Our Adoption Story from Ukraine

The new year has begun...2010

2010-01-27T23:20:00.000-08:00

I can not believe how fast the year went by. It has been exactly one year since we came back home with our sons. We are a big and happy family of seven!!!!

We had a great year and the boys have adjusted so well to their life here in America. They love it here! Aleks is now 15 and in 9th grade in high school and brings home straight A's. His teachers are always saying how smart he is to do so well in school while he has only been here one year. He is learning to drive and loves every minute he can spend at the wheel. He wants to be an architect and I am planning to enroll him in some summer classes at Portland State University.
Dmitri has changed so much during the time he was with us. From being a very shy and not expressive boy, to a confident, loving young man. He will turn 14 soon. He is doing great in 8th grade and improving his grades constantly. He is very good in math and enjoys playing soccer at his school. He wants to be a cartoon animator.

Katie is almost 17!!! I cant believe that she came to us when she was only 11... She is such big help to me. She is attending 11th grade and is also enrolled in Center for Advance Learning, taking medical classes. She wants to be a doctor. Katie is very friendly and outgoing and very strong in her faith and beliefs. When she grows up and has a family of her own, she wants to adopt. We are very proud of her. Katie is also getting ready to go on a mission trip to Mexico this year to help build a house for a poor family.

Ilianna is in 3rd grade and is 9 years old. She loves to play with her little sister and she absolutely loves school! She is a sweet girl who writes me letters almost everyday of how much she loves me. When we go to parent/teacher conferences and the teacher shows me her journals: all she writes is about me and how much she wants to be like me. She has such a loving heart and she wants to be a massage therapist.

Isabella is 3 and is our little princess. She loves playing with her brothers and sisters and always waits for them to come home from school. She loves horses and ponies and dreams of having a horse of her own. She learned how to ski this winter and really loved it.

We spent many fun moments together this past year including, going to Hawaii, Mt. Bachelor (where kids learned how to ski and had so much fun together) and the Oregon coast.
We are blessed to have such a wonderful family and always pray for the orphans still in Ukraine. I still get emails from kids that really want to be adopted asking if there is a family for them.
If you know of anyone that wants to adopt or is in the process, I can always share about kids in the Kiev orphanage.
We are looking to many fun and memorable memories ahead in 2010!
Happy New Year!~
Blessings
Inna

Update

2009-05-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

Hello All,
We are all doing great! The boys started school when we got home and are doing very well. Aleks started 8th grade and Dmitri started 7th. I am surprised at how fast they are both learning English. They are so bright and the teachers can't say enough good things about them. They are both in ESL class and Aleks has been moved up to a hight lever just after being in the country for 2 months!!! They are both on the Honor Society and bring home Awards for their studies. We are really proud of them. It was Dmitri's 13th Birthday and we celebrated it here with his new friends...He has a blast!!!
All the kids get along well between each other and are very used to each other now. Katie, who we adoted from disruption about 5 years ago is finishing up 10th grade this year with all Honors and AP classes. She was accepted to the Center for Advanced Learning for the next two years and will be completing her high school diploma as well as getting her medical 2-year certificate for the next two years. She is very excited.
Ilianna is finishin 2nd grade and will be in 3rd next year. She is doing well in school.
Our baby, Isabella, who is now 3 years old...is just as always making us laught and loves all her brothers and sisters...and they love her...
It was also our 9th year marriage anniversary on the 27th of May...
Blessings to everyone...and hopefully I will post more often and add pictures soon...
Inna

SUMMER 2009 HOSTING

2009-02-05T09:53:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,
Now that we are back home settled in and the boys are in school, we are planning our next hosting trip for this summer. Approximate dates are June 15, 2009 until July 20, 2009. We are inviting kids from Father's House, a Christian orphanage in Kiev, Ukraine. If anyone is interested, please email me and I can tell you more about kids that are coming and email you pictures. Please spread the word. My email is maranatha220033@yahoo.com
Please pray for this trip, so that every child will have a family and a great vacation in USA.
Blessings

Home Sweet Home...

2009-01-30T17:55:00.000-08:00

We are home!
We had a great flight and kids did well. They were so excited to finally be at home. We arrived home at 12AM. My mom prepared food, the house was clean with flowers and candles. It was so nice.
The boys loved their new room and ran to unpack their things right away. The girls were so happy to see us and their brothers and sister. It was a great reunion!
Even though this adoption journey was so long, we could definately see God's hand in every step.

WE ARE GOING HOME...

2009-01-28T15:13:00.000-08:00

We are finally coming home tomorrow. We are flying out on the 29th and will soon see our daughters and other family members and friends!
We got our visas today. We submitted all necessary paperwork and our visas were done same day in about 20 minutes. Praise the Lord!
Last Monday, the orphanage had a going away party for the boys and it went great! Almost all employees and children came and there were many people. The man who started this orphanage spoke first and it was quite emotional. He talked about his memories of Aleks and Dmitri when they first came to the orphanage 8 years ago. He shared some funny stories about them and said that the kids were trully a blessing and good example to others in the orphanage. He spoke with tears in his eyes, but they were happy tears that these kids finally have a forever family that they prayed so long for. Then one by one, kids stood up and wished the boys blessing in their lives and others talked about happy memories that they had with the boys. It was such a great time that we spent together. The orphanage director gave the boys Ukrainian Bibles as gifts and gave us a large clock that has the map of the world on there.
Today we went with our sons to gransma Luda's house to say goodbye. It was good for them to see their grandma once more. Their bio mom was also there. We sat and talked about happy times and grandma gave the boys some gifts. We talked for couple of hours and then hugged and said goodbye. Their bio mom hugged me and we stood there for a while...she had tears in her eyes, but did not want the boys to see her crying. I am so glad that we were able to have this meeting and the boys had some closure in their lives and can now move on to their new life in our new family. They are very excited to go home to America.
Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us throughout this journey! God is good and we are so happy and blessed that we are His children!
Please pray for our safe flight home tomorrow!
Blessings to you all!

