Court Day

December 27: After waking up early, I made the mistake of going back to sleep from 7:00am until 9:00am. I felt incredibly drowsy until after I had my shower and we went down to eat breakfast. We met the Rahns in the hallway and all decided to eat together. It was such a blessing to get to share stories from our lives and our adoptions as we ate and then for at least an hour afterward. Please take a minute as you read this and pray for God’s intervention in the problem they are having obtaining their daughter-to-be Marina’s paperwork from the SDA. (She was registered for adoption in 1999 but her file was lost in the transition from the NAC to the SDA and she is now needing to be re-registered without having to wait any more time.) We look forward to keeping in touch with Rick and Fran and their girls when they get back home in Virginia. After our long talk, we checked email before heading up to rest prior to going to court. Valery called and told us that all went well at the Donetsk bus station and that he would be back by about 1:30pm. About 2:00 pm, Valery called and told us that Zoya (our taxi driver) would be at the hotel in about 10 minutes to pick us up. We made one stop at a travel agent to check on our tickets from Mariupol back to Kiev tomorrow morning but they could not provide them the same day.

Finally, the time came for us to arrive at the court. Just as we were driving up, Nataliya called me on the cell phone asking where we were, that Zhenya wanted to know why we weren’t there yet. He and the boys were relieved when I told her that we were about to walk into the building. They all smiled from ear to ear when they saw us arrive on the second floor outside the judge’s office. Nataliya, Yuri, Nastya and a Moldovan pastor friend of theirs were also there waiting from their case to be heard just prior to ours. After they were called into the judge’s office, the pastor spoke to the boys about God and Christianity and told them that the reason we had come to adopt them was that God had led us to do it. They all listened very intently to every word and had several comments and questions for him. Finally, the Khomyak’s hearing was over and they were all very happy as we congratulated them.

Now it was time for the Swan family and our large entourage to pack into the small office. There was the judge, her secretary, two jury members, Valery, myself, Tamara, the Inspector from Berdyansk, the Inspector from Takmak, two lawyers from Berdyansk, the lawyer from Molochansk and Vitya (since he was applying for adoption on his own), thirteen people in all. The hearing took much longer than our other sessions had taken because of the two orphanages and municipalities being involved. Valery, me, Tamara and Vitya first had to introduce ourselves and tell our birth date, city of birth, and home address. I was then asked to stand again and answer questions from the judge and jury members about why we wanted to adopt the boys, what their new names were, when we were married, what was my income, etc. Tamara then answered more questions like how would we communicate with the boys and help them learn English and what occupations were the boys interested in. Vitya was then asked why he wanted to be adopted and go to America and some other questions not all of which were translated for us. Following this, each official made their statement about why they though these adoptions were in the best interests for the boys. Sasha was then called into the room and asked questions and then he went out and Zhenya came in and did the same. We were especially proud of the way that he carried himself as he responded to the judge. Finally, we were all asked to leave the office for a few minutes for the judge to confer with the jury members. We were then all called back into the office and asked to rise as she pronounced her decision that the adoption and all the requested changes to the boys names, etc. was approved. We were all very happy as we left her office as one family for the first time.

We had arranged for Zhenya to be allowed to ride back to Molochansk with the Inspector and lawyer so that he could attend his school’s Christmas party and since they had to pick up his suitcase at the Berdyansk orphanage, Vitya and Sasha also rode back with them after we gave them all big hugs. We told Vitya and Sasha that we would call them after we went to the bank and the travel agent and see if they wanted to go eat with us. After getting our tickets, we called them and told them that we were sending the taxi to them. Not long after we began ordering our food at the nice Georgian restaurant in the park, Vitya and Sasha arrived. I once again got a call from home but this time was able to complete our flight changes with Ella’s help. PRAISE THE LORD! We were now confirmed on the 12:30 flight to JFK on Saturday and would be arriving in Birmingham at 10:30pm CST. I was so relieved that I was now able to really enjoy myself at our first official Swan family dinner with at least two of the boys. We had salads, soup, meat dishes and desert and the boys asked a lot of good questions about what they should do with money that they had saved in their bank accounts, how they could help their orphanage in some way, etc. We were not used to such mature conversation with children that we had just adopted.
Far too soon it was time for Valery to take them back to the orphanage and for us to walk back to the hotel. We hugged them tightly as we said goodbye until January. God had finally completed the work that he had birthed in Tamara’s heart many month’s ago.

