growing closer

Here is a brief Friday update for you all. Paperwork is churning in the boy’s orphanage and the inspector’s office for their region. Paperwork is churning in the sister’s orphanage and the inspector’s office for her region. The big hurdles to overcome are cancellation papers for girl ‘k’s guardianship, and permission signatures from director’s of both orphanages and the SDA, and papers that are similar to an affidavit for permission from the kids themselves, etc. I’m sure we are oversimplifying based on our previous experiences here. Once all these documents line up, there will be the push for a court date to occur. So, please pray for any and all of these issues.

Our facilitator picked us up from our apartment for the drive outside of Kiev to pick up girl ‘k’ and Luda. We had arranged it so that we could make a trip to the center of the city for a meal at TGI Friday’s. It was her first time there, and she really seemed to enjoy the business lunch and dessert, just like our American daughters would! We had some great discussion, and then made the smoggy, cold and muddy trek to see the boys. The boys, what can we say?
They crack us up with big ‘k’s serious face, and little ‘k’s mischievous face. There may be work there to do with him. What is it that one spiritual man I know says? He says “getting them out is the hard part, the rest is just discipleship.” I think he’s understating the “just discipleship” if you know what I mean. We talked about fruits, colors, favorite countries, languages, our family, and we gave the boys a few items that they need just to have some changes of clothing. They are interacting very well, and we plan on more time together tomorrow. We were so amazed to hear that our new girl ‘k’ told us that she had prayed for us last night, and we have had several conversations explaining how God has lead us through this and that she is a great surprise of joy for us.

One funny thing… she excitedly told her friends last night and today about her new family, but there was only one problem, she couldn’t remember our names, and the only thing she could remember was her new name. Still, she seems really excited to think about living with our family as our new daughter/sister. She was focused today on big questions like: what are your names, where do you work, do you have a car, do we have pets, do they speak English? We explained that we have a dog that speaks Spanish, only to have her helper Luda say, “really?” Even girl ‘k’ was laughing at that. Bottom line is, that we are excited about what God is doing with these 3 children, and we are grateful for your prayers and encouragement. We pray that in the days ahead, God will display His wisdom, love and power through our family even more.

Blessings

stairs...

It was what you would call a monumental day today just in sheer accomplishment alone, but also in the good outcomes of the day. Off to a slow start…we actually found someone to turn on the code for the washing machine! Yessss! Now, we began to be concerned about any action for the day as lunch time came and went, and we took some time to pray with our new adjoining apartment family about their embassy visit and hopeful flight tomorrow. Our prayers were interrupted when our facilitator called us and advised he would pick us up in 10 minutes to go for our referral letter for girl ‘k’, the yet “un-meetable” sister of the boys. Now in the SDA office there is a place I like to call “the stairs”. It seems that the stairs serve as a waiting room, a social area for adoption facilitators, and a Romeo Juliet playhouse where the actors come to the top and shout out their lines to the unsuspecting parents to be and the others below. Meanwhile, the guard examines each visitor in the stairwell with a scowl, and then a blank look and occasionally a smile.

Finally, you are chosen to leave the stairs, flash your passport, sign some graph paper book, get your referral paper, and head out the doors-try not to slip on the ice. Now it was on to the inspector for girl ‘k’s region, and a quick grilling ensued from 3 ladies seated at desks in a 10’x10’ room. They looked incredulously at our desire to have possibly 9 children now, but I was clearly able to share that this could be part of God’s highest use of our life and it was Him who motivated us to begin this journey.

