Matthew and baby Cody

My sisters and I in 2006


Matthew's first Halloween 2006

my nephews, nieces and Matthew

Ukraine Adoption Journey #2 Trip #2 day #4 Oct 31 Happy Halloween

Another busy day today. We walked to Vasya's and got him, then tried to catch a bus-an impossible task at 8 am. So we took a taxi to Sasha's and picked him up. We then drove to the passport office in the center. I had to sign lots of documents and they took the boys' pictures. It was impressive, everything was digital and on the computer-even my signature. They told us that the passports may be done next week, they send everything off to Kiev for this. So pray that they get done quickly. Vanya went to see about dealing with the boys' share of the apartment. They won't allow them to leave the country without a stamp in their passport saying that we took care of all business the boys might have, which is the apartment. They only work on Mondays and Thursdays but the secretary said it could possibly be done on Monday-so pray for that as well. The passport and the stamp are the last two things we need to accomplish to leave Odessa. I do still need to sign Sasha out of his orphanage, I signed Vasya out over two weeks ago-even though he is still there. So Vanya went one way and we headed to McDonald's, my Dad should be proud thtat the first place they asked to go was McDonald's. This McDonald's is fancy. It is two stories high and has lots of flat screen tv's playing videos. They even have little tv's where you give your order so you can watch McDonald's commercials why you order. The boys seemed to really enjoy this, a lady went around to the tables giving out ballons, she even gave them to my boys. We then stopped in a nearby park to take some pictures. Then we headed towards the bus stop to take Sasha back, but while we were walking Vasya made a phone call and then asked me if we could go see his Dadushka (Grandfather), which of course we did. His grandfather and (step) grandmother had not seen Sasha in years. They were very nice, we had tea and attempted to talk. Sasha wasn't very cooperative in his translating though. Vasya showed him pictures of Matthew and I saw a tear roll down the Grandfathers face. They have two very beautiful callico cats. We are going back next week to say goodbye, but we are taking a translator. I have some pictures for them and I want to get their address and phone number. I also hope to visit their aunt before we go too.
We then got on the bus to take Sasha back. I needed to get a document from the Director for Vanya and the assistant director was in the room too. She loves Sasha, he is her favorite. She said when he came there he knew nothing about school, she tutored him and now he is at the head of the class. She told me today that Sasha really loves us and I said that we really loved him too.
Vasya and I got on another bus towards no.4 and where I stay. It was a busy day, but a great day.
I talked to Jeff on Skype and I also talked to my sisters and Matthew. They were all together and were carving jack-o-lanterns. I talked to them for 3.25 hours, it was like I was right there but I didn't have to clean up the mess. If anyone wants to hear something funny ask Matthew to say "Fish" it sounds exactly like b*tch. I guess he could use a little speech therapy when I get back, good thing he is signed up to start when the boys do.

This is their step grandmother Natasha, they didn't know Sasha was taking the picture.

This is Matthew, Jack's and Sasha's grandfather Val. He looks like a big man but he really isn't much taller than me.

Again I have no idea why there is a bronze chair in the park.

I think this statue is of a famous author, but I am not sure.

Who would imagine that the lady at McDonald's would give a 14 and 10 year old balloons? Jack's favorite color is blue and Sasha's is black but they didn't have black balloons.

Sasha-look at how they dressed him today. You would think I was taking him to the artic, he has on an undershirt, a thick turtleneck sweater with a fleece shirt over it. Then he had a very heavy winter coat on too. He had sweat running down his face while we were walking.

In line at McDonald's

This is for Matthew, it isn't a very good picture but the train is going through a train wash with one of the rotating brushes like car washes have but the brush it vertical.

In the taxi this morning

Vanya-our facilitator holding the court decree.

Vera's birthday, she's in the stripes, then her brother, her cousin and her sister Leanna (who would be great for someone to get over here on a student visa.

This is the sign in Vienna's airport for Odessa.

Washington D.C. airport, I walked for a long time and never found the Ukrainian Flag.

Matthew swimming in the pool at the hotel we stayed at near the airport before I left.

