Irrational Thoughts

Yikes!! The irrational pre-travel thoughts have set in. This doesn't usually happen until the day before I leave, so it's kind of a bummer that it has started already. The logical side of me knows that these things will most likely not happen, but unfortunately the logical side of me is really small right now. I thought I'd humor you with some of the thoughts that are running through my mind. So, for your daily entertainment.....

*How is it really possible for an airplane the size of a house to stay in the air?!

*How is it possible for an airplane the size of a house to stay in the air over an OCEAN?!

*What if I get kidnapped and held hostage in Ukraine?!

*What if I get lost in Ukraine and can't find anyone that speaks English and I can't get the compass on my i-phone to work and I walk in endless circles?!

*What is the 911 equivalent in Ukraine?!

*Even if I know the 911 equivalent in Ukraine, what if none of the operators can speak English?!

*Exactly how does the airplane stay in the air?!

*What if the court tells us no?!

*What if the airplane runs out of gas above the ocean?! How will I stay afloat in that freezing cold water until I am rescued?!

*Will my kids here really be okay without me?!

*What if some relative shows up at court and goes ape on us?!

*Will the airplane really stay in the air?!

*What if we get pulled over and thrown in jail?!

*What if I can't unlock the door to my apartment and have to spend the night on the bench?!

(This is more real as I really couldn't ever get the door unlocked-Huz had to do it)

T Minus 3

Not counting today, we leave for Ukraine in 3 days. I'm all packed and have been for a few days. I'm busy reassigning projects to other people for the girls camp I was supposed to be in charge of next week, trying to make arrangements for my kids, put meals into the freezer and all those mom things that you do. At the same time I'm trying to have some summer fun with my girls before I go. By the time summer is over, I'll have been out of town as much as I've been in town! Wild!

Today while I was sitting with Four while she was eating her lunch, she looked at me out of the corner of her eye and said, "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" I asked her what she was thinking and she said she didn't know. She's a funny kid and must have heard someone else say that. I'll sure miss them while I'm gone. Thank heavens for modern technology that allows us to talk on the phone for a minimal cost, skype that allows us to see each other, and airplanes that allow for quick travel.

Outdoor plumbing

I just walked out into the garage with Four. She started doing the potty dance. Here is our conversation:

me: "Hey, looks like you need to go potty."

her: "no."

me: "Oh really? Why are you doing the potty dance?"

her: "Cuz..."

me: "Hurry and run inside and use the bathroom."

her, as she starts to walk away from me: "No, that's okay. I'll just go in the backyard."

Flights Booked

We are officially headed back to Ukraine in a week and a half. The stomach flu is officially making its way through my house and will hopefully be gone by then:) I am so grateful that I can be here while my kids are all sick and take care of them. If I were gone, I'd feel so bad for them AND for the person taking care of them. I'm looking forward to going back to the boys, although I know that things will be different this time. Huz will leave the same day that we have our court hearing and the boys will be at summer camp. I'm not worried about being alone, but it might get boring. I'm not sure how them being at summer camp will work out because they seemed to think their camp was about an hour and a half away. I don't know if there is somewhere near the camp I can stay, or if I'll have to pay for a driver to haul me out there each day. That could get pricey. Maybe I could hire on as a temp and stay at the camp. Wouldn't that make for interesting blogging?

I am already packed... because I never unpacked. I just have a few things to get through these next few days before we go and then everything will be ready. I'm sad to be leaving my girlies again, but glad that Huz will be home to them so quickly.

News

I love how I ended the last post basically saying that there was no news. hahahaha not. When will I learn?! I'm hesitant to even post this as it has already changed three times today already and it's only 3 in the afternoon. Here goes:

SDA is not going to take any new appointments in July so that nixes us getting BoyThree during this trip. Fortunately, however, we may still be able to get him but of course, it's not going to be simple. Why would I even have thought that we could do this in three trips this summer? I'm so naive. So, what we will have to do is get his visa when we get BoyOne and BoyTwo's even though he's not adopted yet, they will allow us to do this. Then, when the SDA reopens we can schedule a new appointment and go get him. As in whole new process. Sigh. And I guess as long as they reopen. And as long as we can still get him, that is what is most important. Keep praying though. Good grief.

Because SDA is planning on closing (notice how I say planning because even though they have signed legislation from their pres, it could still change) on July 12, we have to hurry and have court so that our paperwork can be forwarded to Kyiv and have time to be completed prior to the 12th.

Our court hearing is now scheduled for Monday, July 4, which is fortunately not a holiday in Ukraine. We will leave on Friday, July 1. It takes two days to get to Ukraine and then another day to get to Zap. Originally our court date was scheduled for June 30, but Huz's brother is getting married that day. Fortunately the judge in Ukraine understood and was willing to put us off until the 4th. You still with me? And actually, the original court date was for the middle of July, so this is now our 3rd court date. I'm losing myself!!

Because we just need to quick have court, Huz can literally turn around the next day, travel back to Kyiv and then back home. He'll only be gone one week. I will stay during the ten day wait and then bring BoyOne and BoyTwo home with me then, tentatively on the weekend of July 24. I live in Utah (now you all know where I live, great) and our state's birthday is July 24. The point of telling you all this is that I love fire works. I'm going to miss them on the 4th, obviously, so I'm hoping to be home in time to see the Utah ones on the 24th. Good goal? I hope so.

