Information Please

Dave sez, Today is Friday, April 11, 2014. 04/11/2014, or as I like to call it, 4-1-1. Information Day. Whatever you do today, try to be informative.

Yesterday afternoon, Cathy was Google-ing for information that might help her feel a little better. She found a few solutions. One, was warm water and baking soda. B, was fresh fruit, like Kiwi and Pears. She's been eating pears and apples since we've been here. She's diabetic, with high blood pressure, so we need to monitor her health and well-being. At six o'clock, just as I was settling in in front of the keyboard to share yesterday's adventures, she shared with me the information she'd found and asked if I would run downstairs with her to the market for pears and kiwi. Trying to find baking soda would be a bit of a challenge, so we opted for fruit. We went downstairs to the corner market. She didn't like the look of the fruit there and asked if I would mind taking a walk with her to another store that was farther away. It was a grey and chilly late afternoon with evening coming on. I told her I needed to run upstairs to add another layer on for the hike. She said she would wait downstairs for me. I went up grabbed some extra cash, threw on my sweatshirt and came back down.

She had changed her mind. Instead of a hike, she wanted to head down to Maidan, catch the Metro, and head two stops up to the market by Domino's. Good thing I had cash, 'cos I hadn't grabbed any tokens for the subway. Subway tokens are two hryvnia apiece. We usually get twenty hryvnia worth at a time to make the trip back and forth to the orphanage to see Masha.

Just as we were coming down the hill into Independence Square, two Number 18 buses pulled to a stop at the curb and belched a swarm of commuters. Awesome! We get to experience Rush Hour! Woo-hoo!

We jumped into the stream of people heading for the subway. We either held hands, or Cathy had hold of my arm/sleeve/belt loop as we made our way down through the shopping mall into the subway station.

The mass of people clogged and bottle-necked at the turnstiles at the top of the escalator to the platform. Construction is starting there on the landing at the top of the escalator with partitions set up on either side, going down and coming up.

We made it down to the platform and saw folks jamming themselves into the subway cars like sardines. It looked as if somebody was going to lose an arm or a leg.

We decided to wait for the next train. Which wasn't much better.

Cathy and I have only made the trip back from the market to Maidan a couple of times. We've never made the trip going the other way. So, we weren't sure where we would come out of the subway station. There are at least four exits to any subway station, two at either end. Each one coming up maybe on the opposite side of the street. There must be at least a dozen exits from Maidan. Most people are using just one, because of all the tents and barricades still up since November.

We came out of the subway station from a different exit and had to get our bearings so we wouldn't be wandering around. Did I mention it was Rush Hour, after six in the evening and getting dark? Once we had gotten oriented to where we were, we headed for the market.

At the market, we found pears and kiwi. But like in the states, the fruit has to be weighed, and a sticker tag attached to the bag. We did this once before a couple of days ago at the same market. Find someone in the fruit section, get their attention, and ask for help. Usually pointing at yourself and saying "English" works. We have found in every encounter that folks here are very helpful. So pears, kiwi, and a small Tuborg to settle the throbbing vein in my forehead (kidding; it actually felt like a sharp needled through my eyeball!) and we were heading back to the Metro and back to Maidan and the apartment.

Which is a pretty long walk across Kiev to let you know that today was a pretty quiet and slow day with Masha. We worked on her sentences, we read for a little bit, then played Uno and she played Bejeweled a little. It's still a little grey and cool, only 42 degrees today. What I am noticing is that we used to spend more time outside. Justin is incredibly active. He can't sit still. He always has to be doing something. To the point that he fidgets. He would be outside, running around and playing soccer on a day like today. I don't think Masha is much of a soccer player. Which is okay. There are fewer children here Justin, Ethan and Masha's age. The children here now are younger - still in need of a loving forever families.

Our desire in sharing our adoption journey has been to encourage adoption. Hopefully sharing our journey is inspiring and encouraging.

Tomorrow, our daughter turns 13. We count down the days to our court date with Masha. Twenty days from this passed Monday. We pray that it comes just a little sooner, God willing. Ten days after that we'll have our court decree and then our Gotcha Day.

 

This has been the song that has given me strength in bringing both my two sons home. I think it works for both boys and girls.

Somewhere In The Middle Lies The Truth

Dave sez, We are becoming more acquainted with the Metro subway system here in Kiev.

