Bump, Set, Spike!

I've been looking at all of the pictures from the trip back in April and I just noticed how much taller Zina has grown since the December trip. Has anyone else noticed this? I guess that I have had other things on my mind lately. Dear ole Dad tops out at 5'8", but Zina is gaining! I suspect that I will be looking up to her one day soon, both physical and figuratively! Of course I do that now. I am amazed at her kind-heartedness with all that she has been through and her life in the orphanage.

Zina liked playing volleyball with us. That's good news! Heidi has played competitive VB for nearly 25 years and just a few years ago was a top finisher in 2-person sand. Her partner and she used to rule the courts all over Colorado, usually winning the tournament or finishing in the top 4. A terrible calf injury two years ago during a game has slowed her down a bit and she plays when she can, but not as much as she would like. Nowadays, she and I coach and she lives vicariously through our girl's 5-6th and 7-8th grade teams. Perhaps we will have R&Z on our teams one day.

Of course, Heidi brought a volleyball to play with the girls and to leave with them. In no time at all she had taught them the fine art of passing and body form. Zina and a few other girls at the Internat were quiet good after a little instruction. I think we may have a front row hitter on our hands!

Hello, is this thing on?

Hi everyone. Sorry we haven't made an entry in awhile...there isn't much to report on the adoption front. We haven't heard any new word on the dossier submission. But, it is time to start updating some of our documents. Much to my chagrin, we have to go see the Doc and get a medical update complete with new blood work. Yikes! Oh well, anything for my kids.

We have been slowly making Internat Longmont a home. It is too quiet and empty without kids. We have hosted a couple of UOO meetings and the Stoesz have brought over their Ukrainian adoptees, Rhya, Luke and Natalie. The Stoesz's oldest daughter and son and some of our close friends like the Fetters and Keenes have come over with their kids as well. The house makes a great entertaining home and it warms up with the laughter and play of the young-uns. One day, our kids will be here...and I will probably wish for peace and quiet again, hee-hee-hee!

We last talked to Zina two weekends ago. She was suppose to travel to Kiev with some other kids for some kind of field trip. She also told us that she would be leaving mid-June for camp and that she couldn't take her phone and that this would be the last time we would get to talk with her until late August. Then today, we got an e-mail from Oksana in Crimea. She said that Zina's trip to Kiev was cancelled and that she would like to talk to us soon. We will call her this weekend. Oksana said that she heard Rimma in the background, so that's good news. We were never quite clear on her release date from the Odessa sanatorium.

Our daughter, Jordan, arrives this weekend for the entire summer. It is a treat to have her that long each year and she eagerly anticipates spending the school vacation with us. We hope to make the call to Z & R with her so that she can hear her one-day-sisters' voices. Perhaps they will talk to one another for awhile.

That's all for now. We will be sure to write more often, if just to say hello. God bless you, our friends!

Dossier Update

FELIX AT THE SDA GATE, "LET ME IN!!!"

Good news this week! The wheels at the SDA are still turning despite the rumors of their adoption quota being met. Our facilitator, Valentina, told us that she expects our dossier to be submitted to the SDA in August, or possibly even July. We will know for sure when the SDA publishes a new list in early June.

"What does that mean?" you ask. Being the geek that I am, I calculated that the average wait between dossier submission and SDA appointments is 120 for other Cathy Harris families with 2008 appointments. In non-Ukraine-adoption-speak that means that we could travel to Ukraine for our first adoption sometime between November 2008 and January 2009.

The waiting is killing us. Until we were in their shoes, we never understood how hard the wait actually is to endure. Anticipation, nerves, excitement...you name it!

Meanwhile, we are considering being trained as a respite family for Boulder County Social Services. Respite families provide care for children who already reside in another Foster Home. The length of time care is provided varies from a few hours to a few weeks. Foster Families use respite care for their foster children when they have other health care appointments, training, time away, special occasions, vacations and family emergencies. The first step is attending an informational meeting. Then we'll decide whether we'll take the next step - two full days of training.

In Memory of Maria

Yesterday, Stephen Curtis Chapman's family experienced an indescribable tragedy. I can't even type the words of what happened.

http://chapmanchannel.typepad.com/inmemoryofmaria/

This is the most amazing man and family. Stephen has dedicated his fame and fortune to changing the lives of orphans.

This spring we attended his concert in Denver and it made a huge impact on our lives. Stephen gave a hard sell for adoption throughout his concert. The experience of his message (combined with His message) convinced us that we needed to travel to Ukraine to make sure Zina's and Rimma's paperwork is underway. And it turns out that our trip was necessary - and a life changing experience.

Please say a prayer for the Chapman family.

Living at Internat Longmont

Not a lot has happened in the past two weeks, so we took a break from the blog to get settled into Internat Longmont. Besides, the Internet at home isn't working yet. We are all moved in, but the vast majority of household goods are in the basement and garage. We are still living out of boxes, too. We manage to unpack a little every day. The TV is still on the floor, every bed except ours is still in the garage, and the fridge just arrived last week. The funny part is, we don't have window treatments yet, so we have to turn off the lights and dash from the bathroom to bed. Ugh, we have to put an end to the free neighborhood peep show, lest we scar small children for life!

