Celebrating Birthdays & Comin Home!

Today, we celebrated Anya and Suzanna's birthdays. Anya, who our friends Lori and Todd are adopting, received a digital camera while Suzanna got some earings and a necklace. It was a small party, since everyone else was outside watching the big soccer tourney at the orphanage. As Judi lit the candles on thecake, we started to sing the "Happy Birthday" song. Before we could get out the words "to you", the girls had blown out the candles. I guess the Ukranian version of the "Birthday" song is much shorter.

Anya and Suzanna holding their birthday cake which Judi made and then wrapped in a plastic cake box with store markings.

Anya and her birthday cake

Suzanna and her birthday cake

Suzanna and Judi. Today we got all our paperwork signed and notarized. Now, we just needed a court date. Unfortunately, it looks like May 15 will be the earliest date. So, Judi and I decided to spend a few weeks back home rather than in Kherson. Once the Court date is certain, we will fly back to Kherson and appear with Vova before the Judge. Assuming everything goes ok, Judi will fly back to U.S., while I willl stay in Ukraine. Few weeks after that, Vova and I will fly back to the U.S. and he will officially be our son. While on our way to the orphanage today, we were told by our facilitator that we had two train tickets to Kiev, leaving tonight at 8:00 p.m. (1:00 p.m. VA time). Yes, it is time to head back on the "train of pain!" I am dreading it. Pray that our window opens in our cabin. Once we get to Kiev, we will either fly out Monday or Tuesday. Depends on when we can catch a flight.

Lenin........... So, after the birthday party, we headed out to the playground to say our goodbyes to all the kids and to Vova. We will return in 2-3 weeks.

This last photo is of Jake, Vova and a 20 year old American named Zach, who was there on a mission trip. What a great kid! The kids at the orphanage just loved him. Unfortunately, he will be gone and back to the States by the time we get back.

Well, that's it...see you in a few weeks..........to be continued.

America..Ess Me, Vova! Here I Come!

Well today we finally got the news that we have been waiting for: The Director approved our adoption of Vova and signed all the paperwork. We now have to get all the paperwork approved by Child Protective Sevices and get a court date. Due to the Ukranian holiday next Tuesday and Wednesday, it may be two weeks until we get a court date. We find out tomorrow. If that is the case, Judi and I will likely fly home for the break. That would mean a total of 3 trips to the Ukraine (one more for the 10 day waiting period after our court date) but we can't take that much time off from our jobs. We will know more tomorrow.

Lenin................... Vova was so excited. We can definitly tell that Vova is ready to go. He wants to be with us all the time and seems less interested in playing with his friends. After the Director gave the go-ahead, we were talking with Vova and our translator about Vova's middle name and what it should be. Judi and I had been discussing it for weeks and the name we came up with was Jon or Jonathan, which is my middle name. When the translator asked Vova what middle name he wanted, Vova just shrugged his shoulders. When she asked him a second time, he said "John"..... Our mouths just about hit the floor. We could not believe it! Definitely providence was working there.

Ok, on a lighter note, believe it or not, we saw this Hummvee driving down the main street in Kherson this morning. It was all jacked up with a lift kit, huge tires and had every accessory imagineable, including strobe lights on the running boards. What is more, is that it was flying an American flag and had FLORIDA licence plates. We had to make sure we were not halucinating. Saw it again tonight as we were sitting at an outdoor cafe. It pulled up, partially on sidewalk and parked with flashers on, halfway in the street. Cars had to stop to get around it. Did not see guy get out but there it stayed for about 45 minutes. Then, guy comes out, hopes in the Hummvee and drives away. Can't believe he is an American. If he is, well he just may have set relations back a few years.

Judi and sweet Sonya again

Photo of Kola who I believe was Stass Funk's pal at the orphanage. Dave and Darcy, we still have not seen Sasha all week. Is he the same boy sitting on the middle of the couch in photo below? (third from the left)

That is the only Sasha we know around Stass's age. If it's not him, let us know. Thanks for all your prayers and support. Please continue to pray for our friends the Costanzas, as they are still waiting for the Directors ok on their daughter Anya. Jake and Judi

Volleyball, Clogs and Blogs

Last summer, Vova came to Fripp Island with the whole family for summer vacation. Judi always makes sure we play our annual family volleyball game at the beach. Whatever team got Corey obviously had a distinct advantage. Whatever team got Vova, on the other hand, was at an extreme disadvantage. He was so bad, that on the final game we left him back at the beach house (with a person of course). Judi and I bought a number of soccer balls, basketballs and a volleyball for Vova's group. Today Vova brought down the volleyball and said: "Volleyball, yes?" Judi and I kind of rolled our eyes and smirked, recalling all those balls we had to run down after Vova would hit them every which way. Well, apparantly Vova must have got extremely offended last year at having been left out of the family game. It appears for the past year, he dedicated his life to learning volleyball and taking his revenge.

