Moving to a new blog

Our 2nd adoption is done, everyone is home. This new blog will be about our everyday life as a family. I will post and will try to be honest about our life as one family :)
http://thereislifeafteradoption.blogspot.com/

Please follow, support, pray and comment, we really enjoy comments :)

Thank you everyone for following us, and being with us during our adoption process! God Bless you

40 days in Ukraine

Friday, June 29 was 40st day in Ukraine for Sergey.

38 Tuesday he received passports, and dropped off all the paperwork at US embassy.

Last notes from Sergey:

39-Wednesday

Today is a day, when we hopefully will get all paperwork done and will get visa’s, because on Thursday and Friday is day off due to holiday. So I woke up at 5:30 am got in the shower, had coffee and at 6 am woke boys up. Funny that Danik woke up without any problem but Stasik I couldn’t wake him up. He is sure is a good sleeper. :) As soon I put Stasik on his feet he falls right back to bed, and I would repeat that again and again and he was back in his bed in few seconds. So it took me a while to wake him but I got that done.

Then we left Petrovsky and headed to embassy. At 9 am we got some paperwork and went straight to hospital for medical exam. There were so many people waiting that would took us a whole day to do that, but thanks God they have policy and they process adoptions - without any line. Took us about hour and half, after that we ran to orphanage to finish process and officially move kids from Father’s house, and at 2 pm came back to embassy. So after 3 pm we got Visa’s thanks God, and started big process of packing. Airline tickets for 5:30 am so I have to be at airport on 3 am and it is 1 hour to get there. So I started packing as soon I got to orphanage, than I took some pictures with boys and their friends. At 9:30 pm boys went to sleep and at 10 pm I did too.

40-Thursday

Today I was supposed to get home… but didn’t work the way I expected. Well let’s start from the beginning. At 1 am I woke up and at 1:30 I woke up kids, and again I couldn’t get Stasik to wake up that easy but by 2 am we got that done. So as soon I happily entered airport and started to look at the monitor in order to find out which window I needs to go to.. I saw red writing next to my flight number which said Cancelled. My flight was canceled and here I am standing with kids at the airport not knowing what to do. Later I went to Lufantha window. There were huge line of people, but I passed all of them and was one of first ones. They change my flight number to different rout that was only 1 hour difference. So I waited and as soon as window to Amsterdam opened I went there, but my tickets were on waiting list, and if they would have any available seats they would let me know. After waiting 3 hours they didn't do anything for us. Sadly I have to go back to window and ask them if they give us different flight. After some waiting they got us next day flight at 6:40 am to Munich and from Munich to San Francisco. I was happy about that. Yes, I would prefer to be home with my wife, and kids, but I am happy that I did get another flight. Company also gave us room in expensive hotel, paid for all food and taxi. I was happy and my kids got some rest. This flight looks like even better because I have only on stop instead of 2. Maybe that is God’s way to give us better flight.

Also today Danik started to have a high fever.  I had to run to pharmacy few times, and tried to control it. Thank you everyone who prayed, his fever went down before we boarded our flight, and never came back. He never had strep throat like Stasik did, and Danik did have all the same symptoms as Stasik.

4 days home

Boys are finally home :) Our life did change, but we were prepared for more changes and were expecting more  difficult first few days. Probably we are still in our honeymoon days, but also I am wondering if every adoptive family has this honeymoon period after they bring their kids home !? I really hope that we will not have a reality come after honeymoon, I hope we have a reality now. :)


 Danik and Stasik does very good with following instructions, and it's been only 4 day since they are home, but it feels like it been way longer. They already know most of the rules and trying very hard to follow all the rules. They did have few timeouts(sitting on their beds, and thinking what happened). Danik and Stasik do love each other, but lately(few month ago) they started to push each other, and sometimes fight, and this is what happened yesterday,  Stasik did say something bad,  and Danik being a bigger brother pushed him, and told him not to say these word anymore, and here the fight came . I really hope they got their lesson, I did talk with them, and explained a lot, and after that incident there was no more pushing and fighting between these two. :)

Danilka and Denny getting use to share things, and play with Danik and Stasik. Elliana is just a baby, and everyone loves her, no problem here.

I am still thinking about a new blog, and I really want to write, and concentrate more on our family, and things that we go through every day as a family.

I am feeling so blessed to be a mom to these two wonderful little boys. They didn't have a great life, and Sergey and I are up to teach them about God, family, and morals. We are thankful and very blessed with all our kids.

