Is the waiting over yet?

I know it seems like I lack blogging much but it seems that there is so much downtime and waiting, that there isn't much to blog about.  I'm sure everyone doesn't care too much what I have for dinner every night, what I get when I go to the supermarket or what time I wake up in the morning!  I do short posts on Facebook, so if you are not following us on FB, you may want to check it out. 

We had our court date on 12/12/12.  Can you believe that?  Surely we will never forget the date we had court!  And in God's perfect timing, the date our adoption is decreed will be Christmas Day!  Again, a date we will not soon forget!

Court was a little intimidating.  There were three seats up on the "throne" that appeared to be for a King and his two advisors!  The judge sat in the middle and a "juror" sat on each side of him.  Then, off to the left, sat a representative from the local SDA, a "prosecutor" and a representative from the courts.  Also present was the director from the orphanage.

Vil'nans'k Courtroom - the "cage" on the right is where criminals sit during trial

When it was time for the director of the orphanage to speak, she said that she was pleased for us to adopt Lilya and Alex.  The kids have behaved better after coming back from hosting in America and she was surprised at how fast we came back for the kids!  

We were asked questions about why we wanted to adopt the kids, do we have enough space in our home for them, do we make enough money to support two more children, do we have any other children at home, etc.  We really weren't taken off guard by any of the questions.

Court lasted about one hour and we did have one laugh during the court session.  The judge called Danny up first and asked him a bunch of questions.  Then, he told Danny to sit down and called me up.  The first question he asked me was, "Do you know that man?" as he pointed to Danny.  Being a little on the sarcastic side, I immediately responded with, "Nope, I sure don't."  Then realized maybe that wasn't a good idea and said that I was just joking.  But thankfully everyone laughed - including the judge!  Whew!!!

The judge and the two jurors left the courtroom to "decide our case" and came back about 15 minutes later to declare that they were approving our adoption.  Glad my sarcasm didn't deter them from approving!

The next step is critically important.  It is so important, it is almost hard for me to put into words what it is.  So, I'll do my best and hopefully everyone reading will clearly understand.  Are you ready?  The next step is to wait!  Just wait.  Wait for 10 long days!  Actually, our total wait is 13 days because Sunday's don't count, the day of court doesn't count and the decree doesn't happen until day 11.  So, we just wait.  Waiting is the hardest part.  Especially when I don't have my best friend by my side.  Danny and Coby left on 12/13/12 at 3:00pm and being here by myself is so hard!!  I am hoping to go home by January 4th and if that happens, then I will be apart from Danny and Coby for 21 days.  I truly don't know how military wives do it.  And wives whose husbands work out of town and only come home on weekends.  Danny is my very best friend.  He is a part of me.  We are one.  Being without him is like missing half of myself!!!

Me and my best friend just a few hours before he left to go home

Since I am now here alone, I have kept busy Skyping with Danny.  A lot.  And I have also had the privilege to spend time with Pastor John and his lovely wife, Ev.  They are long term missionaries from Canada who have started a church in Zaporozhye and have also started a Trade School for aging out Orphans.   We have shared a few meals together and we will be spending Christmas Day with them.  It is so nice to be around them.  They are just lovely people and really doing great work for the Lord here.  They have been here 5 years and plan to be here another 5 years.
 

This is Pastor John and myself

This is Pastor John's lovely wife, Ev and myself

 Please check out what they are doing and if you feel led to help orphans but can't adopt, consider donating to their ministry.  Their ministry is New Hope Center.  Alex White is also a missionary here with New Hope Center and I will be having dinner with him and his fiance this coming week.  I might even meet with up another adoptive family adopting out of Kherson.  Before Danny left, we were able to have a meal with another family adopting out of Vil'nans'k and hopefully they will be back before I leave, so that I can see them again!

I have also enjoyed the food here in Ukraine.  I absolutely love the food here!  Here are some pictures from a restaurant that was recommended to us called Sir Lancelot.  The food was phenomenal!!!  The only downfall - no English Menu!!  So, Pastor John translated it for me.  However, I won't be able to go by myself unless I order the exact same thing.  Which wouldn't be so bad because it was delicious but I'd love to try something else since this was so good!

Ukrainian salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and red peppers with dill and olive oil.  Probably the best I've had since I've been here.  It even had just a smidgen of romaine lettuce - very rare for Ukrainian salads to have any lettuce

The rolled up things on the left was chicken breast rolled up, filled with cheese and lightly breaded.  The two dollops on each side of the dill was a baked potato smothered in cheese.  This was superb!!!!!  Beautiful presentation, perfect portions and tasted delicious!!!! 

What's next?

What an incredible journey so far. We arrived at the airport in Kiev on Monday around 1:00 pm. We flew through customs; which was quite opposite of what happened last year. There were a lot of people that got off the plane before us and then we went to the restroom. By the time we walked up to customs, every single booth was empty except for two booths and nobody was checking in through customs....nobody. We walked right up. They basically asked where we were coming from, where we were going and why. He then stamped our passports and we were on our way.

The next thing that happened almost seems miraculous to us. There are two lines to go through after checking in through customs.... The red line (if you have items to claim) and the green line (if you do not have anything to claim), so we walked through the green line. There was one gentleman with two small suitcases and he was stopped by customs and his bags were checked. We walked right past him with four huge suitcases, a computer bag, a purse and two backpacks (yes, we feel like we packed everything except our kitchen sink) and it was almost like God caused all the 'guards' to not even see us walking past.

We spent Tuesday afternoon walking around Kiev a bit, ate dinner at Solo Pizza and then Danny had some coffee; which he loved! We came back to our apartment exhausted! Coby went into the room to read his book and literally fell asleep reading it!

Wednesday, we all slept in! April and Danny awoke at 11am and April had to wake Coby up at noon. We ate lunch at a buffet type restaurant, went to the Roshen Chocolate Factory (yum!), went to the Apple Store (expensive!), more coffee (this is probably going to be a theme throughout my blogging), had ice cream (they were all closed last night so they must have gotten the memo that I was coming!!!!) and then for dinner went to the Shashlik Restaurant next to McD's! We actually sat Japanese style and had to take off our shoes. That was fun and the food was yummy. We spent $5.30 on ice cream, the buffet lunch was $14 and we spent $37.50 at dinner - this included tip and is actually quite expensive but oh so worth it! Besides, not too many restaurants three adults can eat at for $37.50 including tip in America.

Tomorrow is our SDA (State Department of Adoption) appt where we will get "referred" to Lilya and Alex. Not exactly sure what happens or what to expect at that appt but I will blog about it later.

Then, we have to return to the SDA on Thursday to pick up our referral and will get on an overnight 12 hour train ride to Zaporozhye. Vil'nanys'k is the small town outside of Zaporozhye where the kid's orphanage is located. Pastor John with New Hope will be picking us up from the train station Friday morning. He's a Canadian Missionary that helps aging out kids. We will definitely be spending some time helping them and are looking forward to it.

I will update more as things progress. If you think about it, please pray for us on Wednesday. Our appt is at 2pm (7am EST), we have been told once again that the kids are available - so thank you for praying already! We'll update again tomorrow!