3 Angels - Revisited

So, it's 2 am here and I can't sleep! I thought I'd make myself sleepy by writing some more info about the kids. We didn't take the camera or video recorder on our first day, we wanted to make the situation as less stressful on the kids as possible.

Girl, 12, is the leader of the pack and playfully told us that the other two are the "naughty" ones. She has a quiet strength about her. She may be this way all the time or just during the meeting. If she says yes to us, the other two will be sure to follow suit. She is absolutely beautiful and smart too. She definately looks out after the others, as a big sister should. She became excited when we told her that we coach volleyball. She likes volleyball! Heidi has found her VB girl after all! She seems athletic and she is the size you would expect of a 12 year old.

Girl, 11, is darling too. She was the most quiet of the bunch and I heard her voice only once. She's a bit mousy and lets the others do any talking. However, in her defense, she was brought to us from the sanitorium because she felt a little under the weather. The director explained that the sanitorium is very close and is actually a hospital used by everyday citizens, but that the orphans go there free and have preference. If any of her children feel just the least bit sick, they go right away. The middle girl's hair had been cut shorter than her SDA pictures showed, but that's ok. I sat nearest her and occasionally I reached over and patted her on the knee, she smiled a little and responded correctly. When I wasn't looking at her, I could see her staring at me with my peripheral vision. We learned that she is an artist and has competed with her drawings and paintings, having won a recent international competition! (I already feel like a proud Dad, bragging on his kids). Lookout, we have an artist on our hands!

Boy, 9, is a favorite of the orphanage and staff. They say he has a comical side but is very obedient, calm, and smart. He excells academically and enjoys Math, he says. He too is an artist of sorts. He recently performed locally at a dance in Folk dance and some kind of "sport" dance thing. We weren't sure what that meant, but our translator said it was like a hip-hop routine. How cute...as is he, quite a cutie! He may perform for us tommorow, we will see. He smiled a lot and did the most talking, asking good questions. Bonus, he likes cats better than dogs, so our two Koshkas can stay.

The director told the kids that they should see us off, and they did. It was a good sign that The oldest girl and the boy stayed at the door while we drove away. (middle girl returned to the sanitorium). The girl waved to us as we left and kept doing so until we were out of sight. All in all, it was a great day!

So that's all for part deaux. Thank you for all of you encouraging comments. It is very important to receive those, so far from home. We are still staying with Karen. We will do so until the kids give us a yes at which point we will try and move closer to them. We promise to let you in on their names and post their pictures once we move through court. We will have the BIG REVEAL that day, so stay close!

P.S. We bought train tickets to travel down to see Rimma and Zina for Zina's birthday on Saturday. We will go on Friday night and come back Saturday night, spending only one day. We will return a couple of weeks later to go to the SB orphanage and deliver all the gifts from to the children of UOO's 2007 & 2008 camps.

~ Felix ~

Three timid Ukrainian Angels!

We met out kids today and we both teared up as we saw the face of Jesus in them. This is the awesome untalked about aspect of adoption and we experinced a feeling like never before, except when my bio children were born. We ran high on emotion during the whole visit and it was all we drempt of and more!

The day started with a visit to the regional director's office and they gave us permission to visit the orphanage. A social worker accompanied us as we made our way to the outskirts of Kiev. We were ushered into the director's office and interviewed by one the nicest lady I have ever met in Ukraine. She asked us lots of questions and was excited that Heidi was a professional "working mom" (she says doesn't meet many working moms). She occasionally held my hand and talked of her happiness that a couple would adopt three. She gave us a tour of the orphanage while our driver and a staff member went to pick up the kids from school (they go to school nearby, not at the orphanage). Folks, this is the nicest orphanage I think I have ever seen, and I've toured half-a-dozen or so! This lady spends every dime and nickel on the kids and in return, they have a pretty good life there! They even have a small stadium that was built by an Italian organization. Sorry, I digress. You want to hear about the kids! Here we go...

We first met the eldest girl (12) in the hallway and she is adorable! She was polite, a little reserved and of course quiet a bit nervous. A few minutes later, the youngest, a boy (9) was introduced to us. He was tthe same, quiet and shy, but engaging. After this, we were taken back into the directors office and there sat all three including the middle girl (11). We talked with them (well, we talked mostly) and they listened intently, looking us over and checking us out. It was a great experince. They shyly asked a few questions, then Heidi told them that they did not need to make a decision that day. She told them that we would return the next day and that there would be a "competition" . They should write down their questions for us and the child with the most questions would win a prize. They all grinned at each other and I knew that they would try and be the winner. (Actually, they will all get a prize, unknown to them). We ended the meeting with them after an hour and a half. I told them that we would always take care of them, always protect them, and always love them. Their eyes light up and they escorted us out to the car, waving as we drove out of sight. More next time...

