Home

Bruce, Natasha and Pasha were greeted by a loving group of sweet friends and Leah (she is also sweet and loving but family :-) ). Wow it was exhausting waiting for them I can only imagine how they felt.



Natasha and Pasha were overwhelmed but did just fine with the big group of people all staring at them. Bruce just started walking to the car. I'm kind of serious. He was ready to get on out of there.



They are all tucked in and I can hear someone snoring upstairs...glad they aren't in my room.



People say we should have some honeymoon time before we face the hard stuff. I'm all for that honeymoon stuff to last as long as possible.



Abigail, Bradley and Benjamin are glad they are finally here.



Wow we need a bigger house.



Thank all of you for your prayers for these sweet kids. You can't know how much of a difference you lifting us up to the Lord has meant. Keep it up we will need it.



I'm sure Bruce will give you more info once the jet lag wears off.



Blessings,



Michele

In Frankfurt....waiting

Our trip through KBP (Kiev Airport) was fairly uneventful. Our driver showed up promptly at 2:45 and we were at the airport by 3:30 (yes, AM). We waited until the ticket counter opened and then checked in without problems. Security went fine.

The customs lady asked to see our court documents, which thankfully Nadia had told me to keep handy. She left for a few minutes to go to a back office with our passports and boarding passes, which made me a little nervous. But, by this time Mrs. Campbell (family from Indiana who adopted a 6-7 year old boy) was in line right behind us. She said her facilitator told her to expect some of these types of shenanigans from customs just as a ploy to freak you out. I don't know what she did behind closed doors, but she came back and allowed us through, and that's what was most important.

Now we're sitting in the Frankfurt airport at our gate waiting for our flight. We have about 5 hours to wait, so I'm sure we'll get up and walk around a bit eventually.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Denver.

Thanks,

Bruce

Here are a few pics from the last few days.

First, one of N, P and our facilitator in Kherson, Tanya:

Here we are having lunch with the Houghton's, Julia and Karen Springs:

Here's the group after taking the fernicular up the hill and walking across the church square (can't remember which church):

And Richard insisted that he take a picture with me actually in it.

And, finally, here's a pic of the kids with our translator in Kiev, Nadia.:

Home Tomorrow!

Wow..I think I left too many thing until the end. Right now that doesn't matter because they are coming ready or not.

The flight into Denver is schedueled to arrive at 3:45pm. They do have to go through customs so who know when they will emerge from the glass doors. The flight is Luftansa 446 if you are wanting to help with the grand welcome at the airport and want to check on the flight status.



Can't wait to see Natasha Grace and Pasha Timothy...and of course Bruce Alvin :-).

Tix Changed For Tuesday

Coming home Tuesday. See some of you at the airport. Time for bed. Have to get us all up at 2:15 am for a 2:45 am pick up.

Bruce

Have Visas!

Hi All,

This has been a long day, but the net result is good! We have Visas and can now come home. I am trying to get our Wednesday tickets changed to Tuesday and if the change fees aren't too high, we'll come home tomorrow. If they are exorbitant, we will come home on Wednesday.

Our day started with a 6:45 wake-up call and then Oleg picked us up around 7:30. First stop was the US Embassy where we submitted our documents and completed the Immigration Visa request forms. That took about an hour and when we submitted them, the assistant said our Visas would be ready tomorrow at 2PM. I asked if there was any possibility of having them done today. She said she wasn't sure if we could get everything done, but they'd try. So, she said come back at 2PM.

From the embassy we went to the medical clinic where we waited for about an hour before our doctor arrived and was able to see us. The exams went fine and by about 12:30 we were finished there with our medical docs and headed back to the embassy. However, we had about an hour to kill and we had not eaten since a light breakfast at around 7am. So, we stopped and got a bite with our translator Nadia.

Then at 2PM we were back at the embassy where we met 2 other families waiting to get their newly adopted kids' Visas. One family was from Indiana and the other from Texas. We were happy when we were called up by the consolate representative who said they would probably be able to get the Visas today, but it would take another hour. In that hour we chatted with the other families and they received their Visas. Then we received ours too (!) at around 3PM.

