I finally have photos!!! (Updated)

I know that you all have been waiting anxiously for photos! Here are just a couple! I will send more soon.

In the photo on the left, from L to R on the back row is Julia, Victor & Jenna...front row from L to R is Alex and Katelyn.

Although we just arrived home last Thursday, we have been so busy that time is flying by. We've registered VJ (who insists on being called Victor) for school. We have appointments to register Alex, Jenna and Julia next week. The girls are really anxious to meet other girls their age. The boys have discovered video games, on which I have placed a daily one hour time limit. I told them that their brains will be squishy and their eyes will pop out if they keep it up. They laughed.

We've been to the pool several times already. Also...the library is a HUGE deal. They can't believe that you can borrow books/use a computer and not pay for these services. English lessons began on Monday (for Jenna and the boys) and Wednesday (Julia). Jenna needs a bit more of a challenge so we're not sure what we will do. Julia's class is to difficult, but the boys' class is too easy.

From L to R in the above photo...Julia, Katelyn, Victor, Alex and Jenna...in my hotel room in Berdyansk!

"In my mind I'm gone to Carolina"

Wait...I'm really here!!! I love this place!!!

We arrived around 7:00 p.m. last night and we were delighted to see Bryan as well as Mike, Teresa, Emily & Josh George, who brought a welcome sign for us and had a camera in hand to record our arrival! The kids were amazed to see our minivan (not many of those in Eastern Europe). When we got home, all of the children ran to their rooms and were so excited to have a place of their own. Our neighbors (the Ferguson's) brought us dinner and we all enjoyed a slice of the "Welcome Home" cake from Aunt Gail! The children unpacked their bags and we all went to bed around 10:00. We woke up around 6:30 this morning, but I'm certain that we will need to catch up on our sleep very soon.

So now...my mind is racing about how to set up a daily routine for our large family. If you have any ideas that you can pass along, please send them my way. Everyone begins English lessons on Monday and we can't wait!

Much love to all of you and, most of all, PRAISE to God for bringing us all home safely. We're still not sure why we were called to take on this challenge, but we believe that He has something very special planned for each of these children.

I'll do my best to keep this site updated as we begin our new journey. There will be many bumps in the road and many prayers that will still be needed!

Love,
Joy, Bryan, Julia, Jenna, VJ, Alex & Katelyn Tanner

There's no doubt that I'm a city girl at heart. I am so glad to be in Kyiv! That also means that I'm an little closer to home! Only 2 more days!

We had an 8:30 appointment at the Embassy yesterday morning and then the children had medical exams and immunizations. We had lunch at McDonald's but I have a big problem...none of the children like hamburgers. They think beef is very bad meat! I guess I'll be cooking alot of chicken and fish at home. We're only waiting for visas now, which should be ready tomorrow.

I'm not sure if I'll be posting before we leave Kyiv on Thursday. If not, I'll post state-side!

Love,
Joy

Victor says I am blessed AGAIN

You won't believe this one. The US Embassy just issued a new rule that requires a different passport for the children. Now I know why God allowed our delay!!! Other American families that were scheduled to go home today are now delayed because they got blue passports. The US Embassy and customs will now only accept red passports, so these families had to travel back to Zap. to get the correct ones. Victor found out about this problem before it was too late for us! Yesterday we received 4 RED passports (even without all of the paperwork)!!! Victor is a GEM! He only had to promise to go back to Zap. today to bring them the remaining documents. So...he is traveling there this morning (without me and Katelyn). He will be back at 3:00 today, just in time for us to sign the children out of the orphanage so we can catch a train at 4:30 from Berdyansk to Kyiv.

I will post again on Monday!
Love,
Joy

OK...how about Plan D?

Talk about "hurry up and wait"!!! OK....If you have been praying for my patience, please stop. :) God is REALLY testing me! I think the better prayer right now might be for the waiting to end!!!

We did not get the issues with Julia's passport resolved today, BUT Victor feels that we still have time. We spent all morning at the passport office. Thanks for praying for the director because she was very nice and helpful! Her assistant, who was to process the paperwork and stamp Julia's passport, told us to come back at 1:00 p.m. and pick everything up. When we got there at 1:00 she had left for the day and nobody knew how to contact her. Another assistant informed us that they needed a little more information before anything could be done. SO...we'll go back to Zaporryzhia tomorrow and finish the other 3 passports and hurry back here before the local passport office closes...to finish Julia's passport. They also have Saturday hours if we are delayed tomorrow.

