Hello,

All is well here in Odessa.It is 11:30pm here and this is the first chance I've had for 3 days to post. I have been busy with Vitalik, The Becker family and just living. The internet has been down quit a bit lately.

I had vitalik's party for his class on Friday. For those of you who don't know, when a child is adopted most parents give the child a going away party. It consists of mostly food and drinks. Vitalik seem to enjoy himself. All the attention was on him. The supervisors (these are the women that take care of them during the day) gave him presents and said very nice things to him, they also gave him some advice. It was nice. I will try to post pictures soon.

The Becker's had the 10th grade class over today for lunch and a movie. Later on, Vitalik and I went to the beach. I don't remember the name of it. It was nice, there is a lot of development going on
near or on the beach. They are building large high rises. I let him play some video games and bought him a sandwich. We walked on the beach and the pier for awhile.

We are going to church tomorrow. Vitalik and some of the other boys are coming as well. It's a contemporary service. Please pray for their salvation, I don't think any of them know the Lord. They really need youth services here, they are bored in the main service.

Please pray this week, this is very important to when we get to return. Pray for no delays, pray that we get to leave Odessa by Next Sunday, October 4th. If we leave here on the 4th, We should be home on the 7th. That would be Great! Also pray for Vitalik, he is having a hard time communicating with me. Making conversation. Pray that the God would help him.

I hope everyone is doing well, I am thinking and praying for my family and friends. I am in good hands here. God has been so faithful, he has put some incredible people in my life. I am seeing the hand of God all of the place.

Please forgive me if I haven't returned your email. I havent had much time to do anything personal, and when I do, the internet keeps messing me up. so, I love you and miss you all.

Message for Joshua and Lauren: I am very proud of you both :) you are doing so great! thanks for helping dad. That means a lot to mom.
You both are very strong and courageous. I will see you soon. Pray that we come home quickly. LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

Blessings,
Jeri

Hello family and friends,

I have been surprised how busy I have been during these 10 days. I thought I would be bored with nothing much to do. Things just seem to come up. Eating alone is time consuming, I go to the market almost everyday. Today a new family came to Odessa to adopt a girl from the internot #4, the Laundrums. They stayed at my apartment for awhile they waited for their apartment. They are a nice couple. I hope all goes well for them.

Vitalik and Denise came for English lesson. It went very well. They are quick learners. It is fun teaching them. They are very enthusiastic learners.

The Ohara family left tonight. I am thrilled for them. They all had big smiles on their faces!
I pray they have a blessed trip home. It was nice getting to know them. They are generous people. i have been very fortunate to have met and gotten to know some wonderful people. God
has been very good to me.

I am planning on having Vitalik going away party on Friday. I have some planning to do tomorrow.

Prayer request: Please pray for all documents next week to be done quickly, pray for strength for charles. Pray that Vitalik will be strong and have peace as he prepares to leave the internot.

Blessings to you all,
Jeri

Hello,

It was a long day today, Not to much to do. I visited with the O'Hare family a bit. They are
hopefully leaving any day now to go home. I did some laundry, walked the street for awhile to
get out of the apartment and to get some exercise. vitalik came to the apartment and we visited, played a card game and of course he played on the computer. He loves the computer.

I asked Michelle come and interrupt for me so I could explain a few things to Vitalik. We discussed our plans for the week. I will start him and Denise with some English lessons tomorrow. He is willing to learn, so that's good. Denise asked if he could come along for the lessons. I bought a few curriculum books here to work with them. They are in English and Russian. I am looking forward to working with them.

I will be up tonight until about 12:30 am. Joshua is going to call me on Skype. He is worth missing a little sleep. He is at a friends house that has skype and web cam. I spoke with Lauren Last night. She is missing her momma. I can't wait to get home.

Prayer request: No more problems with any paper work. Passports to arrive within 3 days. God would give Vitalik and I grace to communicate.

Thanks for praying,
Jeri

p.s. I am adding a few pictures from Sunday.

The boys playing soccer at the internot

Vitalik showing off his gymnastic skills by doing flips off the bar.

I thought I would surprise Voucha and give a peck. also, Dima is here with us.

This is Poucha, he is the sweetest boy. He always runs up to you and gives lots of hugs. I would love to see him and his brothers adopted.

Me, Vitalik and Dima on the internot porch.

Denise, vitalik and charles playing a painful rock, paper scissors. If you lose, you get thumped in the head. They were having fun. Thats one way to bond!

