Now in the 10-day waiting period

I didn't realize that I was this far behind on blogging! Yikes! :-)
So we had court, and I thank those who were praying for us. There were some tough questions being asked that required behind-the-scenes prayers to get through. We are thankful for the approval for adoption paperwork, the approval to legally change "Evan's" Ukrainian birth name to "Jonathan Evan Brown", and the approval to be considered Jonathan's parents and legal guardians.
We chose the name Jonathan because our biological son, David was named after King David in the Bible. Well, who was David's most closest friend, a dear brother in the Lord in whom a covenant was made? Jonathan! The name is perfect, and we love "Evan" for a middle name, which means God is gracious.
So we are waiting during this 10 day appeal period. There are additional days following the waiting period that require more time to submit for passports, visa, and obtain Jonathan's, medical examination.
We will be home on July 15th, after flying all day on the 14th. Please pray for the flights. We have 3 layovers!
We will be doing a day trip on Friday, going to Yalta to explore some of the palaces there among other historical sights. Other than Yalta, we are staying low key. We are doing lots of reading, studing the Bible, praying for other families and their adoptions. We have the most precious faces stuck in our minds of children that so desparetly need families. We are truly changed for having come here to Ukraine for this adoption. Will God bring us back here in the future? We don't know! I do know if God tells us to "go" without a doubt we would do this again, knowing God would provide throughout the entire process, as daunting as it would seem. I will walk by faith and not by sight!
The pictures are from one of our visits at the orphanage. We just love our new son!

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Little guy....

Yesterday we visited "Evan" at the orphanage. It was a good day with him. We usually visit for an hour and a half everyday, except for Sundays. Our time with him usually starts with us walking up to his "groupa", and the second we catch his eye he gets the biggest smile on his face and with arms flung open, he runs to us! Today he ran with an additional squeeling noise- he is always excited to see us. So he loves us to hold him, and doesn't want to be put down. So usually our first 15-20 minutes are just having him on our laps and we will talk to him, he is so giggly and happy. We will sing pre-school songs that require hand motions. He loves to try to imitate the motions. Even after we're done singing and if we go for a walk I will still see him with his finger in the air (it's for "the mama on the bus goes shh, shh, shh").
We will usually swing for a little bit, but some days the little guy is a little more hyper and won't hold on or sit well, so we can't swing. They don't have anything to hold him in place to keep him from sliding out...
After swinging we will go through our backpack. I have a "busy book" for him, a pinwheel, a stretchy tube, a hand clapper toy, some raisens, water... and we'll take pictures and show him pictures of his family at home and of his brother, David.
But he loves it the most when the groupa caretakers start up the bouncy house, and then when they are finished, just maybe "Evan" will have a turn! We will throw balls to him and he is so happy to fall, jump around and throw the balls back to us. We gotta get one of these for our home!
Soon, the groupa holds hands and goes back in the orphanage. They sit in a sitting area with cartoons on, then someone brings in their afternoon snack or meal. I see a tea kettle and a pot of soup with what looks like potatoes in it. We don't get to see anything else or anywhere else of the orphanage, but it appears the children are well taken care of. I know "Evan" is in a group with pretty much normal children. They each probably have something in their medical diagnosis, but they get to run around a be normal children- they are not stuck in a room or a crib all day. So I'm so glad the orphanage recognized "Evan's" potential and didn't put the down syndrome label on him and tuck him away where he doesn't get his needs met.
But now that he just turned 4.... there's no telling what would have happened to him if we never came to adopt him. We serve a big and mighty God, and I know He would have called someone else to adopt this sweet boy. But looking around, there are so many children that need families, Lord please send parents to adopt them!

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Another beautiful day

Today is the last day Mark and Hansina are here in our city. We were able to spend the afternoon with them, which was wonderful! They showed the most beautiful part of the city- the pier area. I didn't realize the boardwalk pier arew was close to us and we could walk there! They have such neat souvinier stands- and lots of people go up to you trying to sell you something, whether it be a boating excursion or whatnot. It's very convienent not knowing the language...
Mark heard that James' back was hurting and he knew who to call! We had a massage therapist come to our apartment and for 40 minutes James got a massage, back adjustments for under 10 dollars. Wow. We might be calling her again. And James haircut for like 5 dollars! And we go to this amazing cafe and get beverages, soups, main meals, coffees, and 2 desserts to go for about 20 dollars. Today we splurged, we don't normally order so much. We normally eat twice per day and it costs 5 dollars per person per meal. :-)
I'm going to post some pictures from today... another beautiful, hot day here in Sevastopol!

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Hello! I can blog now!

Hi everybody. Today I met with Hansina and Mark who are also here in Sevastopol, and thanks to Hansina, she showed me the blogger app that I needed to download in order to make my posts while I'm here in the Ukraine!

Today we had a day off from visiting Jonathan at the orphanage, as our driver usually gets Sundays off. So we will visit the little guy tomorrow.

I want to say happy father's day to my father, my husband and any other dad that may be reading this blog post!

Our official court date is June 22nd. We will likely be here until July 14th or so. That will make for 40 days, the number of completion!

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so far so good

We are in Sevastopol and had our interview today and received our positive summary. now our paperwork is on a train heading to Kiev as we wait for our approval and court date. i apologize for not blogging more. i have tried, but i have a tablet, not a computer, and its not working for long posts or for pictures. find me on facebook if you want to follow us here in the ukraine and want to see pictures of the little guy! He is such a sweety, a very active happy and loud sweety!

On our way...

We are traveling to Ukraine now! We are in the Washington DC airport waiting for our flight to Frankfert, then on to Kiev! I miss my son David so much, but little Evan has been waiting almost 4 years for a family, so it's his turn now. Soon we'll be a family soon! I will keep you posted on our adoption trip daily, if possible.

1 Week Away from Leaving!

I am a week away from leaving to the Ukraine!  There is so much going on right now in our lives- lots of stress- my family knows what I am talking about.  At any rate, I am so excited to travel and meet my new son, and start bonding with him and giving him lots of love and attention!

I'm packing right now for our trip! I've received helpful advice from others to bring: laundry soap, duct tape, ketchup packs, lots of reading material, DVDs, cooking spices.... any other tips from my blogger friends who have already gone to the Ukraine before? I appreciate any otips you may have for us! Thank you!