Half Way Through...

Friday, September 12, 2008 - We think we're half way through our Ukrainian adventure. Nothing overly exciting to discuss today. We had a lazy morning mostly just reading books and scriptures. I'm reading a great book written by Jeff Shaara called, "Rise to Rebellion." It's a novel based on the Revolutionary War and VERY interesting. I recommend it highly if you like history based novels.

Carolyn and Neil Milne stopped by and then we all met at McDonald's for lunch before going to see the boys. The weather has turned colder and Arri picked up a cold so we stayed in the dormitory building and played cards most of the day with the boys. We played UNO. I beat Arri.

Later, when the boys were supposed to be going to their evening class from 5:00 to 6:00, the instructors let those who are being adopted skip the class and we went back to the dormitory. There we had Natalie explain to the boys more about how our schools work in the States (e.g. 7 different classes, different teachers, different kids in each class, etc.). When we mentioned that they would have to be out the door by 7:25am to catch the bus, they were really complaining. I guess around here school doesn't start until 9:00 and they just walk across the courtyard. I told them that if they get 5 tardies, the teacher pulls there pants down in front of the class and spanks them. They weren't sure if I was joking or not at first and the look on their faces was great!

Tonight, we made scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, toast (frying it in a pan), and some fresh fruit for dinner. By the way, those of you who know Arri know that my comment above about me beating her at cards is really going to bug her when she reads this! :-)

Das vidana!

Over the River and Through the Woods...

Thursday, September 11, 2008 - This morning Arri and Lucinda Milne met our translator Natalie and picked up the orphanage director, Viktor and did some shopping. Each family "donates" some money to the orphanage and Viktor prefered to go shopping and buy some things that they needed. They picked up rugs for the main sitting room and a new vacuum. The rest of the money will go for other incidentals.

While they were gone, Brent and I did some shopping and just hung out at the apartment. After we had a scrumptious macaroni and cheese lunch (made with buttermilk because we couldn't read the Ukrainian label!) we went to the school. Then Arri, Natalie, the boys and I took a taxi to Artem and Sasha's grandmother's apartment. She wanted to meet us and invited us for dinner which was very nice of her.

She lives in a 3 bedroom apartment that she is remodeling so it's in some disarray but very comfortable. Her daughter Irena (Ira) and Ira's son Bogden (2 years old) were there and Irena's husband Vladamir and Maxim were still working and showed up a little later. The grandmother made a lot of food including bread with caviar, pickles, tomatoes, Ukrainian borsk soup (it was very good), mashed potatoes with liver (Arri couldn't get herself to eat it), eggplant and after stuffing ourselves with that, she brought out a big plate of crepes filled with cheese. They were excellent! For desert they had watermelon, grapes and Arri brought a nice Ukrainian Torta (cake). I'm still stuffed hours later!!

We talked about many things and asked about the boys' father (this was their paternal grandmother). They said he died 2 years ago of cancer which didn't correspond to the court records but it doesn't really matter. The father was an agriculturist and apparently, was very well to do in their town with a big farm. We asked about the boys' mother but they don't have any contact with her. Maxim mentioned that he went to see the mother this past spring and helped her plant her potatoe garden. Nothing else was said of her. We also asked to see pictures and we took pictures of many of their photographs so even though the quality isn't great, we have a few baby pictures and other photos of their family.

It was a long but nice day to meet the boys' family. The little boy Bogden really loves Artem and Sasha and wouldn't leave them alone throughout the whole dinner. He kept pulling Sasha's hair and laughing. Artem and Sasha were very good to Bogden which was nice to see. Ira also wants us to visit her house before we leave so we'll see if we have time for that. One other thing we thought was different is that they left the T.V. running the whole time in the room on an MTV type of channel. It wasn't our place to ask her to turn it down.

