Our Adoption Journey: First Trip

Day 1: (written by Jason) Just made it to our apartment in Kiev. We are exhausted! Please pray for Brody. We found out that he is in the hospital with an infection. We will visit the orphanage Wednesday. Hopefully he will be better by then. After getting a little nap in today and talking to the kids we decided to go exploring and find something to eat.  

We walked down the street to be real adventuresome and try some authentic Ukrainian food...so we ate at McDonalds where the chicken nuggets were cooked by Ukrainians.  We will venture out I'm sure but tonight we were a bit intimidated by the language barrier.  The girl at McDonalds spoke English and we heard English being used throughout the city.  Since we were so close, we decided to walk on down to Independence Square.  The street is still blocked by the rioters and the barricades are still up.  There is a somberness and reverence when you enter the area.  There are pictures and stories of those who died during the recent revolution and there is a memorial of sorts near the center of the city.  

Day 2: This afternoon we met a group of adopting families and went to an English speaking church. We rode on the city's "subway" system to the church. The church service was great. It was a little taste of home. Afterwards, we all ate at a wonderful restaurant with our new friends. 

Our appointment is at 10 am tomorrow (which is 2 am central standard time.)  Please pray for us before going to sleep tonight. Pray that it will go well.

Day 3: Today our facilitator picked us up at our apartment and drove us to our DFC appointment.  We waited about 20 minutes and then we went into an office where a lady greeted us. She asked us a few questions about our family and why we wanted to adopt. Then she spoke with our facilitator in russian for about 5 minutes. She ended it by asking if we had pictures of our home and family. We showed her a few that we had on our phone. The whole appointment only took about 15 minutes. We are to return tomorrow between 4-5pm to pick up our referral. Then Wednesday we will meet with the inspector and visit the orphanage!  We haven't heard anymore news about Brody. Keep praying. This could possibly slow down our process because the inspector needs to observe us interacting with him. I asked if we could visit him in the hospital. Our facilitator told us that because it is an infection, he can't have visitors.

Day 4: This morning we went exploring. Then at 4 pm we went to the DFC to pick up our referral!! We also found out that Brody is out of the hospital!!! Who can deny the power of prayer! God has been in control of our journey before we even knew adoption was possible! Every step we take he is right there before us. Tomorrow we meet our precious babies. We're so excited! Please continue to pray for us. There were two couples that we met who had DFC appointments on the same day as us. 
They also picked up referrals today with us. So excited to follow their adoption stories. It's great to know others who are experiencing the same thing as us.

Day 5: The day we've longed for...I couldn't sleep last night. I think I finally fell asleep at 3 am. Our alarms went off at 6 am. This day has finally arrived...The day we would meet our children. I was nervous. What if the kids didn't like us? At 8:30 am our facilitator and his wife picked us up at our apartment.  Our first stop was to the inspector's office. The inspector drove with us to the orphanage. We drove through the orphanage grounds and right past the building where the kids live. We stopped at the orphanage director's office then she walked us to their building. It was a very pleasant house. Beautiful flowers lined the sidewalk leading up to the house. There was a great play area for the kids in the yard. Murals were painted on the outside of the house. When we walked in, the first thing I noticed was the couch and large stuffed animal that were in several pictures we had seen of the kids. It was finally becoming real!! We sat on that couch and the orphanage doctor went over all of the kids' medical history. Then the moment we had been waiting for...first Brody came running in. He has curly hair, dark eyes and he is FULL OF ENERGY. Then Katya came in. She was in a stroller. She is more beautiful than her pictures. Her face lit up and she said in Ukrainian,  "guests!" We played on the floor with them. Brody was running around getting into everything (like another 2 year old I know.) Katya kept on saying, "telephone". She wanted our phones. Eventually she got a phone and pretended to talk to her mama. She had a full conversation. Today they do not know we will be their parents. Both of them have been at the orphanage since they were babies, so they have never known a mother or father. We went outside and played on the playground. Both kids love to swing! We are so in love with them!!!

We decided that on Sunday we will move to a hotel near the orphanage so that we can visit the kids twice a day. Our facilitator has already began the paperwork to obtain a court date. We have a specific prayer request...The head of the DFC is urging all inspectors to try their best to find ukrainian homes (foster or adoption) for all orphans before giving foreigners approval. Please pray that they will give 

us approval.

