What do you think? :)
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The Longest Day of My Life
Today gave us a new meaning to the term “Long day.” I will never complain again about what a long day it was, until I have another day like this one! First of all, thank you for all of your prayers. The meeting with the judge went well this morning and our facilitator said he was very kind! Hallelujah! She did also ask him, please can we only have one court date, but he said he could not promise that. Our facilitator confirmed today that we are the first couple ever, from any country, to adopt a child with special needs through this court in this region. We truly are pioneers and I hope that by us facing these problems head on it will pave the way and make it easier for others to do the same. Maybe God’s plans for us here were bigger than we realized. And God knows that if we knew all this going in there is a good chance we wouldn’t have trusted him enough to take the leap, so thank you to Him for not revealing this until we were already here. She said to expect A LOT of questions about why we want to adopt and how we will provide for a child with Down Syndrome. Court is *tentatively* scheduled for Tuesday March 30th at 3:30pm. I will tell you in a bit why it is tentative.
We were picked up at 9:00am this morning and drove around and did paperwork and other crazy things until right about now….8 hours later! We had to drive to the village where Zoya’s mom lives (an hour drive each way) and get 2 different documents…one of which was a copy of the book that documented that Zoya is in fact an orphan. The other document, I have no idea what it was still LOL. This part is pretty ridiculous and we were told other regions do not have to do this, but we know our judge goes only by the books and requests a lot of extra information. The people did not want to give us this information and told us it was illegal. The judge requests it, but apparently it is illegal. Part of the problem here (with this government) is that “the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing” so to speak. It can be very frustrating. Our facilitator begged and pleaded, or so it sounded from her tone of voice since we couldn’t actually tell what she was saying. I stood there frozen and just prayed and prayed. When I looked back down I saw an angel statue on this woman’s desk that I hadn’t noticed before. I was filled with a sense of peace that we were going to get this needed document. AND WE DID! The woman would not let us take this to the judge ourselves so we worked it out that we would take this woman with us! So in the car she went with the document and we made two other stops at the social worker’s office to get another document and then to the store to buy something for someone that did something for us..is that called a bribe? Ha. Then off we drove back to our region (an hour away) with the woman and the document. Into the judge they went and out they came. We then drove the woman back to the village (an hour away…are you getting my annoyed sarcasm here? Hehe) and then of course we had to drive back to our region (an hour away lol--and so fast swerving through all the pot holes that we lost a hub cap ha). So 4 hours of driving and about an hour of begging and pleading later, we got the needed documents and took them where they were supposed to go. We arrived at Zoya’s orphanage to pick her up to take her to get her photo taken for her visa (if that day ever comes). We got to take her in the car….with NO carseat or seatbelt…ugh my mommy brain said not a very safe idea. When we drove out of the gates I pretended that we were never coming back. That made me happy and then I remembered imagination is just that...imagination. But soon I hope we will be able to really experience that feeling! At the photo place, she was uncooperative and only wanted me to hold her facing me which was not working so well for the photo. We ended up managing to get one shot that will work, but of course she was wearing the boy outfit that I hate..haha! We took her back to the orphanage and played with her for about 20 minutes and then it was time for her to eat dinner. And time for us to finally come back to our house.
During this long, nerve-wracking day, we also got word that one of our forms is being held up due to a political issue. When we submitted our documents (on February 11th…before we even got here) one of the documents was an Interpol clearance to make sure we are not criminals anywhere in the world (as if the FBI clearance wasn’t enough…ugh). Anyways…those forms were processed and approved some time ago. They are all sitting in an office simply needing to be printed out. Without this form we cannot have court, even though we have already been cleared. This is extremely frustrating and there are several other families stuck in the middle of this. Our facilitators have called, and done everything short of banging down the door (they wouldn’t let them in) to get these forms printed out. It would take all of a minute to print out the forms. For reasons unknown to us, they are not printing these forms out. One friend has court scheduled tomorrow and she will not be able to have it now that this form has not been printed. This is a serious issue which could really cause some huge delays. We have contacted and enlisted the help of the U.S. Embassy who is delivering a letter on our behalf tomorrow morning. The U.S. Embassy is telling us this issue should be cleared up next week. When next week? We don’t know. Our only shot at having court Tuesday and finishing court in one day is if this Interpol mess is cleared up and the judge only requests one date from us. The judge has agreed that either way we can start court on Tuesday. If the judge requests more than one court, and/or our interpol forms are not done by Tuesday, we are hoping to finish court on Friday (if not sooner) as long as the interpol forms have been released. We need prayers bigger than you’ve ever prayed before. There is absolutely nothing we, or our wonderful facilitators, can do to move this along. This country is so different than home. The government is so different (I’d love to say more here but I will hold back).
