Answered Prayer

We can not Praise God enough for this day and this time and everything that He has done for us on this journey of ours. I just can't keep the tears from coming and I know in the morning my eyes will be swollen shut from crying so much. We are just in awe of how God works and moves in our lives and how much He truly loves us.
Galina was a bit worried when she saw me crying. She said usually when American women cry it is because of frustration that things aren't going well for them. But I reassured her these were all tears of JOY! Joy for all that the Lord has done for us. Joy, for all that our family has done for us. Joy, for all that our friends have done for us and most of all Joy for our Natasha Joy!
Praise God! Grandpa and Grandma have gotten us plane tickets to leave Kiev on the fourth. And with seats together! ( Answer to prayer number one) Praise God! We were able to get Natasha's birth certificate in in time to be prepared. If we hadn't gotten it in today Galina said they close everything up until the 12th because of the holidays. (Answer to prayer number two) Praise God! We were able to get Natasha to her Christmas party tonight to celebrate with all her friends and to say good bye. It was SO hard but we know God has plans for her, Jeremiah 29:11 " For I know the plans I have for you,"declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." A wonderful answer to prayer number three.
There are a few more prayer requests for tomorrow and in Kiev. Galina says there is one more lady we need to go through to get Natasha's birth certificate complete and they call her, "the tuff lady". I guess she is very difficult and can delay things for us. Since it is the holidays here people don't really want to stick around and help out, they would rather be off celebrating. So prayers that she will be cooperative (we need to see her twice) and that everything will be completed tomorrow so we can leave for Kiev tomorrow night. Prayers for us in Kiev, that the time will go by quickly and we will be able to get all of our US Embassy things done on the 3rd so we will be able to leave on the 4th. And now we will be off to Kiev tomorrow night and we will not be able to blog except maybe through Grandma.

My daughter Miranda, who has been so faithful in sending us our daily verses through all of this, sent us our last verse we will receive while we are here in Ukraine. And it is definately a God thing. It is just such a complete and absolute confirmation to us of the plans that God had for us with this adoption. We leave you with it as we say thank you SO much for your faithfulness to us in your prayers, comments and support for us during this adoption. And we know this faithfulness is a reflection of His faithfulness that He has shown to all of us.

The Verse:

Whether you turn to the right or to the left , your ears will hear a voice behind you saying,

" This is the way; walk in it."

Isaiah 30:21

Happy Birthday Michelle!

Today is Michelle's Birthday and we had a fun time celebrating it with her this evening!
This morning Galina arrived and brought news that the court decision will not be until the 30th ( I guess they start the ten days the day after court). She had already made appointments for us in Kiev at the US Embassy for the 30th so we had to reschedule them. Thankfully, we were able to get two appointments for the 3rd of January at the US Embassy and are praying that both appointments will be quick. Especially, the medical one as it is at 10 o'clock and the other appointment will be at 11:30 so we would love to have prayers that both these will go smoothly so we will be able to get both completed on the 3rd. Our second prayer request is that we will be able to get a flight out of Kiev on the 4th. We have tried to call with the International numbers we were given from the Nortwest Airline people when we were in the states but we only got through to one and I don't think it is a KLM # . The other # isn't going through.
We will have much to do on Friday the 30th and it doesn't help that we won't have Viktor that day! Lela will return from the states and she will now need Viktor again. So a prayer also for a driver for us on Friday when we will be doing all of our running around. Tomorrow, we will have a party for Natasha's teachers at the Beckers and then attend her Christmas party in the evening. I am thankful that she will be able to go to this and celebrate with her friends one last time. We will leave for Kiev on the 30th at night. We couldn't get any appointments for the US Embassy for the 2nd because since the 1st fell on a Sunday, they are closed for the holidays on Monday. I guess this is how it is sometimes too in America with some stores and businesses.
We arrived at Michelles and the girls strung some bracelets and necklaces together while Michelle quickly went to the Orphanage to do a few things. She made us homemade pizza when she returned and used her special sauce that her mother sent her from the states. She enjoyed every bite! It was really good and reminded me of the kind that I make so it was a wonderful meal had by all. After dinner we had a Ukrainian cake(which looks like an American cake on the outside but is more like a torte on the inside)and ice cream. Michelle put 11 candles on the cake representing the 10 children who have been adopted and one for her. She said that she wishes that she will be able to add ten more to her cake next year. We pray her wish will come true. After cake and ice cream, she opened her gifts from us (we got her a pair of mittens and a rug for her room) and gifts from the states that her family sent over with us to her. She enjoyed everything, and the girls had fun playing a miniature Simon game. We were thankful that we were able to celebrate her birthday with her and were glad for the invitation. All these partys and get togethers have really made the time fly for us while we have been here and we have been so thankful for this. Now, we will have two partys to attend tomorrow and then a day filled with running around to get documents and such completed. Then we will be headed to Kiev on Friday evening. So Thursday will be our last Blog. We will try to get some e-mails sent out to Grandma to post through Galina's computer while we are in Kiev and we pray that the time will go quickly there for us. Thanks for all your continued prayers as we head down the homestretch! One more day until Natasha will be officially apart of our family, two more days until Kiev and then we pray that it is only 7 more days for us now until America!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures are of Michelle with a phone call from Mom; "Someone's in the kitchen with 'Michelle' "; special homemade pizza dinner; Michelle blowing out the candles and Michelle opening her gifts

