Trip to Donetsk, Ukrainian Food

Donetsk is halfway between Zaporizhia and Lugansk, the two cities we have already traveled to this month, so it will feel like familiar territory as we travel there tonight; a driver will be waiting to take us another 90 minutes out of the city. As in the rest of eastern Ukraine, Russian is the primary language, which will be make it much easier for us to communicate with the children. The town we will be in, Thorez, is actually only 15 miles from Russia.

I will be hard-pressed to do Ukrainian food justice in a blog post. It has always been important to me, since my favorite food growing up was vareniki, one of several Ukrainian staples that have been in my mother's family since her great-grandparents were all born here; cabbage borscht and stuffed cabbage rolls also hit our table occasionally. I am on a mission this month to sample as many kinds of vareniki as I can. They are basically what Americans know as perogies, and here they are usually eaten with smetana (a thin, tangy sour cream). So far I have gotten the following types (but there are dozens available in vareniki restaurants): meat, egg/veal liver/heart, cottage cheese, potatoes and mushrooms, potatoes and cheese, cheese and raisins, strawberries, bilberries, cherries, and mixed berries. Ukrainians also like to stuff blini (crepes) and pelmeni (wontons) with similar fillings and eat them with smetana. Come to think of it, they eat a lot of things here with smetana. Another good Ukrainian culinary proverb: "A pat of butter never made anything worse."

People close to me know that I make kefir every day at home, and I'm certainly not going without it here. It is served in restaurants and as easy to find in stores as milk. Most of it is pasteurized, but I've been choosing "bio-kefir" and loving it. It is available with different milkfat contents, too, but even the 1% is so rich and creamy you'd have to taste it to believe it!

Our week in Lugansk region was pretty wild, with something different going on every day, but we always were able to slow down comfortably when we got back to our hotel in its delightful Restaurant Mir. This place was a true haven, and it is my favorite restaurant in the world if you take both price and quality into account. It was decorated with nets, rigging, and fake sea creatures, the service was very professional and friendly, and I would qualify the quality and presentation as gourmet. The menu was so deep that I didn't come close to trying half of the things that looked good in a full 7 days, surely the longest sequence of daily spectacular food that I have had except at Mayca's mother's house in Spain.

What is more, I don't think we ever ordered any dish more expensive than $4; that was the price of most of the seafood dishes, otherwise they were $2 or $3. Here is Julie showing off some cheese curd cakes covered with jam (it is always runny in Ukraine) and smetana.

Another side benefit of being in Europe is that excellent western European cuisine is also available. We have had Italian gelato twice and homemade pasta twice in very authentic restaurants, and across from Saint Andrew's Church and the SDA is a French cafe that could honestly have been teleported from Montmartre (except for Ukrainian staff and bilingual Ukrainian menus). We have also found an amazing variety of seafood in addition to the obligatory caviar; sushi restaurants are everywhere, although we have not tried that here yet.

My favorite soup is okroshka, a creamy, lukewarm cucumber and meat soup flavored with dill. It is pictured here with some delicious vareniki and smetana from Puzata Khata (literally, fat-belly hut), a ubiquitous cafeteria-style chain with tremendous selection where most dishes cost $1 or $1.50.

My baked pike perch dish with Julie's beef medallions in background. Note the "Khortitzya" brand on ashtray: the name of the Mennonite colony that included all the villages we saw, and also the most popular brand of vodka in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainians normally order a multi-course lunch, and the menus are divided into soup, salad, first course, and main course. There is a section just for sides, and these are paid for separately, even things like smetana and bread; also, every item on the menu indicates exactly how much you get in grams or milliliters, which is very useful. The courses seem to be discrete phases of the meal; once when Julie ordered a soup and a sandwich while I ordered a first and second, we got our food staggered and took turns watching the other eat! A fixed price menu like this one let us get one of a few selections for each course for just $4.50.

Successful Third Appointment

We spent last night in an apartment occupied by a girl from Manitoba who is here teaching English and studying Ukrainian. It is about 45 minutes by bus and metro from Independence Square, but the price is right and it's close to the Blakers. Speaking of the Blakers, we hung out with them most of yesterday, although Art and I went downtown midafternoon to pick up our suitcases that had been in storage at the last apartment. We ate lunch together at an Uzbek restaurant, played San Juan and Roll Through the Ages, and overall found lots of good things to talk, laugh, and pray about.

