Seesaw and a kitty...

Nastya got a haircut!   I think we'll have to work on the "girl" hairstyle after we get home!

 

Fun on the seesaw...

These are for you Annie!  Vika loves kitties. She cried when we had to take her away from the "koshka".

 

 

You gotta love the hair bow...it's amazing to us that she keeps it on!

Planes, Trains, Automobiles, ? and a business proposition. . .

 

By Lee:   This is for the men - any men out there reading this? 

        Getting around - something that we usually take for granted.  We hop in our car and GO!  Not exactly that easy in Ukraine.  First, we walk, a lot!  Which is good - because that is the best way to see things.

      We have used a variety of transportation since we arrived.   We have taken taxis, airplanes, subway and have a seen a whole bunch more.    I am surprised at the tremendous variety of cars - I was expecting to see lots of Soviet era cars - and there are - the Lada being my favorite.  I think that is going to be the first car I get the twins - because ownership of the car and learning to fix it seem to go hand in hand.  90% of the time - if there is a car broken down; it seems like it is an old Lada and the owner is working to fix it.

 

        You can't exactly read it - but the license plate in the center of the photo above has the tagline - "In God we Trust".   We are blessed with a great (and moderate) driver - but they do drive on sidewalk, compete with the trolleys and have their own form of traffic patterns here.  I am glad we are relying on someone else for the transportation.   By the way -some of the potholes are HUGE!  Swerving to avoid them is perfectly expected; why there are not more accidents - I will never know - it is a unique form of chaos.

        Other cars:  Subarus, Lexus, Mercedes, Audi, lots of small Fords & Chevys, Fiats, Seats, Citroen, Mazda, Nissan, Mitubishi, Toyota (lots of them. . . ) and I even saw a Suburban in Kiev.   There are many black Lexus GX480s - this must be one of the Ukrainian status symbols - big 4 wheel drive - similar to the Toyota Sequoia.   All I know is they must cost a lot of kopeks.  (4 to 5 kopeks = 1 penny).

         The boys and I have taken 2 subway rides - which are fun - but a bit challenging to read the signs and keep track of where you are at - we went to the train station one day and the XT3 tractor factory yesterday.    We are 2 for 2 on rides and NOT getting lost.  My simple advice to them when you don’t know where to go - follow the crowd - but don’t go through the turnstile.  Cost to ride the subway - 75 kopecks (about 17 cents).  It is a grand adventure.

         Now for the business proposition.   I had no idea - but apparently you are supposed to ground your car - providing a way for static that is generated when you drive (or maybe if you get hit by lightening) - to dissipate.    In my 4 years of engineering school and 2 years of grad school - I never learned that - but it is common knowledge here (at least if you drive an old car) - see photo. 

    I have arranged with Boris, Vladamir and Ivan to have 3 sea-container loads of these things delivered to Matts house - 60 day terms so we have to move them fast.   I was going to have it delivered to ours - but you have to be home to receive them - and he (hopefully will) agree to store them out on his street.  Anyway - there are 9 million in a container and we have 3 containers.    I am dividing up territories right now and we have plenty of good spots left - everywhere in the country.    To sign up - leave a post on the blog.    We need to educate America on the benefits of anti-stat strips- some cars have one, some two and I have seen as many as three on one vehicle.  I believe they also have agricultural application as well - so if you add in tractors, combines, farm trucks. . . just think of the potential!    Matt (& Laura) - hope you are both OK w/ this - they should be there sometime late next week.

      Just a fun post - we are here because we are being obedient to the calling that both Karen and I have re: these 2 kids.   One more day closer to bringing them home - can't wait!!       Lee

Day Six with the girls

7.29.08 @ 8 pm

We had a great day of visiting the girls today. After we arrived I went to find Vika. She was still in her bed – I couldn’t figure out if the orphanage workers were telling me if she was sick or just tired. She has been so quiet and non-smiling the last 2 visits I have been suspecting she wasn’t well. Nevertheless, she did want to go with me. I brought her back to Lee and the boys in the main foyer and then went to find Nastya. Nastya was with her little groupa, outside, up the hill, sitting under some trees. She is so affectionate. Now, whenever I come to get her, she comes running to me with her arms open wide.