I'm off to check my email again, just in case things have changed:) Have a lovely day.

Weekend

This weekend was fabulous!! It started with more cleaning of our house-not the one we live in, although it needs it, but the one we rent. I'm still so sad for my beautiful little house being so trashed. I really hope that the new renters show it more respect.

Really, this weekend started on Thursday while we were cleaning the house. My girlies were able to spend a lot of time with their good friends whom they miss very much. It was so much fun to be stationed at our old house. It was empty and it became the playground for the neighbor kids. They invented a game where they were running around, back and forth wildly and happily. I love the sound of happiness! It was great.

Friday, before we headed out to clean, my good friend sent me a text saying that 'Shop Hop' was going on this weekend. I was able to get some cleaning in and then Huz came up to take over so that I could go on a girl date. Shop Hop is a fabulous annual event where 15 or so quilting shops across the Wasatch Front team together and put on a big show. I looooooooove Shop Hop. I go with this same girlfriend every year. It always happens to fall on her birthday, too, so it's like a party. This friend actually quilts the stuff she buys, though. I'm currently in the collecting phase because I don't have time to pull any of it out. And when I do, I don't ever get it finished because a) I can't find time or space, 2) my youngest child decides to help herself to my projects and fringe them. Yes, true story. Miracle is that she is alive to tell it, too. Although I tried REALLY hard to not buy anything, I did. I love bright patterned fabric and I love putting together lots of fabrics that you wouldn't even think went together. It makes me happy. We ended the evening with a late dinner and lots of laughs and plans to have a quilting retreat in the fall sometime.

Saturday morning Huz went golfing with three of his friends. I love this group of friends. We've all known each other for years. The women like to sew and scrapbook together and the men like to golf. They all headed up our way with their kids and all the kids played their little (and big) hearts out. It is crazy to me to see how old some of these kids are getting. Being with them all reminded me how much I love to be with my friends. Ever since we moved up here, we've been really low key in the social department. I think it's because I ended up way busier than I had ever dreamed with school and then more than a little obsessed with getting this adoption rolling. It was a good reminder to me how wonderful it is to surround yourself with good friends and good food! I hope that we do it again soon. I will add that this morning when I started phoning everybody to warn them that One had woken up in the middle of the night throwing up, I received another warning about another kid having woken up with pink eye. The best thing is that we laughed about it. Who can ask for better friends than those. Oh yeah, one of these girls is the one that I drove to Evanston on the way to Park City with. Hahahahaha. Still makes me laugh.

Last night, I obviously spent a lot of time holding back hair and cleaning toilets and bowls. I think in my old age I am a little more affected by seeing so much barf. I started to feel gross, too, but it's all just in my head. Of course, all night I kept thinking of all the kids who don't have a mom or dad to sit with them when they are sick and it made me all the more anxious to get the boys home. It also made me want to bring home the whole dang orphanage. Sigh.

Speaking of the boys, I did a little bit of shopping earlier in the week for them. When I check them out of the orphanage, they will only have the clothes on them so I will need to at the very least bring pjs, underwear and a change of clothes. I must admit that I had a hard time choosing underwear!! I had no idea that there was such a variety. Girls only have two choices, grannies or briefs. Boys have knit boxers, cotton boxers, boxer briefs, briefs, etc. I was smart enough to know NOT to buy character undies for the big boys, but that's where it got tricky. Whatever, it just has to last them for a week until they get home and can pick out their own. I also had a blast picking out some shorts and shirts for them. I told my friends how much fun it was dressing BoyTwo last fall. It was like playing with a life size Ken doll. I ran my purchases by my friend's teenage son and he gave me some tips-thanks Bridger. I also decided it is a little awkward to try to figure out a quilt to make for boys. Girls are so super easy. Boys, not so much. I am working on getting the boys onto soccer teams and it was fun to actually be making plans for them here, in the U.S.A. Woo-hoo!!!!

Still no news on the SDA front. I know that in Ukraine things are always a little up in the air and that a lot can change overnight. In the beginning that was really hard to deal with. It was like having the best day of your life one minute and then going through the depths of despair the next. Holy heart attack. Now, I've sort of grown used to it all, as used to it as you can be, and just try to stay calm and wait for the next wave of good news to come. I've got a couple of friends headed to Ukraine this very day and I'm so excited for them. Luckies!! Hopefully, we're right behind them:)

Empty Is Not Clean

Today was kind of frustratingstressfullongfunoverwhelmingstressful.

We went to our other house that we have been renting. The guy renting is moving out and I thought I'd go make sure it was really clean so that the new renters could move in tomorrow morning.

Dang. Good. Thing.

Frustrating: Renter told Huz how he stayed up all night and cleaned the house top to bottom. Top to bottom my butt. He must think that clean and empty are synonyms. Sheesh. It was so dirty. And that was as I briefly walked through the house, eye balling the disgusting toilets and base boards.

