Few pictures :)

Decorating cookies ! A lot of fun!

This was 1st experience for everyone to put together and decorate ginger house. It was a lot of funn!

Baby watching her favorite channel "sprouts" She is so cute!

Every time when I do dishes, I have a lot of helpers:) I don't know what is so special about dishwasher, but my kids love to play there with their toys! Usually it's Denny, but lately baby like to be there, and sometimes big brother too.

Busy, busy, busy

A little update on our family.

We are doing great, yes, we do have our ups and downs, but I think it's normal in every family, especially if kids are present.

Our 10 month old ElliAna is teething and it's not a good time for all of us. She is usually a good girl, independent and can play on her own. This time around, almost for 2 month she likes to be held, and crying a lot......:)) fun times! ElliAna started to walk on her own when she wasn't even 9 month, compare to Denny-with a lot of help he started to walk at 12 month. She is so much fun, and I can't believe that she is already 10 month, time flies.

Denny is fully potty train, and we are so proud of him. He is potty train for more than 6 month now, but still slept in diaper, but now for a month we are with out diaper during day and during night....good job Denny!

Also he started to like spending some time with books. He use not have interest in any books,maybe just pictures,and would not listen if I tried to read it to him, or explain what in the picture, but now he can sit and listen/comment what I have to read or say about book. Big progress!!!! Also he taught him self to count to 5 in English ! He loves to draw, pain and just be a kid!

My older son Danik, is getting so big, and I can't believe that he is almost 9 year old (in 10 day).

He is doing good in school, sometimes we have behavior problems but it's normal, and he is a boy, which explains a lot :))) My boys are very active, and likes to get into trouble.

I am so proud of Danik, he is trying to help me a lot, and love his brother and sister. He says a lot of thank you mom, and dad for adopting me, for taking care of me, and etc. Very sweet and loving boy. His English reading improved a lot and I am proud of him. Its harder for him to learn English because at the same time I am trying to help him and work on his Ukrainian. So he is trying to keep up with two languages at the same time. We are very proud of him, Danik is very smart boy and we are thankful to God for letting us be his parents!!!

I will try to write more later, not have to go.....

Praise God!

Sibling group that we were praying about did get their forever family! Very happy for them!

Every person deserves a second chance and be happy, especially innocent kids. Not always family and a kid can attach for a different reasons, but everyone deserve to be happy and not feel miserable. I feel really bad for families, who did go through adoption and something didn't work out for them. When family making a choice to adopt they are doing this with all good intention. Please pray for a family who lost their kids, I know this family did everything they knew, and they tried everything to make it work, but for some reason.... Only God know why!

It's not going to happen

Our adoption is not going to happen, we are not brining home two more kids, do to circumstances.

For us it would be a out-of-state adoption(Atlanta, GA), and we will need to find almost $20 thousand to complete this adoption, but there is no way we will have this money. If this is our kids, we believe God will provide but for now we did what we could.

We are still praying for forever family for this sibling group. Please pray, they need their family, this kids need new mommy and daddy!

No news yet...

The agency that taking care of this two kids, are really hard to work with. Kids are going trough disruption and current family and kids are straggling, but no one cares, sad...

Agency require some special home study, and they are concerning about placing this kids with us for few reasons:

1.Our financial situation(we will have to loan a money again, to bring this kids home), not a problem for us because God will provide, and with a time we will pay it off.

2.Us, having a small children in the house

3. and main is, this agency never placed kids in California homes, they are not sure what they are doing.

We are praying that kids find their family soon! Please pray for this kids so God will send a family their way (or we have ok to adopt them if they are our kids)

Thank you

More pictures... snow day for boys

Daddy took boys to the snow! They had so much fun.

Daddy took boys to the snow! They had so much fun.

Pictures...

Baby girl walking and she is only 9 month old, First Christmas
Daddy decorating ginger house with kids
Boys decorating their cookies, they had so much fun.
By Christmas tree at the mall
our little princess

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to all of you! May God Bless you and your families in this 2011 year.

