The rest of the story!

The day before court our visit with Olya was a little different than the rest. She seemed more quiet. Less interested in doing anything and nervous.

We weren't sure if she was getting teased by a couple of the girls or if she was just emotional. It really stinks not being able to understand what is being said right in front of you.

As we were heading to court the next day, our facilitator mentioned that she thought Olya was struggling. Olya had called to see if we would be coming for a visit. We all new Olya was working through her emotions, but it is so nerve wracking waiting to see if she might change her mind. When we arrived to pick her up she had not eaten yet and was very nervous. We were all very nervous and each of us had a hard time eating before court. It is a little scary waiting to get questioned. And for Olya it is a huge day! Saying hello to her future, but goodbye in many ways to her past.

We honestly are very thankful for this time for her. I never want to see my kids hurting or emotionally upset, but it shows us that she is making this decision knowing the consequences. She is facing reality and she knows what she is giving up. It also shows us she has bonded to her friends and care-givers and we know she knows how to love and be loved. In the world of adoption, this is a big thing.

We Praise God our process has gone so quickly. Being in and out of court in 10 days is really quite amazing. I think Olya thought she would have much more time before this day.

Once we got to court and had some time to hang out, she bagan to relax. She was very confident in court and gave me many sweet smiles as the court proceedings continued.

Our facilitator sat with us and we all debreifed after court. Olya seemed very happy and shared she would miss her favorite teacher.

Yesterday was our last day to visit and it was amazing. We had a wonderful time and she tried very hard to connect with us. We played checkers and took silly pictures. We "played" do you like, and just had a wonderful time together.

We are now packing to head back home for a short time of regrouping and reconnecting with our other 4 treasures.

We arrive home Sun. afternoon at 3 and will be heading back to finalize the adoption paperwork April 22.

We are looking at 1-3 weeks of being gone. Things could move very quickly again, but we have a couple of things that could hold us up for a long time. One is the passport. It is possible to get it in one day, but there are no promises. The other is a 5 day weekend. If we hit it just right, we may be hanging out for 5 days waiting for the offices to reopen. We have seen God move in a mighty way and we trust He will do what is best for the family.

We do not really know what Olya needs right now. If she needs more time then we would rather spend another 5 days here touring her country. We desire as healthy a transition as possible. Though we would love to rush back home, we trust God will do what is best. The timing is, as always in His hands.

HERE WE COME IDAHO!

 

 

 

Whirlwind!

Wow! Where to start!

So much has happened in the last few days.

Tuesday

While we waited for our referral from the SDA our driver Eugen took us on a tour of the historical sites in town. He is so knowledgable and gave us a great education about the history here. The buildings are amazing and the weather was pretty good.

Receiving the referral was, well shall we say uneventful, praise the Lord!

About six of us families crowded into a little space which did not smell good. We waited about 10 minutes. Went through a line, showed our passports and walked out with our dossier in hand.

It was so fast and no questions, yippee! (I guess all that worrying paid off. Lol)

We did get to visit with the other families, which again was a huge blessing. I (Stacy) was in great need of some girl conversation. The other moms are so sweet and refreshing, but we were all on our way to new things so our time together was short.

We then got ready for the train ride which I had been totally mistaken about. Thankfully I googled it before we got on. It was actually a 12 1/2 hour ride and yes it was hot and the bathrooms, ugh!

Wednesday

We survived the train and immediately started to work on paperwork. Our facilitator is amazing and very efficient. We ran to multiple buildings and got the paperwork moving then went to the orphanage. When our girl came in we were surprised, we didn't know she was coming so soon. We were very happy to see her, but it was a bit stressful. There was no time to talk to her. We had lots of paperwork to do, but she was so cute! She instantly grabbed a pen and quickly wrote her letter saying she wanted to be adopted by us. They asked if she had questions for us and she said "nyet"! They joked that she already knew everything about us.

We all said goodbye and she was off to lunch.

Honestly I was very disappointed and sad.

We were very tired and emotional and came back to our new flat feeling a bit defeated.

Our girl was great, but the meeting felt very much like a business transaction.

Our apartment building seemed very questionable from the outside. We survived the black-out on the elevator thanks to our driver and made it inside our flat. Wow! The inside has been nicely remodeled and looks very fancy, but we were very shocked by the wall hangings. We won't go into detail but they we're all immediately covered with anything we could find. We asked to change apartments but it seems that isn't a good option.

Thursday

After a wonderful nights sleep we headed off to do more paperwork, then we got to go hang out with our girl for almost three hours!