Day 6: Today our facilitator has been very busy running all over the area obtaining needed documents for court approval. We took a taxi to meet him at the vital records office to notarize the "petition to adopt." Today through next Tuesday he will continue to gather documents. Some of that includes him going to the children's birth region to obtain their birth certificates. He will try to gather a little information about their birth parents for us. Next Wednesday, he will submit all the documents to the DFC for their approval for court.  The DFC has been taking approximately 10 days for court approval. So if all goes well we could be approved on Friday, July 25th. That would mean that court would be the week of July 27th. After court, we will stop by the US embassy for my husband to sign some paperwork since he may not return for the final process. Then we will fly home. Ten business days after court the kids will be officially ours and I will return to Ukraine to wrap everything up. Jason may return to help me during the flight home with the kids. We are hoping we will have them home by late August.

Things you can pray for...

DFC will quickly approve us.

Everything goes very smoothly without complications.

Tomorrow we will attempt to take the bus to visit the kids. Scary!! It will take about 2 hr each way. Sunday, our facilitator will move us to the hotel in the village where the orphanage is. He would rather us stay in the city but I want to be able to visit the kids daily. It is safe where we are staying. He's just concerned that we will get bored.

I can't wait to get all the kids together at home. We will have a 5, 4, 3, and 2 year old. Wow! We sure are missing our babies at home!

Day 7: (written by Jason) Well, today we decided to go visit the kids.  We had to take the metro to a bus stop where we would take the bus to the village that their orphanage is in.  We started off with breakfast at McDonalds and left there at around 7:15am...so here is our route:  Get on metro at Хрещатик, take metro west to Свято́шин, find the bus...oh wait, we have to find the road...ok, found the highway...now back to finding the the bus.  After seeing numerous buses come and go we finally see the with the name of the village written on a piece of paper in the windshield.  As we board the bus, it's crowded but not too bad and did I mention that deodorant is optional on both the bus and the metro?  As we move along we continue picking up people.  If you've ever wondered how many people can fit on a short bus, I now know that at least 49 people will fit in like play dough in a baby food jar.  Finally we get to our bus stop...and miss it!  I then watch as we pass the orphanage.  We get off with a couple of people at their homes and proceed to walk back towards the orphanage only to have the bus pass us heading back...apparently the bus turns around right past where we got off.  It's ok though because we were early.  We got there around 9:15am but we couldn't visit them until 10am so we walked around the streets of the village for a bit.  This is a small village.

At the orphanage, they brought the kids out and we immediately give them some toys we bought for them. They both light up!  The smiles were priceless and I just loved seeing how they played with the toys. We played on the floor a bit then went outside. The bubbles we brought were a big hit but we played with everything from sand, basketball, swinging to coloring and sticker books.  Towards the end of the visit Brody was getting very tired and he gave me the biggest hug around the same time I noticed Katya giving Donna a big hug.

We head back to the bus stop as a heavy rain sets in (thankfully we brought umbrellas).  I have time on the trip back to think of the kids' lives if they remain in the orphanage.  You don't see many handicapped people here in the city.  The buildings, sidewalks and other infrastructure are not setup to be handicap friendly. If Katya remained in the orphanage, next year she would be sent to an institution where she would likely spend the rest of her life. Brody may have a better chance but statistics even for his future does not paint the prettiest of picture.  I am thankful God has called me here.  This journey is already teaching me many things I could never learn in my comfortable life at home. Katya is very strong and has such a sweet spirit.  Brody is also kind and loves to play.  I am excited to see the plans God has for their lives.

Day 8: (written by Jason) Today has been rather uneventful as we really didn't have anything to do.  We are moving to the village that the orphanage is in tomorrow so last night we had to do laundry so the clothes would have time to dry (dryers are not common in Ukraine).  We had enough time to sit around and get very homesick as we miss our kids back home terribly.  We thought briefly about flying home until our court date but we don't have the money and would miss this opportunity to bond with our kids here. We ate some Japanese food close to our apartment and it was simply just ok.  Missing some Ono Grill right about now.

