Lambeth Adoption Journey

Crazy Daze of Summer!!

2007-09-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's September and you can already feel a slight fall chill in the air!! Although I am excited for fall weather, football games and tailgate parties, I am not ready to let go of summer just yet. What will Haley do without her beloved "pool"?? It will be hard to see the warm, sunny days go!

Oh, what a wonderful summer this has been! Every new day with Haley is an adventure waiting to unfold!

Haley is a totally different child than the one we were with in the orphanage in July. She is a loving, funny, smart child who just melts our heart every time we look at her! We are having so much fun being her parents! She brings so much joy to our lives!

It’s hard to describe the incredible change in her. I keep thinking back to a story a friend told me years ago about a little squirrel who was stuck in a drainage ditch and unable to climb out to safety on his own. A man passing by reached down to rescue him, but the squirrel, unable to understand that the man was trying to help him and bring him to a safer place, fought, bit and clawed to keep the man away. When we visited Haley in the orphanage, she acted like that squirrel in survival mode, doing all she knew to keep us at a distance. She literally hit, clawed and bit us when all we wanted to do was love her, take her to a safe place and make her part of our family. So many days we would leave the orphanage feeling overwhelmed with the challenge ahead of us. Can you even tame a squirrel??

The amazing thing is that when we finally got our little “squirrel” out of her "ditch", she shed her "squirreliness" almost immediately and soaked up love and affection like a sponge. This was a great lesson for us! Hunter and I had to solely rely on the Lord for the strength to walk forward in what we didn't understand and felt ill-equipped to handle. Yet, all along Haley was just waiting for our love to finally become the sweet little girl God had created her to be. We will ask each other all the time, "Was she really that way in the Ukraine?" because it doesn't seem possible today. We have received an extra blessing in that we did not expect to see such a dramatic change in her personality and heart so quickly. It's so much fun to be a part of her life!

Now for some summer highlights:
We were able to travel and visit friends and family in August, including a trip to Arkansas to visit grandpa and her 8 cousins (some are pictured to the left), a week at the beach, and attending our first family camp (as a family!) at Windy Gap just to mention a few!

Haley experienced a plethora of firsts in her life: her first trip to the beach, her first visit to UNC, her first water park ride, her first trip down the 50 foot slide at Windy Gap (this was NOT mommy’s idea!)...see picture to the right--that's Haley and Daddy at the top...on their way down!

Not surprisingly...Haley LOVED the beach!!

It’s so much fun to see her enjoying all the fun things in life: Family, friends, hugs, kisses, I love you’s, opening presents, eating ice cream, running in the park with friends, slides, swings, long baths, trips to “gamma’s” pool, singing in the car, dancing and twirling and playing the guitar…so much joy!!

Haley started preschool at our church last week (2 days a week for 3 hours). Here she is walking to her classroom..."book" bag in tow! :) There were a few tears the first minute, but then she fit right in and started to play with her new friends. She loves her teachers and now walks right in to her classroom without looking back. A bittersweet moment for mommy and daddy!

We attended the LifeLife adoption reunion last weekend in Birmingham, AL. We were able to see the Sims and finally meet their sweet little boy, Jacob (pictured here). It was a great weekend and fun for us to introduce Haley to Donna and Anna from LifeLife who helped us with our paperwork.

What a great summer! Although I hate to see it end, I know great things are just around the corner. Hunter and I will celebrate our 5th wedding anniversay the end of September, my birthday in October, Thanksgiving trip to Arkansas in November, and Haley and Hunter's birthdays in December...not to mention our first Christmas as a family! So many things to be thankful for!

Blessings to you! - Lauri

All you need is love...