Although we had probably the most challenging day since we have been on this journey, we were still able to enjoy parts of the day. For this we have prayed. During our 4 hours in the car today we had the opportunity to get to know more about the country Zoya is from and more about our facilitator. We shared funny stories and got to know each other a little better. We were laughing and having so much fun even though our butts were numb from sitting so long and our legs had turned to jello and our stomachs were growling louder than the stray dogs. Our facilitator said she would guess this country is about 100 years behind America. We are realizing how lucky we are to live where we live and to have all of the things we have. She says people here go from one day to the next just trying to survive. She says they do not have the opportunities to enjoy life as we do in America. Survival is their goal. Health care here is awful and they have to pay for everything out of pocket. They are lacking competent doctors. To wake up every single day with “survival” as our goal is foreign to most of us. We are so thankful for the opportunities we have been given as Americans.
Even with this scary Interpol issue looming over our heads, I feel a lot more peaceful than I would have ever imagined. Yes, we are stressed about it, but we know that sooner or later, we will be home with our angel girl. We are worried and hope for a quick resolution with this Interpol issue, but I’m not crying yet which is a miracle in itself! Now ask me next week how I feel if this issue is not resolved and I’ll probably have a whole new answer (ha)! We need prayers for continued patience, peace, and understanding beyond our own ability. Please pray that this Interpol issue would be resolved very very soon! Best case scenario…Interpol is resolved by court Tuesday, we have one court date (on Tuesday), and can come home for our ten day wait right after that (Marina says in this area it is impossible to get the 10 day wait waived). Thanks for your continued prayers and good thoughts. Now I am going to try to sleep (yes it's 6:30pm here but I'm exhausted!)
We were picked up at 9:00am this morning and drove around and did paperwork and other crazy things until right about now….8 hours later! We had to drive to the village where Zoya’s mom lives (an hour drive each way) and get 2 different documents…one of which was a copy of the book that documented that Zoya is in fact an orphan. The other document, I have no idea what it was still LOL. This part is pretty ridiculous and we were told other regions do not have to do this, but we know our judge goes only by the books and requests a lot of extra information. The people did not want to give us this information and told us it was illegal. The judge requests it, but apparently it is illegal. Part of the problem here (with this government) is that “the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing” so to speak. It can be very frustrating. Our facilitator begged and pleaded, or so it sounded from her tone of voice since we couldn’t actually tell what she was saying. I stood there frozen and just prayed and prayed. When I looked back down I saw an angel statue on this woman’s desk that I hadn’t noticed before. I was filled with a sense of peace that we were going to get this needed document. AND WE DID! The woman would not let us take this to the judge ourselves so we worked it out that we would take this woman with us! So in the car she went with the document and we made two other stops at the social worker’s office to get another document and then to the store to buy something for someone that did something for us..is that called a bribe? Ha. Then off we drove back to our region (an hour away) with the woman and the document. Into the judge they went and out they came. We then drove the woman back to the village (an hour away…are you getting my annoyed sarcasm here? Hehe) and then of course we had to drive back to our region (an hour away lol--and so fast swerving through all the pot holes that we lost a hub cap ha). So 4 hours of driving and about an hour of begging and pleading later, we got the needed documents and took them where they were supposed to go. We arrived at Zoya’s orphanage to pick her up to take her to get her photo taken for her visa (if that day ever comes). We got to take her in the car….with NO carseat or seatbelt…ugh my mommy brain said not a very safe idea. When we drove out of the gates I pretended that we were never coming back. That made me happy and then I remembered imagination is just that...imagination. But soon I hope we will be able to really experience that feeling! At the photo place, she was uncooperative and only wanted me to hold her facing me which was not working so well for the photo. We ended up managing to get one shot that will work, but of course she was wearing the boy outfit that I hate..haha! We took her back to the orphanage and played with her for about 20 minutes and then it was time for her to eat dinner. And time for us to finally come back to our house.