He fired 12 straight serves over the net which no one touched. He made one handed saves with either hand. I couldn't believe it. It was pretty funny. Something else funny was the shoes Judi decided to wear to the orphanage.

CLOGS! I told her that it would be tough to play in those things, but she insisted since her new flower sandals gave her blisters yesterday. Then, we all played volleyball and got to see Judi in action in those clogs.

more action

Let's just say Judi didn't have cat like reflexes today on the volleyball court. However, some older boys apparantly thought she had something going on on the volleyball court. The older boys from the orphanage were playing a soccer team from another school today. (Orphanage won 6-2). Some older boys from the other team saw Judi and started yelling: "Americanski...Americanski!" "Hey Beautiful!" "Beautiful Amerikanski! I love you Americanski!" I looked a Judi and said: "Guess the clogs do work!" Judi was very embarrased made me promise not to include it on the blog....... Hey, what can I say? I need material for my blog.

Had a great day with the kids today! Below are some photos:

Suzanna

Vova and his pal Valik

Judi and beautiful Sonya. She is such an angel

Finally, there is this boy named Giem. I just met him today. He was throwing a little football but was having a hard time of it. As you can see, he was not holding the football with the laces. I showed him how to throw the football, and we must have played catch for 30 minutes. The entire time, I mean the entire time, that big smile never left his face. It was amazing. What a great kid! I try to add some humor or funny stories to this blog to lighten the subject matter some. It is very hard not to get emotionally attached to these kids and you want to adopt them all. You want to, but you can't. I find myself having to take a step back, forcing myself to think rationally, rather than on pure emotion. It is hard not to get all caught up in it. Judi is the good cop and I am the bad one. We came here to adopt Vova and God willing that will happen soon. We should hear tomorrow. Keep the prayers coming. Thanks, Jake and Judi

In A Pig's Eye

This morning, we explored Kherson's vast open market and open shops. It is very old school, but quite impressive. Outside are hundreds of little cubbie holes where vendor's sell everything imagineable.

We bought some nice toys for the kids at the orphanage and I bought a souvenir for my Mom. After getting lost in the maze of outdoor shops, we entered the "MEAT MARKET"! Inside, was a view like that from the 1930's in New York. Ok, I am not a New Yorker but I have to think this comes close. Almost every type of meat imagineable was for sale. Yes, that included horse meat.

The meat was not pre-packaged and weighed like you normally see in Kroger. No, here, every part of the animal was for sale. Including this little swine

When the counter lady asked me something in Ukraine, I told her I liked bacon, but even I had my limits. The "pig hoof in a cone" was pretty good though.

(Lenin Paragraph break) After school let out at 2:30, we went to the orphanage and played with the kids. We are the only Americans at the orphanage now. As soon as we enter the play area, Suzanne comes running up to us to give us hugs.

Judi went with Suzzana to play with some other girls while I tried to fend off about 15 gum starved kids. Please notice Judi's red flower sandals which she purchased at the market. I offered to cut them off, but she refused.

All the kids want is gum. "Jeake!! Jeake!!! Gum! Gum! Gum!" I try to limit each kid to one piece each, but some will return, holding out their hand and saying: "Sister! Sister! or "Brother Brother!" and point off in some distant direction. When I tell them to go get their sister or brother, they smile, shrug their shoulders and run off. They are pretty smart little buggers. Vova and I played some foootball today for about 45 minutes.

As you can see, Vova is wearing his CS Hoops shirt that he got last summer. Shout out again to Billy! We think Vova is his caretaker's favorite. When play time ended today, she snuck us up to a room near his group room and let Vova play games on the computer with us, rather than study. Both of the caretakers for Vova's group are awesome. I will get a photo of both with Vova after the Director signs our papers, which, unfortunately, he did not do today. We are praying he signs tomorrow or Friday at the latest, or we will will run into the holidays next week. Keep those prayers coming. Jake and Judi

Look What We Found!

