Midnight train to Crimea

We relaxed a lot today. At 4PM we went to the SDA office to pick up our referral. After about an hour wait we were able to sit down with the SDA representative. In less than 5 minutes we received our paperwork and a smile from her.

Now we are spending our last hour in Kyiv packing up and getting ready to be picked up again at 7PM...boarding a midnight train to Crimea. It's actually an 8PM train, but you get the drift :-). I think it will take 15 hrs to travel.

We've had a decent day today - the jet-lag is wearing off. We are excited to get to the region where the kids are.

We just keep putting one foot in front of the other...

Successful SDA Appointment

We had our SDA (State Dept of Adoption) appointment in Kyiv today to get our referral to visit Vitalik and Lera in their orphanage.  It seems that it went well.  We were really surprisingly nervous - as we waited to talk to the lady, I thought my heart would beat right out of my chest... and this was supposed to be one of the easy parts!  She asked us a few simple questions and was nice.  She told us what they knew about our kids.  They have been on the adoption registry since 2007.  Lera has impaired vision (this was no surprise, as the pics of her reading our letters seemed to show her holding the page very close to her face).   It was sad to think that she has needed glasses at least since 2007.  Won't it be interesting for her to get glasses and actually be able to see!  After learning a few additional facts, we were asked if we wanted to proceed with the referral.   YES!  We will pick up the referral late in the day tomorrow, and then will take the next train to Simferopol (15 hours - tickets were not available, but we are told they are working on it).

This whole thing is just so interesting.  If we were in America, we would expect to have a list of steps in the process all laid out, with various contengencies at each step.  We would expect to discuss all possibilities, and speculate and plan and think think think.  This would just be our natural way of approaching something so big and complicated and important.

The culture here is very different, and seems to dictate that we don't think ahead more than one step at the most.  We are to trust our handler implicitly and ask very few questions.  We are getting along with him just perfectly, and are literally trusting him with our lives.  It is a real exercise in letting go - and letting go - and letting go.   I think we are doing well so far, although we are both exhausted mentally and physically - a combination of jet lag and stress I imagine.  We really do not know what to expect, but we are just going to continue this journey and try not to worry!

So now we continue waiting.  Our crazy little apartment has come to feel pretty comfortable.  We are getting used to the unfamiliar sights, sounds, and smells.  I think our agenda for the rest of the day includes a nap and maybe a dvd movie and/or scrabble game.  We are both just trying not to think too much, and to just keep breathing.

Who Said Anything About Safe? :o)

Eugene has been reading one of my favorite books ever, Shane Claiborne's "The Irresistable Revolution - Living as an Ordinary Radical".  This morning at about 3:30am, we were both awake in bed, and he read me the following passage... it was so comforting to us in this crazy time and place.  This morning's blog update comes straight from this awesomely inspiring book.  If you haven't read it yet, go out and buy a copy today! :o)

"I have come to see that we Christians are not called to safety, but we are promised that God will be with us when we are in danger, and there is no better place to be than in the hands of God.  Perhaps the most dangerous place for a Christian to be is in safety and comfort. 

"In his book, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," C.S. Lewis portrays this dangerous encounter with the God that should make all of us shiver.  Lucy is about to meet Aslan, the lion, and she asks, "Is - is he a man?"
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"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly.  "Certainly not.  I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea.  Don't you know who is the King of the Beasts?  Aslan is a lion- THE Lion, the great Lion."

"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man.  Is he - quite safe?  I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver, "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you?  Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe.  But he's good.  He's the King, I tell you."
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"That's the God I have come to know, a God who is not at all safe, but a God who is good."

-- Shane Claiborne, "The Irresistable Revolution - Living as an Ordinary Radical"

We are in Kyiv!

We have made it safely to Kyiv, Ukraine!  We are in our Kyiv apartment, where we will be for about 3-4 days.  We have been to the market and have enough food to keep us from starving while we are here.  It is all quite surreal - NOTHING is familiar!  We are completely and utterly out of our element, but we think that after a little rest, things will look a little less intimidating... maybe.  In any case, we are here - and it's a very big step in this crazy journey. 

