Moore Family Adoption

Heard from Victor via Igor that he was able to obtain the signed recommendation from the SDA today, and contacted the judge's assistant.  Monday and Tuesday are national holidays in Ukraine, so Victor will meet with the Judge next Wednesday to set a court date.  This is good news because it is progress.  The waiting may soon be over.  We expect we will learn when our court date will be on May 4th.  After court, Nellie and I have to go to the US embassy for some paperwork.  Nellie will likely return on the day we got to the embassy or the next day.  We are flying Lufthansa, which is very good, because there is no layover on the way back to the USA.  Direct flights with just a few hour layovers.  Our Coleman air mattress made it exactly four weeks of use.  It was "guaranteed" to not lose air.  It lost air, and now won't hold it.  Dang, that thing was comfortable.  Today, we went to the orphanage for about 8 hours.  ...

Victor and Igor informed us the SDA has our final resolution and it should be signed by Friday.  But Victor and Igor have made no guarantees, which I understand.  They are shooting for a court date next week.  I appreciate their efforts.  I just called stateside last night to chat with my bank, and find out the balance on my credit card.  Oyyy Vey.  They were very helpful (Wings Credit Union).  Thanks for your prayers and your notes.  It feels great to hear from other people who are pursuing adoption.  We'll return the blessing and be praying for you (but please send us your blog links - it will help). I prepared a top list of items you need to prepare for Ukraine.  I promptly deleted it.  Ugh.  But, from memory, I write this in hopes of helping families following us: 1)  Bring more money - living in Kiev is more expensive than the estimates you are given.  We have been drawing cash advances from our credit card, ...

Zach and I are feeling pretty pleased.  We finally got out an did some frolfing in Ukraine.  Frolf, is Frisbee Golf.  Some call it Disc Golf.  My friend Richard calls it Frolf, and well, we just went along with Richards title.  I like Disc Golf better...rolls off the tongue better.  But, oh well.  As you know, and we are very glad for your prayers, things have been very dicy here in Kiev the last few days.  So this outing was needed.  My anxiety over our situation boiled over last night...I'm far from perfect, as all of you know.  So today, sunshine and 70's and Frolf!  We have photos and some video.  Zach, are you getting any of this?  Anyone read cyrillic? This is a park near the Novoselki bus stop where we get off the bus each day.  This is not a frolf course, so we improvised.  We chose targets in advance and declared those targets to be the goal.  Disc golf in the USA has a basket that is usually ...

A juvenile services regional director wants to meet about our adoption of Anya and Samuel.  The timing is atrocious, because had he just signed our document, we'd be making plans for court this week.  Igor was able to get the document we needed signed, averting this appointment (Yay Igor). I was speaking with someone from another family who said you feel like your schedule is being fit around someone else's schedule.  I feel the same way. Please pray that we get our court date fast.  We are in limbo again.  We've been here before, in a time and place of never knowing what the timeline is.  Time lines are important to people who own a business, and who commuicate to employers and clients how long something will take.  Not knowing is a real problem.  The time lines over here are described by our handlers in the best English they can manage, but it always leave communication wanting.  Nellie and I never really understand what they are talkin...

Nobody's perfect.  We had a great time at the Dolphin show today, only to learn when we returned to COCH that the Circus outing planned for yesterday, actually occurred today.  So Jason, Anya and Samuel (Artium) all got to see a great dolphin show, but miss the circus.  Like the Boehrs, we also took a vacation day on Saturday, in the knowledge that our kids were having a great time at the circus.  I don't want to "out" the person who gave us the bad info.  I've seen several times that well intended communications go through translation errors.  To top it all off, all the big kids were then taken on a Church picnic...we were not told any of it.  I would have loved for Anya to go to that.  Nobody tells us anything, likely because they only speak Russian. Speaking of the Dolphin show, I expected it to be a super soaker.  It was, for Grievnna, but the smiles on the kids faces was worth it.  For me, Samuel stole the show.  He was...

