Snowball Fight

Vacya loves the snow...

...especially when he gets to throw it at dad :)

Joe's adoption

Because of how the adoption ended up in Ukraine, Joe had to adopt Vacya here in Michigan. The new adoption was finalized on November 25th. It was Michigan Adoption Day and there were about 18 kids that were adopted during the special court session that was held. Vacya got a cool light-up pen that the judge used to sign the order of adoption and he got to use the gavel to adjourn his case. He thought that was pretty cool.

Vacya and Uncle Jason

My other kids

Happy Birthday Vacya

Vacya turned 12 years old on November 24th. Here are some pictures from his party.

Happy Halloween

Vacya picked out a Batman costume for Halloween.

We went to a "Trunk 'n Treat" at a local church.

Vacya got to sit in a firetruck and sound the siren.

Vacya's cousins, Malachi, Javan, Jeremiah, and Nathaniel were there too.

Vacya loved the big slide!

Batman vs Optimus Prime

Vacya's Homecoming

Home

Vacya and I finally arrived home late Tuesday night last week. It's been great to be back home.

We visited Vacya's school last week and he started school today, but just for the afternoon. He seemed excited to be around kids again and had quite the following when I was watching him play at recess. One of his classmates told me, "He's already so popular and it's only his first day." The school found a native Russian speaking women who is going to be translating for Vacya at school 3 afternoons a week, so we're pretty happy about that.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

Finally

Went to the American Embassy this morning to apply for Vacya's US visa, were able to have our interview right away (this usually takes place on the second day) and left with Vacya's visa. Yeah!!! We're finally coming home.

We got it!

We ended up getting Vacya's passport yesterday, made it on a train that evening, and arrived in Kiev this morning. We were able to get Vacya's medical exam already, so now we will just have to wait until Monday to apply for his US visa. Then hopefully that will be ready by Tuesday afternoon. Yeah!!! We're finally going to make it home!!!

No passport

Well, we didn't get Vacya's passport today. It was the earliest day we could get it, so it wasn't really a surprise that it wasn't here yet, but we're still disappointed. They told Andrei to call back again tomorrow to see if it's in. Hopefully it will be ready.

More pics

This is one of my favorite pictures... Joe and Vacya playing ball at the orphan camp.

Vacya and I having some pizza.

Recent pics

Playing Nintendo DS with the boys

Saying Goodbye - Last Day at the Orphanage

Gotcha Day

It's official... Vacya is now with us forever. His "Gotcha Day" is October 7, 2008. We weren't able to get him on Monday after all because the director was not at the orphanage that afternoon, so we had to wait until Tuesday morning. It was really hard to tell Vacya that he had to spend one more night at the orphanage after we'd told him that he would not have to. We were still able to go out to the small village to change Vacya's birth certificate on Tuesday though, so it didn't really change our plans too much.

So, Vacya's name is now Vacya James Wager. Joe and I had decided a long time ago that Vacya's middle name would be James, after my dad. I've also been thinking lately that it's pretty appropriate because the book of James talks a lot about trials and perserverance, and we've definately had our share of trials over that past 6 months.

Today we had to go to the tax police to get Vacya's name changed for his tax code, which is similar to our social security numbers in the US. Then we applied for his passport. The ladies at the passport office told us to check back next Wednesday, so hopefully the passport will be ready by then. That would allow us to take a train up to Kiev Wednesday night, get the medical exam completed and the US visa applied for, and hopefully fly home that weekend. Please pray that the passport will be ready on Wednesday so we can get home!

Weekend

We had a great time this past weekend. The circus was pretty cool. The first half had dancers, acrobats, clowns, and animals doing tricks, then the second half was more like a magic show. Vacya loved it. On Sunday we went out for pizza after church, went to see the movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in the afternoon, then had cake and ice cream for Shelby's birthday in the evening. Vacya really liked the movie. It was in Ukrainian, which he doesn't know very well, but it had enough action that we all enjoyed it even though we couldn't understand most of the talking.

Andrei has our paperwork from the court and now we're just waiting for the regional inspector to sign something before we can go back out to the orphanage to get Vacya signed out for good. We had to take him back there this morning, which he wasn't too thrilled about, but should be able to have him again by this afternoon. Andrei has already notified the lawyer for the orphanage that the paperwork is ready, so she is going to begin preparing things on her side to have it ready when we get there with the court documents.

Progress

Yesterday morning, Shelby, Tammy, Lena, and I went to the appeals court to check on the status of my paperwork. When we got there, the girl that Shelby and I had talked to the day before told us to wait, then came back about 10 minutes later with our completed documents. She could not give them to us because the must go to the other court by courier, so we all headed over to our court to send the courier to get them. When we got there, the courier had already left and was at the appeals court. The secretary that has been so helpful in the past called the courier and asked him to go through all of the documents and make sure mine were there before returning. She told us that once she had them, she would prepare the additional court decree that I needed to get Vacya signed out of the orphanage. The papers were ready at the end of the work day Friday, so we didn't have time to officially sign Vacya out, but he's with me for the weekend. On Monday Andrei will come down to get everything taken care of with the orphanage, so other than going back for a few hours Monday morning, Vacya will not have to stay there anymore. Then on Tuesday we will head out to the village where Vacya was born to get his birth certificate changed. It's about a 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive, so it will probably take most of the day to get it done. If we get back early enough on Tuesday, we will apply for his passport; otherwise we'll do that Wednesday morning. I've been told that it should take 5 to 7 days to get the passport, but I know others who've waited much longer. I'm hoping that we don't run into another delay there.

This afternoon Shelby and I are taking the kids to the circus, then tomorrow is Shelby's birthday, so we should have a very fun weekend. Vacya has been asking all day how much longer till we go to the circus. He's so excited.

Neverending story

Vacya and I had a good weekend together. He had a good time hanging out with Shelby's kids in the small 2-bedroom apartment that all 9 of us are staying in. He really loved the Nintendo DS that we brought for him. He likes playing Mariokart with Shelby's boys, who each have a DS also. On Sunday all of the kids from his class at the orphanage came to church, then we had a little good-bye party for Vacya afterwards. The kids had lasagne for the first time and really seemed to like it.

Unfortunately it wasn't really good-bye that day because we still don't have our paperwork from the appeals court so Vacya had to go back to the orphanage Sunday night. The judge at the appeals court told us that the paperwork should be done within 5 days, but it's already been 7 working days and the documents still have not been prepared. It would be really nice if at least one step of this process could go smoothly and quickly, but apparently this particular step is not. Shelby and I went to the appeals court today to ask about our case, but it still has not been prepared. The girl we talked to said to come back tomorrow to check, so hopefully they will have worked on it. Once they finish it, it will still have to be sent by courier to our court so that they can prepare another document which will allow me to go get Vacya from the orphanage for good. Then of course there are still the birth certificate, passport, medical exam, and US visa to get. I'm really hoping to be home within 2 more weeks or so, but at this rate I have no idea how many more delays we're going to have.

