April 7 - April 30

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! I John 3:1

Saying "Goodbye" to friends and constant companions from the orphanages.

Wow! We have had Sasha and Valera at home now for 3 weeks. What all has happened and how are they doing?

Andy and Masha, our facilitator, after the judge approved our petition to adopt!

Alexander Paul and Jonathan Valera reunited after being separated for two years.

Well, a century ago (actually, just a month ago) I was working hard to get the house ready for two new boys. I moved Kjersten’s bed and related bugs downstairs, and dragged a full-size bed up. No one was home to see me do this, so you just have to trust that I didn’t get another hernia. Beth Pester and friends had collected some clothes and toys, and she came over with 4-year-old Tara and did an extreme makeover. That was so great!

Meanwhile, Valera was battling a tough illness. For 3 days he didn't eat anything and had a fever. He's in the 5th percentile of weight for his age, so he didn't have a lot to fight with. Most importantly, the members of Christ Church as well as many friends and family here prayed for him, and we are so thankful for his recovery. Pam wasn't sure he would be ready for a 24-hour journey on Monday, filled with taxi rides and terminal lines and long flights and time changes, which is hard on healthy people, but he really perked up later Sunday and Monday he was his usual happy self.

I met Adrienne, Rachel, Pam, and the boys at the Omaha airport about 9:30 pm. The boys were wearing flight goggles, so I didn’t recognize them. (Не правда!). They had so much to tell me: how much they loved flying, and drinking Coca Cola, and eating airplane food, and getting bowled over by the terminal rush of people oblivious to pint-sized kids at JFK, and how Sasha only threw up once, but that it was okay, because it ended up on the seat of someone who was complaining about the rhythmic tapping on the back of his seat.

After a sleepy drive back to Seward, Nienke couldn’t believe her doggy eyes that Mom actually came home again after a 6 week absence. Nor could Nienke believe her doggy brain that we were about to change her life. Let’s put it this way—she no longer begs for treats or attention from me. The boys loved their new room and all the toys and love that Beth had put in it.

They woke up to a warm spring day, and quickly discovered Adrienne’s old scooter (along with Kara Einspahr’s, who was graciously willing to give hers up if her parents would buy her a jeep). We share a long driveway with Dolores, so you would think they could safely scooter away the day. Not quite so. Speed, challenging turns, and trick riding are all highly valued. We are on our second box of bandaids.

They discovered we have a soft-sided waterbed. As I said above, Valera is a lightweight--he weighs about 42 pounds if he’s wearing 2 pounds of clothing--so I can easily flip him head over heals onto the bed, and it makes him giggle and the dog go crazy. Sasha requires that I do the same for him. I still have not had another hernia.

I have given up noon basketball so I can come home for lunch. It’s fun, because they run to greet me and tell me all about the new experiences they had that day with Mom: “Папа! Папа! Я супермалчик! Мама машина банк и пошта и магазин и библіотек и парк!” I wish I had subtitles. That one was “Papa! Papa! I am super boy! Mama took us in the car and we went to the bank and the post office and the store and the library and the park.” Anyway, I think I’d rather hear this than “Air ball. Air ball.”

How do we teach English? We’re trying the “Triangular ESL Curriculum: Swedes Teaching English to Ukrainians” In other words, we play ABBA’s Greatest Hits.

And we mix the Russian and Ukrainian we know in with English and pantomime. The boys do the same now for us. They realize that to get us to understand, they have to add big gestures. Usually they don’t care whether we really understand or not. They can prattle on between them and we occasionally nod our heads, smile, and say, “Да, да, да.” They keep on prattling. Actually, since they are mostly interested in concrete things, like “Papa, can you show us how to jump start a car whose lights have been mysteriously left on?” or “Papa, can you show us how to unlock a bathroom door when no one is inside?”, or “Papa, can we disassemble Kjersten’s dashboard and CD player because *somebody* stuffed 3 CDs and a quarter inside?” communicating is pretty straight forward. You home schoolers out there, how do you like our curriculum?

Playing in Stas's old car.

Working out a puzzling world.

Eating is fun. They like pretty much everything. Except ketchup. For the record, I have seen them clamour for cauliflower, beg for broccoli, eat entire pears, work through half a loaf of bread each, then eat whatever Pam had designed for the meal, and still have room for potato chips for dessert.

