Day 19, Friday Night Date!

Day 8 of our 10 day wait is in the books. Not that I was worried, no one has come forward for Lizzie in her 8 years at the orphanage, but I can say that we are officially out of the woods now! Our court and any official involved in the adoption has the weekend off, so we will get the decree on Monday morning!

I'm picking Lizzie up at 10am on Saturday and spending the whole day with her. Sunday, I will get her at 9am. Both nights, she has to be back by 6:30pm. I am pressing Tanya to spring her on Monday and I will know for sure on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile. Lizzie and I enjoyed a little father-daughter date. We went out to a new restaurant in Kherson called Lenin's. It was great! Best Greek salad in Kherson!

2 more days!

Facebooking with Mom & sisters

She loves the PJs mom got her!

~ Felix ~

Day 18, All apples are not created equal!

The subtleties are around, scattered around much of Ukrainian life. The lingering effects of communism and Soviet-thinking are there if one looks for them. Sometimes they are blindingly evident...such as the need to deregister and reregister addresses when you move. This was a way for the Soviets to keep track of where everyone was and to keep tabs on them. If one moved to a new location back in the cold war, this was done, along with a long approval process to move in the first place. To this day, when we have adopted, we have had to accomplish this task. Another such occurrence is the inability for anyone to make a decision or sign-off on something. Their reasoning is that "it is not allowed" or "my supervisor must do that" when indeed, it is their job to accomplish said task. Heaven forbid if the supervisor is out on a one or two week vacation. That kind of news can stall an adoption quicker than a jackrabbit on a date!

But that's not what I'm writing about today. We haven't experienced any of that on this adoption. All is going smoothly. So what has my dander up you may ask. Nothing really, I'm so thankful to God for helping us and to you for praying for us! I just have an observation to note during this, day 7 of our 10 day wait.

We're talking apples and oranges here! No, not the quip about differences. Really...apples and oranges. Perhaps this discussion will bring forth your observations of how Soviet-thinking still permeates Ukrainian culture. Perhaps we will get some funny comments as well. Sorry, I digress...here's my story.

Two days ago, I was in a well known supermarket here in Kherson. In the produce section of all grocery stores stands a lady next to a scale. You select the fruits or vegetables you want, then you put them in a bag and take them to the lady where she weighs them, puts a bar code with the price on them, and hands them back to you. To us, it seems a ridiculous task to have a person do this when in the US we all have it weighed and priced at the register. But OK, when in Rome! But what if you change your mind, what if you want more or less. What if! Enter my dilemna.

My first selection was Navel oranges. Not knowing why there was two prices on everything, I proceeded to the scale-lady (which she will be known as from this point) to get my selection priced. Once it was done, my young translator friend proceeded to explain to me that the lower price was if I bought 2 or more kilos of fruit. So, I opened the bag, ripped off the bar code and reached for another orange to put me over 2kg. Well, you would have thought I committed treason. Oh, the drama that ensued! Further ranting in Russian occurred when I used an unmanned scale to see if I was over 2kg! Thankfully, I wasn't arrested! But, I did catch the attention of everyone in the produce section. I was the "Stupid Americanski" who wasn't following the fruit rules!

My second selection, which brings me to the main focus of my story, involved some of the most beautiful apples I have ever seen in Ukraine. Now I admit, I'm an apple snob! My apples have to be "just so" for me to eat them. My favorite apples are the small Gala apples that taste like sugar and are so crisp that they snap when you bite into them! I prefer them chilled and fresh off the tree. I'm passionate about Gala apples! I won't eat any other apple! Also, I can't stand a mushy apple, you might as well have shoveled dirt in my mouth, yuck! So, when I saw these apples at the supermarket...in all their perfect "Felix-required" awesomeness, I had to have them! There they were, in the biggest pile right in the center of the produce section in all their splendor! Right next to this pile of beautiful apples was about 3kg of older bruised apples of the same type. I put my best of the best selections in the supermarket approved fruit bag and proceeded to scale-lady. What happened next was bewildering to me!

