Day 5, 'Till no one sleeps in an orphan's bed

Behind these cold harsh walls...

...around this aged instituational building...


...down this icy pathway...





...through this creaky door...

...along this worn hallway...

...there lies an orphan's bed...

...where this girl has slept for over 8 years. But not for long!

Her time is up, her restictions have been lifted, her family has come, they have found favor at the SDA, and met approval from the regional inspector and from the orphanage director, her paper-chase is done!

Since we arrived in Kherson at 10:30 on Thursday, lots of work has been done! In fact, all the work to ask for court has been done. There is nothing left to do until court. We have asked for a date for next week and all papers are off to where it all started Tuesday, the SDA. Things are happening fast! I keep looking for that unforeseen circumstance, but it hasn't occurred. So we make plans, Heidi and I. We are pretty sure that she and Jordan will fly home the weekend of the 5th of February! Very soon, Lizzie will no longer sleep in an orphan's bed.

~ Felix ~

Day 4, Evening Orphanage visit

After we finished business for the day, we were able to keep Lizzie out for dinner. We took her back to the orphanage as agreed. After all, Big Nick loves us because we follow the rules!



When we arrived, we were greeted by all the girls in Lizzie's groupa. What do you do with kids who have no parents, but want them desperately? You treat them to unconditional love for the evening and PLAY WITH THEM! Here, Tohmah and I (Vika's little sister) play thumb war.


Heidi gets some lap time with the girls! From left to right is Tohmah, Heidi, Nastya, her sister Ilona and Lizzie! Nastya and Ilona ask me and Heidi everytime, even on Skype, to find them a family. Problem is, they aren't registered and they have an older brother in the orphanage. He doesn't want adoption but has stated that he will sign off for them. Heidi and I are advocating for a family to fight the same fight we did with R & Z...it took two and three years! But they cry for a family. Ilona took my arm again tonight and asked. Breaks our hearts...theirs, too!


Heidi and the girls play I Spy. I don't remember who won, but Nika in the center is a "card-shark"!

I start chillaxin' on an orphanage bed after wrestling with little Nastya, Lizzie comes over and it's complete bliss for both of us. Thank you Lord for bringing this little girl into our lives!

Last week, little Nastya turned 10. Her sister Ilona is 12 or 13. Nastya recently won 1st place at a wrestling competition at the orphanage in her age and weight class. I ask her to demonstrate her moves. Watch her take me down!

Like I tell all my friends who want to come on a mission trip to orphanges anywhere in the world. Your life will be changed and you'll never be the same! Come get sweetly broken for the Lord's Least of These!

~Felix~

Day 4, Her day!

We arrived safely in Kherson this morning at 10:30. My buddies, Andrey and Vanya were waiting at the train station, too. They took our abundant luggage (mostly orphanage donations) straight to the Bible House. Thanks Guys! We immediately went to the inspector's office with Tanya, our Kherson facilitator. The inspector was waiting on us. Heidi once again pulled out the picture book...lot's of smiles, no questions, and a "posh-leet" (let's go) rom her.

The taxi driver took Heidi, Jordan and me over to the orphanage while Tanya and the inspector waited for the taxi to return for them. We waited in the lobby of the orphanage, saw and waved to the director, Big Nick, and met his wife and assistant. She led us down the hall. Meanwhile, a little orphan girl that recognized us from previous trips ran for Lizzie. Soon enough, Lizzie appeared and almost knocked me over when she ran to me. Heidi had the camera ready, but the picture turned out blurry. Here's the next picture as she turned to Heidi.

After a brief meeting with the director in his office, he invited Lizzie back in. He was all smiles, very pleasant and said, "I know this family and I know that they follow the rules and are good for children. They have my blessings for the adoption and may proceed forward. I have no questions for them". He then played the same "are you sure you want to go to America" joke with Lizzie that he did last year with Rimma. He was all happy and joking for most of the meeting. We didn't bring it up, but it wasn't us that he was upset with. Obviously, another American family had stirred him up. Good news for us.

Tanya immediately launched into paper-chase mode. She and the inspector started telling Big Nick and the new, inexperienced orphanage lawyer what to do and what forms she needed. We got all that done, signed and notarized...yep, went to the notary palace again! Tanya is getting documents together to send out on the train tonight to the SDA so that we can push for court. Tanya is amazing, she just GET'S IT DONE! Love my "Team Oleg"!