Pictures from airport

At airport.....

Sorry for bad quality of 1st picture, my hands were shaking :) couldn't take a good picture :)

We are home!!!

Yesterday late we all safely got home. Praising our God, and everyone thank you for your prayers! Updates will come soon

We are busy, happy and very thankful :)) Very busy morning at Mironyuk's house :)

We need your prayers

Sergey still in Kiev, and Danik is getting sick. Looks like he has the same thing that Stasik had, strep throat. It's starting with very high fever, and no other symptoms. We are praying that Sergey will be able to control fever with medicine, and at least make it home.

Please pray for Danik, so he would feel better, and Sergey, so he has more strengths. There is no way they can miss this flight, if they do, they will have to spend and other 3-5 days in Kiev, do to flights being booked and many canceled. Please pray   Blessings

Change of plans

When Sergey got to airport this morning, his flight was canceled, and there was no way for him to get a different flight the same date. Thankful to God for taking care of him, and boys and they are safe and taken care of.
 They are still in Kiev, and company gave them hotel to sleep in, and provided meals. They have another flight booked for Friday morning, and should be home by the end of the day. One more delay, one more day in Ukraine...one more day not seeing my husband and my kids.

We are trying to stay positive, and not be discourage and disappointed by this situation. I know that there is a reason for everything.

The bad part is that Sergey will miss one more day of work, and it means smaller paycheck, but good part, he will have only one stop in Munich, and will go straight to California. In our original ticket we had two stops, and it would be more difficult with two boys.

Please pray for everything to go smooth

Praise our God

Sergey did received all necessary paperwork, and he is ready to come home with our newly adopted two boys. Please praise our God for being there with us again, and again!!!  Also Sergey feeling much better!

Sergey and boys all packed and ready. Our 7 year old Stasik did tell me today over skype: " I am ready to come home mommy, I missed our house and you so much! It's been way to long, and I am ready to be home"! Funny little boy! We are ready to have them home!

I am planning to make green borsh, and other Ukrainian food. House is ready, I just have to wash our cars, and clean a little outside :) and we are all done.

Can wait to have my husband home, and be next to him, cant wait to hug, and hold my boys!

Please pray for safe and easy trip home! It will be a long day for them!

**** Please praise our God, there $100 more in our adoption funds, and you know who you are, thank you a lot! God Bless you

Updates will come

Please pray!!!

Wednesday is going to be very stressful and hard day for Sergey.
Also he has a horrible toothache, and it make is more harder.
 Please pray for him, and all the paperwork that needs to be done before he comes home on Thursday.
Please pray for visas, and people who will be involve in this process!  ! We do need your prayers.

On the side bar we have a ChipIn, and we are thankful for $50 we already have there, and in our situation every $1 make a difference, and it helps. Please pray for our finances we do need more money. Sergey did pay a lot more for passports, and we had a lot more other unexpected expenses. If plane comes on time Sergey should be home by 11pm on Thursday, and has to be at work on Friday. Sergey already ran out of his vacation and sick time, and he is taking time off with out pay. Our paycheck/income for this month will be a lot smaller then usually, and we do have only one income.

Please pray! I know that God is with us, and there are many many people out there who cannot adopt do to different reasons, but can help financially, $1, $5, $10 or $100, every $ makes a difference.

Blessings

few more days

Only few more days and our family will be together. I am very busy here with kids, trying to make last minute  preparations. Also my parents come from Oregon Thursday, and Saturday we will have a family get together (celebrate boys home coming, Sergey's birthday, and my parents 30 years together). It will be only my  family and Sergey's mom, and we will not invite anybody else.

I can't wait to hold my boys, and be with Sergey again. This last week was really difficult with kids at home, I was not feeling well psychically. I am  thinking about many many little things. Once rest of our family come home, I know I will be better. Also I didn't have internet for 1 day, and on and off for 2 more day.

My mother's feelings are going crazy :)  Stasik was sick, and not be able to talk to him, and care for him was hard. I know Sergey did take good care of him, and I am so proud of my Sergey! This adoption did change a lot in our relationship, parenting, we started to look differently on many many things around us. Our trust in God was checked many times, and we did failed few times, but God never failed us.

Please pray for perfect timing and all paperwork be done on time! We all ready to be together, and start bonding and learning to be one family. I know it will be difficalt but with God's help we can do it.


**I think, once Sergey will come home, I will start a new blog and will try to write about our family, and our life's.

Day 34,35,36,37 Friday-Monday

It was not much going on back in Ukraine, so I will post everything in one post. 

