WE GOT OUR APPOINTMENT DATE!!!!!!

FINALLY. I feel like we waited forever. The journey was long, especially if you figure in we started this process almost 3 years ago when Slava wasn't even legally classified an "orphan" yet. But finally word came today that we are to be in Ukraine on OCTOBER 25TH!!!!!

It's not in time for his birthday, but he won't know the difference anyway. And now we'll be able to attend a wedding here on the 16th and celebrate Anna's birthday on the 22nd. I'm not sure yet when we'll be flying out, that's the next thing I have to tend to....finally! And I am thankful that I have more than 1 week to make all the arrangements.

PRAISE THE LORD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!!!! This is shouting from the rooftops!

AND THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYES...but please keep praying!

A Musical Family

Finally I've got a pic of Missy to add to the blog. She works so much that she doesn't seem to be home when the camera is out. Here she is practicing some worship songs with her friend Julie. The girls will be helping out at Missionettes and leading worship on occasion. They filled the house with beautiful music the other night.

Missy plays piano, guitar (she has an electric one too), fife, and she's currently taking fiddle lessons. We have very musical kids. Wayne Jr. plays guitar, Curtis plays drums, Sierra plays piano, Andrii is learning drum, and me....well I can play my I-Pod!

Make sure you scroll down and check out the apple picking post :)

Apple Picking Fun

Saturday we went apple picking which is something we always do as a family. Lately though, we seem to have a skeleton crew for some activities. This weekend Sierra & Andrii were in Vermont on a youth-group retreat. Missy was working. Wayne & Kerri were on the retreat too as they are youth leaders. I was thankful that Curtis joined us as did my parents.

I don't think my mom was aiming that apple at my dad...well maybe...

Anna was nibbling while she worked!

No, that's not Angie with Brad, it's Mommy!

Here are my little pumpkins, Anna & Jordan.

I just love fall and all its activities. Yesterday I made a Swedish apple pie and the kids are eating apples all day long. Apples and peanut butter are a favorite. Anna won't eat pb any other way.

Still Waiting...

I didn't hear anything until tonight. And all the email said was "nothing today" and they will try again on Wednesday. I did track the documents I sent over last Thursday and they received them already today. FedEx is excellent. So, we continue to wait, believing that we will hear the good news we've been waiting for on Wednesday now. At least I can relax on Tuesday. I've been on the edge of my seat all day and checked my email about 500 times! I need a break from it.

While checking Andrii's school work today, he had to write a Bible verse out and I thought to myself how perfect it was for this time: May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. Psalm 20:4-5

Please keep praying. I am looking forward to shouting for joy on Wednesday!

Slava Prayer Request for Monday!

We are on the verge of stepping into answered prayer! I just got an email from our people in Ukraine. They will be going to the SDA tomorrow to try to get them to issue our Appointment Letter. This letter basically invites us to come to Ukraine and be there on the appointed date. Usually the SDA asks for 20 days to go thru your documents and make a decision, but since they know us and we're adopting a known sibling...this could speed up the process...finally!

We could know as early as tomorrow when we will be traveling! And we would be with Slava for his birthday!

Please join us in praying for this to happen: that we will be approved and issued our appointment tomorrow and that we will be celebrating Slava's 5th birthday with him!

Stay tuned.......

It Is Finished.

Today I sent the revised documents to Ukraine. I ended up redoing 4 of them. It wasn't too painful, just ridiculous really. The SDA has not asked for anything to be corrected yet, so I guess no news is good news as they say. They've had our dossier in their possession for 1 whole week now. I'm hoping to hear some good news by the end of next week. I'm stepping out in faith believing that we will be approved and issued our appointment date immediately. After all, God has already approved us! I think legally they must let us know within 20 days or something like that. My heart's desire is to be with Slava on his birthday, October 16th. With God all things are possible. He is the God of mercy, justice, compassion, and love. He places the lonely in families and commands us to care for widows and orphans. So really, what I'm asking for lines up with the will of God. And since I'm joint-heirs with Christ, and because His Word says I can ask for anything in His name, according to His will...He will do it. So, I'm asking. And believing. Please join me in asking Him and believing Him. Amen!

Happy 21st Birthday, Wayne Jr.

Awww. I can't believe my baby boy is 21! We had a lovely family party for him on Friday night with both sets of grandparents and his in-laws. His precious wife made him chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches...yummy! On Saturday night he and Kerri, Curtis & Bethany and about 14 other friends all went out for dinner to celebrate.

