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!

Sweetly Broken

At the cross You beckon me

You draw me gently to my knees, and I am

Lost for words, so lost in love,

I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

Jeremy Riddle

Sweetly Broken

Many of you know the chorus to the song, "Sweetly Broken". Heidi usually never asks for anything specifically for her birthday or Christmas, but this year she asked me for Jeremy Riddle's CD. She had found something that pinned down hers and our feelings on our faith and adoption.

Now, I don't want to alienate people who otherwise don't feel the same way or choose not to follow our path. We don't put people in different "stacks", Christian friends over here, non-Christian friends over there. We aim to be humble examples of our Father's Love to everyone. At our party on Saturday, our friends from many walks of life were present. And, I'm not above having a brew or two with friends. We love you all. I thought long and hard before naming our blog, but the truth is this is God's Plan. Heidi and I have struggles with letting go and following His plan, just like everyone else has struggles with aspects of their lives. We keep making mistakes, just like you do.

This past Sunday we ventured up to Ft. Collins to man our UOO booth for an adoption seminar and guest speaker engagement. Tom Davis, author of "Fields of the Fatherless" was the speaker. We set up the booth and answered many people's questions. We went solo because we were available that night (no kids, remember). It was a step out of our usual comfort zone, but it had to be done. It was an opportunity to advocate for the orphans of Ukraine in a forum that was geared towards caring for orphans worldwide. What better setting could you ask for, and it was fun! I met Tom, he signed my book, and we attended his talk. Tom spoke about his early struggles with not doing enough in his faith. He needed to do more than just sit in the pew on Sundays and he was looking for ways to engage his youth group in an affluent Dallas suburb. He took a group to a Russian orphanage and at that point he was "broken".

This is the case with Heidi and me. I appreciate all the nice comments, People say all the time that we are special, blessed people with hearts of gold. We thank you. The truth is, we are no different than you. We have been called to do this and we have been sweetly broken.

We leave in three days! Please continue to read our blog, think of us, and pray for a smooth adoption.

Our Last Hurrah

Last night we held our last hurrah party to celebrate our last weekend home without children! It was great to see everyone and catch up. The party was over by 9:00 p.m., so I guess we're already acclimated to life with kids! We made many promises to blog as much as possible during our adoption trip. Not knowing whether we'll have any or reliable Internet service, the promises all have a little asterisk* attached!

Thanks to everyone who brought gloves, hats and scarves for the orphans of Ukraine! More thanks to all the pen pals in Colorado sending letters and gifts with us for their UOO pen pals in SB. It will be a privilege to hand deliver the goodies to the orphans! Thanks also for the survival package from the Stoesz family! We'll try not to eat all the candy before we meet our kids!

Stay tuned...more coming soon about our evening at Timberline Church with Tom Davis (author of Fields of the Fatherless). Wow!

You talkin' to me??

Only a week and a day to go and we are anxiously waiting for the day. Part of me is excited and part of me is worried about the unknown. With so much at stake and the uncertainty of it all, I have been praying for help. Then this message came...this was K-LOVE's scripture of the day, yesterday. Do you think he's talking to us?!! ~Felix~

Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.
~ Psalm 27:14, NLT ~

The Garrett's are home!

Aimee, Matt & Anya arrived last night from their long journey from Ukraine. Kari, Heidi and I met up with their family at the water fountain at Denver International Airport. The Barrett family attended as well. Aimee & Matt were supposed to fly ahead of Anya and wait for her on a later flight, but they were able to get everyone on board the same flight. Despite the fact that an elderly lady died 10 minutes into the flight to Chicago, they arrived at DEN early. I'll let them tell the story on their blog, listed to the side over there under "Our Friend's Links & Blogs". They all looked very tired and exhausted, but they were very happy to have the welcome committee. Anya was a joy to meet and talk with, she is very animated and Matt wasn't kidding when he said, "She's all drama", but in a good way! We hope to see more of them and the family as the years go by. For now, we will let them rest up.