Hello everyone,

Charles and I had Vitalik and Denise spend the night last night,then all day today. We had a good time, those boys sure do eat! we are glad to do it for them,It's our pleasure. We watched movies and played games, went to city center today. It was so cold today though we didnt want to stay outside. It was in the 40's.

Now I wait for the 10 days to be over. That will be a week from Tuesday. I think I finally decided to expedite Vitalik's passport. I have heard a lot about passports lately and paying the extra money to just get the job done sounds real good to me right now. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to be. I have been watching another family go through the passport experience and it has already been a week tomorrow. They dont have them. I hope they get them soon. I have been told it would cost any where from $300.00 to $500.00.

Tomorrow, I will do some research on exchange students and what is required. We want to help Oxhana (sister) come to US as exchange student. We'll see what happens. she doesnt have many good options here and no family. she is a real sweet girl that deserves more than what she has.

Then, Vitalik will come here after school.

Prayer request: Joshua and Lauren for peace and contentment. the Lord will return charles home safely. pray that the Lord will give grace to us and Vitalik to blend as a family. Please pray as the Lord leads.

I can't thank everyone enough for all your support and prayers, you mean so much to us.

We love you all,
Jeri

Praise God we had court

Vitalik with his teacher and best friend on the right, Denise. Vitalik is a favorite among the staff at #4.

Hello Everyone,

We had court yesterday and everything went fine. We are praising God that its over! It was a long road. Thanks to all of you for praying and supporting us. When you are going through this you need all the encouragement and prayer you can get.

Now we are in the 10 day waiting period.We are very happy that Charles can now go home next week after visiting the U.S Embassy.

I havent been able to post in a couple of days because we were busy with deatils of court and spending time with Vitalik.

Vitalik and Denise are coming over in a little while. We are going site seeing,then dinner and they will spend the night with us.

Joshua and Lauren: Hello guys! mom and dad miss and love you very
much. We cant wait to see you. We are very proud of you. You are brave and strong.

Prayer request: Charles arrives safely home. Grace for charles while he waits on our return home. That we would continue to bond with vitalik. I pray he would feel our love and feel safe.

Court delayed until Friday

Hello,

Yesterday was a crazy day. We waited to hear what time we would go to court most of the day. Then we were waiting on a document to be signed by the inspector. She gave did not want to sign the document because she wanted us to adopt the sister (4 yrs. old) that wasn't even on Vitalik's documents. The SDA tried to convience her it was impossible for us to adopt her. she still refused. Natalya thinks maybe her boss wants something. in the mean time, the judge is waiting for us and we cant come before we have this document. The Director of the orphange is waiting on us, we are waiting on this document. After 3:00pm the judge decides he is going on vacation. He said we wont have court until Monday 10/22. Unbelievable!!

I think the SDA phoned him and he agreed to give us court on Friday. That was the best he could do.

Today, the inspector still didn't help us. The SDA tried to phone her boss, but he wasn't there. Tomorrow, SDA we try again with this inspector. If they don't cooperate then we will go to the region where the sister is and appeal to that director. This is a 2 hour drive from here.

We are standing and believing. WE WILL HAVE COURT! The Lord has given us many scriptures to stand on. We are standing!

PSalm 34:19 Many are the afflications of the Righteous: but the Lord delivers him out of all of them. Praise God :)

Prayer request: the inspector to agree and sign papers tomorrow.

Thank you for praying,

Jeri

Dinner at the Becker's

Charles and Denise waiting for Vitalik to finish his haircut

This was a Paul's house after dinner. vitalik, Paul, Denise, Jeff and Charles

Greetings family and friends,

We enjoyed ourselves today. Charles and I went to church with Paul Becker at a local Evangelical church here in Odessa. It was in Russian, but we did have a nice member that

translated for us most of the time. It was a good service. After church, we had a pizza with Dr. Becker, his friend Jeff, Michelle, Vasha. It was in the Greek Square. The best pizza we had here in Odessa.

Later Vitalik and Denise met charles and I at the apartment. We fed them pizza. Yes, they ate a whole large pizza. The boys can eat! all the boys needed hair cuts, so we found a place and they

all got a hair cuts. They look very handsome I think. vitalik was sleepy so he feel asleep during his hair cut.

We were all invited for dinner by Dr. Becker. We had a great time visiting with one another. Dr. Becker and Tania has been with Vitalik's class since he was in the 1st grade. you can see the impact he has made on them. They are such a blessing to the school and especially the 2 classes they sponsor. They really love those kids. It inspires me to do more.

