Great news

Today, July 28, our dossier was submitted! I remember the first time it took about two months to get an appointment and it took another two months until the day we traveled. I think this time everything will happen a lot faster. I feel a little panic: so many things to do in such a short period of time. Firs of all we need to take care of our daughter. She will stay most of the time with our friends that have two Ukranian daughters, also. Bob's parents and aunt will take her sometimes. We have to do some paperwork at school. Then we have a dog that needs to go somewhere. Oh, the big thing: the girl's bedroom isn't ready. We moved to this house last September. The room for the girls needs to be painted. Anastasia was sleeping in the guest room on the queen size bed. But before we can paint the bedroom we need to take all the stuff out (we used it like a storage). Every weekend I tell myself,"I will do it today", but there is always something else comes up. I just HAVE to do it this weekend!
I call Flower every other day. She is ready to come home with us! Every time we talk she says she misses me. When I tell her something about our life she says, "I will do this, also", "I will be there one day, too," "I will help you, also". She already sees herself living here. Sometimes I imagine how we will meet the first time. I will have a big smile ( Flower just learned these words ) and give her a big hug. Oh, I can't wait! But I know, one day you will be here, Flower!

Our dossier is on the way to Ukraine

I mailed the dossier on Monday, July 19. The last time I checked it left France. I feel peace in my heart: I'm not nervous or stressed out any more. It is all in God's hands and we can't do anything else about our paperwork. I called our Flower on her cell phone a couple of times. She is at camp right now. She is a talkative girl and she told me about everything that has happened there. They go to the river every day and have fun playing different competitive games. In the evening they go to a discotheque. I asked her if she went last night and she said, "No, I studied English!" What a child! When she talks I can "hear" her smile. She told me that she couldn't wait for us to come and get her. Next week we are invited to a party of families that have adopted or would like to adopt from Ukraine. I told Flower about it. I said that I will think about her at the party and it is too bad she is not here. She answered, "It's OK. One day I will be there." So far so good. We are just praying that our dossier doesn't have any mistakes and we have all the necessary money when it is time to go.

The Countdown Begins!

We couldn't send our dossier to Ukraine because we didn't have a specific child in mind and we didn't feel comfortable to go to the SDA (Department of Adoption in Ukraine) and pick any child they offer. We looked and looked. We asked some people and we waited. Well, we met our future daughter!!! We found her!!! We can't say her name right now, so we will call her 'Flower'. Flower is 10 y o. She seems nice, smart, balanced and pretty. We talked through Skype every morning this week and it was a wonderful experience. It was so great to see how her heart was opening towards us. By the end of the week she asked us when we were coming for her. She said she couldn't wait to see us and call me "mama". It melted my heart. I told her if we could we would get on the plane right now. I asked her if she wanted to be adopted and be a part of our family. And she said "yes"! I was so excited this week! I had a smile on my face all day long after talking with her. Anastasia and I made a bracelet from beads for her and Flower drew a picture for us, but we haven't seen it because she said we will have to come to Ukarine to see it ... smart too. She already knows the English alphabet and some words and she can write and read a little in English. She typed "I love you" and "I miss you" in English on Skype message. I cant' wait to hug her!!! We are going to send our dossier to Ukraine Monday or Tuesday. Then we will wait for our appointment date.
Well, everything looks good but in reality it is not. We are having some financial problems. We have the money for our adoption but there are some unexpected expenses and we are short of $6,000. We are still continuing the process and believe that God will provide somehow. In the meantime we are going to start packing our suitcases. We hope to go to Ukraine at the end of August or the beginning of September. It is a time of the year when it starts getting cool. So we will need some warm clothes. When we went to Ukraine the first time I made a list of necessary things to take with us. I think I threw it away. Too bad... I have to make another list. Oh, I love to do all this because it takes us closer to the date when we go to Ukraine to get our daughter! There will be one less orphan in the world. One child at a time... Yes!

Update

Okay, I am NOT a writer. It's been about a month since my last post. I am more of a reader. I LOVE to read... whatever. But I never loved to write. I will never write a book, unless my life depends on it. I guess I will have to write the blog to keep our family and friends posted, especially since I already started this and I don't like to give up.
We have our dossier ready. We have our official approval. We are approved to adopt 2 girls from 9 to 13 y o. But we still don't know if we are going to adopt one or two girls. We are praying about it very hard because we need to make a decision now.
Since my last post we had two families from our church adopting children from Ukraine. One family adopted a 9 yo (already 10 yo) and a 12 yo girls-sisters. Another family adopted a 14 yo girl. Now we have 6 kids adopted from Ukraines in our church! It is so exiting! The same children that were burdens for somebody in Ukraine, are blessings for families now. I wish there were more families wiling to adopt. All those kids want to have a mommy and a daddy. When we were in Ukraine the first time we could freely walk in the orphanage and interact with children. And we spent some time playing with children in Anastasia's room. A lot of girls hugged me and called me "mama". I was in shock. My hair on the back of my head was moving. And my thought was, "How can I leave them here?" I still remember their eyes looking at me with THE question: "Will you take me?" Some of them had living parents and could go home during the school breaks sometime. It is heartbreaking. We told Anastasia: whatever happens in life, we will ALWAYS love her and NEVER leave her. And we are going to keep our word!