As we walked back to the hotel and then checked email before returning to our room to rest for our early morning departure, we were filled with the peace and joy that can only come from the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord for choosing us to be these boys’ parents. Help them to quickly come to an understanding and acceptance of your salvation through Jesus Christ. Bless them and us until we can return for them in January. Amen.

Party Day

December 26: After Tamara and I slept in shifts, we were both awake around 7:30am so we got ready to go to breakfast, check email and post our blog. Valery was running around making sure he had Sasha’s original birth certificate and Yulia was in Kiev picking up our papers from the train station and taking them to the SDA. When she first got to the SDA and showed them the cover letter explaining the importance of expediting our paperwork due to my Mother’s funeral, the person told her that they didn’t believe this was true since it was only in Ukrainian with no English translation. She told the person that she was a Christian and would not lie and miraculously was allowed to talk with the person in charge who did believe her and promised that the papers would be ready between 5:00 and 6:00pm. This would be just enough time to get them on a bus to Donetsk. This would also mean that Valery would have to take a taxi for about two and a half hours each way to pick them up and had to be back before our 2:45 pm court time. Where is a FedEx truck when you need one?

Well, back to today, we went back to the room for a little while and waited on our laundry delivery. Soon it was time for lunch so we walked to the cafeteria once again. After lunch, I wanted to take a short nap so Tamara read some inspirational stories to me from “Power for Living”, one being an adoption story of two boys, and I then went to sleep for about 30 minutes. It was time for us to call a taxi and head to the big Christmas Bash for the older kids at the orphanage. We arrived a little before 3:00pm thinking that it was supposed to start then but found out from Vitya that it wasn’t starting until about 3:40pm. The auditorium was packed with children as the grades participated in a competition like the Russian TV show “KBH” where several groups of people perform skits, songs, dances and comedy in front of a panel of judges. There were three rounds during the competition and it took about three hours for it to be completed. Sasha was the star of most of the skits for his grade and played the part of a pirate in one (looking very much like Captain Jack Sparrow). He also starred in a video that his class had produced where he was dreaming that he was a popular singer from a music video and was catered to by all his teachers, caregivers and friends, getting to sleep late and being brought breakfast in bed while the other students cleaned his room. It was very humorous.

Victor, who is a lot more reserved than Sasha had fewer lines but did play the part of a clown in one skit and we think he was under a box that walked across the stage in another skit. Tamara joked and said, “Look honey, our son is a box.” The box actually looked like the Washington Monument on the outside which made it even stranger. We didn’t fully understand the whole box thing, but Vitya did a good job of walking across the stage in it. If it hadn’t been for two cute little 7 year old girls sitting next to us (Galiana and Angelina) and entertaining us with their expressions and trying to tickle me, we might not of been able to endure the entire program. This was mostly because we couldn’t understand it. Finally and just in the nick of time for my backside in the hard wood chair, the competition was over and Victor’s class (the eleventh grade) was chosen as the winner. All of the kids were then given a gift of a large box of candy.

We had told Yuri and Nataliya that we would try to go to the CBN Training Center for their Christmas party between the program and the dance that was to start at 7:00pm so we hurried out to the taxi with Valery to go. As soon as we walked into the center (which is an awesome place), we were escorted into a room where a large table was overflowing with food. Nataliya asked us if we wanted to eat dinner, and just as I was reaching for a plate, my phone rang. It was Ginger and Ella. After talking with Ginger about some issues concerning my Mother’s funeral I asked Ella to set up a three way call with Delta Airlines. I had to go stand in the pantry in order to find a quiet place to talk and even then, the computer voice recognition system was very annoying since it never understood what I said. Finally, I got a human who then had to transfer me to another human after a long hold and then almost got somewhere about my alternatives when my cell phone dropped the call. While I stayed stuck in the pantry, Tamara and Valery decided to nibble on the refreshments. I finally made my way back into the area with the food table, it was time for us to leave. I had spent the whole time in the pantry on the phone. It was an interesting party for me. A very kind girl who felt sorry for me began piling some paper plates with sandwiches and fruit, so I could take it with me. Ella called me back and we started the process over again as we headed back to the orphanage for the dance. Tamara was balancing two plates of food for me and we scooted inside the taxi. I then gave her the phone to talk to Ginger to advise her on some funeral details. What a crazy day it had been! When I got the phone back, again, I worked my way through the maze of computer prompts and hold times to once again get the right person and again get almost to the point of changing our flight when my battery ran out. I had to give up for now so I just went to the dance wondering if I would ever get our flight changed. We stayed at the dance for about 45 more minutes, and took all we could of bare bellied girls on the dance floor, seeming to be imitating Shakira. It was a perfect time to go eat my plates of food. So, Tamara and I used that as an excuse to step to the far side of the room, so we didn’t have to observe the belly dancing. We know they mean well and are only trying to have a good time. After I ate, we told the boys good-bye and headed back to the hotel.

