The Dust Settles

Even though it means our Sasha and Nastia must wait a little longer, our advocate/facilitator over there in Ukraine, tells us we probably won't go until February. I'm a little relieved. I was dreading going over during Christmas due to the expensive flights, Holiday closures of Ukrainian government offices, and leaving our boys (tho they be grown) without us during Christmas time.

I've heard there is a Ukrainian family interested in our girls who are waiting.

It is good to know Jesus during these times.

AH! AH! AH! (The quiet is broken by shrieks)

You know those shows where decorators kick homeowners out of their homes and then the decorators totally redo a room? The homeowners come back and have to close their eyes and then they open their eyes, take in the transformed room, gasp and yell, "OH MY GOSH!" That's kind of what Ro and I did.

Our friends Heidi and Felix left Friday on their own quest for adoptive children from Ukraine. They have the same facilitator and asked when our dossier would be submitted to the State Department. She told them it was. Just last week! See, when one submits a doss to the State Department on behalf of an adoptive family, it is customary to inform the said adoptive family that one has done so via e-mail. No such e-mail was sent. We knew there was a good chance it would be soon but didn't know for sure. Such things are a mystery.

The "OH MY GOSH," comes in realization that for sure we will be going to Ukraine before the end of the year! The State Department has 20 days (business days?) to look over our precious packet of papers and declare us unfit for parenting Ukrainian children or fit and then give us a date and time to bring our nervous and trembling bodies into their office for an interview. We have friends going for a Dec 10 appointment date so it will be later. Christmas? Sounds so romantic but I think finding flights now would be a nightmare! So we wait on pins and needles. Any day now we will hear the the starter gun fire and then the frantic preparations . . .

All Is Quiet

Dossier has arrived. Was signed for (so says the tracking number information) Oct 8th. Now the great wait. Our facilitator in Kiev will work on translating the many documents. Each individual document has a special piece of paper stapled twice on the left edge that covers the original with the name of the notary that signed it and the approval of the state commissioner. There are about 25 documents. She has her work cut out for her.

I must confess, the very hardest part for me in this journey, is leaving my home for 4+ weeks. I do love to travel and explore but get restless to return to my nest after a couple of weeks. Not sure how I'm going to remedy this discomfort when there is no set return date. So now is the best time to do what I can to prepare as thoroughly as possible for that time. I'm reading other blogs, keeping up on my scant Russian and pestering my Ukrainian adoption buddies for information. (Word on the street is one of my buddies has 15 pages of stuff to bring!) Rolan has switched to Russian instead of Ukrainian language CD's to listen to on his way to work. Hunting for constructive stuff to do while we wait for papers, court dates, etc. Ideas are welcome. I've heard the boredom gets to you. As a last resort, I could bring a suitcase full of books, magazines and yarn to make poor unsuspecting children scarves and afghans. (Actually, that doesn't sound too bad.) I would love to plant fruit trees or a veggie garden with the kids depending on the time of year and the tools available. Something to look into. Anyway, I think the more prepared I am, the more I will look forward to going and actually enjoy the time we are there.

It's really hard to say when we will go. There is a rumor that the 2008 quotas are not met so they are still giving appts even into Dec. February? March? Unknown. New Ukraine law weeded out the international singles and older adopters so the lines aren't as long as in the past. People who have already submitted their documents are getting in sooner than expected. We are on pins and needles watching our buddies bring kids home, get appointment dates and make flight reservations! When will our turn come?

I'm a little twisted but this is fun.

"Houston, We Have Contact!"

When you are waiting for signs of life from the kids you love, it seems like they are on a planet in another solar system.

Here is proof our letter was received!

Thank you AZ!

Dossier Away!

I'm embarrassed to say how long we have been working on this thing. It took extra long and then we had to update almost all of it. ("Excuse me, yes, I know, I'm sorry but this has to be done over again because . . .") But now it is updated and the dates should be good til the end of January. Seems like enough time but my hunch is that we will have to do more updating before this portion of the show is over. Other people aren't getting their papers submitted in less than six months and as special as I think I am, I bet ours will be like that or worse on account of the gov over yonder liking to take January off. That just means we pay moocha mulla to mail more updated documents when January comes and goes. I digress.
So, sniff, it is with hankies waving we bid THE ALMIGHTY DOSSIER godspeed.

