Merry Christmas!

Hello Everyone!

As promised, here are our new family Christmas photos. We have had three full days at home so far and still have not finished unpacking two of the 6 suitcase (imagine)!

We thought we only had Thursday to get the girls acquainted with Babushka Hughes. Dan and Grandma Hughes woke up at 4:30 Friday morning and headed off to the airport. Then Dan would head in for his first day of work. However, he was called back to the airport to pick Grandma up shortly after saying goodbye. Grandma had been bumped from her flight because the plane was overweight due to luggage. The plane left with three empty seats! Grandma had been given tickets for the overnight flight Saturday to arrive Christmas eve morning(isn't that fun after a month of watching 3 grand kids!). As it turned out, grandma was able to accompany Julie on a couple of shopping adventures with 6 kids for Christmas outfits and really realize she wanted to go home!! Jason arrived safely late Saturday, and Grandma left to go back to GA after getting a seat this time.

The girls have been having fun checking out the house and watching Christmas specials. We attended church this morning with our 7 children, where the girls were welcomed by the congregation with Drastwicha, Russian for "Hello", as Pastor Kenny guided them. It was an awesome experience to be back at our home church and praise our magnificent God for the blessings he has given our family. We also were able to meet several people who e-mailed and prayed for us. Thank you so much for the prayers to all of you. We still welcome them and will definitely use them as we raise our children and look to God for guidance while carrying out this task.

After Christmas service, we came home and took our first family photo. Today we are heading off to Wal-mart to make pictures for our late Christmas cards and pick up ingredients for the famous Ukrainian Borsch soup for Christmas eve dinner.

We will continue to update our blog site monthly at the beginning of the month so you can see how the transition period plays out and your prayers are answered.

Blessings for this glorious Christmas time when our God gave us the most wonderful gift of all, the gift of eternal life through his son, Jesus Christ. May you all have a very Merry Christmas and a blessed and Happy New Year.

Peace, Love, and Blessings,
Dan and Julie

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles!!!

(To the right: Americans at last! Photo of girls in D.C. with 2 American icons, U.S. Soldiers and STARBUCKS!!!)

A Marathon Month!!!!

We are home, praise GOD! Everyone made it home safely. After a 1 1/2 hour taxi ride to get to the train station, a 12 hour train ride to Kyiv from Berdiansk, multiple metro and taxi rides with 3 girls while in Kyiv, 4 plane legs from Kyiv to Fresno (28 1/2 hours), and a 1 hour drive home to Hanford, all of the kids are in bed asleep after a warm and joyous homecoming.

Last night, while pulling an all-nighter packing, we almost packed away our Russian dictionaries. Then it donned on us that we would probably still need them to communicate with our new daughters, duh!!! Thanks to Anya and Victor meeting a van at 3:40am, we were able to get to the airport and checked in without a huge hassle. Thank you so much Anya and Victor for everything you did for us. Without you guys and God, this adoption couldn't have happened.





Many, many, many hours later, Dan's mom and the kids met us at the Fresno airport, along with Steve Barr, one of Dan's buddies from work. Steve was called in for logistical reinforcement (i.e. we needed his Tahoe to get all of the luggage and Dan home). Of course, Dan couldn't go alone, his little buddy, Jacob, had to go too.



Once we got home, the girls got their first look at our new home and their new bedrooms. After playing a couple of hours with their new siblings, we finally got all of the kids tucked into their beds. Luda, Galina, and Nastia enjoyed snuggling up into their new beds. Hopefully, they will maintain that feeling of warmth and security for years to come.

To close for this evening, we just wanted to send out infinite "Thank you's" to all of our dear friends in Kyiv and Berdiansk. Without these people, our lives would not be as full and blessed and it was a huge honor to get to know all of these wonderful, selfless people of God. The list is as follows: Marilyn (Julie's Mom), Elaine (Dan's Mom), Anya, Victor, Julia (Anya's daughter), Julia (SDA), Luda (translator #2), Larissa (translator #3), Karen (translator #5), Steve and Kristi Weber, Dima, Misha and Luda, Georgia and Galina.

To everyone else who prayed for us and supported us as well, it would not have been possible without God hearing your prayers. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Adoption is a true miracle of God and you all have helped to make our miracle come true.

Jason will be in town on Friday and will get to meet the girls for the first time. They are all excited. We plan to take our complete family photo for our Christmas cards. By the way, they will be late. We will continue to post to the BLOG through Saturday in order to post the Christmas family photo.

Love and Blessings,
Dan and Julie

Coming Home!!!!

Hello Everyone!

We are getting ready to leave Anya and Victor's right now. They have been gracious enough to host us the past 3 days. What a truly amazing couple. This is just a quick note to let everyone know that we received our Visas today and will be heading home in the morning. We have to leave our apartment at 4am. Yeah! Anyway, we really appreciate all of the prayers and support we have had from all of you. It is evident based on the fact that today is the one month point for us. This is record time and most importantly, it is God's time. We can't wait to get home to see the rest of our family.