Stressful: This actually is happy, too. A friend of mine found out that she is going to be able to get her paperwork submitted for a Ukrainian adoption in the nick of time. She told me that the SDA is closing on July 12. That's when the stress hit. I called Ellie immediately (our adoption agency) and she confirmed this. She has been trying to find out when exactly BoyThree is available. We were originally told the beginning of July. So now we need to find out the exact date. If it's not before July 8, we can't get him. Long story why if you don't know the process so I'll spare you the details. We knew all along that this was a possibility. He knows this too. But it would still be really crappy to have to tell him it's not going to work out. It makes me sick just to type it.

Long: We got to the other house at 11:30. We got home at 11:30. Enough said.

Fun: I was able to see some of my friends from my old neighborhood. My kids were able to play with their buddies. I met one of my new old neighbors:) They moved in after we moved out. They have a daughter Four's age. Sometimes I wish we still lived there. Especially when I look across the street and see the AWESOME school we left behind and my fabulous neighbors. sigh.... It's a good thing we have fabulous neighbors where we are now or I'm sure we would have moved back by now!

Overwhelming: It is not okay to spend ten hours cleaning an empty house. And that was only the main floor!!!! Can I tell you how disgusted I am that my sweet, beautiful little house was trashed?! I am not exaggerating at all when I say buggers on the wall. That's right folks. He wiped boogers on the walls. I can barely handle that when my own kids do it let alone a 40 year old man. AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stressful: Going back tomorrow to tackle the basement and backyard. Hoping and praying that I don't have to have a conversation with BoyThree on why he is, again, going to be left alone.

I can't get them off my mind. The boys of Matviivka. That is our orphanage. The boys are those older boys who nobody ever comes for. The ones that are about to be on their own. It makes me crazy to think that they don't even know what to do when they are hugged because it's been such a long time since they had a mother hug them. It just is not okay.

Scattered

Great title for this post. My thoughts are more scattered than usual, but I'm afraid if I don't get some of them down now, it may not happen for awhile:)

Saturday started out fabulously. I woke up at 7 (way too early on a Saturday:)) to call the boys. Yana, our interpreter paid them a visit at the internat and told us we could call her phone to speak to them. It was the best way to start the day! BoyThree got on the line and said "Hello" and everyone on the other line started to giggle. It was fun to hear his voice and in English, no less. BoyOne had fun in Harkiv and said his foot was feeling better. BoyTwo, when asked if he needed anything, told us he would like a red robot, a telephone and to come to America. Consider one and three DONE!!! BoyThree wants us to meet his aunt, three little cousins and a grandmother (maybe a great grandmother? lost in translation a little). I suggested a family reunion. The boys thought that a great idea. I asked for their shoe sizes knowing that most shoes list US sizes as well as European sizes. They wanted to know why. Don't get too excited boys, just a pair of flip flops to get us by until you get home and pick out your own shoes. It was so great to hear their voices, and Yana's too. Can't wait to see them again and really can't wait to get them home. I have a lot to keep me busy this month until we go, but I feel like it is taking for.ev.er.

For many months, since we started this adoption process, I have had a nagging thought in my mind. I haven't had the nerve to blog about it, afraid I would not be able to articulate my thoughts well and potentially offend someone. Then, I read a post on another mom's blog of her thoughts on this same subject. It gave me courage to try, so here goes:

Here we are, bringing these children into our home, adopting them as our own, loving them as our own, giving them opportunities that their previous life would not afford them. It may appear that we are 'saving' them. One thing that has been made clear to me from before ever meeting these boys is that it is they who will save me. There they sit on the other side of the world without the knowledge of a Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ. They are not aware of the 'opportunities' the are missing out on, the 'grim' future that they will have, the love of family they lack. For them, this is life, as it is for many in their country-which is why they are where they are. Sure, they don't always love the internat or the food, but it is all they know and many are even scared to leave, even with the promise of love and a better tomorrow.

It seems silly to us, even troubling, that they don't understand the possibility of the statistic they will likely become. They think they would be fine without us. Not by our standards and certainly not by the Lord's. But they would, because they don't know any different. That, my friends, is what grabs me. They don't know. They don't understand. We do. I do. And what am I going to do about it??? Because of them I have been already driven to my knees, forced to rely on none other than God himself. I have had opportunities already where I have had to completely turn myself over to Heavenly Father and been guided by him, my very words, my very steps. You may be thinking that these things can happen any time, any place, and to any one. You don't have to adopt orphans from Ukraine to experience this. This is true. For me, however, this is where we are being taken. This is our journey, my journey.

Today in church we discussed how Heavenly Father will not give us trials more than we can handle. He knows our limits and strengths and abilities and will use these trials to strengthen us, to refine us. This is not a new concept to me, it is something that I have known for as long as I can remember. What I was taught/reminded of today, in my heart, is this: God will not give us any trial that we cannot overcome with Him. A trial may certainly be more than we can handle... alone. We can only overcome these trials with Him. The purpose of trial is to strengthen us and refine us and most importantly, bring us to Him.

