We are home

We finally arrived home last night.  We were so happy to see everybody who came to the airport.  This photo is with four of my children and Mark's girlfriend Deana.  The trip was long and the day was exhausting.  Misha was sick to his stomach by the time we were half way to Houston, so he wasn't eating or drinking anything from that point on.  He was feeling better today though.  I think Misha really liked his room and was excited about everything at the house (especially the X-Box he played with Josh a lot today).  He said he slept well in his bed last night.  


We were very sleepy when we arrived at the airport and are both still very tired today.  It is 7:00 pm here right now and Misha has just gone to bed.  I can't go to bed because I have to go pick Vernon up at the airport at 11:30 pm tonight.  He will get to meet Misha tomorrow morning.  Anthony will come home for a couple of days on Monday after he takes his final exam.  Maybe one day soon we will be able to get the entire family together for a family photo.


Thanks for following along with us on this journey.

Going Home!!

Misha and I will be flying home tomorrow.  We are both so excited!!!  Misha is very unhappy at having to get out of bed at 2:45 am in the morning.  I am not particularly fond of getting up at that hour either, but it is worth it to go home.  So, at 5:45 pm tonight central time we will be getting up to begin our journey to travel home.  Our expected travel time is about 23 hours, plus we have to be at the airport a while before our flight.  We will definitely be ready to be home when we get there.


It is absolutely amazing how God has shown His Glory through this process.  Those of you local to me will get to hear more of the story than has been posted on the blog, more details about how the hand of God was so visible throughout the entire process of being here and adopting Misha into our family.  God loves orphans and He loves families.  It is God's will that families welcome orphans into their home and provide them with a loving environment and a stronger future than they have in an orphan system.  Not everybody can or should adopt, but everybody can help children in need.  You don't even have to go to another country if God is calling you to help children in your own local area.  There are orphans in every country on this planet who need loving families to provide for them and teach them all the things that parents normally teach their children.  They need the love of Jesus to help them learn to be a Godly man or woman, and to help them deal with their past hurts that still cause them to suffer each day.  I am so blessed to be chosen by God to serve him by opening my heart and my home to a child with no parents.  If you have any questions about this process that I can answer for you I will be more than happy to do so.  


Thank you for the support and encouragement you have given me through this entire process.  See you soon!!!

We have a VISA!!!!

The documents we needed arrived this afternoon.  Vanya picked them up and brought them to me then we went to the embassy.  The consular was very happy to see that we had gotten all of the documents today, but not nearly as happy as I was to hear her say that we had everything we needed for the Visa.  It only took a few minutes for me to sign in a couple of places and then we waited for the Visa to be printed.  It is a great feeling to finally have it all done.


My travel agent was able to schedule us some reasonable tickets for Tuesday.  The weekend tickets were simply too expensive.  The increase in price to switch to the weekend would have been between $3,000 and $5,000.  I just can't justify adding that much expense to the tickets just to come home on the weekend instead of Tuesday.  


Misha was very excited to have the Visa in his passport today.  I was so excited that everything was in order that I almost cried tears of joy so Misha thought I was upset because we weren't getting the Visa.  I had to explain to him that yes, we were getting the Visa today and we will be going home on Tuesday.  He was very relieved.


Thank you for all of your prayers.  I know that your prayers were heard and were answered.  Even in the delays God comforts and blesses those who turn to him.   He has blessed me more than I could ever deserve.  I will be looking forward to seeing the blessings he gave me in friends and family when I get home Tuesday night.  See you soon.

Prayers answered

I spoke with UPS here in Kiev a few minutes ago.  They said the package will arrive tomorrow and we can call to schedule a pick up of the package after 1 pm.  If we can go pick it up just after that we could go to the embassy to get the visa tomorrow afternoon.  I will keep Friday open here just to be on the safe side.  If tickets are available we may be able to fly home over the weekend.  Please keep praying.

No Visa

We went to the embassy yesterday and they said they needed more documents originally signed by Vernon and notarized.  They told me to have them shipped overnight and they should be here before my interview appointment today.  However, you cannot ship documents here overnight and there is no possible way to get documents here in the time frame in which they wanted them.  Vernon completed the documents and scanned them in but that is not acceptable to the embassy.  Therefore, we have been unsuccessful at obtaining a visa from the American Embassy for Misha to travel to the US.  We are going to have to wait until those documents arrive here at the apartment and then go to the embassy to try again to get the visa.  At this point, I have no idea for certain when we will be coming home.  It will definitely not be tomorrow.