We do have a couple of things to share around the adoption though.  The first is we got news that the DFC wanted a letter from the region inspector that they had attempted every possible avenue to have the children adopted by a Ukrainian family before moving forward.  Our facilitator contacted the inspector and she was more than glad to do this for us.  When we met the inspector on Wednesday, she seemed a bit cold to us at first and was asking many questions about why we wanted to adopt and how we would be able to care for our little girl's special needs.  Later that day as we met and began playing with the kids, I looked up and noticed the inspector's eyes were tearing up. I had just witnessed God doing a work in her heart so that when it came time to affirm our decision to adopt them she didn't hesitate to begin the paperwork.  Her decision could have stopped everything from moving and I'm so thankful that in every step God has gone before us.

Day 9: (written by Jason) This morning Donna and I started our day cleaning up our apartment, then around 10:30am made our way to "Puzata Hata" for lunch.  Puzata Hata has quickly became one of our favorite restaurants in the city.  The layout is great!  When you walk in there are two sinks to wash your hands before you get in line to eat; cleanliness of your hands seems pretty important in Ukraine as most restaurants have some method available to clean your hands prior to eating...even McDonalds offers towelettes with happy meals.  Back to Puzata Hata, after washing your hands you grab a tray and begin down the line of endless food choices.  This is great for us since we can simply point, jump up and down and make funny noises at the food to let them know what we want.  That's what I feel like I'm doing anyway when I start to say something in Russian, change my mind mid-word and go back to English.  We can usually eat there for around $10-$12 (both Donna and I combined) and leave full.  After eating we make our way back to the apartment and wait on our facilitator to pick us up for the move to the village that the orphanage is in.

Our hotel in the village is basically several rooms on the bottom corner of an apartment complex.  There is no air conditioning but the room is mostly underground and seems to stay comfortable.  I believe we are known as "the Americans" as that is what I heard several times in discussions around us.  Most everyone seems friendly though and we will be here for two weeks.  The village is small...actually it's a bit like being in the woods with houses and buildings scattered among the trees.  This, in some ways, is better since our home is in the woods.

We were able to visit the kids this afternoon. Katya noticed Donna enter the building and immediately lit up and said "Momma!" then started to alert her brother that we were here.  We had a good time swinging, riding toy cars and just playing.  One of the caretakers left while we were there and Brody began crying, it's obvious they build bonds with each other and the caretakers seem to genuinely care for the children.  I keep reminding myself that while adopting these children is a wonderful thing, this orphanage is all they've ever known.  I know that while we will be celebrating on the day we can take them away, there may be a sadness in their hearts as they leave the people and the life they have grown to love here. 

Day 10: This morning we visited the orphanage. It was great to see the kids again. We spent most of our visit outside. Katya showed off her sweet little singing voice today while she was swinging. Brody is such a little bundle of energy. I'm definitely going to be busy chasing him. He's probably twice as energetic as Callie. Hopefully they will help keep each other entertained. Today we learned more about what limiations Katya has. She longs to do what the other kids do, but right now it just isn't possible. Communication with the caregivers is proving to be difficult. We feel like we are in the way sometimes. After our afternoon visit, we decided one visit a day is best.

Living in the village wasn't exactly what we envisioned. It's proving to be a challenge. No refrigerator or washer, no grocery store, and no one speaks Engilsh. During the first half of the day we were missing home really bad. This evening our spirits were lifted when we found a nice restaurant nearby. It looks like we will be eating one meal a day for the next two weeks (which isn't a bad thing for us.)

Please pray that the DFC approves us by July 25th! We are so ready to go home to see our babies. Our facilitator is getting court scheduled around July 28th, but if the DFC hasn't approved us by then, court has to be postponed.

Day 11:  (written by Jason) The day started off pretty slow as Donna and I have started staying up later and sleeping in.  It doesn't get dark here until around 10pm or later and it gets light around 4am. We started off this morning with studying and listening to a sermon out of 2 Corinthians 1.  If you get a chance, download the podcast from David Platt titled "The Cross and Christian Suffering".  This was definitely a sermon we needed to hear.

We set out around 11am to explore the village.  We started off down a main highway which had a very nice sidewalk until the sidewalk ended about 200 yards from where we began and the way they drive here, we were not going to walk down the side of the road.  We went back and walked through the old city and found many small stores and vegetable stands.  We also found a decent place we could restock on simple snacks.  There are NO restaurants open for lunch that we could find so we snack during the day and eat at the only restaurant in the area for dinner.  