So, we are officially done and will be heading home soon. We are awaiting confirmation of seat availability for flights tomorrow (Tuesday) instead of Wednesday. We're hoping to travel tomorrow and be home a day early.

I'll do a final update once we have seats confirmed.

Thanks!

Bruce

In Kiev Again!

Thanks to Michele's stealth (and brief) post, you know at the very least that we received our passports yesterday (Friday). Tanya called me at 3-ish and said that the passports were ready. So, we all headed over to the passport office with smiles on our faces as we anticipated a simple "pick-up". Well, you'll recall "it's Ukraine" so it was a little more involved than that.

When we arrived, Tanya went into the passport office and came back out moments later looking frustrated. Apparently, we were missing a stamp from the director and the director had stepped out. They did not know if or when he might come back. It was now about 4-ish so we just sat and waited outside. Finally, around 5PM we were ready to leave when he showed up!

Again, we thought, this will only take a few minutes....but, you got it, "it's Ukraine"! over an hour later they finally called us into the office where I double-checked and signed for the passports.

We had hoped that we could catch a night train back up to Kiev on Friday night. Unfortunately, Tanya had found out that, since the quarantine at the universities had been lifted and school was supposed to start again on Monday, there were no seats whatsoever to be purchased beforehand.

So, Tanya went to the train station around 8PM to be "first in line" to get any tickets that became available due to "no shows" or "special" availability. We waited at the Bible House for a call from Tanya. She called at 8:05 and said, "I have tickets for you and the taxi is on its way to pick you up." We met Tanya at the front of the train station and then made our way to the train car where our cabin was.

It turns out that our "special" tickets were for the cabin normally occupied by the ladies who "manage" this particular car...kind of like the train car "attendants". We didn't have "real" tickets, as these were obtained "under the table" and actually illegally. But hey, "it's Ukraine", so I was fine with it. Once we got on and took off, I sealed the transaction with the train attendant (i.e. I gave her the cash!) and we settled in for the night.

I don't think any of us slept too well, but we all knew that in a matter of 13 hours we'd be in Kiev on the next and final step of our journey.

Oleg met us at the train station and took us to our apartment. It is a very nice apartment, newly appointment with everything. It was a little more expensive than I had anticipated, but they dropped the price by $30 a night when I asked if they had anything cheaper. Sometimes, it pays to be a Dutchman! The apartment is about a 10 minute walk from the main Independence Square.

We just returned from a very much needed lunch at Cenentano's down by the square and Natasha and Pasha are watching TV while I check email and post to the blog.

We're hoping to go to church with Pasha's friend Julia tomorrow and then hope to meet up with Karen Springs in the afternoon. Monday we will go in the morning to complete medical exams and then to the US Consulate to get immigration Visas. If we're done with everything on Monday, I may just try to get us tickets home for Tuesday. We'll see how it goes.

Well, that's all for now. I'm going to head out and get some groceries. Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers. The last couple of days I've especially appreciated them.

More later,

Bruce

Spoiler Stealth Post

They have passports! he he

No Passports Yet...

I just spoke with Tanya. She was at the passport office to find out if our passports had arrived. Unfortunately, no passports arrived today from Kiev. So, now we will wait another day.

This means that we will not be able to come home early, as we had hoped. Please pray that the passports arrive tomorrow (Friday) or Saturday. This way we can get to Kiev in time to complete medical exams and US Visas and fly home on our scheduled return flight on Wednesday, November 25th.

We are all well, though all ready to take the next steps toward home. I had a bit of a "freak out" day today as it really set in that Michele and I now are parenting 5 kids, two of whom speak very little English! Yikes. Pray for patience, peace and endurance as I get us through the process in Ukraine, and then for the same as we arrive home to begin our new lives together as a family.

That's it for now.

Later,

Bruce

Have Kids....Will Travel...

Well, even if I don't know when we'll travel, I can certainly say "I have the kids!" Tanya and I stopped by the market this afternoon and picked up a bunch of cookies and candy and juice for Natasha and Pasha's roomies. We also brought a bagful of things for each caregiver. They were all very thankful. I took as many pictures as I could and I will post some later when I have a chance to breathe.

