Good News! We heard from our facilitator and it looks like things are going to be fine. Thanks for the prayers, keep them coming though things change every five minutes here in Ukraine.

We went to Sasha's ceremony for the First Bells this morning. This is right before school starts on the first day-they all looked so cute in their school uniforms. Sasha and a classmate raised the flag-which is the most important job according the his teacher. All the kids in the youngest grade and oldest grade (Sasha's) got flowers and so did the teachers. Sasha even had a speaking part but I have no idea what he said.

These three pictures were at a school playground not far from our apartment-definately soviet era and they would definately not be allowed in the states anymore.

Sasha took this picture!

Day 6-We took the bus to the orphanage today, so no more waiting for taxis and we won 't have to rely on our facilitator to tell the taxi guy where to go. It took a half an hour to get there, Matthew fell asleep on the way. We played frisbee with Sasha. Matthew thought it was great, he even learned to throw a frisbee.

Look how big that water jug is next to Matthew, it is 2 liters.

Day 5
Yesterday (day 5) we just relaxed around the apartment for most of the day-especially after our facilitator hit the roadblock. He left to go back to Kiev to get it cleared up on Monday. Pray that things can be resolved quickly-one way or the other so we are stuck here forever. Matthew spent the day pushing his red truck on the rug and couch in the apartment and watching Land Before Time movies. We went to the orphanage a little after five, Sasha had been waiting for us. We had to play inside because he had taken a bath and they didn't want him catching a cold. We didn't have a translator, but we did alright. The assistant director gave a us a tour of Sasha's living area. It is very nice, extremely clean and you can tell that they definately care for the kids. The assistant director is also Sasha's teacher and caretaker, her name is Valentina. She just adores Sasha and Matthew too. She kept bringing other staff members in to look at the similarities between the two. She got red lipstick in Matthew's hair when she kissed him on the top of the head. We put a puzzle together, Sasha and Matthew drew some pictures then played game boy. He talked to us a little more, I think he understands a lot of english just has difficulty finding the english words to speak, which is where everyone struggles with foreign languages. We left the orphanage and went back to the apartment for frozen pizza-it wasn't bad. We also had canned peaches-much better than what we have in the states. These actually still had the consistancy of peaches and the flavor too. We talked to my mom on skype-very clear and better than using a cell phone. Then went to bed around eleven. Matthew slept until 10:40 this morning, he woke up and told us he was dreaming a lot.

Today we are going to go walking around, find a park to play at and then go visit Sasha at 5.

We have our first SNAG! It is a snag and we are hoping to get it worked out on Monday-until then we cannot visit Vasya. I don't want to post anything else about the SNAG until it is hopefully cleared up. Please pray that things will go our way, we know that the power of prayer is incredible.

Worst case scenario: We go back to the SDA for a new referral of a different sibling group.

Best case scenario: Things are cleared up on Monday, it could just be a miscommunication and we continue getting papers ready for court.

I slept last night!!!! Matthew slept last night, until 5 am. Then he was done. But I finally slept.

