Flight Info

We will be arriving in Denver on Christmas Eve! I appreciate the welcoming gathering we all have started doing for our Colorado families, but please do not feel that you need to drag your families out to a crowded airport on this very special day, we understand. For those of you who won't listen to me, our flight information is listed below.

We will probably not be able to blog until we get home, so this may our last entry until that time. One of my favorite Jimmy Buffett tunes says it all, "If the phone doesn't ring, it's me!" So no news from us will be good news. If something happens with the visas tommorow, we will tell you. Otherwise, consider our silence to mean that we are indeed on that plane and coming home!

24DEC KLM 3097 KIEV BORISPOL to AMSTERDAM arriving 8:45am

24DEC KLM 6041 AMSTERDAM to MINNEAPOLIS STPAUL arriving 12:40pm

24DEC KLM 6549 MINNEAPOLIS STPAUL to DENVER arriving 3:34pm

See you soon!

Blessings,

Felix

We will be home for Christmas!!

Guess what??!! You prayed us home! Today at 2pm the passports came in and we are ecstatic! We didn't haggle about the expedite fee, I agree with all of you that said, just pay and get out. However, the office reduced the fee from $300 per child to $200, so we saved $300 and for that we are grateful.

There was some indications this morning (Monday) that the passports would be coming in so Heidi called the embassy to ask if we could come in that afternoon and get the paperwork started. Usually the visa applications are only taken in the morning, but they made an exception for us. We arrived at about 2:30 and the kids got a kick out of going through the security screening process...they loved the wanding!

A very friendly lady helped us sort through the paperwork, well, she helped Heidi. I collapsed in the chair and watched as the kids huddled around Heidi at the window, eager to see what process was taking place to get them home. Thanks Twyla for the heads up on completing those forms beforehand and just signing them there. Heidi downloaded the forms last week and we were ready to go when we arrived. An hour after we arrived, the applications were accepted and we were told to start our medicals in the morning and to try and be back there at the embassy before noon. We are in the "system" now and our visa appointment will be in the afternoon, tommorow. That will be the last hurdle before going to the airport on Christmas Eve morning!

We met the Volfs at the train station yesterday (Sunday) morning and we all went to the ICA church were Karen and her family attend. Most of you read their blog too, so you know that they were coming up from Kherson to pick up Tatum and Austin at the airport on Monday. We attended service and afterwards we had lunch at Friday's. Kari and Jim spent the night with us and got to see all of the public trasportation that Ukraine has to offer. We used the Metro, the bus and the Martsuka to get back home. This morning we all loaded back up in a Martsuka and caught the first Red Line Metro station we came to. We parted ways as we were headed to the passport agency (and unknown to us, the embassy too) and they were headed to the airport. After all of the above mentioned excitement for us, we met back up with them in Independence Square for dinner, Tatum and Austin in tow. It was good the see the Volf kids agian and it was a treat to spend a couple of days with Jim and Kari. We will see them again in Longmont in a couple of weeks when Kari, Tatum and Austin return. Jim will follow in late January with their two Ukrainian additions!

Please focus prayers to the Volf family, the Christopherson family and the Hoffmann family. Rollie and Leena will have their SDA appointment on January 20th. Three more Colorado families bringing home Ukrainian Angels!

Still Waiting

I'm sorry to everyone for losing it yesterday. Please forgive me. We are still waiting for the passports. But, we can relax a little. God can hear your prayers because he delivered us a helper. A friend of a friend is a big boss inside the passport center. If we don't hear something soon, we will invoke his help. Also, we called the US Embassy. The way that their e-mail notification reads suggests that they will not be open from 24 December to 12 January. Instead, they will only be closed for adoption purposes on the 24 & 25 of December and the 1 & 2 of January. They said that they would not do that to us and that they would process us out. We will just have to find an approved physician to get the medicals done. So, we aren't moving forward yet but, it's not so bad news as we first perceived. We may be flying home on Christmas...but who knows at this point.

Yesterday we blew off some steam and took the Marsutka into Kiev. The last stop on #720 delivers you right in front of the Circus (round building pictured beyond the kids) and the Ukrainia Mall. On the top floor is a fabulous restaurant where you pick your food out like a cafateria style place. It's cheap too! I think we paid 297 grivna (about 30 USD with the rate right now) for all these fixings! Heidi liked it too because she could see what see was getting before she got it. That's my borsct, plov, chicken and crab salad on the end.

