Meet the Carrollskis!

Praise God! Our hearing went without a hitch and the court approved our adoption of Vlad pending a 10 day waiting period. So, although it is not officially official, we're celebrating anyway.

We are now, Papa Bill, Mama Beth and introducing....Vladyslav Williamson Carroll! In Ukraine the convention is for children to take their father's name as a sort of middle name or description. Vlad had been Vladyslav Alexadrovitch (literally, son of Alexander) Markov.  We decided to replace Alexander, the father he never met, with William the person who will actually be his father. Williamson...son of William. Not sure what he will end up going by. Early indications are "Liam" but we'll see how that pans out. If he wants to continue going  by Vlad that's fine too. We had wanted to keep the name Markov as a second middle name but they wouldn't let us. Apparently they never heard of this concept here. They told us,  "Markov is his surname, it can't be his middle name." Our protest, "Yeah but in America you can  have ten names and call yourself "Storage Unit # 32" if you want to," fell of deaf ears.

The courtroom was small and cramped, Beth, our translator and I sat in the front row in front of the judge, a middle aged woman who had that bored, tired, judgey look about her. Also there was a representative from the public welfare department, a prosecutor who looked like she was about 25 and dressed for a rave and several other courtiers.

After several minutes of talking amongst themselves the Judge asked me to stand and asked what I was asking of the court. She also asked a few other questions about where we live, where I work etc. Then she asked Beth the same series of questions. Then the judge read aloud from parts of all the documents we submitted. Everybody looked on the verge of sleep. There was another series of questions, how we met Vlad, when did we decide to adopt him etc. The Judge asked Vlad if he wanted to be adopted etc. and it was all over in under an hour. They dismissed us into the hallway for about five minutes and then called us back in and gave us the favorable decision. After signing some papers and saying "spaceba" we were out the door.

We went out and celebrated over Ukrainian pizza and ice cream and then took Vlad back to the orphanage. Tomorrow is his 14th birthday and we are hoping to get permission to take him out for the day. We plan to actually take custody of him on September 11th and then head to Simferopol to work on changing his passport and getting his visa etc.

Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts and kind words of encouragement. We are also grateful to our facilitator and translator here for all the incredible hard work they put in that resulted in such a smooth hearing. We thank God for  giving us the victory in spite of our weaknesses and for rescuing another orphan from a very uncertain future.

I just came across these verses as I was trying to find some appropriate scripture to thank God. This is perfect:

Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; Rejoice before him. His name is YHWH (Jehovah.) A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in His holy dwelling. He sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing..." Psalm 68: 4-6.

Court Day Tomorrow. Pray Early and Often!

Well folks, tomorrow is the big day. Our hearing to adopt Vlad is tomorrow at 1:30 pm local time (6:30 am for all you early birds who might be up and praying for us.) Tonight we are going over our home study one last time and preparing for potential questions the judge may ask. We are nervous but also trusting in God. In one way, we could look at court as a formality. We've been told that this court has not rejected anyone's adoption request in six years. On the other hand, we have been strongly cautioned not to take this hearing for granted!  Bill has had a severe sinus infection for the last several days and is not feeling well. So, please pray with and for us, including Vlad!

"We know not all his plans, but we know we're in His hands!"

 The Carrolls

Update: End of Week 3

Hello Friends,
Beth and I have been in Ukraine for 3 weeks as of last Friday. We moved to a hotel last Monday which is actually called a Sanatorium. The word has more the idea of "resort" or "health spa" but it in our case the English usage is probably more correct. We have a beautiful view of the sea and coast-line from our window. Crimea has a very Mediterranean/Middle Eastern feel to it (or so I imagine.) The Greeks occupied the place a couple thousand years ago and there are some ruins you can see nearby. You can also see some bomb craters left over from WWII when the town was occupied by the Nazis on a few different occasions. This weekend Beth and I went to a monument on the top of a large hill that commemorates the "liberation" by the Soviets. (Of course the Ukrainians  just ended up trading one set of occupiers for another but the people fought valiantly to get rid of the Nazis.) A statue of Lenin still stands in the square here. Except now there is a big screen TV running advertisements standing directly opposite him and kids play in a bouncy castle nearby.

We see Vlad (not Lenin) every day from 2-5 PM. The orphanage is a 15 minute walk from the hotel. Every day we play Uno, play basketball, soccer, frisbee, listen to music on the laptop and use it to talk to each other via Google Translate. Vlad still seems excited to come home with us. We were afraid he might get cold feet. A couple day's ago he hugged me and said, "You are my American father and Beth is my American mother."Vlad and his friends like to listen to Christian music. Not sure how this came about but, we gladly downloaded a bunch of worship songs for them to listen too. We have also been showing them Torchlighters videos...animated kids programs about hero's of the Christian faith. They are dubbed into Russian and the kids love these programs. Vlad's friend, "M" seems especially hungry for spiritual things. We are praying that he will be able to participate in a hosting program and that someone will adopt him.