We have a court date...July 29th!!!  This will work perfect with my adoption leave from my work as I am scheduled to be back on August 4th.  We need everyone to please pray for DFC Approval prior to this court date.  Without the DFC approval, we would need to move the court date out.

We visited the kids just once today in the evening.  They didn't seem quite as lively this evening as they have on previous days.  Saying this for Brody is kind of like saying instead of trying to keep up with a Lamborghini, I only had to keep up with a Corvette.  His attention span is about 2 full seconds and then he's on to something else.  We play ball a good bit...nothing specific really, it's kind of a mix between, basketball, soccer, football and rugby.  I got several big hugs today though and I'm talking about holding on as tight as he could hugs.  He'll look up at me, raise his arms and say "Dada" <---say this with a two year old Russian accent.  "Dada" simply means man or Uncle...he's not saying I'm his dad yet but nevertheless, it melts this old country boy's heart.  I got to know the caretakers a bit better today.  We were both working super hard through the language barrier this evening.  They seemed much warmer to us in the evening visits.  I showed them a map of the US and where we live.  I also showed them pictures of the cabin, our land and our old Farmall Cub tractor.  I did find out they do speak a mix of Ukrainian and Russian, this is why the Ukrainian translator was not working well.  The Russian translator worked much better.

As I'm talking to the caretakers, I hear this sweet little voice singing twinkle twinkle little star.  Donna and I have sang this to Katya a few times over the course of our visits and she remembered it!  Donna was sitting with her when she began singing it and tried to capture it on video but never could.  We think she will pick up English pretty quickly and even Brody has said "slide" and "jump" so far. Thank you all for reading and especially for your prayers. 

Day 12: Today we had a very slow beginning. We stayed in today. Around 12 pm, our translator (our facilitator's wife) called us to tell us that the hotel wanted to clean our room. It's a odd way of communication, but it works. Five minutes later they were at our door. We were very happy because the room hadn't been cleaned since we arrived Sunday. So we walked around a little. We did find out that our restaurant is open for lunch. So we ate. It's a little strange...here is this gourmet restaurant in the middle of a little village that is covered with graffti and trash. But it is so good and we are very thankful for it.

Since we don't have a washer, I have to wash our clothes in the bathroom sink. There isn't a plug, so I use a plastic bag to stop the water from draining. Our hotel room stays damp because it is partly under ground, so drying the clothes is a challenge.  There is a towel warmer in the bathroom that helps dry them quicker. It's probably not the safest thing, but you do what you've got to do.

Our visit this afternoon with the kids was great. We started out pushing them in a stroller all over the yard. Then we played in the sandbox. Katya really enjoys the sand. A few days ago, I asked her what was the name for sand. She quickly replied, "pesok." I tried to say it and she immediately corrected me. It became a little game. She'd say it then I'd say it. Each time she gets louder until she squeals. Yes, she loves to squeal. Today I tried to tell her that pesok is sand to us. She wouldn't have it. It's pesok to her. The kids are getting more and more use to us. As we were leaving, for the 1st time, our little boy started getting upset. He wanted us to stay so bad. It is the 1st sign of attachment. It makes me so happy! I can't wait to always be there for them.

Our documents were submitted to the DFC for court approval today. The lady at the DFC said that she would sign off before our court date but that the minister of the DFC takes a few days after that to sign off. So pray that somehow it gets signed off in time.  Thank you so much for your prayers!

Day 13: Not much to say today. Our visit with the kids was shorter today. Their caregiver said it was too hot to go outside. So we were confined to the lobby area. The kids got restless fast.

Day 14: 2 weeks down!! Our day started like every other day this week, slow. We don't like it. We would much rather have have stuff to do. We're trying to get through it one day at a time and not get overwhelmed by the number of days left. It's working because Friday is almost over. This morning we were so hungry because we decided to save money and not eat at the restaurant yesterday. So by the time we made it there for lunch, we were so ready to eat. Even though the restaurant is extremely nice, it only costs us an average of $25 to eat there. Back at home this restaurant would be double or triple that. We are thoroughly enjoying this tiny bit of indulgence. We will not enjoy a meal at a restaurant alone for a very long time after this trip.

