Belated Update

Okay here is the news you want first. We will soon be the parents of both a 3.5 year old boy, K, and a 16 year old girl, N. We are very excited and VERY SCARED! Bruce wants to start his gun collection to scare off the boys immediately!

We met N for the first time yesterday around noon. She had run away from the orphanage in another city because of problems with her peers. She has never been in any other kind of trouble. While parental rights were just terminated 1.5 years ago, she has been living in an orphanage type situation since she was 7. 1.5 years ago she was transferred to the facility in Bredichiv. Her teacher from there said she tried to fit in and be a leader but had some conflicts with her peers. The town is 60 miles from Novagrad-Valinsky, in my book that takes a great deal of hutzpah to make it that far on your own. The Inspector and her teacher obviously like N and care about her very much. When N arrived, the Inspector took N in the hall and gave her a realistic picture of what her life in Ukraine promised to be. (Essentially living on the street with no real job skills.) She then told her about us.

When she walked back into the room she looked very nervous and overwhelmed. She did want to see the pictures we brought of our family. The Inspector, teacher, and Sveta (our facilitator) told her that this might be her last chance to have a better life. We told her that what we wanted was to help her become all she was meant to be. After a little more discussion we agreed to meet again that afternoon. We were hopeful at that point but we were afraid she would still say no.

We then went to meet K. He is beautiful and I think he has already got his Tato (Ukrainian for daddy) wrapped around his little finger :-) He is 10 days younger than the Temple boys but looks 6 months or more younger. His speech is probably delayed six months to a year but he is already potty trained and very bright. He is very busy figuring out how things work and seems to have good small motor skills. The director at his orphanage is very nice and cares a lot about the children in his care. (They all call him Daddy). He told us that while his facility is for children with serious health problems, K is fine. He was diagnosed with a heart murmur at 6 months but it is undetectable now. K has been in the care of the state since he was born. He was abandoned at the hospital where he was born right after birth. He has been in this orphanage since he was 3 months old.

Okay the weird/cool things is that the Inspector, the teacher, and the director say the kids look like me (Lori). When N walked in, she immediately reminded me of Randi & Sarah. I guess the Elliott looks will win out even without genetics :-)

We had lunch and then went and saw N at 4. She was still nervous, but less so. She immediately said yes but only if we were also adopting K. I was very happy and wanted to hug her and cry, but I knew she wasn't ready for that. We will be spending our afternoons with her, getting to know her and hopefully learning to communicate and for her to trust us. Pray for this! She is incredibly brave to be willing to leave everything she has ever known and come with us.

We will see K in the mornings and in late afternoon. We saw him again last night and he was unafraid. At least until Bruce got a little too excited and then he retreated to his care giver. With a little coaxing (in the form of cheerios and crackers) he was soon drawn back out. The good thing is that he already makes eye contact with both of us. (A good sign for bonding) He also was willing to sit on my lap to drink a cup of juice. He is VERY independent. He says "I do it!" (At least that is what we are told.) He could be quite a handful on the trip home.

K is very blond and a descent size for his age. He still looks like a toddler rather than a preschooler. We will have to let you know about sizes after we measure him.

Katie & Anna R. We are going to need your help, if you are willing, when we get home. N has not had it easy and she will be in need of some good friends. (And a shopping trip) :-)

Karlie, this changes everything as far as what we will do with the house. When we've had more time with N, we will let you know what that will be.

We are now working on getting paperwork together from 2 different cities so that we can get our court date, hopefully next week (Assuming our American paperwork gets here. Please email us when it goes in the mail!)

We love and miss you all. The Stewarts and Diehls are now in separate regions from us and we are feeling a bit cut off. Send lots of emails and we will hope we can read them. (Internet in our town is not great.)

Peace,
Lori & Bruce