 Beth has been struggling with not having anyone to talk to ('cept for little 'ole me.) It's amazing how isolated you feel when you don't speak the language. I for one hate making small talk but even I have been dying for a good conversation about the weather with somebody! Thankfully this week we met up with another American couple who is doing an adoption from the same orphanage. They were missionaries here and they are fluent in Russian. They have been very helpful. Friday was Ukrainian Independence Day and "Frank" the missionary and I went into town and bought some fireworks to set off for the kids in the orphanage's soccer field. Yesterday we also met up with some other friends we know from last year's hosting program. It was great to see them...they are on their way home with their two adopted girls!

This Friday is our court hearing. Please pray that we are able to prepare this week and that God will give us confidence.

More later.

Bill and Beth

We Got our Court Date!

We are scheduled to have our adoption hearing on Friday, August 31st at 1:30 pm (6:30 am at home.) After several days of signing papers, traveling to other towns and villages to get paperwork and waiting while our translator and facilitator ran around doing paperwork, our petition to adopt has been received by the court. The hearing is the day before Vlad's 14th birthday. He could be our son by his birthday! Praise God for this huge step forward. After talking with our American friends here, we think that this whole process will take more like 10 weeks than six. We have 2 weeks till our court date, then a 10 day waiting period and then probably four more weeks to process out. That means we may not be home until the 2nd week in October! We will probably be speaking fluent Russian by then.

We visit with Vlad about 3 hours every day and each day it gets better. There are always several other kids hanging out with us including one very close friend of Vlad's. He is a sweet 13 year old boy who is very friendly toward us. It is painfully clear that he is longing for a family. Sometimes he even puts his head on my shoulder and he hugs Beth.  It is so painful to know that he will be left behind. He along with all the kids there, deserve families. Remember "M" in your prayers and pray that a good family will adopt him. 

At the orphanage we have been playing Uno, checkers, basketball etc. One day we made the mistake of bringing the I-pad with us and the kids just played video games until we had to tear it away from them. We also bring a laptop and use Google Translate to speak with each other. Vlad had fun typing his new name in Russian and hearing how it sounds in English. 

We are still in a small apartment here. Our translator leaves to go back to Kyiv this evening so we'll have the place to ourselves. But we may end up moving to a hotel soon. This hotel is within walking distance of the orphanage and the price includes all meals. So, it will actually be cheaper to stay there. 

Ukraine sometimes seems to us like a country of orphans.  There seem to be more stray cats and dogs per square mile then there are people. Beth has adopted an entourage of cats who greet us outside our front door every day and wait for her to feed them. The orphanage is like something out of "Lord Jim." There are adult care takers there but you don't see much of them. The kids seem to be mostly on their own, even one little five year old who just runs around with the bigger kids. They seem to be able to leave the grounds and go to the local convenience store etc. Some of them have cell phones and the Russian equivalent of Facebook accounts. Young girls from the surrounding neighborhood come to the orphanage a lot. It's a great place to meet boys! Vlad doesn't seem too interested yet. 

Thank you for your continuing prayers and notes of encouragement.

Love, 

Bill and Beth

Beginning of Week Two

Monday morning. Once again we are blessed with some alone time as O is out doing paper work and we are waiting for her call. Over the weekend we went to the beach about 20 minutes away by taxi and swam in the Black Sea which was very warm and calm (no big waves....more like a lake.) On Sunday we saw Vlad again and had a great time. It was very awkward  at first as he seems to have lost much the English he knew when he was with us and Google Translate was iffy. But then we went to the field and played frisbee and then basketball in the makeshift court. Some of the other kids joined us and they put me through my paces on the court. Beth said, you will either get in shape with Vlad or have a heart attack! As our time with Vlad went by he seemed more like his old self, more comfortable with us. After leaving the orphanage we walked to a hotel where our American friends are staying. (They are working on adopting two kids.) It was good to commiserate with each other about all the stuff we've been through. They have already been here over 3 weeks. They have their hearing scheduled for Friday. The way things are going it looks like this process could take more like 8 weeks instead of six.
Beth is making sandwiches for today. Never know where we will end up so best to pack lunches.

Yesterday Beth found a grape vine growing up the wall outside our apartment. We were reminded of the verse from John, "I am the Vine, you are the branches.... Without me you can do nothing."