Our Christmas and New Year were not that fun. We all were sick(except Daniel J), and didn't even attend a church as a family. We stayed home most of the days. We did have a company over on Christmas, but I think this is it.

Because of the holidays there is nothing on kids yet. We are praying a lot and hoping that kids will have their family soon. Also we just found out about on more child who needs a family, and we are praying about these 3 kids.

Tomorrow Daniel J is going back to school, and we all will miss him in the mornings, I love having him home in the mornings.

Also we have a birthday coming up for Daniel D. He will turn 3 in one week, he is getting so big and smart. Will try post some pictures later. :)))

Next step...Please pray

Almost for a month now we been praying a lot, and trying to find out what Our God want us to do. What is God's plan for our family. It's been hard, and we still not sure what we will do.

We found out that there is 2 children who needs a home as soon as possible, and our hearts are open to help. We know that if it's already in our heart, God places them in our heart, then it's for a reason.

We been praying a lot and we do want to help this kids, but in our eyes it is not possible. We still trying to payoff our 1st adoption, and financially not ready to jump in another. God know how to provide if this is our kids. For now we are praying for this kids and with all our faith we are doing what needs to be done to start this process.

Please pray for our family, for our finances and also please pray about this kids, if we are not their forever family, that God will send them their family as soon as possible.

Thank you and God Bless you

I will keep you all post it about our process/kids

Time to blog

I am a really bad blogger, I can't make myself to blog at least 1 time a week, and again I will say that I will try to change and will work hard to start blogging more often.

Our family is doing good.

Sergey is working, and trying to spend as much time as he can with kids and me.

Boys are growing too fast.

DJ is in school, his disciplines improved a lot, and he is trying so hard to be a good boy home and at school. We still have our ups and downs, but lately everything was great.

Some things about our DJ I dont' want to share to the public, nothing bad, some health issues.

DJ is trying to help me in anyway he can. He is watching his daddy, and put sticky notes on cup a tea, make me a tea, and yesterday he just close door to his room, and vacuumed, cleaned , was trying to surprise me, such a nice, sweet little guy. We love you so much and very happy that you are in our family! Thankful to God for choosing us to be your parents.

DD is just a little 3 year old(almost). Most of the days he is happy, and a good child. "Terrible twos" is behind. He loves his brother and little sister. He is very funny, and loves his cartoons, and can watch same cartoon 20 times in a row. :))))

Our baby girl, Elliana, is getting big. She loves to follow her brothers, and I think soon she will be walking.

And me, I love GOd, I love my family.

The other day my husband asked me "what is happiness for you"? and he got me thinking. With out thinking I did reply,"It's God, who brought us together, you(my husband), and our family"! If my family is happy I will be happy.

And yes, I love to see my kids playing together, or playing with daddy, or just trying to be nice, and gentle with me. I love to watch them to grow, learn something new. I even enjoy when they get into trouble, don't get me wrong, I am not happy when my kids are in trouble, but if they are I know, and hope they will learn from their mistakes, and it's a new opportunity for me to teach them to be a better person. I love my family and I am happy.

Also lately I been thinking a lot, how can I serve God more, how our family can serve God, how do I teach my kids to serve God???!?!?! "HOW" is on my mind a lot lately. I think I will blog about it in a different blog, and will share my thoughts.

I would say i am not a blogger..........I honestly try to blog more often, but it just not happening. I was even thinking to write my last post here, and not worry about blogging but for now I will keep it.......

So here we go, updates of our family of 5 and +1(my brother)

Daniel J, is in school , and doing good. He had some behavior problems(not following rules), at school but now looks like everything getting better. He is still really sweet, loving and caring boy. We do have our ups and downs, but so far I can honestly say that we expected a lot more problems/attachment issues before we did adoption.
DJ is trying to change, and trying to do what needs to be done, there is still a lot little things that needs to be corrected in his behavior, action, and just the way he is, but nothing major. He loves his brother, and little sister. He loves helping me, and his daddy, he doesn't really like homework, but he loves school. He is smart, funny, bright. , He been home only 9 month, and already changed so much, he is different child now, my child, my little boy. Love you Daniel J, and happy that you are in my family. May GOd always be with you.

