It Was a Tough Christmas Day - But Getting Back to Moving Forward

Thanks so much for all your encouragement and prayers – they are very helpful! Thanks for all that you are doing! This is really needed and we can only thank you so much, you must know that these have been the hardest days of our life!

We had a horrible Christmas day for the most part! Fortunately Erik and I slept in until 9:30 am and were reading a book together that is for couples (it is Christian-based and has been great guidance and wonderful inspiration on the days we have read it), anyway at 10:30 am Max, our interpreter, knocked on the door and told us, "Merry Christmas and guys we got problems!..."

What happened was that Tania, the little one, threw some sort of fit and wouldn't go to the hospital, and so the caregivers all got together and wrote a letter to the director saying that we could not make her go with us and they were not agreeing to them to go. So Max found out and he called the inspector and then the inspector and her boss came over and the kids all got called into the directors office and when asked there "in the principal's office setting" if they wanted to go, they all said no. So we had to go and find out what was up. We found out that they would all be asked again at 3 pm if they wanted to go, but actually it was just the older two again that needed to agree, but then in between we asked to talk to the director and that is when we found out about the letter...

At 1:30 Erik and Max and I walked into a classroom with 15 caregivers sitting in seats facing us down and the director, assistant director and the operations officer (is what we would call her role, but supposedly she is the head caregiver... she is a really mean lady that told Max she doesn't have kids and Max accidently responded with, "obviously," in which she said back, "thanks!"). But anyway they were all there to say that they have known the kids for 3 years since they got here and they don't think they should be made to go, and that one lady doesn't want to be blamed if for some reason Tania turns out to be a drug addict, like the one girl they heard about, and yet they all belive it is right the kids have a family... Max told us that a lot of what the director was saying and what the ladies were saying was krap and that they were not against us, but let me tell you it was worse than any other trial I think anyone has faced, and all that was missing was the noose for our necks!

Surprisingly though, after this one hour inquisition – a half hour later playing with the two older ones hanging paper Christmas decorations on the walls and ceiling of their play family room style they both said yes and the director and inspector were happy again. Oddly, this is what had happened the day before, but we just had the little one Tania refuse to go out of the building for the medical that made them have the kids go through another confusing and very stressful day! And we lost ground on the paperwork!

So this morning Max got the kids in the cab to the hospital... there was a snag with one guy not wanting to sign off on a form cause the main doc wasn't in til 15 Jan but 200 grivna dollars (about 27 American bucks helped that) and then throughout the day there were changes to be made and Max gave the inspector 600 grivna (about $80) and she continued to push what she could. So Max has all the paperwork he needed, the medicals are done, and he is enroute via cab to Logunst and then via train (15 hours) to Kiev. Our paperwork will be submitted to the SDA in Kiev on Monday (pray they are open and moving packets quickly). Sasha (the man) will arrive here with us on Monday to request a court date for us. And we continue to visit the kids.

The kids did enjoy some neat gifts that we gave them yesterday for Christmas. And I had brought a small Christmas tree from home with decorations and battery-operated lights that they all decorated and Christina took possession of, as she paraded around for a few minutes saying in Russian, "I have a little Christmas tree," over and over again.. I think it made her day... she really liked it!

Another prayer answered – Ben (our cousin in Kiev) and his wife's sister will be coming here on Sunday for five days to help us translate and teach the kids some English and work on some fun and light conversation. She doesn't know a ton of English, but she works with kids and she has gone to college level English classes. We are thrilled to have her on board for some time to get some more language. The older kids and Tania have also mentioned they are concerned as we all don't know each others language.

Well – that is about it...

Please continue to pray for the tough administration – and all the adults in this orphanage – they are very abrupt with the kids, yet the kids all look up to them! Note, our 7 yr. old Christina at one point when she said "yes she wants to go," also said, don't tell anyone and asked when do we leave?!

Please pray for the kids left behind. One kid told Max yesterday he can't even talk about his parents (his mother is in jail for killing their father) and he has 5 siblings, so unlikely he will get the opportunity to be adopted. There are so many that don't have the opportunity.

Pray for the kids and their hearts to keep changing and allowing us to be with them.

Pray for Erik and I to stay positive. We have been beat down emotionally and mentally for the last seven out of ten days being here.

Pray for the director and her staff!

Pray for the librarian and the cook – both are older ladies that get what we are going through – they have seen us play hide and seek with a six-year-old and know we are trying to just love these kids but no one listens to them. They both have prayed for both of us and hugged us several times to hang in there!

Thanks for all your love and prayers!

– Heidi and Erik