Hi my friends!
I am pasting part of an email that we got from our facilitator the other day. Don't know if it really is bad news or not but God is bigger than the Ukrainian government and our kids are in his hands so we are not to worried but please pray that it won't slow our process down. Our little ones have been in their orphanage long enough already and we want them to be able to come home as soon as possible.
Thanks for standing with us! Daniela
The following is an update from the U.S. State department’s website regarding changes in Ukraine. I have mentioned this change previously, but it was precipitated by some organizational structuring that happened within the Ukraine government back months ago. Basically the ministry under which the SDA existed – ceased to exist. Theoretically leaving the SDA reporting to no one. They were kind of in “no mans” land. Finally, on april 8th, the President signed a decree placing them under the Ministry for Social Policy. As the statement below mentions, this won’t be effective until it is “published” which should be any day now. So, for all intents and purposes, in my world – it is a done deal. They are moving. So, what does that mean for families in the process of adoption? Well, we simply don’t know. Once it is “published”, the SDA will begin to look at how they are going to handle this change. We don’t know if it will affect dossiers already filed, dossiers scheduled to be filed, and for sure don’t know what will happen in the next couple of months for people who don’t have their dossier in the hands of the SDA. WHAT THIS DOES NOT MEAN --- it does NOT mean adoptions are shut down. This is not a moratorium. It is simply a restructuring of the internal departments. So policies and procedures will most likely change – but then again might not. What we EXPECT will happen is that they will take some time to get “reorganized” so there may be a delay in filing a dossier, but we don’t know when that will begin or who it will affect. Because, again, technically it isn’t official until it has been posted. But we are expecting the posting any day. WHAT THIS DOES MEAN – don’t stop anything you are doing. We should continue preparing dossiers for filing as we have before – because there may be NO changes, or very little changes. I kind of think of this like “holiday” time. Things don’t stop….they just slow down a bit. For the family in Texas whose dossier is being filed this week, I will know on Wednesday whether the SDA accepted the dossier, but still won’t know if the internal processing time will change. For the family in Colorado whose dossier is slotted for filing later in April, we don’t know yet what will happen to those filing dates. For the rest of you still preparing dossiers, keep going! As a note of encouragement….when I visited Ukraine last year, the facilitator I was with got a frantic phone call from a family that was in country. Some approval was still not done and they didn’t have a court date yet. To them the news was just horrible. When the facilitator got off the phone I asked what was wrong. She told me, and my response was, “Oh, that is such horrible news.” The facilitator said, “No, it is not bad news. BAD news is when you are told you cannot adopt the child you love. Everything else is just a roadbump!” So, don’t fret. This isn’t BAD news! It’s just a speed bump!!!
2011-04-13
2011-03-06
A trailer load of stuff
Two days ago I got a text from a friend who asked me if I wanted a dresser for our garage sale.I said, SURE! We'll take almost anything that we think we can sell to make a couple of dollars to help bring home our kids. Yesterday she sent me another text asking if we wanted a vanity and an entertainment center too. Again I said SURE we'll take it. So after church today, to which we had brought our little trailer, we went over to this girls house. We left there with the trailer and the car packed with stuff that we can sell. AWESOME! What a blessing!
That is just one of the stories of how God is blessing us at the moment. A couple of weeks ago I lost one of my clients and was telling God that this was going to make me loose some money( like he didn't know already;) So one day last week I prayed about it and that same afternoon one of my old students called and wanted to start up with her lessons for the season. I got off the phone quite humble knowing that God knows what he is doing and he will provide income enough for us.
Since you last heard from me we have also done another ad0ption class. It was interesting and gave us some more food for thought but maybe not as good as the last one. Mostly because it was geared more towards foster parenting. The great thing was that we only had to go to Ignacio to take it which is a 30 min drive.
One thing that we did decide from what we learned that day is that we are going to make our kiddos room as ready as possible. We will be painting it and get some beds and other neutral stuff. Our thoughts are that we will bring pictures of their room so that when they come home they have seen it before. I am also going to try to find stuffed animals that resembles our pets so that they can be introduced even before they meet in person.
All just little details but makes it more real for us to prepare.
