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.

Pin Map

Grandma Beki would like to start a pin map for Vacya so he can see where the love and prayers for him are coming from. If you would like to participate, please contact Beki with your name, city, and state so that she can pin it. You can email her at wagerfamily@yahoo.com

Court Date

We have our court date! It was changed to May 6th. Not as early as we'd hoped, but much better than May19th. The judge didn't have time to fit us in next week, and the week after that is a holiday so nobody will be working. Hopefully we'll still make it home by the end of May. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Please Pray!

We just found out that, with the laws that have changed in the last week or two since we've been here, our court date is not scheduled until May 19. Andrei is coming back down here tomorrow to talk to the judge and see if we can get the court date for this Friday. Please pray that he is able to make arrangements for our court date to be earlier than mid-May.

Still just waiting

Joe is feeling better today. He went with Matt to get the kids out of the apartment for awhile so that Shelby can pack. They leave tomorrow evening on the train up to Kiev, then fly back to the States on Friday morning. We will be staying in the same apartment until May 3, then moving to the one we stayed at with my parents when we first got here. Andrei thinks we'll have our court date on Thursday or Friday. Then 10 days after that should put us at April 27 or 28 to get Vacya. Once we get him, we have to go to his hometown, which is at the very western-most point of the Crimean Penninsula, almost to Russia. We have to go there to get his birth certificate changed. Once we get his new birth certificate, we can apply for his passport. Andrei said that it should only take 5 to 7 days to get the passport, but it took a month for Matt & Shelby's boys', so you never really know how long to expect. If we are able to get it within a week, then we should be able to head back up to Kiev around May 8th. In Kiev, Vacya will have a medical exam and we will apply for his visa to bring him back to the US. Once we get that, we can come home. We should only be in Kiev for a few days before we fly home.

AWW, so cute

Keegan & Korah

Easter crafts

We weren't able to get ahold of the orphanage director to get permission for Vacya to leave the orphanage with us, so he didn't do the Easter Egg hunt. We did go out to the orphanage today, though, with Shelby and her family, and Lena (from the church here) to do some Easter crafts. Shelby also brought a video about Jesus' crucifixion and ressurection for the kids to watch. They all had a fun time. Unfortunately, Joe was not able to go out today. He has been having muscle spasms in his back for the past few days and has been in a lot of pain.

More of the same

We don't know anything new yet and have still been visiting Vacya everyday for an hour or so. Andrei thinks that our court date might be scheduled for next Thursday, but we don't know for sure. We are trying to get permission to take Vacya out of the orphanage for the day tomorrow, but don't know about that yet either. Shelby's family and another family here are going to have an Easter Egg hunt. The Russian calendar is different from our calendar for holidays, so they will be celebrating Easter in a few weeks.

Here are a few more pics from our visit today...

Vacya's finger

Yes, Grandma Beki, Vacya did have a hurt finger. We never did get the whole story of what happened, but apparently he did it when he was playing outside. Nina, the more strict caregiver (I'm trying to be kind), said that Vacya didn't have enough meat to eat at his meal so he tried to eat his finger. This of course is not true, but it is not surprising that Nina would tell us that. He didn't have the bandage on it today and it just looked a little swollen and bruised.

Today we took the whole class on a walk to a nearby store for ice cream. They had a good time. It's really breaking our hearts to only be able to take one child home while the rest will be left behind. Anybody interested in adding to their families? I know a few really great kids :) jk... kind of.

Lost in Simferopol

Yesterday was the first time Joe and I ventured out on our own to the orphanage. We decided to take the bus because it's much cheaper than a taxi. The only problem is, you have to know where to get off in a city where everything looks about the same. We got out to the orphanage just fine, but on the way home, we missed our stop. We knew where we were when we did get off, but to cross the some of the streets you have to go underground and sometimes get a little disoriented when you come back up to the street. Joe decided we should just start walking in the general direction he thought we should be heading. Eventually, I called Shelby but I couldn't tell her where we were because I had no idea and couldn't read the street signs. I ended up giving my phone to some guy on the sidewalk so that Shelby could talk to him and have him tell us which way to go. It turned out that we were only a block away from where we were trying to go.

It went pretty well at the orphanage even though we didn't have anyone to interpret for us. We took Vacya upstairs to his classroom so that we could spend some time alone with him. We brought Memory to play and Vacya already knew how to play it, so we didn't have to try to explain the directions. He's really good at that game. He was telling us where to find some of the matching pictures.

When we were eating dinner at a restaurant near our apartment, we ran into a group of Americans doing a mission trip here. They had actually been at our orphanage that day and will be going out there all week. They are helping with some painting/ fixing up rooms in the morning, then play with the kids and do lessons with them in the afternoon.

