Finally Home!!!

My parents are finally home and I am so happy to see them. I really am happy that they are home. Mommy and Daddy are so tired! I am waching a movie with them right now but they fell asleep. I should go to sleep now. It's almost time for bed!

We would like to officially introduce our new children, Anastasia Grace Rosenthal and Jonathan Ivan Rosenthal!!!! Our adoption was approved in court today without a hitch! Thank you, Lord! We now have a 10 day waiting period and we will come back to bring home our new children.







In court, the judge reviewed the childrens' case out loud. It was a great reminder of why we are here, and one aspect of the children's story was completely new to us: They have been institutionalized since birth! It was also stated that they were abandoned by their mother and never had a visitor, received a letter, package or phone call. The most moving statement was that "no one wanted them." The most disturbing thing is that there are over 150 children in this orphanage alone who may very well be in this same situation!

These facts make us even more amazed at the courageous and optimistic spirit of these two children and actually of all the orphans we have met on this journey. God bless them every one!


We have really learned so much in the past 3 weeks about how these kids live and their conditions. What we are about to tell you is what we have seen firsthand. This particular orphanage, we believe, though very poor has many loving staff members. With this said, the conditions in our eyes are unbearable. Today as we drove up the driveway onto the playground, we saw workers throwing raw sewage by the bucket onto the playground. Later that day when we dropped the children off after court, the workers had gone home, but the raw sewage was still there-literal human feces strewn across the ground with children playing not far away. We refrained from taking photos, but stared in disbelief as we saw it with our own eyes! We have been asked why we have chosen to adopt abroad. We didn't know ourselves the conditions here until we came and saw.


Tomorrow we head to Kiev. Saturday to London. Sunday back to our wonderful, courageous, generous girls, Abbie and Hannah. We have so many people to thank especially the Lashowers, who have blessed us in so many ways that we can't even start to say thank you!!!! Thank you to everyone who has made this trip possible and that God has worked through to provide for our girls.

Praise God!!!!! We got an official court date today!!!! We are to appear tomorrow (Thursday) at 2 pm. Please pray that everything goes smoothly and that we answer well. The judge will be asking us quite a few questions. It is expected to be very routine, unless we tell them about the Cherry Pizza "incident," that is.









Tomorrow is also the day we will say "goodbye" to Anastasia and Jonathan until we return to bring them home. The interpreter will come with us to the orphanage to help explain what is going to happen. Pray for clear communication and trust that we will be back to get them.








Again we want to thank everyone for your prayers. God has helped us get through this time as he has also deepened our trust and dependence on him. Praise Him!!!

Please begin praying as well for the return trip and for a loving foundation to be established in our growing family.

MURDER
AT THE
CHERRY
PIZZA
CLUB


Mikey was approached by Tardov while on his way to the restroom. You can see the note she slipped him in her right hand in this photo. The note read, "You will die tonight unless you take these anti poison agents. Someone is going to try to poison you and your wife tonight."




As you can see in this photo, Mikey slips the anti-poison agent in Rosie's tea while she is dreaming about the Russian Ballet.

Here Mikey is in conspicuously slipping himself an anti-poisoning agent. He doesn't know why but he trusted the Russian mole.

The next evening, Mikey disguises himself as Russian agent, Mikolav Mushka. He is determined to find out who and why someone would want him and his lovely wife Rosie (aka Rushka Bushkov) out of the picture.

Suspect #1: Olga the waitress

She had the opportunity. She could easily have slipped poison into any portion of the food. Most likely would be the soup she is pictured delivering to the table.

Suspect #2: Iryna the pizza chef

Who else would have a better opportunity than the one who prepares the signature Cherry Pizza, the would-be victims favorite dish?

Suspect #3: Butnik the Bouncer

Seen here just before he threw Mikolav out on his "butnik." Certainly had the strength and the stealth to do away with whomever he pleased.

Mystery Solved!!!!!!!!!!!

The Culprit: Natasha the Gelatto Girl

For the last 5 nights Roshka and Mikolav went for Gelatto after dinner. Natasha had ample opportunity, but what about motive?

Sick and tired of working in this upscale convenience store, and having these pesky tourists come in to order two measly cones each night, she decided to put a stop to this madness! Mwahahahahahahah!