On our way back in the taxi, our driver, Zoya, (who we’ve gotten to know pretty well) asked to see pictures of our home in America so I pulled out my laptop and started showing her. She seemed impressed with our house and let out a little gasp. We told her we really aren’t rich people. She said, “Berdyansk houses….bad, bad!” She kept trying to look while she was driving and seemed amazed at our humble home. Tamara decided that maybe it might be safer to show her after we parked at the hotel instead of while she was driving so I complied. When we got back to our room, I plugged in my phone and changed out the SIM card with one that Nataliya had let us borrow that could be used to place direct calls to America. Once again, I worked my way to the right person and she was being very helpful and was just about to book us on a flight through JFK on Saturday when, for some unknown reason, the phone dropped the call and would not work anymore. I calmly replaced the SIM card again so people would be able to call us and decided to go ahead and type this blog and then try to call the Kiev Delta office in the morning. I couldn’t handle anymore frustration in one night.

Merry Christmas from Berdyansk!

December 25: Merry Christmas from Berdyansk! After getting ready, we went downstairs to breakfast and then got on the Internet to answer emails and update our blog. As we were heading upstairs to our room we ran into Rick and Fran Rahn, a sweet couple from Virginia that is adopting two girls. We had met them the first morning we went to breakfast and they had also gone with Don and us to church on Sunday. We stood and talked in the hotel lobby for over an hour so by the time we went up to our room, we were ready to go for a walk and find somewhere to eat lunch. Rick had told us about a cafeteria style restaurant that was very reasonable and had given me directions so we started out on our way. Unfortunately, something was wrong with the way I remembered the directions so we didn’t see any restaurants and were freezing. The icy wind was cutting like a knife. We decide to retreat inside one of the bakeries that we had eaten at on our previous trips just to escape the cold. Once inside we ordered cake and tea from a woman who spoke enough English to understand us. We knew we hadn’t eaten lunch yet, but the bakery only served dessert, so we had to take what we could get while being provided warmth. When we headed out again toward the hotel, we only had gone about a half of a block when we found the Cossack Cafeteria. This is a cheerful, delightfully decorated place inside, with a cafeteria style line, so you can just go through and point at the different items you want. Our meal, between the two of us, consisted of borsht, fried potatoes and mushrooms, cabbage rolls stuffed with meat, pork chops and bread was pretty good and very reasonably priced. It was a nice place to have Christmas lunch.

After eating, we had just enough time to check email quickly and then freshen up before taking a taxi to the orphanage. We found the boys when we arrived and went straight to the gym to play basketball. Vitya, Sasha and I played several games of 21, H-O-R-S-E and 2-on-1 but Zhenya didn’t have his tennis shoes on and said that he didn't want to play. We had a lot of fun and the communication went well. Vitya had to go practice being a DJ for the party that we are invited to tomorrow at 3:00. The boys wanted to make sure that we were definitely coming and we insured them that we were. We said good-bye to the boys and went to Galina’s office to find Valery. He needed to put some final touches on our paperwork before taking it to Melitopol for the 7:30 train to Kiev. On his was way to Melitopol, the taxi took us back to the hotel where we at supper at the cafe and then went to our room. I tried to stay awake but we were both tired from the day so we went to sleep about 8:30 pm. About 10:00pm, Valery called us to tell us that he was back from Melitopol and that he had gotten the documents on the train successfully. Dima then called us about 11:00pm to wish us a Merry Christmas. He had just gotten home from Aunt Cyndy’s and had left earlier than Ginger, Ella, Brooke and Baylee so he would be able to call us before we went to sleep. I have now read the entire adoption requirements document from the U.S, Embassy in Kiev trying to go to sleep and typed this additional information in the blog but cannot seem to get sleepy. Where’s a good, late night, English TV program when you need one?