After a bit of maneuvering we managed to get both girls outside. Vika’s group was also outside – only not up the hill, but close by to the building where there are a few pieces of decrepit play equipment. The weather was beautiful and we were glad to stay outside and play. Before long Vika made her way back to her groupa – I followed her. Nastya wanted to swing on the ancient swingset so Lee and the boys stayed with her. I am trying to familiarize myself with the children and workers in each of the girls groups and for now I have been focusing on Vika’s group. There were actually 2 groups out by the building today – Vika’s group and another one with smaller children. I went over by Vika and her group and the workers. They are very friendly, nice ladies. I have my Russian-English phrase book and attempted some primitive communication. They are such good sports. Eventually, with permission, I hope to take pictures of the girls’ friends (groupa) and their caregivers. So, as they grow older they will always have that as a remembrance of their childhood. I talked with the caregivers and attempted to interact with the other children as well. I also brought out my small photo album I have made of our family. I showed it to the caregivers. They were very interested in it. It was so fun to show them my other children, (especially Annie – everyone here is always amazed that we have an “invalid”, Russian term for special needs, child in our family and that we treat her just like all our other children). I also showed them photos of our house, the girls’ future room, our yard, etc…


Eventually Vika and 2 other little boys wanted to go back over to where Lee and Nastya and the twins were. So, we did. We all spent quite a while up the hill just a bit, in a shelter type building with benches and a small swing. Nastya, of course, wanted to swing most of the time. That girl could swing all day I think! (I believe her 2 favorite things in life are swinging and drinking from our water bottles) Vika just walked around holding our photo album. Samson was one of the little boys who came up with us. So, in the end we got to play with him too. He has a very crooked gait, but in spite of that he loved just running back and forth across the floor. When he smiles it goes from ear to ear!


After a while the caregivers came for the boys and we were left with just our girls. They wanted to go exploring down the path so we followed. Nastya went one direction – Daniel and I followed her. Vika went another direction – Lee and Andrew accompanied her. We spent the rest of the time with the girls separately. Nastya wanted to play on some other playground equipment so that is what we did. She has absolutely no fear of heights. In fact, she will climb up anything she can! And I mean anything! Vika, Lee and Andrew made their way behind another building, to a small swimming pool. She wanted to play with the water. In fact it was the first time in 3 days we’ve gotten her to smile. We have been told Vika loves the water and she loves to swim. That was quite obvious – it changed her demeanor completely. (As I said earlier, I don’t think she has felt well)

It is amazing to me how quickly, our girls have warmed up to us. They will both come running to be with us. They know when we come, it means they get attention and love and playing. Although, they do exhibit very typical orphanage behavior – whenever we give them a toy or book to look at, they quickly grab it, put it under their arm, run away to a place to be alone and try to look at it. They aren’t very open to us showing them toys or books. They pretty much want to take it and run. But, they have never known anything different. In an orphanage you always have to look out for yourself, even if you are only 3, 4 or 5 yrs. old. If you happen to have anything of value, (even if its temporary) you must fight all the other children to keep it. I see that. In preparation of this event I have read scads of books on adoption, attachment, and institutional behavior, etc…And now I am seeing it first hand – not just in my girls, but in all the children I am observing. I take every opportunity I have to observe my girls living situation. I believe they have kind caregivers but it is still an orphanage and not a family.

These visits are so necessary. Every time we come we build on our relationship and their trust of us a little more. It is interesting to me. Even though they have good caregivers, I don’t believe they have been held much. I don’t think any orphan has been held much. They obviously love to be with us and at the end of our visits, they never want to go. But, while we are visiting, they also do not want to be held or sometimes even touched. (There have been exceptions as you can see by the pictures) Nastya is at times, the exception here, as she sometimes will be very affectionate to us. The other day she went back and forth between Daniel and Andrew giving them hugs. That definitely melted their hearts.