You want to assume the best about people.  I've seen a guy three times in Kiev.  He is 5' 8" tall, black hair, looks very Arabic, talks the talk, knows where the Halal restaurants are (good ones too).  But I learned tonight he is a con man.  And yet, the Lord used the experience.  I haven't found any good restaurants in Kiev.  We found a good, comfortable Arabic restaurant tonight, with excellent food, and Muhammed, since he found the place for us, in downtown Kiev, joined us.  But I learned from the manager, afterword, that they see this guy in the restaurant quite a bit.  Here is the con...the guy knows the menu, and orders something excellent that is actually a lunch special off menu.  He'll tell you he is from Qatar, and that he has a wife and kids, but the number of kids part changes after you ask him more questions.  Right before the bill comes, a guy shows up that is his friend.  Muhammed opens his wallet and has only 10...

I had to see the kids.  I really missed Anya.  You have to understand that me and Anya really connected while she was in MN during Christmas.  The other day, I spent a lot of time with Samuel, because he needs time with Dad as well, and Anya didn't like that all too much.  She is used to hanging with Dad.  Well today, Anya got a big dose of Dad, after I had to work the last two days.  What a joy to spend time with her!!  I got some time with Samuel as well.  Here are some photos. Got a few good ones of Samuel as well.  Anya and her brothers get along very well.  Like peas in a pod. Finally, I have to include two videos.  There were many good ones today, but these two are my favorites. In the 2nd one, Angelica, Natasha, Zach and Nellie are playing a jumping game. In the 1st video, the kids are playing a version of hide and seek...very short due to battery issues.

This short post is all about Jason.  I see him when I'm at the orphanage.  He is just a great kid.  We all like him a lot.  Today he was horsing around with some of the other boys, but he came over looking for a brawl, so I obliged after reading so many of the Ritzmans posts.  But I could tell it wasn't the same for him.  He quickly moved off.  You can tell he really loves his parents. Took a few videos as well.  Here they are.  Jason really looked content as we were leaving today...we could tell he was talking to his Mama and Papa on the phone. I want to make a disclaimer in advance that I'm usually unaware of my ongoing commentary in videos.  The 2nd video is a short clip I'm preparing for the ECAS  website....a couple short videos of children playing.  You can see Jason hanging with the boys...my battery was getting extremely low, and hence the short duration.

Friday is a big day for us.  We need prayer.  Someone is holding up out approval and our coordinator is trying very hard to get our document signed.  Please pray for him and the person holding this up.  We have an appointment next Wednesday morning if nothing is resolved, but this could impact our schedule for getting Nellie and Matthias back to the states.  We need to get our court date and also get to the US Embassy, all by two weeks from yesterday, or our timeline is going to change a little.  We also need prayer for a legal document problem to be resolved "legally".  I cannot give more details than that...we want to honor the Lord in all we do.  We have several options.  We need his solution.

Anya and Zach have a great relationship. She loves to take charge of him when they are together. She "makes" him push her on the swing and push her around the playground on the bike. I think the bike is her favorite thing to do when outside. Second favorite is the swing. When they are inside she and Zach spend their time in the ball pit. Mostly Zach throwing Anya in. As you can see in the above picture they find other things to do as well. They have created a very good bond. I enjoy seeing them together as they are both genuinely enjoying their time together.

Today when we, Zach and myself, arrived at the orphanage Samuel was all ready to head outside, so we did our schedule backwards with Anya as well. We all headed outside into the beautiful sunshine and had a good time playing. When we went back in, at Anya's request, we had a little snack and settled in to do some schoolwork. Anya was less than interested and made it clear she did not want to work. I sat next to her and read out loud to her from a "Weekly Reader" type paper. I know she didn't understand most of what I was reading, but I figured it couldn't hurt for her to hear me reading to her. After being ignored for a few pages I set to playing with Samuel. Anya, noticing the attention he was getting, decided it might be worth getting her math done if she would be able to join us. She did all her problems lickety split and was able to spend some time playing again. After lunch when it was time to do some English she was far more willing and did above and...

I had always planned on staying for the entire duration.  I see the Boehrs have quite a bit more than a 10 day wait until the court decree.  If ours is more than 10 days, it might make sense to return home.  I'm fortunate, though, in that I can work from Ukraine, and could step up my work days to 3 or 4 days a week, and still keep contact with the kids.  But the rent is steep, and it costs a lot to maintain your living in Kiev.  So going home might make more sense.   We are coming up to holidays in Ukraine, and the question is, does the 10 days count the holidays as well?  For the first time, I'm considering heading home for the interim. 

