Friends on the move!

We talked with Karen Springs of CBN this morning. She is departing in the morning for orphanage visits in the Kherson region. We told her that we will pray for her and to have a safe trip. She will see our girls and give them the jeans we sent a few weeks ago. She will give them hugs and kisses from their parents and take some photos for us. We didn't want to muddy the waters with our dealings for the girls and the work we are partnering with between CBN & UOO, so this is all that will come of Karen's participation. God bless you, Karen. Thank you!

On the other hand, Fran & Nancy of Heart For Orphans, are leaving today from the US. Fran is going to get Mariana. Then, both Nancy and Fran are going to Kherson on HFO business. While they are there, Fran will ask the director about R & Z's registration. They will also see the girls for us. Can you imagine the impact that these visits will have for R & Z? For 10+ years they have had no contact with anyone outside the internat, and now in one week two sets of people on our behalf...for them! Can you see that we are serious, Mr. Director??!! Please register ALL of your children, so that they may have the opportunity for forever families.

No news on our dossier or how it is going. Thank you for your continued prayers. It really works!

Девочка ест, мальчик пьет!

I bought, (or should I say I invested), in Rosetta Stone's language software for Russian this past Friday. WOW! What a language! And what a price tag! We want to learn so that we may better communicate with the Ukrainian people when we go there. I can foresee two adoption trips and two visits a year to see R & Z until we get them home. Even though Zina & Rimma and our other adopted children will have to learn English, I want them to retain their valuable Russian language shills. Wouldn't it be cool to have two nights a week at home that only Russian is spoken!

Rosetta Stone jumps you into full immersion, no translation at all. RS says this is the way you learned your native language as a child. I have to say, I agree with their system. I got started and I dreamed the words in my sleep last night. There I was trying to say something to Zina & Rimma, and they were giggling at my pronunciation!

The only news on the adoption front is that our friend Fran is traveling with Nancy (of the Williamsburg hosting group) to Ukraine tomorrow. Fran is going there to get Mariana. You can read more about her journey at http://rahnjourney.blogspot.com/ . Fran and Nancy know Rimma and Zina and they were praying that the girl's would find a forever family; enter us! Well, Fran is going to make a special trip down to Kherson with Nancy to see all of the kids that the Williamsburg group and UOO hosted. They will visit R & Z for us and find out about their registration. We have been unable to call the internat director due to translator issues. Pray that R & Z have had their registration started or completed. You may remember that the director told us that he resubmitted all of the children's registration paperwork when they returned to the internat. He asked us not to call him until mid-February for the status. We have honored his wishes, but we are prepared to hire a Ukrainian lawyer if nothing has happened.

By the way, if you're wondering what the Russian title to this post is...it is lesson one of RS. The photo should help you. It says, "Girl eating, boy drinking"!

A Father's Oath

Needless to say, I too am estatic about Rimma's request that we become her parents. Early on, before Rimma and Zina arrived, I saw their pictures and God drew me to them. Heidi and I have been charged by Him to care and provide for these two little girls. As a father, I feel I must protect them and keep them from harm. I was troubled when Rimma wasn't a part of the adoption plan and I vowed to do all that I could for her as she grew into a young lady. Now, I can concentrate on the final goal...I want them here at home.

I came upon this simple Father's Oath to his daughters the other day. In hopes that R&Z will someday read our blog when they are home, I want to post it here for them.

• I will love you unconditionally today and all the days to come.


• I will love and support you as you encounter life but I will not spare you from life’s lessons.


• I will not interfere with your right to grow, to make mistakes and to learn from them.


• I will support your right to autonomy.


• I will not become impatient with you as you perform a task.


• I will not diminish your achievements.


• I will offer discipline in your life and utilize opportunities to instruct, build character and teach responsibility and assist you in finding solutions and alternatives.


• I will teach you that beauty is secondary to character and self respect and experiencing meaning in life. Appearance and good grooming habits are important, but your efforts, achievements and performance are much more important.


• It will be a goal of mine to assist and guide the development of your self esteem so that you are only concerned about measuring up to your own standards.


• I will encourage you to take calculated risks, meet new challenges, overcome obstacles and deal with the real world.


• Although you will always be "my little girls," I will respect you as women in the years to come.

Jessica, Jordan, Zina and Rimma...I love you all and miss you all terribly. You all are in my thoughts and prayers each and every day. Love, Pappa.

Rimma's Ready!

Hold on to your heart! This morning was our bi-weekly call to Zina. She's doing well, studying hard, misses us - you know, the usual stuff. But then she said, "Hold on. Rimma wants to talk to you." Guess what?!? Rimma changed her mind! She wants to be our daughter!! She said that she is sure, and she is really excited about it. Wow! We were shocked and elated! I can't tell you how much I've been hoping and praying that she would want to be adopted. Rimma is such a gem - she's fun, spunky, girly. Wow. I'm still in shock.

A big thanks to Ellie for translating for us this morning on short notice. Lilya has a new job and has to work Saturdays, so we're looking for people to help us translate our telephone calls to the girls. We've been looking into our options to learn Russian - now it's becoming a big priority.

Wow. Did I mention I'm in shock? The girls are sisters once again!

Rumor

Well, the word from Cathy Harris is that all the gossip about submission dates (see 2/11 post) is just rumor. There is no truth to it.

