School Day...

Please see the School Day "page" as there are many photos. We will write more later. We get to take our children here and there now, so we will be gone more, and will update when we can.

We had a very good day! : ) Keep Praying for our timing...God is doing miracles, really, but we just don't know if we'll make the May 7th. So we just can't say anything yet about it. I don't want to give up hope, yet, I don't want to have false expectations. Keep praying, and THANK-YOU!

Love Alesia & Chris : )

Off to the US Embassy

This morning we headed off to the US Embassy to sign a few documents that will be needed later in the process and to see where it is. We needed to sign these documents since it doesn't look like both of us will be here once we get everything done to bring the kids home. The Embassy itself is quite easy to find, just a short bus ride from our apartment, although we got a ride there today. We then took the bus back from there to our place.

Then it was off to the orphanage for Alesia and Jonathan and off to work for Chris since I had a talk to give today. All went well and we hooked up again in the evening and had a McDonalds chocolate shake as a treat.

Tomorrow we will head to the orphanage early and then there will be several going away parties for the children at their school that we will attend. We may also be doing some driving around during the day for more document collection.

The long holiday weekend starts on Saturday and they have off until Tuesday. It looks like the weather is going to ge great with highs here around 80 and sunny. Chris will head to Berlin for a day starting on Monday and returning on Tuesday to help with an issue that they are having there.

So, we hope to get as much paperwork done in the next week or so to keep the process on track. Thanks for your continued prayers.

Chris and Alesia

Driving and waiting

Today with our court decree in hand we spent the day driving around to different offices of vital records to get the new birth certificates that need to be issued in our childrens new names with our last name with us as the parents. The day started off well, although we had a pretty long wait. but that is to be expected. Later in the day, we ran into a snag. There was a small technical issue with our court decree and that prevented us from requesting the birth certificates for two of our children.


I should mention that part of the driving around was due to the fact that our childrens records were located in two different offices. The other part was due to the fact that we are also doing this process with another family so we needed to visit the office where their childrens records were located. So, we have half of the births certificates, need to get the other two, then a special tax number and then we can apply for new passports for the children in their new names. After that, medical examinations and applying at the embassy for their exit visas and then we can go. Unfortunately that all takes time and there are a number of holidays next week that will slow down the process.

We continue to need prayer for the process and our safety, for the care and safety of our children back home and for our endurance here and the continuation of the bonding process with our children. We got to see a bit of the countryside out of Kyiv today and that was nice. The process of securing all of the necessary records for the the adoption is interesting, lots of different offices, changing between local and national offices, and the dependence on the various timing and how busy the clerks are. But it is fun to see all of the interactions.

Please continue to pray for us, both our efforts here and then our bonding as a family once we get back home.

Thanks and love in Jesus name, Chris and Alesia

Passport Photos Today, Birth Certificates Tomorrow

We took our children and 2 others to get passport photos. All went well. We will upload a picture from Chris' camera tonight. With Jonathan we had 7 children with us and it gave us a little taste of future parent hood. It went well.

TOMORROW...we will be picked up at 8am with the other mom from MN, who is flying in tonight. We need to go to 2 different places for our children's birth certificates, and we do not know about her. This is the process that can take up to 4 DAYS...so please pray for a miracle.

Also, Alesia's dad, Owen, is having surgery today at 4pm, so keep him in your prayers for comfort, patience, and a good spirit.

We will keep watch on Jonathan's teeth, and keep all this in our prayers. Each day now, is a countdown to whether we all fly back, or if just Chris or Alesia with Jonathan, and the others later.

THANKS so much for your prayers! Alesia & Chris

Pray for protection & speedy paperwork!

Jonathan chipped his 2 front teeth! He said it didn't even hurt much but it looks awful. Chris is concerned about getting it fixed here, and of course I'm concerned about not getting it fixed. I'm in the process of e-mailing our dentist back home for advice.

Chris & "the boys" got hair cuts today by Tanya! What a blessing for them to not have to go to a shop some where. Chris cut Jonathan's in a buzz, and everyone thought Papa was "crazy". Katya said she would do some hair cutting at home.

I am really tired today..on the tail end of this cold. We need prayer for speedy paper work, and protection from harm. It reminded me today of how "protected" we have been, with every step (and there have been a lot of them) we have made here.