I don't think there were any tears in Pasha's group of friends. You know, they're all boys after all.

Natasha's roomies were a different story. All of them were very teary eyed and sad to see her go. We will be able to go back to the orphanage before we actually leave from Kherson, so they were happy about that. Nevertheless, I had to fight back my own tears watching them say good-bye. These are kids who have known each other for many years and are like sisters, no doubt.

One of Pasha's caregivers (whose name I can't recall) told me through her broken English that she was at the orphanage when Pasha showed up at the age of 3. She's known him and been part of his care ever since. I definitely got a pic of her with Pasha.

We also had a short sit-down meeting with Roman and Nikolai. Nikolai had some very nice things to say about Michele and me. Through Tanya, he said that he feels he is a pretty good judge of character when first meeting someone, and he told Natasha and Pasha that he believes they have very good parents now. He also told them to "be nice, work hard and do well in school."

Tanya will find out tomorrow the definitive answer about passports. Pray that they will be done tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. I'm itchin' to get home and get everyone together.

Thanks for your prayers.

Bruce

Here are a couple of pics from dinner tonight. Pasha was sitting on the other side of the table from Natasha and me.

T minus ? and counting....

Well, I was hoping to deliver good news today about the readiness of the passports, but alas, it is not to be. I just spoke with Tanya who had just visited the passport office here in Kherson. We are waiting to receive the confirmation of Natasha and Pasha's new ID numbers from Kiev. Once that is done, the passports can actually be scanned and sent up to Kiev to be printed. Had the IDs been confirmed today, we would have had a high probability of getting passports on Wednesday. Now, it will be at least Thursday or possibly Friday. So, we wait, and hope and pray that tomorrow brings better news.

The weekend overall was quite fun. I spent time with N and P both Saturday and Sunday. I learned that they really like to play UNO. It was quite fun just to hang out and talk about various things like foods they like and don't like, things to expect in our home when we get to Colorado, etc., etc., etc.

I brought their suitcases over on Sunday and then immediately left with a load of Pasha's wash. I was thinking that if we were going to leave on Wednesday, I needed to get his wash done so it has time to dry. Now we have plenty of time. When I returned from the Bible House, I brought a huge suitcase that Michele and I brought out with us on our initial trip in September/October. We knew we did not want to bring it back with us, so I brought it to Natasha and asked her if she thought Jana might like it. Since Jana will be leaving the orphanage next summer, I figured she'd have the most need for it. And, indeed, she was happy to take it.

The funny thing about returning from the Bible House was that Pasha had pretty much already packed all his things in his suitcase and Natasha had her cupboard cleared out and packed already too. I think they're ready to get out of Dodge! :)

Today I learned that I will be able to sign final papers and take them out of the orphanage tomorrow (Tuesday). So, that is the plan. Tonight I told them to enjoy their last night in the orphanage, because tomorrow they would be staying with me. I hope they have a good night. Tomorrow, Tanya and I will go get some cakes, pies, cookies, candy, and fun stuff and we will have a sort of celebration after classes are done. Then we will say our good-byes and head back to the Bible House.

Since we will now need to stay in Kherson for a couple more days, Tanya and I will look for a short-stay apartment tomorrow. The Bible House has been great, but it will be much more convenient to have a kitchen to cook in and more of a "home" to hang out in. The kids won't go back to school...we'll just hang out, watch movies, learn English, go shopping, etc.

Please pray that the ID's are confirmed and ready for tomorrow and that we can get passports on Thursday. If we can get to Kiev on Friday, there's still an outside chance that we could fly home on Sunday. It's a stretch, but I'll give it my best. Otherwise, we will likely just stay until Wednesday and fly home on our scheduled flight. Also, please pray that we find an apartment that is convenient and available starting tomorrow. I have several folks looking on my behalf.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Bruce

A Long Day...But A Good Day

My day started at 5:30 this morning as I awoke to meet Tanya at 6:00AM for the trip to Genechisk. This is a town about 2 1/2 hours drive south and east of Kherson, pretty much on the Black Sea.

