Court and now we wait

We went to court today, and it went well. It really was no big deal but still nerve wrecking. Court was at 10  and we were picked up at 9 and  I had ten min to get ready. we headed to to the orphanage to start with and then to the court house. The best part of the experience except for of course making it all official is trying to figure out the court system it truly looks like a mess! there are no signs and tons of people just walking in and out of rooms, Ryan and I spent a good 30 min trying to find the rhyme and reason but as far as we could see there is non, at least to us foreigners.  Nothing fancy but here is a pic at court.

Ryan and I had a small break down last night we want to be home so I told him we needed to list 5 things that we love about Donets'k first of course being Oleg, that aside our 5 things we love: cheap beer, great milk, awesome juice, organized grocery stores, and cheese!!! That seemed to make us feel better, our journey is coming to an end but not at fast as we wished, it seems as if we will miss our travel date a week so we will be here a total of 6 weeks, we hope no longer. A recent blog we read was talking about the uncertainty we face here in the Ukraine, there is just so much that is out of our control!! if you want a lesson on faith and trusting God alone, do a Ukraine adoption :) but we have no complaints we have learned so much about ourselves, each other, our family, and our faith that we have been blessed to struggle through this!! It is only a small cross to bare. For now we are enjoying the journey, not only our journey but the Dehanns it is like watching a sappy life time movie, just when they seem to give up God intervenes and keeps the ball rolling and though the boy has not said yes they are doing everything!! even the stuff that we could not think of, only God could open those doors, it is so cool to see. Keep praying it is working!! here are some pictures of the market and of course Oleg.

have a blessed day we love you all so very much!

Pictures and Pictures

Here are some more pictures of Oleg and us.

 

So we will see him again tonight then we are going to the big soccer match at 8.  Looks like the internet is working again so we will keep you updated on how court goes tomorrow at 10am.  Talk to you soon.

Still truckin

Sorry you haven't heard from us in a few days we again do not have internet and we have to go to the internet cafe where it smells like smoke, yuck but I know that you are all patiently waiting for us to write on the blog. We have had a great few day seeing Oleg in the morning and night, the morning is so hard cause he really wants to be with his friends playing. They do fun activities in the morning and he runs back to the room wanting to join. So Ryan and I decided that we would just see him in the evening. when we see him in the evening he is in such an amazing mood and just tonight he has started giving us the biggest kisses. It is so cute and we love him so very much. We did get some more pictures including a family picture but of course I grabbed the wrong cord for the camera, yuck!!  I am loosing my mind.  We want to go home so bad, but beside Oleg, of course, our saving grace has been the Dehaans. I truly don't know what we would do without them. Our days pretty much consist of Oleg, season 1 of Lost and dinner with the Dehaans. Each day we spend with him is so amazing, we are learning so much about him, we learned how to stop his fits. It is pretty funny really that we find enjoyment in getting him to stop throwing a fit!! it's the small things!! he is Just so full of energy and go, go, goes, and he hates the word no but what toddler doesn't. He loves to fly like super man and love to listen to music he walks down the hall dancing, stinking cute. 

We are scheduled for court on Friday, it's good, it is still this week but we will not be able to get him out of the orphanage on his birthday, we will be getting him out on the 15th, but that is better than waking another week so no complaints. 

The Dehaans are patiently waiting and hoping that Sergei, the boy, says yes but at this point he is still saying no. Both of our hearts are breaking for them, we so desperately want it to work out for them, but it is very hopeful that at least they will bring the girl home!!  Please, Please, Please pray like you have never prayed before!!! Sergei needs a good home and we just hope that he sees that the Dehaans can provide that for him and his sister. They have one more day to convince him, so as they put it, it is go time!! Please when you wake today pray all day, that our amazing Lord will move this boys heart!! 

thanks we love you!!!

counting down the days!!

Well, we are enjoying our time with Oleg we get to see him twice a day. He is getting more attached and of course he has already stolen our hearts. It is a very strange feeling to see your son being dressed and cared for by someone else, it breaks my heart we want to be the one changing him and feeding him.... but we need to patiently wait! We are enjoying our time with the Dehaans we love them so much and we are so blessed to have them with us. We have been cooking dinner every night, honestly the grocery stores are better here then in the States:) everything is organized better and even though we can not read it we can pretty much figure it all out, so it has been nice to cook and feel more like home. we have been so busy posting pics of Oleg we have not posted pictures of the very nice apartment we are staying in.

