Christmas Giving Opportunity

For most Americans, Christmas is a season of extravagant giving.  It is also a season when many of us look for worthy causes to support.  This season, there is one such cause that I have felt compelled to share - So here goes.

I should probably begin with the statistics that floored Eugene and me when we learned them back in August.  Ukrainian orphans have to leave the orphanage at age 16.  According to stats compiled by UNICEF, 70% of boys end up in prison, 60% of girls in prostitution, and 10% are suicide victims before reaching the age of 18.

So let me tell you about one Ukrainian orphan named Yasha, and the family that God has called to adopt him, the Hoopers.
 - Mr. Hooper is a 5th grade teacher at Carpenter Elementary, the school that Spencer and Heath attend. 

- The Hooper's son Collin is a freshman at Panther Creek high school. 

- Yasha came to Raleigh this summer and spent three weeks with the Hoopers as part of the same orphan hosting program that helped to introduce my family to Vitalik and Lera.

- On a special day at the park last August, Yasha has no idea that his gentle friendly smiles and waves to our little Mason helped to break the ice on the day that we first noticed his friend Lera.  He was part of the chain of events that changed our lives forever.

Yasha is a real live underprivileged orphan who lives on the other side of the world.  He has lived a very hard life and quite literally has plenty of scars to prove it.  Until meeting the Hoopers, he had never known what it felt like to be loved by a family.  He didn't even know when his birthday was, because of course, he had never celebrated a birthday before.  Remarkably, in spite of his difficult life, Yasha is a warm, gentle, loving, delightful boy. 

Last month, he turned 14 in an orphanage in Ukraine.  It is the Hoopers goal that next November, when he turns 15, they can bake him a cake, sing happy birthday, and let him blow out the candles.  It seems like such a small thing, but what an incredible blessing that will be!

The Hoopers have been doing their part.  They live in a modest home and follow a strict budget.  Mandy runs an in-home daycare and as I've mentioned, Eric teaches at Carpenter.  In his off-hours, Eric has been working a second job to raise extra money.  The Hooper family decided to forgo all Christmas gifts this year and contribute that money to their adoption fund in hopes that this will be Yasha's last Christmas in the orphanage. 

The price tag for this adoption is an intimidating $35,000.  To many, it may seem crazy to spend such a large sum of money to save one orphan who lives on the other side of the world.  But we know that God has a very different way of measuring worth.  God knows Yasha - Yasha is God's beloved child. 

In Matthew 25:40, Jesus says, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." 

The Hoopers are still in need of approximately $25,000 to complete the adoption process.  For one household, this is a very intimidating sum.  But divided among many, it can certainly be done!  It is my hope that through our generous support, we can help the Hoopers make a significant dent in their goal this Christmas season.  What a privilege for us to help the Hooper family show Yasha that he is worth so much more than the amount of money that it will take to bring him home. 

This holiday season, our family will be collecting donations to help the Hoopers bring Yasha home for good.  If you feel compelled to make a tax-deductible contribution, simply contact Eugene or Shelly, or if you prefer, mail a check directly to: 

Redline United
P O Box 31045
Raleigh, NC 27622-1045

(Checks made payable to Redline United with “YASHA Adoption” in the memo line.)

Also, if you prefer to make a Credit Card donation, that can be done at: 
http://www.redlineunited.org/projects/orphan-hosting/donate/family-assistance/
After entering payment info, as you review the payment, click on "add special instructions" and specify "Yasha adoption".

Very Sincere Thanks to your consideration of this worthy cause! 

Lera's Thirteenth Birthday

Lera turned 13 today...her last birthday in an orphanage.  It's our understanding that there are no celebrations of birthdays in the orphanage, so we think it's unlikely that they have ever celebrated these milestones in any way. 

Natalya (the wonderful Redline United translator) hasn't visited our orphanage for a couple of weeks, and we think that tomorrow, she will visit the kids.  She will deliver Lera's birthday card with stickers and photos which we were able to FedEx to her a couple of weeks ago.  Along with this, she will deliver our translated letter, explaining our custom of making a birthday cake with candles, singing the Happy Birthday song, blowing out the candles and making a wish. 

It is exciting to think that next year, we will get to introduce both of our new kids to these lovely simple traditions. 