This morning we showered (this is significant only because yesterday we didn't!) , watched another fantastic Mars Hill sermon from their Trial series on 1 and 2 Peter, and headed downtown in time to get lunch at a vareniki restaurant before our appointment. We were actually ushered into the sanctum 10 minutes before our scheduled appointment time. Waiting on the stairway landing isn't the greatest, but the SDA office is really the cheeriest government office I've been in, and both of the ladies who have worked with us there (Masha and Victoria) are always kind and merry. Both of their offices have a comfortable, L-shaped, tan couch for prospective parents with a coffee table to spread files out on.

We were shown several healthy sibling groups, even from Zaporizhia of all places. There was a lot of joking about our taking one group of four; I think Julie and Masha both enjoyed seeing me getting nervous! For the third time, though, God made our decision very clear. We both felt great from the first time we saw this group of three aged 8, 9, and 10 (two boys and one girl in the middle) and no hesitation or reservation in asking for a referral to them. There do not appear to be any obstacles like there were with the last referral, and their orphanage's social worker was very positive when Masha called her. They just became available for international adoption on Independence Day weekend.

So, all in all, it was a big answer to prayer today, and we are going to keep trusting God for each step. Tomorrow's step will be to pick up our referral papers around 4:30 p.m. and then catch a 12-hour train to Donetsk, the home of Viktor Yanukovich (the controversial pro-Russian president of Ukraine), Shakhtar Donetsk (last year's European champion soccer team, owned by Ukraine's richest man), and Ukraine's giant coal and steel industry. It feels good to be off the bench again, and we are very excited about these children.

Back from touristic break

We are back in Kiev in a coffee shop after a very restful overnight train ride. It was nice to play the role of tourists, and we had a very successful trip considering that we did all the planning for it the same day that we left. Yesterday we were able to do an additional visit to the village that my Thiessen ancestors lived in. Our guide was Victor Penner, a Mennonite whose family remained here in spite of Soviet persecution and may well be related to me somehow. He is extremely knowledgeable about all the local villages and history, having been one of the researchers for the definitive resource on Mennonite history in Ukraine. Looking at his picture, I wouldn't be surprised to see him walking down the street in the Manitoba town my mom grew up in. We took hundreds of pictures in our two days in Zaporizhia, and I hope to come back again with a little more time. Even though we saw a lot of old Mennonite gravestones in a couple of cemeteries, most of them were removed and used for building foundations, so it is unlikely that I will be able identify ancestors' graves. However, it is fascinating to walk or drive on the main streets of the villages where they lived. We visited 6 Mennonite villages and saw countless old houses, commercial or community buildings, and gravestones. One village is now a thriving industrial part of the city; 5 Mennonite factories (originally for carriages and farm machinery) were consolidated into what is now the biggest auto maker in Ukraine, which still uses a lot of the original buildings. Other nearby Mennonite villages range from thriving suburban to sleepy rural to completely disappeared (it is assumed that their building materials were recycled in the 1940s while residents were in exile in Germany).

Mennonite houses are made of high-quality clay brick, with unnecessarily steep roofs originally designed to shed Prussian snow, thick pillars at corners, always two windows in the gable of the short side facing the street, cross-shaped brick pattern from alternating short and long bricks, and decorative layers at ceiling level.

Stan and Ju on the old ferry landing from Nieder Chortitza (where property records from 1847 indicate that my Thiessen ancestors lived) to Schoenwiese (in the distance, where the Mennonite factories were located).

The 600-year-old oak tree where the first Mennonites in this part of the world camped on their arrival. Only the leftmost branch is still alive, but it is surrounded by daughter trees.

Monument to Mennonite victims of Stalinist terror, including Victor's grandfather, made with granite from the Janzen Quarry

Touring in Zaporizhia

We spent 5 hours today touring around historical Mennonite sites in the Zaporizhia area, where all my maternal ancestors lived in the 19th century, so we are pretty wiped out but happy. Round-trip overnight train fare (with a compartment to ourselves each way) and a night in a fantastic little hotel costs the same as staying in Kiev, and we're getting a charge out of the new environment. I'll post some pictures later.

