The new year has begun...2010

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

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

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...

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...

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!!!!

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

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) :)

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...

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!

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...

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!

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....

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!!!!

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... :)

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!

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...

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...

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

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....

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.