Thanks for all your emails and notes on FB. If you don't want to register for this blog, maybe friend us on FB where we will post these blog entries. http://www.facebook.com/bill.carroll.3363

More later,

Bill and Beth

12 Hours, $200 and One Form!

Hi folks-
We have some unexpected and welcomed downtime this Friday morning. Our translator is out doing paperwork and we are waiting for her call to tell us we are needed. The last two days have been rough. After arriving in V's town after a 14 hour train ride and 3 hour taxi ride and having gotten very little sleep, we went straight to our first appointment at a government office. Information seems to be very tightly controlled here so we received very little information about where we were going or what exactly we were doing. Just "follow....sit here....sign this....come along....walk faster." To say the least my American sense of freedom, dignity and fair play was stretched to the limit. Thankfully the second day, communication was much better. But the problem of the day was getting our first document notarized. This is the document that tells Ukraine that we were given info about V's background and health and that we desire to adopt him. We can't do anything else without this form. Well, we drove around from place to place for most of the morning trying to find a notary. There are no telephone directories here so you can't call ahead. (Want a business opportunity? Come to Ukraine and publish a telephone directory!) When we arrived at each place we found that the notary was either on vacation or unwilling to process the form. So, in the end we had to take a cab on a six hour round trip to another city, spend at least $200 on taxi fare and food just to get one form notarized. A process that took about 1 hour when we finally found someone to do it. It was a stretching experience but Beth and I both felt God sustaining and humbling us. In fact on the way back we saw a full rainbow stretching over the golden fields...felt like the pillar of fire going before us. Please pray for our patience as Beth and I are challenged by different circumstances. There is a lot we could complain about But we are reminded to be thankful in all circumstances. We are thankful for many things: safety, health (Beth has been holding up well even with all the traveling, though her back hurts today), a small but decent apartment, good food (lots of fresh fruit in Ukraine!) In the end it will be worth it to be able to bring V back with us and give him the opportunity to grow and learn about the LORD.

Our Visit with V!

We arrived in the town where V's orphanage is located yesterday. We are in a small apartment (Beth and me and our translator, "O." (I was asked not to use real names.) We had no internet connection yesterday so couldn't write till now. 

We saw V yesterday! We arrived at the orphanage late in the afternoon and  sat in an office while the translator and some of the orphanage  officials spoke to each other in Russian while we sweated and stared at the walls.  After awhile Beth looked toward the open office doorway and exclaimed, “Hi.” I knew by her expression that it was V. The door was behind me, I turned to see him standing there looking just like he did a year ago…healthy, handsome, tanned, just a bit taller. I approached him and put my hand out and then decided to go for a hug. He responded a little shyly but then he smiled warmly at us. Beth came up and hugged him. The translator said, “you may ask him questions now.” I asked how he felt, how he was.  He just said, "okay" and seemed a little reticent to say more. Beth told him how much we missed him and joked about him being taller than her now. Then I asked, "Would you like to come live with us in America" and he smiled and nodded his head, "yes."  Then the director and the other orphanage official asked him questions in Russian. After that they paged through a file and read some information about V's background which was translated for us.  Then the official pulled out some certificates and said Vlad had recently received a third place award for athletics and a first place award for art and that he did well academically. I looked over and smiled at him in approval and he smiled back. From there we went to what appeared to be the nurses office and we were given some information about V's health and then it was time to go. V followed us back to our car and we hugged him again and said we would be back soon. It was too short a visit and difficult to really communicate with him personally with so many people around us. We drove away and kept looking back and waving at him and he did the same as he walked away. Beth and I had tears forming as we headed down the long dirt driveway. 

We didn't get to see him today. I'll write about today's adventures later, but we hope to see him again tomorrow.

This is a heavily edited post. Some day I'll publish the full version. But, we are so thankful to have seen him, that he appears to be well and seems to be excited to come home with us! Can't wait to see him again!

We Got Our Referral

Yesterday (Monday) we had our meeting with the Ukranian adoption official in Kiev. We met our translator, "O" at the office and after a 45 minute wait in the hallway we met with the official. After saying a bit about ourselves we asked about Vlad. She pulled some files and made some phone calls and then showed us a file with a picture of Vlad attached. He must have been about 8 yrs old in the photo. It was very cute and reminded us why we were here just when we were started having doubts. She gave us some basic information about his background and we got some very surprising news about Vlad's family which I won't share here. (It's not a bad thing.) We were told not to talk too much or ask too many questions so we didn't. But everything went well and we go back to pick up the referral today. Then we get on a train this evening at 8:20 and head for Simferopol (14 hours) and from there take a taxi to Vlad's town. (3 hours.) Praise God for the referral and please pray that we get through the train ride okay. (Conflicting information about whether the train is air conditioned or not...the temp has been in the 90's here.) Beth is feeling tired and having some nerve pain but has generally been doing pretty good so far.

