Christmas Wishes

We heard the song below for the first time while we were in Ukraine, waiting to take custody of William.

When I listen to it now, the first verse reminds me of William. And the second verse reminds me of Daniel.

But every time I hear this song, I'm reminded of so many others that still have this one Christmas wish.

The Ukrainian Babushka

Three years ago today, we met the only connection we have to William's past. A kind and loving woman, William's babushka. We are so incredibly thankful for the role that this sweet lady has played in William's life.

You can read about that day HERE. Read about the events leading up to the meeting HERE.

Thanksgiving in Ukraine

3 years ago today, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Ukraine. The previous day, we'd gone to court where we were declared the parents of William Hoyt Dove.

Read about our court hearing HERE.

Read about Ukrainian Thanksgiving HERE.

Atlanta Adoption Stories

Here are the 3 latest articles in my Atlanta Faces of Adoption series...
(click on any bold text to be linked to the article)

The Ankerich family

 

The Wollschlager family

 

Martinez - adult adoptee

Another way to make your voice heard - Please Act TODAY!

I just emailed AskCI@state.gov with the following message, requesting action, and particularly requesting Ambassador Susan Jacob's involvement. (I did add a little more personal info than you see here, including mentioning my boys and attaching their picture). I urge you to send a similar message TODAY!! It's an email, and you can copy and paste. It will only take a couple of minutes.

Ambassador Jacobs was appointed earlier this year by Hillary Rodham Clinton to be the U.S. Special Advisor to the Office of Childrens Issues (the office responsible for intercountry adoption and international parental child abduction).

You can also call 1-888-407-4747 requesting that Ambassador Jacobs do everything in her power to urge Ukraine's officials to revisit this and not make a complete halt in adoptions. When you call, press 0, and ask to speak to Emily Ballas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am writing to you today regarding an urgent situation. Many families in the US are currently in the process of adopting children from orphanages in Ukraine. Most of these children are older or disabled. American families adopting these children offer them what may be their only opportunity at a normal and productive life free of crime, prostitution, or institutionalization due to illnesses that are treatable in the United States.

I personally know several of these families.

On November 3, 2010, the Ukrainian parliament voted to proceed with voting on legislation that would halt all international adoptions until inter-country adoption agreements are in place (see the State Dept. announcement at http://adoption.state.gov/news/ukraine.html) . At this point, all that is needed for this to become law is one more vote in Ukrainian parliament and a signature by the Ukrainian president. This could happen any day. If it does, many families and innocent children will be greatly affected.

I personally know several of these families.

I am writing to you to urge you to act quickly on this matter:

1. Encourage and support Ambassador Susan Jacobs to be a strong voice and representative to work with Ukrainian officials to come to some sort of interim agreement
2. Contact any and all Ukrainian officials in your circle of influence and request that they consider a revision to the law, allowing adoptions to proceed while the agreement is being drafted (as was done in Russia) and
3. Work with the senate and congress to begin drafting this agreement so that it is ready to go in the event the law passes.

Thank you for your timely consideration of this urgent matter, 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nov 19, 2007

A precious picture from 3 years ago today... he's growing up WAY too fast.

Welcome, visitors!

I feel honored to have had our blog linked on one of my favorite adoptive mommy blogs - thanks Adeye! She wrote a beautiful entry about the Ukraine moratorium issue. You can read her post here. Adeye has such a sweet heart and is quite the eloquent writer, and I'm so thankful for her passion for the fatherless.

If you're visiting from Adeye's blog, thanks for stopping by! We are the very proud parents of 2 Ukie Cuties, both born in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

I'd like to give credit to another bloggy friend, Debra for being the original source of the letter I used when talking about the moratorium vote. She's awesome and I've had a lot of fun getting to know her through her blog and lots of emails. I'm praying that she & her hubby will not be affected by the moratorium situation as they seek to adopt their daughter very soon.

If you have not already done so, please take a minute to write to your senators and congressmen. You can find out how to do it HERE. There's a form letter you can copy and paste, so it will only take a couple of minutes to do this.

Three years ago today: November 18

Three years ago today, we experienced our first Ukrainian church service.  You can read about that experience HERE. It was one of the many things that has really opened our eyes to the reality that there is a need for God all over the world.

Today, I worked from home so that I could go to Daniel's preschool for their Thanksgiving lunch.  It was lots of fun, and nice to see him in his classroom setting. This Thanksgiving, we have even more to be thankful for than before!

Want to see what adoption can do?

If you want to see what adoption can do for a child who's been given no hope...

If you want to see what family can do for a child whose future had been written off...

If you want to see a miracle...