Daniel Dave is growing too fast. Last 3 weeks we been working on potty training, and for today we have a little boy who is wearing his underwear, and diaper only at night times. And a good thing is that his night diaper 90% is dry in the morning, so we been using one diaper for a week now! Goof job little DD, we are so proud of you.
DD going trough a terrible 2th, now, and it's hard. Sometimes his is sweet loving boy, helping his mama and brother, and next thing you know he doesn't want to do nothing, he is not following instructions, gets' in trouble, and wining. We love you DD, and we are really hoping that this stage will end soon.

Baby Elliana , is my little princess! Everyone loves her, and she is just so cute.
She is teething now, and we have bad days, but still she is my bundle of joy, my little girl. She is big, almost 6 month already.


We are doing great, and very happy. We do have our moments, bad moments as a family, but we are learning to change our selfs, to get smarter to seek God more. I am trying to read bible, kids bible, to our kids every night, and pray with them. And I think it will help a lot our relationship as a family, and our family will get stronger in GOd.

****will try to post some pictures later

School starts........

Thursday, August 12 Daniel started school, as a third grader. He is kind of happy to go back to school, where all his friends are, but we miss each other a lot. Denny miss his big brother, and I miss Daniel. I think over the summer, spending everyday together we attached even more. We are so happy to have him in our family.
We just came back from Portland, were visiting my parents. I will blog later about our trip, and will post some pictures of my babies.

We are still straggling with "putting things back where they belong" and how to take care of stuff that belongs to you(especially clothes). Did anyone had this problem? How did you deal with it? I am thinking it's every kid thing,

Ocean time....

My parents from Oregon came to visit us, and went San Francisco and we had a really good times. Here is some pictures from ocean, and pier 39


at the ocean, with my parents and my brother and sister (baby is in a sling)


Pier 39



on our way to San Francisco

What we did this summer...

Here is few pictures from this summer

here is my 3 beautiful children (it's not the best picture of our baby)



I love this picture, boys felt to sleep(both taking a little nap)



our baby girl 2,5 month old



Our princess and daddy



Water ball fight, boys and daddy (we had already few water ball fights this summer, it's a picture from one of them)



At the park daddy playing with his Daniels






I will try to post more pictures later

Something I want to share...

In December 2009, when we were adopting DJ, we met one girl. We felt that she belongs in our family, we called her our daughter, she did call us her mommy and daddy, her family. At that time we didn't know when she will be available for international adoption(we only knew that she will be available later this year), so after we came home to US we talked to our facilitator, and we been told to write a request letter to SDA about this girl. Few month later we did, and were waiting for a result from SDA.
We were in contact with this little girl, we did call her, and a month ago we send her first package(some toys, clothes, and etc.) June 17 was her birthday, we called to say Happy B-Day, she was happy and we did talked with her that we will come this year to bring her home. We started to do some paperwork, and our home study visit was schedule for this Saturday but..... On July 1st I called her caregiver to see if they got a package/her b-day present, and been told that our little girl been taken out of orphanage to a "home foster system".......... No words, just a lot of sadness and tears on our end. We are heart broken, it feels like part of my heart was taken....
She never got her B-day present. There is more details to whole this story by I can say only that money were involved.
We missed our little girl, and praying that she will have a good happy life. What ever happens it does happen for reason. Only God knows why we met her, and why we are going through this now.

I shouldn't take her so close to my heart, I did accept her as my daughter, and felt in love. I was always thinking how and when we will bring here home, where she will sleep, and how will she like us, as her new family and etc.....

Just wanted to share, and maybe feel better about loosing our little girl(I am not sure if it's possible to feel better about this situation)



*still can's stop crying Please pray for me and our family, and especially about this little girl, so she will have good mommy and daddy(in foster home)

6 month home....