Taras Shevchenko National University

Today started out last evening with a phone call from Valentin. He said that we would be going back to the notary today. He asked if we knew how to get from the apartment to the notary. I told him we were kind of familiar, but not really sure where to make our turns to get there. So, we agreed to meet Valentin at the Universytet Metro station between 12:15 and 12:20 today (Thursday) Universytet station is named for Kiev's most prestigious University, Taras Shevchenko National University. Universytet is on the "Red" Metro line. There are three lines. The Blue line - which we use from Maidan to Holosiivska station, where we catch the 507 bus to the orphanage - runs North to Southwest. The Green line runs Northwest to Southeast, crossing over the Blue line one stop south of Maidan. The Red line runs West to East, intersecting the Blue line at Maidan. It overlaps at Kreshchatyk station. Universytet station, like most of Kiev's Metro system was built in 1960.

Later last night, Valentin called back and pushed it back to four in the afternoon.

Awesome!

Cathy and I went to bed with plans to head out to the orphanage to see Masha, then come back and meet Valentin and head to the notary.


click the picture to see the video!



So, this morning we headed out for our regular visit with Masha. I wrote out some sentences for her. The same sentences her brothers Ethan and Justin wrote while we were waiting for their court date and Gotcha Day. She did not want to read, she wanted to play Bejeweled. She didn't even want to play Uno much. She just wanted to play Bejeweled. Justin was not much of a video gamer. He wanted more to go outside and play soccer. Inside activities were flips. At four in the afternoon, we lost both Justin and Ethan to Avatar: The Last Airbender. Ethan was divided between playing soccer and playing electronic games. If he had to choose between the two, it would be video games. Or television. I grew up a videobot, so I totally understand. The children here are starved for that kind of thing. Cathy added some sentences to the ones I wrote out, and with a little arm twisting, she read them out loud, and I recorded a video.

We played Uno and let her play Bejeweled a little while, then we told her to go get an English book to read. She showed us a Wizard of OZ book, I can't remember if it was In The Land of OZ or which one it was. She didn't come back with that. She came back with an English learning activity book - which was even better! This book had paragraphs to read in English, and then three different activities that followed to build comprehension! The first one was about Oleh's Family. The second one was about My Friend Susan. The first activity after each one was learning the English words from Ukrainian. The second was fill-in-the-blank from the storyline and the third was rewriting incorrect sentences about the story with the correct sentences. I love English; and at home I work with Justin and Ethan on their English homework. Cathy covers Math; because my worst subject is her best. By the third activity from My Friend Susan, she was fading fast and losing interest and starving for Bejeweled. We were seeing the real Masha. With a little work and encouragement, we got through the activity and I was able to cajole her into reading it again so I could record a video of it.

Then the phone rang. It was Valentin. He asked if we could meet him at Universytet station between 1:15 and 1:20. It was 12:05. We said our "baka-baka" with hugs and told our girl we would be back. Cathy and I had been thinking that the longest escalator was the one at Maidan station. From the subway platform up to the underground mall it is two minutes. The escalator from the tracks at Universytet seemed longer and more congested. We reached the top of the escalator and found another escalator to the street level! And there we met Valentin. He told us he had a friend waiting. We followed him around to a black Mercedes Benz chauffeured mini-van. We got in and faced a very nice, smartly dressed woman.

Rick Castle: I am ruggedly handsome, aren't I?

Now, if I were ruggedly handsome as Rick Castle, and I were writing the story on this, I would start with the word, "friend"; and, I would extrapolate that Valentin is a facilitator. His friends would tend to be related to what he does. Most people's friends are. She was being chauffeured. She was wearing formal business attire; black. I would have to say that Cathy and I had the delightful opportunity to ride to the notary with Ukraine's version of M. I can now cross that off my bucket list. It really was an enjoyable ride.

We got to the notary at 1:30 from the subway station. While we were waiting, Cathy and I looked at each other. We tend to do that a lot. The light bulb went off at the same exact moment. Lunch time in Kiev is from 1pm to 2pm. Posted on every government or city administrative office as 13:00 to 14:00. We were let in to the notary at 1:30. In less than ten to fifteen minutes, we had our business concluded.

Take as long as you need to let that sink in.