Please continue to pray that things will be completed quickly so that we can come home. It's even harder now that Joe's not here with me, but luckily Shelby is still around to try to keep me from going crazy :) They have been having trouble getting their Russian visas, so they're playing a waiting game right now too. I'm sure they would appreciate your prayers as well.

Weekend

The orphanage director has given me permission to have Vacya over the weekend even if the paperwork hasn't been completed yet. I'll go pick him up tomorrow around lunch time, once school is done for the day, then he will stay me until Sunday evening. We're hoping that all the paperwork will be in order by Monday so he can be with me for good.

Vacya was so happy and affectionate when I went to visit him yesterday. I think he was trying not to get his hopes up with all the delays that we've had, but now he's really believing that it's going to happen. It's great to see him just be his happy-go-lucky self again and not seem so reserved and uncertain.

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The appeals court approved my adoption and Vacya will hopefully be with me by the end of the week. There is no official waiting period, just as long as it takes for the court to prepare our documents, which could be up to 5 days. Andrei thinks we should get them by Friday. We are all very excited and relieved. Hopefully there will be no more delays and we can be home in a few weeks.

Update

Andrei talked with the judge at the appeals court today to find out more about the hearing and the appeal process. He and Sasha have never had one of their adoption cases go to an appeal before. He was told that we will have to be at the appeals court at 9:00 am on the 23rd, but we don't really have an appointment. We just wait there with all of the other people who are there to have their appeals heard and our name will be called when it's our turn. I can just see us sitting there all day waiting and they end up not having time to hear our case, but we'll hope for an early time. Once the decision is made, it is final. There is no waiting period and the prosecutor will not be able to make another appeal. The court should type up the decision that day so that we can go get Vacya immediately. Please continue to pray for a speedy resolution to this adoption. After the hearing, we will still have to get the birth certificate, passport, medical exam, and US visa. If everything goes smoothly, Vacya and I could be home within 2 to 3 weeks of the hearing.

New pics

Here are a few pictures from First Bell:

Shelby's kids at the dyetski (children's) park:

Appeal Hearing

The appeal hearing is scheduled for September 23rd. I guess that was the earliest they could get it in. I am coming home on Saturday to work for 2 weeks, then will be heading back to Ukraine to hopefully get everything finished and bring our boy home.

Unexcused Absence

We were informed today that Vacya has an unexcused absence at his school in America. Thought you'd all enjoy that one as much as we did. I'm at a loss for words...

I have been told that I will find out tomorrow the date of the appeal hearing. I still have no idea how soon it will be, though.

First Bell

Today I went to the orphanage to celebrate First Bell (the first day of school) with Vacya and his class. The kids looked so nice all dressed up in their black pant/skirts and white shirts. Tammy and Lena brought treats for the kids to have after the First Bell ceremony that they always have. It was an interesting experience to be a part of this important tradition here in Ukraine.

I found out on Friday that we do have to have an actual hearing for the appeals court after all. From what I understand, though, the appeals court judge has already said that our approval will stand. It's more of a formality that they have to go through because it is an adoption and they must follow the process. I'm still waiting to hear when the hearing will be. Our judge was going to be calling the appeals court judge over the weekend to see what he could to do about getting the hearing scheduled quickly, but I haven't heard anything yet. It's getting even more stressful just being stuck here waiting now that school has started and I am missing work.

This weekend three of the girls from Vacya's class were sent to another orphanage, so the caregivers are worried about their jobs because of the lower numbers of kids. One of them actually told Tammy and Lena that she is praying that our adoption won't go through because they don't want to lose their jobs. She has pretty much ignored me and not spoken to me at all when I've been at the orphanage to see Vacya. I guess that's better than being yelled at like Joe and I were back in April and May.

There is no internet access at the house I'm staying at now with Shelby and her family, so I'm not able to post updates as often, but I'll try to get to a computer if I get any news.

waiting for a phone call as I type

I am waiting for a phone call from Andrei as I type. He spoke with our judge yesterday and was told that there will not be another hearing for the appeals court. The appeals judge will just make a decision. Our judge said that 100% it will go our way, but I think I'll wait until I actually have the paperwork in my hands before I really believe it. The appeals judge has looked over all of our documents, but we don't know when she is going to give her decision. I also have not gotten a straight answer about whether or not there will be another waiting period once the judgment is made.

Shelby and I went to visit Vacya at the orphanage yesterday and he looked good. Shelby asked him if he was worried that we left or anything since we hadn't seen him in over a week and he said no. A few of the other boys in Vacya's class have some pretty bad injuries from the last few days of camp. It was just heartbreaking to hear about. One of the boys was grabbed by some older boys when he left his room to go to the bathroom at night. They beat him and held him down by his throat and burned his face all over with lit matches. He also has his foot wrapped up, but I'm not sure what happened there. Another boy's leg or knee was hurt so badly that he is in a hospital.

Same old story

We still don't know anything.  Andrei talked to our judge today and was told that the appeals court judge has our case, but she needs a day to look at it, so we won't hear anything until Thursday.

Change in plans

There were no flights available this weekend, and the flight out on Monday required an overnight stay  in Amsterdam, so now  Joe is flying home on Tuesday.  

Fun times

While I was home, I got to spend time with my cousin (who also happens to be one of my very bestest friends), Shelby and her family.  Many of you know that she moved to Siberia so I don't get to see her very often.  One of the most frustrating things about being in Ukraine so long is that Shelby was back in the states all summer and was staying very close to our home for several months.  She is also the one who just adopted two boys from Vacya's class at the orphanage.  We were so excited to be able to spend time together with all the kids and she could help us communicate with Vacya since she speaks Russian.  However, they are leaving the US on Monday so they won't be there once we get back with Vacya.  They are going to be in Simferopol for a while though before they head to Russia, so Vacya and I will hopefully be able to spend a little time with them there.

Shelby and kids

Three of Shelby's five kids had birthdays while they've been in Michigan, but we were in Ukraine and were bummed that we missed their parties.  The other two kids have birthdays in the fall, so we decided to have an un-birthday party for them while I was home.

The cousins

We also took the kids out to ride one of my horses one afternoon. 