We now have passports!!!!

2009-01-25T06:11:00.000-08:00

Praise the Lord! Something happened in this whole adoption process, before it actually was supposed to happen... Everything is delayed in Ukraine, but we actually got the boys' passports before we were supposed to get them... strange for Ukraine...
We applied for passports and did not want to pay the fee for passports to expedite them, so we just prayed.. we were told when we applied that if we paid the fee, then we would get the passports or Thursday or Friday...but we decided not to pay... and we still received the passports last Friday! What a great surprise!!! So Monday we are going to take the boys to get their medicals done and then to US Embassy to get their visas... we are almost home..
Yesterday, one of the girls from the orphanage celebrated her birthday here, so she asked me to help her prepare her birthday fiest...it was fun to teach them how to cook and spend time with other kids.. We had a blast!
Tomorrow the orphanage is having a goodbye party for the boys and everyone is invited!
We already have our suitcases almost packed and ready to go...
We definately have a wonderful attorney who helped us thorough this rough journey... We would reccomend her to anyone who needs help with adoption in Ukraine, but most importantly we have a wonderful God who loves us and cares for us and leads us though all tough roads of life..
Blessings to all!

Delayed....again

2009-01-22T09:34:00.001-08:00

Once again we are delayed in the process. We are still waiting for our sons' passports. We are hoping that they will be done on Monday and we can have medicals and visas on Tuesday. We changed our flight once more for the 29th of January now. This is the 3rd time changing our tickets while we are here in Ukraine. There was a lot of "paperwork" that was needed to apply for the passport at the "ovir" and also it took a while to unregister the kids from their place of registry. Even though our sons lived at the orphanage for 8 years now, they still were registered in the apartment where their gransmother lives. Since the orphanage and that apartment belong to different counties, they were giving us a hard time when boys had to be unregistered... It seems like most people here just like to complicate things and no one really thinks about whats best for the kids... Oh well, we are enjoying our last week here ( and I really hope this is the last week in Ukriane for us)!
Thanks again for all your prayers...this has been a very long adoption process...

Last week in Ukraine (hopefully) :)

2009-01-19T11:49:00.001-08:00

This is us after church by the orphanage, "Fathers House". The blue building is where the kids first come and live for a year or two for rehabilitation and then the building in the back with red brick is where the "family time" orphanage is..

This is at church, they were praying for us and another Ukrainian family that adopted during the same time as us.

We have applied for passports today and should get them either on Wed. or Thurs. this week. They we are off to get medicals and visas. Now that we are getting closer to leaving, I know that we will definately miss all the kids that we contstantly spent time with here at the orphanage... We will continue to pray for them and to look for families who would open their hearts and homes for these kids.

On Sunday, we went to the local church here where all the kids from this orphanage attend and they prayed for us and the kids and blessed us. It was really nice and very emotional. They also gave us flowers, which was really sweet of them. The director of this orphanage is also second pastor in this church. There was also another Ukrainian family at church from Cherkassy that adopted 3 boys from this same orphanage and the church also prayed for them.

Moving forward...

2009-01-15T14:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we applied for our boys' new birth certificates and will pick them up tomorrow morning. The good thing about this is, that since my husband is the person adopting (because of age issues), our attorney got the new certificates to have my name on there also as the mother. We are so glad that she is so knowledgeable and able to know how to do things the right way. We will also apply for passports tomorrow too.
So so far everything looks good and it seems like we should be ontime to leave on the 25th of January. We should know for sure sometimes next week.
The boys got haircuts yesterday and they look so handsome. They are counting down the days, when we can finally board that plane and fly home.
We are also talking with the administration here about making another hosting trip for kids in the summer to USA. If anyone is interested in hosting kids from this orphanage in the summer or helping in any way to make this trip possible, please email me with your questions. Kids traveling will be from 6-16 years of age.
Blessings to all of you...

Birthday Party!

2009-01-12T01:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday on Jan. 11, it was my birthday. We had a party here at the orphanage and many kids came! They were so sweet, bringing me gifts of whatever they could find.. One thing for sure...they are so generous and kind. They do such a great job raising kids here in this orphanage! Viktor and I cooked and the boys helped prepare the food and set up the table. It was a great party and everyone enjoyed the food... some kids asked to take food with them too...
Viktor and the boys went into the city and picked out gifts for me and brought a beautiful bouquet of flowers! The kids wished many good wishes and blessings for me and it was so precious.
On the adoption front: we are done with our 10 day wait after court, but we have some property issues here to take care of for the boys so dont know how long that will take.. We are trying to take care of it fast...and know that God will take care of it.
Couple of days ago we took boy's gransma to Ukriane hospital...(it was not a pretty sight)...she broke her arm and since she can not walk, Viktor had to carry her everywhere in the hospital.. She had a cast put on her arm and she is doing much better now...
Today we were invited by my third cousin and his family..so we will go and visit them...

Me with all the gifts that the kids gave me...

Dmitri, Aleks, Viktor and our daughter, gave me a ring, earrings and necklace for my gift~

Beautiful flowers that my boys and my husband gave me!

My birthday party with all the kids and some workers from Fathers House!

Day 6 after court...

2009-01-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

We are on day 6 of our waiting period after court. Right now we are not really doing anything that is related to our adoption of our kids. We are just waiting...
The boys, really want to go home already and so do we...its great that we were able to spend so much time together already here in Ukraine...we really feel like they were always a part of our family. They always help out. Dmitri really likes to cook and helps me all the time in the kitchen. Aleks cleans our room and always likes everything to be nice and clean. We went to Kreschatik (main street in Kiev) and saw the huge Christmas tree. It was freezing! Our baby rode a pony around the Christmas tree and asked her daddy to buy her one too!!!
Yesterday, we drove around to different travel agencies with our attorney, to get a good price on tickets back home. Tickets are more expansive one way, than roundtrip! For now, we changed our return tickets to January 25th...please pray that this is enough time and that we can leavce on that date...
Today we went grocery shopping and will make pizza and other dishes for Christmas eve (tonight). Tomorrow, Jan. 7, is Christmas Day here in Ukraine. Everything is closed in Ukraine tomorrow and everyone will be celebrating.
So Merry Christmas (again)!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-01-04T07:05:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone! May God's blessings be upon everyone and His grace be with us during this new year! Thanks for all your prayers and support during our adoption and time here in Ukraine!