It’s been a really long time from my last post. I don’t’ even know where to start, we have so much new. Daniel James is done with school, but we still doing a little homework every day, just to keep up his English and remember how to write and read in Ukrainian. He has been a really good boy. And I think like with every kid we have our ups and downs, but no big problems with attitude or behavior. He been home 6 month and I can’t believe it how much he had changed. Sometimes we still have a little change attitude/behavior when other people/relatives around, but he is doing much better from when he just came home. He has good grades and already start picking up some English, it’s harder for him with English, because home we speak only Russian but he is doing great.

Daniel Dave is doing great, like a 2,5 year old boy. He loves his older brother, and following him everywhere.
Baby Elliana is just beautiful princess everyone loves her. She is getting really big, she is already almost 3 month old. Time is flying!
Here are some pictures from last 6 month with DJ!

San Francisco Zoo, my handsome little man



San Francisco Bay Aquarium



Jungle Restaurant San Francisco, Ca




Aquarium, San Francisco

Meet our new addition!

On April 6, we had our baby girl.
Meet Elliana Rose Mironyuk:

Here she is 1 day old!






We are getting ready to go home:



Going home!



Boys are really excited to have a little sister. Daniel J, is a really big help, and he loves his little sister. Daniel D, is trying to help too. We are surprised that there is no jealousy going on. When baby start crying he runs to me, and telling me to pick up a baby and feed her. Also Daniel D gets mad if I don't do it (sometimes baby is not hungry, just needs to be change, or just making sounds).

Happy Birthday Daniel James!!!

Today is Daniel's J birthday, and also exactly two month as we came home with him.
Wow, it's been already 2 month, and he is doing so good. He changed a lot. We didn't have any big or a lot of problems with him, but even in little areas it's been a lot of changes in him. I do have few questions for adoptive parents, who had adopt older kids , but I will probably talk/ask later, not today.

2,5 month ago in the orphanage

Taking a walk outside



In his classroom



Today

home, ready to blow his candle, and go to sleep(we came too late back from Chuck E Cheese)



At Chuck E Cheese posing



At relatives house




It was a nice day, and I think DJ like it a lot. He been waiting for his birthday for sooo long. He been asking , and talking almost everyday about HIS birthday.
He still did go to school today, and after he came home, he opened his presents, grandma came to say Happy Birthday to him, and after that we went to Chuck E Cheese.
He was going "crazy" about everything. He was keep telling us "thank you" all evening.

Again, Happy Birthday DJ!!! We love you and happy you are part of our family, you are our son!!!

Been a while...

It's been a while since I blogged a last time. We are very busy, trying to prepare everything for a new baby, and also I started having some complications with my pregnancy, and been on bed rest for few weeks now.

Daniel J is doing great. We still have no problems with him. He tried to test us, but everything is under control now.

Here is new picture of our family!




I will try to post more pictures of our kids later.

Nothing much....

Sergey appointment, for his arm, went well. He is taking his antibiotics now, and some vitamin C, and it's already better. The first day, Friday, antibiotics made him sick, but after that one day,he was fine. Sergey forgot to ask his doctor, name of those things that he has on his arm, but it's not that important now. I am happy that medicine is helping him.

Daniel J is doing good in school.I am so proud of him, he is trying so hard. He has a lot of energy and cannot sit in one place for long time. He is trying to communicate with other kids in school with his hands, and it's not ok at school, a lot of kids take it personal and he was getting in trouble. We are trying to explain as best as we can , what is ok, and what is not. It's so hard for him in school with out language, but I know he will pick up a language very quck because he is a smart boy.

Pictures

Here is some pictures from Daniel D B-day:

Daniel D blowing candle on his cake



Daniel J going down the slide in the mall play area


My two boys

Doing good

We are all doing really good, just busy. I am trying to catch up on my sleep, and clean little things around the house. Also getting use to having elementary school student in my house, doing homework with him, helping him with his English.

