The "FINAL COUNTDOWN"!!!

Our first days as "Offical" parents... still feels the same I don't think I will REALLY feel anything until I can actually take them home with me!!! Today was very calm... we went to our morning visit and it was GREAT!!! The kids were very alert and happy. Then we came back to our appartment and I took a nap (NOT like me at all, but I'm NOT the same person that came to this country!) Fred went to the Bazar and picked up some odds and ends but the meat market wasn't opened today so he couldn't make plov for dinner.

This is what the meat market looks like when it is open




After my nap I got up and CLEANED!!! I did the dishes, I hand washed some clothes and I cleaned up the front hall... Ahhhhhhhhhhhh it felt sooo GREAT!!!!!! I miss cleaning my house but soon I'll be home and wishig I had nothing to clean! We went to our evening visit which was also GREAT and when we got home Shelly and Brian were back from court. There were a few bumps but they were declared Mama and Papa of Carrigton and Reagan!!!! And Shelly was a little bummed because they are going home for the 10day wait but when she comes back she would miss her sons first T-Ball game and her daughters play and she has been away from them for a month! Here's the blessing, in Ukraine they celabrate Lady's Day March 8th so that will delay thier process just enough so that Shelly will be able to be home for both the pay and the T-Ball game!!!! I'm soooo happy for her!!! That's all for today... I will leave you with two videos from our morning visit today!

It's the Karol & Karol & Karol & Karol SHOW!!!

It is offical we are now a complete family...


Let me introduce Rorieann Christine Karol



And Cole Lewis Karol



Oh it feels sooooo good to say that but it's hard to feel like we are really parents. I think it will hit me when we have them in our arms and we can leave this crazy place!!! I didn't sleep very well last night which I'm sure makes a lot of sense!!! We got up this morning and I was not yet feeling better so we took it easy and slow. My stomach was flipping. I have NEVER been in court, not even on a field trip, so I had this terrifing image in my head like on Law & Order. When we finally got into the room it was more like the court room you would have seen on the Any Griffith Show. LOL!!! The judge came in at about 2pm and asked us to "explain" what we were doing here... Marina helped ask us questions that the judge would have wanted to hear about. The social worker and the orphange attorney both gave us positive reviews. They both suggested that it was in the childrens best intrest that we be allowed to adopt them!!! That put us at ease but not a person in the room smiled AT ALL. The whole thing was about 45 or 50 minutes in all, then we waited for about an hour and a half for the judge to come back and declare her decison. She came back and read the longest mumbo jumbo I have ever heard. I didn't even realize what her decision was until Marina said "Say Thank You"! We were done in just enough time to make it to our afternoon visit, when I went to Rorie's room to get her I picked her up and everyday when I pick her up I take her hand and pat it on my chest and say Mama... today I just said Mama and she patted my chest all on her own!!! It melted my heart!!! Thank you for all the prayers so far we are half way done now just the 10 day wait and then 7 to 9 days of paperwork and then "Home again Home again jigity jig!"

Home Sick

As you can see, we are a little home sick, so I found some ground beef in the market and we grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs the other day. Grilling here is much different and makes me miss my grill back home. The picture below is of a window

in the orphanage. The inside of orphanage is a beautiful building. This was not really what we expected, we were told it is the poorest orphanage in the country and the kids live in their own feces. The complete opposite is true here. There is a pretty nice playground outside and there is always someone cleaning or mopping the floors every other day. The workers here are mostly nice to us, but the overwhelming feeling of the special needs children being useless is still prevalent.

We went to church today, it was really good to be able to fellowship with other believers in the body of Christ. Also, Amanda got strep throat today. She did bring antibiotics along with us, so hopefully catching this realatively early, she can get rid of this fairly quickly.

Tomorrow is court, so please be praying for us. We have no idea what to expect any more, because everything that was told to us, has not been the way it was explained. We know the issue with Tanya living with us is going to come up and we are going to have to explain it all over agian. We are just taking this one day at a time so please keep us in your prayers. Until we speak again.....

Are They Ours Yet?

So another Saturday come and gone and looking at the calendar, we have been here 3 weeks already! It is very disheartening too see other families that have come after us already home on their 10 day waiting period and we are still sitting around waiting for our court date. To say the least I am very disappointed in this facilitation team! But Amanda and I are making the best out of the situation that we have been put in. The Burman's and Amanda and I get up every morning and just laugh because we figure it can't get any worse than it is. Please continue to pray for the Burmans as they have been away from home a month now and I can't imagine the toll it is taking not only on them, but their children back in the States.

On a good note, the Burmans celebrated their wedding anniversary yesterday. Tonight for dinner, mama and I got together and made a HUGE spread. Alim made shashliek on the grill
and I gave them a taste of good old fashioned southern barbeque. I made Memphis country style pork ribs. Babooshka and mama thought I was crazy putting sugar in a rub for the meat. When it was all said and done, it was a big hit. I did get the recipie for the marinade that they used to make the shashliek with, it was amazing! As you can see from the pictures, our visits have been going extremely well. The first picture of Rorie was absolutely hilarious. We took my backpack with some toys for the kids to play with. Rorie scooted over to the backpack and proceeded to pull all of the toys out of the backpack and threw them all over the floor. Then, instead of playing with the toys, tried to climb into the backpack. With a little help from mama, well...you can see the result. So attention all family and friends, when her birthday comes around in June, we would just like backpacks for her! hahaha. The second picture is the kids in hats that my mother made for them. The running joke about Cole's hat is that is it very bright colors so we don't lose him in the snow! It has been pretty warm here, so we are going to have to wait until we get home to drop him into a snow bank to see if we can find him :)

We got a phone call last night and the facilitator told us that our court date changed AGAIN. This time it is moved back to Monday at 1:15pm. I am really glad that we are staying the whole time and not going home for the 10 day waiting period. It would be too late to book tickets back home at a decent price, and our court date has been moved so many times, we would have paid $1000 in ticket change fees. Unbelievable...well, I guess it is just another blessing the Lord was watching out for us. Thank you for all the prayers, but to whoever is praying for patience ... QUIT IT!!! hahaha we have had enough waiting, we want this over and done with so we can bring the kids home! On a more serious note, we do thank everyone for the prayers and thoughts as we continue to push forward toward the goal. Please keep praying for our attitudes as it is frustrating every day. Pray for the Lord's provision and currently we are a week over the schedule we were given and possibly looking at being here an extra week. But on the positive side, we have been here 3 weeks and it looks like 3 more weeks to go, so we are at least half way. Please continue to pray for the Burmans as they continue with delays that far excede ours. Pray for their family and it has to be hard to be away from 5 kids at home. Thank you so much and until next time we speak again.....