I like Valentin's friends. A lot.

We walked together back past the university. He told us the story of how the building was painted red. In the early days, some said that the red paint represented the blood of patriots. Later, some said that when the building was constructed and painted, the only color that was available was the color red. He said, somewhere in the middle, lies the truth. He said there is a third theory. A simpler one. We had a good laugh over that. He had other meetings he had to get to and said he would probably see us next week. He left us with a couple of recommendations for good, hot soup on a chilly afternoon. It was an enjoyable walk back to the apartment.

We did see this on our way back.

 

In the background is the burned out Exchange building. Beyond the cars, in the middle are the remains of the Maidan Occupy movement. This is one view of Independence Square. Most of the Square is blocked off to commuters heading to the subway platform.

 

 

We are hoping that we have our court date sometime before April 25th. If you don't mind, indulge me in a request for prayers. Our children are all miracles. Every step of this journey has been through a door that Cathy and I could never open ourselves. These three children found us. Please join us in asking our Father for a court date before the 25th.

Tomorrow, we head back out to see our little girl. Saturday, we take cake and milk for her 13th birthday. Cathy's birthday is coming up next Wednesday.

The Day Waited A Long Time For!

Dave sez, This is the day that Cathy and I have been waiting a long time for. Cathy has been waiting since mid-November 2012. I've been waiting since early December 2012. That was right around the time we both last saw Masha.

We are both very honored that our children have found us and that they each have chosen us. Justin found us toward the end of 2010, and I spent the first week of January with him. Cathy and I hosted him on his final week of a three week visit to the states from the Cradle of Children's Hope orphanage in Kiev, Ukraine. When we came to bring him home in the Fall of 2011, he introduced us to Ethan as, "This is Ethan, my brother!" Over the early Winter of 2012, when we came to bring Ethan home, he introduced us to Masha with the question, "Masha...sister?" We spent some time getting to know Masha before Ethan's court date. After Ethan's court date, we were pulled aside and told that Masha had picked us. She didn't want to be adopted by any one else. She wanted Cathy and I to be her parents. She had even picked her new name, Isabella.

The boys had been excited to come to America. Masha was anxious and desperate to come home. To a family.

Today was an early day. We had a nine-thirty appointment with Valentin and the social worker from Children Services. Together we were driven out to the orphanage. We brought our dossier and the referral we picked up yesterday afternoon. The social worker asked how we came to know Masha and how we were handling the language barrier. When we got there, Masha joined us in the Orphanage Director's office. The social worker told Masha to write out her letter of intent that we adopt her and become her parents. The social worker and the orphanage director both signed the letter. Masha was nervous and had to re-write the letter a second time. We were driven back to the Department of Child Services office and we said "Baka-baka" to the social worker. We will probably see her again on Masha's court date. We went with Valentin to the Notary. When we were done there, we headed back to the orphanage to visit with Masha.

She was not as nervous as she had been earlier. She ran and leapt at Cathy nearly bowling her over with how excited she was to see her new mother. It's nice to see Cathy experiencing what I have gotten to experience on the last two trips with the boys. Justin and Ethan leaned more toward me. We played soccer and wrestled and rough-housed. When they ran out of steam - which wasn't very often - they curled up with Mom. When they wanted candy, they went to Mom. When they wanted to play Uno, they came to both of us.

Masha is naturally leaning toward Cathy. I think that is awesometacular. I can't wait to see how this changes all of us.

 

Masha's birthday is coming up this Saturday. Cathy's birthday is next Wednesday.

 

We certainly do appreciate your prayers so far on our journey. We are grateful for the opportunity to share our journey, the ups and downs of how we came from there to here. It has been a long journey. Some days it has felt like an uphill hike. It's a good feeling to be able to see the top of the hill from where we are now.

 

"King of the world!"

 

 

     

  

The Comforts of Home

Dave sez, Today was another slow day. We didn't have any plans other than stopping by the SDA office between four and five this afternoon to pick up our referral for Masha. Pretty simple. When we were bringing the boys home there were at least a half dozen or so couples waiting right along with us. usually there is at least one couple that is picking up their referral and then jumping on a train for a sixteen hour trip to the orphanage where their new son or daughter is. Cathy and I have been very fortunate and spoiled. Our three children are from an orphanage here in Kiev. We get to stay in town, in a very nice apartment near the center of everything. Most everything we need or want is within walking distance, or we can get there by bus or Metro (subway). Some of the more important trips like the notary, court, doctor's visit and the US Embassy, we'll get a ride to. I feel for the folks that come from the states, and Kiev is just one leg of their journey. Because, their journey is going to be more complicated than ours. Court may be in the region where their child is, But they may have to come sixteen hours back to the Embassy.

