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God's Faithfulness (Sunday)

(This post is a long one…we are using this blog not only as a communication tool, but also as a journal for our family. This means you might occasionally see sappy posts like the following… : )

On a journey in which we have felt led by God from the beginning, I have to acknowledge all the ways He has been faithful to his word so far. This journey has been covered in prayer for a year now, but we believe this journey was in God’s plans for us for much longer. I felt it was time to give credit where credit is due!

Before coming to Ukraine, through another family, we were made aware of a little girl who had been “stuck” in the system for almost 2 years. A family had come and adopted her older siblings, leaving paperwork and promises to return for her when she became available for adoption. A year later, she became available, and this family did not come. Another year passed, and this little 4-year-old girl was stuck waiting in the orphanage with a “hold” on her file for a family that was not coming. I can’t give any more details, but we felt an overwhelming need to try to rescue this little girl who had now been abandoned twice. We began praying for her, and we began an uphill “paperwork” battle to get her released for adoption (which included contacting the family she was being “held” for). In my ladies prayer group, I brought up this little girl, and the Holy Spirit filled the room that day. These ladies prayed fervently and powerfully for her. I believe with all my heart that something powerful happened that day in Ukraine on this little orphan’s behalf. I also believed that this little girl was meant to be ours. One lady in the prayer group that day couldn’t deny the conflict she felt, and told me that she felt that things may not work out as we think they should, but that God had a plan. I rested in that – and hoped that if there were any glitches in the plan, they would be minor.

While getting ready for our trip to Ukraine, I gathered little toys and special things for this 4-year-old that we hoped we would be adopting. We carefully packed the paperwork we had prepared to submit to the SDA in her behalf. The trip to Ukraine was full of hope and excitement – we felt that this little girl was God’s plan for our family. We arrived in Kiev and met out facilitator. The first thing she told us was that the little girl had been released already and was being adopted by an American family (they had just had court and were now in their 10-day waiting period). We felt like the wind had been knocked out of us. How could this have happened? Our facilitator told us that somehow, someone else found out about her and were able to get her released. Then she proceeded to tell us that many families had not been able to find young children lately, and that we should be prepared for the possibility of going home empty-handed to wait for a second appointment. Anxiety flooded in, but we did our best to hold on the God’s promises and to trust in his plan.
Looking back at the timing, it is very possible that the prayers at my ladies group that day DID release this little girl…just earlier than we anticipated. I believe that God put her on our hearts so that he could use the power of prayer to help in her rescue. I don’t know who adopted this little girl, but I have no doubt that they are just the family God chose to adopt her. He had other plans for us…

Waiting for our appointment in Kiev was a difficult time, but God was strengthening our faith. He poured his word into our hearts and we stood on these promises.
Now that we faced this “blind” adoption appointment, as they call it, the Lord gave us this scripture:
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known; along unfamiliar paths I will guide them. I will turn the darkness to light before them and make the rough places smooth. Isaiah 42:16

The more we heard from our facilitator and others about the new SDA, we realized that we had a lot against us. The new director would prefer that international adoption be phased out in Ukraine, and that Ukrainians would foster or adopt the orphans themselves (has she SEEN Mariupol? Many people are barely putting food on the table). We heard many rumors of new files just not being shown to families for no apparent reason. We knew of many families who were waiting in Kiev for 2nd and 3rd appointments because they had not been shown any remotely healthy children. The more I learned, the more I believed that this “red tape” is a tool of Satan to keep these children from being rescued. I knew in my heart that God was WAY bigger than the SDA, but my head was having a hard time always following this belief. As I stood by the iron gates outside the SDA office, I was reminded of this scripture that the Lord had placed on my heart earlier…

I will go before you and level the mountains. I will break the break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. Isaiah 45:2

I didn’t know when or how, but I believed that the Lord was going to lead us to our child. And in just 20 minutes, after being persistent in asking to see more files (we specifically asked for any new files they had, several times actually), we were shown Victoria’s file. We knew she was the one. She was precious and healthy (only crossed-eyes, which had been corrected by surgery already) and we couldn’t wait to meet her.

Two days (including a 12 hour train ride) later, we met this little girl at the “Little Sun” orphanage, and she quickly charmed her way into our hearts. Her given name is Victoria (which means victorious - they call her Vica for short), and the Lord reminded me of this scripture he gave me months ago, when I was struggling with the unknowns of Ukrainian adoption…

May he give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed.
We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. Psalm 20:4-5

Months ago, at church one Sunday, I was praying for the little girl that we hoped was waiting for us in Ukraine – that God would surround her with his angels and whisper in her ear that we were coming for her (which we often prayed). We sang the song “Blessed Assurance” that day, and I felt the Lord say that this song was filled with promises for our little girl…
“Angels descending, bring from above, echoes of mercy, whispers of love”
I cried that day as we sang that song, and thought of her across the world. Two days after meeting this little girl, we visited a little church in Mariupol, and we sang “Blessed Assurance”. God’s gentle reminder that he has heard our prayers, and that he has answered them!

Now we have spent ever 2 weeks visiting our little girl and we are overwhelmed with God’s goodness. She is everything we have dreamed of in a little girl and she is the perfect fit for our family.

Today, March 30th, we remember the 9th birthday of the little girl we lost to stillbirth, and we will celebrate the way God used an empty place in our hearts to lead us to this little orphan across the world…the way he gave us the strength to overcome loss and sorrow so that could one day help this little girl do the same…and we will celebrate the way he has used his perfect timing to redeem this time of year for our family – making it a time of joyous memories, rather than of painful ones.

The Lord put Isaiah 61 on my heart for our family a couple of years ago – before adoption even crossed our minds. I believe it is the scripture that will become our daughter’s story. Part of it is now painted on a canvas that hangs over her bed at home.

In the Lord’s name we will bind up the brokenhearted,
and proclaim freedom for the captives
We will release the prisoners from darkness
and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…
The Lord will comfort all who mourn…
and bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair

As you know, we have renamed our daughter Halle Grace Victoria. Her first name, Halle, comes from the word Hallelujah. And that sums up how we feel about her, and how we feel about this journey of faith! Thank you, Lord!

Side note: If the rest of our Ukrainian adventure goes as planned, we will be heading home on Thursday, April 10th. That is what we are praying for…feel free to join in the praying! : )

Suturday at the Market

Today, I took the morning off from visiting Halle. When I went to visit this afternoon, she didn’t miss a beat (I don’t think she even noticed!). I missed her and it was great to be with her this afternoon. But this morning, Katie took me to experience the Morning Market in Mariupol. It was amazing -kind of a cross between Canal Street in New York and a huge farmers’ market. Vendors were crammed in little maze-like groupings, selling everything from produce to power tools. I got some pajamas for Halle Grace and some cute little things for her hair. We strolled along, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells. It was really fun seeing this little slice of daily life for the people here. Here are some pictures of some of the sights…(bad internet connection…I’ll add them later)

Halle and I had a great visit this afternoon She is repeating TONS of English words, and she loves to rattle off the names of her family…Daddy, Mommy, Grant, Garrett, Daisy…all in her cute Russian accent! I’ve noticed that since our translator left, she is making more of an effort to communicate in English – I am so proud of her progress. She is saying please and thank you, help, bye-bye, she counts to 7, she also knows apple, water, juice, candy, and car. Such a little smarty-pants! : )

Tomorrow I’ll have a short visit with Halle Grace, and then meet Brandon and Katie at church. This week, I’ve been getting to know many of the people at their church and they are great! What a blessing to have found our daughter here!

2 Weeks in Mariupol!

What a two weeks it has been!
This town has really grown on me, especially now that we have had blue skies for 2 days. No flowers or leaves on trees just yet, but buds are starting to appear! :)

I called the Embassy in Kiev this morning and spoke with a contact someone had recommended I use. He was the nicest man, and assured me that this age approval thing would be cleared up in just a couple of days! Hooray! He is contacting the OKC office for me.

This morning, I had a fun visit with Halle - we got to play outside...climbed on the jungle gym and sang songs. I'm trying to teach her Jesus Loves Me, but she keeps singing some Russian song...she loves to sing! I witnessed today what I have never seen anyone do in America. I brought her an apple, and she ate every singe bit except the actual stem and the seeds. Truly amazing, really! AND...she's just so cute!