Now drive quickly on to the private orphanage in Clanton, Ukraine (just kidding). We were able to meet our friend L. and soon a lovely, somewhat shy girl appeared over our shoulder, looking like she belonged between 2 boys we have already met. We began discussing our family, and showing pictures of us, and within a few minutes there seemed to be some bridges built like some miracle was occurring. She took us all upstairs to show us her room, her friend’s rooms, and she even made a comment to another girl at the orphanage that was translated to us quietly as “these are my future parents”. Within another 10 minutes, we had permission to take girl ‘k’ with us to meet her 2 brothers, who she had not seen in 8 years. It was frankly unbelievable that it all worked out the way it did, and we sat there stunned as she talked with her brothers and we looked at pictures from big ‘k’s room of their past lives. Of course, little ‘k’ was his usual active self, being the typical 10 year old who had basically never seen his sister. We were treated to a tour of the boys hallway and rooms, and sat around a table in the teachers area and had quite an amazing reunion. Our time closed out there, and we had to return girl ‘k’ to her district, so we struck out yet again toward Clanton, Ukraine. Of course it was completely dark for the drive and we discussed weighty topics in the car with her as we rode.

We received hugs like we had known her for some time, and she has clearly said that she wants to be part of our family. She said she has dreamed of this for 8 years now, and she even wants to change her name to match the ‘K’s, abruptly coming up with her own ‘k’ name.

More details tomorrow…
Blessings

There’s always that confusing, awkward feeling to do things here like wash clothes, especially when the washer is in the bathroom and the sign says’ “do not wash by your own”. What does this mean exactly? You venture down the stairway to find the mystery man who holds the code to the electronic washing machine. You ask, “Do you speak English? He says, “yes”, so you ask, “Are you the one with the washing machine code?” he says “internet, internet.” So you reply, “thank you” and walk away...

To make a long day short:
1) Pray, wait, pray, wait, Kole does some homework, pray, wait.
2) Our facilitator talked with us a couple of times to give us a play by play of the meeting that was going on at the SDA with the private orphanage representative, the inspector, the deputy director of the SDA, and the director of the SDA.(glad to know we are being discussed in such high circles)
3) We slushed to the nearby metro station to get out of the apartment for a while-had lunch-walked around- and looked in the shops to waste time. I felt genuinely like a tourist.
4) Yuri picked us up for another trip to the inspector’s office (we shuddered to think of the 8’x8’ room again). Fortunately, we waited in the car while Kole took the opportunity to play in the snow.
5) We got a referral letter for the 2 boys!!
6) Drove to the orphanage with the referral letter to give to the director and visited with big ‘K’ and little ‘k’. (Little ‘k’ was a little worried because we hadn’t been there in 2 days. He said he kept checking the lobby to see if we were there yet.)
7) As for girl ‘k’, the results of the meeting this morning are as follows…she must return to the private Christian orphanage tonight, the orphanage will contact the SDA when she arrives, the SDA will then write a referral letter for her, we will get the letter (hopefully in the morning), and proceed out to this area (to a different inspector’s office) for permission to visit her.
8) Ride silently back to the center of the city, eat supper and briefly visit with another Brook Hills couple (Greg and Melanie) who just arrived here to adopt. Offer encouragement and prayer for their adventure.
9) Venture back to the apartment-meet an American family staying in the room next door who are finishing their adoption process. Offer hope that this is our 3rd adoption journey and we have survived through His grace.
10) Write this blog and run up icy hill at 10:50 pm to the internet café to post on line.

We thank God for this opportunity to serve the world.

Blessings,
The Nichols

Waiting

The saying goes “the best laid plans…” and you know the rest. Well, you may not know the rest so we will tell you. Up at 7:00 a.m., hike to the internet café (by the way it is 18 degrees while you walk), sit in smoke filled room, check emails and blog, return to the apartment to wait for our facilitator’s call. We were disappointed at message one, and more disappointed when we got to the SDA, expecting our referral for all 3 children only to find that even the government is confused right now. So, we get no referral letter. Why is this a big deal? Because you can’t officially visit the kids or petition for court until you get it in hand along with other documents.

Some wheels were already in motion for us to visit the inspector’s office again where we would meet our friend L. who works with the private orphanage where girl ‘k’ was living until a few days ago. After the typical “Eastern Europe school of driving tour” out to the inspector’s office, we sat with Kole (By the way, God is gracious and Kole was fabulous despite this boring situation for a 10 year old) in an 8’x8’ lobby area with one light bulb for 3 hours while the inspector’s office and the SDA and our facilitator and our friend L. were trying to decide how to unravel this odd situation. Seems simple enough. Not so…basically you can’t get a referral when a child has a guardian, but no official guardian exists since she was recently switched from one location to another and the former guardian is now gone and a new guardian has come-yet when is a guardian not really a guardian? No one seems to know here. Clear enough?? The government says no separation of siblings, yet we can’t see or meet girl ‘k’ sibling without a referral, which puts us back at step one.