 

Parliament

Our apartment is just a five minute walk uphill from the SDA office. At the top of the hill, there is a small park across from the police and fire department. There is a cathedral at either end of the long building that houses both forces. Our apartment is behind the Hyatt; which sits across from one corner of the precinct houses. There is another hotel on the other end. Next door is the Diplomat Academy, then Parliament and the other cathedral.

 

 

This is the parking lot outside the Diplomat Academy, Parliament and the cathedral. Across the street to the right out of the photo is the small playground and park. The flags seem to mark what looks like a barricade.

 

Past all this, behind Parliament, is a long stretch of what looks like, from the outside, offices and apartments. There is a courtyard and then another stretch of building that ends at St. Andrew's Cathedral. When we were here bringing Justin home, they were laying the sod in back of St. Andrew's. We spent a lot of time walking down past St. Andrew's to the grocery, the bazaar and Roshen's Chocolate store. On Monday after our first SDA appointment, we saw a mural on the walk down to the grocery.

 



  

Today, that mural was being touched up.

 

This morning, we decided to walk up a little farther to where we spent a lot of time when we were bringing Ethan home. We went to the Billa grocery there. The store is in the downstairs of a building that houses a pharmacy and a cosmetics store. It looks like there are some offices on the upstairs floors.

 

Today we went back to the SDA and got our referral for Masha. This is our permission to visit her while we wait for our court date. We will go see the same judge we saw bringing Justin and Ethan home. We will ask to for permission to adopt her; to be change her name and to be named as her parents on her birth certificate.

 

 

On our trips here to Kiev, we've seen Domino's, near the grocery. Today we decided to stop in. What we find here, is that Kiev is an international city. We say, "English?" and most every one will say, "A little". There are comforts from home, like Domino's, McDonald's, Pepsi, Coke, just to name-drop a few. The challenge I've found is the ten-days between the court appearance and the court decree. That's when I start thinking about home. There's plenty of downtime. Once we have the court decree, there's so much activity, getting Masha's birth certificate, her passport photo, her physical, her visa from the Embassy. All that activity, there's really no time to think about being homesick, or to miss the creature comforts from home.

 

 

Tomorrow, we see Masha for the first time since we brought Ethan home. With everything going on here, we have not been able to Skype with her since before the Olympics. It will be so good to see her again! 

 

Somewhere In Time...

Dave sez, Cathy and I are somewhere in time...

 

 

 

I like time travel stories. Cathy like romance stories. They came together in a unique concept when the late Christopher Reeve travelled back in time through self-hypnosis to the turn of the century and a renowned actress played by Jane Seymour; who was, in turn managed by a sinister Christopher Plummer. Reeve is set up this journey by an elderly woman who comes up to him after a performance and pleads, "Come back to me!" He discovers that she's an older version of Seymour and sets about his journey. His journey comes to a crashing end when he is showing off his suit to Seymour, and discovers a 1979 Lincoln penny in one of the pockets. The look of horror on both of their faces as they are tragically torn away from each other across the decades is priceless. If you follow the rules of the story, he basically just vanished into thin air. Through time.

 

 

Yeah, that's a long walk around the block for a punchline, but we are basically trying to adjust to being EIGHT HOURS AHEAD of Central Standard Time, where we are from. Right now it is dinner time, where it is almost lunch time back "home-home". There is home where we are staying here in Kiev; and, home-home where we are from. A very nice single bedroom apartment. The bedroom and living room are a combination. That's pretty typical. There are some apartments that have a bedroom separate from the living room. We have a "water closet" with a small wash machine. Across the hall is the shower and sink. We also have a foyer just inside the front door. We are Apartment 13 on floor 3 1/2. We are on the landing between the third and fourth floors. Igor made a joke when we first got here that we are on floor 3 and 3/4! We don't actually have a door, we just run at the wall to get into the apartment!

