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!