Wonderful News

Today started out with a long awaited phone call from our American facilitator. We finally got our appointment date from the Ukrainian State Department of Adoptions (SDA).
This means that we will fly from Newark on Sept. 17th, arrive in Kiev Sept. 18th and go to the SDA at 10am on Sept. 19th to "choose" the first child that we want to adopt. After we identify the one we have chosen we will travel to his region and officially ask if he wants to be adopted. Then he writes a letter stating that he does want to be adopted and the paper chase begins. Because we want to adopt 2 unrelated boys, we will request a second appointment to get a referral for the second boy. We will do the same process again and begin more paperwork. Once the correct paperwork is in order we get a court date. Hopefully very quickly! Once the judge gives his decision that we can adopt, we have 10 days to wait until it becomes official. During that 10 day wait, Darren will return to the busy life of being a dad to 3 active kids...soccer, cub scouts, work and school...and I will remain in Ukraine visiting with the boys and doing any paperwork that I can. Once the 10 days are over, we get an official court decree that we are their legal parents! So anxious for that day. Then they can leave the trade school and orphanage and hang with me while we get their new birth certificates, passports and a medical exam. With those in hand, we can get a Visa and fly back to the US to reunite our whole family!!
Sure sounds easy, but having read so many stories of other people's adoption adventures, I know there are many hoops to jump, red tape and bumps along the way. I think someone had mentioned before that adoption is like riding a rollercoasters, and I sure love rollercoasters...at least the wooden kind! But any rollarcoaster that will get our boys home will be so worth it! I am praying and asking all our friends to pray that this will be a fairly smooth and fast rollercoaster.
We still need more cash to pay for all the expenses we anticipate and some that we are not anticipating. I am so thankful to the generosity of so many of our friends. Please check out the list on the side and let me know if you donated and I missed your name. I am trying to keep track of all the wonderful people to thank and add to our quilt squares! We are also hoping to get our old Land Cruiser sold to add to our adoption fund, so if you know anyone in the market for a sturdy 7 passenger SUV, please let us know.
Last Friday we had our first Bowlathon. We raised several hundred dollars towards our adoption expenses and had lots of fun. I plan to try to do one more before we leave to add a little more to our fund. Many people wanted to join us, but the time did not work out for their schedules. I am thinking Tuesday evening, Sept 13, a few days before we leave. I have also had some responses to my Facebook request and had some great friends send us donations that way. And dear friends from our church who have quietly slipped us some donations. It is such a blessing to see people so generously helping to change the lives of these two sweet boys. I can never thank you all enough for your contributions! I hope that you are able to follow our story and see how God works in their lives. I know I am anxious to see what Grand Plans He has for them! (As well as our 3 kids we have taught and watched for many years.)
There is still so much to do before we leave, but I know that the important things will get done and what is left will still be here when we get back. And I know that we have an amazing support system that will keep all that we love here safe and sound. When I really think about it, God has blessed us so much and that is the reason we want to adopt! To share the blessings that He has given us and be like Him the way He has adopted us into His family and made us sons and daughters! He gave His Son for us...how little we have to sacrifice to adopt our boys compared to the huge sacrifice that was paid on our behalf.

Wanted to add some photos to remember their smiles!!

Another week has brought no new news on a date for us to travel. We do know that our dossier arrived in Kiev on Monday, two days earlier than anticipated. When it was turned into the SDA is unknown. For a few days I was really struggling to accept the delay, but thankfully many hours talking to God and prayers from so many of our friends and family has given me some peace. I was also able to talk to both the boys last weekend and again on Wednesday. They both seemed to be doing well and their upbeat spirits made it easier for me to accept that they will be okay if we are not there this month. God has a master plan and He has not let us in on the details yet, and that is okay. Not what I had hoped for, but it is His plan and not mine that is for everyone's best. I was writing a letter to Ruslan and Galyna, the two host children we had with us this summer and copied the text from Jeremiah 29:11-13 from the Message. It was another good reminder that God has his plans for each of us and that they are good. Our job is to seek Him with all our heart and we will find Him. So that is what I am trying to stay focused on: seeking God. Looking for what He is trying to teach me, looking for what He wants me to accomplish in the weeks that we wait.