One Hinshaw is Home

This is Scott posting. I made it home this afternoon. The best part was seeing the boys, who were so excited to greet me at the airport. It is also great to be an American. We truly live in the best country in the world. What a contrast.

Here is how the journey went. I got in the taxi in Mariupol at 5:30am on Wednesday and headed to the tiny Mariupol airport. The plane left for Kiev at 7:15. It was very strange to travel with very little English spoken. I was also a real paying passenger. The ticket cost me about $130, which is actually cheaper than it would have cost to drive to Donetsk and take the train. The plane was similar to the ATRs that American Eagle flies in the Caribbean. It had about 50 seats, and it was very full. The flight took just under 2 hours.

In Kiev, we landed at the smaller airport. I just followed the crowd walking outside in the snow and I realized that we weren't headed inside at all. I stopped and tried to ask somebody who appeared to work there about my bag that they made me check. She pointed to a truck that had just pulled up. Everybody was getting their bags off the truck. I was then approached by about 20 different taxi drivers who wanted to give a rich American a ride.

Shortly, our facilitator pulled up with her driver. We headed to the US Embassy. She handed me forms to fill out on the way. Writing in the back of a car in Kiev is very challenging. When we arrived at the Embassy, she told me what to do inside. Now I had read a blog that talked about how great it felt to go in the Embassy because it felt like America. I didn't get that feeling at all. I think everybody I talked with was Ukrainian. I went through security. They will make you leave any bags at security. They made me empty my pockets. I tried to show the guy that I had a money pouch. He just nodded as if to say, "just empty your pockets. I know you have a money pouch, but the rules are that you just empty your pants pockets. We'll also ignore your coat pockets."

After security, I went to the main building, and was pointed to the adoption area. I went to a window and gave them my name. I was asked to take a seat. About a minute later, I was called back to the window. They had retrieved a file about us. The lady said that our home study was only approved for up to 4 years old, and Halle Grace is 5 and 1/2. She seemed to think that "up to 4 years old" meant 48 months and no more. I tried to argue that it meant up to 4 years, 11 months and 29 days. There was no getting through, so I gave up. She said that I could still sign my documents and return home, but that the home study would need to be amended with INS before a visa would be issued. I was there no more than 15 minutes.

Next, we headed to the big airport. It was quite a haul out there. The charge from the driver for all of this was $100. I must say, the only thing that was unexpectedly expensive on this trip was the cost for drivers. I bet we will end up spending almost a $1000 on drivers. The airport is crowded, small, and not terribly nice. Once through security, I found a restaurant by the gate for my Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt (standby, of course). They sold me a sandwich and drink and they also exchanged the rest of my Hryvna to USD.

The flight was about 2 hours and 40 minutes, and went fine. In Frankfurt, I stayed at the Steinberger Airport Hotel where I got an airline rate of 89 Euros, or about $140 USD. When I got hungry, I took the airport shuttle and went back to the airport for a long anticipated Big Mac. I was able to use my credit card, which meant no more currency exchanges.

I woke up early the next morning at 5:00 am German time or 6:00 am Ukrainian time. I was the first in line at 7:00 to check in for my 10:35 flight. I was glad because by the time they began checking me in, there was a huge line. I then had breakfast at Marche' restaurant, which was very good. I was glad when I went to the gate to be given a First Class seat on AA's flight non-stop to DFW. What a glorious moment to get onboard an American Airlines plane and sit in first class sipping orange juice before takeoff. It was the moment I had been dreaming of for several days. The flight took 10 hours, which passed quickly with in-flight video.

After clearing customs, Kathy and the boys picked me up. Seeing Grant and Garrett was the other moment I had been dreaming of for days. So, my journey home that began on Wednesday at 5:30 am in Ukraine (or Tuesday night at 10:30 Texas time) has ended 43 hours later. It's now 8:30 pm here, and I've been up for almost 22 hours now. It's time for bed.

Visits with Halle Grace

I visit the orphanage twice a day. Here's how it goes...
At 10:30am, then again at 4:30pm, I leave Brandon and Katie's apartment and get into Vladimir's taxi. Once I arrive, I walk in and let the nurse know that I am here to visit Vika (I call her Halle most of the time now, but they, of course, only know her as Vika, pronounced "veeka").
Next I walk down to the foyer to wait for her. The couple from Spain is usually already in the foyer with the 2 girls they are adopting. They speak a little English, which is nice! Then Halle comes down the hall - always running, smiling, and holding her arms up. I lift her up, and we start our little routine of 3 kisses and a big hug. It's the highlight of my day! Next, we either head outside, or to the little waiting area near the nurse's office. I brought a backpack for her to carry home on the plane, and I am so glad I brought it because I use it everyday to bring her snacks, toys, books etc. for our visits. She knows that her snack is always in the front pocket, and that's where she goes first! She has loved everything I have brought for her...I'm interested in seeing if there is any food she doesn't like! Sometimes I bring her a juice box, and she will often drink it until it's gone, and then tear open the box to search for any remaining drops of juice that she can suck up with the straw! This girl is not wasteful! :)
After snack time, if the weather is nice enough, we play outside on the playground (and yes, I am using the word "playground" loosely), play chase, ball, or hopscotch, or take a walk. During inside visits, we pull out the little toys and activities I keep in the backpack...crayons, stickers, beads with string to make jewelry, picture books, puzzles (she did a 60 piece puzzle the other day with no help!),notebook, doll, cards (she likes Memory and Go Fish...but she tends to bend the rules a little :) We also have started working on some English words. She says "thank you" now and she is so proud of it!
Our visits last for about an hour and 15 minutes each, and is a good amount of time (especially when we are cooped up in that little room).
This will be our routine for the next week and a half or so!

By the way, I got in touch with our social worker, and she is checking with the Oklahoma INS office to see how quickly they can send an updated age approval to the Embassy. I'm waiting to hear back from her...

Catching up...

I just typed long posts for the blog on my laptop to save onto the little jump drive and then load onto my blog through Brandon and Katie's computer... I can't find the jump drive. So, you'll get a little more abbreviated version. Scott - did you make it home with the jump drive or did we leave it at Olga's apartment???

COURT
It was L-O-N-G! It was fine, and it's over, and we are now the parents of Halle Grace Victoria Hinshaw, but only after 2 hours of listening to the judge read every page of our dossier, word-by-word (including our home study), in Ukrainian. We also were asked a ton of questions. Everything from "can you afford to support another child?" to "who completed your medical reports and your background checks?" (our doctor and the State of Texas, by the way). We were so tired of sitting up straight and still for 2 hours, that the ending was a bit anti-climactic. However, we are thrilled that this milestone is completed, and happy that the judge cared enough to be thorough and sure that this child was going to a good home. She was friendly...just a little long-winded. :) Now we wait for the official 10-day appeal period to pass, and then we can take custody of her. In the meantime, Scott is headed home, as well as Oksana, and I will continue visiting Halle Grace twice a day in the orphanage.

AFTER COURT
Oksana realized that we need a Power of Attorney letter notarized for the Embassy and for the orphanage (saying that it's ok for me to travel with our daughter without him). So, back to downtown Mariupol to get that done, then straight to the orphanage for Scott's last visit with Halle. Oksana explained that Daddy has to go back to America and that he would be waiting there for her and Mommy to come home. She seemed to understand. I made a little countdown chart for her and I to mark off the days until she gets to go home. All 15 of them. Why 15 you ask? Isn't it supposed to be a 10-day wait? Yes, it is. But since the SDA didn't sign the papers last week like they should have (no, not bitter at all), that means the 10th day is a Friday. We can't pick up the court decree until the morning of the 11th day. Since day 11 is a Saturday, we have to wait until Monday. But on Mondays, the vital records offices are closed. This means that we can't get her birth certificate until Tuesday (3 1/2 hour drive each way to her place-of-birth), then we have to get her passport in Donetsk. All of this means that is it most likely that I won't be able to pick her up and travel to Kiev until Wednesday (which is day 15). Our goal now is to be home by the weekend of April 12th. That will be nice, though, since everyone will be off of school and work and we can all spend time together. Can't wait!

