A Big Hurdle

We received our Form 171-h today. As many of you in the international adoption world know, this is a huge deal...a big hurdle.

As we continue writing our first blog, we remember tidbits that we forgot to pass on to you. What we forgot to tell everyone is that we are asking for 2-3 kids, ages 2-9, preferably one or two of them girls. Heidi wants older kids (based on other blogs she reads and the fact that the UOO camp this December is comprised of ages 8-17). Felix wants younger (but has an open mind too, he likes a few of the kids bios that we have seen). Felix is softening!

Hmmnn, is it too late to ammend that homestudy??!!

Acting troop?

Let me explain the "Acting troop" reference in the previous post.

The Kherson orphan groupa traveled to VA as part of a performance of the Russian Shoemaker play. This is an annual travel program that helps with the cost of the hosting program. By accompanying the acting troop and performing a few songs during the play (mostly as extras), the kids get the opportunity to travel. When the two weeks is over, the acting troop continues on to California and meets up with another groupa, while our kids fly on to meet us here in Colorado. The stay in CO doesn't showcase the play, but the kids will get to sing at a few events and perform a hand-puppet show they have rehearsed.

We can't wait!

The Ukrainians have landed!

The Kherson Ukraine orphans, their accompanying acting troop and caretakers arrived in Williamsburg, VA on November 20th. HeartforOrphans is the other group and their website is http://heartfororphans.com/press/shoemaker.pdf

The Kherson group will spend two weeks there, then fly to Denver,Colorado. We will put the kids in three groups, staying at three different host homes. We will be one of the host families and the kids will spend each evening and morning with the three host families before being reunited for their daily activities and community involvement. (It is my understanding that they are in individual homes in VA).

What we won't go into in great detail is the hours and days of planning for their one week with us. We have had overwhelming community and volunteer involvement besides the three host families participation. Since this is our first hosting trip, the three host families are the three UOO member couples: The Carmen's, the Stoesz's, and the Rogé's.

Prologue

Hello to all of our family, friends and those who are interested in our progress of adoption from Ukraine. Our family is Felix & Heidi Rogé and we will both share, write and post updates as we journey down the "adoption road". Thank you for joining us.

We have a lot to catch you up on even though this is our first post. Many things have happened and we have neglected to post events as they have happened. We won't let this happen too much and we will get better at posting as we gain experience.

OK, where to start? Heidi and I decided to adopt from Ukraine in the Summer of 2007. When we did this (and started listening to God's plan for us and our family) a whole avalanche of help, information and people where brought into our lives. One day on a whim, Heidi found an article in another local town's paper about an Ukrainian Orphan Outreach (UOO) program of Northern Colorado. She told me about it and wanted to attend. I could not as I had to work, but she went ahead. At this meeting she met our future friends and fellow board members Eric & Angie Carmen and Clarke & Chris Stoesz. Heidi learned more about the plight of Ukrainian orphans and how this small group of UOO folks needed help. Armed with tons of information, she bounced home and unloaded everything on me that she had learned. It was at this time that we started our adoption paperwork and homestudy.

Over the next several months, our adoption paperwork plodded along and we became more and more involved with UOO. The other board members, the Stoesz's and Carmen's, asked us to join and so Heidi and I became board members in October. Here is the website for UOO.

http://www.ukraineorphans.org/

Also in October, the UOO group was excited to learn that our Kherson Orphanage trip we had planned had the go-ahead to travel the first week of December to the US. We had already made plans for an orphanage hosting trip back in the summer, but it did not materialize. Many of the children's Visas had not yet been approved. Now, we would be getting 17 kids from the Kherson region along with 3 caretakers. We would be splitting the cost of the trip with an organization in Virginia. Since we were new and had a small amount of funds, UOO would host the last third of the trip and Virginia would host the first two weeks. The cost of the tickets were pro-rated based on their stay and we purchased based on a stay in Colorado from December 5th to the 11th. Since we had planned back in the summer, we jumped into action and renewed our focus to give our orphans and our community the most memorable hosting trip possible.