7 Quick Takes - From Ukraine!

1. We are in Ukraine adopting our little boy and we had court on Monday. We were approved to adopt him and are now in the 10 day wait. Once it's over, we gather paperwork, have gotcha day, and then head back to Kiev for embassy stuff. Then we can go home! Right now it's looking like Dec. 7th is when we can head home. Please pray there are no delays!

2. Hubby had to head home after court, so I'm alone with Samuel. It sounds like it would be awesome to have nothing to do, but it is mind numbingly boring. I'm used to being busy! We can only visit Maks 2 hours a day, and those visits are getting difficult, too. Just too much monotony. 

3. The weather here is cold, of course, and it looks like we'll get snow in Monday! I am so excited, and this desert girl is enjoying every minute of the chilliness. 

4. We had a super sweet moment yesterday. Maks was listening to music on my phone and cuddling on my lap. He started sucking his thumb and then he fell asleep! I didn't want to get in trouble (the kids are on very strict schedules), so I woke him up when I heard someone coming. But I enjoyed every second of it. 

5. Please pray for our godson, Peter, (JoAnna's son) as he is in surgery right now for his feet. 

Me and Peter the day after he was baptized and the day Sam was baptized :)

6. I was just visited by Ukrainian Jehovah's Witnesses! Haha. They asked if I spoke Ukrainian. I said no. They asked if I spoke French. I said no. So he gave me a pamphlet and showed me the website. 

Huh?

7. Ok, time to Skype with my loves! Happy Friday!

Introducing...

The newest member of our family...

Maksim Benedict! 

A bundle of sunshine!

Who already loves his daddy.

And his mommy. 

And we love him, so very much. 

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us, donated, advocated, and fundraised. We would've never been able to do this without your support, and we are so grateful that you all helped give us such a blessing. 

We will be in country a couple more weeks. I cannot wait for him to meet his sisters. They are going to love him so much!

Groundhog Day

It's hard to keep track of days when so much is the same. We wake up, go to the orphanage for 2 hours, then come back to the apartment and try to find something to do. Repeat. Our visits are going well. Our sweetie is getting more and more comfortable with us, which comes with some fake crying, and a little naughtiness, but I love it. I love him. 

We are supposed to have court Monday, so please pray for us!

This week another family is in region, so we've been going into town to eat, shop, and look around. It has been a balmy 32° or so, but I'm loving it. It's so nice to have company. You can only watch so many movies...

Tomorrow we are going to church at a Ukrainian Greek Catholic parish, which is in communion with Rome. It is a block away, and is literally a tiny little shack of some sort. I am excited to see what the inside looks like. 

Here are some pics of our visits in town. 

Pizza place. It's so good and so cheap! You'd never think it's cheap by how fancy it looks, huh?

Cappuccino from the pizza place. 

Ice cream from the pizza place. Lots of fruit on top and so delicious. 

An Orthodox Church in the town square. 

This church is next door to the above one. Also orthodox. 

Tiny store we buy most of our stuff in. 

Bacon flavored chips. 

Stay tuned Monday. I'll hopefully have good news and pictures of our new son! 

Days 7 and 8

Yesterday we had another good visit with our guy.  He loves to wrestle, so he spends most of his visits rough housing with daddy. 

After our visit, we had our taxi driver take us to pick up a pizza. We keep running out of food, and it's hard for us to get into town. We also had him take us to the big grocery store so we could stock up a bit. This was probably a bad idea, since it was Sunday, and apparently stores are busy like they are in America. The lines were so slow. A lady and her young teenaged daughter came up to us and said, "you can get through faster over here," and motioned for us to follow them. They had us cut in line in front of a bunch of people! It was so sweet, but also a little uncomfortable. But no one seemed to mind. The manager even said, "so sorry!" to us, and we said "no, no, thank you!!!" Apparently, if you want special treatment here in EE, you bring a tiny baby with you, haha. 

Here are some pics of our world right now, since I can't share pics of "Colton" yet. 

Elevator to our first apt. Wishing we had one now, we're on the 5th floor and it's killing me! 