TRAVEL DATE!!!

Eugene and I have received our invitation to visit the State Department of Adoption (SDA) in Ukraine on January 18th, 2011!  Once there, the adoption process will likely take approximately six weeks, and our best guess is that the kids will return home with Eugene in early March. 

Clearly, we ran into the Christmas holiday closings, and this made our appointment six weeks in the future instead of the more usual 2-3 week timeframe.  On one hand we are disappointed to have missed the December window - we were very close!  Still, it is a big relief to know what we are dealing with.  Until today, Christmas plans had been foggy for us and many who love us.  We so appreciate all of our loved ones being so flexible in their willingness to drop everything at a moment's notice and fill in the gaps so that our boys will be well cared for while we are away!  It is a big blessnig to be so well loved and cared for!

This timing will be great we think.  We will try to relax and enjoy the holidays, and be thankful that we have so much time to prepare for this exciting trip!   

Nesting!

As we wait for an invitation from the Ukrainian government to come and begin their adoption process (hoping to find out our travel date in a couple of weeks), I have enjoyed some serious nesting!  Being patient is not a strength for any of us, but it has been such a pleasure to use this time to prepare a cozy spot for each of them.  I pray that their new rooms will help them to feel a sense of security and a sense of belonging once they arrive.

Last week we had our entire 2nd floor spruced up with a fresh coat of paint and new colors.  We were able to find out from the kids what colors they would like for their new rooms.  Vitalik requested a light green room.  We think that he may have appreciated this color, as it is the color of the room he inhabited at Eleni and Adam's home during his wonderful three-week camp this summer.    

The boys enjoy leading the tour of the new bedrooms.  They describe Vitalik's room as, "the coolest sports room in the world."  I don't know about that, but I do think he'll like it! :o)

To noone's surprise, Lera requested a pink room.  As someone who had become confident that a daughter was not in the cards for me, preparing a cozy pink room for my new daughter has been an unexpected joy.  As I hung the curtains and carefully made the bed, I felt a sense that I have been waiting my whole life for this!

I think it makes us all feel really good to walk by and see these rooms ready for our new children.  It gives us a sense that this is all real.  As I periodically walk by and rearrange the pillows or pick up a speck of dust in their rooms, it makes me laugh to think that soon, real teens will live in (and mess up) these rooms, and they will likely never look this spotless again.  So now the rooms are ready, and I guess all we need are the kids! :o)

Paperwork and Packages

After waiting a few weeks for all of our paperwork to be translated, we learned on Monday (11/8) that our dossier was submitted to the Ukrainian State Dept of Adoption.  We are now waiting for a response, which is expected to be an invitation to visit Ukraine and go forward with the process.  The response generally takes 3 weeks, and we're still unsure whether our visit to Ukraine will be before or after the Christmas holidays.  Traveling sometime before the end of January looks very likely.

Lera turns 13 on December 4th, so of course, we wanted to try to get a little something to her for her birthday.  Mailing a package to Ukraine is expensive and takes a long time, so I decided to just go ahead and mail packages for both kids Christmas at the same time.  It is our understanding that the only Christmas gifts the kids have ever received have consisted of a few pieces of candy, and we think that it's unlikely that their birthdays have ever been celebrated.  We followed the recommendation of those who know about these things, sending a simple package of cards, candy, gum, and photos. 

It is difficult to describe how much effort went into these simple packages, and how much emotional tenderness I have felt in sending these little items to our children. 

I prepared 4 large envelopes.  One for each child to be delivered near Lera's birthday, and another for each of them to be delivered for Christmas.  I bought cards, returned cards, bought more cards, returned more cards... I printed little messages in my best attempt at Russian.  I printed photos, wrote captions in Russian and English on the back of each.  The boys drew pictures, and even wrote "To Lera From Spencer" using Ceryllic characters.  Fitting it all into an apporpriate container and creating a Fed-ex label was far more difficult than I would want to admit.  Since it was more than just "documents" I had to complete lots of customs information that seemed silly and harder than it should have been.  I literally spent hours and hours on creating and mailing this humble little package. 

Yesterday, I dropped it in the Fed-ex drop box and literally just prayed that it will reach them and help them to have a tangible reminder that they are loved.

