Vitya's Adventures in America

Wow!  I  cannot believe that the last time we wrote on the blog was when David and Vitya were on their way home!  Well, they arrived home Sunday evening, October 16, and we hit the ground running and life hasn't slowed down since.

Many of you may already know that 5 days after he arrived in the US, Vitya flipped over the handlebars of his bike and broke his wrist in two places. He had to have surgery and have pins put in and he stayed in the hospital for 3 days.  It was quite a welcome to America for him, but he did well.  He has been  in a full arm cast for 2 1/2 weeks and he doesn't like it, but he's a trooper. He is doing sooo well!!! His broken arm has not slowed him down one bit.  Most of the time, he is full of energy.

We are amazed at how well he has adjusted already and how well he can speak English.  He talks to us constantly all the time now,  mostly in broken English, and we communicate just fine.  He is usually able to get his point across and he even jokes around and teases..  He is fitting in well to our life here at the Stout home.  He freely goes in the kitchen and fixes his food and he loves to cook.  He is adjusting to our food here.  He loves fruit and can't get enough of it (he had 6 bananas his first day here).  He does not like water and loves juice, but we are slowly working on that.  He has found a happy medium right now making lemonade every day. He loves the Jacuzzi and wants to get in every night.  He got an MP3 player for his birthday, which he plays constantly, and he also likes to play the Sony playstation that one of our friends gave him.

It was difficult at first trying to help Vitya understand the concept of family and how we care for one another and act towards one another, but he seems to really be getting a grasp on that very quickly. .At first, he was very stand offish with the girls, but now he is just like a regular brother, picking on them all the time.  He is very loving to David and me,  He loves to sit close to us and he even says "Love you, Mom and Love you, Dad." He is learning respectfulness to adults and saying "Please and thank you".  Just like my other teens, he often pushes his limits to see how far he can get, but when I am firm with him, he always obeys, even if it is sometimes with an attitude (which is quite normal in our household these days). 

Because of his time at the orphanage , Vitya loves to have things clean and is always cleaning, even other people's stuff, and telling others they need to clean up.  This  sometimes drives others crazy; especially, his room mate, Jake.  So we probably will be addressing some boundary issues soon. We have already talked through issues about money and he seems to really have a good understanding of our values in this area.  He knows now that he  is just not going to be given everything he wants and if he wants special things, such as an ipod , he works for it.  Also, he is learning that when  we work for the family, we don't get paid, it is serving.

 In the last few days, the biggest issue we have been facing is  him wanting more independence.  Now that he is feeling more comfortable with us, his surroundings and others, he thinks he can do and go wherever he wants.  He is not a little boy - he is 15 and this is what he did at the orphanage.  So please pray for wisdom for us as we have to put some parameters on his life in this area.  It is particularly difficult because Jake is living with us and Jake doesn't have the same boundaries.

We are also still finding so many things that we have to teach him that we have taken for granted  because we just assumed he knew, like riding a bicycle with handlebar brakes..  For example, the other day he put away the groceries, and he put all my fresh vegetables in the freezer. Ugh!  It is sometimes hard to teach him these things because he thinks he knows how to do everything and wants to do it.

One way Vitya fits so well with our family is his love for music. He is taking drum lessons in the beginning band at Ben Lippen and he loves to play the piano.  We started school last week and he is doing well, but he gets frustrated because he has to do things on such an elementary level because of his English.  Two weeks ago we had a joint birthday party for Vitya and Bethany and it just blew him away.  He kept telling me and David,  "Thank you, Mom and Dad, all evening."  That evening was the first time that he said I love you to me.  This past weekend, we all went on a 4 day trip to Cherokee and he did AWESOME (that's his new favorite word.)!  He also is excited about Christmas coming.  He keeps telling me, " 6 1/2 weeks, Mom, Christmas, presents, presents, presents."

Viyta's heart seems to really be opening up to the Lord very quickly.  He  loves to read the Russian Bible that David got him and he is always reminding us to pray before meals at the table.  When he came out surgery the other day, the first thing he said was "Thank you, Jesus!"


Tuesday, Vitya had outpatient surgery on his arm and had the pins removed.  He also  his long cast taken off and a short cast put on for another three weeks.  He is counting down the days til that is off. .  We had a preliminary visit with his HIV doctor last week, but she can't really do a full work up until his Medicaid has gone through.  We applied for that last week and the case worker is trying to rush it up for us so that he will have medication when his runs out.

As for the rest of the family, it has been a mixture of feelings.  Vitya is very needy of mine and David's attention (which is totally understandable), but it is sometimes hard for the girls and exhausting for us. And he always wants to be around people.  We all love having him here and love him like crazy, but it definitely is different.  Lots of adjustments!!!!!  He is a total brother to the girls, picking at them all the time, so they are not sure if they want to send him back or not (Ha!Ha!  Just kidding). 

Homeschooling has been very frustrating for me.  Hannah pretty much works on her own and Bethany a good bit, but Katie still needs alot of interaction, and so does Vitya, so I am finding it hard to balance my time between everyone.  I also have no time to prepare, so I am often "flying by the seat of my pants ",  which really doesn't work very well.  The girls are really behind on their school work.

In the last few weeks, David and I have also had some health issues.  We both have had some serious muscles and joint aches and pains, but they are better now.  It may have been stress or diet or a combination of both.  We are working on getting back some healthier eating habits, but finances are tight.  And we both are exhausted much of the time.  All of this is somewhat putting a strain on our marriage as well.

Speaking of finances, that is another big prayer need right now.  David has injured his knee and it hurts too much for him to do construction right now, so he hasn't been able to work much at his job for the last few weeks.  We were already in the red trying to catch up from the two months of David not working, so this has hurt us alot.  We also just go a bill for $27,000 for Vitya's hospital bill.  We have applied for medicaid and it is supposed to retroactive for October, so please pray that this would go through quickly. 

Thank you again for all you love, care, support and prayers..   We couldn't do it without you.

All of us in the Stout family

PRAYER NEEDS:

David''s work situation
Our health
Vitya's continued adjustment and ours
Homeschooling
Vitya's medicaid to go through quickly

THEY ARE ON THEIR WAY!!!

Saturday, Oct. 15

David and Vitya will be boarding the plane to come home in about 3 hours. YAY!!   We are sooooo ready for them to be home and can't wait to see them!!!!!!!!!!!

Vitya and David Are Coming Home

Friday, October 15

 Praise the Lord! It is finished!! David has Vitya's visa and the Ukrainian adoption process is now over. They will be home on Sunday evening  and then we will begin our next wild ride!!!

GOOD NEWS!!!

October 13

PTL  David got Vitya's passport todayand they are on their way to Kiev.  They were able to send all of their documents ahead by train to the US embassy yesterday so that the embassy can prepare all their documents today and have them ready for tomorrow.   In the morning, they will go to Vitya's medical appointment and then to the US embassy for their Visa appt. Lord willing, they will have Vitya's visa by Friday afternoon and then they are free to come home.  They were not able to get a flight on Saturday, so they will be flying in on Sunday night at 7:40 pm.  We are all so excited and so ready!!! David said yesterday that they were riding on the bus and Vitya said, "Look, Dad!" and there was a huge rainbow stretching across the horizon and it hadn't even been raining.  David felt this was a promise from God that everythings was gonna be ok.