I had an interesting conversation with our facilitator the other day. (Have I mentioned what a wonderful lady she is? We love her.) She asked me if I thought I could do it – take care of 2 more children with special needs. I told her honestly, sometimes I am incredibly overwhelmed at the thought. But, I know with certainty that if the Lord has called me to this, then He will provide what I need. I know, He doesn’t take us to hard places and leave us. He is always faithful.


My goodness that got a bit long. Sorry. Until next time, enjoy some pics!


Karen


Annie, David and Sam…I miss you and love you soooooooooooooooooo much!!! Sam, Curious George is busy having adventures here in Kharkov!!! Pictures will be coming soon! Love, Mom, Dad, Andrew and Daniel

Quick Technology Update

Our technology in Ukraine is struggling.

First, my Blackberry worked absolutely flawlessly for the first week - and then Sat afternoon - seems to have lost its mind. I think it might be the SIM card - nothing works on it - no e-mail, phone services or data for connectivity to work.

We did borrow a cell phone: +380 95 329 9326 (I think that includes country code and all).

To reach us via e-mail for now - use:
leeshervheim@yahoo.com
or
ksherv@yahoo.com (I am going from memory - I think this is K yahoo account).

I am sure it will take us a little time to figure these things out - but we will check e-mail at least once a day. The internet cafes are abundant - just keyboards and language presents a problem - so we are both holding out for the ability to use our laptops on wireless to simplify.

Lee S.

More Photos - coverings days 2 and 3

Written 7.27 - posted 7 am 7.28 - while borrowing free internet in front of McDonalds!


We have had 3 days of visiting the girls. It is amazing to me how comfortable they are getting with us. Yesterday we were basically in a foyer area with many people coming through. It was awkward and hard to keep the girls in one area. Today they let us go upstairs to a couple rooms where we were alone from everyone else. It was much better. The orphanage workers encourage the girls to call us mama and papa. Actually the second day Vika was announcing to everyone that walked through, “Mama”. Since most of the orphanage workers are women the girls are not used to many men. The first day Vika was quite scared of Lee but not anymore. Especially Nastya will snuggle up with him to look at a book or the DVD player. Today when she had to leave us to go eat lunch she refused the worker. Finally Lee picked her up and she just clung to him while he brought her downstairs. She has have definitely worked her way into her Daddy’s heart.

We do not have easy access to Internet like I had hoped for while we are here. In fact, I have been unable to check any email for about 3 days now. I feel incredibly cut off from all of you and I don’t like that! For over a week now I haven’t been able to check any blogs or my RR yahoo group and very little email. Talk about Internet withdrawal! On my blog, I want to be able to check your comments more often – they are such an encouragement to me but we can only get to the internet every couple days and then we have to check everything all at once. We can’t find wireless anywhere yet so I can’t save anything on my computer to read later. For now we bring the pics and texts on a thumb drive and download them on a Russian computer (part is in English and part not). I am sure though, that my computer savvy hubby will figure out something! I will write more later and try to provide more pics as well!

-Karen


Nastya

Vika

Samson

Samson...
This could be long so be forewarned. :)

Finally, we know of our Samson. We have learned that he is indeed still at the orphanage. And it was his paperwork with the problems. So, he is unavailable now.

These last few days have been incredibly emotional for me. Between meeting the girls and facing the loss of Samson it has felt sometimes as if its more than I can bear. So for myself and those who love him as well, I am feeling the need to write a few thoughts about him. Anyone who has lost a child in adoption knows the pain and grief run deep. Before starting on this adoption journey I never understood how you could love a child you never met as much as your own. Forgive me for that. But, now I understand – it is a gift from the Lord – he places that love for your child deep in your heart – maybe you have seen a picture of them, maybe not. You just know they belong with you.