DRAMA AT THE EMBASSY
Today, Scott flew to Kiev and went to the US Embassy to sign his part of the paperwork for Halle Grace. The rule at the Embassy is you are supposed to adopt a child within the age range you are approved for by your homestudy and your I171-H (immigration paper). Our homestudy was last May, and we wanted a child Garrett's age or younger, so we were approved for a child up to age 4. Garrett is now 5 1/2, and the child we adopting is also 5 1/2. There is supposed to be a one year "grace" for the age of the adopted child, so we assumed we would not have a problem. This was not the case. The lady at the Embassy told Scott that Halle Grace is 18 months over our approved age. "No", he said, "we are approved for up to age 4 (a 4-year-old that turns 5 tomorrow is still 4!), not 48 months, so Halle is just 6 months over our approved age". She disagreed and would not budge on the matter. Ugghhh!!!! This means we now have to have our home study updated, then our social worker will send it to INS (Immigration office - that would be the same office that took 60 days to send our I-171H), then INS has to change our approval and send it to the Embassy in Kiev. I can't leave the country with Halle until this happens. I emailed our social worker this morning, but haven't heard from her. We are praying that she is not out of town! (she travels a LOT). So...we could really use some prayers, along with any connections, suggestions, etc. The Embassy thinks INS could get the updated approval done in a week or so, but it really depends on the INS office (ours is the Oklahoma office). We'll keep you posted on this latest drama!

OTHER NEWS
I have now moved in with Brandon and Katie, which is so great! Katie taught me how to make Borsche today and it was really good! They are so sweet to open up their home to me and I am so thankful that God has crossed our paths. They came with us to visit Halle the other day and Brandon took some great pictures and some video too!
I'll try to upload a few...

Rene Preston - can you believe the dress fits? She adores it and calls it her princess dress. She is such a girly-girl! (I knew she would be)



This last one is Halle Grace with her homemade veil. She loves to play Bride! Scott's not too sure about this... :)

By the way...many friends and family leave such sweet supportive comments, which we LOVE. But feel free to also leave a comment or send an email about what's going on back home. I feel worlds away over here and would love to catch up with ya'll! :)

Court Tomorrow

Just a note from Julie's Sister... I just talked to Scott & Julie. She wanted me to let everyone know that court is scheduled for sometime tomorrow afternoon. They've been really busy and she knows they won't get a chance to post tomorrow because of all the things that go along with court.
Scott is planning on arriving home Thursday afternoon sometime-hopefully!
I'm sure we'll get more updates soon.

Court Update

We found out last night that we can't have court on Monday. The SDA was supposed to sign a paper for us, but the director took the day off on Friday, and didn't leave anyone else with permission to sign paperwork in her absence. Technically this is not legal, but this just goes to show that you really can't predict anything with this agency. The paperwork has been ready and waiting there for 2 days and all it lacks is a signature and a stamp. Go figure. I love my private blog. If it was still public, you wouldn't be hearing any of this.

This means we are now hoping for court on Tuesday, and Scott and Oksana will head out after that. Overall, we really don't have anything to complain about as we have found our little girl and she is healthy and safe. We just want to bring her home as quickly as possible...and we miss the boys so much! :)

We are branching out and visiting the Orthodox church tomorrow with Oksana. It's a beautiful church that I have been wanting to visit anyway. It should be interesting! The other Sundays I am here, I'll go with Brandon and Katie to their church. Easter here isn't until well into April, after I am back home. So happy Easter to the western side of the world!

ManBlog

I’ve heard the outcry for more ManBlog, so here it is. I’ll try to cover the practical stuff that men need to think about while on an adoption journey in Ukraine. Mainly, I’m talking about food, electronics, money, and entertainment.

Food – as I’ve said before, the food is not bad here. It’s not great either. My main goal is to not be hungry. I’ve given up on having great tasting food. Everything here seems to be very bland, at least what I’ve been brave enough to try. I’ve had a lot of pizza, which tends to be fairly good. When it’s not pizza, you will find a lot of chicken or pork cutlets that have something like cheese and mushrooms all cooked together, usually lightly battered and fried. They have lots of potatoes. I’ve had mashed potatoes, whole potatoes, potatoes au grautin, french fried potatoes, and just about any other type of potato. I’ve found that the desserts are usually some sort of cake that I find to be too dry. We usually have some sort of bread for breakfast that I’ve been warming up and spreading peanut butter on. Peanut butter makes everything better. I got tired of washing dishes, so I bought a bunch of plastic plates, cups, forks, and spoons. This is the flimsiest plastic ware I have ever seen. The spoon broke into pieces when I tried to spoon out some peanut butter. Also, the bread tends to be very dry here. We finally had some soft bread at a restaurant the other night. I took home two pieces that I used to make a real PB&J the next day. My strategy is to have a late breakfast, a huge lunch, and then to wait as long as possible to have a homemade dinner that is usually PB&J so that I don’t get hungry before bedtime.

Electronics – I learned before coming here that there are two types of converters. One type is for things that heat up like hair dryers and curling irons. The other is for all other items. I got one of each from Radio Shack, but have not used the one for hair dryers yet. The computer doesn’t need a converter. You can usually find markings on things if they can handle 220 volts. I used the converter for my electric razor and it worked fine. We also used it to charge the camera battery and cell phone battery. Julie has been using a hair dryer and flat iron that we bought here because we have heard that the US ones won’t work well or still may get ruined even with a converter. They are cheap here and you don’t have to take up extra room in your suitcase. By the way, if you can’t pack light enough to carry on your luggage on your flight, you will definitely have too much luggage to go on the train. People wear the same thing every day here, so you don’t need to pack much.

Internet is a challenge here. We get a faint wireless signal from our apartment. Sometimes we are able to connect to it, which gives us about 15 minutes of very slow Internet. If you have pictures to send, it would help if you either make them smaller first, or put them on a website and send the link. We sometimes go to Brandon and Katie’s to bum their Internet, but we don’t want to wear out our welcome, so we try to do that just every 2 or 3 days. The Internet Café is a pain because it is hard to upload pictures or pre-written blogs. We have not found a Wifi connection at a restaurant. Once I go home, Julie will have easy Internet when she moves in with Brandon and Katie, so she will be able to call and be called using the Vonage V-Phone.

I went into the electronics/appliance section at their local Target-like store. It was very interesting. They had a ton of washing machines, but no dryers to sell at all. All their appliances were tiny. They had dishwashers that were about the size of a microwave. They also had a video game set up with a steering wheel and a chair. Of course, I sat down to try it out. I got in big trouble from security. Apparently, it is a crazy idea to actually play the game that they have set out. Grant and I do this all the time at Best Buy or Target, but it’s not allowed here.

Money – Even though I called my bank before coming here, they put a hold on my account after my first ATM withdrawal. I was able to withdraw about $400. I finally was able to call the bank and straighten everything out. I was able to get another $400 out yesterday. Everything is done with cash here. In Kiev, US dollars were fairly widely accepted, but not here. And if you use US cash, they only want brand new bills. I carry a lot of US cash on me in a money pouch that is connected to my belt. I hope to be able to not dip into it by using Hryvna that I pull out of the ATM. The US cash is emergency fundage. I have not felt unsafe here at all.

Entertainment - We’ve been watching a lot of DVDs on the computer. Some of our DVD’s that we burned at home are not playing on the computer, which is frustrating, but the store bought DVD’s work fine. We made it through the first season of 24 and are almost through the first seasons of Lost and The Office. Oksana is now hooked on Lost. We made her watch Napoleon Dynamite, but I don’t think she liked it.

Weird Ukraine stuff – we’ve noticed a lot of superstitions here that seem odd to us. They are paranoid about being cold. They bundle up their children to a ridiculous level. I was outside with Veeka today with no jacket on, and she had about 4 layers plus a coat, hat, and scarf. They think it is unhealthy to drink a cold beverage in the winter, or it will make you sick. They won’t let Veeka walk on a hard surface without shoes on, because it is too cold. Another weird superstition is that you can’t whistle while inside. I never realized how much I whistle, and these people think I am very rude. They say that if you whistle inside, you will lose all your money, which seems to be happening to me. Babies can’t be placed on their bottoms for several weeks, but must be laid flat. Raw onions and garlic keep you from getting sick. Veeka has them almost every day, which didn’t bother us until today when we ran out of gum to give her.