I think we may wait until Sunday morning and take a train to Kyiv. The more I think about it, 9 hours on a bus (with no stops to stretch our legs) will not be pleasant for Katelyn...or for me. I have also heard that the bus drivers here are not so safe. There have been many accidents because the drivers will drink alcohol, fall asleep, or both. At least we can have a bed on the train and can get up and walk around if needed. I hope that we can get the air-conditioned train car, but I am not certain that it will be possible because many tourists are traveling in and out of Berdyansk now.

Anyway...the wait is not over and we still need your prayers that everything will be completed by tomorrow or mid-day Saturday at the very latest. If we are not in Kyiv by Monday morning we definitely will not be able to make our flight on 7/12.

Thanks to all of you for following our blog! It means so much that you care!
Love,
Joy

What "Plan B"? We're on to Plan C!

Yesterday was VERY long! We left the hotel at 6:30 a.m. and arrived in Zaporrhyzia before the Department of Vital Statistics opened. We were the 3rd set of people in line and we didn't finish up there until 3:00 p.m. We had to stop by Tokmak to get the new birth certificates, which took another 2 hours, so we didn't have time to go back to Zaporrhyzia. Therefore, we left at 5:00 a.m. today to travel back to Zaporrhyzia. All of the documents were legalized and we began the process of getting new passports for the children. The passport office was so busy that we'll have to go back on Friday or Saturday.

Julia has a domestic passport and she is registered in Berdyansk, so we'll have to work on that tomorrow...hence the prayer request. The director at the passport office here is not very nice and I am supposed to beg and cry tomorrow so that she will fulfill our request. If she refuses, we probably won't make our flight next Thursday. PLEASE PRAY that this lady's heart will be softened!!! To make matters more complicated, Victor had to go to Donetsk to help another family with court proceedings and will not be accompanying us to the passport office. He found a local 18-year-old who has studied English and she will do her best to help us tomorrow. She has NEVER been a facilitator for adoptions before. PRAY for her also...that she will be very persuasive!

AHA Staff - You'll be excited to know that I made a deal with Victor today. I told him that if we get Julia's passport, he must quit smoking...and he agreed! All of the walking that I've been doing is great, but breathing the second-hand smoke that I've been breathing while in Ukraine has probably cancelled out my heart-healthy activity!

If all goes well tomorrow we will be traveling to Kiev on Saturday night, arriving there at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday. We'll have medical exams on Monday and an an Embassy appointment on Tuesday. All paperwork should be completed by late Wednesday, just in time for us to fly out on Thursday. As you can see...there is NO wiggle room. I'm a little nervous!!!

Love you all and I can't wait to see you!
Joy

Plan B

When Plan A doesn't work out, there's always Plans B, C, D, E & F that Victor can fall back on. We received the court decree today! Tomorrow (rather than today) we will leave at 6:30 a.m. to go to Zaporhyzia, Tokmak, back to Zaporyzia and then back to Berdyansk. We are working on updating passports and having the court decree apostilled. As of right now, we (ALL) will be leaving for Kyiv on Wednesday by bus (8-9 hours). I"m looking for the most economical travel and that's it. I'm not sure if I will have time to post an update tomorrow, but I will try. If not, I'll post again when we get to Kyiv.
Love you all!
Joy

T minus 13

Thirteen more days until we board the airplane! Yippee!!! Please pray that there will be no "glitches" that would prevent us from making this flight. I am pretty confident that Victor (facilitator) has already worked out all of the kinks that normally would have caused a delay...but with this country, you never know!

No major news to report. The kids hang out with me all day and go back to the orphanage each evening. We have no plans for today...maybe we'll go back to the beach. I'm glad I have sunscreen!

I probably won't post again until Monday...unless something major happens. I don't always have an opportunity to get on a computer here in the lobby. Anyway, Monday will be a busy day for us and I will have a better update for you then.

Thanks for your encouraging Bible verses, prayers, and encouragement! These things strengthen me daily!

Love,
Joy

I think my pity party is over!

I know that I may have sounded a bit negative in my previous postings! I'm sorry about that. All in all...I am glad that I am able to spend time with these children every day and I look forward to getting them home in an environment that I am more comfortable with. The transition will be difficult for them and we are prepared (as much as possible) for that.