We were able to go to the soccer (football) game last night here in Donets'k the team is waxtap (that is the Russian spelling, our spelling would be shaktar) it was so much fun and great memories that we will be able to share with Oleg one day we also bought him a soccer scarf for his room!

here are some more pictures of Oleg he is starting to really listen to us and again I know that I am biased but he is sooooo smart he know which mama to talk to to get candy, and he listens so well to them! He loves to play super man and is enjoying all his new toys we bring. We just love him so much we can't stand it we are looking forward to getting him all to ourselves and being his soul care takers.

he is so cute he gets shy sometime and covers his face when we take a picture, it is soo cute!

this is a picture of his cubby at the orphanage with all his outside gear, but they never let us take him outside, the other picture is what him mamas put on him just to play in the room with us, he get so hot it is so funny we defiantly have to strip him down so he doesn't get too hot.

As far as the Dehaans they will be visiting the boy tomorrow and hopefully he has a change of heart and wants to come home with them, we believe in miracles so please say a prayer for them today that the boys heart is changed! we love you all very very much and know that you all a very huge part of this we could never do this without you!

2 in one day

2 posts in one day are we parents or what, we are very proud of him and can't help but post everything that he does!! we brought him his leap frog dog and he loved it it plays music and talks to him and he would just walk up and down the hall dancing it was sooooo cute. here are a few more pictures. enjoy Black Friday and know that Ryan, Oleg and I love you all you very much!!

Good News All Around

So overall things are moving along pretty fast. We have been visiting with Oleg as much as we can and although he is rambunctious and full of energy we are really bonding with him.  He calls us momma and papa but he is struggling with listening too us even in the little bit Russian that we have learned.  But that will come with more time spent with him although last night he has been better behaved toward the end of our visit.  Yesterday and today we were only able to visit with him at 4 PM because he has a cold and the doctor wants him to rest and get better in the morning so we have been a little limited with him for the last few days so hopefully that will be done soon and we can go back to twice a day.  He is still doing great even with his cold and is excited to see us when we show up.  He can say good-bye in english although it is sporadic and I am not sure if that is really english or just an imitation.  We do have internet full time now so we can post more often.  We signed the last of the court and orphanage paperwork to day and last night all of our paperwork from Donets'k went to Kiev and today it was successfully turned in to the SDA today.  So we should get that back Wednesday of next week and we should be in court on Thursday or Friday of next week.  The we have to wait ten days straight through (there was a possibility that we would have to wait ten business days, so more good news there) then back to Kiev for a couple days then finally we can be on our way home. Edward our translator has been exceptional and has moved the process along very quickly so a great thanks goes to him, we would not be here without him.   I was able to get some video up and converted today so I have a little up on youtube. And will post the links to that for all of you. We will continue to take video and post it there and I will post links to it here until I figure out how to put it right in the blog.  We are leaving to visit him here in a few minuets so we will do a short post later with pictures and more video.  We love you all thanks for all the support and prayer.  Also keep Casey and Janelle in your prayers as they are making progress with the children they are visiting.  It is getting better for them every day so keep them in your thoughts.

we are ready to come home

so the hardest part now is that we are only allowed to see him for an hour or two, two times a day and it breaks my heart to say goodbye I want so take him home!! today we were able to see him after breakfast it was so much fun. we brought his bronco gear to try on it is 24 months and it fit perfect, so for all the grandparents shopping getting a few 2T/24 months will be good though there is no doubt with a juicy hamburger he should be in the 3T in no time. by the way he was so proud of his new cloths he would not take them off. he walked around showing all is mamas (that is what he calls his care takers). he wore that sweatshirt and hat till he was sweating and we finally got it off of him. Today we brought some cookies for him and we learned fast that we should have given him one at a time cause he took that whole bag of small cookies and shoved almost the whole thing in his mouth it was so funny we have it on video, we will share. but we tried to take the bag away before he shoved the rest in his mouth but he did not want to give the bag to us he was soooooo cute!!! eventually he handed the bag to me. here is a pic of him and about 20 cookies in his mouth :)

every time we try to take a picture he closes his eyes he has mastered this task quite well!! He was definitely more active today. he doesn't listen that well to us but that is mainly cause there is a language barrier but he listens to Edward and his mamas. Edward is going to teach us a few phrases so we can communicate better with him, but I am certain he will catch on fast. We might be biased because he is our son but we think he is pretty smart, really smart. He has lots of energy but it is perfect hopefully tomorrow we can take him outside we needs to get some fresh air, and he loves to look out the window.

we do not have internet yet in the apartment but we will tonight we hope! so we will skype soon. as for Janelle and Casey they left at 12:00 to go meet there little boy first then they we will meet the little girl next, so please say a prayer that their process will go fast and smooth!! and please checkout their blog at dhfam.blogspot.com and give them some words of encouragement they need it!!! we are blessed to have them with us. we will write soon and post pictures daily as we go through the next few more weeks. love you all.