As we prepare to embark on this journey of adding three boys to our family through the miracle of adoption, I anticipate being brought to my knees even more than I have already. I plan on my relationship with my Heavenly Father and Savior growing. I plan on stretching and becoming and changing in ways that I didn't know were possible, and that I didn't know I needed. I know that this will be hard. I know that. How could it not be?! I only hope that during these times I can remember to ask the Lord what He wants me to do with whatever is placed before me. I pray that I will always remember how privileged I am to have found these boys, our boys, who ended up half a world away from us, whose lives we share with another set of parents who did what they could until we found each other, who we were led and guided to at this exact time for an exact reason that we may not know or comprehend. I'm grateful to them for somehow trusting us 'Americans' who smile a lot and give hugs and sit on the ground to be their parents. What a miracle it is for them, after all they have experienced, to have enough faith and trust to come half way around the world with strangers who speak a different language, who showed up with a photo album and promises of love and family. Their examples of hope, courage, faith and trust is breathtaking.

Hip-Hip-Hooray!!!!

I feel kind of silly admitting this, but I am a bit of a blog stalker when it comes to following other families adopting from Ukraine. This is because I am hoping to follow what is going on with the SDA among other things.

And guess what?! Today my stalking has paid off!!!!!!!!!!! I just read on another blog that a family received an SDA appointment for July 10. That's right folks. They are scheduling appointments in July!! I'm assuming this means that they will remain open as it would be somewhat difficult for them to see people if they were closed...

Boys, here we come!!!!!

(No, we don't have a travel date yet)

Home

We are home.

Our time in Ukraine went WAAAAAY too quickly. We are home earlier than anticipated, without any children. BoyThree will have his appointment in July, so we'll go back then. While we are there we'll have court for all three and then Huz will come home. Not sure if I will or not. I'd love to stay because I love it there, I did NOT like leaving the boys and the cost of staying there for an extra week and a half is so close to the cost of a plane ticket that it doesn't really save us money for me to come home. I'd love to go home so that I can see my girlies and catch up on stuff there. So, we shall see. Either way, we go back in July, have our appointment for BoyThree, have court for all three boys and then Huz will go home. There is a ten day wait after that before we can take the boys from the orphanage. After that ten day wait, we'll check the boys out (yippee!!) and get all their paperwork done so that they can leave the country as part of our family. We are planning on asking the judge to waive the ten day wait. The worst thing he can say is no, right?

We got home really late Tuesday night so our girls didn't see us until Wednesday morning when they woke up. They didn't know that we were coming home early, either, so it was super fun to surprise them:) The dog and cat were pretty excited to see us, too.

It was really hard to leave Ukraine. BoyOne has a soccer camp that he is at this week and then all 3 boys will go to a summer camp at the end of the month. They will stay there until we come back in July. Sheesh. July seems way too far away right now. We asked our interpreter, Yana, if we could hire her to visit the boys twice before they leave for their summer camp and she agreed (thanks Yana!!! You are the best!!). It's definitely not the same, but we are hoping to be able to call them on her phone and she will take them letters that we email her (they won't be able to get any mail at camp). I'm glad they have something to do to keep them busy until we are able to bring them home, but I obviously really wish they were coming home with us a lot sooner. Oh well, it is what it is and it's all good.

p.s. to the last post

Everyone here cannot understand why we would adopt when we already have biological children of our own. They think we're nuts. Maybe we are:) They keep saying 'You're so young! How will you do it?' I don't know all the answers and I'm not the best parent in the world, or even close. For those people in Ukraine, it's hard for them to understand that things are so much different financially in the U.S. They also have a hard time understanding how we could love all the children the same at the same time. Here is my answer:

The more love you give, the more you have to give.

I know that love is not the answer to everything, but it sure gives you a good start. That and the loving guidance and inspiration that our Heavenly Father can offer. Wish us luck!!

Day 12 & 13-Saturday and Sunday

Saturday we checked the boys out of the internat and let them decide what to do. We offered a movie and Oak Park as one idea. They wanted to go to the beach and the park instead. We started at the park. Apparently BoyTwo has quite the vocabulary for Russian swear words (Yana told me that she has never heard such a young child say so many terrible words! Glad that we can set ourselves apart somehow!) and we were getting a lot of looks. I'm so glad that I can't understand him! When people would stare too long, he'd just give them the finger. It was fun. (I'm being sarcastic) He got to have a time out with me, the first we've had to do since we've been here. BoyOne was upset because he wasn't old enough to go on a ride and therefore chose to pout for nearly the entire time we were at the park. Before I go on, I need to tell you our biggest news. We are adopting a third boy. He will be referred to as BoyThree. It is a long story for another post, but for now I'll tell you that he is 16 and the reason we need to have the SDA stay open through July. So, BoyOne was mad that he couldn't go on this one ride that you have to be 16 to go on and was off on his own. BoyThree offered to go on a different ride, but since BoyOne had taken off, Huz decided to take BoyThree and go on this ride with him. I thought for sure Huz was going to barf as this ride straps you in like the catapult at Lagoon and then starts spinning you around and your chair starts spinning too. The biggest problem with these rides is that they let them go for seriously four or five minutes. At least you get your hryvnia worth:) Anyhow, somehow Huz held it together and we all met up together finally and headed for the beach. At the beach the older boys wanted to jump off the pier and swim, but BoyTwo was too young and not a good enough swimmer to do that, so he stayed with me and Yana, Huz went to sit in the shade. That guy does not do the sun. 75 degrees is too hot for him. BoyTwo's favorite activity was to go dunk himself in the water and then come cover himself in the sand. Yana let me know that there were several people criticizing my parenting, in case I was concerned. Of course, I wasn't because to me sand is not a big deal. It washes off. I thought all the underage kids drinking and smoking were a much bigger problem. I could see the big boys the whole time and it was fun to watch them when they had no idea I was looking. It was even more fun for me when they realized I was looking and they tried to act all casual. haha. After the beach we had to hustle to get a quick dinner and then get them back to the internat in time for their 'curfew.'