At 4:30 PM, we went to visit the kids. It was still a little hot today, so we mainly played on the porch. The kids are very use to us now and they are testing limits constantly. In the orphanage there is only so much we can do to try to correct this. We simply say no and try to move on to something else. Both of them are very strong willed and full of energy.

Keep praying that the DFC will approve court before our court date. I just realized that Brody's 3rd birthday is on our court date. Wouldn't that be awesome? I hope we don't have to change it. 

Day 15: A break from the heat...Today was overcast and much cooler. Being without AC, we were very grateful. This morning we decided to come up with a firm plan on our timeline with the adoption. We decided that we will fly home on Friday, August 1st regardless of if we've had court or not. My husband needs to be back at work the following week. If we haven't had court, we will return around mid August for it. I will stay until the end and my husband will fly home after court. So we have less than 2 weeks left for this trip. We are so ready to see our babies back at home!

Our visit with the kids was better today. We spent the whole visit outside. All the other kids were outside as well today. We learned some of their names. There are two kids a little older than Katya and the rest are younger. It is a "baby house" so the ones that are older than five have significant special needs. There are only about 11 children in the house (that we've seen.)


Day 16: (written by Jason) Today we decided to go to the city.  We definitely needed a little break from the village.  We started out on the bus, which was much less crowded, then took the metro into the city.  Once there, we checked out the hotel Donna is thinking of staying in on the second trip when she has the kids.  We wanted to make sure it was safe and had the essential locations nearby.  It looked like a very nice hotel with security staff outside of the building.  There is a park nearby and the sidewalks seem a bit more stroller-friendly (i.e. No 70 degree ramps).

We were wanting to get the kids a keepsake from Ukraine so we set out  to find some street vendors. We wanted to get some Ukrainian matryoshka or nesting dolls and we found a couple for our girls.  They had some college football matryoshka dolls (for our boys) but the vendor said with all of the recent American politician visits, the Marines and Secret Service guys had bought all of the Alabama ones he had.  Roll Tide by the way!  The guy even had his picture made with John McCain who had visited recently.  I was never able to find anymore Alabama matryoshka dolls so I think I will check out ebay or maybe on the second trip he'll have some.

We explored that side of the city a bit more and really liked the area better than where we first stayed.  We were both CRAVING McDonald's (never thought I'd say that!) so we found one.  I think they mopped the floors three times while we were there with no wet floor signs!  Haha that seems like such a little thing, but mop the floors at one in the U.S. without a wet floor sign up and see how long you go without someone falling and immediately calling their lawyer.  After McDonald's, we walked through the center of the city and then began the journey on the metro and bus back to the village.

We didn't visit the kids today due to our city trip but will visit them everyday this week as this will be our last week in the village.   Please continue to pray for DFC approval prior to our flight out on August 1st.


Day 17: We've never had fresh poultry like this at a restaurant before...This morning we found out that we can go to the US Embassy before court for Jason to sign his part of the paperwork (since he may not be returning after court). This is awesome because now we won't have to squeeze it in before we fly out. Our appointment is next Monday. We are still praying hard that we will have court before we leave. This would save us thousands of dollars and speed up the time for the kids to come home. We are so grateful for all of our friends and family who are praying with us.

For lunch, we ate at the village's only restaurant again. This time we mustered up enough courage to go out to the island to eat. We had wanted to go out there before but we didn't know if we were supposed to. We had been watching others do it so we decided to give it a shot. Boy, are we glad we did. It was amazing. We sat in one of about ten gazebos. There were chickens and rabbits in a pen on the island. We weren't exactly sure why...maybe that's where the chicken and eggs come from?? But what about the rabbits? Halfway through our lunch the rooster and chickens visited us. We throughly enjoyed our meal. The staff there are so nice to us with our limited russian speaking abilities.

Our visit with the kids was short today. It was raining and chilly outside. We kept their attention for only a few minutes.