Tonight, we are preparing to go to court and for Charles to return home. Joshua and Lauren are

looking forward to seeing dad.

Prayer request:1) for God to prepare the way for court tomorrow. 2) Safe return for charles.

3) Pray for complete healing for Vitalik and Joshua they are trying come down with a cold.

blessings,

Jeri

We go to court on Monday

Hello,

Yes, its true we do have court on Monday.Thanks for all the prayers.We are happy to report that Charles will be able to head back next week. Yah! I wish we were all leaving, but it won't be to long and we will all be home.Continue to pray that all goes well.

The last couple of days there hasn't been much to report. We've been waiting and spending time with Vitalik. Tomorrow the boys will get a much needed hair cut. Later in the evening we will go to
an English church service that Dr.Paul Becker told us about.I am looking forward to it. We will be busy this evening preparing for charles to go home and for me to be here by myself. I pray the 10 day goes by fast.

Have a great day!

Jeri

We received positive letter today

Vitalik juggling for us. He was very good!

This picture was taken on Sunday when we had supper at our apartment. They were willing to help out with the chopping.

Hi Family and friends,

I hope you are doing well today. We are thinking and praying for you. we miss home.

Yesterday we received the positive letter we needed from the inspector. Praise God! Everything was sent to Kiev and now we wait for Date of court. We still think Monday, but praying for Friday. That would be a miracle, and I do believe in them. I believe God likes to show us what he is capable of doing on our behalf.

We picked up vitalik from the orphanage and to him shopping. We went to Provos (not sure on the spelling) we found what we needed for him at a good price. He was very grateful and I loved doing it for him. That's about all for yesterday. We are in the waiting stage so not alot to do. We are planning to have a driver pick up Vitalik and bring him to the apartment to talk with Joshua and Lauren on Skype and web cam today. They really want to talk to him. So, we are surprising them this morning. I can't wait to see how this goes :)

Its a beautiful day here. Mid 60's and sunny. I am in a restaurant close to the apartment. They have free wireless internet access. I ordered some soup and water.

Prayer request:

1) court date for Friday.

2) Charles and I continue to bound with Vitalik

3) blessings over Joshua and Lauren

4) peace for Oksana (sister)

Thank you,

Jeri

The Weekend!

from left to right, Denise, Okana,Vitalik, Jeri, Charles




Okana, Vitalik, Jeri

Hello,

I just realized I havent blogged all weekend. We were pretty busy. On Saturday we went with Michelle to the orphanage to pick up vitalik and oksana to go have lunch at the local pan pizza restaurant. It was nice that Oksana could join us for the afternoon. We walk a good ways to get pizza. Then we went back to the orphanage to play some board games. It was rainy here so we were limited in what we could do. We took lots of pictures and had a good time visiting.We ended up having to leave and it was still raining, without a umbrella. We road the bus back to the apartment. we were soaked by the time we got back. It was worth it though. We were pretty tired, we went to bed early.

Sunday, we took the bus back to the orphanage to pick up vitalik and Oksana to do some site seeing in the city. We got tired of that after a little while. We decided to make dinner and play some games at our apartment. I made spaghetti and fruit salad. Everyone pitched in to help with all the chopping. We had a nice afternoon.We really like Vikalik very much, he is such a nice kid, he is very funny, he makes us laugh.

Today, we were up early to take care of documents and meet with the Director of the orphanage. All went very well. the Director was very kind and helpful. The social worker gave us some back ground info. on Vitalik and said many good things about Vitalik's character and personality. In the afternoon we went back to the apartment to do some work. Charles did his work for work, and I did laundry and chores around the apartment. We had leftover spaghetti, so Sean and Tracey came over for some dinner and laughs. We had a good time. We will miss them when they leave. Our faciliatator thinks that there is a good chance that we will go to court on Monday. so hopefully charles can head home sometime next week. That will be so nice. I guess it will be me and Vitalik for a while here in Odessa.

We plan to pick up Vitalik tomorrow and take him shopping for a few things. Shopping for clothes isn't easy. All the shopes by us are very expensive. We will have to go to the market by the train station and try to find something.

Prayer reques: inspector to give us positive decision tomorrow. quick court date. Peace and blessings for Joshua and Lauren.

Thanks for your prayers,
Jeri

We had a great day!