Please pray that the documents will arrive very soon and we can get this all completed and get home.  Vernon and I have decided to ask my travel agent to book our tickets to fly home next Thursday, the 28th, in hopes that we will not run out of time again and have to extend the tickets while waiting for the documents to arrive.  I know God has plans and that His timing is perfect.  I am not certain of what purpose these delays serve, but I pray that God's will is fulfilled.


Be blessed.

We are in Kiev

Leaving Mariupol on Friday we ran into some bad storms in the Donetsk area.  It took us a while to get out of the station there and we made several stops along the way.  It is a 17-hour train ride from Mariupol to Kiev.  We are glad to have that part of the trip behind us and have settled in here in Kiev.  The apartment we are staying in is fantastic!!!  There is a good grocery store within walking distance.  Tonight we had pizza from a place around the corner that was really good.  All-in-all things are going very well now.  


Vanya has not yet been able to get the passport.  He is supposed to get it tomorrow and travel here to Kiev so we can finish our process on Tuesday and Wednesday.  He has to ride on the same train we rode on to get here.  We will then be ready to fly home on Thursday.  I really can't wait to get home.  I miss my family so much and I can't wait to get home to see them.


I hope everybody is having a great Father's Day.  I have been blessed with the man God gave me to share my life and my children with.  He is a great husband and a great father.  I only wish I were there to tell him that in person on Father's Day.  Oh well.... We will have to celebrate all of our holidays we have missed when everybody gets home.


Be blessed.

We have a place to stay in Kiev!!!

Just a short addition to my previous post, I just got off the phone with a guy who has a place we can stay in Kiev!!!  We will be going to Kiev tomorrow if Vanya can get tickets for us.

We have airline tickets!!!

I checked Misha out of the orphanage for the last time yesterday.  It is wonderful to now have complete custody of him.  He is very happy to be here and is very ready to travel to his new home.  He keeps asking me "When will we go to Kiev??"  I can only keep telling him I do not know.  We can't travel to Kiev until we have a place to stay.  The apartments and hotels in Kiev are either booked with Euro 2012 fans or ridiculously expensive.  We have been trying to contact a couple of individuals who have offered to let us stay with them but have not yet been able to.  I hope one of those will work out so we will have a nice place to stay.


Today I received confirmation of our airline tickets having been booked.  We will be returning home on the 21st of June.  The agent was having a lot of problems getting my ticket booked because of all of the chaos of my trip here. Apparently something was done in the system that made it difficult to make the necessary changes to my tickets.  I can only praise Jesus for my travel agent who has worked so hard to get all of this straightened out for me and to get me some tickets home.  For anybody local to my area who will be making this trip soon, Travel Planners does a fantastic job of helping out with tickets.  Anita booked my original tickets, booked my ticket from Odessa to Kiev, booked our return tickets all with short notice.  If you need her information let me know and I will be happy to refer you to her.


All we have left in the process now is picking up Misha's passport, getting to Kiev to have the medical exam and get the visa issued, and then flying home.  I am so anxious to get all of this done and get home to the rest of my family and to begin finding our new normal with Misha in the family now.  He seems just as anxious, if not more anxious, as I am to get home.  He makes my heart smile!!

Success today

We were able to complete some business at the bank here in Mariupol and then drive to Donetsk to apply for Misha's passport today.  I consider this a good day since we got that done.  We will go to the orphanage tomorrow to work on getting Misha checked out for the last time.  This mom is happy to be checking him out and bringing him to the center with me.  The passport will not be ready until Friday or Monday.  That means we could be as late as Wednesday trying to finish up the visa.


We are now working on trying to get airline tickets home for next Thursday.  I am still waiting for my travel agent to email me to let me know if something is available for that day.  We are also trying to figure out where to stay in Kiev and when train tickets will be available to travel to Kiev.  This is our next big hurdle.  I know lots of people are enjoying the Euro 2012 competition, but I am not enjoying all of the wrenches it is throwing into our adoption process.  Traffic is jammed, places to stay are unavailable or expensive, and train tickets are scarce.  I don't know about airline tickets for sure, but I am guessing those are scarce too.  Misha and I are both very ready to go home, so we are not enjoying all of these hurdles caused by the games.  I would appreciate it if, when you are watching and enjoying the games, you could say a prayer for us as we are trying to maneuver our way through the end of our process here.


I will post again when I have more information to share.

Plans have changed!!