Daniel J is doing really good in school, he is learning a lot. His favorite is math.
We are so thankful to our God, that he gave us this little boy. Daniel trying so hard to be a good boy, and follow everything we tell him to do. He would change his attitude when there is someone else around, grandma, or uncle, or aunt. If someone else is around he would start acting weird, questions everything we tell him to do, or if we ask him to do something, like "please go change your clothes", he would say "no", or "why", or "I don't want to". And this is would happened when some else is around. We had a little talk, and yesterday he did fine when my brother came over. We think he was just testing us, and I am glad it's over :) So now, we will trying to go to church. He doesn't like a lot of attentions and really shy when people trying to talk to him, but I think he is ready. I am so proud of him, he is trying so hard, and he has so many changes in his life in past 3 weeks, and he is doing great. My little son, happy to have you in our family.

Daniel D had his birthday last Sunday. It was only us, family celebrating. Because Daniel J is really shy we trying not to go out to other houses a lot, and not invite to many people to our house. We had aunt, uncle and grandma invited for birthday, and this is it. It was great. After we ate we went to mall, to play area, so boys can play and burn some energy. Also I am so proud of my 2 year old, he is finally off bottle, and pacifier.

Sergey is doing good. Very busy working everyday and trying to take care of other things. Today he has an appointment for his arm (still recovering after Ukrainian trip). I don't' even know how to name stuff that he is getting on his arm. But he gets one after another, and they grow bigger until they pop, and he has to put some special cream on it to speed up a proccess of popping. Maybe doctor will tell us the exact name for this little things today.

My student

January 4, Sergey was off work, and we went to sign up Daniel J for school. He been talking about going to school since we came home, and was counting days when he will go to school. I think he was missing other kids.

His school is really nice, and staff is wonderful. All morning Daniel J was not too happy, he was still nice, and good boy, just not too happy. And after we told him that he will start school tomorrow we got to the car he start crying. After a little talk with him he told us that he will miss me when he will be in school, and he is scared that we will leave him in school and never come back for him. I felt so bad, and we had a long talk about how much we love him, and that we will always come back for him.

January 5, was first day of school for Daniel J and me. It was so hard for me to take him to school and leave him there. I was standing there and watching him around other kids as long as I could. I was trying to be strong for him so when I got to the car only then I started crying. I felt so bad leaving him there along, and not be able to be there with him and for him. All day long I was watching time, and thinking to go and see how he is. But I made it to the end of the day, and then went to pick him up from school.
He liked his school, class and everything a lot. I am so happy for him, and I am not too worry now about taking him, and leaving him at school.

Having fun

Daniel J got a lot of presents but this one was one of his favorite. Thank you aunt Inna and uncle Ivan.




Trying his new bike


My little cute boys!!!

Please help

I am still trying to figure out how to post pictures. How can I post a picture, so you can see a small picture, and when someone click on the picture they can see "same,one bigger picture"? Ok, Thank you so much Marcie, now I know how to post pictures with out uploading them to internet first.

My 2 Daniels :))))

Meet Daniel James!!!

On our way back home! Our happy 7 year old handsome son!

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

I just want to say Happy New Year!!! Thank you everyone for your nice comments, prayers and just being there for us! God Bless you all!!!

We are very busy this days. I had 2 appointments already for my pregnancy, and yesterday we found our that we are having a GIRL!!! We are so happy! Also I had a regular appointment with my doctor, and he said that everything is ok with a baby. I was worry a lot, we had a lot of stress and some things during our adoption that I was worried that it will harm a baby, but everything looks good.

Daniel James is doing good home. He is such a loving little guy. We are not use to someone giving us kisses all the time, and saying thank you for every little thing. He kisses my belly and saying that he is already love his sister. So cute and sweet, make me cry. Always smiling and helping me with little Daniel. The sweetest thing to watch him and Daniel Dave playing together and dancing! Will post video later.... promise!

Little Daniel still has diarrhea, I have no idea what is going on, it started in Ukraine, a week before we were going home. Mabey he is teething, or something else is going on. If he continius the same way, we will go to see a doctor after New Year.

Sergey is happy and busy. His family is back home, but he got much more things to do now. My poor husband I feel so sorry for him.

I am just happy to be home!

We are home!

Finally we are home. It was a little difficult to travel, especially a 9 hour flight with two kids, and being 6 month pregnant was hard.