Here is some yummy food and we prepared here for our New Years Party!
and ofcourse wonderful Ukrainian cakes....

and more cakes....

Our baby receiving gifts by the Christmas tree in our living room.

Dmitri with his best friend Slavik on New Years Eve...

Our family on New Years Eve..together...we miss you Katie and Ilianna...

Dad and Dmitri preparing some waffle cakes for our New Years party..

Pictures....

2008-12-31T03:11:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures that we took...

Another child that asked me to advocate for him and find a family.

Denis, who is 13 years of age really wants a family who would adopt him and love him! He does not have any brothers or sisters, his father died and his mother does not visit. He is very kind and loves to help with everything. He loves small children and they love him. Please email me if you are interested in adopting him.
Boys and our baby playing around after court today....by the courthouse.

Our daughter playing with the cat at Father's House...

Isabella with Aleks goofing around as usual!

Aleks with his friends in our room, looking though their New Year's gifts.

Our dear son Dmitri...I love his smile!

Aleks playing with his baby sister!!

Playing again....she absolutely adores her brothers~!

We are finally a family!!!!

2008-12-31T02:37:00.000-08:00

TODAY,
DECEMBER 31, 2008 at 9AM, we added two more children to our family!

Please welcome, Aleks Viktor Grigorov and Dmitri Markus Grigorov!!!

(This is a picture of us after the hearing by the courthouse)

We had court today...it went by fast..maybe about 5 minutes total. We all came in and set down in the office where the judge was. She asked us to state our names, where we worked and lived. Then she asked why we wanted to adopt these particular kids and how we knew them. My husband told her that the reason we want to adopt these kids was because they are OUR kids..they were just out of place and now we found each other! The judge was laughing. I added that we hosted them and wanted them to be a part of our family and they had the same desire. Then she told Dmitri to come stand by her and asked him how old he was and what were his grades in school. She also asked him when was the last time that his birth parents visited..Dmitri answered that he did not remember. She asked him if he was sure that he wanted to go to America. He said that he wanted to go and live with us. Then she called Aleks and asked him the same questions. He also said that he wanted to live with us and be a part of our family. Then she asked the representative from the orphanage if she agreed to this adoption, she said yes. Then the judge jokingly asked the boys what would their reaction be if she did not let them go....they both said that they would not leave her until she let them go... Everyone laughed... So she said that her decision was to let them be adopted by us!!! We are so excited that God is with us throughout this process and that we were able to have court before this year is over!!! We start the 10 day waiting period countdown tomorrow...right before the holidays...what a great God we serve...He is never late!

Court date tomorrow...hopefully... :)

2008-12-30T02:33:00.000-08:00

We got news today from our attorney that she picked up the paper that we needed from SDA today in the morning and went to set up a court date. Our court is set for 9AM tomorrow, December 31, 2008!!! I wrote (hopefully) in the heading, because we are still in Ukraine and until something actually happens, something can change, but we are praying and know one thing for sure, that God is in control! The good thing is that if we do have court tomorrow, and if it happens as planned the countdown for the 10 days after court will start the next day. That will mean that after the holidays, we will start paperwork for new birth certificates, passports, medical exams, and visas....the process if moving again!
We had tickets back to US on the 8th of January, but will need to change them...
Blessings to all and thanks for praying!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Finally!

2008-12-27T02:40:00.000-08:00

Our attorney finally picked-up the paper that was needed for the SDA on Friday... Although it was not that simple....there were many people involved; our attorney, director of Fathers House and assistant to the director...
So they were all there because who ever was to sign the paper, thought that he had more important things to do. So after meeting with everyone, he finally signed the paper we needed. Our attorney took it to SDA that same day and they wrote out the paper that we needed from them. Our attorney told us that it will be signed and she will pick it up on Monday at 9AM from SDA. Then she told us that we should have court either Monday afternoon or Tuesday. So this is the plan...hopefully it will all happen this way with no delays... This is Ukraine though, and everything is unpredictable here...
Thanks for all you prayers, we definately feel your support and God's love with us!
Today we are going with another American family to see another concert performed by the kids from this orphanage...
It is still snowing here...and beautiful white Christmas!

A little update...

2008-12-26T01:56:00.000-08:00

Earlier in the week, we had another visit with the boys' grandma and mother J. It went well... After the visit we went ot McDonalds and ate there... The kids love McDonalds!
Yesterday I took Aleks to the dentist and after that we met with another couple from America who is here to adopt. We spent great time together...
Today we are going to see a Christmas program that we were invited to by the kids at the orphanage here.. It will be from their school and many of the children are involved.
As to our adoption process... the meeting was finaly done on Wed., but we are only supposed to get the paper that we need from them, today.. So basically the boys are no longer under foster care.. we just need the final paper to prove this to SDA. Then our attorney will take the paper to SDA today...so at lease finally the process started to move again...slowly...but at least its moving...
Even though we are not home, are really miss our family and our girls, we will still make the best of the holidays here... We have some events planned with our frinds and also some fun stuff for the kids... It is beautiful here...with A LOT of snow all around us! It's a very white Christmas!
Merry Christmas to everyone, we love you and want to wish all the blessings to you from our Heavenly Father above...

Another visit with the boys grandma...