There were lots of prayers this day. I think we are being completely transparent when we say that we came to the close of our adventure with no progress in our limited understanding. This is not to say that progress was not made, it may just not be our timetable. We pondered many questions as we walked to the market in the cold darkness tonight, prayerfully trusting God with each one of them.

Please pray with us earnestly for these things:
1) For decision making- that someone can decide if there is a guardian or not for girl ‘k’ and who it is or is not so we can move on with the process
2) For a referral tomorrow morning when our facilitator goes back to the SDA at 10 a.m.
3) For God to get great glory in this difficulty
4) For these children who have been disappointed so many times-more than any of us will ever know-that they will not be discouraged in waiting

We are not worried about the outcome, we just want His best in each moment in this process.

“Tell me how to show love without spending time, energy, or money, and I will gladly sign up. Tell me that love means sacrifice, however, and I become reluctant to commit myself.”-Hybels

God help us to correctly express who You are in the midst of serving others.
Blessings, The Nichols

Try and stay focused...

The plan this morning was to be in the inspector’s office at 10 a.m. to hear more information about the sister of our boys. Let’s call her ‘girl k’ for short. Plans here don’t always materialize so when our facilitator picked us up, we found out that the SDA office had no power (literally no lights-no phone-so they were closed) So, even if we were at the inspector's office, they would not receive information from the SDA. This is "bureau speak" for we will sit here and look at each other for a while. After praying, we, along with our facilitator believed it best to drive out to talk with the private orphanage where ‘girl k’ has been staying. You can do this because it is not a government school, but there is more.

This place was on the outskirts of right bank Kiev, kind of like Clanton except snowier (Just to give you a visual). The people were great there and very helpful. We were able to pray with them and have lunch with them, but there was only one problem. ‘Girl k’ was temporarily sent to a state run orphanage yesterday. State run orphanage... Do you know what this means???? Yes, more official documents required before seeing her now. O.k. let’s find a notary in the city, that has a relationship with the SDA, that is working today late in the afternoon, and has written referral requests before. This would narrow the field… let’s see from about 5 million people down to 2 ladies in their bathrobes in their apartment (this was her off day from work), which is being renovated. I know this is hard to believe, but truth is stranger than fiction, and always more interesting. I wanted to post photos, but it just wouldn’t be right. We finally got the bathrobe stamp of approval, and raced across town toward the SDA building which now had power and phones providentially late in the day. We had 15 minutes to get a signature from a translator and then get it to the SDA office before it closed. We made it with a few seconds to spare!

We did find some details about ‘girl k’. She was found basically on the street at age 6, and was removed from the parents at that time. This would’ve meant that our boy, little ‘k’ would’ve only been 3 years old at the time and big ‘k’ was only 8. Sometime later, our boys(her brothers) were put in another orphanage in the city and the parent’s rights were terminated. We actually saw a picture of her today. One of the people from the private orphanage, a lady named L., is going voluntarily tonight to talk to girl ‘k’ to give her a night to think about what we will be meeting with her about tomorrow (we are supposed to get a referral letter tomorrow morning around 10 a.m. and then we will go talk with her). So, all this to
say… be in prayer for His glory to be displayed, for us to have wisdom, and for girl ‘k’ as we see her and begin to build connections with her. Also pray for the boys, since they have no knowledge of our adventures today. We are thankful for each of you and for your prayers on our behalf. Thanks to all who have encouraged us with comments and emails.

Blessings,
Chris, Vickie and Kole

1 Thessalonians 2:8 “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”

Sunday Edition...