Blessings, in our Lord & Savior, Jesus.

Alesia & Chris

Singing in the Rain...Saturday...

Katya sings in a beautiful gown! Celebration with Tanya

Katya in Ukrainian Dress. The children dancing today.

Our Andri! Wow! Natasha, Sophia, Tanya, Andri & Katya

More Ukranian Celebration. Our beautiful daughter (dorchka).

Natasha playing with the camera. Jonathan in front of the SDA.

We left Kiev today in the sun, and arrived to Novosilky, in the rain. So I wasn't quite prepared for that. The later, we left Novosilky in the sun, and returned to Kiev in a deluge in the streets, and a light down pour!

But it was a beautiful beautiful day! I don't know what was more memorable...the children's show, where Katya wore a beautiful gown and made us cry, or watching her cry and being able to talk to her about it, and understand each other, or when a new boy talked to us, asked us why were were in Ukraine, and then had a very suprised look on his face, and said "Congratulations" in a 'I can't hide my joy' kind of way!

We were later invited to watch Tanya in her concert at a Festive Ukrainian Holiday celebration. As I learn more about the history behind the celebration, I will share it. After all the celebrations, we watched G-force in Russian and English subtitles with the kids, and Katya fell asleep on my lap, and Sophia, fell asleep on the couch. Natasha later took some photos with me.

We hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed our family and our day today. We hope that you are well back home, and finding joy in HIM and in your day. Please start praying for a miracle for next week. Our timing is probably not going to come true, unless a miracle happens.


In Him...Love Chris & Alesia.

In Hot Water!

We are really not "in hot water" but our hot water works. Someone came today while we were gone, and turned a knob. I'm sure after Chris looks at it, it will all make sense to him. We had a short day today, as we did not make a lunch, and thought that we were going to meet someone here about the water, and the children have a show tomorrow that we can go see, so I thought they might have last minute preparations to do. I need the rest from my cold, and hopefully Chris will come home early. It's a shopping, clean up day here today. We will be at the orphanage all day and evening tomorrow, and that should be fun. Jonathan is hoping that we can show this Guinea Pig detective movie (in Russian). We picked it up for home. Oh..by the way, the 0% was not skim milk, but more of a plain yogurt. It's not bad if you mix some jelly with it, or have it with fruit.


No photos today, Andri discovered that I forgot to bring my memory card. He is so smart! He is doing good with his printing with Papa, and the girls all wrote English today, things they will do in America, and some things they are doing now. And then we played English Pictionary on the board. They looked up words in the dictionary. It was cooler and brisker today, and all the tulips were blooming. Their home is very nice.


All is well here, love Alesia, Chris & Jonathan, and thank-you for your prayers!

No Hot Water...oops

We brought little notebooks for the kids today to write
English in. They seemed to like them, especially Katya.

We write the lyrics to songs that they know for starters, and that seems to be engaging for them. Also they prefer cursive because it is prettier than printing. Andri does some printing with Chris each day, but even he would probably do cursive, nicer than many 5th graders back home. Natasha was cutting napkins downstairs during this photo shoot. I love the photo of Katya and I, and for some reason, it makes me miss Jaclyn as well. We miss everyone back home, and are doing our best here to keep things going well! With my cold, I slept 3 hours today, and still hope to get to bed early!

We have been having less and less hot water, and noticing that our apartment is not as hot! I guess they turned off the "boiler" water with the nicer weather, BUT when we came in here the first day, there was something unplugged from our bathroom wall, so I left it unplugged. I thought it was to the overhead lights that didn't work.

Anyway, upon looking today, that plug goes to our separate hot water heater! OOOPS! It's plugged in now so we should have hot showers tomorrow.

Keep praying..we're in the tired, long haul, crabby phase of our waiting, and keep praying for our family back home.

Love Alesia & Chris

When given lemons..make lemonade...

Katya & Jonathan with cookies. Mama & Andri watching Moses.

Sophia, big sister to Jonathan! Natasha playing with the camera.

Jonathan wanted to buy lemons. There are many fruit and vegetable stands everywhere. He likes to eat them plain. I used one today to make lemonade in the quick tea maker. It's a pot, that you pour water into, push a button and wala', hot water.

Tried to teach English today. We did well until their brains started hurting and we came across the work "play"...