Dolphin Show

Today we had a fun time at the Dolphin show. It was a really neat program and well worth the 6 bucks a piece we paid to get in plus, Ariana received a huge box of candy. We went early to pick up Natasha from the Internot and then went to get tickets for Ted, Ariana, Viktor and myself. The location of the building where the show was held is right next to the Black Sea so we were able to get some shots of that. It was really windy and the waves were coming in strongly. When you come from living right in the middle of a big land mass it is a very wonderful thing to behold. We then saw all the kids from the Internot coming down the walk way and joined up with them. Natasha went in with them since she had already a ticket with the Internot. Then once inside she sat with us right in the front row! I don't know how we managed seats like that. Usually, these would be the first ones taken. But then again they may be the worst seats since no one wants to get wet!. We had a big plastic sheet which went down the whole row we were sitting in to cover ourselves with if the dolphins splashed us. It worked well and we were thankful for it. In the end, however, Ariana failed to lift it up and was soaked! Natasha and I got a good laugh out of this :) The show had seal performances and dolphins doing tricks with their instructors and as I said early it was money well spent and the kids had a really good time.
After, we went to the Center and had some pan pizza. This stuff was thick! I couldn't even eat two whole pieces but Natasha and Ariana did plus they each had room for dessert afterwards! (I think were getting Natasha's stomach stretched out a bit to hold more food!) Viktor had on his Nebraska velour sweatshirt which we brought and gave him for Christmas. We told him he should have worn it tomorrow when the game is on! Bergers, Yuri had his Nebraska sweatshirt on today too. He is so sweet he came right up to the van to say hello to us when we had come to get Natasha from the Internot this morning. We also got a kick out of him and a little girl who kept pushing him and hitting him as they teased one another outside while we waited to get into the show. I could just picture that little girl being Christina. Not that she would be hitting anyone or anything like that! ; )
Tomorrow we will go to the market and see if we can find something for Michelle for her birthday tomorrow. We have been invited over for pizza and a small party at her apartment. It will be really fun too because this will be the first time we will have seen her new place. I know it will be a nice time and I remember how we spent it last year with her at her home when all the families who were headed toward or had gone down the adoption road were there. And now all but one of the families who was there have their children and I believe the last couple will be coming here next month! I also remember when she blew out her candles and she said that the ones left which were still lit, nine in all, indicated how many children she would like to see adopted in the next year. It seems this wish is coming true for her with Cole, Aloyna, Nina, Lena, Alla, Natasha, Vera(next month) and now two more families coming soon for a child each. Totaling nine children! I wonder how many candles she will have left this year, we hope many more.

Pictures are of the girls by the Black Sea; tickets to the show; Big Nastia(as Natasha calls her), Natasha and Little Nastia(also as Natasha calls her) enjoying the show; Dolphin performance; treats afterward and Viktor with his Big Red on.

Thank You

Thank you all so much for the well wishes and Merry Christmases you all sent us. We truly enjoyed all of them and loved reading each one (kind of like Christmas Cards). We didn't do much today and had to take Natasha back to the orphanage as our weekend extravaganza was over but it was a great one. : ) before we took Natasha back we took her to the airport store for her to buy some gifts with her allowance she has saved up during the year plus, a gift that will go into a gift exchange with all the kids at the Christmas party. There was so much for her to decide from that it took awhile but I think she was happy with the choices she made. Then Viktor dropped us off at the Center again. It was a bit warmer today so it was nice to be able to take our time to look at things. She has two more gifts to find for people then I think we will be done! She knows just what she has in mind for people and doesn't want to get anything else instead of it, which is just like her Mama : ) Tomorrow, I think we will be joining the kids in going to a dolphin show(at least this is what Ted tells me) So we will see what happens! Galina will join us on Wednesday as she is still not needed here for any paper work type things. We hope to get a good estimate from her of how long things will take for us after the court decision. We want to try and get our plane tickets booked ahead of time so we won't have to wait too many days after we are done with the US Embassy in Kiev. So we would love to have prayer for getting tickets for all of us on a date where we can leave right away when we are done with all of our appointments. Thanks again for all your well wishes and thoughts. We miss you all and can't wait to return home to you all.

No pictures, as we didn't take any today!

PS Miss Julie, you have gotten Ted, Lisa and even Natasha hooked on Soduku! Once Ted was always bored looking for something to do. Now he is always working on that book! It is neat to watch him and Natasha trying to work it out together : )