Friday

  Thanks God Stasik’s temperate is got lower. Now it is only 99.5 ºF.  He feels much better and his body fighting but he needs to stay home. I am praying for him and his health. Today we finally accomplished something. We got all paperwork done and passports will be ready on Tuesday, so on Wednesday I will take boys to embassy, Please pray to God for that appointment, so visa will be done in one day. Tomorrow is my birthday. It is first time I will celebrate without all family. But that is ok, when I will come home we will do that. I miss my family but I have to be strong  and do everything possible.

Saturday

I had some plants for today like take kids to Zoo, Theater, and other interesting places but Stasik’s temperature is still high so we decided to stay home, because every hour he needs to take  medicine.  So I spend all day in the orphanage with kids, this how I celebrated my birthday. We played mini pool, did some drawing, watched a movie, played few video games, and many more things. Every hour I monitored Stasik temperature, gave him some medicine, and feed them. His temperature is rising and dropping. We prayed for his health and thanks God he started feel better toward the evening.  At night I woke up a couple of times to check on him. His temperature went down… finally. Praise the Lord. It was fun and nice day, and we did have a lot of quality time together. 

Sunday

Today my plan was to take boys to their church and have a lot of pictures made, but unfortunately Stasik temperature is still bouncing, so we decided to stay home again… After nice breakfast together I let them play on computer, because I do understand it is very hard for boys to stay inside all day long. Also today was 5 years anniversary of care givers Natasha and Nazar so later today we did barbecue for all family... Boys were very excited to celebrate… We barbecued cat fish and it did taste so good. About 10 kids came and we sit in the kitchen like one big family. Also foster parents of Danik and Stasik, are finishing their contract in this orphanage in 2 weeks, so they were busy to move their stuff out and ask me to be in charge since I am staying all day here anyway. It was interesting, everybody came to me ask what to do, I felt like big Papa for all kids. Later in the evening I let Stasik go out, because he needs to get fresh air, Danik was jumping on the trampoline, and Stasik sat on the grass and played on the  phone. That was all for today.

Monday.

That was  it for relaxed days. Now starting Monday I have to work hard to get everything done on time. Today I got medical history for kids, took them to make new pictures for visa. It was done in 10 min. then we went to fun place and I let them drive little cars… since it is last time they spend there. 

I had another discipline moment with boys, Stasik likes to bother his brother and Danik likes to take care of the problem himself like to hit him or call him names… Do to Natasha's words, boys started to do this just recently. They use to not fight at all, but I guess they just growing and having their own points and view of certain things. :) I addressed this issue with them and let them know that next time if this happened I won’t tolerate this behavior and put them both in timeout.  Looks like they got my massage. Today I printed bunch of forms for embassy and tonight I went through all of them. Tomorrow is going to be very busy day. I need to get passport for boys,  stop by embassy and drop some paperwork, also finish with  shopping and e-mail copies of passports to embassy.. than will come back to orphanage and help boys to pack… so please pray for us, so visa will be done in one day…

Day 33 in Ukraine

Thursday

I never had day like this. In the morning at 6:35 am Danik woke me up and said that Stasik did  throw up and asked me go to their room. Stasik also night didn’t sleep well, and was up several times at night, but Danik handled everything on his own, and didn't tell  anyone.  So I came to the room and discover that Stasik's temperature was very high, he was burning. I was cleaning all the mess after my son, and then Natasha (foster mom) woke up and gave him some medicine. Danik was staying next to Stasik all night, and when Stasik  woke him up again in the morning he came to me. It was so nice to see that boys already recognize me as their father and beginning to trust me. Natasha's room is next to boys room, and my room  is two rooms down the hallway, but Danik still came to me when he and his brother needed help. It's wonderful! 

After the medicine, Danik once again checked Stasik, and went back to sleep. That was so amazing how older brother takes care of younger. 

I had to run to do more paperwork in the early morning, but was on the phone all day with foster mom, to see how my son was doing. Later his temperature did go up (104F), and ambulance was called.  Ambulance came an hour later, and by that time regular medicine didn't help to bring Stasik's fever down. 

When ambulance came, they gave him shot of strong medicine, and seems like it did helped little bit. It did go down to102 F but still very high. Looks like he has strep throat( I really hope this is correct spelling, and name). 