Click on over to Adeye's blog and read THIS ENTRY about precious Hailee.

Family Rules

If you ask William what the #1 Dove family rule is, he will quickly reply, "No whining, no pouting." Daniel knows this as well. While he might not be able to give you that exact response, he has quickly learned that whining and pouting don't cut it at the Dove Dom*!

Well, we introduced our second family rule last night, in the form of a Bible verse...

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1

This is one that all four of us need to consistently work on. But it really came into play yesterday with some unkind speech by both boys, directed towards each other. At bedtime, as I was explaining to them that this would be their memory verse, William suggested we write it on the chalkboard paint so they could learn it together. Great idea!

Visiting the Powell's, Nov 2007

Anytime I think of that verse, I think back to when we were in Ukraine in 2007. We were spending the night with our missionary friends the Powell's. Their 2 little girls were in bed and were supposed to be going to sleep. One daughter was speaking unkindly, so the other daughter proceeded to rebuke her in the name of the Lord by quoting this verse. The only problem? She was yelling it angrily :) (We were actually with the Powell's in Ukraine 3 years ago today - you can read about that HERE).

Aside from our "real" family rules, sometimes it can be quite amusing to hear the things we find ourselves saying to the boys.

Don't lick the dishwasher.

Don't eat things out of the trash.

Don't let the dog lick your mouth.

Don't pick up the dog poop.

Hey, I'm just keepin' it real here!

We haven't done anything requesting reader responses in a while. So please leave a comment and share...



What are some of the funny, odd or embarrassing things you've caught yourself saying to your children?

*dom, pronounced kind of like dome, is the Russian word for house



Atlanta Adoption Stories

Here are 2 more adoption stories I've written in the past few days.
The Taylor family

The Stanger family

 

Thanks to these sweet families for sharing their stories!

Looking back: William & his groupa

11/11/07: It was a stormy day in Mariupol - we later learned that a hurricane had swept through the area, damaging a lot of areas along the coast.

We stopped by what would become our favorite grocery in Mariupol, Abzhora, and bought bananas and juice for William's groupa. Then L&L (facilitator and driver) drove us to the orphanage.

Our little guy was slowly beginning to warm up to us. We started with snacks, and then played for awhile. We learned that he likes apples with peanut butter. The peanut butter was obviously new to him (it's almost impossible to find it in Ukraine) but he really enjoyed dipping the slices into it.

There were some Legos in the room, so we played with them. It was fun watching as he thought and tried to come up with a plan. We tried on some more clothes, including the jeans and shoes that we’d bought the previous day. The shoes were too small, so our facilitator took them to exchange them for us.

When it was almost time to leave, William led us to his groupa room upstairs. He proudly helped us hand out bananas to all of the children, making sure that everyone was included before sitting down to enjoy his own.

It was good to get to spend a few minutes with the other children. We took a few pictures, so that we'd have them for William as he gets older. I wondered what would happen to those children.

Fast forward to March 2010: a blog friend who was in process to adopt from Ukraine found a youtube video that she shared with me - and as it turns out, it was about the adoption of one of William's groupa friends! The little girl's mom & I have since connected and shared pictures and stories. How wonderful to know she's now part of a family. I was able to give her a picture of her little girl from the day we served bananas.



William in bedroom - 2007



William in bedroom - 2010



Fast forward to June 2010: we went back to visit William's orphanage. Only one child from his groupa remains. The rest have either been adopted or are back with their biological families. So happy for them, and so sad that Dima is still there. 

Adoption Awareness: a way you can care for orphans TODAY!

Even if you don't feel the call to adopt, you can get involved in orphan care. And here's a simple way to get involved today...

By now, most of you have probably heard about the decision in Ukraine to go forward with a vote to halt international adoption until an inter-country agreement is in place. Please take a moment to write to your senators & congressmen, then encourage your friends and family to contact do the same!


Below you'll find a letter that you can use, or write your own.
To send a letter to your congressman:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

To send a letter to your senator just click on the state and follow the link:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Please help us get the word out!!
________________________________________________________

Dear (name),

I am writing to you today regarding a VERY urgent situation. Many families in the US are currently in the process of adopting children from orphanages in Ukraine. Most of these children are older or disabled. American families adopting these children offer them what may be their only opportunity at a normal and productive life free of crime, prostitution, or institutionalization due to illnesses that are treatable in the United States. I personally know one of these families.

On November 3, 2010, the Ukrainian parliament voted to proceed with voting on legislation that would halt all international adoptions until inter-country adoption agreements are in place (see the State Dept. announcement at http://adoption.state.gov/news/ukraine.html) . At this point, all that is needed for this to become law is one more vote in Ukrainian parliament and a signature by the Ukrainian president. This could happen any day. If it does, many families and innocent children will be greatly affected. I personally know one of these families.