It's almost 4pm here and we were on our way out to the orphanage after signing forms, visiting officials and getting documents notorized. (We took a quick respite at the Bible House and yes, my friend the spining paint chip is still here). But Tanya just called and said that she has Lizzie with her. Wow, again she's out working her tail off, again! She said that they were heading over to the inspector's office. I can only assume that she wants Lizzie to write her letter of adoption tonight so it goes to the SDA with everything else. Afterwards, she's bringing her to the Bible House..guess we are getting to sneak in a day out with her. Of course, it's official business, you know ;-)

We have the same visitation as before, after 4pm on weekdays and we can take her out on the weekends. Tanya is getting documents together to send out on the train tonight to the SDA. Whoo-hoo, we are a big GO!

I'll try to send you an update after tnight's visit with Lizzie. See ya soon!

~Feilx~

Day 3, Referral in hand

Today we goofed off and checked out of our apartment at noon. The leasing agency allows their renters to store luggage at the office, so we did and we walked uphill to our SDA referral appointment. We arrived at the appointed time, between 4 & 5pm, to find our Kiev facilitator Nadia first in line for us! Nice! Not 10 minutes later, the lady holding all the referrals for all families showed up. Heidi and I signed for our referral documents...we can officially start the process for our girl!

After looking at the paintings for sale along the street, we started hoofing it back down the hill to kill some time along Krashatik street. About a block from the Independence square McDonald's (you know the one) we got a call from Aimee and Matt Garrett. They were dining at said McDonalds! We found them and spent almost 2 hours or so catching up, making jokes and generally "cutting up". Nadia joined us later (Matt & Aimee used her for their adoption of Anya a couple of years back) and she joined in the fun. Nadia was surprised to hear the the Garretts and we live only a mile apart, but knew her! How cool!

At 6:30 pm, we had to leave our fine company and head back to the leasing agency to pick up our luggage (they closed at 7pm). We are now (7:45pm) sitting at our favorite internet cafe at the train station blogging to you and checking e-mails. At 9:30 we will make our way to our train car for the overnight trip to Kherson. We will arrive there around 10:30 am tomorrow morning. The Bible House folks and the Agape people have already arranged to have a driver meet us at the tracks and take our luggage to our Bible House room while we head off to our regional director appointment. Very nice of them to help us again...thank you guys, I know you read this!

Our Kherson facilitator will meet us at the tracks when we arrive. If all goes to plan, we all will go to the regional director's office and meet with him or her for a few minutes and get the approval to enter the orphanage as legitimate adoptive parents. He/She will accompany us and watch to see if there is a developing bond between us and our "prospective adoptive child". What do you think will be the case? :-)

So around noon or so, Lizzie will enter the room. Can't wait to snap that picture! Well that's all for now. We will chat again tomorrow. By that time we should have done all the above, we will tell you all about it. Keep those prayers coming! It seems that the director is mad at us for something somebody else has done. Don't worry though, all is well.

By the way, if my spelling is off, please forgive me. I am typing this on a Russion keyboard with faded letters and no spell checker. Pretty good I'd say myself! Bye, all for now.

~ Felix ~

Day 2, End of Day Report

Its midnight here and I need to turn in. But before I do, I wanted to answer a few questions that were asked.

#1 - Our friend,Oksana, called us yesterday to tell us that Lizzie was down-in-the-dumps and upset that she hadn't heard from us, that she thought her adoption was to be in January, and that she was extremely sad. (Oksana didn't spill the beans) Heidi and I mulled it over and decided to break the news. I called once, no answer. I called twice, still no answer. A few minutes later she called us back (she didn't recognize the new phone number). I answered saying, "Hi there Lizzie Rogé!" She said, "Dad! Is that you, is this your phone! Where are you?" I said, "Hmmnnn, in Kiev!" The next 30 seconds were filled with squeals and "YES, YES, YES", and more squeals! My hearing may never be the same! So to answer your question, yes, she now knows. What she doesn't know is when we will arrive at her orphanage and see her for the first time since last year!