We talked to Zina again this morning. She said that she is getting our text messages every time. She can read most all of them and the ones she doesn't, she asks her English teacher to translate. She was happy that we called with a translator this time. She was in a "tizzy" about her registration and immediately launched into the topic. Someone there told her that she is not on the adoption list and that she could never be adopted and this made her very upset all week. She took it upon herself to schedule an appointment with her Director on Monday to talk about her need to be adopted by us and to ask him to help her get on the list. We explained to her that we have told her numerous times that this is indeed the case and that we are taking steps to get her registration issue resolved. We told her that was a big reason for our trip in April and that we made good progress. We asked her to not make her Director upset. Lastly, we emphasised to her that we would never give up working to get her registered, adopted, and home. She understood that it will take a long time and she calmed down for the rest of our conversation. She even told us that she felt better getting it off of her chest and that she trusts us to do all we can. We spent the next hour talking of pleasant things such as her new bedroom, the trip in April, her summer camp plans, and Rimma's excitement with our visit to Odessa. Zina is a very smart and mature 12 year old young lady. We can't wait to hear how the meeting with her director went. I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that one - Zina can be persistent!

Rimma seems to be doing well. All of our texts to her have been in vain, however. Zina confirmed that she dropped her cell phone in some water, somehow. Zina said that Rimma will be coming home on May 25th. So, until then, we will not be able to contact Rimma. One day when she reads this blog, she will scorn me though. She didn't want to take a picture with that ugly chicken head, but Heidi persisted. I can hear her now, "Dad, why did you put THAT picture on the web!!??"

"Uhmm...Mom"

We have had a busy couple of weeks since returning from Ukraine. I (Felix) caught a cold from traveling on the plane and we both went back to work the next day. Add to this my two week ANG obligation, a 3-day-a-week volleyball coaching schedule, and the closing of the Internat Longmont, you can see how a couple of weeks can get away from you. We are presently moving our furniture and household goods ourselves every night after work…we should be done in a couple of days. Our friends, the Fetters, the Stoezs, the Volfs, the Keenes and the Carmans have helped us move. We really appreciate it, guys! I get a big joy of seeing the kids (6 total) run around the house. It makes the new house feel more like home and reminds me of what it will be like once we fill it up with our own kidos.

It occurred to me that we never reported back on the garage sale. Sorry! Here’s the scoop. It became cold and eventually started snowing. The UOO’ers sold almost all of the items and we made $3500! It’s not enough, but it got us closer. We are getting a few donations and we are on track to meet our goal of $22K for the camp. In fact, we have already made payouts to cover some of travel expenses. I think Kris S. bought airline tickets last week after we found out that the kid’s passports were completed. So it is happening! We will have 8 kids here this summer. Get to Colorado and be part of this wonderful opportunity! See the UOO website http://ukraineorphans.org/for contact information and how you may help in ways other than financially.

We’ve been talking to Zina every weekend now and we continue to text both of them every morning. We wrote letters to R & Z this week, too. I keep hoping we can nail down the return texting problem so that we may hear from them on occasion. Zina’s English is getting better but she is still limited in vocabulary, so are we with our Russian vocab. I can hear and feel her frustration when she wants to ask or tell us something really involved. She regularly asks for the translator. But, as we have been calling more frequently and the translators aren’t available as often, we don’t have help. It's just good to hear her voice, even when we don’t understand each other. She starts most conversations with, “Uhmm… Mom”, followed by a few seconds of “mmmmmmmm” as she formulates the words. Hearing that and seeing Heidi’s beaming smile makes it all worthwhile!

Ukraine Trip - Karen

Last, but not least, is our friend Karen Springs! Karen has been a missionary for CBN in Ukraine for five years and is doing marvelous work with the orphans there. She is well known by the children in Kherson and they flock to her when she shows up, as was the case when we went with her to see Zina the first day. Long before I met Zina and Rimma, I saw a picture of her with them on her website. When the "big picture" came into view in the past few months, we knew that God was working through her and us to give these wonderful young ladies a family and a permanent home.

Karen met us at the airport when we arrived in Kiev and she took us to her apartment to rest up. We were to eager to see Kiev, so we set out on a tour of downtown the first day. Karen went with us on the overnight train to Kherson to make sure we would get there OK. She went to church with us in Kherson and introduced us to Sasha. That night she boarded the train back to Kiev. She, in effect, gave up her entire weekend to be with us and traveled 24+ hours to get us started. Thanks, Karen! We talked with her frequently throughout the week and met her the next Sunday at the train station when we returned. Karen took us to her international church where we met many of her friends. We had a nice lunch out that day before sleeping overnight in her apartment. The hot shower at her place was a welcome respite from the weeks travels. We said our goodbyes Monday morning as we loaded into the taxi for the ride to the airport.

We miss you Karen, but we will see you again many more times. We love working with you and supporting your ministry. Thanks for all the hard work on the 2007 hosting trip and the Summer 2008 hosting trip. You are the best. We will be sure to let the kids know that Aunt Karen helped to get them to America this Summer!