Paperwork wise we are doing fine. Just need some redone and some collected. But soon we should be able to send them off to the next place.
It is coming closer which is awesome but still a little scary. A couple of prayer requests are that we still need to sell Scotts motorcycle, that we will have favour with the people we meet in Ukranie, that we will know who are kids are when we see them and that they will feel good about us and that the rest of the paperwork will go smooth.
Thanks for being our friends!
D
That is just one of the stories of how God is blessing us at the moment. A couple of weeks ago I lost one of my clients and was telling God that this was going to make me loose some money( like he didn't know already;) So one day last week I prayed about it and that same afternoon one of my old students called and wanted to start up with her lessons for the season. I got off the phone quite humble knowing that God knows what he is doing and he will provide income enough for us.
Since you last heard from me we have also done another ad0ption class. It was interesting and gave us some more food for thought but maybe not as good as the last one. Mostly because it was geared more towards foster parenting. The great thing was that we only had to go to Ignacio to take it which is a 30 min drive.
One thing that we did decide from what we learned that day is that we are going to make our kiddos room as ready as possible. We will be painting it and get some beds and other neutral stuff. Our thoughts are that we will bring pictures of their room so that when they come home they have seen it before. I am also going to try to find stuffed animals that resembles our pets so that they can be introduced even before they meet in person.
All just little details but makes it more real for us to prepare.
Paperwork wise we are doing fine. Just need some redone and some collected. But soon we should be able to send them off to the next place.
It is coming closer which is awesome but still a little scary. A couple of prayer requests are that we still need to sell Scotts motorcycle, that we will have favour with the people we meet in Ukranie, that we will know who are kids are when we see them and that they will feel good about us and that the rest of the paperwork will go smooth.
Thanks for being our friends!
D
2011-01-23
A little update!
Since I last wrote here a couple of things have happened with our adoption. The biggest thing was our miracle with the IRS. If you want to read the story click on last blogs comment from Scott.
We also spent a couple of hours on the phone earlier this the week with the lady in Dallas that is our helper in this process. We went through all the paperwork that we now have to do for the State Department of Adoption in Ukranie. It seemed a little overwelming at first but when we had gone throught it all it didn't seem as bad. Lots of paper to get hold of but hopefully it will all work out pretty fast.
The other big deal in my life is that the same day that we found out about the IRS I also found out that my grandpa Tyko had passed away in a heartattack. He was 87 and had had a heartattack before Christmas that he survived but which had left his heart hurting. So eventhough it was suspected it always comes with lots of sorrow and loss. For me it made me feel pretty vulnerable since I don't have my dad. And it made the distance to home feel greater. It makes me sad that I can't be with my family and I won't be able to be at the funeral. It is hard to grieve when it feels so unreal.
I did have an ok relationship with my grandpa. I was able to have an evening meal with him before I left Sweden last time. We had a good conversation and once again he showered me with his generosity. My grandpa was a very very generous man. He is my big role model when it comes to giving. Growing up he made sure we had everything we needed, candy and bikes, clothes and food especially when finances where tight for mom and dad.
Through the years he has brought us many laughter's and lots of joy. He was a great Santa when we where little.
Life wasn't always nice to him. He lost his wife, my grandma, when she was only 69, his son, my dad, when he was only 46 and his grandson, my cousin, when he was only 36. It gave grandpa lots of heartache that showed up in joint pain. It didn't stop him from helping the people around him. When I was home in October he was waiting for hip surgery and could barely walk and even less up and down stairs, but every night he took the time to slowly make his way to his neighbour two flights down so they could eat an eveningmeal together and watch a show on TV. Just so she didn't have to be alone:)
I am honored that he was the one who gave me away at my wedding. A great man in many ways!
Now he has joined the rest of our family in the heavenly choir and one day we will meet again!
Take care of your close ones and give somebody a call that you haven't talked to in a while, you never know if you have another chance.
Blessings,
D
We also spent a couple of hours on the phone earlier this the week with the lady in Dallas that is our helper in this process. We went through all the paperwork that we now have to do for the State Department of Adoption in Ukranie. It seemed a little overwelming at first but when we had gone throught it all it didn't seem as bad. Lots of paper to get hold of but hopefully it will all work out pretty fast.