While Tanya sawed logs in the front seat, I could bearly fit my lanky legs in the back-seat of the Tercel-sized vehicle, so I was pretty much stretched across the whole back seat. I spent my time listening to Toby (Mac), Audio A., and several other albums that are on Bradley's IPOD (thanks bud!).

We arrived right on time...8:30AM. Genechisk is the city where both Natasha and Pasha's births are registered and where we needed to have the two new birth certificates issued. We weren't sure if everything would go well, but thankfully the "not-so-nice" administrator lady was out sick and her "much-nicer" assistant was there to help today. So, by 10:00 AM, we had two new birth certificates with us listed as the parents of Natasha and Pasha, and we headed back on the road for another 2 1/2 hour drive back.

We got back to Kherson around 1PM and then spent the next 2 hours getting new IDs filed and getting the new birth certificates "notarized" by at least three different offices. Even Tanya was flabergasted at the number of people with their hands in this pot.

Around 3:00 we picked up Natasha and Pasha to try and tackle passport scanning today as well. Tanya had been told that we would be able to be seen shortly after 3:00, so we arrived at the passport office about 3:20. There we waited...and waited...and waited. The kids are not entirely healthy, so they both had masks lazily fitted over their noses and mouths. We played games on my cell phone and on the IPOD. Finally, at 5:00PM, they were ready to see us. We got pics taken and I signed the papers for the passports. They are supposed to be ready by Wednesday! Yay!

I got home a little before 6 after dropping the kids off. I hadn't eaten much all day, so I jumped a bus down to Bourgeous and had some of the best salad and borsch with pampuschkas. I'm now back at the Bible House trying to do a little bit of work before I fall over asleep.

Please pray for Natasha and Pasha's health. They seem to be getting better but I'd like them to be feeling completely well when we leave next week. Also pray for Natasha as she was quite serious tonight and Tanya said she is a bit anxious about everything. I'm not sure if she is anxious about the process completing successfully, or just about the impending move to a completely new culture. In either case, pray that she (and Pasha too) experience God's peace over the next several days.

Thanks for reading!

Bruce

Court Docs In Hand...

Well, not my hands specifically, but Tanya's hands!

So, it is official. Our family has just expanded by 2! Now the final paper-push starts.

Tanya thought that we were going to travel to Genichesk today (Thursday) to take care of birth certificates. It turns out that we will not go until tomorrow. Apparently, this particular regional office is notorious for being problematic. With some assistance from Roman (the orphanage lawyer, who rocks!) we believe that we will be able to get everything done in one trip tomorrow (Friday).

So, we have to be at the Genichesk city registrar's office right at 8:30AM on Friday and it is 200+KM away. We'll be leaving from the Bible House at 6AM and Tanya already told me she'd probably be snoring a good portion of the drive! (She's not a morning person. :)

We are hopeful that we can get everything done right away in the morning and then return to Kherson to finish up the rest of the paper work in the afternoon. Our goal is to be able to submit for passports on Saturday. Please pray that everything goes as planned.

I can't believe Michele stealth-posted from Colorado! She's sneaky! I think I've got a sinus/ear thing going on, so I'm taking antibiotics and sudafed and doing my saline nasal lavage each day. Natasha had a bit of a fever yesterday and the orphanage doctor told her she would not go back to class at least until Monday. She wasn't terribly sad about that!

I also met Pat and Terry yesterday. They are a couple from south of San Antonio, TX who are here adopting as well. They took a blind referral from the SDA for a sweet 14 year old girl at the same orphanage as Natasha and Pasha. Her name is Viola. They had their 1st court date on Wednesday so are now counting the days to the end. I hope to connect with them at some point in time for dinner.

Well, it's not the most exciting or entertaining post, but at least it keeps you up to date.

I'll post more tomorrow after our trip to Genichesk.

Later,

Bruce

Cheater Post From Colorado

Hi Friends and Family,
I'm pretty sure a blog negates the need for a Christmas letter, WooHoo!!!