Daddy playing with the KIDS!!!

We had a GREAT visit this evening both of the kids were VERY active which was GREAT!!! Fred did some bonding with both kids and it was soooooo GREAT to see!!!


I have a little funny story to share... yesterday when we went to our afternoon visit I was waiting for the caregivers to bring me Rorie and Fred went to get Cole but PRAISE GOD Alim was with me because the caregivers were trying to ask if I wanted Rorie's hair cut and Alim explained what they were saying... I said NO!!!!!!! And I'm glad I did because when we brought her back to her groupa the other kids hair was scary... it looked like thier hair was cut with a hack saw!!! The only kids with hair in that groupa is Rorie and Noah!!!


Good news... we HEARD that our court date is Tuesday at 3:00pm... I pray that it doesn't change, I just don't know if I can handle any more change!!! I made a "deal" with God, I am gonna look at everything with a positive view and I'm determind to look back on this experience and be able to smile and in return God is gonna get me outta here!!!!!! JK!!! PRAISE GOD I can still have a sense of humor about all this!!!

I just HAD to post this video!!!

Rorie is picking things up very quickly, I believe she already understands her name she just doesn't always respond because she is "STUBORN"!!! She is very good at mimicking... when she is focused!!! I just LOVE this kid!!!

Wednesday...It's only Wednesday...Seriously!!!

So today has been a very interesting day. I suppose I should start off with the new adoption news that is going with us. So today we FINALLY received a call from our facilitator. The reason that they called was to tell us that our court date MIGHT be on Tuesday. The facilitator told us they would call back tonight to let us know the time and to confirm that we had a court date...but it has been 8 hours...so I don't think they will be calling back. This is getting a little frustrating since they told us that court was on Monday and now its been changed. We have already been pushed back a week in comparison to all of the other families that have come and gone. Got to love the help and support that we are getting over here.

On the bright side, the family that we are staying with are unbelievably amazing. They go above
and beyond every single day for us. It really helps us pass the time and to fight off the home
sickness by making us feel like they are just an extention of our family living over here. The cooking lessons are going well. They have been helping to keep my mind off of this frustrating experience, and how we have been abandonded in a foreign country. The borsh from the other night was amazing!! At first the "blood soup" idea turned Amanda off, but when she tried it, she loved it. It is basically beef vegatable soup with fried beets thrown in for the last 5 minutes of cooking to turn the broth red. Tonight I learned how to make Basturma, which was basially layered beef stew. That was simply amazing as well. I can't wait for our next fellowship lunch after church to try out the new recipes that I am collecting. The asked me about sarma, and I had mentioned that I knew how to make it so I think I won a few brownie points by already knowing how to cook that.

Other than that, it has been pretty much the same thing day in and day out. The kids are amazing and each day we are growing closer and closer to them. Everyone has heard the saying 'knowledge is power' and that saying is also true over here. It is just too bad that we don't have any knowledge. This process is run on a need to know basis, and we are told we don't need to know, which is sad because it is our adoption process we are asking about. Please be in prayer that the process goes smoothly, because at this point only God knows what is actually going on and where we are at. We are blessed each day with the priviledge of seeing and playing with our kids. Please continue to pray for the Burmans as well as then encounter even more hardache and strife then we are seeing. It has been a huge blessing to have them along side of us, but to give you an idea of how far behind and how much they are getting hassled around, they should have been home on their 10 wating period a week and a half ago.

So far this trip has had its ups and downs. We praise the Lord for all of the ups and cry through all of the downs. We covet you prayers and rejoice with you all during the thanksgivings. We continue to miss and pray for all of you at home as we are one day closer to coming home,... hopefully!

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

Rorie was walking along the wall and trying to run away from me... that little stinker!!!!

I just LOVE this face of His!!!!!

Rorie kissing Grandpa John's Picture!!!

Mama Kissing Cole!!!!

Rorie taking brother for a walk!!! She is a BIG helper

Look at that precious face... he was snoring just like Daddy!!!!

Ride'em Cowgirl!!!!!

Cole LOVES his big sister!!!! She's not so fond!!!!

Rorie loved the swing... you can't tell by her face but she really did love it!!!

We miss Suki very much but this pup will have to do until we get home... Cole was sleeping!

And the Week Rolls On...

So far, the week just keeps rolling along. We are still waiting to hear about a court date. It has been 6 days now and we have not heard from a facilitator yet... We did have a great weekend visiting the kids. As you can see the picture, Rorie finally is starting to attach to me. About half way through our afternoon visit, she crawled over to me, climbed up into my lap, and fell asleep! Yea for daddy daughter time! We took a banana along with us as well yesterday evening and Rorie absolutely loves them! She ate the whole banana! She got quite upset when the banana was all gone but she quickly got over it. Cole has been amazing as well. He has been much more awake and interacting with us. We have some

great video of him talking to us that we will share as soon as we can get it posted.

The cooking lessons from babooshka and mama have been going very well. One day when we got home absolutely exhausted, they came over with this amazing rice dish. The next day, I asked them if they could teach me how to make it. Last night we finished our third cooking lesson. It is so much fun and a great time of fellowship with another family even though we don't speak the language and all of our other interaction with people that are here and that we are working with have been extremely rude and cruel to us and the other family that is with us. So far I have learned how to make the rice dish, Plov, a fried pocket with meat, Chubrekuy, and last night a stuffed dumpling with meat, Manti. Tonight when we get home from the orphanage we will be making borsch, which is blood soup :). We have a full week planned of meals to learn.

