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.

Ready set go

this is for all the grandparents...... get shopping!!! woohoo we met the greatest thing to have ever happened to us today in a matter of hours off the train we saw the most amazing little man! Oleg Edwin Betz how amazing is that!!!! our little man holy cow OUR LITTLE MAN. We stared the day off by meeting Edward our translator in Donest'k and headed to the regional directors office to get a letter and then to the orphanage. We were greeted by a women telling us to make sure we wear our masks.... we reported to the directors office to meet him, then to another room were we met the lawyer and doctor and with in a matter of minuets in walks our little Bear wearing a pink jump suit soo cute he was shy and he had a car with him already so needless to say our small car was not interesting to him:) he warmed up pretty fast!! he was scared of the masks and at one point walked up to Ryan and gave him that look of what?? but Ryan pulled down his mask and gave him the biggest smile, Oleg gave him one right back that was the first smile I saw from him. after he left we were allowed to go see his classroom were his class mates were eating as soon as we walked into the room he yelled out mama!! really really I'm a mommy. We were told that we could come back and see him at 4, and we promised him we would bring him even a bigger car and candy. In short the rest I really don't care about cause our lives just changed for the better that all else after this does not matter :), but I am certain that you all would love to hear.  I have to admit that Ryan and I are the luckiest human beings in the world, not only did we get to share the train with a family (the Dehaans) that has been going through this process with us but we are able to share an apartment with them it is great to have each other. we are so excited to share this experience with them it is comforting to have each other, the Dehaans will be visiting their children tomorrow and we are so excited for them!!!

So we headed to the notary before we headed to the orphanage and Edward told us we needed to give his name there so we had 15 in to figure out his name. real quick we were wrong his name is Oleg just like it is spelled O leg and we choose Edwin after my Grandfather! in 15 min guess that is the best way to do it;) so after we figured out the paperwork we headed back to see his little face, this time he was soooo excited to see us mainly cause we had a huge car for him to play with.  He was just finishing eating and so he was not fully dressed, they put some overall on him and he was our for an hour only an hour but it was the best hour of our lives. we played and played he loves to laugh and really he is speaking really well and is sharp as a tack. it is not like he is missing an arm at all he does just fine without it, he called us mama and papa he was so excited but really I think we were more excited. ok here you go what you all have waited for pictures!!!!!!

we did get video and as soon as we get it figured out you will have video!! after the hour of playing he had to go back and he cried he didn't want to leave us and of course I balled and balled I made sure Edward explained to Oleg (FYI his nick name is olishka) that we would be back tomorrow, no worries mama and papa will be back!! WOW two years of labor and we are finally here we are the luckiest people in the world to be blessed with Oleg what did we do to deserves such an amazing little boy!! sorry I would say he is a true 3T so you can get shopping, we love you all thank you for the support!! you will see more pictures tomorrow.

Just waiting till Monday

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but we have just been running around Kiev keeping busy.  We are well and have good news.  We will be able to travel on Monday.  And should be able to visit on Tuesday.  We go to pick up our paperwork from the SDA on Monday at 2 PM.  Then we are on the overnight train to Donest'k at 7:20.  Donest'k is about 800 kilometers or 500 miles from Kiev.  It is a little under 12 hours on the train to get there so we arrive at 7 AM.  From there we go to our new apartment and then off to the orphanage for our first visit with Bear.  So after two weeks we are now on the way.  Over the past few days we have been going to the local flea market.  While we were there we bought Bear some new clothes.

We have mostly figured out how to ride the Metro at least in part.  So we have been a little more mobile or at least equally mobile but with less walking.  So we have been to the flea market across the river which is a lot of fun. And also some good deals for Bear and some great food.  We got a kind of burrito.  It is a tortilla shell filled with a sausage, carrots, cabbage, pickles a sour cream sauce and a mystery red sauce. It is then grilled.  It is delicious.  But they have anything you can imagine there.  Today we went to visit the park of the great patriotic war or as we know it World War II.  It was a cool park and had tanks, old artillery pieces and some planes. Along with cool sculptures and of course the huge titanium plated statue that towers over the whole park.  It is a huge statue and faces Moscow and was built that way to commemorate the  bond between Ukraine and Russia.  We were happy that we were able to get there and back with no problems on the metro.  By the way the picture below is of one of the crazy long escalators that go down to the metro.  The deepest metro station is over 300 feet below ground. We have also been spending a lot of evenings with Matt and Tricia playing with their kids, talking and watching various American TV shows. It has been great to spend so much time with them and have some easy conversations in English.  We are greatfull to them and just so happy to have met them and blessed by their hospitality. So all in all we are great.  Just happy to be here and excited to go meet our son. Talk to you soon.

New Apartment day and more sights

So today we moved to a new apartment.  It is a little further away from the center of the city but way cheaper and it is still close to a lot of the central areas here in Kiev. And walking anywhere is fairly easy although we got a little crossed up on our first excursion out to meet our new friends Matt and Tricia here in town.  But we easily found our way back and got to where we needed to be today. Here are a few pictures of our place.

So it is quite a bit smaller than our old place but more than enough space for the next week till we can head to Donest'k.  And we have a washing machine now which is great as we were running a little low on clothes.  The rest of our day was spent hanging out with our friends and learning how to ride the subway which is quite cool but takes a little getting used to.  But I think I have it down now so we can move around a little easier.  But that is thanks to Matt and all of his local knowledge of the city and his ability so speak and read russian.  He has lived in Ukraine for seven years so that helps.  They are great people and we are very fortunate to have met them.  Yesterday we went to the Pechers'ka Lavra which is a very large Monastery.  Pechera means cave in and Lavra is the name given to the largest monastery in the Eastern Orthodox faith.

It was established in 1051 and it carries the name cave because there were  caves dug underneath the monastery used to burry the monks.  The climate turned them into mummies and they are very well preserved.  It a place that you can visit, although finding the entrance is very challenging as all the signs are written in cyrillic and there was no one around that we could speak with.  But we found it and bought a candle and went down there.  It is interesting to see all this very small monks with just their feet uncovered with shoes on and all of the people down there praying with the monks.  It is a beautiful set of buildings but we were only able to take pictures in a few places as photography is very limited there.  But it was great.  We ate some great pizza here too some of the best I have ever had and overall we have been having a great time counting down the days until we can go pick up our son.  Hope all is well with all of you and we will talk to you soon.