The important news is that, thanks to the hustle Julie mentioned in her post, the document we needed arrived at our facilitator's house today and he was able to translate and notarize it. This means that we will be shown sibling groups that include children older than 8 (and possibly others that may have become available since Wednesday). We also have a firm appointment time: 4 pm on Monday.

Second Appointment

First of all, thank you all so much for all your prayers. This process has taken more courage than the two of us have put together. This morning as we walked to our appointment I just kept telling myself that all God was asking us to do was take the next step.

We sat down in the SDA office at about half past noon. We were shown pictures of a few single kids in our age range, but all of them were doing summer visiting programs in different countries and wouldn't be back in Ukraine until next week. There are sibling groups that are available for adoption, but they don't fit into the age range we were requesting (ages 6-8). As we discussed our options, it became clear that we either needed to A. select a single child and wait until they returned to Ukraine at the end of the month to visit them or B. waive our opportunity at this second appointment, change our paperwork that states our requested age range and try for a sibling group with one or more of the kids older than eight years old.

To make a long story short, we went with Plan B. We've requested our third and final appointment (only three are given) for Monday. We don't know what time it will be yet; we should find out by Friday.

Since we got back to the apartment, Stan has been working nearly non-stop orchestrating a rush order on a home study amendment that should arrive in Ukraine by Monday. Pretty impressive, huh? Special thanks to our home study agency and our parents who are making this all possible.

What have I been doing since we got back? I made lunch, updated my journal, and had a small meltdown (not necessarily in that order). The suspense is really getting to me. Did we make the right decision? What would our family be like with older kids? God promised to give wisdom when we ask for it, so I guess I have to trust that he has given us what we needed today.

Independence Day and another big day

Today is Independence Day, Ukraine's 19th birthday. We have enjoyed fantastic music from a massive stage set up on the square (although we wore earplugs last night in order to sleep); as I type this, some of the most beautiful choral music you can imagine is floating in through the windows, but in the last two days we have had some of the most popular pop groups in Ukraine (we got familiar with some the current hot songs from listening to music videos in our hotel restaurant at lunchtime), folk rock, comic operetta, opera, orchestral music, and a variety of traditional dancing and music.

Being out at noon today was spectacular. The city's main street was closed, and there were different activities going on in the street, for example a BMX bike obstacle course competition. There was blue and yellow everywhere, with a true atmosphere of celebration all over Independence Square and Khreschatik Street giving you the sense that people appreciate independence most who remember what life was like without it.

It is clear from the city's monuments and conversations we have had that the suffering under occupying powers is still very vividly remembered. Just in the last hundred years it is easy to think of a quick list: unspeakable atrocities during the Russian Civil War, the political famine of 1932-33 when all Ukrainian wheat was taken by force to Russia resulting in the death of over 6 million Ukrainians, a brutal Nazi occupation (see the history of Dynamo Kiev for an interesting story of how soccer played into that), the deportation of entire people-groups by Stalin, and the Chernobyl disaster including the Soviet cover-up during the early days when a lot of people were needlessly exposed. Their enthusiasm about independence is a good reminder for us to be grateful, too.

We went back to the square in the evening for about an hour and a half and saw even more impressive acts: opera, orchestra, folk ballet, and lots of traditional dancing (the most interesting was one where two rows of women stretched long colored ribbons between them and then interwove them as they danced between and under each other's ribbons). At the end there were fireworks possibly precision launched with compressed air, since there was no noise and no trail before the airburst, which was consistently just above the building tops, about 10 stories high and 50 yards from us.

Tomorrow will also be a big day, our second appointment at the SDA scheduled for 12:00 local time. This time we have a better idea what the event will be like, but at the same time we are not sure what to expect. We are less optimistic than the first time about getting to see several reasonable choices, and we don't have the same excitement or the mystique of being there on our anniversary. We are very aware of how unable we are to control this outcome and counting on God to drive the whole process and to guide us whenever we need to make a decision.

But faith is moving without knowing

Can I trust what I can't see to reach my destiny?

I want to take control but I know better.

God, I want to dream again, take me where I've never been.

