10% (someday I'll explain)

And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 
                Philippians 4:14

These haven't been the easiest three days of my life, but God has kept true to this promise.  Yesterday, I asked myself why I was feeling so calm in the midst of so many unknowns, missing home, and fighting Ukrainian women on a rickety bus from Nizhyn to Komarivka.  God reminded me that I don't have to understand the peace...that's why it says, "surpasses all comprehension."  I am truly blessed to be given such an amazing chance to experience the peace of God!
I could write a book about all of the things that we have done and seen the this weekend, so I will just give the highlights.  We met with the boys, Dima, a translator, social worker, and the orphanage director on Friday.  Eight people in a room the size of a small bedroom for almost three hours; stressful to say the least!  We learned a lot about the boys, but I think they just wanted to go outside and play instead of being interrogated by six adults.  They agreed that it would be fine for us to come back on Saturday to hangout in a more relaxed setting.  Progress!

The orphanage has school on Saturday (enough reason for me to want to leave, right there!) so we were told not to come until after 3.  Aaron and I spent the day being shown around Nizhyn by our new translator, Nadia.  She is a student at the university there and volunteers at the church where we are staying.  It is charming city that is rich in history and beautiful to walk around.  We then took a hour ride to Komarivka on a bus that looked as old as St. Sophia's cathedral.  Luckily, we got on at the first stop and had a seat because by the time we got on the highway there were people standing in the aisle crammed in like sardines!  I guess the close quarters can cause tension because, even though I have no idea what they were saying, there was quite a heated "discussion" between a couple of the passengers. 

At the orphanage, the boys came out immediately and were ready to play.  More progress!  Artyom wanted to race me because I had told him if he let me come back I would wear tennis shoes and race him.  Vlad says he's the fasted in the orphanage.  I can't speak for all of the kids, but of the 5 or so I raced, he was the fastest.  I fell in about 4 or 5 place.  I need to be clear that these were 5 separate races.  This is important because the pain I feel today is that of many races, not just one with lots of people (which I now realize would have been a smarter way to race a bunch of kids).  In the end, I think I had it easier than Aaron.  He played soccer with Vlad for about 3 hours straight!  In the end, despite the aches and pains that Aaron and I feel today, it was a good day.  We should go back on Monday when the kids get out of class.  

We went to service this morning at the church where we are staying.  Translated, the church is called "House of Prayer", and it is obvious that is what it is.  Even with the language difference we could see that this church is alive and active for the body of Christ.  As the pastor told us, "We all have one Father; no matter the language" (this was right before he asked Aaron if he wanted to preach tonight...he's up in our room hiding right now).  They have served us so graciously and been the body of Christ to two out of place foreigners in a way that will leave me humbled for a lifetime!

We have 7 more days to spend with the boys before we ask for their decision.  Please pray for their hearts this week.

outside of Nadia's university

Nadia, Aaron, Aaron (an American staying at the church who will be teaching English at the orphanage for a couple of months), and I at a museum in town

our bus out of town

the magic of iphone...breaks all language barriers

he wanted his pic in the tree

the House of Prayer

 

 

this isn't a great picture, but it is a still shot of a video of Vlad.  It was so good to see that smile all day long!

Headed to Komarivka

So, if you've been saving your prayers, now's the time to use them!  We go with our lawyer and a social worker tomorrow to meet with the boys and with the director of the orphanage.  There are a lot of different aspects to this visit that all need to work together!  Please pray specifically for our lawyer, Dima; the social worker assigned by the court; the boys, Artyom and Vlad (especially); and the orphanage director.  Aaron and I will be leaving Kiev in the morning around 6:30 and we aren't sure when we will be back.  We will be staying near the village at least through the weekend so that we can spend as much time with the boys as possible.  We hope to calm as many fears as we can and start to build a lasting relationship with each of them.  I may not be able to update for awhile, since I have no idea what the Internet situation will be like where we are staying.  All I know at this point from Doug (the missionary friend that lives in Smile House) is that it will be a "true culture experience".  Good thing I'm always up for an adventure!

Here are some pics from our day around Kiev:

Outside of St. Sophia's cathedral from the 11th century

Group of Ukrainian service men getting their picture taken

Aaron the very steep street that we had to walk up to get to the Child Department

just because everyone deserves to see a unicorn car once in their lives

Everyone should check out the amazing ministry that Karen Springs has started in Ukraine.  She runs a hospitality house for families that are adopting from Ukraine.  We have stayed here since we arrived and it has been such a blessing!http://hospitalityhousekiev.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much Karen!

A Big Wednesday!

Sorry about the lack of posting, but I think that I may have finally caught up with the time difference and the lack of sleep from our trip here.  I hope so, anyway, since I slept from 10 pm last night until 11 am this morning! 

