A great night and sweet start to our morning...

Our friends, Sara and Anthony Reynolds are visiting us from Dnipro (where they are in the process of adopting a 2-year old boy, Abe). We went to dinner last night with the G-3 crowd from the orphanage and had a great night of laughter, fellowship, and margarita pizzas.

This morning, Sara and Anthony went with us to the orphanage to meet Haley A. She was so shy and snuggled into us like she has never done before. We were in heaven. She sat facing me for a good 15 minutes (this is a first! she typically will only sit with her back to me and is very uncomfortable if I try to turn her around to face me for a hug). But this morning, we got a great dose of Haley Hugging!! :)

We are hoping this is the start of something really wonderful! At least we know the little thing has it in her!








After she warmed up a bit, she was her usual lively self and we walked and played some hide and seek games with Daddy.
She loves calling out "da-da, da-da" in a sing-songy way when he is hiding are we are looking for him. So cute.















Sitting FACING daddy reading the newspaper.














The 4 of us will join Laura and her mom at the restaurant overlooking the River tonight. Then our driver, Max, will take the Reynolds back to Dnipro in the morning.















We are so excited that we will be home just ONE WEEK from today!
We can't wait until we are walking away from the orphanage with our little girl toward home...














Hope you are enjoying your weekend!
Love, the Lambeth 3

5 more days in Zaporizia...

The clock is ticking down. We think we will only be in Zaporizia 5 more days. Sergei will be back on Sunday and we will get Haley A.'s passport pictures made on Monday, pick up the court decree on Tuesday and drive to her birth city to get her birthcertificate redone with our names as parents. We hope to get her passport finalized by Wed. morning and if all goes well, we will head to Kiev that afternoon with our daughter in tow.

We are enjoying our days at the orphanage and time with other couples adopting children there. The G-3 summit (as Rob nicknamed us) is pictured to the left. From L to R: June, Laura and Rob with Vanya (from Williamsburg, VA), Alecia, LeeAnn and Alex (from Israel), Team Lambeth in orange, and Maria with Mateo from Italy (Giovanni was in Rome on business). The original group has been dwindling the last week. Our friends from Israel (Alex and Alicia) left on Wednesday with LeeAnn. Rob returned to Williamsburg, VA to get back to work and earn some money for the 3 new sons they are adopting. Laura's mom, June, has been here this week and will help trasport the crew back to Virginia next weekend. If all goes well, we will all be on the same flight home! Maria and Giovonni, will be headed back to Rome next week as well. It has been great to have made such good friends and share this incredible time together. We are enjoying one last meal together tonight to celebrate friendship and our new children!

The Reynolds (Sara and Anthony) are able to visit us this weekend after all! They were able to get the paperwork they needed redone in Nepro without going to Kiev, so they will hopefully be in town tonight for the weekend. Their court date was rescheduled for Tuesday. It will be great to see them again. I can't wait until they meet Haley and our G-3 friends.


Here's Haley in mid-swing of throwing one of her dolls (we're still working hard on curtailing the throwing unless it's a ball!)

Hunter sneaking up on her...

Haley pointing out to her care-giver that "ma-ma" is at the door...(so sweet!!). Notice the "potties" in the background...in place for some after lunch sitting..

A new look without the top-knot...so serious!a sweet smile for papa's camera... Her favorite afternoon snack...berries picked right from the tree...

Taken on our "gotcha" day...just a few minutes after our court hearing (June 20th).

Friends...Friends...Friends

Here are some pictures of Haley with her group and our favorite care-giver, Tonya.

From L to R: Liza, Artur, Arturo, Nickoli, Slavi and Haley (with Bogdonna on Tonya's lap)

and with her friend, Vitale (who is in her group and being adopted by Jessica and Paul Owen from Florida). A rare, precious moment when they were going in for a hug!

She LOVES trucks and cars. We bought her a pick-up truck that she loves dragging around behind her. Everytime we run into Vitale with his truck, the 2 of them swap out and continue dragging.

She also loves to sweep. We replaced the sticks she was using to write on the ground with this broom. She worked hard to really cleaned up the place!!