Now they are sleeping. If it is not a bath night, we start putting them to bed around 8:00. We’ll read some stories in English, and then Sasha will read from a Russian children’s Bible to his brother. Then prayers and lights out by about 9:00. They go right to sleep, unless they have squirreled away some new toy for nighttime fun, like flashlights. We have to cajole them big time to get up by 8:00 am.

On Saturday April 11th, Sasha had read the crucifixion and resurrection story in Russian and explained it to Valera. He seemed to know something about Easter already. We asked Inna Tereshchenko to ask him how he knew what he knew. He said that a ministry team left a children's Bible at the orphanage and he had been reading it. Our first church service, then, after 6 days in Seward, was Easter at St. John. That means over 700 people pressed together, trumpets and handbells, the Hallelujah Chorus, and lilies everywhere. On the way home they were chattering about “Alleluia.” I think they know what it means, but they also know they can get a reaction out of us if they use it in an unconventional context, like after “Let’s have ice cream.”

Next week we will have a baptism. Now we know that we have been blessed beyond all that we could hope for. But seeing our children blessed as members of God’s family will be super special.

April 6

Hooray!

S. said, "We haven't gotten any frantic phone calls from the airport, so I guess they're on their way. Valera showed no signs of being sick this morning. Everyone left in high spirits with lots of stuff. The girls left really nice thank-you notes on their pillows. We really enjoyed having them and getting to do things with Sasha. We enjoy being surrogate grandparents. And I thoroughly enjoyed sharing the experience with Pam. I sure wish Nebraska wasn't so far away. We're going to miss you all!"















O. took Sasha around Kyiv to see a few sights. This is the funicular, a cog train ride that takes passengers from river-level up a steep hill, where St. Michael's church is. Adrienne and Rachel also took this ride, and sat next a romantic couple. Adrienne and Rachel had flight bags at hand, just in case.


















These are the steps to St. Andrew's. It is right next to the State Department of Adoption, where we started our blessed adventure. They must have thrown some fish bits down the steps, because I don't see the dogs in this picture.















Working in the garden.

They are in flight as I write, somewhere over the Atlantic. Thank you for your prayers!

April 4

Poor Jonathan is sick. He hasn't eaten anything in 48 hours. Please pray for him.

March 27 - April 3

The Power of Attorney letter, authorizing Pam to pick up guys, moved without sleeping from Seward to Leipzig, Germany and then, because it was a weekend, sat for 48 hours. Makes the whole “express” label a little hollow sounding—kind of like my bank account. My cousin, who lives in Germany, says Germans characteristically value their time off. “Es ist fünf Uhr. Wir müssen nicht arbeiten. Viel Arbeit bedeutet viel Taxes.” (It is 5:00. We must not work. Much work means much taxes.)

This would put the letter in Kramatorsk by sometime Tuesday, which would really pinch things to make our flights home April 6th. Masha said she would try again to convince Arkady, who is a decent guy, to accept a scanned copy, given the clear evidence that the original would arrive eventually. He said YES. Arkady is not your typical Ukrainian bureaucrat.

So, Monday and off to Mariupol! On the way, Masha’s brother Andrii got pulled over by Urkainian police. He wasn’t speeding—I think it was just one of those random stops to remind you that this is a country of … law and order. They determined that his driver’s license, which he got while he still lived in Siberia, was no longer acceptable in Ukraine. New rule.

So, how would Sasha say “goodbye” to his classmates and teachers and caregivers? Pam, who has been thinking about how to throw a parting party for months, was pretty pickled about the way it turned out. “Take Sasha. Leave the gifts. The party will happen later.”

Pam finally saw Sasha's room. It was not crowded like another orphanage in Komarivka we saw two years ago. Each room had just two beds and two towel bars. Clothes are kept elsewhere.

The saddest part was that Sasha was leaving his roommate Kolya, whom he had bunking with for 3 ½ years and had moved with him from Kramatorsk to Mariupol. Pam knew that Sasha understood and felt this loss deeply. He asked if he would ever be visiting again. One of the teachers, whose son could speak English well enough, shared an email address and offered to pass messages. Hooray for email. Pam gave Kolya a special gift.

Tuesday the brothers were reunited after two years. Sasha’s teachers from Kramatorsk were glad to see him. I wish I could have been there.