Sasha's bed

Jack's bed

Ukraine Adoption Journey #2 Trip #2 day #3 Thursday October 30, 2008

Today was a busy day!! We started out at 8:30 by walking to the court house to pick up the rest of the copies of the updated court decrees. It was beautiful outside. Vanya walked in the courthouse and right back out with the decrees-if only everything went so easy here. Then we jumped on a bus to the center. It was a sauna in there, I actually had sweat running down my face and was very motion sick. We walked to the birth certificate office-Sasha's. Vanya gave the lady the updated documents and she started yelling at him. I couldn't understand it but Vanya told me later that she said that it is illegal for her to do her job unless Vanya proves he is employed with somebody. They argued back and forth for a while and then he told her to show him the law. To this she replied "I don't have time" What is it with these people in Odessa, apparently the sea air has rotted all their brains. We solve one problem and another pops up. Anyway, the lady gets up and walks out. By the way this is the same office where we got Matthew's birth certificate almost three years ago. Then another lady gives us the bill, which in government offices is given to you first so you can pay the bill at a nearby bank. It is done this way to avoid corruption, but it isn't working. We went to the bank and pay the bill then head back to the office. We stand outside waiting forever, which was fine with me because the office stinks like mildew really bad. Vanya goes in and I continue to wait. I watched two men hit the building acrossed the street with axes, my only guess is that they were removing the stucco to have it redone. Then an older gentleman comes up to me and starts rambling on in russian. I reply "Ya ne panimyu paruski" I don't understand Russian. He then starts talking to the guy next to me who is also waiting and is pointing to me. Again my only guess is that he wanted to know if he had to wait behind me in line. After a bit Vanya calls me in, he translates a document for me, I sign two copies and we know have Sasha's new birth certificate with his new name on it.
We then head off to the tax ID office, but the woman is on vacation for a week. Her secretary says for a small fee she will come in, we agree and Vanya calls the woman. We stand and wait for her for over an hour all the while watching huge amounts of food being carried into the tax building. Several people were hiding what looked like bottles in their coats. The woman finally shows up, tells Vanya she is going to lunch and tells him what we need. She also says she doesn't need me there. So I hop a bus to see Sasha and Vanya goes to run copies of the documents the woman needs. At the tax ID place they need to change the boys' names on their tax ID's which are similiar to our social security numbers. They have to be changed so that when the passport office checks for debts or taxes owed by the boys their new names match their old numbers.
When I got to Sasha's I had to give several documents to the director and pick up some from her, this at least went smoothly. Then I went to Sasha's room, his teacher is going on about something to me, I eventually figured it out. She wanted to know if I was taking him then, I said no, perhaps early next week. She goes and gets Sasha who was napping. Anyone else think 10 is too old for a two hour nap everyday, especially when they go to sleep at 8?????? He gives me a big hug and we go out side. He was either mad for having to stay at no.9 or still groggy from being woken up. After a bit he warms up to me again and plays his game boy that I brought back. Then I headed to Vasya's. I kept falling asleep on the bus and once again I had that crazy head bobbing thing going on, Do you think I would be taking it to far asking for bunks in the bus?????
Vasya came running from all the way acrossed the yard to me and gave be two or three big hugs. We then went inside because it was almost dark out. We attempted talking for a bit, then he asked for his gameboy. He really liked the new games my mom got for them, Thanks Babushka Lynne! His Director had called us earlier telling us we must take him on Monday. She didn't say why but I figured it out when I got there-at least I think so. They have already filled his spot. There is a waiting list of kids in shelters waiting to get into orphanages. There was a new girl there today and she had her clothes in his locker, and his stuff was shoved in a locker with someone elses' stuff. He is ready to go and I don't blame him.
Tomorrow morning we are taking both boys to get their passport photos taken. We are praying that they will start processing them now instead of waiting until we have the apartment thing taken care of. The passports can take from 5-14 days so I would love to get them started. Then we can work on the apartment junk while we wait.