Our weekend adventure...

I’m writing this from the overnight train headed back to Zaporizia (oh the wonders of the lap top computer!) We have just spent a whirwind last few days, getting papers in Kiev from the US embassy, visiting YoungLife staff and kids in Chernovsy and then Sergei’s family in Vinitzi. We packed a ton of activity into 4 days. We miss Haley Anastasia, but we are grateful we decided to go on this trip to meet such wonderful folks and see other parts of Ukraine.

Friday, we were able to get the papers we needed from the embassy, stating that Laura and Lauri are the same person. With 2 minutes to spare, we were able to get it notarized just before they closed at noon! That night, we boarded a train headed to Chernovsy to visit the YL staff there. Sergei rode part of the way with us to his hometown, Vinitzi, then left to see his family. We arrived in Chernovsy the next morning and were greeted by Alona and Sergei (very popular name here!) who are on YL staff there.
They took us to see the YL house/office, fed us a big breakfast and then let us rest a few hours before we went to a birthday party of one of the YL volunteers. We met a lot of the other YL leaders and kids. We enjoyed an outdoor picnic of kilbasa, potatoes, fresh veggies and fruit, bread. They cooked the kilbasa on skewers and put the potatoes right in the ashes. They were delicious! It was an amazing feast. We definitely noted how much healthier the food was here than the food typically served at YL events in the states (pizza, burgers, chips, cookies).

The next day, Misha (YL volunteer) drove us to Vinitzi (about 3.5 hours away). We rode in style in a red French car called a Longa, with a big YL sticker on the front. He stopped by a famous fortress so we could take some pictures. They were filming a movie outside the fortress, there were 100 horses lined up for a battle scene. We arrived in Vinitzi around 1 pm and Sergei took us to meet his family. He and his wife, Ala, and 13 month old daughter, Arina, live in a small 1 bedroom house in a cute little village. Their parents joined us for an amazing lunch Ala and her mom had prepared for us…more kilbasa, greek salad, potatoes and fresh fruit. Their house is so small, we had to eat outside b/c there was not enough room for a table and 6 chairs. We toasted many times to health and family and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with them. The next day, Sergei took us to see Hitler’s Bunker. It was a beautiful forest of pine trees with scattered slabs of concrete and rebar here and there. We later looked in a book and saw pictures of Hitler standing in the same spots we took these pictures (along the pine paths and near the wading pool). It was eerie standing in the same spot we knew Hitler had once stood. We have met many people on this trip whos family members were killed by this horrible monster. The memories of that time in history still linger prevalently throughout Ukraine. We also toured Nickolay Pirogov’s museum and mansion (complete with his embalmed body). He is prominent Russian scientist, surgeon, educator who is famous for being the first to introduce using ether as anesthesia. What a contrast this was...from visiting a place where an evil man who destroyed so many lives once stood, to seeing the great works of a true humanitarian who used his life to help others.

We took a 3 hour train to Kiev, riding in 2nd class because Sergei could not get us tickets in 1st class compartment. We’ve been used to riding in 1st class during our over-night train rides. 1st class is a small cabin with 2 small cots. There are 9 cabins in each car, so 18 people share the bathroom at the end of the hall. 2nd class cabins have 4 bunks each, and 36 people share a bathroom. The ride was only 3 hours, so this was not a problem at all. We shared a cabin with a couple and their 2 year old daughter. 3rd class is a different world completely. It’s more like a waiting room on wheels. I think they put at least 54 people in each car…and they all share one bathroom! The price difference between a 1st and 3rd class ticket is astounding, about 95% savings if you could stand the 3rd class compartment. We still opted for the 1st class over-night car so we would have the privacy and could get some sleep (and have a shot at using the bathroom!). We are excited to see Haley Anastasia tomorrow. We have really missed her and can’t wait to see how the break has affected her feelings toward us.

