Prayer for Bohdan

Although we had another smooth (and very LONG) day of paperwork today, tonight was sort of sad. After we put the little ones to bed, Bohdan broke down and was sobbing uncontrollably. Of course, we cannot communicate with him, so we weren't sure what was wrong, but I was very proud of Charlie and Andrew who were extremely concerned and empathetic. While I embraced Bohdan, we discussed all the loss Bohdan is dealing with right now, and how hard this must be for him. Andrew kept compassionately saying, "but now he has a family", not truly understanding that Bohdan's sincere hope must have been for his birth mother to return to him, to stay in Ukraine, and to remain near his friends at the orphanage. As those who adopt know, there is a lot of loss involved for the adoptee. Some of his pain surfaced tonight, but we are sure this is just the tip of the iceburg. I know the questions I have brooding in my mind must mirror his, so I pray that when those questions arise, God will give me just the right answers for Bohdan and/or Taras. I trust He will. Until then, may he give each of us the strength and fortitude to move forward as a family who loves one another and who places God at the center of our love and our life. We have another long day of paperwork tomorrow. Please pray for our family, but please say a special prayer for Bohdan.

On a happy note, Mom, today Taras asked when you were coming. I got the calendar out and showed him and he went and found Bohdan and told them about the coming of their Babushka! ; )

First Round of Paperwork...

Well, I am VERY happy to report that our first round of paperwork was a huge success. We went to the orphanage, got the papers, then onto the Inspector (child protective services) where she asked Taras and Bohdan if they wanted to be in our family. Taras responded (he had to respond twice because they wanted to be sure he was definitive), "Yes, I REALLY want to go to America and be in their family." Bohdan also responded definitively, "Yes, I want to go live with my family." Then the Inspector asked, "And, who is your family", to which he replied (and pointed to us), "This is my family." Obviously, we were thrilled with their answers! : ) Then we had to get papers notarized while Taras and Bohdan wrote their letters of intent to be in our family to the SDA (Ukrainian government). Poor Bohdan was writing and writing. If Charlie had had to write as much as Bohdan, he would have been crying, I am sure. It took him about 30 minutes to finish the letter. Anyway, then we had to go back to the notary to sign more papers, and then back to the orphanage to submit a couple of papers. Tomorrow it is back to the village, to the orphanage first to have the Director (who is VERY, VERY nice) sign some more papers, then back to the Inspector to pick up papers and then back to Kiev. I believe Alla (our legal translator) will then have to do a bunch of work with this paperwork, and then we will submit the papers on Thursday to the SDA. The awesome news is that the Inspector knows these kids well, so she is expediting the paperwork for us, and she has a very good relationship with Nicolai (the director of the orphanage), so everything is working in our favor so far. We could not have asked for more...but then, God always gives us better gifts than we even ask for, right? Amen! Thank you, Jesus!! And, thank you friends for all your prayers. We can feel them more than you can imagine!

More great news...the director is letting us keep the kids with us indefinitely. Taras is VERY easy, and a great kid. He has been a huge help to us with helping us find our way around the city, and keeping the kids close at hand. He is also learning English very quickly, and can read many/most words already. Bohdan is VERY difficult (but VERY cute too). He talks back a LOT and is SO opinionated. He is going to be tough to parent, but we already have one of those, so it looks like now we'll just add one of each...another Charlie and another Andrew! It works for us. To all my homeschool friends, I am already thinking of sending Bohdan to school. I am not sure I will be able to handle him and still school the other three. We'll see if Rick and I can get him under our reign quickly...??? He was better about going to bed tonight after he did not get ice cream like the other kids today (we told him over and over last night, Niet spat, Niet Marozeneyah - translated, No sleep, No ice cream). Anyway, we could use your prayers that we quickly determine the best method of discipline with him.

Again, all is going great, and we are very thankful that everything has been so smooth and so easy thus far.

More Pictures...

Pictures, Kyiv

So much FUN!

We are having SO much fun in Kiev together. The boys are getting along great...wrestling and playing soccer a lot! Words cannot do justice to this city or our time here...so pictures are forthcoming!

Sweet Dreams

The boys are ALL here tonight...we just put them to bed and we will go to sleep together, as a family, for the first time. Everyone is still in great spirits, and both boys are trying to learn English. Taras has been trying very hard from day number one to learn, but Bohdan was not eager at all. Then alas, tonight he said, "Thank you!" - his first word in English - and then shortly after he said, "No". (We may have heard it for the first time tonight, but I know for CERTAIN it won't be the last - he is very opinionated!!) Our love to all and sweet dreams...

Let the craziness begin...

Well, today we were supposed to go to the SDA and pick up our referral and then go to the orphanage, get the boys to sign the papers, and then off to child protective services for an interview so that the ball could begin rolling towards our court date. We will still go to the SDA, but now we just found out we will NOT be able to go to child protective services today, and that Monday is a bank holiday (if you read all the blogs for Ukrainian adoption, you will see that this happens very often - random bank holidays - that postpone your process). So, now we cannot begin to "move" towards the court date until Tuesday...bummer. However, we will get to pick up the boys for the whole weekend, so that will be a huge blessing! Please pray for me, however, as I have a sore throat, stuffed nose and a headache. I am hoping it is just allergies or something, and not an actual sickness. I want to have a great weekend with the boys, and not be sick or sleeping the days away. (I slept all day today because I was feeling so terrible...praying it is not strep throat.) Thanks for your continued prayers - we need them!

SDA Appointment DONE!!

