One Year Ago Today

On December 20, 2010, we met Cosi for the first time!

Our precious little girl strolled into the meeting room like she owned the place. We quickly discovered her love for gloves and coats, as she snagged ours. We followed her around the room and asked ourselves Is this our daughter, the little girl that we had prayed for years to bring home? What we saw was a vivacious girl who wanted to play with anyone and everyone. Why are you all sitting there talking? She seemed to be thinking, We could be running around this room, exploring every corner of it!
After we chased her around for about 15 minutes (or, more accurately, Rob chased her around and a very pregnant April slowly followed), the orphanage director asked us, "Well? What do you think? Are you going to adopt her?" Rob immediately said "OK!" Then he looked at April to make sure he hadn't made such a big decision unilaterally. April said, "Yeah!"
Immediately after that, we were shuffled over to another room, where a Christmas performance was about to begin (and it is possible they were delaying the start of it until we arrived, since the orphanage director was with us). Cosi happily sat on April's lap, twice grabbing the hair bands from the hair of the girl sitting in front of her (a classic Cosi move that still comes out every now & then...). As St. Nicholas arrived to talk to the gathered children, we couldn't help but think that all three of us had already gotten the best Christmas gift possible that year. It would take another few weeks of paperwork, court dates, calls to East Asia's Interpol Office, a brawl in the Ukrainian Parliament, and a lot of other hurdles before Cosi was officially our daughter, but December 20th is the day we became a family in our hearts.

And - here she is now, her life has changed a lot in the past year and so has ours, for the better :)

One Year Ago

One year ago, we had our little foster baby, Helen. We were having our first real "trial run" as parents and were saying, "Hey, this isn't so hard!" OK, so we were a little naive.

One year ago, we were spending new year's eve with some friends, and Rob got really sick- the first day of a week long bout of dysentery.

One year ago, we were in a different apartment, trying to keep our landlady from storing more stuff in our cabinets and trying not to let on that there would soon be a child in our home (on several occasions she tried hard to convince us to wait to have kids, for the sake of keeping her apartment clean).

One year ago, it hadn't even entered our imagination that April would be pregnant before our adoption was final.

One year ago, we were expecting to bring our daughter home from Ukraine sometime in the summer of 2010...and that she would be about 18 months old.

One year ago, Rob hadn't started noticing gray hairs.

One year ago, we never gave a thought to Interpol or the actions of the Ukrainian Parliament.

One year ago, we were in a very different place! Much has changed, but God has not.

One year from now...well, it makes me dizzy to think of all that will change in the next year!

2 Things

1 - We're still waiting on East Asia Interpol, but we called the office and they're willing to send an "internal email." We'll see if that works...

2 - A small chance to tease Rob. That's right. April is writing this update. On our 3rd day with our daughter, the orphanage workers asked if we wanted them to trim her hair. I immediately said, "no, thank you!" I want to have her hair grow out. Then, Rob turned to me and said, "Maybe we should have them trim around the ears a little?" I'm not sure where he got this idea and I asked him, "Do you realize you're asking me if I want our daughter to have a mullet?"

It Gets Worse

So I'm about to call East Asia Interpol myself and see if that helps. Talk about an impasse...

East Asia refuses to do a report on us because we're not criminals. But Ukraine cannot move forward with our adoption until they have that report. Ukraine is willing to accept a document explaining why they won't do a report, but East Asia Interpol won't even produce a document like that.

AAAAARGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Maybe January 6th?

Update on East Asia Interpol Clearance = we don't have it yet! We're still waiting on East Asia.

At this point, we're told that we will not be able to have our court date on December 30th. If East Asia Interpol comes through this week, then we can have our court date on January 6th. (as long as Ukraine doesn't vote to put a moratorium on adoptions before then)

What does that mean for us? An extra week of waiting (we're looking at a late January return to the USA at this point) - and - decisions to be made about me (April) flying back (alone) early to have a doctor's appointment for baby #2 (the doctor wanted me to have an ultrasound at my last appointment b/c i might have excess fluid, but i put it off b/c I was flying out the next day for Ukraine).... we're not sure what to do... Maybe I'll fly back to the US for the doctors appointment and then return to Ukraine. Then, I could spend the last week of January in Ukraine waiting and doing paperwork with Rob & Cosi, as well as be able to fly back with them to the US. She's going to be more than a handful on the plane...plus I don't want to miss out on those first days once we have our daughter...

Decisions, decisions...

Prayer Request- Interpol

While we were posting videos, we got a call from our facilitator, who was submitting our documents so that we could get our FINAL court date- the one that makes Cosi our daughter. Unfortunately, there is one crucial document missing- the Interpol clearance from East Asia. They've been waiting 2 months and it has not arrived.

We can't get the court hearing without this document, and though it's just a matter of time, right now, time is not our friend. With April getting further along in her pregnancy, we need to get those trans-Atlantic (and trans-Pacific) flights done soon. And if we can't get the court date before New Year's Eve, then we get hit by the holidays here (Christmas is a week after New Year's Day in Ukraine).

So last time we asked for prayer, you all prayed so hard that the Ukrainian Parliament broke out into a fight. Let's see what we can do with East Asia's Interpol office!