Christmas Day

Wow! What a Christmas we had! If it wasn't for the fact that all our family wasn't here with us it would have been a perfect day. Surprisingly, the girls didn't wake up until almost 10 o'clock and so we all had a good rest. Santa came and left a few presents for us all and it was a nice relaxing morning with no rushing around. Viktor came to pick us up and he arrived early bringing a fresh cut Christmas tree with him! What a surprise for us! After we would come home from the party we would decorate the tree and the girls were so excited about this. So off we went to the Freeland's (Butch and Dawn's) and on the way there it started to snow! What a special thing for us to make it seem a little more like it was really Christmas. We were dropped off near the Center to pick up some cookies and chocolates and bread to bring to the party. And what a wonderful walk we had with it snowing the whole way. We arrived at Butch and Dawns' and were welcomed SO warmly by everyone there. It was just a beautiful apartment and a wonderful atmosphere and we felt like we were surrounded by old friends even though we just met. The Becker's came as well and I know Natasha was thrilled with this by all the smiles she had for them and I know she was happy there would be someone else to talk to at the party. We sang a few Christmas carols and played a fun game then had a wonderful Christmas meal. It hasn't been since the Becker's dinner that we have had a home cooked meal and it was such a blessing. After dinner there were presents for all! And the girls received new socks which were stuffed with candy and hair clips. They also got beautiful mittens and a puzzle. What a special blessing Butch and Dawn are. They made us feel so at home and all the things they did for us and the children were just so wonderful we could never thank them enough!
We then said our goodbyes and headed back to Lela's and picked up some construction paper and phone cards on the way. When we got to Lela's the girls eagerly waited while Papa tried to poor rocks into a bucket for the tree to hold it up. This took awhile as the rocks had been sitting outside in a bucket and the bucket accumulated water in it and the rocks had become all frozen together! Papa got the job done, however, and the decorating begun. I was so thankful for this time because before we left for Ukraine we put up our tree but I was wishing we could have had Natasha with us to help and this was just another added blessing for us today in decorating the tree together with her. Natasha had so much fun with the tree that she decided to decorated Papa as well! He looked very pretty when she was finished with him and even had a candy cane placed in his mouth. We then made some ornaments of our own from the construction paper we picked up on the way home. It gave the tree just the right touch and was fun to add a remembrance for Lela.
Then the best part of the day came at 8 o'clock when we were able to use Michelle's phone to call home. We called Babushka Lennard's and wished everyone a Merry Christmas. Natasha even got to talk to a few of her new relatives and did quite well understanding them all! It was a blessing to hear all their voices and a great present for us to end the day with. The girls are up watching a movie with Michelle and Lisa and then it will be time to turn in for another busy day tomorrow.
Another added blessing today as we wrapped up the day. Tonight was the first time Natasha prayed out loud during bed time prayers : ) She was SO excited tonight and was bouncing off the walls we have never seen her quite like this and how wonderful it was for us to see her SO excited about everything. She told Michelle she needed to get to bed so she could pray for Nastia and her friends; her brothers and sisters and her babuskas and dodrushka(sp?) and that's just what she did! She said it all in Russian and we understood every beautiful word. Thank You Jesus for this blessed day You have given to us who are so far from home. We had such a wonderful day and this ending was the icing on the cake.
We had a great Christmas and were so blessed by everyone who was a part of our day near and far. We hope you all have just as blessed a Christmas day as we have had here.
MERRY CHRISTMAS : )

Pictures are of the girls with their stockings; view from the Freeland's balcony of the wonderful snowy day; decorating Papa; making ornaments; calling home and a family photo

Farewell Party

What a day we had! Being in Ukraine and not having Christmas advertised everywhere really makes it hard to feel like tomorrow is really Christmas Day. It is nice, in away, to get away from all the stores and things that are just "screaming" Christmas at you. Not what the true meaning of Christmas is but Christmas as most people look at it, presents and gifts and forgetting Jesus amongst all the hububub. We are starting to see a few ornaments and twinkling lights in some of the stores. And we're seeing little Christmas trees here and there about town. They even have fresh cut trees out now and they are very tiny compared to the sizes of them in America. Actually, most everything, especially portions, are much smaller here. Ted has found this out when he went to buy a bag of potato chips. No Big Size bags here just average size bags that most homes in America never buy because there too small. The milk comes in quarts(we are always getting milk ever other day) and ice cream mainly comes in bags or ½ quart sizes. The fruit is smaller and more ripe or bruised looking. BUT the food is better tasting(in my opinion) because it is much more natural and not so processed as in America. Cheese and meats are wonderful(they have SO many different salamis and sausages) Fruits are much more sweeter and have more flavor to them. Breads are baked fresh. But I'm getting off the subject of how our day went. We did go to the store to pick up treats for Natasha's party. We needed to get enough food for a class of 25 children and any teachers who may happen to be there. We left it up to Natasha to get what she wanted for the class. At first we thought we made a mistake in doing this the way she was loading up the cart!(Plus we thought we'd end up making the class sick with all the sweets she was getting!) We limited her on some of the quantity on things but other than that she ended up doing a great job in getting all different varieties of food without getting too much of one thing. Our cart was really full and we were wondering how much this party was going to end up costing us! But again, we were pleasantly surprised that the whole cart full of groceries ended being a mere 30 dollars and 80 cents! This is another thing I like about the food in Ukraine very inexpensive.
We headed to the Internot with our stash of food and Natasha and Luda (her supervisor who is such a sweet dear!) helped us get all the plates and drinks and the food situated around the table. As Michelle was telling me, parties in Ukraine are a bit different than parties in America. Instead of taking your plate of food and going and finding a place to sit, you put all the plates on the table and everyone sits and gathers around no matter how many people or how small the table is! And this is what we did. It was a lovely party and Viktor taped the whole thing. Each of the children got up and said something to Natasha and said their good byes to her on tape. Lena VP, Inna has a long schpeel(sp?) for you to see when we get back. I hope the tape in the camcorder Viktor used will be compatible with our systems in America. It was a very sweet farewell from all of her friends. After we cleaned up we played some games and Michelle went and got some of the children who we brought Pen Pal letters and presents for. Katia, Babushka Lennard's pen pal, wasn't there as she is currently in America on a 3 week visit that an organization plans out every year around Christmas. So Michelle will give her her things later when she returns. Sasha was there and enjoyed her letters and only wanted to open one of the gifts to her. Michelle told us later, that Sasha was probably too shy to open her gifts in front of us but that she was excited about her things and was showing all her friends upstairs the letters that she had received.
We then said our good byes and headed out for dinner. Berger's, we saw Yuri again and said "Hello". He is such a gentleman! So sweet: ) We ended up going to the Greek Mall's cafeteria again(the one with all the paintings, Natasha's choice, she enjoys it!) And afterwards we headed to a little Baskin Robbins that was close to the mall. It is probably the only time as a family that we'd be able to get Baskin Robbins ice cream! Again, it was very inexpensive 8 dollars for us all and a wonderful treat to end the day.
And now tonight on Christmas Eve we will watch Miracle on 34th Street and then put the children to bed in hopes of Santa arriving tonight. We will spend Christmas at Michelle's friends, Butch and Dawn, who have graciously asked us to come and celebrate Christmas with them all. Then we will come back to Lela's house, which will be the best part of the day because we will get to call home to wish our family there a Merry Christmas.
We hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow and we thank you for all your gifts of prayers and notes to us along our adoption journey.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Love from
The Carrizales'

