We are fine

Hello this is Sergey, we are fine. Right now we in small town Ambrosevka and here is only one place with Internet. We mat our son, very happy, processing documents but they are taking a while,we hope that everything will be ok. Thanks for praying we will try keep you update, but with out Internet it is hard.

Back in Kiev!

Today, Sergey's father drove us back to Kiev. We are still staying with Sergey's cousin.

Sergey talked to our facilitator today, and looks like we will try to get our referral tomorrow, and will be leaving by train to Donetsk. We already have our tickets to Donetsk, and our facilitator is sure that we will have our referral tomorrow. We are really hoping for it.

Little update about last week.

We did visit few Sergey's relatives, had a lot of walks in Lutsk, and had a lot of fun. We still can't wait to meet our boy, but we know that there is time for everything. And now, after spending this week with Sergey's father, we think there was a big reason for us to be here, and spend time in Lutsk.

Also we did go to Kivertsy to see my uncle and his family. Kivertsy, small town where I use to live for 9 years before we came to America, and it's only 20 minutes from Lutsk. It was really nice to see my relatives.

We will have internet tomorrow and I promise we will post pictures and blog some more.

Still in Lutsk

Hello, this is Sergey (Tatyana's husband) we are still in Lutsk, and planing to go back to Kiev on Sunday. Everything good. We don't have much access to Internet here but as soon as we will get to Kiev, Tatyana probably will give you a lot of interesting details about our trip. Daniel is little better, Tatyana is still sick and me (Sergey) sick also, but we hope we will get better soon.
On Monday we will get our documents and probably same day on Monday night will travel to Doneck to see our baby. we are exited.
Thanks for everything.
Sergey

in Lutsk....

I wasn't bloggng for a while because we are in Lutsk, visiting Sergey's father and we don't have any internet access. We will be in Lutsk till quarantine is over, until Thursday.

We are good. Daniel is still kind of sick. He is sleeping much better, thanks to Sergey. I will blog as soon as we have internet access. Thank you so much for your prayers.

More about SDA appointment..

Now, when Daniel is sleeping I can blog for a little. I just want to add few more things about our appointment.

Our facilitator is great! Looks like everybody know him, and I think because of him we had this many files of children. They like him there at SDA building a lot. And also I forgot to mention that we been at SDA building for 2 hours. We had plenty of time to go through all the files.

After our appointment us and our facilitator went for lunch to "Puzata Hata". We been there for few hours eating and talking, it was nice time together and getting to know our facilitator and the whole process more.

Daniel is still not in his best shape. Yesterday he woke up at 6:30am and took his nap around 4 pm, for an 1,5. He went to bed at 10:30 pm, but was awake at 2:40 am, and ready to play. He was trying to fall to sleep, but end up crying. So we were awake until around 4 am, and now it's 8:40 am and he is still sleeping. Looks like he wakes up every night around 2-3 am. I have no idea what to do. Any suggestions???

Also Daniel is sick, I have something and looks like Sergey getting too. I am sure it's nothing serious but it's hard to be sick. Please pray for us

Because of quarantine, we can't go and see a child the we are hoping will be our son. We were thinking to stay in Kiev for another week, to wait until quarantine is over. Here, everybody is talking that it can be over earlier, that what we are hoping for. But for now, we probably will go to Lutsk(4 hours drive), to Sergeys home town, and where his father is now. His father wants to come and take us to Lutsk. Also, me and my family before we came to USA use to live 20 minutes from Lutsk, and were going to Lutsk 2-3 times a week. Me and Sergey still have relatives in Lutsk and around areas. It would be nice to see and visit some of them.

Everyone HUGE thank you for all your prayers! We feel them! God Bless you for praying and blessing us on our journey.

Because of our work situation,probably both of us will go back home after court and stay home and work for 2 weeks and than Sergey will go back to bring our child home.

*****I am still working on pictures , and I think I will need Sergey's help :))))))))********

11-10-09 SDA APPOINTMENT!!!

Our appointment was at 9:00am, so we left our apartment around 8:00am. Daniel was staying with O, Sergey's cousin. We had to take metro, and it was packed with people. It was really hard. Too many people, and all those different smells was horrible, and I almost fainted.

Our facilitator was already there, and when we came we went in like in a seconds. It was nice that we didn't have to wait outside, because in the morning was cold.

Our appointment was nice and relaxing. We felt God's hand in whole process, He was there with us. Everyone was really friendly and nice to us. We were showed many files. Some had siblings and some didn't. We really liked one siblings group, but when we called the orphanage, we been told that Ukrainian family already in the process to take those kids. And we know it was not for us. Those were not our kids. There was 4 or 5 other groups of siblings of 2 but we didn't feel like those were our kids. Also we had around 10 files of perfect/healthy or almost healthy kids. Even they say that Ukraine doesn't' have healthy children, there was few that was perfectly healthy and others had small/correctable problems ( enuresis, scoliosis, slight development issues- common in orphanages . Not so many kids around 5-7 years old, many around 8-11 years old. We chose to see one boy.......my heart is pounding and we are so excited to go and see him when we can, at the end of quarantine. I am not going to say a lot about this guy, but we liked him, even he was not the perfect healthy child. We are really hoping that this is it, and this is a child for us from God.