Switch-A-Roo

Many thanks for all the kind comments! We're sorry to burst your bubble, but we are doing a switch-a-roo on ya! Clarifying information came to light and we are now going to see the three kids at the other orphanage, not the kidos at Zhytomer. The other three kids are right here, in an orphanage just 30-ish miles away. In fact, we may stay in Kiev and take the daily bus there! How cool! The town is a villiage just southwest of Kiev.

As said before, both sets of kids were equally pulling at our hearts, so we went with the two boys and a girl. We can't get into it right now, but we have switched to the other set, a boy and two girls. They will be a good fit and we hope that they are equally as excited when we meet them tommorow and that they say "YES"! They became available less than two weeks ago! I wondered why our dossier was going slow...Devine intervention, AGAIN!

I've got a quick, funny little story to tag onto the end here. Heidi and I met with Dr. Yuri on Sunday night to get a little information on Ukrainian medical diagnosis. We went to a little coffee shop right near the McDonald's in Independence Square (can you tell that this place is the center of the Universe for us) . He ordered coffee and asked for the same thing. Heidi ordered, I quote, "Hot Chocolate". After 15 minutes or so, the waiter brought out our coffee and Heidi's "Hot Chocolate". It was actually a cup of heated, thick, pudding-like substance with a spoon. Heidi glanced at me and I snickered and Dr. Yuri just kept on talking. It seems that here in Europe, they have hot chocolate (Heidi's pudding) and cocoa (which is what she really wanted). Karen explained this last night and we had a good laugh. On the train ride home, I was all "giddy, bubbly and bouncy" (my words). I couldn't understand why I couldn't stay still, stop laughing, and acting insane. Then it hit me, I don't drink coffee and I just had a huge dose of some form of Ukrainian speed! I've been quiet, resrved and even stoic like most of my fellow Metro riders (these folks never smile, talk, or look up while on the Metro). But on "coffee night" as it has become known as, I was the crazy smiling American. They probably thought I was drunk! Needless to say, I didn't get to sleep until way past midnight. I won't do that again.

We were told that we would get our referal this afternoon. We will travel to see the kids on Wednesday morning. Keep those prayers coming! Seriously, I feel the hand of God in all of this! Thanks, everybody!

~ Felix ~

SDA Appointment

Praise God! Our appointment rocked! The SDA worker, Maria, was very friendly and helpful. Olga was amazing during the appointment. Love her! But on to the reason you all are reading this post...

We've requested permission to visit three children (two boys and a girl) in the Zhytomer region. Maria tried to call the orphanage to find out whether anyone visits the children (which would hinder a successful adoption), but the right person at the orphanage wasn't available during our appointment. So we should hear this afternoon whether or not we'll get the referral. If not, we have a backup choice that we were equally pleased with. In fact, it was very hard to choose between the two sibling groups. Funny...we were only shown sibling groups of 3. I guess the SDA didn't want to let us get away with only 2 kids!

If all goes well, we'll get the referral tomorrow and drive to the Zhytomer region on Wednesday morning. We were hoping to get lucky and get the referral today, but that's ok. It was clear that God was smiling on us today. We could feel His prescense today during our appointment, as everyone was super eager to help us.

We also met Valentina, Alla and Kostya today - the whole team was there to root us on!

At yesterday's church service, the sermon was about God working miracles through people. The pastor said that we shouldn't pray for miracles, but that God works miracles through people who are open to hearing His word. Today felt like a miracle! Thanks for all your prayers.

Ukraine Day 1

It is now 2:20 pm in Ukraine (4:20 am Denver)

Yep, we are here! We arrived safely with no problems. In fact, it was a breeze. There were only about 40 people on the flight from Munich, So when we arrived we didn't have a long line at customs. We had already filled out the paper on the flight and we were only four people deep in the immigration line. Next, we moved up to baggage claim. Heidi filled out the forms for customs while I retrieved the baggage. Our baggage was already waiting for us, just spinning around on the carousel. No one bothered us, no one tried to offer us services we didn't want, no one wanted forty dollars to help us, etc. We proceeded to the empty line at customs, a lady and a man said something to us in Ukrainian and Heidi offered them the forms she filled out. They didn't care, we were bothering their otherwise quiet shift at the customs desk. They handed the forms back to Heidi as fast as she handed them to her. In fact, they didn't look at them. No "let me see the bags", no "let me see the money" at all. We next moved onto the doors separating this area from the airport lobby area. Lots of people were gathered here and they were all looking for someone else...it was dead quiet and I heard someone snicker and laugh at the Anerican with too much luggage. (We bought only two carry-ons for ourselves, but the gifts for the children took up three huge bags). In all, the entire"get off the plane and get to the lobby" took about 10 minutes...a record!