Pictures are of beautiful Nastia(Natasha's best friend) with her compelted knitting work; Natasha, Luda and Ariana helping to distribute all the food; all the kids gathered round the table(and some were off to the side because there was no more room!); a display for Christmas of some of the needlework that the children have worked on(VERY wonderful work by these children!); Pen Pal Sasha, and us enjoying our Baskin Robbins! (we even got Viktor to join us in a scoop)

Aqua Park

Today we had much fun swimming indoors(well at least the kids and Ted did). The Aqua Park was a lot of fun for the girls and when we walked in I could see why. Gigantic water slides and warm pools. (Except, Natasha thought only one of the pools really felt warm enough to swim in!) But she was grinning from ear to ear the whole time. She loves to swim and is pretty good at it. Ariana didn't want to leave and wants to go back after Christmas. We did end up finding Ted a swimsuit and "slippers" as they call them.(which are really like flip flops but without the thin straps, more like crocs in sandal form) This was a rule that we all had to have some on while walking around in the pool area. Ted went down one of the really big slides that whips you around a spaceship looking type of deal and drops you out the bottom at the end of the slide.(It reminded me of a big drain or a giant garbage disposal!) He said it was fast and fun but didn't go again! The girls were too cold to want to be out of the water and walk up the three flights of stairs it took to get to the top of the slide. I jumped into the pool when we first got there and quickly got out after about a minute.(too cold for Mama) I was glad to take photos of everyone having a good time. : )
After the park, we went to a mall type of store that had a big grocery store in it as well. We order two large pizzas and 4 drinks for only 11 dollars. I said we should eat here more often! The kids then went and played some video games they had in the store and we all had fun with this. Especially, with watching the girls try to drive the motorcycle games and the car games. Viktor suggested maybe we get a tank at first when Natasha learns to drive! The poor dear could barely get the car to drive forward. I told Viktor once her brothers get her on the Playstation at home she'll be a pro in no time. Then I thought that she turns 15 next year, hmm?? but Viktor said that they don't drive here until they are 18. We may have to stick with that plan! Viktor also got a kick out of us by suggesting we play a video game called Jurassic Park. It was a game where you sit down on a seat that is suppose to be like you are in a Jeep. So he says, "Here you can sit by your daughter." Well, when the game started the seat moves as if you are driving over rough terrain. Of course we all were startled by it when it started up while Viktor watched on chuckling the whole time! But Ted retaliated and said it reminded him of riding in the back of Viktor's van. Viktor got a laugh out of that one too.
That's about all we did but the girls had a blast and didn't want to leave the video games either. We then headed back to Lela's "doma" home and worked on our cross stitching. Natasha and Ariana helped Mama make spaghetti for dinner. Thankfully, I now have someone else in the family who loves garlic as much as I do : ) We can both have bad breath together. Thanks for your continued prayers as it is hard to read the previous blog and not miss our children even more. Their personalities being described to a "T". We look forward though to all the time we will get to spend with them when we get home. And by that time Ted will have used up all his vacation for the year and we won't be leaving anywhere soon : )

Pictures are of the Aqua Park(outside), the fun we had inside, the giant contraption which Ted went through, Ted at the top of the slide and Ted being dumped out of the slide and of Natasha at the mall trying her best to make a lap around the track.

Holding Down the Fort

Grandma is adding a few words regarding those who are "holding down the fort" awaiting the arrival of their new sister...niece and granddaughter.

The adventure started out to be that...an exciting and expecting adventure. As the days turned into weeks...and weeks...the exciting began turning into a slowed down NEW routine, which with Grandpa and Grandma manning the fort wasn't quite as fun as when Dad and Mom are around. Ahh-h, but then a new troop...Tia Evy arrived from Chicago and she DID "step it up a notch" with a more ideas and a lot more fun stuff...foods and activities.

And yet, the boys and Miranda are hanging in there...getting a bit quieter...needing those special arms to cuddle them, to reassure them, to give that peace that only Mom and Dad have to give. They are true troopers, however, and great at helping the temporary authority figures...keeping us on our toes.