 

Alec

Zhenya

Micah

Keegan

Korah

Latest news

We went to our court with Andrei today to talk with our judge.  Lena came with us to help translate because Andrei is not usually very good at communicating what's going on.  Our judge, who's been on vacation for the last month or so, was back to work and willing to try to get things moving for us.  He called one of the judges from the appeals court and arranged for her to pick up our case and get it resolved soon.  However, she is in Yalta today and Monday is a holiday, so she won't be looking at it until Tuesday.  At that time, she may just throw it out, or we will find out when the hearing will be.  They are still saying that there are no grounds for the appeal, so even if there is a hearing, it should still go our way.  Andrei is hopeful that we will have a decision by next week, but we know how that goes.  We also found out that our prosecutor is pretty high up for her position, right under the head prosecutor, so that is why nobody has been able to go around her.  Joe is probably going to be flying back on Sunday, recovering from jet-lag on Monday, and returning to work on Tuesday.  Shelby and her family get back to Simferopol on Wednesday, so I'll have them around for moral support while we finish up everything.  If we find out that the hearing isn't scheduled for a few more weeks, I will come home to work and fly back in time for the hearing. 

Nothing yet

Andrei called the appeals court today and there is still no new information.  The appeal for our case has been registered, but the hearing for it has not been scheduled.  Before when Andrei talked about the appeal being thrown out, it sounded like there may not even be another hearing, but now it seems that there has to be a hearing for it to be thrown out.  Andrei is coming down on Friday so that we can meet with the head of the appeals court to try to get the hearing scheduled soon.  Joe does not have to be at the appeals hearing, so I think he's going to be coming home this weekend or early next week.  If the hearing is not going to happen soon, I will come home too and just come back in time for the hearing.  Hopefully they will be able to give us a date on Friday so that we can decide what we need to do as far as coming home.  We've just been sitting here waiting for something to happen since our court hearing on July 11th.  It's really frustrating because we could have been home all that time and Joe would not have had to miss so much work, but they always just say a few more days so we didn't want to go home and then have something happen right away.  Now that the school year is starting, we really can't afford to have both of us just sitting around and waiting here if nothing is going to happen soon. 

Back again

After about 23 hours of traveling, I got back to Simferopol around 4:30 Sunday afternoon.  We have still not heard anything new from the appeals court.  They told Andrei to call again tomorrow to see if anyone has looked at our case yet.  We went out to visit Vacya this morning.  He seems to be doing well.  I think he was kind of surprised to see us because we hadn't been out there in a little over 2 weeks.  It's hard to know what he's thinking about all of this.  The kids go back to the orphanage next Monday.  We're hoping we can get Vacya before then so he doesn't have to go back there at all.

Oops

Somebody made a mistake... the prosecutor did appeal the latest court hearing, not the one from May. So, now we have to keep waiting for the appeals court to decide whether or not to throw it out. We were told that it might happen next week on Tuesday or Wednesday. I fly out Saturday morning go back. I was really hoping that we would have some good news before I had to go back, but no such luck. It was great to be home though, even if it was only for a week.

No news

We're still waiting to hear something about the appeal. Andrei keeps calling people to see where it's at, but nothing has been done yet.

Unbelievable

When I talked to Joe yesterday, he said that Andrei did make it down to Simferopol. When Andrei went to the appeals court, he found out that the prosecutor had actually appealed our first court hearing, which was on May 19th, not the latest one. So... she was way past her 20 days to turn it in, not to mention that the judge's decision on that case was no in the first place. That was why we changed our application to be just in my name. There should be no question now that the appeal will just be thrown out and Vacya will officially be ours. Andrei was hopeful that the appeal would be thrown out today, but I haven't heard from Joe yet to know for sure.

Home

On Friday Joe and I decided that I needed to come home to take care of some things at work since I won't be back before the new school year starts, so I bought my ticket and flew out Saturday morning. It's great to be back in the US, even if it's only for a week. Joe stayed in Ukraine so that if the appeal is thrown out this week (we've been told that it could be by Wednesday), he can go out to the camp and get Vacya. Then I'll be back in time to go get the birth certificate the following Monday if all goes well and the appeal is actually thrown out.

Frustration

We are a little frustrated with Andrei right now, to say the least. He was supposed to come down to Simferopol yesterday, but couldn't get a flight until this morning. However, he missed his flight because he didn't get up early enough this morning. Now he says he's coming on Monday, but we'll have to wait and see if he actually makes it. Tammy and I went to our court this morning so that I could sign a paper saying that I was notified that our case was appealed and was sent to the appeals court. The secretary at our court said that our case had already been sent over, but when we went to the appeals court to check on it, they said that they didn't have it yet and it can take 2 to 3 weeks for it to be processed and registered before any judge even looks at it. I called Andrei to let him know what's going on and he said that it should not take that long for it to be registered, only 3 to 5 days. He said that he will come Monday to go to the appeals court and to meet with our judge to see if he can do anything to speed up the process. Joe is going to call Sasha to see if he can do anything to move this along, or at least get Andrei down here to do his job.

Appeal

Tammy and I went back to the court today to ask about our case. The prosecutor had turned in her application for appeal and her reason was the age difference between Joe and Vacya again. That shouldn't even be an issue anymore since the adoption was only in my name this time, but she still has a right to appeal for whatever reason and we have to wait for them to go through that process. The secretary at the court (a new one) said that she won't get the appeal processed and sent over to the appeals court until Friday at the earliest. Tammy tried to explain that we are Americans and have been here for three months, but she was not too sympathetic. She said what did it matter to her if we were Americans. She will process our paperwork the same as she would any other. Andrei is going to try to call the deputy judge to see if they can move anything up sooner, but we're not all that optimistic at this point.

15 weeks

We're at 15 weeks in Ukraine now and we've been here during 6 different months... March, April, May, June, July & August.  We heard from the secretary at our court yesterday that the prosecutor has turned in her application for an appeal.  She turned it into the head court, so the secretary couldn't give us any specific information about what the complaint was yet.  She told Andrei to call back on Monday and she will let us know more.  Hopefully by Tuesday the appeals court judge will look at it and just throw it out.  

We went to visit Vacya today.  He seemed like he was doing ok.  He was telling us about these boys that come to the camp from nearby villages and beat up the kids at the camp.  They offer the younger kids candy to get them to come up to them, then beat them up.  Vacya said that he hides if he sees anybody that he doesn't recognize as another camper and doesn't walk around the camp unless there are a lot of other kids around.  We just can't wait to get him out of there.  He had some small cuts on his face this time, but I think they were just from mosquito bites that he scratched too much.  There were some other kids hanging around us and I think they were asking us to adopt them too.  Vacya said that he would not let anybody take us away from him :)  He's so cute... but it is sad to see all of those other kids who just want a family.

Thanks for all of the prayers for my health; my stomach has been feeling much better lately.  Please continue to pray that the appeals court will just throw out the appeal so that we can get Vacya and come home.