Big Prayer Request that is left:  That the US Embassy tomorrow will approve the medical provision that we have for paying for Vitya's HIV needs.  We really need favor with this!!!!  Pray that we will get the right official who will be willing to work with us!
Blessings and thanks again so much for your prayers!

Laura Lynn

PRAISE AND MORE URGENT PRAYER

October 11

Thought we were about at the end of the Ukraine journey, but I guess not yet...   David is running into some problems with the exiting process that we really need prayer for.

1)  VITYA'S PASSPORT: We paid quite a bit to have Vitya's passport process expedited.  It was supposed to be ready this morning.  Based on this, David and Vitya had bus tickets booked to Kiev this afternoon. 
They had an appt. with the US embassy for tomorrow and Thursday to finish up the exiting process, leaving Friday to take care of any extra details
They have plane tickets  booked  to fly home on Sunday
PROBLEM:  There was a problem with the passport, so now they are saying it won't be ready before  Thursday.  If this happens, everything else will be delayed and David and Vitya will not make their flight on Sunday.
PRAYER NEED:   
We either need a miracle that Vitya's passport will  be ready tomorrow  OR The US Embassy will be able to do all of their paperwork on Friday, instead of in 2 two days.

2) PAPERWORK FOR VITYA'S MEDICAL RELEASE is being held up here in Columbia.  I need to be able to get that today and fax it to the US embassy.

3) WE NEED FAVOR WITH THE US EMBASSY for our insurance coverage to be considered adequate coverage by them for Vitya's HIV.

4) Vitya is restless and bored and doesn't want to do anything. He is very anxious to get the process over and come to America.  David is trying to press in, but he is tired of the process, too, and feeling some discouragement.

5)  We are still feeling overwhelmed here at home and ready to get them home.  David and I are trying to make parenting decisions over the phone and by texting and that is very difficult.

6)  Also, we need some healing in our family.  Bethany has a bad sore throat and LL has a very bad case of poison ivy.

WE ALL SO WANT TO PRAISE GOD FOR HIS AMAZING FINANCIAL PROVISION.  WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO MEET ALL OF OUR NEEDS FOR THE ADOPTION AND QUITE A BIT OF OUR PERSONAL NEEDS.  THANK ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SACRIFICE AND YOUR MANY PRAYERS.  YOU HAVE HELPED MAKE THIS POSSIBLE!!!

--
Blessings and may the Lord's Grace and Peace be with us all,
David  and Laura Lynn

More Amazing Miracles

Oct. 4

Two miracles in one afternoon.  It is almost too much to comprehend.

1).  God did a total miracle with the orphanage director.  David and Natalaya, our facilitator, talked to the Regional Director in Odessa and she said that they were going to have to confront her and tell the her that she would have three days to comply or the police would be brought in.  Nataliya, sensed David should be the one to do this.  He was "shaking in his boots" (like Moses), not wanting to do this, when God convicted his heart that he was to confront her in love.  David felt very angry at her  and didn't want to do this, but he asked God to change his heart.  They had to wait for the director  for 1 1/2 hours at the orphanage and during this time, God continued to deal with David's heart.  When he was ready, God sent the director back.  God told David He had been  waiting on his heart to get right. David and Nataliya  went into the director's  office and the director  immediately phoned a superior of hers.  As it turned out (certainly not by accident), the superior was a friend of Nataliya's and Nataliya talked to her and explained the situation.  Next, the superior talked again to the director and  reassured her David and Nataliya could be trusted. Immediately, her whole attitude changed and she willingly gave them everything they needed right then.  She even went as far as to apologize to Nataliya and David for her earlier bad attitude - that was really a miracle!  To top it all off, David felt led to pray for the director and he did right there in her office and she even thanked him!!  God is soooo amazing!!!!!  He certainly gets all the glory in this situation!!!

2)  We were just given a financial gift to cover the rest of our adoption expenses and David and Vitya's trip home.

God just continues to blow us away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much for your prayers!!!

More Urgent Prayer Requests

Oct. 4

1.  David texted and said that they have the official court degree in hand and the orphanage director still will not cooperate with them.  They may have to involve the police.  When we prayed, God reminded us of the story of Moses confrontation with Pharaoh.  God hardened Pharaoh's heart so that He would get the glory!!!  We sense this is what is happening here.  Please pray for His release and His glory!!

2.  Michelle Maly, the missionary we asked for prayer for, has an aneurism in her kidney and most of that kidney is dead.  The doctors are deciding what to do next.

Thanks you!  Will send updates when we get them...

More Additional Prayer Requests

October 4

1.  Just talked with David after I wrote the update.  They did not get the court decree yesterday and had a lot of hold ups, but, PTL, they did get the formal decree this morning.  There is a new orphanage director at the orphanage where Vitya is and she is not being cooperative.  Please pray for favor with her, because she could hold everything up.  She must release Vitya's old birth certificate and records and let Vitya out for anything to move forward.

2.  Michelle Maly, the American missionary who has been working with the orphans for 6 years  and who made this adoption possible for us, is in the hospital in Texas  with complications from a kidney infection.  Please keep her in your prayers.

Thanks for praying.....

LL

The Process is Underway Again!!

Monday, Oct. 3

David’s Ukraine Update

Last Week:

• David had a good week last week, although he it was a little slow for him with so much time to just wait. .He said he had a chance to have some good times with the Lord and some good bonding time with Vitya.  Vitya’s 15^th birthday is Oct. 10 and he wanted to have a party with his friends, so David had a birthday party at the orphanage on Friday with birthday cake and popcorn.

• Friday was the end of the 10 day waiting period – Hallelujah!!!

This Week:

• Today, the court will issue their official adoption decree, so David and our facilitator start the paperwork process today.  It will be a very busy week for them doing birth certificate, name change, passport, visa, orphanage release, etc.
• This week, David can have Vitya come and live with him.  The day he does this will depend on the hecticness of his schedule.   He doesn’t want Vitya to have to sit around a lot.
• As soon as all of the paperwork is completed in Odessa, David and Vitya will travel to Kiev.

      In Kiev, they will have to do a medical exam for Vitya and meet with the US embassy. This could           take a few days.

After all the paperwork is done, David and Vitya will fly home (hopefully next week)!!!!  YAY!!!

PRAYER NEEDS FOR DAVID AND VITYA:

• The paperwork process to go quickly, particularly the passport.  It could take up to 7 days.
• Favor with the US embassy to approve the medical coverage we have for Vitya’s HIV
• Grace for David during this long paperwork process
• Grace for Vitya as he is leaving his home and friends of 15 years
• David has to change the date on his return flight by Wednesday.  Pray for wisdom for him in choosing the new date so that he won’t have to change it again.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

ADOPTION FINANCIAL UPDATE

The adoption is 2/3 of the way paid for !!  We want to say thank you to all of you who have given so generously to us and the adoption in the last few months.  We have been so blessed by your generosity!!

We praise the Lord that He continues to meet our needs day by day in the most amazing ways!

• We still need $5500 to finish paying our adoption fees to our facilitator in Ukraine.  He has asked for this right away.  Because we have to have it so quickly, we have prayed and we are sensing that we probably need to borrow this money.  We will get an adoption tax incentive back anywhere from 6 months to 2 years after the adoption, so we can commit to pay this money back, but just not right away.  We need wisdom to know who to ask to borrow this money from.