I also had the opportunity to talk to my good friend, Melanie, who had to wait for 2 years from her first hosting until she brought her son home. She reminded me that sometimes we wait because God wants to use us to comfort others who will be in the same situation later. As volunteers for NHFC I have been able to speak to many others who have various situations with their hosting and adoptions and I am able to relate to so many situations. The heartbreak of seeing one host son turn 16 and leave the orphanage. The heartbreak of another turn down our offer of adoption. The heart-wrenching wait for one to come off the registry nearly a year after we chose him. The difficult decision to not go bring one home while the other had to wait. The frustration of wanting to be there and to know when we will go and not knowing day after day, week after week as others get their travel dates and bring their kids home. Through all these things, God has been there for us. He has always been faithful to listen to me rant and rave. He does not condemn me for complaining. He loves me and brings me sunshine when I feel like I can't keep going. He lets me hear the voices of my boys and read the texts with "I love you!"
He provides resources like the Warrior Dash to raise money. And now we have been accepted by the International Care Organization to be part of their program. We will be able to raise funds through tax deductible donations and they will use the money to help pay for our adoption. I had been searching for months to try to find a place to work with for our fund raisers and finally found this organization and have already received approval. So I added their website to the side of my blog and I am working on flyers to send out for a bowl-a-thon and a quilt fundraiser. Sometimes I think God is making us wait because we did not have this in place and will need this to let Him bless us with the money we will need, rather than use all of Ellie's college savings. So for those of you reading the blog, there is a link on the side for both tax deductible donations and regular donations. I really am excited to see how God provides for these two boys. It is so not about us, but about how the Christian community will rally behind us to provide a family for these two boys who have been wishing for a family for so many years. Far longer than I have been wishing for them to come home! I am also excited that He chose us to answer their prayers. It is always amazing to look back at the way God has allowed us to be used by Him in the lives of others. There truly is no greater joy in life than to see God use you to change lives.

More Apostilles

So yesterday I drove all over Pennsylvania to replace the missing documents. Darren had an on-site job in Mechanicsburg, which is near Harrisburg, so at least one of us had to be near the capitol anyway. So I just tagged along, dropped him off at his customer's building and drove an hour to the Homestudy Agency. There the wonderful Sherry, came in on her day off and notarized a new adoption petition and gave me copies of new agency licenses and a duplicate of our addendum which had been lost somewhere between here and the SDA. An hour later I arrived at the state capital to have the 4 documents Apostilled and at just the same time, Darren finished his work at his customer's office. Fortunately, it was less than 20 minutes to go back to pick him up, just enough time to let him eat lunch. Once we were back together, we searched for a Fed-Ex store to mail the precious documents as fast as possible to Ukraine. They are due to arrive on Wednesday morning. Not soon enough for me, but I do not have the money to buy a plane ticket to take them myself.
Now I pray that they will be all that we need to get the approval to get our appointment.
This morning we picked Bekka up from camp and when we got home I had a friend help us with a 3way call. She translated for a while to up date the boys on what was happening here. They have been enjoying their summer, swimming and playing sports. Yarik said he has been helping in the garden at the school. I am glad he will be experienced at gardening, because mine sure needs some help after this crazy summer we have had.
After the translator hung up, we talked to Sergiy for a while. He said hi to each of the kids. We tried to wake Darren from a nap, but he was too exhausted from driving all over Pennsylvania the past few days. Sergiy is doing so well with his English. We talked about times from Christmas hosting. And things he remembered. He told me about a new friend who also likes to skateboard. It was so sweet to talk to him and hear his jokes and stories. He was really in an upbeat mood. He was getting tired and Yarik had already fallen asleep for the night. So we said good-bye and promised to talk again soon.
Both boys are still excited to be part of our family and we, too are excited to have them!

Waiting- The begining of the story until now

So not the news that I wanted to start out this blog, but just need to write it out and get it out. We have worked since last fall putting together everything we needed to begin an adoption from Ukraine. We went by faith that God would lead us to the children that He had for us. We started the homestudy, so that we would be ready to file as soon as God led us.
We began looking at the kids who would come for Christmas hosting as soon as they came available. We emailed and called to get as much information as we could on several children who we thought would fit in our family. After speaking with other adoptive families and the girls from Open Arms Ukraine we chose Yaroslav and Sergiy.