Some answers

We went back to our court yesterday to talk to the secretary there again and see if anything had been sent over to the appeals court yet. She had our information out already and was able to explain the situation. The prosecutor had 10 days to pick up an application for an appeal, but she has 20 days to turn it in. Even though our court hearing was on Friday, July 11, the official judgement didn't get turned in until Monday, July 14, so that is when the 10/20 days started. So the prosector has until August 5 to submit her reason for the appeal, which she has not done yet. That is why the appeals court did not have any documentation. The secretary said that the prosecutor did not give a reason for the appeal. She thought that maybe the prosecutor is wanting a bribe, which is what we have suspected from the beginning. The judge told us right from the start not to contact the prosecutor, so maybe he suspects it too. The secretary ended up calling the prosecutor to find out if she really has a reason for the appeal. The prosecutor said that she is preparing her complaint and will try to get it in by Friday. Andrei told us that the judge said the prosecutor can't appeal because she did not participate in the hearing, but the secretary at the court said that she still has a right to appeal even if she wasn't there. We're still hoping that the appeal will be thrown out once it is actually submitted. If it is, then hopefully we can get Vacya next week and get the process finished and come home the following week. If the appeal is accepted, there will be another hearing, which could be scheduled anytime (soon or not for another month). Joe's work has been really great and told him not to worry about his job, so he's going to be staying here with me.

Something's fishy

After a week of no news, Tammy and I decided to take matters into our own hands and go to the court ourselves to get some information. First we went to the court where our hearing was to see if they could tell us anything about the appeal. The secretary there found some paperwork from our case, but I'm not sure exactly what it was. I think it just documented our hearing. She then called three different people at the appeals court to try to find out the status of our case, but nobody could find anything. She suggested that we go to the appeals court to see if they could help us there. At the appeals court, the secretary could not find any record of our case by our name. We called our facilitator to see if he could give us our case number or the name of the judge at the appeals court that was in charge of our case. Andrei said that he didn't have our documents with him, so he did not have the case number and he did not know the name of the appeals court judge. He said that he would call the inspector in Simferopol (in charge of all adoptions in the region) and ask her for it. She could not give it to him, I don't remember the reason he gave me, so I asked him to talk to the secretary at the appeals court to see if he could get any information. He has never actually spoken with anyone at the appeals court yet because he didn't have the phone number. After talking with the lady, he got the number there and said he would call her back tomorrow with our case number to see if she could find out anything else. We just think that it is kind of weird that nobody has any documentation anywhere that an application for an appeal was ever made. Tomorrow, Tammy and I are going to go back to the court to see if we can get the case number ourselves and copies of documents from our case. Then we'll go back to the appeals court again with the additional information to see what we can find out. There is only one appeals court for all of Crimea, so it is possible that they are just backed up and the application for ours hasn't been processed yet, but something still seems fishy. Hopefully we can get some answers tomorrow.

No decision yet

We're still waiting to get a decision from the appeal's court whether or not the prosecutor's application will be thrown out.  First they said we'd know Tuesday, then Thursday, then today, and now they're saying maybe Monday.  We don't know what the problem is or why it's taking so long.  Hopefully we'll be able to get our final paperwork from the court on Monday so we can go get Vacya from camp.  We're going to visit him again tomorrow, but it will be hard to tell him that we still can't take him with us.

We've been in Ukraine now for 14 weeks, not counting the 3 weeks that we were home at the end of May/ beginning of June.  We can't afford for Joe to miss any more work, so he's probably going home next Sunday, August 3rd.  Luckily I have a school schedule and still have a few more weeks left before the new school year starts.  We're hoping that we can get everything done here in Simferopol during the next week so we can all go up to Kiev together before Joe has to fly out.  Then hopefully Vacya and I will be able to follow just a few days later.  Please keep praying for things to move along quickly.  We're really ready to be home!

More delays

Apparently during the 10 day waiting period people can pick up an application to appeal, but the application does not have to be filed for 20 days. As far as we know, the prosecutor did actually already file the application for the appeal. However, in order to appeal, the person has to have been a participant in the original court hearing. The judge never recognized the prosecutor as a participant in our hearing, so her application for the appeal should just be thrown out. Today our judge talked with the appeals court judge and he thinks that it should be thrown out by Thursday and we can move forward. We've been told a lot of things in the last 3 months though that haven't exactly worked out how we thought they would, so we'll just have to keep praying and hoping for the best.

On another note, my stomach has been bothering me almost constantly lately. I can't eat much of anything without being in pain. Since we were only home for 3 weeks back in May/June, and didn't know when we'd have to return to Ukraine, I couldn't have my gall bladder surgery. We also just found out that my brother most likely has Celiac's disease, which is hereditary, so I could have that too, but can't be tested until I get back home. If I do have Celiac's I will have to go on a gluten-free diet, but it's kind of hard to check ingredients when the labels here are all in Russian or Ukrainian. So, I may just be eating fresh fruits and vegetables until I can get home and figure out what's wrong.

Appeal

The prosecutor appealed the judge's approval of our case.  Tomorrow the appeals court is going to decide if there are grounds for the appeal or not.  If not, they will just throw out the appeal, we can still get our paperwork from the court tomorrow, and the waiting period will not be extended.  That's what we're praying for.  I don't want to have to tell Vacya that he can't come with us yet after all.  The poor kid has been though so much already.    

Camp

We went out to the camp to visit Vacya this morning.  He was really excited to see us and asked if he was going to leave with us today.  A few older girls that Tammy was talking to said that some of the boys beat Vacya up all the time because he is being adopted.  He didn't look too bad, but there were some older, yellow bruises on his face.  We told him only a few more days before we can take him with us.  We haven't heard anything about the prosecutor appealing, but Andrei isn't going to call the court until Monday when our 10 days are up.  I don't know if anybody from the appeals court would notify us if there was an appeal or not.  

Possible timeline

After then 10 day waiting period (assuming the prosecutor does not appeal) the adoption will be finalized and Andrei will be able to pick up the paperwork from the court on July 21 or 22. Then we have to go to Vacya's hometown to get his birth certificate changed. Hopefully we can do that on the 22nd, but in Ukraine there are only a few people that do any particular job and they only work certain days, so we'll have to see if the person that does birth certificates in Kerch is working that day. Once we get the new birth certificate, we can apply for Vacya's passport. We can pay extra to have it expedited and get it in 3 days. We're not sure yet if we will stay in Simferopol while we wait for the passport or go up to Kiev. Once we have the passport, Vacya will have a medical exam in Kiev and we will apply for his US Visa at the US Embassy. That should only take a couple of days, so we're hoping to be home by the end of July.

YES!

We have our court approval!!!! Now we just have to wait the 10 days until the adoption is finalized. We were not able to get permission to have Vacya stay with us during the 10 day waiting period, so we took him back out to the camp this evening. He was very happy when we told him that the judge said yes and asked us about it several times just to make sure. He was bummed when we told him that we had to take him back to the camp, but we explained that he would be with us after the 10 days and we will come to visit him in the meantime. There is still a chance that the prosecutor could appeal the judge's decision, but she has no grounds, so it would just be overturned. The only problem is that it could extend the waiting period beyond the 10 days if she does appeal. Please pray that the prosecutor will just let it be so that we can get this process finished as soon as possible.