On the up side, a good Ukrainian lady that does adoption work is seeing the girls today and sending them our love with a letter.
AND Frontier Horizons is going over at the end of the month. They said they would take the girls a package for us!

Sasha the Teacher

It has been a month now since Sasha and Nastiya had to go back to Ukraine. They taught me lessons this summer. These are lessons I quickly forget, so I am writing this down to help me remember.

This lesson is from Sasha.

We were on vacation at a family camp in the redwoods near Santa Cruz. A train ride down to Santa Cruz was planned one day. The train had open cars. The train would stop at the boardwalk in Santa Cruz, on the beach. Had the girls ever seen the ocean?

I tried to tell Sasha all the things that were going to happen, but she was in a rebellious mood. "No sleep. No eat." She was telling me she did not want to do anything. How could I explain to her in a way she could understand? My Russian was poor, her English was poor, pantomiming seldom got across the correct idea.

I could not let her miss this opportunity, so I picked her up out of bed, grabbed a bag with a change of clothes, and started walking to the place where people were gathering to catch a ride to the train. For half the distance, she struggled and fought to get out of my grasp. She finally realized I had enough strength to force her to do what I wanted. She then decided that she did not want to be seen in her pajamas. I found a place for her to change into her clothes.

We rode the train. We ran on the beach, and found shells, and big clumps of icky sea weed. We ate fresh fish at a restaurant on the pier. We saw sea lions. We rode many rides on the boardwalk. We gave both girls disposable cameras so they could remember their day on the beach, and the pictures were quickly used up. It was a very good day.

The lesson? How often does God come to me and say, "I have something great planned. We don't communicate well, so I can't begin to make you understand just how great it's going to be. But it will be awesome. Come on! Let's go!" And what do I usually say? "I'm comfortable here. I like this routine. I don't want to do something unfamiliar. I don't trust you." Unlike my story with Sasha, God usually lets me stay where I am, where things slowly becomes less enjoyable, and I miss the great thing God had planned. Just as Sasha did not trust me, I do not trust God.

If we can get Sasha and Nastiya back, there will many more opportunities for learning trust. And I hope that my eyes can remain open to the lessons these girls are teaching me.

I Cor. 2:9 - "... 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him'"

Papers and Other Terrors

The construction company is officially finished.
So I says to myself, "Why in the world should I pay a contractor to paint my house when I am perfectly capable of doing it myself?"
The new addition outside.
"I'll save a bundle for sure!"
Its a split level so the eaves are way up there.
"I like to paint."
The kitchen addition inside too.
"It will just take a few days."

Five days of painting. I'm tired of painting. Its really quite amazing how much paint we've accumulated in the 15 years we've been here. At least 5 different gallons of "white" and I still can't find the "white" that matches the ceiling in the kitchen. I'm starting to think 'Hillsborough Beige' looks exactly like the nylons I used to buy. The rough-wood-gray-outside-stain stuff is like water. Do you really just put it on with a roller? It's so drippy. I bet it would work better if I just poured it on the siding from the upstairs window.
(Haven't done that one yet but I'm tempted.)

So miss the girls. I don't even have their address. Not a good feeling. I'm working on it by pleading with people that have connections over there. I'm hoping Sasha will write a letter and send it in one of the SASE I gave her. Of course, they don't have a return addresses on them . . .

Painting the house is such a downer after the great summer we had together. Oh gee, I guess I'll clean out the game closet next week. Doesn't that sound exciting?
(Sorry, just a little bitterness seeping through.)

Papers. Yeah. I keep thinking that any day now we will be able to send our dossier over the great ocean to the country beyond (that would be Ukraine). We send papers to the lady that checks them very carefully to see if there are any booboos and she tells us there are corrections that need to be made and we make them and send them back and then she tells us there are some more papers. Its kind of like painting. Do you ever finish, really? But I think we are almost ready this time! When she finally says they are okay, I have to take the whole bundle down to Denver where the lord high keeper of the notaries will check to make sure the notaries are really notarized to be notaries and not just people with fancy embossing equipment maniacally stamping otherwise innocent looking papers just for kicks. I can't wait.



I wonder if they really ever find notaries that aren't notarized.