Ok, now that we have your attention, we are not adopting a baby! This is our friend Lori's baby Leo! I have to say he is one awesome baby. Unfortunately, Lori and Leo will be leaving tomorrow and headed back to the States. The Director refused to sign our papers and everyone elses again today and it does not look like he will do so before the 10 day time period. Lori has two other young childrten at home so she is flying back to Michigan and then returning once she and her husband Todd get a court date. We are waiting it out, hoping the director signs our papers in the next few days. Due to the delays, it appears we will be here longer than we had hoped. The director has 10 business days from last Thursday to sign our papers approving the adoption. Once he signs, your Court date gets set within the next 10 days after that. The court date is where the local Judge asks some questions of the mom and dad and child about their intent to adopt. Once he approves the adoption, there is another 10 day day waiting period (calander days) where you can have no contact with the child. This gives either side the opportunity to change their minds and is when Judi and I planned to come home. After the expiration of the 10 days, I will fly back to the Ukraine alone to pick up Vova and take him home. The final process takes about 8-10 days. We had hoped the Director would sign the first day (which they almost always do) but there have been some problems with this Director (which I will not go into) which have resulted in the delays.

Judi at the outdoor market (needed a paragraph break). We are losing our other traveling companion Jason Bolden, who has completed his adoption of his beautiful 12 year old daughter Geniia. They also leave for the States tomorrow. We will really miss Jason. I really enjoyed sitting down with him at the end of the day, sharing a cold one, and bitchin about everything involving the adoption process. It was awesome and made the frusterations bearable. We hope to look him and his wife Miranda up in the future when this is all over. God Speed my friend. We will miss you. Congratulations!

So Judi and I are on our own. We will wait however long it takes. Why? For Vova and kids like these: Vova II (I call him Crazy Vova), Dima and Yuri. At the end of the day, we are just plain worn out by all the kids. But it sure is a great feeling! We continue to try to find a way to get Suzzanne adopted by someone.

She is such a great kid. So loving and thoughtful. Unlimited potential. She has taken a liking to Judi and I. She gave Judi a flower when we arrived on the playground today. We wish we could adopt her, but unfortunately, it just is not in the cards for a number of reasons. There are some other plans in the works, but they have to remain just plans for now.

Judi playing with Suzzanne. My last photo is of a little boy named Vitalyi, who is Volari's younger brother (our orphan translator mentioned in earlier post). It was his birthday yesterday, and Jason bought him a skateboard.

For the past 2 days, Vitalyi has been riding that skateboard while his friends push him around, hoping that he will let them ride it for a little bit. Today, Vova was training for his upcoming boxing match, so we did not see much of him. His coach came up to me today and said (the best that I can tell) that the championship will be held during some festival on May 1, and invited us to attend. We accepted. Then again, he could have been inviting us to a Ukrainian folk dance festival and I would not be the wiser. I guess we will find out on May 1. Keep the prayers coming and pray that the Director sign our papers asap. Thanks and much love, Jake and Judi

Games and Life

Today, we spent time in the morning dealing with some paperwork issues. In the afternoon, the Director of the Orphanage signed the final papers for our friend Jason. He and his wife Miranda are from Alabama and are adopting a beautiful 12 year old girl named Gennia. The Director did not say one word when he signed the documents. He did not sign our documents or the Castanzas. Praying for tomorrow. The rest of the day we spent playing with Vova and his friends. Judi and I bought several soccer balls and basketballs for the boys and they wanted to try them out asap! I am dead tired! During a break, Vova tried out my camera:

Then several of Vova's friends wanted to get into the act, so they had us pose to take some photos.

After I finally wrestled the camera away from them, I took this shot of Vova and Judi.

All in all, it was a beautiful day. Gennia got to leave the orphanage for the first time with her new Dad, Jason. They will both be leaving in a few days and we will miss them very much! Jason has been a great companion (He is a cop from Alabama, so we have that law enforcement bond) and a great source of intelligence here. Soon, Judi and I will be the veterans in Kherson. Jason will be passing the torch. After leaving the orphanage, we went to our usual dinner spot where we know the food is good (No horse) and the menu is in english. As we sat outside enjoying the nice warm evening, Gennia's older sister who is 20, showed up to say goodbye to her younger sister. Chances are the two will never see each other again.

They hugged each other and that was it.

It underscored how one's life can be changed dramatically in just an instant, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. The two different directions these two girls lives are headed is drastic. You want to save them all, but know you cannot, and feel helpless about it. For instance, Anya, the girl the Castanzas are adopting, has a best friend named Suzzanna who is 14. Suzzanna, who is so beautiful and sweet, has only been in the orphanage for a little more than a year. She arrived in the orphanage due to no fault of her own. Her father shot and killed her mother and he is now in prison. When Anya leaves, Suzzanna will have no one. Suzzanna wants to be adopted and go to America, but since the orphanage has eliminated the hosting program, the likelihood of her being adopted by American parents in very slim. Suzzanna hangs out with us every day, but when we start to spend private time with our "kids", she will stroll over to a nearby bench and just watch us. It is heartbreaking! Sometimes, I have to turn away. I want to just give her a huge hug, but to be honest, I told Judi I am afraid to get too attached, so I keep my distance. Below is a photo of Anya and Suzzanna. Suzzanna is on the right.

