A Bit More Waiting...

We recieved information today that we will need to wait just a little bit longer.

There is a Ukrainian holiday taking place this week called "Constitution Day" which is much like our 4th of July holiday in the states. Due to this holiday most offices & business will be closed from Thursday through the weekend.

We continue to be hopeful that we will be able to get an appointment early next week & that the child God has in mind for our family will be made known to us.

Trusting In The Lord

Thus far, this adoption process has taught us so much about truly trusting in the Lord as we continue to be stretched in new & different ways.
Although things haven't always worked out as we envisioned they would, we're making the best of the situation by focusing on enjoying each other's company & our time together as a family.

We’ve come to realize that perhaps all the delays are really a blessing in disguise for our little family of three. We’ve laughed together, cried together, & on a couple occasions even laughed until we cried. :)

Perhaps the Lord is giving us some extra bonding time before we welcome another child into our family. :)

A Trip To The Zoo

Today we treated Elysa to a day at the zoo or “Zoopark” as it is called here. Due to the timing of this trip to Ukraine, Elysa missed out on a school field trip to the Philadelphia Zoo, which was a bit upsetting for her, given her love for animals. So, we told her if we could find a zoo over here we’d try to go.

The zoo here is much different than the Philadelphia Zoo & perhaps not quite as cool as being able to experience it with her friends. However, she had a good time exploring all the animal exhibits & riding the little train through the park. She even treated us to her best “fishy face” impression in the aquarium section! :)

An Evening Out

With the extra time we have on our hands we have been trying to immerse ourselves in the culture & enjoy the opportunities to meet new people.

We had a wonderful opportunity the other evening to spend some time visiting with a Ukrainian family. They invited us to their home for dinner & cooked a traditional Ukrainian meal for us, which consisted of borsch (soup), pork & potatoes, salad, & homemade berry juice. Followed by fresh picked cherries, apples, & chocolate candies for dessert. It was fantastic!

After dinner we spent the rest of the evening visiting together. The father speaks Russian, Ukrainian, & English so he was able to translate the conversations between our families.

They have two daughters ages 9 and 5 & Elysa enjoyed her time with them immensely. The language barrier can be difficult even for children, however they found a way around it & had a wonderful time laughing & playing together…and attempting to teach Elysa some Russian words.

Postponed...

Our opportunity for an appointment has been postponed until Monday or Tuesday of next week.

Please continue to lift this time up in prayer.

The adoption authority in Ukraine has undergone some major changes (for the better) in the last year & some of the delays we are facing now are due to the timing & implementation of those changes.

Taking In The Sites Of Kiev

We are anticipating an appointment this coming Thursday or Friday...still waiting for confirmation on the exact day & time.

In the mean time, we are looking for things to do to fill the time. We've spent quite a bit of time hiking around the city, exploring new sites & getting a feel for where things are located. We were able to get a hold of a map & have had an interesting time using that to find our way around. It's interesting because the map is in Ukrainian, so we try to match up the letters on the streets with street signs we find.

We had the chance to walk to a large working monestary that encompases a couple churches, & some underground burial caves. It was very interesting to see the ornate detail that the church buildings are decorated with.

Good News!

We were happy to find out yesterday that we will be getting another appointment with the Sate Department for Adoption, however we'll have to wait a little bit longer... they can accomodate us next Thursday or Friday. So, at this point, it looks as though we'll be spending another week in Kiev before having the opportunity to travel to another region to visit an orphanage.

Still Waiting....

No news yet on an appointment date. We are still waiting for our paperwork to be processed.

Hopefully, we'll have more detailed information over the next couple days.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Thanks!

Waiting....

We are currently still in the city of Kiev waiting for our paperwork to be processed. Our application for another appointment with the State Department of Adoption has been submitted. We are hopeful that it will be processed this comming Monday, which means we may be able to get an appointment by Tuesday.

For now, there is not much to do but wait, something we are becomming better at all the time :)

In the mean time we have done some more exploring around Kiev. Our achy feet have put many miles on. The other day we visited what we believed to be the Botanical Gardens (we can't actually read the signs), however the only botanicals we were able to locate were a small patch of the above flowers. Either were were at the wrong place or just out of season.