Meanwhile, Masha was in Donetsk, the regional capital, waiting for a passport stamp. The administrator was out of the office on end-of-month business. By the time he returned, there was no chance to catch the train back to Kyiv. So, the day we gained due to Arkady’s flexibility we lost again, and they wouldn’t arrive in Kyiv until Thursday morning. I was a little worried, because the State Department website says we must allow 3 business days to finish up embassy work, and we had 5 plane tickets set for Monday, April 6th. It would cost me $280 each to change them, and Pam had from the beginning wanted help from Adrienne in bringing them home.

The boys spent the night with Pam at Stas and Natasha’s. Imagine Pam, using her vast command of Russian, getting these giddy boys, enamored with their new environment, to take baths, settle down, and not mess up anything electronic. “Нет, ні вода splashing!” “Нет, ні компутер messing upski.”

Some think the brothers are twins. They play well together. Sasha offers to interpret for Jonathan.

There were only first-class tickets left on the train, which are relatively expensive, so Masha arranged with a friend in Kyiv to help Pam with the final steps. So Pam said teary goodbyes to Stas, Natasha, Masha, the two dogs Endora and Fido-orovich, the cat Marquis, and the unnamed fish, who survived.

They arrived in Kyiv, did the first of the two-step at the embassy, then went to get medical checks. There they (we) were given some stern advice. When the boys get to the States, it will be like they had lived on another planet. They need 3+ weeks of restricted exposure to just our family and home before the rest of the community and relatives meet them. Volumes have been written on this topic, but here’s a sample: We aren’t supposed to ask them how they feel, rather we should model emotions for them. Sorry!

They then met Adrienne, Rachel (pictured below with Becca) and Susan. Here are some of Rachel’s Facebook notes:


"The activity for today was supposed to be the zoo. But we thought it would be better if we saved that for when Pam came with the boys.

This morning, Adrienne woke up early to exchange money for her mom who was arriving today. I got to sleep in. We had lunch at the apartment. We didn’t know what to do afterwards, so Mrs. H. had us go to the grocery store to buy some things. We went to a different store than the first two times. This store was in the basement level of a mall. So we walked around in the mall before going down. In the grocery store, we (but especially Adrienne) were grossed out by all the fish. They lay in front of us chopped in half. We bought cookies, cheese, and bread. By the time we were done at the mall, it was past the time Pam and the boys were supposed to be at the apartment, so we decided to head back.

When we got there, nobody was home so we decided to watch The Mighty Ducks. About half way through, Pam and the boys arrived so we stopped the movie. We went to the door to meet them. Pam introduced Adrienne as their sister and had them hug her. Valera was a little shy. They’re both so cute!

For supper, we had hamburger (but not in a normal hamburger shape), green beans, and rice. Before we ate, Pam said a prayer where everyone would repeat what she said so Valera and Sasha could participate. To get them to eat their beans and rice, they were promised ice cream for dessert. They LOVE ice cream. They were so excited to get seconds in it.

After supper, Adrienne and I played with them. It wasn’t organized, but we kind of started playing hide and seek. They ran upstairs and we couldn’t find them. I finally did and they ran away. They kept saying “cuckoo”. After chasing and tickling them upstairs for awhile, they decided to go downstairs. On the way down though, Valera tripped and hurt himself. So we had to go outside.

Outside it was easier to entertain them. We drew a hop scotch grid. But Sasha was more interested in playing with an inflatable ball. We kicked it around until I kicked it onto the roof. To get it down we tried using a broom but that didn’t work. So we put Sasha on Adrienne’s shoulders and after awhile he got it down with the broom.

Adrienne got creative and invented a baseball game with some nerf balls and rackets and chalked bases. Some neighbor boys came by and tried to sell a cell phone to Adrienne. I scared them away by taking pictures of them. I think the boys’ favorite thing to do was crawl under the van parked nearby. Once under it, they liked to have their pictures taken. When it started getting dark we wanted to go inside. Adrienne and I finished watching The Mighty Ducks. Goodbye" (Thank you, Rachel, for providing this content!)