#2 - The picture book has been used twice now at the appointments and yes, it is a bit more emotional for them. We took a photo book the first time and I don't think it had the same appeal. However, we didn't have adopted kids then either. We feel a picture book or photo book is worth a thousand questions and we have never been wrong. Heidi uploads photos to Snapfish and prints two specific books...one of the entire family to show the SDA, the judge, and all officials and the other targeted specifically for the orphanage staff showing "their" kids. Money well spent in our opinion. We leave the orphanage picture book with the director and staff. The "entire family" book we keep and bring home to add to our library. I think Heidi makes each book for around $2o.

#3 - The Boyarka orphanage visit went very well. We handed out the letters and gifts. A few kids said hello and wished N, J & K well-wishes on the video we took. Galina is down to 33 kids now and she has a set of teen girls and a brother-sister teen pair too, all wanting families! Boyarka is approximately 30 km from Kiev. Any takers?

#4 - Pictures will be forthcoming, probably once we get to Kherson after Thursday. I'll try to post some on FB tonight, but it is late...now 12:18 and I need to get to bed.

~ Felix ~

Day 2, SDA appointment

We have her! The appointment that took three long years to achieve was over in 10 minutes...and three of that was the official looking through our picture book.

Side note: If you bring a picture book or photo album for the official to look through, it eases tension for you and any doubt they have during the appointment. We were only asked one question: "Why do you want to adopt older children?" Heidi put together a Snapfish picture book this time and, for the second time, it worked wonders. She just handed over the book, no more questions. Just let 'em look through the book and you'll get oooohs and ahhhhs!

We were told her history and medical background. I remember thinking, "Wow, we know more info than they do!" Like I said, it was over in 10 minutes. The official told us that we will have the referral between 4 & 5 pm tomorrow. Our facilitator is already buying the train tickets for us to go to Kherson tomorrow night on the over-night train.

Our friend, Oksana is here and we are off to Boyarka to visit our first three children's orphanage to bring gifts and letters. We will meet up with our missionary friends, Becky and Nadia to have our regular dish of Shoshleek, yummy!

Please note our Ukrainian Phone number over in the right-side column, on top. If you need us, give us a call.

~ Felix ~

Day 1, So far, so good!

Hi there folks, we made it to Kiev! My trusty laptop clock tells me its 1:04 am in Colorado, so most of you are sleeping at this hour. No worries, sleep dreams!

For everyone else awake, here's a quick recap of the travels. Huge kudos goes out to Clay & Selene Peck, our pastor and his wife, for the travel pills! The package says that it helps knock the edge off being jet-lagged and helps to reset the natural circadian rhythm. Jet lag averted and with the help of two Benadryl tablets each, we all slept 12 hours last night! In fact, Jordan is still out! None of us slept well on the 14+ hours on three plane rides.

We departed Denver enroute to Chicago on Saturday. That trip went well and there were no problems. We got into O'Hare after a loop around Lake Michigan.

The second flight, Chicago to Munich was delayed 30 minutes while they fixed a light in the first class cabin. No, we didn't fly first class. We were in the rear with the gear!

We originally had a 3 hour layover in Munich, but with the delay and grabbing lunch, we only waited for an hour. We flew into Kiev without a hitch and made our way out of the plane. Getting through customs, grabbing bags, and getting out of the airport was no problem. I love that Munich to Kiev flight much better that the Frankfurt flight...less people and fewer problems, always!

We were picked up by our facilitator and taken to our Kiev apartment. We are right on Krashatik Street and a block away from Independence square where this picture was taken with Jordan.

So now it is time to start the day! We are getting in touch with all of our missionary friends here. Calls have been made to Becky, Karen, Oksana and Andrei to name a few. I think we will sight-see today and take it easy. Our SDA appointment is tomorrow at 10 am to ask for Lizzie! Yeah! We will let you know how that goes.

Tomorrow, after the SDA, I think the plan is to take gifts and letters to the Boyarka Dietski Dom where our first three kids were housed, then have dinner out at my favorite Shoshleek restaurant with Becky and Nadia.

So here, we go...at long last!

God is talking to me again...this was K-LOVE's encouraging word of the day.

Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
~ Psalm 37:3, NLT

~ Felix ~