Victor (our facilitator) will be back on Sunday night. He said that next week will be very busy and I will welcome that change with open arms!

The boys have already arrived this morning and Julia and Jenna will be here around 11:00. Don't have any plans right now. We'll see what the day holds!

Love,
Joy

God is good!

Thanks Sharon S. and Bev for your encouraging comment to yesterday's posting. I am so thankful that I can go to God daily for "re-fueling". He is the ONLY way that any of this has been possible and I know that He will continue to be faithful. In everything we will show them the love of Christ as we will try to impress upon them His character. I also can't wait to take these children to church! There they will find a fellowship of believers that will embrace them. We are so blessed to live in America. Please never take this for granted.

Love,
Joy

18 days and counting!

Hello everyone! Not too much to update you on today. I am beginning to experience what it is like to parent teenagers. Daily I pray for wisdom and discernment. I also have to realize that it is more difficult to parent them in this environment. They are in their culture, their language, etc. When we get home, they will depend more on me and Bryan for guidance. Anyway, we've gotten through a couple of situations just fine. The children, especially the boys, have not been taught how to reason/work through problems, rather they become frustrated, angry or sad. This is going to take some time to learn, but will improve as we learn to communicate with each other.

Jenna graduated from the orphanage on Friday evening (9th grade). They all dressed up, received their certificates, sang and gave speeces to their teachers/tutors. It was very interesting to see that some of the girls were wearing 2nd hand wedding dresses for their attire! Depending on their status, these children now have the option to go to a 10-12th grade technical school (provided by the government), or they will live on the streets...very sad. I must say that I'm impressed with the education and care that the children at the Berdyansk orphanage have received. At other orphanages (like Tokmak) the children are not so fortunate. Although Alex is now 10 years old, he has only completed 3rd grade with un-impressive marks. VJ has completed 6th grade with similar results. I think both boys will repeat these grades in America, but the language barrier will make it tough for them for the first year. I am certain that Julia will be fine to move on to the 11th grade and Jenna to the 10th. We'll have to see how that works.

I'm working on switching hotel rooms today. All day long there is noisy construction above & below our room...and it's getting OLD! Maybe the next room's A/C will work a little better!

I love you all!
Joy

Bored in Berdyansk

I'm glad that we brought our portable DVD player, but I can only watch the same movie so many times. With all 4 children visiting us each day, the hotel room is feeling very small. We try to get out & do something, but there are only so many "free" things to do.

Victor (facilitator) will be going home to Kiev on Sunday, so I'll be without him for a full week. He will come back around 7/1 or 7/2. He found out that our court decree will be ready on 7/3...that's when the adoption will be official. We'll then stay in Berdyansk for a few more days before going to Kyiv for 3-4 days. I have already booked our flight home for 7/12.

Anway...sorry there's not a more exciting update to give you. We're simply spending this time getting to know each other the best that we can. All of the children will begin English classes on 7/16. They are excited and eager to learn how to communicate with us.

I plan to keep this blog going when we get home. This way, you can track our progress for awhile.

Thanks again for your prayers and your comments to this blog. It is so exciting for me to get new comments each day!

Love,
Joy

The verdict is in...

The judge approved our adoption today! It was a very simple process. We were asked several of the questions that many of you have asked already such as "why 4?" and "why teenagers?" The children were called in individually and were asked how they felt about us and if they want to be adopted by us. All said "Yes"...of course! So now...tomorrow is day 1 of our 10-day waiting period. Of course, there is a Ukrainian holiday on our "day 10", so we'll have to wait another few days (weekend) for the court decree on the following Monday.

Katelyn is really enjoying her time with her new brothers and sisters. If they don't understand her, she simply continues to repeat herself until they understand! She's getting really good at some form of sign language that seems to make sense to everyone.

Alex is starting to interact with us more and more each day. He loves playing card games. He is still shy about trying English words, but when he gets to America he will realize that it is a necessity! We look forward to beginning lessons with an English tutor when we get home!

Bryan left after court today...a taxi to Zaporrizhya, another overnight train ride to Kiev, and finally his 3 flights home...Amsterdam, Detroit & Raleigh. We already miss him very much.

Thanks again to all of you for your prayers! Please keep me and the children in your prayers as we finish out our very long time here. We are marking the days on a calendar!

Love,
Joy

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all dads!

Today is our last full day with Bryan here. We will miss him greatly!!!