How PATIENT Ty has been in teaching Grandma PlayStation...okay, it finally got him to the point where HE wanted to put it up...mission accomplished. Grandma's made from scratch macaroni and cheese did not get rave reviews, however, Ty ate most of it along with lots of carrots and dipping sauce (salad dressing.) What a bright guy Ty is...he is always in deep thought and figures things out extremely precise...and when you explain anything to him, he wants it down to the smallest detail or he'll ask you about what you've left out. Ty is a source of joy...he keeps us smiling that's for sure.

Tahner tells it like it is...he doesn't let us get by with anything! If he notices things aren't JUST like they should be, we'll hear about it from Tahner. And, he WON'T eat his macaroni and cheese if it doesn't taste good. He lets Grandma know that she isn't playing the PlayStation right but when I give the controller to him, he'll run my football player the opposite way and make a touchdown for the opposing team! Thanks a lot buddy... Tahner tells me how Mommy puts him to bed at night and gives him kisses and loves...and his little face just squints up w/the greatest smile. I hope and am sure Mom is storing up those kisses and loves because he'll be ready to collect them all...and then some.

Miranda...what can I say...she is something MORE than special. What a blessing to have her in our lives, especially at this time...knows the household routine as if she's established it...keeps us running smoothly. Her head must be tired with all the additional thinking for us she has been doing. She would have loved to have been in Ukraine, welcoming her new sister along with Ariana, but she is wanting everything at home to be special for when Natasha arrives. BLESSINGS TO YOU MIRANDA...over and over again. Your reward is coming...for this God, now and eternally, has blessings ready and waiting for you. We thank God for you and we thank you for being the joy you are to us!

And, yes, we all look forward to when Mom, Dad and Ariana return bringing w/them our new family member...sister, niece, and granddaughter, Natasha Joy Carrizales. We are SO ready to welcome you Natasha!

We thank God for adding ANOTHER precious child to our family...first Cole Matthew, now Natasha Joy. Wow...when God builds, He does a perfect job. Thank you God!

Two Fun Days

We've had a good two days here and have gotten some things for Natasha to take home with her for if she starts feeling overwhelmed with English and such. We were able to find a Christian bookstore which Michelle had known of. Thankfully, we ran into Aloyna, who is Lela's interpreter, at the Internot. She came with us and helped us translate to the clerk which books we were looking for. We were hoping to find the Narnia books which are so popular now in America and they did have them. I could have been looking right at them and wouldn't have figured it out! I'm so glad that Aloyna was able to come along with us. I also asked if they had any other classics like Heidi (which was just an example I threw out there) and she said here it is! And so we purchased Heidi as well. Natasha picked out another book that had short stories in it and we found a little framed picture with Jesus standing at a door and knocking with the Revelation verse underneath. So we ended up with four hardback books(we only wanted to get The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe from the Narnia series but the lady there said the books came as a set) and a paperback and a framed picture. I braced myself for the total and was pleasantly surprised to find out that everything came to under 20 US dollars! You could never buy four hardback books for under 20 dollars in the US yet alone even one for that matter. I said if we had time later we'd come back and get some more books for her if they were that inexpensive. She can also loan them out to her Ukrainian friends in Omaha who would be able to read them. I explained to Aloyna that we are big readers in our family and not so much the kids reading books by themselves but that I always read to the children at night. Aloyna explained this to Natasha and she said that Natasha told her that she loves being read to. She just fits our family so perfectly! Each day we find out more and more about her that we are just so thankful and in awe of God for placing her with us. He has known all along how right she was for us and I pray that we will be right for her. We headed out to a Chinese restaurant down the way and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it is much the same as in America except for the french fries they served with the meal! They also looked at us funny when we asked if they had fortune cookies. But at least Natasha enjoyed her sweet and sour chicken and we know that this will be something we can all enjoy together when in America.
Today we went to a sewing store where we picked out some cross stitching patterns to work on for the ride home and some that Natasha wanted to do and give as gifts. I picked out some for myself as well, ones which were Ukrainian in style so I could hang them up later in the house for her to remember her homeland. I have never cross stitched before but I am thankful I have a daughter who knows how to do so VERY well (and very fast I might add). It will be fun for us to sew together when we get home. I am just looking forward so much to all the time we will spend together doing things. She says she also likes to cook which all our children enjoy(especially the boys because they like to lick the spoons!) So we will all have things to do together. Natasha has even said that she loves to play Gameboy and has done so everytime she has been to Lela's with us. I know her brothers will be MORE than happy to show her a few moves on the PlayStation when she gets home!
Tomorrow, we will go to the famous indoor Aqua Park. We will first need to go out and find a suit for Papa. Hopefully we will be able to find something here even with it being Winter now. The girls are very excited about this but not as excited as we are because Viktor has told us that Natasha will be able to spend the whole weekend with us and she can even stay Sunday evening! So we will be able to have her on Christmas Eve and all of Christmas Day and not have to worry about bringing her back to the Internot at 5. We also are going to have her going away party for her class on Saturday afternoon. This will be a fun occasion for her since she will be picking out all the treats she will have for her party and just having a grand time with her friends. We will get lots of pictures for her as well, to put in her memory book to have when she is in America.
We are all holding up well and are glad that we can say that will be home in less than two weeks. And I know next week (Monday) when Galina returns things will really speed up for us in getting the rest of our documents and passport things done for Natasha. And then before we know it, it will be less than a week before we will be home and it will be like counting down the days before Christmas! Miranda has e-mailed that the boys are excited that we are staying on longer because then they will get to celebrate Christmas twice!(go figure) I told them it would be fun to celebrate our family Christmas on the 7th of January when the Ukrainians do and since it falls on a Saturday it will be just as exciting getting up early to see if there have been presents left under the tree.