Sunday, we went to the internat at 1:00. The boys grandmother had told us she would be coming and asked that we meet her there. The boys were bugged that we wouldn't take them anywhere and had pouty attitudes (BoyOne and BoyTwo). Their grandma got pretty ticked with them for being such stinkers since she had come all this way to spend time with them. BoyOne shaped up and ended up taking her to the store to help her buy some things and then walked her to the bus stop and waited with her until the bus came. It was so cute. He is a good kid. She also brought me something that is now one of my most prized posessions, a picture of BoyOne on his third birthday. All of you adoptive moms out there know how priceless these things are, and those of you who are not adoptive parents can certainly understand. I am so grateful to her for thinking of us and giving this to us. She will miss the boys so much and loves them so much.

During all this time, the older boys at the internat caught wind that we were around and came outside to play a game called 'Jonny.' It was so fun to watch them all playing. Huz, of course, played with them. Basically there are two teams. You stack eight rocks in the center of eight squares. Each team takes a turn throwing a midsize ball at the rocks trying to knock them over. If you are on the team of the person who knocks the rocks over, you try to get to the square and put one rock in each square. Once all the rocks are in the square you yell "Jonny!" The opposing team uses the ball to try to hit the other team. If you are hit with the ball, you are out. They played this for two hours. These are the most fit, athletic boys I have ever seen. I couldn't believe they could play for such a long time without any water and some without wearing shoes. My word! The game reminded me of dodge ball on steroids. They take this game very seriously, as do all boys, with all games. At one point Yana and I were huddles together on the bench hoping to not get hit and she said to me, "Look at their faces! They are so serious! It is as if all eternity depends on this game!" I said, "Yana, all boys are like this. It is international."

I think this group of boys feels pretty comfortable around us because they will tease us and joke around with us and just hang out. I'm sure they love the food we bring and that Huz can keep up with them at all their sporting endeavors. At one point, I was about two feet away from my bag and I tried to toss a bag of suckers into it, but missed. In English, one of the boys, Ruslan, says to me, "No basketball for you!" to which I answered "Shto?!" which is what?! They are great kids.

After the music class, the younger kids came out and swarmed me which really ticked BoyTwo off. He started running around hitting them and shooing them away saying, "This is my American!! Get your own American!" I had to laugh and then show him how to share, which of course he didn't like. His grandma swatted his butt for it. I wish he had said, "This is my mommy, get your own!" But I'll take this. I took him to the smaller kid playground and teeter tottered with him and sat with him on this awesome spinny thing and we spun for a while.

Eventually the boys were called for dinner and had to leave. We said good-bye to them and then were able to have our own good-bye with the three boys. I'm not sure that BoyTwo understands that we will not be there tomorrow, but the other two boys do. I started to cry when we told them good-bye. I had a hard time letting go. We will miss them so much. We have missed them since before they even went home in October! I cried at least half of the way home and had finally gathered myself when we parked. But then I had to say good-bye to Yana! I started to cry again. I love this place. I will miss it so much. I will miss all the children at the internat. When we come back, most of them will be at summer camp, so today was good-bye. I will miss my babushkas that sit on the benches outside our door. I will miss the darling girl who waits on us each day at Celentanos. I will miss it all. I'm hoping that time flies. When Huz and I were back at the apartment, he said that we were both exhausted. Him physically, me emotionally. He was right.

BoyTwo at the beach, rolling around in the sand. This is before he started dumping handfuls in his hair.

BoyTwo with his very own sucker that he doesn't have to share with his "American" on the spinny toy

BoyOne playing frisbee with BoyTwo. BoyOne hurt his toes playing soccer this morning. They may be broken. Anyhow, he was a great sport to try to play with BoyTwo even though he couldn't walk.

Evidently, it is super uncool to have your picture taken by your soon-to-be mom. These two were wrestling and laughing so hard and so I snuck up hoping to get a pic of them smiling. BoyOne saw me coming and started yelling "Mommy is coming with the camera!!" and they both jumped up, and ran off. They better get over that one fast.

This is a picture of the picture BoyOne's grandma gave me. He is the cutest one in there, the one in the stripes:) So serious, even back then.

I thought this was precious. BoyTwo colored a picture for his grandma and here she is helping him write his name. So sweet.

Here the boys are trying to explain the rules of Jonny to Huz using drawings in the dirt, and Yana.

The game.

More of the game.

Since I'm already posting a ton of pics, I thought I'd throw in more hairbow pictures that I took. I wish these kids didn't turn off when you took a picture of them!! They were really so thrilled and had the biggest most beautiful smiles on their faces-until you take the picture.

There's a smile!!!!!!!

And two more smiles. These two are sisters!