God Bless you all,
Dan and Julie

Visas in hand, America, here we come!

(To the right: Luda, translator #2, and our girls at medical.)

One step left!

Praise God! We are one step away from having our adoption process completed in Ukraine. We went to the medical exams today for the girls. It was a Ukrainian medical clinic which does exams for people applying for Visas. The staff was very nice. Adoption clients had priority over other patients at the clinic, and we completed our exams, paperwork and first Hepatitis B vaccine for Luda, all in 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Then we went for the third time to get photos done for the girls. We needed different sizes and views for the passports, medical exams and visas. However, the specifications have changed over time and the printed material was out dated on some of our directions. We stopped by CBN’s (Mission Emmanuel in Kyiv) bookstore around lunch time and purchased several Christian books, DVD’s and CD’s in Russian for the girls. It was a comforting feeling to know even though we couldn’t read the packaging, this material would be a blessing for the introduction to a Christian walk for the girls. CBN is a light and hope for Ukraine.

(Below: Julia and SDA psychologist with us at Ukraine Adoption Agency.)



We took the girls back to the SDA (State Department for Adoption) today to meet up with our friend and department English translator, Julia. We are excited to go to lunch with her to Mc Donald’s tomorrow! We also introduced them to the psychologist who interviewed us for our appointment on Nov 21 to gain approval for the adoption process to begin here in Ukraine. It was strange to be in the office with our girls knowing almost a month ago we walked in so uncertain of how God would play out the timing and plan for this process. We saw several prospective adoptive parents waiting in the lobby and they curiously watched us and the children as if just wishing they too were with their children. We were told by the staff at the office they rarely have families bring children back by for them to meet. We believe this overworked staff really needs to see the children with their families to encourage them in their hard work and future adoptions. It shows them their hard work pays off in the faces of the children!

We spent the remainder of the day with our dear friends, Anya and her husband Victor. They have been such a blessing to our lives and have been a main strength in the process here in Kyiv. Towards the end of the evening, Anya finished our documents for the embassy visit at 8:30 in the morning. She even used the famous string, needle and tape procedure which makes Ukraine documentation so unique! If we only had these materials a few weeks ago, we too could have doctored our documents up a bit and saved us a trip to a village with our translator/taxi driver Grisha!

(Below: Anya stringing documents for us.)



The girls were exhausted from the walks around Kyiv today and even fell asleep in the taxi ride back to the apartment. For the second night it was a humbling and heartfelt time to tuck the girls into bed and say prayers with them. They chatted for a while before falling asleep. It would be so wonderful to be able to understand all of their conversations and thoughts right now.

After the embassy and Mc Donald’s lunch tomorrow, we plan on meeting up with Larissa and spending more time with our friends. We leave early at 6:50 on Wednesday and are so excited to be heading home to get our whole family together for Christmas! Please pray for smooth up coming traveling and all of the children and families who are in the adoption process.

Blessings to you and your family!

Dan and Julie

Medical is done, Embassy, here we come!

Back to the starting point to wrap things up!

Hello all!

Today was a day to settle for a couple of days into a Kyiv apartment and visit friends! We arrived around 8:00 into the Kyiv train station and loaded all of our bags into a rented van. We got to the apartment in downtown Kyiv and it was great. We then headed out to take the metro one stop over (we thought) to Hillsong Kyiv’s 10:00 church service. We have been looking forward to being there for as long as we have been doing our adoption process. Our pastor’s in VaBch are from Hillsong Australia and hosted the pastors of Hillsong Kyiv to our church. We quickly learned the English version of the metro map was doing us no good. We also tried to ask for directions to the one stop we needed and received directions (in Russian) which didn’t seem like just one stop over. So, we decided to take a cab. We arrived about 30 minutes late, but it was a wonderful time. We visited with some of the team who spoke English and listened to the sermon on the translator head sets. We also purchased a couple of CD’s for the girls to take back home from the Hillsong Kyiv kids and praise and worship selection.




We then took the metro station again and this time arrived at Anya’s stop successfully!! Praise God. We had a wonderful visit with our friend of two years and her husband, baby and Babouska (84 years old). The girls decorated Anya and Victor’s Christmas tree and we also planned our time out tomorrow.



We took a cab to Steve and Kristie Weber’s home for a pizza dinner at 7:00. Steve is the head of CBN Kyiv, also called Mission Emmanuel. We had a wonderful time and were able to meet all six of their children, three of whom are adopted. The children played for several hours while the adults visited and exchanged adoption stories about the children and the system. We were also able to borrow their internet phone and call to change our flight home one day earlier!!! God is so good. We are thrilled. We added another leg to the trip which now routes through DC, so please pray for excellent weather and no delays or cancellations. This change will also allow the girls to spend a day with Grandma Elaine Hughes, who has been with the kids at home for a month, instead of 6 hours before heading back to GA.

Tomorrow we are going to have the girls American medical exams done and pray we have time for the embassy appointment.

