The Post You've Been Waiting For!

Remember the days when we were back in Ukraine, just Adam and I and I posted pics and updates? Well, then we came home to a busy household of five and my attention was pulled away, by three very busy little children. However, I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Here is a wrap up of our last few days in Ukraine. 

November 18th was "Gotcha Day"! We got a call from our facilitator around 1:00 telling us to be out of our apartment waiting in the parking lot around 2. We then headed over to the court building where another family was having court. Adam and I waited in the car (thank goodness for tablets with movies on them) for two hours while they completed court. At around 4:30 (now remember it gets dark around 4:00 PM) we headed to the bank to "close" out our Danny's account. It is customary to gift the balance remaining in their accounts (provided by the government) to the orphanage. The director met us there and she thanked us and told us it would go to good use buying new windows for the orphanage.

We then headed to the orphanage to pick up our boy. We signed some papers, then we were allowed to observe them dressing him in his new clothes. After he was done, one of the nannies said "American boy"! 

After we left the orphanage, we headed back to Kiev. It was close to 7:00 PM at this point, and Danny quickly fell asleep in the car. It takes about two and a half hours to drive back to Kiev. When we arrived in Kiev, our facilitator took us to our new apartment. We were happy to see this apartment located in the center of town, a place called Independence Square. Only one short week following our departure from Ukraine, this square held huge protests over various political issues going on right now. It is weird to see the pictures online of everything that has been going on and know we were walking up and down that street just a short while ago. 

Anyway, it was 10:00 PM and we were starving. We packed up our boy and took a walk to see where we could find food. Ironically, there was not many options. So we ended up going to McDonalds....open 24 hours!

Danny's first McDonalds experience, he wasn't too keen on the fries, but we brought some baby food with us so he was happy. 

We then headed back to the apartment where Danny experienced his first bath (with us of course). He loved the water. It is always described by other families as being very symbolic...washing away all the orphanage smells, only to gain the true American baby smell of Johnson and Johnson's baby shampoo. 

Keep in mind it was a small tub/shower and there was not a whole lot of room for pictures, so we did the best we could. 

Then it was on to jammie time!

And finally, sleep.....at around midnight!

The next day was our medical and embassy appointments. We were able to sneak out for a latte and some "pancakes", which are really more like crepes. Here are some pictures of the square I mentioned before. 

We got our visa which meant we could leave the next morning! After the appointments, we said goodbye to our facilitator and headed to TGI Fridays! Danny slept the entire meal. 

We came back to apartment and tried to get everything ready for our flight the next day. Our goal was to be in bed by 8 since we had to be at the airport at 3 AM. We were successful at getting to bed, but had trouble sleeping. 

Danny didn't like waking so early, but we knew that him being tired meant that he would sleep on the plane more. 

At the airport waiting for our 5:55 AM flight!

Then we said "paka" to Ukraine!

Our first flight was to Frankfurt. We made it with him sleeping most of the flight. 

Waiting in Frankfurt for our next flight. 

Then it was onto LA. This flight was close to 12 hours. He did really well for almost all of the flights. Towards the last hour he got really antsy, but we survived. He was now officially an American boy by landing on US soil!

When we got to LA we had to go through customs. They were very slow at processing Danny's paperwork. Adam had to remind him that we had a connecting flight that we needed to be on. This seemed to help. After we got through customs, we were running behind. We had a long walk to our next terminal. When we got there we were informed that we had no seats. They had overbooked our final flight, and they were not sure if we would be on that plane. I was so ready to burst into tears at that point, not to mention get all crazy to the ticket counter with lack of sleep ramblings. Luckily, they found us seats; however, they were not seated together. We had to plead with some fellow travelers to let us sit together. They all agreed, praise the Lord! I love the flight from LA to Phoenix, because it is literally going up just in time for drinks to be served and then we are descending into Phoenix. 

So happy to be home!