Day 18: We decided that we will move back to the city on Sunday. This will put us closer to the Embassy and court (Lord willing it will happen next week.) So, we booked five nights at the hotel I want to stay at during my trip alone with the kids. It has elevators, which will be essential since Katya can't walk. There is also a restaurant in the hotel and a park across the street. Hopefully it will work out nicely for us. Our travel agent gave us a quote on airfare home and it was quite high. He said if we were flexible on the dates he could get us a better price. We told him we were and he found us something $700 cheaper. The only catch...We have to spend the night in Vienna. Of course  we took it. I'm pretty excited to see a little piece of Austria. We will get home late Saturday, August 2nd.

We had a wonderful visit with the kids today. Katya gave me many big hugs today which completely melts my heart. She is singing more of "Twinkle". She may know it all by the time we get her home. 11 days until we get on the airplane! Can't wait to see our kids back home. This has been the most bittersweet time but it will be so worth it in the end.


Day 19: Today we thought we would walk to the next town. There was a huge hardware store we wanted to check out. Also we thought we might find somewhere else to eat. We could have taken the bus but we decided to walk instead. Once we got there, we walked around about 5 minutes and left. It was only 9:30am so the restaurant there wasn't open yet. We didn't exactly plan it out well. Oh well. So we turned around and walked back. It was a 6 mile walk for nothing.

Today at the orphanage we met a caregiver who spoke a little English. She asked us a few question about the timing of the adoption. I told her we really didn't know for sure when everything would be finalized. There is one caregiver in particular who we really like. Even though she doesn't know english, she has been the one who has tried the hardest to get to know us.  

Day 20: I'm not going to say much today. Jason isn't feeling well and we are not doing much today. Please pray that he gets well soon. Tomorrow is 10 days since we submitted our paperwork to the DFC. It will be a very slim chance of getting our court approval tomorrow but who knows it could happen. Please pray that we will get the approval in time for court next Tuesday!

Urgent prayer request: Our facilitator spoke with the DFC today and they said that the approval will be ready next Wednesday. He is going to the judge tomorrow to ask if we can reschedule court on Thursday. Please pray that there is an opening for us on Thursday!!!!

Day 21: Our court day is rescheduled!  This morning we found out that the judge approved our request to move our court date from July 29th to July 31st. We are beyond excited! The reason we had to change to date is because our DFC court approval will not be ready until July 30th. This is necessary to have court. We are scheduled to fly home the day after court. Talk about timing! We are not out of the woods yet though. Anything can happen between now and Thursday. Please continue to pray for us!

Day 22: Last full day in the tiny little village: We spent the morning packing. We are so glad we were given the opportunity to stay so close to the orphanage. We have visited the kids nearly everyday for the last two weeks. It has helped us build a relationship with the kids even before they are officially ours. I know this will help with the days to come when I'm alone with them for nearly two weeks. That being said, we are still very eager to leave this tiny village. It has been a hard two weeks. The first full day here was a very difficult day for us. We were overwhelmed by the reality that we had to spend two whole weeks in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. There was no refrigerator, AC, washer or dryer,  no grocery store, and no one spoke English. Our toliet leaked, our room was partially cleaned one time during our stay, our shower head broke, and we had to wash clothes in our tiny bathroom sink with no stopper.  At the end of the first week, we were seriously thinking about going home and returning for court. But God provided. He led us to a nice restaurant to eat at, a little convenience store to buy drinks and snacks at, and just this week we found out that the hotel staff would wash our clothes for around $4.50. The two weeks have actually flown by, surprisingly. I don't regret our time here at all.

Next week for us will be pretty busy. Monday we have an appointment with the embassy. Jason has to sign some paperwork since he will not return after court. Tuesday is Brody's 3rd birthday! So we plan to take the bus to the village to visit him. We're going to ask the orphanage director if we can bring some type of dessert for all the kids to celebrate. 

Wednesday we hope to get our DFC approval (please pray!!) Thursday is court and Friday we begin our flights home.

Today's visit was one of my favorites. We had such a wonderful time with all the kids from the orphanage.


Day 23: We arrived at our hotel in the city this afternoon. All I can say is that the hotel is amazing! We are on the 15th floor and the view is awesome. Wonderful price! It is in a great area of town.

Shortly after arriving this afternoon, we found an Italian restaurant to eat at. It was very good. It was a lot like "California Pizza Kitchen". Afterwards, we found a mall nearby. At the mall, we found a party item vender. We were able to buy a few things for Brody's birthday. We're going to look for cupcakes tomorrow.