We really enjoyed tucking our three new daughters into bed tonight and saying prayers with them. They were excited to settle into bed after a long train ride last night and a day of visiting so many wonderful friends whom God has sent into our lives to make this adoption process possible. Wow, it is hard to believe we will only have two more days left in the Ukraine before heading back to the rest of our family.

God’s love and blessings to you all!

Dan and Julie

We are in Kyiv!!!!

(To the right: Everyone on the train, finally!)

Hello Everyone!

Well, we are finally on the train back to Kyiv. It has been a long road and there are still things to do before the finish line, but we are thankful to God our prayers continue to be answered. We started the day with Dan and Luda, translator #2, going to the train station to purchase tickets. We were able to get them originating in a city called Melitopal. It is slightly bigger than Berdyansk and is about 1 ½ hours away. This train will take us to Kyiv, leaving at about 8pm and arriving at 8am.

The next part of the day was spent gathering some small gifts to give to the orphanage staff for the tremendous help that they have been to us. After that, we proceeded to the orphanage to meet with Galina, the director. She showed us a large 3-ring binder with photos from all of the children that have been adopted under her tenure. Many times while flipping through the pages and reminiscing about the kids, Galina was moved to tears. It is so refreshing to see an orphanage director with such a wonderful heart for her children. After finishing the photo album, we asked to be taken on a tour of the orphanage to places where there might be some needed things to pass on to others led to help. We were shown many of the outstanding discrepancies that need to be fixed, but cannot for lack of funding. There are many broken windows with tape over them or two panes pieced together, windows which are nailed in place which are too old to open and close, a leak and warping in the gym ceiling, and a room with broken and torn gym equipment unable to be repaired without funding. The children’s restroom is in great need of re-tiling. Then there are the more simple things like children trying to sew Christmas costumes, but they are in need more material and thread.

(Below: Window panes and tiles that need repair at orphanage.)




While we were taking the tour, the girls were packing their things and saying goodbye to all of their friends/family. Luda and her friends paced the halls crying and holding each other. It was very moving and difficult to watch them go through this and especially difficult watching their friends cry and wonder, “Why not me?” Two of Luda’s friends asked her to have her mama and papa help find them families. They are beautiful girls the director said are very sweet and good. After the goodbyes were, we piled into Grisha’s taxi and proceeded to the hotel to get showers and pack.

(Below: The girls and some of their friends from the orphanage.)



We checked out at 5pm and went to our dear friends’ home, Misha and Luda. What a sweet God-filled couple they are. Unfortunately, due to our departure time, we were unable to spend more than ten minutes with them. They will be sorely missed. Praise God for a couple of Christians like them to act as role models for the children leaving the orphanage!

After yesterday’s travels, today’s taxi ride to Melitopal was quick (1 ½ hr). We said our goodbyes to Grisha and his father. The girls gave Grisha a big hug each and said that he was their personal driver. We had a snack in the train station while waiting on the train to arrive. Once it did, we had less than ten minutes to get 6 bags, 5 backpacks, 3 food bags, and 6 people onto the train. Needless to say, we made it happen after trying to get on the wrong car once. Julie and I just finished discussing how it feels like time actually flew by in Berdyansk, even though it didn’t feel that way while we were there.

We are so very excited to be heading back to Kyiv to finish up the process of American medicals on Monday and the embassy for visas Tuesday. We will visit our dear friends, Anya and her family. We are going to try to attend the Hillsong Kyiv Church service tomorrow, in addition to meeting with Steve Weber, the head of CBN Kyiv. Steve is actually the guy who helped get us started on this wonderful path of adoption.

Thank you all once again for all of your thoughts and prayers. Please continue to pray for a speedy and early return for us.

Today we claim Psalm 20: 4, 5, 7 -- May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Blessings,
Dan and Julie

Multiple Miracles!!!

Awesome God, Awesome Results!

Wow, a day of awe! We truly experienced a day full of God’s awesome moving of people to do his will whether they wanted to or not. Our facilitator and CBN staff said this has never been done before! So many steps, in so many cities, even for one child would be a miracle. But leave it to God!

We started the day by splitting up. Dan and Luda, translator #2, headed to the court to pick up the decrees at 8:05. Julie went to the orphanage to get Luda, our 14 year old daughter, to go to the notary (we were looking forward to that!), to pick up the girls’ old passports which we had to have to get new ones.

Picking up the court decrees was quick. So, Dan and Luda headed to the Zags to get Luda’s new birth certificate here in Berdyansk. This lady didn’t seem to agree at first this would be done quickly! After Luda talked to her and explained we were trying to get up to Zaporozhzha, she told them to take a walk and come back for it. Mean while, Julie arrived at the orphanage and the director was not in! The staff didn’t know when she would return, and they were locked in her office. However, within 10 minutes she returned and we headed out. We called Natasha (our translator #8) to meet us at the notary.

