Monday, June 4, 2007

Today is the day we have been waiting for. When we woke up this morning, we were both excited and nervous. We decided that we would pick up our girls and take them to an early lunch, bring them back to the orphanage, and then head to our apartment to change for court. We took the girls to the café at Amstor. We decided on the way there that we would let each of the girls pick out one DVD to take back to America. They really enjoyed looking through the DVDs and picking out DVDs for themselves! After picking out the movies, we headed into the café for lunch. After the girls picked out their food and sat down at a table, I left Fred to watch them and headed into the store to buy some laundry detergent and some hair stuff. Since it was cold and rainy outside, I also picked up a few mini puzzles for the girls to take to their group. Fred told the girls that they could have ice cream, so we each bought a scoop from the ice cream lady inside the door. Ice cream for the 4 of us cost 8 grivna ($1.60 USD) total. We thought that was a smokin’ deal! Our driver Mischa is wonderful and let the girls bring their ice cream in the car! They ate it on the way back to the orphanage. When we got back to the orphanage, we had Kseniya explain to the girls that we had a meeting in the afternoon and would not be able to hang out with them. They didn’t seem too disappointed. We said our goodbyes and headed home to prepare for court. We quickly got ready and were ready with 45 minutes to spare. I was so nervous I thought I was going to throw up! We spent some time praying together and I felt much calmer when we were done. Earlier this year, Fred and I memorized 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 and have been praying it since then. It has been a great reminder that God is in control. The verse says “Everything in the heaven and earth is Yours O Lord and this is Your Kingdom. We adore you as being in control of everything. Riches and honor come from You alone and You are the Ruler of all mankind. Your hand controls power and might and it is at your discretion that men are made great and given strength.” As we headed to court, I reminded myself of the truths in that verse over and over again. Since Svetlana was still in Kiev, we were told that we would meet Lena the official translator at court. When we arrived at court, we waited upstairs in the hallway with the orphanage social worker. She did not speak much English, so we had to wait patiently for Lena to arrive. We had arrived at 2:45 so we had a little bit of time to wait before court started. Lena showed up at 2:55 and we thought that court would start promptly at 3. Unfortunately, at 3:15, we were still waiting in the hallway. The judges for our case weren’t in the courtroom yet, so we continued to wait for them. When the judges finally showed up, it was 3:20. We entered the courtroom and had a seat. There were 3 judges presiding over our case. The social worker from the orphanage was there as a representative of the orphanage and the director of social work for the city was there as a representative for the city. There was also a prosecutor who was present to make sure all proceedings were legal. Court began promptly and Lena translated as the judges read documents. They weren’t pausing to allow for translation. They read documents quickly and Lena had to translate at the same time they were speaking. It was pretty impressive! After reading our application to adopt, the status reports for the girls along with their family history and medical history, they read excerpts from the letters the girls wrote requesting to be adopted by us. It was really cute. They then told us that they had questions for us and we stood up to answer their questions. They asked us if we would love Amina and Khrystyna and care for them as our own children, how long we had known the girls, if we felt we had adequate time to make a decision about adoption, and what our relationship was like with the girls. They also asked how we were going to help the girls with the transition to living in the US and learning to speak English. We were surprised that they didn’t ask more questions. They asked us to sit down and they asked for the opinion of the orphanage and the city. Both representatives stated that they believed that it would be in the best interest of the girls to be adopted by us and that they could tell by our interactions with the girls that we loved them very much. Next, they asked the prosecutor to stand up. He seemed very bored during the court session, but he stood up and said that he had been paying close attention to the proceedings and that everything had been legal. The judges then conferred among themselves for a minute before announcing that our adoption was approved and that after the 10 day waiting period, we could pick up our documents and begin the process of getting visas and passports for the girls. From start to finish, we were only in the courtroom for 20 minutes. We were not allowed to take pictures in the court room, but we took a few outside the courthouse to commemorate the occasion. We then headed to the orphanage to briefly see the girls. While we were in court, Mark and Christine met with Ludmilla and asked her if we could take the girls to the circus tonight. We wanted to take them before Fred left to head back home. She agreed to let us take them if we took an orphanage staff member with us. Kseniya agreed to go with us. When we got to the orphanage, Kseniya got the girls and we got a quick picture with them. When Kseniya explained that we would be going to the circus that night, they were ecstatic! Amina started jumping up and down! We told them that we were going home to change out of our dress clothes, but that we would be back to the orphanage to pick them up in an hour. When we got home, we changed into pants and long sleeve shirts…it has really gotten chilly! We have been amazed by how God has answered our prayers. After changing and eating a quick dinner, we headed back to the orphanage to pick up the girls. I expected the circus to be similar to the circuses in the US…big venue, lots of animals, and lots of space. Instead we pulled up to a small grassy area next to the cable car tracks that had a tent the size of our family reunion tent. It didn’t look very big and there were hardly any people there. When we got to the tent to buy tickets, there was a sign saying that they were closed June 4th and June 5th. We thought that was quite strange since all the signs in town say that the circus is in town from June 1-10. They don’t mention that the circus is town all those days, but not open on June 4th and 5th. The girls were very disappointed, but they handled their disappointment well. They asked if they could