We are getting ready to go for our morning visit so this isn't very long, I will try to post again tonight when we get home. Please continue to pray for us and the other family as we continue to wait for a court date, or for that matter, any information or contact from our facilitators. The other family has just walked out the door to go visit their other child which is about 45 minutes away. The facilitator called and gave them 15 minutes notice to get ready and leave....unbelievable. Please continue praying for all of our situations. God Bless.

Waiting Waiting Waiting!!!!

I want to Thank everyone for your prayers for the family we are staying with, everything is ironed out and hopefully from here on out it will be smooth sailing!!!!
Now we just WAIT... GRRRRR... waiting is the theme to this WHOLE process!!! I was doing my word study yesterday during the hullabaloo that was going on here and my word of the day was “Joyfulness”! How fitting…! WHAT… you might ask but it really did fit. The definition that my Bible gives is… it’s an inner gladness that can exist no matter what HAPPENS! Happiness is VERY different; happiness depends on what is happening in your life at that moment. I am trying to focus on the “joy of the Lord”!!! Our visit today was nice Fred is sharing Cole a little more every day; I think he is having a hard time bonding with Rorie. I think maybe he thought her transition would be easy but for almost three years she has only heard Russian so English is going to take some time. Rorie does this “fake” cry when she wants something, she is the orphanage favorite so I think she get what she wants! That will have to change!!! It’s funny because when I come over and look at her she kinda stops then I blow in her face and she just laughts… she is so SASSY!!!!! We are very proud of Cole he focuses on my face and toys a little more everyday! Oh I just can’t wait to be with them all the time and I can’t wait to see what kind of kids they will become!!!!!


Look a that face!!!! I just LOVE it!!!


You should hear this kid giggle it melts my heart everytime!!!!

Calling All Prayer Warriors....

The family that we are here with has just had their world flipped upside down. I don't know the situation or what is going on, but please, PLEASE be in prayer for the situation and all parties involved. It is a very tough situation...

Just Letting You Know!!!

Hello All this is Amanda, I thank you for all the thoughts and prayer for me! Things are better and as Fred has already posted we are staying and toughing it out! Please pray for our health, if it's not me feeling yuckie it's Fred, also keep my tooth pain in prayer that it STAYS AWAY!!!!!! I jumped on quick because I wanted people to know Fred and I are not ignoring anyone or too busy to post but where we are staying the internet is VERY SLOW, it cuts in and out! We have been blessed to use the Burman's modem but even that isn't very strong. It took Shelly two hours to upload a few pictures today! VERY Frusterating!!!! We are hoping to get the connection fixed tomorrow!!!!!! Keep us in our prayers we are hoping to hear about our court date tomorrow or Friday!!!! Pray that is comes soon and we are given a good judge!!! Thank you fo your love and support!!!

The Widow and Her Son Whose Internet Thumb Stick Would Not Run Out

It seems that I have slipped back into my old sleep schedule again. :) It is currently almost 6:30am here and I have been up since 4am talking to both my mothers and friends via skype.

It has been very frustrating the past week having to deal with a very slow internet connection. We are very thankful for the internet thumb drive that the Burmans have, but it takes one hour to send one picture. As I was fuming over how long it takes to upload one picture, and the inability to video or even just voice chat with all of our friend and family at home, I made a realization. For the last week, we have been using the prepaid internet thumb stick a considerable amount of time. I have been keeping a close eye on the balance that is left on it so we can make sure to pay the Burmans for the amount of time that we use.

An amazing thing has been happening with this little thumb stick. No matter how much the Burmans or Amanda and I use the internet, or how long it takes us to check our email or upload a picture, the balance has not once gone down! This remided me of the story of Elijah and the Widow and her son. I am not going to go into details of the story but encourage you to read it for yourself in 1 Kings 17:8-16. God is the great provider! No matter how much I complain about how slow the internet is, we are still always able to at least chat with friends and family and get one or two pictures out.

On a good note, we found a computer store in town and will be getting an antenna today to hopefully increase the signal of the wireless router so this evening or tomorrow we can go back to video chatting with all of you and start posting lots of pictures and video.

On another good note, it seems that the Burmans and Amanda and I will be able to celebrate Valentine's Day this year! The church we are attending is holding a Valentine's Day dinner on Saturday and has invited us to join them. What a blessing! God continues to meet our needs, even the ones we don't ask for! It has been so amazing to sit back and watch God work time after time while we are scared in a foreign land. I can't wait to see what He is going to do next.

Thank you all for your prayer support! Please continue to pray for the Burmans and us as we continue forward in the adoption process. We are all homesick, which makes life very intersting. We should know by then end of the week when our court date is. That is probably the most difficult thing to get used to over here, there are no plans! They wake up in the morning and see what we can get done today, if not, we try again tomorrow. Again, thank you all and God Bless. Talk to you all soon!

Big Issue Finally Cleared Up

So we had to go back to the social workers office today because she had some questions about our homestudy and the fact that Amanda's friend lives with us. She did not understand that she was not married and still was living with us. We started to explain that she rents a room from us and that she is going to help babysit one day a week, but the social worker was not understanding what we were talking about. I guess the cultural difference was too much. Finally, I pulled out my ordained minister's card to explain to her that I was a pastor and that we don't believe in cohabitation, and that she lived in a whole other part of the house. Once the social worker realized that I was a pastor, there was no more problems. We noticed this fact at the SDA appointment as well. When that lady found out that I was a pastor, the meeting was almost over as fast as it started and we had all the clearance and paperwork that were needed. I talked to the pastor of the church that we attended on Sunday and he said that once they find out that you are clergy, they will bend over backwards for you. Well it's nice to know that they at least respect that. So far forgetting to take my minister's card out of my wallet before we left is turning out to be a good thing, it is really paying off and making a lot of this paperwork go much smoother.