• David and Vitya need about $850 for plane tickets home.

• We still need about $1500 to meet home expenses that have built up with David not working for 6 weeks.

If you wish to make a tax-deductible donation, you can make out a check to Victory Ranch Ministries, and mail it to our home address:  6549 Dorchester St., Columbia, SC  29203.  Please let us know by email, if you are sending a donation.   Thanks!

ON THE HOMEFRONT WITH LL AND THE GIRLS

Last Week

• Most of last week was spent trying to get “back in the groove.”  We had lots of catch up to do with school  and  LL was getting used to the girls’ new schedules and being “taxi mom” again.  We also worked a great deal on organizing our home and getting our yard back in decent condition.

• LL had an enormous amount of administrative details to take care of: paperwork to sort through and organize, phone calls, bills to take care of, and adoption details

• We also focused on having some quality Mom/daughter time as this will be the last time with just us forever.

This Week

We are having our final count down week for getting ready for David and Vitya.  Still so much organizing and preparation to do.

PRAYER ON THE HOMEFRONT

• We really need to have our schedules set and flowing smoothly this week before we throw Vitya into the mix.

• We need to finish getting our home organized and in order before Vitya gets here.

• Parenting the girls: LL needs grace and strength in discipling  the girls right now..  LL is really trying to put into practice “limits with love” and a combination of “grace and truth”.  However, with all that is going on,  the girls are also very emotional right now, so LL needs lots of supernatural grace, love and patience with them.   
• 
  
• This is a tough time for the girls because their Dad has been gone for 7 weeks, they are getting a new brother, Mom is back and trying to put things back in order, and plus, they have school, extra curricular activities, work, and normal teenage issues.  Please pray for  God's grace and strength for them as well.

 LL is really feeling overwhelmed and just needs to experience God’s peace in the midst of all that she has to do and be able to release it all to him. Thank You!!

  We give thanks for all of your prayers and support every day!!  

All of us Stouts

Vitya Will Be Home Soon!!!!

WOW!

So much has happened since we last wrote.  Sorry it has taken so long.

The Big News:  VITYA IS NOW LEGALLY OURS!  We had our court date last Tuesday and it went well.

The day after the court, LL filled out legal documents in Odessa all day, said good-bye to Vitya and then she and our facilitator  took a 6 hr. bus ride to Kiev.  LL spent the night with our facilitator and then went all by herself into the city to the US embassy to sign more papers.  It was a little unnerving for her to be by herself, but God gave her grace. After the embassy, she had a long wait before her flight (about 12 hrs.), so she was able to stay at an apt. that belonged to a YWAM Kiev staff member and that was a big blessing.  At 11:30 pm, LL took a taxi to the Kiev airport and hung out in the airport until her flight left at 5:30 am.  She flew from Kiev to Frankfurt to Washington, DC and then home. 

David has stayed in Odessa to finish up the adoption process. He is staying with an American missionary who lives there in Odessa.  After the court date, there is a ten day waiting period to give family a chance to contest the adoption, but Vitya has no family, so this is just a formality.  During this time, David will visit with Vitya each day at the orphanage. The 10 day period will end on Sept. 30., which is a Friday.  The court will issue a formal court decree on Monday, Oct. 3 that that the waiting period is over and then David and our facilitator can start doing all the documents needed to finish the adoption.  On that day, Vitya can also come live with David.  They think they will be a few days in Odessa and then David and Vitya will travel to Kiev to do documents at the US embassy.  After that, they will be home – probably the second week in October!!!!

Meanwhile, LL is trying to get life back in order at home before we bring Vitya home.  There hasn’t been a lot of structure for the girls for about two months, so we are working on getting things back to normal with school, schedules, etc.  She is very glad to be home, but there is a lot to do in the next 2 weeks.

We still have some major financial needs to meet in the next two weeks.

LEFT FOR THE ADOPTION:  $5500

VITYA’S AIRFARE:  $750

HOME EXPENSES  $2000

Any help that any one could give would be greatly appreciated and would be tax-deductable. 

Thanks you so much for all of your support, encouragement and prayers!!!  Vitya will soon be home!!

Our Time in SC: A lot to do in a short amount of time

September 14, 2011

We are sorry it has been so long since we have written.  We arrived back in SC on Wednesday night, Sept 7, and we hit the ground running.  We only had 11 days at home and probably a month’s worth of things to catch up on.  We needed to catch up on a lot of administrative responsibilities with homeschool, work, ministry, finances, etc. We had to do work in the yard and drain and clean out the pool and jacuzzi for the winter. The girls and Lisa did a nice job on keeping the house clean, so we didn't have much to do there.  LL has been trying to do some homeschool catch up with the girls and has quickly gotten back into the role of “taxi mom”.and David has been working almost every day.  Most importantly, we have tried to spend as much quality time with the girls as we possibly can and also have some time with friends.

Two days after we got home,  LL came down with a bad sinus and respiratory infection which lasted about 4 days and that put a big glitch in all she wanted to get done.  She is better, but now all of the girls are sick.

The last caretaker that we had for the girls is still living with us.  Lisa was a missionary in Ukraine for 6 years and is now studying Russian at CIU, right down the road for us.  She has been a big blessing for us and is still helping out some, even with us home.  She will keep the girls again while we are in Ukraine for this second trip.  We are not sure if she will stay on after Vitya comes or not.  We also have Jake, our 20 yr. old unofficial adopted son living with us as well.  He was in the South Carolina School of Leadership at our church  last year and really doesn’t have a great family situation, so we have adopted him.  He works with David and is a great big brother to the girls.  Again, we don’t know yet if he will stay on when Vitya comes.  He does speak some Ukrainian, so that would be a big help.

We have only heard from our facilitator  once while we have been gone.  We haven’t heard anything about how Vitya is doing.  We really miss him and are praying for him constantly.

We will leave SC on Sunday, Sept. 18 and arrive in Odessa on Monday, the 19^th.  Lord willing, if nothing changes, we will have our court date on Tuesday, Sept, 20 and after that, Vitya will be legally ours!  He is already ours in the Spirit and in our hearts!!

After the court, we have to have a 10 day waiting period to give family members time to object to the adoption, if they want.  This is really just a formality.    For the first couple of days of this time,  LL will fill out paperwork in Odessa and in Kiev and then she will fly back home to be with the girls, hopefully by Friday, the 23^rd. .  David will stay in Ukraine with Vitya for the ten days and then will have to spend at least a week or more getting all of Vitya’s legal documents done so that he can come to the US.

We are praying that David and Vitya will be home the first or second week in October.!!!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!!

PRAYER NEEDS:

Safe Travel to Ukraine and back

Total healing for the LL and the girls  and grace for them while we are gone

Favor with the judge during our court date

Favor with the US embassy regarding Vitya’s health issues

A quick return for David and Vitya

FINANCES NEEDED FOR THE REST OF THE ADOPTION:

$2600 for LL and David’s return tickets to Ukraine and back

$5500 for the rest of the adoption fees

$700 for Vitya’s plane ticket

$2000 to cover home expenses with David not working

$400 for David’s expenses in Ukraine

More Changes - Heading back home and then back again!

Sept. 6, 2011

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners,

Around here, it seem as thought the minute you send out some news, something changes and you have to update the news. 