We were greeted at our house by all of our local cousins. They all wanted to meet the newest addition. (The three of us were exhausted, but we put on our happy face!) Tessa and Nate got to finally meet their new baby brother, whom they had prayed for!

It had been a long and grueling journey, but our reward to have Danny a part of our family is priceless!

Here is our trip in video form. It is long, but then again it was a very long journey!

Welcome to our family sweet boy! 

Thanks again to everyone that made this journey possible. I stand amazed at the faithfulness of God!

Ukraine from rebturley on Vimeo.

Waiting....

We are hanging out in region as we wait for Danny's passport. While we wait, we are continuing our visits. We have had a few nannies come up to us and gesture that we are taking "Maxim" far away, and then they smile happily, Makes me feel good to see that they are happy for him, knowing he is going to a better place. One nanny was escorting us to the room we visit in. Another nanny stopped her and from what we could tell, she told that nanny that we can take him ourselves, no more need for escorting. So she handed him to us, and then left us. It is amazing what you can pick up in body language here!

 

Here are some pics from our visit. Another Reece's Rainbow family is currently visiting there future son in our same orphanage. It h's been nice having a friendly face to interact with. It can get pretty lonely here.

 Yesterday we had a few rays of sun coming through the clouds, then it was gone. It has been really cold and rainy here. I love it!

During today’s visit, I could tell Danny was really tired. He seemed very anxious to cuddle me. Since I know he has been sick, I wondered if the nannies let the children nap extra on days when they are not feeling well. I figured him sleeping in my arms was needing to help him feel better. So I ran the risk of upsetting the nannies and let him sleep. He actually woke up literally minutes before they came and got him to feed him lunch. Success! 

Love this boy!!!

We are hoping to get Danny’s passport on Monday, which would allow us to break him out of the orphanage on that day too. We will then head to Kiev. On Tuesday we will have his medical and embassy appointments and then Lord willing, we will be on a plane come Wednesday. Obviously, this is Ukraine and we know that anything can happen. But that is the plan!



Back in Ukraine

 

Hey folks! So as you read in the title, we are back in Ukraine. We are so anxious to spring our boy from his orphanage. But there are many hoops to jump through first!

 

Here we are waiting for our flight to Chicago. We look so happy....... too bad we didn't know what was going to happen.

 

 

We ended up having a small problem with our plane heading to Germany, so we had to sit and wait for about an hour and a half, while in the plane. That hour and a half didn't sit well with us because we knew we were only going to have only an hour layover there. So we assumed we were going to miss our connection.

 

Luckily they held the plane for us, probably because there was a decent amount of people connecting to that flight with us, so we thought we were in the clear. When I got to Ukraine, we got an email saying none of our luggage made the connecting flight :-(

 

So we filled out the appropriate paperwork and they told us our luggage would be delivered to our facilitator's office that evening. They ended up delivering it the following day; however, we still had to go one more day without our stuff.

 

Here is our apartment in Kiev.

 We were very centrally located, which made it easy to find places to eat at.

 We even got to eat at the TGI Fridays!

Then on Tuesday morning, we headed out early to start the "paper chase". Our first stop was to Danny's birth city to get a new birth certificate printed. This is the building. He was born in a very old city. Our driver told us that Chenihiv used to be the capital city for Russia many, many years ago. They too have churches that are over 1000 years old.

 Then we headed to Pryluky, where Danny's orphanage is.

We had to sign papers with notaries, apply for a passport, and do some other paperwork that the lawyer from the orphanage assisted with. Finally, at about 4:30 (which is when it gets dark here) we picked up our little man to go get his visa/embassy photo. I was a tad frustrated. The nanny that came with us did not let me hold him or even interact with him. We know it is common for an orphanage to send a “representative”, however, not letting me hold him seemed to be just plain mean. I hadn’t seen our little guy in like three weeks. I was so anxious to snuggle him. I had to hold back the tears. This mama was upset.