On the Slava front, I am re-doing those 3 documents. They will be done and FedEx'd on Thursday. The SDA has not asked for them, but if they do the documents will already be translated and ready to hand in. Our facilitator is just concerned because even if the SDA doesn't ask for them and just approves us...down the road the Inspector or even the Judge at court could question it and hold us up. I'd rather redo them now than be stuck in Ukraine at the time of the adoption. I'm still praying for that miracle...that the SDA approves us without question and issues our appointment. We should know in about 2 weeks. Please keep praying, we want to bring Slava home now!

Slava Update #7...Gggrrrrrr...and prayer request

I don't ride amusement park rides because they make me sick. I get car sick too. I feel like I'm on a roller coaster....as goes Ukrainian adoption!!! My stomach is turned upside down.

An email from our facilitators confirmed they submitted our dossier today, and then they graciously added that they wouldn't be surprised if the SDA makes us redo 3 of the documents!!!!!

Okay, like they could have asked me to redo them BEFORE they even submitted it. They were translating them after all!

Apparently I didn't have the correct address on our Petition (I took the address off of other documents)! Then there is a sentence, actually a WORD, in Wayne's employment letter. Instead of saying he made X$ in the LAST 6 months of 2010, it says he made X$ in the FIRST 6 months of 2010. I just redid this document per their request and sent it to them 2 weeks ago! And this one is really frustrating: They think our deed has a different address then all of our other documents. There is nothing I can do about that folks! In the olden days our road was called "Fares Town Road" now it's just "Fares Road". The only other address on there indicates Wayne's business address which he used for the paperwork when he purchased the property because we hadn't built our house on the land yet!!!!!!! Sorry for yelling, but I'm really frustrated!!!!

Would it be okay to pray for a miracle? That is what it will take for Ukraine to just accept our dossier as is. It will take 2 weeks for them to tell us whether we're approved or whether we have to redo stuff. In the meantime our facilitators suggested I redo the items in question, just in case, and have them ready if needed. I don't have a problem doing it. I could do it in my sleep at this point. I don't want to do it. I just want to be approved and given my appointment date so I can go pick up my son, thank you very much!!!! I'm tired of jumping through hoops that I've jumped through a million times before. Sorry again.

Please pray for a miracle. Please pray that God will give us/me the grace needed to see this thing through to the end. Thanks for listening and for praying of course.

My Ukrainian Princess

Anna and I went on a date today. She and I are doing a "Secret Keeper Girl" Bible study which includes 8 dates. The first date is going out for tea, but I modified it a bit. You see, when you're Ukrainian you prefer Ukrainian tea. Our first stop was the local thrift store where we each picked out our own tea cup. Then off to a new Ukrainian food store I'd heard about. Stepping through the doors was like walking into Ukraine, complete with little old babushka ladies wandering around chatting in their native tongue. Anna thought she'd died and gone to heaven...or Kiev!

Anna was thrilled to find Cemeshki (phonetic spelling) but also known in the US as sunflower seeds. We picked up cookies, candy, verenicky (pierogies), salami, and of course - tea.
Everything on every shelf was in Russian or Ukrainian packaging. A young couple with a baby were running the store. They were very friendly, so I introduced them to my Ukrainian princess. We're definitely going back, and next time we'll bring Missy (she can read the labels!) Missy spent over 5 months in Ukraine and learned quite a bit of the language last summer.

We're still waiting for more good news. Our dossier was supposed to be submitted today. I'll update as soon as I here anything!

SLAVA UPDATE #6 & PRAYER REQUEST!!!

I just received word from our facilitators in Ukraine. They will be submitting our dossier on Thursday. Now that he is available for foreign adoption there are apparently other facilitators "fighting over him"! There seems to be a shortage of healthy young children in the orphanages so everyone wants our boy! Our facilitators are reassuring us that the orphanage & SDA all know about us, that we have his siblings and we want him.

They are telling us to expect fast travel since we have the siblings we get priority status and will get a fast appointment. They said we would be arriving shortly!

PLEASE BE PRAYING that no one else will be able to adopt him but us...his family! And for an immediate appointment. Also keep us in prayer as we pack, set our house in order, and make all the necessary arrangements.

Oksana & Luda delivered that package to Slava today, but didn't bring a camera, so no pictures this time. The next pictures will be with his Mama & Papa!

