Desperately Need Help!

Well we are in a bit of trouble. Kevin called and they keep finding additional ways for us to have to spend more money. Right now he is short the money we need now to process the documents at the US Embassy to bring the kids home. We need to have an additonal 800.00 to Kevin by Monday at the latest so that he can get these kids home. He is getting very frustrated and we need to wrap this up and be done with all the red tape. We are desperately begging that if any one can donate any amount to try to make up this difference. Please contact me by E-mail if you would be willing to give us a hand in bringing them home. Keep praying for us that God will be faithful.

Hubby is Frustrated!

I feel so helpless when he calls frustrated with what is happening and he feels like they do not understand what he is saying. They would not let him take the kids today because he was a DAD and he was a MOM they would have, they said he couldn't handle it. If any of you know my husband you would agree that he probably would handle it better then me that is for sure. He is the one who was raised with a downs brother and is way more comfortable in the Ukraine them I was. They are having difficulty understanding the attorney and he wonders what the extra charges are and is not getting anywhere. Another 800.00 for passports that was not expected, I don't know where we are going to keep coming up with this extra money. I guess we will do whatever it takes to get everyone home but as it stands right now I have to come up with at least another $800.00 just to get him home and that is if no other mystery charges come up. Looking like ramen noodles and mac and chees for the rest of the month.

God is Good!

So they managed to get both birth certificates done today. Kevin said it is pretty cool to see them with our names on them, they are our children!!!!! And also his luggage was returned today so that is a big relief. So now it is up to how fast they turn over their passports, they say three days. But we just saw them do Austin's is the US in hours so I know it can be faster.

11th Day is Here!

Well as we were all sleeping My husband has been running around all day trying to get all the documents done in one day to be able to get to the passport office by 4pm to apply for their passports. Praying that everything went well and that right now they are on their way to the drop off the Birth Certificate at the passport office, it is 3pm there right now. Also that by a miracle they will complete them in record time so that he can bring Anna and Vlad home quickly. I am so blessed to have such an awesome husband who is willing to go back and brave the culture shock again to bring his kids home and a Godly 13 year old son who stepped up to volunteer to help his Dad bring his new siblings home. One of the great blessings of this whole experience is that you can never look at your world tha same way again. And we know that through the difficult times is when we grow in maturity the most.

My men are getting ready to leave!

My husband and oldest son are leaving today to go back to the Ukraine to get the kids. The 10 day wait period is up Tuesday and they will be ready to hit the ground running to complete all the necessary paperwork, passports and visa to get our kids home. Please pray that all goes smoothly and the guys have som special time together.

Update of Photos!

Here are some photos of the Orphanage and the girls in her group with the necklaces on that my brother made for us to bring. He also knitted hats and scarfs and the house mother really liked them. Sorry blogger is being fussy with the pics so I will just write and update. Since we last talked we made a trip back to Kiev to get the second referral for Vlad and then returned back to the village to file all the paperwork. That was a crazy day of running back and forth but our attorney got it all in and by the end of the day we had the court date of the 17th which is this friday. We found out that the place we were staying in the village wsa taken for the next 10 days so we had to come back to Karkov and stay at anb apartment there until court. It is a very nice apartment which has everything we need but it means that they made an exception for us that we have to visit the kids everyother day for two hour minimum before court. Usually they make you visit daily but since it is an hour drive there and back it makes it tough and very exspensive on our end. It gets very boring sometimes but we have been exsploring the city and getting alot of walking in. We have found another pizza place a grocery store and of course finally the coffe shop to get internet. Talk Soon.

Court on the 17th

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we have a court date. It is the 17th which is this coming Friday, I will try to post more pics tomorrow when we have a day off from visiting the orphanage. Please pray for a uneventful court and waiving of the 10 day period.

Well Today was better!

