What a great thing to see first thing in the morning!

I woke up this morning to find these pictures from Curtis!!! What a great thing to wake up to see!!! These are pictures of the kids that are going to be adopted from this area getting their English tutoring lessons. It is obviously nice to see Dima....not being so excited for his lessons..but to see the other kids from the hosting program as well! When they were all here, you fell in love with them all!

It looks like Dima just came from his boxing (more like mixed martial arts here) lessons so he was probably bummed. I get the feeling getting him to school is going to be a challenge. Luckily he's a smart kid that really picked up things easily, but he just enjoys sports more:) Dusty and I were laughing that Nastya (sitting next to Dima) has a notebook and Dima just has one piece of paper!! I guess that's probably why we haven't received any letters back from Dima.

Although it was awesome to see these pictures, it broke my heart to see the dark circles under Dima's eyes. I can't wait to get him home again to see the color back in his face from getting proper nutrition! After seeing these pictures, we are going to try our best to call Homeland Security and our local Representatives to get the fingerprinting paperwork pushed through!!

Update

Thanks to Curtis (missionary that visits orphanage) for taking this picture of Dima at the orphanages new cafeteria celebration. Dima is the 2nd one on the left not looking directly into the camera. Curtis said Dima was being shy and this was the only picture that he was able to get. Dusty and I keep looking at this picture. It's so good to be able to see him again! Dusty was also thrilled to see he still has Dusty's watch on. Curtis says he is doing well and going to his English tutoring lessons. He also mentioned he has been busy with his boxing trainer.....oh boy! I was hoping when we asked Dima what sports he liked and one of them was boxing, he wasn't that serious about it:) Oh well, we will support him in whatever he wants to do when he gets here.

As far as the adoption process. We heard some disturbing news about the process after getting our fingerprinting done. There is a chance that it may take a little longer than we originally expected. After getting our fingerprints, it is to assigned to an officer and then we will be sent a letter saying we are good to go. When another family that is adopting called in, they were told that it could take up to 90 days for this process!!! We are hoping they are just telling people that to cover themselves if it takes a while. I was able to call and find out that we have no records, so why would this process take so long?? Doesn't make sense. We are going to contact our State Senator to ask them to push it along for us. If any of you that are adopting and reading this, let me know and I'll send you the form you have to fill out and fax. Pray this works!!

Please spread the word!!!

I have copied an email from Lori who just adopted Ana. If anyone would like more information, PLEASE contact Lori!! We met these children and can agree that they are all amazing kids and would be great children to adopt!!! I am very sad to see that they are not going to be adopted as we thought they were going to be. Please read below and spread the word!!!!

We have three children needing adoptive homes. Eighteen children are being adopted and there are three without a home please pray for these children that God will move in the hearts of a family to provide a home for these children to belong to. If you know of anyone who may be interested please have them contact me. (Lori)

Siblings

Anastasiya age 8 Denis Age 7

Nostya and Denis are sweet children who have been in the orphanage for 5 years. Nostya mothers Denis and takes the role of his care giver. They are very close and depend upon each other. Nostya and Denis need a mother to provide the care taking nurturing role so Nostya can be the little girl she has missed being. She is a very intelligent little girl with a great imagination and who has lots of love to give. Denis needs someone he can trust who will not let him down, he is hesitant to form bonds initially but warms up when in a stable environment. When Curtis (the missionary) visited the orphanage last week Denis and Dema were discussing how much they loved their time in America and both boys were talking about when their families would be coming to get them. Right now Denis does not have a family coming to get him and his sister, we need to find them a home before all the other children starts leaving with their families and they do not have someone to come for them. They are the only children in their orphanage who traveled on the hosting program who are not being adopted at this time.

Valeray Age 8

Valeray is a sweet blue eyed little boy who loves other children and having someone to play with. He is loving, warm and bright. He would make a wonderful addition to any family.

We have many pictures of these children and much more information. If you are interested please contact me.

Lori Walk
Truth Quest Ministries
520 Schoch Hollow RD
Tyrone, PA 16686
(814) 312-3204

Getting closer.....

Wednesday we got together with some of the other parents that are going to be adopting from the same hosting camp that we are. We have all become close and share ideas. It's been so helpful and fun spending time with this group! I can't wait until we get together when ALL the kids are adopted and home!! It was nice to hear that everyone is progressively moving forward with little problems. We pray that it continues that way. We all agreed that David Avilla from Advocates for Orphans International has been a tremendous help and worth his weight in gold! He is always willing to help us out when we need it and has all the steps to what we have to do when, where, how much, etc. We have all our trust in David and everyone he works with.

Yesterday, Dusty and I drove all of our notarized forms, except for one of the most important forms, to Harrisburg. We had to get them apostilled, which is basically notarizing the notary and saying they are legit. Today we sent all the paperwork to the agent we are using in the Ukraine. He will look over it again to make sure they have everything and there aren't any mistakes that we missed. He will then translate it. Our next step is waiting for a letter from Homeland Security to invite us to Pittsburgh for our fingerprints. Once we receive a letter, we'll make the drive to Pittsburgh to get fingerprinted. If I understand it correctly, we wait for a letter saying we are not dangerous or something. We will then get a copy of that notarized and apostilled to send to the Ukraine. That letter will be very important to get to the Ukraine.....hopefully we will remember to take it with us, haha. After all this is sent to the Ukraine, we basically wait for a date for us to make our arrangements to the Ukraine. The first trip will be longer than the second trip due to the court dates and stuff. Second trip I will fly back to pick Dima up. The way things look now, I may be there over Christmas and New Years.