In the evening I was running around Kyiv and was looking for all kind of medicine for Stasik that doctor prescribed him. When I arrived to orphanage it was around 11:30 pm.  I brought all kind of stuff. We gave him a lot of them … I monitored Stasik till 3:30 am, and praise the Lord his temperature did go down to 99F.…Also every 30 to 40 minutes I had to clean his throat, with this little procedure that doctor prescribed. I was so happy and felt so relived when he started to feel a little better. 

Tired but very happy I when to sleep because in the morning I had to wake up at 7 am.

After all day running around with paperwork, and trying to accomplish and be few steps ahead, we didn't even moved a little bit. But that is ok, I do understand this is part of process. 

Day 32

Wednesday

Today I took boys with me to Kiev, because the office we were in today had to   verify kids, take picture, in order to finish our paperwork. So I reminded Danik and  Stasik how to behave, and they did promise to listen.

 First we went to ZHEK so boys can be taken from records as resident of Kyiv. We had to wait about 2 hours.  Thanks God that every where we went there always were play areas near, so Danik and Stasik was able to stay busy and burn their energy, because I understand it is very hard for kids just sit next to office door for at least 1 hour. After ZHEK we went straight to institution where they do passports,  but we were very late so our facilitator's wife (she was a driver) had to drive very fast. Everyone who been to Kiev, and saw the way they drive, it's scary, crazy with no rules followed. 

Our  driver was trying to drive fast through all the traffic, and was going faster then usual. Me and boys were sitting on back seats. Boys asked me why there is seatbelt, and why they have to use it ,if they feel safe, and I explained them that accidents happened very fast and seatbelt can save your life. I tried explain, and did tell them to put seat belts on. I wasn't very firm with this, but I did try. I know that in Ukraine nobody drive with seat belt on, and it's ok. Police usually doesn't even give tickets. Boys didn't seem to understand why they have to put seat belts on, until one car almost hit us and our driver had to use emergency brakes.Boys  almost kissed a seat upfront of them.  After that I told them “: see.. in these cases seatbelt will keep you in your seat and nothing will happen. You will not hurt yourself ! ” In second boys looked at each other , with no words said, they  very quickly put seat belts on and till we arrived 40 min later to destination, boys didn't even try to take them off or complain about seat belts. I am thanking God for that nice lesson He gave them, I know it was scary, and it could be even worst, but God did keep us safe, and there was no accident. We are thankful to our God for being with us, and saving our life's. 

And know I know that boys will get this lesson and remember for long time. We came home latte, tired but full of emotions.

Day 31 Tuesday

Tuesday.

Today was very very “fun” and long day. It all started at 7 am. I left orphanage and went to Kiev to meet with Valentine. 

Now , when I live in the orphanage property, I dont' have to walk to catch marshrootka. You can see from a window, if marshrootka had pass, and it's 10 steps from orphanage gate. This makes so much easier and takes less time to get to Kiev. 

After I met with Valentin, we went straight to ZAGS to get new birth certificates, they opened in 9 am.. after waiting another 1 hour we been told that birth certificates can’t be made because boys belongs to different ZAGS – we need to go there to start process and sign boys out(or something like this). At 10 am we headed the other way, and good thing it was not that far, it's kind of different county, but almost same area. Around 10:30 we arrived and after waiting in line another 30 min, they decided that they need to have 2 copies of our paperwork notarize, not one. 

 It took another 2 hours to do that.

 Then we went back to finish process. We waited another 2 hours and got that done. So at 2 pm we went back to ZAGS that we visited in the morning to try get new birth certificates. 

Thanks God they told us good news: “New Birth certificates will be ready today in 2 hours “At 4pm we got them. Now we have birth certificate where we are parents of our boys. It does feel so good :)

Then we went to Tax service to start process with changing boys names for passports. At 6:30pm we were done. It was a lot of running and waiting, and just stress.After I finished with Valentin,  I went to Downtown to find internet and talk to my wife. In the downtown everything was closed and treets full of people and fun...  many subway stations were closed and I couldn’t get home very easy. So I finally got home at 10:30pm.  

Happy Birthday !

Happy Birthday my love, my husband, and my best friend. Sergey, I love you, and happy to be in your life. May God Bless you even more!

Once Sergey come home we are planning a little party, also the same day Sergey and boys will land in US, my parents will come from Oregon to visit us.

***I had no internet all day yesterday, and i do have two updates(blog posts) from Sergey. I just have to audit, make few corrections and post it :)

it's hot..

