspectors and 3 orphanage directors to split Valya from her siblings. Then, the Odessa regional office will have to approve, and the SDA up in Kiev will need to approve. So, you can see, this is like a war. We need to win every battle to win the war. We rejoice with every victory then look to the next battle with great concern.

Today (Wed.), we have a down day. Our facilitator will contact us if she needs us. Today, she is going to track down Sergey's brother and grandmother to secure their approval of his adoption. Sergey and some of his classmates took the train up to Kiev on Monday to see some music concert or something. He gets back today. We plan on visiting him this afternoon. Poor Sergey doesn't get to see us much as we have been required to travel on these missions for Valya and their visiting hours are very limited.

I have lots of pictures that I would like to post. I can't do that right now because the wireless router in our apartment burned up. One of the roommates here moved it to a different outlet and something went pop and blew the plug out of the wall. She screamed. I guess it fried the cord too. We weren't here when it happened. So now I am using my cell phone for internet access, which works fine, but it is just too slow to post pictures. I'll see if I can find an internet cafe later. We offered to buy them a new router, so I am off this morning to go do that.

Thanks everyone for following along and offering your prayers for us. Peace to you.

A Miracle Today

Imagine that you or your wife just had a baby girl and you could not say for sure that they would let you keep her. Imagine that every time you talked about your new baby you always had to say, if she becomes our daugther. This is what it is like when talking about Valya. It is frustrating.

But we have had some good news today. We made some progress in Valya's adoption process. We are very grateful for your support and the miracle we saw today.

Basically, the issue for us is that she has two twin siblings that are in two separate orphanages for sick kids. One of the twins is sicker than the other and has not been an issue for us. The other one, however, is not as sick and there is some question among the officials about her fitness to be adopted. Today, we traveled to her orphanage in Kilia, which is about 200 km. from Odessa.

By Ukrainian law, siblings are not allowed to be separated by adoption unless there are circumstances that justify it. This is what we are trying to accomplish. Our great concern was that the Inspector and/or the orphanage director would consider her sister to be adoptable. If that were to happen, we would be required to adopt her sister if we want Valya. This would put an end to Valya's adoption as we had decided before we came that we could not adopt a 15-year old.

We were expecting to have a long and tense meeting today as we tried to convince, persuade, and justify to either or both the director and Inspector why we should not be required to adopt her. We know of another American family here right now that is battling these very people at this same orphanage for this same reason, and so far it has not gone well.

When we arrived in Kilia, we stopped at the city administration building to meet with the Inspector. She was in court, so we went to the orphanage to meet with the director. Nancy and I waited in the car with our driver while our facilitator went inside. Apparently, he was very kind, offering tea and chocolates to her, and gave her information about Valya's sister (which I will not share out of respect for her). She came back out and we went back to the Inspector's office again. We waited in the car while our facilitator went inside. She came out again in a few short minutes with the document in hand. And just like that she said we could go back to Odessa.

At the time, we didn't really understand what had transpired. It wasn't until later that we fully grasped what had taken place. Put simply, we now have local permission from the director and Inspector in Kilia to separate this particular sibling from Valya. Tomorrow, we will travel to Valya's orphanage to get the papers we need to separate her from her siblings. I believe the next day, we will travel to a third orphanage to get separation papers for the other twin. He is in Bolgorod, about 80 km. from Odessa. Neither of these are expected to be a problem.

But. There is a big BUT. When we have secured all of the local permissions to separate the siblings, the whole thing has to go back to the SDA, which has the final authority to accept or deny the local recommendation. If they agree, then we can proceed with court. If they deny it, then we will not be able to adopt Valya.

So, as you can see, it is not clear to us yet how this will all work out. We believe that God is moving for us. We have watched Him repeatedly going before us and moving on the heart of the officials. We covet your prayers as we advance to this next step.

This whole situation is very sad. It is sad that Valya's family is not whole. It is sad that they are in orphanages. It is sad that the siblings are sick. It is sad that they have a bleak future in institutions. We have to tell ourselves that it is not our fault, and that we should not feel guilty that we are not trying to adopt them, too. There is nothing we can do about it. Even if we wanted to adopt them, we probably wouldn't be able to bring them to the US. We will try to do our best to save two starfish, it is all we can do. And more than most people are doing.

We had been asking you to pray for our trip to Kilia. It is clear that all of your prayers have worked a miracle today. Thank you.

Time with the Kids

Today, we took the 2 hr. trip up to Andreyevo to see Valya. We got to spend 3 hours with Valya, with a translator the whole time. In future visits, we may not have a translator. We hung out in a playroom in her dorm.

Today, we used the laptop to show her more pictures of our relatives, school, town, and state. We taught her to play Uno. She had never played that before. We took a bunch of food treats for her to keep.

We had a nice visit. She really didn't have many questions. That will come as she gets to know us better, I'm sure. We tried to explain the paperwork process to her a little bit. Basically told her that it will be awhile before we are able to take her home.

After we left, we got to Odessa in time to see Sergey for a little while. We played games with some of the children there at #4.

Monday, at 7:00 am, we leave for Valya's sister's orphanage. It is a 3-hr. drive one way. It is in Ukraine, but we will go through the country of Moldova to the west. We hope to clear a roadblock to Valya's adoption. Please continue to pray for us. We've received several emails from our dear friends back home who have added us to their prayer lists. We greatly appreciate your concern for us and Valya.

Here's a few pictures from today.


Our sweetie.





Homework in the car ride back to Odessa.



Games and a movie at #4.