At first, the notary was not as helpful when yesterday she agreed for us to come at 8:30 (it was 9:00). She finally decided after 30 minutes to write and notarize Luda’s statement agreeing to come to America, but only after Natasha said she had a different notary we could go to (notary fees are some of the most expensive fees in Ukraine and she didn’t want to lose the business). She gave us a 1 ½ hour time line. At 9:40 Luda and Dan arrived at the notary with birth certificate #1!

At 10:00 we decided again to split up. Luda headed with Grisha to Vasylivka to start Nastia and Galina’s new birth certificates. However when she called to inform the lady she was on her way, she told Luda she was heading to Zaporozhzha for the day and wouldn’t return until Monday! Again, Luda explained our schedule. The lady agreed to stay and wait!! 11:50 Luda arrived at the office.

At 10:45, Dan, Julie, Luda, and Natasha finish at the notary and head to the hotel to pack lunch and get our cab. 11:20 Dan and Julie take Luda back to the orphanage with Grisha’s dad’s taxi and head to Vasylivka to meet up with Luda and Grisha. We arrive at 12:50 and Luda was still waiting. At 1:15 we get birth cert. #2 and #3!! We head across the plaza to get copies of them and have them notarized. What a difference experience at a notary in a small town. We were in and out in 20 minutes and she was not even in the office! They called her to come and complete our copies.

At 2:35 we pulled into the Regional Authentication office. We needed to have our 3 birth certificates verified for the embassy to verify we are the girls’ parents. Again, she was not in the office and it was not their usual day to see people so no one knew when she would return. Finally, the secretary agreed for us to leave our documents and we headed to the passport office.

At 3:05 we arrived at the passport office to turn in our new birth certificates and court decree. The lady hardly spoke to Luda and Luda had to ask if we should wait or go. The lady said I will check which didn’t seem hopeful to Luda. 15 minutes later the lady emerged and told us to continue to wait. When she returned from another office, Luda asked if we could go to the bank to pay authentication fees and return after the Registrar’s office. She said “yes” and told Luda she worked until 5 and for us to return before then.

After paying our bank fees, we arrived back at the Registrar’s office at 3:45 and she still was not in. Finally, the registrar’s arrived at 4:15 and we had our documents
by 4:25 and were off again back to the passport office. By 4:40 we had 3 new passports and had completed many days worth of documentation by the hand of God using many willing and unwilling parties!! We passed out many boxes of candy today but didn’t have to pay a single unofficial fee to anyone. (Again, another move of God)

Tonight, our girls will spend their last night at the orphanage. This must be a thrilling, sad, and anxious feeling for them. We will meet with the orphanage director tomorrow morning and head back to Kyiv in the evening. We believe God moved in such an immense way today to show us again how he is in control and will be with us in the future. Scripture for the day: But you will not leave or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard. Isaiah 52:12

God bless,
Dan and Julie

Big God, Small Problems!

(To the right: Pictures from parts of the outdoor market)

Hello Everyone!

Even though we dealt with the first real rain here in Berdyansk, we got everything done we needed to do prior the 10 day wait completion tonight at midnight. We were greeted this morning by a phone call from Luda, translator #2. She arrived at 8am from Kyiv. We quickly mapped out our day, thanks to Anya. Off to the notary we went for a second shot at notarizing the passport application. Our notary had a big change of heart and agreed to have all of our documents waiting for us in the morning at 9am, praise God! We also had not remembered we needed a certified translator to complete the application and God supplied this! While we were discussing the process with the notary, a woman and man came in and out quickly signing documents in the office. A short time later the notary called to the lobby and the woman came back in. She was a certified English translator!!! Natasha translated our documents for only 30 Hirvna ($6) and said she would return in the morning to translate again. Unfortunately, we didn’t get her photo for you, but Natasha has officially become our translator #8.

(Below: Dan and Luda, translator #2, eating Plov.)



After the notary, we hit the market again. Luda wanted to shop also and enjoyed the reduced prices compared to Kyiv. We ended up buying some gifts for the kids at home and just getting some fresh air. Following a quick outdoor lunch eating Plov, Georgian beef fried rice, we proceeded to the passport office. There we had all of our documents in order and set the itinerary for tomorrow in Zaporozhzha. We also called the court to make arrangements to copy our court decree, and praise God all fifteen copies had been made (complete with the infamous tied string!). They will be stamped tomorrow morning and ready for pickup at 8:15am.

Later, we picked the girls up at the orphanage along with their friend, Yira Ruban, and took them out to dinner at our much-loved pizza place. We had dinner and then crammed EIGHT people into a compact car, aka Grisha’s taxi, and took the girls back to the orphanage.

We are trying to finalize all of our plans here to head back to Kyiv on Saturday afternoon if all goes well getting new birth certificates and passports tomorrow. We will try to blog tomorrow, but if we have to stay overnight in Zaporozhzha we will not be able to do an update. We will try to complete one before heading back to Kyiv. Thank you all for your continued support and words of encouragement. To quote our good friend Dima, “Big God, no big problems!” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Blessings to all,
Dan and Julie

One day and counting!!!

(To the right: Luda and girls from orphanage, and Galina with her teacher and classmates)

Hello Everyone!