This mornings visit was short because of having to go to the social workers office. When we got to the orphanage, Cole was sleeping so we only got to visit with Rorie. We were able to take her outside, which she absolutely loved! Today is the first day in the last three days that it was not raining, but it is still a little chilly. I think it is somewhere between 35 and 40 degrees F. I think I am going to lay down for a little bit before we go to our evening appointment. Shelly is making chicken noodle soup and it is nice to have a little bit of smell from home. Thank you for the continued prayers for the Burman's and us. God Bless.

More Pictures and a Answer to Prayer!

Now that I have your attention, I appologize for not posting last night. I ended up going to bed at 9am and waking up this morning at 7am. It felt so good to get 10 hours of sleep!

Yesterday was an amazing day and was full of nothing but answers to prayer. First of all, the Burmans meeting with the director was a huge success!! They received consent to adopt their little one from the institution! They are only allowed two visits a week because the director wants to supervise the visits. Amanda had giving Shelly some pictures of the kids from her work and Shelly said those pictures sealed the deal. People over here don't believe that these children can grow up and be members of society. It blew them all away seeing adults and teenagers with special needs going to the zoo and playing in the park! Praise the Lord!

Second, while we were at our morning visitation, I went to go get Cole while Amanda sat down with Rorie. While I was in the baby room, Amanda saw Shea with the physical therapist! She said Shea looked beautiful and happy was she also mentioned that Shea was speaking russian and I guess very well! Congrats momma! :) Also, the speech therapist's office is right next to the play area that we are allowed to use while we visit the children. She came out in the morning and saw Rorie and just about cried! She was talking to Rorie in russian and once we explained to her that we were mama and papa...she did start to cry! She then left and about a half hour later brought Masha up to play with Rorie and left us alone for almost 20 minutes to play with Masha!!! Does it get any better than this??

I need to close because we need to leave to go back to the social workers office to answer a few more questions then we get to go to the morning visit. We have decided to stay the 10 day waiting period. The Burmans are going to be going home and Shelly and her friend will be returning to us. If anyone would like to get something to us, Shelly said that you can mail it to her in Texas and she will bring it over. I know we are having her take a few things home and bring us back some baby bottles. If this is the case, email me or Amanda and we will let you know what to do.

Thank you all for your continued prayer and support! We love and miss all of you, but it is the greatest feeling in the world to wake up in the morning and know that we are going to be able to play with OUR KIDS! God Bless.

Ehud the Left Handed Assassin and other stories from the day....

Hello again, it has been another interesting day. Once again it has been such a blessing to have the Burmans with us not only for support but also someone else who speaks english! Tomorrow morning they leave for their appointment to meet with the director to get their other daughter who has already been moved to the institute after she turned 4. The director's heart is very hard to the idea of adoption, so please be praying for Brian and Shelly as they make the trip. Please pray for the director's heart that it would be softened and for peace for them as this has been a very nerve racking couple of days.

Some good news, Amanda is feeling much better. We finally had a normal night of sleep last night, our first since we left the States. Now here it is almost 1 in the morning here and I'm blogging! :) We have noticed that the portions we are eating are much smaller and we are eating a little bit more fequently. But I guess when you take a trip such as this, your appetite isn't what it normally would be.

We went to church today at the church that Stephanie had recommended. The pastor and his wife were absolutely wonderful! The whole church was very welcoming and it felt as if we were at home. It is a small church just a little smaller than the one I serve at back home. The interesting part about this church though is that they have two services, one in the morning for the deaf, and one in the afternoon for the hearing. We attended the afternoon service so it was nice knowing that with the time difference, we were attending church at about the same time our brothers and sisters were in fellowship back home. It was amazing because Sunday school and the service were conducted in english, but were translated into russian. All of the hymns were sung in russian and it was amazing to be singing along with the congregation as they were singing Trust and Obey in russian and the four of us in english! The choir did a special music of Revive Us Again in russian which that hymn is my second all time favorite. It was truly a treat for me, russian is such a beautiful language...just wish I could understand it! There was also a trio that sang Father, I Adore You in a three part harmony round in russian. I wish I could have recorded it, it was amazing!

The visits with the kids today were great. Cole was a little more awake than he was yesterday. We are working with him on being touched. Both of the children have not had a lot of personal contact by the workers, so when you would kiss them on the cheek, they don't know or understand what you are doing. Rorie at first would give me this crazy look like she couldn't figure me out when I would kiss her on the cheek. Now, she is getting better, but I still get a little crazy look, followed by her amazing giggle. She still does crazy kisses with Amanda and now Amanda is getting her to clap afterward, she is such a doll. Rorie was a little bit quieter today than before because she was a little sick. She had a runny nose and was a little more content to sit and play on the couch with toys today at this mornings visit. This afternoon she got a round a little bit more and was a little more active. The workers in her room absolutely love her! When we come for a visit or to drop her off afterwards, the helpers speak no english and it has got to be absolutely hilarious watching us try and communicate. Today when we got there this morning, the workers took the time to learn in english, "we love her! we love her!" Amanda and I were so touched by the gesture because they were absolutely beaming and you knew that they truely meant it! My only other though is that they were so sick of listing to us butcher 'thank you' and 'yes' in russian, that they thought it would just be easier for them to learn english. :)

Tonight, Amanda and I, in our Bible study we talked about Ehud in the book of Judges. I found that it was so fitting that the story so aptly fits with our situation. Ehud, being left-handed, wasn't looked upon very highly in those ancient times, but still was used by God to do mighty works! I won't spend the time explaining the whole story here but encourage you to read it on your own. It can be found in the book of Judges chapter 3 verses 12-30. This story is so fitting because our children by societies standards are inferior. The major belief here, as it was in Scripture, that this "deformity" or "sickness" was because of something they or their parents did. The story of Ehud affims to me that God can and will use anyone who is willing, no matter what people think of you. This encourgaged Amanda and I that these two little ones have a purpose and were chosen by God to do some great things!

We have been discussing about coming home or staying during the 10 day waiting period. Please continue to pray for us and this decision. I know coming home even if for 5 days would be great time to relax a little and spend some time with much missed family, but I also know that there is an extreme price tag that would go along with that visit. So if anyone has $5000 laying around, could you let us know in the next day or two so we can make our decision? hahaha. I am leaning toward staying and just pushing through now that Amanda is doing much better. We are going to talk over the next day and see where we go from here.