If there is no picture showing up, click on the little square in the upper left corner to see it :)

Appointment

Sasha has our signed approval from the SDA and we have a court hearing scheduled for 10:00am on Friday. The orphanage director is supposed to be returning from Greece today, so Andrei is going to call him tomorrow to see if we can get permission to pick Vacya up from the camp tomorrow afternoon and have him stay with us overnight. Then if all goes well at the court hearing, hopefully we won't have to take Vacya back out to the camp.

Maybe Friday

When I talked to Andrei this morning, our approval was done and just needed to be signed by the SDA director.  I haven't heard if Sasha was able to pick it up or not.  We should have our court hearing on Friday, but don't have a time assigned yet.  Andrei has to call the judge on Thursday to get an appointment time.  Hopefully it will really  happen.  It's hard not to be skeptical at this point.

New SDA Approval

We're still waiting on the new approval from SDA, which Sasha said we may get tomorrow, but we don't really know. We can't get another court date until we get the new approval, so we're still just waiting...

Happy 4th of July

We went out to the camp to visit Vacya today.  There was a really nice lady who works there that was telling us how much she loves Vacya.  She said he's very kind and likes to help with things around the camp.  It was so nice to have a caregiver be positive and tell us good things about him after all of the negative things we've heard at the orphanage.  Vacya seemed to be in good spirits. We told him that the court hearing had to be changed again and will hopefully happen next week. 

After spending some time at the camp, we drove the rest of the way to Sudak to spend a few hours at the beach.  Tonight we're going to another missionary couple's home to celebrate the 4th.  I think we're even going to have fireworks :)

Happy Birthday to Alec, Micah, and Malachi.  We're bummed that we couldn't be there for your parties.

Shelby, yesterday Uriye told Tammy that they found Sasha (girl) at a village near the orphanage and she will be coming back in time for school to start!

Beki, if you see Diane at work, can you ask her how Rajah is doing?  I always worry about his breathing in the summer when it gets hot and humid.  Thanks.

For other families adopting in Ukraine

Our facilitator just told us about a great deal for traveling within Ukraine. A Hungarian airline is starting to have flights in Ukraine and will be having great promotional rates this summer. Starting July 11, it is less than $20 to fly between Kiev and either Simferopol, Lviv, or Odessa. I think those are the only cities that they are flying to at this time. Check out wizzair.com if this will help with your traveling plans. The rates will gradually increase, but right now it's cheaper than a train.

Another delay

We will not be having our court hearing tomorrow after all. Andrei arrived in Simferopol this morning and found out that we need to have a new approval from the SDA that is just for me, not both of us. I had to sign a new application to the SDA today and have it notarized. Andrei is sending it by train up to Kiev tonight and Sasha should get it tomorrow morning. Then he will take it to the SDA to get the new approval and send that back down here. If all goes well and Sasha is able to get the new approval right away, we should be able to have another court hearing either Friday or Monday. It is frustrating because I asked about that before we left last time we were here and was told that everything was fine. At least we found out now though, and not at the actual hearing. From what the judge has told Andrei, there should be no reason for the prosecutor not to agree with my application to adopt. The judge went to the appeal court to ask about it and was told that if the prosecutor does object again, they can over-ride it because the paperwork is all in order (once we have the new approval from the SDA) and there is no legal reason that we cannot adopt Vacya. So even though we have yet another delay, we can go into the next hearing with a little more confidence in the outcome.

Tammy was out at the camp today and said that Vacya has been beaten-up again. He had some scratches across one of his cheeks. Please pray for his continued safety and for this whole process to be finalized soon so that we can all come home.

Early morning

It looks like we're going to have a really early morning tomorrow. So far we haven't been able to get permission to have Vacya overnight tonight. The orphanage director has to give permission, but he's on vacation in Greece right now. The lawyer from the orphanage who has been coming to our court hearings is trying to find out if there is someone else that can give us permission since the director is not available. However, there isn't anyone at the orphanage right now because the kids are at camp. We'll probably have to leave Simferopol at 6am tomorrow morning to have enough time to get Vacya and get back in time for our 9:00 hearing. If anyone's awake at 2am (eastern time) tomorrow morning, we'd really appreciate your prayers. We have no idea at this point what's going to happen at this next hearing, but are still trying to be hopeful.

Camp visit

Joe, Tammy, and I went out to the camp to visit Vacya this afternoon.  He seemed to be doing ok.  He had a few more bumps and bruises, but they were probably self-inflicted... he is ALL boy.  He has been moved to a different building at the camp, away from the boys from another orphanage that were picking on him.  He said that nobody has been hurting him anymore.  We are going out again next Wednesday with a group of American teenagers and their youth minister.  They are going to do some activities with the kids at the camp.  Hopefully we'll be able to bring Vacya back to town with us that day for the court hearing the next morning.

New Pic

This picture is from our previous court date.  Vacya looked so nice in his new shirt from Uncle Josh and Aunt Kaley.  He seems to have gotten taller since we were here before and the pants we brought for him were a little too short, but still big around the waist.  At least it's summer so he can just wear shorts for now :)

Anniversary

Joe and I went down to Yalta yesterday to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary.  We had a relaxing time walking along the boardwalk and getting some sun by the pool at our hotel.  We heard from Andrei yesterday that our new court date is scheduled for July 3rd at 9:00am.  We're hoping to get back out to the camp tomorrow to see Vacya and let him know we have a new date.  The camp is about a 70 minute drive from Simferopol and it costs about $80 to take a taxi, so we can't afford to go out there very often.  Unfortunately there are no bus stops near the camp, so we can't take a bus, which would be much cheaper.  We found out that the kids will be at the camp until late August, so we won't have the option of visiting him more often at the orphanage.  We are trying to get permission to pick Vacya up from the camp the day before our new hearing since our appointment is so early in the morning.  It will be hard to get out to the camp and back to Simferopol in time.

No date

We didn't get our new date today, which wasn't too much of a surprise at this point.  The judge wants to talk to the prosecutor again first.  He is supposed to do that tomorrow morning, so maybe we'll hear something sometime tomorrow.  

We haven't been out to the camp to see Vacya since we took him back on Friday.  If we don't get a court date sometime this week, we will try to get out there to see him again.  This is their third week at camp, so they may be returning to the orphanage soon, but we don't know.  They are doing some remodeling there, so they might have the kids gone longer than they usually do.

Arg!

Joe and I left at about 7am this morning to take a taxi to the camp where Vacya has been staying for the last few weeks. It's about an hour drive from Simferopol. We had to go pick him up and bring him back into town for the court hearing. Unfortunately, the hearing never really happened. We were all there at the court building waiting for about an hour after our appointment time. Apparently the prosecutor (the same one from last time) said that her boss wanted her to look through all of the documents in our dossier, including the 2 new documents (updated home study and proof that we own our home). She didn't get there until 30 minutes after our scheduled appointment and the judge didn't have time to wait for her to look through the documents, so he said that we would need to reschedule. We don't know when the next appointment will be, hopefully next week. Andrei said that our documents are all correct and there should not be any problems with them. Everyone, including the judge, was surprised by what happened today.