Zoya's first car ride...not so sure what to think
During this long, nerve-wracking day, we also got word that one of our forms is being held up due to a political issue. When we submitted our documents (on February 11th…before we even got here) one of the documents was an Interpol clearance to make sure we are not criminals anywhere in the world (as if the FBI clearance wasn’t enough…ugh). Anyways…those forms were processed and approved some time ago. They are all sitting in an office simply needing to be printed out. Without this form we cannot have court, even though we have already been cleared. This is extremely frustrating and there are several other families stuck in the middle of this. Our facilitators have called, and done everything short of banging down the door (they wouldn’t let them in) to get these forms printed out. It would take all of a minute to print out the forms. For reasons unknown to us, they are not printing these forms out. One friend has court scheduled tomorrow and she will not be able to have it now that this form has not been printed. This is a serious issue which could really cause some huge delays. We have contacted and enlisted the help of the U.S. Embassy who is delivering a letter on our behalf tomorrow morning. The U.S. Embassy is telling us this issue should be cleared up next week. When next week? We don’t know. Our only shot at having court Tuesday and finishing court in one day is if this Interpol mess is cleared up and the judge only requests one date from us. The judge has agreed that either way we can start court on Tuesday. If the judge requests more than one court, and/or our interpol forms are not done by Tuesday, we are hoping to finish court on Friday (if not sooner) as long as the interpol forms have been released. We need prayers bigger than you’ve ever prayed before. There is absolutely nothing we, or our wonderful facilitators, can do to move this along. This country is so different than home. The government is so different (I’d love to say more here but I will hold back).
Although we had probably the most challenging day since we have been on this journey, we were still able to enjoy parts of the day. For this we have prayed. During our 4 hours in the car today we had the opportunity to get to know more about the country Zoya is from and more about our facilitator. We shared funny stories and got to know each other a little better. We were laughing and having so much fun even though our butts were numb from sitting so long and our legs had turned to jello and our stomachs were growling louder than the stray dogs. Our facilitator said she would guess this country is about 100 years behind America. We are realizing how lucky we are to live where we live and to have all of the things we have. She says people here go from one day to the next just trying to survive. She says they do not have the opportunities to enjoy life as we do in America. Survival is their goal. Health care here is awful and they have to pay for everything out of pocket. They are lacking competent doctors. To wake up every single day with “survival” as our goal is foreign to most of us. We are so thankful for the opportunities we have been given as Americans.
Even with this scary Interpol issue looming over our heads, I feel a lot more peaceful than I would have ever imagined. Yes, we are stressed about it, but we know that sooner or later, we will be home with our angel girl. We are worried and hope for a quick resolution with this Interpol issue, but I’m not crying yet which is a miracle in itself! Now ask me next week how I feel if this issue is not resolved and I’ll probably have a whole new answer (ha)! We need prayers for continued patience, peace, and understanding beyond our own ability. Please pray that this Interpol issue would be resolved very very soon! Best case scenario…Interpol is resolved by court Tuesday, we have one court date (on Tuesday), and can come home for our ten day wait right after that (Marina says in this area it is impossible to get the 10 day wait waived). Thanks for your continued prayers and good thoughts. Now I am going to try to sleep (yes it's 6:30pm here but I'm exhausted!)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Had to Post These Videos!
Okay, I lied...I said I was only going to do one post today but I can't help it...these videos are just too darn cute! They let us use the walker today and she LOVED it! She is definitely active! She kept trying to get away from us and then she would laugh and laugh...it was hillarious. Her laugh is getting louder and cuter every time we see her. She is relaxing even more with us and is starting to be a little stinker at times too. I'm worried about what will happen when we get her and the Seth-man together!! Hehe. Look at this sweet girl...
Please remember to say some prayers for us before you go to bed tonight. Thanks :)
Please remember to say some prayers for us before you go to bed tonight. Thanks :)
A Great Visit with Zoya
Okay, we just received news that we got......the bad judge! Well Marina says he isn't "bad," he is just new and take A LOT of time on cases. This is the judge who made another couple have 4 court dates, so we are in need of prayers! Apparently the head judge is assigning all adoption cases to this judge. Oh joy! Marina is going to meet with him tomorrow at 8:30 am and try to explain our case to him and get a better feel for what he will ask for. Please pray for our facilitator, Marina, as she meets with the judge tomorrow to explain our case to him. She has asked us to pray for her as this judge is new and has probably never seen a case involving the adoption of a child with Down Syndrome, which we know, is taboo here. It could go either way I suppose. We need prayers that God will give this judge his eyes, if only for a moment, to see our case with love and kindness. Marina says she doesn't know if we will have one court date or several like the other couple had to endure. If you are up at 2:30 am, please say a quick prayer that this meeting goes well tomorrow.