Mimi's Homegoing

December 24: Christmas Eve began with some very sad news from home. My Mother, Evadna Swan went to be with the Lord at about 2:15 am CDT, 10:15 am Ukraine time. Our daughter, Ginger called us with the news. Ginger’s fiancé, Eric Kendrick, was with my Mom last night and had just called her to tell here that her Mimi had passed away. Our entire trip has been a bittersweet experience as we knew that she was slipping away a little more each day as the cancer spread into her kidneys and other parts of her body. She had insisted that we go ahead with our trip as planned so we know that she is now happily watching over us in Heaven along side my Dad who passed away on Christmas night 2005 after a long fight with Leukemia. I know that there are so glad to be reunited again for eternity with Jesus. Right now, we have planned her funeral for next Monday morning in order to be sure we and a lot of other friends and family can return from holiday trips. It is a sad time amidst a joyful time with the boys.
I will miss my Mother’s presence in my life, and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. People have said you are never prepared to lose a parent, no matter how long you anticipate their passing.
Only the Holy Spirit can bring comfort and true peace at a time like this.

We got ready and went to the Internet cafe to send emails about my Mom and then to the Hotel cafe for some lunch. Valery had been running around from office to office with paperwork all morning and he arrived to tell us that he needed to go to the orphanage. We all got our coats and took a taxi together. After arriving, I went looking for the boys and finally found Sasha walking down a hall. He helped us find Vitya and Zhenya and I told them the sad news about my Mom. We then went into the library to download some pictures from Vitya’s camera to my computer. Soon after we began this, Nataliya Khomyak and her husband came in telling us about the little girl that they were visiting with and considering adopting. They invited us to go to the Christmas program for the second graders in the auditorium so we decided to go with them but the boys had better things to do with their time. The program was very colorful and festive and lasted about 2 hours. The children recited poems and lines, sang and danced and were dressed in all kinds of elaborate costumes. It was getting late so we tried to find the boys again to spend a little more time with them. We were successful in finding Sasha and Vitya but not Zhenya. We talked for a while and Sasha made us laugh. Then we decided to go to the computer classroom and check our email. After planning that we would come back tomorrow at 2:30 pm to play some basketball, we went back downstairs and were saying goodbye to the boys so that they could do their homework when Nataliya told us that they were taking some of the children to get some ice cream and asked if we would like to go with them. We told her yes and hugged the boys before loading into the minibus.
We called Valery on the way to The Potato House and he met us there shortly after we arrived. We had a nice supper while we watched the beautiful little girls enjoying themselves. Valery then told us that the hotel “was only 10 minute walk” so we believed him and started walking. It turned out to be more like a 20 min. walk. By the time we reached the hotel, we decided that we wanted some pastries to take to our room, so we went to one of the nearby bakery stores. After we got back to the hotel, I went to the ATM around the corner and then to the Internet cafe to check email and also check on possible flight for either Thursday or Friday (we will need to be home no later than Saturday night for the viewing on Sunday night). Just before bedtime, Valery brought us another revision of our paperwork for us to sign..

December 23

December 23: For the first time on our trip, we were able to go back to sleep after our usual 4:00am awakening. Unfortunately we were supposed to be at breakfast by 9:00am in order to be ready for Don to pick us up for church at 9:35am so we had to quickly get ready in about 30 minutes. Don arrived to pick us up about 9:40am and we arrived at the church in plenty of time. The room where they had the service was beautiful but very cold since they had just completed the installation of the radiators. The praise and worship, message, offering and testimony time were all very good. We were both very blessed but we felt like a block of ice by the time the service ended about 12:00 pm. Interesting the Pastor spoke about being willing to give up comforts and luxuries and being willing to make sacrifices when needed. At the time, we were all giving up the comfort of heat, and it brought to mind all the people who have done this around the world, meeting to worship God in less than desirable circumstances. Nevertheless, God’s presence was definitely among us. After church, We invited Don, Rick and Fran to go with us to lunch and we decided to go to The Potato House. Since none of us could read the choices on the menu, we all decided to go with Burritos. It sounded safe enough. They were saturated in garlic, and weren’t like we get back home at Habenaros, but we ate them anyway.