Ukraine Adoption Journey #2 Trip #2 day #2 (that is for you Scott!)
International travel is not pleasant, whoever decided on putting regular seats in an international aircraft apparently never took an international flight. Who can sleep sitting up? If you actually do nod off you are quickly awakened when your head flops forward. They should put bunks in those planes, yes bunks with harnesses in them so you don't fall out during turbulence. Oh, that reminds me.... on flight no 2 (out of 4 that it took me to get back to Odessa) there was so much turbulence that people were filling their airsick backs left and right. You would be impressed with me-yes me, the queen of motion sickness- didn't get sick. I almost did though.
I haven't seen the boys yet, but I will tomorrow. We spent today chasing new birth certificates, we got Jack's. The women who work at these offices should be editors for book publishing companies. They seem to search out mistakes on documents so that they don't have to make the birth certificates. Yesterday they decided that they didn't like that the court decree stated that the mother's parental right had been terminated before she died. Apparently the birth certificate should have been updated with "parental rights terminated" sometime after the rights were terminated. But this being Odessa it was never done. So we had two choices. 1. Get the court decree from when the mother's rights were terminated. or 2. Get the judge to delete the part about termination of rights. (oh by the way our adoption decree is 5 pages long, Matthew's was 1.5 pages long). So fortunatly Vanya was able to get the judge to fix the decree. He picked it up today and brought it to the first birth certificate office. They then found a mistake on the translation of our marriage license-I have no idea why they needed our marriage license. But no one is Odessa would notarize a correction on the translation because it was on a photocopied version of the license. Fortunately I had a new Apostilled marriage license in my suitcase. I was told to bring a complete extra dossier when we adopted Matthew so I did this time as well. Vanya translated it, but in Odessa they will only accept translations from translations agencies(sounds like a monopoly). I also remembered this from Matthew's adoption, we had to hire a seperate translator even though we had another with us. Then we took the translation to the notary next door who does her job. Then we take it back to the certificate place where we sit for a long time while pondering the upcoming presidental election-the United States one not the Ukrainian one. Vanya agrees with my theory that political parties are only hurting the nation and we should get rid of them so that people will vote for what they think is right instead of who belongs to their party. We get the certificate which of course I can't read since it is in Russian. By now it is 5:50 but we race off to see if the other certificate office is open so we can at least check if Sasha's is ready. But they were closed like we suspected. So we took a very crowded and hot machutka (bus) back to General Petrova (the street were the apartment is). Today is Vera's birthday. I don't remember if I mentioned her before, she is a very sweet 17 year old who is patiently waiting for her new family to arrive from near Omaha. She has graduated no.4 and is somewhat homeless. She is in sewing school so she has acess to the dorms there. She said they are not very nice and crowded- one toilet for 200 kids if I remember right. She spends most nights at her sister's apartment. Vera has been in the hospital since sunday with pneumonia, sinus infection and kidney infection. She got sick the same day as I did, but hers got worse until she had to go to the hospital. She was with us the day with left on the train to go home. She is a sweet heart.
Michelle had a wonderfull little party for her tonight, Vera's sister, cousin and brother came for michelle's delicious homemade pizza. Vera's sister is 18 and just as sweet and adorable as Vera. She speaks english well, anybody out there looking to host a great girl on a student visa?????? I would but I think I will have my hands full for a while.
Tomorrow we will go get Sasha's birth certificate and hopefully I will get a chance to visit the boys, they know I am here. I was headed to no.4 today when Vanya called about bringing him the marriage license.
The grivna (not spelled right, but that is how is sounds) has dropped so we get more for our dollar. When we arrived in August it was 4.65 grivna for every dollar now it is 6.5 grivna for every dollar. I heard it may go up to 8 or 10, so our dollar is worth something here even though it doesn't seem to be anywhere else.
I will post some pictures tomorrow!

I'm back in Odessa, I left Omaha monday morning at 6 and arrived in Odessa tuesday afternoon around 2pm. I am tired but here, ready to begin the chase for the documents we need in order to bring Jack and Alex home.