2007-08-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

We’ve been home a month exactly today…it’s been one amazing day after another. Haley is incredible and continues to blow any expectations we had out of the water. From day one, she responded to her new name (we started using Haley the moment we got to Atlanta on
7-7-07 and have not used Nastia since). If we call out Nastia, she does not even turn around to look, but quickly responds to Haley. I think she was just waiting for a cuter name!! She loves anything we do outdoors (riding in the stroller, feeding ducks, wading in the pool), reading books, and eating! She loves bananas, Costco chicken salad (which she would eat for every meal if we let her), pickles and apples to the core! She loves opening the presents our friends and family have sent her...reading all the great books, trying on new clothes, playing with all her new toys. Here she is trying on 3 different outfits a friend sent her all at once.

The second day we were home, we visited some friends at a neighborhood pool. We didn't go to swim. We only intended to stop by so that they could meet Haley. She sat on the edge with me, burying her head in my chest. Slowly, she touched the water and after 15 minutes, Hunter was able to persuade her to be carried in the water. She was quite timid at first, but after a few minutes was giggling and splashing. Ever since that day all she wants to do is go to the pool. She LOVES it! …the blow-up pool, the big pool, the bathtub, the shower…really she is crazy about anything that has to do with water.

This is a picture of Haley with her cousin, Abbie, kicking up a tidal wave at the pool.

Every morning, she’ll say to us, “pool, pool” and makes swimming motions with her arms. It’s very cute and we have been fortunate to be able to take her most every day. We’re dreading the winter and don’t know what we’ll do without sunny days at the pool for her!

Haley has made great strides in so many areas. It’s hard to imagine that she is the same little girl we took from the orphanage last month! We joke that somehow they must have switched the children on us the day we picked her up! She learned to use the “big girl” potty just after a week of being home, she’s sleeping in her own bed (although she still doesn’t like to go to sleep and has no trouble letting us know how unhappy she is about taking naps or going to bed at night).

The first week, she slept in our bed at night (although she would take naps in her own). We had heard it was important for the bonding process for her to be with us in our bed. After a week of terrible sleep (we only had a queen size bed and somehow the little thing would take up more than half of it!), we decided to see how she would do in her own bed. She normally sleeps straight through the night, so once she was asleep, she didn’t seem cognizant of where she was anyway. Most mornings, she will crawl into bed with us when she wakes up, but my mother-in-law gave us a king size bed as a gift last week and this has been a great help! Even with the bigger bed, however, she still takes up a ton of room. For some reason she likes to sleep all over my head, chest, body…some part of her body is constantly on mine (usually her feet on my head!). But it’s a delight to have her want to be near us, so I don’t mind it.

Haley’s been on a lot of play dates and has made a lot of new friends. This is a picture with Nettie Cantey. She has developed better social skills since leaving the orphanage (where she took toys from other children and hit a lot without consequence). My sister and her husband were here last week with their five children (ages 1-12) for the week and this was a great environment for Haley to learn to “live and play” with other children of all ages. Since she was only with kids her same age at the orphanage, she wasn’t used to being with children other than the two year olds in her group. She did just great…she's learning to share, to apologize when she hits or takes a toy, to give hugs and blow kisses…

she's even learned to say “cheese” when taking a picture and smile for the camera!!

Here's an example...

"cheeeeese!"

Haley is so open to doing new things, trying new things, tasting new things. It's great. She doesn't always like them, but she'll try almost anything! A few things have surprised us...she doesn't like swings or going down slides yet (although she does love climbing up the slide, we then have to lift her up to get her down). At times she seems fearless. One afternoon, my friend Robbie brought her kids from AL to visit. We took them to McDees indoor play area. This was the first time she had been to this type of playland with the different tunnels you can climb up and slide down. She stayed most of the time on the bottom steps, stepping up and down the first platform. Just before we were leaving, she started climbing up the tunnel. She made it all the way to the very top with Sam (Robbie's child they adopted from Ukraine 2 years ago..pictured together on the teeter-totter). She was laughing and banging on the plexiglass bubble at the top. Sam made it back down, but Haley didn't want to leave. We had to send up another child to get her down.

What a little adventure-seeker!!