Little did she know the owner, Tardov(the mole) was on to her. Tardov, wanting to avoid an international incident and to keep seeing the money come into the store, decided to tip off Moshka.

Tardov gave Mikolav and Roshka this secret password to give to Abigov and Hannov for their own protection. Watch out!

DROULTANGY

Good news is we likely will be coming home on time on Sunday. Our guide called us and told us that this most likely will be the case.

The bad news? We have obviously turned a bit looney.

Our visits with Jonathan and Anastasia are each special in some way. Our time with them is progressively easy and comfortable. Jonathan loves things he can shoot. This is an airplane gun. He is getting the hang of not pointing it at anyone.

Here are Abbie and Hannah online at Jeff and Karen's. We have been able to talk to them everyday-sometimes twice a day-on Yahoo! Messenger or on the cell when that doesn't work. Our girls have been amazing through all of this!!!! We are so proud of them and we miss them so much. We know that soon this time away will seem like a distant memory. We look sooooooooo forward to that day!!!!!

It was a big deal for Anastasia to let poppa hold the baby doll we got for her.

We had some noisy fun with an accordian we found in the room they had us in today! The children have definitely had exposure to accordian music.

Anastasia loves dolls and she really loved this baby doll we brought her. She's feeding him peanuts! It is a very good sign that she knows how to nurture and display affection in this way.

Here we are bundled up for the 12 degree (yes, F!) weather. Mikey brings the term "foxy" to a whole new level. And does he turn heads with that hat on! Mostly men, laughing and pointing (no joke!) As if they didn't have enough to ridicule Americans for already. He's nicknamed the fox "Chucky Jr." You'll have to ask his friend, Chuck Albanese about that story...

This is the latest in baboushka wear! We care little about the fashion when it's this cold outside, though.

Today we went to the mall. There were moments when it felt like we were back in the states. There's nothing like a hot chocolate on a snowy day. Only when they say hot chocolate, they mean it literally. It is barely melted chocolate you eat with a spoon. Yum!

The waitress was kind enough to offer to take our photo. For all the cultural differences, the people have been very nice to us.

Possible good news with regard to our documents: Our guide informed us today that we should be getting a court date on Tuesday. What this means is that we can possibly appear in court on Thursday, travel to Kiev on Friday, London on Saturday and home midday Sunday. There has been confusion about when we bring the twins home. After we appear in court it takes approximately 10 days to have the twins released into our custody. We will not be staying in Ukraine during those 10 days. Approximately 8 days after we land in the states, there will be a return trip in which the twins will be brought home.

We have so many stories we want to tell but it will not be appropriate until after all four of us are safely home for good! To give you an idea, today at the grocery store, Rosie was clearly followed around by a man in some kind of official capacity who was reporting on her activity via his wired earpiece. When we went to check out, there were two additional men with wired earpieces waiting to follow her to the door. Mikey says he can't take Rosie anywhere now.

Anastasia is clearly a chocolate lover! We've brought other types of candy and she really wasn't that interested. Today we brough m&ms and did she ever guard that bag! She gave them out one at a time-if you were lucky!

Jonathan liked this propeller gun. He got a little wild and started pointing it at everybody, so we had to instruct him in the ways of peace...

This game is called "Attack and Tickle Poppa!"

This game is called, "Attack and Tickle Momma!" This was a very educational game. Anastasia and Jonathan learned that "momma" and "poppa" tickle back...and that we never lose tickling matches!

It was quite a snowy day. Here is the orphanage in the snow and the road leading to the orphanage. This town, Makeevka, is actually pretty in the snow. That is because the garbage is covered up and the pot holes are filled in...

We believe that the two older children are Anastasia and Jonathan's cousins who are also at this orphanage. Anastasia is clearly attached to her older cousin, whose name is also Anastasia.

There was not too much action today. Mike is sick. Nothing serious, but not well enough to visit the children. We spoke to our guide and he said that the person who handles this stage of the adoption process at the federal level is sick and the person who is filling in is going to be slowing things down. Please pray that we will get a court date soon and be able to go home by the 28th. The time right now is spent just waiting for that court date.