Court-
Vanya came back Friday morning on the train, we went to have a paper notarized for the boys’ passports on our way to court. Getting something notarized at home is so easy, I print out the paper and take it to Kim who works with Jeff. (The poor woman should have carpal tunnel from all the notarizing she has done for us in the last 4 years, Thanks Kim!) We sign the paper; she signs it, dates it and puts a pretty seal thing on it. That’s it, done.
Not so in Ukraine, First you have to find a notary who is willing to notarize something for you, then you wait while she talks on the phone, files her nails, talks some more on the phone, then asks to see our passports. If you are lucky she will then have her secretary type something up for your facilitator to proofread, after which she will make you wait some more. She will then have her secretary print the document out on fancy paper, and have you wait some more, all the while the secretary is telling your facilitator to tell us to make Matthew sit down, be quiet and not touch ANYTHING in the office. Then you will be required to sign your name: last name first, then first name, then middle initial, then last name followed by you first and middle initials. Then you will be required to sign, initial, sign small and bigger underneath in a fancy journal type book stating that you signed these documents. She will then scrutinize your signatures, study your passports, talk on the phone and then slip the document into a clear plastic thing. Then you will be required to pay this woman (who by the way is usually dressed like she is heading to the nightclub at any minute) anywhere from 100 to 350 grivna.
After we left the notary we walked to the court house through Gorky park-not the real Gorky park that is in Russia, but this is little Gorky park. It has a permanent carnival going on inside all the time. We arrive at the court house at 12:10 or so, court is at 12:30, but no one else is there yet. Remember this is supposed to be a landmark trial- one that will set precedence for all others involving the SDA and lawsuits against them for not approving the other family. So we wait for an hour and a half for everyone to show up. We go into the judges room, he has a very long table with lots of chairs-they were all full and Matthew didn’t get a chair so he had to sit on my lap. OH I missed a very important thing. The boys arriving, Vasya came first with his director, then the prosecutor, social workers from both orphanages and then came Sasha and his director. He ran up the stairs and grabbed Matthew and hugged both Vasya and Matthew at the same time, I didn’t have time to get a picture of it. But this was the first time that all three boys have been together and the older two hadn’t seen each other for many months. OK back to the judge’s chambers…. I am not really sure about all that was said, Jeff sat next to Vanya who translated to him and I couldn’t really hear much, plus Matthew wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be quiet. The judges apparently stated the problem, said that he had heard that the other family decided to drop the suit (which we had heard the day before) but it didn’t matter since the judge said last week that they had no legal grounds and it was ridiculous that they were trying to do this. Then he had Jeff stand and answer a couple of questions, do you want to adopt these boys, have you communicated with them? Then I had to stand, do I still want to adopt the boys, am I ready to be a mother to two more boys? Sasha had to stand up and answer two questions, he replied Da (yes) to both. He was shaking and smiling; the judge was kind and kept smiling at the boys to calm them. Vasya had to answer one question, another Da. Then the children’s representative stood answered a couple questions, then both directors had to stand and give their opinions. The social worker from Sasha’s orphanage stood next, I heard this part. She said that she favored the adoption, had seen us spend quality time playing and talking with Sasha. She also said that she received a call from Olga (remember Matthew’s director that we visited). Olga told her that she wanted it known in court that we had brought Matthew to visit her. She said that Matthew left her orphanage almost three years ago, barely walking, not talking, and developmentally delayed. She wanted it known that Matthew has blossomed in our care, is above average in intelligence, extremely bonded to us and that we were fantastic parents who would be able to take on anything that parenting these two older boys would require. She is a wonderful woman. Ok here’s the funny part: the social worker for no.4 stood up and started talking about how the other family would make much better parents etc etc etc.. Until the judge told her to shut up and sit down, that nothing she said made any sense and had no legal basis. He proclaimed the adoption legal, said that he prayed no one would contest during the ten day wait and he wished us well. We hugged the boys and took a picture and they were whisked away to their orphanages. That was it, ten minutes! Seven weeks and it only took ten minutes.
We visited both boys later on Friday and told them we were going home but that I would be back next week to take them home. Vasya was fine with it, Sasha cried when we left. We took the overnight train on Saturday to Kiev, Matthew absolutely loves this. He sat in the dark looking out the window until we made him go to bed. We always get a private compartment, it costs about $200. It has to benches that you sleep on and we use the extra blankets to make a bed for Matthew on the floor. It is relatively quiet, nice but a bit hard to sleep because the train stops every so often to pick up more people. When we get the boys we will get a compartment with four beds.
The train arrived in Kiev at 7:45 a.m. where a driver was waiting to take us to the airport. He was very nice but drove 180 kmph to the airport which is outside of Kiev about 35 miles. He dropped us off and we had to wait until 9:30 to start boarding the plane which left at 11:45. We waited in the cafeteria, while I was looking at custom sheets to fill out Matthew and Jeff watched a stray dog wander around in the airport cafeteria and then pee on the floor. Matthew thought it was great. Jeff and I spent some time reminiscing about leaving Ukraine with Matthew the first time, He screamed, ran around and we had problems with his ticket. We almost missed the flight.
Matthew was great this time, except his compulsive need to climb every check in counter to see what is going on. We traveled from Kiev to Amsterdam, then to Minneapolis for a 5 hour layover and then on to Omaha. I can not sleep on airplanes, any suggestions?
So we are home, I am sick and Matthew is getting sick. We like being home-even though our furnace was broken for the first couple of days, but I need to get better so I can start packing for Tuesday and work on getting things ready for Matthew’s birthday.

