Things I Just NEVER Expected...

Ok I think I am strong enough now to post this blog without crying through the whole thing! From start to finish this entire trip was nothing like I expected it to be! Most the trip and everything that went on for the Ukraine side of things. Now most of you are going to be broken hearted as I am but our “Gotcha Day” was like a tornado and it blew by before we were able to get pictures or anything. I think Shelly and Danna may have snapped a few but I have nothing!!! As we post previously we got news that the kids passport were done and we would have them Monday and then be on the overnight train to Kiev. So that meant getting the kids out Monday afternoon… PERFECT!!! Fred and I packed everything and we were ready to go when we went to get the kids at 1pm Monday March 14th, but we got a call that the passports were not ready and that we might have to wait another night… fine no problem! We went and got the kids; we went to Cole’s room first, he was the only baby in the room and there were only two ladies working when we showed up. Sadly like every day before there was NO emotion, the lady took the cloths walked over to Cole (swinging in a swing) grabbed him out, by the hands, and went in back to change him. She then brought him out and handed me him and his mittens and that was it. Really she just said bye and closed the door.
Next we went to Rorieann’s room, still no other kids out but a whole group of women working???? They took her cloths and went to change her. When they brought her out they were all smiling and said bye and that was that. We were FREE… free to un-layer them… free to leave and NEVER come back… but wait a minute now what? Here I am in a crazy mixed up country, I can’t speak the language let alone understand the writing and I know nothing about these two precious kids schedule or routine. Everytime I asked they would say “Oh we will let you know before you leave with them, we will give you a list of foods they can eat”… I never got a list. So here I am a new Mom with a new Dad and two children that need to eat… but what do they eat? When do they sleep, how do they sleep? I felt like I was thrown in with the lions. We were beyond happy to have our kids in our arms and be walking out of that place but now we had to wait to see about the passports. We got a call saying that they still we not ready but they would call to check on them and try to get us on the late train but that we should be ready! Well about 15mins after that call when we all sat down for lunch we got another call, passports are done and the drivers are on their way we should be ready in 20mins. Drivers showed up in 10mins and we were gone in 20mins. 20 mins to make sure we have everything, gather ourselves together and say our good-byes to the family that took such good care of us for 6weeks. I’ll be honest it was nothing but a tear fest!!!! From that moment on we didn’t stop… We ran to the train, just making it in time, we did get some things from the bazaar for the kids to eat and just prayed it was some that would fill them up until we could get help in Kiev.
I just never expected to be so emotional, from start to finish your emotions are all over the place. I never expected that going home would be so hard, I thought once we were going home I would just be so happy that nothing else would matter. It’s more complicated than that, going home was strange because it’s not like I’m going back home to my life… my life has changed now, my life now includes two beautiful children that ARE my life. I never expected that when I came home I would have to learn to breath again, I have been holding my breath and my feeling back for so long that now how do I… how do ????
I am sooooooo happy to be a Mom and every time I look at their faces I just think I never expected that I could LOVE something or someone this much!!!! This trip was the HARDEST thing I have EVER had to do but to hold them close and know that they are mine… I would take this trip a thousand more times!!!!

Here are some pictures we were able to take once we were on the train and things were calm!!!

Getting Close...

We are in our final hours. We are so close to being home, I think we can almost taste the Qdoba from here!!! We left a lot of friends and family back in region, but I think it will be nice to finally get home. Amanda is packing our bags, I think we are leaving all of our clothes here. We want to make sure that we have enough room for the kids stuff and gifts that were given to us. Plus we are bring two kids back this time through the airport which makes luggage an interesting challenge. Thank you all for your love, prayers and support! Next time we talk we will be stateside!!!! Until then.....

A Light at the end of the tunnel...literally!

Well...we are on the over night train to get back to Kiev! The train is nice and Cole is already asleep. Rorie on the other hand, I think stays up all night like daddy. I am going to keep this short and sweet but thanks for all of your prayers!!! Talk to you in Kiev!