 

Adjusting is not easy, because, try as we might we're still in two time zones. We're still keeping up on how things are going back home from here. Our cell phones have local time, but I haven't changed the clock on my computer.

 

We're trying not to stay up to much passed midnight - that's not easy. We're trying to not sleep in to late. Right now our routine is pretty slow and laid back. We didn't have any plans this morning before our SDA appointment at noon with Igor and Valentin, so we just relaxed at the apartment. We're only a five minute walk away, so we left about a quarter after, and meandered over. Along the street toward the SDA office, there are street vendors selling paintings on the right side and over on the left are two rows of metal kiosks for more vendors. One could probably assemble either a complete military uniform - or Yuri Gagarin uniform - except for shoes from one of the kiosks. I've seen the winter hats and the gas masks, but I always seem to be a few hryvna short.

 

We met Valentin and Igor outside the SDA. Igor introduced us to Valentin. With our boys, we had been working with Victor. Now, we would be working with Valentin. he took us up to our appointment.

 

There is a part of me that wants to know everything. I'm curious. Since Ethan introduced us, I've been wondering how this wonderful young lady came to be where she is. I knew that today, I would find out. There is also a part of me that isn't interested and doesn't care. I have met my children. Each one of them has chosen me and Cathy to be their parents. I am blessed, fortunate and honored that they have made that choice. If they want me to know where they came from, if that is a part of our relationship and has anything to do with our future together, then they can tell me on their own. It's like when Neo was trying to explain to Morpheus what the Oracle said to him. Morpheus told him that what the Oracle said was for Neo and Neo alone to hear. The blonde lady with the SDA was an Oracle to Cathy and I. Valentin was our translator.

 

Now, tomorrow, we will go back to the SDA office and get our referral. That's our permission to visit Masha, will we count down to our court date. We will probably visit a notary on Wednesday morning and head out for our first visit with our little girl. This will be the first time we have seen or talked to her since before the Olympics. I think we last Skyped with her at the end of January.

 

Since we have no plans before our return at four tomorrow afternoon to the SDA office, we will probably walk around the city.

 

After our appointment today, we walked down the hill behind the SDA to a grocery store we frequented on our trip to bring Justin home. We hadn't been back there the whole time we were here bringing Ethan home. There was graffiti on buildings along the walk. One of the phrases that jumped out was, "Be Rich In Spirit".

 

Instead of walking back up the hill, and past the SDA back to the apartment, we made our way to the Metro subway station and rode back to Maidan, and Independence Square. Not much has changed since our last visit. Except the Pizza restaurant is closed. Maybe remodeling. We're not sure. The restaurant was dark.

 

The square is sectioned off by tire and brick barricade. Across from the Number 18 bus stop there is a pile of tires. We'll probably only use the same entrance in and out of the Metro, by McDonald's. We saw a few that looked blocked off by barricade.

 

Otherwise, it seems like things are back to normal. We see people walking around the barricades as if they are not there. As if maybe they have blended into the landscape. We've seen roadside memorials of portraits with candles. So, not everything has blended in and been forgotten. 

The Journey From There To Here

 

Do you hear the people sing?/Singing a song of angry men?/It is the music of a people/Who will not be slaves again!/When the beating of your heart/Echoes the beating of the drums/There is a life about to start/When tomorrow comes!

 

In some places there is nothing but graffiti. There is one word that comes out through all the tagging. "Revolution".

 

Dave sez, Our flight was really long. It wasn't too bad from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Chicago. We were both anxious about the trip. I had a pop tart for breakfast; as usual, Cathy skipped breakfast. Checking our bags in, we had to adjust the weight: one bag was under weight, one was over. We got through security, only losing a can of Barbasol shaving cream, shower gel and anti-bacterial soap. They looked over Cathy's insulin and we were on our way. Cathy's insulin would get checked again in Frankfurt. We got a bite at Burger King near our gate at MSP. We were looking forward to splitting a Chicago-style hotdog and an Italian beef at O'Hare, but we ended up running from one gate to another with just minutes to spare.

