Good morning! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We did – went to Blue Ridge Georgia with our extended family for the week and had a great time playing in the mountains. It was really nice to take a break and catch up with our family.
One of the fun things that we did was call the girls while we were there. We’ve been able to talk to Irra almost every week, but have not been able to reach Vika since late September, in spite of trying regularly. The people at the Sanitarium where she is staying are just not very cooperative. However, we did manage to get her on the phone for a very few minutes on Wednesday. She said that she is doing fine, and of course she asked when we are coming for her. I think she regrets her decision to stay. She doesn’t like being at the Sanitarium, and I don’t blame her, it’s not very nice there, and none of her friends from the orphanage are there with her. Still, it could be worse, and it won’t be forever.
We also spoke to Irra and had a great conversation. She loves to talk – sometimes we have trouble getting off the phone with her! She said to tell everyone here a “big hello” and then we took turns passing the microphone around to some of the family and she got to say “big hello” to the boys and my parents and some of her cousins. I had her part on speaker, and everyone stood around and listened to the conversation – it was a blast! The children are fascinated with the Ukrainian/Russian language so it was cool for them to hear her and Anya talk.
Of course, the big question is always “when are you coming”. Not only are the girls asking this, but the teachers too. The phones are obviously answered by adults, who send for the girls, but then the adults talk to us before they will let the girls talk. Evidently the police have been around several times making trouble, so the director and the teachers are anxious for us to come and bring the girls home. We think this is why they sent Vika to the Sanitarium, to hide her from the police, since all her paperwork is technically completed. The director seems calm, but the teachers are almost frantic, and are pushing us very, very hard to come. Which we’d love to do, of course, but we are still waiting!!
The court decision in Russia was final on November 20th, but Edward had them mail the paperwork to his house and to the office of Vital Records in Russia. As of today, we still don’t know what the decision is. We assume that it is favorable, because no one has told us otherwise, but we don’t know for sure. Edward emailed us today that he was going to Kharkov tomorrow, and maybe then on to Russia. Not sure why he is going to Kharkov, maybe he needed to get some more documents from the court there? Who knows. We are very frustrated that he did not go to Russia on the 20th to pick up the papers in person and try for the birth certificate. Because of this, we have lost a week’s time waiting for the mail. Part of the problem is the timing of this. Ukraine celebrates Christmas January 6th, and we have been told by several people that they simply shut down most of the country and the business offices from about December 20th and on. First they have New Years, then Christmas, and evidently there are a couple of important holidays in January, so they just close up shop for the month! What that means to us is that if I can’t go and get the girls and be home before December 20th, then I won’t be able to get them until things start moving again in February. There is no point to going after December 20th because I wouldn’t be able to get the documents needed to travel home. So losing a week at this point to wait for the mail is extremely frustrating!!
So, that’s our update. We are still knocking on all the doors we can knock on to try to speed things up, but right now all we have are bloody knuckles. And we are still praying for patience and for God’s perfect will to be done in His timing. That’s the hardest part, remembering that He is still in control and that things will work out in His timing. I know this in my heart, it’s just hard to remember that “in the moment” when we don’t’ see any movement at all. I can’t wait for the day when this is finished and we can enjoy our girls and this will all be over!
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