Haley's learned to be kind to animals. Hunter's mother brought her dog, Sweet Pea for a visit. We were nervous at first because she didn't seem to know how to refrain from hitting animals. But once she met Sweet Pea, she learned to be sweet and soft. Haley loved walking her! She gets very excited when she sees any animal and wants to run over and pet them, even the squirrels! It's hard to explain to her why she can't pet the squirrels. Fortunately, they are fast enough to get away from her when they see her coming!

Haley attended her first wedding Friday night and was the flower girl!! She walked the aisle with a basket of rose petals (although instead of throwing them, she bent down and picked them all up and put them back in her basket). After about 2 minutes, she was “done with that event” and started walking around and getting into everything. She dumped candle wax on her dress and finger, then announced to me that she had to go potty and started to cry. (I had put her in a diaper, but she does not like to use the diaper, so I had to take her to the bathroom right in the middle of the vows.) The ceremony went on and we made it back for the crucial kiss!

Haley loved the wedding cake and bubbles that followed. It was a great evening!

At the end of the month, we are taking her to the beach! We can’t wait to see her reaction to the ocean (the biggest pool she’ll ever see!). We’re dreading the 7 hour car ride, but will try to do most of the driving at night so she can sleep.

She will also be attending her first ever UNC game! My college (JMU) is playing Hunter’s college (UNC). Of course, Hunter has already schooled her in who to root for and she even has a UNC outfit to wear to the event. She’s already practicing her Tar Heel cheer…”Go Heels!”.

We’ll continue to keep you posted on Haley's development. But we are thrilled to have her home with us. She is the most amazing blessing to ever happen to us!

Thanks for all your prayers and support! The Lord definitely has been good to us! We can't wait for you all to meet her. She is wonderful!!

Blessings, Lauri and Hunter

Our first day home…

2007-08-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

The first morning in her new home, Haley slept 10 hours (although she fought tooth and nail to keep from falling asleep!). So much had happened in the 3 days we had taken her from the orphanage (the only home she’s ever known). A 12 hour train ride, 2 long days in Kiev without a nap, 17 plane ride to get to the USA, becoming a US citizen…I think it all finally took it’s toll and she collapsed in exhaustion. She woke up about 10 am and I held her in our rocking chair where she quickly fell back asleep for another hour. She was zonked out. When she woke up, she quickly ate a banana and some yogurt, then watched "The Tour de France" with Hunter on the couch.

When she finally woke up, we were all just learning how to be a family…what our routine would look like, how she would react to being in a new environment. We took her to the dock out back to feed the ducks and she loved it! She started out with 2 pieces of bread, after 3 trips back to the house for more...we finally just took the rest of the bag. We went through the entire loaf! What fun!!

She was doing so well, we called my mom and told her we’d come visit that very day. Who knew how long this good behavior would last and we wanted to get a visit in with family while it was still going really well. We put Haley in the car without any fuss and she rode the 15 minute drive to my mother’s place without any fanfare! WOW. One hurdle out of the way, we thought.

She was very shy at my mom’s and buried her face in my chest for the whole hour. She was dying to play with the toys they had given her, but couldn’t muster the courage to leave my lap. After about an hour, the temptation overtook her fears and she climbed down and played with some of the toys they had given her.

We stopped by Target to buy some baby gates to protect her from the stairs in our house. Haley announced she had to "potty". Fortunately, we had brought the little plastic potty, so we were able to accommodate her right there in the parking lot. Thank goodness for minivans!!

Our plan once in Target was to run in, get the gates and exit. I would take her back to the car if she was too overwhelmed by all the people and things in the store.