This morning we had a great visit with Zoya! We took her outside for a walk, where she fell asleep again. She must be really relaxed outside (or tired around 10:00am) because she always falls asleep. She is a loud snorer as you can see in the video below. Her sweet little face looked like an angel while she was sleeping.
Here is a video of Zoya rockin' to the music! She LOVES music.
When it was our usual time to leave, we got a little suprise. The caretakers came out and asked us if we wanted to feed her lunch today...ummmm YES! We had no idea what she was eating up until now. All I have to say is this little girl is eating better than us here in Ukraine! We were shocked at the sheer volume of food and how fast they shovel the food in! First course was some fruit and juice with corn and bread all mashed together (eeewwww). Main course was a huge heap of mashed potatoes and chicken that they mashed up together with ANOTHER piece of bread! She had a cup of what looked like warm broth. As we were feeding her, the caretaker came out and said, "no no no...see?" and she started SHOVELING food into Zoyas mouth. The poor girl definitely did not have time to chew! It was like open and down the hatch! Once they left I tried to feed her a little quicker but not so much shoveling the food in...I didn't want to get in trouble again! LOL. She refused to drink out of the cup (which they told us she was working on) and so they brought her broth back out in a bottle this time. This little chunk gulped and gulped that broth! Maybe she will need LESS food when we get home....or better food...it seemed her whole meal was carbs and sugar! It is good to know that whatever we are eating we will be able to mash up for her to eat too. She definitely isn't eating solids yet, but maybe soon.
This morning we had a great visit with Zoya! We took her outside for a walk, where she fell asleep again. She must be really relaxed outside (or tired around 10:00am) because she always falls asleep. She is a loud snorer as you can see in the video below. Her sweet little face looked like an angel while she was sleeping.
Look at her eyelashes...so long!
Sleeping on Moma on the swing
She always has to have her hand touching her Daddy somewhere...even when she sleeps!
Here is a little video of her LOUD snores while she sleeps. This chick is HARD to wake up too!
After walking outside, we went in and played a little on the floor. One of the caretakers put down a thick mat-like blanket that we could play on with Zoya today (we didn't bring our blanket because it is getting pretty dirty and I will need to hand wash it tonight). This blanket they put down worked much better and had a lot more padding so it was so much easier to play on the floor with her. She also likes this little car-thing she can ride on.
Silly girl!
Her serious face....
Daddy making her laugh again
Sweet angel girl. She is dressed like Dorothy today!
Don't you just want to kiss those cheekies?
Here is a video of her playing with her daddy:
Here is a video of Zoya rockin' to the music! She LOVES music.
When it was our usual time to leave, we got a little suprise. The caretakers came out and asked us if we wanted to feed her lunch today...ummmm YES! We had no idea what she was eating up until now. All I have to say is this little girl is eating better than us here in Ukraine! We were shocked at the sheer volume of food and how fast they shovel the food in! First course was some fruit and juice with corn and bread all mashed together (eeewwww). Main course was a huge heap of mashed potatoes and chicken that they mashed up together with ANOTHER piece of bread! She had a cup of what looked like warm broth. As we were feeding her, the caretaker came out and said, "no no no...see?" and she started SHOVELING food into Zoyas mouth. The poor girl definitely did not have time to chew! It was like open and down the hatch! Once they left I tried to feed her a little quicker but not so much shoveling the food in...I didn't want to get in trouble again! LOL. She refused to drink out of the cup (which they told us she was working on) and so they brought her broth back out in a bottle this time. This little chunk gulped and gulped that broth! Maybe she will need LESS food when we get home....or better food...it seemed her whole meal was carbs and sugar! It is good to know that whatever we are eating we will be able to mash up for her to eat too. She definitely isn't eating solids yet, but maybe soon.
Messy girl!
Here is a video of Zoya eating...you can see off to the right some of her FEAST! And this was only lunch!! Oh my. I wish we would have gotten on tape how fast they were shoveling the food in...but we were so in awe we forgot to pick up the camera!
I probably won't post tonight since I used all my internet minutes on this lonnnnng post...so don't look for my usual 2 posts today! Please remember to pray for us and for the meeting between our facilitator and the judge tomorrow morning at 8:30am (2:30 am home time). Thanks for all your kind words and support...we have needed them to get through from one day to the next...without them this journey would be a lot lonlier.