My online tracking tool tells me that the package weighed 3.2 pounds, and that it has now arrived in Paris.  Fingers crossed.  :o)

Letter from Lera :o)

We just received an email including this letter from Lera.  She wrote it herself in English!

As we have begun learning the characters and sounds of the Russian (Ceryllic) Alphabet, I have found the characters quite confusing.  Beginning to learn the cursive versions of each letter has so far seemed outrageously unrealistic.  I'm really impressed at her work here!  I suppose young minds really are superior to older ones (like mine!) at learning new things!!

What a treat to see this early writing sample from our new (and very bright) daughter!  :o)

Adoption Status Update - US Govt, check!

Last week we received a letter from US immigration granting us permission to bring adopted children into the country!  This was the last step in our process on this side of the ocean.  After having that letter certified and authenticated in various ways (I won't bore you with the details) we have shipped it to our adoption agency in Ukraine, where it will be added to a mountain of important papers we sent in mid-September.  This collection of papers (called our dossier) will be checked, translated, and submitted to the Ukrainian government in the next week or two.  They will have 20 days or so to respond with an invitation to visit Ukraine. 

We expect that in 2-3 months, Eugene and I will be traveling to Ukraine.  We will be there for approx 3-4 weeks, going through the administrative process, and awaiting our court date.  During the time there, we will have drivers and translators who tell us what to do and help us navigate the process.  There will be many days of waiting, and we'll get to visit with the kids in the orphanage.  We really look forward to these visits, of course!  The hard part of this trip will be that our three boys will be home without us.  Our current plan is for my sister, Tracy, and Eugene's mom will move into our home and jointly take care of everything while we are away.  Obviously, we are very thankful that they are willing to help in such a big way!

After we have our court date in Ukraine, there will be a 10 day waiting period, before the adoption will be official.  During this time, we will return home.  After resting a little, working a little, and becoming reacquainted with the boys, Eugene will return to Ukraine to retrieve Lera and Vitalik.  He will stay in Ukraine with them for a couple of weeks, obtaining new birth certificates, new passports, and new visas (all with their new Cline-family names!) and then they will come home for good.

Sounds complicated doesn't it!  So that's the process as we understand it.  Needless to say, we will all be happy when it is behind us.  Still, we are trying to enjoy each step in this amazing journey.  Someday soon, it will all be just a memory - a part of our family history.  I hope that we'll be telling this happy story for generations to come! 

Letters from the Brothers 10.18.2010

Today I received the wonderful news that the translator plans to visit the kids every Sunday unless something comes up.  What a gift!

Lera and Vitalik have been including notes to the brothers, and the boys were even able to see a picture Vitalik had colored for them (shared via the translator's facebook page).  Here are the first letters from the Cline boys to their new siblings:

Dear Vitalik,

Awesome coloring pokemon picture!

I wish you could come home right now!

Love Mason

 

Dear Vitalik,

I am learning to read this year.  I could read your letter.  I wish that you were here right now.  Your bedroom looks cool.  I had a soccer game and scored a goal!  I wish you could see my game.

Love, Heath

 

Dear Vitalik,

Your room is going to look really cool once it is painted.  It has sport pillows and a green/blue/tan quilt.  It also has a green sheet.

Yes, I am in 2nd grade.  I've always been the big brother, but now I am going to be the middle kid. 

Yesterday, I had a soccer game.  I had a breakaway, but I missed the goal.  We won 8-1.

I wish you could come to our house so we could beat you at soccer.  :-)  ha ha ha!

Love, Spencer

-----------------------------------------

Dear Lera,

You are cute. :o)

Love Mason

 

Dear Lera,

I wish you could come to us right now.  I wish you were here.  Your new room is really pretty.  I hope you will like it.

Love, Heath

 

Dear Lera,

We have always had no sister, but now we are finally going to have one!!!

I've always been the big brother, but now I am going to be the middle kid.

Love, Spencer

James 1:27 and a 3rd Grade Project

During the amazing few days when our lives were forever changed by the clear knowledge that Lera and Vitalik were meant to be part of our family, there were so many sparks flying.  I have already included several of these in an earlier post, and remembered a couple more that I wanted to record here.  It's not that any of these things made up our minds to adopt, but rather all of these things just helped us feel so affirmed and at peace with this crazy idea of Movin' to Marz.  :o) 

James 1:27
On August 18, after sharing with Eleni (host family) our decision to adopt Lera and Vitalik, I was looking at her Facebook photo album of the kids' wonderful time in the U.S.  The photo album's title was "James 1.27". 