Well, we have one more day left in our ten day waiting process. The ball drops on Friday morning and we will be off to all of the different places to gather all of the documents and head to Zaporozhzha. We spent the first part of the morning getting all of our documents together for our visit with the Passport Office tomorrow here in Berdyansk. Anya has been keeping us on task with itineraries and checklists everyday from Kyiv, thank God for her!

Today we had coffee with Misha, Luda, and their son, Paul, in our hotel room as they were handing off packages for us to take back to the US for them. Afterwards, it was off to the market again. Even if you just go to look, it really does feel good to get outside for a bit. We have learned not to speak too much out there. Otherwise, the vendors go ahead and tell their friends that the Americans are there, and sure enough, our prices seem to magically increase, sometimes by as much as double. There are some really good vendors though. They like trying to speak English to us, while we do our best to butcher their language. It’s OK!

(Below: Dan and girls near a kiosk)



We had a good day with the girls. They really enjoy seeing our taxi driver, Grisha. He has become our primary mode of transportation for most places here outside of walking distance. We had more English lessons today, trying to learn the basics. We basically thought of the things we always have to tell Jacob to do and tried to teach the girls. It went pretty well. I think they are looking forward to going to Kyiv on Saturday and seeing Anya again. Julie and I definitely are. We can’t wait to see all our friends there and to be one step closer to being home.

We have enjoyed the wonderful and supportive emails from people back home. It is such a blessing to have friends and family like we do. Thank you all for your support. We can’t wait to get home to be with our family again. We continue to ask for prayer and favor from God for a safe and expeditious return to the States as the time approaches where one thing can hold you up for days (AKA a Ukrainian notary).

God Bless,
Dan and Julie

To serve others!

Hello Everyone!

Yesterday, Monday, Dan started out by going with Dima to pay some fees related to the new birth certificates and passports at a federal bank here in Berdyansk. This took a while since there had to be 8 different transactions to complete the process. Dan and Dima then went to a small coffee and pastry shop. The “sweets” here are sold all over the city on sidewalks and stores. They even have small portable shops called “Kiosks” on corners to provide for your sweet tooth and weight gain needs!! Just wanting to sample since we may not get the chance again, we stop and purchase something almost daily. So much for losing weight in the Ukraine!!

Today, we went to the outdoor market and purchased some warm winter clothing for the homeless boy in front of the hotel, all for about ¼ of what it would have cost in the states. We feel led every day to give him food. Lately, he seems to have picked up a bit of work with the construction workers laying brick at the entrance of the hotel. When we approached him to give him the clothing, the 2 workers across the parking area seemed to watch us as if looking out for him. When he looked into the bag and saw his winter coat, pants, hat and gloves he became so excited he yelled across the lot to the men and then gave Dan and me a huge hug! As we walked away and turned to look at him, we saw that he began changing immediately on the sidewalk layering his old and new items. It is truly a humbling and moving experience to realize we are so unworthy of being the hands of Christ. Yet because he loves us so much, he has given us the opportunity to pass his blessings on to others. We have talked to our CBN staff about this boy and have seen the police talking to him a few nights ago. So, we pray we will learn more.

Today, we are organizing our documents for Friday’s travels around to get court decrees (Berdyansk), birth cert’s (Berdyansk and Vesyvlica), and passports (Berdyansk and Zaparozhzha). We make a trip to the courthouse Thursday to make copies (15) of our court decrees. The court does not have enough staff to do this, so Luda (facilitator #2) will be returning on Thursday morning to lead us through the process and prayerfully head back to Kyiv Friday late or Saturday.

(Below: Kids from the orphanage playing soccer and at dinner)




We continually realize how great the need is here in Ukraine and everywhere else in the world. It is a truly humbling experience to be over here and seeing it first hand. We appreciate all of the prayers and support for us and our journey. If anyone feels led to help or even to adopt, please feel free to email our friend at CBN in Virginia Beach. Her name is Nataliya Khomyak, nataliya.khomyak@cbn.org, and she will gladly point you in the right direction.

God bless,
Dan and Julie

Love others!

Hello Everyone!

We just got home from having dinner with Misha and Luda here in Berdyansk. What a neat family they are. We started the day off with picking the girls up and coming back to the hotel. Luda was not feeling well today, so she took a nap while Dan took Galina and Nastia to the market for fruit.

After returning from the market, Luda seemed to be feeling a bit better and we went out to look for new shoes for the girls. Afterwards, we came back to the room and the girls got baths. They really enjoy the big bath tub.

5:45pm rolled around and it was time to take the girls back to the orphanage. After dropping them off, Julie and I went to Misha and Luda’s for borshch and grilled fish. What an amazing feast! We had a wonderful time visiting with our new friends in God. They truly are doing God’s work here in Ukraine by opening up their hearts and home for the orphans in the city.



(To the right: Luda making Borshch for Dan and Julie, Yum Yum!)

