Our Last Day In Izmail

I am a little tired of all the waiting and driving.

This is a terrible picture of me, but it is exactly how I am feeling today!

Today we waited all day long (in our apartment) to go see Olena again. Sasha received some documents that we were waiting on from the orphanage in Balta, so we weren't able to visit this morning like we had planned. We understood, and because we really want the rest of this process to go smoothly and quickly, we waited patiently.
Sasha and the orphanages have worked extremely hard to help us move things along. We are very grateful to everyone that has been involved in our process so far. Because of all their hard work, we were able to submit all our required documents to the court here in Izmail today, and found out that We will have our court appearance Feb 26th at 10am. YAY this part is almost done! After we see the judge, we can come home (not with the girls, yet) and see our kids! I am so excited about that. Then we will wait for 2 weeks and Mike or I will fly back to pick up the girls and get their passports and other necessary documents and bring them home. We don't have to leave and make 2 trips, we just chose to do that so we don't have to sit around and wait. We can't spend time with both girls so we chose to spend time with our other kids and then come back.

A random picture of dogs. I know its weird but there are tons of dogs all over Ukraine. Everywhere we go there are groups of dogs just wandering around. They are strays and they are usually in packs.

They dispersed when I got out to take a picture, but there were 7 in this rag tag group.

This is the court house where we will go with the girls. We were waiting for Sasha to submit our documents and request a date.

Now that we have submitted documents to the court we have a mandatory wait period of 10 business days (which is why our court date isn't until the 26th) I am not sure why we have to wait a little longer, but oh well. We need to pick up some other documents from the town the girls were born in and also another from Balta. These documents get submitted to the SDA in Kiev.  So sadly tomorrow we are headed out of town. I have been having a hard time today knowing that we couldn't spend anymore time here with Olena. I feel a little deflated. We have spent months and months working on getting here. I logically know that this waiting is only a short amount of time, and soon we will all be together. However, it feels wrong to be leaving here after only seeing her twice. Sadly, there is nothing we can do. If we want things to move along as quickly as possible, we have to keep moving. So tomorrow we will get back in the van and drive to Tarutyne, and then on to Odessa for the night. Then we will head back to Balta the next day, pick up documents and drive back to Kiev.  I am sick of being in the van. I am sick of waiting, I am sick of not being with ANY of my kids.
Ok, venting over.

We did finally get to spend time with Olena and some of the other kids. It was fun to see some of the other children we met over the summer. We were able to pass on messages and greetings to some of the kids from families in America. It was fun to see their faces. I think it must feel great to know that they are remembered. Mike and I gave the donated items to the orphanage and they were very grateful. Thanks again to all those that donated. They will all be used!
We got a tour around the school, but it was dark and apparently they don't leave the lights on in the evening, so most of it was in the dark, which makes it hard to take good pictures. We will be coming back for court so we will get better pictures then.

We ran into Roma as we arrived. He was leaving to go play soccer with his friends. I am so glad we got there when we did. We were able to give him his gift and get this picture.

Olena was just walking down the hallway when we walked in the door. She came running over to us. It was fun to see her excited to see us.

Svetta was coming back from a class. Yep that's an English textbook in her hands. She spoke pretty well to us!

We also got to hang out with Natasha. She is patiently waiting for her American family to come for her. Natasha came to Utah last summer with Olena, Svetta and Roma

This is a common room that we sat in for a while

We brought some German chocolates and gum for Olena and her friends. She also got a bracelet from her Grandma.

Being Silly with Dad!

We ran into some more of Olena's friends. I missed there names I will have to ask later. They were all very sweet girls

Svetlana

Natasha

Showing us around

going for a walk

The bathroom that Olena and Svetta use. Notice no stalls!

Not the best picture, but this is where they hang up some laundry and there are also sink for brushing teeth and washing hands.

This is the TV area/closet that is in Olena and Svetta (and 10 other girls) room

The girls bedroom. There are 12 girls in this room. Olena's bed is the one with the dog on it. Svettas has the yellow blanket on it.

Her closet of clothes.

This is the boys room across the hall. There are 8 boys in here.

Where the girls do their hair.

A bunch of the kids just hanging out. They all were excited to say hello to us. They were all so cute!

This is the bathroom that Natasha uses.

This is Natasha bedroom. There are 4 girls in her room.

This is the common room where the kids in Natasha's dorm area can play video games.                                                         

This boy (I can't remember his name) was so sweet. he came over to us and politely introduced himself to me and asked me my name. He said he was very please to meet me. Then he asked us where we were from, and which state. He told us that he went to New Jersey 2 summers ago, and really liked it. I wish there was a way to find families for all these kids. They are amazing and would love nothing more than to have a family!

Family picture before we left.

Love these girls!

Olena came out to say goodbye to us and the dogs surrounded her! I think she made the mistake of petting one of them. Then they all came running!!

We had a great visit, it was too short and we can't wait until we get back here in a couple of weeks.
Oh and because we had to submit documents to the court we had to pick new middle names for the girls. If you know anything about Mike and I, you will know that naming our children was a very difficult thing. Mike likes to shoot down every name I come up with. Let me tell you, this was not any easier! We finally came up with a few for them to choose from, ones we liked, and then had them choose the one they wanted. This was a difficult choice for Anastasia, because she didn't really know any of the names we picked, but not as hard for Olena. She had her friend help her.
We want to introduce you to our new daughters

Anastasia Grace Maurin

and

Olena Victoria Maurin

We are so excited to have them be a part of our family.