Last Night

Well, we arrived in Krivoy Rog on Tuesday morning, and we just got our internet working this evening (Thursday).  We will post just one quick thought for you to think of and to PRAISE God for tonight . . . As I'm writing this (and while most of you will read this), Artyr is spending his last night in an orphanage EVER!  Please spend some time tonight and PRAISE God with us for Artyr's sake and for all of the orphans who have recently gone home to be with their new families!  Have a God night!

We're Baaaaaack . . . well, half of us is, anyway!

Greetings from Ukraine . . . again!  Since the last time that you heard from us on our blog, we have officially become Artyr's parents, because the 10 day mandatory waiting period is over.  We're now parents of a teenager . . . woo hoo!  We're sorry for not writing during our time at home.  When the other families that had gone before us took a break from blogging while they were at home, we were like, "Come on!  We want to know what's going on!"  But now we know why most of them didn't blog during that time . . . because that time period in between the trips is BUSY, and it flies by.  I'm not sure if we stopped to rest during the two weeks . . . from putting the finishing touches on Artyr's room to throwing Jordyn a birthday party, we had a lot to do.  So, we are sorry; but here we are.  Well, at least one of us is here!  This time it's just Joe, as Ginger is back home with Grace and Jordyn. Maybe she will chime in from PA and let us know how much everyone misses me (hint, hint . . . this is going to be fun writing this all by myself).  I came over with my friend Tim, who played football with me at PSU.  It was an interesting flight, to say the least.  After promising Tim, unlimited cans of soda, a variety of movie choices, and a comfortable ride overseas; we were placed on a cramped plane (guess who got to be smooshed between Tim and a lady that liked to sit with her elbows pointed out at 90 degree angles and, consequently, in my rib cage) with no movie choices and no cans of soda in sight (the flight attendant felt bad for Tim, though, and gave him a big bottle of Diet Coke).  After 8 hours in the plane from Dulles to Frankfurt Germany, we were grateful for a 2.5 hour layover before flying to Kiev.  We arrived safely in Kiev this afternoon, Praise God.  I was able to Skype with Ginger and the girls.  Tim was able to call his mom, and I was able to call my parents, as well.  Please PRAY for us tonight as we get ready for the overnight train ride to Krivoy Rog.  Lord willing, the temperature will be under 100 degrees Fahrenheit (under 70, would be REALLY great), and we will get a good night sleep.  We've stayed up pretty much our entire time traveling (since 2:19 PM EST on Sunday) so that we will be really tired as we board the train.  It has worked . . . I've dozed off a handful of times while attempting to post this (so, please forgive me for any typing or grammatical errors).  Tomorrow, we get to work at bringing Artyr home.  From what Ginger and I understand, we will first get his new birth certificate on Tuesday (I will write thoughts on that when I'm not so tired) and then we will need to get him a new passport with his new name, Artyr Edward Rose.  We chose Edward as his middle name, because it is my middle name and my father's.  It is also Ginger's dad's first name.  We thought it would be perfect, and Artyr agrees.  I'm so excited to be able to see our son  tomorrow.  Please be PRAYing that all would go smoothly and that we will be able to go home as soon as possible!  Thank you for your prayers!  I miss you, Ginger, Grace, and Jordyn!  I Love You all very much!