I wanna go there, this time I'm not scared.

Now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable.

No one can touch me, nothing can stop me.

Forget the fear; it's just a crutch

That tries to hold you back

And turn your dreams to dust.

All you need to do is just trust.

- Fireflight

Dynamo and Folk Architecture

A couple things we had wanted to do if we had time in Kiev have come together in the last 24 hours. Last night we attended a soccer game between Dynamo Kiev and Dnepro Dnepropetrovsk. I could hardy believe the prices; the seats in the best sections were only about $6, and the stadium is only a short walk from our apartment. As in a baseball game, the atmosphere is a large part of the fun, but the action was so much clearer and more exciting than on TV that there really is no comparison, and I had a blast.

A few stats to show the caliber of Dynamo Kiev: They were winners of the European Winners' Cup twice while I was growing up (when I of course thought of them as a Soviet rather than Ukrainian team) and they came close to winning it last year. Historically, they won more USSR championships than any other team, and in the 18 years of the Ukrainian League, they have won 12 times and been runners-up the other 6. Their captain is Andriy Shevchenko, the 3rd highest scorer in European soccer history and voted the world's best player in 2004.

We got to see Shevchenko do one trick right in front of us that I had never seen before: he received a high pass off the back of a heel, looping it forward over his head and leaving 3 defenders behind. The visitors had a shot off the crossbar and a reversed penalty call in the first quarter, but Dynamo dominated overall. Some near misses included a scissor-kick attempt from the penalty spot, a curving corner kick that just went over the crossbar, a shot from within the goalie box deflected by a defender on the goal line, and a 95th-minute direct kick that bounced down off the left end of the crossbar. So the game ended 0-0, but it was an amazing experience. We got a laugh as we stood to leave thanks to a fan who eluded security to shake Shevchenko's hand at midfield and received his hero's jersey as a reward, to massive applause.

Today, we took the metro and bus to the outskirts of Kiev to spend the afternoon in Ukrainian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, a huge open-air area that has brought windmills, whole farmyards, a village school, and a couple of functioning churches and set them up with authentic tools, furniture, and decoration to show village life from the 18th and 19th centuries. There are over 300 structures on the 370-acre grounds.

There are also demonstrations of traditional arts and handicrafts that visitors can even try: pottery on a foot-driven wheel, archery, egg painting (with wax), and zimbal and bandura players. Handicrafts of spectacular quality are available

for purchase. There also is a one-street neighborhood showing a typical 20th century house from each of the oblasts (provinces) of Ukraine. This visit gave me a new appreciation for Ukrainian culture and an idea of what some things might have looked like for my ancestors that lived in rural Ukraine. It also was nice to get out of the city into a very natural environment again.

Renewing our strength

It was surely what we needed to have a few days here with little required of us except to eat and to sleep. We slept for almost 12 hours on the train to Kiev and have had good solid nights since then after the intensity of our week out east, so the jetlag of our first week is long past. The first 3 days back were kind of surreal, with a lot of tears, although Friday we woke up with more of a sparkle and benefited from going through all our photos with the kids and comparing our recollections of what happened. Having high speed internet in the apartment has let us stream worship music, and we got to watch a very helpful and timely sermon online this morning. Being alone for the first time since we landed in Ukraine has made it easy to talk and pray and praise any time we want. We have really enjoyed being in the beautiful downtown area and doing a lot of walking.

Yesterday we actually woke up quite cheerful and trusting, and we were encouraged to see the first positive thing since Tuesday morning with the granting of a very favorable appointment time in the last hour or so of work before the holiday weekend. We certainly don't minimize the gravity of what happened with our last referral. Even though it was for only a few days, we honestly felt like these were our children, and at least one of them saw us as parents. There are a lot of other feelings that go along with that, and there were a lot of intimate moments with both of them over the course of 7 days; we have decided that it is not healthful to pretend that it never happened but that we should celebrate and mourn it as something very sweet that did not last long.

We did everything we needed to in order to bond with the children, and it was surely the right thing to do, even though it opened us and them up to a lot of pain. If we had been cautious and not fully opened up our hearts to the children in the last few days, we would be wishing now that we had. The way we see this is that you have to swing hard if you are ever going to hit a home run, and we came very close to hitting a home run even though we don't understand right now why we didn't.