We met Olga (very pretty facilitator) in the lobby. She was a few minutes late because she too thought that we would take an hour getting through customs and immigration. She was there with Sasha our driver and he loaded us up in his nice swank BMW 500 series sedan. (Wow, i'm in the wrong business!). We sped through the streets of Kiev on our way to Karen's apartment. I wondered if we were late for something. I'm not sure how fast 180 km/hr is, but we were doing it at one point. We got to the apartment in fine fashion, though. The haul up five stories with bags like ours was the only hard part of the trip!

We met with Olga, paid her the balance we owed Valentina, paid Sasha for the Indy 500 experience and got down to brass tacks. She said we will do fine at the SDA and that she foresees us getting exactly what we want due to the nature of our request (1-3 kids, ages 4-14). We discussed a few aspects of the appointment and called it a night. Heidi and I went to bed at eight-ish Ukraine time and I slept until 8 am this morning. Heidi said she woke up at midnight and read for a couple of hours before sleeping again. Twelve hours sleep after missing a night's sleep was great!

This morning we went to worship service at Karen's church, navigating ourselves with the instructions left by Karen and our own understanding of the Ukraine transportation system. Boy, did that trip back in April payoff! We took trains and busses and made it to church just in time to see our friends from April. The pastor, Paul, gave a fine message from the book of John and Acts. We met Steve, Karen's uncle and he prayed over us and then he called an orphanage director he knew to see if she had kids that met our profile. How nice of him! We explained to him that we may use that info at the SDA tommorow.

Right now, we are in Independence square using the internet cafe right down the street from McDonald's. We are having fun and are very excited. Don't worry about us at all. We will try and post after the SDA appointment tommorow and let you know something. Oh, one more thing...Aimee, Heidi sucessfully negotioated the bathroom stall at McDonald's. Matt, I was on constant vigilence as my honey was there, noting the time in case I needed to jump to the rescue! All for now, bye!

~ Felix ~

Arrived safely in Munich

Wie ghets, wos ist los? (forgive me, my German is rusty). We have arrived in Munich (about an hour ago) and it is 10:20 here but it is 2:18 back home. We both are very sleepy (I, Felix, do not sleep well sitting up). Heidi got a little more sleep than I did, but she is very tired too. We are at an airport restaurant called Weiners, Der Kaffee and I just enjoyed Viennese sausages with mustard for breakfast. Heidi had a little sandwich.

We met Heidi's family for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant outside Chicago's O'Hare airport. It was good to see Sally, Shannon and Max before we took off to the other side of the world. They gave us encouragement and hugs all evening as we spent time with them. Max took us back to the airport so we could catch our flight out.

We are gonna log off and find a nice quiet place to nap until our flight at 1pm. We will be in Kiev at 4pm (6am MST, Denver). No doubt we will snooze well tonight at Karen's place.

Aufweidesien!! (sp?)
Felix

Ready, Set, GO!

We are heading out now, the big day is finally here! We will fly through Chicago and Munich en route to Kiev, Ukraine. We will arrive Saturday at 4pm. We will be staying at Karen Springs' apartment until we leave for the region which our children are living. As many of you know, we are going "blind", meaning we don't know the children yet. This is the case with most Ukraine adoptions. Rimma and Zina aren't registered properly and we will have to return in the future for them.

We will try and blog as much as possible. Of course, this is dependent on the region we are in and whether or not we have Internet service or an Internet cafe nearby. I'm sure we will be able to blog, don't worry.

We will visit Rimma and Zina when possible. Zina has a birthday coming up and she has already begged us to be there for it. We will visit the kids from Stara B. that came on the hosting trip this summer. I wish that I could adopt a few of them, but they have registration issues too. We hope to work with AGAPE and CBN ministries while we are there as well. We will keep you posted.

So, put your tray tables up and your seat backs in the forward position! We will be "wheels up" in a little while and on our way to meet our kids!