All last week, we waited and waited for a court date.  We were supposed to be given one this week and we were, but it wasn't what we expected at all.


All this to say,  all of our plans have changed dramatically in the last 24 hours.

Although, the courts promised our facilitator that they would give us a court date for this week, that didn't happen.  Instead, they scheduled out court date for Sept. 20.  Our facilitator has no idea why, but because we have the head of the court, we cannot argue with that.  Both Carol Ellisor and some others we know said it is not common, but it is not unheard of. Basically, it seems they do what they want.
Others who have been through the process say it is not out of the ordinary for Ukraine.

This whole thing kind of threw us for a loop, so  after counseling with the Ellisors and a few others, we decided that we are just going to have to come home to SC until the court date.  David needs to work and I, LL, need to take care of the girls.  It would be useless to sit around here and do nothing for 15 days.  So, here is the plan for now:
We leave Odessa at 6:30 (11:30 am EST) this afternoon for a 5 hour bus ride to Kiev.  Thankfully, it is a nice bus.  The bus will take us directly to the airport in Kiev, so we will spend the night in the airport and fly out at 6:45 Wednesday morning.  We will have a  short flight to Munich, a 3 hour layover there and then we fly on to Charlotte.  We arrive in Charlotte at 3:45 on Wednesday afternoon. All in all, we will be traveling for about 28 hours - ugh!  We are hoping to be picked up by Lisa (the girls' caretaker and the girls).  Our plan is to try and make it to church Wed. night.

We will need  to leave SC again on Sept. 18 and arrive in Ukraine on the 19th.  Lord willing, our court date will remain on the 20th.  After the court date, LL will have to go to Kiev to fill out papers for the US embassy and then she will again return to SC.  After the 10 day waiting period and the time of doing Vitya's legal paperwork.  David and Vitya will return to the US together/  At this point, it looks like this will be the first week of Oct., but we never know!!

We have to say that we have mixed feelings about this.  We know that God is in control and we surrendered to His timing, so we know there is a purpose in all this.  We will probably see it clearly after this is all over.  We are very excited to go home and see our children and they us.  We are very sad to leave Vitya.  I was sick yesterday and didn't even get to say good-bye to him.  David spent some time with him and our faciliator talked to him on the phone and explained what is happening.  David said he seemed very sad.  Natalia said he may be fearful that we won't come back.  Our hearts break to leave him, but we have written him notes and have some gifts and snacks for him that the other couple with us, the Elliots, will take to him when they go to the orphanage.  Please keep him in your prayers, especially that he won't listen to lies that we aren't coming back.

We are having to drain our finances for both of us to come home, but we have to keep trusting that God is in control.  We still need around $10,000 more to finish the adoption, so maybe part of the reason that God is bringing us home is to do some fundraising events.

Well, that is all for now. We need to finish getting packed.  Hope to talk to you soon and nothing will have changed too much.

Waiting on His perfect timing!

Wednesday, August 31 (Day 19)

The last few days have been a time of up and down emotions.

We were assigned a judge for our court date on Monday morning and have been waiting and hoping to get a court date assigned the last two days.  We were hoping and praying for a court date for this week.  At this time, we have heard nothing except that our judge is the head of all the courts in our region of Odessa.  Wonder what God wants to do with that.

Our girls are very ready for us to come home and that makes it harder to wait....

We have had some really good days with Vitya.  Monday, the kids left and moved back to the orphanage.  Thursday, they will start back to school along with all of the other kids in Odessa.  During our times with Vitya, we have been playing cards, basketball and hackey sack and taking him special snacks each day.  He seems to be pretty comfortable with us now and us with him.  Communication is still hard, but we are learning more Russian and him more English.  He constantly calls us Mom and Dad now.  Uncle Vlad continues to visit every day, too, so we don't know what that means.

We are getting more used to Odessa and feeling that we can get around pretty good now on the bus system.  During our free time, we have been checking out some of the city.  Yesterday, we walked 5 miles to the beach and swam in the Black Sea and saw the Veteran's Memorial.  Today, we think we will walk down to the docks and check out all of the ships.  And maybe tomorrow, we will check out the big Farmer's Market that takes up several blocks.  If LL is still here over the weekend, we have been invited to a Ukrainian wedding and will plan to go.

As we have been struggling with the whole process and having to wait so much, we felt the Lord put something on our hearts that we would like to share with you.  It was very freeing for us.

A friend had sent me an email that said, "I have run out of things to tell God to do for you, so I am just praying in the Spirit."
And God said to me, " That is where I want you to be.  To run out of things to tell Me to do!  To be at the end of yourself.

SURRENDER IS THE KEY THAT UNLOCKS THE DOOR TO PEACE! 

This is Laura Lynn speaking:
" This morning, he convicted me that I have not been surrendering. I have wanted my time, my way in this adoption court date and it needs to be His time, His way, His everything. He sees the bigger picture. He knows the perfect timing. 

I think that I felt that if I surrendered everything, God would allow the process to go longer. The irony is that it will be His timing anyway, whether I surrender or not.  But surrendering will bring me peace.


So, we area choosing to try and do this and give it all to Him!!!!  His way and time are perfect!


Will write again when we know anything!!

Finally some pictures

We have posted some pictures of Vitya on my FB book, Laura Lynn Connor Stout.  You will find them under photos in the album, Ukraine Adoption pictures 1.

Had an awesome visit with Vitya today.  We laughed so much together and had a great time!!

Will find out court date tomorrow.  Will let you know....

More Miracles and Answered Prayer

We think we have had an answer to prayer about the great Uncle.  We spent those two days with him and Natalia, our facilitator  and his translator and him asking alot of questions, but we were super nice and said we wanted to have Vitya keep in touch with hiim and we had lots of people praying. At the end of the second day, he said he was willing to do whatever Vitya wanted to do and Vitya told him he wanted to be adopted.  After that, we weren't sure if he would keep fighting things or not.  We figured we would just have to wait and see.  At this point, it seems God did a total miracle in his heart.  Yesterday and today, he came to visit when we were visiting Vitya, but both days he treated us like family and we all had a good time.  The first two days with the translators, Vitya was very tense and disturbed, but this last two, we came early and had some good time with Vitya before Uncle  got there and Vitya seemed much more relaxed.  Also, when Vitya saw we were relaxed with the Uncle and not threatened, he seemed to feel relaxed, too.  Uncle Vlad has also invited us to bring our family back to Ukraine and stay with him. Although we are glad for his apparent heart change, we are also still very cautious and we will wait and see if he has any ulterior motives.


We turned  in all our papers to the court on Friday (with no interference from Uncle) and saw some miracles in that process, too.  Natalia will check with the court on Monday to see if they have assigned us a court date.  We are hoping and praying for a court date sometime next week. After the court date, LauraLynn will go home to be Mom to our girls and David will stay with Vitya for the rest of the process.

There is supposed to be a ten day waiting period after the court to give the family time to change their mind, but we are praying for a miracle for the court to waive this 10 day time.  It has happened occasionally.  After that, David has to take care of Vitya's legal stuff before they can come home.  Without a miracle, he could be there another 17 days after the court date.

We praise the Lord that he provided another caregiver for our children as soon as the other lady had to leave.  She is a missionary from Odessa who is learning Russian at CIU in Columbia and needed  a place to stay.  This was an answer to prayer for us and for her.  The girls will enjoy talking with her about Ukraine and learning some Russian.

