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.