We are dedicating this blog to everyone who has logged on and given us encouragement while we've been here. Thank you for your prayers. These are the "groundhog days" as we are simply waiting for the SDA to give consent for us to adopt. Then we will be given a court date. After our court date we can go home!!!! Please pray that we will be given a court date very soon. Playing with Anastasia and Jonathan is fun as ever. There is more of an ease and less of a put on. We got a kick out of Jonathan throwing a tantrum today. Not too long after Anastasia gave us the silent treatment and left the room. Both of them rebound quickly, so it wasn't long before they were back to their playful selves.

Knowing how much Jonathan likes to play ball, we brought smashball today. Of course that is all he wanted to do the whole time...

We made up a new game. It's called "Boom!" We piggyback the kids and run into each other. Ouch! It is fun though.

When all else fails, there's always gymnastics!

We've had many people let us know in various ways (e-mail, facebook) that they have tried to post comments and for some reason are unable to. Can someone please post a comment explaining how you did it? Mikey and I really want to thank you for your comments. They encourage us and remind us what great family and friends we have. Most of all we thank you for your prayers. We feel so blessed to have so many people praying for us as we can feel God's presence. We are praying that we will be able to return home very soon! We can hardly wait as Lisa Johnson put it "to bring the kids home to the incredible love not only of our immediate family, but to the incredible love of our church family at Los Altos." So Lisa, does this mean you'll babysit 2 weeks from Friday?! More photos later tonight...

Another great day in Ukraine! The sun shone and the air was a crisp (which is a euphemism for "freezing cold!") 24F degrees. We took advantage of the fact that the car windows weren't fogged up and took some photos en route to the orphanage from the car. The photo of Jonathan with Mike in the "sleeper hold" really shows that Mike has met his match! Mike is icing his neck as I write this :)

The gold topped churches are stunning in the sunshine!
These are some of the nicer houses we've seen. The complex seems to be an abandoned housing project.

Aside from his usual ball playing, Jonathan took a zillion photos including the one of Mike and me and the group photo of Anastasia and her friends presenting us with some very sweet drawings of our new family. The close ups of their artwork are also included. It was simply another great visit. When we left today, Anastasia actually showed some emotion and ran outside after us to give us the two heart drawings! Jonathan actually waited around long enough to say goodbye!

Today was the greatest day we've had yet! Thank you, Lord! Our visit with Anastasia and Jonathan was so much fun! We brought them some snacks and candy along with some small toys. We posted lots of photos to make up for the fact we did not get any yesterday. As usual, we start off playing just the four of us and after a while little friends come to join us. Playing with the friends has turned out to be a good thing. It makes Anastasia and Jonathan know they are special and they are so comfortable with their friends. It also gives Mike and me the opportunity to observe them with other children.

Once the girlfriends came to play the classroom turned into a gymnasium! Get a load of Anastasia's big smile!

Take a look at these cutie pies who came to play! Mike and I both were able to just play with the other children without dwelling on their sad situations. Of course we pray and wonder about it all, but realized that they just need to play and laugh and be held at the moment. Their lives belong to God, and we ask that you pray for them.

No matter what goodies we bring, nothing replaces good ole roughhousing, that's what Mikey does best! And Jonathan's favorite toy is any kind of ball. He can play for hours. Boy is Bailey going to love him :)

Anastasia found the nail polish I brought her almost right away. Anastasia's nail salon open for business. Check out Jonathan's face that just "happened" to appear in the corner (that seems to "happen" a lot :)

Rosie made a "cootie-catcher" for Anastasia and it turns out Jonathan loved it too! They loved reading the messages inside which said things like "Seestra Abbie loves you" and "Seestra Hannah loves you" which were their two favorites. When their friends came Anastasia and Jonathan showed it to them and they all wanted me to make them one. I made a few and told them tomorra "zaftra" I will bring more paper!

Anastasia loved the cashews we brought even though neither she nor the caregiver who opened the room for us seemed to know what they were. Anastasia gave each of her friends one each and then put the bag away. We had to convince her we'd bring more tomorrow before she would give them any more.

While we were in the classroom playing Mike and I noticed it was snowing, so we ran to the window. The children came to see what we what we were so excited about. They looked out and walked away. I'm sure the kids looked at Anastasia and Jonathan and said, "Your new parents are weird!"

We caught this rare glimpse of the sun as we waited in the car while our driver dropped off some documents at the Inspectors office. Our hearts are just so filled with gratitude to our God who cares and provides and transforms so ably, so patiently and so lovingly. Praise Him! Praise Him!