Right next to the restaurant is a video arcade and I gave the kids 5 grivna each and explained that when it was gone, they were done. They used it all up in five minutes which was what I expected. I had read that each game was 5 grivna, hee hee hee! No worries though, they didn't complain because it was time for our movie. A movie was the biggest reason for traveling to Kiev and we had already bought our tickets. It was another bargain at $15 USD for all of us. The movie theater is located on the same floor of the mall as the restaurant so it wasn't far to walk. I got everyone some popcorn and we still had our sodas from the restaurant. Side note, five things that I like about Ukrainian movie theaters over American ones: You can walk in with previously purchased stuff here! They have free hat and coat check, beer is served at the concession stand, snacks are cheap $5 USD for 5 popcorns, seating is assigned (you buy your specific seat from a chart located at the ticket office). We saw the new release of Bolt or Volt, whatever. It is a new Disney release and it was opening day. There were only a dozen people in the whole theater including us for the 3pm showing. We followed along with the Russian, not really understanding all the language, but the kids loved it. They laughed out loud several times!

We did a bit of shopping too. Shopping therapy really does help! I especially felt at home in the Colombia store and I felt like I was at home in Colorado...I didn't want to leave! We picked up a few items and I got some new PJs and a few more undershirts to ease my clothing frustration. The girls needed some new undergarments as well and Kole got a better knit cap.

As we were leaving on the first floor, people started gathering around a water fountain in the middle of the mall. A red carpet was rolled out to it and I assumed that we were about to be treated to Santa's arrival (I had seen him earlier in the mall). Music started playing and all of a sudden six mallards and two drakes came waddleing down the red carpet and hopped into the water fountain! The music continued and the ducks swam while we watched for the next 10 minutes. I tried to cut it short and escort my children out as one of the boy duckies started getting a little friendly in the pool. In fact, he got friendly with all his girl duckies as I huddled my groupa (Heidi was outside on the phone). Picture a blushing American man futily rounding up his laughing kids while Mother Nature is on display to all. I'm LOL right now as I type this. Oh well, noone else of the 200 or so onlookers made a big deal about it, so I gave up after awhile. Noone else hid their kids eyes so I guess it was par for the course here in Ukraine. Talk about you "heavy petting" zoo!

By this time, everyone was growing hungry again. Heidi knew that we were only a few blocks away from the train station and that there is a McDonald's by the train station. So off we went! We gobbled up a few hamburgers and McNuggets as we enjoyed a bit of our American culture. It was approaching 8pm and I made the decision to take a taxi home instead of walking several blocks back to the #720 Martsuka stop, and waiting for it to arrive. We have learned enough to know that taxis are more expensive from the train sation due to the fact that the station is in the center of town and that they know that they can charge more. (A cabbie wanted 250 grivna to Boyarka.) So, we jumped on the Metro ($1 USD total for five of us) and rode it to the closest stop to Boyarka where the taxi only costs 80 grivna every time. Sure enough, our guy wanted 80 and we loaded up to go home.

When we got home ice had covered the entire parking lot of our Christian school/living quarters. The kids got a big kick out of us letting them "fake skate" and play. Our missionary friend Becky teaches an adult English night class twice weekly on the first floor. All of her students have become our close friends and we have sat in on the class, helping with instruction from time to time. (It was these guys with whom we gathered for Thanksgiving, at Becky and Nadya's house). They are all Christians and Becky had told them of our plight. One of the students, Zhenya, knows someone at the passport office. Thus, God worked his grace on our situation as we were enjoying another wonderful day with our children. Another student named Roman, who took us to the train station once, told us that we will spend Christmas day with him and his family! I jokingly explained that I hoped to let him down. He understood.

Many thanks and blessings to all of you who rushed to comfort us with your comments. I teared up just reading them. Thank you for the nosebleed recommendations. For some strange reason, Julia started asking for more eggs and she eats them regularly. This has helped. Thanks June. Thank you Twyla for sending the article, we will use it. Lynn, thank you, too. Matt, thanks for making me laugh when I pictured that tank rolling up in front of the pasport office! Thank you all for bringing a smile to my face and reminding us that we have such a large support group! Thank you to all who have written! God bless you all!

Now I must be off. It is St. Nickolas day here and I have been told that it is a custom to bring home a small gift to you children. The outdoor market is right down the street and shopping is a plenty. I saw a shop with some small toys and such. We hope to hear something today about our passports (it is mid-day Friday right now). The embassy closed for a half day today so this week is shot. Kari and Jim will come up on the train this weekend to pick up their kids who are arriving from the US. They will stay with us for a night or two before heading back to Kherson. So, all is done that can be done for this week. Monday starts a new, but short, week. Perhaps we will get it all wrapped up in time to get home by Christmas. At any rate, we will be surrounded by close friends here for the weekend and by you, our close friends who came to our rescue with kind words of aid and hope. I truely love you all...