At least he's not afraid to smile! Everyone tells us that he is too happy, too carefree. I guess that would describe all of us in America? I'm so glad that he is still happy!

Because the boys were too cool to smile, Huz said that he wouldn't smile either, which made BoyOne start to smile even though he was trying soooo hard not to.

Day 11-Friday

Today was the day of the big soccer tournament. I used to play soccer in high school and so did my brother. I love the game. Huz and I played on a co-ed game right after Two was born. We only played that one year, though, because I was pregnant with Three. Anyhow, I really love to watch a good soccer game. This was actually a mini soccer league where there are only 4 players on the field at a time and one goal keeper, and our internat is the best team. Just last week they beat one of the teams they were set to play today 18-0. It's obvious they have played together for awhile because it is such a smooth team. We met the bus on some obscure road in the middle of nowhere Zap. Seriously, we drove and drove down winding roads and onto a dirt road for miles. When we got to the field (it was covered in turf by the way) one of the other teams had not arrived yet, so it put the starting time back significantly. The boys were super pumped. You guys all know, and I'm becoming more aware, of how important serious physical exertion is for the teenage boy. After the game, they had been told we would swim in the Dnepro and they were way excited for that, too.

The boys were out on the field running drills and warming up in the 85 degree sun when they were called off the field by their coach, Olga. I think she's more the athletic director. There was another younger guy there, too who was coaching them as well. Both of these coaches were speaking very seriously to each other and you could tell they were both upset. They started going through the paperwork they had. Yana began to translate to us that the 'league' had just informed them that they were not going to allow 16 year olds to play in this tournament and that we had to show the boys birth certificates to prove they were under the age of sixteen.

You can probably guess that did not go over well with the boys. Out of the eleven boys that made up the team, 6 of them now could not play. So crappy for so many reasons. These boys have been looking forward to this for months, if they win they travel to Poltava for a national competition where they would most likely win, they needed to run, now our team couldn't sub any players, and on and on. The older boys had to take off their jerseys and sit on the bench for the game.

The younger boys did a great job, especially given the fact that they had no subs and no water. Yeah, that's right. No water. Had we known that we would have brought water for them all. BoyOne played well and even scored a goal, but ultimately we lost. It was a very close game and the other team ended up scoring a goal at the last minute to win 4-3. The younger boys were devastated and the older boys were rehashing every. little. thing. Another team played and then our boys had another game which they played a little better and won. We took second for the tournament. The boys got a trophy and medals, but none of them would even put the medals on because second was not good enough. They were so mad. To top it off, many of the boys knew the kids on the other teams and they were all playing their 16 year olds. The boys begged their coaches to protest this injustice and so they did. The other teams admitted to playing their older players, but the league said it was too bad, the game was over. So our older boys donned their uniforms and called the older boys from the first place team out to the field for a match, basically to prove to everyone that they should have won, and they did. I think that it helped tremendously to get some serious physical activity and at least mentally it helped them. Some of them were still rehashing the whole thing and even yelled at the coaches that they should've cheated, too and why did they have to be so honest. Another boy on the team said that they play fair, that they must always be fair no matter what others do. A couple other boys agreed. It was impressive to see that in such a situation, especially under their circumstances where they are treated so unfairly in society anyhow, that some of them still have the resolve to have integrity. I don't know if I'd have done the same thing at that age or not.

Things didn't exactly get better after that either. Keep in mind that the boys ate at 7 a.m. and it was now 1, still no food or water. We called their bus driver who was still 40 minutes away. By the way, this guy is a little crazy. He finally gets there and the boys are consoling each other with the fact that at least they can still swim, when the driver passes the turn to the river. One of the boys asks if they can stop to swim, but the driver does not answer and keeps going. Niiice. Insult to injury, it's now almost two and it is seriously fifteen degrees hotter in this bus. We are hot and thirsty and uncomfortable, I can only imagine how the boys feel and I'm worried about their health, too. I ask our interpreter to ask the driver to stop at a grocery store so that we can go in and buy some water for them and she tells me that the driver is crazy and if she says that to him he will curse at her. So, I have her teach me how to say the phrase and walk up to him and ask him. He doesn't answer me, so I just tell him thank you for stopping and sit down. Yana asks if he cursed at me and I say that he was silent. Thankfully, he pulls over and tells Yana to tell us that we have ten minutes to cross the street to the market and if we are not back, he will leave us here. Yana grabs my hand and starts running, so apparently he is serious?! This guy needs a new job! Huz and I were almost out of money (we hadn't had a chance to exchange that morning) so we were only able to get water and bananas, but plenty of it.

When we got back to the bus 7 minutes later, the driver snorted at us that we took such a long time he could've given birth. Okay, ornery. The driver takes off, but stops about ten minutes later on some street in a neighborhood somewhere (drug deal??) and leaves us alone with the bus for 1/2 hour. At one point I was seriously thinking that I could drive the bus back to the orphanage as it is not that much bigger than the suburban I drive back at home. This driver is a joke!!! We all get off the bus where it is cooler and several of the boys start asking us questions about America. They asked about the exchange rate and how prices of things compare, along with the costs of living. They asked about the condition of Zap compared to other cities in the U.S., if we really used shampoo to clean our streets:) and taxes. It was a fun conversation. They asked if we liked it here, and of course we do and we told them, but then they said it was because our circumstances were so good here. Our apartment is nice, we have food and water, etc. Of course they are right and it made me sad to know that so many people have so little of everything.