I saw Samson today with my own eyes. He is in the same little “groupa” of children with Vika. They are good friends and playmates. Vika was eating lunch with her groupa. I found their room and asked to watch her eat. I waved hi and smiled a lot at all the children. I blew kisses at them and they blew kisses back to me. They were being served a bowl of soup – some kind of vegetable I think. Probably borsch! :) When that finished they received a piece of white bread which they wolfed down. And then cups filled partially with some kind of dark liquid and a small cracker. They drank it down very quickly as well. As they ate and I stood there, I studied them all carefully. I had been told Samson and Vika were in the same groupa but at first I could not tell if he was there. And then I focused in on one little boy. It was his nose…it is distinctive and I remembered it well from the picture. I pointed to Vika and said to the orphanage worker, “Vika?” as if I needed help saying her name. Then, I pointed to who I thought was Samson, and said “Samson?” (only of course I used his real Ukrainian name.) She said ”da, Samson” and then she went all around the room and told me all the childrens’ names. Some obviously had Down Syndrome, some not. All of them were small and beautiful and without a family.

So, then I knew for sure. I had found my Samson, my little Ukrainian son I had prayed for so long. He was a good eater – albeit a stuffer. He looked different than I expected. He was so much thinner than the pictures and such a tiny boy really. He also seemed more affected by Down syndrome than I expected- his mannerisms and the way he held his hands and tilted his head gave me this impression. I watched him eat. All the children eat so fast. Soon they were done and it was time to leave the room. They got up and filed out through the hallway. For a few seconds in time he was alone from the others. He stopped, looked up at me with his big brown eyes and smiled. I looked deep in his eyes and then he turned and walked into his room.
It was enough. I turned myself to go down the hallway and then the tears came. Finally, I had seen for myself.

I do not understand why the Lord has done things the way he has. I never doubted His ability once to perform a miracle on our behalf. I have believed Him fully and held back nothing of my faith. We have prayed for him for months to be ours. I built him a bed. I bought clothes for him to wear home with us. I fully expected the Lord to work all this out. Everything I ever believed about Samson and the Lords ability to bring him to us was based solely on the scripture he gave me not on my own desires. I know He is pleased with uncompromising and unfailing belief in Him and He will reward me for my faith in Him to do the impossible. But in the end, He has chosen a different path for us than I thought.

Please don’t misunderstand me - we love the girls and have no regrets or second thoughts about Anastasia. At our SDA appointment we were shown 3 files – 2 girls and 1 boy. In a matter of minutes we were asked to decide the fate of one child, to make a decision that would change their life and our family forever. Thankfully, the Lord made it clear to both of us which to choose. We know with certainty, Anastasia was meant to be in our family. I know as the years progress I will always wonder how we could have ever survived without her. She was unknown to us and perhaps would have never been adopted had we been unwilling to take a blind referral. Before coming to Ukraine, I prayed for a miracle and I received one - just not the one I expected.
The future of my little Samson is uncertain to us but thankfully, not to the Lord. He has made specific promises to me for this little boys’ life and future and I will hold Him to those. I know that Jesus loves him more than I do. I know that He has not caused us to pray so fervently for him for so many months for nothing. I know He will not waste our pain, or our grief or our loss. I don’t know if Samson will ever become available to be adopted. I do know that there are powers in Heaven and earth that are working toward that end. If he becomes available I do not know if the time and place will be right for our family. So much of our personal future is unknown. For now, he is in a good orphanage. I have personally met both the director and head physician. They are kind and compassionate people. In this orphanage children with special needs are allowed to stay until 6 or 7 yrs old, before being transferred to a mental institution. There is hope for him to be adopted before he would be transferred. And of course, with Jesus, regardless of the circumstances, there is always hope. For in the end it is our hope in Jesus that is all we have anyway.