Obviously things are a bit boring in Ukraine right now. I talked with Bruce and he seems OK, just bored and a bit down and getting sick. Natasha is also sick with a fever and soar throat. When the kids get sick they get worried that things won't work out with the adoption. We have told them that they are ours sick or not. I'm sure they hear things for others that keep them worried though.

Please keep Natasha, Pasha and Bruce in your prayers as they finish up in Ukraine.
Thanks
Michele

Extra! Extra! Read all about it....

Alas, the chickens are no more. Okay, I know this is not about the happenings with the DeYoungs in the Ukraine, but I had to post about it anyway. Hey, I have my blog-o-sphere faithful to answer to!

I spoke with Michele and the kids yesterday and the sad news of the day was that the last of our chickens (the 4 remaining), met their early demise on Saturday. Apparently, a wily fox (I know coyotes are "wily", not sure about foxes), grabbed three of the four for a nice meal after the coop door was accidentally closed without the chickens inside.

I know you're all wondering about the fourth. Apparently, in a classic "fight-or-flight" response, she realized she was no match for the fox, and ran out the side gate into the street. There, on a street where we have maybe 20 cars pass per day, she met her early fricassee under the wheel of a passing auto. So sad.

Michele's final word on chickens? I am the "chicken whisperer"...and we may only have chickens if I'm around. Hmmm....maybe Natasha and Pasha will be my little "chicken wranglers" with me.

Life here in Ukraine carries on 1 day at a time. The weekend was actually quite beautiful.

I spent a good bit of Saturday morning with Natasha and Pasha and my new-found friends at the orphanage. I asked if they needed anything from "outside" to which they replied "fruit, candy and socks". So, mid-day I headed to the outdoor market and spent all of about $8 to buy bunches of bananas, bags of apples and oranges, some chocolate bars and, of course, 7 pairs of socks. They were thrilled.

I went to church on Sunday and sat in the congregation repeatedly saying to myself, "'Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am also' means that God is indeed here...I just don't understand a word he is saying right now." That's alright though, I know from the overhead slides the pastor was talking about лущаофжвл, йзлсоащулвоф, and аофзсдаурлы. (I may have misspelled some of that.... :) )

Sunday afternoon I went back to visit at the orphanage again. Natasha said she had not felt well in the morning, but Jana had brought her some medicine (maybe vitamin I or T?) and she felt better. Pasha seemed fine, just still coughing all over anyone and everything. We played UNO, looked at pictures, and I took pictures of several friends who said they also wanted to have a family.

This morning I received a call from Tanya. She had heard from the orphanage that 50+ kids now are sick with the flu. She wasn't sure what flu it is (I suspect they really do not even know if it really is the flu), but suggested I not go by today. I may just pop in for a quick "hello" later today. The bummer about so many kids being sick is that their "isolation" area is not nearly large enough to handle that number. So, it means that kids who may be sick will be hanging out in their normal rooms around the rest of the kids, which is a recipe for more spreading. Hopefully, they can keep it under control.

Well, that's it for now. In addition to my exciting adventures, work is keeping me busy, so I better get some of that done while I have the chance.

Final court papers will be ready Thursday. Pray then that ID re-issuing, birth certificates and passports will go speedily along!

Thanks,

Bruce

A Crazy Exciting Day!

Well, not really. I'm just messing with you!

It was really more of the same. Although I did learn a few things about Ukraine or maybe about myself today that I'd like to share with you:

1. Sitting in a restaurant for your one meal out each day can be kind of lonely.
   Sitting in a restaurant for your one meal out each day while playing Sudoku on your borrowed cell phone rocks!
   
   
2. Walking the quarter mile or so through the old cemetery on the way to downtown at dusk is not so scary.
   Walking the quarter mile or so through the old cemetery on the way back to the Bible House in pitch black at 8PM is a bit more scary, especially when someone is walking behind you about 20 yards the whole way.
   