We don't have to have Vacya back at the camp until 8:00 tonight, so he's spending the afternoon with us. We took him to McDonald's for a Happy Meal and hot fudge sundae after we left the court. Then he came back to the church with us where we've been staying. We were going to ask the orphanage director for permission to keep him with us during the 10-day waiting period, but since we still have not been approved by the court yet, he won't be able to stay with us. We're really worried about sending him back to the camp. There are some kids from another orphanage there that have been beating some of other kids. Someone, we're not sure if he is from Vacya's orphanage or the other one, burned him on the back of his neck with a cigarette lighter. He also has a bruise at the top of his nose from where somebody punched him. We're concerned about his safety there because there is very little supervision. We think some of the kids will be even worse with him now that everybody knows he left with us because he is going to be adopted. Please pray for his safety while he's back there. We told the representative from the orphanage what had happened and showed her the burn on Vacya's neck when we saw her at court today. She was going to let the director know about it, but I don't know if anything will be done.

Back in Simferopol

We had good flights over with no delays, but had to wait about an hour to get through passport control once we got into Kiev just before 11am. We expected to have a long day waiting for our train ride to Simferopol. In the past, I've only taken the train that leaves later in the evening. When our facilitator Sasha picked us up, he told us that our train would be leaving at 4pm. Then he checked the tickets again and the train was leaving at 12:52, which gave us only about 30 minutes to get to the train station and get our luggage onto the train. Luckily it was a holiday, so there was little traffic. Sasha got us to the train station with about 10 minutes to spare. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to buy any food for the 15 hour train ride. I did manage to pick up a few bottles of water, though. The train was very nice, the best I've been on here, and it even had air conditioning. It was actually really good to get on the train so quickly because we were able to lay down and get some sleep. We got into Simferopol just after 4am. Matt Grinn picked us up and drove us to the church, where we'll be staying with Vadim and Lena for awhile while Tammy's sister and nephew are visiting her and Matt. Tammy was planning on taking her family out to the camp where Vacya is staying on Wednesday to meet the kids, so we'll be going out there with them. We can't wait to let him know we're back and will hopefully be bringing him home very soon.

New Court Date

Yeah!!! We finally got our new court date. It's next Friday, June 20th. Our flight back to Ukraine was scheduled for June 14, so we're just going to keep that ticket and fly back this Saturday. We will fly into Kiev on Sunday, then take the train down to Simferepol and arrive there Monday. That will give us a few days to go visit Vacya and recover from jet-lag before our appointment. We're super excited.

Still waiting

I talked to Andrei again today and he said that we should be able to find out our new court date tomorrow. Of course, this will be about the fifth time that we should be able to find out, so we probably shouldn't hold our breath. We did get some good news though. The judge talked to the prosecutor today after she looked through our documents and she does not seem to have any problems with our new application. Hopefully this time through will go much more smoothly.

Home

We've been home for about a week and a half now. It's been nice to get back into a regular routine after being out of the country for 8 weeks. We're still waiting to find out when our next court date will be. Andrei is trying to get it scheduled for sometime in the last 2 weeks of June. Hopefully we will get a date tomorrow so that we can make plans for going back.

Tammy saw Vacya this past weekend and it sounds like he's doing pretty well. He asked where Joe and I were and said that he missed us. Tammy reminded him that we went back to America to work, but reassured him that we will be coming back to get him and bring him home.

Here are a few pictures...

Vacya and Byelka (one of 3 dogs at the orphanage)

Vacya with Jack and Linda, the other 2 dogs. It's a good thing he likes animals since we have a zoo at our house :)

Water-balloon fight (that's Vacya in the pink pants)

Coming home

We bought our plane tickets and will be home Saturday night. We are both really looking forward to being home, although we feel bad that we have to leave Vacya behind for now. We explained to him that we need to go home to work, but we will be back in a few weeks to finish the adoption. Then he will be coming home with us. He seems to be taking it all ok. He will be finished with school on May 31, then his class will go to a camp on June 6 where they will stay for a few weeks. Hopefully the fun activities they have for the kids to do there will help keep him from getting too discouraged while we're gone.

Praise God!!!!

We got some very good news today.  After talking to the lawyer and the judge, Andrei found out that it is possible for Joe to give me power of attorney so that I can apply to adopt Vacya under just my name because the age difference is not a problem with me.  I guess we're setting a precedent in Ukrainian adoption law and the lawyers, court officials, and prosecutors around Simferopol and even some in Kiev have heard about our case.  The judge told Andrei that he had wanted to approve our adoption, but could not because the prosecutor objected and the law actually does state that there can be no less than 15 years age difference between the adoptive parents.

We are planning on coming home this weekend so that we can work for a few weeks before we have the next court hearing.  We don't know yet when it will be, but it should be at least a few weeks before it will happen.

Appeal

Andrei met with a lawyer today who is preparing the application for our appeal, which will be submitted tomorrow.  He as also been talking with the inspector in charge of all adoptions in this area (who had approved our adoption).  The inspector is meeting with the judge tomorrow to see if we can get anywhere that way.  From what I understand of the situation, it might be possible to change our paperwork without actually having another hearing, but the judge would have to agree to change the decision.  Our facilitators are not sure right now what the best option will be, so they are talking with everyone they can to see what should be done.  Joe and I have decided that if we do need to have another hearing, and it won't be scheduled for a few weeks, we are going to come home for a few weeks to work (and keep our sanity).  Hopefully we will find out tomorrow or Thursday whether or not there will be another hearing, and how long it will be before a hearing could take place.

When we went to see Vacya today, I could tell right away that someone had told him something.  His usual bright smile was not there.  Tammy came with us so that we could talk with him.  We asked him what he had heard already, and he said that they told him the judge said no, we can't adopt him.  Apparently the caregivers and kids in his class all know about it. We explained that this is not finished yet and we are working with a lot of people to still be able to adopt him.  He seemed to feel a little better after we talked to him, but I think that now he's finding it hard to believe that this will really happen for him.  He made several comments about the medal that the judge wore around his neck during the hearing, like he was thinking, "that guy is the one who has the power and he said no, so that's it."  We told him that a lot of people are praying about this and God knows what is going on and He can make this happen.  

Vacya

Vacya was at the hearing today, but he left with the orphanage representative before they gave the decision, so he does not know yet.  Tomorrow when we go to visit, we will just tell him that it is taking longer than we thought and we will have to go to another court hearing.  We don't want to tell him that they said no and have him worry about it.  Sasha and Andrei have already contacted several lawyers and prosecutors that they know and are doing everything they can to help resolve the situation.  Sasha said that we have 10 days to appeal the decision and that we should be able to have another court hearing within 20 days.  I'll post more info when I get it.