Before going to the grandma's house, we had a celebration for Artem Milne's birthday and it's also my birthday today. Carolyn Milne brought a cake mix from the States and made a nice cake. We didn't have time to eat it but the kids at the school snarfed it down! These are great kids and you can't help but really grow to love all of them. Now we know why Nanette and Vern have worked so hard for so many years to find homes for these kids! There are several boys here I wish we could take with us. They're good kids but with very little future. God bless them.

The Waiting Game

These ten days will fly by. Yeah, right. It has only been three days since our court date and they are dragging by! We would just like to take our boys and go home to our girls! We haven't done much these few days. We are bonding with the boys though, and it has been really good. The more we get to know them, the more we feel like they have been ours since the beginning. It amazes me. They are so much like our family it is scary.

I will write more later. It is Kent's birthday today, along with another boy here the Milne's Artem. We are planning a little celebration for them today, so we will let you know.

Our Day in Court

On Monday, September 8th, we had our official court date to adopt Artem and Sasha. There were 4 families in our group (Morgans adopted Anastacia, Brent Milnes adopted Austin and Hatches adopted Logan). We arrived at 1:00pm and had to wait for the prosecutor to show up. He finally arrived 2 hours later and the Morgans were first. 45 minutes later they emerged with smiles and Alan gave us insight on how it would go.

In the courtroom was the female Judge, court secretary, 2 jurors, Sumy Dept of Childhood inspector (Valeria), the Sumy orphanage lawyer, the boys, our translator and of course, Arri and I. Everything was being recorded so it was very formal. I should mention that the courtroom was just a larger office with 2 desks and chairs around the side.

Arri and I each had to stand up, one at a time, and answer questions from the judge. She was very stern when talking to us and we were both a little nervous. Besides general information about ourselves (name, birthdate, where we live, etc.) for the record, she wanted to know about my relationship with Arri, about my job, my income, if the boys would be cared for, what is our house like, how will the boys learn english, etc. She wanted to know why we wanted to adopt these Ukrainian boys and all we could really say is that after we had them in our home, we fell in love with them and felt they were already part of our family. Arri broke down again expressing her feelings about the boys and said she felt like they were her boys from the first time she saw their picture.

The judge then read the boys' history. She openly discussed how their parents lost their parental rights, that their father died in 2004, that their grandmother had guardian rights for a while but she lost those as well a couple of years ago. We felt it must have been hard for the boys to hear but they seemed fine with it. As a side note, Arri asked the boys on Sunday if they want to visit their grandmother before leaving the country which they said that they did. When she asked if they want to see their mother, they both camly but without hesitation said "no." Sasha then pointed to Arri and said, "You Mother!" and smiled. I don't need to write how that made her feel.

The judge then had the boys come up next to her and she was very pleasant with them. They were very nervous. They answered all of her questions politely looking straight forward, not wanting to upset her in any way. When she asked about our daughters, Sasha instantly grinned and then tried to straighten up again. The judge laughed. She also commented how much the boys look like Arri and me. She made some statement that "God must have something to do with this." That was nice. Throughout all of this the lawyer and inspector were asked their opinions and they were very favorable of our adoption.

The judge and jury then deliberated for about 5 minutes and called us back in. She announced that Ukraine recognizes the adoption of Artem Kent Rogers and Alexander David Rogers to Arri and me. The Rogers becAme seven!

We now have the obligatory 10 day waiting period in case anyone wants to back out of the adoption or if a family member steps forward.

Today, Tuesday, we got up and all the families went to see the boys. I was sick today and after eating lunch, felt it was best to stay close to the apartment so I didn't get a chance to see them. They played soccer again as well as a new dice game.

Oh one other blog-worthy incident. After the adoption we all celebrated by going to McDonald's. The Hatch's older boys arrived in Sumy yesterday and David speaks Russian (mission). While ordering, a guy tried to pick-pocket David and David felt his hand and shoved the guy away. And then they were shouting at each other. The McDonald's manager came out and asked if David wanted the police to come. He said yes. They showed up and the Police hauled away the guy. It made everyone in McDonald's very nervous but we're glad David stood up to him.