2008-12-20T11:46:00.000-08:00

Today we had a very interesting visit with the boys' grandma again. We bought some bread and fruits, like g. Luda requested and Aleks, Dima and I went to meet with her at her home. A day before we went, g. Luda called me and told me that she already told the boys' mom J that they were going to be adopted. She also showed her pictures of our family. I was not sure how the whole meeting would go today because mom J lives with the grandma in the same apartment. Well usually mom J is not at home for days and sometimes months, drinking.
When we came in the house and walked into g. Luda's room and set down, mom J came in. It was a very interesting meeting, but she was calm and not drunk (which is really rare we were told). So g. Luda was asking me questions about our house and what it looks like and then asked Aleks to draw a layout of the house and asked what trees where growing in our yard and what flowes we had. Mom J was just listening and smiled from time to time. The interesting thing was that Aleks, even in front of mom J, still called me mom...
Then g. Luda told mom J to make us tea...so she went. While mom J was making tea, g. Luda asked me to help her with some personal stuff for her and boys....so we will try to help her during the time that we have just waiting.. Aleks, Dima, myself and mom J went into the kitchen to have tea with some crackers. To my surprise, it was not unconfotable. The boys also felt very comfortable. After that we were off, g. Luda still wanted us to stay, but we had plans for the evening and had to go. While the boys went to say goddbye to their grandmother, I was standing in the hallway with mom J. I told her that she is welcome to write letters to the boys and that we will still stop by to visit them before we go. She just smiled.
I am glad that God made this possible...I have never in my wildest dreams would think that I would meet the bio mother of the children that we were adopting. This was a wonderful meeting and we will continue to pray for her because she is very sick and needs Jesus in her life.

Some more complications...still waiting

2008-12-18T14:04:00.000-08:00

Well, we are still waiting...
The SDA will not give us an agreement to the adoption until the foster parent relinquishes her care..(if that makes sense). Basically the SDA is giving us the run around. There is no law to this, since the kids will automatically be released from foster care after court (after we adopt them). But the word out is that the SDA is trying to send international families home without kids...so they are making stuff up and requiring documents that are not even requiered by Ukrainian law. This is done because the SDA is trying to prove that the "quota" system for 2008 worked and that statistically more Ukrainian citizens are adopting kids and less international families. These statistics are not correct, so they are trying to keep international adoption to minimal. This is pretty much where we are at...but we are not giving up and we will fight for our children..God is on our side, what can man do? They are our kids!
So we are waiting for some kind of gathering hopefully on Tuesday to take the foster parent rights away and then we will hopefully get the paper that we need for SDA...
This is Ukraine, so all this is expected...they like to change their laws everyday and request documents that dont exist. We are kind of used to this from our previous adoption.
So we keep praying together with the boys for God to lead us through this together. We will spend holidays here in Ukraine and spend them with our boys.
Other then the document stuff, we are having a great time here...we are getting to know more and more of the children here and many of them ask us to advocate for them and find a family. So I have more pictures of kids and info., if anyone is interested please let me know.. These kids need families! There are also kids here that are 16 or older and would love the opportunity to study abroad. If anyone is insterested in having a child live in your home and study, that could be set up as well.
In particular, I had a wonderful opporunity to communicate and spend time with a girl named, Anna. She is already 19 years of age and has been here at the orphanage since she was 13. Her mother died, then her father died and then her older sister died...she has no one and for that reason the orphanage still provides a living space for her. She is a shy but very smart and bright girl who absolutely loves horses! I dont think I have ever seen anyone love horses as much as she does and dream about training horses and being a jockey. She currently attends a university here in Kiev to become a horse trainer... She spends most of her free time with horses and this girl knows everything about them! If someone has a desire in their heart to help this girl in someone, maybe invite her to learn English in USA and do work around horses....just email me.
Thanks to all who pray for us, please continue and please pray for these kids that are left here and desire a family so much...some of them are older then 16, but they are still kids and want a family...if not through adoption, maybe just a family that would be in their life and they could visit...so that they could have a place to call home...

Desire for a family....

2008-12-12T08:56:00.001-08:00

This picture is of two kids that live here in the orphanage. They asked me to advocate for them and to find them a family. They came to this orphanage 3 years ago, when their mother died. The father is an alchoholic and does not visit the kids. They very much want a family!
Olga is turning 16 years old tomorrow. Olga is very friendly and outgoing, she makes friends easily. She loves to laugh and does not get mad easily. She listens and respects adults and is obedient. She likes to sing and attends music school to take vocal lessons.
Vlad is 14 years old and is very calm and kind child. He loves his sister very much and wants to be in a family together with her. He is active in sports and loves to play soccer. He gets good grades in school.
Email me if you would like more information about these kids or would like to concider adopting them.

Just waiting.....

2008-12-12T08:14:00.000-08:00

I havent been posting for couple of days just because nothing really new happened with our paperwork. Our attorney submitted everything to SDA and now we are waiting for them to issue us a final paper so that court can be scheduled. We heard that we will receive that paper from the SDA on Monday...so we pray that this will happen and that we will get a court date fast.

On Sunday Aleks, Dima and I went to a church where mostly Americans gather here in Kiev and met some new people. My husband stayed at the orphanage with our daughter. After church, we went with some firends to downtown Kiev and walked around the "globus" mall then had some yummy pizza there and ice cream.
Another day I took Dima to an orthodontist in Kiev for consultation. He needs to get braces, and it is MUCH cheaper here. Then another day we went to a denstist and had cleanings done for the boys and my husband. Aleks needs more dental work done and its much cheeper here, so we scheduled more appointments for him to have everything completed before we go home.

One evening, my husband and I went out with some friends to a huge mall called, "karavan" here in Kiev where there are many stores and even an ice rink. While we were out, the boys watched their little sister in the orphanage. They did a great job playing with her and keeping her busy. When we came home she was already sleeping!

Everyone is doing great! The boys are so happy that we are with them and they live with us in our apartment here in the orphanage. It was snowing here again and it was beautiful! We were playing with the boys outside and took some pictures. We have met more wonderful people here and became good friends.

Yesterday we had dinner with another family that we met here, that also adopted kids. It was nice to spend time together and to meet them and their children.