Please continue to be in prayer for our finances for the adoption.  We still need $4000 in the next week for the first half payment to our facilitaor and a plane ticket for LL to come home.  After that, we will need about another $10,000.

Will write again when we hear something Monday.

Man's Opposition, God's Opportunity

Wednesday, August 24


We are sorry we have not sent out an update in a few days.  We have been so busy. In the last few days, we have had an interesting turn of events.

On Monday, after much waiting, we  were finally able to get Vitya's medical records and take them to the orphanage.  While were at the orphanage, we found out that a man who is claiming to be Vitya's grandfather's brother had been calling the orphanage and was very angry that Vitya was being adopted.  It was not on his record that he had any relatives. That afternoon, we went with our translator and talked to Vitya and he said that this man had been coming to see him about twice a month for about 1 year.  Our facilitator was concerned.  We do not know if he is really Vitya's relative or what his motive is. 

On Tueday, we were able to get the last of our paperwork in to the regional inspector, but while we were there, we found out that this supposed great uncle had been stirring up trouble all day.  He had been to the orphanage and yelled at the director and had done the same thing with the regional director.  They were not very impressed with him.  Tuesday, afternoon, we met with him at the orphanage, along with Vitya.  Vitya was very uncomfortable.  "Great Uncle" brought  along his own translator and had page after page of questions for us.  He seemed very concerned about Vitya's welfare and  how we would treat him in the US.  We answered questions politely, but were guarded.  We did much praying silently.  After we left, we still were not sure if he was being honest or just deceiving us.  We sensed that we should be nice but be very careful in giving him information. 

Today, we went early to the orphanage to see Vitya and he was at the beach.  We went down to spend time with him and  he was very withdrawn and  seemed disturbed.  Our facilitator thinks he may have been angry at his "Great Uncle".  When we all got back to the camp, the "Great Uncle was there again and more questions.  David and I didn't understand much of it, but our facilitator talked for us and she is great.  We tried to be very polite and honor him.  Finally, he said whatever Vitya wanted he would agree with.  He asked Vitya and Vitya said he wanted him to stop making trouble and he wanted to be adopted by us.  Vitya again was very uncomfortable.  We exchanged email addresses and took some pictures and assured him we would let Vitya stay in contact with him.  We still do not know if he is genuine or not, but only time will tell.  We will see in the next few days if he will back off or continue to make trouble.

We know that God has told us that Vitya will be a part of our family, so we are trusting Him and praying that if this man is not sincere, then he would be exposed.  We are sensing from the Lord that we are in a spiritual battle for Vitya's life and the enemy is about to lose and he doesn't like it!  God has given us a verse in Exodus that he gave to the Moses and the Israelites when they were facing the Red Sea and the Eqyptians were pursuing them.  He said,  "The enemies you see today you will not see again....Stand firm.  The Lord will fight for you.  You need only be still."

This afternoon, we went to visit with Ron Winkler, an American missionary, who has been here for 5 years.  We really had an enjoyable time with him.  Today, is Independence Day in Ukraine, so we didn't do any government business.

Tomorrow, we will go and see if the Regional Director has our papers ready.  If she has and "Great Uncle"  has caused no more trouble, then our facilitator, Nataliya,  will take them to the court and leave them. Nataliya will go home to Kiev for the weekend to be with her husband and 8 mth. old baby.  She will return on Sunday night and will then check with the court on Monday to see if they have set us a court date.

We will let you know what happens in the next few days.  Thank you so much for all your prayers - they make a HUGE impact on what is going on here!

Need some miracles this week!

We need two big miracles in this next week.

1.  Tomorrow, we are going to try and meet with the regional director.  He is out of the office  Tuesday - Friday, so if he doesn't see us tomorrow, nothing else can proceed until the next week.  Please pray that he will let us see him.

2.  In the last few months, the Ukrainian court system has decided to put all of the court cases together, instead of keeping the adoption separate, so we will be put in a stack with criminal cases, civil cases, etc.  Whoever is on top, gets to go first, so Natalia says it could take up to 2 weeks to even get a court date and once, we do, we have no idea what kind of judge we will get. We are not guaranteed a judge who specializes in adoptions.  In the Dossier process, we saw God bring us documents in three days that we were told would take six weeks, so we are asking God for a miracle to get us an early court date.  He can put our papers right on top if he wants to!!!

3.  Also, our children are really struggling and missing us right now - would you please pray for them as well!!


Thanks you so much for your prayers and support!

David and Laura Lynn

PS: We have been having some great times with Vitya.  He always calls us Mom and Dad now.

We have made it one week!!

We have now been in away from home from one week and in Ukraine for 6 days. It is amazing how much we have experienced in those 6 days and the run of emotions we have felt.

We are just about done with the paperwork stage here in Odessa.  Monday, we will get Vitya's medical records and give everything to the regional director.  She will will make a report for the court and then they will set us a court date to make the adoption legal.  WE are praying that the date will be next week, but Wednesday is a national holiday, so they don't work on Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Vitya wrote a paper yesterday stating that he did want to be adopted by us, so that part is official.  PTL  We have been given amazing favor in the time that we have been allowed to spend with him.  Yesterday, we were able to take him away from the orphanage and out to get pizza.  We enjoy so much being with him, but yesterday, we did not have a translator, so communication was very frustrating, especially for him and Laura Lynn, as they are both communicators.  The first hour, we used a dictionary and kept pointing to words, but that got tiring after a while.  Right now, Vitya is not interested in learning too much Enlgish because he is still in a Russian speaking country. He thinks that we need to study more Russian.  We are trying, but it is a difficult language.

Our translator left yesterday afternoon, so we are on our own for the weekend.  Our friends, the Elliots are here now so it is nice to have their company.  This morning, David and the Elliots have gone to a thrift store to get some clothes for the kids.  This afternoon, we may visit with Vitya at the camp, but this time we will take some activities to do as we will not have a translator. Also, it will be our first attempt on the bus by ourselves.  Ugh!  Tomorrow, we will go to Urainian church, but with some friends of the Ellisors who speak English.  Monday, the Elliots head back to Kiev to start the process for their second child.

This morning, we were talking and just realizing that Vitya has no idea what a mother and father are like because he has never been exposed to any, except what he has seen in very unGodly movies and books.   His birth mother gave him up before he was every born, so he neve knew her.  And all of the women in his life, have been strict, authoritarian leaders who have often physically abused him.  So, it is scary to think that what we show him now is the view that he will develop for always about parents.  It's kind of like when our children are babies.  We are shaping his mindset.  We are so glad we have God's spirit in us and His help.

We write again, probably on Monday, when we have some more details about our court date.  Thank you again so much for your prayers!