WE'RE HOME! Don't get too excited, only Jeff, Matthew and I are home. We left Odessa saturday night by train, left Kiev Sunday morning on a plane and arrived home very early monday morning. We are glad to be home but miss the boys. Matthew was a fantastic traveler again, people on the planes kept telling us how good he was-even on the ten hour flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis.
I have a sinus infection and am heading to the dr. later today, I need to be better so I can head back to Odessa next week and bring the boys home.

It's official, we are now a family of five!!!

Introducing

Jack Vassiliy Norby and Alexander (Sasha) Charles Norby!

(more to come later about court and the ballet)

The Opera house.
Leo, Vasya and Alex
Making cereal necklace
Sasha and one of the many Vica's watching Harry Potter
Look at the size of this car!

Matthew's Director and us

This lady was one of Matthew's caregivers, I have pictures of her from last time. These

women were sooooo excited to see him, not many come back for a visit.

The outside of his orphanage
Matthew and Pasha-will someone please adopt him and his siblings before I have to come back for them!

Wednesday, October 15 -Day 51

Today we visited Matthew's orphanage. Julia sent a taxi to pick us up at nine, then we picked her up and headed to No. 3 Baby House. It took a while to get there and Matthew slept the entire way. We were able to tell the taxi driver how to get there-we still remembered after almost three years. They remodeled the office, it is really nice. When the secretary told the Director Olga (whose last name I can't spell or pronounce) she came out and Matthew walked up to her and gave her the box of chocolates we bought for her. She remembered him well, she said he has grown. Julia translated for us and told Olga the story of why we are here this time. She explained about Vasya and Sasha and we showed her pictures. She was trying hard not to cry, she was very happy for all of us. She told all sorts of people who were nearby, and several of Matthew's caregivers came in to see him. They said he looks like me and seems very attached to us. We had Matthew's Ukrainian passport with us to show them what he looked like when he left no.3. We also gave the Director a small gift and a picture of Matthew from this summer. We have sent several packages of clothes and toys with pictures of Matthew through http://www.life2orphans.org/ and she thanked us for them. Then one of the ladies brought in a large remote control car for Matthew. He was in awe, not only is it big and remote controled but it also plays music and bumps up and down to the music and the top opens and all sorts of lights flash.

He said "I know Cabub and Ben will be cited when they see this!" Translation "I know Caleb and Ben (my nephews) will be excited when they see this car!" Matthew's group --the kids who were in his group are now the oldest at the baby house,they were at the beach so we didn't see them. After this year they will move to no.9 where Sasha is. We told Olga that we had recognized some of the kids at no.9 from when we adopted Matthew. She said that most of the ones who graduated no.3 and moved to no.9 are HIV positive. I knew that is where HIV kids went to because the care is so good, plus no. 9 is in the government's experiment to treat the entire child-mind, body and soul- so they get good care. We did see a few 2 year olds-some of them were wearing the clothes I had sent over.

After we left no.3 we walked to the McDonald's near the orphanage. We spent lots of time there when we were adopting Matthew, so we had lunch there with Julia. She is a wonderful translator and she and her husband have great hearts for the orphans of Ukraine-especially the teenagers and handicapped. They could use lots of help if any of you want to donate.

www.youthofukraine.blogspot.com
They work with a family in Omaha, NE.