The produce crowd had dissipated due to the fact that they all wanted to get away from the "Stupid Americanski" without the knowledge of produce protocol. So it was just me and scale-lady. She said something, which of course, I didn't understand and I just stood there. Then she walked away! "Huh, what? Where are you going?" For five minutes I stood there, I think I scratched my head several times, checked out my apples due to the fact they must be full of worms or something, and waited for her to return. When she did, I received another scolding. Let me tell you, people were now avoiding me and the produce section like we were a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl. Just about that time, my translator friend showed back up and he proceeded to tell me the reason for all the angst.

They wouldn't sell the apples to me because they had not been priced by the person who set them out on the previous shift and they wanted the old apples sold first! "Huh, WHAT!!" Here, in the middle of the produce section, was the biggest pile of the most perfect apples ever seen and no one was buying them, because THEY WERE NOT PRICED and you want to SELL the 3kg of old apples first!! YOU'RE KIDDING ME RIGHT? Also, unless the market fluctuates drastically, aren't they the same price as the old apples? I stood there for another five minutes trying to reason with the thinking of scale-lady. I tried another five minutes to buy those apples to no avail. Visions of the soup Nazi from Seinfeld came to mind, "NO APPLES FOR YOU"!

To make matters worse, I went to the same store the next day (yesterday) in hopes of buying those beloved apples. Guess what, all but 5kg of the most ugly, bruised and spotted ones were gone. Seems word got out in the neighborhood that the apples had been priced and the "Stupid Americanski" had left! Last night I dreamt of dancing Gala apples laughing at me, they were singing, "Stupid Amercanski"!

~ Felix ~

Day 16, Incandescently Happy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
- Mahatma Gandhi

That quote sums up the entire experience in getting Lizzie home and in our family. I'm reminded daily, everytime I look into her eyes, that this was not suppose to happen. In fact, we were told that it would never happen and that people would stand in the way to make it not happen. Like I said with Rimma's adoption...GLAD WE DIDN"T LISTEN!! Rather, we prayed, pushed forth and followed God's Plan for Lizzie and us. Truth is, a lot of events fell into place one by one to be here now. Events so insurmaountable, that I truely believe that prayer and God's hand in all of this, made it possible.

1.) Her records were a mess and no true record exists before 2008, when we started the work
2.) Her mother's rights were never terminated, she was abandoned at the orphanage over 8 years ago
3.) We later found her mother in prison. In Ukraine, this means that a prisoner's rights to their child can NEVER be terminated while they are in prison. We felt for sure that Lizzie would never be adoptable during her mother's sentence, which could have been years.
4.) Miraculously, Lizzie's mother gets out of prison, but no work was getting done on the termination of rights.
5.) We traveled to Ukraine 4 times (2 adoption trips included) to plea for Lizzie's case.
6.) Team Oleg gets her documents in order and gets the courts to terminate the mother's rights
7.) Lizzie undergoes the 1 year wait for international adoption for the only family in her life and the ones she loves.
8.) 2010 and 2011 seem to be the years for record moratorium votes. She and we survive no less than 5 votes during this timeframe.

Now we are here, our court date is behind us, we are in the 10 day wait with 5 days to go, and we are having a record adoption...hoping to be out in under 4 weeks. I spend every evening with Lizzie and catch her waiting in the window for me as I arrive. It warms my heart! As I was looking at her today, I remarked on how much, but yet how little she has changed over the last three years. Take a look, tell me if you see a big change. She certainly is a happy child now. Everyone at the orphanage says that since we entered her life, she has been very "glowing". I call it "Incandescently Happy", like Jane Austin says at the end of Pride & Prejudice. Just so happens, the happy girl in that book/movie is named Lizzie, too!

This is a photo that our friend Angie took of Lizzie during the 2007 UOO camp. It was our first in-person contact with her and I knew at day one, she would be our daughter.

Unable to rest and worried sick about Lizzie and Rimma, we took a fact-finding and mission trip to Ukraine in April of 2008. We snapped this photo right outside her orphanage that Spring of 2008. This was our second in-person contact with her.
During our adoption in November of 2008, we took a few days of from our duties and traveled to see her for her 13th birthday. Here she holds a cake and candle while we all sing to her. This was our third in-person contact.

We made a pledge to the girls to come see them at least once a year until we got them home. For three years, our only "vacations" were to Ukraine for them. We decided to come on Rimma's September birthday in 2009. Here, Lizzie is approaching 14. This is our fourth in-person contact.