It was about 103 degrees today, it was hot. I am not a hot climate person, and trying to stay in the house as long and as much as possible during hot day. I did manage to go to two stores, and we did quick stop at the park with kids, but it was way to hot to stay longer outside.
 I really hope that some day we can move to Oregon, or somewhere where it has more rain, and not as hot as California in the summer.

My days are busy, and I try to finish, and do as much as possible before Sergey will arrive home with boys.

I been very busy, trying to get back to my couponing life, and catch up with my expired coupons. Also did my two trips to the store today. It's feels good to get good deals for our family again:)

Finish preparing room for boys. I still have few little project to finish.

getting on track with Danilka's summer work(working on Ukrainian, and reading English). At the same time working with Denny to learn alphabet, and hopefully he will read in next 6 month, before he goes to preschool.

Our neighbor gave us some clothes for boys, it was nice of her to do it. I still have to buy few things for Danik and Stasik, but they already have a lot of clothes.

It was very quiet for father day at our house. Sergey is an awesome daddy, and I know that next year his father's day will be different. Me and kids did take few videos and I emailed to Sergey!

I do talk to Sergey everyday, two times a day, over skype. Our relationship now, does remind us our dating time. We had long distance relationship, him in California and me in Oregon, 10 hours between us. We did used a lot internet/email/phone conversations. Now, I do miss him a lot, and it's much harder. He has many responsobilites over in Ukraine, and I do have many responsibilities here, in US. We knew that we will have this time, and be working in separate teams, on two end of this world but I miss Sergey a lot, and can't wait for him to be home. It much much easier to work as one team.

Please pray for our family! Blessings

Day 30 Monday 10 day waiting period is over

At 7:30 am I arrived to Kyiv, where our facilitator picked me up around 9 am and we went straight to pick up our papers from court since 10 days waiting period passed. When we got to the court at 10 am nobody was there. Our judge is on vacation, and her staff decided to take a little vacation also :)  

 I went to orphanage to drop off my staff and wait to hear any news from Valentin- our facilitator. Valentin went back to the court to wait and try to pick up our decree. 

 I was tired from train (got only few hours of sleep) so I  went to sleep in boys bedroom(boys were not there when I came). 

Two hours later I heard noises  and open my eyes. That was Danik and Stasik jumping around  me so happy. We spend some time together sharing thing we did during those days, when  I got call from Valentin that he did pick up our  papers from court and I need to get boys ready and take them to do a picture for passports. 

So later that day we went to downtown and got pictures done.  Boys saw little play area with inflated jumping houses on our way there and asked me if they can play there. So my answer was simple: “If you behave, I will let you”. They tried so hard and were well behaved boys , and so we did go there after we were done with pictures. 

Playground has rules like you can’t climb up the slides only on stairs.. Of course boys where so excited to play and  tried everything they could. The owner gave them warning not to do that.. and I remind them if they won’t listen they couldn't be there any longer.  So after jumping house we went to little play house with a lot of sleds, climbing walls and balls. Rules are same and I reminded all rule to them again just in case :) After a couple of minutes I noticed that Stasik disobeying and playing the way he wanted, braking the main rule, not climb the slide. So I told him to leave play area and sit next to me.. He was disappointed and asked  sorry many times, I told him that I forgive you but I can’t let him play there again because I warn him many times.  Also I tried to make a point that there is rule for everyone to follow, and it's not safe to climb on the slide and not following certain rules.

 I think he got a lesson because next time he said he will do everything to behave and be better, and play longer. After that we got some ice cream and went back. At night we had dinner together and tea.. I played with them little bit and it was time for bad. I prayed with them, kissed them,  and said good night.  This is it for  very exciting  day.   

Happy Father's Day

I just want to say Happy Father's Day to all dad's out there.

Be blessed!

Day 25 Wednesday

I moved to orphanage with boys. They are so happy. Danik and Stasik were next to me all the time didn’t leave me even for one second. They wanted to do everything together. I am still feeling tired and didn’t get enough sleep last night so I went and lay on their bed for about one hour. Boys came in the room and were next to me. Stasik with me in the bad- Danik next to bad, we were just talking about everything like what they like to do, what they loved the most about USA… Danik couldn’t wait for me to wake up, so we can go and play some more soccer. I went with boys outside and behind the building they have little shed was all broken bikes are. Danik was asking me to try to put one bike for him. This shed is for everyone to use and if you want you can put one bike together and it is going to be yours. So after some looking in the shed I might help them to put one together. But that is going to be on Monday when I will come back after my visit with my father.  