Time for another episode of Lost. Surely we will find out what the Polar Bear thing is. Gotta go.

Thursday in Mariupol

Today was another busy day in Mariupol! We woke up to a beautiful morning of sunshine, and the clearest skies we’ve seen here. It didn’t last long, but it was a nice change of pace!

We learned something new about Halle Grace today. We knew she wasn’t a very picky eater (we frequently watch her eat the little stringy things off of bananas with great enthusiasm). Today topped it all. We were playing outside and she preceded to dig in the dirt with her hands. She said she was “cooking” (our neighbor, Sophia, will LOVE her!!!). She pulled out this small bulb-looking thing and got very excited. She brushed off the dirt showed me what she found (jabbering excitedly in Russian). Then she ran to show “Papa” her treasure. After showing him, she preceded to EAT IT! All of it! I thought maybe it was a wild onion of some kind, but Oksana (our translator) thinks it was a tulip! We also witnessed her great excitement over smashing a walnut with her boot and eating it as well. I guess I won’t worry too much about her wanting to try new foods!

We worked on her name a little today. Grace is hard to say, so we’re starting with just Halle. We play a game with a ball where we throw it to Mama and all say “Mommy”, then if I throw it to Halle, we say “Halle”, or “Daddy” if we throw it to him. She loves it, and is getting more familiar with her name. She also says “I love you” and “thank you”. We are working slowly on a few colors and names of fruits. She can also name the boys when we show her pictures of them.

Today, we got to tour the orphanage. Let me tell you, this place is amazing! They have several different speech therapy rooms, as well as a Ukrainian culture room, a toy room, a kitchen room (where the children get cooking lessons), a performance room with a piano and a stage, a “nature” room where they have aroma therapy and learn to make calming tea for themselves (so cute!), Oksana tells us that she has never seen such a nice orphanage, and we are so blessed that Halle Grace has been in such amazing care. When we toured her “groupa” area, we got to see her setting the tables for lunch. Each groupa has their own dining area/play room, their own bedroom and bathroom area. There are 10 children in her groupa, and 3 different caregivers rotate shifts. We were so impressed with the way the staff really seems to care about the children and what will help enrich their lives. Sadly, during this tour, we got to see most of the children in the orphanage, and most of these kids will never be adopted. Probably half or more had obvious fetal alcohol syndrome or other mental impairment. Many others are social orphans (where the parents visit periodically, but their rights haven’t been terminated so they are not adoptable). The children’s ages range from 3 to 6 – and they are just precious. I’ll attach pictures later when I have better internet (we were not allowed to photograph any of the children – other than Halle Grace).

We should hear tomorrow sometime whether we can keep our Monday court appointment (1pm), or if the paperwork in Kiev isn’t done and we have to postpone until Tuesday. Pray that the SDA will be on a roll tomorrow and get the papers signed that we need!

By the way, I tried the dress on Halle G today that I made and smocked last summer for our future daughter. I figured it would be too small, but it actually fits her! (barely)
She was so excited and called it her princess dress. I still have to finish the buttons and the hem, but the ladies at the church meet on Saturdays to sew and Katie is going to take me! (don't laugh! :)
She's about 42" tall and she is thin, so she is likely a size 4 for dresses, but a 5 for pants/swimsuits, etc. This dress was made to be a 2, but I did make it a little big. I think it fits by the grace of God alone! :)

Several have asked about our daily schedule...
8ish am - rise and shine (I know, nice huh?)
10am - leave for the orphange
11:30 or 12 - head to lunch or to run errands
4:30 - back to orphanage for another visit
6:00 - back home to snack for dinner and watch Lost with Oksana
Then we watch The Office in bed or read.

Recent Highlights

1 - Brandon and Katie have invited me to stay with them when Scott and Oksana leave after court! What an incredible blessing! I will be with them about 10 days, and I am so excited!

2 - We got to call the boys from our visit with Halle Grace yesterday and they all got to "meet" their new sister. It was so much fun! She recieted her poem for them. Of course they didn't understand a word of it...so cute!

3 - We found out that another adopting family from our March group is heading to Mariupol tonight - Ruslan and Inna. That will be fun to meet up with them, and we hope they are at our same orphanage! :)

4 - Today we got to take Halle Grace to get her passport picture taken. It was NOTHING like when I got mine taken at Walgreens. They set her all up like a little model - placing her chin just so, etc. So funny! She was so proud, and felt like such a big girl. Then we got to take her shopping!!! It was the first time she has been shopping for new things. She tried everything on, and just looked adorable. Scott found her some little pink Mary Janes that she just fell in love with! We bought her 3 outfits, a light coat, hat, panties, socks, shoes and a Barbie set. :) What a little princess she will be!

5 - At yesterday's visit, Halle Grace used wet wipes to make a bride dress and veil for her little doll. Then she proceded to put on a puppet show for us. It was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen! :)

If you just can't get enough...here's more from our not-so-little bundle of joy!



Here she is in Daddy's shoulders with her "bride" doll...:)


This is the poem she recited for us when we first me...

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! They don’t celebrate it here, so there’s no green in sight today. We had a very busy day of paperwork for court – all morning until 2 this afternoon when we finally went for lunch. We ate at this great little sea-side pizza place and it was SO GOOD! We had a big pizza, juice, and beer for $6.

We got news today that we will not be able to schedule court until Monday. Because of the timing of the weekends, that means 4 extra days here than I’d hoped. At this point, our most likely scenario is that Scott will come home next Wednesday, and Halle Grace and I will head home on April 9th (depending on flights, of course). That puts us right at a month, which is about what we expected. This is all depending also on no additional delays…so you never know! Halle Grace is ready to go now! She keeps asking when her parents will take her to her new home. 3 weeks must sound like an eternity to a kid! She is happy, though, with her routine and her friends. We feel so blessed that she is in an orphanage where she receives such good care.

We visited her this afternoon and got to take her outside for the first time. She LOVED it! She just ran all over, pointing out anything and everything that peaked her interest. She loved the old rusty slide, and showed off a couple of gymnastics tricks on the bars. We brought her an orange and some candy to share with her group. When we went inside (it was getting really cold!), there was a French couple there visiting another little 5-year-old girl named Nastia (short for Anastasia). Halle Grace and Nastia played dolls together, and let me tell ya, this girl of ours loves dolls! She also loves playing hide-and-seek, riding on “Papa’s” shoulders, digging treasures out of Mama’s purse, playing “guess-which-hand-holds-the-treat”, and creating her own jewelry out of stickers (earrings, bracelets, and even “eye shadow”!).

She is showing us more and more of her personality – she is a little fire-cracker! She’s spunky and full of life, and loves to be silly. She’s also very independent, and can sometimes be a little bossy! She is generous and loves to share (except her doll), and polite – she greets everyone that walks by with a smile and a “dra-svitch-da” (hello in Russian).

We have found a “regular” taxi driver! He’s very nice and dependable, and he drives a SWEET old Soviet Lada, but it’s clean inside and doesn’t smell like smoke (big plus!). His name is Denyese, and he even knows a few English words (which is petty rare out here). He even told us that he used to drive Kathy and Matt back and forth to the orphanage from this same apartment!

Tomorrow we are looking forward lunch plans with our new missionary friends, Brandon and Katie. We also look forward to visiting Halle Grace because we bought some bubbles and a teddy bear last night (she keeps asking us for a teddy bear – poor little thing!). We found these items at the local version of Walmart (I said VERSION of Walmart – hehe). GUESS what else we found there? Peanut Butter! Can you believe it? They just don’t eat it here at all, and it was not in the big supermarket in Kiev, but go figure – it’s in Mariupol! Scott was so excited!

Although I miss home and the boys so much, I am looking at another 3 weeks in Ukraine before I can come home with Halle Grace. I plan to soak in everything I can about this place because I realize this will likely be the only chance I get to learn from the culture and the country that gave us our daughter. I know I will regret it if I wish it away…and it really is such a nice little area of town we are settled in.