I am writing to you to urge you to act quickly on this matter by 1. Contacting your Ukrainian cohorts and requesting a consideration of revision of the law to allow adoptions to proceed while the agreement is being drafted (as was done in Russia) and 2. Work with your colleagues in congress to begin drafting this agreement so that it is ready to go in the event the law passes.

Thank you for your timely consideration of this urgent matter!

Thankful

This picture was taken 3 years ago today - the day we met our William.

Nov 7, 2007: The day we saw his picture

Three years ago today, we met with SDA officials in Kyiv, Ukraine, and we saw William's sweet little face for the first time. God gave us such peace when we saw that face among several others.

You can read a bit more about that day by clicking HERE and HERE.

Quick post

Busy day, so I'm just now getting around to blogging. William's soccer team started their tournament this weekend. 2 games today and 1 tomorrow - and they won both games today!  The top 2 teams in their bracket will advance to next weekend. Excited that they're doing well, but this has been a LONG season!

3 years ago today, we arrived in Kyiv. Culture shock doesn't begin to describe what we were experiencing.

Little did we know, there was a precious little blondie that was about to steal our hearts...

Blog roll update

I just updated the blog roll.

If you have a blog that's not on here and you'd like to be added, leave a comment with first names and blog link.

If you are on the list but your info is incorrect, leave a comment with the correct/updated information.

Click HERE to see the blog roll, or simply click on the BLOGS link on the right hand side of this page.

Oops - missed a day!

Wow, I didn't get far before missing a day of blogging this month! But hopefully this post & the one below will more than make up for it.

Three years ago today, Zack and I set out on an adventure that forever changed us.

Three years ago today, we boarded a plane, headed for Ukraine.

You can visit our original adoption blog and read our November 2007 posts by clicking HERE.

Get ready - it's time to reminisce!

The Land family... dossier submitted!

Remember Vera? She's the little girl we did fundraising for about a year ago (read about her HERE). On January 21st, I learned that a family had committed to pursuing Vera (read that post HERE).

The Land family is not just seeking to adopt Vera, but 2 other children from her orphanage as well. They have been working diligently to raise funds, knowing that they were very close to having the opportunity to submit their dossier. As of October 16, they still needed $15,000.

On October 20, an anonymous family stepped forward and provided what they needed (read about that HERE).

And yesterday, their dossier was submitted to the SDA!!!

Please pray that everything is in order, and that they will receive their travel dates soon. Pray for their health and safety during this time, as well as the health, safety, and transitions ahead for them, their 2 children already at home, and the children God intends to add to their family.

Slava Bogu (Praise God!)!  Be sure to stop by their blog HERE and let them know you're praying for their journey!

Faces of Adoption: Meletio family

The "Atlanta Faces of Adoption" series kicked off today with the story of a family's adoption of a 4-year-old from China.

Click HERE to read about the Meletio family!

Halloween fun

I was a bit nervous about Halloween this year. Daniel got scared at the grocery store when he saw scarecrows. You know the ones: they're cute and colorful, made to sit on your front porch as a nice fall decoration. Yeah, THOSE scared him. So while we'd originally made plans to go trick-or-treating with some good friends, we had to re-vamp and stick close to home in case he couldn't handle the events of the evening.

Overall, everything turned out okay. We started well before dark and I think that helped a lot.

Most memorable moments of the night:
~ Daniel encountered a grown man in a (slightly creepy) monkey suit, and loudly exclaimed "I no like you!"
~ We repeatedly reminded Daniel everything was pretend. One man handing out candy had a VERY scary alien costume on and his voice was super creepy. Daniel told him "You pretend", then came back and said "I no like that house"
~ A kid said to Zack, "I didn't know Luigi was that much taller than Mario." Zack's response: "I ate the mushroom."
~ Daniel repeatedly fussing at William for walking too fast (his little legs couldn't keep up with big brother)
~ William gently taking Daniel's hand to walk him across the street

National Adoption Awareness Month

Today marks the beginning of National Adoption Awareness Month. As in years past, I hope to blog every day of the month. But unlike years past, I have more on my plate (namely, one 32 lb. blessing that keeps us VERY busy!), so it may or may not happen...

I am starting a series on families touched by adoption. The intro article was published today, so click HERE to check it out. While you're there you can subscribe to the articles. And please be sure to click on the slideshow (on the left hand side) to see some of the beautiful faces of adoption.

If you are in Georgia and you've been affected by adoption in any way and would like to participate in this series, please email me HERE. I still need several more stories to finish out the month.