Monday, March 22, 2010
No News is Not Good News Today
Apparently our papers are still sitting on the head judge's desk. Each person here has so many days they're allowed to take to get their part done...I don't know how many days he has but obviously he doesn't seem to have any urgency about this matter. Our facilitator told us not to get discouraged as this is typical in this region. We are pioneers here and that means we have no idea what each day will bring...or won't bring as in today's situation. Our facilitator was told to call back at 10:00 tomorrow morning to see if the head judge had assigned our case to a judge yet. After our case is assigned to a judge I have no idea how long it will take to get a court date. The ten day wait has almost zero chance of being waived here...if it were waived that would be like pigs flying...which to my knowledge has not yet happened (although I have no idea what is going on in America so it IS possible I suppose). Maybe our case wasn't assigned today because it would have been assigned to the bad judge if it were...just trying to see the bright side here.
Our visits with Zoya are definitely getting tougher to keep her entertained. She wants to be active and scoot around the floor but that is not allowed. Tonight when they brought her out to us they put a barrette in her hair which I though was so sweet because they have seen us bring our own bows and put them in her hair each time. Zoya definitely seems to be healthier than some of the other kids we see there....and by healthier I mean larger! She is not skinny like a lot of the other kids there and for that we are thankful.
Here is a video of Zoya sitting herself up. Yes I know her spaghetti legs shouldn't be in that position, but we'll work on it when we aren't sitting on a concrete floor with a slippery blanket! She's so sweet.
Here is a short little video of her sweet smile in action.
Just for fun:
Tonight's dinner: Chicken noodle soup and french fries without ketchup (there was an entire isle of ketchup-looking products and we had no idea what was what). Shawn and I have been torturing each other about food lately. He will say, "what do you want for dinner?" and I will say, "hmmm Plymouth Pizza" and he will tell me he wants buffalo wings. So tonight I'm pretending my soup is pizza and he is pretending his french fries are wings.
Please keep praying for us!!
Our visits with Zoya are definitely getting tougher to keep her entertained. She wants to be active and scoot around the floor but that is not allowed. Tonight when they brought her out to us they put a barrette in her hair which I though was so sweet because they have seen us bring our own bows and put them in her hair each time. Zoya definitely seems to be healthier than some of the other kids we see there....and by healthier I mean larger! She is not skinny like a lot of the other kids there and for that we are thankful.
Here is a video of Zoya sitting herself up. Yes I know her spaghetti legs shouldn't be in that position, but we'll work on it when we aren't sitting on a concrete floor with a slippery blanket! She's so sweet.
Here is a short little video of her sweet smile in action.
Just for fun:
Tonight's dinner: Chicken noodle soup and french fries without ketchup (there was an entire isle of ketchup-looking products and we had no idea what was what). Shawn and I have been torturing each other about food lately. He will say, "what do you want for dinner?" and I will say, "hmmm Plymouth Pizza" and he will tell me he wants buffalo wings. So tonight I'm pretending my soup is pizza and he is pretending his french fries are wings.
Please keep praying for us!!
Day 10 in Ukraine
Tired and weary today. Still waiting to hear about the judge. Maybe today is not the day we will hear. We got to see a couple of the other kids today....the crying seemed a lot worse....sad and pitiful cries and screams almost the whole time we were there. They came and took Zoya for her "massage on legs" again and we could hear her crying from where we sat. It was a hard pill to swallow to know our baby was in pain and we couldn't do anything to help her.
There was a group at the orphanage touring it for some reason. They looked like high school kids. They came into the area where we were sitting with Zoya. Most of the kids looked at us kinda strange like what they heck were we doing. All of the kids went into Zoya's groupa room and saw all the other babies. I wanted to sneak in myself since we have not yet seen that room (other than a peek here and there). I noticed two of the girls came out crying. I'm sure they were not prepared for what they would see...so many children crying and sad and without parents. Strangely I felt good that they were crying. Maybe this generation will be the one to change the "hide these children away" mentality here. When all the kids came back out one asked in English if she could take our picture of us and Zoya so we said yes. She asked where we were from and it was nice to have a short English conversation.
Our daily grind: wake up, get ready, eat "breakfast" (usually a protein bar or something), visit Zoya, try to have a conversation with the care taker, fail miserably, say "paka" to Zoya, go to the market, try to read lables on things, fail miserably, get the same old thing we've been buying every time we go (white cheese that is okay, bread, eggs, maybe some roasted chicken, water, coke "light"), come home, figure out what to make out of spaghetti, eggs, and chicken, listen to some music, update the blog, take a nap, get ready to visit Zoya, visit Zoya, say "paka" to Zoya, come home, try to figure out what to eat for dinner, update the blog, watch some DVDs, shower, go to bed. You are jealous I know....hehe. Oh I hope this cycle breaks soon, we are so happy to be here because the gift at the end of the rainbow is better than any other gift, but this road seems long today. Hoping to hear some news soon...its almost 2pm here already.
