Dinner guests

The girls told me lots of stories, over the last few years, about three special people that loved them and helped them when they were orphans. I wished a hundred times I could tell these people thank you and give them a hug.

Over the last few weeks I got my wish. We had them all over for dinner on different nights, gave them a gift, a big hug and a thank you. How fun it was to meet them and see how much they really do love my kids.

The first was Sara's teacher. She took extra good care of Sara, often taking her to her own house on weekends, buying her stuff on her birthday and making sure she had everything she needed. She is the teacher that burst into tears when she first saw Sara at the orphanage, she hugged and kissed her to death. We loved spending time with her and getting to know her and her daughter Victoria. I also helped her translate some documents at the orphanage last week, that was a laugh, but she was grateful for my help.

The next is Sasha and his wife. They didn't work at the orphanage, but took an interest in the kids. They gave them money for things like razors, hairspray, cell phones, and stuff the orphanage didn't provide. They spent lots of time playing with the kids at the orphanage and also taking them places, like checkers tournaments, the beach and summer camps. Lena has been raving about how nice they are for years.
He gave us copies of movies he had of the kids. One is the last day of school, kind of like graduation day. It is hilarious. Alex, Katya, and both Julia's are in it. What a hoot to see them back in orphanage days. We will have to have a reunion night and watch them. We asked them why they spend so much time helping the kids and they told us they can't have kids of their own, so they decided to spend the extra money they have each month helping the orphans. They said they keep in touch with them long after they are out of the orphanage and continue to help them.

This turned out to be true, because the second time they came over they called the day of and said they would have to cancel because two girls that used to be in the orphanage came to visit for the weekend. We told them to bring them. The girls are roommates at college. The heat broke in the dorm, so they told everyone to find a place to stay for three days. The girls had nowhere to go but Sasha's. The one girl is 17 and pregnant, father unknown. She said she is going to have to quit college and get a job, because she wants to keep her baby. Sad!


The last is Babushka Luiba. Sara has endless stories about going to stay with grandma Luiba. She fed her, took care of her, made her birthday cakes and gave Sara lots of love. When she walked in the door and saw Sara she cried and cried, and hugged and kissed Sara over and over. She brought us tons of gifts and hugged and kissed me over and over too. She is an adorable woman.


Lena has been an awesome translator and helped us have conversations with our dinner guests. Alina has been a quiet, but good sport.


These folks touched my heart. In a world full of problems, it is comforting to know there are people in all countries willing to sacrifice of themselves and make a difference. I told my kids to remember how much their lives have been blessed by these people who chose to love and help them, even when they didn't have to. I asked them to please grow up to be the kind of people that solve problems and help those in need. They promised they would. My hope is, they will.

Our 3 days in Kryvyi Rih

This is a picture of some of the roads in Kryvyi Rih. We decided we might have a better chance of surviving if we took the train.

It might look like slush, but it isn't. It is solid ice. The cars drive on the sidewalks in places to avoid it. So we took the electric train from Dnipro to Kryvyi Rih. It was a three hour ride.
On the way over, we loved it. Not too cold and a much smoother and safer ride than the car. On the way back to Dnipro, we weren't so sure. It was freezing cold. Only ride the electric train during the day or wear 10 layers.
This lady was singing in the train for money. Every where we go there is some beggar person asking for money, or bread. Sara is always worried about them. She tells me what they are saying and pleads with me to give them money or food, or whatever we have. I love Sara's tender heart.

Our apartment in Kryvyi Rih was like a fridge. We had to wear our coats and keep bundled up, even when we slept. Ha Ha!
The landlord insisted Jeff wear these kitty slippers. The girls got a huge kick out of it.


Main street in Kryvyi Rih and Lena's favorite blue church. She kept saying how cute she thought it was.
We spent three wonderful days with Zhenya. The director let us visit for an hour and a half in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon.




Lena noticed the finger Zhenya was using to touch the screen on the phone and said, "Look Mom, Dona will like him." Sorry, only funny if you know Dona, and then it is hilarious.
One day Zhenya was talking to Jeff and Jeff wasn't responding. Sara told Zhenya, "He can't understand you."

Zhenya said, "Yes he can."

Sara said, "He can't speak Russian, so no he can't."

He said without hesitation, "He can understand me because he loves me."

Zhenya loved to play doggy with me. He told me I was the mom dog and he was the baby dog. We barked at each other, then he snuggled up to me. It is funny, because he isn't usually comfortable with me touching him, but when I am a dog, he pets my head and hugs me.

A trick I learned from Dona's little girl Eli. She loves me best when I am a dog too. Zhenya doesn't like my kitty though, he says it scares him. Too bad, that is Eli's favorite. She loves scary kitty. We laugh our heads off. Sure miss my Eli.

When we told him we had to leave the last day, he said, "Are you coming back after lunch?" We told him we couldn't we had to go see Alina, his sister. He said, "My sister wants to come with you and I want to come with you."

It was so hard to leave that kid.


The director asked him if he wanted to come with us and he said, "Yes."

She said, "Are you sure, you can't change your mind and you can never come back."

He said, "Yes I want to go."

Sadly, he thought that meant right then and he was sad when he couldn't come.

Looks like we are winning the war. The more we are with him, the more certain we are that he is ours. I am not too worried about court anymore. We have come too far and been through too much to not get him now. You are right Christy, Zhenya is going to be ours.