We had good visits at both boys today. Vasya has a cold but he played with Matthew and even made a cereal necklace for us to take to Sasha. His group was making necklaces out of fruit loops. Sasha was excited to get it. We had Sasha call Vasya and talk to him. I think they are excited to see each other- hopefully on friday all three boys will be together for the first time. The two older ones haven't seen each other for quite a while either.

Tomorrow night we are going to the opera house to see "The Sleeping Beauty ballet." I'm not much for ballet but the Opera house was being redone when we were here last and I am told that is the most beautiful in all of Europe. Cindy Wolff has agreed to be tortured tomorrow and watch Matthew so Jeff, Michelle and I and maybe David (her husband)can go.

Here is Vasya, Anya and Nastya-the Wolff's girls.
Tiny pizzas-a staple food for us here-yummy!
Isn't he cute!


Day 50 ---7 weeks since we left home!




Nothing much to report today, we are just waiting to go to court on Friday. Tomorrow we are going to visit Matthew's old orphanage. We brought a small gift for the Director from the states and we picked up a box of chocolates today as well. The Wolff's went to court today, we haven't heard yet how it went. But we did see the girls in their "court clothes." They looked so pretty and had smiles from ear to ear. I don't think the boys will be so excited to get dressed up, but we will see.

Days 47 & 48 Saturday and Sunday

Nothing much to report over the weekend. We downloaded a season of Scooby-Doo from i-tunes for Matthew. 16 new episodes for him to watch took 24 hours to download. It has been nice outside, probably in the lower 60's.

Jeff went with Julia (she is one of the people who helped us communicate with Vasya before we got here and a sweetheart, she works through Youth of Ukraine with her husband. Their website is http://youthofukraine.blogspot.com/) to pick up and deliver the summons for court on Friday. They need to get them to the directors and social workers of each orphanage.

I DARE YOU!
I took this from a blog that I read everyday: http://smilesandtrials.blogspot.com/
They adopted a little boy Dennis from Ukraine earlier this year, he has lots of brothers and sisters to play with and I really enjoy this blog.

"Soooooo, today I challenge you to bake something yummy and take it to a neighbor or someone who would least expect it. It could be a co-worker, one of your kids' teachers, the mailman, a homeless person on a street corner, it doesn't matter who, it is the act that counts. I would even challenge you to take it a step further and pray for the person who receives this baked goody. Something simple like, "God, I pray that you watch out for this person today and help them through any struggles they may be having."I not only challenge you... I dare you."

I cheated a little bit, since we are in Ukraine and we had to go to court today I didn't have time to bake something. So I bought a big package of cookies and took it to Vasya's orphanage and gave it to his classmates for a snack. I will definately be praying for them, as they are all sweet adorable kids who deserve a forever family. So Now I dare each one of you to do this today or tomorrow, and if you have a blog spread the dare! If you take the dare post a comment telling me what you did.

One Step Closer Day 46
We are one step closer to being done here. We went to court today and everything sounds good for the second court next week. We weren't in the court more than ten minutes and Matthew behaved himself. So it was good. The directors from both orphanages were there, as well as the judges secretary, two jurors, and the children's representative who makes sure this is what is best for the kids.
Happy Birthday Vanya!

Day 45 Thursay October 9, 2008
Happy Birthday Daddy!!!!!!!!!!!
Today is my Dad's birthday, I didn't think we would still be here. Oh Well, my family will be enjoying Whimp's spagetti dinner while we are tucked into bed sleeping. We were able to skype my Dad's cell phone and talk to him for twenty minutes or so. It only cost 28 cents. It is amazing, and we were able to hear him better than if we were at home calling him, and he was in a tractor at the time. Thanks to Holly and my Mom for setting up the skype phone thing for us-it wouldn't work from here.