Valentine's Day = The Day of Love

Valentine's Day will forever hold a new reason to celebrate in the Rose household!  We are now the parents of three children.  This time, fortunately, Ginger was only nauseous for a couple of hours leading up to our court appointment, instead of the usual 25 or so weeks that she was during pregnancy!  Truth be told, Joe was a little nauseous today, too.  Our court appointment went very well, and the judge ruled in favor of Artyr becoming our child.  Here's a recap . . . Our day began at 6:45 AM when Svetta arrived from the overnight train to prepare us for court.  She reviewed our rights and responsibilities as adoptive parents and also helped to prepare us for what questions might be asked of us.  She then departed to pick up Artyr and his teacher from the orphanage.  Our driver came and picked us up at 9:15 AM.  We stopped to pick up the orphanage inspector along the way, and we arrived at the court building at approximately 9:45 AM for our 10 AM scheduled appointment.  The court room was smaller than we had pictured, and it had a special cell (complete with bars) where "bad men", as Artyr called them, would sit during court.  For awhile, we thought we might have to sit in there . . . as the prosecutor, the inspector, the jury, the orphanage teacher, the court clerk, and the judge all made their way into the room.  The judge questioned both of us individually on who we were, what we did for a living (they especially questioned Joe being a minister), and why we wanted to adopt Artyr.  The judge then questioned Artyr, as well.  He did an amazing job answering the tough questions from the judge.  He didn't look nearly as nervous as we were.  His teacher from the orphanage (pictured below with us and Artyr) then gave a report and expressed her support for the adoption.  It was now time for the orphanage inspector to have her say.  During her report she stated that Artyr's family did not want him, that no one in Ukraine wanted to adopt him, and that no one internationally had ever wanted to adopt him up to this point.  She also stated that this was most likely his last opportunity to be adopted.  We remember when our good friends Russ and Lori adopted their daughter, Ana, last Spring and they told us that the inspector said such things during their court appearance about Ana.  Even knowing it was coming did not prepare us to hear it first hand (as first hand as through a translator can be).  It was heartbreaking sitting there and listening to her say these things about Artyr.  We can't imagine, though, how Artyr felt hearing these things.  The video we posted yesterday (if you haven't had the opportunity to watch it, yet, we hope you can find to) affected us so deeply as we imagined all the years that Artyr has been in the orphanage and how he has seen children come and go, yet he remained.  To think that he waited all this time . . . for us!  God chose us to bring his Happy Ending.  But it's really just the beginning!  We are very blessed to have the opportunity to show Artyr God's Love and to welcome him into our family.  And we are also very blessed to share this experience with all of you.  We appreciate so much the amount of time each of you has spent praying for us, caring for our children while we were gone, or supporting us in some other way.  Our journey is not over, even though we're preparing to come home tomorrow!  We ask that you would continue to pray as Joe prepares to fly back to Ukraine with our good friend, Tim (or Unky as our girls and some of you know him) ,on the 27th of February to pick Artyr up and bring him home forever on the 11th of March.  What a homecoming that will be!  Please PRAY for our journey home and for our reunion with Grace and Jordyn on Tuesday evening.  Thank you so much!  God Bless!

Do You Believe in Happy Endings?

We came across this video on another adoption blog. If you have a moment, please watch it (if you don't, please make a moment) ...


Hope is Fading – Orphan Sunday from Allan Rosenow on Vimeo.

Lord Willing, in less than 10 hours, Artyr's Happy Ending will be official . . . Praise His Name!  To God be the Glory for how He has blessed our family with the opportunity to be Artyr's parents.  We are so excited to see what God has in store for this wonderful young man!  Please PRAY for the other children who are waiting for there happy ending (could you be the one God chooses to accomplish it?).  Thank you for all of your prayers!

Quarantined

As of Thursday, we were not allowed to enter the orphanage anymore, because of the quarantine.  This is great, because it means that we have been allowed to take Artyr out of the orphanage everyday.  This is not so great, though, because we don't get to visit with the other children anymore.  Before we were shut out, though, we made this video on JibJab with Anslee and Vika (being adopted by Russie and Cheri) and Artyr.  Enjoy!

We were able to show the video to Anslee, Vika, and Artyr before we were shut out of the orphanage.  They seemed to really enjoy it!  We had a good time going out to eat with Artyr and hanging out with him in our apartment on Thursday and Friday.  Today, we went to a mall that has a bowling alley in it and also pool tables.  It was a lot of fun, and Artyr even improved a little with his bowling style. 

He is very good about listening to what we tell him.  For example, on Monday or Tuesday in the orphanage he was going to grab some candy out of the bag that we had brought.  We suggested that he ask first.  He has not had a piece of candy or anything else since that point without asking first!  He has such a great attitude!  We are enjoying our time with Artyr, but we miss our girls so much.  Today was hard, because it is Jordyn's birthday.  We were able to call her and Grace on Skype (seriously . . . PRAISE God for Skype!) and sing "Happy Birthday" to her before she blew out the candles on her JoJo the Bunny cake (Thanks Neal family for giving her such a special day).  We were also able to watch her open her presents.  We are VERY excited that we get to go home on Tuesday!  Evidently, Grace knows the secret, but she is not telling Jordyn!  She is such an awesome big sister!  We can't wait to give them both huge hugs!  Everything is still set for us to have our court appointment on Monday at 10 AM.  After court, we will celebrate with lunch and then head back to Kiev by car, so that we will be there in time for our 6:45 AM flight (the train would not get us there in time . . . we can't say we're TOO sad about not having to take the sauna train!).  Please PRAY for Monday's court appointment and for our travel.  We will update, again, before then!  God bless, everyone!

