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