   
3. Being here by myself does not give me much opportunity to speak English in sentences longer than a few mono-syllabic words. Even when I speak English with someone who clearly understands English, I still use the same few mono-syllabic words (and even a little bit of a Russian accent....).
   
   
4. I know I have super human hearing when I can pick up an English word spoken in a hallway filled with kids at the internot (Today I met a couple from Texas adopting a 15 year old girl at the same orphanage as Natasha and Pasha. I hope to meet up with them for dinner or something soon.)
   
   
5. Surgical masks are like gold (and I scored one today for free!).
   
   
6. You don't need to ride the buses to get around Kherson...you just need good walking shoes and a lot of time on your hands (I haven't ridden a bus yet, and have walked every where. I'm not getting on those buses....you just know they're filled with all those people who have swine flu and haven't scored a free mask like I did!)
   
   
7. Even if you don't speak Russian, you can still usually communicate OK with servers helping you at restaurants. It becomes infinitely more difficult when all the servers in the restaurants are wearing surgical masks and all you have to go on is eye contact!
   
   
8. A few good chuckles watching a re-run of The Office can really lift one's spirits.
   
   
9. Hearing a 14 year old girl tell the 14 year old girl that you're adopting that she would like to have a family too, breaks your heart no matter how many times it happens.
   
   
10. Aw heck, I don't have anything else. I just wanted to have a list of 10 things on my post today.
    
    

Well, the only real news of today is that our request to have the 10 day waiting period waived or reduced was denied. Oh well, at least we tried. Tanya said that the judge was sympathetic but there was nothing she could do about it. So, we wait. One week from today we'll have the final court decree and we can start sprinting again.

Thanks for everyone's prayer support. Please pray that Pasha would feel well soon and that Natasha and her roomies would use the hand sanitizer I gave them today! :)

Later,

Bruce

Wait Day Numero Uno...

Even though I've only been here 3 days, I'm already starting to get into a rhythm. Here's a typical day in the life:

8/9AM - drag myself out of bed...feeling a bit woozy from my double dose of Nyquil the night before (Nyquil rocks to get over jet lag in a jiffy!!)

9-12 - Catch up on work stuff...emails...reports....blah blah blah.

12-1ish - Go out for a walk either to town or to the outdoor market. Have my "eat-out" meal and protein for the day.

2ish - 3 or 3:30 - Catch up on more work stuff.

3:30 go see Natasha and Pasha for an hour or so before they have to go to "homework class". Due to the swine flu scare, I may not take them out of the orphanage, but I may go in.

5ish - Walk around a bit...enjoy the sites of Kherson...see who's burning what in the streets...say "hi" to the little black dog...make my way back to Bible House by 6ish

6ish - Have some "dinner" .... usually Ramen noodles, some yogurt, dried fruit, a couple of those wafer things they have here that I love (!), and of course, a coke light!

7-ish -10-ish - More work usually as folks are in the office and sending me emails and asking me to do stuff.

10-ish - 11-ish - Watch a recent TV show using ninjavideo.net (last night I watched 2 episodes of House...it was awesome!)

Yep...that's my routine. I've been getting tired around mid-day since my body thinks it's 3 or 4 AM...but I push through it with a little caffeine.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I sat with Natasha in her sitting area. I hadn't re-installed the Russian-English-Russian translation software on my laptop since returning to the states. My laptop contracted a "virus" when Michele and I were here and I had to rebuild the entire system when I was at home. Anyway, re-installed the software and configured the Russian keyboard so that we could chat. A couple of Natasha's suite-mates were hanging out and interested in seeing what I was saying and asking questions. One of her roomies told Natasha that she would like to have a family too. Every time I hear someone at the orphanage say that, it just breaks my heart... So I'll be coming back with pictures for all you families who are feeling the tug to adopt! :)

Pasha came by for a little while too. He proudly displayed the missing tooth that was loose yesterday but came out last night. We chatted just for a few minutes then he was off doing something else (I think his caregiver called him to help clean).

By 4:45 Natasha's caregiver came in to tell the girls it was time for study classes. So, I packed everything up and headed out.

