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.

Just thankful.........

We have only 5 days left until we leave and we are very and very busy.

I just want to tell thank you to all of you who been so supportive of our adoption. Thank you for your nice comments and prayers. All prayers are working, and we are thankful to our God that He is with us and answering our prayers. Emotionally we are much better, and our faith in God is stronger. We will need your prayers and comments when we go to Ukraine also because they are working! :)))))))

Financially, still in big need, but we want to say thank you to one young men from our church, he donated $200 to our adoption funds, so we can bring our child/ren home. Thank you God for opening his heart! Also my sister helped us financially a lot, she has a really good heart. Praying for God blessing for her, especially now, as she is getting married on December 12 this year.

We don't want to miss her wedding but anything can happen. We are praying and will try our best to come back in 4 weeks for her wedding but it almost impossible :((((((

Sergey is almost done with our new rooms. We still don't have time to finish it all but at least major work is done and when we come back we will finish it in in 1 or 2 weeks.

Only 9 days left...

We are super busy.................wow we are so close to the end, I can't even believe it. We have only 9 days until we leave to Ukraine.
Our suitcases still not packet but I think we bought and have almost everything we need for our trip to Ukraine.
God is great God! I can tell you everything but last 3 days was so emotional, and hard on us. But we are thankful to our God, He put all the pieces together in our life, and now we can't wait to be in Ukraine, and see what He has for us!!!

Please pray about our finances we don't have enough to complete our adoption.We will complete our adoption no matter what, but would really love not to go deep in dept.
We believe that there is people who don't want to adopt or can't but they have finances and open heart to donate for Gods will.

We have our flight!!!

We booked our flight today. Now we are really going....:)))))))) We are leaving in 2 weeks, on November 6, early morning.
So many things needs to be done before we go. Today, I was all day on the phone trying to change/reschedule my appointments.
Appointment for my ultrasound I will miss and they can't not schedule anything before we go, because it's too early. My regular/check up appointment can't not be reschedule, doctor is not available for next 2 weeks. But I guess it's ok, I can wait until we come back.I hope it's not going to be a problem for a doctor, not seeing/watching my pregnancy for more then 3 month.

For two days now, Sergey is talking to his supervisor, and she is trying to help him. Sergey has only 3 weeks vacation, and he will have to take 1 week not paid, which is not good for us and his supervisor. Hopefully his company will let him use his sick leave, or maybe they will have other solution.

Also, I am trying to do some packing and finish to clean our house.
This Saturday we will have our garage sale. We don't' have a lot of stuff for sale, but even making 20-50 dollars helps.

Official appointment date!!!

Today, we got e-mail from our facilitator, and it's official. Our appointment date is going to be on Tuesday, November 10 at 9:00am.

We tried to get our tickets today, but all offices for Golden Rule travel were closed, it was after 5:00 pm. I found their website, and they have few phone #, is there is a big deal which office to call?

I thought that getting all the paperwork together was a crazy time, but I was wrong, now that we have only 2,5 weeks until we leave to Ukraine everything is getting so crazy..... I worry a lot that we will not have enough time to get everything done.

We still have to buy stuff for us, and finish a lot of things around the house.
Good thing is, that looks like I am not going to work this week until Friday, hopefully I will get some things done.

Also, my brother and my sister lives with us, and we have to move them somehow and somewhere.
but we know that everything will be fine, even if we are not 100%ready for our kids, God is with us!!!

Appointment date!!!

ok, I was not ready for this.......are you ready??? :)))))))

We have our appointment date on November 10th, in 3 weeks!!! Tomorrow our facilitator will get official confirmation regarding the date and time. Wow, i 3 weeks from tomorrow we will have our appointment, in 2, 5 weeks we will have to leave!!!

I am dreaming :)))))))))) I can believe it's actually happening. Soon we will have our child/ren with us, and if everything is good we should make it back home by Christmas!!!!!

Please if anyone can, what kind of games, things to do 6-10 year old like? What kind of stuff it's good to take with us to keep them busy in airplane? What can we play, do on our every day visits , when we will meet them, and come to visit in orphanage??? Anyone can help?

