It is Monday morning for us and the sun is shining brightly! It is just gorgeous outside! We have come to Ukraine at the wrong time of the year to see it in it's beauty (lots of fog, rain, general cloudiness and then there's the pollution -yuk!), but today shows us how beautiful this country is! The grass is still green and some of trees are hanging onto their leaves. The sky is a rare jeweled blue and there is not a cloud in the sky!
I won't talk long as I selfishly want to get out and walk in this beautiful day the Lord has given us! But I did want to take a few moments and keep you up-to-date with what is happening here. It's been a couple of days since I last posted.
As you have seen, we had our Court Appointment on Thursday, and after 3 hours, the judge, jurors, prosecutor and everyone else involved said we could adopt Vala! Wonderful! Vala didn't eat a lot over our little celebratory lunch with Sergiy and our driver, but she did try. Strangely, eating seems to be an issue for her. Either she's unaccustomed to people buying food for her, or she finds it strange to eat in front of us, or....? Who knows? But she hasn't eaten much the few times we've had her out.
Vala ordered food similar to her new Papa and found it much too much for her little body to eat. We had one rare moment of funniness from her when she asked Sergiy what a word was in English. He responded "help". She looked at John, shoving her plate towards him, and cutely said, "Papa help!" It was adorable! She was asking him to help finish up her plate! Who knew they did such a thing here in Ukraine too? John and her have had moments of goofiness and it's wonderful to see. She has never had a father.
In court it was revealed she has been in the orphanage since she was 5 years old and before that, a homeless shelter of sorts. We have no idea how long before that. They had a hard time tracking down her mother to try and either take custody again or to sever parental rights. We are seeing this as an issue here. A child will remain in the orphan system, but has real living legal parents or guardians and so the child remains unadoptable.
For five more years, they could not find Vala's mother. Finally when she was found, they brought her to the orphanage, but she refused to see Vala. Vala wrote a note to her mother, begging her to see her. Still she refused. The courts made a case up and eventually (3 years later) her parental rights were severed.
By the time Vala was now adoptable no Ukrainian families would want her - she was now 12-13 years old. As I've said, Ukrainians do not adopt older children. Through no fault of her own, Vala, like so many other children, are sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in an orphanage, waiting to be kicked out at 16 years old. They have no support system here and the children are not taught what to do once they leave. It is horribly upsettling for us. We just can't imagine not telling our children how to handle money, where to find housing, help them figure out what their next step in life is! Just send them out with the clothes on their backs. I can't barely stand it. No, I can't understand it at all.
But, Slava Bog (Praise God) this is not the fate for Vala. And this is not the fate for several other children here. There are caring Americans who are coming over, paying the price and giving these children a hope and a future. Thank you to all of you and the others from Italy, Spain, and Canada who are reaching out and snatching up some of these children as well!
Here is a pic of Vala, John and our young interpreter. Vala and Papa were working on learning words in English when they were distracted with this ever energetic young man! He loves to wrestle around and playing "thumb war." This is one of his and John's favorite games. Here he was trying to gain some leverage against John, but with little success! lol! He is a sweet kid who is stuck in the system just like many others. If we could pack him up and bring him home we would! Fortunately for him, he has a family he's met in an outreach program to the States and they are trying very hard to get his circumstances changed so he can be adopted. Please join us in praying for this bright young man and the family that desperately wants him as they battle to get him freed up for adoption. I know they will appreciate it greatly!
With the quarantine lifted the children are looking forward to returning to school today. They have been off for 5 weeks and were bored to death. Vala will attend school today and Friday, but we will spend the other days with her seeing some sights of her home country before we take her from it. She so very rarely gets to leave the orphanage that she doesn't know her country very well. Please join us in praying nothing hinders us taking her out.
We were able to bring Vala to church with us yesterday with an escort from the orphanage. It was a wonderful gift to be able to take her to a Ukrainian Christian church service held in her own tongue! This gave her a glimpse into what church will be like in the States when we get there. She sat very quietly (except for the usual kid huffing and puffing). When we left the church building though, she was all smiles, skipping and holding John's hand. Every experience we take her to, is a new one for her. It's amazing how much we have exposed our children to at home and have to remember that at 15 years old, Vala has had almost none of these. Baby steps. We must take baby steps.
Since we got out of service earlier than we thought, we walked to McDonalds for some ice cream sundaes. Vala still did not eat all of hers but happily chatted on and on, goofing around and was the most happy and relaxed we had seen her. It made our hearts just sing to see and hear her.
When we got back to the orphanage, we visited for a bit with another couple from America that was there. They are one week ahead of us. Tomorrow they receive their court documents, then will begin their "running around with their head cut off" phase. They will prayerfully be leaving on an overnight train tomorrow night to Kiev. They are on an even tighter time restraint as the US Embassy is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of the week. Our prayers go out to them. We have enjoyed their friendship while here and will remain in contact once we all get back to the States.
When it was time for us to leave, I held up seven fingers and said to Vala, "In 7 days Vala will..." I was going to say be in the same spot as her friend, getting ready to leave the orphanage. BUT Vala happily cut into my sentence and said "Vala will say, 'bye-bye (orphanage)! Dasvedanya!" She waved enthusiastically with a HUGE smile on her face. She then skipped to the door to help escort us out. She is ready to come home.
Thank you again (do you get tired of hearing me say this?) for all your prayers and e-mails. Even though we can not respond to everyones, we do get them and they are such an encouragement to us. The prayer list is the same this week, with the added request for time semi-alone with Vala to work on our communication skills. We are trying to establish words that she knows to communicate the basic things necessary to everyday life. It will all become very real to her once she steps off the plane and no one immediately around her speaks her language. We want her to be able to communicate and not feel shut in.
Until next time - we love you all. We miss you! We are excited about this next week and the one coming after. Soon we will be home. Ah! We can not wait to sleep in our own beds again!
Dasvedanya!
Jenn
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