The next day was better. We again had a long drive ahead of us, but this time Danny got to come too. We had to go back to Chenihiv to apply for his passport from the passport office. A woman, who wasn't your typical nanny, came with us. (I'm pretty sure she was the director's daughter or something. No nanny wears knee high stiletto boots!) She was much more gracious in letting me love on my son. Within 5 minutes of being in the car, he zonked.  



 

After we were done with our appointment, we headed to the children’s hospital. The orphanage director had asked our driver to pick up a little boy that had been in the hospital for a few days and bring him back now that they were releasing him.

When the worker placed the child next to me in the back seat, I had a realization. This little boy looked afraid. I thought about how these children go from nanny to nanny, and even nurse to nurse, and never have someone that sits by their bedside when they are sick. This child was just in a hospital, and now he is in a car with people he hasn’t seen before. Overall I knew these kids were alone, but the little boy truly gave me a clear picture of it, up close. I reached over and squeezed his little hand. He looked up at me puzzled, and then I got a little smile. The whole way back he would try to reach for my hand. (Danny was sitting on my lap, so it was hard to meet his hand holding demands.) He got bored, so I pulled out some little toys I had in my backpack and he loved them. My heart aches that I couldn’t give him more of me or what he truly longed for.

Holding him as he slept today, a verse popped into my head.

I Samuel 1: 27- “For this child I prayed; and the Lord has given me my petition which I had asked of him.”





 

I may not be able to change the fate of every waiting child; but you can bet I will change the fate of this one!

 

Angel Tree for Malcolm-Help us Reach our Goal!

As I mentioned on a previous post, we have the privilege of being a special little boy's angel tree family. What does this mean you ask? Well, let me tell you!

 Malcolm is a little boy in China waiting for his forever family. He has Down Syndrome and is listed for adoption. Every year, Reece's Rainbow has an Angel Tree event that allows people to advocate and fundraiser for a waiting child. Because our own adoption was so blessed by the efforts of this program, we decide to "pay-it-forward" and help another family. Our family was matched with Malcolm and our goal is to raise $1000 for his future forever family's adoption costs. 

Right now there are four ways you can help us reach our goal. 

Option 1: Donate directly to his adoption fund. If you go to the Angel Tree link, you can donate whatever amount you feel lead to give. If you give the gift of $35 or more, there is a keepsake ornament they will send you with Malcolm's picture on it. We started doing this last year and are planning on keeping this a family tradition. I can't wait to see the little faces all over my Christmas tree of the children we have sponsored and prayed for.

Option 2: We have started an Usborne fundraiser. If you are unfamiliar with Usborne, it is a wonderful company that sells quality books. We have been graciously offered the full commission of our consultant toward's Malcolm's angel tree fundraising. All you have to do is go to this Usborne link. Click on "shop" and choose the party that says Reagan's Angel Tree Fundraiser for Malcolm! Then shop to your hearts content! These are great books to give for Christmas! They will be shipped directly to your house. 

Option 3: Continue to use our fundraising links to shop online. All the money raised will go to Malcolm.

Option 4: (Unfortunately, this one is only for local friends and family) We are partnering with a local company to sell Butter Braids! Butter Braids are something that I have seen as a fundraiser for my high school that I teach out. We have bought them before and loved them! 

Each hand-braided pastry is 22oz.- icing packet included.

It comes frozen and all you have to do is set it out to thaw, rise (it doubles in size!) and bake!

You'll wonder how you ever lived without them!

For more product details, please visit: http://upliftingpromotions.com/

So I will be taking orders for these sinful treats through till Thanksgiving. They are scheduled to be delivered to me on the 12th of December, just in time for Christmas. 

So there is our plan! Our plan to help a waiting little boy get one step closer to feeling the love of a mom and dad. Please consider helping us. Every little bit helps. 

If you have any questions about any of the fundraisers, feel free to leave me a comment with your email or contact info and I will be glad to respond. Thanks again for helping us reach our goal!