We moved out of our apartment on Wednesday before we left. We are storing our luggage in our Israeli friends’ apartment. Our new apartment lease starts Monday. We will be closer to some friends and can share a taxi to the orphanage. It will also be nice to be closer to them to go to dinner at night. The new place is a lot smaller, but it is also saving us a lot of money. It’s a 2 bedroom, so Sergei will have his own room when he gets back from visiting his family in Vinitzi.

The couple we hung out with when we were in Kiev at the beginning of our trip (Sara and Anthony Reynolds) have their court date tomorrow to adopt Abe, then they are coming to Zaporizia to visit! We are so excited to be able to see them again. We were hoping we would be on the same court schedule so we would have a few days together in Kiev while getting the final papers from the Embassy there. But they are a week behind us and won’t be able to go to Kiev until after we depart for the US. Their visit is a great surprise and it will be fun for them to meet Haley Anastasia too!

Blessings, HLH (Hunter, Lauri and Haley) Lambeth

She's ours!!

At 10 am this morning, Wednesday, June 20th, Haley Anastasia Lambeth is officially our daughter! We had a brief court hearing and the judge smiled and told us that we were her legal parents. After the judge and witnesses left the room, the inspector (who oversees all the adoptions in this area) turned to us and smiled and said, "Anastasia finally has a family". She was visibly happy to see that after 2 and 1/2 years in the orphanage, she was going home to a family that will love her the rest of her life! :) We are so excited to begin this journey with our little one.

In 10 days we can take her from the orphanage. This is a mandatory appeal period.

We are off to Kiev to go to the embassy to get the marriage license name problem fixed. It feels strange leaving her the day the court decree is finalized, but we have to get this matter taken care of in order to get her new birth certificate and passport to take her home! From Kiev, we will take an over-night train to Chernofsky to visit the YL folks there and then to go to Sergei's town to meet his family. We will be back Sunday. We will have limited (at best) access to internet, so we won't be able to BLOG again until Monday.

We can't wait to come home!!

Blessings, -

Haley Anastasia's happy parents, Hunter and Lauri

Haley Anastasia Lambeth!!

We have a name! After days of agonizing, we finally found just the right “fit” for our little angel. Haley Anastasia Lambeth. We love her birth name, Anastasia and definitely wanted to keep this part of her name. She is our little princess for sure! For all who might not know, Anastasia was a famous Russian Princess. In honor of her birth, her father pardoned and reinstated students who had been imprisoned for participating in riots. One meaning of her name is “breaker of chains”. Her name also means “of the resurrection”. It is rumored that Princess Anastasia was the only member of her family to escape and survive massacre. We love the symbolism in this name and definitely wanted to keep it for her! By the way, it’s also a great Disney movie. Meg Ryan and John Cusack are the voices of the lead animated characters.

In addition to this beautiful Ukrainian name, we wanted to give her a name we chose for her. Her nickname in Ukraine (and the only name she knows) is "Nast-chya". It's spelled HACTIR, the R is backwards and pronounced “ya”. Everyday we look for her locker with the word beginning with “HA” on it. We like the name Haley and thought it would be good to start her new name with the same first two letters she is used to looking for on her locker. Also, one of our favorite singers is Hayley Westerna (the only CDs we brought here were 2 of hers). Our little one loves to be sung to and to listen to the songs on daddy’s cell phone, so we thought it would be fitting to give her the same name as this beautiful songstress.

So there you have it…Haley Anastasia Lambeth. Our little Ukranian princess!!

We had a minor set back this morning when we went to court to petition for our hearing date. The name on our marriage license is Lauri, but every other document (passport, dossier, etc.) says “Laura”. Fortunately, the cover document (license affidavit) we had notarized says Laura. It should have matched exactly, but somehow this was missed. Since the cover affidavit matches, Sergei was able to convince the judge to use this document for the court hearing. We will have to go to the US Embassy in Kiev to get a notarized document stating that Lauri and Laura are the same person. They scrutinize every minor detail!!