Zoya loves to feel her face on ours.
Kinda dark...she like to do this while I am talking so her chin moves up and down and it looks like she is talking...it's pretty funny!
Taking a stroll with her daddy (we couldn't go outside because it's raining here).
Our daily grind: wake up, get ready, eat "breakfast" (usually a protein bar or something), visit Zoya, try to have a conversation with the care taker, fail miserably, say "paka" to Zoya, go to the market, try to read lables on things, fail miserably, get the same old thing we've been buying every time we go (white cheese that is okay, bread, eggs, maybe some roasted chicken, water, coke "light"), come home, figure out what to make out of spaghetti, eggs, and chicken, listen to some music, update the blog, take a nap, get ready to visit Zoya, visit Zoya, say "paka" to Zoya, come home, try to figure out what to eat for dinner, update the blog, watch some DVDs, shower, go to bed. You are jealous I know....hehe. Oh I hope this cycle breaks soon, we are so happy to be here because the gift at the end of the rainbow is better than any other gift, but this road seems long today. Hoping to hear some news soon...its almost 2pm here already.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Contrast
During our visits it’s getting a little harder to keep Zoya entertained in our small little area with the same old toys! She wants to do her “slither” across the floor and be on the move, but she isn’t allowed to be on the floor unless she is on the blanket. She keeps trying to escape from the blanket so she can move around on the floor. Hopefully it will start getting warmer out so we can take her outside more. Tonight there was a new care taker who thought her job was to watch T.V. the whole time instead of paying attention to the kids. So sad. Our favorite care taker, Valencia, was there and we showed her our photo album from home…she enjoyed seeing Zoya’s family, house, and bedroom. A couple of pictures from today of our sweet girl.
Right on the other side of the orphanage walls is a complex where the area’s professional soccer team lives and practices. It is quite ironic to see the stark contrast of this wealthy complex butted up against the run-down orphanage. The two buildings look very strange next to each other. It is sad to see so much money being spent over the fence and not enough money to make necessary improvements, updates, and repairs to the orphanage. You can see in the pictures that barbed wire separates the orphanage walls from the soccer complex. I asked Shawn, “You think that is to keep people out of the orphanage or out of the soccer complex?” He laughed and said, “Uuhh, I think it is to keep people out of the soccer complex.” Yah stupid question…give me a break, I’m tired! Anyway, my point was that it is unfortunate to see the excessive indulgence of one group of people while another group could be made better if they shared their resources….instead they turn a blind eye and the less fortunate group continues to suffer. We also see examples of this in America, but it was very awakening to see such an example within such close proximity to one another. Is there someone in your own backyard that you could share your resources with? I know my answer. Here are some pictures:
Right on the other side of the orphanage walls is a complex where the area’s professional soccer team lives and practices. It is quite ironic to see the stark contrast of this wealthy complex butted up against the run-down orphanage. The two buildings look very strange next to each other. It is sad to see so much money being spent over the fence and not enough money to make necessary improvements, updates, and repairs to the orphanage. You can see in the pictures that barbed wire separates the orphanage walls from the soccer complex. I asked Shawn, “You think that is to keep people out of the orphanage or out of the soccer complex?” He laughed and said, “Uuhh, I think it is to keep people out of the soccer complex.” Yah stupid question…give me a break, I’m tired! Anyway, my point was that it is unfortunate to see the excessive indulgence of one group of people while another group could be made better if they shared their resources….instead they turn a blind eye and the less fortunate group continues to suffer. We also see examples of this in America, but it was very awakening to see such an example within such close proximity to one another. Is there someone in your own backyard that you could share your resources with? I know my answer. Here are some pictures:
You can see the barbed wire and the team's busses.
The soccer complex is the yellow buildings past the trees. You can see the orphanage off to the right of the picture.
Another picture of the soccer complex from the "other side" of the wall.
Please say some extra prayers for us tonight. Tomorrow we may find out what judge is assigned to our case, and hopefully soon we will hear our court date as well. We are hoping everything will happen quickly so we can get home with our precious cargo!