We'll see all of the children this afternoon and Victor will meet with us to prepare for a big day tomorrow. We have much to do before court at 2:00!

Not much of an update today. Look for an exciting entry tomorrow.
Love,
B, J, J, J, VJ, A, & K

To the beach...again

Yesterday we decided NOT to go to the water park. It turns out that it is a little more expensive than we thought, so we decided to save money and go to the beach for a couple of hours. All of the kids really seem to love the water.

VJ is a very sweet boy. He wants so badly to learn English so that he can communicate with us. He holds the camera to take a picture and says, "To say cheese!" He has also mastered our polite words, such as "please", "thank you" and "you're welcome." Last night he learned, "See you tomorrow." He always wants to hold our hand, holds every door for Joy, and insists on carrying bags for Joy. He quickly began calling us "Mom" and "Pop".

Alex is also a very sweet boy, but he is very shy. We are certain that his behavior is a product of his previous environment. It will take some time for him to develop trust and love. He will not talk to us, but laughs and smiles occasionally. Although he is 10 years old, I cannot imagine him beginning school this fall with other 10 year olds. He is probably on a 5- or 6-year old level. He definitely looks to Julia as his parent right now...and that is OK. She is helping him to adjust to a family. We are praying that he will quickly adjust and that he will trust us as his parents soon.

We forgot to tell you about the CBN Training Center for orphans. A few days ago we met Ludmila and Mikhail, a married couple who runs this center. We had tea with them and they prayed for us. Although we didn't understand the prayer (Russian), it brought Joy to tears...as does everything lately. The center is absoulutely wonderful. Ludmila said that about 50 children utilize the facility right now. They are working very hard to spread the word and get more children involved. During our 10-day waiting period, Joy plans to go back and volunteer as needed.

So today we will spend time again with all of the children. Victor has gone back to Kiev for the weekend and will be back on Sunday night. We will meet with him then to make a plan for Monday. That will be a very busy day with court and Bryan's departure. Again, let us tell you how wonderful Victor is as our facilitator. While we were in Tokmak picking up the boys, Victor stopped by the Department of Vital Statistics to check the birth records of all of the children. This is usually done after the 10-day wait, when the court decree is issued. It turns out that Jenna's name is misspelled, as well as the parents' names. Normally, a situation like this would set us back for another month...late August trip back home. Victor did some serious begging for us and the judge will allow us to have court as scheduled and the birth record can be changed without another court hearing. Praise the Lord. Victor said that we are very blessed. Amen!

Thank you again for your comments. We can't wait to read them every day. Keep praying!
Love,
Bryan, Joy, Julia, Jenna, VJ, Alex & Katelyn

Today we brought Alexander and Victor (VJ) from Tokmak. It was great to see all of them together for the first time. We had our first dinner together and had to pull 4 tables together!

Alex, VJ and Jenna went back to the orphanage already because they are tired. We are spending some time again this evening with Julia. She is a delight! Her English is getting better every day and she really understands most of what we are saying. This is very helpful with the other kids.

Tomorrow we will go shopping for a few outfits for Victor and Alex. Then, we will go to the beach!

I'm sorry that we cannot send photos right now. We will have to send them when we get home in July.

Much love to all of you!
Bryan, Joy, Julia, Jenna, VJ, Alex, and Katelyn

Some ice would be nice

We will have our court date on Monday, June 18th at 2:00 p.m. and Bryan will take an overnight train to Kiev, go to the US Embassy at 8:00 a.m. and catch his flight back to the USA. As for Joy, Katelyn, Julia, Jenna, VJ and Alex...it looks like they will not be going home until mid-July...4 more weeks! Joy is missing home and is marking the days off on a calendar.

On Monday we took a taxi to a beach on the peninsula. The water was clean there so it was nice to cool off in the sea. The air conditioner in our room doesn't work very well. It usually feels better outside than in our room...and that's not saying much.

Carnival rides have been set up on the boardwalk and they are open at 6:00 p.m. every night. Bryan and Joy tried one out last night. Let's just say that it is not thing to do on a full stomach...or at any time for that matter. Katelyn tried some cotton candy that tasted like propane. From now on we'll just stick with ice cream.