This is good news and a huge relief. But we cannot even start to guess when our dossier will be submitted.

Ups and Downs of International Adoption

We know that we have been blessed with many wonderful people that are supporting us and helping us through the adoption process. But some days are harder than others.

Today we read the following post on one of the Ukraine adoption Yahoo groups:

"Submission for dossiers at the SDA is done through a list. Unless you are adopting a child with very special needs, no walkin, 'hand in' dossiers are accepted. Presently they are still working on the backlog from 2007, and it appears that the first 5months of this year they will be doing just that, THEN they will start to accept new dossiers. If your facilitator goes to the SDA today with a completed dossier in hand, but has NO submission appointment, (as they just started giving new submission dates out for year 2008, that means they aren't a carry over from 2007), then you will be given a number to submit. Presently they are up tonumber 1350, which will mean that your dossier won't even besubmitted to the SDA till around August 2008. There is a public list posted and presently they have through March 31 with the first 350. So if you have been told that you have a submission number of 600, do the math and figure you won't have our dossier submitted for review till June 2008. All documents still need to have the 6 months 'in effect', on the expiration dates, thus you must update your documentsto be 'good' at submission. The SDA is adhering to the 1453 total of adoptions for 2008."

Does that mean we have to wait until 2009 for our first adoption? I'm trying to find out if this information is accurate, but the only thing certain with internation adoption is uncertainty.

Hopefully this will help you understand why we cannot tell you when we will travel to Ukraine. There is no way to tell.

One Amazing Family

Through the adoption process we have met (via email, phone, and sometimes vicariously through blogs) the most amazing Christian families. One of my current favorites is the Eimers family. Several weeks ago they returned home from Ukraine with three adorable boys. I cannot tell their story nearly as well as Steve, so grab a Kleenex and check out a short video of their adoption story.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IcVtGEk2WYc

When you have more time, check out their adoption blog:

http://www.lovedalready.blogspot.com/

Wow - if we can be that blessed...

Our Friend - Karen Springs

Our UOO ministry (Ukraine Orphan Outreach) partnered with CBN to bring the Kherson kids to Colorado back in December. Tatianna was our contact and she escorted the children to the States. She now lives in Canada and is no longer with CBN. We received word that we would be hearing from Karen Springs, Tatianna's replacement. Karen is an American citizen living in Kiev following her calling from God to make a difference in the lives of orphans there, so we knew she had a heart of gold and God's blessings. We found Karen's website and what do you know, we found this picture of Karen with Rimma and Zina! We waited patiently to communicate with Karen until she finished up her visit to her home in Washington state and with the second round of Shoemaker kids in California. She e-mailed us this week - we were so excited to hear from her!

Karen heard about our blog from one of the Virginia host families. Karen spent two weeks with the orphans during their stay in Williamsburg in December before the kids traveled to Denver. In a few weeks she is going to travel to both of the orphanages in the Kherson area to to visit the kids. Karen kindly offered to talk to Rimma about where her heart is regarding our desire to adopt her. We can tell from Karen's photo that the girls trust her, so hopefully Karen will be able to help Rimma consider all of the factors of making this tough decision. We can't wait to see Karen's pictures from the trip!

We have been really blessed with our past relationship with CBN and with Tatiana's move to Canada, we were unsure about who we would be working with in the future, but once again, GOD had it all figured out! UOO will be meeting this week to formulate plans to partner with Karen and CBN on this year's Summer Camp in Colorado and on future endeavors.

Karen is a wonderful person, working for God's calling! We can't wait to work with her! You can visit Karen's website at http://www.karensprings.com/

Longing for a Home

Volunteers provided disposable cameras to each of the orphans during our cultural exchange camp in December. We developed the film for the kids before they went back to Ukraine, and I had CDs made so that we could make copies of their photos anytime.

I never tried to figure out which kids took which photos...but it just hit me. Zina took six pictures in a row of rooms in our house, including this shot of her room and Pepper-kitty.

Zina wants a home. She wants a family. Nothing else.

Our Angel

Today was the long awaited day - we talked to Zina again! Thanks again to Lilya, our friend and translator, for making this possible.

Zina is an amazing child. She was bubbly and excited - and speaking so quickly that Lilya had some difficulty understanding what she was saying! As usual, this child who has absolutely nothing, wants nothing. Her response today to our question, "Do you need anything?" was "No, I am fine, but I could ask Rimma if she needs anything." Zina is always thinking of others first.

Zina bravely spoke a few sentences in English today. She said that her English teacher has been spending extra time with her. When I asked her if her teacher would translate a Valentine's Day card for her (if I sent one un-translated), Zina answered that she would be able to read the English herself!

One of our biggest challenges (and Zina's only frustration) has been finding Ukrainian postage stamps for Zina to send letters to us. But luckily Lilya's brother, who still lives in Ukraine, is going to visit the girls in several weeks. He will bring them postage stamps. We have been mailing letters to Zina and Rimma every week, but for a long while they had only received one letter. Zina told us that they recently received four packages from us at one time!!! I wish she could receive them on a regular basis to keep her spirits high, but the good news is that the letters eventually made their way to her.

It was so good to here Zina's voice again.

(We still have the kissing swans she made, the ones in the lower right-hand corner of this picture)