Yay! Thanks to all those who prayed for us...our SDA appointment was literally 5 minutes. Our kids were like, "What, we're done, that's it...we didn't even get to play our DS!" Although they were not thrilled with the brevity of the appointment, we were! ; ) They had the boys' pictures out and ready to go, we just had to answer maybe two or three questions! We are thrilled! Thank you God! So, tomorrow we will get the referral for the boys around 3:00 pm, we will drive to their village (1 1/2 hours) and then we will hopefully get all their signatures and paperwork done and will get to meet with the Child Protective Services person in their region. That will get the ball rolling for the court date. The orphanage director, Nicolai, said we could pick the boys up tomorrow and take them with us! YAY!!!! We get to spend the weekend with them here in our apartment in Kiev! We are thrilled! So far, so good. God has been very merciful to us, and we are truly thankful. May He receive all the glory.

Our Family

The Penny Family - here we ALL are! (This picture was taken in front of their orphanage.)

We are in LOVE!!

I am SO sorry it has taken me SO long to get on to the internet to post! We have been SO busy and SO tired these last couple of days. We got to meet Taras and Bohdan our second day here (Tuesday morning), and we immediately fell in love! They are so awesome! Taras is SO kind to our kids. He was already helping me by putting his hand on Charlie and Andrew's back to keep them walking with us, and calling back, "Andrew, come!" We told him he should get used to saying that because that is the Penny family mantra!! ; ) He is awesome and asked right away if he should call us Mom and Dad! : ) We exclaimed, "YES!" Bohdan is VERY athletic (just like Taras) and very energetic! They both smile a lot and laugh a lot with us. We are bonding as a family nicely, and all the boys are getting along great! Things could not be better, Praise the LORD!!!

Tomorrow we have our big day at the SDA. If you are reading this, PLEASE pray for us! This is an important day, and we are hoping and praying everything will work out well, and we will get our referral for Taras and Bohdan. The director of their orphanage (who is a VERY nice man), already told us that once we show him any paperwork, we can keep the boys with us for the weekend (which is very good news, not only because we want the boys with us all the time, but also because Rick is freaking out because it is $100 every day to drive to the orphanage - YIKES!) Konstantin said their is a VERY slight chance we could get the paperwork tomorrow (Thursday), but more likely Friday late afternoon. The earlier the better because we will not see the boys again until we have the paperwork in our hands. We covet your prayers!!

Our apartment is decent. The bathroom smells really bad, but other than that, it is okay. The food has been a little scary for Charlie and me, but Rick and Andrew are loving the cow tongue, and all the other odd delicacies! ; ) We ate at the orphanage today, and I have no idea what we ate, but it actually tasted pretty good.

Rick is beckoning for dinner. I should be able to post more often now that this is up and running in our apartment. I hope to get some pics up very soon. Let me know if you have any specific questions or if you want me to talk about anything in particular!

Thank you for all your love and prayers...

YAY!!!

We just got off the phone with Taras and Bodie and we had a GREAT conversation with both of them. Taras talked for a LONG time and asked a lot of questions. He sounded excited to come! Bohdan is counting down the days. He knew exactly the amount of days until we meet! Thank you for all the prayers that have gone out concerning Taras! We really appreciate them and we see them working. Roza likes both of the boys a lot. Now, it's just a matter of DAYS until we meet them! Please keep praying!!

ONE WEEK!

AHHH!!! Only one week left to go until we are on a plane headed for Kiev to meet our boys! Please continue to pray for the entire process. God is at work in MIGHTY ways, even now, and we can see His hand even in the smaller details! It's pretty awesome! Today our church prayed for us, and afterward our worship leader and his wife told me about a 22 year old named Andre who was adopted by a Wilmington family when he was 14! (Basically the same age as Taras and with a very similar background.) Long story short, 10 minutes later I was speaking to Andre and he was telling me how Taras would feel when he arrives AND that he would be glad to help him out when he gets here! He even said he would talk to him over the phone while we are in Ukraine if he needs prompting to come! How awesome is that! Praise the Lord! He totally orchestrated this, and we are already SO thankful for Andre! The continued blessings amaze us... Please continue your prayers...they are working wonders!

From 3 years to 3 weeks

Three and a half years ago Rick and I started praying about, and then working toward, this adoption. Three weeks to go, and all those prayers will culminate in the meeting of our two new sons, Taras and Bogdan. It's almost incomprehensible!

We spoke to the boys on the phone yesterday. Bogdan is ecstatic. Our facilitator told us that the director of the boys' "center" told him that Bogdan has asked him every day since our first phone call WHEN we are going to be there to get him. Now it is only a matter of a couple of weeks! You can hear the joy in his voice! I cannot wait to get my arms around that cutie!

Taras is more confused. He is 13, almost 14, and he is having his doubts. Not about us, but about leaving all his friends and everything he knows. Please pray with us for Taras. I cannot imagine how confusing and difficult this must be for him. That is a hard age anyway, and then to be put through a move to a country where you don't know anyone, nor do you speak the language...and with a new family whom you will have only known about a month...it's hard. I wrote him an empathetic letter this morning, that will hopefully reveal to him that we understand, and that it's okay for him to feel the way he does. I just pray God's comfort upon him, and that we will come up with some clever methods of communication together, that he might be able to keep up his friendships in Ukraine.

Speaking of friends...I am so thankful for our friends here. At the last minute, I had to pull together sitters for our kids once they come home with Rick (but I will still be in Ukraine - with my Mom), and my awesome friends came through big time. I was able to cover my kids immediately which eliminated a ton of stress. I was really worried about the whole thing, and wasn't sure what would be easiest on our kids. But now they will get to spend a couple of weeks with friends they love, and I couldn't be more thankful. It will make my time away from home that much easier.