I just want to thank everyone for all of the prayer support that we are being covered with. I know many of you are able to read this blog or check our facebook, and I know that there are some at church that haven't gotten into this whole internet revolution and are unable to read what we post. Anyone from church reading this, please pass this along to the church, since we are unable to get a video out yet due to lack of a really good internet connection. We ask for continued prayer for us, strength, peace, and patience that this will all be over soon and that we don't run out of the orphanage with the kids one day and they send the police after us! :) Also, please ask all of our prayer warriors at home to keep the Burmans in prayer as well. Thanks that we have their companionship and experience as this is their second adoption in Ukraine, and prayer that they can perservere, patience, and strength as they are hitting all of their pothole over here. It has been a difficult time for them and we have laughed and cried the whole time together.

1 Kings 8:27-29 "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple that I have built! Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O LORD my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before you today: that Your eyes may be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place of which You said, "My name shall be there,' that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place."

Colossians 4:2-3 "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains,"

Oh, to finish because you have made it this far listening to me, I though you would like to see at least an updated picture from yesterday....

Cole

Rorieann

Are We Home Yet?

This is Fred again, Amanda is passed out next to me. It has been a crazy past couple of days. We had a lot of difficulty our first day in region. Between the people and the time running around and the russian roulette that seeming to being played with our day. But we were able to meet our babies!!!! They are beautiful and we have tons of videos and pictures! Currently I am on the Burman's thumb drive internet connection so it is super slow updating pictures and videos. Where we are staying he is currently as I type putting a wifi router in that we picked up at the market today so hopefully tonight I can start posting some pictures! Amanda is feeling very sick so please keep her in your prayers. I think from all of the running around yesterday she got dehydrated and she is very homesick. With this happening, we have decided to come home after court and be stateside for our 10 day waiting period. We did not plan this when we were figuring out our finances, but Amanda's health is more important than any amount of money. So please be praying for us and where we are going to get the money for another set of round trip tickets for us. I know the visit home will benefit her so much, even though it only breaks down to 5 days that we are actually home. More to follow so stay tuned.....

Fun Pics In Kiev!!

I thought I would share some fun pics with everyone! WE got both of refferals and we are flying to region tomorrow morning and then we will finally see our babies!!!!!!!!!!



Fred's new LOVE... open face grilled cheese and ham sandwhiches



Fred's cooking... he made bacon and sausage!!! Yummmmm!!



People and vehicles share the side walk!!



You can just walk in and get a marriage license!!! Our Friends stayed in this building!



Our tiny elevator!




Fred in the tiny elevator!

It's What Time?!?!?!

Ok so this is my first time posting to our blog...Amanda usually keeps you all up to date on everything. It is currently almost 1am here in Kyiv and as usually I am awake. I am not taking to the sleep schedule change very well.

Today was a very interesting day. We had the priviledge of meeting the Burman's! What a wonderful and special couple! They are going through some struggles with the other girl that they are trying to adopt out of the institute. They had their SDA appointment yesterday, but we haven't heard yet how that went. Please be in prayer to soften the director's heart of the institute because she is dead set against allowing the Burman's to adopt their little girl!

We had the opportunity to go out to lunch with the Burman's today to a Ukraine buffet. At first I was really excited, especially if you know me and how I get around buffets. But much to my dismay, it was not all you can eat, but we got more food than we could eat and it was very reasonably priced. The buffet worked kind of like an a la carte lunch line.

Interacting has been quite interesting here as well. Between the grocery store and the restaurant, I think we got pegged right away for being American! :) They are very nice and usually put up with me struggling trying to order something from the deli or at the cash register trying to check out. There is a lot of pointing and smiling going on. My Ukrainian language practice before we left the states has been to no avail. It seems the louder and slower I talk, they still don't understand me and I get a lot of wierd looks from everyone else in the store.

I am definitely leaning toward liking the grocery stores over here much more than the ones back in the states, eveything is so fresh here and local. It is reasonably priced, but much is about the same as the states. We are really looking foward to being able to go shopping once we arrive in region in Simeferopol where we hear everything is much less expensive.

I don't want to break it to Amanda yet, but I think I might have found a new love of my life, open faced grilled ham and cheese sandwiches! These things are amazing!! I have never had any cheese like this before in my life, and we come from the dairy state and had some really good cheese. It is yellow like cheddar, but is lighter and has holes in it like swiss. It tastes like a cheddar and swiss cheese combo. If you eat is cold it is great, if you melt it, it tastes even better! Some how, some way I am going to figure out how to get this stuff shipped home...anyone interested in splitting 50 pounds of cheese?!?! :) I will update a picture of the sandwich if time allows before we leave to go down to region.

Tomorrow we should receive our referral in the afternoon and early Friday morning we are flying down to region with the Burman's. We are so blessed to have another couple that knows what's going on and also speaks english! So far this trip has been seemingly flawless. Which has been such an encouragement to Amanda and I, especially seeing all the problems we had with paperwork while we were still in the states. Please keep praying for us and the Burman family as we continute forward together toward getting our babies! We know that without all of the prayer warriors that we have at home, none of this would be possible!

P.S. I know we talked to a few of you at home and Stephanie is on our prayer chain at church. Please be praying for her family as well. She has been one of our biggest supporters in helping us get through this adoption over here. She found out in one day that two of her children are going to need surgery and another is getting pneumonia. Please keep them in your prayers!

That's all for now, hopefully see you all again when we get in region! God Bless!

Feeling Much Better

First I had to take a picture of this phenominon... Fred doing dishes by hand!!!!