This picture was my very favorite from Eleni's "James 1.27" Photo Album.
I believe it was their first night in America.  Aren't they just gorgeous?!


Not being great at memorizing scriptures, I thought I should look this one up.  As I flipped through my Bible, I thought, "I already know what this is going to be..." and when I got there, sure enough, it was the passage I had underlined back in March - and one of very few things underlined in the entire Bible.  It reads:

" Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the  Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

I remembered that back in March, I had really been touched by this passage during a Bible Study among leaders in our new church.  My reaction to this passage had been so strong that I had come home and written a big passionate email to one of our church leaders.  The email subject read, "Widows and Orphans".   An excerpt from that email explored what this passage might mean to our church today:

"...i think our challenge is to also be sure to serve those who are marginalized in a worldly sense - the ACTUAL poor ... the least, the last, the lost.  ...those whom nobody else sees or wants to see.  this is an easy thing for me to say, and sounds great, but it makes my stomach hurt to think about actually doing it!  in many of our daily walks, we have extremely limited visibility to the poor among us, and of course, this is a quite comfortable place for us to remain.   

in short, i feel it's time for us (our church) to identify our widows and orphans, and i seek your help."

After digging up this old email and doing a few "oohs and ahhs", I sent this person a photo of Lera and Vitalik with a note saying, "I think I have found my orphans."  That night, as Eugene and the boys played with Lera and Vitalik at Eleni and Adam's pool, I shared the scripture coinsidence with Eleni.  She told me that back in March, when I had been so moved by the passage, their group had been in Ukraine working with the orphans - no doubt, conceiving plans for the summer program that brought Lera and Vitalik into our lives.  WOW!  :o)

A 3rd Grade Project
The day after we met Lera and Vitalik, I went to my mom's house to drop the bombshell that we were adopting two kids from Ukraine.  She listened patiently to my quite shocking story, and when I had finished, she said, "I can't argue with anything you have said."  She stepped out of the room and returned holding a blue and yellow rectangle of fabric. 
"What's that?" I asked. 
"The Ukrainian flag," she answered with a smile.
"Where did that come from?"
"Don't you remember, Krystin did her research project last year on Ukraine?"

Amazing!  I did remember!  Last year, my neice Krystin had chosen to do her 3rd grade research project on Ukraine.  I will never forget my mom saying, "Of all the countries in the world, would you have ever guessed that she would choose to do her project on Ukraine?"  

After Lera and Vitalik had flown back to Ukraine, the exciting (and very surprising) news of our upcoming adoption was sweeping through our family.  That weekend, we had a family gathering, and after dinner, Krystin presented all of her research, complete with maps, history, customs, holidays, and pictures to the whole gang.  It went very well, but she did have to repeatedly call down her Uncle Eugene, who kept asking questions out of turn!

Letters Via Translator

There are translators who visit the kids at the orphanages every few weeks.  We are able to send brief notes via email, which are translated and taken to Lera and Vitalik.  What a ministry these translators provide!  The notes are such a lifeline during this interesting period of waiting.  I am finally beginning to settle in and try to enjoy this phase.  As with most things in life, it is not going to last forever, so I guess we'll do well to enjoy it. 

As a person who generally uses far more words than are needed to state the simplest fact, I am finding that I quite enjoy the discipline of simple speech that must be employed in writing letters for translation. 

A few days ago, we received letters back from both kids.  They were simple and lovely.  We, of course, read them over and over.  Vitalik's letter opened, "Dear Father, Mother, and Little Bothers"  -- We all found the translator's typo humerously ironic!  :o)

Paperwork Done (for now) - On to Decorating!

We are happy to report that last week our home study was completed, and we have been deemed capable of caring for children!  Yay!   Also, we have sent all relevant papers to begin processing w/ both the U.S. Gov't and Ukraine.  Now I begin the much more fun process of getting bedrooms set up for Lera and Vitalik! :o)

How Did This Happen?