Ice Ice Baby

You may think the title of today's blog is about the weather, but it isn't.  It is about the song by Vanilla Ice, which we heard on the radio here in Ukraine today on the way to the orphanage.  They were also saying that MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This" was coming up.  We were both dancing in the backseat of the car . . . We're sure that our driver, Andre, thinks we're weird!  The first two pictures posted here are of the Art Room in the orphanage.  This is our hang out when we come each day.  We have been going into the other building where Artyr's group room is, but we were very sternly told no today (in Russian) by the one nurse/doctor of the orphanage.  During flu season, the orphanage pretty much gets quarantined to keep sickness to a minimum.  They told us this at our initial meeting and told us we should buy masks to bring with us (which we did the first day we were in Krivoy).  We have brought them with us each day (not sure how much good they do us in our pockets . . . but we have them).  We believe we will only go in the Art Room from here on out, unless we are wearing our masks.  The next picture is what we do almost every day in the orphanage . . . play Uno!  The children really like Uno, and so do we.  It is fun to interact with the children as they attempt to speak English and we attempt to speak Russian.  They laugh at us frequently when we pronounce words incorrectly.  The picture at left is Artyr, immediately after he was caught cheating in Uno . . . Janel, maybe that's how he beat you so frequently!  We sometimes have one or two children come to visit, but tonight more than ten children came in to see us during our time.  Not all of them played Uno, some just came in for the treats, and some just came to say, "Hello".  Tonight's special treat was potato chips in everyone's favorite flavor . . . bacon!  Yes, we said "bacon".  They were actually very good.  They tasted a lot like our BBQ chips back home.  The children ate a bag and a half of these chips along with some candy that we had brought.  We have been bringing yogurt and fruit for the children, so tonight was a nice break from all that healthy stuff!  After Uno was over, we played with the Bendaroos that we had brought over.  If you are unfamiliar with what a Bendaroo is, it is a skinny, flexible craft item that you bend into any shape that you wish.  You can make all kinds of different things with them.  There are patterns that you can follow, or you can let your imagination guide you.  We made deer (Ginger, a doe; Joe, a buck), as you can see by the picture.  Russie and Cheri, who were here before us, told us how much the children liked the Bendaroos.  Boy, were they right.  All of the children, except one or two, were playing with them.  We gave the buck to this young girl, whose name is Nastya. The doe will stay in the Art Room along with Russie's shark that he made while he was here.  All too soon, we saw our driver, Andre, pull up in his car outside.  This meant it was time to go.  It is always sad leaving Artyr and the other children at the orphanage, but we know that, if the Lord allows, we will return tomorrow to see them.  We are going to end our blog with some more pictures of these beautiful children; but before we do, we have some exciting news we want to share with you . . . No, we're not pregnant, and No, we haven't decided to adopt another child, yet.  

We found out for sure that our court date has been scheduled for MONDAY at 10 AM!!!  We've known that was a possibility for several days, but we didn't want to say anything until we were told for sure.  This means that we will be able to fly home on Tuesday.  We were able to change our tickets for just the minimum change fee ($250 per ticket) with no additional charges . . . Praise God!  We are now scheduled to leave Kiev at 6:45 AM and, because of the time zone differences, arrive in State College at 4:15 PM the same day!  That's a full 5 days ahead of our previous plans!  We are so excited!   BUT PLEASE DO NOT TELL OUR GIRLS, GRACE AND JORDYN!!!  We want it to be a surprise.  We're going to work it out with the Stine family, who they will be staying with at that time, so that we can surprise them.  We are so excited, because we miss them soooooooooooooo much!  Please PRAY that this would all work out, and that we will be able to come home on Tuesday.  Thank you!  Speaking of coming home, please PRAY for Mick and Janel and Vika Grace, as they fly out of Kiev on Thursday morning.  Please PRAY for safety and that Vika would adjust well to her new life in America.  The McCrackens are a lovely family and we were blessed to share in this journey with them and all of the other families that we have gotten to know so well during this adoption journey.  On an unrelated note, please PRAY for Joe's brother, Robert, who was in a car accident yesterday in York, PA.  Thank you!  Okay, here are some more pictures of these beautiful children . . . As always, we ask that you would PRAY for them to find a family that would love them, and please PRAY that God would show you how He wants to use you to love these children!  Thanks and God Bless!