What is new in the last 48 hours is the thinking that we are willing to swing hard again and the ability to trust again that God is able to work out a good adoption for us. What is most troubling right now is the undiminished confusion over what happened. We know what it looks like to see God work awesomely and to hear his guidance, especially from times in Morocco when we were under a lot of pressure or faced big obstacles; we saw that happening again here and it filled us with hope, but this sudden reversal and hard result has left us with a lot of confusion. It seems impossible that he could be any clearer next time, and we certainly don't want to go to our next appointment with the attitude that we are settling for second best.

Experiencing a new level of anguish and opposition here has given us a deeper appreciation for some of the psalms. Psalm 31 has stood out, especially as worded in The Message. We are also aware that we are going to grow from this; we will have new strengths and hopefully some of our idols less strength.

Frankly, we still hope that the boy would change his mind and things would still work out after all. We have even prayed along these lines, and you may wish to do so still, but we are no longer spending time thinking about that so as to free ourselves to be fully available for the next referral. One real concern about it is (again) that God will make the right children available and that we would recognize them; our facilitator was very surprised last time that there were so few children shown to us, and it would be very discouraging to walk in there after waiting for a week now and not to know what to do.

Second appointment scheduled

We stayed close to home today so we could go at short notice to the SDA to sign an acknowledgement of our appointment if we got a call. We finally got the call close to 4 p.m. Also, they made an exception and said that we could sign at the time of our appointment, which was fine with us. This is exactly the news we were praying for: the appointment is Wednesday at noon, which is about the earliest we could have hoped for.

Since we have a little time to ourselves this time in Kiev, we have been able to connect some of the areas we reached in our first weekend by car and metro and feel more comfortable getting around on our own. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, so we decided to go for a touristic walk of the side of downtown Kiev that we aren't familiar with yet, which includes historic aristocratic

residences, the government buildings, and the parks along the river. Some of the highlights were the presidential administration building, the parliament, and some monuments in the gorgeous parks; I'm pretty sure that Kiev beats Edmonton as the greenest metropolis I have seen.

We ended the walk by St Michael's church (just up the hill from our apartment).

Our apartment is in a very convenient location overlooking the main Independence Square, which includes a two-level, underground, Western-style mall below the glass dome. (There is another underground mall nearby that is basically a long chain of stores that runs underneath the city's main street. Under many major streets in the city, pedestrian underpasses and metro accesses contain a surprising number of stores, vendors, and sometimes even restaurants.)

Waiting for second petition

We went to the SDA today to check on the status of our second petition for an appointment. It is on the director's desk for signature. The office does work tomorrow even though they do not give Saturday appointments; this means that there is a chance that they will set our appointment date tomorrow. We are hoping that we get one for Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday are holidays (Independence Day), so a Wednesday appointment would give us a chance to see children who became eligible from Saturday to Wednesday. Also, even a week feels like a long time to wait with nothing happening.

It has been very cool with occasional steady drizzles since we arrived in Kiev on Wednesday, a huge change from our first time here; those had been the highest temperatures seen since they started recording them, and it had not rained in months. We had a picnic in the Central Botanical Gardens on a bench inside a little shelter in a forested area that was perfect for two . The gardens are very large, and you can completely forget that you are in the city, a wonderful change from the bustle of Kiev and the dreary poverty of the outlying regions. We also checked out a tropical insects exhibit and one of the two Orthodox monasteries on the grounds; photos were not allowed inside the church, but it was interesting to watch a monk anointing a fancy new car for a couple from a golden jar, opening all the doors and even the trunk and hood. We had a nice time walking around under umbrellas but didn't stay as long as we would have if the weather had been nice. Just as well, because we got back just as our facilitator was calling to have us meet him at the SDA, which is an easy walk from our rental apartment.

Back in Kiev

Back in Kiev at 9:30 this morning after a 12-hour ride on the night train, which was extremely comfortable and air conditioned this time in first class. Julie and I had a compartment to ourselves. Not bad for $50 a person.

We applied today for another appointment at the SDA. We don't know how long that will take, probably longer than usual since this is vacation month and Independence Day is coming up.