We had no translator and were in a room full of stuffed animals and board games.

We showed her through the picture book we made for her, gave her cards from the kids and her necklaces the girls made. Then she had us follow her to her locker and she showed us her picture book. She seemed so excited to show us. We asked if we could see her art (via Google translate). She took us on a tour, up the elevator to the different art rooms. I am not biased and not even over exaggerating. She is an amazing artist. It seems the teachers do a great job helping the kids to independently do many different kinds of art.

Here are just a couple of examples of her work.

After the tour we went back to the rooms and pulled out the maps we brought. And told her more about where we live.

Then her and I played a game of dot to dot. A fun and simple game to explain when you do not speak the same language. I was't sure how easy to be on her, but it seems she is one smart cookie. We took turns challenging each other and being too nice to each other. I think next time she will be up for a good mind challenging game.

Then she pulled out the UNO cards and taught us her rules. Just slightly different than we play. She was quick to keep Jeromy on track and ran the whole show. Dealing and keeping track of whose turn it is.

After about three games of that she pulled out a game we have never seen.

She seemed to have a good sense of adding and subtracting big numbers in the money game.

With a phone call from our facilitator, we were off - more paperwork then "home" for lunch.

Prayer request

We have been so blessed that all of the paperwork is coming together.

We have had a couple of major issues, but they got settled very quickly.

We already have a court date scheduled for April 12th, pending the next set of paperwork from the SDA.

If we get the paperwork, it will probably be the evening of April 11th.

Please pray we get it, if not we cannot have court until April 17th at the earliest. They will have a long weekend for their Easter holiday (Eastern Orthodox Calendar).

Thank you all for your encouragement, support and prayers!

 

Sad Goodbyes, Toilet Humor & Other Travel Adventures

Tears of joy and sadness filled our house the night before our departure. It suddenly struck everybody that mom and dad will be gone for a good two to three weeks and so it all surfaced. It, honestly, caught me by surprise and it turned out that our goodbyes were harder than anticipated. In the end, though, the kids were excited, and so with many hugs, kisses and goodbyes, we set off.

 

..and off we went. The travel actually went really smooth! Praise the Lord! In Amsterdam, we kicked the new "morning" (actually the middle of the night for us) with some mighty fine cups of Netherland coffee. Yes, they know how to make the good stuff here. One of my favorite hobbies is pursuing that perfect cup of coffee. So, you have probably figured out now that this is Jeromy writing and not Stacy. Since we are both sitting in a "flat" (apartment) with little responsibility (compared to normal Idaho life) we decided to take turns with the blog updates. Anyway, we embarked on a train ride to Central Amsterdam (the old and now touristy part of Amsterdam). Wow, what a cool place... and the people and culture seemed so friendly and festive. Cool, classic type bikes are everywhere... and people actually ride them everywhere.

 

Uhh.. but yes it is perhaps a little more liberal in some ways as well.

For example, we (or I should say Stacy) almost ran into this before I redirected her in another direction

 

Yes, they have very convenient outdoor port a potties in Amsterdam on the corner of the busiest street. No need to worry about closing and locking bathroom doors. Just walk up and.. well anyway.. ya probably get the picture. Stacy mentioned this Asian couple walked by and as the "husband" explained to her what these contraptions were the lady, in disbelief kept saying, "no..nooo. nooooo!"

Truly, my apologies if this is offensive, but we found this more humorous and shocking than anything.

Well, after our 9 hour layover, we finally boarded our last plane to our "Eastern European country" and we made it right through customs without a hitch. Again, thank you Lord! All we had to do was show our passports. No, digging out documents, no interogation, just a couple of questions and we were on our way. From everything we have heard, this is not the norm. Perhaps the 1am arrival time had something to do with it. Anyway, we are here and resting up. We have a very nice and comfortable "flat" that we are staying in and everyone is most helpful and friendly that we have worked with. Here is a view from our flat.. Straight below our window is a flat roof with bottles all over. Apparently, a favorite pastime is to drink and chuck :)

Yes, it was snowing this morning. Just like Idaho weather around here. Raining last night, snowing this morning and now it is sunny! Yippee! Feels just like home.

Thank you again for your prayers and support! Please keep us in your prayers. Tomorrow at 11am, we have our first SDA appointment. This is our first official adoption appointment to which we find if we can receive an official referral which is scheduled to happen on Tuesday at 4pm. We then are scheduled to take a train to our region at 9:30pm, travel through the night and hopefully meet "Our Girl" on Wednesday!