The Golden Ticket

WooHoo!!  We just got our amended 171h from the Dept. of Homeland Security.  They had actually made an error on our original one and so we decided to go ahead and amend it.  We decided to increase the number and age range of children we are approved for.   Please pray that our hearts and eyes will continue to be open to whatever God's plan is for our family.

Chorizo Anyone?

We called the orphanage and talked to Alona today.  As most of you know, God put an angel in our life last year and her name is Julia.  She is Ukrainian, moved to the U.S. about 6 years ago, lives about 20 minutes from us and helps us with the language barrier.  Towards the end of our conversation today, we asked Alona if she needed us to send her anything.  Alona started talking really fast (in Ukrainian) and Julia was telling us she didn't understand what Alona was asking for.  Julia was asking her "is it some type of clothes" or is it a "sweet"?  Julia finally said "Ahh" and she told us Alona was asking for a type of beef jerky or sausage.  Mike & I said at the same time "chorizo"!!  Spanish for sausage!!  We both thought we had heard her say that word,  but we thought it was an Ukrainian word that sounded the same.  But no, it is yet another word Alona has learned from her friends at the orphanage that returned from Spain recently.

Here's where we are

Many of you have asked "what's happening with your adoption process?"  Well the answer is "not a lot" but " a lot".  Some call it birth by paperwork.  We got our state police clearance in one week and with no mistakes --yea!!  Finished the employment verification documentation, the letters of obligations, got the certified copies of marriage certificates, got the residence statement (property rights documents) done and the statements giving the SDAPRC & Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine permission to request clearances on us. Today, Mike & I went and had our medical exams and blood work done.  We should have results by Friday or Monday.  Everything we have so far is notarized, but still needs to be apostilled.   Believe it or not we still have some documentation to finish for our dossier.  The goal is to get the rest finished in 2 to 4 weeks and then it all gets sent to the facilitator in Ukraine for translation.  After that it will get submitted to SDA (State Department of Adoption) and we then have to wait for an appointment.  We are still hoping for a travel date at the beginning of May.

When we talked to "A" last week she said they were teaching her English at school.  This is a major blessing because I have not been real successful at learning Ukrainian/Russian.  We purchased Rosetta Stone for Russian about a year ago; and let's just say I am not expecting anyone from the company to call and ask me to do a commercial on how well their product works.  I have learned some words and phrases just through our hosting and a little phrase book; but I would like to learn more before we go back to Ukraine.  So I am open to any suggestions:)  One funny thing is that a lot of the children from her orphanage go on hosting trips to Spain and Italy and she has started saying "Si" instead of "Dah or yes".  And before anyone asks, no I do not speak Spanish either!!

How Cool Is This

Okay, if you get e-mails from me quit reading now because this is a repeat story.  I just still am in awe of this, so I had to write about it.  On Saturday, about 5 hours after I posted our "How it began",  I received a message from someone that had seen our blog and asked where in Texas we lived.  So I replied with the name of our town along with the name of the nearest large city.  Well..., this family is also pursuing the adoption of a child from Ukraine (different region) that will become available in April (just like our girl),  they hope to travel in April/ May (just like us).  And you guessed it!!  They not only live in the same town, but only about 3 miles from us.  God is so amazing!!

How It All Began

 Let me preface this story by saying that adoption was not a new idea to us.  We actually were working with an agency when we found out I was pregnant with our son.  We suffered 3 miscarriages prior to this and our son was born 10 weeks early and had many health problems.  So for various reasons we never adopted or had any more biological children.  But...,

April 2009 - a close friend of mine called and asked if we would be interested in hosting a child from Ukraine for the summer.  I told her "no" because I thought we were too old and she said " but you would be giving a child a life changing summer.  Also, someone might meet the child over the summer and feel called to adopt that child giving them a forever family".  I then told her that I would ask Mike (my husband) but I did not think he would want to.  Our son was in his second year of college and I think we (especially my husband) had gotten use to being "empty nesters".  That evening I did tell my husband about the program and he did not say much; but a couple of hours later he was looking at pictures of the children and said that if we were to host we would have to host this little girl and he showed me her picture.  He said she looked the saddest out of all the children.  The funny thing is that she had stuck out to me also, but it was because I thought she looked really angry.  Well that is all that was said that evening and we did not discuss it again for the rest of the week.

On Friday my husband was going on a men's retreat with our church and as he was leaving I said "You might really pray about" and I mentioned two different things that we had been talking and praying about for some time.  Mike replied "and I guess I should pray about hosting that little girl".  That really shocked me because I did not think he had even given it a second thought.  That night I was participating in our local "Relay for Life" cancer event and I was stunned when at 3:00a.m. I got a text from Mike saying "I think we should host her and I also think we should adopt her".  Okay this freaked me out because I am the kid nut not Mike.  (Those of you who know us can attest to this!!)

When Mike returned on Sunday evening, he told me that he felt strongly that God wanted us to do this.  I persisted in giving him all my arguments on why this could not be what God wanted us to do at this stage of our life. I finally said "you know I prayed for years for God to bless our family with more children, but I quit praying that prayer 10 years ago".  Mike replied "How do you know God didn't answer your prayer 10 years ago and we are just now getting her".  The girl we were thinking of hosting was 3 months from being 10 years old. Well I immediately teared up because I knew Mike was right and God in His perfect timing had given us a daughter.

I will fast forward and tell you just a little about her.  She is so Mike!!  She has his same sense of humor, out going personality, likes almost everyone she meets and is strong willed.  She appears tough on the outside but has the most tender heart just like him.  The other weird thing is that Mike thinks if you are suffering from any illness a turkey breast sandwich is the answer.  This just grosses me and our son out.  Guess what!! The only time she got sick she went immediately to the refrigerator and started to make herself a turkey breast sandwich.  We just looked at each other and started laughing... "Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone, but still miraculously my own.  Never forget for a single minute, you weren't born under my heart - but in it."  Author: Fleur Conkling Heylinger

Lots of Information

This may be old news, but we found this today and it really has a lot of information:  If you google search lebed-michael.livejournal.com/2010/05/13 it brings up a website that has links to all kinds of information on Ukraine's parliament and its proceedings.  The second link from the bottom has the transcripts from today's agenda.  You clink on the link, then the day, then morning session and go to near the bottom of the page and it has one sentence regarding 4313.  It basically says they sent it back to committee to bring the bill in line with Article 116.  You might have to refresh the Google translate as you scroll down the page.

No Vote Today!!

Well 4313 was on the agenda again today, but the Parliament did not vote on it.  It was postponed!!  Until when -- we don't know.  Why was it postponed -- we don't know.  We are just thankful to God that they didn't vote and maybe it means they are rethinking this bill.   The second reading has been postponed a few times and because of this there are many children that have made it to their "forever homes".   We are so thankful to God for that.  Keep up those prayers for not only our family, but for all of the adoptive families and children -- past, present & future!

Two steps closer

I am really going to try and get better at this blogging thing.  I love reading other families blogs and gain so much insight into the whole Ukraine adoption journey.  We have finished our home study, been fingerprinted by the FBI, received our 171h (but w/a mistake & we are working on that).  We now have to work on all the other paperwork for our dossier and somehow this is where I get stuck.  I opened the folder with all the document, notary and apostille instructions and I get overwhelmed and say "tomorrow".  Did anyone else ever feel like this?  I am happy to say that this morning, I got our appointments made for our doctor/blood work and our State fingerprinting/background checks!!

The funny thing is that my emotions (and actions) have been so similar during this journey as it was when I was pregnant many years ago.  One minute overwhelmed & uncertain and the next so excited that I want to jump up and down and shout out loud with joy!!