We have had a hard time getting ajusted to the time difference but I think I will have a hard time sleeping until I get home! Fred has no problem sleeping!!! We got to talk to the Burman Family tonight (They are another family that is adopting from the same orphange) They gave us some expectations for tomorrow which made us both feel better!!! They helped us book plane tickets so we don't have to take the train on Thursday, we will fly out Friday moring with them!!! They also were able to give us an update on Rorie (Anna), I can't wait to see her and Cole (Everett) with my own eyes!!!
K funny story when we first got here we went to the store to get food and because we had a hard time sleeping Fred ate a lot of the food we bought so we decided that when we woke up Fred would go to he store and get more food and we would hang out and take it easy in te apartment. Well Fred fell asleep at 4:30pm Ukraine time (8:30am your time) I laid down at 7:45pm (11:45am). We slept until 1:30am (5:30pm) Then we both fell alseep at 5am (9pm) thinking we would get a few hours of sleep and wake up, get food and stay awake to try and change our sleep schedule. GREAT plan right!!! That DID NOT HAPPEN!!! We slept until 4:30pm (8:30am), we woke up and freaked out because we never went to the store and Fred ate most of the food last night so Fred threw on cloths and ran to the store. Everything around here seems to close up early so we just prayed that they were still open! They were Fred got some pre-made food that was sooooo yummy! It doesn't look great but it was very good!



The dumpling and chicken were great, I tasted the sausage and it was pretty good too!
Tomorrow is our apointment and we will have lunch with the Burmans!!! Please pray everything will go well for us but even more please pray for the Burman family they are trying to adopt from the mental institution and the director doesn't seem to like the idea so pray there is a softening of her heart and that she will grant them to adopt Regan (Tori)!!!!!

We Made It!!!

We did make it safe and sound we exchanged some money, put minutes on a phone and got a few groceries. This trip has taught me a few things already... I am NOT a world traveler nor do I have ANY aspirations of become one!!! I LOVE my HOME more than I ever thought I would (and I just can't wait until I am home again!) And Last I am much braver than I ever thought I was!!!!
As most of you know I have a REALLY hard time being away from home and I have never realized that more than right now but I have never felt a motherly love before now either and the thought of how good it will feel to hold those two little ones in my arms and take them home with me has given me new found courage!!! Well and God defiantly has a hand it that as well so just keep us in your prayers and I will keep up on my blog!!!!


This is the view from our window


This is the store we went to for food, it is right across the street from where we are staying.


This is part of our kitchen


And this is the livingroom, look already a mess!!!

6 Days and counting...

In the last few weeks I have gotten a lot of dental work done, I have been so close to being sick... kids with colds at Church and AWANA Club... Cleaning up kids with the flu at work... & not having a warm coat in this freezing weather! And here I am with less than a week to go and my mouth hurting sooo bad on and off! My biggest fear is Fred or I being sick or in pain in a forieng contry! Please be praying for our health as well as our children's health!
My list is just abou done, I just can't believe that by this time next week I will be in an airplane!!!

Funny Feeling...

I just had a creepy thought and wanted to I'd share it: What do I do with my spare time when I'm not chasing after paperwork or waiting for an email? How will it feel to actually have what I've been working for standing right infront of me? This journey has been long and emotional but I can't even remember what my life was like without ALL of this in it. Will I miss it? It's hard to think I might miss it but I have been doing this so long I can't help but think that I will!

9 DAYS and COUNTING!!!!!

2 Weeks to GO!!!

I can't even express how I am feeling, depending on the day you ask me I'm just never sure how I will feel about all this. I am trying to prepare myself for all the emotions I will feel and what I should do with them! For those of you that do not know this trip to Ukraine will be my second vacation that I have EVER taken. The first was May 2010 when we went to DC for the National Day of Prayer; we drove there. I hate taking off work even to just be sick... nobody can take care of my kids (the kids I work with) the way I do. I am defiantly a creator of habit and I like routine. I have ALWAYS had a hard time sleeping away from home I always seem to have to call my Daddy to come pick me up and I just don't know if he will be willing to come pick me up from this sleep over!!! I think not only about my children I will be able to see but what of the other children I see and want to scoop up and take home with me? How will I deal with those emotions? PRAYER!!!!! On the other hand I can barely stand to wait to see those beautiful faces, to kiss them and hold them and just look at them and know they are real! That all that we have been working towards has finally paid off because they are in my arms! I can't wait to be in a new place and be alone with my husband without any other priorities in our way just us and our children!!! Like I said A LOT of emotions!!!

We are defiantly moving forward and a lot has happened in just a short time...

Last Sunday Fred received his credentials to become a pastor and became our church's youth pastor, I'm so very proud of the man he has become. I have watched him grow so much in the past few years and we have grown even more closer together in the past year I just couldn't be happier.

We have our travel arrangements all made and the kids bag is completely packed! I have done a deep cleaning of the house and only have a very short list of last minute things I REALLY want to get done before we go! We figured out all our finances for while we are gone so that when we get home we will still have electricity... LOL... and I hope to have our bags packed by this weekend. I'm sure there is more, I have a list but you get the idea. We are moving forward and we both can hardly wait! We are taking GREAT care to enjoy our time together with each other and the ones we love before we go, we don't want to have any regret! Keep Praying we will need it!!!

Busy Busy!!!

I feel very blessed to have so much time to get everything done and ready before we leave! Fred and I are sitting down tonight to go over what needs to be done and trying to make lists and goals to make sure that we don't leave everything to the week before we leave... I am also making a list of questions to ask the other Mom's!
I got my teeth pulled just before New Years Eve but I am feeling very good, very little pain but a lot of swelling. Thank you for praying!!! I'm working on cleaning the house so that I just have to maintain until we leave but then we will come home to a clean house!!! Well thats my dream anyway! I know that it is only 27 days away but I feel like it is 27 months! How do I shake this feeling? I'm hoping by keeping busy!!!! Please keep us in your prayers!

WE GOT TICKETS!!!

We went Saturday morning to get our air plane tickets, I had no idea what it all in tailed. I figured it was like getting tickets for a concert, you know what show you want to go to (or the place you want to go... Kiev) you pick the seats you want and away you go right? Not at all, you really got to know what your doing to get the best deal and there are so many things to consider; lay overs, how many times your willing to stop and switch planes but also watching the amount of time you might have to get from one plane to the next... Grrrr! Also depending on what you chose it will affect the price. We live in Milwaukee, WI but the Chicago O'Hara airport is bigger so to fly from Milwaukee to Chicago would have added $600 per ticket... crazy!!! we are just gonna drive the 2hrs to get to O'Hara! I thank God for my Mother-in-Law and her friend Jean who seemed to have everything on lock down!!!! They knew what they were doing and really helped to get it done!!!!! Thank you ladies I can't even express what it meant to me to have you help us!!!! So our tickets are for Sunday January 30th we are flying out from Chicago at 3pm!