Don then took us to the orphanage and Tamara and I began our search for the boys. I went up to their rooms and they were not there but one of their friends called Vitya on his cell phone (Orphan technology is amazing these days). Vitya and Zhenya came in and then found Sasha and all three of us went down to find Tamara. We need to go and get their passport photos made so we called for a taxi. When the taxi arrived, there was no way we could all fit so Tamara volunteered to stay behind at the orphanage. After a few minutes, I called to check on Tamara and found out she was alright. She had gone back inside to the school dining hall and asked the ladies in the kitchen for some “chai”, tea. After they gave her two small cups, she sat down at one of the tables to rest. Sveta (Galina’s Assistant) came in and saw her sitting by herself. She immediately went to the kitchen and barked out an order to the ladies in Russian. She then returned with two plates of pelmeney, meat filled dumplings, and a plate of sliced pickles. Tamara didn’t have the heart to tell her she had just eaten, so she tried to politely nibble while they managed a conversation with a little Russian and a little English and a lot of sign language.

Since I knew Tamara was in good hands with Sveta, we proceeded with getting the passport photos of the boys. The first place that we tried told the boys that only the passport office could take the photos so we called Valery who began researching if this was true. Since we were close by we walked back to our hotel to wait on Valery but for some reason the boys wanted to just stand outside in the cold instead of standing in the lobby. Again, Valery’s “few minutes” turned into at least an hour, but the boys didn’t seem to mind being in the cold. Finally he called us and told us to come to another photography store a couple of blocks away. When we got there, we paid them and the boys went in and had their photos. I was a little worried because none of them wanted to brush their hair for the photos, but they still turned out ok. When we were finished, we walked to the taxi stand and found two taxis to take us all back to the orphanage.

When we got there we found Tamara in Sveta’s office talking with her as best she could. She had been taken to observe a ballet class and had been fed and given chocolates while we were gone. We spent quite a long time talking with the boys about school in America and the importance of getting a complete and accurate transcript of all of their courses so that they could be sure they would be admitted in the highest grade level possible. Vitya was the most concerned about this and said that he really wants to be no lower than the 11th grade. We found out that all of the boys have taken cooking courses but the Zhenya is exceptionally fond of it and might like to be a chef someday. After this, Victor had to rewrite his adoption agreement document changing some of the wording since he was going to be a special case where he is requesting to be adopted on his own and not through the SDA like the other two boys.

Since Valery hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, we decided that we better leave. The cab driver suggested a very nice Georgian restaurant near the Inspector’s office. We enjoyed the food, especially the cheese bread, which was round and flat like pizza, but tasted like crescent rolls. We also ordered way too much because the portions were huge. After finishing, we decided we better walk back to the hotel! We checked email, uploaded our blog for the first time and signed some papers that Valery needed to take to the judge the next morning.

First Six Days of Trip

December 17: After going to St. Vincent’s Hospital to say good-bye to my Mother, we drove to the airport with our niece, Samantha. It was a good thing that we had not waited any longer to go to the airport since our flight schedule had been changed from a 2:24 pm to a 1:35 pm departure. We only had to sit at the gate a couple of minutes before the plane began boarding for Atlanta. We arrived on schedule in Atlanta and decided to eat at TGI Fridays. After eating, we went to our gate for the flight to Amsterdam where we again only had to wait a few minutes before boarding. The flight to Amsterdam went well except for a good bit of turbulence over the Atlantic between Canada and Ireland and our inability to get comfortable enough in the 3 middle seats of a 767 to get any sleep.