We are feeling the Lord’s hand in every step of this journey. From the way this little girl is miraculously advanced physically, emotionally, and intellectually (for an orphan especially), to the way she is so obviously the perfect fit for our family, to the town of Mariupol – the place my dad “happens” to personally know American missionaries…
Praise God for truly going before us. It is obvious that he had been planning this long before he decided to let us in on the plan. Our hearts are full of praise and gratitude!

…..now if we could just teach this girl a little English before our translate leaves on Monday!

Sunday

Today we went to church at the local Church of Christ – can you believe it? It was all in Russian, of course, but it was still familiar, and nice to meet some people. The service lasted about an hour and 45 minutes. About 70 people were there! We met the missionary couple there, and spent time with them this afternoon (Brandon and Katie). They have been here about 9 months, and they are so sweet. We went to their apartment (from where I posted yesterday’s blog entry) and they showed us tons of great pictures of Mariupol during other times of the year. It’s actually really beautiful in the spring and summer! We spent some time walking around the town afterwards, and I think it’s starting to grow on me a little. There is a beautiful Orthodox church nearby that we’d like to visit tomorrow. We also found a great little outdoor marker nearby that sells everything from fish to shampoo to clothing.

We squeezed in a visit with Halle Grace today before church, and then we visited her again in the late afternoon. We are able to communicate better each day, and she is really starting to bond with us. Her other caretaker talked with us a little today. She told us that she loves to “help” clean and cook, and that she is a very good girl. This seems to be the consensus! She is so sweet – we brought her the usual banana today, along with a cupcake that Katie sent with us. She asked if next time we could bring something she could share with her whole group. (She has about 10 in her group, and enjoys telling us about them). Also, today we asked her if she knows Leeza (just adopted by Kathy and Matt at johnsonsadoption.blogspot.com) and she said YES, that Leeza was her friend. So sweet.

Tomorrow (Monday), we have paperwork to get done in the morning and may only get to visit Halle Grace in the afternoon. We are REALLY hoping for a Friday court date. Please pray!

We finally got to read your blog comments yesterday, and they were so sweet! Thank you for all the encouragement. Keep it coming – we love hearing from home.

Day 2 in Mariupol

Today was great! We came for the afternoon visiting hours, and our little one ran right in with big hugs for us. She is so proud to have a family. She is just hilarious, and we know she’s going to fit in perfectly with our family and friends. We found out a lot about her today. He caretaker came on and told us about her schedule, as well as her personality. We discovered that she was in a performance competition that several of the orphans were able to participate in. She got to travel to nearby Donestk and perform her singing and dancing (dancing is her favorite thing!). She is quite the little star! We also discovered that the orphanage has had a handful of field trips over the past year – she’s been to the zoo, the sea, and the water park (and I use all of these terms loosely…hehe). I’ve seen the “sea” here, and let me tell you – it leaves much to be desired. We also found out that she seems to befriend children older than her because of her advanced intellect (see – I told you she was smart!). We were planning on holding her back for Kindergarten this year because we expected that she would be delayed. But now that we are getting to know her, we know she’s ready. Our school district is only half-day kinder, so that’s GREAT cuz I’ll still get plenty of time with her. (Staci – will you please pass that on the June for me… and Kathy, will you let them know at Kindergarten registration that I will have one more to register when we return? Thanks!)

I can’t remember who gave us the coloring and sticker books with crayons at our adoption shower (I think it was Shannon), but they have been a HUGE hit! Today, she took the stickers off the Disney princesses and put them all over her face – even two on her ears for earrings. So funny! (see them in pic below)

She was putting stickers on my little notebook and counting them. She would want me to count them in English, and she would repeat the numbers after me (very well, too), then she would say, “Now I’LL do it correctly”, and count them in Russian! So funny! I’m so glad our translator is still with us, or we’d miss out on most of what she says!

Oksana will be with us until court (which we are hoping to have on Friday), then she’ll go back home for the 10-day-waiting period. She’ll return after that for the rest of the paperchasing, then she’ll go back home and I’ll head to Kiev with our new daughter to complete the paperwork and head home. Scott is planning on returning home after court to be with the boys and get back to work.

We are going to church tomorrow after our visit, and we are looking forward to meeting the American missionary couple that is there. I have sure missed Gateway…nothing like that here.

We found a great little café today – really good food and I look forward to going back there. It’s nice to find something I know I like, because I’m going to be here a long time!

The weather here is nice – cold, but not too bad. We haven’t needed our hats and gloves at all. It’s just dreary, though. Cloudy and dirty, and although I’m grateful to this area because our little girl is well-cared for here, we just can’t get her out of here fast enough.

Please pray that we will be able to have court on Friday. This will give us a two-day head start on the 10-day-wait cuz we will be able to count the weekend. Other wise, court will be on Monday, and then 10 days after that. It will all depend on how quickly the SDA processes the paperwork…which hasn’t been good lately.

Love and hugs to all!
Julie

Deep Thoughts by Scott

Let me describe the typical experience of riding with a hired driver in Ukraine. A 1980-something car pulls up that hasn’t been washed since it was new. A man in his upper twenties gets out and you start to hear the Euro-techno music blaring as he opens his door. He immediately lights up a cigarette while helping you with your bags. You get in the backseat to find that it is covered with a filthy blanket. The floorboard has about a ¼ inch of dirt on it. The glove box has been torn out and the front seat cushion is completely worn out. But the radio works. Does it ever work. All day long, it blares out Euro-techno music only interrupted by the radio DJ man in a deep Russian voice babbling on for several minutes followed by more Euro-techno music. If you pull up to a stop light behind other cars, you just pull over on the other side of the road against oncoming traffic and pull ahead of the first car. Just before the light turns green, you go ahead into the intersection. If you get pulled over for speeding, you “negotiate” with the policeman and go back to driving at high rates of speed on the way of oncoming traffic. And, the seat belts don’t work, so this is really quite scary.

Smoking – now this isn’t my first trip to Europe. I have known for some time that Europeans love to smoke. However, it never ceases to amaze me how much they love it here. These people smoke all the time. You can’t get away from it. In our apartment in Kiev, we could smell the smoke seeping in from under our door as a crowd of 5 or 6 people would stand outside and smoke. Of course, in this toxic wasteland called Mariupol, inhaling cigarette smoke is probably healthier than the air outside. We’re thinking of starting to smoke ourselves.

Walking – one of the things you will notice here is that people are always outside walking. These people are very poor, so they can’t afford cars or the gas to put in the cars. As we drive around town, we always see lots of people out walking. These are usually older people (who somehow have not succumbed to black lung or lung cancer yet) walking all over the place carrying a plastic shopping bag. In the residential areas, there are always a lot of people walking the streets. Basically, if you replace most of the cars you see back home with people walking, you will get the picture.

Food – the food is pretty good. There are no fast food restaurants here. Instead, there are cafeterias, which I like because I can point at things and have a good idea of what it will taste like. The food tends to be fairly bland, or at least the food that I have chosen has been. Lots of breaded chicken and potatoes. They use a lot of butter on everything, which makes everything better. Their desserts are not great. It is usually a piece of cake that looks really good, but is very dry. They love their juice here. They have every kind you could imagine, and quite often they make it in front of you. The food is not low cal, but the walking and cigarettes offset it, which is why everybody here is thin.

Cost of living – our apartment is $35/night. It belongs to a nice woman named Olga, who actually moved in with her neighbor next door while we stay here. She’s also going to do our laundry once a week. This is quite common. We looked at two other apartments that would have requited the same thing. We could have rented one for $15/night, but we weren’t guaranteed to have hot water. The other was a long way away, and it freaked me out that the husband was sitting in the living room watching TV as we looked at his apartment. We bought a cart of groceries for about $60. The cab fare to the orphanage is $3. We had a 3 course lunch at a fairly nice café today, and it was less than $20, including wine. I bought lunch for 4 people at the cafeteria yesterday for under $20. The one thing that is always expensive here is when we have to hire a driver. Yes, that’s the driver described above. He is usually expensive. It was $160 to have Sasha drive us from Donetsk and then all over beautiful Mariopul for the whole day. But the Euro-techno music was included at no extra charge.