The words everyone is waiting to hear...

It has been a long road, way longer than I ever dreamed it would be. We have had many ups and many downs but we have been blessed to see Gods hand at work through it all! We got an email this morning with our SDA appointment... DRUM ROLL PLEASE... February 2nd 2011!
Now before you have the reaction I had which was... "WHAT that's more than a month away, how can I wait another month and 1/2 to hold those little ones, tears tears tears??????"
I had a good cry and I let all the positives sink in...
*We have more than enough time to make all of our travel and staying arrangements
*Our air fair should be cheaper
*I can re-pack (which I love doing)
*My Mother-In law said there is a nasty storm a brewin in Europe so we should steer clear of that
*We will be home for Christmas and the New Year
All these things are things to focus on but this morning when I got this GREAT news I couldn't see any of this all I saw was that I had to wait yet again until I could hold those two precious little ones in my arms.
One mother that I am friends with told me that everything I am going through will just make it all the more worth it (translation: The longer it takes the more I'll cry!!!!)
For a lot of the other mothers that are adopting sometimes I get so jealous of you because while your waiting you have other children in your homes to hug and kiss and focus on while you wait, I don't doubt for a second that it is still hard to wait but a least you have someone to take your mind off of it sometimes. I have two already done empty rooms staring at me!!!!
I do feel better now, and I am SOOOOOO Thankful that we can say "WE HAVE A DATE" instead of "I DON'T KNOW, WE ARE STILL WAITING" when people ask us what's going on. Thank you all for your prayers and we ask for continued prayer for us as we are preparing for the last step of this journey!!!!

SO Much to do!

There is so much to do and I'm a planner, Fred's a let it play out kinda guy... Grrr! I don't want to be caught with my pants down so to speak so I have packed the kids bag like three times I'm finishing our laundry to pack our bag. We went to the credit union today to order our "newer" bills and they lady said she would do what she can she doesn't know if when she puts the order in if she can be that specific but she will try!!! Also Fred and I are on the hunt for money belt... anyone???? We are gathering all the take along paperwork and I am making sure work will run smoothly while I'm gone. I wrote the families I work for a little letter to let them know I'll be gone and we are making sure we have people to cover our responsibilities at church. I made a check list... I love check lists!!!! I can't help but feel like I'm behind somehow... or like I'm missing something. I think it's just that there is so much to do that I get nervous I'll leave something out!!! Keep Praying!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving has always been my VERY favorite holiday and now I know WHY... It is offical we are SUBMITTED!!!!!!!!!!!! Praise God and thank you all for your prayers and support!!!!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!

New News!!!!

I know it has been awhile since I have updated my blog. I have come on a few times but I just had nothing to say. Fred and I have been VERY busy redoing 14 very important documents, I think we could drive out to Madison with our eyes closed!!!! Lets see we got all our document done and sent and then Sunday night Nancy emailed me and before I even opened I had the biggest pit in my stomch. I opened it and read it... Of course there was another mistake!!!!! So after crying my eyes out, yet again I got online and emailed Fred's work to see if they could redo his employment letter. Praise God the next morning she called and the letter was done we drove all the way to Cudahy (about 30mins from our home) got the letter drove to my Mom & Dads house to scan and email it, We didnt get a responce right away and it was already 11am Fred hadn't slept and I have to be to work by 2pm so we thought ok lets just head to Madison. Thank God for email to your phone because just before we got on the freeway to head 1hr 1/2 to Madison I got an email the the REDONE letter was wrong... GRRRRRR!!! Now Im am very honestly ready to give up at this point, Fred is tired and hungry, Im hungry and trying to keep my head. We turned around and when home. Once we got there Fred called his HR lady and explanied what happened, after trying to not only understand what we needed ourselfs but having to explain what we dont understand that we need to someone that needs to do it for us... we all started making sence. (did you follow that???) Barb was more than happy to put this on her priority list. She got it done we drove back to Cudahy (about 30mins from our home)when Fred went i to pick it up Barb asked if there was anything else she could do and Fred said yeah could you scan this and email it to my wife (jokingly) Barb took the form from Fred and did jut that!!! That saved us from having to drive all the way back to my parents house and we were able to hop on the freeway and start our trip to Madison yet again!!! Three hours, a tank of gas and $35 (to pay to expidite the certifing process) later we are home. I had to call into work (Thank God for the BEST STAFF in the world) Fred still hadn't slept or eaten... WE WERE BEAT!!!! We made dinner and Fred had about two hours to sleep before he had to go back to work. Tuesday morning when he walked into the house he looked very much like a zombie!!! He passed out as soon as he walked in the door. I felt awful so I prayed "Lord if there is any way the Secratary of State can call this morning so I can go pick it up without Fred" see the thing is I have to be to work by 2 or 2:30 so they would have to call by 12 for me to have enough time to drive there and back before I start!!! Well thank you Lord they called at 11am and my Mom and I jumped in the car and headed back out there once again!!! I got to my Moms house scaned and emailed it then I headed to work.
I don't know if I have said this before but for whatever reason I am SO afraid of Federal building or any building of importantance (sometimes the library even freaks me out... CRAZY I know) Through this process I have been make to overcome that fear but I still get a little shakey. So after work I went home and Tanya and I talked for a bit then decided to head down to the airport post office. We got there filled out ALL the forms that go along with a global express package and paid $93 to send one sheet of paper to Ukraine... can you believe that? I was just prasing God it wasn't $110 like the last two time we shipped this paperwork. They accepted my document at 7:26pm, after we were done the man said we made it just in time before the trucks went out they leave at 7:30pm... the lady ran out to hold the truck to make sure our package got on!!!!
So there you go that is where we sit... We are praying sooooo veryy hard that we get submitted tomorrow so even if your not a praying person PLEASE consider taking it up just for today!!!!!