Tomorrow, Olga, a girl from the orphanage will be celebrating her 16th birthday and invited us to her party. So we will be going there and then we were also invited by a family who works here at the orphange to have some "shishkabobs".

Please keep praying for us to get the paperwork done, so that we can return home soon...

Visiting grandma Luda

2008-12-05T23:49:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of us by the boys' orphanage.

Yesterday we set out with the boys to visit their grandma. We drove in a taxi all the way to the other side of Kiev called Obolon. We stopped by a local market and bought red carnations and whole bunch of fruits for the grandma. She lives in a tall building on the 4th floor. She lays in her bed in a very small room and she can not walk. She hugged all of us as we came in.

When we set down, she was emotional and told us how happy she was that the boys will have a family now. She told us everything from the begining of her life, about her only daughter (boy's bio mom), and how she took care of the boys when they were little and then how they ended up at the orphanage. It was very interesting to hear all this information. She is a very smart and intelegent lady, who has compeleted her masters degree with high honors from Moscow University. She also told us about the boys' extended family and that they were all very educated people. She was happy to tell us the whole story and we found out some very interesting information. She also showed us pictures of when she was little and of the boys' mom and also when the boys were little...(they were SO CUTE!!) We spend probably around 2 hours with her and then we left. She asked us to come by one more time to say goodbye before we go home with the boys. I wanted to take pictures of the boys and their grandma, but she was really against that and said that she wants the boys to remember her when she was younger and not ill. So she gave them pictures of her, when she was younger.

Yesterday, our attorney gathered all paperwork and got all official signitures that were required and has turned in everything to SDA! Thank God! We are now waiting for an approval from them, which we will probably get next Thursday and then have court sometimes after that. So we will have some days next week, just to hang out, so we are thinking of things to do and places to go while we wait...

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

2008-12-04T11:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we left our daughter with two girls that live here in the orphanage and they wanted to babysit her while my husband and I just go out and walk around downtown Kiev and go shopping. So it was great that finally we could have an evening to just relax a little bit. The girls did such a great job babysitting our daughter! They were drawing with her, watching cartoons and playing games. We were gone for about 5 hours and she had so much fun that she didn't even cry!
Today, we took Aleks to a local eye clinic and had his eyes checked out. He was perscribed glasses and we bought him nice glasses that he could wear. We will pick them up tomorrow from the pharmacy.
Our attorney came to the orphanage today where we are staying, and told us that she was to get the last paper from the inspector signed today and will turn all the paperwork to SDA on Friday for final approval to the adoption. We should get that final paper back from SDA in 5 days, which would be next Wednesday. After that, our court date will be scheduled.
Today was the official, last day of school for the boys. The orphanage staff asked us when we wanted the boys to be out of school and we just said that they can stop immediately because we have some dentist appointments planned and other things we would like to do with them. So they will not return to the school again...maybe just once before we leave for home..to say goodbye to their friends and teachers.
Tomorrow we are going in the morning with the boys to meet their grandmother who is very ill and paralized in bed. She has always cared for the boys and loves them very much. She is happy that they will have a family who will love the boys and wants to meet us... We are really looking forward to meeting her too. We will stop by the store to buy her some flowers and groceries tomorrow and then will go to her apartment. I will write more about our visit with the grandmother, tomorrow.
Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us! We feel so at peace and know that God is taking care of each step that we take.

Complications

2008-12-03T04:58:00.000-08:00

Our attorney called and told us that the SDA does not want to give the agreement to adoption for our boys. The inspector wrote the agreement to adoption and our attorney gathered all the paperowork to turn in to the SDA to get a final agreement from them and they said that because the kids are under an "opekun" care taker, they should not be available for adoption. Well our attorney was running around everywhere including the orphanage to get all necessary paperwork from couple of years ago, stating that the caretaker allows for the kids to be adopted and had no intention to adopt them. Right now, our attorney just left to SDA to turn in all the paperwork. She told us not to worry, because according to the law of Ukraine, these kids CAN be adopted. The SDA is being really against international adoptions, and they will make it harder and harder to adopt from Ukraine. We heard from other families that are here, that they are having problems too with the SDA approving adoptions. It's unfortunate considering how many children are in orphanages and streets here in Ukraine.
Please pray for this whole situation to resolve and so that the SDA will give us permission to adopt and not take their time in issuing paperwork.
We are just thankful to God for a wonderful attorney who knows what she is doing and knows all the laws of Ukraine and where they are written by memory....
Blessings

Visiting relatives in Kiev

2008-12-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

The boys are getting along great with thir new sister! They absolutely adore her and she always asks to play with them.

It was fun visiting my aunt and unkle and their little boy whom they adopted about 6 months ago. We introduced them to our boys too.

The adoption process...

2008-12-01T12:31:00.001-08:00

In the morning, our attorney picked us up and we all drove to the city inspector's office. Today, Dec. 1, 2008, a new law came in effect in regards to adoption and some paperwork has to be done differently. So one of the new regulations now is that the inspector needs to go with the family to the orphanage during their initial meeting and write an agreement to adoption upon talking with the kids and adoptive parents. So we came into the inspectors office and she was very nice. She was asking us why we wanted to adopt older kids and was talking a lot to our little daughter and giving her candy. We explained to her that we are already living at the orphanage and have constant contact with the boys, but since the new regulation, she still needed to go with us. So I called the boys on their cell phone and told them to go back to the orphanage from school, and that we will arrive there shortly... With the inspector, we all came to the orphanage to find that the boys were already waiting for us. We all set down and she officially asked the boys if they want to be adopted by us and how they know us. They ofcourse both said that they want to be adopted and then she wrote everything down on a piece of paper. After that, our attorney, inspector and orphanage director, and I all met in the office and had coffee while completing paperwork and placing a lot of stamps on it. The boys didnt go back to school and just stayed with us and then we all had lunch together.
Our attorney told us that she has all the paperwork she needs and will get the last piece from the court where the parents are revoked were revoked of their parental rights. She will turn all of this paperwork to SDA on Wednesday for them to write an approval for this adoption. This process takes 5 days. So our attorney will pick up the paperwork from SDA on Monday next week and will take it all to court to schedule a court date for us.
Tomorrow we are going to be spending time with my unkle and aunt that live in Kiev. They also adopted a 4 year old boy couple of months ago. We are looking forward to meeting him.
We really miss our kids at home. Our little daughter always talks about her older sisters and how much she loves them. She plays with the kids here at the orphanage that are her age. She was playing games with them and building puzzles.
Two of the girls from the orphanage, invited me to go to music school with them today. They had vocal lessons, so I went and enjoyed them singing. They are preparing for a concert later in December. (Yes, Lisa, Nastya was singing too. She has a great voice.)