Joe and I are hanging in there.  He was pretty angry and I'm just shocked.  Joe went to play basketball with Matt this evening to let off some steam and I'm spending some much-needed alone time.  We both believe that God wants Vacya to be a part of our family and He is in control of all of it, so we're just trying to trust that everything will work out in the end.

During the very stressful 4 hours that we were at the court today, I kept reciting my favorite Bible verse to myself, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6,7

Keep praying and petitioning!  We know that God hears even if we don't understand why He's allowing these things to happen.  And we can definitely use some peace right now :)

We love you all.  Thanks for your love and support.

Court Hearing

Well, today's court hearing didn't go so well.  There is a law that the minimum age difference between an adoptive parent and child is 15 years.  Joe is 14 1/2 years older than Vacya.  We were told that that would not be a problem, so we haven't worried about it.  Today the prosecutor at the court hearing protested our application to adopt Vacya because of the age difference between him and Joe, and the judge denied our application.  We can still appeal the decision and request a different judge and prosecutor, but we don't know how long that process will take.  Andrei is contacting a lawyer here in Simferopol and Sasha is contacting the lawyer at the State Dept. of Adoption in Kiev.  The SDA has already approved us, knowing of the age difference, so the facilitators were shocked about what happened today.  They have never heard of a prosecutor protesting in this way before.  Hopefully we will know more tomorrow about what we need to do and how long it may take.  Thanks for your continued prayers.

Clinic

Vacya has been staying in the clinic on the orphanage grounds for the last few days because of his ear.  I'm still not sure if he really has an ear infection or not, but I think they've been putting iodine in his ear.  They use iodine for everything here.  I have children's tylenol and cold medicine here with me, but they wouldn't give him any of it.  They have their own regimen they said.  I'm worried that with him being in the clinic around other sick kids that he's going to catch something else and really be sick.  He's still been acting like he feels fine, though.  We'll see when we go out later today if he's back in with his class or still in the clinic.  I really don't want him to be sick on Monday when we have our court date.  I don't think that they would be able to say that he can't go to court because of an ear infection, but over here you never know. 

Vacya will have to have a medical exam when we go to Kiev before we can get his visa to the US. It is a medical clinic that is approved by the US Embassy here, so it should be fine.  We will still have him seen by a doctor once we get to the States also.  My mom has heard of a doctor down at Michigan State who is from Russia and accepts new patients that have been adopted from Russian speaking countries, so we will probably try to take  him there at first so that Vacya can understand him.

Last night I went to a sleepover/ ladies' night with Tammy that was for the group of missionary women here.  We had a good time eating and talking (in English!!!).  Many of them I had either met before through Shelby or at least heard about from when Shelby lived here.  One of them is from Charlotte, MI and I actually went to church camp with her sister when we were younger.

Our court appointment is at 2:00 on Monday, which is 7:00am at home.  We would appreciate your prayers for everything to go smoothly.

Ear ache

We think that Vacya might have an ear infection or something.  He's had cotton in one of his ears the last 2 days and today he was wearing a winter hat too.  He also sounds a little congested.  We haven't had anyone there to translate for us, though, so we can't ask what's wrong.  He isn't acting like he's feeling sick, though.  

Joe has been going out with Matt to work on their new house.  Today they were working on getting the roof on over the garage.  I'm hoping he doesn't end up falling off or something.  That's all we need, for him to break something.  Hospitals over here are scary.

Tammy knows a lady that does facials and face/neck massages, so I'm going to get one tomorrow. It's only 60 grevan, which is about 12 bucks.  Pretty good for an hour of pampering.  I'm looking forward to it.

Good Grief!

I got to talk to my brother yesterday.  He always makes me smile :)  He asked if we'd be home in 2 weeks (in time for the State summer games for Special Olympics where he'll be playing team handball).  I told him that, no, it is talking longer than we thought and now we probably won't be home until sometime in June.  He responded, "Oh, good grief!"  I agree!!!  At the end of our conversation he said, "Ok,  see you in  June... or maybe May 30."  He's too cute.

We talked to Andrei and he told us  that we do still have our May 19th court date, he's just been trying to get the judge to see us earlier.  So that should be the latest it will be if the judge can't fit us in sometime during this next week.  Even if we do get to have Vacya with us, we will still probably have to wait the 10 days before everything is official and we can go to get his new birth certificate.  We are still going to ask to have the waiting period waived, though.

The last 2 days at the orphanage have been better with the caregivers.  They haven't been particularly friendly, but at least we haven't been yelled at in Russian again.   Vacya's been doing fine.  He has an unbelievable resiliency and just seems to bounce back from whatever is thrown at him.  He always has that big smile on his face :)

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers.  Today is exactly six weeks from when we left the states and our original plane tickets had a return date for today.  We had really hoped we'd be home today, in time for Mother's Day tomorrow.  We want to wish our moms and grandmas a Happy Mother's Day now in case we aren't able to get through to you tomorrow.

Meeting with Director

Yesterday Vadim, Tammy, and Matt came to the orphanage with Joe and I to talk to the director about what's been going on with the caregivers. He told us that only he or his assistant would be able to go to the court when we have our appointment, so the caregivers will not be able to go and cause any trouble there for us. He also said that he would talk to the caregiver that was threatening to go to the court and fight against us adopting Vacya. He was not happy about the situation. We also asked if we could get permission to have Vacya with us during the 10-day waiting period after our court appointment and he said that we could. We still hoping that we can get the 10-day waiting period waived, but at least we should be able to have Vacya with us during that time if it isn't waived.

We still don't know anything more about the court date. It won't be this week, because tomorrow is a holiday here.

Nina was being difficult again today when we went to visit Vacya. She was telling us, in front of the whole class, that Vacya gets up at night and hits the other kids and bites them. She kept going on and on about it. There isn't any supervision for the kids at night, so he may or may not actually be doing anything. The other kids might be telling the caregivers that he's doing those things just to get him in trouble. We just can't wait to get him out of there!

Court Date

Well, we were supposed to be having our court hearing today, but some criminal case was scheduled for this morning, so the judge could not see us.  We just found this out yesterday when we called Andrei.  I guess he's known since April 26 that it was possible that we might not actually be able to go to court today, but for some reason he didn't tell us about it.  He said that we should still be able to have it sometime this week, but we don't even know that for sure.  

We also were not able to see Vacya yesterday or today.  His caregivers are saying that he climbed up on the roof or something, which I'm not really sure is even true, so they won't let us see him.  They said he is out of control and needs to calm down.  We called Andrei to see if he could talk to somebody to get things worked out so that we could still see Vacya, but he wasn't able to do anything to help.  He doesn't have authority over the caregivers and has not been able to talk to the director to let him know what's going on.  

