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)

Katya and Inna

Zina and Katya

Great news from Williamsburg!! A family is in the process of adopting one of the Ukrainian children that visited Colorado in December. They are also trying to help her older sister that will turn 18 in June.

Katya and Inna weighed heavy on my heart for months before they came to the US. I thought about them, prayed about them, talked to friends about them and thought about them some more. On one hand I felt drawn to protect them, and on the other hand I struggled with the older sister being 17 years old. But we got word before the children arrived in Colorado that a family in Williamsburg was very interested in adopting these two girls. I was relieved and thankful that the girls would be safe! The ironic part is that this family was also touched by Zina as I was touched by their girls.

Lisa - can you email me? I'd like to share photos and stories. heidiroge@excite.com

We are back

Hi everybody! We got back Monday evening at 8:30-ish. We have been busy getting back into our work & home routine. We are still washing clothes, emptying sand out of luggage, and catching up on e-mails. We had a great time and we sailed to many ports of call in the US & British Virgin Islands aboard the 45' Catamaran, the "Hound Dog". We went to Jost Van Dyke, Tortola, Norman Island, St James Island, St John, and St Thomas. The highlights for me (Felix) were; sailing into Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, going to Foxy's on Jost, and snorkeling in Maho Bay-St John. Although we had lots of fun, I can't wait to sail with our future children, and, at times I was a bit melancholy. When Zina was here during the hosting trip, she saw our photo albums of our other Island trips and said she would love to go to places like that and swim at a beach. My fun and joy will be seeing those kinds of trips through our children's eyes, in the future.

More good news! Heidi and I received our Homestudy addendum. Remember, the one requesting a change in our age ranges from 2-9 yrs old to now read 4-14 yrs old. It was done and in the mail when we got back. As I write this, Heidi is driving to the CO State Dept to get the apostil done. We anticipate sending it to Valentina tonight or in the morning. She is already hard at work translating our dossier and knows this small piece is coming. Also, Heidi's sister Sally completed the marriage certificate "Jr." blunder. She wrote a statement saying that she witnessed the marriage and that Heidi did indeed marry me, Felix "Jr." and not my dad, the other Felix. She got it notarized and apostilled. It will be in the mail soon from Illinois, where Sal lives. As this is not a requirement for the dossier, we are told to hold this in reserve and present it if and only if any official in Ukraine questions why the "Jr" was omitted on the marriage certificate. Me thinks a quick weekend trip to Nassau, Bahamas (where we were married) should be taken to ask for the "Jr. to be added. Everyone else, however, feels that this will be enough to resolve the matter. By the way, aren't you tired of me writing "Jr."?

I will post a couple of pictures of our trip as soon as I can get our camera to come back from the dead. I suspect that the humidity did it in for good. Perhaps I can retrieve pictures from the stick.

Our Last Vacation before Adoption

Sailing aboard the Moorings 45' Catamaran

We will be gone on vacation for the next 10 days. We will return Monday, January 28th.

For now, we have done everything possible for our dossier that is within our power. Heidi got to work on our missing "Jr." on the marriage certificate. We think we have it ironed out. We hope to have an apostilled document from Heidi's sister, Sally, when we get back home. Sally was a witness on our marriage certificate and can attest that Heidi married Felix Jr.

We booked a sailing vacation back in the early Fall of 2007 for this January. Felix wishes we could get our money back and go to Ukraine to see Zina. Any future overseas travel for the next two years will be to Ukraine. We will adopt other children this year, visit Zina too, and hopefully adopt Zina on a return adoption trip in 2009. So, we will go on our last vacation alone and have a good time. We will post when we get back.