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| The Journey |
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| "For we walk by faith not by sight" 2 Corinthians 5:7 |
| June 4, 2001 Ukraine, here we come! We departed on SwissAir out of Dulles airport in Washington, DC at 5:35 pm. (We used SwissAir on our last mission trip to Ukraine and were very happy with the service. ) June 5 Is it anxiety or jet lag? We arrived in Kiev at 2:30pm (9:30 pm "back home") and were met by some of the great people from Sense. We checked into the Hotel Bratislava. We were able to relax (?!) and visit with friends from our mission trip in October. June 6 D-Day: Our day at the NAC! Our Kiev facilitator, Nastya (Sense provides one person that travels with you and one person that stays in Kiev to work on paperwork -- it's GREAT!) took us to the National Adoption Center where we met very briefly with the director, Mrs. Kunko, and then met with one of the psychologists who would show us files of children. The psychologist graciously granted our request to travel to Bila Tserkva, a town I had visited on prior mission trips. She showed us several children's files and said we could see all the available children there. We were thrilled! |
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| The dark hallway of the NAC is filled with tension, whether crowded with adopting couples or empty! |
| We then met Slavik, the facilitator (actually,the angel) who would be with us 24 hours a day for the next 10 days. Since Bila Tserkva is only about an hour's drive southwest of Kiev, we were able to go there the same day. We saw several 7 and 8 year old boys that were available at the orphanage, but something just didn't feel right. That evening we again were fortunate to be able to visit with some old friends who showered us with typical Ukrainian hospitality, and provided a great meal as well as lodging for the night. After prayerful consideration, we realized that while it had been OUR desire to go to Bila Tserkva, it was not GOD'S will. These boys were fine, but we felt our child was waiting somewhere else. |
| June 7 Back to the NAC in Kiev! It was hard not to feel dejected over not finding our child at the first orphanage, but many people visit more than one orphanage, and this whole trip was a leap of faith, so.... we went back to the psychologist. She had 2 files out to show us, but really seemed to focus on one boy (named Roma) whose paperwork had been "misplaced" prior to this day - hence we would be the first couple to see him even though he had been "available" (in the orphanage for 14 months without being adopted by Ukrainians) for several weeks The only picture was a small photo of a sad face - not much to go on! But he was a completely healthy 3 year old boy, so we decided to travel to Kharkiv to see him. June 8 Kharkiv, ready or not... We arrived in Kharkiv at 7 AM, after a 10 hour overnight train ride from Kiev. Slavik located a car and driver for us, as well as a flat to stay in. We got to Orphanage #1 around 8 AM and met with the director to review Roma's file. We then were lucky enough to see Roma in his group during their music class. After that, we met him in the "locker room" outside his group's living quarters. He was very shy, but with the help of Slavic, a stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh, and some animal crackers, he began playing and interacting. We noticed something tied around his neck. It was a cross! The orphanage worker said it was on him when he was abandoned and nobody wanted to remove it. Was this another sign for us that this was our child?? Two hours later at lunch, we told Slavik to start the paper chase -- this was our son!! |
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| Orphanage #1 in Kharkiv. These were the doors God opened for us!! |
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| (Journey continued) |