Ups and Downs

As the title says, we have had some ups and downs today. Mostly good, but a little roadblock. Yesterday, we thought that Ryan Maxim just had to write a petition in his handwriting that he wanted to be adopted. Now, the orphanage director wants to have a whole commission with the kids present to see if it is in their best interest with the psychologist (maybe more orphanage workers, we aren't sure) and the city inspector (social worker). It was supposed to be this morning, but then they couldn't get everybody together, then it was supposed to be 4:oo today. (We aren't allowed to be part of this commission because we might influence the children.) We went to pick up the inspector and she thinks our adoption is going too fast and that the SDA probably won't like it, so she is holding us off another day. The commission is supposed to be tomorrow at 10 a.m. (So of course this is where we ask you to pray, pray, pray, that everything goes well, according to God's plan). We went to see the lawyer anyway and he said of course it is going fast, everyone wants court before the new year because they don't know what changes there will be in the next year. He is a really cool guy. He went ahead and did our application anyway and we had to sign a bunch of papers. (He told George they don't have anyone with my profession here, the doctors write a lot, then he gave me a smile and a thumbs up!) So, to have our papers ready to send back to the SDA, we only need one paper, where the children agree to be adopted - A big one!! Once that is done, he will send it on the train to Kiev and Sveta will take it to the SDA and they will take about a week to send it back to us, then hopefully a court date. Probably Dec. 24 or 25 - What a Christmas present!!

Several people have asked us questions, so I am going to answer them here in case you all have the same questions - and it gives me something to write about with my foggy brain!!

Is everything routine now, or are there more obstacles? With Ukraine adoptions, there are always obstacles!!! There is no routine!! Every adoption is different.

What kinds of toys would they like? It is hard to know when we get to play with them only in a small room with no toys, but by their personalities we would say....

Ryan Maxim: Drawing stuff, markers, etc. (He can sit and color three pages without getting bored! He also has very nice handwriting.) Big trucks that he can run around with or sit on, probably matchbox cars too. Legos. His favorite color is red.

Robin Vlada: Dress up clothes (I meant to have a box of dress up clothes ready, but I didn't know what ages they would be, so I didn't get this done.) Anything to pretend being grown up. She likes to do her hair and nails. Her favorite color is red too.

Jason Ivan: Anything that he can collect and put in something. He found a purse in the play yard and he won't give it up. He keeps all his treasures in it. Big trucks, matchbox cars, big legos. He won't sit and color.

Jillian Katerina: Baby dolls, noisy toys (don't even think about it!!!), books. She loves picture books and also anything the big kids have.

Any of those new crayola products would be really great for all of them!

Do they speak any English? No.

Did we pick their American names and are their middle names their Ukrainian names? Yes. We really didn't have any idea of what to name them. Once we realized it was going to be two boys and two girls, the whole night I stayed awake on the train and God gave me these names. After a couple days here, when I couldn't sleep, I got up and looked up the names online to check their meaning and Monte and I went over a list of names and these are the ones we picked together.

Have we had meals with them? seen their rooms, their possions? We have not had meals with them. Our visiting hours are between their meals. They are very strict with meal time and send us away when it is time to eat. I got to observe one snack with Jillian and she had a cracker and an apple - I mean the WHOLE apple - core and all. We have not seen their rooms. We pick them up and take them outside or we take them to a room assigned to us to play in. They don't have any possesions of their own except what we brought them. Everything is shared. We even have to buy clothes to bring them home. All their clothes, shoes, etc., stay here for the other children.

Do they have sponsors? As far as I know, this orphanage doesn't participate in any sponsorship progam.

Are their other families there? There is one family here we think from Spain. We see them visiting their children and pass them in the halls and say hi, but we don't take visit our kids in the same area.

Today, we did a lot of running around in the morning - mostly we sat in the car waiting. Once we found out we weren't going to get the paper in the morning, we went to visit the kids. We had the two older ones first. Robin's boots were broken, the zippers don't work. George tried to tape them on her feet. Then a caretaker gave her someone else's boots to use. When we finally got her fixed up, we went to the yard. We brought a beach ball with us and blew that up and played a family game of ball. The kids giggled alot and Robin was the boss and told us what order to throw the ball to each other in. Then, George found Jason and brought him over and they were tired of playing ball. When Jason came, he still had the purse of treasures that he found the first day in the yard. He brings it everytime he meets us. There are a bunch of pavilions in the yard that belong to each group and there is a box of toys in each one. They found a big truck to ride on. They really like the picture book of home and we look at it each time. Monte was looking at the book with Jason, Ryan was riding the big truck around and Robin found my notebook and started writing numbers on the pages I have written on, and wrote pretend words on some other pages - pretending to be grown up. Then I got out the nail polish and she painted my nails and then hers. We had a really good visit today. Then it was time to go. George was supposed to go get Jillian, but he ended up doing some paperwork and didn't ever bring her. We did some more running around (most of the day) and ended up coming back to the orphanage in time for a short visit with Jillian. She was just finishing supper and when she saw us peeking through the door, she got a big smile on her face and came running to me and jumped in my arms. Then they called her back and made her wash her hands. She sat on my lap for a while and then George told her to get a book, so it was a game of getting a book, bringing it to us, looking at a few pages, then running to get another one, back and forth. All of the other kids wanted to see the books too. If one of them picked a book, Jill would take it from them and put it back and bring her own. She won't let them get too close to us. When they told us it was time to go, she pouted and didn't want to say goodbye, but she did come back and gave us a hug and a kiss and pouted some more.

I think I wrote a book today!! Sorry, better go get some rest. And oh, if you have written us on my mctibb mlecwb e-mail, I just figured out how to open it this morning and thanks so much to everyone who has written!! I have about 40 e-mails to answers, so I will be working through them in the next few days. Paka! (bye-bye)

P.S. Please remember to pray for the commission meeting with the kids tomorrow morning!!