Twenty Hats

Before our adoption buddies Heidi and Felix left, Heidi asked for donations of hats, scarves and mittens to take to the children. I love to work with my hands, especially when watching TV, so I wondered if I could maybe make some in my spare time. Not worth the trouble to make mittens (you can buy a pair at Target for $1) but I made the girls scarves before they left for Ukraine out of the vast piles of yarn left over from my afghan projects (the blanket type not the people). Well, why not just use the rest for hats and scarves for the whole orphanage? I have a LOT of yarn. I've made a lot of afghans. I knew the day would come when all those remnants could be used to warm the world. My day has come.

When you buy a ball of yarn, you are committed to it. You can't return it. Retailers don't take them back because so many people tried to return skeins that had, say, a yard they needed and so was missing, from a 315 yard skein. Honestly, its hard to tell if there is a yard missing, even for a retailer, and its dishonest to try and resell a 315 yard skein that has only 314 yards in it. Sorry, I know, its a knitting thing. Anyway, what you end up with, if you do any significant yarnwork at all, is a big basket full of remnants and unused skeins. I was bored of making scarves and thought I would broaden my needlework knowledge horizon a little and make some hats.
I wonder how many I can make with the yarn I still have. Care to make a wager? If you're right you can have a free . . . hat.

Practicing Waiting

I remember a commercial for something years ago. Can't recall what they were selling but I retained a great lesson in patience.

There was a young chauffeur standing by a black limo nonchalantly polishing the hood ornament. A rather imposing older gentleman approaches him and barks, "What are you doing Charles?!" Charles rights himself smartly and responds, "Practicing waiting, Sir." The older gentleman was satisfied with the answer and moved on to the next trainee.

Every once in a while in life, I feel like I'm "practicing waiting," trying very hard not to burst with impatience over the next high point in the roller coaster ride. I have to keep the adrenaline in check somehow and not let it get the better of me, causing me to do things I may regret later like purchasing unuseable stuff. So I have to keep myself busy. Polish the hood ornament, that sort of thing.

We are waiting for our appointment date. Sigh. They are required to give you some sort of answer in 20 days (I'm assuming business) after the Dossier was submitted. Don't know for sure when the doss was submitted, but I'm thinkin' that was probably Nov 4th (election day, remember?). We could be waiting a few more weeks here. Thus the need to keep practicing (see above).

Well, I promised our boys that when they grew up and moved out, they could take their bedroom furniture with them to furnish their new bach pads, be they ever so meager. Our young men are long gone and their furniture with them. The new rooms we are preparing for the girls need a few things. Then God blessed the world with Craig's List. A free, on-line means of selling just about anything, from one private party to another. Okay, God used Craig but "All good things come from God," as the scriptures say. I haven't used Craig's List a great deal but it seems there is enough furniture posted each day to furnish even the sparsest household in about a week, if you wanted. I have to ask myself, "If we don't get the girls or we don't get three as we hope, would this piece of furniture work?" I don't want to ask itjat question. I want three girls! Such is the internal struggle. How does one solve this delemma?

It could be more difficult than expected to get the three we hope for. I was told, it could be quite difficult to get a third unrelated child. Sasha is 11, Nastia will be 8 and then a yet unkown 13 or 14 year old. So, do we purchase furniture for 2 and then send out a purchasing committee if we are in the process of three? Or purchase for 2 and then purchase for another, after we return home, should our dreams come true? I hear it is good to have the home ready for all and shows the children they are wanted and planned for. Therefore one must purchase for three and face the possible risk of going through the painful process of selling the unneeded furniture on Craig's List when one gets home with only two. Hmmmm.

I guess one doesn't polish the hood ornament without thinking.

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!