In January 2010, we came for Rimma since she was the first registered. Lizzie and others hinted that we needed to come get Rimma out and soon due to the notice she was creating. We made the hard decision to do so and in March 2010, I had to leave Lizzie behind. She had become registered for adoption, but her 1 year international clock had just started. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do when I pushed her away from me, crying, into the arms of her caretaker the night Rimma and I left the orphanage to go home. This photo was snapped the day before and you can see the sadness in her expression. Our fifth in-person contact.

Seeing Lizzie so distraught and worrying that a year would be too long for her without her family, we pushed really hard to have her come home to Colorado instead of us traveling to Ukraine. We reasoned that it would break the wait up in half and would help lift her spirits. We had been turned down the previous two sumers by the orphanage director, so this was a long shot. Finally, his familiarity with us, the fact that we adopted Rimma, and bringing Vika and a chaperone led to his decision to let her come home for 10 weeks. It was a wonderful time and her English skills exploded! It was hard to send her back again, but we all said "she was going away for 6 months of boarding school, then coming back home for good"! This photo was taken in the summer of 2010, our sixth in-person contact.

So that's it...Lizzie in three years. This, our seventh in-person contact with her promises to be forever! We both can't wait until we take this walk out of the orphanage for good, on our way to our family. Forevermore!

~ Felix ~

Day 13, Lizzie fashion show!

This is the scene that greets me most everyday, Lizzie at her orphanage window ,waiting for me. I spend every evening with her and weekends too. She has to be back to the orphanage by 6:30 each night, but that will end once the next 8 days expire. Then she will be free!

So what do you do with all that free time on a Saturday? Why, have a father-daughter date and go shopping for new boots and a jacket of course! We brought along friends, Sasha and Vika too! Lunch was at Cafe Monia for pizza, followed by shopping at the bizzare, then a couple of hours of ice skating. Dear 'ole Dad sat on the sidelines and read a book. I like to keep my bones unbroken, thank you.

Until next time...enjoy the Lizzie fashion show!

~ Felix ~

Day 11, O' Happy Day

Today's post comes from one extremely happy young lady...

Today my prayers have been answered and my new name is Elizabeth Rachael Rogé! My dad says at 12:19pm the court said yes to my adoption and my new family! I am very happy and will get to come home very soon!



~ Lizzie ~

Day 10, Court Tomorrow

Yes! We have court tomorrow at 11:40! Everything has gone according to plan...actually, we are ahead of schedule! Praise the Lord! After three hard years of working towards this moment, it is finally happening. It's hard to understand God's timing and plans, but we learned to let go and trust in The Plan.

If all goes well, and it should, Lizzie will forever walk out of the orphanage on Valentines Day, February 14th. She will no longer be an orphan! We will still have to do the mandatory 10 day wait after court, but we are in the home stretch now!

Heidi and Jordan will leave me and Lizzie tomorrow to head for home when we are done with court. Only one parent needs to be present for the finish-up work. Jordan has school, and Heidi is needed at home with the kids. Thank you again to all our friends and family for helping with our children! On her way out, she will go to the US embassy and do her half of the paperwork, which should be Friday. She should fly out Saturday and will arrive the same day.

All for now, we are at Andrei's parents house for dinner and the borscht is ready. I am being called.

I'll see about posting some pictures tonight about our orphanage visit to SB to see the 2008 campers. I'll also post after court tomorrow.

~ Felix ~

Day 8, Jordan's Birthday Party

Jordan turned 17 today! I can't think of a greater gift than those who have nothing giving of themselves. Happy Birthday, Jordan.


Lizzie's groupa singing Happy Birthday!



Heidi showing love to two orphan girls.

That is all for now. We are scheduled to have court on Thursday morning, but that is dependant on the SDAs approval and sending our documents by Wednesday. So we wait. If court happens this Thursday, the 10 day wait is over on the 13th of February. I would spring her from the orphanage forever on Valentines Day! Barring an "unforeseen circumstance", we could be home by the weekend of February 19th!

I tell you this because I don't believe in superstition or jinxing things, I believe in the power of prayer and God's Love for us! I feel your prayers working here for us and after 3 long years, perhaps God feels it is time, too!

~ Felix ~