Andrii Does Smile :)

I finally caught Andrii in a smile! I think his goal is always to look "cool" in pictures, and apparently smiling is not cool. Here he's working on an architectural project...for the fun of it! He's certainly destined for engineering, or architecture or something like that. He is gifted in putting things together which is a good thing because Jordan is gifted in taking things apart!

And he irons too! Actually he told me if I posted this picture of his amazing abs that I would suddenly have tons of followers for my blog....
Make sure you scroll down to see more pics of the kids in the Fife and Drum Corps. I wish I were posting news on Slava, but I have no news yet. Please keep praying!

Jubilee Fife & Drum Corps

Our church's Jubilee Fife & Drum Corps marched in a local parade on Saturday. Our neighbor, Dennis Anderson (far right), stepped off. Missy is in the front row (center) and Bethany is front (left).

Curtis is in the center here. Missy & Curtis have been in the Corps for several years. Though Curtis has "retired" with work and college he did help out this weekend.

Curtis may have "retired" but Andrii (left) is stepping up!

Bulk Grocery Shopping vs Weekly Shopping

My weekly routine has been to keep a grocery list for the basics and then prior to shopping day make a list of 7 dinners and add those necessary items to the list. Then I head off to Walmart where I purchase household items, certain grocery items, and socks or underwear if anyone needs them. After heaving all that stuff into the vehicle I trapse over to Price Chopper where I proceed to gather the produce, deli, meat, dairy, bread, and any items I forgot while at Walmart. The car is stuffed, the wallet is empty, and I head home exhausted.

I've been pondering for some time now that maybe I should join the bulk shopping crowd. Many years ago when I only had 4 young kids I used to go to Sam's Club or BJ's. However it seemed that buying in bulk didn't make it last longer, my kids just ate more because we had more! So I quit going and started the above mentioned routine. Now I'm seeing that with the bigger family and jammed packed schedule it is costing more money & time doing it weekly. This week I've put together a 20 day dinner menu (give or take) and a HUGE grocery list. I invited my husband out on a date...to BJ's. I've questioned several friends on which they prefer, Sam's or BJ's (feel free to leave a comment to vote for your favorite). BJ's is closer, so that got my vote.

Jesus Died On The Cross

Today during school Jordan was drawing on a white board. He announced he had something sad to show me. He then proudly presented this picture he drew. He said it's Jesus on the cross (complete with nail holes in his hands). Oh yes, just another reason why we home school!

"And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when your are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again. Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

Deuteronomy 6:5-9

This was one of the Scriptures God touched our hearts with when He called us to home school our kids 9 years ago. Basically His point was this: How can you obey my Word if the children I gave you are away from you most of the day?

Please understand that I'm not taking the credit for this. God called us, we said "yes", He equips us daily; mostly I just try to stay out of His way because if I attempt to do this in my own strength I fail miserably...sometimes several times a day. The good fruit that has come of it is by His grace not anything good in me. When I am weak He is strong.

Anyway, good job, Jordan! You've learned the most important lesson of all. It's all about Jesus!

Labor Day Weekend At Camp - part 1

Here is more of our weekend at camp. The first post is actually labeled "part 2" because I'm still not used to blogging. What I put in first ends up last, and it doesn't take much to confuse me. So make sure you scroll down and read that one first. Thanks!

Bree, Jordan and Mark. Andrii's in the hat.

On Sunday afternoon Wayne & Mark volunteered to take all the kids go-carting. Bree and I remained at camp by the in-door fire place reading & chatting in the peace and quite! Thanks Men. And they took all the kids, except Anna who chose to stay with the Moms, into Old Forge for frigid fireworks that evening. Bree & I remained at the cozy camp...someone had to stay behind to watch the camp fire! All in all it was a great time, if we don't count the 5 additional pounds I gained. Can anyone spell I.s.a.g.e.n.i.x.......or whatever it is?

I told ya it was cold!

(at least I did in the post below!)

Labor Day Weekend At Camp - part 2

We spent Labor Day Weekend at our camp in the Adirondacks. It was really refreshing especially since all week at home it was in the 90's, but up north we enjoyed 50-60 degree temps! My brother and sister-in-law, Mark & Bree, and their kids, Jack & Gracie joined Wayne & I and Sierra, Andrii, Anna & Jordan. I'm still adjusting to our big kids not always coming up with us.