We are happy to report that we will be able to pick up the boys in Tokmak tomorrow and bring them to the Berdyansk orphanage. The orphanage has room for them to stay, but we will have to pay for their meals. Their sisters are very excited to see them. Also, Bryan is happy that he will be able to spend several days with them before he goes home. We are planning to take all of the children to the water park on Friday. We understand that this is very affordable...120 gryvna ($24) for the family for an entire day! The price for food and clothing here is VERY inexpensive. A rather large meal for 5 people costs about 75 gryvna ($15)! As for clothing, although it is priced well, for the most part we would not wear these styles in America.

This morning we will take our laundry to be cleaned and then go to the supermarket for more water and snacks. These will get us through the busy days when there is no time for a meal. We will spend this afternoon with Julia and Jenna and we are planning to go to the Student Training Center, opened by CBN as a safe-haven for orphans. Julia goes there very often and is excited to introduce us to the people who work there. We will all have dinner together tonight.

We look forward to sending an update about the boys in the next couple of days.
Love,
Bryan, Joy & Katelyn

Happy Birthday, Joy

Today is Joy's birthday! We will spend the day with Julia and Jenna and, of course, we will have cake!

We recently moved to an air conditioned room. Did I mention that it's been pretty hot here? We have been blessed with a few milder days, but otherwise it's been hot. Joy would like to put a plug in here for Clinical Strength Secret (thanks for the tip TG)! It's good stuff!

Yesterday we went to the beach with the girls. It was nice. There is a water park not too far away, but we are waiting for the boys to get here before trying it out.

The Benson's, an adoptive family from Wisconsin, just left Berdyansk last night. Their 10 day wait is over and they can finally go to Kiev to complete medical exams, etc. We will miss having them around. They are adopting 3 sisters whose father is in prison for killing their mother. They were sent to the orphanage when they were very little, and their father refused to give up parental rights from prison even though he will be there for life. Four years ago the Benson's began their process and hired a lawyer to take parental rights from the father. Finally, they will soon be on their way home with 3 beautiful daughters (Sveta, Olya and Leyna).

Our facilitator, Victor, is in Kiev this weekend because some missionaries have just arrived that he works with each summer. He will be back at 7:00 a.m. on Monday morning and he has given us fair warning that next week will be busy. So...not too much to update you on today, but we will hopefully have a paperwork/court progress report on Monday.

Love you all!
Bryan, Joy & Katelyn

Seafood anyone?

Thank you all so much for your comments. It is WONDERFUL to know that we have friends and family reading our blog and praying for us! Berdyansk is a nice city, but we can't wait to get back home!!! Victor has been a SUPER facilitator and has been working very hard for us, 24 hours/day, 7 days/week. He told us this morning that we will either have court on June 14th or June 18th. We should know for certain tomorrow. Regardless, Bryan should still be able to make the original flight that he scheduled for June 19th. Joy, on the other hand, will be here for 3-4 more weeks...the 10-day mandatory waiting period after court will be spent in Berdyansk, then on to Kiev for medical exams, visas, passports and birth certificates for the children. Victor spoke with the Berdayansk orphanage director and she is allowing the boys to be transferred from Tokmak to her orphanage for the remainder of our stay here. We hope this can be done by the middle of next week.

Sabatini Family - We experienced the "dried fish" yesterday!!! YUCK!!!

For those of you unfamiliar with this "delicacy", Ukrainians love to buy dried fish, rip the heads and skin off and eat everything else. It smells awful. It looks awful. Bryan tried some to make the girls happy and he couldn't get it down. Joy simply refused to try it. Katelyn would hold it and kiss the lips! That went on for awhile because she was making the girls laugh. For those of you who know Katelyn, you should be VERY surprised that she even touched it.

Another thing that Joy is tired of...dill. It's on EVERYTHING. Oh yeah, and the salads here have no lettuce!

We love you all! Keep posting your comments!
Love,
Bryan, Joy & Katelyn
P.S. After the court date I guess I can officially add 4 more names to our signature line!

Very long, but GREAT day...

Today started with our "0fficial" meeting with the orphanage director, the inspector, assistant to the inspector and the girls. It was a very easy meeting. The girls wrote their petition to the court which states that they wish to be adopted by us. They were also asked if they wanted to change their names. Yuliya immediately said, "Julia Diane Tanner". Zhenya wanted to take my first name as her middle name and she chose the first name of Jenna because it is similar to her given name. So..."Jenna Joy Tanner" it is!