Today we mixed things up a big, we visited Sasha first. Vanya went with us to explain things about court to the boys. Sasha and Jeff played game boy, he is very funny with the racing games, he crashes into everything. I had a bad headache most of the day. I think my neck was out of place from that crazy bus ride yesterday. It was really nice out so I rested in the sun on a picnic table. I stayed at Vasya's only long enough to have Vanya explain things to him, it seems the other family has sent someone to talk to him. It mades me sad (and mad) that while we follow all the rules, they don't and then we have to fix everything-especially for the boys. Sasha was upset when they had someone call him, his teacher said he wasn't sleeping well because he was worried they would take him away from us and Matthew. Vasya is a bit confused because of all the things they told him which aren't true, Vanya spent some time with him explaining the facts. Thank you Vanya for you patience and honesty, we could never work with someone who outright lies to children and manipulates everyone in their paths.
Thank you God for granting us the patience to get through all of this, Please bless us with the knowledge and the words to get through court tomorrow morning. Lord please bless the other family with the strength to do what is right and to peacefully leave these three brothers to grow up together.
We aren't that worried about court tomorrow, mostly worried about getting Matthew to behave that early. He has been sleeping in late since we arrived in Odessa and we need to leave pretty early. If you happen to be up around 1 am central time, say a quick prayer for us.

Things may seem frustrating for us, but check out this blog: http://www.handsomemanny.blogspot.com/ See their Oct 9 post. The judges in Columbia are on strike. In Colombia you get custody right away so this family may be stuck there until after the new year.
Some of you may be hearing from us now that we have the skype to phone thing figured out!

Jeff has his eyes closed but it is a good picture of Vasya and Matthew. They look so much alike.

Pasha is in the stripes.
Here is Lyonya blowing out his candles.




Day 44 Wednesday (I am going to type this now before I forget everything again)


Today I did laundry and made chicken dumpling soup-it was not as good as at home, I just couldn't find the same ingredients. But I tried. We went to Vasya's, Michelle was having a birthday party for two boys in Vasya's group who had summer birthdays . One of the boys whose birthday it was wasn't there and the girls had something going on. It was a nice party, Lyonya turned 14- he is such a sweet heart as is his brother Pasha 12/13?. I pray someone will come and adopt these two (plus their sister 11 and brother 8 who are also sweethearts). If someone doesn't adopt them soon, I may have to come back for them. We sang happy birthday, said well wishes for the birthday boy, and had cookies, cake and pop. Then we made picture frames out of wide popsicle sticks and some of the kids played Sorry. Vasya made a picture frame with all our names on it. I started doodling on paper, I was drawing Fido Dido (anyone remember his cartoons and commercials from the 90's). That's about all I can draw so I was drawing him when Andrei grabbed the 7-up bottle and showed me Fido was on the lable. So I guess not only our fashion and music travel here years later apparently so do our commercials and advertisements.


We left Vasya's around 4:15 and got on a crazy driver bus. He hit every pothole on the way, Matthew fell asleep, and I got extremely sick to my stomach. To make it worse I was sitting in the seat that faces sideways not forward, but I was sitting forward in it, so with each bump my back scraped on the window. I couldn't turn around because I can't hold Matthew in that position. Anyway on one pothole, everyone on the bus flew up at least 8 inches. It was crazy.





We had a great visit with Sasha, it was nice there and he is a joker. Somehow Matthew fell on top of a bush or he jumped on top of it and scraped his face, but he is fine. We were told that no 9 had chicken pox, but we didn't see anyone with it. We weren't worried, I think Matthew had it before we adopted him, plus he had the vaccine. The "chicken pox" could have been from all the mosquitos there.



We will go to court on Friday, then most likely again next Friday because of the lawsuit and the other family. I was able to e-mail them last week and explain things, but they never e-mailed back. I am pretty sure their facilitator isn't telling them the entire truth. Sasha told us today he isn't going with them, he is coming with us and Matthew. He is over 8 so he can choose. Hopefully things will be done soon and we can get home with the boys. Sasha wrote me a note today, it said please take me to America now!



Another Matthew Moment

On the bus coming from Sasha's Matthew told us that he is going to the Farm by himself. He is taking the train, three airplanes and Grandpa Melvin will pick him up at the airport and drive him to the farm in his van.

(He changed his mind when I asked him "who will wipe your tushie in the bathroom?")