Monday Feb.27

Monday  Feb 27

So my day started at 3 am, when the train car I was riding in was soooo hot I could not sleep any longer.

Yura met me at 7am and we were off orphanage. As we drove up to the orphanage I realized I was giddy with excitement! I had this fantasy of running up to Daniel classroom and hugging him in front of his whole class! Lucky for him the Director just called him the office. He did actually hug back this time!

So then we are off running first to notary office, then apply at local  office for Passport, now back to the orphanage for more signatures, lunch and then back into the car to drive 2+ hours  back to Dnopri for district passport office where the passport is actually issued from then the ride back was almost 4 hour as we dropped Yana at home in Zap.
One thing I did not think about was the Roads over here! We worried about the Plane ride post surgery but We TOTALLy forgot about the Bumpy roads! OUCH! Finally we arrived back at 10 pm the orphanage had dinner waiting for us. Daniel was good all day! I am loving he is finally hugging me back! 

Back to Ukraine!

 Well I am sitting in an airport waiting for a couple more hours before I head back to Ukraine to finish the adoption of Daniel. Two years ago I never would have believed how different  my, and my family life is!

For ten years I have waited, believed there was a  boy, a son waiting to come to our home! But I wanted to do it my way. I wanted to have the child biologically.  I did not want to adopt. When 5 years ago I had to face the fact it was adoption that was going to bring this child to our home I still put a condition to that      I WOULD NOT adopt from a Slavic country. ( I am not kidding I said those actually word to my husband!) The lord was patient  he waited 3 more years and after our home burned down and I was  I guess a lot more teachable. My heart was finally open to adopt not only  that little boy but two more children as well.

 . My heart was so full Thursday night when we had a translator and the missionary over to teach and see If Ilia was ready to receive the Priesthood. It was amazing to realize how far we have come. Yes, we had a translator  there but. I realized it had been almost 2 months since we had needed a translator  on a regular basis! The children were so quiet and listening so carefully. They even admitted to would be easier now to read their scripture in English not Russian!  Ilia is eager and excited to receive the priesthood.. He was so tender this morning as he made me wake him up to say good bye at 4 am this morning as he hugged me goodbye he said “mom I love you so much”. Lydia and Ilia are a cool/wonderful bonus as I have waited for this last child.

Of course because I am female I worry about this last child will he be as easy of  a transition. If is funny both David and I knew in our heart this child was “special needs” But What I imagined as  special needs is a different kind of special need . I imagine a child with Mental or Physical challenges but what we received were children with  Cultural and language , and spiritual needs. Life is good, we are happy!

So Here I sit to waiting to make this last trip to bring Daniel home!

Kiev

Back in kiev!

Keiv Airport

Yes I am  finally writing a week later! We had a bizarre experience at the airport.We were sitting there and we heard a man yelling" Is there any Americans  in the airport?"  we responded "yes" and a large black man told us he needed our help. he stated they would not let him through Passport control. His passport was a replacement for a lost passport ( it stated that inside, but the big issue is it was missing pages 13- 16 ) we explained we did not speak Russian and would not be much help. I offered to call a lawyer who could translate but he declined. He did find an Armenian woman  who  spoke both English and Russian.. so we started upstairs with him to security and passport control. At security. the woman tried to talk to security. but the man was insisted we all go through security together. He keep saying us American  should stick together. I started getting very negative vibes and would not go through with him. Then he asked for our name and # so his family could "thank us for not helping him". we said" no but if you have family we can contact we will" he just called us racist  ( which he had been calling the Ukrainians the whole time) and finally left. .. It was an unsettling ordeal. after both David and I wish we had really looked at the name in the passport. .. We where glad when we landed in Paris. We did talk with there security there about the situation. PS Yes he spoke like an American and was tattooed like an American. but his front teeth were gold and David said one of is tattoos was Muslim.

  David was suppose to fly out today but about 12 hours after we bought his ticket we got an email about the Tax Id # taking up to 2 weeks to get.  So we canceled his ticket and are waiting to hear.

court sucess

Well it was a long and cold court! Two hours! The judge even sent Daniel out of the court room, to warm up.  I was OK with all the question about why we wanted more children, why we did not adopt him when we were here before, did we make enough money blah, blah, It only got dicey when it was finally touched on that some "man" had visited him at both Orphanage  was brought up .( the following I did not know before) That when this man heard through the grape vine some Americans wanted to adopt he  did ask for the paper work to begin adopting in Dec. and then has not shown up again since. Not only was the Inspector  there, but a man from the district level of social service. They both brought up his man has had 6 year to establish his right as the Father ( it is assumed he is the father) but he is not listed on the birth certificate! Because Daniel was abandoned at 7 they ( social service had to create a birth certificate with what limited info the  7 year old could give them.)  Social  service did know this man's home was the home he had lived in at the time of his abandonment, but he was highly neglected in that home. Finally the judge ask if Daniel knew this man's name Daniel said "no I only called him uncle " and "I told him I wanted to go the America ." (I do not know if Daniel was coach to say this ) So finally after 2 long cold hours Daniel John Mosteller was made our son!