When we got back to the internat, after Mr. Crazy decided to come back and drive us all home, BoyTwo was ticked that we had been gone so long. He was kind of pouty, sitting on a bench playing a game on my phone when all the other kids came up to me. I handed out my suckers to them and got out a couple coloring books for them to color in and began to play catch with them when all of a sudden BoyTwo ran over, grabbed the coloring books, threw them down a really deep window well and started snatching the suckers out of the other kids mouths, yelling. Yana said that he was yelling for them to leave me alone and to quit asking me to play and have treats. It was a pretty funny tantrum, but I felt bad that he felt bad, but it was a good sign that he wanted us to himself. He was still a little miffed when we left so I snuck him a bag of skittles and told him he didn't have ot share. He is soooo funny.

That was our day. I'm fried. But it doesn't hurt. It felt so good to sit in the sun all day!! Captions for the pictures are under the picture and take notice that I am remembering to hold the camera horizontally:)

This is the older boys game where they are trying to prove/redeem themselves.

This picture is heartbreaking. It is the older boys on our team who were not allowed to play, sitting and watching their younger teammates.

BoyOne facing us:)

Pregame when they called players from each team onto the field to flip for sides.

I found a rope swing. You better believe that when the boys weren't looking I gave it a try! I was actually hopping off here, not falling.

Day 10-Thursday, part 2

Alright Vika, this one's for you!! Masha sends her love and she misses you and will send a letter! Tania says hello, too. Today was GREAT!!! I love this place. The kids are so awesome. They love to hang out with us and play. There was a traveling Christian group that performed for the kids today and they did a great job. Their message was that there is a God. He is their Heavenly Father. He and Jesus love us so much that Jesus came to earth as a man and died for us. They know and love each of you. Everyone needs to hear that, especially these guys. Then they passed out little children Bibles to each of the kids and even gave us one so that the boys would have scripture in their own language when we got home. What a great bunch of people. Then they had a few activities for the kids. They each made a bracelet, a balloon animal, a little photo, and had their faces painted. After that the boys wanted to play soccer. The boys as in the older boys. There are 11 of them on a team and they are dang good. They have a tournament tomorrow that we get to go to. Totally excited!! So Huz played with them for a bit and I watched, sort of. I actually visited with their coach. She has been working at their orphanage for 43 years. The boys love her, and therefore so do I. She was awesome. She said that none of the other teams have women coaches and all the other coaches are very young. When the coaches have to take the field at the beginning of the tournaments and she walks on they always say, "Oh great, here comes the grandma with the team that will win all the trophies." Isn't that so funny? I'm laughing right now as I can hear her saying it to me. I also have an entourage of littles that follow me around. I love them. This post will have LOTS of pictures. If you feel so inclined, they all need homes:) Love these kids!!! Tomorrow we will head to the notary first thing and then off to the soccer game we go. After soccer I have a hot date with a ton of little kids for hair braiding, coloring, and jump roping. Da Svidaniya!!

p.s. I try to greet everyone we pass. It's like a game for me to see their reaction and see who answers back. I have passed one lady with her stroller three times since we arrived. First time she looked at me like I was high. Second time she apologized and said she didn't know I was talking to her. This third time, tonight, she saw me coming, smiled and waved. Hello progress!! Also the same set of babushkas are always sitting on the bench outside our apartment building every morning when we leave and every night when we come home. I wish I had a hidden camera to see if they even move during the day. I have seen them set out little bowls of water for the birds and use drinking water to water the flowers in the garden just outside our door. Other than that, they are on that bench. They all started answering back when we greet them but tonight as we came up the walk, one red headed babushka smiled big, waved and called out 'Dobre Veachair!' which is good evening! It is starting to feel like home:)

p.s. Kels, yes to your question a couple days ago about the kids in your class at school:)



Parrot inside the notary office. Guess what pet I want now???


Sorry, I won't be able to remember a lot of these kids names. If I do, I'll put it down.

Just happened to look over at him and this is what he was doing. Where does he get this from?!

We let the kids use the camera for a while, a popular activity here. This is one shot that I found when I got it back. So cute.

Soccer stars. Notice how only about half have soccer shoes on and the rest are wearing slip on sandals. Hmmm, wonder if that's how it will be at the game tomorrow. BoyOne is in the black shorts with the red shirt that has the number 10 on it.

They let Huz be one of the captains:) Here they are rock, paper, scissoring to see who chooses first.

This is our translator, Yana, our amazing translator, and one cute little girl, Katya, or Kat.

Here I am with Yana, or little Yana as I call her so as to differentiate between her and our translator. Yana has, get this, 5 older brothers that live at home, 1 younger brother here at the internat with her, a younger sister at this internat and an even younger sister at a different internat. Her parents have not lost their rights yet so therefore she is not available for adoption or any type of hosting. What a crapper. She's a doll.

Today I worked on getting the kids to pose for pictures and pull faces. This was one of very few where I was successful. Kat and me.