Danik and Stasik didn’t want me to leave them till Monday they even asked if I can take them with me… … I kissed them, asked to be nice and behave and wait for me to come back and after that I will be there and soon I will take them home.   So at 12 pm I left and went to train station, because my father leaves in different city – 7 hours away. I am not going to do blog while I am there.  So as soon as I will be back I will start again. By the way, on this train is so hot, I am wet and it is only 3 hours of riding on it. Well hope it will cool down later.

Please pray for safety, and after I come back to Kiev, for speedy process, and our return to US.

God Bless you

Day 24-Tuesday

From Sergey

I tried to come to orphanage early this time so I can spend more time together with boys. This time we also played soccer but on different field next to Danik’s school. The team was same:  me and Stasik on one side, Danik and 2 his friends on other. After first part we lost again. I tried to play soft with them because they are kids, but I really wanted to win. Well, after 40 min of playing on huge soccer field we lost 4 to 8. I got really really tired of running back and forth.

Stasik has so much energy and was running without stopping. We took our break at school: went to bathroom got some water and Danik showed me his classroom.

After 15-20 min break we switched to smaller field, there was different story: we won… yeee we WON … 2 to 1. That was fun. So I noticed that boys started listen to me more than before. That is good thing because it is means they starting to trust me more. After 2 hours playing we came back tired to orphanage. Boys were supposed to have some kind of visit from director of orphanage so boys started to clean their room. They couldn’t wait for me to move in to orphanage tomorrow.

Here is a picture of boys: 

 I really enjoyed time that I spend with boys. 

After leaving orphanage, I went to Kyiv, because Danik lost screw on his glasses and I am looking for new on. In Kiev is crazy because of EURO 2012. I don’t really like to watch soccer but when Ukrainian team played against Sweden I was following that. Ukrainian team won 2 to 1… In center of Kyiv they created Fun zone, were everybody can get it pass security check and watch life soccer from huge screens. It was interesting because Ukraine very excited to have Euro 2012 and there were a lot of fans.

took few pictures:

Tomorrow around 8 am I will move to orphanage, and around 3 pm I will leave Kyiv and visit my father in different city, maybe it is last time I will see him, who knows.  I am along here and really miss my wife beside me. It is harder to do it all along, but I have to do what I have to do. So please pray for me and my family that God will be always with us through every our step in this life. 

Day 23 Monday-cleaning, fixing

My Monday was interesting, I was still tired, and had many things to do. Our house was a mess when I came, and I had many “surprises” waiting for me. First two weeks my mom watched our kids, and last two weeks my 18 year old cousin came to stay with them. We are appreciated to everyone who tried to help us out and watched our kids. During last week, while my cousin was watching boys, Danilka started to test her and broke many rules that we have in the house, now I know what other areas we have to keep working with Danilka. We never left our boys with anyone else, and it was huge, especially for Danilka. I am so proud of Danilka and Denny for trying act, and be good boys.

Our Denny still doesn’t talk; he does try to talk, but not a lot. His vocabulary is very limited, and he is shy about his talking, and prefers not to talk at all. Sunday evening before I put Denny to sleep, he was keep asking me:” Please don’t’ leave, no more airplane, please stay home”. It brought tears to my eyes, and I do realize that it was very hard especially for Denny to not have me there for him this long. He will be fine, but I think he will not agree to let mommy go to any planes for long long time.

I have two weeks to fix a lot before Sergey come home with Danik and Stasik.

From Sergey-Day 23:

 I woke up and had a breakfast.  Finished some organizing and preparing before our apartment and move to the orphanage. Later I went to spend some time together with boys. 

As always they were so happy to see me couldn’t wait for me to move.  We went to play soccer me and Stasik on one side and Danik and his two friends on other side of the field. We had so much fun, but I got tired very fast. We did lost 4 to 1 but I loved it. But Stasis however didn’t, he was so disappointed that we lost so he stopped play with us at all and was sitting in the corner depressed. I explained to him that it is ok to lose, not always you will win you have to learn to lose, but it was too much for him. I will spend some more time and be working with Stasik.  After that I helped Danik to glue his airplane, that we put it together a while back, so it will be sturdy  and stay together, and Danik can color it the way he want it.  That was all for that day.

In the morning I have to go to Kyiv’s pharmacy, try find and buys some parts for Danik’s glasses. He broke it and hopefully I can find all parts. I miss my wife so much, but I have to be strong for her and my family.

Day 22- Sunday traveling home

Sunday was very stressful day. Few days before I had to leave my husband tried to find someone to pick me up at the San Francisco International Airport and drive me home, and we live 1,5-2 hours, 90 miles away from airport.