We did get the court decree and an updated birth certificate today.  There was one little glitch in the court decree that was causing some confusion so the lady at the vital records department in Misha's city of birth did not want to issue the birth certificate like we wanted it.  I stood in the hallway and intently prayed until Vanya came out saying that she was going to give us a birth certificate.  I was so excited that we were going to be able to get the birth certificate done.  It was a very long drive and I certainly did not want to have to go to court again and then drive back to that city a second time.  Really praising Jesus for that tonight!!


I found out today that this region no longer does one-day passports, which we were counting on.  So, we have to wait the standard 3-business day minimum to get the passport.  That means there is no possible way for us to fly home this weekend.  If everything is in order for us to successfully apply for the passport tomorrow we should be able to pick it up on Friday.  We will then have to go to Kiev for the medical exam and apply for the visa.  The embassy in Kiev is only open during standard business hours so we may not be able to do that until Monday and picking up the visa on Tuesday.  So, it looks like we may not be able to fly home until Wednesday or Thursday of next week. :( :( :( We really are ready to go home.  Please understand that all of this is variable at this point and can change at the drop of a hat.  I will keep you posted as we proceed.


The director of the orphanage will not be available tomorrow so we cannot officially check Misha out of the orphanage until the next day.  We will need to at least temporarily check him out long enough tomorrow to go apply for the passport though.  Please pray that it will not be a problem for us to check him out temporarily in order to do this.


Please pray that we will be able to apply for the passport tomorrow.  Also, please pray that everything else will fall into place so we can begin our journey home.


Thank you so much for your love and support.  Most importantly, thank you interceding on our behalf.

Next week should be interesting!!

This weekend will be Misha's 15th birthday.  We are having a party for him on Saturday here at the center where I am staying.  On Sunday we are giving him a going away party with his group at the orphanage.  He should have a great weekend to remember for his last weekend as a resident of Ukraine!!


Vanya told me today that our court decree will be ready to pick up on Monday morning.  We are hoping to be able to go from there to the city where Misha was born to get his birth certificate.  I am thinking we should be able to check Misha out of the orphanage on Monday after we get the court decree.  If we can get the birth certificate done on Monday we should be able to get his passport on Tuesday and go to Kiev on the overnight train that night.  We will spend Wednesday getting his medical and applying for his visa.  We should be able to pick up his visa on Thursday and hopefully fly home on Friday.  It would be wonderful for Misha to be home to to spend Father's Day with his Dad!!


Prayer requests:
1.  Please pray that we can get the birth certificate on Monday.  The birth certificate office is not supposed to work on birth certificates that day but since the lady will be in the office we are hoping she will do it for us.  The whole rest of our plans hinge on getting the birth certificate done that day.
2.  Please pray that we will successfully get the one day passport completed early enough on Tuesday to catch the train to Kiev on Tuesday night.  It leaves Donetsk at 3:00 in the afternoon.
3.  Please pray that we will be able to get everything done for the medical and at the embassy in order to be able to fly on Friday.
4.  Please pray that there will be two tickets available on the same planes for us to go home on Friday.  Some people have to stay in Kiev longer than necessary for the adoption because they can't get tickets to America.
5.  Please pray that Misha will be able to take it all in stride.  This will be his first trip like this.


Thank you all so much for your prayers and your support.  I can't wait to get home and those of you who are local get to meet Misha!!!  I will keep you posted as we continue through our last days here, if I have access to internet and can do so.

Having a great time

Things are going very well here.  I still go visit Misha at the orphanage during the week and he spends the weekends at the center.  Misha is working on learning English each day that he is with me at the center.  He even asks to work on English before having to be told.  It is so sweet to see him trying so hard too.  He gets frustrated sometimes when the Rosetta Stone isn't understanding what he is saying but he just keeps on trying.  He told a girl here who speaks English that he is remembering what he learns and he definitely wants me to teach him more.  He is a very sweet boy.


Yesterday we went bowling.  It was so much fun.  There were several kids from the center, a couple of the ladies who work with the kids, one of the lady's daughter-in-law and granddaughter, and myself.  We had a great time.  I think the kids really enjoyed the outing.  There was lots of applause and encouragement being passed around.  They weren't as competitive as most of the groups I have been bowling with, which made it so much more fun.


I went shopping today with Misha and some other kids from the center.  Misha has a birthday coming up next weekend and I needed to buy him a birthday present.  He was very excited to get to go shopping and choose his gifts.  He was very appreciative and asked the girl who was translating for us to tell me that he appreciated it very, very, very much!!!  It was so sweet. 


The weather was beautiful this morning but it came a rain storm this afternoon.  I ended up with a headache from the weather by evening.  It is now just past midnight so I think I will call it a day!!  


Thank you all for your encouraging words, they are a blessing to me.