Here they were taught..

Plural = plays. For example We plays, They plays. And singular is play. He play, She play...WOW! Try to explain that one! I just told them that English is crazy and to believe me! I really think for awhile, Katya thought that my English was wrong!

I did printing with Andryusha. The girls and their friend Anna, who is coming to America also, wrote the alphabet in cursive. Katya and Natasha did the most writing by doing sentences. I had given them a music card when we came, so we wrote out the words to the song. We'll do what I call math/English tomorrow. Learning the names of math terms, etc. I use the chalkboard and we work hard for about 1 hour. Then they have various things to do with the workers, to prepare for a show coming up on Sat. We were watching the Moses movie today when we left.

Jonathan finds whoever he can to play chess with or whoever will let him teach them. Chris is working all day today, making phone calls to Germany & Minnesota for 3M . And he is getting the same cold that I am getting over now. I hear a lot of coughing on the buses & metro as well. Jonathan just did part one of his Reading & Language Arts test, and finished 20 minutes early. Hope he didn't need to check anything. He is pining for the computer to play chess online. I get to have it for 15 more minutes : )

We are good! Love from Kiev. Alesia, Chris & Jonathan.

Tuesday...

We have no news. We are well, kids are having fun wearing Jonathan's hockey jersey. Chris did writing/printing with Andri. I did cursive with the girls. We watched the Joseph movie during quiet time, and Jonathan and I went shopping at a large market. We are tired and going to bed early tonight. Alesia is getting over her cold. Jonathan has discovered www.chesscube.com and his user name is JCH in case you want to take him on in chess. He plays from about 5-7pm time frame here so (about 9-11am MN time). Chris has some bigger projects this week, a phone conference with Germany and a Gate Review back home at 3M. All of us are healthy, except Chris might be getting the cold..and I'm getting better. We love seeing our children and getting to know the helpers, and doing a little shopping. Thank-you for your prayers! Alesia & Chris

Monday of Week 5....

It's me..can you see the crusty nose! I'm ok! Sweet picture.

Sophia.."Come on Jonathan"...she is wearing his jersey and asking him to take a photo. She is a fun sweet girl. Papa is getting some last giggles from his Natasha Joy, and Andri Paul before we head out. Katya had left to go do some chores and gave us big kisses and hugs.

It was very windy today in Kiev. We are fine, Alesia is getting a little better, and found some decongestent and throat losenges. Chris continues to work at 3M. Thanks for your prayers! Alesia and Chris

Saturday & Sunday

Chris' flight was cancelled for Sunday due to the ashes from Icelandic volcano. He said there is a small chance he will fly out on Monday.

Alesia has a cold.

We are showing a movie and some photos in the evenings of Sat & Sun.

We will update later. Thanks for your prayers! Alesia & Chris.

Last night we had a night we had a nice evening out as a family at the Shato and our friend Peter C. joined us. See our "Free Advertising" page we are creating.

Today we went to the Lavra with our children, Natasha, and a guide, Vladimir. We do not have his photo here.

The Lavra, an 1100AD sacred burial ground, and current living home for many monks. The religious community is home to more than 28 orthodox churches, and today we saw at least 2 weddings. It was very interesting to see early christian founders buried in the modernized caves. Many people come here to kiss their mummified grave sites, and to pray. We purchased a DVD that is in Russian & English to help us better understand what we saw today and to remember this time with our children.

Natasha accompanied us to the Famine Museum and the Lavra. The Famine Museum is shown with Katya & Sophia and birds above. Very interesting & sobering. We hope to visit this again to obtain a book describing this history in Ukrainian.

At the Lavra, there was a statue with 3000+ eggs. And after the Lavra, we went to a Micro Miniature museum, just as we were leaving the artist from the micro miniatures appeared, and gave us his signature, and a photo! It was a wonderful moment for us. Some of his beautiful, exquisite art is, YES, placed on the head of a pin or in the eye of a needle!


After all the excursions, Natasha & Sophia, Katya, and Daddy, all slept in the car!

It is raining and we are just resting at home after the nice outing. We are doing well. Jonathan continues to need a little encouragement and structure. Thanks for your prayers. We are watching the news, literally around the world, and feel very globally connected, to the Russian adoptions, the volcano in Iceland cancelling flights, the earthquake in China, Alesia's brother visiting Korea, the Moscow subway bombings, and the crash of the Polish leadership. We find it all sobering as we are here in Ukraine. We are so grateful for our health and safety.