~ Felix ~

Serious Setback

More photos have been posted under "the past few days" in our photo link.

Quite honestly, this has been an awlful week! We have been waiting on the passports since last Friday when we applied for them. Without the passports, we cannot proceed to the next three phases (visa appointment at the US embassy, medical exams, buying airline tickets). The saving grace has been seeing Jesus everytime I look at my children's faces.

The bad news came today at 1pm. It seems that the passport office either lost or erased the passport photo of Kolya. The sweet part is that they didn't feel the need to tell anyone until the day we were to pick up the passports! And we couldn't ask them how things were going for the past three days while we sat around waiting for them to tell us that they lost the photo! How nice! The kicker is that the girls' passport are ready and we could start the above mentioned three processes and get one of us and the girls out of here, but, they will not release those to us without all siblings' passports. I guess they think that we will leave one of the kids behind! Get real! Also, they have the audacity to insist on the expediting fee of $300 per child for "helping us" get passports sooner!

So what does all this mean??!! We WILL NOT BE COMING HOME THIS WEEKEND! Yes, that's me shouting! There is no way to get the passports in time before the embassy closes at noon on Friday. In fact, if we don't get the passports, medical exams, and visas done by Tuesday night, December 23rd, we will be stuck in Ukraine until January 13th! The embassy will be closed for the holidays except for emergency situations. Guess what, adoption is not an emergency situation! That gives us three more working days and the passport office doesn't care, it's not their problem!

If we do get everything done by next Tuesday night, we then battle for space on already packed and booked holiday flights. We may have to spilt the group with me taking one or two and Heidi taking the rest. Suddenly, flying the opposite direction to go in the right direction doesn't seem so pressing! Next week, I run out of paid vacation and leave time. Heidi is ok with work until the first week of January, but I may have to invoke the Family Medical Leave Act for work and go unpaid. I cannot and will not leave her here by herself!

I'm angry, i'm upset and I had to watch my dear wife lose it and cry in front of our petrified children, today. She is losing weight because she doesn't like the food and she works so hard to feed our children. We both are struggling and I've been whining, but I had no idea how hard Heidi has been taking things until today. She is a tough, strong person and all who know her do know this. She and I aren't homesick or wanting home for ourselves, it's our children that we need to get home. They and we, need more than two changes of clothes. The kids need to be seen by doctors and dentists. Little Julia has been getting nosebleeds since coming home from the sanitorium and we don't know why. We have started pumping vitamins to each of them twice daily and we have seen a significant change in their physical appearance since they have been eating like kids should. We need to get home! We have children now that we are happy to provide for, but it is an enormous challenge with an uncooperative broken system.

So it is with heavy hearts that we ask all of you, everyone, to get on your knees and pray us home, please! His will be done.

~ Felix ~

Weekend Outing

My bitter disposition has improved since Friday! This is due to a few different activities. We have new pictures of our weekend posted in the albulm, "Night at the Museum".

We started with a "just go outside and have fun day...and get dirty too!" day. The kids and I have been cooped up and we needed to just break loose. On Friday we went outside and had a good time in the snow. I figured that we were close to the apartment, we could get warm quickly if needed, and we had a washing machine. Both Heidi and I participated in a snowball fight on the school grounds. We got a few looks from passer-byers who thought we were crazy and a few that thought children should be more bundled up than just a coat. Oh well, cultural differences, I guess!

Saturday, we ventured into Kiev see a couple of museums. I needed a happy meal! We walked down to the end of the street to catch a marshutka (little buses used for inner city travel). They are much cheaper than getting a taxi and quicker than the train you have to wait on. We froze our hinnys off a couple of weekends back waiting and hour or longer for it. Side note: for those friends of ours who live in frigid temperatures who tell me, "they are used to the cold", yeah right! You may be used to it, but that doesn't mean that you go outside and stand in bitter cold with the wind blowing for and hour or two with three kids! It's more like, two or three minutes from you house, to your car and out for shopping into the nice warm comfy store! Ooofftahh, that! Anyways, like I was saying, we went to a couple of museums. First was the Chernobyl museum. The kids participated but didn't like it. We spent an hour or so before heading out for lunch. McDonald's was a welcome sight for us. It was like our little American oasis in the Ukrainian sea. How pittyful, huh! I don't want to be the typical American, but I needed this little respite! And yep, I got happy! Heidi noticed the new skip in my step and that my batteries were recharged! We had some ice cream before going to the next museum.