We had to make a final decision today if we were going to go back to Kiev and get the referral for Vlad.It has been an emotional week and very exhausting. We were very torn he has taken to Kevin but wants nothing to do with me, I am just another MAMA. Some of his behaviors were concerning and we were wondering if he would bond and be able to listen and behave. Nothing serious but we wantede to make sure we were taking everyone in the family into consideration and what life was going to look like. I am not a stay at home mom nor do I want to be at this point in life, I love my job and yes I do miss being at work. I work with some awesome women who have been so supportive and I just never want to take advantage of them, you guys rock! Also with Kevins variable schedule we need to make sure we could do it logistically. So we talked to the kids last night and explained the situation and they were shocked that we were even questioning not bringing him home. I told them that he had an attitude and was going to take so extra work and patience and Lindsay told us that she has plenty of attitude some times as a teenage and we never gave up on her. She also called me out for taking it to personally that he did not like me. And she reminded us that the reason that we are here is because that is what God called us to do and we have to stand on Faith not fear. That we were under attack and that Satan was trying to cause us not to agree to get his will done. I sure am lucky to have such a great kid, well I have the best kids in the world and I can't wait to hug each of them. They are being so brave and they said as long as they have us we can get through anything as a family. During this process I have realized how lucky that we truly are and how blessed we are. The conveniences that we have in the USA are amazing and I am going to learn to stop and look at everything with much more appreciation. Thnak You God for opening our eyes today and giving us a great visit with the kids. he made it very clear in several ways today that we needed to bring him home to his family. Will post more pictures later my body is so sore that I do not want to get up and walk across the room to get the camera. 3 hours of walking a day makes me wish that I had working out on the eliptical more before we left. Knots in your calf and shin split but you just kepp walking to see the kids. PERSERVERANCE!!!!

HAPPY 6th Birthday NOAH!

September 4th is NOAH's Birthday and we are sad to miss it. Today is the Buddy WaLK in Wyoming and the sponsors give everyone tickets to the University of Wyoming Cowboy footbal game so I know he is excited for that. I hope you have good day Noah MOM and DAD love you so much and can't wait to see you soon. Here are some pics of his party before we left.

Thursday!

So what our day consists of is wake up at 8am shower, eat banana and walk to orphanage to see kids. Takes about 45 minutes to walk there, although we are getting quicker and the weather has been so nice, cool and rains at night. Stay there until they eat lunch at noon. We walk back for a few hours rest and then walk back again at 4pm until about 5:30pm. Walk back to apartment and then we have dinner at the little pub downstairs, usually a burger pattie (what kind of meat I do not know but it is edible so I do not want to know) and homemade french fries which are really good. Tonight we braved the ice cream cone from one store and it was pretty good. Each day seems a little easier to survive here. Survivor Ukraine Ha! Although each day away from our kids back home seems more difficult, we pray every day for speedy court and waiving of the 10 days if not waived I will have to return on the 19th without Kevin.
One of the weirdest things is the animals just wandering around, we are all used to wild cats but wild dogs and we saw this cow out front out apartment. There was a herd of little piglets in the middle of the road today and the roosters crow in the morning.

PICS

Travel to Region.

So we left for Karkov by train Tuesday night, slept on the train and arrived at 6:20 am. Got picked up at train station and drove 200 km to orphanage. We got to see both kids. Found out that they are both healthy and have no heart problems. They have a really nice orphanage it even has a pool and a school. We were told that they just returned yesterday from a camp in country for special needs kids. These photos are from the train and our new room. We were very lucky to find this place there is literally no lodging and we almost had to stay at a lady from the orphanage house. We will be staying here until Sunday night when we go back to Karkov ans catch the train back to Kiev for Vlad's referral and then return until court to the region with the kids. Both kids took very well to us and we had a good visit. They are treated just like the other kids and are expected to keep. They cut Alyssa's hair and it looks just like my sweet Allie back home. Vlad is a little smaller then we anticipated, the clothes will be baggy on the way home, he might end ud getting hand me downs from Noah.