December 18: After we landed in Amsterdam, we checked the monitor for our flight to Kiev and began walking to Terminal D. After walking for what seemed like 3 miles, we arrived at our gate and obtained our boarding passes. The flight boarded and left Amsterdam pretty much on schedule and we finally got a tiny amount of sleep. As we descended into Kiev, we could see beautiful, snow covered fields. After landing, we were greeted by extremely long lines in Passport Control. It took us about an hour to get through the line and enter Ukraine. There was a huge crowd of people waiting for all the passengers but we immediately saw Yulia and our driver holding a sign with our names on it. We quickly made our way to the CBN van along with a couple of other friends that Yulia had seen at the airport and had offered for them to ride with us. Instead of heading for our apartment to go to bed, Yulia had a surprise for us. We were going to a restaurant to meet Nataliya and her family, and Anya, and others. We had a great time fellowshipping and talking with them and were thrilled to finally meet Nataliya face to face after talking with her and emailing her for several years! Nataliya then shared with us that when we got to the apartment that another Yulia (who worked with us on our shipment) and a lady, Lynn, from Virginia would be there so that she could ask us some questions about adoption older children. Somehow we managed to have a good time talking with her before we finally collapsed into bed at about 7:30 pm Kiev time (after about 28 hours without any significant amount of sleep). Unfortunately, I woke up after only 3 hours thinking that I had been asleep all night and couldn’t go to sleep again for most of the night.

December 19: We both decided to get up in plenty of time to get ready before leaving with Yulia for our SDA appointment at 10:00. Since we had allowed an hour for our drive, because so many people warned us of early morning traffic, we were surprised it only took us 15 minutes to get to the SDA office. We couldn’t go inside yet, because the SDA has no waiting area, only a small entrance way with no chairs. There were already several other people standing there waiting inside. Since we left so early, we didn’t have time for breakfast, Yulia suggested we go somewhere for hot tea. We thought she meant a cozy little cafe, but she only meant to walk a few feet to a small trailer parked nearby, serving fresh, hot pastries. They had some piping hot chocolate, and that sounded good to us. We bought two cups and some small pastries filled with meat and fruit. It was cold and there was no where to sit, so we went back to the car to eat our breakfast and wait for our appointment time. Finally, the time came for us to walk into the SDA for our appointment. Valery had met us there and informed us that we were the only couple on the schedule and that they had told him that our paperwork would be ready the same day instead of waiting until the next morning. This would allow us to go ahead and fly to Mariupol and drive to Berdyansk this evening. We were overjoyed as the Psychologist called us into her office for our interview. She really didn’t ask us many questions, but she commented on Tamara’s name and wanted to know if she was of Ukrainian or Russian descent. Tamara (whom I call Tammy) is often is asked this question, and she simply said, “I realize I have a Russian name. My Mother chose a Russian name for me.” The psychologist smiled and seemed pleased of this fact. We showed her some family pictures on our laptop which she really enjoyed. Then, she thanked us for taking the boys and welcoming them into our family. After this, she showed us the pages of information for Sasha and Zhenya. We took pictures of the photographs that were attached before being sent on our way. Yulia accompanied us to buy the tickets and then to the Emmanuel Office where we attended their chapel service, checked email, ate lunch, and met with Galina and Yulia of the Operation Blessing staff. They filled us in on the details regarding the distribution of our shipment of supplies which was divided between 4 orphanages. We enjoyed all of this very much and it was great to hear more details regarding our shipment, however we were suddenly hit hard by the effects of jet lag. Once back in Karen and Yulia’s office, Yulia turned on some soft praise music, and made us some hot tea. I wanted to lie down in the floor and go to sleep but was somehow able to stay awake. Ginger called from the hospital so I could talk to my Mother for a few minutes. She wasn’t doing well, and everyone was growing more concerned due to her kidneys not functioning. We asked Yulia to join us in prayer and asked God to intervene in what appeared to be a hopeless situation.

After this, we didn’t want to just sit in the office, and were still feeling very tired. Yulia took us to tour their TV studio prior to the time when Valery would arrive with out papers and we could head to the airport. Thanks to our driver’s skill in rush hour traffic, we were able to make it there in plenty of time. Our flight boarded on schedule and we had a good, one and a half hour flight to Mariupol. Our driver was waiting for us when we got there so we began our last leg of the journey. Due to icy roads, we drove carefully so it took a little over 2 hours for the trip that is normally a little over an hour. We arrived at the Hotel Berdyansk, checked into our rooms. After Valery and I found a small restaurant open and brought back some pizza and chicken sandwiches, we ate and immediately went to bed. Once again we woke up after only a couple of hours and had a hard time sleeping the rest of the night due to the excitement about getting to see Vitya and Sasha the next day.