Our next stop was the Museum of Natural Science. There were lots of stuffed animals along with an array of live fish and some lizzards to boot. The kids loved it...it was a big hit! I liked it too and I still had the Big-mac buzz going! We stayed a couple of hours before heading home. In fact, we closed the place down. Going home we had to pass through some underground passages. In these you can find many different shops that will sell you anything from fruit to socks to batteries to fish, you name it. We passed a video store and I had promised a movie or two earlier in the day. We got Narnia 2 and Madagasgar in Russian for the kids. I explained that we would donate them to the Diestki Dom when we leave because we couldn't play them in America. They understood perfectly and seemed happy at the idea that their friends would get the same pleasure of a new movie. The evening ended with another family movie night on the floor on a pallet of blankets!

Many thanks go out to the friends we have and the posts coming in from all of you. Matt, you crack me up! I was a little hesitant to post the naked fat lady, but I needed a good laugh and a joke or two from our friends about it.

Twyla, I want to answer a few of your questions. I'm sure that rubbing custom is not the same as in Italy, least not for me! Standing next to her is a thin man in all his glory, so yes, I kept it "family pc", lol! The kids are settling in with us fine and in fact it is Momi & Popi all the time. We have made leaps and bounds as a family since that first meeting and I commented to Heidi how I couldn't imagine us not being their parents, ever! They enjoy helping with the shopping and we let them have a few choices. They get overwhelmed with Kiev and they have a max endurance of a few hours before it's all "Let's go home" in perfect English from all three! We averted a melt down by spending almost two hours at McDonald's on Krashatic St this time. The kids love the happy meals, they have never had them before and they like the toys inside. However, we have to order an extra hamburger for the "little man". "Dos Hambugesas (sp?)", he says! We ate slowly and rested, then ordered ice cream! About the candy, I have tried the fizzy stuff, just not with these three. Rimma and Zina gave it to me one time. We will stay in Boyarka for the duration. It is only a 45 minute ride into Kiev by taxi, 1.5 to 2 hours via martsuka or train because of the waiting times.

BTW...does anyone have problems posting to our blog or viewing the pictures? I have had two seperate instances where folks are telling me that this is the case. I'm sorry for that. I'm not blocking anyone from viewing or posting, I assure you. All for now!

~ Felix ~

It Ain't over 'till the Fat Lady sings!

...but we are getting closer! Today we applied for new passports in the kids' new names. I accompanied them into the office as each had their picture taken. I proofed each document and signed my name on two lines for each of them. I looked over the form that will be their passport and at the end of each was the last name Roge'. I was just as happy the day the day we received their birth certificates with the new names and last name. It is real! I'm a new dad of three and Heidi is a new mom! Can't wait for you to meet them!

Olga told us that we might get the passports on Wednesday, Thursday the latest. Hopefully it will be Wednesday, please pray for that. If so, we can accomplish the medicals and visas by the end of the week. We can't buy airline tickets just yet until all of this is done. I'm hoping to fly out the next weekend. I'll let ya know.

I agree with your last comment, Matt! Posts do get shorter as time gets shorter! I'll do some writing on my laptop as time permits. Perhaps I'll do a story or two on "things Ukrainian"...like this photo of a popular resteraunt here in Boyarka. Yep, she stands outside on the main road for all to see! I've been here so long that these things seem normal and don't phase me at all.

Quit staring Matty!

The Paperchase Continues

"Smile Daddy", says my 12 yr old as she snaps this picture.

We are still working on all of the neccesary documents we need to get out of Dodge. We got the birth certificates done yesterday. Today, Olga must have them notarized and made official. To get to this point she jumped through hoops to "unregister" the kids from their addresses in their villiage (old Soviet Union way of keeping tabs on people) and request a waiver because Kolya was never registered to begin with (address-wise). She also had to find the court decree showing that the kids birth parent's rights were terminated. It seems that it was never filed or registered either, so we paid for someone's incompetence by spending a day doing their job that they should have done a couple of years back.

We are working on tax ID for them now and after that will come the Ukrainian passports followed by the medical appointments and US visas, etc. This has proved to be the hardest part so far. I now know why everyone gets "whiny" around this timeframe. I am holding onto my Christian beliefs and trying to control my attitude. I don't want my children to see my angst and I wish to lead by example, even when I thought someone intentionally splashed me yesterday with their car as Nadia and I were walking along the roadside. Just another day in paradise!

It's going painfully slow for us, but it is progressing. Everyday, I ask Heidi for a best guess day to go home. Right now it is looking like the end of next week. Stay tuned though, we may need to fix someone else's mistake.


~ Fidgety Felix ~