Today Shelby came out to the orphanage again so we were able to talk with Vacya a little more. I guess the other kids in his class have been saying mean things to him like he isn't really going to be adopted, he'll never be able to talk to us because he doesn't speak English, and he's going to be thrown in a dumpster when he gets to America. Shelby was able to reassure him that we really are going to adopt him and he will be with us forever when we go to America.

We also asked him if he remembered anything from before he came to the orphanage. He said that he remembers his mom and that his life was good, but he didn't really talk a lot about it. We told him that it's ok if he misses his mom and that is normal and he can talk to us about it if he wants to. He was at a halfway house right after his mom died when he was 6, then went to an orphanage for younger children before he came to the one he's at now. We should be able to find out some more about his background once everything is finalized and we get translated copies of all of the documents.

Yalta

Yesterday we went down to Yalta, a "resort" city on the black sea. We went to Livadia, the summer palace of the last few Czars of Russia and the place where the Yalta conferece was held with President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Stalin at the end of World War II. Joe was of course interested in all of the history. I thought it was cool to walk around the place where Anastasia played as a child.

Bowling

We spent the day with all 9 kids from Vacya's class, their caregiver Yuria, Shelby and her family, my parents, and another American couple who live here (Matt & Tammy). It was Yuria's birthday, so Tammy arranged a fun-filled day to celebrate. The kids from the orphanage got to come into town for church, then we went out to eat at a nice restaurant. After lunch we went to the bowling alley, a first for all of the orphans. Vacya had a great time and was just hilarious to watch. You never have to wonder how he's feeling... he's very animated.

Yeah!!! I did it!!!!

Ohh! Gutter-ball!

Latest News

The evening after our appointment at the SDA, we took the train down to the southern part of Ukraine where we will be for most of the time we are here. We left Kiev at about 8:20 pm on Tuesday and got to Simferopol around 11:00 am on Wednesday. I definitely prefer the 90 minute plane ride to the 15 hour train ride, but the train is a lot cheaper. After arriving in Simferopol, we went to the apartment where Joe and I will be staying with my parents until Monday. It's very close to the apartment where Shelby, Matt, and the kids have been staying for the past few weeks. When my parents leave, we will move over to the apartment with them.

Once we got our stuff into the apartment and cleaned up a bit (you feel pretty grimey after being in that train so long!) we got something to eat and then Joe, Shelby, my parents, and I headed out to the orphanage. Joe was so excited to finally meet Vacya. We didn't tell him anything at that point, though; we just spent time with his whole class.

Today we had our appointment with the regional inspector and the orphanage director. Both meetings were pretty short and went well. When Shelby and Matt had their meeting with the orphanage director, they ended up bringing the boys in at that time to tell them about their adoption, so that is what we kind of expected to happen with Vacya. However, the director didn't have time to do that, so he told us that we could go meet with Vacya and tell him ourselves, which worked out really well. It was naptime when we went to see him, so the caregiver had us go to their classroom and then brought Vacya in to see us. It was really cute... Vacya had a big smile on his face when he came into the room. Shelby asked him if he knew why he was there and he said, "Da." (Yes) Then she asked him why and he said, "Because everybody loves me!" and we said, "Da!" We all sat down and just told him that we wanted to adopt him and be his mom and dad. When the interpretor/ facilitator asked him if he wanted to be adopted he said yes. He just smiled the whole time and looked like he wasn't sure if he was going to laugh or cry. We stayed and talked with him for about an hour. We will be going back tomorrow morning when Vacya will have to meet with the director and write up a statement saying he wants to be adopted by us. Shelby asked him if it would be better if we came to be with him when he did that and he said yes.

At this point we will be able to visit with Vacya at the orphanage everyday until he can come to stay with us. It will take a few days for all of the paperwork to be completed by the orphanage director and regional inspector here in Simferopol. Then our facilitator will take that paperwork back up to Kiev so that we can get permission to adopt from the SDA. Once we have the permission, we will get a court date to finalize the adoption. Then we still have to wait 10 days after the court date before we can have custody of Vacya.

There have still been some problems with one of the caregivers being really mean to Vacya. Please pray that he will be protected both physically and emotionally until he comes to be with us.

I'll try to post some new pictures soon.

SDA Appointment

We had our appointment with the State Dept. Of Adoption today. It went very well and only lasted a few minutes. They asked a few questions about how I met Vacya and showed us his file. They said that we will get our referral for him tomorrow and should be able to have our meeting with the regional director and orphanage director the following day.

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