Our Travel Plans

We will be leaving for Ukraine on June 21st. We did not have a petition letter for Roma over there so the SDA has agreed to let us bring the petition letter with us when we come rather than have to wait for it to be shipped internationally. We have an appointment with the SDA on June 23rd to give them the petition letter for Roma. Our facilitator told us that we will remain in Kiev for 2 to 3 days max for the actual referral to his orphanage. Please pray that this process will go quickly and smoothly and that we will get our referral quickly so that we will not have to spend much time waiting. This is NOT typical procedure!! I think this is God at work to ensure that we get Roma before he is transferred. I found out today that the director has already signed sealed papers for Roma's transfer and the only reason that the director has to hold him there is because he has had a bad cold. I hate that the little guy has been feeling bad, but in this case, thank God for a nasty cold!

Awesome News!!

Our dossier was submitted today!! They are supposed to review it and I was told that we could receive our travel date next week. They are trying to get us a travel date for the week of June 23rd!

The director at Yolotchka agreed to hold Roma in the baby orphanage for three weeks. He didn't want to, but our facilitator talked him into it by telling him that our dossier was submitted.

So, just pray that we will travel before he is transferred!! This has been an amazing turn of events and I am praising God for His faithfulness today!! And I thank God for all of you that have been praying for us, Roma, & Dasha! Thank you!

Update on Roma and Dasha

We just got word a little earlier that Roma is already on the transfer list and can be transferred any day now. The orphanage would not agree to keep him held there and they said that there is no reason for them to keep him there.

He is scheduled to be transferred to Torez Children's Home for invalids. Invalids is not my wording!

We have no choice but to submit our dossier as quickly as possible and get him the heck out of there ASAP!! Our dossier should be submitted tomorrow for Roma.

We will have to return for Dasha. There is simply no way around it. I cannot allow Roma to spend any more time at Torez than necessary. Our facilitator is trying to get Roma held at the baby home for 2 to 3 more weeks. And she asked me if we will be able to travel within the next 2 to 3 weeks. She's trying to keep him from being transferred before we get there. Pray that she can, and if not that God will protect him until we get there. Also, please pray for a quick approval and travel date. It is literally a race against his transfer!

Thank you for your prayers! They are being heard and answered!! And praise God that Roma was found!!!!! I can't wait to get him home!!

On a funny note, we decorated both of our spare bedrooms for girls!! Roma (John Paul) will be hanging out in his choice of a pink room or else a pink and green room until we can get some paint and redecorate. Although, I don't think he'll mind. :)

Changes in Our Plans

There are some changes that have taken place with our adoption plans. We found out that Nadia was adopted by her family and taken home two weeks ago. This has been confirmed by two separate sources directly from the director at her orphanage. While we are sad to lose her, we are also glad that she will not be facing institutionalization.

Roma has been a very special little guy to us for a very long time. After we had committed to Nadia and Zhenya I began second guessing our decision. I just couldn't get Roma out of my mind. But at the same time we felt like taking to four year olds on at the same time may be a little too much on us. We were uncertain of the condition that we would find them in and were just not comfortable with committing to two older children. Our Chloe was only two years old and she was our main parenting experience. So it was always a matter of choosing between Roma and Nadia. I felt like Roma would have a better chance of being adopted because Nadia didn't have a very good picture available. If you remember in the original picture she was sleeping and it was taken from the side of her face. Plus she was older than Roma and needed to be gotten out ASAP! I kept thinking about Roma and asking God if I had made the right decision.

Then Roma had a wonderful family commit to him. It was a huge answered prayer for me and I felt like God had given us our answer. So we proceeded full steam ahead with our adoption plans of Nadia. Then when we were on our trip in Ukraine the first day that I met Roma we found out that Ukraine had passed a law that made it impossible for his committed family to adopt him. I was very sad and hurt for both Roma and his family. Then I began second guessing my decision again. I felt like he was truly meant to be ours, but at the same time I could not and was not going to leave Nadia there. I was in turmoil over it. Finally I prayed and told God that if He planned for Roma to be ours that He would have to intervene and make that plan clear to us. I prayed this often and had just finished praying that same prayer about ten minutes before I found out about Nadia. While we were sad to lose Nadia, I was also happy that she went home and would not live out her days in the institution. And I was amazed that God had made His plan completely clear to us.