Matthew on the train

Sasha and Matthew

We are here, we are exhausted, but we have met Sasha (Alek)!
Day 1 and 2-We left from Omaha, Matthew was very disappointed and mad. For some reason he thought Grandpa Melvin and Grandma Lynne were coming with us to Ukraine....I have no idea why he thought this, other than the fact that they took us to the airport. On the plane to Minneapolis Matthew got to sit by the window, he loved it. He should become an airplane quality inspector, he tested, retested and tested again every bottom, switch, window shade extensively. But to his disappointment none of us had a window seat on the flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam. He reminded us of this fact the entire 8 hours, exept for the three he slept. We have decided that someone needs to invent a strap that hold your head to the airplane seat as you sleep. Jeff slept and hour, I slept about five minutes. Matthew did watch and enjoy Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. And you won't believe this, the airline served us chicken curry for supper, Matthew told the flight attendant that it was the best chicken EVER! We arrived in Amsterdam boarded a flight to Kiev, to our surprise we weren't served beer for breakfast like last time--this time we got extremely oniony potato salad. YUK! Matthew was exhausted and slept for the entire flight right on top of me. Our facilitator picked us up-I took a dramamine so I won't get sick with the crazy drivers here--but I didn't sleep at all because of the stupid pill-which made day two with no sleep for me, Oh and Matthew and I both got fevers on the way to Minneapolis that didn't go away until today. But other than that it wasn't too bad
Day 3-Appointment Day
We had a 9:15 appointment and the SDA (state department of appointments). We were up and ready to go. We walked to the appointment-the architecture here is beautiful. Our appointment went well, we saw pictures of the boys when they were a bit younger, learned that Sasha's birthday is March 29, 1998, and the record said Vasya was born in 1994 not 1993 like we were told-so we aren't really sure which is right. But we will find out when we meet him.
After the appointment we walked around a bit and went back to the apartment for some sleep--no luck for me but Jeff and Matthew slept. We went to some notaries, which take forever and don't really appreciate a four year old running all over their office. Then we went to Cilatino's for Pizza-my favorite-then back to the apartment to load our stuff for the overnight train to Odessa. Matthew was so excited, he kept saying " I LOVE THIS TRAIN, I LOVE THIS TRAIN!" Then he fell asleep while I was reading to him and I did too but only for a couple hours, I woke up to him peering through the ventilation grate in the door into the hall. I watched him for an hour doing that before we both fell asleep.
Day 4-This was a crazy today (today)!
The train arrives in Odessa at 6:12 am so we got going, went to the missionaries apartment until the offices opened. Then the fun began because the boys are in different orphanages in different districts of the city we had to visit two seperate Inspectors/social workers. One was easy to deal with-the other not so much. Plus Matthew was tired, hot and hungry so he was hard to deal with. We went to see Sasha at 1:00, his teacher said he was jumping up and down when she told him we were here. He ran out to see us and hugged us both, tried to hug Matthew and then became shy. He showed us the orphanage dogs and played with Matthew. He was very protective of him, it was funny. If you know Matthew, you know how he climbs and jumps off anything. Sasha stopped him from jumping of the bottom step of a playground toy. It was about a foot off the ground, Sasha gingerly lifted him and set him on the ground. We spoke to his teacher about him. He has been there since October of 2005, which is when we were in Ukraine but was unavailable for adoption until sometime recently. He is healthy, and has a slight strombosis (sp) which is what Matthew has/had. Sasha has glasses that he wears during school, she said we would actually get those when we leave (that was surprising). Sasha is actually one of her favorites. She was nice to us, but when she learned that Matthew was his biological brother and that we are adopting Vasya as well, she was extremely nice to us. Sasha hugged us goodbye and headed out for more paperwork. We finally stopped around four for some pizza and juice. Matthew fell asleep in my arms at the pizza place. So we came back to the apartment and will go visit Sasha tomorrow, and hopefully get the papers we need to see Vasya.
Sorry I am to tired to proofread or spell check so you are getting the rough version. Cara

The bunkbeds are finally up, Matthew slept in the top bunk last night (after Jeff put the railing on). He looked so little sleeping up there, up till now he has been sleeping in a toddler bed.

Getting Ready.....We have been getting things ready. The bunk beds are cleaned and put up--we still haven't gotten the mattresses in from the truck but maybe tonight. I have all of Matthew's clothes packed, some of mine and almost everything we will need except for Jeff's clothes. We have a house sitter, my Dad will be taking care of the dogs, and I went and bought school supplies for the boys while they are cheap. It is crazy how much the price of glue and pencils etc. goes up after school starts!

Matthew didn't want to go on the trip UNTIL I told him that taxi drivers sometimes drive on the sidewalk and train tracks in Ukraine. Now he wants to go right away. I am not looking forward to the crazy drivers-but I am armed with two packages of Dramimine.

We want to thank everyone who helped us financially with donations. We couldn't have done this without your generosity. Thank you!

Matthew and Emma had a blast playing in the puddles after a storm.

My nephew Cody and I were snuggling on the couch, doesn't he have the

same coloring as me.
Do you think he has enough peanuts? Jeff and Matthew

love peanuts!

Does this look comfortable?

Here we are tubing.
Anybody want a grass snake or two?

Matthew eating some of Grandpa Melvin's sweet corn.

Here is Matthew's way of skipping rocks-look at the size of that thing.

We have beds! The mattresses are still in the back of the truck but we have them. We have gotten almost everything we need to go to Ukraine, I just need to put it in suitcases and decide what to wear. We have been talking about the trip to Matthew but we aren't sure he really understands. We could still use lots of prayers though so keep them coming. Thanks.

We bought tickets--That was Not cheap! But That's one major thing checked off our list, next we need to find some beds for the boys to sleep on. I did find one set of bunk beds--You'll never guess where..... In the shed outside of our house. They were the ones my sisters and I used. They need new mattresses but are in pretty good shape, and very sturdy so it should hold two growing boys.

AND THE DATE IS...................

August 28th!!!!!!!!!!!

We have an appointment at the SDA on August 28th. We can't wait to get there.