These guys hung out with us during the soccer part of the day. Not sure if they are a 'thing' as this was the only time they sat together like this. Who knows....

Watching the game, eating a chupas chupe or lollipop.

One of the girls took this picture. I don't know who she is but she is cute, so I put it on here:)

Showing off some stylin' face paint.

Can't remember their names. Sorry. They are sweet girls.

Soccer coach rock star. Can't remember her name either. She's not really that short, I'm standing on an incline. The boys love her. Back in the day she was a gymnast.

Good grief. It must be after midnight. I can't remember anybody's names. This little guy has a serious sweet tooth. He is ALWAYS trying to get more treats from me.

Great kid. He ping-pongs with us. Can't remember his name either.

Keeeem, this is the road on the way to you know where. Not sure that it is THE road, I think it's one of the more main streets. All the streets are tree lined. I love it.

More of the drive. This one is for sure the highway on the way there.

This is the road to there.

This park has been set up on the corner across from our apartment building. Both corners have little cafes with tables and chairs out where people gather to chat and eat. There is lots of music, too. It's not a great picture because I was trying to be sneaky so that I wouldn't get pegged as the creepy woman with the camera from America.

A different shot of the park.

Day 10-Thursday, part 1

Well, the roller coaster started late last night and is carrying on into today. We could use some extra prayers on our behalf for the SDA to remain open through their mid-June transition. This could affect not only us, but other families waiting as well. Thanks guys.

And now, for your early morning laugh:

The biggest packing advice I received prior to traveling was to PACK LIGHT!! I think I may have packed too lightly however because yesterday our Ukrainian facilitator, Elena, asked if I needed to borrow some of her clothes so that I could change mine. Niiiiiiiiiiice.

Day 8 and 9-Wednesday w/ Pictures

Holy Toledo. And I thought the white roller coaster at Lagoon was crazy! Short story, to a very lllllooooonnngggg story that I will spare you the details of, BoyOne said yes Tuesday morning when we showed up at the orphanage. We were completely shocked and not at all convinced. We had packed up our suitcases and purchased train tickets to leave later that night, along with contacting our travel agent to find tickets home. There was a boat load of drama the ENTIRE day. Exhausted because we weren't able to sleep, we showed up Wednesday expecting the worst still. That will be my advice. Expect the worst possible scenario and then be pleasantly surprised if it is any different! By the end of the day Wednesday we had accomplished a. lot. We have folks, in our hands (or rather the inspector's hands), the signed agreement for both boys to be adopted. Not only will we have two sons, but their grandmother as well (she's not coming with us, just a long distance granny). The end. More drama to come in the the next few days, weeks, months, etc... Be sure to check out the post right before this one as it has pictures from yesterday. Good times!

Thanks for all the love and prayers. I have a testimony of prayer and the power it brings to align our hearts and minds with the will of our Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for being so concerned for us and for our situation and for the boys. We felt your prayers with us today as the day's events unfolded. Just so you know, BoyOne was in no way bribed or coerced or did this with dragging feet either. And that was our prayer all along, that he would be able to know the will of the Father and be strong enough to do whatever was His plan. Wether it was to choose us or Ukraine we knew either option left a torn heart and truly wanted the best for him. He seems very calm since this decision and very happy...For your viewing enjoyment, here are more side ways pictures.

More landscape pictures for my newly returned friends to redeem this little village for them.

Again, for the SAC friends-they will recognize this statue, even if it is sideways:)

The orphanage (internat). Kind of looks like a gov't building. I guess it sort of is.

Peonies in front of internat. They are pink, but you can't tell from this picture.

We spent the afternoon at a park called Oak Grove (even though there were more chestnut and birch trees than oak). It was awesome. Picture every reject Lagoon ride from the 1940's. This is BoyTwo on the inflatable.

Huz and BoyTwo on the bumper cars. Go team!

BoyOne. Check out that smile on his face-along with the few too many dents on the car:)

BoyOne with his friend, Zheniya, whom we were permitted to take with us today.

Yana and me on the "Vatz", translated as the Waltz which is very misleading as it is more like Tilt-a-Whirl on steroids. By the way, I think the birds here are on crack. They SCREEEEECH and fly wildly around the sky all day like vultures only they are small birds...

BoyOne and Zheniya on 'The Vatz'. Good times.

A front shot of 'the Vatz'. Get the 40's vibe?

The boys with their sweet cotton as it is called here.

Before we even had tried any rides, BoyTwo got a bloody nose. They handle things of this nature slightly differently than we do here, but it's all good. BoyTwo was immediately laid down and a cold 'peevo' (beer-the only cold beverage we could find) was placed on his nose. When asked if he was feeling alright, his answer was this face and that everyone was green. (he was looking through the bottle at us)

Me, courtesy of BoyOne.

BoyTwo trying not to act too giddy about signing papers. He was in. heaven. And they just would. not. stop. talking. I leaned over to Yana and told her, 'They need to stop talking.' She answered, 'I cannot translate that, it would be bad.' hahaha. I wasn't thinking she would translate it, but maybe it wouldn't have hurt....

Huz, Babushka Rya, our new granny, and me. Isn't she darling?!

The boys with their babushka. She is an amazing woman who has lived an amazing life.

See? Aren't they darling?!