We headed straight to the baby aisle…but had to pass by the shoe department on our way. When she saw the shoes, she arched her back and pointed. Hunter went on to find the gates and I stayed with Haley as she SHOPPED FOR SHOES!! It was an amazing sight. She surveyed the selection and had a definite opinion of the shoes she liked and did not. She found a paid of black Mary-jane shoes and quickly put them on her feet. They were too big, but she walked around proudly. Then she spotted a pair of hot pink boots. She quickly sat down and shed the MJ’s for the boots! Meanwhile, Hunter had found the gates and had returned to find his daughter amidst her shoe selection. He said, “What are you doing?” I told I told him I had nothing to do with this. She was on her own selecting out the shoes she liked and didn’t like and was very picky about what she wanted to try on. We picked out a pair of sandals with flowers and showed them to her. She turned and said, “Ni” (no in Russian) and went on searching. He said, “You’ve got to be kidding!” It was hilarious. I told Hunter that is was proof that girls love shoes, whether they grow up in an orphanage or not, a love of shoes is innate in all women! We could see this was not a learned response—she had never been in a store in her life!! Boys somehow fashion anything they can find into a gun…girls shop for shoes!!

She's all girl!!

The Most Wonderful Homecoming Ever!!

2007-07-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

The Lambeth Family is Finally Hooooooome!!

We are so excited to be home!!! It's been a whirlwind 3 days. I can't believe all that we had to do to get out of Kiev, thru customs, and finally to Atlanta. Haley was so great the 2 days we were in the apartment in Kiev. She slept in the bed with us and had very few episodes worth noting. We were in heaven! Unfortunately, she was a NIGHTMARE on the plane to JFK. She made everyone on the plane miserable. I finally stood up and apologized to all the folks around us and told them we had just adopted her and that she was scared. Most everyone around us was understanding and supportive, however, the “business suits” in the back were not smiling and rolled their eyes. I know exactly how they felt…I remember enduring long plane rides with screaming children...how we just wanted to read peacefully and get some sleep. Now I was the one with the loud child. I definitely understand the importance of the $2 headsets more than ever now! I joked that the headsets were on me!

Haley finally succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep about 30 minutes from Atlanta!

Our friend, Laura Passanita and her mom were in seats right behind us with the 3 boys she adopted (we didn’t realize our seats were right by each other until we were boarding the plane). It was fun for Haley to see her friend, Evan (who had been at the same orphanage, but in a different group) although it probably added to the confusion and stirred up even more excitement on the trip. This is a picture of the Passanita boys and Haley just after we got off the plane in JFK airport...the first moment they were all officially US citizens!

On the plane, Haley was too afraid to go into the bathroom and she is not used to wearing a diaper, so when she had to go “potty” we carried a little plastic pot we had purchased in Zaporizia to the back of the plane and set it up in front of the bathroom. She'd sit down and go right there in front of the stewards getting the drink carts ready. I'm sure they were soooo happy about that. But it was adorable and so helpful that we had that potty with us! She went at least 3 times and Laura even borrowed it for her boys when the bathrooms were occupied.

We arrived in Atlanta to the most amazing homecoming!! After a 14 hour trip home with NO sleep, a 7 hour time difference, and the fact that we were not able to take a shower the morning we left Kiev (because the water in the apartment had been turned off the day before), we were looking very haggard. Our outsides were battered, but inside we were so excited to be home...with our daughter!! Our dear friend, Robbie Cantey, met us at the airport (she lives in Montgomery AL, and drove 3 hours just to pick us up!!) Robbie and her husband, Tim, adopted a boy (Sam) from Ukraine 2 years ago and they were the catalyst for our pursuing adoption from Ukraine as well. I love that she got to meet Haley right off the plane! Robbie had a sign in her car that said “Haley Anastasia Lambeth”, like she was a celebrity! She had brought all the perfect things for the ride home…toys for Haley she could play with in the car seat (she wasn't too thrilled about the car seat as you can tell in this picture) and cold drinks for us! Robbie took pictures like a paparrazi and made it all so special. Always the consumate cheerleader, she added spark and excitement to our trip up 85 toward home! She provided all the perfect touches to make it such a great, memorable time for us!

When we arrived home, we saw a wonderful Welcome Home Haley poster hanging in the foyer and little colorful cut out footprints leading up the steps. It was so cute. We walked up stairs to find the most precious little girls room in the whole world. It was so beautiful I stared to cry! Friends from our church had snuck in the house and worked their magic on her little room. Ty Pennington from Home Make-over would be so proud of all they did! It was amazing.

