How Great is Our God?

Wow! It's been a whirlwind trip. Today is our second day in Kherson. The girls are great. Ochen happy. Getting to spend more time with them than ever before, so no time to blog!

Carol and I are doing well. Tatiana fussed over us and treated us like queens. Went to church this morning and recognized the music. Girls are spending the afternoon with us at the Bible House.

How great is our God!

Heidi In Ukraine

I've received a couple of phone calls from non-Facebook folks asking if Heidi made it OK to Ukraine. She and Carol did make it safe & sound to Kiev and then to Tatianna's home, Thursday evening in Ukraine. My clock tells me that Ukraine is 9 hours ahead of us, so it is Friday evening there now.

Sorry, I assumed everyone was following her on FB, too. Other than this post, I want to let Heidi tell her story there in Ukraine. But, she will not always be near an Internet provider and she will post as time and resources allow.

~ Felix ~

Life is Good!

Yep, life is good! And it's been great since I decided a number of years back to put my faith and trust in Him. The power of prayer brought me and Heidi together, brought us children, and will bring Rimma & Zina home.

Life was good this past weekend, too. Since I will be Mr. Mom for 10 days starting tomorrow, I needed a relaxing fun day walking and talking with God...and catching his trout! A friend and I went up to Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked in to a secluded lake to spend a day fly-fishing, one of my favorite things to do. He blessed us with a beautiful day, lots of sunshine, and about 20 trout apiece. My hat says it all (Life is Good)!

I'm a little concerned about Heidi leaving tomorrow and traveling to the other side of the world. She will be gone 10 days, enough time for the house to burn down, for me to age 10 years, or to have each kid ask me a million times, "When is Mom going to be home?"! But, this is important and a commitment we made to R & Z two years ago.

Heidi will also be hand delivering our dossier, meeting the former camp kids, connecting with our Christian based support group and meeting with all of our friends over there in addition to seeing R & Z. Everyone has brought over letters and gifts to deliver to the kids from the camps. Our kids have written to their friends still at the Deitski Dom in Boyarka and there are letters from other adopted children to their friends at various orphanages, too. Carol P will be going with Heidi, she will be met at the airport by friends, she will be on the train with Julia (the same Julia that accompanied the kids this summer and works at CBN in Kiev), the AGAPE team will meet her in Kherson, and she will stay two blocks from the orphanage at the Bible House apartment. So she is in good hands and will be safe. Still, I wish I were going, too. I'd like to see the girls and meet our friends.

Hopefully, the time will pass swiftly for me. I will be busier than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs as I juggle 5 practices, 3 events, 8 homework nights, and two games in 10 days...and that's just the kids! I still have my Boot Camp program and Running Club, which I admit, may have to be put on hold. Pray for me as I take on 'Single-Parent-Dom' and raising three kids on my own. I lucky though, Heidi cooked a week's worth of meals and froze them, so it won't be too bad for me! Thanks, Honey! That being said, I shamelessly won't turn down an offer for dinner or baby-sitting from our friends, hint, hint, wink, wink!

Look for me and the kids at the FRUA picnic in Colorado Springs on Sunday. I'll be the one sleeping in the big brown van whilst my kids run amok with other kids that speak Russian & Ukrainian! Also, don't count on me blogging for the next 10 days, either. Please don't go away on us though. I bought Heidi a Netbook and hopefully she can blog about her trip to Ukraine. So, I'll defer to her and ask her to keep us up to date. Blessings...

~ Felix ~

We be on Island Time, Mon!

Getting married in our favorite place on earth those few years back seemed like a great idea at the time. We were married in the Bahamas! (Why is it ok to say The Bahamas, but not correct to say The Ukraine?) Sorry, I digress!

We really didn't run into problems with our marriage certificate until we started adopting kids. Getting an expedient apostilled copy of your marriage certificate from the Bahamian government takes as long as the in country process of adoption in Ukraine! Even when you pay the "expediting" fee and include a pre-paid Fed-Ex envelope.



Don't get me wrong! I love, Love, LOVE the people and country of The Bahamas! In fact, we are going to retire there someday! In 2006, I tried to buy a house there, but decided against it...not wanting to rent it out 11 months of the year to have it pay for itself. I like the slow, melow lifestyle that is Hopetown, Abacos, Bahamas...when I'm on vacation. Official transactions, however, go at a snail's pace and can completely unnerve you! The officail slogan of the country should be, "No worry mon, evv-ree ting be ahh-rite".

So it is with great fortitude and patience that we wait on THE LAST DOCUMENT for our dossier. Heidi flies out to The Ukraine (hee-hee) next week and possibly without it. No doubt that we will have to mail it to Oleg later.

Last month my sweetie asked me if we could get remarried in Colorado just for 'paperwork' sake. That would be a great idea, if only Colorado didn't take 6 months to officially file your marriage license, we found out. Wish we would have thought of that one earlier. Oh well, "evv-ree ting be ahh-rite, Felix"!

~ Felix ~

Girls handed over

http://www.wftv.com/news/20838922/detail.html

Whew, WWIII avoided! However, what has this done for future hosting programs? Frontier Horizon, UOO? Let's hope the Ukrainian government doesn't go berserk over this.

I wish that I had written this on the previous post, I did understand what the man was feeling. That's how i felt the day i put R & Z on the plane back to Ukraine. What was their future, who would tuck them in at night, who would love them as we have? Starting an international incident & ignoring the law isn't the answer!

I hope he gets the girls...legally! Perhaps our experience could educate the man...e-mail me, Larry. Lost causes aren't hopeless when God is involved!

~ Felix ~

International Incident

I deleted my last post. I was angry and I shouldn't write when I'm angry. I'm sorry, I want to lead a Christian life and this blog is meant for encouragement, love and compassion among other things. I believe in the power of prayer so it is that which we will do in this matter.

The actions of this man in Florida are putting the future of hosting trips and adoptions at risk. This is all the ammunition the nay-sayers in Ukraine need to push a moratorium through. No more adoption, no more Frontier Horizon and Ukraine Orphan Outreach (UOO), no R & Z with our family. This is what I was upset about. Pray with us!

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/218396

The Golden Ticket

The 171h arrived in the mail yesterday. I opened the letter with the USCIS return address like little Charlie opening the Wonka Bar he purchased with his last dollar. Inside was our Golden Ticket. The big prize!

Most PAPs (prospective adoptive parents) understand the importance of this document. It's a biggie! If you don't remember, I'll fill you in. This document is actually just a letter telling you that you have been approved for the terms you requested in your home study. In our case, up to three kids ages 8-16. The embassy in the country for which you are adopting gets a cable informing them that you are approved for adoption there. This letter is the culmination of all your hard work stateside; the home study, the social worker visits, the fingerprinting, the background checks, the child rearing classes, the peering into your life with a magnifying glass by outsiders. A USCIS officer looks at all your information and letters of recommendation before rendering his or her verdict. For the second time, we received a favorable review and have been granted our 171h.

It is this 171h that allows you to get an immigration visa in your adoptive children's passport and, in turn, allows them to become US citizens the moment they land on US soil. It's your Golden Ticket that gets your children to Wonkaland!

~ Felix ~