Our job now is to regroup emotionally for the next step. Not sure how long that will take either.

The fellowship of sharing in his sufferings

We will probably be away from the internet for a while and need to let you know what is going on. We are taking the train back to Kiev today and will ask tomorrow for another appointment to look at more files, although right now it is impossible to imagine choosing any different kids. We had finally given ourselves permission to think of these as our own. We don't really understand why so many barriers were miraculously removed only for everything to be stopped today by the simplest thing; moreover, it was the thing that until yesterday was giving us hope that the other problems would not be showstoppers.

After about a week here, we were finally connecting well with both children and there were no apparent obstacles remaining. We had a hard time gaining much access to the little girl until Sunday evening, and she was very quiet with us until Monday evening, when she first said she wanted to go with us to America. The boy, on the other hand, we have visited once or twice every day, and all along he has been happy and saying he would like to go with us. Yesterday, when we were ready to start paperwork toward adoption, he began to refuse. This morning, despite the girl's pleading, he insisted that he did not want to be adopted. We've been surrounded by support from some of the professionals here as well as some of the extended family members of the children. However, by law, we cannot proceed without the child's consent. The matter has been thoroughly explained to him by several people, and we are all convinced that he is not inclined to change his mind although he was not open about his reasons.

Naturally, we are devastated by this unexpected response. Our hearts are heavy to think of the future they may face because their record now states the boy has refused adoption. We now have a glimpse into how our heavenly father must feel when people say no to him.

Pray for healing for our hearts, confidence that God is still in control, and peace as we process the events of the past week. Pray also for these precious ones who face a difficult future.

(Note: Comments are now enabled again. Thanks for your encouragements.)

No Apparent Progress

Today has been a discouraging and exhausting day. Does that mean that tomorrow will be a good one? We were not able to get any paperwork started, although we were able to spend time with both children together once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. It was clear that God was at work at various points in the day, even though it feels like we took a step backward overall. We are also counting on him to open doors tomorrow, when we expect to find out whether or not we can continue our efforts in this region.

We have been obliged to disable our comments section for now, but please continue to email us; we appreciate the encouragement and prayers!

First Time Together

Today had a discouraging start when we traveled half an hour by taxi to see the girl at a scheduled time only to find out that she was not in fact available. It was frustrating because two of our three visits with her had been cut very short. We explicitly submitted the situation to God and made the best of it by going to play with the boy before lunch instead of before supper. It ended up being our best time together so far, both fun and relational.

We went back to visit him again at our usual time and the first thing he told us (through the window) was that she was here. They normally are in the same institution seeing each other all the time, although they have been in two different places since before we arrived and haven't had the chance to talk about us. However, our facilitator was able to bring her out to join us while we were playing a game with her brother. I happened by chance to know enough Russian to announce, "Here we are together now for the first time!" and our facilitator took a lovely picture of the four of us, with the girl happily sitting in Julie's lap and the boy between us. Another highlight of the day was finding out that she had asked our facilitator when she saw him where Mama was.

Tomorrow will be an extremely important day as we go to the social worker's office to ask her to start doing the paperwork. We don't take any step for granted. It is somewhat overwhelming to hear how many documents and offices are involved even before the court hearing, but we'll take it one day at a time and are praising God for his clear answers to prayer so far. Unless he does the building, our own efforts are in vain. (I noticed for the first time this week how well that familiar verse sets up the second half of Psalm 127, which is about the Lord blessing people with children.)

Saturday Visits

We had separate visits again today with the boy and the girl, both with lots of smiles. In the morning, we had to cut our visit with the girl short because of forest fires nearby; we meet with her in a park area outside the gate. We could see the smoke in the road beyond where we were waiting, although we couldn't see any fire and I did not get the impression that there was a threat to people. There were no interruptions in our evening visit with the boy, which was very comfortable. We also had calls today from two important parties in the process that were both very encouraging.

The purpose of these daily visits is of course to build a relationship with these children that we already love. This is important for personal reasons (to start bonding as a family while still in a familiar environment so they will feel safe because of us when they leave it) and for procedural reasons (since they need to formally express a desire to be adopted by us). It's a big thing to do in just a few visits and an artificial setting.