On Friday Jonathan wasn’t feeling well, so the zoo plans got scrapped. But traffic was a *bear*, and they couldn’t park close to the place where you get to see the embassy *seals*, and they were running late, so S. carried Jonathan like a *monkey* on her back. :)

The last signature in Ukraine has dried—now that’s a milestone worth celebrating! So they said their prayers, ate ice cream without me, played foosball, and watched Finding Nemo.

Adrienne and Rachel went to see the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" at the National Opera House. As they got closer they realized they didn't have their tickets, so they called Pam. She and Sasha met them back at the metro (the subway). Pam asked Sasha if he wanted to ride. He said 'Да да да' and was so thrilled. He came back saying to the flat saying, "Я поехал на метро! Я поехал на метро! Я поехал на метро! Я поехал на метро!" In English this sounds like "I rode the metro! If I were king of the world I would ride the metro every day! Will there be a metro in heaven? Does Seward have a metro?"

Saturday Adrienne and Rachel hope to meet their Kiev Christian Academy friends again this weekend. They’ll climb the bell tower at the 1000-year-old St. Sophia’s church and act like ding-a-lings, go to a soccer game after church on Sunday and have a ball, and generally try to perfect this hookey thingy and have as much fun as they can before they fly back and start school again. Good thing there's Good Friday off. They'll need another vacation by then. O. will take the boys on a hike in the hills of Kyiv.

I will clean the house. There’s no one to ask about whether I should keep this or that, so if you don’t see it next time you visit, blame me.

Sorry about the sideways video clip. That's what boys do to your life.

March 17-26

Today is the 10th day after the court date. Pam should be able to pick up the court decree today. As much as we respect any birth family member's desire to stay close to their children, we pray there have been no appeals.

Pam did not have Internet for most of the last week, so there is less to say.

There was a fire at the neighbor's house. Pam survived.

Adrienne and Rachel Royuk are now in Kyiv, preparing to help Pam once she brings the boys there. Or not. Probably they are strutting the streets of city center, seeing how well they can blend in with the capital fashions.

Jonathan (I'm not sure he knows that's his name yet) enjoyed his field trip to get his passport photo taken, except for one part. They wouldn't let him smile. You've seen his pictures--that's gotta be tough. Oh, well. Apparently that's not just a Soviet silliness. Adrienne needed a new passport to travel, and she likewise had to look the part of the disinterested runway model.

We had a glitch today. Apparently the new laws passed in 2008, which we are exempt from because our dossier was accepted before they were passed, are subject to the interpretation of various regional officials, who each are trying to show off by telling us how high we should jump. One has decided that the law says that Pam and I BOTH had to sign to get the care and custody of the children. A simple phone call won't do. Nor will an email or a fax of my signature.

Since I'm now in Nebraska, I crafted a roll-my-own power of attorney letter. "I, Andy, of sound mind, hereby grant Pam the power to kiss the children and pick them up." Had it notarized. Had the State of Nebraska authenticate the notary's work. Then DHLed it to Kramatorsk for a gazillion dollars. There's no such thing as overnight mail, so it could take until Tuesday. If I were running DHL, I'd have it on a non-stop plane Friday, arriving in Kyiv Saturday, catching the puddle jumper to Donetsk by late Saturday evening, then delivered by former Soviet speed skating champions to Masha's apartment by 4:00 am Sunday morning. We'll see.

Here's some leftover video footage. No matter where in the world you grow up, you learn this trick.

March 12 - 16

The slim chance that our court date could be Friday did not work out. The signed papers from the SDA were indeed faxed to Kramatorsk, and perhaps the state attorney would have accepted them, but a criminal case took precedence, and the opportunity evaporated. So I won’t be back in time for Monday classes. I am sure my students are disappointed. Especially since I made up some grueling e-work for them to do. (How can I use that word ‘gruel’ twice in one blog? Is there a subconscious connection? Perhaps it is because my students are saying ‘Please, sir, I want some more.’)

Oh, well. Pam is not so sad. We decided to catch the next train down to Mariupol to see Sasha. It left at 4:19 am. It was a little awkward because some other passengers had decided that our berths were more convenient than their berths, so the cabin attendant had them move. They didn’t seem put out at all, but decided since they were now awake, they could chat the rest of the trip. Russian chatting is not like Muzak.

It was a rainy weekend in Mariupol. There was so much rain, in fact, that the taxi drivers could not see the potholes. Uuugh.