Pictures are of Natasha and Ariana and Viktor and Aloyna when we were at the Chinese restaurant. And of us today at the Greek Mall in a cafeteria in the basement. It had tons of wonderful oil paintings all around and this is a picture of one of the paintings which was hanging in the dining area.

Court

Thanks for Grandma blogging again for us! We have learned that Internet is not free to use for the whole time when paid for. We have been e-mailing many pictures back home and I guess it costs Internet time to do this. We ate up all that time which we paid for the week before by sending pictures out. But thankfully wondeful Viktor went and paid to get the Internet back on again for us.
We had another long day yesterday, which didn't seem so long at first, but by the end of the day we were thankful to be back at Lela's. We arrived at the court house at a little after 12. We waited in one of the hallways as the room was prepared for us for the hearing. We then were asked to go in and have a seat in the room. We were all a bit nervous as we didn't know who the judge would be. He finally arrived and I was relieved to see he was a young judge with a kind face. He still had a serious look on his face however, but it wasn't mean just showing us that this was official business. Galina translated all that he said and he asked us both our full names and what Ted and I did for a living, how big our house was and why we wanted to adopt. He asked us twice if we were serious in persuing this adoption to completion and we both said yes. Then he had some questions for Natasha, if she wanted to come and live with us and why. She said yes, because they are so good to me. I tried not to look at her during this as I didn't want the judge to think I was influecing her answers. But then he said that he would then change her name and it would no longer be Natasha Rashkian but would now be Natasha Joy Carrizales and I had to look up at her then and she had such a big smile upon her face, I knew he could tell she was truly happy with this. Then he said who is this princess? looking at Ariana. He asked her what her name was. So she stood up(this is what we all had to do when we spoke to the judge) to her fullest and very boldly and loudly gave her full name ARIANA ASHELEY CARRIZALES! I think he was only looking for her first name but everyone in the court room started laughing even the judge. She is such a blessing to us. After a few more questions the judge left with the two people who sat by him to make a decision. When he was gone hugs were given to us all around by Dina, Svetlana, and Galina. Dina said it was like Natasha had won the lottery but I said it is like we have won, getting her as our daughter. It was overwhelming how happy they all were for us. We have been truly blessed by everyone we have met here in Ukraine. When the judge came back in he officially stated that he was in favor for this adoption and that after 10 days he would make it official. And some other things were said but it was just a blur to me and I can't remember it all. When the hearing was done he came over and shook our hands and congratulated us. This is when he asked who was taking care of our children back home. He was so kind and I wish we could have gotten some pictures but I didn't know if it would have been appropriate. Maybe when we go back on the 29th when it will be official.
After this we left to take Dina back to the Internot while Galina finished up things there at the court house. This was, I think, when she tried to see if the judge would reduce the time. When we came back to get her she said the judge allowed us to start the process of getting the birth certificate ready without having to wait until the official ruling on the 29th. We could also get started on the passport for Natasha. We left for the place where we would get the birth certificate in and have it started working on. Galina and Viktor said that this lady was very tuff and may not start it even if the judge said it was ok. Well, this is where we waited in the van for 3 hours! It was 2:15 when we first checked the time after they had been gone for a while and 5:15 when they finally returned. It wouldn't have been so bad but Viktor did not leave his keys this time as he usually does and it was cold outside so we just huddled together for the last hours. It gets dark here at 4:30, so when the sun went down it was worse. It took a few hours after we got home for our feet to get the feeling back into them. I felt bad for the girls because they had on skirts and tights. Papa gave them his coat to lay over their laps and we all squished together and took a little nap which helped pass the time towards the end. Finally, Galina and Viktor returned and said they were trying to find sometype of loophole to get us out of here quicker but could find none. Everyone they asked didn't want to help speed things up because it was a law and they weren't willing to bend the rules. We are ok with this and are thankful for all Galina has done to try and reduce our time. We know that this is what God has planned all along for us and we will remain here until God tells us when it is time for our return home. We just ask for prayers for our little ones at home who it will be much harder for while they wait. That their time will be so occupied that they won't even have much time to dwell upon this. That they will remain focused on God and know inside that these are His plans for them, plans to grow them through this experience and that this time for them has been planned for good and not to hurt them.
Thank you as well for all of your prayers for our health. We are all staring to feel better and I am finally able to hear a little better. Ariana woke up this morning without being sick as well for the first time in four days. Natasha didn't even need a tissue yesterday as well. Sorry this is such a long post but there was so much to cover and I know these next ten days won't be as detailed.
We now start to plan for Natasha's parties. The Becker's have graciously offered to have the teachers' party at their house. We will have the children's party at the Internot, probably toward the end of this week as Michelle has said that the kids' break starts on the 28th and some of the children go to their relative's homes to visit for a few weeks. Thanks for all your comments and verses they mean so much to us and we love to know people are interested in what is going on here. And thanks also for those taking our children and doing fun things with them we so much appreciate all that you are doing for them in helping them pass the time while we are away. You are all such a blessing to us.

Proverbs 16:9 " In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."