Day 9 in Ukraine
I woke up this morning a little home sick. I miss my comfort zone. I miss my doggy snuggles and kisses. I miss American food. I miss my bed! I miss a hot shower. I miss hearing people having conversations around me (in English). I miss my friends and family….so many things I miss. It feels like we have been away at least a month! It feels like we flew out of Erie so long ago. We have only been here 9 days. Feeling somewhat like groundhog day movie this morning, we got up and got ready to go see Zoya. Once I saw her all those other bad feeling subsided. She is why we are here, she is what matters, for her we would live here for a year if we had to, we would give up everything else in our comfort zone. She was happy this morning to see us. She had a cute little green dress on…we decided on the purple bow today. Here are some pictures from our visit:
When we got back home, I uploaded the latest pictures. I set our “Ukraine Photos” folder to a slideshow with music. Shawn and I sat and watched every single 165 pictures we have taken in the past 10 days. It was a weird feeling to already be looking back on parts of this process and parts of our trip. We looked at the picture that was taken of us standing outside the Erie airport looking so happy, excited, nervous….without a clue how much this angel would change our lives in just the 5 days we have known her. How could we become such changed people in just 10 days? We looked at our airplane pictures and saw the excitement on our faces. We looked at our “Welcome To Ukraine” pictures and so many feeling came back. While we looked at pictures of Zoya over the last 5 days we were amazed to see how different she looks from the first day until now…just 5 days later. We can’t believe how a little love has changed her appearance. Looking back on our “met ya” pictures, and comparing them to our pictures from today, this change in Zoya is nothing short of a miracle. Each day she loves and trusts us a little more. She has come alive before our eyes and I can’t wait to see how much more she will continue to grow and change having felt the love of parents and family. It seemed a little odd to look at some of these pictures with nostalgia already. I said to Shawn, “Maybe someday….long from now….we will want to come back here with Zoya and visit.” He agreed. Then I thought to myself, you’re absolutely crazy for thinking that after feeling so homesick this morning! That is how this journey has been….a roller coaster of emotions and a heart bubbling over with a greater love than we’ve ever known. We will be forever changed after this journey…we already are forever changed.
She just loves her Daddy!
She initiates kisses all the time.
We are playing "pass Zoya" from myself to Shawn.
Playing the same game...from Daddy to Moma
She wants so bad to walk herself, but if we let go she would fall. We call her spaghetti legs!
I love how the sun is hitting her face in this picture.
Zoya likes how soft this Taggies book is.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
An Emotional Day
I posted 2 other posts today so make sure you check those out first if you're just getting on now! I'm forcing myself to sit down and write so we can look back on this and remember all the details!
I already posted about this morning and it was quite an emotional morning…I had no idea how my heart would ache during our evening visit. When we went to visit our precious Zoya, we were in the same room as a moma who was visiting her own child. Our facilitator had told us about this woman. She looks to be about my age and is absolutely beautiful, as is her child. Her son was born with down syndrome and she was forced to put him in this orphanage. She visits every day and is heartbroken that she cannot parent him. Women in this country, even if they wanted to parent, are not able to because there is no medical care (or it is very expensive), no programs for children with special needs, no support from anyone, and overall it would be almost impossible to parent a child with special needs here. Our facilitator told us if a mother would choose to take her child with down syndrome home, she would have to basically commit to never leave her house again. It is not acceptable to go out in public (I can’t imagine the looks and words she would have to endure having her child out in public here based on what happened during our morning visit) and there are no programs available for schooling or daycare for these children.
We sat about 3 feet away from her and her baby. She kept glancing over at us with a pained look on her face. She knew we were there to adopt Zoya and I can only imagine her turmoil seeing us and Zoya so happy together. Our facilitator told us this woman keeps asking her mother, “what should I do?” and her mother says, “stop visiting!” I feel so hurt for this woman. It seems nobody understands her sadness and desire to want to parent her baby in combination with not being able to. How hard it must be knowing that nobody else in this country values her precious child. How devastated she must be every morning she wakes up. How large this burden must feel to her day in and day out. The look on her face will haunt me forever. We have only known Zoya for four days and I can’t imagine the pain it would be if we had to leave her at the orphanage forever. Here is a mother who carried this child for 9 months and is not able to take this child home where he belongs. Our facilitator told us this mother hopes for an American family to adopt him so he can have more opportunity. What a loving mother to want her child, who she obviously loves so much, to be adopted by a family who can give him what she cannot. I can’t imagine the sadness and deep hurt she already feels and will continue to feel the rest of her life. We are going to ask our facilitator to get a picture of this precious boy so he can be listed on Reece’s Rainbow and hopefully find a family. Please pray for this poor woman.