Sasha was happy to see us again. He gives us big hugs. He liked Pam’s pretty parasol, so we did made up our own version of the little men in tights dance you saw earlier if you’ve had the patience to read this blog in chronological order. (P.S. Pam asked if you knew Handy Blog Tip #312, that you could double click on any picture and see it full screen.)

I had found a 3-in-1 Lego train in Kyiv. Sasha was SO excited about it. He rapidly put all 79 pieces together, following the instructions for train variation #1, then more rapidly used his teeth to take it all apart, then more more rapidly put together variation #2, then more more more rapidly used his teeth to take it all apart, then … STOP. I thought that surely there is a more elegant way to take apart Legos, so we got out a nail file that somehow made it through airport security. But it was SLOW in comparison to teeth, so he went back to that amazing God-given Swiss army knife of a mouth.
The next day he made his own train, using all 79 pieces plus some spit. Here's a picture. At one point he thought a piece had fallen to the floor. He didn't realize I had already picked it up, and wanted me to search under every couch section. He found a few other treasures there, such as a pin for a bulletin board. He dutifully put that on the teacher's . . . (I know what you were thinking) ... desk.

I think we know most of the staff at the Priazova Hotel. It’s a pretty good setup, quite convenient to Sasha’s “Internat,” with a restaurant that let us chat with Alison for another 3 hours. She is a linguist and we really enjoy the way she crafts words and stories—and she enjoys people. The hotel also has wireless Internet. Here’s where I stayed up late cooking gruel. Tee hee.

Sunday morning we ended up at the Church of Christ Our Savior, an A-frame church right on the Sea of Azov. They had a young adult choir of about 40 voices that was very good, with piano, 4 violins, and soloists as well. We only understood 4 words. Still, it only took Pam 5 minutes of visiting afterwards to get ourselves invited to dinner. The fellowship of saints is indeed amazing, where there is no Jew or Greek, …

Alison and we went out walking. We had some photos printed at a hole-in-the wall computer specialist’s office. This means I set my laptop on a box so that his USB cable can reach my port. Then we share viruses. While the pics were printing we et omelettes in a restaurant in the basement that had no sign, so I don’t know how they attract customers.

Then we looked at clothes for the kids. We had a pencil drawing of their feet that we can use to help size shoes. Pam had visited a second hand store in Kramatorsk that was once a flight of stairs to a grander (in the Soviet sense of the term) building, but now was partitioned off into little stores and offices. You “step in” to the store, and then keep “stepping in” until you are at the upper back, then you back out. We bought a pair of jeans there that we thought would fit Sasha, but I think they’ll barely fit Valera. And then he’ll grow. I guess that’s what “raising boys” means.
You can't see it in the video clip, but there is a ball here that Valera is pitching up onto the green, or whacking out of a sandtrap, or launching through someone's window. I'm guessing you won't be inviting us over for a while.

Time to speed this up. We took the slow train back to Kramatorsk, arriving at 1:00 am. We got up at 5:30, because THIS IS OUR COURT day! We are SO excited!

We sat in the judge’s office, along with a stenographer, whose job is to make sure the computerized audio recordings are working well, the regional social work administrator, the orphanage legal specialist, the state attorney, and two jurists, who are selected from one of the local factories that have pre-identified pools of workers who can be spared for a day. It’s a good deal for them because they get paid for a whole day, even though our hearing took only an hour. The Mariupol regional social worker and orphanage legal specialist had written letters of support and asked to be represented in absentia.

After reading some relevant law and establishing basic stuff, the judge asked questions of us. For example, would we have adequate something-or-other to provide for these children. I didn’t quite get the translation—it could have been resources or ice cream. When Pam was asked how she felt about the children, she got kind of teary as she spoke of how dear they have already become to us, and the jurists, who looked like mothers to me, were with her 100%. Closed case. We are SOOO happy. Praise God!

We went to play some with Valera. He had found a length of semi-elastic cord, and was playing Spider-Malchik with it. I am certain he will know all the doctors in Seward on a first-name basis. Then we celebrated by eating at the nice restaurant (the one with funny English translations) across the street. Pam had the “tongue in a bug.” I decided not to include a picture, either of the food, or of what Pam did afterwards.