Gathering paperwork...

2008-11-30T21:26:00.001-08:00

On Friday, after our SDA appointment, our attorney was able to gather some necessary paperwork from the orphanage and also scheduled a meeting with the region inspector for Monday. On Saturday, our attorney took us and the boys "opekun - the person who has custody of the boys", to the notary and we had whole bunch of paperwork done and notarized....such as my permision for my husband to adopt the boys, the custodians permission of the boys to be adopted by us, and other similar papers. Even though our boys live at the orphanage, there is a family-like system here, where families come and live here for 2 years and take in around 10 kids, so that they better understand family life and its easier for them to transition once they are adopted. So that is the reason why we needed to have the custodian go with us to the notary...
Today we are leaving at 8AM (in about 20 minutes) to the regional inspectors office to continue with the paperwork, after that we are all coming to the orphanage again and gathering paperwork here for the boys so that our attorney can turn it in to the court and schedule a court date for us. Yesterday, the boys had to write officially on paper that they want to be adopted by us...and they were very happy to write this...
We are constantly surrounded by kids here...after they come home from school...many of them are in our room and we all have tea and eat... Most of them are older kids and its so sad to hear their stories.. They all want a family and many pray constantly... If someone is interested in adopting older kids, please email me at maranatha220033@yahoo.com
Yesterday, Aleks, me and other kids, went to walk around the town here at night and it was fun. They really want to stay in the room with us, so the we will have arrangements done so that they can sleep with us. We have two extra beds in our room.
I will write more later...

SDA Appointment!

2008-11-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

This is us by SDA building (on the right).

Well, we met our wonderful attorney and her husband the day before our appointment with the SDA. She is a very nice lady and very experienced and knows what she is doing. Also very respected at the SDA.

We had our appointment at 10:30AM. We were called into the office and set down to talk to one of the workers. We were showed 2 files of our boys and just asked 2 simple questions, such as how do you know the boys and do they already know that you are here to adopt them. We showed the ladies our album, and one of the workers remembered our daughter whom we adopted in 2006. She used to work for the childrens police and remembers filing all the papers for her when she was found on the street. Everyone was very nice and sweet. Our whole appointment lasted for about 7 minutes, if that!

After the appointment, our attorney went to take a copy of the dossier and we were off to eat lunch. After lunch we came to the orphanage to collect some paperwork and our attorney, went back to the SDA to pick up our official "referral" and then to inspectors office. On Saturday morning, we are going to the Notary to get some papers notarized. Since the boys are over the age of 10 , they will need to write a letter stating that they want to be adopted by us.

Everything is great here, our baby still wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to eat and play... We get to spend time with the boys everyday. They go to school, after school they do their homework, and come to our room to eat and chat (and most of the time take many of their friends). So our room is pretty open to everyone any time of the day, we love it though!
Yesterday evening Aleks and I went to walk around their town. We went to the local store and then he showed me his school. Dima comes after school to us, to get help with his English homework...his grade is going up in English..hmmm... We dont know yet, when we want to take them out of school officially...Most likely they will go to school for one more week and then they will be done.. We want to travel during our 10 day waiting period and take them with us.

Keep praying so that our whole adoption process goes smoothly and there are no hold ups...Many blessings to all of you!

God is good!

2008-11-26T10:56:00.000-08:00

We are in Kiev, Ukraine now and its snowing!!!!!

We have already seen God's hand in our travels. Our flight was great! We came to the airport in Portland and were easily checked in and were told that the airplaine that we were to fly on (that fit around 300 people) only had 80 people!!!! It was a great flight from Portland to Amstradam, we each had 4 seats to sleep comfortably on....and the flight went by so fast... The airplaine was great with a tv screen in each seat, that entertained our daughter with cartoons and games...

We arrived in Amstradam safely and only stayed there for about one hour and half before getting on a flight to Kiev. That flight was only 2.5 hours and we slept through all of it...

When we got to Kiev, we got into a HUGE line at the passport control. We were exhausted, and out of no where, in the midst of all these people and lines, one of the airport workers came and directed us to another window where there was no line at all!!!! We had our passports checked and went through to pick up our luggage. After receiveing all of our luggage, we set down to fill out the declaration form, but as soon as we set down, a man came up and asked us if we needed help transporting our luggage...for $30 bucks! Well, what that meant was, "do you want me to take you through customs without declaration form or suitcase checks". We agreed..so basically since arriving in Kiev, it only took us about 15-20 minutes to get from the airplaine and out of the airport!!! God is good! He already took care of every little detail!

We were greeted by our friends from Fathers House and taken to the orphanage... The boys live on the third floor of the building. When we walked in, they were eating...they could not believe what they saw...they looked again and then ran to us!!! They were so excited! It felt great to be reunited with them again!

Then we already had a wonderful dinner made for us at the orphanage, so we all went to eat and drink tea.. Later we took our luggage up to our room, and its was wonderful! Its a huge room with three twin beds, pushed together, and another one further by the wall. It also has a office table with chair and a sofa..oh yea, and a HUGE closet! These people are so sweet!

Today, while the boys were at school, we were driven by one of the staff at Fathers House to the grocery store, where we bought some food. We will be eating at the orphanage when we are here...they have wonderful food and plenty of it...and they only charge 5 grivnyas (about 80 cents) per meal! The dollar keeps growing here, today it was 6.6 grivnyas per 1 dollar.