Leavin' Tomorrow!

Well, here we go!  We leave for Ukraine tomorrow!  The extensive preparations for our trip have been made, and we are feeling really comfortable that those who will be holding down the fort and caring for the boys will be in good shape while we are away.

We have so appreciated the outpouring of love and support from our family, church, friends, and community.  It feels as if we are being sent off on a cloud of love, prayers, and well-wishes.  It is hard to communicate how much we appreciate knowing that while we are navigating the halls of power in an unpredictable foreign country, and just going through various emotionally charged days and experiences, so many people will be praying for us, helping out with our children, thinking of us, and loving us through the process. 

Throughout this adventure, we have sometimes felt overwhelmed, sometimes anxious, sometimes excited, but always equipped... and one of the major ways in which we have been equipped for this big thing is that we are loved and supported by so many wonderful people!  What an incredible blessing!

We ask for your continued prayers for:
- basic sanity :o)
- safety for everyone involved
- a smooth and happily uneventful adoption process
- that Lera and Vitalik will love us, and will truly know that we love them!
- and for us to give the glory to God at every step... let's remember that this whole thing was not our bright idea!!

So the bags are packed, the lists are checked.  Now, I guess all we have to do is hold on and enjoy the ride!

Shout-Out to Adam and Eleni :o)

Our adoption blog would be quite incomplete without a shout-out to our new friends Adam and Eleni.  This amazing young couple first visited Ukraine in March 2010 on a mission trip with their church.  They played a major role in conceiving and organizing the Redline United summer program that brought a group of 16 orphans to Raleigh for three weeks... and most notably to our family, they were the host family who welcomed Lera and Vitalik into their home this summer. 

 

They stuck their necks (and hearts) out: 

- daring to love Lera and Vitalik, knowing that they would not be old enough to adopt them

- hoping and praying to find them an adoptive family against all odds (apparently, according to those who know about these things, it is a pretty big statistical improbability to find an adoptive family for siblings of this age - we are so thankful that the folks at Redline United didn't worry about statistics!)

- being content to simply show them love during the time they had available and to accept whatever came of it. 

 

God used their risk-taking faithfulness to introduce us to our beautiful new children.  At Vitalik and Lera's request, Eleni and Adam will always be their honorary big brother and big sister.  They are very easy people to love, and the Cline boys think they are about the coolest people ever!  We are delighted to call them dear friends for life! 

 

They continue to pray for, write to, advocate for, and just love many other very special kids in who live in the orphanages of Ukraine.  They will be returning to Ukraine this March to dare to know and love even more of these beautiful children.  If you would like to contribute to their on-going ministry, tax-deductible donations can be mailed to:

 

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

(Checks made payable to Redline United with “Adam and Eleni Missions and Ministry” in the memo line.)

T-Minus 2 Weeks ... and a Happy New Year

I haven't felt like blogging at all lately.  There is so much going on in my mind and heart, and I just don't even feel like writing about it.  I am reminded of why I never kept a diary as a kid, and have always hated journaling as an adult.  When I am gone, there will be no great records of all of the wonderful and profound things I thought about for my progeny to comb through.  I guess I'm much more of a talker, and to be honest, I don't even feel like talking so much these days - who knows.  I guess all I can say is that this whole adoption journey takes some energy - it makes me feel a lot more introspective, and not so interested in hearing myself talk (amazing as that seems!)  Still, in the spirit of recording the process for posterity, I felt obligated to produce a New Years entry, so here it is.  :o)

The holidays have been lovely.  We have everything we need and so very much more.  Eugene had a much-needed vacation from work.  After not taking a day off in six months (with the exception of Thanksgiving weekend, during which he had oral surgery!) it was so good for all of us to have him home just hanging out for eleven wonderful days!  We intentionally scheduled almost nothing, and boy did we all need it!  I didn't spend much energy worrying with menu-planning, christmas shopping or gift-wrapping this year.  Still, we made it through the season with more than ample Christmas toys, delicious foods and lots of family time playing games, working puzzles, and just vegging.

