HAPPY DAYS - IT IS ALL DONE!!!

It is finally all done except for flying home. What a long drawn out process, but now it is finally over. We can now empathize with all of you that have been through this. Griselda told me this morning that they got the visas today and everything is now completed. No more paperwork. Hurray! Now she can breathe. Vlad told Griselda that he now knows how she felt in Sumy because now that they are in Kyiv he is in very unfamiliar territory and feels lost, but at least he knows the language. So I thought it was interesting that he could feel some sympathy for Griselda. Now it is just the waiting game to wait until Sunday to take the plane home. They will have all day Saturday to be free and not have to do anything related to the adoption.

I spoke with Griselda this morning. They finished their visa applications at the US Embassy and the medicals today. Tomorrow at 2 pm they pick up the visas and then they are done. Hurray!!! Unfortunately they have to wait until Sunday to fly home because there are no seats on Saturday. Griselda said it was sad to leave Sumy because of the relationships she had made and because she got to know Vlad's Grandma and a couple other relatives. The Grandma gave them some snacks and things for them to munch on during their flight home. Jenya, the orphan boy who is 15 who we got to know previously was so kind while Griselda was there with Griselda and Vald and Dima. She said it was awfully hard to say good-bye to him because she felt a strong connection with him. Unfortunately he is not eligible for adoption until February 19, 2011 or else we would have adopted him too since we had permission to adopt 3 kids. But because of the eligibility problem it could not work on this trip. Jenya really wants to be adopted and he hopes very much someone will come back and get him. He turns 16 in August so there will only be a short window of a few months of eligibility for him. Jenya wished Vlad and Dima well and good luck. It was a heart breaker for Griselda. She is enjoying the time with the boys however. Dima had a little money from the orphanage and he is already wanting to buy a computer with it, but it is not near enough so he has to face the hard realities of life that not everything is cheap and you cannot always have what you want when you want it. Griselda and the boys are all excited about being able to finish up the adoption and they cannot wait to come home.

They will be arriving at 7:52 pm Sunday night on United Flight #6469 for those of you who would like to join us in welcoming them home.

Griselda and I would like to say Thank You to you all for all of your love, support, prayers, and kindnesses during our adoption journey. It has not been easy as so many of you know from your own experiences, but we could not have done it without all of your prayers and support.

Today we checked out of our apartment and went to get the passports for Vlad and Dima. Fortunately they had them waiting for us. We were not sure if they would be ready. Vlad and Dima are so happy that last night was their last night at the orphanage and they are so glad to finally be out of there. Oleg worked so hard to help us get done so quickly. He was amazing! We went to pick up the painted eggs from the egg lady and they are so gorgeous. Tonight we drive to Kyiv. Now the last thing we need to do is the stuff at the US Embassy and the medicals. We have our appointment with the embassy at 10:00 am on Thursday and if all goes well we should be done on Friday. Unfortunately there are not enough seats on the airplane to return on Saturday so it looks like we will be returning on Sunday. The plane is scheduled to arrive at 7:52 pm for those who would like to be there as many of you have expressed an interest to be there to welcome Vlad and Dima.

Vlad is excited to see me and he wants to go home soon. Dima was asking Oleg to take him to his home town. He said he was tired and did not like to be in the orphanage. He has a dream and he wants to have a little computer, so I wanted to show him this one, but I do not want all the kids to see it.

It looks like a lot of miracles have happened. Oleg was telling me about how he got Dima's birth certificate. It looks like it was a real ordeal. He says that he went to the town and he was supposed to get the birth certificate but the notification from the judge of the parent's losing the rights was not there. He had a copy but they did not accept it. He was told to go to another city to get it. He did not have problems getting the mother's, but the father's. The lady of the office gave him a hard time. She said she would make the paper saying that the parents had lost the rights in two weeks, Oleg asked to please make the note right away, and explained to her why and that she would be blessed if she would do it and she said NO. Then Oleg left and went to say a prayer, and came back and told the lady I will stay here for two weeks and will not leave and wait for you to make the note, and she said I will call the police, and Oleg said then call the police, and then she went and talked to the judge and he came asking what was going on. Oleg responded that the court had not sent the notification of the decision of the parental rights being lost and that it has been over two years, and it was not the other offices fault not to have a copy of the notification. He explained that Dima was getting adopted and needed to have his papers to leave with me and that I had come from the US and had reservations to leave on the 24th. Then the judge ordered the lady to make the note right there and even then she still did not want to but the judge made her do it and that is how he got it. What a miracle!

Hello everyone. It has been three weeks since we have been home. Yesterday Griselda flew back to the Ukraine to complete the wrap up work for the adoption and bring the boys home. We have kept in contact with Vlad and he cannot wait until it is over. We called Vlad yesterday just before leaving for the airport and he said he cannot stand being in the orphanage anymore and is so anxious to be out of there. The missionaries have been seeing Dima 2 to 3 times a week. Since Dima does not have a phone the missionaries have been our go between for us and Dima. The missionaries have been just wonderful and they have enjoyed the opportunity to be able to teach Dima.

When I got home from church today Griselda had sent an email which was waiting for me. I purchased a small laptop for her the night before leaving so she could keep in contact and not have to walk to the internet cafe by herself (It is a 15 minute walk from the apartment). I was amazed how cheap the laptop was. It was a fourth of the cost I paid three years ago for my PC Laptop (Which has not been as good as they advertise) and is much better with more high tech hardware. Her trip was fine, but she said she was dead tired as one can imagine after traveling for more that 24 hours strait. She said she really loved Frankfurt, but I do not know how you can love Frankfurt from the airport so it must not have been too bad. On our previous trip, our plane was in Munich both times. Griselda did make it to Sumy and she is in the same apartment we were in before. She says the weather is "super nice " and is actually quite warm there. The weather report I looked at for Sumy did say it would be in the 60s F for a couple of days then it will be cold again. Griselda said that Oleg had completed a lot of the work that could be done without one of us being there so that will help move the process along. We hope very much they can be home by Thanksgiving but there is no guarantee.

I am just sick at heart. I lost 99% of my pictures. My memory card was full so I bought another one in which there are only a few pictures to upload. I have no idea why my full memory card was empty this morning when I went to download the pictures. I had a lot of great memorable pictures which are now lost forever. At least we have not lost the boys, so that is the important thing and our wonderful memories are still in our minds. If anyone knows of anyone who is an expert at data recovery please let me know. Thanks.