Day 2 and 3 at the orphanage

Friday our paperwork headed back to Kiev on a train with our facilitator. So now we are just waiting until Tuesday. Then on Tuesday, we have some more documents to sign at the courts.

Saturday, the kids had class until 2:00, so we didn't go to the orphanage until then. Yep - school on Saturday. So, next time your kids complain about school - ask them if they want to go to school in Ukraine? :) We spent about 2.5 hours at the orphanage hanging out with Lilya and Alex and some of the other kids....Nastya (Lilya's friend - seems like this is her only friend.), Sergiy (the boy one of my best friends tried to adopt but he said no after they traveled there to get him), Sasha (another one of my friend's parents tried to adopt him and same thing - he said no when they traveled to get him), Dima, Vasia and a bunch of other kids that came and went. The iPad was a popular device! The kids LOVED Angry Birds....sigh! Angry Birds - I do not like Angry Birds! I'm afraid we created 6 little Angry Bird Monsters! Haha Then we handed out some candy, chap stick and some of our McLaughlin's 3+2 wrist bands. They loved the bands too!!!

Last night we ate at a restaurant called Cafe Fiesta.....oh my!!! That place was amazing!!! We have had borsch at every restaurant that we've eaten at and that borsch was by far the best we've had!! Here was what we had:

Danny: borsch, 1 sushi roll and coffe
April: chicken, potato and onion dish and bottled water
Coby: crepes with dessert sauce, "chipped potatoes" (aka French fries), bottled water and cake
Total cost, including tip: 225 grivna, approx $28

The "standard" tip here is 5-10% but I want our servers to be blessed and so we have consistently tipped 15-20%! I can't even imagine tipping 5-10%!

Sunday morning, Pastor John picked us up for church at New Hope Center. He is a Canadian missionary who has been here for five years. He started a church here and also started a Trade School for orphans that age out at 16. He is doing unbelievable work here. We had worship that was amazing! They were singing in Russian but to all the popular worship songs like "How Great is Our God" (Chris Tomlin), "How He Loves Us" (David Crowder) and Open The Eyes of My Heart. Since Coby I have been studying the Russian alphabet, we were even able to sing some of the verses in Russian! Unbelievable! Then a local translated the entire service for us. It was great!!! Afterwards, Pastor John and his wife had us over for lunch for some "leftover Thanksgiving" dinner! YUM!!! So, we ended up with some turkey after all!

After lunch, our driver took us to the orphanage and we spent some time with just Lilya, Alex and her friend Nastya. We didn't hang around any of the other kids today and while I really enjoy that (a lot) it was nice to just be with our kids!!! We played UNO, played with some cars, hit a balloon around and let them play on the iPad. We also saw some pictures that Lilya and Alex drew! Every time we come, they ask us, "Mama, Papa, internat (orphanage in Russian) tomorrow?" When we say, "Yes!!", their eyes light up and they get so excited!!! Oh my gosh, honey, of course we will come see you tomorrow! We wouldn't miss it for the world!!!!!

Pictures are out of order but it is too difficult to try and fix....  :(

This is a view outside of our apartment from the balcony - our building is identical to this one

Coby and Alex being silly on Saturday.

Coby, Nastya and Lilya in Alex's room on Sunday

A picture that Lilya drew

Coby, Alex, Lilya and Nastya on Saturday

Coby's crepes with dessert sauce at Cafe Fiesta for Dinner Saturday night

Alex's room - there were 10 beds in the room.  Alex's bed was the next to the last one underneath the Tom and Jerry curtains!

Vasia, Dima, Alex and Nastya playing the iPad on Saturday

Danny and Alex playing cars on Sunday in Alex's room

Coby and Nastya playing the iPad on Sunday

Everywhere we walk, Nastya and Lilya hold hands

Nastya and Lilya on Saturday

This is Alex, he is an American missionary over here working with aged our orphans

This is a picture that Alex drew

Coby's cake at Cafe Fiesta for dinner Saturday night

Two boys with Alex on Saturday

Something Alex made

Lilya hugging Papa on Saturday

Lilya and Mama on Friday

Alex's room

Coby's "chipped potatoes" (aka French Fries) for dinner at Cafe Fiesta on Saturday night

The stairwell leading up to Alex's room

April's "frying pan chicken with potatoes" for dinner Saturday night at Cafe Fiesta - YUM!