The other big deal in my life is that the same day that we found out about the IRS I also found out that my grandpa Tyko had passed away in a heartattack. He was 87 and had had a heartattack before Christmas that he survived but which had left his heart hurting. So eventhough it was suspected it always comes with lots of sorrow and loss. For me it made me feel pretty vulnerable since I don't have my dad. And it made the distance to home feel greater. It makes me sad that I can't be with my family and I won't be able to be at the funeral. It is hard to grieve when it feels so unreal.
I did have an ok relationship with my grandpa. I was able to have an evening meal with him before I left Sweden last time. We had a good conversation and once again he showered me with his generosity. My grandpa was a very very generous man. He is my big role model when it comes to giving. Growing up he made sure we had everything we needed, candy and bikes, clothes and food especially when finances where tight for mom and dad.
Through the years he has brought us many laughter's and lots of joy. He was a great Santa when we where little.
Life wasn't always nice to him. He lost his wife, my grandma, when she was only 69, his son, my dad, when he was only 46 and his grandson, my cousin, when he was only 36. It gave grandpa lots of heartache that showed up in joint pain. It didn't stop him from helping the people around him. When I was home in October he was waiting for hip surgery and could barely walk and even less up and down stairs, but every night he took the time to slowly make his way to his neighbour two flights down so they could eat an eveningmeal together and watch a show on TV. Just so she didn't have to be alone:)
I am honored that he was the one who gave me away at my wedding. A great man in many ways!
Now he has joined the rest of our family in the heavenly choir and one day we will meet again!
Take care of your close ones and give somebody a call that you haven't talked to in a while, you never know if you have another chance.
Blessings,
D
2011-01-02
2011 is here!
Christmas came and went in a hurry. I was blessed to have my sister and 2 of her friends with me for 5 days and we spent the holidays with parts of Scott's family outside of Albuquerque. We had a great time.
4 days ago I went out to bring in a couple of our horses and slipped and fell on the new snow we where getting. Kinda hurt a little right away but nothing bad. So I thought. The longer the day went the weirder my hand felt. Not as much power to grip and grab stuff so I was wondering what I was going to feel like the next morning. My suspicion was right. I woke up and the pain I felt when I tried to use my left arm was BAD:( Went to the doctor and once more in my life my left biceps tendon had gotten hurt. They told me to keep my arm in a sling for three days.
I was not excited! And on top of that our weather turned bad so my horses needed extra attention to stay warm but it had to be done by someone else. Hard for me to just accept and trust that they where in good hands.
3 days of being still and letting Scott take care of me has been very hard but good. ( He does a great job:) I talked to one of my dear friends the day before I got hurt that earlier this fall broke her foot. She is like me a person that always is on her way to the next thing. Also very self sufficient. And she told me about her experience of needing help. Not knowing I would be in a similar situation just 2 days later I was feeling for her. But today I really feel for her. I also do think it is good for us busy bodies to have to sit for a while and have time to reflect on life and accept help from others.
So as you probably understand a lot of my thoughts has gone to my kids. How are they doing? What do they look like? How much and how is our life going to change when they get here? How is the process going to be in Ukraine? One day I felt really sad for the biological parents of our babies. What has been going on in their lives that they had to give up the rights to their kids? What has our kids been through before they come to us?
Lost of speculation that has led to more prayer. Cause no matter how much I speculate I won't know till later but I can always pray. And I pray that God will send his angels around them, that they will know that HE is their father and that they will experience his love this very moment.
We don't have any news at this point. Pretty soon we will have to start gathering all the papers all over again. Just tedious work but nothing hard.
Tomorrow I'll be going back to work and please pray that I will have no lingering pain from this accident.
Stay warm out there!
Blessings D
4 days ago I went out to bring in a couple of our horses and slipped and fell on the new snow we where getting. Kinda hurt a little right away but nothing bad. So I thought. The longer the day went the weirder my hand felt. Not as much power to grip and grab stuff so I was wondering what I was going to feel like the next morning. My suspicion was right. I woke up and the pain I felt when I tried to use my left arm was BAD:( Went to the doctor and once more in my life my left biceps tendon had gotten hurt. They told me to keep my arm in a sling for three days.