Miracles and prayer needs

We rejoice in the Lord greatly! We saw the Lord faithfully bring in $6000.00 in just a few days. Thank you Jesus!
We had an exciting day today! We continue to see the hand of the lord at work in this adoption process, we had great favor today and met Vitya for the first time. It was awesome. He happened to be at the orphanage, not at camp. So we were able to meet him. We spent 30 minutes with him. He stated he does want to be adopted by us. Which is great! He loves basketball, swimming, painting and art, the color yellow, he loves music. They stated he is very responsible, and likes school. It was a dream come true seeing him.
We have continued prayer needs...
The adoption will be more than expected. We will need an additional $2500.00 and the expenses living here will be more than expected.
Currently we need an extra $1250.00 by tomorrow for lodging for one month.
We need an extra $2500.00 by this friday for adoption fees (for a total of $11,000)
And we will be needing about another $8000.00 to come home. We can give a specific breakdown if people are interested.
We believe God is faithful and will provide every dollar needed to bring Vitya home!
Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

We are in Ukraine

We are Ukraine!  We had good plane rides from Charlotte to Munich and Munich to Kiev.  We had amazing favor in customs.  Not even questioned.  Met another couple who was adoptiong and they were grilled.

Arrived very tired.  We spent our first two days in Kiev staying at a church and we walked everywhere we went.  Our translator dropped us off with a cell phone that had her number and we were pretty much on our own except for adoption appointments.  Communication is difficult.

We were staying in the old part of the city, so we were able to walk to many areas and see things and eat, etc.  We have eaten only Ukrainian food so far and loved it!  Borsch is Great!

Monday, we had our SDA appointment and it was very short and simple. We were approved for adoption within 15 minutes.  The rest of the day, we slept and then had dinner at a nice Ukrainian buffet and enjoyed the cool weather in a park.

Monday night, we could not sleep, so we slept half of Tuesday, then we met our translator at the SDA and got our referral documents that afternoon.  Afterwards, we were able to see some of the historic sights, such as St. Micheal's cathedral. It was beautiful, but seemed so dead spiritually.  At 9 pm, we left for the train station.  There we met our new translator, Nataliya and we rode on the train for 8 hours all nite to Odessa.  It was a rough ride and we are very tired.

We have just arrived at our apartment in Odessa.  It is nice.  In one hour, we leave to start all of our appointments, and then this afternoon, we finally meet Vitya.  We are excited, nervous and tired all at the same time.  We have internet now, so we will write when we can. 

Please pray for favor in the next few days.  The timing of the whole process rests in the hands of the people we are meeting with.

We are on our way!!

We are sitting in the Charlotte airport right now, getting ready to board the plane for Munich, Germany.  It all kind of seems surreal.  It is hard to believe that we are actually on our way to get our son.  We have an 8 hour flight to Germany and then a 5 hr. layover in Munich.  We are hoping to leave the airport and see a little of the city.  We leave around 1:00 (Germany time) and arrive in Kiev Sunday at 4:15 Ukraine time (they are 7 hours ahead of us, so that will be around 9:00 am SC time). 

We are really excited but very tired.  It was alot of work getting off, but we had alot of help from alot of great friends! 

PTL!  We needed right at about $6000 to leave on our trip (airfare, plus 1/2 of our adoption fee) and we left with a little over $6100.  God is so good!

We have our appointment in Kiev on Monday, will pick up our referral on Tuesday and will head down to Odessa on the train Tuesday night.  We arrive in Odessa on Wednesday and will hopefully see Vitya the next day. 

We will not be able to update again until we get to Odessa where we will have internet. Thank you for all of your prayers...




W

Countdown Miracles!!

PTL!  The Countdown has begun and the miracles have started.  3 days until we leave for Ukraine to get our precious son.
Yesterday, we only had $500 towards the cost of the trip and no money to get plane tickets.
Today, we recived $2000 in one day and we have purchased our plane tickets. 

God told us He wanted to do BIG miracles with the finances for the trip and He is!!  He is so faithful.
We know He will meet all our needs!!!!

We'll send out our plane schedule and schedule for our time in Ukraine tomorrow....

Until later...

THE BIG DAY HAS ARRIVED! WE HAVE OUR APPOINTMENT!

 PTL,we have our adoption appointment on August 12, so we will probably leave to go to Ukraine around August 8 or 9th. We are soooo excited!! Now for the BIG walk of faith for the $15,000 needed to get there, stay there, and do the adoption. We have had so many miracles already, we have doubt that God will provide for our needs! He is soooo Faithful!!!!  Thanks so much for all of your prayers!  Vitya is coming home soon.....

Another miracle: The Ukrainian SDA will remain open for adoptions!

God is continuing to do miracles!!  We came home last week from our trip, prepared to wait for a few months to go get Vitya because it seemed that the Ukranian State Department of Adoption (SDA) was definitely going to shut down on July 11.  We were disappointed, yet knew we had to trust in God's perfect timing.

Yesterday, on July 11, however, we recieved an email from our facilitator saying that there was an 80% chance that the SDA was going to stay open, so we began praying and waiting to see what would happen.

Today we saw the official announcement from the State Department, that the SDA will stay open.  PTL!  He does hold the governments in His Hands!!

So what does this mean for us?
1.  We will not have to wait for three months for the agency to start making appointments again.
2.  Since the SDA already has our paperwork, we now just hae to wait until they contact our facilitator to give us a date for an appointment.
3.  We could go as early as the next three weeks, but we really don't know.

So....we are waiting, praying, and back in "get ready to go" mode again.  Thank you for your prayers!  We will let you know as soon as we have an appointment date.

Below is a copy of the State Department announcement:

Adoption Alert: Ukraine

Presidential order expected to allow SDA to continue processing adoptions in Ukraine

July 12, 2011

On July 8, 2011, the president of Ukraine signed an order which extends the State Department on Adoption’s (SDA’s) authority to process adoptions.  We have been informed by the SDA that the order will not take effect until the order is published, likely within a few days.  The SDA currently is not accepting adoption applications.  According to the order, the SDA will have the authority to continue processing adoptions until the Ministry of

Social policy is ready to take over as the new adoption authority in Ukraine.  The Ministry does not yet know when they will be prepared to take over adoption processing.

We will continue to ask the Ukrainian government to resume adoptions as quickly as possible.  We will also

continue to encourage the Ministry of Social Policy to protect adoptions where U.S. prospective adoptive parents have already been approved by the SDA to adopt a particular child.

According to the SDA, there are approximately 139 U.S. families registered with the SDA, some of them already in-country.  We will be following new developments closely to understand how they will affect the families

currently in process and will be posting relevant updates.  In that respect, we recommend that all American

families that are currently in Ukraine or have appointments with SDA during the next few weeks send their

contact information to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine’s Adoption Unit at: kyivadoptions@state.gov.  Families should contact their local adoption service provider for further updates and details.

Updated information will be provided on www.adoption.state.gov as it becomes available. 

No news yet! Still waiting......

Wish we had new news to give, but no news from the Ukraine yet.  The SDA has had our application for nine days now, so we should hear soon if they are going to stay open and give us an appointment, or if we will have to wait for the new agency.  We still believe that God wants us to get Vitya soon, but we are waiting on His Perfect timing.  He knows the exact time Vitya is supposed to get here!  Please be in prayer that the SDA would stay open and not close on July 11, if this is God's will.  Please pray for patience for us and please continue to be in prayer for Vitya.  Thank you for all your prayers....

His Timing is Perfect!

Our facilitator in Ukraine was not able to get us an early appointment next week as the SDA is giving no more appointments at all.   However, there is now a rumor that the SDA is not going to shut down on July 11 and may continue to function for another couple of weeks after that date.  That would mean that we still could get an appointment to Ukraine sometime in the first two weeks in July.  This is probably the next miracle we need to pray for.