Hello,

We had a very busy day yesterday. We met with the inspector. It went well. we received our paper work. We went to the orphanage to talk to Dina (the social worker) she was nice to us. she said she would do whatever she could for us. She said she was glad we were adopting vitalik because she likes him. Then, we spent the afternoon with vitalik.

The students put on a talent show for the teachers and we were able to go. What a blessing this was. Vitalik and his friend ( denise, I think) did some special dance with acrobats and flips. I was quit impressed. The whole show was fun. vitalik sister showed up for the talent show. So we were able to talk with her. she gave the consent for Vitalik to be adopted. It wasn't easy for her, she wanted to do what he wanted. she was very nice.
We plan to keep in touch and see her whenever we can. she is coming to the orphanage today and we will all go have pizza together.

Thank you all for the prayers, God came through in a big way, we are so happy. Vitalik is a great young man, very personable and engaging. He is a lot of fun.

I will post pictures later, we are headed back to the orphanage.

Blessings to you,

Jeri

Great News!

Shawn and Tracey

Tracey, Charles and I at the Black Sea port.

We just found out that we don't need to travel back to Kiev. Our facilitator is coming in the morning with our paper work. We are praising God. He worked above and beyond what I imaged. We will meet with inspector tomorrow morning and than later go to the orphanage to see social worker and Vitalik.

Thank you all so much for praying for our situation. I am very grateful.I also want to thank our friends Terry and Laura for taking such good care of Joshua and Lauren. I also want to thank all our friends and family who have prayed, given and encouraged us along the way. We love you all.

I just wanted to share the good news, have a great day!

Jeri

we visited the port yesterday

Hello family and friends,

I pray all is well with you. I am behind on posting because Charles has been working a lot
on the computer. charles and I joined the O'Hare's down to the Black Sea port yesterday. It is in walking distance from where we are staying. Maybe 10 to 12 blocks. As you can see by the picture, Charles had his picture taken with a monkey. I was surprised at how clean the port was.
This quite a nice port. We really don't have a lot to report, we are waiting for our phone call to tell us when to go back to Kiev. We were told by Friday. I have been reading and praying and Charles is working. I am praising God for our SDA Appoint.

Does anyone have any advice or opinions for us?

Prayer request: keep believing with us for appoint. and a quick turn around back to Odessa. Pray for Joshua and Lauren. I pray the weekends for them are fun and not long.

Thanks for you prayers, they make a big difference.

We love you,
Jeri

The waiting Game

A local bread truck
our new friends Shawn and Tracey O'Hara
here is Charles orderin his street meat
here is Charles lovin the street meat :)
The train station in Odessa

Good evening,

This was one of those days where we just waited and prayed. At the end of the day, we received news that we would deffiently have appointment by the end of the week. That was good news for us.

We visited with our friends Shawn and Tracey today. We had lunch at a local Ukrainian restaurant. It reminded me of a Dutch restaurant. I had some chicken soup and bread, and Charles had borsch soup. The soups were pretty good. They use mostly fresh ingredients in all the restaurants. There is very little packaged foods here. They make everything fresh. We have had some real good food here. The cost is very low because of the exchange rate.

We will probably go to the beach tomorrow to kill some time. I heard its pretty nice. We also move to a bigger apartment tomorrow, we've been in a studio. Its in the same hotel, that will be nice and a change of scenery.

Charles is reading his book and we are waiting to have some bugers with the Shawn and Tracey
at there apartment. We are cooking in tonight.

We have really apprecited all the encouragment that we have received while we are over here. God is so faithful to send such good people in to our lives. We are truly blessed.


Prayer Request:

- continue to pray for the SDA appointment and for Vitalik sister.

- peace and strength for Charles and I, also for Josh and Lauren.

- Peace for Vitalik as he prepares to be adopted.

We love you,

Jeri

For Lauren

Hi Lauren,

How is my sweet pea? I love and miss you very much.
Did you have a good day today?

We are a little bored today because we are just waiting.

Mom and dad are very proud of you and Joshua. Keep up the good work.

I am sending you a kiss.

I'll talk to you soon,

Love Mom :)

To Joshua

Hi Joshua,

Mom wanted to say "HI".
Did you have a good day? did you do anything fun or special? Tell Ms. Amy and Nate Hello, and Tommy.
We are just waiting. We are either real busy or waiting on something.

give Dakota a hug for me when you see him.

I'll talk to you soon, Mom loves you,

Mom :)