Please say a prayer for her tonight and ask God to find her a home. Much Love, Jake and Judi

Sunday Morning Church, Hamburgers and Play

Today was a beautiful morning in Ukraine. At the Circus yesterday, we met "James" and his family who are Christian missionaries from Michigan. He and his family started a church in Kherson 15 years ago and built a new church a few years ago. They are a wonderful family and invited us to church Sunday morning. As you can see above, the church is built in a residential area, appears modest but is very nice nice considering the condition of the neighborhood. Vova's caretaker, Milana,takes his group of 14 kids to sunday school every week to the church, from 9:00-10:00 (Bless her heart). The church service is from 10:00 to 12:00 The service was in Ukrainian, but a woman translated the sermon into english. The praise band consisted of 3 women, but they were very good. Although the songs were in Ukraine, we did recognize some of the music. After the sermon, the preacher asked for all the requested prayers from the congregation, just at Church of the Holy Spirit. Although we did not understand most of the prayer requests, we did understand one: when the preacher introduced us to the congregation and told them that we were adopting Vova. When James mentioned Vova's name,the entire congregation begun to mutter Vova's name and all the older women began to smile and nod approvingly. It appears the whole congregation knew Vova from sunday school. After the service, Vova's sunday school teacher came up to us and said she was so happy Vova was going to America with us, although she would miss him very much. It was so inspiring to see all the great work these missionaries had done, and it made you feel your own accomplishments in life were small in comparison.

Above is a statue of Lenin. No real relevance. Only way I could figure out how to break up paragraphs in this blog. After church, Judi and I went and ate at the "Burger Club". Sounds good, no? Thought so too. I looked at that menu with the thick hamburger, fries and coke combo and said, pointing to the menu: "I will take that one!". As the waitress left, I also told her I wanted a chocolate shake. What the heck, food is cheap here, why not splurge on a chocolate shake. As we waited, all I could think about was that hamburger, french fries and chocolate shake. I was starving and had had enough of Ukrainian food. The waitress brought us our food (for about $5) and I looked at that big, juicy burger. Exactly, what I have been waiting for.... finally. I picked it up, looked at it, smiled and took a big bite and ............................. spit it out all over the table. Okay, for all you parents who have gone to Disneyworld and bought that $8 five hour old hamburger ..... this was ten times worse. Judi, of course was loving it! She had warned me of the fact that many restaraunts used horse meat. As I tried to gulp down each bite, with a large amount of coke, Judi would put her tounge between her lips and make horse sounds. But at least I had my chocolate milkshake! My sweet milkshake! That had to be the same as in America. I mean, ice cream was ice cream? The waitress came up to our table carrying a nice, creamy chocolate shake. I went to grab it .....but then caught myself and thought....hmmm.....maybe just like the burger, the shake is not as it appears? I told Jud to go ahead and have a sip. I would have my revenge! Oh yes, sweet revenge! As she stuck the straw in, took a big long sip, her face seemed to transform before my eyes. I asked: "Anything wrong?" She tried to speak and then finally let out a "That is so aweful!" I tried it and agreed, the chocolate shake was really powdered chocolate and warm water. There was no ice cream. Yes, it was aweful, but as they say in the Mastercard commercial, the look on Judi's face.....Priceless!

Again Lenin and no real relevance other than breaking up the paragraphs. Afterwards, we went to the orphanage to see Vova. He was still wearing the Ukrainian soccer shirt we had given him on Thursday. Yes, the same one he boxed in on Friday and the same one he wore to the Circus on Saturday. I also noticed that Vova was wearing some interesting shorts:

Yes, a Huge Shout out to Cave Spring in the Ukraine!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After visiting with Vova, we went out to the soccer field to play. Here are a few photos:

Judi showing her athletic prowess...actually this was a nice catch. (Jud still is training for the hungry mudder-very impressive)

Vova making a nice stop at goalie. After some soccer, Vova and I played Basketball with some of his friends......... Billy, I pains me to say this, but baring some miraculous intervention, the Jacobsen legacy in Cave Spring basketball will appear to start with Erik and end with Drew. Let me know if you want me to look at some prospects for you while we are over here?

Last photo is of Judi and Volari, aka "Vol". He is seventeen and has "aged out" but is still at the orphanage finishing school. He is a great kid and speaks some english, so he is our adopted translator. I wish someone could adopt him but it appears too late. Before I sign off, a final shout out to my traveling companion Todd, who is on his way back to Michigan. Safe travels and miss you brother. We will watch after your wife and son. And don't worry, if Lori starts to lag behind, I know just exactly what to yell to her! :)). Thanks for all your prayers. Keep em coming. Jake and Judi