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