I was not excited! And on top of that our weather turned bad so my horses needed extra attention to stay warm but it had to be done by someone else. Hard for me to just accept and trust that they where in good hands.
3 days of being still and letting Scott take care of me has been very hard but good. ( He does a great job:) I talked to one of my dear friends the day before I got hurt that earlier this fall broke her foot. She is like me a person that always is on her way to the next thing. Also very self sufficient. And she told me about her experience of needing help. Not knowing I would be in a similar situation just 2 days later I was feeling for her. But today I really feel for her. I also do think it is good for us busy bodies to have to sit for a while and have time to reflect on life and accept help from others.
So as you probably understand a lot of my thoughts has gone to my kids. How are they doing? What do they look like? How much and how is our life going to change when they get here? How is the process going to be in Ukraine? One day I felt really sad for the biological parents of our babies. What has been going on in their lives that they had to give up the rights to their kids? What has our kids been through before they come to us?
Lost of speculation that has led to more prayer. Cause no matter how much I speculate I won't know till later but I can always pray. And I pray that God will send his angels around them, that they will know that HE is their father and that they will experience his love this very moment.
We don't have any news at this point. Pretty soon we will have to start gathering all the papers all over again. Just tedious work but nothing hard.
Tomorrow I'll be going back to work and please pray that I will have no lingering pain from this accident.
Stay warm out there!
Blessings D
2010-11-20
Another step on our journey!
Wow, amazing, huge, emotional, scary, concerned, excited, priviliged, thankful, thoughtful and the list can go on when it comes to our adoption.
Today we spent the morning in class in Denver at the adoptionagency which we have done our homestudy through. It was about developmental issues. What happens to a kid that doesn't get fed enough at a young age? And then all of a sudden have access to all this food. How are they going to cope with the language switch?Will they be able to go from Ukrainian to English and Swedish? How do you help them to improve their motor skills. What does cognitive learning mean? And a whole bunch of other topics. Very interesting and it gave us many new things to discuss, which we also did during our 6 hour drive home.
This morning made us feel a little more prepared for what we are in for. It gave a whole bunch of new thoughts and questions. But most of all I think it made us more excited about the journey we are on. The thoughts became more real and guesses turned into facts.
A feeling that came over me very strongly and that has been growing in me lately is that I feel so blessed that we are able to go through this. Feels like a privilge! I can't wait to get to go and pick those kiddos up.
Wishing all you americans a Happy Thanksgiving and to all you swedes I wish you an amazing Advent.
D
Today we spent the morning in class in Denver at the adoptionagency which we have done our homestudy through. It was about developmental issues. What happens to a kid that doesn't get fed enough at a young age? And then all of a sudden have access to all this food. How are they going to cope with the language switch?Will they be able to go from Ukrainian to English and Swedish? How do you help them to improve their motor skills. What does cognitive learning mean? And a whole bunch of other topics. Very interesting and it gave us many new things to discuss, which we also did during our 6 hour drive home.
This morning made us feel a little more prepared for what we are in for. It gave a whole bunch of new thoughts and questions. But most of all I think it made us more excited about the journey we are on. The thoughts became more real and guesses turned into facts.
A feeling that came over me very strongly and that has been growing in me lately is that I feel so blessed that we are able to go through this. Feels like a privilge! I can't wait to get to go and pick those kiddos up.
Wishing all you americans a Happy Thanksgiving and to all you swedes I wish you an amazing Advent.
D
2010-09-22
Home again!
Sitting by my kitchen counter enjoying a good cup of tea. My big dog Svea wants to go out and get muddy, my cat finally laid down after a good wrestle with Svea, and I'm just enjoying being home in my house again after 10 days gone. Lots of things has happened. The trip was good but it didn't turn out as I expected. God has once more showed me his way in life.
I went to California with my bosses and a co rider to show 4 of our horses in the American Nationals for Welsh Cobs. It started out with lots of laughter and fun. Showing horses went well and everyone was happy. Unfortunately it all changed when I won Ridden Welsh Classic which is THE class and my co rider took second. My co rider got angry and stopped talking to me. After a couple of days of really weird situations he finally lashed out at me and told me all kinds of lies.