The "make-over elves" chose the perfect shade of pink that makes the whole room feel so cozy. There was a beautiful white antique bed and they had painted some of the old furniture I used as a child in pale greens, blues and pink. It's the most wonderful girlie room I've ever seen...complete with a pink tutu hanging on the wall. The bookcase was overflowing with books (she LOVES books) and stuffed animals were everywhere! Her closet and dresser were jam-packed full of clothes. It was overwhelming!!

Haley was so excited. She immediately kicked off her sandals and put on one of the pairs of shoes lining the floor of her closet.

The “crew” also set up a play area for her in the basement with a little kitchen and tons of toys!
This sweet little one went from clutching a beat-up plastic red bowling pin as a toy...to an incredible wonderland full of fun!! What a delight…Christmas in July! This little girl who literally had nothing to call her own is now surrounded by the most gorgeous room in the world and more clothes and toys than she'll ever know what to do with. We felt so much love emanating from every corner of her room! We are so thankful to everyone who helped make this little one feel so LOVED on her first day home!!

We continue to discover new things every hour that the elves did in our home to brighten her world and make it a more “kid friendly” environment... kid-proof locks on the cabinets and doors, outlet covers, a beautiful gate on the back deck, adorable knobs on the night stands, not to mention the clean kitchen and bathrooms, freshly cut lawn, someone even installed our new computer (which had been sitting in boxes in our garage). The "makeover" welcome was the greatest surprise we've ever had!! Just amazing. We felt so loved…

The last few days home with Haley have been such a joy for us. She is adjusting so well and is all smiles and giggles. She is eating really well…she loves fruit and veggies. She will eat an entire tomato like an apple and loves bananas so much that I have to hide the rest of the bunch or she’d eat every last one.

The potty training is going so much better than we could have expected!

She still loves to wear mommy's running shoes...at least someone is getting some use out of them!!

She loves to push her baby dolls in the toy stroller one of the little elves brought over for her.

She is such a good helper, always wants to help mommy wash dishes in the sink and put things in baskets to put away. She loves tools and had fun helping daddy lower the railing on the steps.

I am so proud of her. She has been through so much and just surprises us every day with how incredibly well she is handling all of this! Our days are full of lots of hugs and kisses. We are having so much fun with her. We are still working on curtailing some of the behavior problems, particularly the tantrums at night before bed time…but they seem to be getting shorter each night. For that we are so thankful!

She is a ball of energy each day and wears us out. We have not only been exhausted, but we started wondering how we were ever going to get anything done since she would not take a nap! Yesterday, finally, she took her first nap! Halleluia! It was a glorious four hours during which Hunter and I were able to catch up on work and clean the house!

We feel so blessed with our sweet little darling! We reached many destinations as we traveled through the voyage of adoption, the very best of which is being HOME with our little girl! We know the journey never ends and we are so excited to begin this new chapter in our family with our precious Haley.

Gotta go...Haley just woke up! The adventure continues...

Our Last Blog from Ukraine...

2007-07-06T13:51:00.001-07:00

It's 1:30 AM in Kiev and we just finished packing and cleaning the apartment...soooo ready to head to the airport at 8:00 tomorrow morning to board our flight for the States. The last 2 days have felt a great waterfall at the end of the most adventuresome ride down rapids we never would have imagined. We are hoping we've finally reached the bottom safely and it's smooth sailing from here on out. But we've also learned not to count our chickens before they hatch (so to speak) because anything can (and does!) happen when you are adopting a child from Ukraine.
I apologize ahead of time if this is long and rambling...there is too much to cram into a small BLOG. So forgive me if this is wordy and grammatically a mess!

