Well we are still waiting for the response to the letter sent by Ukraine's State Department for Adoption attorney. Within the next 2-3 weeks we should know how to plan.
We came out of our anti-social mode at least long enough to have a small superbowl party. Yeah I know the wrong team won but at least it was a good game.
I've now finished the first 12 lessons of Rosetta Stone's Russian language course. It runs about four hours per lesson with about half of that listening to the CD's on my way to and from work. The interactive software is pretty good and it evaluates how close you are coming to speaking correctly. My worst area is the spelling/writing.
Teresa has also been on the phone with Jim King. He is a terrific Christian. We have been so impressed with how he handles people (us included). If you are ever looking for a good cause to support his ministry is involved in several including the boys orphanage. He added us to his mailing list and Teresa was crying a little when I got home last night. Dennis (the oldest boy) was pictured with what I think is a remote control car. That is what he wanted.
We've enjoyed following the blogs of those recently back home with their kids. The teens that we have leading worship for Children's church are willing to try a couple of songs in Russian. We have been using Hillsong's kids albums. Hillsong is an Australian church that just happens to have church plants in both Kyiv and Moscow. And they have done one DVD in Russian. David (guitarist) should have it easy. Thanks Lexi, Tori, Chelsea and Steve we appreciate you so much.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
The Boys are healthy and doing well
Jim King called yesterday to let us know that the boys are all healthy and doing well. We are still waiting to see what type of answer the attorney at Ukraine's state department for adoption receives. At that point we will have a better idea of how to proceed.
We are both working long hours as is typical for accountants this time of year. Teresa and her team are going to a VBS training.
For Christmas we agreed to buy ourselves the Rosetta stone software for learning Russian. We have a number of other learning products as well. I like this one and it seems to be helping speed up the learning process.
Thank you all for your support. We continue to pray for the kids of Ukraine and the families that are traveling now as they work to bring their kids home.
We are both working long hours as is typical for accountants this time of year. Teresa and her team are going to a VBS training.
For Christmas we agreed to buy ourselves the Rosetta stone software for learning Russian. We have a number of other learning products as well. I like this one and it seems to be helping speed up the learning process.
Thank you all for your support. We continue to pray for the kids of Ukraine and the families that are traveling now as they work to bring their kids home.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Not much news
We had a good time at the Golden Gates Dance program. The kids did a terrific job. They are very talented. Enjoyed the program with our friends Sten & Julie. Probably one of the last times we will get to do that for a long time. Work is taking them to California. Also enjoyed sharing the program with Pastor Udo and his wife Lidia. They lived most of their life in the former Soviet Union and have now been in the US for 6-7 years. Both love music as well as having some cultural ties. We also enjoyed meeting Twyla, John and their kids as well as Matt and his daughter Anya at the program.
Teresa has been concerned about the kids since we were not allowed to talk with them after they told us they were not available for adoption. She emailed Jim King who's church and ministry support the orphanage as well as other ministries. I thought we'd just get a quick can't do anything about anything response. But he was very nice and although he can't promise he'll be able do be of any help. He will check on the boys health and well being. The youngest is the one we are most concerned about. They put on a really good Christmas program and gifts for the kids. When Dennis agreed to come with us he wanted to know if that could wait until after their Orthodox Christmas party. I guess he at least got that wish.
Teresa is now saying that she thinks she has been depressed this last month over the whole deal. Duh (and Da) I love her dearly and she wouldn't be herself if she didn't care for kids so much.
Ukraine's exchange rate is still going higher. Good for Americans travelling to Ukraine but not good for their economy or ability to purchase imported products. It also looks like there is a deal for Natural Gas from Russia as well as transporting it through Ukraine to Europe.
Teresa has been concerned about the kids since we were not allowed to talk with them after they told us they were not available for adoption. She emailed Jim King who's church and ministry support the orphanage as well as other ministries. I thought we'd just get a quick can't do anything about anything response. But he was very nice and although he can't promise he'll be able do be of any help. He will check on the boys health and well being. The youngest is the one we are most concerned about. They put on a really good Christmas program and gifts for the kids. When Dennis agreed to come with us he wanted to know if that could wait until after their Orthodox Christmas party. I guess he at least got that wish.
Teresa is now saying that she thinks she has been depressed this last month over the whole deal. Duh (and Da) I love her dearly and she wouldn't be herself if she didn't care for kids so much.