When I got back to the Bible House, I called Tanya. With all the hoopla about swine flu in Ukraine, I asked her if she would be willing to go to court and ask if they would waive or reduce the 10 day waiting period. She will be at court today (Wednesday) and will ask. She doesn't know what the judge will say, but I figured "nothing ventured, nothing gained!" Please pray that the court would decide in our favor and help us speed up the process. So far, the closure of the SDA for 3+ weeks is not affecting our process. But I don't want anything else to happen that could hinder our coming home in November.

Enough for now. Time to get some work done.

Later,

Bruce

Been there...done that.

Until today, I could not say the above about attending Ukraine adoption court. Now I can! Yep, I received a call from Tanya last night while waiting for the train that court was scheduled for today (Monday) at 1PM.

After arriving in Kherson this morning at about 6AM, I grabbed a couple of hours of sleep at the Bible House where I'm staying once again. Then Tanya and Oksana (regional inspector) picked me up and we headed to court.

The three of us met up with Roman at the court building. Due to swine flu worries, all the schools and internots are "closed". For schools, this means that no one is going to school for the next 2 to 3 weeks. For the internots, this means that the kids may not leave the premises. So Roman was at court representing Natasha and Pasha.

Court only lasted about 20 minutes or so. The judge asked me a few questions (where do you live, what do you and your wife do for a living, what is your home like, do you have additional children, etc.). Then Oksana and Roman both did their part and the judge read a bunch of documents. There were two additional ladies in the courtroom and Tanya told me they were "public assessors", I think that just means that they were there to observe and be witnesses to the process. I did notice, however, at the end that the judge asked both of them if they had any questions for me or concerns about the adoption. They both smiled at me and indicated they had no objections (I think that means I made a good impression).

So, that's it! We are now in the 10 day waiting period. We will receive the official court decree next week Thursday (11/12) at which time the adoption becomes "really official". Thereafter, we will apply for new birth certificates and passports, a process which can take 7-10 days. Once we have birth certificates and passports, the three of us will head back up to Kiev where we will get medical exams and immigration Visas. The plan is to head home on the 25th...and I'm really hoping we can do that to enjoy Thanksgiving in Colorado!

After court, I walked to the internot and was able to see Natasha and Pasha. They were happy to see me and both gave me big hugs. I tried to communicate that we had had court today and that everything had gone smoothly. I then tried to explain the timeline by drawing pictures and explaining what the rest of the process would look like. Between my pictures and their understanding some basic English, I'm pretty sure they know what's going on. When I drew a picture of an airplane with an arrow to "USA", they definitely understood that! :)

Well, that's it for now. I'll visit with them and other kids at the internot each afternoon and for a while on Saturday and Sunday, but won't be able to take them anywhere. It's a bit of a bummer, but we'll make the best of it.

Thanks for all your prayers. Please pray that next week the process to get the birth certificates and passports will go smoothly and quickly. Also, with all the worries about swine flu, please pray that we all stay healthy for the next 3 weeks especially.

Later,

Bruce

Back in the saddle again...

It felt a bit like I was back in the saddle again today after 3 flights (Denver-Philadelphia-Frankfurt-Kiev) and about 14 hours in a plane seat. But, I'm back safely in Kiev and waiting in the train station for the train to Kherson.

There's apparently a significant flu outbreak here, in particular in the western part of the country. So, Nadia told me that they have actually "closed" down that part of the country. No travel into or out of the western region for the next week or so. A ton of people here in Kiev are wearing surgical masks as a precaution. Nadia had purchased a few of those basic "dust" masks you can get at the hardware store (like Home Depot) and she gave me one. She said that the pharmacies are all sold out of the surgical masks.

She doesn't think it's as bad down in Kherson...it's mostly the worry about what might happen in the next week in the big metro cities like Kiev.

Nadia gave me papers from the SDA to take with me to Kherson. I'm really hoping we can have court tomorrow (Monday). Let's get this ball rolling!

I hope all my state-side friends and family remembered to turn your clocks back!

Appreciate your prayers for continued safe travel and reuniting with Natasha and Pasha.

More tomorrow.

Bruce