New Update... Grrrrrr!!!

OK the other night we got an email that said 11 of our documents expired and we have until November 13th to get them in! I don't think I have to tell you how scared I was and I will admit that I completely broke down! Thank God I have Fred he did something very uncharacteristic of himself... he sat down next to me, he kept his cool and he just put his arm around me. In that moment I just thought to myself wow look at the man he has become since our marriage began, God has done such a work in us and our marriage! So even though we were both mad and hurt and upset we started working on what we could that night we emailed all the people that needed to help us redo our forms and got responses the next day. I know God doesn't always show you why you need to go through something but I prayed and thought if he could show me why we have to wait more and go through this at least it will help me to stay focused. I'm sure this isn't the only reason but a huge "brick" fell on me yesterday. I have a confession, before we found out that these forms needed to be redone I was very afraid of having to go to Ukraine. I was scared of the air plane, of the language barrier and culture barrier. I was afraid of the food, of the people and of the unknown! After getting this news and thinking the worst (that I'd never get my children)I have to say the fear of never getting to hold my beautiful babies was far worse than the fear of what I have to do to get them! All my fears about Ukraine seem silly now and Fred and are closer than ever. This has also helped Fred and I to focus on God and not on ourselves! So even thou this stinks I have all the faith that God's time will be perfect I hop I can just keep my head while I have to wait!
We already have all of our redoes started and half of them are done and ready to be sent to Madison!!! PLEASE KEEP PRAYING!!!

Here's Where We Stand...

After a stressful and emotional week... that I wont even get into but I'm sure many of you can understand where I'm coming from! I emailed our coordinators to see if I could get an update on our status and I got an answer... not the answer I was hoping for but an answer none the less. Our dossier hasn't been submitted yet they are hopeful that it will be submitted by the end of this week, which is great news but not if you thought you were already submitted... grrrrr! I am however SOOOO thankful for the people around me that have been able to encourage me and just be there for me to cry to!!!! Fred and I are learning the true meaning of... "BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD!" knowing God is in control is probably the only thing that is getting me through. I think the weirdest feeling I have ever felt is knowing that I can't doing anything but wait but not being able to wait I can't even explain it. There's absolutely nothing I can do to make this go faster but I can't wait... I can't wait... I know I have to but I cant! Can you explain that because it doesn't make sense to me, how do I make myself feel better! I knew this was going to be hard but I didn't know it was going to HURT so BAD!!!!! I need to consume myself in God's word and keep myself busy I think that will do it!

I'm Running Out...

I'm running out of things to do to prepare, I have cleaned the house top to bottom, I have cleaned all the toys, I have changed and rearranged their rooms right now I'm working on doing all their laundry and steam cleaning the furniture. Next the basement I guess, then maybe the garage? What's funny is I'm sure that once we have a date I'm going to think "Oh no I need more time"! I know this will happen but it is getting excruciating to wait, I didn't think that doing their laundry would affect me so much but I had to bit my lip a few times so that I didn't cry.
On a funny note Fred and I were getting ready for a special date night on Saturday and I went into the kids bedroom to rock in the rocking chair and pray while Fred was in the shower... totally fell asleep! I'm glad Fred woke me up we had a lot of fun we went out to dinner and then to Comedy Sportz it was Great!

WOW SOOOOOO Busy!!!

I feel awful that I haven't posted in so long let me tell yu what has been going on: Fred and I finished all our loan paperwork and have submitted it so please be praying that we recieve the rest of our finances to bring our babies home! We are appling through a Christian organization and hope to get approved soon. We have also been working on complieling paperwork that will be need for the American embassy once we travel... more work thanI thought it was going to be. But now for the most exciting news... if you didn't know Rorie and Cole will be Fred and my first children so as far as having things that a child needs we were very unpreparied but last weekend my Mom and Best friend had a baby shower for me and Fred. It was very overwhelming to me becasue here bringing us gifts were all the people that had worked so hard to help raise money for our adoption. I wondered to myself is there no limit to what these people will give, is there no limit to what God can provied? NO... there is no limit to Gods love, blessing, and mercies that he shows everyday to us and for that Fred and I are truly humbled and greatful to our family and friends! Now according to tradition a baby shower is an event that is shared between women, but our shower was unique. Because we were adoption we were able to incorperate some fun things from our children's culture; My cousins and I made Ukrainian Snow Cap Cookies and a Ukrainian Berry Ice Tea. Fred made a Ukrianian Kielbasa and Cabbage soup. Now my husband LOVES to eat so when he was told that the shower was for women and that meant the food to he wasn't very happy so along with his best friends Sean, they devised a plan to make themselves acceptable to join in our festivities... I'm just going to show you...

My husband Fred is the pretty blond on the left and Sean is the handsome brunette on the right or is he a red head? I havent laught so hard in so long!!! Needless to say we allowed them to stay!
The other exciting news is that Fred and I have completed the kids bedroom and well as thier play room, the rooms are so fun I have a hard time not being in them all the time! I sit in thier bedroom almost every day and just pray, I can't wait util they are asleep in thier beds and I am praying over them!

This is thier bedroom that thier Dad took his "sweet time" to paint!




This HUGE project started out as just a simple blue wall... then Fred and I added whit clouds... Then we had green paint left over from thier bedroom so naturally we need grass... Then what was blue skys, whit clouds and green grass without a tree or a sun or glow in the dark stars? I admit we may have gotten carried away but it was so much FUN and Fred and I did the whole project together! I'm so tankful for how close we have gotten over the last six months, I didn't think we could get closer but it is amazing the love and respect that we have for one another that I dont think we had before! In the last two weeks I have celebrated my sixth wedding anniversay with my BEST FRIEND and husband, I had a wonderful baby shower with my friends and family and today I celabrated my 27th birthday... and the only thing that I can think of is how great it will be when this time next year I have two little ones throwing thier arms around me to give me the b=very best birthday gift of all... thier hugs and kisses!