Pictures are of the court house, us waiting in the hallway outside the courtroom(Svetlana is in the photo with us), passing the time in the van with cross stitching, trying on Mama's sunglasses and Ariana trying to immitate Cole for Natasha. We also got a picture of a small boy getting a free ride on one of the many trolleys(which they call trains) He knew Ted was taking his picture and waved at us.

Our Court Happening

Our court experience went well. We had a very kind judge. He even asked who was watching after our children while we were away.

Galina tried everything she could to get the judge to waive the 10 day waiting time. She couldn't even get her "Plan B"...the judge to agree to waive until the 28th as she had hoped. She and Viktor searched three hours (as we waited outside in the car, freezing the whole time), through many books to try and find a loop hole in hopes of reducing the wait time but they could find nothing.

Patience

Today was a day of patience for all of us. We were to be ready to leave from Lela's today at 9:30 AM to be at the Internot at 10:30 to pick up Dina so she could drop off some documents at court. We arrived at the Internot on time and Viktor went in to get her. He came back with a disappointed look on his face. He told us that Dina said we were to come back at 12:30 PM and then she would be ready to go. So not knowing what to do, since yesterday we had just been shopping at the Center AND the day before that, Viktor took us to a mall that was in the area. This is where Viktor's patience kicked in as he doesn't like to shop! I asked him if he knew of a store in the mall that sold tea sets and he said, "I don't know...my wife may know but I don't know." I was hoping, maybe, there would be a directory of some sort he could take us to look at, but we ended up going up an escalator, walking around each floor trying to find a shop which might have something of which I was looking. We ended up finding nothing much but clothing stores at this mall and besides, everything looked expensive. We left and went back to the Internot as it was close to our 12:30 pick-up time for Dina. We arrived, and once again Viktor went in. While he was inside the usual group of dogs were waiting patiently by the Internot's door for someone to open it so they could go in. They aren't really suppose to go in, they just do sometimes. Well, Viktor came back and told us we needed to wait a bit. So we did and were entertained by the dogs outside. One little boy from the Internot who had come outside opened the door and allowed the dogs to go in. We all got a chuckle out of this because he had to push one of the dogs from behind as that dog didn't want to go in. Later we again noticed the door open and all the dogs were shooed out. Viktor received a call on his cell phone. It was Dina and apparently she wasn't coming. We would need to come back at 4:00 PM. Dina told Viktor for us to wait 15 minutes and she would send Natasha out. At 2:00 PM we saw Natasha come out and "boy" was she a sight for sore eyes!

We all went and ate at the famous Elvis McDonald's and wanted to get a picture of the girls next to him but it was extremely busy when we were there so we opted to do it another time (plus the look on Natasha's face was priceless, which indicated "no way" when I told her we wanted to take a picture of all of them together with Elvis.) After eating, we went to the store and picked up some things we needed at Lela's. When we got back to the Internot Dina was finally ready to go and we said goodbye to Natasha and were on our way to the court house. Viktor and Dina went in and were out quickly. We then dropped Dina off at her home. The whole process took maybe 20 minutes, yet we had to wait a whole day in order to have it accomplished. So we are growing and learning to be patient as we head toward the finish of this adoption process.

The good news is that we DO have court tomorrow...it will be at 12 noon instead of 10 AM. Galina called us tonight and said that court would probably last an hour and then she would be on her way back to Kiev. She said she is going to try and ask for the date of the 28th for the court's final decision (if they don't waive the 10 day waiting fee) so that we can get through the US Embassy processes before the holidays begin. This would work out well if we can get in the US Embassy the 29th and 30th, we then could leave for home the 31st. This is the date of our return flight which was originally booked. We wouldn't need to reschedule the return flight. The thing is we will still need to book an extra seat for Natasha. Also, to find a place to stay overnight in New York City on New Years Eve! It will be interesting to see what God has planned for us.

Thanks for your continued prayers as we are feeling a bit more rested. Hopefully, we all will be over these colds in the next few days. Galina goes back to Kiev at 6 PM so she won't be around long in chance of catching our colds. We are hoping, if we end up waiting, that we will be able to get some things done here in Odessa.

We request prayers for booked seats for the plane, doctor and other appointments needed at the US Embassy for when we need them...this would be great.

In the meantime we wait patiently for Natasha to legally become ours. She has already become ours in our hearts. It is SO difficult to send her back and not have her with us. We think she is feeling the same way as she always wants to stay longer than she is allowed. When we were out shopping on a really cold day, she didn't want to return early even though we could tell she was freezing. Michelle told us she didn't care and just wanted to stay with her Mama and Papa...bless her heart!

Pictures of the Internot dogs and Lela's sugar bowl (this is what I was trying to find at the mall. We have been using a lot of sugar for our coffee and Natasha's tea. One similar would be a nice remembrance to have at our home in recalling our time of getting to know one another while at Lela's.)