Long story short, Sunday morning we had no one available to come and pick me up. I left Ukraine not knowing if there will be anyone at airport, or I will have to walk 90 miles to get home J with baby and suitcases.

Customs were easy and quick 15 minutes max, I did have to wait for a baggage for about 40 minutes, and I was out of airport.

When I landed in San Francisco, I did call my sister, and found out that I do have a car waiting for me at airport(my brother and my brother in law did drop off a car for me), with a key taped to the back bump. Yes, after traveling almost 15 hours, and not sleeping for more than 20, I had to drive another almost 2 hours to get home. Baby was screaming almost all the way home, and only felt to sleep for 15 minutes. She was very tired, and forgot what is car seat is about and she couldn’t fall to sleep. But we are thankful for everything, and feel really blessed. It’s all memories, and we will have something to remember and talked about. J

I am thankful to God, and I know that many people were praying for our safe travel back home, by the time I got home, I were not sleepy, and didn’t feel being overly tired.

Once I got home it was a different story, I was really tired, even I had very easy flight and baby did really well in airplanes.

I was so happy to see boys, and boys were very excited. I am so happy to be home and start ruling again in my “Castle” J I do miss Sergey a lot, and miss my boys back in Ukraine. Can’t wait to have them home, and have a complete family.

We went to bed around 8:30 pm and woke up at 7:30 am. Baby woke up only once at night, and this was it. We were switched to US local time from first night. I am thankful to God for that, because I was worried a lot about time changing.

From Sergey:

We woke up at 2 am and after quick coffee my wife and baby were ready to leave to airport. There was guy from orphanage who offered to give us ride that was so much blessing for us, and we didn’t have to pay taxi.

Around 3:30 am we came to the Borispil airport, after checking baggage my wife headed to the security check. It was so sad to let here go, and do rest of the process without her besides me, but it was best decision for our family. I kissed here, sad her good bye and return to the house. In the morning I realize, now it is all me, whatever is going to take to finish adoption; I have to be strong and have to be here.

 At 3 pm I went to see boys, there were so happy to see me. Everything went smooth except there is no light in whole city due to the stormy weather.  We spend so much time taking and playing. I love them so much and can’t wait to get them home. Danik and Stasik keep asking how long is going to take to adopt them, and fly home, they can’t wait to leave the orphanage. So I told them news that on Wednesday I will move in to the orphanage and will leave with them- orphanage director and foster parents did offered me a room in the orphanage for free. Boys were so happy. Around 8 pm I came home so tired because didn’t get enough sleep. So I went to bad right away. At 1am my wife called and did let me know that she landed safe in the San Francisco, and heading home to Sacrament, I felt even more relived.

Day 21 Saturday-Go away party

On Saturday morning our 3 people family had last breakfast together, and a lot of packing before our trip to USA. After we were done with packing and last minute preparations we went to orphanage around 3 pm.

While I helped with dishes and preparing food for party, my husband went to the different room to check in to airfare and print boarding passes. Boys were excited and all around kitchen, asking if we need any help. They are so sweet!

Party was scheduled for 7 pm.

Around 6 pm grandpa Viktor came with his sister, “grandma” Tatyana could not make it, do to being very sick.

Grandpas Viktor story is heart breaking. He had only 1 daughter, her name was Valya, and she is a mother of our boys, Danik and Stasik. He lost his wife when she was only 28 years of age, and pregnant with their baby boy, do to cancer. Grandpa Victor, was left with little 2,5 year old Valya(mother of our boys) all alone, and few years later he met another woman Tatyana, and married her. (they had no kids). Grandpa Victor still lives with his second wife Tatyana, and our boys do call her grandma, even she is not real grandma to them. Grandpa’s Viktor, only daughter Valya, mother of our boys, died last month at age 28 from drug poisoning. Foster parents of our boys did take Danik and Stasik to funeral, to say good bye.

Grandpa Viktor was crying that boys finally going to have normal Christian Ukrainian family and future life. We spend hours of taking about boys past, present and future. On the party dedicated to boys leaving orphanage we prayed for their future and Sergey prayed about all orphans in the house and world, so they will find parents. After that boys got some presents from people who took care of them for time that they spend in the orphanage. There were a lot of good food and communication. We exchanged addresses with grandpa and left home because in the morning I will leave to the USA. It is sad to leave Sergey, I will miss him and boys so much but I have to come back to be with our kids at home. It was hard to say goodbyes to foster parents, grandpa. Boys do understand that we will be together soon, so were sad but ok. 