After the boys got back from school, they all came to our room and all of their friends too..so we had a lot of fun laughfing and talking about life in Amarica...

Tomorrow, we will call our attorney in Ukraine to discuss when we will meet and what is needed for our SDA appointment on Friday.
We give our thanks to God for all His comfort and care for us on this journey...

WE ARE OFF TOMORROW!!

2008-11-23T18:47:00.000-08:00

We are leaving tomorrow for our SDA appt. on the 28th of November. The funny thing is that Aleks wrote me an emial and said, "mom, I cant wait till you guys come to get us...we miss you so much". They have no idea that only in one day we will see each other again... We were told that its really cold in Ukraine now and have packed all warm clothing... The room is ready at the orphanage for us and we will get to live with our boys while we are in Ukraine.
Our church prayed for us today and blessed our trip. Thanks to everyone who is praying for us... We still have some packing to do and then we are off tomorrow!!! I will post when we get to Ukraine.
Please keeep praying for us for a safe flight and for God's blessings throughout the process...

Tickets!

2008-11-11T02:03:00.000-08:00

We are leaving to Ukraine in less then 2 weeks from today! We are really excited! We speak with our boys, but we still did not tell them when we are coming, they have no clue! The orphanage already knows when we are coming and have prepared a room for us. We will be staying in Fathers House, where our boys are and will be spending a lot of time with them. So a friend that works at Fathers House will pick us up from the airport and take us to Fathers House.
This has been a very busy week for us. We were busy getting the boys' room prepared and also remodeling our daughters' rooms. They are almost all done, except for we still need beds for the boys' room because they were all sold out! So we keep calling to see when the store will have them in stock.
I have been looking for good deals on airfare and finally after a week of searching, ordered our tickets. We are leaving on the 24th of November. We are taking our youngest daughter who is 2 1/2 years old with us, so we needed a flight where we would not need to wait long in the airport. We got a great flight with only one stop. Thank God for His blessing in finding these tickets and at a great price too! We are hoping we will complete all adoption paperwork in the timeframe of our tickets, but its a total guess...our hope is in God. When we adopted our daughter in 2006, we also had an apointment date in November, but the 17th... We booked tickets for 3 weeks, thinking we would be done fast, but ended up staying in Ukriane exactly 3 months!!! But God was good till the end and we did not have to purchase new airfare. Our airfare was good for changes for 3 months. We came to Ukraine November 15, 2006 and left February 15, 2009..it was exactly 3 months! It was very cold and we walked A LOT and I came there being 6 months pregnant with my daughter and left when I was almost ready to give birth at 9 months... But I made it back to US and gave (easy) birth to a wonderful, healthy daughter.. Praise God!
So we, again, place all of this adoption process in the hands of our loving Father, who controls everything and everyone. And in His hands is the safest place to be.
I will download pictures of the boys' room hopefully this week...

APPOINTMENT DATE!!!!

2008-11-03T10:12:00.000-08:00

We are so excited! I woke up this morning to find out that I had an email from our attorney. We have a date for the meeting with SDA on NOVEMBER 28th, 2008 at 10:30AM! This is great news for us! I will be looking for tickets today. We would like to arrive in Kiev couple of days before our appointment. Its so good to finally know when we are going~!!! We will not be telling the boys, this will be a surprise for them... I can just imagine their faces, when they will just see us at the orphanage...How exciting~!

Pictures...

2008-11-02T23:59:00.000-08:00

I am posting some pictures of our boys. The first one is of Aleks going into 8th grade and Dima going into 7th grade in September, 2008. They put on their new clothes and new backpacks and were ready for school. The orphanage emailed this picture to us. The kids werent too happy because they only returned to Kiev from visitig Oregon, couple of days before school started. But they sill look so handsome!!! The other three pictures, I received from a friend who traveled to Fathers House for the last 10 years and helped them a lot. She has taken these pictures and emailed them to me today. The pictures are from many years ago. We are so fortunate to have these pictures of our boys and to see them when they were just kids...now they are growing into handsome young men.... We thank God for leading us to them and that we can be their parents here on earth. They are just adorable!!!! And to think that they were registered with the SDA for so many years and not even one family came to visit them to concider them for adoption! We are grateful to have them in our lives!

Fathers House - Otchiy Dim

2008-10-31T17:35:00.000-07:00

Our facilitator in Ukraine emailed us and told us that she visited the orphanage where our boys are at and was amazed at how wonderful it is...She has been helping families adopt for 9 years and she was really surprised at how great this place is...this is what she wrote in her email...

I saw today the orphanage at Petrivske village. IT IS IMAZING!!!!! So beautiful, nice outside and wonderfully decorated!!! WOW!!!!

She also told us that she will check with the SDA on Monday to see if they have a date for us yet...
We keep in touch with our boys via Skype and email almost everyday. They had a week off from school and said that they went with some of the kids from the orphanage into Kiev and went to the movies, shopping and ofcorse McDonalds! They really like McDonalds, even when they where here visiting us, the only place they ever wanted to go eat at, was McDonalds... :)
So we are patiently awaiting for our travel date...and to finally be reunited with our children...
Keep praying for us...

Submitted!!!!!

2008-10-23T16:41:00.001-07:00

We received an email from our attorney in Ukraine and she said that she submitted our paperwork today without any complications. Thank You Lord! She said that the SDA told her to check in one week from today for our travel date and invitation letter. She also stated that she was told by the SDA that even though most of the appointments were given out for November, that they will still try to give us a date in November. If not November, then begining of December... Either way, we are so excited!
I spoke with Aleks via Skype yesterday and told him that our paperwork was to be submitted on Thursday and he and his other friends were praying that everything will go well.
So this morning, when I woke up, he was already calling me to ask how it all went... He was so excited to hear that our paperwork was submitted! The boys are very excited about us coming for them soon. Aleks told me that he does not want to know the travel date when we find out. He wants us to surprise him. He said, "Mom, even when you find out when the travel date is, and I will be begging you to tell me, dont do it." He is so funny... Then Dima was telling me that he wants to know the travel date right when we find out... But I think we will just make it a surprise for them. They both were saying how much they love us and miss us.
Today, my mom and I started painting the room for the boys. Yesterday we were looking for beds for them and found some that would match the room. It a lot of preparation and so little time...
Keep us in your prayers! Blessings!