I first of all was in shock over his accusations since I hadn't done anything wrong and then I got both mad and sad. After sharing what happened to the love of my life and greatest supporter we decided to pray about it all. And God showed me over and over about forgiving our enemies. I was reading a book on our 2 day long trip home which I can highly recommend called" An echo in the darkness" by Francine Rivers. The book spoke to my heart since it is about a girl that gets sent to the lions, survives and then return to serve and love the woman who sent her there in the first place. God is in control and his will is for us to love not condemn.
It is not easy and I'm not there yet but I know my desire is to serve my Lord and Savior and sometimes he makes us walk an extra mile. What that is is still to be reveled to me.
Other than that God has shown us in many ways in the last couple of months that he is in control and that he will make it possible for us to bring our kiddos home. Our homestudy is in Ukranie:) We found a renter for our trailer. And God blessed our concert amazingly. Our big prayer request now is for Scotts bike to be sold.
In two weeks I will go on another trip. THis time I'm heading home:) My little little sis is getting married. She found her prince and now they are starting the journey of their lives. I am super excited for them and to get to see lots of good friends and spend some quality time face to face with mi familia. Can't wait!
Hope that life is treating you well out there!
Lots of love,
D
2010-06-22
Apologize!
I am so sorry it has taken this long before I posted another update. Lots of reasons of course and mostly because life has been really busy. I do have news about the adoption and one big one is that we now have done 4 out of 5 interviews for our homestudy. It was not as bad as we had anticipated. Since we are pretty used to being transparent it wasn't to big of a deal. Lots of questions and some of them hard to answer and some of them required to dig up some old long lost memories but all in all not bad. The social workers comment was that we where a pretty normal couple, which we took as a good thing.
The other news about the adoption is that we now are working with a facilitator in Ukraine and his helper in Texas. They will guide us through this process and take care of us when we are there. We believe we have a better idea of how this will all work but I bet we will learn more as we go. One thing we do know is that we won't go to Ukraine until spring since we have to be on a waiting list for 6 months after all our papers are done here in the states and sent over. This is because we want kids less than 6 years old. We are ok with that since that will give us more time to raise the money we need to bring with us.
we are going to do a couple of different fundraisers this summer. One worship concert in the park here in Durango with our worshipteam from church, a garage sale, a bakesale and maybe a chocolatesale. So please help us pray that they will all work out.
God has also been very good and given me more work. He is over and over showing us that he will provide for us.
Other than the adoption life is full of work and fun stuff. Scott is right now doing his annual training with the Navy in Texas. He got to work on an aircraft today so he was happy when I talked to him earlier. ( A lot of times they don't have to much to do)
My horses are doing fine. The one I have been leasing for the last 6 months is going back to her owner later this week due to hoof problems. Not fun but at least I didn't have to put her down.
It is late and I have to sleep so I promise I will update again soon!
Be blessed my friend!
Daniela
The other news about the adoption is that we now are working with a facilitator in Ukraine and his helper in Texas. They will guide us through this process and take care of us when we are there. We believe we have a better idea of how this will all work but I bet we will learn more as we go. One thing we do know is that we won't go to Ukraine until spring since we have to be on a waiting list for 6 months after all our papers are done here in the states and sent over. This is because we want kids less than 6 years old. We are ok with that since that will give us more time to raise the money we need to bring with us.
we are going to do a couple of different fundraisers this summer. One worship concert in the park here in Durango with our worshipteam from church, a garage sale, a bakesale and maybe a chocolatesale. So please help us pray that they will all work out.
God has also been very good and given me more work. He is over and over showing us that he will provide for us.
Other than the adoption life is full of work and fun stuff. Scott is right now doing his annual training with the Navy in Texas. He got to work on an aircraft today so he was happy when I talked to him earlier. ( A lot of times they don't have to much to do)
My horses are doing fine. The one I have been leasing for the last 6 months is going back to her owner later this week due to hoof problems. Not fun but at least I didn't have to put her down.
It is late and I have to sleep so I promise I will update again soon!
Be blessed my friend!
Daniela
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