One More Week!!!!!

We have been in Ukraine for 4 weeks now!! I really can't believe that. If everything goes the way we are praying it will then we will be home next Saturday. We have official business to take care of at the orphanage on Tuesday so we have to get up and out of here by 6:30am that day to get our day started. We will get the court decree also on Tuesday morning stating that Erik is indeed our son and the 10 days waiting are over. After getting this decree we have to go to the town that Erik was born in to get his Birth Certificate and change it with his new name and parents. This town is over 2 hours away. We will have to wait there to get all this paperwork completed and then drive back to Zaporozhye and back to the camp to get Erik to go get his passport started. Whew!!! What a day that is going to be. I am getting tired just thinking about it. Please pray for us on Tuesday as we really need everyone to do their job and do it promptly so that we have time to get his passport started or we will not make it home on Saturday as planned. Why does it seem that we are always cutting things so close?? It definitely makes me pray more and trust God for ALL the details.

Today was our last day at the orphanage camp. We are taking the day off tomorrow to travel to the island across from the river here in Zaphoryze. Our friends Oleg and Yana will go with us and give us the tour. We hope to see a museum and just relax on the beach that they have there. This journey has proven to be emotionally exhausting so we find ourselves taking several breaks right now to keep our spirits up. On Monday Michael and I will celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary so we will probably walk to the river and start packing for our trip on the train and then home. We need to rest up for our long day on Tuesday. Today when we went to the camp and it was threatening to rain, AGAIN!! But thankfully it just sprinkled and we were able to spend some time with Erik and the other kids. On Thursday Erik asked us to bring him and his friends some Pringles so today we brought a can thinking he would share it with his buddies but they were all still at rest time. We went down to the pond and he set there and ate the whole can!! Our grocery budget has definitely just gone up! Oh well, he is obviously a hungry little guy and he enjoyed those Pringles. It is really kind of cute right now. When the kids were released from their rest time we got to stand around and play with them. They like to show off now and show us little games they like to play. Several of the boys loved being picked up by Michael and just shown some attention. They also love our camera. They are constantly asking me if they can take pictures so some of them I will let do it if I think they are mature enough to use it. They have come up with some funny pictures. While we were there today we saw the camp kitten again. It is so cute and we had a lot of fun cuddling with it and it made us miss our little pups at home, Molly and Maiya. Oh how I can't wait to cuddle with our pups. They probably think we are never coming home again. While at camp today Erik seems to be getting more comfortable around his Mama. He enjoyed throwing these little seeds from the tree at me and he soon realized that I could fight back. I grabbed some seeds myself and chased him down to throw them back at him. It was a lot of fun and we laughed a lot while playing this game. He also likes to come up behind me and touches my back and yells "ahhhh" so that I will scream and come after him. He soon realized that mom would catch up with him with dad's help and it was time to see if he was ticklish. He is!!! What fun I was having!! He is such a joy to be around and seems to have not lost that childlike spirit and really seems to enjoy hanging out with his ol' mom and dad. He even played the same game he was playing with me with his sister Emily. It is so cute to see them playing back and forth and it makes this mom so happy. I am still amazed that God chose our family to come and rescue this little guy and in turn we are being blessed with his love and childlike spirit. We can't wait until he learns English so that we can have conversations with him and tell him how much we love him. For now we will have to do this with our actions and this seems to be good enough right now. After about an hour and a half it started to rain a little harder and we realized it was time to go once again. We told of couple of the older kids that this was our last day with them and they gave hugs or did the secret handshake. The younger ones will not know that this was our last visit and I just pray that they will always remember this American family that visited them for the past couple of weeks and showed them as much love as we possibly could. I will miss so many of them and it makes me very sad when I think about it but I quickly shift my thinking back to Erik and know for him we are able to make a difference and that has to be enough right now. So many of these children have touched our hearts and I will not soon forget their sweet smiles, beautiful faces & soft hugs. We have been able to do so much more than I ever dreamed possible on this journey to Ukraine. For this we will always be thankful. These children will always hold a special place in our hearts and we hope to see them again some day in Ukraine or in Heaven.

On our way back to our apartment, we saw a rainbow in the distance. I tried to get a good picture of it but it was not possible. We believe this is another one of God's signs assuring us that everything is going to be ok and He is in control. God loves us so much and if we will just take the time to look around we will see this in so many things. After the rainbow we came across the most beautiful sunflower crop. I was trying to take pictures from the car window because I know that my daughter Katie loves sunflowers and it would be cool to get some pics of this beautiful sight. After trying to get a good pic, Oleg stopped the car on the side of the road and told us we could go into the field and stand amongst the sunflowers to get a better picture. I was thrilled and it was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. What a moment!! This is not something I have ever done in Oklahoma. It was so nice to take the time to enjoy God's beauty. We got some wonderful pictures as you can see from our post. I can't wait to get home and frame one of our photographs for Katie. I know she will love it!! We soon got back in the car and started back down the road when Michael spotted this military tank that is on the side of the road on our way to camp. He has been wanting to stop and get a pic of this for his friends at home so once again Oleg stopped and we got out to take some more pics. It felt like we were on vacation with our family and this was one of the sightseeing stops along the way. We have seen several things everyday for close to 3 weeks from the car window but we are always on a mission to get to the camp or get back to the apartment to rest. On this day it was nice to take in some of the sights and just enjoy this beautiful country of Ukraine. I had no idea that I would become so fond or would enjoy this country as much as I have. Most of this is thanks to Yana and Oleg. They have been with us everyday that we have been here in Zaporozhye and we have felt so loved and secure while in their presence. These two people are some of the kindest people we have ever met and I will miss them both so much. I wish I could say that we will see them again soon but since we are so far away this is not likely but who knows. God is in control and maybe He will bring us back here again some day to love on these kids and see our friends Yana and Oleg again or maybe some of you will travel here some day to adopt a child you have seen on our blog. I can guarantee that you will be well taken care of by this team of good people. They have become like our Ukrainian family and they hold a very special place in our hearts and in our lives. That is all I have for now. I hope you are having a good weekend in America and that you are enjoying the many blessing around you. Hug your kids a little tighter today or your mom or dad or even a good friend and just be thankful that they are in your life and that you have someone to love. Love you all, Denise