 

Chicago to Frankfurt Airport (Frankport, is one I saw there) is about seven and a half hours. It is a very long seven and a half hours. Especially when you have THAT kid, kicking and punch the back of your seat. I totally understand that some small children find flying - especially seven hours - to be a challenge. But this kid was torturing me. We were trying to doze as much as possible, rather than spend the entire flight from home to Kiev awake. Chicago to Frankfurt seemed like the best time. But not with THAT kid kicking my chair. I settled in watching about a half dozen episodes from Season Three of The Big Bang Theory. Cathy had found it under a tab called Box Sets and suggested it. She started The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and immediately fell asleep. She wasn't sitting in front of THAT kid. After finishing my The Big Bang Theory six-pack, I started Frozen. I managed to watch "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman" and "Let It Go" twice before we landed in Frankfurt.

 

      

     

 

 

Frankport is quite possibly one of the circles of hades. The gate that we arrived at was "Z" - maybe for "Ze plane". Bekause ve gott off ze plane. (apologies for the "snark"; my mother is German and Cathy's whole family is German; so it is not intentional. If you are German, I'm sorry. Not for offending you, but that you are German - Bazinga.) The gate for our flight from Frankfurt to Kiev-Barispol was gate B. In true sitcom fashion, we hustled with our carry-on luggage from Z to B. A winding, circuitous, labyrinthine maze through Frankport. I felt like Bugs Bunny trying tunneling and making a wrong turn at Albuquerque. We wound our way through Z as far as we could go. Then we caught a shuttle train to B terminal 1. Then we found the gate that was marked on our boarding pass. B-26. We didn't have seats together, so when I checked if we could adjust our seating assignment, the very nice ticket agent told me that our gate had been changed to B-56. Which was not only back the way we came but downstairs. I think we were actually closer to the Earth's core because it was much warmer than Gate B-26...and I think I saw several vertically challenged individuals mining for either diamonds or coal. They were whistling. (That's right, I have no problem insulting Germans, but I will not offend vertical challenged individuals.)

 

Our flight from Frankport to Kiev-Barispol boarded on a transport bus that drove another circuitous path winding around the outside of the airport. I thought we were heading for Berlin! Finally we made it to our plane, and had the choice of boarding from the front or back of the aircraft. Our seats were near the Emergency exit. The flight attendant was adamant that we put all of our stuff in the overhead bins - because we were sitting by the Emergency exit. Minimizing the potential for anything loose to fly out of the aircraft in the event said emergency. Which is something I really want to be reminded of while on our journey - the potential for unexpected emergency. Thank you, for making my flight that much more enjoyable. I know you have a difficult job, because you have to sometimes be the bad guy to people like me...

 

So any way, we made it to Kiev, were picked up by Igor, the orphanage director and the driver. He told me his name, but as hard as I was trying to remember it, I was trying to stay awake, and give both of them the impression that I was fine and in no way did I want to curl up into a ball and sleep for thirteen hours. Which is exactly how we spent our Sunday morning.

 

They drove us to our apartment. Amazingly enough, we are in the same neighborhood we've been in before, when we were bringing Justin home. We are behind the Hilton hotel. Our first apartment in Kiev was in a building next door to the Hilton. We are a block away from where our friends Mike and Andrea stayed, across the street from an Irish pub called O'Brien's. We are familiar with all the grocery stores in the neighborhood. We are a five minute walk from the SDA office where our appointment is Monday at noon.

 

Les Mis "The Barricade"

What we did see coming around Independence Square were the remains of barricades made of brick, tires and fence barriers that were used to block off construction. There are a lot of green wooden fences that usually surround construction sites. sections of those are now around the Square. The Square itself is sectioned off by barricades. In some places there is nothing but graffiti. We were walking around a bit this afternoon. We saw a building that looked like their Exchange building that had been burned out. Sections of the brick sidewalk had bricks pulled out for the barricades. The pizza restaurant down in the subway mall is closed. May be for remodeling. We'll see. Along the street where the Double Coffee restaurant is - a number of the families we know that, like us, have come to Kiev to adopt, know where the Double Coffee is - there is graffiti. The word that jumps out from all the tagging is the word, "Revolution".

 

 

The fashion statement here these days is camouflage. There is a lot of camouflage. We saw uniformed police the last two trips; there are still a lot of police visible. Maybe we're noticing them more. Maybe they are more visible and projecting a greater presence.