The best news is that we finally got confirmation of our court date for tomorrow, Wednesday, June 20th at 9:00 am! Then Haley Anastasia will be ours for keeps. The mandatory 10-day waiting period will be up July 1 and then we can take her from the orphanage! We will need a couple of days to get her local passport and new birth certificate made in Zaporizia, so we are thinking we will travel back to Kiev no later than July 4th…Independence Day (how fitting!). In Kiev, we will get her final medical exam at the US Embassy and her US passport so she can enter the US as a citizen!

We have a long wait ahead of us, but we will be over the biggest hurdle of the process (we hope!) tomorrow. We have been stocking up for the items we will need to take care of Haley Anastasia during the long journey home. She will experience a car ride, 10-hour train-ride and 12 hour plane ride within 2 days. So far, we’ve been working on easing her into the idea of riding in the car. We’ve tried to make a game of it, but she still gets very nervous when we sit with her in it. So we’ll continue to practice that part of it. It doesn’t look like they will let us take her from the orphanage until after the 10 days is up, so we are trapped there without a swing for another 2 weeks. The first thing we’ve vowed to do once we get her out of the orphanage is get her a popsicle and put her on a swing! I can’t wait to see her face light up!! I’m sure she will chomp the popsicle in 3 bites (she doesn’t know how to suck, so she bites lollipops like the owl in the old tootsie pop commercials…one, two, three…gone!)

We have been shopping for some outfits for her and have found a couple of cute dresses…they are not made well, so we don’t want to get too many. They feel like they are made from disposable, flammable material. Fortunately, I got a big bag of girlie things from my new friend, Theresa who I met in Kiev at the beginning of our trip. She is adopting a boy in Simerpool so she didn’t need them. The bag included soft pajamas for the train ride. Yippee!! Thank you Theresa! So many cute things!

We are going to visit Sergei’s family this weekend in Venitzi (he has a wife and 13-month old child). Then we will travel on to Chernofsky to see where the YoungLife expeditions group will be staying this summer and meet the trip host, Alona, and the other YL staff and leaders there. We will take the overnight train, so we can rest between stops and make the most efficient use of our time. We are trying to do a whirwind tour so we don't miss more than two days with our daughter.

19 more hours and our little pumpkin is ours!! Yippeee….

Blessings, Lauri and Hunter

Hunter's First Father's Day...

We had an amazing night Saturday with the international group. Giovanni and Maria cooked us an authentic Italian dinner that was incredible! Utterly “Fantastic” as Giovanni would say! There was great conversation, much laughter and way too much food. We all had to waddle out the door to hail a cab. We are so thankful to have made such wonderful new friends to share this important part of our lives with.

She loves to sit next to daddy and rest on his leg. We put her snack in the pringles can (I think its cereal, it's sold in big bags with a cow on them. They look like cheetos but taste like corn pops).

She is all smiles now when we arrive. What a huge change from just a few days ago. She barrels to the door, ready to go to her “snack and play with the big people time”.

Yesterday, she was fascinated with how big Hunter’s hand was and placed her hand on top of his. So cute.

We took Sunday morning off to rest. We returned to the orphanage for our afternoon visit. Sergei called a cab for us (from his hometown 6 hours away!) and we told him we would walk back after our visit. It’s about 7 miles, but we are in dire need of exercise after our huge dinner last night. Of course, he was at first a bit worried about us doing this, but then later conceded and told us to wear our sneakers and not to take our laptops…such a dad!! The only problem was that we could not remember the way back to the apartment. We have taken so many different routes in the past, that we got confused and after walking for 45 minutes, we decided to be safe and hail a cab. Fortunately, we had our notecard with the apartment address on it and the cab driver was able to get us home safely. So much for that!

Sergei returns to Zaporizia early tomorrow and we are hoping he will have some news of our court date. Once we got to court, the 10-day wait-time clock can start ticking. We are going to try to renegotiate our lease or look for a new apartment closer to the center of town and try to get a monthly rate instead of the daily rate we are paying. We will definitely need to stay another 2 weeks and in the end will cost us 3x more than the other couples are having to pay for their more convenient apartments!!

We have been told there will be another 3 day wait once we get back to Kiev for papers we need from the American Embassy.

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!