We are journaling about what is happening and intend to post pictures and more details about our visits with the children at a later time.

This Roller Coaster has a Big Hill

Today we visited with both children and felt like we started to get closer to the girl, since we had about an hour with her while on Wednesday we had only about 10 minutes, which was not enough to get past the initial shyness. She was much more interactive verbally (in Russian) and sat between us very contentedly as we colored together and played an animal stacking game. Some other very good things happened today and we were alone in our room from 3 to 5:30 and were pretty much on cloud 9, definitely too revved up to get a real nap even though we really needed it.

However, when we went to visit the boy this evening, we found out about a new problem: some improperly motivated people that began an attempt this afternoon to stop the process. What is worse, they are involving the children directly in an emotional tug of war. We trust that the very competent and caring professionals who are involved will move the process forward to the result that they believe is in the children's interest, namely to be adopted into a loving home. However, there is now a very real danger to the children here and we ask that you pray that God will watch over them now and ultimately glorify himself by bringing about a good result.

While offices are closed this weekend, we will continue to visit the children (with our facilitator) and build our connection with them and to look for peace in the Lord at a time when our hearts are pretty vulnerable.

2 Meetings, 2 Playtimes, and 2 Hugs

Late post, as internet went down just before I published the post Thursday night:

We had two meetings this morning (Thursday), one in the office of the orphanage director and one in the office of the social worker in the kids' hometown. Both this social worker and the social worker for the orphanage (who has accompanied us both days) are extremely supportive of our adopting the children and have been amazingly kind. Praise the Lord, it appears that the obstacles we mentioned are probably going to be resolved. The broken Russian I learned last month has proven to be indispensable, both in Kiev and even more here.

We gave a toy and one of our photo albums to the boy after the meetings. We played a fun-filled game of Slamwich and then I helped him get started with putting together the Lego-like kit before we left for a 3:30 p.m. lunch. Then we came back in the late afternoon and he waved excitedly from the window when he saw us coming. For almost an hour before his bedtime, we talked through the album pictures of our house and our two nearest cousins' families, worked on the plane again, and played more Slamwich at his request. He gave both of us really sweet hugs when it was time to leave! (He also asked if he could keep the game overnight, and as we left I overheard him through the window explaining it to his roommate... I think we may be getting another gamer in the family!)

It was an intense, prayerful, and exciting day as we moved from increased concern about whether this would work out after the first meeting to a relieved optimism after the second meeting. Some future days may be just as full, but they hopefully will not offer such an emotional roller coaster. There are still a lot of details that need to fall into place, but the only thing scheduled for sure tomorrow Friday is a second visit to the girl.

Updated schedule

Breaking news: no interview today after all. Tomorrow morning an interview at the orphanage and another visit with the children. To protect the privacy of kids that may not end up being ours, we will leave out a lot of detail about them during this initial period. I am definitely finding this an uncomfortable place to be in, to have actually talked with them and not to be able to say that these are our children, especially after hearing some heartbreaking stories of adoptions that didn't work out (as well as happy ones) from our very experienced facilitator on the train. God sure feels close in this, though; he has brought us this far through a lot of details, and we are trusting him to work out the rest of the details.

So we have all evening to chill in our air conditioned room, although we do need to go out and buy some water. It feels like our first chance so far to relax. (We did have some discretionary time on the weekend, but we very wisely used it to sightsee in Kiev with the Blakers since it would be our only chance.) We are thankful to have Wifi in our room in the town of Severodonetsk like we did in the big city.

Arrived in Lugansk region

Praise God that a big frustration that we have had is resolved: our ATM card is now working. It turns out that it had been unblocked for use in Ukraine, but then the block automatically kicked back on when we used an Indiana ATM after the system thought we were already abroad.

The air conditioner was broken on the night train so we left the door open all night but were able to sleep OK considering. Tomorrow's forecast is 42 degrees C or 108 F. We are swigging water nonstop, but we love being here.

We arrived around 10 a.m. and were met by a driver who took us about an hour outside of Lugansk. We picked up the children's very nice social worker and went to visit both of them (separately). We then checked into a hotel and had a much-needed shower and 3 p.m. lunch. (This is the second time this trip that we skipped supper and breakfast; not too smart, but it's been a real whirlwind.)