Boys are doing good. Today, December 27 was our Christmas day :) We opened all the presents, and had a lot of fun as a family. Our new son is doing great. We love having him in our family. So far so good, we didn't have any attitude problems or anything like that. I know, I owed you pictures and I will try to do it as soon as we settle a little bit more.

Thank for your prayers!

We are in Kiev......

Finally after 3 crazy days we are all ready to go to USA.
Monday: Was a lot of running around finishing things in Amvrosievka, getting our paperwork from court, and leaving to Konstantinovka in the evening to be able to get Daniel J new birth certificate on Tuesday morning in Kramatorsk(only 30 minutes from Konstantinovka). If we would drive from Amvrosievka in the morning we would have to leave around 5 am to be able to get to Kramatorsk by 8:00-8:30 am. My sister stayed with Daniel D in Amvrosievka.

Tuesday: Me and Lev(we stayed at his parents house which was nice) woke up at 7am and were ready to go by 7:30 am. We got taxi and were in Kramatorsk office around 8:30am.
First we been told that there is no way we can get Daniels J passport with out Sergey being there. Its was so stressfull... but God is with us and finally lady said that she can do it. First she even gave us all the paperwork back, and we thought that we are not going to make it to our train to Kiev that evening.

After we got birth certificate we had to drive to Donetsk to get Daniels J passport. We decided to get passport first, before we get our son from orphanage because it was on our way. We got to Donetsk around 12:00 pm, but after an hour being in Donetsk and doing legalization and notary, and waiting for our son's passport we new that there was no way we can make it to our train that night if we wait any longer for his passport. So at 1:30pm me and our taxi left Donetsk to drive to Amvrosievk and Lev stayed in Donetsk to finish and get Daniels J Passport. It was 2 hour drive back to Amvrosievka and we had only 10-20 minutes to get Daniel J from orphanage, and my cousin and Daniel from our apartment. Thankfully orphanage staff was very nice and supportive, and everything was ready for me , and I just took Daniel J and left. We didn't have any time to change Daniels clothes, we changed him in the train.
After that we stopped at our appartment to get my cousin and Daniel D, everything was packed and ready to go. At 4:00pm we left Amvrosievka, and it was 2 hour drive to Donetsk, and we had our train at 6:08 pm. We were praying to make it to our train. Like always, when you are in hurry there is something that will be on your way, so on our way was a lot of cars, and big traffic. We got to train station around 6:05 pm, how we got to the train I will try to explain next time...........long story but we made it.

If everything good I will be home with our kids on Saturday 26!

Where to start.............?

Now, when I have only 5 days left and we will go home, finally I have good access to internet, Funny....but I couldn't do nothing about it.

And now, there is so much to tell and share that I don't even know where to start. We are thankful to our God for being with us through this whole process, it's not over yet but we are almost done here in Amvrosievka. Our 10th day was on Friday 18, but on Saturday we were not able to get our paperwork from court even that they were open because..............when we came and almost at the same time another family came from Italy to adopt a 10 year old boy. The day we came and met our son, it was 1st day for them, of their waiting period. On 8th or 9th day of their 10 days waiting period, a little boy's mom showed up, and started demanding to get her son back. She didn't come to see here son for more than 3 years, not even one visit, and now she is buying him stuff(cellphone, cloth, toys, food), and telling this little boy that all this time she was looking for him. It's crazy! This Italian family is still here, and they are waiting for another court to see what will happen. And because of this situation local judge is not very happy to give all the paperwork to us, they want to wait another day, just in case something like this will happen. We are praying that everything will go smooth.

Tomorrow, Monday we should get our paperwork from court and me and our translator/helper Lev will drive to Kramatorsk(our son was born there) to get his birth certificate early Tuesday morning. My cousin(she ca

me to help me after my husband left back home) will stay with little

Daniel at our apartment in Amvrosievka. After that, me and Lev will drive to Donetsk to get a new passport for our son, and then we will come back to Amvrosievka to get our son from orphanage..........finally! With our son, we will stop at our apartment and get our second son, and all the luggage, and drive back to Donetsk to catch our train at 6 PM. Tuesday will be really busy day for us! Please pray for last part of our adoption, that we make it to our train, and that everything goes smooth.