After dinner and dessert, we headed back to the hotel where we saw a homeless boy, about 14 years old, out in front of the hotel we have been seeing the past several days. He is not in an orphanage, and after asking the hotel front desk personnel about him, we learned that he lives on the streets. Right now, it is around 0 deg C every night and he has nothing but a light, worn-out, winter coat. Everyday, there are sights like this over here and it makes us realize how much we have and how much we take for granted in America. We want to do so much, and realize what we are doing here is just “the tip of the iceberg” of need around the world. That sounds pretty elementary, but it is necessary to tell ourselves that every day we go to the orphanage and see all of the lonely, lost, and desperate faces we pray one day will have a family. I guess God can open up your eyes even bigger when you are so far out of your comfort zone and have to totally rely on him for direction and support each day. John 13:34 “God has given me one new commandment that I should love others just as He has loved me.”

Thank you for all of your continued support and prayers. We ask that you all keep praying for all of the orphans here and all over the world. May God bless each and every one of you?

Blessings,
Dan and Julie

Take care of the Orphans!

(To the right: Precious, little kids from the orphanage just after dinner.)

Hello everyone!

Yesterday, Saturday, Anya (from Kyiv via phone), Dan and Dima (CBN Berdyansk) had a long meeting with the passport agency here in Berdyansk. Anya translated to Dan after Dima told her what the lady was saying. It was progressive, informative and helpful. Praise God! These steps need to be done because Luda is 14. This office has to run a background check on Luda. They also will update the girl’s names on their tax ID numbers since the children will have dual citizenship until 18 yrs. old. At 18 the girls will have to pick their citizenship either the U.S.A or Ukraine.

Since our trip to Zaporozhzha, we have learned God was sparing us further delay in not getting the passport application notarized. At the meeting with the passport office in Berdyansk, we learned there we needed more information for them. Had we notarized the application we would not have known to do this step in Berdyansk. It is a blessing to have these thing started during the 10 day wait, and we continue to praise God for his direction and for the judge who has given us God’s favor.

We also went to the grocery store for some more “American” type shopping. Yes, we had everyone watching us due to our different style of shopping (bulk, children and groceries). If they could only see us once we get home!!

Later today, we are invited to dinner at Misha and Luda’s home again. They are so wonderful and despite the language barrier we do well together. Misha and Luda speak some English to our 15-30 words of Russian!! So, dictionaries are a must for each step outside of our hotel room. Wow, my purse will be lighter once we return home.

Tomorrow, we have some more document preparation to do to organize the girls’ paperwork for the passport and birth certificate office. We are progressing forward with our knowledge of independent adoption with the full assistance of the CBN Ukraine team.

Blessings to you and thank you for the many prayers,

Dan and Julie

More Red Tape!

(To the right: Grisha, Karen, and Dan eating at McDonald's; Grisha, Julie, and Karen in McDonald's parking lot)

Hello Everyone!

Today was a 12 hour day! Wow, praise God for his favor and protection today. We started out with our favorite taxi driver, and new translator #6, Grisha! Yes, our first stop was to fix documents in Vasyvleka for the classification of Nastia and Galina as orphans. We had already done this with Larissa (translator #3), but the documents were not bound together with the typical string through all the pages in the ice pick holes and then taped to the paper, therefore not acceptable to the notary as “official”.

This event deserves the history of its conception. We needed a Ukrainian citizen to show a passport to obtain this new document. Since we were running low on translators, Dan ran the idea by Larissa via phone to have our cab driver go into the court building and pick up the documents. She said, “this may work” and called the cab driver and orphanage to make arrangements. So, yesterday we had to obtain permission from the orphanage director to have a new document made for us again. When we arrived in her office to pick up the document with Karen Springs, aka translator #5 “the American who speaks Russian” and wonderful friend, the orphanage director asked who “Grisha…” was on their permission slip. You can imagine her shock when we told her it was our cab driver!!! Yes, I think she thinks we are crazy Americans for sure.

Anyway, our new translator, Grisha did a wonderful job obtaining the necessary documents from the court and could you believe when he came out of the office again the documents didn’t have the string!! Dan suggested we do this back at the hotel with our sewing kit, but just to be safe we went back in and Grisha and Karen explained what we needed.

We arrived in plenty of time to go to the McDonalds’s in Zaprozhzha!! Eat your heart out Helen, Joshua and Jacob! Grisha told Karen he had only had McDonald’s once before and commented it was better to eat at home!! We picked up another official translator (#7) Ludmila to accompany us to this region’s Regional Registrar’s office to verify our adoption documents. This step is to release the new birth certificates for the girls. This is needed to obtain their passports. Praise God, after much disagreement with the judge here in Berdyansk that we could start this process without the 10 day waiting period. The registrar gave us the verification which is good on Dec. 15th. We showed her the order which said she could START the process. Now we can go to the Berdyansk and Vasyvleka (1.5hr away) offices to obtain our birth cert. first before heading to Zap (2.5hr away) to get passports on the 15th instead of making three trips there in one day. We also drove around to 6 notary offices to get our passport application filled out and notarized. However, we were told “today is not a good day to need a notary”. All of the notaries were in a regional meeting today and most were not returning to work afterwards. We need a translator to do this work, so watch out for our update on translator #8 to follow soon!

