4/14/07 - God is good!

Although we sent out a blog earlier today, we knew we had to follow-up. The good news was that Sergey brought back THE Birth Certificate!!! We are thrilled of course. Monday we will acquire the remaining signatures and our documents will be off to Kyiv for approval and return from the SDA. That process normally takes 5 days. Of course we will push for that to be expedited a bit, if at all possible. Once back we can go to court (Debbie will head home after that) and start the 10 day waiting period. I will do that alone and procure the final documents at the end (NEW Birth Certificate - sounds familiar, passport here, then medical and visa at the American Embassy). Then the next flight out. Although we have heard from some of the wait and down time, that has not been too bothersome to us, so far. Acceptance is the rule. If you can accept, keep up on your prayers, things will happen and get done on God's time schedule. It's really out of our hands. It is in His. We can't do it, but He can! Just keep the faith and enjoy what this nation has to offer, No, definitely not like in the US, but keep in mind it is the heritage of the child who you bring back. This is all they know and what they hold on to for quite some time, good or bad, until they become Americanized!!! Even then it will never completely clear from their memory. To think, a year and several months ago, the thought of ever doing this was farthest from out minds. Now here we are now fostering the beginning of a new way of life for someone else. We are very thankful that the Lord led us to this place.

Pic. - Holding THE document to die for........ Sergey is our hero.

4/14/07 - One more step closer!?!

Today Sergey woke early to pick up the orphanage lawyer and head for the local civil records office in the village Ira was born to get a new birth certificate. The documents made it there yesterday via express mail. He has been gone for hours, but hope that by days end he has it. Next will be the Inspectors office Monday for the conclusion and the package will be off to Kyiv. God is good! Sharon has been having fun stirring up the locals... She was verbally attacked at the local McDonald's by a native with "Yankee go home." Why Sharon, we can only surmise that she has that look! 10 days ago in Kyiv, she got yelled at by a postal worker and told in a loud scolding way where to put her letters!!! She only could wish that her daughter Kate was here to deal with it... We were able to visit Ira yesterday and again the boys dragged me out to the soccer field so they could test my stamina (not the same as it was 10 or 20 years ago). I'm going to have to get them a couple new soccer balls. Maybe they will leave me alone if I do!!! Somehow I doubt it. Ira has a cold. We played UNO again which more and more of her friends joined in as each new hand was dealt. It is a great game and easy to pick up. One of Ira's friends brought over an English book, Bedtime Bible Stories. Ira took the book and did read several sentences from it! We were happy to see that they have some Christian influence and especially that book! Today, Ira's grandfather is taking the train to visit her for the day. We thought it best to give each of them the time to be together alone. We spoke to him on the phone and said that we would come out to see him with Ira soon, probably next weekend. We have some gifts for him. We plan to pick up Ira tomorrow and bring her here in the city to get some new clothes for court and to wear back to the US. We will probably offer another bath soaking and watch some movies, play cards and go out for a nice meal before we bring her back. She seems relaxed and at ease right now, but we realize she is in her comfort zone. We expect some anxiety to set in once we are on the move away from her orphanage and friends.

Pic. 1 - Ira and friends; Pic. 2 - Dale attempting soccer on a muddy field with the boys...

4/13/07 - Some light at the end of the tunnel!!

God does work his plan in ways that baffle. Sergey has worked through the Lord and gotten a lot done in the last few days, and I do mean a lot!!! We are at the point now where the local records center is waiting for an express letter (3 to 4 days - what do you expect express to mean, otherwise a week to 10 days). The letter will authorize the right to a new/corrected birth certificate. It looks like that will be Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Once issued and another document signed by the local inspector our package will be off to Kyiv. Keep those prayers coming, God is blessing us. We will visit Ira later this afternoon and hopefully over the weekend. Will keep you posted and more pictures to follow. - Dale

We did try to post some pictures yesterday, but we were having problems with the computer at the Internet cafe. We'll be taking pictures today while visiting Irina and hope to post them tomorrow. It's been hard not seeing Irina the last couple days, but Sergey has been busy compacting 2-3 months of paperwork into a week or so. Last night Sergey treated to cooking us dinner. It was a tortellini-like pasta with a meat and onion filling served with sour cream. After that we watched the Patriot. What would we do without our American movies? The other day when Dale & I were shopping at Billa (grocery store) a man from the UK approached us and was thrilled to talk to someone who speaks English! Guess that's how our daughter will feel when we get home. We are so blessed with a ready-made Ukrainian community in Williamsburg!! - Blessings, Debbie