Today Dave had to stay at the apartment and work, so it was just Matthias, Zach, and I that made the trip out to see Anya and Samuel. They were happy to see us, but Anya was not feeling well. She was quiet, calm, tired, and clingy. She set right to her schoolwork though, getting every thing done in a short time. While we were working on her math and reading (English) Samuel played happily near us, sometimes on his own and sometimes with the other children that were in the same area. He did not try to climb everything in sight today, that was a relief. He did enjoy playing on the appropriate climbing equipment and falling into the ball pit. Usually when it is time for Samuel to take a nap the caregivers take him and put him to bed. Today he was allowed to stay with us a bit longer. When I brought him upstairs for his nap I was allowed to tuck him in. It was wonderful to go through that simple routine with him. I left him with a smile on his face. When it was nearing time to l...

I now prominently feature our friend Andrew, who manages the electronic shop near the metro and near the underground mall, at Independence Square in Kiev.  We got off the train at the Hreshadyk station, and we're buying pizza, when Nellie says, "where is the backpack?".  The person who was carrying it forgot it on the train, a train jam packed with commuters.   All I could think was, I need "Andrew".  Andrew closes his shop, and comes and translates for us to the Kiev Metro Police.  We gave the a description of the backpack, and after about 15 minutes, they tell Andrew we are to proceed with the police to the Obalon station. We ride with the nice Kiev Officer to the Obalon station, where a young lady, in her early 20's, is waiting at the Obalon Metro police station, with our missing backpack.  She said she tried to call to us as we exited, but took ownership of the backpack, and informed the police at the Obalon station.  We traveled 5 stops north on...

I asked Igor last Thursday to withdraw Anya from Ukrainian school.  We homeschool, and we want to get started with the kids.   Anya got down to schoolwork very nicely.  We know it will take a while to get the differences between our language and theirs.  But you have to start somewhere.  We've learned from reading books on kids raised in orphanages that they are behind kids that are raised in families.  We learned today that Artium  is not ready for any school related learning yet.  That will come with time.  A similar pattern has emerged with the bonding process with Samuel.  When Anya visited during Christmas, she was much more close with the ladies first.  Same with Artium.  He is more comfortable with Mommy than Daddy.  Still, we have our moments.  He sat in my lap for a few photos.  When gotcha day comes and goes, I will keep Samuel on his same daily schedule, but I won't be able to work very easi...

I feel very humbled, having read I Corinthians 1:18-31.  At age 17, I did not go to Church, was doing drugs and alcohol, and had no hope, no future whatsoever.    Then I met a new friend, who boldly and without shame told me about Christ, that he was real, that He died on the cross for my sins.  Slowly, I began to realize that God was not mad at me, and was not standing idly by while I made a fast track to hell.  The Bible, in four accounts, by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, tells us Jesus, who never sinned, never lied, went to the cross to die, as payment for our sins.  God made perfect salvation, but He requires just one thing.  He wants us to put our faith in His son (Ephesians 2:8-9).  If I had the ability to be good enough then why did Jesus have to die on that cross?  I cannot reach God my way, and neither can you. When I understood my problem before God, and realized it could be fixed by putting my faith in Christ, I wanted that!...

I had some business to attend to, and didn't make it to the orphanage until 2:30pm.  But I got a great hug from Anya, so that made it all worth the wait.  Nellie, Zach and Matthias were at the orphanage from 10:30 am to 6:00 pm.  About an hour after I got there, the Boehrs stopped by, and we had a great opportunity to hang around with Jill, Bruce and their kids.  In fact, here are some photos. The art of getting a self photo was perfected by my daughter Rebekah.  I thought Jill and Bruce were masterful in these poses.  I could win an award with either of these photos. This is Zach getting on my last nerve.  This is Anya just being playful with Dad.  Zach and I repeatedly did a one, two, three toss into the ball pit. Could Anya be any cuter?  I don't think so.  I think we're talking serious daddy's girl material.  Fine by me.   Anya looking up from the IPOD. Zach posing for a photo with Natasha.  Note the ev...