Shelby and Mary, this is a stuffed dog on the couch at the orphanage. You were wondering. They have some pretty scary stuffed creatures. I think Ukrainians excel at decorating with stuffed things.


This our last night in Kryvyi Rih. I made potato salad because it sounded good, but the mayo was yuck. Then I tried a grilled cheese, but the cheese was yuck. I couldn't even think about the beet salad the girls were eating. They guaranteed me I would like the Ukraine version of Ramen noodles. Nope! They told me I couldn't waste food, I had to eat it. I said new rule, if you don't like it, don't eat it and I threw it all away. The girls and Jeff got a big kick out of it, hence the picture.

Jeff, Jeff

I have been asking Jeff for a few days to help me figure out how to put the video on my blog. It is hilarious right? I couldn't get it to work because it was too big.

So today when I saw comments in my email about Will performing, I had no idea what you were talking about until I logged into my blog. Jeff thought he was pretty sneaky.

So yes we did figure out his name, if we actually get to adopt him. We heard through the grapevine stuff about the big D at his orphanage and it sounds like we are going to have a fight on our hands. I will have to email details to those who are interested since my blog is public.

We tried to figure out a Z name for him, or anything close to his Ukraine name, but we hated them all. We decided to just ditch it and name him William Randall Rast, William for Jeff's dad and Randall for mine. We are going to call him Will, because I love it. He didn't ever know his parent's and we want him to feel like ours.

Alina loved her name and didn't want to change it. We wanted her to have a little part of us, so we came up with Alina Kay Rast after my mom. I think we have convinced her to let us call her Ally , or Ali. Lena and Alina can't tell the difference when I am calling them. So annoying for me, because Lena gets frustrated at me. Go figure!

We are headed back to Kryvih Rih tomorrow to spend a few days with Z man or Will. I can't wait for court to be over. If we don't get to adopt him after all of this..... well there aren't even words for it.

Will the performer

Here is a video that little Will performed for us at his orphanage.

Adoption Process Update

This week we did all the paperwork for the adoptions and submitted our applications to the SDA. It required two separate processes since the kids are in different regions. It involved lots of freezing car rides, lots of government buildings and lots of waiting. It was an exhausting week.

Zhenya's orphanage is in Kryvyi Rih,a two and a half hour car ride over treacherous, ice covered roads. A foot of ice, no joke.

We spent a day with Zhenya while we worked on his process in Kryvyi Rih. We probably won't make it back to see him much before court, unless the weather gets suddenly warmer.
This is the Director. He holds on to her for dear life when we come. He asked her why we were here again, she told him we were going to adopt him and that we are going to be his mom and dad. I don't think he has a clue what that means.

This is a special play room for kids when they have visitors.

We took bags for him and his class. They loved them, especially the rats. The director wouldn't let us take pictures. Too bad, the kids were cute. They are all sick and have some problem. He looks pretty darn good compared to most.
He kind of warmed up again by the end of the day. Jeff did make him cry when he hid his snake. Jeff, Jeff! The kid is going to be terrified to come with us. The poor thing is going to leave everything he knows. I bet he will cry and not from joy.

A picture they had of him at Christmas. Jeff took a picture of it.

With the new ministry over adoptions, it takes longer to get a court date. We have a tentative court date for the 14th of Feb. We are officially going to be here forever.

Sara decided she wants to go home with Jeff. She has had enough of Ukraine. She wants to drink water out of the tap and see Elise and Ashlynn. So Jeff and Sara will hopefully be headed home on Feb. 18th and Lena and I will be here until March 14th, if all goes well from here on out. It feels like forever. I still have 5 more weeks to go. I can't even think about it, or I will be crazy. I just have to take it one day at a time.

Sara's Birthday

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes for Sara. She loved the emails and messages. She said, "Wow, lots of people love me." She is right, they do. Thanks everyone!

Now that Sara is 13, we have three 13 year olds. Oh boy!

Sara-Sara- She keeps us laughing.

Lena and I tried to make her a cake. We had all the ingredients, but discovered we didn't have any measuring cups, oops. We did our best to guess. Must have gone wrong with the baking powder, it was half size, oh well. We tried....



We tried adding M&M's and candles. The only candles we could find were numbers. Didn't have a 1 just a 3. Sara loved turning 3 again. She was a good sport and got a kick out of our attempt.



We managed the traditional birthday balloons and candy on her bedroom floor. She was excited about her Ukraine candy.




Lena made a sign for Sara in the bathroom. Something about the toilet telling Sara Happy Birthday.






We rode the bus to Dnipropetrovsk and went ice skating at the mall. So many memories there. We had fun laughing and talking about the good old days.

Sara 3 years ago
Sara Now:)

Alina was very cautious and would not let go of the wall. She was terrified. She held my hand a couple times and took a few steps and then at the first little slip, she would be right back at the wall.


It was fun to see Lena and Sara skate like pros. Jeff and I reminisced about our first time there. Lena was a fearless die hard and fell 100 times, but kept trying. I remember she had blisters on her feet, sores on her legs but she begged for more. Jeff and I laughed as we remembered.

Little Lena 3 Years Ago


Our teenage Lena now.
Just for fun- Wendy, the girls and I almost three years ago here in Dnipro. Can you believe it Wendy????