Yaroslav was already 15 and due to turn 16 in March. He did not have much time left to find a family. That is part of the reason we hurried to get our paperwork ready, so we could file the immigration paperwork before his birthday. We were told what an amazing boy he is despite living his whole life in the orphanage. They told us of how kind he was and how he was a mentor to the younger children in the orphanage. How he wanted to learn the guitar and loved to draw and paint. He really sounded like a terrific big brother for TJ.
Sergiy was the other boy we chose after speaking with his best friend's new mom. He was 14 and will turn 15 this fall. While the Spiker family was adopting Sergiy's best friend, Sergei, they met our Sergiy and had great things to say about him as well. How he was well mannered and gave up his chair for Amber. That he also was a sweet boy and they were very impressed with him and had hopes that a family would choose him for Christmas hosting. We also found out that he likes to skateboard, which was fun for TJ and Bekka who also want to get better at skateboarding. And to be able to skateboard he had to be resourceful and put together his own skateboard from spare parts.
Both families who had adopted their friends noted that they would not have hesitated to go back and adopt these two if time and money were not an issue. It certainly gave us confidence that they were the ones we should host. We also heard from the Open Arms girls how much they loved each of these boys and that they both wanted families.
Waiting for them to come was painful. It seemed forever until their arrival day. When they came, we were so excited. They had no hesitation about leaving with our family and gave hugs easily. As we left the airport, Sergiy asked me in perfect English what my name was and where we lived. I had given them the names of the rest of the family, but forgot mine. I told him my name and that we lived in Pennsylvania. I will never forget how his face lit up when I told him this. I know he was excited to be close to his best friend Sergei who lives out near Pittsburgh.
I was so excited that we had made plans to get together with Sergei's family!
The days of hosting were full and sweet. Both boys were so patient with TJ and did not get annoyed by him. They were helpful and willing to do what they were asked. They accepted affection and gave great hugs back to us. They were familiar with the Bible and knew many Bible stories. They both tried hard to get better at English. Yarik working several hours at a time on Rosetta Stone. Sergiy had us rolling with laughter. Yarik impressed us with how quickly he learned the guitar chords that Dad taught him.
Yarik was always up early, taking his shower and getting ready for the day. Willing to go out and help me take care of our chickens. The cold did not bother them as we played a bit of soccer in the yard or basketball in the driveway. They were enthusiastic about everything. They both loved to watch movies with us as a family, eat popcorn and snuggle on the couch. They were a little hesitant about joining us on the harder ski slopes, but by the second trip, they were both adept at the green trails. No more bunny hill for them.
I was especially proud when I offered them photo albums. All the other host children we had chose simple slip in photo albums. But not Yarik and Sergiy, they both wanted real scrapbooks...Loved this! They both worked hard to decorate their pages and fill them with photos from our time together. What a treasure for them to keep while they waited for us to come back.
As NHFC rules do not allow us to talk of adoption, we could not tell them how much we wanted them to be a permanent part of our family. But they did their best to let us know they wanted to be part of ours. Twice Sergiy was looking at our family photos and pointed to himself and said, "Sergiy Rhoads." The second time, Yarik was there and added our name to his as well. I had to bite my tongue so that I would not let it slip that I wanted it as much as they did.
Fortunately, we only had a few weeks to wait after they left until we were able to see them again. This time was bittersweet. We were able to talk to both boys about our desire to adopt them. Both said yes without any hesitation and were very happy. Unfortunately, the orphanage director who had once been very supportive of American adoptions, had for some reason had a change of heart and closed down the hosting program for their orphanage. She had also intended to send Yarik to a different orphanage where he could go to school longer, but would be separated from Sergiy, which would make our pending adoption more difficult. Although she would not change her mind about letting the boys come for the summer hosting, she did agree to let Yarik remain at her orphanage until we could come and adopt both boys together. We also had only a very short time with them as she was not interested in letting us spend time with the kids more than necessary. It was so hard to say good-bye to them again, knowing this time it would be a long time until we would see them again.
Fortunately, God blessed us with a way to call Yarik on his cell phone. So we are able to talk and text. Occasionally we do a 3 way call with a translator so we can really get past the simple Love you and Miss you conversations.
We do know that they are waiting for us to come and want us there so much. They keep asking, when are you coming. Which is the same question I am asking God! When can we go!
Which brings us to today. For some reason there was a hiccup in our paperwork and our dossier got kicked back. We are scrambling to figure out what happened to some missing papers and how we can get them turned back in again to be able to move forward again. It seems like we should still be there the first week in September, but that is later than I had hoped. God is in control and He knows exactly where the paperwork is and what needs to happen and what day we need to be there. I am telling my heart, but it is tough to make it listen when it longs to have those two very loved boys back in my arms!!!