The weather been horrible the last 3-4 days. Big storm, and all roads are blocked. For 2 days we were not able to get our from our apartment, a lot of snow and strong wind. This is one more thing that we are praying about, that all roads will be clear for us to drive to Kramatorsk and Donetsk.

Sorry for not blogging, and huge thank you for all your prayers we feel them!!! God Bless you!!!

I know that this is a lot of

Update...

Hello , this is Sergey.
Here is update. Our Court went fine, we got approved, so now 10 days waiting period will begin. On December 19 my lovely wife will take boy from orphanage FOREVER.
I am right now in Kiev, taking care of some documents at USA Embassy. I am leaving Ukraine tomorrow morning, and my wife will stay to finish all process. God Help Her. It was very exiting and interesting experience especially at Amvrosievka village that i will remember forever. I will wait for my honey with two boys at USA. Thanks for praying and following.

We have internet on our cellphone!!!

We have access to internet through our cellphone. We are so happy about that! We can tell you more detail updates about our adoption. Our new son is 7 year old, very smart and good boy! His name is Daniel. I have to go...more coming. Tatyana

Still Here in Amborsivka

Hello everyone this is Sergey, i have much more opportunity to go to down town in this city for Internet then my wife. Therefore I am writing updates on my wife's request. Well so far good news, we are going to have Court date on December 8 at 10 am, and then 10 days of waiting period will approach, and after that on December 19 we will be able to get our son from orphanage. Can't wait. I ( Sergey ) will go home at December 10 due to work, but Tatyana will have to stay here. Unfortunately it is only choice, but i will prepare everything at home for them to come. The weather here is getting better, but still cold. Today we went to mall to buy some close for Daniel. That was very interesting experience.
Thanks everyone for following and praying for us, sorry for not updating very often.

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!

Everything in the mail!

Friday Sergey came back from work, and we had time to go to local post office to notarize copies of our passports. Today, Sergey, took 1 hour off, from his work, and did go to downtown and got copies of our marriage certificates, and also stopped at Secretary State office to apostle all the documents. On the way home, he also made it to post office to send all the documents to Ukraine.
So, we are done, and now it's just waiting and praying period.
I can't believe it, in two weeks we will know if we are going to Ukraine, and if we are, when?!!!!
It's so hard to wait, but we have this perfect time now, to prepare and pray for our child/ren.

Please keep us and our family in your prayers!

We are praying about our submission date!
About our new child/ren!
Also we need to get ready to go to Ukraine (house/rooms finish, and finances in order)!
Please keep us in your prayers!

Good and Bad!

Good new are that all our documents are in Ukraine, and been checked by our facilitator.
But two of our documents needs to be change. Not a big deal, but we still have to do it, and send it to Ukraine as soon as possible, because our submission date is in less than two weeks.
First, we have to make another copy of our passports, and notarize and Apostle them.
Second, we have to get new copies of our marriage certificates, ones we have they are marked with March date, and they will expired soon. They needs to be valid for next 6 month.

So, it's not something major that needs to be change, but still takes time. Tomorrow is Saturday, and for next two days we will not be able to get nothing done with our paperwork. I will try to get copies of our marriage certificates today, but I don't know if it will work, because I have 3 babies in my house:)))

Sergey will be home at 4:30 pm, and we should be able to go to post office and get copies and notarize our passport copies.

And if everything is good, we will be able to do apostle them, and send it to Ukraine on Monday.

Pray for us, so we get all our documents to Ukraine on time.
Thank you for all you prayers!!!

Less than two weeks until our submission date!

We have less than two weeks until our submission date. We are so excited! Also we been thinking a lot about that date, and praying to our God so he will be with us on that date.
It's scary to go through all adoption process with out our God, and I would be never do it with out my husband either.

All our document were at PARIS FR, today. Hopefully they will be in Kiev by this weekend, so we can talk to our facilitator, and see if everything ok with our documents.

Thank you foe keeping us in your prayers!