Where are we now???

Sorry we haven't updated our blog in a few days, it has been CRAZY here!!! On Wednesday we started our final paperwork run in region. What we thought would be one day of running around and then we would be done, turned into 2 ½ days but it all got done! I have to Thank God for the team we have working with us the kids passports were not going to be accepted but our facilitator made a call and… WA-LA!!!! Our facilitator was ABSOLUTLY AMAZING, she had to work (balance) with both us and the Burman Bunch at the same time, she was up all three days by 5am and ran around like a chicken with her head cut off, dodging bullets until 7at night then went back to her hotel to organize all four kids paperwork and help families that are preparing their dossiers back in the states! I’m telling you “Amazing” doesn’t begin to describe it!!! Then we were told that the soonest the passports would be done would be 5 days, that would have put us at this week Thursday. As we were pouting about the news, God was working!!!!! We got a call on Saturday that our passports were done and were expected to be in region Monday (today)!!! So today, Monday March 14th 2011, will be our “GOTCHA DAY”!!!

Also the orphanage has been quarantined so it has been hard to see the kids, which actually worked out cuz all we have been doing the last few days is packing and saying good-bye to our visiting “Church Family” and our new Ukraine (Crimean Tartar) family! I think I could write a book on all the blessing God has given us! I have wanted to go home so bad that I never thought of all that I will miss. This place has been my home for 40 LOOOONNGGGGG days and now that it’s time to say good-bye, I find it a little hard to do so!!!!! The family that we are staying with had us over last night and we played games until 2am… Laughing and crying! They told us after 40 days we have become their family… how do I say Good-bye to my new family??? I guess leaving this country is going to be harder than I thought!!!!

I am hoping to update the blog after we have sprung the kids but if everything goes as planned (PLEASE pray) we will be on the 4:00pm train bound for Kiev!!! So I will update the blog Tuesday!! I hope to get some “GOTCHA DAY” pics posted ASAP… but please bear with me!!!

Father Daughter Dance!!!

We took this video of Fred and Rorie's first father daughter dance! I love it!!! I will post an update later tody so stay poted & ENJOY!!!

Crazy Running...

Today was... interesting!!! Like most thing we have done here today went nothing like I thought it would! I was really sick last night and barely slept but had to be up and running at 8:30am. I felt much better once we got going, first road block of the day was getting the court decree. We got to the court house and our papers weren't ready so we had to sit in a freezing car and wait (the story of this trip)poor Luda was just running around getting copies made and taking care of everything I wished there was someting Fred or I could have done to help besides sitting in the car waiting. We waited at the court house for about 1hour and 45mins and I had to pee so bd it felt more like 5hrs!!! Finally I looked at Fred and said you need to call Luda and ask where a bathroom is i think I'm gonna explode!!!! Praise God Arturo (our driver) knew that there was a bathroom right across the street, I cant tel you hoe GREAT it felt... sorry prolly TMI but its the truth!!! Then with frozen feet we were off the Rorie's birth place which was very close to the Black Sea, so we got so nice pics I guess!



Then back to region to get Cole's birth certificate. We went to the Tax office for the kids Tax numbers, then to the notary (which always takes for ever!!!!) While we were waiting outside the notary office our driver turned on "Titanic" in russian!!!! Last we went to the Social Workers office for some more paperwork and we were back to the apt but 6pm!!! I really felt for Luda she took the overnight train then ran around with us ALL DAY and still had to organize all our paperwork and the Burman's paperwork for tomorrow. And she has a full day of running with us and the Burmans tomorrow!!! The worst thing about today was that we didn't get to see the kids all day long, we havent gone a whole day without seeing them since we got here I can't tell you how weird it is!!! We didnt get every thing done that we need to we will finish everthing tomorrow I hope at least get the passports done because those take the most time to get done and I want... no I NEED to go home now!!! So thats where we sit I'll keep u posted on where we go tomorrow!!!!