Thank you so much

Answers and updates!!!

I am so sorry for not writing more detailed. Lately we are so busy with preparing and also I am trying to watch my self what I write and what kind of personal information i am sharing. I know there is many good and nice people, but also there is other group of people. So I will now try to explain more and answer questions that I got in the comments for my previous post. If anyone have any question, please ask.

Remember, I was saying that room for our kids probably will not be done on time, I am taking my words back:))))) Last two days, Sergey was working really hard, and there is still a lot of things that nedds to be done but there is big posibility to have it done on time!!! Actually, Sergey is trying to add one little office, and big bedroom to our two bedroom home. A lot of work.....

We should hear from our facilitator tomorrow, or Tuesday if everything is good. I can't wait for news from him, just to be 100 % sure that we are traveling, and start packing for "real".

We have 3 travel agencies in mind to check for price and service, after we have our appointment date. We will definitely try Golden Rule Travel, we heard a lot of good things about them, and looks like a lot of families have used them for their adoption travel, and are really happy about their service.

Thank you for all your answers and suggestions, we decided to not purchase kids tickets now, we buy tickets after we have our kids.

It would be nice if someone who already had travel to Ukraine and have packing list ready can share with us.

I don't know if it just us, or its happened to other people also, as we get closer in our adoption process we get more negative responds, and less people are supportive. And I am taking about family and friends, sad, but true!
Any support now or while we are in Ukraine will be very helpful. God Bless you and you families!!!

Getting things ready and having questions

This week was really busy. Working everyday, and trying to organize things, and prepare for our kids. Still nothing is done, but little by little hopefully we will get ready.

Room is not done, and there is no time to finish it. My husband is working extra hard to make things work, and to finish everything.

Also as we getting closer we have so many questions, some of them we are trying to figure our on our own, but some we just can. If anyone can help us it would be really nice
when we will book our flight should we get our come back flight in 4 weeks or 5?
Did you get a ticket for your child from Ukraine now or later when it's time to go back?

Because we have a toddler with us, and me pregnant, my husband is the only one who will have to deal with our luggage( i feel really sorry for him) so We are not planing to take a lot of stuff, and probably no presents, if we want to say thank you to some one in Ukraine we always can get flowers, and envelope with some money. I know, a lot of you guys been there, is this is a good idea?

Thank you so much for everything

SUBMITTED!!!!

We are officially submitted!!! In a week or so, we should hear from our facilitator when he gets our invitation letter, about our interview date!!! Again, it's just more waiting, but now we are one step closer to our child/ren!!!

Thank you for everyone's prayers!!! God Bless you all!!!
Everyone, who is keeping us in their prayers, just reading our blog and not leaving any comments, and everyone who just care about orphans, Thank you so much!!! Also BIG thank you for everyone who is leaving their comments, they are big support for us!!! With out your support we would never made it where we at now!!!

Is it to early to start packing? Daniel, our 21 month old will go with us, and I really worry how he will do in airplane! Any suggestions on traveling with toddler?

no news yet

I am already awake and ready for news, but still nothing in our inbox .:((((
I couldn't sleep last night, I was thinking a lot and it was really windy outside with a lot of rain. So I am not sure if it was the weather or I just worry too much which is probably the case :))))

I been thinking a lot, and dreaming, and thinking.about today, and our kids, and it will go.
We really want to hear a good news, but what ever is in Gods plan for us we will accept.
So now, I am checking our e-mail every 2-5 minutes, and waiting........almost patiently :)))))

All documents are in Kiev!

Finally today all our documents made safely to Kiev! We are so happy!
But now I am thinking and praying about Tuesday, October 13, our submission date. This date is really important in the whole process, because if everything will go good, and there is no mistakes in our paperwork, we will get out appointment date, which we are really waiting for.

Please if you still can, keep us in your prayers!


Yesterday was 3 years as we are married! Congratulation to us! I am so thankful for my husband, and my family! Those 3 years was an amazing years in our life's!