Shelby suggested that we request to have the 10 day waiting period waived since the laws changed while we were here and we weren't planning on being in Ukraine this long.  Sometimes they will waive the 10 day waiting period after the court date for medical reasons, but we're not sure if they will in our case.  It can't hurt to try though.

The Circus and Moving Day

Tomorrow Joe, Tammy, and I are taking Vacya's class to the circus. It's right down-town, not far from the apartment where we have been staying. After the circus we might take the kids out for ice cream or to the children's park as well, if the weather is nice. It should be a fun day.

Tomorrow is also moving day for us. We have been staying in the apartment where Shelby, Matt & kids stayed. They had paid rent through tomorrow, so we have been able to stay here rent-free and will just need to cover utilities for the time that we were here. Tomorrow we're moving to Matt & Tammy's house, where we will also be able to stay for free for another 2 weeks. Then, once we get Vacya, we'll be staying at the apartment that we were in originally the first week we were here in Simferopol. It's been a huge blessing to have our accommodations covered for the majority of our stay here, especially since we ended up being here longer than we thought we would be.

I'm not sure if we will have internet access at Matt & Tammy's house, so I may not be able to update the blog as often after today. If we can't get on there, we'll try to get somewhere with wifi at least a few times a week to let everyone know how things are going.

2nd Easter

We celebrated Easter for the second time this year yesterday. The kids from the orphanage came to church and we had them color Easter eggs and do an Easter egg hunt. They had a great time and kept hiding the eggs for each other. One of the boys was digging in some piles of dirt and burying the eggs... I'm not sure they were ever found. Micah, maybe your buddy Sally will find them in her yard sometime :) There was a picnic after church, so I took some good-ol' American macaroni and cheese. It didn't taste quite right, though, because the milk and cheese here taste kind of funny.

It was good to talk with lots of family yesterday. Joe's family was together celebrating his Grandpa Bob's birthday and my family was together celebrating my cousin Korbin's birthday so we ended up being able to talk to quite a few people between the two phone calls from home. Jason, we're hoping we make it home in time for your special olympics tournament at the end of May. And don't worry... we will be back in time for your birthday party, at least we better be considering it will be in February :)

Grandma Beki, yes, once Vacya is with us, he is with us for good. We don't plan on taking him back to the orphanage at all after that. We plan on having a going-away party for him on the day we go to bring him with us so the kids can all say their good-byes.

Several people have asked us how we spend our days here. We usually get up around 10:00am or so. It's rough, I know, but we are willing to make the sacrifice. Sometimes we hang out around the house reading or watching movies or we go for a walk to the central market (a huge flea-market where you can find just about anything from food, to clothing, to hair styling stuff, to power tools) It's pretty much got it all... exept for maybe peanut butter, which you pretty much can't get in this country. Good thing I packed a large jar of Jif. We also visit some of the shops on the walking street, including one of Shelby's favorite places, the coffee house. We generally go out to the orphanage around 4:00 in the afternoon, which means we leave our place around 3:00 because it takes an hour to get there by bus. Sometimes on the way home we stop at the grocery store to pick up some food, or go to a restaurant if we don't want to cook anything. It's really not to bad here, except I miss my dogs and horses a ton. I wish I could have at least smuggled our miniature dashchund Brom with us. There are lots of stay dogs all over the place here, so maybe I'll just adopt one of those too to help keep from getting too homesick :)

Birthday Party

Yesterday Joe, Tammy, Lena, and I threw a birthday party for one of the girls in Vacya's class. We took chips, cookies, pop, and other treats for the kids, as well as gifts for the birthday girl and the rest of the class. They had a great time and so did we. We are planning to have the class come to church this Sunday, which is when Easter will be celebrated here. The church is having a picnic after the service Sunday morning and we may try to have an Easter egg hunt for the kids too. Tammy is also trying to plan a trip to Sevestopol to an aquarium there. The kids will be on break from school all of next week, so it will be a good time to take them.

We have still been visiting Vacya daily and spending some time alone with him most days. It is hard, though, when we take him outside and many of the orphans want to join us. We are trying to balance giving the other kids the love and attention they are desperately wanting and building our relationship with Vacya while we wait to take him home.

Joe went out to the orphange by himself today because I wasn't feeling well. For those of you that don't know, I found out a few days before we left the US that I need to have my gall bladder removed. We obviously didn't have time for me to have surgery before we left, so I have to wait until we get back. I just try to be careful about what I eat, but it's hard because so much of the food here is greasy. I often just order rice at restaurants, but even that is cooked in oil. Luckily I brought a lot of oatmeal with me :) I haven't had too much trouble with my stomach so far, but today it was hurting, so I decided to stay home. The bumpy bus rides are enough to make you sick even when you're feeling good :)

Tomorrow we're going out to the orphanage earlier in the day so we can spend then evening with Vadim and Lena, a young couple from the church here. They spent some time in the US at school and speak English very well. We are going to try to teach them to play euchre, which Vadim has been wanting to learn how to play for a long time since he heard about the card game when he was in the states. Vadim's band is playing outside in town on Saturday at an event that was organized by another church here, so we're looking forward to going to that also.

Vacya's class and the caregivers

Some people have been asking about Vacya's orphanage and the kids in his class. I can give you some information, but can't be too specific as far as giving names of the children or the orphanage over the internet. There are somewhere close to 200 children in his orphanage between the ages of about 5 and 16 or 17. It is actually referred to as an internat, or school, rather than an orphanage. Younger children live in separate orphanages that are not schools. Once the kids are about 16 or 17, or when they finish "9th class", they must leave the orphanage. Vacya is in the 3rd class with 8 other kids. These kids live together in the same room and go to school together in the same class. I was going to put a picture of his class on here, but I just realized that I don't have a place to put the SD card to upload the picture now that Matt & Shelby's computer is not here. Bummer... we might not be able to post anymore pictures. Maybe at an internet cafe?.... we'll try to figure something out.

Anyway, moving on to the caregivers... there are 2 women that are referred to as caregivers that stay with the kids during the day and move on with the class as they progress through the levels, so the same caregivers would be with any given group of kids from 1st class all the way through 9th class. They also have a teacher who works with them each weekday morning for school. Vacya's caregivers gave Matt & Shelby (well, mostly Shelby) a really hard time when they were adopting their 2 boys, so we weren't sure what to expect when we started going out there everyday. We didn't have any issues the whole time Matt & Shelby were still here, but the last couple of days, since Matt & Shelby have left to go back to the States, the caregivers have been a little more difficult. If we need to, we can have our facilitator talk to the caregivers or to the orphanage director to make sure we are allowed to see Vacya everyday like we are supposed to be able to. Hopefully we won't have any major issues though.