Hello everybody,
Currenty the local time is about 3:30pm and our facilitator has yet to check in. We weren't expecting to hear anything about an appointment for this afternoon although knowing that we'd have something lined up for next week would have been nice. At this moment Shirley is carrying our phone and is elsewhere so its always possible that she's gotten a phone call that I am not aware of. But in all likelihood it looks as though we're going to be starting another week not knowing what direction we're headed.
When we are finally called in for our appointment, our intention is to be courteous but firm with the SDA. We certainly don't want to be rude but on the other hand we've been given a greater than average run around. Having accomplished nothing after being here for an entire month is a little difficult to stomach, especially when none of it is through any fault of our own. We have simply come too far to quit now without at least a fighting chance of taking home a little girl. I know that the SDA has good files and they know that they have good files. I also know that Shirley was meant to be a Mom.
As if playing the SDA guessing game isn't enough hassle, this being without internet is really for the birds. Not only do we use the net for blog and email but also for other personal "business". We're limited to 1-2 hours online per day at a Cafe. Personal business easily takes up most of that.
Well I suppose the cat is out of the bag. Yes today is Steve's birthday. We didn't do any sightseeing or touring today so there are no interesting pictures to post. Shirley wants to take me out for a nice birthday dinner and I opted for....you guessed it....pizza. A slice of ice cream cake would have been nice for afterwards but I've noticed that ice cream in general seems to be a rare commodity here. Maybe it has to do with the fact that these people do enough freezing during their winter. Thats OK. I'll just settle for an extra slice of pizza.
Hope everyone is doing well back home. Shirley and I are hanging in there. We appreciate all of the comments and personal emails. Keep 'em coming - its great for morale.
Steve
About Me
- Shirley and Steve
- Our mission was to add to our family; adopt a Ukrainian orphan or a sibling group. We were in Ukraine for 5 weeks. The reasons it failed are too numerous to list here (feel free to read the blog archives - an excellent journal of our daily experiences while in The Ukraine). I recommend that - for those interested in international adoption - you do NOT select Ukraine. While we do know of several Ukrainian success stories, the failure rate far outnumbers the success rate. Many families that failed at the same time that we did, have since turned to other countries - and most have succeeded. Estimates on the number of orphans in The Ukraine vary. Government sources list the number of orphans at about 100,000. But many Ukrainians that work in adoption - including adoption facilitators as well as orphanage employees - estimate orphans in that country to number closer to 250,000. It broke our hearts to be denied the chance of giving one or more of these orphans a forever home. Please feel free to leave a comment. We appreciate all remarks, encouragement and even suggestions.
6 comments:
Happy Birthday! Hope the pizza was good. We share a common fascination with ice cream cake...I myself could go for that any day of the week...birthday or not!
Glad to hear you guys are hanging in there. You have so much patience. I don't know how you keep from heading down to the SDA and banging on their doors after being yanked around for 5 weeks w/o a referral! We would have already had to pack it up and head home b/c of my job. Glad you guys have some flexibility to enable you to ride the ride until the end. I was just praying this morning for you guys. We'll continue to follow your blog and look for the good news soon.
Dave
There is a baskin robbins in the underground mall in the center of the city. The food court in the lowest level has an internet cafe and lots of food places.
Happy Birthday, Steve! I hope you'll receive your birthday gift next week in the form of referral :)
Happy Birthday! Hope the pizza was good.
Hang in there. There's a lot of us out here praying for your family. Maybe next week will be your week!
I am sorry to hear about your experience. My husband and I were there in December and adopted a little girl. I know there are healthy children in her orphanage. She was from the Donetsk region in Slavyansk. Nice little town with a wonderful hotel. There was a little girl there who was four or five and absolutely perfect. My daughter calls her "eesa" but I believe shes saying lisa. Im not sure if your facilitater can use this info or not. It was actually a home for special needs children but all of the children looked very healthy to me. I just felt the need to tell you this. Im not sure if it will help or not. I have been following your blog and I am praying for you. God bless!!!
Happy Birthday Steve,
Hope you enjoyed the Pizza. Hang in there I know you will have your little girl soon.
Becky
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