Now it is time for Sergey’s part of blog. He promised that will try to blog, and record every day while he is in Ukraine. J

Boys names

I am so sorry, my head is still not thinking :) I forgot to write boys names. Thank you for your comment and reminder my blogger friend  from over  :  http://debraandrayinparadise.blogspot.com/ .

I want to introduce to you our two new sons:

Daniel Antony Mironyuk and Stanislav Nathan Mironyuk

and I promise I will post pictures later. I left a camera and laptop with Sergey in Ukraine, and I have no pictures with me.

We are proud parents of this two treasures. :)))

***I will explain later why we didn't' change names, and why I am so happy we didn't' , even I do know that we will have many many misunderstandings with 3 Daniels in the house :)))

Day 20-Friday

On Friday we went to embassy to sign all the paperwork needed for adoption so I could leave the Ukraine and go to the kids.  It was so fast and easy: after we went inside it took us like 15 minutes to do it all. Then my daughter Elliana felt hungry so we went to McDonalds because she like’s fries.  Prices are so expensive high; everything is almost the same price as in US McDonalds.

My husband got a coffee, so he can be more awake and helpful after court stress.  J He still didn’t function to well.

After that we shopped at market to buys some more things for trip to USA.  It was last time at Petrovsky market for me so I bought few things: books, coloring books (in Ukrainian, and cheap), and few crafts for kids while they are on the plane.

Then we went to Ashan to buy some food for my husband and orphanage. There we met with Valentine, and he had news from court.  He spend 4 hours in the court to check and correct all our paper work, and he told us that on Monday June 18 we could get papers from court.

We spend another hour talking and brainstorming about return date for my husband. Trying to figure out and get tickets. If everything goes well, then on June 28 Sergey will fly home with kids, I am so excited about that. J  After that we went home to have some rest, because on Saturday will be party for boys at orphanage. Every time when kid getting a family, at this orphanage they have tradition to have go away party.  They invite staff that was involved in kid’s life, relatives, director of the orphanage we will meet with boy’s grandpa. I am looking forward this party, and especially meeting boys grandpa. We heard a lot about him, and he is the one who were trying to help boys have a better life. He fought hard and for more than 5 years to get boys out of their “parents” hands.

I am so excited to see him, but Sergey so worry that something can go wrong and Grandpa can change his mind and decided to leave boys in Ukraine, but I know that everything in God’s hands.

Day 19 Thursday -Court day

 *****I have all the notes from days I missed blogging. And now I will try to post them to the blog, for everyone

It was a miracle that our papers did get sign on June 6 and we did receive our papers the same day. Also, our judge was on vacation starting Friday. Ukrainian court has a law, if judge is gone up to 10 days, judge can’t give his hearings to other judge. We would have to wait for 10 days for our judge to come back, and schedule a court.

Today is a court day. We should have our court at 3pm.  We are excited and nervous at the same time. Sergey and I couldn’t sleep well this night; our minds were working, thinking.

Since I will be going back to US, and I do need to sign few papers at notary office and embassy before I leave.

We left our house around 11 am, Our facilitator and his wife came to take us to notary office, and while waiting for notary to prepare all required paperwork, we went to eat to “Pirizhkova Hata” again (we had only coffee this time).

At 1:30 pm we caught a taxi and headed to the orphanage to pick up boys and a person who will represent orphanage in the court, and by 2 pm were on our way to court.

Court didn’t start on time and we had to wait. Boys and Elliana were very tired, but during court everyone did well. By 5 pm we were home, hungry, tired but a bigger family! We are so blessed to be parents to two wonderful boys! We know that not everything will be easy, and parenting them will be challenging sometimes, but are great boys and they are our sons. We love them and so thankful to our got for them!

Sergey feelings about court: I was stressing about court all day and all night, even at night I woke up a lot of times. In the morning in my head was going on so many thinking like: “what if judge will leave for vacation, what if she will reschedule court, what if she will not accept us and act…” I trust God, but couldn’t control myself. I couldn’t eat, drink, walk, talk, I couldn’t do anything normal. At the court I tried to respond clearly and loud but it was scary even to say something in front for judge, but thanks God she decided to let us to adopt kids. After that decision I felt some relive, but stress didn’t leave me that easy, on next day I still could fill some stress and worry. I am thanking God that everything went good and we are parents to Danik and Stasik.