Vitalik and another boy from the orphange at the Becker apartment.

how do you like her broom? it seems to do the job!
This was the orchestra at the park downtown Odessa

We are walking with some of the boys from 10th grade to the Becker's apartment.

Greetings,

A few people had problems with being able to comment. I believe I fixed the problem. so you can try again if you want.
We had a busy day today. We went church with Michelle, The O'Hare couple and Dr. Paul and
Tania were there. Tania was nice enough to translate for us. We enjoyed the service, the pastor had a good message. We met some of the 10th grade class at internot #4 that the Becker's brought with them to church. They were a great bunch of children. We were invited to lunch at the Becker's with the other couple and the children from the internot. All of the children helped in the kitchen, they served and helped clean up. They were very respectful and fun to be around.
We then went to the park were there was a live orchestra to listen to and enjoy.

Have a great week everyone,
Jeri

Laid back day

The park near our apartment in dowtown Odessa.

It's Saturday here and we have the day off. We relaxed, took in some sites, visited with our new friends the O'Hares. We are enjoying the weather here. It is low 70's and sunny. They have elections tomorrow for a new parliament. They had a very loud live concert in the square last night.There was a motor cycle rally in the street this afternoon. It is very busy here in the downtown area. Tomorrow we will go to church with Michelle in the morning and be able to meet some of the orphans that will be attending with the Becker's.

Prayer: please keep praying for Vitalik's sister to agree with the adoption, a quick appointment for us next week, Joshua and Lauren that they are at peace,content and for protection over all the families adopting and our families back in the States.

Thanks for praying and blessings to all our friends and family,

Jeri

God had a different plan!

Vitalik is the boy on the right.

Hello,

Well, its hard to know what to say in this blog. We received shocking news from Vladik
yesterday. We are a day behind in our blog. I couldn't bring myself to share the news.
We met Vladik at the school yesterday to go get his medical forms. When he got there he told
our interpreter he wanted to share something with us. at this point he shared that he didn't want to be adopted. He was concerned for his grandmother and didn't want to leave her. As you can imagine we were totally shocked, the day before he wrote out a letter saying he did want to
be adopted. ( we think the grandmother is behind his decision) we told him that would have to be the final answer and that we respected his decision. We only want the best for him. We hugged him and told him we would keep in touch and we would keep him our prayers. We were very upset with the news, but we think its for the best in the long run.



We are attempting to adopt another boy named Vitalik. He is in orpahange #4. the boy in the picture at the top. We have heard very good things about him. He is the leader in his class, very athletic, very popular, smart. He knows some English. We know he wants to be adopted very much. The only challenge we see is that he has a older sister 17 years. She must give her okay. We know that most sibling do give consent. We are trying to contact her to see what she says. We will welcome her to visit us anytime and we encourage them to keep in contact. We will do what we can for her. we are not able to adopt more than one. Please pray for her consent.

Today was much better than yesterday. we still feel this sting but not as much. We will probably be going to Kiev on Monday for a new appointment.


Prayer request: Vladik for protection and that he would give his life to the Lord. Pray for the sister to consent. A quick appointment next weeks for the new boy. Pray as you feel lead.

Thank you for praying and blessings to you,

Jeri

We had a very busy day

Hi Everyone,

We had a very busy day today. We met with the inspector today, we had a situation were we
had to have proper paper work from Vladik school, giving us permission to take him out
of school. That went very well. The director of the school was very helpful, she worked very hard to get our documents within an hour. We also met the main director of the school and he was interested in what Vladik's future would hold. He also said he was a good boy. We were glad that he seemed to care about him. we had to also go to the notary and have our documents made official. We did see Vladik today at the school and then for a few minutes at our apartment. His stomach was upset, so he went home to lay down.

Michelle invited Charles and I to join her and the O'Hare's couple ( the other couple staying 2 doors down from us that are adopting) to church. Charles was tired, so he stayed to rest and I joined Michelle. It was a nice service. It was nice to worship God.

Tomorrow we will be at the medical office getting the documents for medical clearance.

Prayer request: Vladik local passport. It needs to come quickly. Pray for his stomach to feel better. We thank god that everything is going very well. Thank you for your prayers.

Jeri

Staying in Odessa

I cannot recommend Odessa Executive Apartments highly enough, especially if you are adopting and need a home base in Odessa for several weeks. http://www.theodessagroup.net/

The owner Scott is an American who has built first class facilities in the center of the city activities. The rooms are excellent, the rates very reasonable, you feel safe, and you have included a washer, nice shower, satellite TV, high speed Internet, kitchenette w/microwave, stove and refrigerator. He is expanding the facilities to include more rooms and a cafe. You are a 1 minute walk from McDonalds (they open at 8am , and their coffee with steamed/frothed milk is a poor mans Starbucks :-) one note, they only serve hamburgers and fries for breakfast, so no Egg McMuffins!), several major shopping malls, restaurants (many with English menu's or English speaking staff), supermarkets, and nightlife. The world famous and magnificently renovated opera house here is 5 minutes walk away. The staff @ OEA speaks fluent English and make you feel at home. After our stay in Kiev, this sanctuary is a very pleasant surprise and is one less thing to worry about when you are in the midst of the stressful adoption process...