Wednesday night, we thought we had riden out the worst of the storm and were excited to rest on the open, calm seas for 2 days in Kiev before our flight home Saturday. That afternoon, we were able to get Haley's passport with only minutes to spare (a true blessing since we did not have the ID number required to get a Ukrainian passport). We rushed to get her from the orphanage at 6:20 (our train left at 7:20). We arrived in her room and all the children in her group were sitting at the table ready for dinner. Haley was MIA. I went to the bathroom and she was in the bathtub, having her final bath! She smiled and pointed "mama". They toweled her off and led her to a chair in front of the group, where I put her in a new dress and panties. She ran over to get her little red shoes, but I told her she had new shoes and I put some pink shoes with flowers on her feet. She was so happy. The care givers were saying things to her in Russian we could not understand, but I kept hearing "America and mama and papa" in there a lot. It felt like a celebration! We took some pictures (this is a picture of her group and care givers) and kissed the caregivers goodbye. You could tell they were truly happy that Haley had finally gotten her family!! Hunter and I were tearing up with joy! The very last thing I remember seeing was one of her care givers raising her hands in the air, clasping them together and shaking them on either side above her head...as if to say "BRAVO! Well done". It really was a wonderful 10 minutes! We do not know what they told Haley before we got there or if she even understood what was happening, but she seemed content to go with us and happy for all the attention. (This is the picture Sergei took as we were taking her from her room at the orhanage for the very last time.)
We popped in the car, she screamed and tried to get out and then sobbed for about 5 minutes. She retreated into her blank stare, resting her head against my chest all the way to the train station. I carried her life-less body as the guys carried all our suitcases to the train car. (This is a picture of our driver, Max in white and Sergei in plaid shirt, waiting for our train). While we were waiting for the train to pull in, Haley looked around, taking it all in...so much LIFE outside the orphanage gates she had never seen before. But she was still in a daze and unresponsive to anything we tried to tell her. Then I spotted Vitali!! Oh, what a god send!! Vitali is one of her favorite friends in her play group who is being adopted by Paul and Jessica Owens from Florida. The family was supposed to be taking a later train, so I did not expect to see them there. The minute I said his name, Haley perked up and looked around. (This is a picture when Haley saw Vitali at the station). When she saw him, her contenance totally changed and she came alive! We rushed over to kiss him and they hugged it other. The Lord is so good...their cabin was right next to ours!! We put the kids on the same bunk together and Jessica and I sat with the kids while the boys went to our cabin to regroup (I think the regrouping may have included some wine and Tuborg beer!). Picture of Jessica with Vitali and Haley playing train cabin above). The kids played for hours while the train made it's way to Kiev. We finally took Haley back to our cabin and watched about an hour of The Little Mermaid on our computer. It was already midnight (4 hours past her bedtime). She was rubbing her eyes, although she fought hard not to fall asleep. She did not want to lie down. We tried sleeping with her sitting up, but she would not fall asleep. Finally, about 1 AM, Hunter was playing a game with her, rocking her back and forth and she finally hit her wall and konked out! (Hunter wasn't sure I should post this picture of her asleep on his legs, but it's one of the cutest things I've ever seen, I couldn't resist!) She slept until 5:30 when we were about to Kiev. She awoke happy and ready for the next FUN event!

Ben Robinson (who is the LifeLine coordinator in Kiev) picked us up from the train station. She cried again when we got in the car and fought to get out, but calmed down after a few minutes. We went to get the mandatory medical exam, where they weighed, measured and looked for any signs that she might not be healthy. The doctor was great with her and she pointed to her nose, eyes, etc., said "ah", and stuck her tongue out when he asked. We were first in the door and were glad we had our appointment so early. There were 25 people waiting outside when we left! We had our papers ready and the only final step we needed to complete was getting her visa from the US Embassy.

Then we got a call...and here's where our calm, quiet ride took a turn toward disaster.

