Coming Home

Aaron and I are leaving in the morning at 6:30 in the morning.  We will get to DFW at 1:30 on Sunday.  We are both ready to be home...and really ready to see the boys.  Without going into a whole lesson about Ukrainian adoption process (mainly cause I don't fully understand it), I will explain a little about our next step.  We actually have no idea what our next step is going to be, but we are prepared for what it could be!  Luckily, a two-way flight was cheaper than a one-way, so we have a return ticket for Ukraine in two weeks.  Two weeks is around the time that we could get our next appointment date with the child department to look at more children.  Understand that Aaron and I have prayed for these children for so long and felt as if they were ours already, so starting from scratch seems totally overwhelming right now.  We really need to get home and see Trent and Cal, rest and just be still and listen to what God wants for us to do next.  God has been so faithful during this whole process (but especially during the last two weeks) to confirm to us that we were walking in His will. That fact alone has been the biggest comfort during this loss. 
I cannot express to everyone how much your prayers and encouraging words have meant to us.  We know that whatever the outcome, God will use this in our life.  For that we are thankful! Thank you all again!

With a Heavy Heart...

The boys have officially told us "No".  Aaron and I are broken-hearted right now and our emotions are pretty raw.  We think that it was a combo of their fear and major pressure from some of the orphanage teachers and friends that kept them from making the decision to come to America. The strangeness of the finality of something that has been in our lives for over two years is hitting us hard.  Everyone was as shocked as we were yesterday; we had to wait another 2 hours at the orphanage because the social worker didn't have a form for rejection with her.  She and one of the directors had to make one up.  As Aaron Campbell (a preacher at our church) said a few weeks ago, "Aren't we glad we don't have a God that we can understand?!"  While it's true that we don't understand the path that He is leading us on, we know that He has led us here.  We know that we aren't here by accident, and we are praying that we are able to see His plan for us through the pain that our hearts are feeling right now. 
To say that we have been on an emotional roller coaster does not even begin to cover what we are feeling (I hate roller coasters, btw). Then again, roller coasters that don't move aren't very fun:

A 14 Year old Boy

It all comes down to tomorrow...2 years of praying for these boy's hearts (well, 1 for Vlad, but only cause we found out about him late) will culminate tomorrow.  4 days since last Friday have been spent at the orphanage; trying to calm the fears that they so obviously have.  Tomorrow (Thursday) the boys will either commit to being adopted or reject our request.  Basically, the future of a 14 year old boy and an 11 year old boy are in the hands of a 14 year old boy.  A 14 year old boy who has lived in an orphanage for the past 7 years and had to grow up way too fast.  The emotional tiredness at the end of the day is something that I have never experienced.  Not only the weight of the adoption, but spending time with many of the kids...it's hard.  So many faces, so many stories, so many heartaches.  We were there with the missionaries today; I don't know how they do it week in and week out. 
I'm cold, I'm tired and, if my mind was not consumed with this adoption 99% of the time, I would be going crazy missing Trent and Cal.  Thank you all for the prayers; they are carrying us through!

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!