Day 24: (written by Jason) Cupcakes, beards and trucks or the lack thereof: Today we were up early as we had to be at the U.S. Embassy by 8:30am.  On the metro, I am looking around and I realize I am the only guy with a beard.  I haven't thought much about this until today so I started noticing if I saw other men with beards...I could count them all on one hand.  For whatever reason, I guess they're just not that popular with Ukrainian men.  We made it to the Embassy on time and there was a huge line to get in.  Thankfully, our facilitator told us as U.S. Citizens we do not have to wait in line.  We made our way in through security and we had to turn our cell phones in before going inside the main building.  I saw a look of fear in Donna's eyes at this point as she realized all of the kid's info was on her phone and she was planning on using her phone to help fill out the paperwork.  The security guards allowed her to stand to the side and write down what we needed while I waited outside.  The people at the Embassy were really nice and helpful so it didn't take long to finish up what we came to do.  Since I am not returning to get the kids, I needed to sign certain documents while I was still here.

Once we left the Embassy, we took the metro to Хрещатик (pronounced Khreshchatyk) then went down further to the "Blue Line" and took it to Олімпійська (pronounced Olimpiiska).  We were now on a journey to find cupcakes for Brody's birthday tomorrow.  Donna had found a place online and we walked in this bakery place and asked if they had cupcakes... the ladies shook their heads to indicate no.  It's tough to tell if they just didn't understand us and shook their heads or if they did and just don't sell cupcakes.  Either way it wasn't worth navigating google translate to figure out since there were no cupcakes in sight.  We noticed a little donut shop underground that sold cupcakes so we stopped and purchased a dozen.  They look really good but I was told we didn't buy any for ourselves... really? 

Donna has been our finance designee on this trip and has literally made every purchase.  I decided after lunch I was going to purchase some snacks for later on at the hotel.  I go in the store and open the cooler doors only to immediately be yelled at in Russian by the clerk.  She began to say something very sternly to me and I backed away quickly.  Apparently you tell them what you want and they get it for you.  While checking out she had an issue with having to give me some smaller bills in change (I think) and I believe she had a few more choice words for me in Russian...I knew the tone well enough to know it wasn't thank you and have a nice day!  I just said "spasibo"(thank you) got my things and got out of there.  Back to Donna making the purchases now.

As I mentioned, there are few beards around here and another thing that is scarce is full size trucks.  I finally saw an F150 today!  I know this may sound stupid, but to an old country boy, seeing a nice looking full size 4x4 made me feel a little closer to home.

Tomorrow and Wednesday are very important days.  We really need to hear that our adoption is approved and signed by the DFC.  Without this, court will not happen on Thursday. Tomorrow morning we will make our way back out to the orphanage to celebrate our little boy's birthday.

Day 25: This morning we woke up a little later than yesterday. We decided to try eating at the breakfast buffet in our hotel. I liked it but Jason did not. He's really missing our good ole southern biscuits right now. I think I may eat there a lot when I return. It will be easy with the kids.

At 9:30 am we left the hotel to start our journey to the village that the orphanage is in to see our birthday boy. I was so scared that the cupcakes would get too hot and melt. It's really hard to transport a dozen cupcakes on the metro and bus. But, somehow, we made it to the village by 11am with the cupcakes still intact. When we got to the orphanage we were informed that our birthday boy was ill and that he was not there. They could see how upset we were especially since it was his birthday. One of the ladies offered to bring us to him. I got to hold our little girl for about one minute before we left. We decided to leave the cupcakes at the orphanage for all the kids to enjoy. The lady walked us to the end of the road to what seemed to be a clinic for the orphanage. The orphanage doctor was there (we have met her many times before.) She allowed us to come in the room that he was in. But we couldn't touch or hold him. He looked pitiful. He wasn't himself at all. As soon as he saw us he lit up. We gave him the helicopter balloon we had bought for him. He loved it! The doctor told us that he had a fever of 39 degrees C (102.2 F) and that his tonsils were swollen again. She told us that he would have to go back to the hospital. We felt so bad for him. But they are taking very good care of him. We were only able to stay a few minutes. We got back to the hotel around 1:30pm.

This evening we met a group of adopting families for dinner. It was great to learn about all of their stories. We are all at different stages in the process.