\sorry! \blogger isn't letting me load pictures! :( We'll tray again later.

Day 2 - Mariupol

Scroll down and read yesterday's post first...then come back.

We have NO internet. We finally found this Internet Cafe, which is a small basement-type room with about 10 computers, mostly taken by middle-school aged boys playing video games. I really wanted to upload some video of our little one, but I can't do it here. Maybe later. We have videos of her poem from yesterday, and a dance she did for us today!

Today's visit with her went even better. It is precious to see her run to us with her arms open wide when she first sees us! We didn't get to play outside with her like we'd hoped (some of the kids have colds or something, so no outside playing - whatever!). We visited her in a small room, and she played with the measuring tape (super fun!). She still had the little doll we brought her yesterday - she loves it! She wrote her name for us today and drew us a picture of her doll, with the sun, sky, and grass...she's a great little artist!

By the way...her name will be Halle Grace Victoria (they call her Vika in the orpahange, and so do we for now).

That's all for now...we're ready to go find some lunch. I hope to post more pictures...we'll see!
To Grant and Garrett - we won't be able to call or email as much as before...but we are thinking of you everyday and can't wait until we are all together again! We love and miss you! (((HUGS))))

She's the One!!

Today was CRAZY! I’ll start with yesterday evening. Our driver was 20 minutes late picking us up for the train. Then traffic was the worst we’d seen – it was ridiculous. We could have probably walked there faster! We ended up running for the train with our bags (SO glad we packed light), and making it with just a couple of minutes to spare. We traveled with one Oksana, who is our translater. She is great and we are having fun being with her. We learned what is so bad about the train. It’s not really the train itself. Scott said the bathroom wasn’t bad at all (though I didn’t go! Hehe!). Judging from the picture he took for me, I should have gone there, instead of the city offices where I had to go in a hole in the ground. Gross!!! Anyway, back to the train…the compartment was nice enough. We went 2nd class and bought the whole car (4 beds for 3 of us) all for $100. The problem is that it is impossible to sleep on that crazy train! It stops at least every hour (or so it seemed), there’s always some random light flashing through the window, and it’s just loud (people are getting off and on the train all night). I found myself counting down the hours on my watch. I think I finally slept from about 4am to 6am.

Once we arrived in Donestk (around 8am), our driver met us all and drove us to Mariupol. NOW we have seen the crazy Ukraine driving everyone talks about! He did get pulled over once by the police, but it only took about 10 minutes (I’ve heard this can be a long ordeal sometimes). We went straight to the Inspector’s office (in this city office building). We waited in the hall for about 45 minutes, then finally got in and got the paper we needed. The inspector then came with us to the orphanage (we didn’t know they did this). We arrived around 11:15, and we knew lunch was at noon. We spoke with the director and the nurse about the little girl’s background. Her past is sad, like all orphans, but her health is fantastic. She has had one surgery on her eyes, and they said it is still unclear if she will even need another one. Then they asked if we were ready to meet her… YES!!!

In she walked – this precious little girl. It’s one of those moments you know will stay in your memory and in your heart forever. She had on a purple turtleneck, a denim jumper with a butterfly on it (which she was very proud of!), yellow knee-high socks, and silver sandals. Her brown hair was in a ponytail, and I was just dying to take down that hair and play with it! She was very polite and we spoke to her via our translator. She started telling us all the things she likes to do – she likes Cinderella, dressing up, baby dolls with strollers, cooking, and dancing. Then she belts out in PERFECT speech this Russian poem about sunflowers! Precious! We knew right away that she was meant to be ours. We showed her the photo book we brought with pictures of our family, our home, friends, etc. She pointed to the bed in “her” room and said, “I want to lie down on THAT bed” (in Russian, of course!). Little does she know the hours I spent choosing that fabric and making that bed look perfect just for her! When it was time for her to go, she gave me the biggest hug and would not let go. I also got a couple of kisses on the cheek…while she probably got all wet from my tears! What a precious gift this little girl is!

After running around literally ALL day long getting paperwork started to set a court date, we got to go back for a quick visit this evening. This time, she gave Scott big hugs and even sat in his lap. We brought her a little doll, and she spent most of the time braiding the doll’s hair in perfect little braids (no delayed fine-motor skills here!). She also downed 3 cookies, and wrote down her numbers for us to show off her skills! We measured her, and she is about 42in. tall – just about Garrett’s height! She is just the smartest little thing…we’re biased a little, but I really would never have guessed that she was an orphan! It’s incredible and we know that the Lord has truly been keeping her in the palm of his hand for us. There are no doubts that He has been preparing her to meet us, and us to meet her.
I can’t do a link right now, but go through my blog and find the entry about the dream I had about the SDA office meeting. It’s amazing to see how it actually worked out!

More later…there’s so much more to say!
By the way, I am keeping my blog as is. We had a sensitive issue with a potential adoption that I can’t go into, but that was the main reason for wanting to take it “more private”. That reason no longer exists, so I’m leaving it the way it is! Your comments and prayers have made all the difference for us in this journey, and I wouldn’t want to complete it without each of you!
Enjoy the pictures! (Aren’t private blogs great? You don’t have to wait till court to see this precious little girl!)


Random Thoughts by Scott

Ukraine Driving - I have always thought I was in the top 10% of drivers. Clearly, these Ukraine drivers are in the top 1%. These guys are the most aggressive drivers I've ridden with. We passed cars going the wrong way in the city. We passed cars on the sidewalk. They are nuts.

Crazy Train - Not as hot as advertised and not as bad. It is very hard to sleep on the train, though.

Mariupol - the dirtiest city I have ever seen. We are in a toxic wasteland fueled by several metal and chemical plants spewing black smoke in the air. You can't see more than about a quarter mile here.

Veka - she is really a special girl. We had expected to adopt a girl that would be delayed physically and mentally. This girl is very smart and is as tall as Garrett. It is clear that she has been very well cared for. A little girl walked by while we were visiting Veka, and Veka said, "My parents have come for me." The other girl replied very sadly "I see". It is really very sad. The kids have all been taken to a church where they were told to pray that parents would come for them. Most of these kids are not eligible for adoption, so their "parents" will never come.

More about today...

What a difference a few hours make! We are SO much more relaxed than we were this morning. I can finally eat again - without all the nerves! We can finally sleep, too. We are heading to the same orphanage as Leeza and Kyle who were previously adopted by fellow blogger friends! We hear great things about the orphanage, and are excited about that. We are leaving tomorrow for the 14-hr train ride and 1 1/2 hour car ride. Then we go to the inspector's office to get permission to visit the orphanage. THEN we get to go meet her! We are hopeful that the Lord will confirm that this little girl is the one for us.

We don't know what our internet situation will be in Mariupol, but I will journal in the meantime and post it all when I can.

We called/webcammed the boys today and told them about the little girl we are going to visit. We were wondering how Garrett would react, because he and this little girl would become practically twins (same age, birthdays 3 weeks apart!). I think he had more of a "little" sister in mind.... well his little smile just lit right up and he said, "She's the same age as ME?" So precious! Both boys are excited - as excited as they can be with the situation a world away right now. :)

Today we bought some snacks and drinks for the train ride. Did I mention it was 14 hours? I think most of you know or have heard me or others discuss the bathroom situation on the trains in Ukraine. They are horrendous! I (like others before me) will be reationing my liquid-intake to avoid it at all costs! This time tomorrow, we'll be sitting on the train - on our way to meet this little girl! We can't wait!

In Kiev today, we strolled and explored our neighborhood. Then for dinner, we met some other adopting parents - Marty and Angela, and their little boy, Joshua. They are such a sweet family. Their appointment is tomorrow morning and they are hoping for a girl around 3 or 4. I pray they will find the little one God has for them.

This might be our last post from Kiev for awhile. Scott might blog about our grand adventures in the Metro today! :)

We can't thank everyone enough for the prayers. We believe they are the reason we are heading to Mariupol tomorrow. Can't wait to see the next chapter of the adventure!
Love,
J

Scott's ManBlog

SDA - the typical guy wants to strategize his way through the SDA appointment. I had gone through in my head the best time to have the appointment, the best way to get past the small talk and onto files, and the best way to maximize the number of files that we would view. In the end, you end up throwing all the strategy out the window. It's an organization that is anything but. It ends up being a huge faith building experience, because it renders us guys completely powerless to outwit, outplay, outlast.

