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.