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!

Ukraine Trip - Sasha (Alex) & Vera

Before I ever met Sasha, I saw him on the DVD that Marianna left with us. (Marianna was the AGAPE caretaker that chaperoned the kids in our house last December). The way he conducted himself on that documentary moved me to want to met him one day. His passion for helping the orphans of Ukraine is very evident. I figured meeting him was out of the question since he was a "Big Guy" with AGAPE and had to do the responsibilities associated with being the president of such an organization.

(AGAPE, meaning God's Love, is a christian based organization providing bible study in the orphanages and to transitioned youth in Technical schools. They also offer free housing to transitioning orphans that may otherwise find themselves on the streets. AGAPE runs a free van rides to the transitioned kids to several bible studies each week in addition to many other services, all centered on orphans.)

The week before we decided to buy our plane tickets, we were distraught with the news from the director (see "Talk to the Hand" entry). We had talked to Karen about not coming and she said that she had an interesting conversation with Sasha with AGAPE. This conversation was about an American couple that was asking questions about two girls at the internat in Kherson. The director had asked Sasha if he knew these people, Sasha in-turn called Karen and asked if she knew these people, and of-course she did! It was us! Karen explained the situation and Sasha said to come to Kherson and he would secure visits with Zina and Rimma. He would also get us a place to stay at the HOB and let us us his driver to visit the other four orphanages. WOW! This compelled us to listen to God's gentile voice telling us to let go, trust him, and get on the plane!

We met Sasha the first day we arrived in Kherson. We were picked up from the train station by his driver, Vanya, and taken to church. Karen had talked to Sasha that morning and he had asked me to speak at the service. I quickly said a prayer and asked for guidance and in a flash, God sent me a message. At the service, when it was my turn, Sasha and I took the stage and he translated my words. I had met my Ukrainian Hero! Over the next week, Sasha asked me to talk a few more times to congregations and bible studies. His wife, Vera, helped us during the Teremok Baby House visit and she cooked us a very special Ukrainian dinner at their house one night, complete with Borscht. Sasha made it possible to visit Zina and Rimma and eventually we were given free reign at the internat. He accompanied us on a number of visits to orphanages and everywhere we went the children called him "Uncle Sasha".

It us evident that Sasha and AGAPE need help with their ministry in Ukraine. We toured his offices, the transition houses, and the classroom programs that his organization sponsors. AGAPE always accepts financial contributions, but they need much more than that (AGAPE is funded via private churches in California). For example, AGAPE just bought a 5000 sq/ft house for transitioning orphans that needs renovating. While we were with Sasha one day, he took numerous calls from an organization in California that is sending him a furnace for the house. The problem is that no one there knows how to install American heating systems. They mostly use radiant heat. So Sasha needs contractors, home builders, volunteers with hammers, volunteer house parents, etc. Most of all, AGAPE needs Christian visitors to show the transitioning youths and his fellow countrymen that we are willing to journey there to speak, comfort, and offer our time to "the least of these".

If you would like more information on volunteer opportunities with AGAPE, post a comment and we can send you the contact information. Thank you.