Obviously, the early appointment was not God's will or it would have happened.  We just have to trust in His timing. He will bring Vitya home when it is His time!  Thanks you for your prayers....

NEED ANOTHER HUGE MIRACLE

Today, we found out from our facilitator that he took our dossier papers to the Ukranian State Adoption Agency (SDA) and they would not take them until Wednesday because of the category we are in.  We also found out that adoptions are officially closing on July 11 and they are taking no more appointments after June 30. Our facilitator is going in Wednesday morning (Tuesday evening our time) to entreat on our behalf to get us an appointment before June 30.  Usually, appointments take two weeks, which we don't have.  Basically, God will have to do a HUGE miracle to get us in this quickly.  But He has done it so many times already, we know He can do it!!!  Please pray on Tuesday for favor for our facilitator and a miracle appointment before June 30!!!  If this doesn't happen, we will have to wait 2-6 months and do our dossier all over again.  God has been in such a big hurry so far, that we really believe that he doesn't want us to wait.  So we are praying and believing.....

A Little Delay

Found out this morning we accidently sent two of LL's police clearances to Ukraine and none of Davd's, so we will have to Fed Ex David's today (from Colorado).  This will delay the process some, but thankfully, we had the papers with us.  We are resting in the fact that it is all in God's timing!  Thank you for your prayers.....

WE HAVE OUR MIRACLE!

PTL!  WE HAVE OUR MIRACLE!  WE HAVE BEEN APPROVED FOR ADOPTION!  The US portion of our adoption is finished!  We had to have our immigration approval by Thursday  in order to get our paperwork done and in the mail before we left for our out west trip.  And once again, God came through with flying colors!!!!  Yesterday, we received our approval, the exact day we had to have it!  Plus, there were so many other miracles involved in the process that we can't share them all.  We had several amazing people who were involved in expediting our process and they were all Christians, another "God thing".

Today, we mail our documents to our facilitator in Ukraine.  We had already sent him scanned copies, so the translation process has already been underway.  When he is finished with translation, he sends the documents to the Ukranian embassy and then we wait.  When the Ukranian government is ready, then they will issue us an invitation to come to Ukraine to get Vitya.  We will be in Ukraine for about 4-5 weeks, although David can come home after 2 weeks to go bacvk to work.  We are leaving this Sunday to drive across country to Idaho to see David's family and then on to Arizona for a mission's trip.  Lord willing, we will receive an invitation  while we are away to come to Ukraine in July.

Thank you for all your prayers! 

Need another miracle quickly!!

PTL!  We have all of our Dossier documents done and approved.  The only one we are still waiting on is our approval from US immigration.  Today, we found out we have a little snag with this document.  I talked this morning to our immigration officer.  She has our application and our fingerprints and iis ready to go, but she hasn't received our homestudy yet.  She said that the mailroom has 10 working days to get it on her desk once they receive it, which was probably on May 27 or 31st, so they haven't done that yet.  The good news is she is working for us.  She already went down to the mailroom to check for it and told them to send it directly to her as soon as they lay their hands on it.  As soon as she approves it, she will fax us our approval.  At that time, I am going to ask her if I can pay to have the original  second day aired to us. We are planning to leave on Saturday to go to Idaho to visit David's family  and then on to Arizona for our mission trip, so we are asking the Lord for a miracle for the homestudy to get on her desk today, if it is his will.  We need to get it by Thursday's mail so that we can get it Apostilled and mailed on Friday. We really need to have it to Ukraine before we go. Otherwise, we will have to postpone our trip.  But we know that God is a God of miracles and we have seen it many times, so we will trust that His will and timing be done!!  Thank you for praying!!!!

Laura Lynn

The end is in sight!!

Down to the last three adoption documents.  Lord willing, we will mail everything in tomorrow!  We are so ready to be done with this part of the process.

God is in Control!!

I just wanted to share with you what the Lord put on my heart during my Quiet Time this morning.  This is His Words to me:

" Don't get bound up by man's report.  Do you not realize how much I am in control here.  I hold this adoption and Vitya and you  in the palm of my hand - I hold tthe Ukranian government in the palm of my hand and  the US government, too.    You are all pawns in my hand. Nothing can happen that I don't allow and everything I will, must come to pass!  So rest, my little one, and be at peace.  It is all under my control!  It is my desire that Vitya be your child and He will be!!  You just relax and I will work it all out, in my time and my way!"

PLEASE BE IN PRAYER TODAY!!

We need some miracles today! 

1.  We are working with a lady who is checking all of our documents that need to be sent to Ukraine and she has found quite a few problems with them.  Thank the Lord, we have her to catch them before the Dossier goes to Ukraine and then would have had to be sent back.  However, this means we will spend all day today going back to places we have already been and having to get documents redone.  Please pray for favor and contact with just the right people and grace and patience for us.

2.  We have an assistant from one of the SC Senator's office contacting immigration on our behalf to try and expedite our fingerprint and immigration process.  Need prayer for this as well...

3.  Our expenses are mounting very quickly and we are at the bottom of our barrel.   However, we know that God's barrel is full, so we are praying for some big financial miracles in the next few days!

Thanks so Much!!!

More Favor from our awesome God!!

Today, we took our chances and went down to Charleston to try and get our fingerprints done early.  Our appointment was for June 8, but we didn't sense we should wait that long.  We prayed about it and the Lord told us that He would give us favor whenever we went.  To make a long story short, we were in and our of the office in 15 minutes and got our fingerprints.  Isn't God amazing!!

We also have been connected by some of our friends with a woman who will be checking our Dossier our documents to go to the Ukraine) and she has already been such a blessing!  She is going way out of her way to help us get this right the first time so that we don't have it sent back.

God has just so much had His hand in this adoption every step of the way and we are just blown away!  What He wants to be accomplished will be done!!!!



 

Discouragement and Favor: Seeing and Trusting the Hand of God

The last week has been up and down for us.  Last week, we were feeling discouraged about some things, especially about our lack of finances for the adoption. But  our loving God just kept being patient with us and reminding us that HE is in control and that HE will take care of all our needs.  We just keep asking Him to help us with be strong in our faith!

The last few days, we have seen some real examples of God's favor in the adoption process. Yesterday, I called immigration to check to see if our fingerprinting appointments had been mailed out and as it turned out, the lady I talked to had our paper right on her desk and did the appointment for me right there and faxed it to me, so we didn't have to wait for days.  She even got us an earlier appointment and she said that it was amazing that I called when I did because the paper had just been put on her desk that morning.  I also found out that our home study is in with an immigration officer right now, so it made it through DSS and had an amazing turnaround time getting to immigration.

It seems as if God is really rushing up this adoption and causing things to happen so quickly.  When I talked to the fingerprint lady yesterday, she said that we could go down to Charleston early before our appointment date and see if they will just let us walk in  Often, they will do this, but we run the risk of not getting seen and having gone to Charleston and wasting a tank of gas.  Some other friends of ours who are also adopting are going in the morning, so we are praying about whether we should go tomorrow, too, or wait until Tuesday.  Either way, we will need favor!