After dinner we walked down "Saint Andrew's descent". It is a very old and historic road in the city. It was beautiful. I enjoyed it very much. But by the time we got to the bottom of the street, my husband was so over sightseeing. So we hopped on a very crowded metro train and headed back to the hotel. When we got back, I had a very exciting message on my phone. Our translator said "Great news, we will get the approval tomorrow!". I can't express to you how excited and thrilled we are. Thank you everyone for praying! We did find out that since the kids are under 6, they will not be at court. Please continue to pray for Brody. It's so hard to know that he's sick but not to be able to hold and comfort him.

Day 26: Today we didn't do much. We did eat lunch at a nice Italian restaurant named Oliva. Jason said it was the best meal he had eaten in Ukraine. Afterwards we walked through a large park next to the hotel.

We were hoping that our last adventure on the metro was last night (it was pretty bad!)...but we found out that we need to meet our facilitator and his wife (our translator) at one of the stations tomorrow in order to get to court in time. So we'll make one more trip on it. Court will be tommorrow at 10:30 am (2:30 am CST). We are so excited!

Day 27: (written by Jason ) Chilton Family of SIX!!! This morning we started the journey to our moment in court.  We took the metro to the stop we normally take to catch the bus to the orphanage but we met our facilitator and his wife there instead.  They had to drop their son off at preschool and would not have made it on time had they picked us up at the hotel and dropped their son off.

The courthouse is very old and they had no lights on inside and no A/C (very common in Ukraine not to have lights on inside of office buildings).  The court process was very formal; the judge read from a small law book, from the inspectors files and from our home study.  She was very detailed in the way the court proceeded.  Amazingly, I could understand a great deal of what she was saying/reading.  She asked me to stand up and began asking many questions about why we wanted to adopt, how we would care for Katya's special needs and if we understood to the full extent her condition.  Donna stood and helped me answer some of the questions and the judge seemed to be satisfied with our answers.  The judge sits in the front of the room in the middle with a juror seated on each side of her.  The juror to her left kept dozing off during the proceeding, I was thinking that was odd but the entire process was pretty boring and it was very warm in the room.  We were seated on the opposite side of the room along with our translator, a representative from the orphanage, the inspector and a prosecutor who was taking notes of the entire case.  All parties had to give their ok for the adoption.  Towards the end the judge asked if we had any pictures of our children and our home so Donna happily obliged.  At this time we left the court room so the judge and the two jurors could make the final decision (yes, even the one who slept through most of court).  We waited for about 40minutes for the decision and while waiting we found out that taking a long time was a good thing.  We were called back in and heard the decision was final and that the kids will be coming home very soon!

There is a 10-day mandatory waiting period after the court decree so Donna will be coming back to Ukraine in August to pick up the kids up.  During her second trip she will need to obtain their passports and visas.

After court, our facilitator was asked by the judge to drive the two jurors home and he also took the inspector back to her office so Donna and I waited at the courthouse.  We asked our facilitator and his wife to lunch and had a great time getting to know them and their son.  We had heard that having a great facilitator for this process is key and we would totally agree.

God has clearly gone before us in every step.  I would love to say that I was content and totally trusting in every step but there were moments I was frustrated, tired and wanted to do things my way.  We are so thankful for everyone who has been praying for this journey.

Tomorrow we fly to Vienna and stay the night there.  Then on Saturday we will fly to Dulles then on to Atlanta.  We cannot wait to see our babies again!


On our way home...a night in Vienna. Our travel agent asked us if we would be willing to spend the night in Vienna to save $700 on our airfare. Although we really want to get home, we decided that this would probably be our only opportunity to see a part of Europe. We are very glad we did it because Vienna is an amazing city! We arrived in Vienna at 2:30pm. We then checked into our hotel at the airport. We took a train called the "CAT" to the city center and walked around the city for a few hours. I didn't know what to expect because I didn't really know anything about Vienna. It is a breathtaking city.

We fly out of Vienna mid morning tommorrow. We have a connection flight in D.C. and then we're off to Atlanta. We will be home late Saturday night.

I have already booked my flight back to Ukraine. I will only be home for a week. I fly back on Sunday, August 10th. If everything goes as planned I will be back home with the kids sometime around August 21st.