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
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
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
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
Thursday, June 7, 2007
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!
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!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
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
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
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
Saturday, June 2, 2007
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
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
Friday, June 1, 2007
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
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
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