We spent a little time looking at the library and crafts at their orphanage and then left for a very fast & bumpy taxi ride to Tokmak. It normally takes 1 1/2 hours to travel to Tokmak from Berdyansk, but our taxi driver got us there in 50 minutes!

The inspector that Victor worked with in Tokmak had never processed paperwork for an adoption before, so it took about 1 1/2 hours for him to explain everything to her. It is actually to our advantage that this is their first time. Victor told them that he needs their paperwork within 1 or 2 days, when actually (by law) they have 10 days to complete everything. Victor is GOOD! After he met with the inspector, we ALL piled into the VERY small taxi (6 adults and Katelyn) and traveled to the orphanage. I saw Oleksander (our youngest prospective adoptee) standing by a nearby tree with his head down, but a large grin on his face...it seems that he is VERY shy. We exchanged and hugs and then Vitaliy (the 12 year old) took me by the hand and led us into the director's office. These boys are precious and they were so delighted to see us. Yuliya (guess I need to get used to "Julia") had visited them and shared pictures of us. They indicated that they want to be adopted into our family. They were then asked to write their petitions to the court, at which point Oleksander started crying. The director took him outside and when she brought him back in, she explained that he was crying because he is a slow writer and he was afraid that we would not want him because of that. As you can imagine, I started crying and then assured him that his writing ability would not change our desire for him to become our son. We were asked to help them with their names. Oleksander chose "Alexander (Alex) Bryan Tanner" and Vitaliy will now be "Victor James (V.J.) Tanner". As you can see, all of the children chose names that are very similar to their birth name.

My heart was broken as all of the other children stood at the door of the director's office and watched as two of their friends were being visited by people who want to adopt them. I would absolutely take all of them if I could. Please, please, please encourage your friends considering adoption to remember the older children. They truly have no hope unless someone takes them out of their environment and gives them a loving home. All of the children followed us outside to the taxi, we said our goodbye's and then traveled back to Berdyansk.

Next steps...our facilitator, Victor, will go with us to the notary tomorrow to finish up the paperwork for the girls, and then we will have a little more work to do to complete the paperwork for the boys. Once that is done, all of the paperwork will be sent to Kiev and we will wait for a court date.

Love,
Bryan, Joy & Katelyn

Don't Hold Your Breath

We have not had much to update you on for the past couple of days. We spent all day Sunday with Yuliya and Zhenya. We went down to the boardwalk on the sea and played a few arcade games, played cards & watched a movie in our room...SO glad that we brought the portable DVD player. Zhenya's English is not as great as I had hoped it would be, but Yuliya seems to understand most of what we say to her. She sometimes has trouble finding the words to communicate to us, but she often helps Zhenya with translation. Zhenya had to remain at the orphanage yesterday. Yuliya lives in a hostel so she has the ability to come see us. She came to our room yesterday afternoon and went back around 11:00 last night. Both of the girls really love Katelyn and are having a good time with her.

Victor spent all day yesterday trying to obtain the chief official's signature so that we could go back to the orphanage for our "official meeting" with the inspector, the orphanage director, and the girls. The chief was in a staff meeting and did not sign the referral, so Victor is working on that this morning and we hope to go to the orphanage around 11:00. We will be there for 1-2 hours and then we will travel to Tokmak to hopefully obtain the inspector's and chief's signature on the referrals for the boys. At that point we will be able to go meet them. We are SO ready!

Can't wait to give you the next update!
Bryan, Joy & Katelyn

The Happy Reunion

Our "secret" meeting with the girls was wonderful! We went to the orphanage and obtained history about each of them...no surprises. They are healthy children. They were born in Tokmak and all four children were originally sent to the Berdyansk orphanage upon the death of their mother in 1999. In 2003 their grandmother and father died. Their grandmother's sister had the boys moved to the Tokmak orphanage so that she could visit them more frequently. Although the Tokmak orphanage is for "special needs" children, we understand that they have no neurological/medical conditions, but are very ACTIVE!!! We were told that the boys always behaved well when they visited their grandmother, and the Berdyansk orphanage director feels that their behavior in the orphanage was due to the fact that they had lost both parents and did not want to be institutionalized. She also placed a call to the Tokmak orphanage director, who indicated that the boys are doing much better.

After this information-dump, Zhenya and Yuliya were brought into Galina's office. The tears that I tried to fight back could not be contained. Zhenya said, "Mama, please don't cry" in her broken English. I hugged them for so long that Bryan had to ask for his turn! Katelyn is also very thrilled to see them again. We stayed for awhile, talked & played soccer & basketball.