Brothers, Wayne & Mark

Jack, Sierra & Andrii enjoying a game of Scrabble.

Anna, Gracie, Mark, and Jordan all cuddled up.

We spent alot of time inside since it was rainy and cold, but we had lot's of fun. Saturday night we went into town. The kids enjoyed hitting all the shops while the men went into Big Moose Yamaha to drool on the new snowmobiles. We then went out for pizza. Afterward we drove to the town of Inlet on Fourth Lake. They have a movie theatre that was playing Toy Story 3 for $3 per person. Most of us had already seen it, but I still cried when Andy was saying goodbye to his toys. I watched the entire movie with my hands over Jordan's ears because he does not like loud noises....even though he's usually the loudest of all!

Thursday Afternoon Chaos

Upon arriving home with some groceries several things happened all at once. My parents were here dropping off Jordan for they had taken him for a few hours, Missy announces she's got plans with a friend, Curtis tells me he's going somewhere, all the other kids have Karate, and Wayne calls from work wanting he and I to go out to dinner tonight with our daughter-in-law's parents. Ooookkkkaaaayyyyy. Who's going to watch Jordan? Who's going to get the kids to and from karate? I need a nap never mind dinner! But dinner out with my husband is a priority. Soooo after some phone calls and negotiations: my mom will come back and take Jordan for a few more hours, Bethany will take Anna and Mary to Karate at 5:30, Missy will take Sierra & Andrii to Karate at 6:30 and then go with her friend, Beth and Ruth will bring all the kids home from Karate and then my mom will bring Jordan home. I have no idea where Curtis is or what he's doing...he sort of fell through the cracks. But Wayne and I are going to dinner!

Today I learned about a travel agency called Golden Rule Travel. They are a Christian agency which help arrange mission trips, adoption trips, etc. I emailed them and they are working on our trip even though we have no travel date yet. I learned about them in the FRUA chatroom. Other families were discussing booking flights to Ukraine and Golden Rule was mentioned several times all with positive comments, so I contacted them. We used a travel agent out of Minnesota for our first adoption. They had been recommended by the agency we were using. We are not using an agency this time and I don't wish to use that travel agency either. The travel agent was fine, but the adoption agency which was supposed to be a Christian agency was a nightmare. Maybe some time I'll post on that topic if anyone is interested in the story. Anyway, we are still waiting, so please keep praying.

It's September!!!

We're in the midst of changing seasons, even if the thermometer says otherwise. Our days are filled with home schooling and fall activities will be starting up soon. I am savoring this time of year, especially since we hope to be spending a chunk of it in Ukraine.

Here Anna plays with her barn and horses. Actually I had to assign her this task. She is not good at entertaining herself. She always wants a friend, tv, or food when she's "bored". Today after school she'd already watched her quota of TV, her best friend was unable to come over, and she'd already had lunch and a snack of pickles. So I had to sentence her to play time. Rough life.
Sierra is working on Amazing Grace. A piece she'd like to do in church with her big brother Wayne.
Jordan is busy doing school here. He's had some real productive days recently. We're reviewing phonics and he's already blending and reading words! Someone at church gave him a roll of Life Savers which I confiscated and have been using as little incentives to accomplish each page.

Today I spent some time online looking at airline tickets to Ukraine. Yikes! It's looking like it could cost almost $2000 for each ticket and we need 3 round trip and 1 one way. We'd like to fly in and out of Albany which would mean a stop State-side (Philly, JFK, or DC) and a layover in Europe (Germany, Amsterdam, or Paris) and then finally on to Kiev. Last time we drove to JFK and flew directly to Kiev with no stops. Wayne does not like being on the plane for 10 hours straight, so he'd like to have a lay over somewhere. I don't have a problem with that, but I'm not thrilled with hours and hours of waiting in an airport (with Jordan to entertain) and I think there's a greater chance for our luggage to get lost on the way. Another reason why it's pricey is because we'll have to book on such short notice. Today I checked prices to see what it would cost of we flew on Sept 10th and it ranged from $1600-$1900 without taxes. If you have any suggestions please leave me a comment or email me.

Our box of toys and clothes arrived to our facilitator already. Next week they are planning a trip to the orphanage, so hopefully then I'll have some new pictures of Slava to post. And they will let us know once they've submitted our "Application" which could be any time now. I'm so excited it's September, so now I can finally say that, "Next month we will have Slava!!!!!"

Please keep praying!!!