Danny's borsch at Cafe Fiesta for dinner at Cafe Fiesta on Saturday Night - Double Yum!!

The bathroom that is outside of Alex's room - yuck!  I can't wait to get him home so he can use a clean bathroom!

Nastya and Lilya making a heart with their arms

Day 1 at the orphanage

Last night we took a train to Zaporozhye - we left Kiev around 8:25pm and arrived in Zaporozhye around 7:00am...almost 12 hours. I was so exhausted because we have been up late every night (til 2am) and then yesterday we had a 5 hour walking tour of San Francisco....I mean Kiev! My legs felt like Jelly when we were done. It was an amazing tour and Masha, our tour guide was great! You will see photos of her...she is the blonde that is the same height as Coby. :) She was really adorable, spoke great English and took us all around Kiev, knew a lot of history, took us on the subway, a bus and many many steps! We also met some new friends and ate at an amazing traditional Ukrainian restaurant.

This morning as we arrived in Zaporozhye, we were greeted by Pastor John and Alex from New Hope Center and they took us to McDonalds and to our apartment to put all of our luggage in. Then we went to the orphanage. The kids were waiting outside for us as the can pulled up. Danny was in the back seat but Lilya didn't even wait for Danny to get out before she was hugging him! We then went into the director's office and he asked the kids if they wanted us to be their parents and they said "DA! DA!" without hesitation! Alex had a grin from ear to ear!!!! The kids sat down and had to write a letter stating that they wanted us to adopt them. Then we just hung around and waited while they worked on the documents.

We finally were allowed to go outside and we saw some of the older kids. We only spent a few minutes outside before we had to leave. We had a great first day and will get to go back tomorrow at 2:00 - after they get out of classes. Yes, classes on Saturday!


April's Verinky at a tradional Ukrainian restaurant close to the SDA in Kiev

Alex dressing like Papa

Again, dressing and acting like Papa

A beautiful tower of a church in Kiev

Danny's borsch at a traditional Ukrainian restaurant in Kiev near the SDA

Danny and Coby on the train

Alex writing his letter stating that he wants to be adopted

April with Masha, our Kiev Tour Guide

Coby with Masha

April, Coby and Danny overlooking Kiev

A beautiful Church

McDonald's in Kiev

Train bunks - plenty of room!!!

A tower of a beautiful church in Kiev

April and Coby with the bronze kitty in Kiev

Lilya writing her letter stating she wants to be adopted and Alex closely watching

Beautiful church in Kiev

Beautiful Hotel in Kiev

SDA appt today

We had our SDA appt today and it went well. We found out that the kids were placed on the adoption registry on November 8, 2011 and so they were available for international adoption 11/9/12. We received our first SDA appt for 11/5 and were told they weren't available yet. Had we not been told, we would have been four days too early. But God has been gracious as we have continued to just trust him. I'm not going to lie and say we just have it all together and that trusting him has been easy because that's not true. However, we decided to trust Him and follow his lead and so that is what we have done.

As I start looking back at all the ways The Lord had lead this path, I am getting goose bumps just thinking about all of the details. We have been on this journey for two years and thinking about one thing in particular is making my eyes well up with tears. Back on Nov 7 of last year, we received a call that would change the course of our lives. To read that story, click on that blog post:

http://psalm1018.blogspot.com/2011/12/adopting-ukraine-orphans-gods-plan.html?m=1

What is really tripping me out right now is realizing that Danny received the call that would change the course of our lives on Nov 7 and the very next day the children were placed on the adoption registry. Wow! Am I the only one that gets goose bumps thinking about that?

Anyhow, here are some pictures that we took tonight....I know that's what everyone wants to see.


Restaurant in Kiev close to our apartment - Le Borsch

Beautiful church in Kiev just behind our apartment

Danny's dinner at Le Borsch in Kiev on Wednesday

A beautiful government building in Kiev

A better shot of the beautiful government building

Danny had to stop and get coffee at this truck

This is a trolley that we took to get to the bottom of the hill but we were too scared to go walking around, so we turned around and got right back on the trolley and headed back up the hill

Another shot of the beautiful church right outside of our apartment in Kiev

April and Coby's dinner at Le Borsh in Kiev on Wednesday Night ~ we didn't share, just ordered the same meal

April and Coby's soup at Le Borch ~ Coby didn't like his