Wonderful Sunday

We had such a wonderful Sunday today because we got to go to church and it was SO much like First Covenant in it's style of service I just kept welling up with tears it felt so much like home. It was such a blessing for us. Ted and I just kept smiling at each other because of the uncanny way that it was so much like First Cov. It is an Evangelical church that meets at the Christian University. The Pastor is a graduate from the seminary where Tanya Becker works. Tanya invited us along on Thursday and we are so glad that she did. We walked in and their praise band was practicing some songs and the tunes were familiar! The words were in Russian but it was such a blessing to hear the familiar praise music. They even had a screen where they displayed the songs. We sang songs first and smiled big when the person working the Power Point lost their place in the song and had to flip back and forth through some of the stanzas to get to the right one just like our guys do at home sometimes : ) Then one of the leaders, he reminded us of what Will does, came forward in welcome and asked if there was anyone who had never attended their service before to stand up and introduce ourselves. Of course, I was the one who had to stand up since Ted wouldn't budge. I introduced myself and introduced them to my husband and two daughters. Then he asked if anyone would like to share anything that happened to them this week that was moving to them and two people shared wonderful stories. We prayed and sang some more songs(even Natasha was singing!) then the children were prayed for as they left for Sunday School. The pastor then proceeded with the sermon and wonderful Tanya, who is 8 months pregnant, sat behind us and leaned forward the whole time to translate the entire sermon to us and she did this so eloquently and so beautifully. I just felt we were sitting among all our friends and family at home. Like I said tears just kept welling up in my eyes. It was very overwhelming but so so comforting. Such a needed thing for us since we hadn't been to church for two weeks. After service they had cookies and "chai" which is tea. A cute little boy kept grabbing handfuls of cookies and distributing them out to everyone he went up to. I should have taken a picture, it was so sweet. I highly recommend trying to attend service here for those who come to Odessa. You'll love it.
We then left and walked about 15 minutes to go and eat at an authentic Ukrainian restaurant near the Center. It was quite cold out and poor Natasha who wanted to wear her skirt today had on only tights to cover her legs but she didn't complain one bit and had a smile on her face the whole time. The girls even stopped a bit on the way to feed a cat and some birds with an extra roll we had from a restaurant we had ate at yesterday and had forgotten in a coat pocket! The restaurant was beautifully decorated in a traditional Ukrainian style. The hostess and waiters were dressed in traditional Ukrainian clothes. The restaurant was decorated for the holiday and was so pretty. We took a picture outside and tried to get in these stuffed goats which were on display in one of the windows. (Ariana really liked those) You can sort of see them in the left window in the posted picture. The food was really good even though we really didn't know what to get. Natasha and Michelle split some chicken, which was wrapped around some type of fruit but which both thought tasted wonderful, and mashed potatoes which weren't whipped but roughly mashed and looked and smelled wonderful. Lisa and Ariana ordered some borscht(which I wish I would have ended up ordering) and it was quite different than what I had thought borscht would be(just beets). It was mainly meat(shredded beef) with some cabbage and a few beans in a beet type of broth. It was served with sour cream and pieces of wonderful garlic bread. I don't even think I saw any pieces of beet in the soup it was just a type of beet broth. I tried some of Ariana's and it was wonderful. It tasted like a vegetable beef soup. I'll be ordering this the next time! I wish I would have taken pictures of the meal, like the other families who came have done, because everything that was served was beautifully displayed on the plates with all different kind of vegetables cut in wonderful displays.
After lunch it was getting to the time where we needed to bring Natasha backto the Internot(where did the time go!) So we walked around the Center for a little bit and picked up a few more souvenirs. Then it was time to head back.
We will plan to pick up Galina at 9AM on Tuesday morning to go to court. We need to be there by 10 and today Viktor said we may not even be able to get in on Tuesday, that we may have to wait until Wednesday. We are praying for Tuesday and would love to have prayer for getting in on Tuesday as well as the waving of the 10 day wait. Even though we didn't have much to do this weekend we feel drained as we are all coming down with colds, even Natasha. So prayers for improved health would be wonderful as well. But we were truly blessed today by the time spent with our daughters and friends.
Pictures are of the building where we went to service this morning, the room we had service in and some cute children who were there. Then of the restaurant where we had lunch this afternoon.

Quick Blog

Hello all and a short blog for you today. Michelle and Lisa are staying with us at Lela's tonight and they have been without Internet for two days. And since we know how long two days can really be being out of touch with family and friends we let them have as long as they needed. We had fun today, shopping at the Center where they have souviners and I wish we would have gotten some photos at the stands we shopped at but they probably would have made us pay them for taking a picture of them. Plus it was so cold we just didn't think about it.(The only two days we have been out shopping here have been the two coldest and windiest!) Ariana was thrilled to finally get to hold a chinchilla and get her picture taken with it. She hasn't stopped talking about the chinchilla since we left the Center last week. We know for sure that Natasha has learned at least one English word so far "chinchilla"! We had a fun afternoon and evening at Lela's wrapping Natasha's teachers' gifts and teaching Natasha to play Phase 10. We told her that this was something she would need to learn eventually with all the Phase 10 players we know!(Julia Hanson! Pastor Phil, Miss Julie and the Alpha Gang) She loved it and her favorite part was always skipping Papa when she had a skip card to play. Michelle let us use her phone to call home and touch base and Natsasha got to talk to Miranda for a bit and they both understood what each other was saying: ) Miranda thought Natasha sounded like Lena VP on the phone. Afterwards, the girls curled up to a movie, Pollyanna, and are now fast asleep as I write. It is funny how when Natasha comes to stay she always picks out the exact same movie that Ariana has picked out the night before! Ana doesn't mind as she never gets to watch a movie everynight when she is at home.
Thanks for all your posts we love reading them and we will be thinking about the wonderful program the kids will have tomorrow and wishing we could be there to see it.