 

What tomorrow holds for us is that we will meet Igor and our facilitator a little before our SDA appointment. We go to the SDA to ask permission to adopt Masha. They will pull out her file and tell us her story and ask if this is the girl we would like to adopt. I guess we could have asked about her when we were here bringing Ethan home, or sometime over the last twelve or more months. But, Cathy and I knew this day was coming and we would hear all about her. Justin needed his time; so did Ethan. So, now, it is Masha's time. We will hear her story, ask permission to adopt her, and then on Tuesday at four in the afternoon, we will get the referral, the permission to go see her and spend time with her at the orphanage while we wait for our court date 20 days from tomorrow. Ethan was 19 days, which was an amazing blessing. We will see again the judge that we saw the last two times, bringing Justin and Ethan home.

 

It all starts tomorrow with The Story of Masha. Her name translates "Maria". So we will be hearing how Maria came to be at the Cradle of Children's Hope orphanage.

The One About Our Little Girl

Dave sez,

Hi! We are Cathy and Dave. When we were without hope, Justin found us. He introduced us to Ethan, telling us, This is Ethan, my brother! Ethan introduced us to Masha - who will be home soon as Isabella (Bella). He whispered to us, Masha...sister? This is our journey. Building a family through adoption.

We started our journey in an independent, open adoption program. The reality is that an independent adoption takes a while. We were one of fifty couple waiting to be match with a Birth Mom. A Birth Mom that would look at our profile in a binder of fifty and say, I want them to give my child the opportunities that I can not. The maximum waiting time in an independent adoption is anywhere between zero and four years. In any adoption program, we would be waiting for someone to reach a crisis in their life and look to us.

After a year or so of waiting, we shifted to an international adoption through China; and then Vietnam. Vietnam, like Russia, ended it's international adoption program with the United States. 

Next, we looked at our local County foster-to-adopt program. We could have stuck with this option. There is nothing wrong with this type of adoption program. We decided against it because it was mostly fostering children in crisis conditions. A family in crisis, where the children enter foster care until the family unit could be restored. Or, the child is placed for adoption. We had no desire to come between a child and his or her parents. We also did not want to be in the middle of a crisis. That's an individual choice. It's not an easy decision to make. But we focused on what we wanted. Cathy and I wanted children. At the time we wanted a newborn or an infant. 

We tried another program here in town. 

We had been trying to adopt for over six years, without success. I know I had lost hope. 

If the story of our journey is about anything it is about patience and faith. We didn't want to wait four years in one program to be matched with a Birth Mom. So...we waited nearly seven until the right boy came along and found us and restored both our hope and our faith. We knew that a child would be a blessing and a gift. We prayed. As we started to lose hope, we prayed more and harder. I yelled at the ceiling. What do you want from me? That's what I yelled. What do you want from me? Because I wondered if I was supposed to be a Dad. I'd spent a lot of time over the years wondering what I was supposed to be doing with my life. I asked our pastor that same question. What does God want from me? He smiled. He told me that God loved me and wanted me to have what I wanted. What do you want? the pastor asked me. I blinked. Wait. What? I thought I said that. I thought that's what I was asking and praying. 

Okay.

Let me be more clear. 

I want to be a Dad. I want You make me a Dad. 

I do not believe in coincidence. I do not believe that when I started to focus myself that way, that when I posted my desire on Facebook in December of 2010, that it just happened that Justin found us.

Just like now, as we wait for our invitation to travel to Kiev to bring Masha home, and we see the images and stories of Kiev, torn in half, burning and soaked in blood. 

I am afraid. Cathy is scared.

But our daughter is still there.

As scared as I am, I believe down to my toes that no matter what is going on - no matter what happens - God will see us through this journey.

What other choice do we have? Give in to our fear and doubt; or believe that some how, some way things will all work out and we will be a family of five. And if things work out, then how? How in the world will Cathy and I go from here to there and back again with our little girl through the fire and blood?

Believe me, there are much more important people on this planet. I'm not fool to believe that I am any one special. I don't believe that my challenges amount to a hill of beans. But as Leslie Nielsen said to Priscilla Presley, This is our hill! These are our beans!

We have to bring our daughter home to complete our family. We have to because her place is here. With the rest of us.

I'm praying that we have a safe journey. I hope you will join me in that prayer. For Masha's sake. Maybe some peace will come to Kiev, too.