4/12/07 - In a holding pattern

Although Sergey has jumped through many hoops the last several days, the process has many more people and places to go to complete the task. It's amazing what schmoozing, flowers, fruit baskets and US green can do to move things along a little more quickly than normal. All to get a new corrected birth certificate and then get another new one after the 10 wait after the court date. This process can take up to 3 months, normally. We think we are looking at another couple of weeks at best and with God's grace, before we have what's needed to go to Kyiv and come back so we can go to court. Debbie will probably head for home after signing some papers at the Embassy in Kyiv and I will continue to enjoy my "vacation" alone until all of what is left to do gets done and I can come home with our daughter. We have had a couple of days of off and on rain after the 1st 10 days of fair weather. We have not been able to visit Ira the last few days since Sergey is too busy hustling from site to site and person to person to move the process along. We are giving him the room to maneuver. We've tried to pick out a few eligible single men for Sharon to take home, but she simply refuses!!! - Dale
The kids are so mannerly and anxious to please, you see the yearning in their eyes for a family and future. When they see us now, they run to find Irina. On Easter Sunday we did have fun with the kids although our plan to have them enjoy some movies didn't work out. The movies we bought are Russian, but we got an error on our DVD player, "wrong region". Even some of the teenage boys came in to try to get it to work. Sharon had brought a suitcase full of velvet coloring pads which the kids loved, and thanked us for in English. The food we brought (chocolate Easter eggs with a little toy inside, bananas, apples, coke, candies) we thought they would gobble up, but they waited to eat, and started when we urged them. We think this orphanage seems to keep them pretty well fed, a good thing. The boys got Dale outside and wore him out playing soccer!
On Easter Monday, 4/9, we enjoyed the day with Irina. At first the teacher said we could have her overnight, but the director said only for the day. Too soon and paperwork not completed and the director could get in trouble. FYI, the orphanage lawyer Sergey is working with, has a bicycle for his transportation. Irina does get motion sickness, so we do make a stop or two for her to get some fresh air. We had a nice lunch at a cafe and Irina picked a squid salad! I am getting ideas on what to fix for her when we get home! Glad she likes seafood :) Mayonnaise is a favorite food item here (they like to put it on everything) and love potatoes.
The facilitators certainly earn every penny, as we have seen with Sergey. He knows how to work the system. It's important here for papers to be stamped and notarized. There was a couple on the plane we met on the way over from Florida, who were on their 3rd trip to pick up their son. They had a court date, but each of the other 2 times they came, the judge announced he was going on vacation for 20 days. They are doing it independently, so we are happy to have SRC to help us every step. Everyone we've met and worked with have been great, experienced and have been working hard to get us home as soon as possible, working through the Ukrainian system. We thank you for your prayers, support and comments on our blog, it keeps us going! God Bless,
Debbie

4/11/07 - Birth Certificate fiasco...

We are in a holding pattern trying to get this birth certificate thing corrected. It would take pages to explain the process, steps and offices that need to be involved to get this (what you might consider minor and easy to fix) thing resolved. We could only imagine what things were like here when it was Soviet controlled. However, the Soviet way of doing business is still a mind set that the people here have not been able to shake. It's like their rest rooms (if you can find one). For those who have been here know it reminds you of a WW II movie, "bombardier to pilot, bombs away, hope we are on target." Although most of the people here seem to be happy of their independence, their infrastructure is in dire need of attention. There is far more focus on individual appearance than anything around them... It is still beneficial to witness the cultural differences and to realize the rest of the world is not like the good old USA, with all of it's own misgivings. We are a blessed people and could only wish more in the US could realize that fact. We spent time with Irina yesterday after many trips and stops to move correcting the birth certificate situation. We spent most of our time doing English lessons with her and her friends. They all really got into it. Irina got a hold of our camera and went on a picture taking binge (dozens of pictures). She enjoyed it and so did her friends. This orphanage seems to be better off than most we have heard about. It appears as there may be some sponsorship coming from somewhere (we think Italy). There have been a number of kids adopted by Italians and they know many Italian phrases. These kids are mild, under control, respectful, neat and mindful of others. It makes you love them more each visit. We get to hug more and more on each visit. When we had Ira for the day on Easter Monday, we tried to get her some new clothes for the court date (???) and beyond. However, they take their Easter days off seriously here (a good thing for the Christians) and most shops and stores were closed. We did manage a new pair off sneakers (orange!!!) that she liked and a back pack to be able to bring home her personal things. Debbie gave her a bubble bath in the afternoon which she thoroughly enjoyed. She then watched a DVD movie in Russian (Ice Age 2) and then we played cards (UNO). She got a little tired and we spent a lot of time trying to communicate. Ira seems to understand quite a bit of English but as usual time and daily exposure will enhance her skills.

Pic. 1 - Easter Buns being blessed; Pic. 2 - Easter party at the orphanage; Pic. 3 - One of many group pics at the orphanage with Ira and her friends.

4/9/07 Brought Ira to Kharkiv today

Although we had planned to do some shopping in Kharkiv with Ira today, it is a holiday (day after Easter) and most everything is shut down. The churches were packed yesterday, we got soaked getting our Easter buns blessed. It snowed last night , just sticking to buildings, but not the roads or sidewalks. And boy is it cold. Windy and + 1 degree C. We are trying to make the best of it, but the language barrier makes it tough to communicate. We spent the afternoon at the orphanage and had an Easter party with Ira and her classmates. The CD's did would play since our CD players were not able to read the format (formatted for a different world region). But we had fun anyway. The boys badgered me into playing soccer. They wore me out. I had to take off my coat and was sweating and out of breath for most of the 2 hours they had me out there!!! Bye for now...

4/7/07 - Met 2nd teacher

Starting to feel guilty if we don't make a daily entry to keep everyone up to speed. Spent time today with Irina. Went for a walk through the woods across from the orphanage. We met her 2nd mama, Lubov ( another teacher). Her 1st mama is Tatiana (her main teacher). We are glad she is so close to them and they to her and the others as it keeps them from being absent of any love. Irina always lights up when we see her and gives us both hugs and kisses upon arrival and departure. Unexpectedly, Lubov made some tea and cut an Easter bun and invited us to sit with her. We always find out more each time we visit and also about some of the others. We have come to find that quite a few Italians come to this orphanage to adopt. We are going to take pictures & try to identify some of Irina's friends and see if the orphanage will tell us if they are registered (available for adoption). It would be great to find others interested in giving them a new home, family and life. You just want to reach out and scoop up a bunch of them and take them home. The kids here are just great. The kids at this particular orphanage seem to be getting very good treatment, however, their past have left some big psychological scares.

Pic. 1 - Walk in the woods; Pic 2 - Ira's class; Pic 3 - Ira's bedroom