December 20: After eating a quick breakfast at the Hotel, we carefully walked around for about 20 min. on icy sidewalks and streets looking for the Inspector’s office to begin our process. After this, we then walked to the Head Inspector’s office and finally the Notary’s office prior to getting a taxi to take us to the Boarding School. An Italian couple who were meeting a precious brother and sister that they were planning to adopt were in Galina’s office when we arrived so we sat down across the hall in the library and then looked for all of Vitya’s paintings in the Arts and Crafts room. While we were waiting, Galina came into the room to prep the children who were about to meet the Italian couple. She saw us and happily came over to give us hug and welcome us. She took the children into her office and we had to wait a few more minutes to be called. Tammy said she could feel butterflies in her stomach and felt a little nervous, but in a good way. I was also excited, even though I had already met the boys. As we were being told that we could come into the office, my daughter, Ginger called me to tell me that my Mother’s condition had worsened and that her doctors were giving her very little hope of living more than a few more days. I tried to talk with my mother for a minute, but she was very hard to understand and I had to go into the office for our discussion about the boys. This was very difficult for me because of what was happening back home. I have never felt such joy and sadness at the same moment. I knew the boys would be coming into the room soon and I was overwhelmed with so many different emotions. After some opening remarks by the Chief Inspector and the Boarding School’s Lawyer, the school doctor went over the boys’ medical history. Finally, Vitya and Sasha came into the office with smiling faces. It was wonderful for me to see them again but much more wonderful for Tamara to see them for the first time. She was overwhelmed with joy almost like a small child on Christmas morning. It had been about 18 months since we first found out about the boys so she had been waiting a very long time to meet them. We stood there and embraced each other for several minutes, all very happy to be together.

Galina, wept uncontrollably as she talked about Vitya and told us that “she didn’t know how she would make it without him as her assistant.” She told us how he had been elected the School President for the last 3 years and about how great of a leader he was for all the children in the school. She said she would never be able to replace him and there would never be anyone else like him, she was certain. She pointed at Sasha’s picture on her office wall as she told us how smart he is and what a great person he is, and that his photo would remain in that place forever. After they both indicated their desire to be adopted, we only had a few minutes to talk to them and give them hugs before we had to run out to get to the Notary before her office closed. As we were leaving, we saw our friend, Don Norton and Misha from the CBN Training Center as they were coming to tutor the boys in English. We barely made it to the Notary on time but were able to sign the necessary documents. While we were beginning to sign the documents at the Notary, my daughter Ginger called me once again with more bad news about my Mother’s condition. Knowing what my Mother and my children were going through back home made everything that was so joyful happening with us bittersweet. It was incredible to all of us how fast everything was moving! After we went back to the Hotel for a few minutes, Tamara went on to bed while Valery and I went out for a quick supper.

December 21: We had to wake up early in order to drive to Takmak and Molochansk to get the process rolling for Zhenya. We had arranged for Don to pick us up at the hotel and drive us in his van for our journey. We knew this would be a good way to get to visit with Don and catch up on his ministry in Berdyansk as a carpenter, renovating a church by day, and an English Teacher by night. It was wonderful for Tamara and I to get to talk with Don again as we drove approximately 100 kms. Don told us several funny stories about his English tutoring of Vitya and Sasha. One of the funniest was about him and Misha setting up a pretend restaurant so that the boys could practice ordering food in English. When Don asked Sasha what he would like to have to drink, he responded with “water”. Don then asked him what he would like to eat and he said “bread”. Don then told him that most resteraunts bring water and bread complimentary, and asked him “what do you want to eat besides water and bread?”. Sasha then responded with the Russian word for “watermelon” which caused everyone to burst into laughter. Since Sasha received this response for his choice, he repeated it every time they played the restaurant game, telling Don, who played the part of the waiter, that he wanted water, bread and watermelon.

Unfortunately, Valery was not feeling well and had a bad headache as we arrived in Takmak about 9:00 am and found the Inspector’s office without very much difficulty. When we got to her door, it was locked so Valery asked around until he was able to find out that she and her staff was in a meeting. After the meeting was over, we met with her and arranged the visit to the Molochansk orphanage. It was hard to find the orphanage because it was located on the outskirts of town but we finally found it and went inside to the Director’s office. The director began talking about Zhenya and it was hard for us to believe when he also described him as his “assistant” just as Galina had said about Vitya. Zhenya entered, almost running in, and sat down between the Director and the Inspector. The Director continued describing him to us by telling us about his athletic ability and his good marks in school. We had a long discussion that included a very realistic description of what he could expect in America and asked him whether or not he understood the challenges that lay ahead. He said that he had discussed this with his brothers and did understand and still wanted to be adopted. Once again, we had to leave quickly to get back to Takmak where Don, Tamara and I ate at a little cafe while Valery finished some paperwork at the Inspector’s office.