Sadly, we took Karen to the train station for her trip back to Kyiv tonight. It was unbelievable we were saying goodbye to her. She will be returning to the US next week for Christmas, and we will not be able to see her in Kyiv. What a wonderful woman of God and so giving! We are so blessed to have the wonderful team of Christians working their hearts out for this adoption.



(To the right: The Zaporozhzha Train Station)

Our drive back to Berdyansk from Zap was tense. The fog was horrible, and we could hardly see past the front bumper. We saw at least 5 bad accidents. Grisha, 22 yrs old, did a wonderful job. Thank you so much Anya (translator #1) for all of the work from Kyiv for arranging the day today!

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and prayers. We are so blessed to have wonderful friends and family like you all.

Many Blessings,
Dan and Julie

What down time!?

(To the right: Kids at orphanage)
Hello Everyone!

The past two days have been pretty busy, as usual. (When’s the down time?) We started off yesterday by meeting Dima and visiting the CBN Orphanage Training Center here in Berdyansk. The center is being built to help orphans who have already left or are about to leave the orphanage. It will train them in computer and social skills that they will be able to use as young Christian adults in Ukraine. The center has been funded and paid for completely by donations through CBN. Without the center, the kids would have 2 choices for post high school schooling. The boys are trained to be auto mechanics at a trade school and the girls are trained to be bookkeepers. The training at the center is headed up by a wonderful team including a Christian couple, named Misha and Luda, and Dima. They are all wonderful spirit-filled people and it has truly been our pleasure to meet them. Unfortunately, the orphanage director is all of the sudden not in agreement with allowing the kids to visit the center because of the new, spirit-filled Christians that are running the center. Please pray for God’s favor for the team, center and children. The children love the team and are upset about the director’s change in attitude.




After visiting the center, we met with Luda and Misha for coffee, tea and sweets (candies and cookies). Afterwards, we picked up the girls and went to the local supermarket. We continue to turn many heads there by shopping like Americans (4 bags of groceries) and 3 children in tow, since the average Ukrainian family has one to two children.

Today, we started off with spending the first half of the day trying to get the court decree from the court appointment 2 days ago. We need this document to begin our paperwork hurdles, starting tomorrow. While Dan and Dima tackled the paperwork problem, Julie and Karen hit the market to knock out a little Christmas shopping. They changed course quickly after learning our documents had the wrong date on them and we would not be able to process documents today. We all met back at the hotel for lunch in the room. Throughout the whole morning, we have had a constant phone tree activated with Anya (Kyiv), Larissa (N. of Kyiv), Dima, Karen (Berdyansk), and Luda(Kyiv). The final outcome of all of the calls was we have to make a trip to Zaparozhzha tomorrow to get the court decree validated and to start some early processing of our other required documents (i.e. birth certificates, etc). Please pray this direction is correct and we will be able to accomplish some necessary steps to obtain the birth cert. and passports for the girls to be able to travel back to Kyiv on the 18th of Dec.




We had a great time, as usual, with the girls today. We got our passport, visa, and medical photos taken of them and will begin some processing for that soon. We are still getting a little “tude” every now and them from Nastia when she doesn’t get her way. Unfortunately for her, she doesn’t realize just how stubborn her new mom and dad can be. No way will she win these battles with the seasoned parents.

We finished out the evening by having dinner with Dima and Karen. Tomorrow, Karen heads back to Kyiv after helping us with the documents tomorrow. We appreciate all of the prayers and blessings we have been given. Julie and I have been thinking more and more about being mother and father to 7 children and we settled on our new favorite biblical saying, which is, if Jesus can feed the multitudes, he can feed our family! Thank you all once again for your support and prayers.

God Bless,
Dan and Julie

Court was a HUGE SUCCESS!!!!

(To the right: Karen, Sasha, & Marina at orphanage)

Hello Everyone!

Praise God, we now have 7 children! Court went well and we now have 3 more daughters. We still have to wait the 10 days to make it completely official, but for all intents and purposes, we have added 3 new sisters to the family.

We started the day by greeting Karen and Valery to Berdyansk. They arrived at 8am this morning. We had a nice breakfast and afterwards, Dan and Valery took some documents to the judge prior to our designated court appointment today. After a few phone calls to make sure everything was in order, we got everyone gathered at the court. We had to wait a while for the prosecutor to show up. However, after she arrived, we were invited into the judge’s office to begin the court hearing. Present at the hearing were us, Valery (our translator), Ladies #1 & 2, the orphanage lawyer, the judge, and the judge’s secretary.