Things are moving along, pray that it continues to move a long smoothly. Last week we sent a letter to Dima through the missionary (Curtis) whom came with them on the hosting program. He translated a letter for us to give to him. We were so excited to hear how he responded, but unfortunately, the kids were busy and Curtis could only drop off the letter for him. He did hear that he was "pumped up". It is so nice to know that he received a letter so he doesn't think we have forgotten about him. We are going to send a letter each week. We will keep him updated on the adoption process as he really likes to know the order of things.....I really think I had this kid and didn't realize it!!!

Paperwork......it's like a second job.

This week has been a very interesting week for us. We've been working on the adoption paperwork likes it's a second job and then Dusty has a scary bike crash on Labor Day. We just went out for an easy off road bike ride and the next thing I knew, Dusty is in the ambulance! He didn't crash hard, but the way he fell was bad. He initially had tingling down his legs and he said he felt 3 pops when he fell on his butt. When he asked for me to get an ambulance, I knew it was bad! Long story short, he has 3 fractured vertebrae and doesn't have to get surgery. Hopefully it will heal in about 3 months. He later told me his first thoughts were....I am not going to be able to make the trip to get Dima:( That broke my heart. He is feeling a little better each day, but it's going to be a long time of healing. Hopefully he'll be better for the trip. It's a long trip as it is, and being in pain will make it that much longer!

So, with Dusty's fall, I've tried to step it up for the paperwork. We are basically getting all the documents for the Ukraine. The first round of paperwork was for the US basically and the Home Study to make sure we were suited for adoption. Now we have to do same things again and then some for the Ukraine. We have most of the paperwork done and notarized. Now we have to make a trip to Harrisburg to get that paperwork apostilled, which is basically notarizing what we had locally notarized!! After we get all of that sent to the Ukraine, it's basically a waiting game to see when the Ukraine will invite us to finalize things. They will give us at least a month in advance so we can get our flights. I've been keeping an eye out on different flights and it's a lot of flying! Once we get to Kiev, the capital, then it's another 9hr train ride to the orphanage. We just keep looking at it that it's a SMALL inconvenience after he's been in the orphanage since he was 3 or 4!!

Some pictures from hosting trip

Dima went to his first baseball game. We met another host family that is adopting Dima's really good friend at a Spikes game. Dima had me laughing so hard because he was tickling me!!

Dima's first trail run. He has really good form for never running before!! He said trail running was "so-so". I think once he does his first race, he's going to like it more. He is very competitive!!

Dima and Dusty fishing together. They had a blast!!

Hurry back home!!

Ok, so I never expected to have gotten attached in such a short amount of time!! Dima is an amazing kid and there's not a day that goes by that we are not thinking about him and wanting him back in our home! The trip taking Dima and the other orphans back to the airport was heartbreaking. As much as I told myself that the next time I'll see Dima, I'll be his Mama, it really didn't help the horrible gut feeling in my stomach. The children were absolutely strong when they left, us future parents on the other hand....not as strong. They are so strong as they usually do not cry because it's a sign of weakness in their culture. It was nice to be with other families that were in the same situation as us so we all comforted each other after they got on the airplane. The bus ride back from Philly was a lot quieter than going to the airport.

When Dusty and I got home, the realization set in, but the next day we started working hard on the next round of paperwork. We have been so busy with this round of paperwork it's amazing. We hope to have everything done this week and ready to send. We want to make sure we have everything correct and what is needed so it doesn't cause any delays. I am not exactly sure of the next steps, but sounds like we pretty much will have just a few more things to do. Mostly we wait to hear when we are invited to the Ukraine. We are hoping everything will go well and we will make our first trip no later than the beginning of December. Dusty and I both have to make the first trip which will hopefully be about 14 days long. We will then come back home for about 10 days and then I will make the 2nd trip to pick Dima up. The second trip will hopefully be around 7-10 days. There is a good chance I will be gone during the holidays, but we will have a BIG celebration when we get back!

We are excited to have met a lot of the people that we are working with in America and in the Ukraine. It will be nice to see familiar faces when we arrive there. Currently we are in contact with the missionary that came with the children. His name is Curtis and he so graciously has allowed us and the other families to send him letters to the children they are adopting. He will translate the letters to the children. Before we met Dima, we heard we would be able to send letters, but we weren't sure he'd receive them. With meeting Curtis, we now know he will give the letters to Dima and he is also keeping us updated on his visits to the orphanage. He told us the kids are so excited to come back to America to live with their future families. They love looking at their pictures and watching the DVD of the pictures from camp. Curtis told Dima that we miss him very much and are working hard to get him back. Curtis said he misses us well and is very fond of us. Being the sweetheart he is, he walked Curtis partway back to his apartment asking him all kinds of questions about the adoption and coming to America.

Off to do more paperwork.....