As our trip to Ukraine is rapidly approaching, I guess it's natural that our family kind of experiences everything through that lens.  With everything we do, we all find ourselves thinking of how that activity will be when Lera and Vitalik are here to be included in it.  This might be easier, that might be more complicated, this will be fun, that will be exciting, and so on.  Most of our musings are upbeat and filled with hope and joy.  Still, on some level, I think it's only fair to say that none of us can really relax until our new family members are safely home, occupying the rooms that we have prepared for them, laughing at our horrible pronunciations of the Russian phrases we've been learning, eating at our crowded dinner table, fighting for the best chairs during tv-time, and just settling into their new lives here with us.  We are all doing our best to enjoy the beautiful life we have here, but we ALL want Lera and Vitalik here with us, and the waiting is HARD.

 Another local family, the Paulsons, visited our kids' orphanage this past week.  They were the first of the families adopting from the summer program to get their SDA appointment, and the timing happened to work out so that they visited the kids for a few days surrounding the Christmas holiday.  They were so kind to take our small gifts to Lera and Vitalik, and even emailed us photos showing a play-by-play of them opening our humble packages.  We are told that the kids were really thrilled to receive our gifts of gloves, hats, candycanes, gum, and (best of all) musical christmas cards that allowed us to record the little brothers singing along to the tinny recorded christmas songs.  It was fun to see photos of them laughing and smiling as they opened our packages.  We were then able to email back pictures to show them a preview of life at home with their new family.  We sent pictures of our extended family gathering for our gift exchange, playing cards on the family room floor, the kids playing wii in their pajamas, eugene standing in the kitchen eating left-overs out of a plastic container... the no-frills photo tour of life at home with the Cline family.  We then were able to receive more pictures of them smiling and goofing off, and simple emails saying how thrilled they seemed to see more of life here - that the pictures seemed to help make it more real for them.  I find myself quite unable to express what a gift this was.  I guess the best way for me to say it is that I really felt like these few days of glorious increased communication probably helped to prepare the kids for the time they will soon be spending with us, and vice versa. 

So now we are at T-minus 2 weeks and counting.  If this story were a movie, we would simply skip this time and move ahead to scenes with us sleeping on an airplane, going through customs in Ukraine, getting out of the car, thanking our driver, and joyfully greeting our gorgeous teenagers at the orphanage.  Then after a couple of profound, miraculously translated conversations, we could skip forward again through the six-week process in Ukraine to the hugs-and-tears scene as we welcome them at the Raleigh airport, drive them home and show them their new rooms.  But of course, this is real life, and blessedly, we have to (and get to) live each day whether we want to or not.

We have been trying HARD to really live each of these days that we are so tempted to fast-forward through, and some days we even get a few things right.  In particular, we have been trying to look at our computer screens and gadgets less and look into our children's eyes more, reading their new books, playing their new games, taking time to really listen to them talk excitedly about the monster they are trying to beat on the really hard level in the video game they are currently working to master, listening to the insanely beautiful sound of their giggles, drinking in their gorgeous smiles.  They are so beautiful.  I mean, they drive us out of our minds frequently, but man they're amazing and it is really awesome when we do remember to take the time to just treasure them.

I think it's safe to say that for Eugene and me, loving all of the children in our family and extended family has been the greatest joy of our lives.  We treasure each one of them, and we are so thankful for the roles we are privileged to play in each of their lives.  Our hearts are so prepared to receive into our brood, our two new beautiful kids, Vitalik and Lera.  We already love them completely, unconditionally, period.  It is our greatest goal as their parents that they will know deep in their bones that they are fully loved, and that they are truly safe.  It will be a great privilege of our lives to be their parents, and we sincerely cannot wait to get on with it!
Happy New Year! :o)