 

Sunday = day of the sun . . . Monday = not so much

 We awoke Sunday morning to a sight we hadn't seen since arriving in Ukraine last Monday . . . THE SUN!!!  It was a welcome break from the gray skies that have been around for the last week.  From what we understand, the skies back home have been the same; but either way, it was nice to see it shining in the sky.  We figured while we had the light, we would take a couple of pictures from the window in our apartment here in Krivoy Rog.  These are some houses that are sandwiched in between the apartment complexes.  We are told that these houses are highly sought after as places to live . . . maybe it's because, you can have chickens (as you can see in the picture at left).  Whatever the reason, it's an interesting contrast between the towering apartment buildings and the houses with fenced in yards.  Our driver, Andre, came and picked us up and took us to the orphanage to get Artyr.  Again, he was standing outside waiting for us!  On the way to go bowling (which Artyr was VERY excited to do), we stopped at one of the only places in Krivoy to get American hamburgers . . . McDonald's!  Please refrain from laughing at this next comment . . . It was the best meal we have had since we have been over here (stop laughing)!  Chicken McNuggets and Cheeseburgers have never tasted so good!  We sat outside on their exclusive patio for their best customers.  Although it was a little windy and Artyr kept saying how cold he was, nothing was going to deter us from this fine dining experience!  I don't think we will ever look at McDonald's the same way, again . . . hahaha!  After our exquisite lunch, we headed to the nearby bowling alley (which is located inside the same building with the ice rink, movie theatre, and fitness center . . . which we probably should have visited after our lunch).  We paid for bowling and told the gentleman at the counter our shoe sizes  (in European sizes, of course . . . 45 for Joe, 35 for Ginger, and 37 for Artyr).  The man put our names into the system for us; although, we probably could have done that ourselves, considering the keypads and instructions were all in English.  We're guessing that the whole system was from the U.S., because every time you bowled, a saying would pop up in English on the screen like "Bummer" or "Way to Go, Dude!".  

 

We found out that Artyr's bowling style will need a little work, as you can see from the video!  Maybe he can take some lessons from his new Mama . . . check out her form (thanks, Grandpa White for teaching Ginger when she was young)!  After we went bowling, we headed back to our apartment to just hang out with Artyr until we had to take him back to the orphanage.  We had spaghetti with tomato sauce for dinner and we realized, once again, that everything tastes different over here (except McDonald's).  The food is not bad, by any means, it's just different.  After dinner, we went back to the orphanage, and little Andre and Dan came in to visit just long enough to get some chocolate and then go back to their group.  No other children came in to visit, which made us a little sad, but it was great to sit and play Uno with Artyr and continue the process of getting to know him a little better.  When we headed home we hoped to be able to find a way to watch the Super Bowl on the internet or on TV.  We were unsuccessful, to say the least; but we stayed up until 2 AM (7:00 PM back home) trying!  This morning we slept in a little extra, because we weren't going to head to the orphanage until later in the afternoon.  We walked to the market and to get some photos printed for Artyr that he had asked for us to bring him.  We also went to exchange money and had lunch at Celentano's Pizza (under $10 for Pizza, a crepe, fruit salad, and drinks . . . woo hoo!).  When we got to the orphanage in the afternoon, we were greeted quickly by Artyr, and we soon saw Anslee and Vika Walk, as well.  We were able to Skype with Cheri (Anslee and Vika's new Mama) while we were there, and we just played ball and spent time with the new Walk Sisters (formerly, the Dorash Sisters) and Artyr.  Several other children popped in and said hello (including Andre for his daily treat).  Here are some of the pictures from our time spent in the orphanage tonight. We were very blessed to be able to obtain a downloaded copy of the Super Bowl, which we only had the opportunity to finish half of (that's why we're up so late).  We will finish the second half tomorrow morning before heading to the orphanage in the afternoon.  Please PRAY for our time spent in the orphanage with Artyr and the other children.  Thank you so much for upholding us in prayer!  God Bless!