I’m writing this from an airport in Donetsk, preparing to fly to Kyiv, where I’ll stay part of a night with S. & O., then I’ll get on to Amsterdam, Minneapolis, Lincoln, and home. Kjersten and Adrienne, this means it’s time to clean the house.

One last thought. The judge read a letter written by Sasha that had three sentences: “I like them. I want to be adopted. I want to go to the USA. I like tongue in a bug.”

March 11

Here is some video of Sasha and Pam playing that gummy thingy game.

Oh, we have picked some names now.

Alexander (Sasha) Paul Langewisch

Jonathan (You Make Me Giggle) Valera Langewisch

Here are some transportation observations that also make us giggle:

Question: How many people can you fit on a marshrutka (a small bus)?

Answer: One more.

Question: Suppose you are driving erratically in rural Ukraine and the police pull you over. Why can’t they ask you to walk down the road a bit in a straight line?

Answer: There are too many potholes.

Question: When should you NEVER eat chocolate?

Answer: After you have used it on an overnight train for an air freshener.

Here's a video of me playing a giggling game with Valera.

Here are a few details about the process, as it has applied to us. Note first: We chatted for 3-4 hours with a woman named Alison from Germany whose adoption story has been FAR more difficult than ours, so please do not attempt to generalize based on what I write (which is only half-truth anyway). In both Kramatorsk and Mariupol we met with attorneys who have excessive staffs of young secretaries whose only jobs are to fetch photocopies or lock and unlock doors. After some very long conversations about how last year's new adoption regulations might be interpreted, the attorney in Mariupol drafted a letter saying we had visited these children and we want to adopt them anyway and we understand the implications of adoption and we are not crazy and so on.

This attorney, fortunately, was good enough to share his approach with the attorney in Kramatorsk, so it will look like we're all on the same page, even though I'm always a page behind. Add the usual certifications and scribblings and stamps and pretty paper presented in plastic sleeves, and the packet was ready to go to the SDA office in Kyiv to be registered.

I needed to go to Kyiv anyway, to initiate paperwork with the U.S. Consulate saying we wish to adopt these children who had these old names and lived at these old addresses and now would have these new names. Furthermore, after the court date, I will be heading back to Concordia, which so graciously let me leave for 2 weeks of school in the middle of the semester. As you can see from the picture, we have just switched from teaching 18-year-olds to teaching 8-year-olds. Anyway, I have to get back to Nebraska, so I needed to give Pam power of attorney to finish the process.

So, to expedite getting the packet of pretty paper to Kyiv and to take care of my consular business, I bought myself a couple of train tickets. I did this Sunday evening for a Tuesday evening trip. I think it's a good thing I didn't wait any longer, as I was only able to get a 3rd class, upper berth ticket. This means there are no doors and the beds are shorter. That wasn't too bad, as the trip was only 12 hours.

I arrived at the consulate at 8:30 am, and was dismayed to see there was a line outside the building with maybe 100 people in it. I asked a couple of people if there was only one line for all purposes, and a Ukrainian woman said that because I was an American citizen (my glasses must give me away), I could go right to the front of the line. Is that embarrassing or what. After all night in 3rd class, the ugly American cuts in line.

I heard some interesting stories while in the waiting area. One American woman was there with her Ukrainian husband of 5 years. He had been deported, and she had exhausted all her resources trying to sort out why. She was clearly frustrated. After some checking, it was not easy for the U.S. Consulate employee to inform her that her husband had entered the U.S. illegally through Canada. She did not know this when she married him. Boy was she mad at him then.

I gave the packet to Dennis, a friend of Masha's who submitted it, and we hope it will be ready Friday. Then Dennis will fax the approval back to Kramatorsk. We have a court appointment at noon on Friday. The judge is okay with a faxed version, but initial reports are that the persecutor (oops, prosecutor), who represents the state, is not. In that case we will have to wait until Monday.

I bought some boy toys and picked up Pam's ratty old pants from the tailor and visited my cooperating professor at Kyiv Polytechnic University and then traveled 2nd class back to Kramatorsk. One of my cabin mates was a very sharp Ukrainian marketing professional for a German machining company. We chatted for several hours about important stuff like ... world peace. I had a chocolate bar with me, just in case, but I didn't need it.

Court is a big deal. If there's any schlip up, this could change everything. So please pray for this--we know you have been, as we have indeed been blessed at every step.