YES there will be court!

Why is there always so much drama with these Adoption???? We did not know for sure until 2pm today we would have court tomorrow! The right paper finally got the right stample ect. ect. That paper is then put on the train from Kiev to be here! So court, then the 2 day process to get back home!

Tues

Well Tues is almost over and we have not heard for positive that our court date is Friday! We are trying to be positive that it will because we booked train tickets and our room in Paris for the flight home.
As I sit here I just realized Daniel does not know we will be leaving him for a couple of weeks  in 3 days. this is because they told us not to tell him about the court date until the night before to keep his dad from finding out. This whole thing is hard for me I keep trying to tell myself he has had 7 years to come get him. And the first adoption cost me a computer to appease a family member. Keep Praying!

Sunday

Ok I have a confession I HATE WRITING BLOGS! I write them because I know how much all your blogs mean to me. It is a journey we all share together and need each other. This is the Second time I have wrote this blog! I have a way of having computer problems and then losing my work Ugh!

So Sunday we decided to do the 120 k to Dnepro to Church! It was good to see another Utah Family and some missionaries I had met in Zap. We had to wait 45 min for our driver after church and got chilled to the bone! It took most  of the night to warm up!  The hard part of the day is Daniel was not allowed to come with us so we spent 8 hours we could have had with him and maybe some of the other children away . We had some struggles with him Sunday night. At first David and I were a little peeved with him but as I  was sitting there calmly listening to the sound of Sunday on line I had a thought of what was waiting for Daniel upstairs when he left us, and how he may have felt with us leaving him all day and why he was doing what he was doing. It still needs to be dealt with but at least I have understanding and when we have a translator we can calmly deal with it.
 We got to skype home, I guess because there are more children to miss this trip I am more homesick!

Friday!

So we have been a week in Nikapol! The wind has stop so we do go outside alittle in the middle of
the day! Last night we took balloons and played volleyball in the very large  room in the orphanage  upstairs between the classrooms. It felt good to run about! Daniel is a fast runner. It makes me wonder if all the abuse in the first orphanage taught him to be fast. We were loud hoping to attract some other kids but they are not really allow in this part of the building at night, so we will have to wait for the weekend they seems to have more freedom to see us! remember we are skyping Sat. at 8 am Utah time with children from the old orpahnge so email me if you want to join!

No internet

We are alive ! We just have not had internet. The Director is allowing us to use his computer right now!  We have a court day for the 10th providing Interpol send it's clearance  apparently it has been taking up to 45 day for this   We have a would have to come back so we are praying hard. I do feel it  will  work out fine Just add your prays to ours!    Our days are too long as we wait for Daniel to get out of school.  It is so cold here they have closed pubic schools. because the children live at their school their  is not canceled. We have cabin fever pretty bad!  We have finally seen some of our friends from our previous trip! We have been ask not to invite  them into our apt. so we have to stand in the cold halls to visit!

Opposites

   How different this trip is from last trip! The most obvious is the weather first from so hot to so cold, I used to say I liked cold better than hot but that was before Ukrainian cold.  I lost almost 20 lbs. the first trip as in the first orphanage with no fridge, no microwave, or oven and the closest market was a ¼ the size of 7-11. This orphanage feeds us 3 times a day . Thank heaven for this opposite, we have hot water in this orphanage!  This summer we spent hours and days on the road to the inspector, the court, and the orphanage. Now so far everything is within a 10 mile radius! Because of the closing of the first orphan we had 24/7 with Lydia and Ilia which had it pro and cons sometimes we got on each other nerves, with not enough to do and no private space. Now we get 3-4 hours and day and the weekends with Daniel which because of the cold weather I am glad of as it is too cold to go outside much. I do miss from my first trip all the time with all of the kids. Sunday we got to spend a few hours with 4 of our old friends! We have seen a few more in passing. But there are more I am dying to wrap my arms around! We are treated like royalty by the Director and his wife. Last time I was lectured weekly by the Director. Yup very different trips!