Fancy mural in our apt in region.

View from our kitchen. 

His precious groupa's bedroom. 

Playground At the orphanage. 

Orphanage grounds

We have been treated very well, and the nannies all seem to love our boy. He interacts well with everyone and it's really good to see. It is a nice place, but our boy's time was limited here. He would be transferred when he turns four. 

Days 4 and 5 and 6

Oops! I'm behind all ready! We are doing great over here. It's quite the adjustment from busy mommy and daddy to having nothing to do. We only visit 2 hours a day, and the sun goes down at 4:45, and we really have nowhere to walk to, so we're a little stuck. I am trying to get used to it. We are having fun, though. 

Our little man is such a joy. We met him on Wednesday after driving 2 hours on old pot hole ridden ex military road. Drivers here swerve around each pot hole. I was not feeling well for some of the trip. 

We got to the orphanage and we waited in the hall a bit. Our facilitator then took us into some office, the lady there cooed over the baby and said she admired us for what we are doing. Goodness, it's hard to know what to say to that. We are humbled by this whole process and we're truly. Only doing what we felt called to. 

Anyway, we were then taken to the music room where they went over his history with us and then they brought him in! He is SO much bigger than we expected. He's a chunky guy, and definitely won't fit  in most of the he clothes I brought. He sat on Kyles lap first because I was nursing the. Baby. Luckily, Samuel finished and I was able to put him down so I could hold him, but only after our boy gave papa some kisses. He is super affectionate  and so sweet. 

We got to play with him a bit, and then another lady showed off his walking skills. He walks holding onto objects like the tiny chairs, or someone's hands. She also picked him up and dipped him in the air and tickled him, it was so cute  and not something I expected. 

We took him back to his groupa and our facilitator had us wait a bit and then came out and asked if we liked him and if we wanted to adopt him still. Yes! We do! We said. He is precious. 

We ran around for hours, had lunch, and didn't get to our apartment until pretty late at night. We had to get paperwork rolling. 

The next day, we picked him up from his groupa and he seemed so happy to see us! He really, really likes Kyle, and they spent a lot of time bonding and giggling.  He loves the ball pit, loves to look through books, and he can catch onto anything we show him once. He has an amazing laugh. They came and took him from us that day a little early, but he was getting tired, so that was ok. 

Yesterday was just about the same, he loves our phones, he loves to walk, and this day he kept daddy busy walkinga round throwing toys and chasing after them. He snorts when he laughs. :) he also liked sitting in Samuels baby seat and rocking with the blanket over him. He looooves peekaboo, too. 

Today is Saturday. We showed up and they were still dressing him, so we waited  and one of the nannies held Samuel. We played in his groupa's bedroom today, and I was so excited to see where he sleeps. I have no idea which one was his bed, there were 14 little beds, but it was still nice to see. He mostly wanted to look through the books and snuggle. He played ball with daddy and snuggled with me a bit, then it was time to go. We took him out to his groupa and those sweet babies break my heart. Our boy blew me a kiss and didn't want to let me go. The nanny noticed and told the other nannies. :)

 One of the little boys says, "mama?!" And taps on his chest. It's hard not to cry. These kids probably won't be adopted, and as far as I can tell, none of them have special needs, so I don't think they can be listed for international adoption until they're 5.  Pray for them, friends. They are amazing little love bugs. 

Well, that catches me up a bit. Please keep praying for us! We're praying for you.

Days 2 and 3

Yesterday we had our appointment and got the official referral for our son! Today we picked up the paperwork and will head out bright and early tomorrow morning to meet him! I am enjoying the city and the people. I will go into more detail later :)

Last night we had dinner with 2 other rr families. That was really nice, but it was a long walk uphill on the way back. 

Samuel is making sure to blend in with the locals here. 

We're Here!

After about 24 hours of travel, 3 layovers, and a lot of walking, we're here in Eastern Europe! Our appt is tomorrow. We are working on resting up. Samuel did great on the flights! 

I've been praying lots for all of my friends and hope you're praying for us too! 

Ahh, a bed, finally!