We had a great day yesterday!  We had our appointment with the Child Department at 10 am.  We met our lawyer at 9 just to go over our "strategy".  That made me a little nervous because I had no idea that we were doing anything that would require any type of pre-planning!  I think that Ivan was just taking precaution because everything went really smooth.  After looking through pictures of about 12 different kids, we saw our boys.  I will never cease to be amazed at the way those boy's pictures can take my breath away.  Something about seeing them in a small, official Ukrainian office made the effect even more extreme!  We got the approval to visit them and will pick up our official paperwork today at 4 pm.  Friday morning we leave at 7 am for the orphanage. 



Aaron and our lawyer, Ivan, in front of the Child Department.

He has been an amazing help!  We couldn't have done it without him

 

 

On our way back to our apartment, we passed a group of guys that were obviously Americans (Aaron and Ivan both say that it is obvious that we are foreigners, as well, but I don't believe them).  Aaron said, "How are y'all?"  and they stopped us immediately because they knew we were Texans.  After talking to them for a bit, we found out that they were a group of singing men on a tour around different churches of the world.  Stranger still than finding a group of Texans in Ukraine, was the fact that one of the men happened to be from our neighborhood in our small town of 400 people.  I shake my head every time I think about the coincidence!

Later in the afternoon,  Aaron and went with a friend of his, Alfred, to see Smile House.  Smile House is where our whole journey began.  This is the house that Aaron started working on about 4 years ago that lead him to Ukraine and eventually, Artyom. 



Outside of Smile House

 

Aaron trying his hardest to pick me an apple out of the orchard

 

Well, of course I was going to eat it after all his hard effort!

 

 

We finished our day off with my first ride on a Ukrainian subway.  We did pretty darn well, if I don't say so myself!  I don't have pictures because I was trying to blend in as well as possible, since the guys tell me we stick out like sore thumbs.  I thought the shirt that said "Ukraine" would tell everyone that I belong here!

At Last!

I really don't think that I am cut out for international travel.  I am totally wiped out.  I did sleep for 8 hours last night before I attempted to write anything, so that I could make sense of our travel story. 
As, I mentioned earlier, I was worried about our flight with American Airlines.  That was unfounded because everything went great.  When we boarded the plane, they announced that they were having some mechanical issues with the door, which I just knew meant we would be on the runway for at least 3 hours.  10 minutes later we were in the air on the way to Chicago.  That was the last easy flight. 
We arrived in Chicago with the news that our flight had been delayed to Warsaw, but they gave us food vouchers for the airport.  Waving free money in front of my face temporarily made me forget about the troubles that a delayed flight can cause.  We ate a gyro in the international terminal, which has a feeling of already being out of the country.  I have never known exactly how to say "gyro", but they have always been one of my favorites.  They usually have a picture on menus, so I just point and say, "I want that".  Bellies full with free food, we headed through security and went to sit at our gate where we spent the next 6 hours watching people pass back and forth in front of us.  It was at this point that I was ready to hop back on a plane and head back to DFW.  Luckily, I am married to the "unphasable" man.  At 9:15 we finally left Chicago and settled in for our overnight flight.  Now, Aaron can sleep through anything, but I on the other hand, could not manage to sleep with the large Polish man snoring loudly for 8 hours of our 9 hour flight.  I went over this many times through the night, and I came up with a couple of solutions.  Could the flight attendants not hear him?  Wouldn't it be the right thing to do to wake him up for the sake of all the other passengers on the plane (except for those rock sleepers like Aaron).  Surely, he knows he snores like a freight train, maybe he should drink coffee all night to stay awake.  I think that would be the right thing to do, but that's coming from a tired, cranky traveler and he got a full nights rest. 
Because our flight to Warsaw was delayed, we missed our flight to Kiev.  We ended up in a huddle of people trying to find out how get new flights.  It was a mess (fyi, even when English isn't your first language, people learn the words that get things done!), and we knew there was a flight leaving for Kiev in an hour. Unfortunaltly, people at the front were syaing they had been in line(line is a loose term cause it was not a line) for 3 hours.  Just in the knick of time, an employee asked for people flying to Kiev, and we pushed our way to the front and got our ticket to the boarding plane. 
Even amid the chaos, I had a peace and knew that God's timing would prevail.  We have a whole 24 hours in Kiev before our appointment date tomorrow (10:30 am Kiev time).  I'll let everyone know how it goes!
Looking over this, it may be long and boring.  My quick thinking, witty brain is still on Texas time.  It'll get better!