I'm sorry for the length of this post. For whatever reasons, I needed to write it. For now, He has made our path clear. It is not the one I expected to be on, but it is the one He has chosen for us. I know, based on His word alone, He has amazing times ahead for us. I anticipate seeing the face of Jesus in Ukraine in many ways in the next few weeks. We praise and thank Him for all He is doing in our lives and we eagerly anticipate all that is ahead.

Meeting our Girls!!

Yesterday - Thursday 24 July 2008

It was an incredible day. It hard to even to put into words all the emotions that I have felt today. Our girls are beautiful, Victoria was very afraid at first, but after a short while she relaxed. Anastasia was much more brave and interacted with us more quickly. Victoria is much like Annie - particular, determined and a little mother hen. Anastasia is more relaxed and laid back. She was also very tired and almost fell asleep on the bed. We have learned that Victoria and Anastasia are their given birth names. We will likely use these as their middle names. In the orphanage - they are called Vika and Nastya -

Victoria (Norah) aka Vika

Anastasia - aka Nastya

Quick update from today - Friday 7.25.08 9 pm

We also were able to visit them today and they warmed up to us nicely. We played bubbles, with a beach ball and did lots of drinking from water bottles. They loved to carry around our Russian/English phrase books and in fact cried when we had to take them away. The orphanage is about 20 miles out of town - so getting there is no easy task - we have to rely on our driver. We plan to visit daily - for 1-2 hours at a time.

One of our challenges so far has been getting to the internet - we don't have it in our apartment and internet cafes are not as common as we thought. We have found one now in our neighborhood and after navigating 15 kinds of russian keyboards - I think we finally have a system figured out.

Thanks to all for praying and please continue - we are in a paperwork maze - our translator/facilitator/guide/cook/legal advisor - has been treating us very well and is very skilled at navigating the roadblocks. We like her so much - we are sharing an apartment - she is really wonderful to have around - and we trust that all will continue to go (Ukrainian) smooth -

We miss you and love you all -

Sammy, Annie and David - you have two awesome little sisters that very soon will be joining our family - we think you are going to love them.

Brief Update--

Laura here---I have a brief update from Karen...I know, I know...I'm not the one you want to be hearing from right now. I've checked her blog a thousands time over today for pics of their new daughters! But something is always better than nothing...so here is what Karen has to say.

Its been an emotionally packed, exhausting day. The girls are beautiful. They are very different in their personalities. We had so much fun with them and can't wait to see them again tomorrow. We haven't found internet yet where we can update the blog with pics but hope to soon.

She said she was falling asleep as she was sending the note, so let's pray they get abundant rest and restoration tonight. And for the Lord to continue to reveal Himself to them in amazing ways!

The next steps...

Tonight (Wed. night) we fly to Kharkov. We leave at 9pm our time - 1 pm midwest time.  It will be a late night by the time we get to our apartment.

Tomorrow, we will first have some paperwork to take care of at the Inspectors office in Kharkov and then I think we will go outside the city to the orphanage to meet our girls! 

I am not sure when we will have internet again but we will post pics as soon as we can!

Please pray for our first meeting with our girls and the officials at the orphanage.  We are so excited to meet them!

Also please be praying for our dear little Samson - that sometime in the next couple days we will be allowed to look at the other children and verify if he is there or not. And if he is not, that the Lord will make a way for us to possibly locate him.  My greatest comfort in all of this is that I know that Jesus loves him more than I do.  He has promised me that He will never forsake or leave this little guy.  I know that we have not prayed fervently for him these last 6 months in vain.  The Lord has a plan for him. 

Thank you so much for all your encouraging comments and for praying for us. It means so much to us.  This has been  a  much harder road than we ever anticipated when we began last November.  But, it is what He has laid out for us and we thank Him for it.  We know that as He continues to unfold His plan little by little we will simply be amazed at His work. 

This is for you Sam!!!

Curious George begins his Ukrainian Adventure!

All buckled up and safe to travel in the big airplane!

George decides he wants a window seat...

 

George in the Amsterdam airport...

George in front of the SDA building...

Us in front of the SDA building...

Yes, Laura, that is the only dress I own.