Ukraine's exchange rate is still going higher. Good for Americans travelling to Ukraine but not good for their economy or ability to purchase imported products. It also looks like there is a deal for Natural Gas from Russia as well as transporting it through Ukraine to Europe.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Golden Gate Dance Program
This Sunday we are planning on going to the Golden Gate Dance program in Broomfield. This program is sponsored by a group many adoptive families join called FRUA (Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption) We would love to meet in person those who have been on this journey as well. The support from those who have "been there" has been so helpful and timely for us.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Hard to be Scrooge
Well we've spent the last 10 days trying to get over a cold. Both Teresa & I picked up something our last day or two in Ukraine. Runny nose, stuff running down our throats. Oops overshare.
We usually alternate between our families each Christmas, this year we stayed home. We didn't decorate anything. Wayne (younger son) came over for a few hours and it was all very relaxed. We talked to lots of our family by phone and that made it seem a little more like Christmas.
Where things are with Dennis, Sergei, and Vitali: We have written and had notorized all the information that we thought was relevant to the case and met with the attorney for the State Department for Adoption in Kyiv. They will forward a letter to the director in the town where the kids were born asking that he justify how the current situation is in all of the kids best interest. He will need to respond by February.
We never know how much to believe of everything that we see or hear. If we thought that the kids would all be together or near each other we would leave things as they are now. However we were told that a Psychologist interviewed the boys and they were not aware that they had a younger sister. According to some written reports and some other comments the kids biological father died shortly after she was born. She spent the first 18 months of her life in the hospital (we suspect fetal alcohol syndrome)and then was moved directly into the foster home where she still is. About nine months after she was born the parental rights of the mother were revoked. The record says that she was present in court that day and did not object to her rights for all four kids being terminated. The social worker found the boys with no adults in the home. All of the furniture had been sold, there was no firewood, coal or gas at the home and the electricity had been shut off. It also listed the mother as an alcoholic and living an immoral lifestyle. Sadly that seems typical for many of the children in the orphanages.
From what we were told the father had had three wives and eleven children among them before he died. The boys mother being the last of the three. The boys do seem to remember having some half-siblings. Over the last two years they have only been visited once by a grandmother.
At present the foster family receives a pension (something like what social security in the US would provide a surviving child) as well as payments for being foster parents. When we were first told about the girl we said no problem we will adopt all four of them. Later we were told that she was already adopted by the foster family and finally that they filed adoption papers when they heard we had a referral for the boys. At each step along the way we asked if that would be a problem for us adopting the boys and were always told it would not be. Until the last time when we learned that the papers had not been filed until after we arrived.
The inspector is following Ukrainian law about not seperating children however that same law says that you must do what is in the best interest of all of the children. It appears to us that it is in the foster family's financial interest to never complete the adoption of the girl. They have already said they can't adopt all four kids. The problem with this scenario is that it means the boys will never be adoptable and will remain in the orphanage system until they age out somewhere around 16-18 years old.
So for now we are willing to wait a few months and see if there is any possibility that we can adopt the boys.
As Americans we now know that in terms of material things we have all of our needs met and most of our wants. We have a loving and supportive family, we have friends, neighbors and a church that also supports us emotionally and with their time. (Hopefully we can pay it forward) Why were we born Americans when most of the people born on this planet are just barely getting by? I don't know.
Even in our personal finances we are much better off than we thought we would be just a few weeks ago. Our facilitator itemized the actual expenses of the trip and sent us home with the rest of the cash that had not been spent. Some of our time off was understood to be unpaid and yet employers provided Christmas bonuses that covered the time we were off.
We have been very angry that everything did not work out the way we had hoped and yet for the last few days I've had a song running through my head from about twenty years ago. It's called "doubly good to you"
If you look at the blogs that I follow you will see that Heidi and Felix got home on Christmas Eve with their kids. Join us in Thanking God that they are home and with three new Americans. (Adopted kids become American citizens when they land here) And please continue to pray with us that Jim & Kari will soon have their kids home also.
Our story is not over yet but we will post much less frequently over the next few months. Two accountants, year end reports for four organizations and having been away for four weeks should keep us off the blog for most of the time.
May you enjoy a very Merry Christmas with those who are most important to you at this time of year. And remember to Thank the Lord, He's been doubly good to You.
We usually alternate between our families each Christmas, this year we stayed home. We didn't decorate anything. Wayne (younger son) came over for a few hours and it was all very relaxed. We talked to lots of our family by phone and that made it seem a little more like Christmas.
Where things are with Dennis, Sergei, and Vitali: We have written and had notorized all the information that we thought was relevant to the case and met with the attorney for the State Department for Adoption in Kyiv. They will forward a letter to the director in the town where the kids were born asking that he justify how the current situation is in all of the kids best interest. He will need to respond by February.