Then we inquired about Roma and the orphanage director said that he was unknown at the orphanage. How could this be when we clearly feel so led to him? We decided to commit to him and were praying for a miracle that he would be found. We feared that he had already been transferred. Well, today we found out for sure that Roma IS still in the baby orphanage.

We are hoping and praying that they will hold him there until we travel. We are also trying to find out Dasha's exact date of availability. We should know more about her in the next couple of days. They are wanting to submit our dossier within the next couple of days, with the hope that the SDA will let us choose our travel date, when Dasha is available. The SDA has said that she will be available at the end of the year. The orphanage said that she has waited out 11 months of the 14 month wait. If that is true then she should be available in Sept. That would be AWESOME!! But, the end of the year isn't September to me. Please pray that she will be available soon or else something can be done to waive the wait. We need a miracle here.

We are hoping to get them both in one trip, soon! It's very concerning to us because Roma is at the age of institutionalization and that's just scary! And Dasha is underfed and caged up in a crib all day. Her little arms and legs are so bony. They only fed her about 3 ounces of liquid for lunch when we were there and then took the bottle from her. There was still plenty more in it and she was still drinking. I do not know why they took it from her, unless it was to give the other children time to eat as well. I just don't know, but I am worried about her. I know God is watching over her, but I just want to be there for her the minute she becomes available. I don't want her to have to wait any longer. She has waited long enough. It is not feasible for me to adopt Roma and then go back for Dasha next year. I can't see that the institution can be that much worse than where she is right now. Both are bad situations for both children and I hope to be able to get them both home soon. Roma has certainly waited long enough as well and I am so scared to think of him having to spend even one minute in an institution. I just want both of them in my arms and keep them safe.

So please pray that we can get them both in one trip and that God will give us a miracle with Dasha's availability. And also, please pray that they will hold Roma in the baby orphanage!!! I'm praying so hard that they will keep him in the baby orphanage until Dasha is available. If they won't then we may have to travel for him first. But it will absolutely break my heart to leave Dasha there until next year! She doesn't deserve having to wait extended months, maybe even next spring, for us to start this entire process over again and get a travel date for her. It's not right when she is so close to being available. Pray that God will intervene for her so that we can get both of them out at the same time. And of course that God will keep all of the orphans safe and send angels to comfort them and bring them peace and joy.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers!!

Another Day, Another Country

DHL tracking is showing that our package is departing Rome, Italy. I'm not sure what that is all about. Hopefully, it will make its way to Ukraine tomorrow. DHL told our facilitator that they can not intercept the package to make sure that it gets to the correct country. They are investigating it but cannot tell us where it is heading now.

So we are waiting to see what the next few days hold. Hopefully it will make it where it is supposed to go. In the mean time I am going to send out for a new apostilled marriage certificate just in case it never gets there.

This isn't the first package that we have lost. UPS lost our fingerprint cards for our background check in the beginning. But it ended up working out to our benfefit. When we got our background checks back the notary was only good until March 2008. So it was useless to us. In the mean time the "lost" UPS package showed up so our social worker already had the another set of fingerprints on hand. This saved us some time. God was in control of the UPS package and I know He is in contol of this too. He has a plan. This is all for a reason. And since I have no idea where Nadia is now and if Dasha could end up being available, I will trust Him.

When our dossier is finally submitted they are going to double check on Dasha's availability.

Marriage Certificate Update

Well, our marriage certificate is in Germany, on its way to Republic of Moldova. Yes Moldova!! Not Kiev, Ukraine. We are trying to get it intercepted in Germany and sent to Kiev, before it is shipped to Moldova. I don't know how they did that! My shipping receipt clearly says Kiev, Ukraine and has the correct zip code.

As Murphy's law states, "if anything can go wrong it will." At this point I just have to laugh about it. What else can you do? Laugh or cry? I'd rather laugh. I've shed too many tears in the past. God has His hand on it and I know it will all go the way that He plans it to. Please pray!

Thanks!!

Marriage Certificate

Our marriage certificate is on its way over there. It is expected to be in the country on Thursday and should be delivered on Friday. They wouldn't make a guarantee on an international shipment because of customs. They said that customs usually sends documents on through. It took two weeks the last time that we sent a document over there via Fed-Ex. But there were also holidays (May Day and Easter). So hopefully, this time will be much faster. We are not using Fed-Ex this time. They sent the last document through Paris before it ever went to Ukraine. So it had two customs checks. Please pray that customs will send it through quickly and that it will be put on a direct flight (not through Paris)so that it will be delivered.

Thanks!!