We have a copy of our home study in already to our Ukranian facilitator and he is translating it now.  We have sent in our Dossier documents (the documents needed for the Ukranian embassy) to a professional  Dossier checker and when she is done,, we will also send those in for translation.  This could be done by the weekend.  So, there is a possibility we could have the entire Dossier in to Ukraine by next week, if we get our approval from immigration by Wednesday.  We said a month ago that getting everything done this quick would be a miracle and so far, God has done it.

Our biggest need right now is still the finances.  We will need $2000 to send in the Dossier, but my daughter,  Hannah, keeps reminding me that God often likes to come through at the last minute, so we are holding on to faith and speaking out that He HAS provided!

Thank you for your prayers!

The Home Study is Done and the Approval Process is Underway

We are so excited!!  The home study is done and now in the hands of DSS.  Once they approve it, they will send it to immigration.  Once they approve it, they will send it to us along with our adoption approval letter.
We are praying this process will be done in very quick time.  Please pray for miracles on this: that the home study and application would go to just the right,  quick processing,  and quick approval.

While this is being processed, we are working on the official documents that need to go to the Ukrainian government.  This is called our Dossier.  Once we get the immigration approval letter, we will send all this to our facilitator in Ukraine and he will translate it and send it to State Adoption Agency.

We are sensing more and more that God wants to get Vitya here quickly.  We are sensing that we may receive an invitation to go over about mid-June.  For this to happen this quickly, it would take a miracle.  But our God just loves doing miracles!!!We just feel that we are to be ready and when He says go, we go.

We are in the process of fixing up Vitya's bedroom and it has been so fun.  We asked one of the ladies who works with him to ask him his favorite colors and his favorite color is yellow, which is already the color of the bedroom.  Isn't that amazing?.  God is preparing it just for him!!

The other big miracle that we need right now is provision for the adoption.  We still need about $16.000 in the next two week, but We know that God is faithful and He will take care of our needs!!!!

Thanks you for your prayers......

DELAYS! DELAYS! or Waiting on the Lord's Timing!

The last few days have been hard because it seems like there have been so many hold ups in the process moving forward.  We finally have what we think we may need to use for insurance, but we are still waiting on letters from the offices and one had to be redone.  We have had to have other papers redone that had been done wrong, been mailing lots of items next day air, etc., etc.  A lot of red tape...... and waiting.....  We are trying to press in to the Lord and release this to Him and wait on His timing.  No matter how it seems sometime, the government is not in control, He is!!!! And we have to trust in that and try and wait peacefully.   We need to try and stand on the well-known verse in Isaiah that says, "They they wait of the Lord will renew their strength (as we are tired emotionally and physically); they will run and not be weary; they will walk and not faint..."

Please pray:

1)That we would get the home study proofed, we would get the documents we need and get it all to DSS in the next two days.

2)For favor with DSS and immigration in the next two weeks and a quick transition through the process.

3) Peace for us as we are waiting

4)  Financial provision and faith to trust Him for this.  We have already put forth $2000 out of our own money and we will be needing quite a bit more in the next few weeks.  Sometimes, the needs are overwhelming.

Thanks for all you prayers......

Where we are now - Needing two big Miracles!!

Our social worker is now back in the country and writing up our home study, but we have one big glitch:

**Miracle #1:  We are having trouble getting insurance for Vitya.  We did not have insurance before now, so it has been very difficult to find someone who would insure us because we are adopting.  However, we have to have insurance for him to meet immigration requirements.  Right now, we have several options, so please pray for favor that one of the will be sufficient, so that we can move forward with the process.  This needs to happen in the next couple of days.

**Miracle #2:  We have now heard rumor that the SDA is shutting down on June 15, which means we would have to have everything done here in the US ( DSS approval and Immigration approval) and have all of our paperwork to the Ukraine by the end of May.  In the natural, this is really not possible, but God works in the supernatural!!  He can do miracles.    We are not sure what His will is in this situation.  He could have the SDA stay open longer, help our paperwork go through quicker, or have us wait until the next agency reopens adoptions.  We sense it will be sooner than later though that we will go get Vitya.  Would appreciate your prayers!

**  We are also in need of finances for the adoption NOW.  We have already put forth almost $2000.00 out of our own pockets and we have nothing left.  We must have about $5000 in the next few weeks to finish the process.  We trust though that God is our provider and He can do anything!!

Thank you so much for you prayers!!!

Speeding up the process and seeing God's Miracles

About 2 weeks ago, we were told by our facilitator in Ukraine that the Ukranian State Department of Adoption was officially closing down and all of the adoptions were being transferred to another department.  He encouraged us to get all of our paperwork as soon as possible.  At the time, no one had a date for the closure, but knew it could be anytime.

We had planned to have our home study in May and were thinking about adopting next Fall, but this announcement drastically changed things.  We had to get all of our home study paperwork done in about three days (including autobiographies of ten pages each)  and had out social worker come out the next week.  It was a stressful time, but we did see some miracles in the process.  There were two document that we had to have from Los Angeles  (David' home) for the home study to be processed.  One we were told could take 6 to 8 weeks, the other 6 mths. to a year.  Both we got in three days, PTL!!!  Just more confirmation that He is definitely in this.

The Adoption Process So Far

We are very blessed to be helped by a non-profit adoption  ministry called Open Arms. The  directors, Steve and Carol Ellisor, are friends of ours.  They have already adopted 4 children from Ukraine and have already been a HUGE help to us in walking through the international adoption process.!

The first step we have had to do as part of our adoption process is our Home Study.  Carol and Steve recommended a social worker for us who is doing our Home Study for us.  Her name is Teresa Smith and she is a strong Christian and a wonderful person to work with.  Up to this point, we are almost finished with our portion of the home study.  We filled out loads of paperwork, gathered lots of vital documents  and then last week, we had Teresa come to our home and interview us and look at our home.  We cleaned for a week to prepare and were exhausted!  Praise the Lord, the home study went well. Teresa is currently out of the country, but will return next week and will write up our study and send it to DSS.  Once DSS approves it, they will send it to US immigration for approval.

The next step for us is what is called our dossier.  The dossier is all of the legal documents that we have gather for the Ukraine part of the adoption.  We are already corresponding with a Ukranian facilitator who is helping us with the adoption process on the Ukranian end.

How It All Began

About a year  ago, our middle daughter, Bethany, began having dreams nightly about a boy who was saying, "I am waiting for you.  Come and get me."  She was really impacted by these dreams but none of us really knew what to think about them at the time.  Very  soon, however, we were to find out just what they were about!

A few months later, on August 17, 2010, a missionary from Ukraine came to speak at our church and brought pictures of some of the orphans that she works with.  As we were looking at the pictures, Bethany pointed to one of the boys and said, "That is the boy in my dream!"  We were amazed!    We found out his name and some information about him.  Then, we took his picture home  and began to pray for him.

From the very beginning, Bethany knew that Vitya was to be a part of our family and in the next few months, the Lord began to show that to each one of us at different times. .  At this time, however, David was not open to adoption, so the rest of us just continued to pray for Vitya and wait.  In the meantime, the love we had in our hearts for him began to grow and the Lord was confirming to me that Vitya was to be our son.

On March 17, the long awaited day finally came.  While David was riding in his truck, the Lord spoke clearly to him and said, "This is your son.  Go get him!"  We were estatic!!  We all knew this was the leading of the Lord that the time was right to begin the adoption process!   So, on March 18, 2011, we began the formal process of BRINGING VITYA HOME!