We never know how much to believe of everything that we see or hear. If we thought that the kids would all be together or near each other we would leave things as they are now. However we were told that a Psychologist interviewed the boys and they were not aware that they had a younger sister. According to some written reports and some other comments the kids biological father died shortly after she was born. She spent the first 18 months of her life in the hospital (we suspect fetal alcohol syndrome)and then was moved directly into the foster home where she still is. About nine months after she was born the parental rights of the mother were revoked. The record says that she was present in court that day and did not object to her rights for all four kids being terminated. The social worker found the boys with no adults in the home. All of the furniture had been sold, there was no firewood, coal or gas at the home and the electricity had been shut off. It also listed the mother as an alcoholic and living an immoral lifestyle. Sadly that seems typical for many of the children in the orphanages.
From what we were told the father had had three wives and eleven children among them before he died. The boys mother being the last of the three. The boys do seem to remember having some half-siblings. Over the last two years they have only been visited once by a grandmother.
At present the foster family receives a pension (something like what social security in the US would provide a surviving child) as well as payments for being foster parents. When we were first told about the girl we said no problem we will adopt all four of them. Later we were told that she was already adopted by the foster family and finally that they filed adoption papers when they heard we had a referral for the boys. At each step along the way we asked if that would be a problem for us adopting the boys and were always told it would not be. Until the last time when we learned that the papers had not been filed until after we arrived.
The inspector is following Ukrainian law about not seperating children however that same law says that you must do what is in the best interest of all of the children. It appears to us that it is in the foster family's financial interest to never complete the adoption of the girl. They have already said they can't adopt all four kids. The problem with this scenario is that it means the boys will never be adoptable and will remain in the orphanage system until they age out somewhere around 16-18 years old.
So for now we are willing to wait a few months and see if there is any possibility that we can adopt the boys.
As Americans we now know that in terms of material things we have all of our needs met and most of our wants. We have a loving and supportive family, we have friends, neighbors and a church that also supports us emotionally and with their time. (Hopefully we can pay it forward) Why were we born Americans when most of the people born on this planet are just barely getting by? I don't know.
Even in our personal finances we are much better off than we thought we would be just a few weeks ago. Our facilitator itemized the actual expenses of the trip and sent us home with the rest of the cash that had not been spent. Some of our time off was understood to be unpaid and yet employers provided Christmas bonuses that covered the time we were off.
We have been very angry that everything did not work out the way we had hoped and yet for the last few days I've had a song running through my head from about twenty years ago. It's called "doubly good to you"
If you look at the blogs that I follow you will see that Heidi and Felix got home on Christmas Eve with their kids. Join us in Thanking God that they are home and with three new Americans. (Adopted kids become American citizens when they land here) And please continue to pray with us that Jim & Kari will soon have their kids home also.
Our story is not over yet but we will post much less frequently over the next few months. Two accountants, year end reports for four organizations and having been away for four weeks should keep us off the blog for most of the time.
May you enjoy a very Merry Christmas with those who are most important to you at this time of year. And remember to Thank the Lord, He's been doubly good to You.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Home! Time for work and to regroup.
It's been a long 27 hour day but we are home. When we landed in NY we thought we loved the sound of English. However after sitting on the runway for over an hour and then enduring another five hours of flight with your stereotypical loud Americans talking non-stop we may have to reconsider.
Depending on how we sleep I don't know that we will be to work right at 8 but it is good to be home.
Thanks Julie for picking us up extra late when you have school tomorrow. And thank you Donna and Larry for the driveway and walk getting shoveled. BTW it is currently minus 6 Farenheit. And still a couple of inches of snow around the house.
Depending on how we sleep I don't know that we will be to work right at 8 but it is good to be home.
Thanks Julie for picking us up extra late when you have school tomorrow. And thank you Donna and Larry for the driveway and walk getting shoveled. BTW it is currently minus 6 Farenheit. And still a couple of inches of snow around the house.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Я американский
I am an American.
And in just a few hours we will be leaving. We had thought we might make an earlier flight but Delta only has three per week and they were full. So we leave Monday and pick up nine hours in route to Colorado. It will be a long day but we are ready to be home.
Our hearts may be heavier than we expected at this point but we've lost about 85 pounds of luggage. That's about 1/3 of what we brought.
And in just a few hours we will be leaving. We had thought we might make an earlier flight but Delta only has three per week and they were full. So we leave Monday and pick up nine hours in route to Colorado. It will be a long day but we are ready to be home.
Our hearts may be heavier than we expected at this point but we've lost about 85 pounds of luggage. That's about 1/3 of what we brought.
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