Blessings, - lauri

Zaporizia on our own...

Our international dinner was great. There were many countries represented…Italians, Argentinians (who now live in Israel), and Americans all gathered together in a pizza restaurant in the Ukraine! We had so much fun talking about politics, children, family, and food! I think there was agreement on which cheese was better, parmesian or romano (athough I confessed I did not know there was much difference between the two). The couple from Rome, Giovanni and Maria, offered to cook an authentic Italian dinner for the group Saturday night! So we are going to their apartment for what I think may be Eggplant Paremsian if I am translating it right. Regardless, I know it will be a wonderful evening of good food and fellowship. We are blessed to have met such wonderful people going through the adoption journey at the same time and place.

We are hopeful our court date will be Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Sergei has everything lined up, but it’s a matter of the court agreeing on a giving us a date to hear our petition. After our court date, she will be officially ours, but we are not able to take her out of the orphanage for a mandatory 10-day waiting period. We’re not sure what this waiting period is for, but we will use the time wisely to continue to bond with our little one.

We have successfully survived living in Zaporizia without Sergei for 2 days now. A man who works at the orphanage, Nikoli, has agreed to pick us up from the apartment each morning and take us several places during the day. He does not speak a word of English, but we write down times and he uses arrows to indicate where we need to go next. We have ventured out around our apartment, where life seems to be hopping 24-7. There are outdoors bars and vendors selling crackers and cigarettes. We managed to find some water and orange juice along the way.

It’s sweltering hot here and all the families are trying to find shade around the orphanage. We may try to get a baby pool if we can find some water to put in it. All the families have agreed this would be a much needed addition to our afternoons there.

In the picture above she is saying "please" (rubbing your chest) with her sign language and a smile or sorts...her eyes are definitely on the gummy bear daddy is about to hand her.


Today we had a good morning, but we had a hard afternoon (sound familiar?). Up and down, up and down…it seems to be a standard theme with many of the couples adopting from the orphanage. Here are pictures of a fun game she is playing with daddy with the bucket. Lots of giggles! She is quite stubborn and acts out when she does not get her way (typical 2 year old behavior compounded by the fact that she’s lived in an institution her entire life and has not have parents to guide her in the right direction with love, not to mention the HUGE language barrior between us). We are trying ways of communicating through hugs and smiles and the few Russian words we know, but these are of little help to us when she is in the midst of one of her rages. Maybe all you parents of toddlers out there are nodding your head that there is no communicating with a raging 2 year old no matter the language. Fortunately, she has a definite case of child ADD and I am at times able to distract her from what she was upset about to begin with. Since Hunter and I have no experience parenting a will-full 2 year old, it has been an eye-opening week!! Amazing that you can be afraid of something so small escalating into a big melt down before your eyes. On a more positive note, she seems to be demonstrating some signs of attaching to us as mom and dad. The only people we truly can not compete with now are her care givers. But I believe this is a good sign that she is endeared to someone in her life and feels at home with them. When we take her back to her room, she gets so excited to see her primary care giver and group mates.

This is a picture of the care giver taking the group back to their room. She is the only one with clothes on (orange dress) looking back at us as we wave goodbye.



Hunter and I pray every time we enter the orphanage that our hearts would be open to what God has to teach us about loving this little girl and that her heart would be open to receive our love. We know there are years of scars and more wounds than we can imagine from the neglect she has endured. We know this precious one did nothing to deserve such a hard start in life, and has found some coping mechanisms that have helped her through these years. We know we have a long way to go in teaching her that she can trust us and we will take care of her and love her forever. We are thrilled that we were chosen to be her parents and teach her what it means to truly be part of a loving family.

We know we have already traveled so much of the journey just to find her, but the work has just begun. Today, they dressed her in the same outfit we met her in...11 days ago. She was a scared little rabbit the first day we saw her, trembling and staring off into space to get through the 5 minute visit. Poor thing. It’s only been 11 days since then, and she’s come alive before our eyes. What an amazing tranformation already!

We are so thankful for the good and bad, the ups and downs, because they all include her! We are excited about the adventure that lies ahead.