Sunday morning showed up with some fresh snow, and a wind that will cut your nose off. You think I am kidding. We took our usual route to the orphanage, once again joined by our friend Oleg P. (see how you benefit from hosting exchange students?). Sunday mornings are fairly quiet at the school yard, and we were surprised to see little ‘k’ since he had told us he was going with his class on a field trip. He clopped around the corner just as we walked in the door into the (you guessed it) dark lobby. Now today, even the guard wore his jacket and stood by the radiator while we talked with the boys. He seemed to love every minute of our conversation with the boys. We waited for them to go down the hall for 15 minutes of their 30 minute lunch time, and little ‘k’ quickly returned with soccer shorts (from the uniform we gave him) and yes, the cleats (see post from Saturday).

O.K. out into the grey wind we go, looking for a place to stand where your breath is not taken away by the icy breeze. We were laughing at little ‘k’ taking a risk of frost bite on his skinny legs as he wore his new thin soccer uniform. You would’ve thought it was the Bahamas for him. Fortunately, we had to leave to meet with Igor in the middle of the afternoon, so we had our standard trip to thaw out on the way back into the city. Most Ukrainians would choose the 2 grevnia shuttle, since it is a little faster than the bus.
Frankly today, Ukrainians and Americans would choose whatever drove by that had a heater. You know how mud gets mixed up and makes tracks from vehicles driving on the wet ground? These mud tracks are not mud anymore but more like bricks with black ice on top of them. After the long haul to meet our friend, we realized a miscommunication had occurred. So, we write now before we make the trek back across town to the apartment. Our sunny Florida friends leave at about 2:30 a.m., so what’s the point of going to bed? More details to follow…Praise God for His faithfulness to us, and for our constant burden to be aligned with His Spirit. We miss all of you (especially our kids at home).

Blessings,
The Nichols

It's the weekendska!

Saturday morning…good news…there was some blue sky when we looked through the window this morning. Bad news…that means it is colder. We were able to link up with our former exchange student Oleg P. this morning to visit with him and for him to translate for us at the orphanage. He is at the University here in Kiev. We did not know he was in Kiev when we called him, so we were pleased to find out that Oleg was just a few metro stops away from us.

Now you have to understand that when you do not have a car, you have some choices about how to get across town. There is the expensive option of a taxi, especially one rented to an American, or you can take the public transportation. Since our facilitator had a conflict today, we chose our standard public transportation, which means a walk to the closest station (call it LA), and then a subway car for one stop, then an escalator, then stairs, then another subway car, then a shuttle bus, then a walk. 1 ½ hours later, you are standing in the orphanage gates. See how easy that was? I’m feeling hungry, how about you? Too bad, you are at least ½ hour from some food. On to the visit…

Our boys big ‘K’ and little ‘k’, soon came bouncing into the lobby. Big ‘K’ has some kind of cold, so he is not as energetic as his brother, but I don’t think he is ever as energetic as his younger brother. We sat in the dark lobby and had great conversation with them through the help of Oleg P., (no lights turned on until 4 p.m.) and eventually worked up the nerve to go outside for a little soccer action. We had brought a pair of soccer cleats for little ‘k’ and some new tennis shoes for big ‘K’. Both guys seemed happy with our choices, so happy, they haven’t taken the shoes or cleats off as of the time we saw them on Sunday(reference Sunday blog). By the way, the boys seemed to be warming up to us with every time we see them. They crack us up with their serious faces and occasional smiles. Oleg reassured them that he had lived with us and everything was great in America.

After the visit at the orphanage, we reversed the process in paragraph 2 above, except we added some steps via taxi out to Oleg V. house for dinner with him and his family and some folks from his board of directors in Nashville. It was a relaxing evening, completed by a 70 grevnia cab ride back to the center of the city, then see paragraph 2 above for the route home. We woke up Boris to let us in the door at the apartment at midnight and fortunately our friends from Florida left the light on for us. Hopefully this explains why our communication has been limited in the last few hours.

Blessings,
Chris, Vickie, and Kole
We miss you Kelsey, Kirby, Kyndal, Kyle, Karson