More News!

2008-10-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

We got another email from our attorney in Ukraine and she said that she spoke with SDA and they will submt our dossier first thing next Thursday (October 23, 2008)! We are so excited! She also told us that the SDA told her that they will give us a travel date within a week after submitting, because the age of the children we are adopting and because we already know them. So she is estimating that our travel date will be sometime in the middle of November 2008!
I also spoke with our boys today using skype for almost 2 hours!!! We had a lot of fun, they were sharig everything with me, from their daily responsibilities at the orphanage to their school lessons and grades and then they were just telling me jokes...we were all laughing. They are both learning English at school and tried to talk to me in English a little bit. Aleks asked me to email him English words so that he can study them.
Aleks also told me that they shared the album we made for them from their trip to USA, with their grandmother. She is a sweet lady and loves the boys, but the sad thing is that she is very ill and stays in bed all the time. She is very happy that the boys have a family that will adopt them and love them. Also Aleks told me that she told the boys that she might pass away soon, but that if they will love Jesus, they will see each other in heaven again. We would very much like to meet Aleks and Dima's grandma, she is the one who brought the boys to the orphanage 8 years ago, because the biological mother would leave them for weeks at a time, alone, without food, and they had to go out in the streets, collect beer bottles, and return them to get some money to purchase bread for themselves. It is so sad to know what most of these children go through at a young age and how hard their life really is.
We are so grateful that God is using us, to take them into our family and show them how much He loves them and cares for them.
We are looking forward to more news, next week!

Available!

2008-10-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

We got the great, long-awaited news from our attorney in Ukraine. Our boys are available for international adoption and have been registered with the SDA for many years now! We are so excited!
Our situation is kind of complicated because my age restricts me from adopting the boys in Ukraine. To adopt from Ukraine the parents and the child need to have at least 15 years age difference. I only have 12 years age difference with Aleks and 14 with Dima. So we are submitting our paperwork as my husband (who qualiffies with his age) to be the one parent adopting and I will only give my written permission for the adoption. Our attorney said that it will be complicated to submit our paperwork, because of different restriction in Ukrainian law, but she spoke with the SDA about our case and the SDA said that they will accpet our dossier tomorrow!!!! So that means that we should find out when our travel date is, soon!
We talk to our boys often and use skype to see each other, which is great! They miss us a lot and keep asking about the paperwork and when we will come to take them home forever. We miss them too and so do our daughters. They always talk about the boys being here. Please keep praying so that everything moves in God's timing. We trust Him to lead us through this adoption.

Communicating with our boys...

2008-09-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

We spoke with our boys on Saturday morning on the phone. They said that the weather is cold and rainy there now and that they cant play soccer because the fields are muddy. They are both studying English at school. Dima said that they pray every morning with the orphange group that they live in, for the paperwork to be completed fast. Aleks, also told me that he prays 3 times a day for us to come for them.
We were looking for someone that was going to Ukraine, to take our laptop to our boys so that we can communicate with them via Skype. Finally today at church there was a family that is going to Ukraine on Wed. and will take the laptop to the boys...we are so excited that finally we will be able to communicate with them at any time, they would like.
A little about the orphanage "Fathers House" or "Otchiy Dim" in Ukraine. It is a private, Christian orphanage in Kiev. There are two parts to the orphanage. In one building is "Island of Treasures" where new children that come to the orphanage live and go through rehabilitation for about 2 years. The second part of the orphanage is in another building, where there are families living there who take in kids after rehabilitation. The kids live in families, so that they better understand family life. They have their own family responsibilities and chores and also have a mom and a dad who take care of them. This way they have a picture of what family life is about and have a good example to follow when they grow up. There are usually about 70 children at one time at this orphanage and they all regularly attend church. The orphanage also has many different activities for the children. There is a singing group called "Singing Hearts" and there is also a theatrical group at the orphanage and many other activities. We have been to this orphanage when adoptin gour younger daughter and lived there for 3 months. We have many friends there and cant wait to go back.
Blessings to everyone and keep us in your prayers!

Dossier in Ukraine

2008-09-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

We just received an email from our attorney in Ukraine that our Dossier arrived today in Ukraine. She will translate it and submit it to the adoption center.

We also received an email from Aleks, one of the boys we are adopting, he said that they really miss and want to be home with us. They are doing good in school and both play on the soccer team for their school.

We are waiting to hear when our Dossier will be submitted.

A little background...

2008-09-15T08:20:00.000-07:00

Because so many have asked, I started our Blog to share our adoption journey. We have two adopted daughters, 15 and 8 year olds and one biological daughter, 2 year old. We decided that we would like to add more children to our family through adoption and started gathering all required paperwork for adoption in January 2008. We were approved for 2 kids up to age 15. We completed the Dossier for adoption from Ukraine and sent it to our facilitator. It has been there since, and could not be submitted to the SDA (Adoption Center) because it has not been accepting new Dossiers.
This summer we hosted 2 wonderful boys from Fathers House age 12 and 14 (brothers), an orphanage where we adopted one of our daughters from in 2006 in Kiev, Ukraine. While they were here, we absolutely fell in love with them and decided that we wanted them to be a part of our family. We prayed a lot for the kids we were to adopt, when we didnt even know them and we felt that this was our answer from God. We dont know if these children are available for adoption and we are praying that they are.
We are working with another attorney in Ukraine now. We updated and fixed all of our Dossier paperwork and will get it Apostilled and sent of to Ukraine today. The attorney will translate it and submit it to the SDA.