Odessa is charming one minute, and depressing the next. Face lifts are occuring on many buildings that are very old. There are many new shopping centers. There is apparently low crime, and an emerging middle class to spend money on technology and many things we take for granted. Infrastructure is a challenge, the govt. bureaucracy here is established and I will not complain again for waiting for 3o minutes for a drivers license in the states. Most of the streets here were built when only 1 in 100 had a car. Now they are clogged with congestion that the roads were never built for. It can resemble Manhattan like traffic during the Odessa rush hour. But the people are very nice once you get to know them. We like Odessa, and our facilitator Natalya / Natasha is very professional and knowledgeable. We have been very pleased with our progress to date given some of the challenges we have faced and she seems to handle each challenge with skill and determination. Today was a good day. Vladik, our new son to be, is warming up to us and I have taught him a cool handshake that Joshua (my son) taught me. Vladik seemed to lighten up when I showed it to him. Thanks Josh!... And speaking of my kids, I really miss Joshua and Lauren. I know what a sacrifice they are making for this to happen and am looking forward to Skyping with them on our web cam. And I am very thankful for the many friends back home who are caring for them..... Our best to to you all.

Charles

We met Vladik today

Hi everyone,

sorry it took awhile to start blogging, we have problems accessing the blog. We had a great day
today. We went to see the inspector, than Natalya took us to meet with Vladik. We were surprised because we didn't think we would see him this soon. We were very glad to finally meet him. He is a very polite young man. we stayed together all afternoon. Michelle joined us later. She showed us around town for awhile than we had dinner with the family that is also adopting at this time. They are staying at the same hotel as we are. We had good fellowship and a good pizza. Joshua and Lauren we miss you and love you. No Josh, I didn't get your blog. keep trying.

Prayer request: pray for Vladik to have strength and peace. Pray for Charles and I for wisdom and strength.

This picture is the port of Odessa on the Black Sea. The view from our perspective was beautiful.

Thank you for praying for us,
Jeri

Ukraine - Kiev to Odessa - Monday 9 -24, What a day!

Monday was a long day. We had to meet with the SDA in the early afternoon. Oleg met us for our meeting with the SDA after lunch, and our meeting went fine. We were given permission to submit our paperwork to the regional director in Odessa where Vladik attends secondary school. After our meeting we decided to take a hired car with our facilitator Natasha for the 300 mile journey to Odessa. (The overnight train did not leave until 10 pm or so, and we were ready to proceed with the next part of our journey and get to Odessa). The five hour car ride was interesting, as once you leave the city you are stepping back in time 40-50 years. The roads were fairly decent, but the futher you got away from the city the more rural it became, with houses not more than huts in many cases, with many places without electricity, running water, indoor plumbing, etc. Paying 20 grivna to use the "facilities" along the way was interesting to say the least. We were fortunate that Dima had secured a very good driver, with a minivan in excellent condition, for the journey to Odessa. I have been very impressed so far with the professionalism of Oleg's team and their desire to answer our questions and help us in any way possible. Additionally, the people of Ukraine, while reserved and cautious, seem very nice and personable once they get to know you.

Ukraine - Kiev - Saturday / Sunday Sept. 22 - 23rd

We arrived in Kiev early Saturday evening after traveling from Omaha through Cincinnati through London (Gatwick). Note - if you are traveling through Gatwick and have to change terminals, you are only allowed 1 carry on. This created a bit of a problem as we had laptop bags and backpacks. Somehow, we managed to shove all our stuff (laptop bags) into our backpacks. dont ask me how we accomplished this, but it got done.

Kiev was in the midst of some sort of festival and we stayed downtown in an apartment adjacent to the main square. Great location, but our apartment required some adjustments.... Hot water took 10 minutes or longer to warm up, and our electricity was limited to 3-4 lights or appliances at a time or the breaker would trip. Glad I had seen the breaker box near the door and didnt get electrocuted. Our apartment is the top balcony on the right.

Sunday morning was an excellent time to be in Kiev, there was an organized street festival of sorts and a lot of political demonstrations, apparently elections here are within the next couple of weeks. Many families were out enjoying a beautiful fall day with temperatures in the mid 60's.

Finally we have our appointment date

After a long summer waiting for the news, we have our appointment date. September 24th.
Charles and I are busy with our plans to leave very soon. There are so many things not to forget.
We couldn't be more excited, we are so looking forward to meeting Vladik.

Our journey started a year ago last September and what an adventure it has been.
All the prayers, paper work, leg work, e-mails, phone calls. Wow! God has been so faithful through the process, he met us where we were. What a wonderful God we serve. I must also
mention that we had good friends along the way. We have added some new ones too. I really have appreciated the support from our adoption families. We do need each other.

Jeri

Vladik Christmas 2006

This was one of the gifts that Vladik received last Christmas.We understand that he loves playing the game SORRY, can't wait to play a game.

The Roberson's

The Roberson Family in late summer 2007 from left to right, Joshua, Jeri, Charles and Lauren (and Montana, or Monte for short). We are looking forward to bringing Vladik home and adding him to our family photo.