Cole and His Hats...

Got bored this afternoon and threw this together...Hope you enjoy!

SOME GREAT PICTURES!!!!!

I love these two litte ones soooooo much I just can't imagine my life with out them... I think they are KEEPERS!!!

Videos...

Today it was so nice we got to go out and swing on the swing set!!! I think the kids liked it????

Videos...

Here are the videos we promised... ENJOY

Rorie is learning how to brush hair... her hair, Mama's har & Daddy's hair???...

It's Finally Warm!!!

So today it finally warmed up again. We had the one day last week that it was almost 50, but quickly faded away to a week of chilly 30 degree weather. This morning we were allowed to take the kids outside to enjoy the beautiful weather we are having. Last nights visit went well and this mornings visit was interesting to say the least. We asked Rorie's caretakers if we could go outside for a walk and they said yes. They changed her diaper and handed Amanda a scarf and let us take her. This is very odd, because usually they bundle the kids up beyond belief to go upstairs and sit on a couch. Now, we are going outside and they just let her go...go figure :)! I go upstairs to get Cole and ask his workers if we can go outside, they say yes. One goes to change his diaper while another one comes with the calendar to ask us when we are leaving. This is kinda of odd because this is the second time that Cole's group has asked me when we are leaving...maybe they just want to get rid of us!! It's ok with me, cause I wanna go too!! LOL.

After our morning visit, Amanda and I hopped the bus and headed into the city center again becaue it was such a beautiful day and we love walking around downtown. We took a bunch of amazing photographs that will make it into the slideshow we will be showing at church the first week we get home. We stopped at my favorite pizza place agian, Celentano's. I just love it there, and we can both eat a big lunch for about $8, win win in my book!

Finally we came home and Amanda started going through all of the video that we have taken over the last two days. Amanda got a Flip for Christmas and that is what we have been taking all of our pictures on. It is really nice because it is a HD video recorder. Out of the video clips you can go frame by frame and select pictures to pull out. This is where all of our pictures have come from. Amanda is such an amazing and patient woman to go through all of that video. I think from when we got here to date we have approximately 3 hours of video footage that Amanda has poured over to pull out the pictures that have been emailed out and posted on the blog for you all to see, THANK YOU AMANDA!!

Well, we are getting ready to leave for our afternoon visit, so I am going to leave you with these. First, please keep us in your prayers. We are praying for a fast passport turn around for the kids so we can make our return ticket date of March 16th. If not, thats ok, but it would save us a ton of money. Also, Saturday March 19th is our Milwaukee Regional Awana Games and I would like to make it back for (because I help judge the event). Sunday March 20th I am scheduled to preach at church and that night I am to return back to work. I know everything can be moved and rescheduled, but Amanda and I are ready to come home.

I am having trouble uploading the videos so check back...I am going to try and reupload them when we get home. Until we talk again.....

Hanging Out

So we found out Sunday night that because of Women's Day here in Ukraine we will have a bit of a delay, This is a huge thing here I guess the whole city shuts down to honor women (Maybe America should take the tip!!!!). It is very frustrating have to wat yet again but we will REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS!!!!! One positive is that when we originally booked out tickets, we set a return date of March 16th because it was much cheaper than buying an open ended ticket. Well, with the delay now we are going to be pretty close to that date so it should save us some money as long as we don't have to change our travel date, Please keep that in prayer!

Visits are going well. Each day it seems that the kids are getting better and better. Rorie gets so excited when we come to her room to pick her up for our visit time. Cole is getting more attentive each passing day. He has been sitting up more and engaging a lot more which is exciting to see.

As you can see, we have just been hanging around here waiting. With the delay, it is possible that we wouldn't have to change our plane tickets which would be nice and save us about $600, but the passports for the kids have to get turned around really quick in order for us to make that date. Please continue to pray for us and for the passports and rest of the paperwork to get done quickly so we can make it home. Thanks for all of your support and prayers. Until we talk again....