go to the park with the crocodile. We were a little concerned that none of the rides would be operating since it was cold and rainy and that the crocodile would be deflated, but we headed to the park anyway. When we got to the park, Masha, Christine, and Kseniya were waiting for us. Mark had headed into the park to scope out which rides, if any, were open. None of the rides were operating and the crocodile was deflated. We expected this to be the disappointment that pushed the girls over the edge, but they handled it in stride. They said they would play on the playground. The girls played on the playground for over an hour. The adults were all freezing. The playground only has 2 swings and it was interesting to watch the dynamics of who got to swing. Masha and Khrystyna got to the playground before Amina and took the swings. Amina handled it well and climbed on the jungle gym. Mark and Fred also played tag with her for a little while. After a while, Masha gave her swing to a little girl and joined Amina on the jungle gym. Masha and Amina then borrowed Mark’s camera and began taking photos of each other. It wasn’t long before Khrystyna joined in! Amina asked for our camera too and they all chased each other around the playground taking pictures. After a while, I noticed Khrystyna and Masha sitting on a bench with Fred. Amina was taking pictures of them and they were all practicing English…Ok, so it wasn’t exactly practicing English. One of the girls (and I have no idea which one it was) started using the phrase “Bad girl” They all began calling each other “bad girl” and chasing each other around the park. They were having a ball AND speaking English. It wasn’t the phrases we were hoping for, but it’s a start. Masha was also using the phrase “good job” tonight. We all enjoy it when they make an effort to speak English. After lots of running, the girls headed for the swings again. This time Masha and Amina got the swings. After a while, Khrystyna went over to Amina and said something while pointing to us. We were on the other side of the park so we’re not exactly what she said. All we know is that Khrystyna started running toward us and Amina followed. When Amina got close to Khrystyna, Khrsytyna turned around abruptly and started racing back to Amina’s swing. Amina beat her there and they both laughed quite a lot. I think Khrystyna tried the “mom and dad are calling us” routine and Amina fell for it! Khrystyna then began to poke Amina everytime Amina would swing forward. They totally behaved like sisters! It was really fun to watch. I think Amina eventually got tired of Khrystyna poking her because she got off her swing and gave it to Khrystyna. She played on the jungle gym some more before heading over and sitting dejectedly on the seesaw. Fred asked if she wanted him to go on the see saw with her and she said “No, Masha.” She then began calling for Masha and giving her sad puppy dog eyes. Masha eventually gave in and came over and climbed on the seesaw. When Masha was fully on the seesaw, Amina jumped off and stole Masha’s swing. Masha then sat on Amina’s lap on the swing. They spent the next 10 minutes trying to “share” the swing. While the older girls were carrying on on the one swing, Khrystyna was swinging her little heart out on the other swing. She had her eyes closed and she was smiling and singing to herself! It was quite cute. We think the girls will probably get a lot of use out of our swingset. Khrystyna used it a ton last summer and we’re guessing that Amina will enjoy it too. Although it was freezing, I could have stayed out there for another hour or so. I was thoroughly enjoying watching the girls play and it was fun to watch the dads play with them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as fun for Kseniya and she eventually asked if we could go. We agreed and headed over to tell the girls that our time at the park was over. The girls then began telling Kseniya that they were hungry. Kseniya told them that there would be food for them back at the orphanage and that if they were really hungry, they could have that food. We finally got the girls in the car and headed for the orphanage. Amina and Khrystyna had bought chocolate bars at lunch today and since we are trying really hard to make sure that the girls don’t take anything to the orphanage that may create jealousy, we made the girls leave the chocolate with us. We allowed them to have some of it on the way back to the orphanage. After all, we don’t have much time left to load up the kids with sugar and leave them with someone else! Just kidding! When we got back to the orphanage, we made some plans for tomorrow before saying goodbye to the girls. When we got back to the apartment, we decided to take a walk outside. We found a little market on the corner in the opposite direction we normally go. I’m so glad I now know it’s there. They sell water and juice. We normally go to the grocery store that is 4 blocks away and walk home with our cartons of juice and gallons of water. I’ve been making Fred carry all the heavy stuff, so I’m glad to know that I can just walk across the street to get the heavy stuff! The store also sells minutes for our phone and that was one of the things we were looking for. All of our incoming calls are free, but it’s expensive to make outgoing calls and we were out of minutes. When we got back to our apartment, we loaded the minutes onto our phone and Fred called Sasha to find out the plans for Wednesday. We knew we would be signing paperwork, but we weren’t sure how much time that would take. Sasha said to not plan on doing much more than signing papers. He also said that Fred would be able to leave Wednesday night for Kiev and that he could go to the American Embassy in Kiev on Thursday morning. He told Fred that he could leave anytime after 11am on Thursday. Unfortunately, there were not any available flights on Thursday, so Fred will be heading back to the US on Friday. He will get into Fort Wayne late Friday night. We are going to talk to Sasha tomorrow to see if it will be possible for Fred to leave for Kiev on Thursday night instead of Wednesday night. I’d much rather him be here for an extra day than just sitting around Kiev doing nothing! Also, if he can leave Thursday night, he’ll be able to go to the circus with us on Wednesday. We should find out more tomorrow. I am happy to report that with our window open and the cold air blowing in, our apartment hit a record low today of 69 degrees…although we closed the window 5 minutes ago and the temperature has already risen to 73 degrees. In my opinion, that’s a pretty good temperature. It is now after 10 pm and I am more than ready for bed. Today has been a wonderful, life-changing, exhausting day! Thanks again for your prayers!