It's a Date!

My apologies for not updating this blog in a timely matter. I've incurred a little bit of wrath because some of you felt I wasn't including you in the updates. Well, if you look at the post right below, you'll see the last post was in August. It's all good!

What have we been doing over the last 6 months? Really, we just been filling out a MOUNTAIN of paperwork. And, in case you were worried, we're fairly confident we are NOT criminals after having city, county, state, and federal criminal reports done! We thank those of you who sent a letter of recommendation for us when we asked you to do it in a very short time frame. We appreciate the lying you did! HA HA!

Besides filling out paperwork, we've spent some time on more enjoyable things. Some of you, who we don't get to communicate with often, may be wondering if we've had any contact with Vanya since he left in August. Well, yes and no! Yes, because we had several opportunities to call him with the help of a translator here in the Fort. Each time we called, it usually took 3 or 4 times to call over there before he would be anywhere close to the phone. We got a little smarter lately: the translator called a few days a head of time to ask if Vanya could be by the phone when we called at 8:00 AM (about 3:00 PM there). By calling a few days before, we've only had to make 2 calls to reach him the last time we called. Significant savings on the phone card!!!!!

So, every time we called, we had a list of open-ended questions to ask Vanya. Each time we asked any of those questions, we were met with silence. The translator would then say, "Vanya?" to which he would reply, "huh?" Then we'd resort to asking yes-no type questions. We never had a very satisfying phone call, but it was always good to hear his voice. He seemed happy to hear from us though he didn't really want to talk. We're pretty sure talking on the phone is not something he's done much of, if at all. It was also encouraging to hear when we called right after Christmas, that he'd been asking the orphanage principal when "Mama and Papa" were coming to get him. We've been so grateful for the help of our translator here in town. He's been very accommodating to our schedule and went the extra mile when calling ahead for us.

We sent many packages to him also. These consisted of inexpensive toys, crayons, coloring books, socks, snacks, etc. It cost more to ship the box then it did to fill it up! We've been told he probably wouldn't be able to keep anything we sent, but at least he knew we're thinking about it. Both of Tim's sisters also sent several packages which was totally awesome and much appreciated. Again, we couldn't have done all this without help. Our translator's daughter, Anna, (the same Anna who went with us to Michigan to help translate when my dad met Vanya) has been incredible about translating letters for us while she's been at college. Despite her busy schedule, (she's a RA and has very demanding course work) she's happily re-typed each letter in Ukrainian for us to send to Vanya. We've been lucky to work such wonderful people during this process.

The official "Decker Dossier Day" was February 24th. On this day, Ukraine received our case of paperwork to be reviewed. Our agency told us to expect a 4-6 week wait before we'd get a travel date. Well, exactly ONE WEEK later, we received our court date of Monday, March 23rd! Only 2-1/2 weeks away!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!! We booked our plane tickets on Friday, and we'll be leaving three days before so we are there in time to make our court date. For those of you who like to look at maps, here is our flight path: Detroit to Frankfurt, Germany (2-1/2 hour layover) and then to Kiev/Kyiv, Ukraine. Vanya's orphanage is located in the Odessa region which close to the Black Sea. We're very much looking forward to experiencing all the culture in the area.

We will be in Ukraine for about 10-18 days the first trip and then there will be a 10 waiting period. Some people wait there for the 10 days, but at the moment, we're coming back so we can work. The 2nd trip only one of us has to return, so again- at the moment- the plan is for just Tim to go so that I can stay and work. Hopefully I will have some time still left so I can stay home with Vanya for a few days. We're still working out all those details.

Coming up this week we will receive some more information, and if it's at all amusing or interesting, I will post it for you. We both have substitute teacher plans and report cards to finish (2 weeks early!) before we go, so we'll be a little busy. Not to mention packing!!!! I'll try very hard to update this at least once before we go.

We're not taking a computer with us, but I plan to seek out some internet cafes so I can update you while we're there. No promises.

Below are some pictures from when some officials from our agency went to visit the various orphanages in October. He's still a handsome little guy, isn't he?!?!?!?!?