During the hearing, we were asked questions about our intentions for the girls and details about our home and jobs. After answering all questions, Lady #2 was asked to stand and give her/the state’s recommendation. Praise God, she gave us a favorable recommendation. Next, they asked the girls to come in one by one and tell in their own words if they would like to come to the U.S. and live with us. After everyone had given their inputs, we were asked to step out while the judge made her decision. After about 10 minutes, we were asked to come back into the judge’s office, where she read to us her decision to change the names of the girls. She told us that the girls should be with us. Obviously, there was much celebration after that. It was so emotional in the office that even lady #2 was crying. The total time for the court proceeding was about an hour.



(Above: Karen and girls outside of court after hearing; All of us and Judge after hearing.)

After court, we got Valery to the bus station and visited with the girls at the orphanage. Since it was so late, we were unable to bring the girls back to the hotel. We will see them tomorrow at 2pm. They were all very excited to be sisters now.

Thank you for all of your prayers. We hope to get a copy of the court decree on Wednesday morning and will be able to start the birth certificate/passport paperwork early in hopes that we will just have to pick it up on the 15th of December.

God Bless,
Dan and Julie

A beautiful day!

(To the right: Hotel construction where the crew moved all of the concrete slabs by hand as well as installed all of the bricks in the sidewalk in a matter of days!)

Hello Everyone!

Today, we had a great day with the girls. We picked them up at 10am and then went to the outdoor market. We bought sweaters, jeans, and shoes. We communicated using our calculators, fingers and Luda! After dropping the things off at the hotel room, we walked to our favorite pizza place here in Berdyansk. We are obviously recognized there, because Luda was given a form to fill out and then an envelope. It contained a discount (skitka) card!

After lunch, we went back to the hotel for a while before going to our friends’, Misha and Luda, home. They had prepared a wonderful meal for us. Misha and Luda had invited Julia Savizkaya, a prior Berdyansk orphan, to dinner to be our translator. Julia is now 16 and is no longer allowed to be at the orphanage because of her age. However, she still has a sister at the orphanage and 2 brothers at another orphanage nearby. The good news is that she and all of her siblings are in the process of being adopted by a family from the states. Misha and Luda’s kids and our girls had a lot of fun together. As we left, our girls asked if they could return tomorrow.



(To the right: Luda & Julia and all of the kids playing)

Tomorrow, when we see the girls it will be to take them to the court for our appointment, praise God! We are very anxious for our appointment tomorrow. We ask for prayers and God’s favor for a favorable court judgment. We are going to ask Valery to clarify the judge’s statement to Larissa that we can start some documentation for birth certificates and passports after court tomorrow. This would be wonderful since our ten day wait period ends getting our documentation from the court Friday morning, and we have a lot of traveling around to do to wrap things up in this region before heading back to Kyiv. The weekend would keep us here longer.

We thank God for the wonderful new friends we have here and the favorable weather so far.

God Bless,
Dan and Julie

One day 'til Court!!!

(To the right are pictures of the children at the orphanage on a Saturday morning. Please pray for them!)

Hello Everyone!

Yesterday we had a wonderful time with the girls and received good news about a translator. First, Dan was up at 5:45am to go meet the bus from Kyiv to pick up the SDA documents for court on Monday. A little bit of a challenge without a translator, but as our new saying goes over here from Dima (CBN Berdyansk), “it’s OK”. Praise God, we have all of the documents required for court at 2pm Monday. Additionally, we were told the CBN Kyiv lawyer, Valery, who is also a licensed translator, will be coming down Monday for our court appointment. Our wonderful friend Karen Springs will be coming with him (She speaks Russian!!).

After Dan’s morning paperwork run, we went to get the girls. We have a taxi system set up with a father and son (Grisha). Oddly enough, Grisha is the taxi driver who ran out of gas chasing the bus. We crowded back into the taxi and ventured down to the sea side for some sightseeing. It was a little warmer than it has been, so it was nice to see some different parts of Berdyansk. Berdyansk is a tourist city on the Sea of Azov just northeast of the Black Sea. Unfortunately, due to the off-season, many shops along the sea wall were not open. We took some pictures and then went to the outdoor market for fresh fruit and the girl’s favorite, chocolate cake. (Helen you would love this!! We will try and make it at home.)




We came back to the hotel and had soup, fruit, and cake. Afterwards, we watched the Letter Factory, did English workbooks, and then watched Elf. We had no real flare-ups with limit testing today. Nastia accidentally leaned against a light switch and looked at us with really big eyes and quickly flipped it back off. I think she’s getting it. We are communicating pretty well with the girls right now. What the little ones don’t understand, Luda usually fills in with Russian.



Finally, we took the girls back at 6pm and came back to the hotel. We were both quite tired. Most of it is not being able to comprehend the language that is being spoken everywhere around you. So, we came back up into the room and put on some episodes of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” It seems good to just sit and listen to English for a while. Today, we get the girls at 10am, and this afternoon, we will be visiting Misha and his family with the girls. Thank you all very much for your continued support and prayers. The judge told Larissa we would be able to gather documents during our waiting period with a document she would give us the day of court, but the lady in Vasilyevka didn’t agree this was correct. We still need prayers to be able to come home early and before Christmas.

Blessing to you at home,
Dan and Julie