Now I have to go to put Daniel to sleep, and I will try to write more when I can. Thank you a lot for your prayers!!!

The only thing was hard during this appointment, it's to chose a child. There is so many great kids, we would take it all of them if we could.

Day 2nd in Ukraine

Monday was a 2nd day for us in Kiev. O, Sergeys cousen took us to go and see where we will have our appointment on Tuesday, and also we met our facilitator at the same time. We talked to him for few minutes, asked him some questions about our coming appointment and he had to go to finish something. To get to SDA building we had to take metro, 30 minutes and than "Funikuler" to get on top of the hill, where SDA located, "Funikuler" was kind of scary.

Who been here, in Kiev, then you all probably know what I am talking about.We will try to take more pictures and post them here later so everybody has an idea what I am talking about. We have few pictures, and I am still trying to figure out how to post them here.

The weather is cold, but not too bad. We were expecting worst.

Also, on our 2nd day we went to "puzata hata" restaurant. It was a really nice place to eat, and food was great. I am not sure if everyone would like it, because it's all just Ukrainian food.

Daniel having hard time adjusting to current time. This night he woke up at 2 am and was playing till 4 am, and then he slept till 6:30 am. So I think, things are getting better.

Day 1st in Ukraine

Thank you for your nice comments and thank you for praying and thinking about us.

Yesterday , about 2 pm (Ukrainian time) we made it safely to Kiev. We were really, really tired. We almost didn't sleep on our flights, it's almost 48 hours with no sleep. Daniel couldn't sleep ether, its was hard for all of us. Very thankful for Lufthansa baby basinets that they have. DAniel was able to get 3 hours of sleep, basinet was too small for him, his legs were sticking out, but he felt much better.

Now, we are at Sergey's cousin apartment, and in 4 am we are all awake and ready to eat, very hungry. When we came yesterday, we didn't go to sleep until about 8 pm. Even we were really tired and ready to go to a bed, but tried not to. Because if we would go to sleep around 4-5 pm yesterday, we would be awake at 1 or 2 in the morning. Yesterday we went to supermarket, got some stuff for Daniel, exchange money, and got phone card. Today, me and Sergey would probably sleep more, but Daniel was ready to get up, so we are up.

Plans for today: do nothing, get some rest, and try to change Daniel to current time. I will try to give Daniel only 2 naps today, and put him to bed around 10 pm, and hopefully this will work, and he will wake up at least 6-7 in the morning, we can deal with that. :))))))))))))

We will try to meet our facilitator today, if he can, if not today then tomorrow. We are thinking a lot about our appointment, and we are ready to find out who God had prepare for us and why are we here!

When we can i will try to post some pictures.

All packed and ready to go....

Only 10 hours left until we go to airport. We are so excited!!!

This week was really hard emotionally and physically. We were trying to get so many things done at the last minute, and still not everything is ready. But we don't worry about all this stuff, we can get it done when we come back.

We got $300 more toward our adoption from one of our relatives. Not too many people will know what it means to us! We are so thankful to our God and this family. God bless this family!

One more blessing, in Kiev we will be staying with Sergey's cousin. We don't have to look for apartment, and basically we will have place to live for free. Yes, we still have to buy food and give a present for his cousin, but it's still way cheaper then we would rent a place. Praise the Lord!!!

You probably already had heard about swine flu in Ukraine. Schools will be close for 3 weeks, and during this 3 weeks of quarantine anyone who has an appointment at SDA will still have their appointments but will not get any referrals to see a child until end of quarantine. We had a choice to reschedule our appointment for December or go now and see what happens. We are praying and going, we can't reschedule for many reasons, so we will just go and see what happens.

Please pray for us!!! I will try to post when I can! God Bless you!

3 days left until our trip

I can't believe it, first it looked like it's a long time until we go to Ukriane, and for a while there I was thinking that our trip and end of paperwork will never happen. And now we are 3 days away from going to Ukriane to finally finish what we started almost a year ago.

This Saturdaywe had a garage sale, and it went really good. We didnt' have a lot of stuff, but we made $100! One lady, when she found out that we are adopting she did gave $20 dollars bill, and she only got 3 items, for $1 each. It was really nice of her, and

God bless her and her family for her kind heart.

Sunday, pastor called us on stage, and all the pastors were around us, praying for us, and for our adoption. It felt really good!!! We felt Gods presents, and we know He will be with us.

No one in church knew about our plans, except pastor, and maybe few more people, it was a big surprise to everyone.

Also 2 more people in church came to my husband and, one gave $100 , and another family gave $50. Thank you, thank you so much. God bless you! In this process every dollar makes a big change.

Also, yesterday, one of my brothers friends gave $40 for our adoption. God Bless him!

Everyone who is giving money or praying, or just supporting us, you guys don't even know what it means to us, and how grateful we are to our God for you. God Bless you all!!!

Now we are thinking what toys, things to take for 6-10 year old kids. Any ideas? We were thinking to take few, like coloring books and crayons, and maybe something else small. And other toys and things we will buy when we get there and we know our child/ren.

I can't wait to be in Ukraine and finally meet our child/ren. This child/ren were in our hearts for almost a year, and we want them home with us.