Below are a couple of pictures from one of our fun visits with Vitalik and Lera before any of the kids knew of our intention to adopt.  My favorite picture is the one where everyone is going crazy as we TRY to get them to pose.  :o)

Finally, everyone cooperates. :o)

Lest we forget the amazing events of the past month that have brought us from "completely sure that our family was complete" to "eagerly awaiting the arrival of our two new kids," let me attempt to document events as best I can.

8-15-2010 (Sunday)  Woke up expecting another ordinary day.  After church, Eugene mentioned that our friends, Evan and Jack, were playing in a concert at a park in the afternoon.  I had slated the afternoon for much needed rest (the boys had just completed their first week of Kindergarten and 2nd grade, and had been at their cousins' house for a sleepover on Saturday night.  In an uncharacteristic move, I opted to forgo their rest, saying, "What the heck, let's all go, it'll be fun."

We had no idea that the concert was part of a field day for a group of orphans visiting from Ukraine.  When we read the front cover of a flyer for the program (http://www.redlineunited.org/), something unexplainable happened to Eugene and me.  When the concert was over, we couldn't leave; we had to find out more.  We learned that the kids would be returning to Ukraine in just a few days.  We picked up a flyer telling about the kids for whom program sponsors still hoped to find families.  Siblings Lera and Vitalik were on the front page.  We never turned to page 2.

As we drove away from the event, many things were clicking: 
- We recognized Lera as the girl who had been sitting near us at the concert.
- Her name was Lera!  I had planned to have a daughter named Laura (after my mom) since I was a little girl.  Each of our three boys would have been named Laura, had they been a girl. 
- I had always joked that in our next life, we would start earlier, have two kids, wait several years, and then have some more.  (From a distance, families of this design look very appealing to me - in my imagination, the older kisd are SO helpful with the younger siblings!)  Maybe we were actually supposed to have this family make-up in THIS life.  :o) 
- For the past year or so, I had been walking around praying, "Show me something I can fix."  Was this it?
- Eugene, ordinarily a serious planner, provider, and general worrier, looked at me and said, "Well, let's think.  It would wreck our whole plan for retirement - I don't care.  I would never play golf again - I don't care.  I would never go on another trip - I don't care."  We were just seeing the world through a different lense.
- We both knew that we had to meet them. 

8-16-2010:  Monday night, Lera, Vitalik, and their host family (an awesome young couple named Eleni and Adam) came for a cookout at our house.  It was a great night.  Vitalik played soccer in our back yard against a very happy Spencer and Heath.  Lera tried out our hammock and attempted to get a very shy Mason to be her friend.  We enjoyed a nice dinner, followed by a great episode of "Wipeout" on tv.

Although Vitalik and Lera new only a few English phrases, like, "Nice to meet you", "Thank you",  "Good Job" (accompanied by a big thumbs up), it was obvious that they are gorgeous, friendly, bright, generally delightful kids - certainly kids who deserve a break - a chance - a family.  When they left that night, I looked at Eugene and said, "That boy could be the CEO of a company." (Vitalik has as much natural charisma as any person I've ever met.)  And Lera was so sweet and beautiful... could it be that God actually DID have a daughter in store for us afterall?!

So I guess that the rest, as they say, is history.  After meeting them, we spent a couple of days waiting for sanity to set in, and as you can see, it never did.  :o) 

8-17-2010:  We visited on Tuesday in various combinations over a movie, Heath's t-ball game, and Lera/Vitalik's karate class. 

8-18-2010:  Wednesday morning, we decided to stop torturing ourselves and just admit that we were going to do it.  After a fun time at Eleni and Adam's pool, all kids went home and learned of our plans to adopt.  We told the Cline boys, who were immediatly offernig to share their rooms, and their sleeping bags.  Eleni and Adam told Lera and Vitalik, with the help of Google Translator.  The report we heard was that both kids were totally surprised and very happy.  :o)

8-19-2010:  Thursday, Eugene and I hung out at the airport for a couple of hours before the kids departed for Ukraine with all members of their group.  We learned to say, "I love you." in Russian.  As I understand it, every child in the group left the country with a family who hoped to adopt them.  For more details about this wonderful ministry, visit http://www.redlineunited.org/.