We love you and can't wait to get back home so you can meet her!

Blessings,
Hunter and Lauri

A great play day...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I thought I'd send you some pictures of our cutie pie for you to enjoy...from her sooo happy parents...


They do not allow stuffed animals in the orphanage because of lice and other bugs that can live on them...so she did not know what to do the first time we showed her this lambie-pie (we call it "key-sa" which means kitty because we don't know the Russian word for Lamb). A week later, we reintroduced her to "keysa" and she loved it! She held on to it the entire time we were there and snuggled with it. So "stinkin' cute" (as Keltner would say!).

After a rocky start, we had a great afternoon at the orphanage with our little girl. She loves fruit! Today she tried apples with peanut butter for the first time. Her face lit up after her first taste and she even chose this over a lollipop when given a choice (that’s my girl!!). She loves dragging the helicopter during our walks. She could not push it in a straight line (cheap toy), so she just decided to drag the thing behind her. Whatever works!!

We had a good 2 hours with her, tickling on the blanket and horsey rides on our knees. Here she is flying with mommy like an airplane (“samalote”). So cute! She has definitely learned the value of saying “please” to get a treat or something she wants. It’s so cute to see her rub her chest (sign language for please) when her mouth is completely full and she can’t get the word out.

We are trying to get her warmed up to the idea of sitting in a car. Initially, she was frightened and pulled back when Hunter tried to get her to sit with him with the car door opened, but after discovering she could play with the buttons on the doors, she was all for it and jumped in his lap. (You can see her spunk in this picture as she was playing a game with daddy and the pringles can.) We are hoping next week, after our court date, we will be able to take her for an hour or two away from the orphanage, get a popsicle and find a swing set. This way, she may associate a car ride with a tasty treat and something fun.

The care givers dress her in very girlie things and always have her hair up in at least one top knot (if not 4 or 5 ponytails). She is the only one in her group that has long hair (a bonus for daddy because he loves long hair!) They usually have a bonnet or hat on her, but a few times they have dressed her in what looks like a diaper on her head. This allows for her pig tails to stick ouf on either side, but we agreed with her when she tore it off her head in favor of daddy's Tucco hat!

We are definitely riding the roller coaster with our little one. Yesterday, we had the worst afternoon ever. Once we took her back to her group, she didn’t want to have anything to do with us. She would not take Hunter’s hand when the group was walking back to the room, so he picked her up which prompted a kicking and crying fit all the way back to the room. Today, however, was a completely different story. Although she cried when we first arrived, she seemed “proud” of us when we took her back to the group at the end of our visit. She kissed us goodbye and waved. Then some of the other kids ran up to get hugs and she shoed one boy away and told him “dit dat” or something like that. She puffed out her chest and walked back up to Hunter and planted another kiss on him, then turned and walked over to me to give me one too. I’m not trying to condone this possessive behavior, but it was the cutest thing we’d ever seen and warmed our hearts!! We'll work on some sensitivity training when we get home.

We insisted that Sergei go home to spend father’s weekend with his family. We also told “Danika” that we could make it with taxis this weekend to give her a break. She is having to use her father’s car now that her brother wrecked the BMW we were in, and we don’t want to inconvenience them more than we have to. So we are on our own to explore and get from the apartment to the orphanage to the internet café. Sergei made us note cards to show the taxi driver with the addresses of these places, so we should be fine.

We are meeting 3 other couples for dinner tonight that are adopting from the same orphanage. One couple is from Italy (the wife does not speak a word of English), the other is from Argentina, but lives in Israel, and the other is from Williamsburg. We’re eating pizza because that’s the safest place to order! You have to be careful here because they like to serve “organs” and sometimes you may get something in your meat you did not expect!!

We are hoping to get our court date Monday or Tuesday next week. We have narrowed her name down to 2 choices and need to choose by Monday, so we have the weekend to keep trying them out on her. We may just let her pull one out of a hat!

We’re off to pizza with our international group! Have a great day!

Blessings, hunter, lauri and our lil’ munchkin