Zero Hour

Well, the day has almost arrived!  We leave tomorrow at 12:30. Our flight is on American Airlines to Chicago, but as Trent so graciously reminded me as I was worrying about delays, "You know you can just pray about that, right?"  So many things are unsure right now, but God has been so good to grant Aaron I so much peace concerning all aspects of these final days of adoption.  We are so excited to be able to assist in telling an amazing God story!
My awesome cousin, Rachel Pruitt, had the great idea of coming up with "30 days of prayer for the Alfreds".   I attached it, so that anyone that is willing to journey with us through pray is able.  We appreciate all of the prayers that we have received through this whole process, and know that they have carried us through until now and will continue until everything is complete! (Well, I was going to attach it, but apparently I don't know how...I do, however, know copy and paste!)

30 Days of Prayer for the Alfreds

As the Alfreds spend the next 30 days on the final leg of their adoption journey, let’s commit to covering them in prayer Sept. 30-Oct. 30.  Below are some requests that you might choose to pray for the Alfred family.

1.  Pray for their connecting flight times to go smoothly.

2.  Pray for travel safety on the roads in Ukraine…there are lots of wrecks all the time & they will be making lots of road trips.

3.  Pray that Tara and Aaron will adjust to the time change quickly.

4.  Pray for quick bonding with Artyom & Vlad when they get to see them and that A & V will realize that they are loved and wanted….pray that God will calm A & V’s fears (this is a scary change for them, too!)

5.  Pray for clear guidance on their travel schedule…confirmation at the time where they need to stay and when or if they should return to the states and then go back to Ukraine at the end of the month (there are lots of “unknowns” and schedules/plans that are “up in the air”.)

6.  Pray for Trent & Cal …for their peace and safety while their parents are away, and that God will be preparing their hearts for the upcoming changes in their lives.

7.  Pray for God’s perfect peace for Tara & Aaron as they are away from Trent & Cal for so long.

8.  Pray for the heart of the judge, that he will be favorable toward adoption.

9.  Pray that the court translator will be sympathetic to adoption (their lawyer will not be allowed in the courtroom, so the translator is their only mediator between them and the judge.)

10.  Pray for Tara and Aaron to have wisdom & clarity in knowing how to answer the questions in court.

11.  Pray that their case would be a testimony to all those involved (judge, officials, translators, etc…)

12.  Pray for protection of their health while in Ukraine – (stress level, sleep & eat well, stay healthy.)

13.  Pray for Angel (Tara’s sister in law) as she adjusts to a new schedule and takes care of Cal & Trent while they are gone.

14.  Pray for protected health for Trent & Cal while Tara & Aaron are in the Ukraine.

15.  Pray for the Ukranian lawyer who has been helping Tara & Aaron and has now decided to adopt…pray they will be an encouragement to each other.

16.  Pray that Tara & Aaron can be an encouragement to the missionaries who are there in the Ukraine (Tara & Aaron may be staying with them part of the time.)

17.  Pray for direction, peace, and very clear leading over any decisions that they may have to make quickly.

18.   Pray for their ability to communicate with their Ukranian children, while they are there and on the return trip home.

19.  Pray for quick adjustment for the children when they arrive in the States.

20.  Pray for quick bonding between Cal & Trent and their new siblings.

21.   Pray for Cal & Trent as they adjust to their family completely changing.

22.  Pray that Tara & Aaron will be very sensitive to God’s leading throughout this process and that God will fill them with wisdom.

Thanks Rach!

It's Official!

We received our Letter of Invitation from Ukraine today!!  We leave on the 30th of September and get to see our boys on October 30th!  I knew it was coming, but seeing it in black and white changes everything!  I am so excited and nervous that I can't seem to write a sentence without an exclamation mark!  Thanks for all of the prayers, the gifts and constant encouragement! 
Now that things are rolling, it is my goal to keep this current and let everyone know what is going on (It is my goal; meaning I'm going to try...).

Saying Goodbye

This is our family.  The family that we have known for almost 15 years (Happy 15th to Trent on Friday!). 

    I love so many things about our family.  We work really well together.  We get each other's sarcasm  awesome sense of humor, we are very open with each other, and in general, we just enjoy spending time together.  Since getting word last Thursday that we have received our approval from the child department in Ukraine, a reality has hit Aaron and I pretty hard.  We won't get the exact date until the end of the week, but they told us to expect to be in Ukraine around the end of September.  The end of September!  That leaves us about 3 weeks.  When Aaron and I get on that plane and say goodbye to the boys, we are saying goodbye to the family that we have been up until this point. 
    We know that we are doing what God has called us to do, and the sadness that we are feeling in no way takes away from the excitement that we have knowing that we are about to get our boys!  We can't wait to start making a new family with new dynamics with our new family!  But as we wait for these final steps, we are relishing every minute we can as we say goodbye to what we have cherished for so many years.