We then headed back to Berdyansk to meet with the judge about our case and set the court date. She asked us several questions about why we wanted such a large family and also why we wanted older children. Tamara explained that it was never in our initial plans to have such a large family but is something that developed over time due to finding out about additional siblings. We told her that we think it is very important (in fact it is Ukrainian law) to keep siblings together in the same family. Tamara also explained that we didn’t want to go back to the season of diapers or even preschool but that the older children are actually much easier and help our family in many ways (after the initial adjustment). The judge said that she thought the older children were harder because they are almost adults and Tamara responded that this is probably true with the average older child but all of these boys have received a very high recommendation from their Directors and teachers concerning their respect for authority and rules, leadership abilities and their cooperative dispositions. We feel that it is safe to say that we are adopting some special boys that will make the most of their opportunity. Tamara also told the judge that more families should adopt older children that are aging out of the orphanages because so many of them become involved with crime, prostitution or drugs when they are forced to leave. Finally, she seemed satisfied with our answers and told Valery that we could have the court date on either next Thursday or Friday depending on when our paperwork is ready. After leaving the judges office, Valery and I ate supper in the hotel cafe before I went back to the room and wrote this blog up to this point.

December 22: As usual, Tamara and I woke up about 4:30 am and couldn’t go back to sleep so we prayed and talked until sunrise and then got ready to go eat breakfast. We decided to go on to the orphanage and see if Vitya and Sasha wanted to go with us to Molochansk to complete Zhenya’s paperwork and bring him back to Berdyansk. We first met with Galina for a few minutes before the boys arrived. We all looked at pictures on my laptop until Valery came and told us that we would have to go now instead of after lunch because the lawyer was having trouble filling out the papers. We called Misha at the CBN Training Center and he arranged have a friend with a nice Mercedes mini-bus take us. We had a good time talking and laughing with Vitya and Sasha all the way to Molochansk.

When we got to the orphanage, Zhenya took us on a tour while Valery began working with the Director and the lawyer. The orphanage was very clean inside and better equipped than we anticipated. There was a home economics room complete with a kitchen and bedroom/dining room/living room where the students could practice all aspects of keeping house. The auditorium was beautifully decorated for their Christmas dance with a huge Christmas tree in the center. We watched as some of the children practiced an acrobatic dance that they were going to perform. Everywhere we walked we were accompanied by a group of children. It was amazing to us to find out that a large number of them knew Vitya and Sasha because they had previously been at Berdyansk. We thought that Valery would be almost finished by the time we completed the tour but instead he called the boys into the Director’s office and had them all write their adoption commitment letter. After they finished, Valery had even more work to do with the lawyer so I got my laptop out and showed some pictures to all the children. Tamara had to go to the restroom during this time and two teenage girls, Luba and Christina, seeming honored, happily escorted her to show the way by one taking each of her arms. They were thrilled to be able to hold her coat for her and make sure she had some “boo ma ga”, toilet paper.

We then went outside and made a short video with the boys that ended with Tamara videoing Sasha and Vitya saying hello to all the children back home. When it was Zhena’s turn to be on the video, he immediately said “toilet?” and ducked inside the front doors of the school. That was his great escape from the camera. He actually just came in and sat down by me on a bench.
Valery, the School Lawyer and the Director took a long time getting all the paperwork in order. So, we looked at photos on the lap top and tried to pass the time. A boy showed up with a soccer ball and Tamara and Sasha began gently kicking it back and forth to one another on the wood floor. It seemed like it took 6 hrs. for Valery to finish. Finally, the time came that we piled back into the van with all 3 boys. It was after dark before we headed back to Takmak. After a snack of cookies and chips, we all took a nap on the way to Berdyansk. When we arrived, I decided that we would go to the Pizza restaurant before the boys returned to the orphanage. We ordered salads and four pizzas and had a good time eating together. To our knowledge, this was the first time any of the boys had eaten pizza. We then called two taxis and sent the boys back in one while we took the other back to the hotel. After checking email, we went back to our room.