Our visit with Zoya was good. We are thinking on the weekends we are only allowed to visit from 10-11 and 4-5, only 2 hours instead of 4. They came out at 11 to take her back in and then again at 5. Zoya is a pretty funny little girl. She was sucking on my chin and then bit it and I yelled OW and she started cracking up…little stinker. She continues to rub our backs while we comfort her. Her personality is coming out more and more every day. The orphanage staff asked us to buy some diapers because she only has 2 left. I wonder what they would do if we weren’t here? Of course we bought some and will take them over tomorrow.
Here is Zoya making noises with her tongue! She does this a lot. She will do it and look at Shawn or I and wait for us to mirror her! So cute.
You can see here for a quick second how she rubs my back. We tried to get her on camera a few times and this was our best shot! Will try to get a better one. She will just start rubbing or patting our backs while we hold her!
You can see in this video her eyes seem to look different colors depending on what she is wearing...kinda like her daddy and moma! Her eyes look green in this video...more like the referral picture we had of her! And you can see she LOVES the camera...we have a toy one for her but it's just not the same according to her! LOL
I already posted about this morning and it was quite an emotional morning…I had no idea how my heart would ache during our evening visit. When we went to visit our precious Zoya, we were in the same room as a moma who was visiting her own child. Our facilitator had told us about this woman. She looks to be about my age and is absolutely beautiful, as is her child. Her son was born with down syndrome and she was forced to put him in this orphanage. She visits every day and is heartbroken that she cannot parent him. Women in this country, even if they wanted to parent, are not able to because there is no medical care (or it is very expensive), no programs for children with special needs, no support from anyone, and overall it would be almost impossible to parent a child with special needs here. Our facilitator told us if a mother would choose to take her child with down syndrome home, she would have to basically commit to never leave her house again. It is not acceptable to go out in public (I can’t imagine the looks and words she would have to endure having her child out in public here based on what happened during our morning visit) and there are no programs available for schooling or daycare for these children.
We sat about 3 feet away from her and her baby. She kept glancing over at us with a pained look on her face. She knew we were there to adopt Zoya and I can only imagine her turmoil seeing us and Zoya so happy together. Our facilitator told us this woman keeps asking her mother, “what should I do?” and her mother says, “stop visiting!” I feel so hurt for this woman. It seems nobody understands her sadness and desire to want to parent her baby in combination with not being able to. How hard it must be knowing that nobody else in this country values her precious child. How devastated she must be every morning she wakes up. How large this burden must feel to her day in and day out. The look on her face will haunt me forever. We have only known Zoya for four days and I can’t imagine the pain it would be if we had to leave her at the orphanage forever. Here is a mother who carried this child for 9 months and is not able to take this child home where he belongs. Our facilitator told us this mother hopes for an American family to adopt him so he can have more opportunity. What a loving mother to want her child, who she obviously loves so much, to be adopted by a family who can give him what she cannot. I can’t imagine the sadness and deep hurt she already feels and will continue to feel the rest of her life. We are going to ask our facilitator to get a picture of this precious boy so he can be listed on Reece’s Rainbow and hopefully find a family. Please pray for this poor woman.
Our visit with Zoya was good. We are thinking on the weekends we are only allowed to visit from 10-11 and 4-5, only 2 hours instead of 4. They came out at 11 to take her back in and then again at 5. Zoya is a pretty funny little girl. She was sucking on my chin and then bit it and I yelled OW and she started cracking up…little stinker. She continues to rub our backs while we comfort her. Her personality is coming out more and more every day. The orphanage staff asked us to buy some diapers because she only has 2 left. I wonder what they would do if we weren’t here? Of course we bought some and will take them over tomorrow.
Here are some pictures from tonight:
She LOVES playing with my hair! All the caregivers either have short hair or wear it pulled back so she has probably never seen long hair before!
You can see here for a quick second how she rubs my back. We tried to get her on camera a few times and this was our best shot! Will try to get a better one. She will just start rubbing or patting our backs while we hold her!
You can see in this video her eyes seem to look different colors depending on what she is wearing...kinda like her daddy and moma! Her eyes look green in this video...more like the referral picture we had of her! And you can see she LOVES the camera...we have a toy one for her but it's just not the same according to her! LOL
Resemblence
Do you see a resemblence here?? I sure do:) This is a picture of Zoya and a picture of me when I was a baby!
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Okay, so the picture of me is a little messier...but still!
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