We've visited some of the picturesque churches in the area the following two are called St. Andrew's Church & St. Michael's Church, respectively.

We've also enjoyed strolling through the marketplace along the streets of Kiev:

We've discovered that the city of Kiev is as interesting underground as it is above ground. There is a whole labarinth of underground tunnels lined with stores and market vendors as well as a whole underground mall.

Today, we spent time exploring the events on the main street. Every Saturday the main street is closed to car traffic & the street is lined with food, vendors selling crafts, performances & all kinds of festivities.

Back to Kiev

Yesterday was a difficult day... we took an overnight train to the region of Lugans'k & our appointment there did not go as we had hoped.

We are currently back in Kiev, petitoning the State Department of Adoption for a second appointment. Our facilitator is confident that we will be able to get an appointment by tomorrow (Friday) or Monday at the latest.

Heading to Lugans'k

Today is the day we head to Lugans'k. We've packed up all our belongings & checked out of our apartment & are about to head to the Train Station.

Our train is scheduled to leave Kiev at 6:30 pm this evening. We'll ride through the night & hopefully arrive in Lugans'k by mid morning tomorrow (Wednesday).

We're told we'll be riding in a personal train cabin, so hopefully we'll be able to get some sleep & be well rested to visit the orphanage.

We've been fortunate enough to meet up with some other american adoptive families who were staying in the same apartment complex as us. It has been a real blessing to have other English speaking persons who are going through the same experiences we are. We've enjoyed exploring the city of Kiev & trying out new places to dine with them.

One by one we have all left Kiev to travel to our individual regions for orphanage visits. We are the last to leave Kiev, but hopefully in a few weeks when we come back through to finalize paperwork & head home, we'll be able to meet again.

Our Appointment

Today was our appointment with the State Department of Adoption & things seemed to go well...we will be heading to the region of Lugans'k (Luhans'k) for an appointment at an orphanage. :0) (see map at bottom of screen)

At this point we are planning to take a 15 hour train ride to the region as it is approx. 850 km from where we are, near the Russian border.

We will provide more details after our visit has taken place, by then we should have better information & will know for sure if the Ukrainian Government will allow us to proceed with the adoption.

Please pray that our visit goes well. We anticipate leaving for Lugans'k on Tuesday evening & hopefully visiting the orphanage on Wednesday.

City Life in Ukraine

We've learned a few interesting things about city life in Ukraine:

- Side walks are also used as parking lots
- Pedestians do not have the right away...around here the saying is "your either quick or your

dead when crossing the street"
- It's not uncommon for your driver to reach speeds of 120 miles per hour (192 km per hour)

when transporting you from place to place. ~Hang on!! :0)

Apartment

Our accomodations in Kiev are beautiful, we are very comfortable in our apartment.

Settling In

Today we're taking it easy & trying to recover from jet lag. We found a neat little coffee shop with wireless internet so we're able to email & post.

Tomorrow (Monday) will be a big day for us as we will be headed to the National Adption Center for our appointment. We are scheduled for 12:00 noon. Please pray that God would grant us wisdom & discernment during this time.

This afternoon we plan to take a walk through the city & stop for some pizza at a little pizza shop we heard about. Hopefully, by the time we get back to our apartment, our luggage will have arrived.

That's all for now, we'll have pictures to post when our luggage gets here :)

We've Arrived!!!

Hello from Ukraine!

We arrived safely & are doing well, a bit tired but very excited! :) The time difference is 7 hours (ahead), it is currently 6:45 pm on Saturday evening & we are having dinner at a TGI Fridays in the capital city of Kiev with our contact person / driver "Sasha". He's been very helpful in getting us around & helping us to get settled. The entire menu is printed in Russian, so we just had to pick out a picture of something that looked good & point to it, to order. Just one of the many adventures yet to come!! :)

We ran into a slight snag in that we arrived & our luggage did not. We are hopeful that it will come in by tomorrow (Sunday) evening.

We'll post again soon....