Nesting

We have officially asked for our third child, a sweetie named Vika (or Victoria) who turned 10 last summer. I smile as I look at her picture taken last March with hair cut super-short for lice control, she kinda looks like me. I overflow with empathy. Naw. She's cute. I'll be able to show photos later but I have to be careful for reasons I will tell later (if I don't, remind me). With Nastia turning 8 on the 22nd of December, Sasha at 11 in September and Vika at 10 last July, people will think I really cranked out the kids! Hey Folks, this is a great way to have a passel of kids close together and not have to go through the multiple sleepless nights of the infant/toddler phase. I feel like I got away with something. At least until college. Hmmmmm. ("Honey, how much do we have in our college fund?!")

Finishing up the house. Out comes the paint. I noticed a few spots on the ceiling in the purple room, the one that will house two girls. I can't imagine trying to finish this with people actually living in it so best fix it now. I remember when I first painted this room. Its the first room I ever painted a feminine color. Josh had moved out to attend CU and I wanted a guest room for Mom and buddy De. When I had the paint mixed, the guy put the can on the counter and said flatly, "Here's your ugly purple paint, lady." I saw the twinkle in his eye. My cue. I let him know in mock self-righteousness that I had put up with three brothers and two sons and was ready to openly embrace my feminine side! Well, I didn't say that exactly, but I could have here in Boulder, Colorado. Didn't know then that I would invite others to "embrace my feminine side" so personally. Ah, life does have its twists, doesn't it?

We have been fortunate to find a great deal of needed furniture, used. The only thing we need now is two twin bed frames. Canopy beds please. White iron prefered. Without the little hump in the top. Cheap. Less than one hundred each, thank you. What? You aren't Santa? Bummer. Guess I'll have to go shopping tomorrow. Not such a bummer. Bed frames, even canopies aren't very much more than that and I should be able to find them new.

Photos: UL- One brave husband, painting the house. With every weekend we spent painting it ourselves, we were sure we saved $10,000 more bucks.
UR-Moving back into the bigger family room (excuse the disorder). The new part is marked with a line next to the mantel, since painted to match the rest of the room.
LR- Extended breakfast room. I got the biggest window I could without having to go to a more expensive shatterproof glass. Note classy cat door on lower left. Sliding glass door is just to the left in that room.

I'll try and dig up a "before" photo for our out-of-state friends.

Plane Tickets

The first thing you do after recovering from the shock of learning your appointment date is to buy plane tickets. I've been reading blogs on people who have gone, are going, or are in Ukraine right now adopting kids. Even if they are infrequent writers, they always write about buying their plane tickets. I've wondered about this odd, subconscious response to the invitation to come. Buying the ticket is logical. Blogging it seems odd to me. I think it is the globally verbal acceptance of the invitation.

If that's what it is then "I do." I'll come and adopt these kids. Here is my proof for all to hear. A purchased plane ticket. I'm coming. January 16th at 10:15am, we are getting on a plane that will take us to points east and the next leg of our life's adventure.

I'm calming down some. Last week, I resembled the apparition from "The Scream," but his week, having bought the ticket, ordered money, and prayed over and kissed another Ukraine-bound friend goodbye, I'm settling down a little. With one exception. The truth is I'm a homebody.

I love living in Colorado. There is very little about it not to love. But there are about 8 weeks in the winter when I wish I were somewhere else. God in his great mercy and grace has blessed us with another place to be during that time this year, it doesn't matter that its Ukraine and not Cancun. I'm coming home with impressive souvenirs! But we are going to be gone very long and we don't know when we are coming home! Home, where my friends and family roam. Where the cats purr and the coyotes yip at night (really!). Home, where NPR reports on lipstick on pigs and my womens Bible study meets on Wednesday mornings. Where Tchaikovsky plays and my books lie waiting silently for me. I love home. I'm rather attached to it. I don't even like long vacations. It's not being in a foreign country or not understanding the culture or not speaking the language and being misunderstood or even wondering who God will give us as children, I dread. We have been down that road before! The worst thing is having the whole affair drag on and on. Seven weeks, eight weeks, Rolan must return to the job he left. I'm alone in Ukraine. Arg! Even a pregnant woman knows the thing must end after a fashion. It always does. Okay, does anyone out there know of anyone who went and never came back?

Of course, I'm being silly. Even so, could you please pray for a quick adoption? Thank you.

INAUGURATION !

On Tuesday, January 20th Barack Obama will be inaugurated in Washington DC.
On January 20th in Kiev Ukraine, Rolan and I will also be ushered into an other office . . . !

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 . . .