Love, Alesia & Chris.

A Walk in the Park...

Two Tatiana's, 6 Haak's, & 2 Cantu's : )

Natasha saying good-bye to school friends.

Jonathan & Daddy (Papa).

Smile Mama (Natasha loves to take photos).

Today felt as though our adoption process is a "walk in the park". I think it is because we have some work behind us now, and we have a break. Chris has made his reservations for Sunday, returning Thursday, so I think we can manage those few days without him.

We had a nice day today celebrating Sergey's birthday, and walking in the park. I started to teach Katya the English parts of Math (plus, minus, divided by, times, symmetry)...and she showed me how they do long division a bit different than we do it. But I showed her ours, and it was easy for her to pick up.

Tomorrow we will go on a surprise tour with our children and an English speaking guide and of course a chaperon. You must always have a chaperon, because of the language difference, and so people do not think you are "taking" Ukrainian children. It's important for every one's safety here.

Jonathan is having a little bit of a harder time today, but we are turning that ship around slowly.

All of our children are healthy and well, as is Chris & I. Tonight we will celebrate a little with a new friend we made here. He is the manager of a local brewery and very good kind company.

We are so grateful for your prayers. Prayerfully consider adoption. Keep Chris' travels in your prayers. Love Alesia & Chris

Some Fun at the AquaPark!

Mama with Sophia & Natasha....................Papa with Andri & Jonathan

Getting pizza & juice at the swim up bar!!!!...............Natasha & Natasha!

Bumper Boats..............................Katya & Sergey

Sophia & Natasha............Jonathan & Chris on the fun slide!

All smiles today at the AquaPark. Little Natasha and Mom did not want to go on the slides at first, but we did, and had a good time. Andri, was a little nervous as well, and then went down with no troubles. The wave pool was fun, but made me nervous for Andri. He did great! PashaSophia, Katya, Chris, and Jonathan, and our helpers Sergey & Natasha all had a blast! Chris plans to travel to Germany on Sunday - Friday. I guess every day he works, is a day he can take us camping back home! It has all worked out well. We did not do school today. Jonathan will do e-mail, and watch Discovery & Animal Planet. Those are our "English" channels. Chris went to work, and I need to catch up on chores, as yesterday was a longer day. We are hoping for an earlier night tonight. It is easy to want to stay up, because everyone is awake and doing things back home in MN. Thanks for all your prayers.

Some have asked about the 10 days? It is a law, and we can not start the birth certificates, or visas, or passports until after it is done. We can start all of that on the 26th. We could have flown back home, but that just adds to the cost, and changes all the routines already established, so instead Chris will travel to Germany for 3M, and Jonathan & I will continue to visit our children.

We hope to return on May 7th if all works well, but we are not for sure if everything will work out. Passports can take long, etc. So we appreciate all of your prayers, as we see God's hand in answering them! We will keep you posted on the 26th of our time line. And for now, it is a little "vacation" for us and the children. They are not in school, so we visit, play, eat and talk together.

Love Alesia & Chris

Court was Successful, and fast! God is good!

Katya & Sophia......................................Sophia on Jonathan


A drink for parched children! .............Andri at supper.

Thank you Victor for a wonderful day. Celebration Dinner.

Natasha, our social worker, and Sergey our driver.
Our family at our special dinner after court. Thank-you for all your prayers. Our court session was faster than most, and all went well. Thank-you Jesus! I told the children that it was a miracle how fast it went, and to give thanks to God (Bog) tonight at bed time. Questions went well, except when it came to Andri, the judge really layed it on thick! He did well, and smiled through the whole thing, and she thought he was cute. The children were excited about waiting all day for court (suit) at 3pm. We went shopping after court for the orphanage, and then had a nice dinner at a little cafe above the store. While Katya, Chris, Natasha & Sergey shopped, I had the littler ones have a drink, as they were thirsty. I learned the words for son (seen), and daughter (dorchka) today, and used it freely with hugs and kisses. Tomorrow will be a fun day out with our family. Tomorrow starts the 10 day clock of waiting before we can get birth certificates, and passports. THANK-YOU for your prayers! Alesia & Chris