We have a critical interview late this afternoon and are just taking a break in our room before that, so please pray.

SDA Appointment

After all our walking yesterday, we slept pretty well last night. We both woke up feeling peaceful about the appointment. We know how many of you are praying for us.

We arrived at the office with plenty of time before our appointment and waited our turn with our facilitator. Again, we felt a lot of peace and confidence that God was directing our steps.

We were ushered into an office at about 10:20. The social worker who met with us started with a few interview questions. The basic questions are usually: Why do you wish to adopt and why adopt from Ukraine? Our facilitator made sure to bring out Stan's mom's Ukrainian heritage. He talked about growing up with his favorite Ukrainian foods and hoping in the future to visit areas where his mother's family roots are.

As soon as we answered a few questions, our social worker began scurrying about, pulling binders off shelves and calling orphanages. Soon she was pulling out a few files on kids, mostly single girls. They explained there weren't many sibling groups available in the age range we were requesting. They finally found an 8 year old boy with a 6 year old sister. They both are listed with minor health conditions, located in the Lugansk region. There may be a couple of bureaucratic obstacles to adoption. After asking a few more questions, we both felt it was clear that the right decision was to request a referral to visit these two kids. We are expecting to pick up referral papers tomorrow afternoon and travel overnight to Lugansk. This region is in the far eastern area of the country, right next to Russia.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers. We truly sense God's initiative in every step of this journey. We are convinced that if these are the kids He wants for us, he'll open up the doors to make it happen. We wait in peaceful expectancy to see what He has next for us.

Getting dressed up for our appointment. It was still so warm, we decided Stan could go without the jacket!

A little Mary Kay as a final touch.

Outside the door to the State Department for Adoption office.

While we were waiting, our facilitator explained the statue that was located in front of the building. The characters are from a famous Ukrainian comedy called Chasing Two Rabbits. A nearly bankrupt young man starts courting a rich, homely looking girl. At the same time he is falling in love with a beautiful poor girl. The last scene of the comedy takes place on the steps of St Andrews Cathedral, located right next to the government offices.

As we were standing there we noticed Ukrainians coming by to take pictures with the statue or rub certain parts of it for luck.

Stan in front of St Andrews

Getting in on the action

Day with the Blakers

This morning we got up early to meet up with the Blakers. We went to church with them in the morning, then had lunch at their apartment before heading out for an afternoon exploring Kiev. Again, I'll let the photos tell the story. I'm heading to bed now and will add some commentary tomorrow.




This picture was inspired by the infamous youtube posting of the President of Ukraine. We found the place where it was filmed and Stan took a ceremonial bow.

In Kiev

We've made it from Syracuse, Indiana to Kiev, Ukraine. I'll let the photos tell the story.

All packed up and ready to go.

Ready to take off from O'Hare. Julie's parents drove us to Chicago and we stopped in at our favorite Persian restaurant for lunch before we hit the airport.


Switching flights in Germany. During our two hour layover we played a new game Stan brought along: Roll Through the Ages. It made the wait go so fast. For you northern Morocco people: we got coffee at the Movenpick cafe that was in the airport terminal.



We were met at the airport by our facilitator who brought us to the apartment we'll be renting for the next three days. It looks like a palace inside. It's hot in Kiev - in the upper 90's and humid - but we've got A/C in this great apartment.
We also have internet access and we got online and got in touch with the Blakers. We plan to spend tomorrow hanging out with them.
Whew! Well it's been a good first few steps of our journey and we're ready to catch up on some sleep. Thanks for all your prayers.

Packing

We are into our last few hours of packing and the excitement is building. Here are some of the fun kids things we are taking with us.


One of these items is a photo book I put together and ordered from Photoworks. Click here to see my photo book.

News Article

These days are going by in a blur. I'm grateful to be busy preparing for our trip because it makes the time pass more quickly. Today we shopped for gifts to give to the workers at the orphanage and other people who help along the way. It's a challenge to shop for someone you've never met!
I came across this news article about a couple who will be having their appointment in Kiev Thursday morning. There is a lot we have in common with this couple, but I can't imagine doing all this with a 4-month-old in tow!
http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20100801/NEWS01/8010322