Because Yuliya is no longer living at the orphanage, Zhenya will walk to visit her tomorrow and we will arrange another meeting in the city. We will go to the market and get to know them better.

On Monday our "official" meeting will take place, so we must act as if we are seeing each other again for the first time. Victor told Yuliya and Zhenya to think about keeping their names or changing it to an American name. We like their names, but will leave this decision up to them. They had a mother that they loved very much and who gave them their names, so this will probably be a difficult decision for them. They will tell us their decision on Monday.

As previously stated we will go to see the boys on Tuesday. Yuliya visited Alexander 4 days ago for his 10th birthday. She said that he is very excited and cannot wait to meet us...the same for Vitalik.

We will post additional newsworthy activity ASAP!

Love,
Bryan, Joy & Katelyn

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

The first thing I would like to discuss: You know that list that people sometimes make of things they must do before they die? The train from Kiev to Zaporitze should NOT be one of them. However, we did survive and we have de-contaminated ourselves...at least temporarily.

We traveled by van to Tokmak with hopes to see the boys today. Unfortunately today is some sort of celebration (Protection of the Children Day), which honors people who take care of children...so the orphanage inspector was nowhere to be found. The inspector must first approve our referral before we see the children, so we'll have to try again on Monday or Tuesday.

From Tokmak we traveled to Berdyansk...again the same situation. Nobody knows where the inspector is so we did not receive approval to see the girls today. However, our facilitator (Victor) has a good relationship with the orphanage director, Galina, and we will see the girls at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow.

We were entering the Berdyansk hotel and ran into the Benson family from Wisconsin. They are adopting 3 girls. We hope to catch up with them again for a few meals. It's so nice to hear the English language! The Benson's were getting into taxis with several of their girls' friends and I heard one of them say, "That is Yuliya & Zhenya's sistra!" They must have recognized Katelyn from the pictures that we sent previously. I'm sure the news will travel fast and Yuliya and Zhenya will be waiting for us when we arrive tomorrow.

The next post should be an exciting one!
Bryan, Joy & Katelyn

Trouble posting a comment to our blog?

Some of you may have had difficulty posting to our blog without setting up an account. We have changed our blog settings so that anyone can now post a comment. We'd love to hear from you! Your encouraging words mean so much! (Primo-Thanks for the tip!)

Our SDA Appointment

So this morning at 11:00 a.m. we met with the powers that be over at the SDA (State Department for Adoption). We were able to see photos of the boys...finally!!! They are precious. The photos were taken when they first entered the orphanage, so we look forward to meeting them in person. The SDA gave their support for our decision to adopt the children and we will have their referrals between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday). At that time we will take a train to Zaporitzhe (sp?) and a taxi or bus into Berdyansk. Our facilitator, Victor, will be accompanying us on the trip and will stay with us throughout the remainder of our stay in Ukraine. My American Heart Association friends will be delighted to know that we have been walking ever since we arrived here!!! We have walked all over the city and have enjoyed seeing the sites while waiting for our SDA appointment...if only we had our pedometers with us!!!

Katelyn is doing very well. We were worried that she would not travel well, but she has been very pleasant.

Thank you all so much for your prayers. This is just the beginning of the "paper-chase" so keep praying that everything will continue to go smoothly.

With much love,
Bryan, Joy & Katelyn

We made it to Kiev...

Hello dear friends & family! We made it into Kiev on Sunday, May 27th after 3 VERY tiring flights...and our luggage made it too! We have finally caught up on sleep and found a computer today so that we could update you. We came into Kiev a couple of days early and we have enjoyed touring the city. I am not sure if we will be able to send photos before we return home, but we will try. Tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. we will go to the SDA for our appointment. After we receive paperwork on Thursday morning we will take a train to Berdyansk and travel overnight for arrival there on Friday...when we will be able to see the children. Thank you for your prayers. We'll be in touch again soon.

Love,
Bryan, Joy & Katelyn

Our journey starts here!

Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you so much for your continued prayers and words of encouragement! We are happy to provide this link for you to stay updated on our adoption process. We will be leaving for Ukraine on May 26th and we hope to keep this site updated during our travels. We also welcome you to post comments. Please join us on our journey!
Love,
Bryan, Joy and Katelyn Tanner