The Metro - after finding my testosterone useless at the SDA, I had to have an outlet. So, I convinced Julie to try the subway. I felt like a hunter stalking his prey as we tried to navigate our way through the most confusing subway system I've ever seen. They have subway lines that are marked on the map with colors, but nowhere in the actual subway will you see those colors. We didn't actually make it on the right train going to dinner, but we did make it back home just fine. Everything became much harder given the fact that once again, we are dealing with a completely different alphabet. My map had the words spelled in English, but the subway signs are all in Cyrillic. In the end, we conquered the Kiev subway system, but I wouldn't recommend trying it unless you are really brave.

P.S. I just bragged to our facilitator about taking the Metro. She said that what we did was very dangerous, especially since we had over 5 figures in cash strapped to us. In other words, don't try this if you come to Kiev.

We have a referral!!!

We didn't sleep much last night. We knew it was in God's hands, but we are human and we were nervous. Finally, the time came, and we headed to the SDA. It's right by one of the beautiful churches (St. Andrews, I THINK). We walked up the stairwell into the office of the psychologist (more of a secretary, really). They were short on staff, so our facilitator got to come into the meeting with us. This was a HUGE blessing. She asked us our age and gender prefences (girl, up to 5), and started pulling out files one at a time. She showed us 2 girls under the age of 4. It was heartbreaking. One had FAS and one that could not use one of her legs. We asked for more files - new files. She left the room and returned with a cute little dark-haired 7-yr. old. We knew this wasn't the one. She was Grant's age. We asked again - "do you have any new files anywhere?". She left the room again, and returned with one more file and a big smile on her face. The little girl is ADORABLE! She is 5 and has crossed-eyes, which have already been corrected once by surgery. She could need one more operation, but they look pretty good. She has sandy-brown hair - with a few curls, and brown eyes. She is HEALTHY! We can't travel to meet her until tomorrow night, but we will get to meet her on Friday. She is in Mariupol, witch is a LONG way from Kiev. It's a small town about an hour and a half from Donetsk. More later...we're off to eat lunch (we're starving!!!).
Praise God for this gift! We feel so blessed, and feel this file that seemed to come out of nowhere was straight from the Lord. Pray that when we meet her, we will find that she is the one we came here for!

Kiev - Day 3

We have our appointment time - 11am tomorrow. That's 4am Texas time. And, yes, we will pray that God will wake many of you up to pray for us! :) Today wasn't a good day at the SDA. We heard there were a couple of families who were not shown any files in their range of age, health, gender. Not good. Though our range is a little broader than theirs, it's not by much (girl, up to 5yrs - which is Garrett's age). But we are staying hopeful and faithful - it's our only choice! We need a miracle to find our daughter at this point, and we are believing God for one. I won't go into detail about what is going on right now at the SDA, but it has not been good for international adoption.

In other news, we explored the city today! We walked everywhere - and it is just beautiful. We met Drew, Michelle and their son Luke at a cafe today, and that was great getting to know them. Their appointment is at the same time as ours tomorrow - how crazy is that? They are hoping for a girl up to 7. Their son (8) is so polite, and so sweet!

We are back at the apartment tonight, relaxing and praying before the big day tomorrow. We have LOVED reading your comments and emails - they are so encouraging and really feed our spirits right now.

By the way...the KievStar texting thing isn't working. Do any of you adoption veterans know what's wrong or why it wouldn't be working?

My next post will be after the SDA appointment tomorrow.
Here are some pics of our apartment, a few Kiev sights, and us with Drew, Michelle, and Luke. Enjoy!

Man Blog

This is Scott posting the ManBlog. I'm going to give the very practical down and dirty perspective from a guy.

Travel - for the .01% of you who are airline employees traveling to Ukraine, I was very nervous as we approached our travel day since we were non-reving. Give yourself a few days cushion. If possible, just ZED on DL's flight from JFK to Kiev. If not, you can go through London or Frankfurt. The connection in London is doable, at least on a Sunday if you arrive in London by 6:30 am.

Big point here - only carry-on. Do not let them check your bags. We were the last ones on the flight to NYC, and they talked us into checking our roller bags as the bins were really full. This almost was a huge mistake since the flight diverted to Newark. We were afraid that they wouldn't allow us to get the bags off in Newark if the flight resumed and went on to LGA.

Jetlag - I am a big fan of trying to pick a flight that arrives in Europe later than early morning. It is important to stay awake until a normal bedtime on your first night. Do not take a nap, you will pay a severe price at 3am if you take a nap.

When you arrive in Kiev, go straight to get the passport document and fill it out while standing in line. If you fill them out at the desks, you will find yourself in the back of the line. We saw that the line marked "for Ukrainian Citizens" was short, so we asked the super friendly person in military uniform if we could go to that line, and she nodded yes. It worked just fine. Fill out the Arrival and Departure side of the form and do one form for each person traveling. If you don't, they will send you to the back of the line.

After going through Passport control, fill out another form (one for each of you) for Customs. Be sure to declare if you are carrying more than the specified amount of cash. It was no big deal, and we breazed through. DO NOT PAY TO EXPEDITE.

Let's talk money. You can exchange cash all over the place. Be sure to bring only brand new bills, and I mean brand new from the mint. We have ours spread out among three pouches that we carry under our wasteline in our pants. We paid our driver $50 USD to get from the airport to our apartment and also for a trip to the grocery store. The apartment is $75 USD/night. We paid the driver and the apartment in US dollars. We spent about $25 (on credit card) at the grocery store, getting some Diet Coke, juice, bread, ham, cheese, 2 jugs of water, some yogurt, some pasta, and spaghetti sauce. We spent about $12 at a pastry shop for breakfast. We spent about $20 at a pizza place, where we also bought the lunch for our facilitator. We spent about $22 at TGI Friday's, but we only got 2 appetizers and 2 Diet Cokes. There is no need to tip here, like in most European cities. We exchanged about $400 USD, and will exchange again when we run low.

The apartment - We are very fortunate to have high speed Internet in our apartment. This apartment is great for what we need. It's not very nice, but it has a kitchen, a living room, a separate bedroom, and a bathroom with a washing machine. It is in the middle of the action downtown. You have to walk through a dark alleyway to get to the apartment. At night, it is a little scary to walk in the alley, but overall, we feel very safe. Bring some adaptors for electrical. We haven't had to use the converter yet. Hot water seems to be a big deal here. We have a water heater mounted on the wall in the kitchen. Apparently, this is quite a luxury.

Safety - central Kiev feels very safe, even with us carrying a large amount of cash on our person. Be sure to carry a cell phone whereever you go. The part that is sometimes intimidating is the inability to communicate. We got a little lost tonight, and it was very hard to ask for directions. Unlike places like France or Italy, the alphabet is different, so no words look familiar at all. Carry a map and memorize some landmarks. It would be a good idea to write down your address and carry it with you. Overall, we feel very safe here.

Food - The pizza was great. I have no idea where we were or the name of the restaurant. I thought there was only one McDonalds here, but we have seen at least 3. We are only a block from one, and it was the landmark that helped us get directions home. The golden arches are easily communicated in all languages. We found just about everything you could want at the grocery store, except peanut butter. We had dinner at TGI Friday's. It was great if you like a little smoke with your dinner. I'm sure the food will be different when we leave Kiev.

Technology - Like I said, we are fortunate to have Internet. We brought our Vonage V Phone, which is basically a USB Flash drive with an earpiece and microphone. We are able to have a local 817 area code phone number from our computer if we have high speed internet. So, we are able to call and be called just like we are at home, for free. It's very cool. Also, everybody talks about Skype. I'm sure it is great, but if you already have Yahoo Messenger or Windows Messenger or something similar, you don't need Skype. We brought a webcam and had a webcam chat with the boys using Yahoo Messenger. It is very easy to setup. We also brought a lot of DVD's. Our apartment does not have a DVD player, so we just use the computer. We had hoped to be able to watch streaming video from ABC, CBS, but they won't allow this to work if you are not in the U.S.

