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Farmwife Darlene

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DB Advanced Member

DB

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Darlene, Congratulations on your new family! It seemed like you were over in the Ukraine for a while. Are you and your husband from eastern Europe, because those guys could definitely pass as your biological kids. Hope you have a smooth transition, keep us posted.

Dianne

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Farmwife Darlene Advanced Member

Farmwife Darlene

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Thanks for all the encouraging words!!:) I'm sure we have European roots somewhere in the family tree but not close! Of course, DH had a very difficult time convincing people he was NOT from Russia! Even our translator said he looked Russian!:P The oldest is the brother to the girl. The 2nd son is not physically related to either of them.

We were supposed to be home on Oct 18th but there was an associate prosecuter who wasn't happy with us and delayed us for several weeks. Then after we got the Ukrainian decree/green light, our own govt delayed us because our fingerprint clearance expired! We had to be fingerprinted and cleared by the FBI again!! Yes, little do you know that I'm really a terrible criminal. hahahaha:D

Finally, on Oct 31, our new clearances came through and we left Kiev on Nov 1.

DH and I have been working on this for 2 years and finally we're home! There were several more who wanted to come home with us. Little did they know that the process takes at least a year or more but also these particular 2 have older silblings who would have to sign a relase form for them to be adopted. There are so many good kids in our world who need loving homes. Our older kids are as happy as our new additions are. When we get a new family pic, I'll share with you!

My leave time was up so I'm forced to return to work today.:(:(

DH is home 'playing' with the kids. We go to register them for school tomorrow and Wed. 1 will be in middle school, the other 2 in elem. The language is coming slowly but surely and it will only improve from here.

Life for them has changed a lot from their life in an orphanage in the Ukraine. But they are adjusting well so far. They love to drive the tractors (w/DH with them of course!):D:D

Glad to be home and hopefully soon - quilting again!:P

Thanks for letting me share our joy!!!:D

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DB Advanced Member

DB

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Darlene, Bless you for doing this. Everyone always looks to the infants and toddlers, but these kids need homes too. My husband's family was all from the Ukraine. Your kids could pass for my kid's cousins. Again good luck with your newly enlarged family.

Dianne

By the way, what king of cows do you have? I used to work on a farm with Holsteins and Guernseys. Miss them a lot.

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Farmwife Darlene Advanced Member

Farmwife Darlene

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We have all holsteins. We raise our own replacement heifers also. So we have a closed herd. The children are enjoying the farm so far!

Which part of Ukraine is your DH's family from? The children are from the Donetsk region.

Yes there are lots of children over the age of 6 yrs that are just adorable!! When my DH and I did some humanitarian aide, we took Mark with us. We visited an orphanage in Uglegorsk that had 300 orphans. Let me tell you about DH and DS giving a care package to an orphan who was 10 yrs old. He just looked at it, grinned and hugged it! Then he kept hugging it and grinning. DH was brought to tears. Finally the boy saw others opening theirs and he did the same. When we got ready to leave, I gave him a hug and he said something to me. I asked the translator what he said - he asked when were we returning again. Let me tell you- I could have cried. The package only had toothbrush, toothpaste, wash cloth, soap, shampoo, stocking cap, gloves, 1 pr socks, a small toy, 2 pencils, and a few bandaids. Nothing fancy but it meant everything to him. We were working with a group that stayed with us in the house we were using. 3 people had come to do the aide and so we tagged along since we couldn't do anything else in the court system for a while. We had a waiting period that we had to endure. So the items in the care packages were provided from donations to the group His Kids Too! http://www.hiskidstoo.org/index.php?pageid=1

We saw this same thing repeated over and over again. We gave out some small fleece blankets and the children were more excited about those than some new clothes that we distributed. The weather was getting colder there and the heat had not been turned on yet. The towns pick a day to turn all the heat on at once. They don't have money in their budgets to leave it on all the time. They usually wait till the middle of Oct or later to turn it on. We also only had water an hour each morning and an hour at night in Dzerzhinsk.(we spent most of our time in Dzerzhinsk) In Kiev, the main capital, we had water all the time but the heat wasn't turned on until Oct 24th.

At one shelter, we fitted children with new shoes. When they were supposed to return to their rooms, they left their old torn worn out shoes and only took the new ones. The ladies in charge had to clean up their old shoes. :D

Lots of great kids and sad stories also. We'd like to go back and do some more aide. The children would also like to return. So we'll be saving lots of money for return plane tickets. Maybe in several years we can return.;)

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lindasewsit Advanced Member

lindasewsit

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Wow Darlene!! What a blessing you are to those chilren!! Reading your last post makes me want to make MORE of the shoeboxes that we are doing at church! After work, I am heading for the store to buy some more things !! I wish a shoebox was big enough for one of those fleec throws! Could probably fit one into the bigger shoe boxes, but then nothing else would fit into it. Humm.... I'll have to think about that! My cousin adopted 2 girls from romainia when they were kindergarden and 1st or 2nd grade age. They have both now graduated and are working and going to college!! They did not speak a word of english when they arrived, but now, of course, there is no accent at all. There were some struggles along the way, but all worth it!! Blessings to you and your new family!! linda

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Suezquilts Advanced Member

Suezquilts

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Hmmmmm.... when i ship quilts I have sucked the air out with a vaccum using a zip lock bag. They have the Large, XL, XXL sizes at Walmart.

I'll try to do this today and let you know if you can put these fleece blankets in a box.

We are filling up ours this weekend.

Darlene! you are my hero, this is something that I would love to do. When our children we nearly grown, I desired to adopt, but My DH (who is very dear) did not feel this way. He said to our 16 yr old daughter, that if God wanted us to have another child he would give us one. Nine months later, we had another DS. DD prayed that we could adopt, God has a sense of humor, as 12 yrs earlier we had a permanent fix for this, it reversed, and I was able to carry a baby without complications.

Now our 13 yr old wants......... we don't even go there

God bless you and your new family! Enjoy Thanksgiving, we have so much to be thankful for.

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