Yesterday we walked around Kiev and saw some magnificent Orthodox churches and saw a panoramic view of the city from a hilltop. We're going to walk around some more today before we leave.

Thanks for your prayers.

Beth and Bill

Singin' in Ukraine!

7:30 am in Kiev. I (Bill) couldn't sleep last night. Stayed up trying to figure out how to download e-books on an older i-pad. Got up at 6 and had coffee on the balcony of the apartment where we are staying. We arrived here yesterday at about 2pm after a 10am flight from Frankfurt. We met are pre-assigned taxi driver, Vitaly at the airport. He took us to a supermarket to exchange money and get a few groceries and then onto our apartment in downtown (I think) Kiev. Vitaly doesn't speak much English although we managed to exchange some nods and grunts concerning the Euro Cup championships and he helped us find the pasta in the market. When we got to the apartment which is in an old 19th century brick building, nobody answered the door bell so Vitaly had to call our facilitator who had to call the landlord and ask him to let us in. The first impression of the place was not great as we walked through dark dilapidated hallways and got on a tiny, scary elevator up to the 8th floor. But when we went into the apartment we found a very nice, clean place with very high ceilings, a kitchen, bathroom and a living room/bedroom plus the aforementioned small balcony looking down on a bar and the street below. We can hear very beautiful church bells chiming on the hour.

Last night we had a bit of a scare. We decided to go out and look around the neighborhood at about 6pm but when we left our apartment we found a locked door in the hallway leading out of the place. We tried our key in it and couldn't get it unlocked. We tried to call someone for help and couldn't get through. Finally we reached someone in the states and eventually got word to the landlord. But the landlord wouldn't come up to let us out. He said we just had to "play with the lock." We'll I did that for about an hour before the thing finally unlocked. The lock is so dodgy that we decided not to go out for fear of not being able to get back in. I was already in a pretty foul mood before all this happened so needless to say, it was a difficult night.

This morning we are waiting for our power of attorney to come pick us up and take us to our meeting with the Ukrainian adoption department. In previous blogs I've called this a "hearing" but I'm told its not that formal. Just a 15 minute meeting to get basic info and apply to go see V. If all goes well we will get that approval by tomorrow and get on a train for Crimea.

We're singin' in Ukraine. Just singin' in Ukraine. What a curious feeling I'm having again.
We're locked in our room till we catch the next train.
Yes, we're singin' and dancin' in Ukraine. (Everybody now....!)

Hot Dog! We're in Frankfurt.

Arrived safely in Frankfurt 11 am Saturday (5am at home.) The flight was delayed over 3 hours because of mechanical problems which meant we missed our connecting flight to Kiev. The airline wanted to rebook us on another flight to Kiev that night at 10 pm. It would arrive in Kiev at 1:30 am. After some scrambling to connect with our contacts in Kiev, we decided to stay over night in Frankfurt and catch the next mornings flight. We would have had to stay in the Frankfurt airport for 11 hours and then probably had to stay in the Kiev airport over night. We were exhausted at this prospect and so we got a hotel room. Luftansa refused to pay for a hotel room because their policy is to rebook you on the next available flight. Thankfully someone had given us a last minute money gift in case of emergencies. It came in handy to pay for the hotel! Lovely view of downtown Frankfurt and the distant mountains from our window. We caught some much needed z's in a comfy room. I woke up at one point disoriented and anxious because of all the little hassles we've run into so far. Then I thought about the disorientation and anxiety that V will likely go through when we take him away from his country into a strange land full of strange people (not to disparage our friends or anything!) Please pray for him and pray that God will give us the strength and wisdom to get him through the transition.

P.S. People ride bicycles through the terminal at Frankfurt airport.

Bill and Beth

We're on our Way!

Well, we've made it all the way to the Philly airport. Our flight to Frankfurt is running about 3 hours late which means that we will probably miss our connecting flight to Kiev. So, I guess we'll spend the night in Germany on the airline's dime and get on a flight to Kiev on Sunday. (Only 1 flight per day from Frankfurt to Kiev.) After a harrowing experience in the security line (only one scanner lane open!) we are now relaxing at our gate.

We had a great send off from our church on Sunday. Everybody in the congregation gathered around us and sang the song, "Our God" as a prayer over us. "If God is for us, who can be against us...."
I (Bill) had my eyes closed through most of the song but when I looked up I saw a crowd of people, hands outstretched over us in prayer. It was a very moving experience and we felt God's presence and strength. Also in the past week, Beth was reminded of some verses from Deuteronomy 31.

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.....The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you or forsake you."

We are trusting that the LORD will go before us and with us to Ukraine!

More later.

Beth and Bill