Clothes - Don't even try to look like a local. You just can't pull it off. If you are a guy and are over 140 pounds, you will look American. Also, you need to wear a lot of black and have a funky haircut. If you like football in any way, you can not possibly look like a local. Girls, don't even try it. These girls are very tall and very thin and wear some huge stiletto black boots and Euro skirts that are too short for Christian gals. You can't come close to looking like a Ukrainian woman, and you probably don't want to. So, everybody will instantly know you are American no matter how hard you try. Deal with it and be a proud American. Also, these people wear the same clothes over and over. There is no need to put on a fashion show here with multiple outfits. Three shirts and three pants will get you by just fine.

That's it for now. I'll try to post here and there with the practical ManBlog.
Scott

Kiev - Day 2

We have internet! We were thrilled when our dear facilitator was able to get us internet access in our apartment. What a blessing! We ended up sleeping about 12 hours last night - hooray for that cuz we were WORN OUT! Our faciliator (N) came over this morning, and we met about about our appointment on Wednesday. She did a good job preparing us for every possible scenario - including going home and returning for a second appointment. That could be anywhere from a 1-3 month wait, but as N put it, "it's a short time to wait for the right child that you will have for the rest of your lives". We are hoping and praying that we are able to find our daughter THIS trip. Looking at how things are going at the SDA and what other families have found, it would take a miracle. Lucky for us, we happen to know someone upstairs who is pretty good at that whole miracle thing. :)

I'll post pictures later (when I take some!) of the apartment and the city. We ended up having a long lunch with N and one of her helpers, R. Yummy pizza and great conversation. They told us all about the stories of other families they have worked with, and how much was stacked against them, and how somehow, it all worked out as it was meant to. It has been impressed upon me that this whole adoption situation in Ukraine is some serious spiritual warfare. You can just feel the battle going on as they described the stories of these families who had so much going against them, but how God's plan prevailed in the end.

This evening, we're going out to explore Independence Square and see a few sights. We'll do more of that tomorrow. Then Wednesday is our big day!

Ukraine Arrival!!!

Travel and Arrival

After 24 hours of travel time from our home to our apartment in Kiev, we were exhausted. Our flight plan changed after snow at home cancelled a bunch of flights. Our new plan was to DFW to NYC on AA, then Delta from NYC to Kiev. That plan wasn’t to be, as our flight to New York went from a 3 hour flight to a 5 hour flight because of heavy fog in New York. They finally decided to land the plane in Newark, NJ. But it was an hour taxi ride over to JKF, and we arrived just as the Delta flight was leaving. On the plus side, though, a nice business man with an expense account shared the cab ride with us and paid for it (all $124 of it!) Thank you, Lord!  On to plan B – no big deal for us as we do this sort of thing a lot being, airline employees. Sometimes it can be stressful flying standby, but Scott planned in plenty of extra time, so we weren’t worried. We took the London flight from NYC. Standby travel it has its perks. We got to fly first class to London on the 777. It was amazing – what a blessing! I think I’m still full from all the food they fed us…MMmmmmm. The seats make into beds that are completely flat. SO nice! We had a tight connection in London – just under 2 hours to make the Kiev flight, but we made it, and were the first ones to the gate! We were greeted at the airport in Kiev by our driver and facilitator and we were so happy to be finally be there!

The mood changed quickly, though, as our facilitator began to tell us how difficult things are right now at the SDA. I won’t go into details, but the last couple of weeks especially have not been good. At this point in time, where in the past facilitators were able to “pull strings” sometimes, it has just not been the case recently and it has been difficult for adoptive families. We are truly going “blind” on Wednesday for our appointment, and so far, some families have been told there are no healthy children available under 7. Some families have only been shown special needs children, while some have been shown a “healthy” toddler, with just no rhyme or reason. I can’t go into details about what we were told, but from a logic perspective, the odds are truly stacked against us at this point for finding a relatively healthy girl up to age 5. However, we believe with all our hearts that God led us here, and that he has a child for us here. Our God loves to work against the odds…otherwise, there would be no glory, right? Please pray that He would cut through the red tape in Ukraine so that these orphans would find families, and so these families would find the child they are supposed to find. Many families have not found “their child” at their first appointment. We are praying, and we ask that you would pray too, that we will find our daughter at our first appointment. That is Wednesday (we haven’t been assigned a time yet). This is a big week – it could be “the best of times”, or “the worst of times”. We’re believing for the best! It’s all we can do.

Kiev
On a lighter note, Kiev is beautiful so far! We haven’t seen any of the sights yet, but it reminds of a little of Berlin. We are in the center of the city and it’s a hopping’ place! However it was so nice and quiet last night while we slept, so that was great. Too bad I woke up at 3am, though. My body isn’t close to adjusting yet! Scott did much better though – he was smart and took a Tylenol PM before he went to bed. I’ll be trying that tonight! Yesterday, our facilitator showed us around our apartment – how to work everything. It’s better than we expected and we are happy with it! We have a small kitchen and living room with a separate bedroom. The bathroom has a shower/tub and a washing machine! (dryers are extremely rare here). Next, she took us to the grocery store, where we picked up a few things. By the time we got back, unloaded the food, unpacked and got settled, it was 5pm. We made dinner here (potato ravioli with tomato sauce, with some great bread), then watched a couple of episodes of LOST, showered, and went to bed.
Today, our landlord is bringing over a modem and we will have internet in our apartment! Whoohooo!!! That is a huge blessing, because we were hoping to be able to talk to the boys using Vonage over the internet.  After that, we will probably meet with our facilitator about our appointment Wednesday. She wants to go over with us what to expect and what questions we need to ask there, etc. We also plan to explore the city some today, and tomorrow as well.

A few observations so far:
The airport was a breeze – no problem at all. For those of you coming soon, don’t waste your money on that “VIP” service. It’s just not needed, and a waste of $120.

We’ve heard this, but saw for ourselves that the women here are beautiful- and all divas! They all seem to be tall, and decked out with either a short skirt or jeans worn with their tall high-heeled boots (jeans worn tucked in).

I wish I could have browsed the grocery store more, and could read all the labels. Everything looked so good! Their juice aisle was HUGE, with every kind of juice you can imagine. We got some cherry juice – our missionary friend Jeannie Martin told us to try it. Yunmmy!

So far, the driving hasn’t been as scary as our cab road from Newark to JFK in New York. However, they drive anywhere – sidewalks included.

There is a darling little pastry shop just a few steps from our apartment. We’re heading there for breakfast! Yum!!!

It’s cold, but not bad at all. We just need a coat - no hats or scarves yet.

and we're off!

Kathy made it in today, despite all of the airline delays - praise God! She is all brushed up on everything Hinshaw and I know they'll have a great time. We are so thankful for her!!!

We said goodbye to the boys tonight when we put them to bed (we're leaving the house at 5:30am or so in the morning). It was so sweet - we all piled on their bottom bunk and prayed together. I couldn't stop the tears - listening to the precious prayers of our boys tonight would move just about anyone to tears! Garrett prayed that Mommy, Daddy, and Little Sister would be safe and that he and Grant would be nice to each other. Grant prayed that God would put his angels around Little Sister and that we could bring her home quickly. After the prayer, Grant said, "Mommy, are you CRYING?" After answering yes, because I'm going to miss him so much, he said - "don't worry, Mommy, a month is not that long!" Oh I sure hope not! :)

As I sit here, everyone is asleep (poor Scott is heading to the airport at 3:45am to check us in - it's the only way to ensure we are first on the list!), the house is quiet, and my tummy is full of butterflies! I've been all over the map this week - every emotion from "what are we DOING?!?!" to "Let's GO already!", and from "my kids are driving me nuts...and I want another one?!?" to "I can't wait to bring her home!". It's been an emotional week - on top of the never-ending packing and to-do lists. But now, every bag is packed and every list is complete. We're ready for the adventure of a lifetime! I think back to when it all started...that night Garrett said that God told him that we have to pray for a "baby that's way too far away" and the series of events that confirmed that there was, after all, a child for us "way too far away". Here we are...leaving to find her amongst all the orphans of Ukraine. We can't wait to see what God will do!

Signing off from Texas... next post from across the pond!
Love and hugs to all,
Julie