We were told that the BLUE passport we were issue in Zaporizia was invalid and customs would not let us take Haley out of the counrty without a RED passport. This would mean returning to Zaporizia to get another passport made...not only that, there currently weren't any RED passport blanks in Zap. and it could take 10-30 days to get one issued. Hunter and Sergei spent hours at the US Embassy taking to people to see what other options we had. Sergei called his friend, Igor, in Zap., who told him that 10 RED passport blanks had been sent to Zap. from another region. Igor said if we could get our BLUE passport to him immediately and sign power of attorney over to him, he could take it to the passport office and get another one made. Sergei and Hunter rushed to the airport and put our BLUE passport on a 2:30 plane headed to Dnipro (an hour from Zap) because it was the only plane headed that way in the afternoon. The plane was just about to leave the gate, so they didn't have time to take the passport to the courier service window...instead Sergei found a passenger who agreed to take the passport with her and give it to our driver Max at the other end. Sergei had called Max on the way to the airport to ask him to drive 60 miles to Dnipro, pick up the passport from this woman and take it to Igor at the passport office in Zap. before it closed at 6 PM. The plane was 45 minutes late, but Max finally got the passport from this woman at 4:30. He then made the 60 mile trip back to Zap's passport office, and $350 later, a RED passport was issued to Haley. Max then drove the passport to the train station and put it on the overnight train for Kiev. Hunter picked it up this morning at 5:30!! Unbelieveable!! ONLY IN THE UKRAINE!!! Without the quick thinking of Sergei, the kindness of strangers, the willingness of folks to go out of their way for people they just met...we would be stuck in Ukraine for who knows how long!! Our daughter comes from a great country...lots of problems with governmental "red tape", but great people!!

With the coveted Red passport in hand, we went to the US Embassy at 8:00 this morning, filled out the necessary paperwork to get Haley's visa. This process took about 3 hours. The clerk there told us that the passport had to be scanned and sent to DC and after it was approved they would give us her visa. He also added that none of the passports they sent yesterday had come back the same day. We were frantic because we needed that visa before our flight in the morning. At 4:00, we headed back to the Embassy and we were told the passport had been sent back from DC, but their computers were down and they could not print out the visa. We waited another 30 minutes and fortunately everything was resolved and they handed us her visa! Halleluia!!

So now that I've taken you on that roller coaster ride (that has been our life the last 36 hours), I'll close by saying that my baby girl is asleep in the bedroom with Hunter's socks pulled up to her knees (she loves putting on our clothes and clomping around in our shoes..yes, that's a crayon in her mouth! Yikes. We've a lot to work on!), Hunter is asleep on the couch snorning away after a very LONG 2 days, and I am listening to the rain beat down on the windows...praying that the weather won't affect our flight home tomorrow morning.

But I also know we have been through worse, so no matter what comes up...we'll figure it out! :)

Hopefully, we will be on that flight home...and land in Atlanta at 7:30 to meet our friends, Robbie and Tim Cantey who have so graciously offered to drive from Montgomery, AL to pick us up at the airport!! In a way, it seems appropriate to complete the circle. They adopted a son from Ukraine 2 years ago, and after meeting their precious boy, Sam, Hunter and I made the decision to adopt from Ukraine as well. We are so happy we did...We have great memories of this country and the people here, we've made a friend for life in our facilitator Sergei. and best of all we have a beautiful little girl, who we adore and can't wait to bring home to meet all of you!!

Blessings,

Lauri (and Hunter from dreamland)

It's the final count down...

2007-07-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry we haven't been able to post the last few days. We have been in a whirlwind of activity getting our papers in order to get everything we need for the Ukrainian government to issue a new birth certificate and passport for Haley Anastasia. Yesterday, we took her to get her passport pictures made. It was the first time in over 2 years that she had been outside the orphanage gates. Hunter carried her on the 15 minute walk to the passport photo office. Once inside, she started to cry. (I think she thought it was the doctor's office and got scared because she's had to have some shots lately). She retreated into her zombie stare and rested on me for 20 minutes while we waited our turn for the photo. It was so hot in the store, we were both sweating. The poor thing looked so unkempt. I had fixed her hair earlier, but after resting on me in that hot place for so long, her bangs were everywhere. We all tried to get a smile out of her, to no avail. Here's what we ended up with! We think she looks adorable! I hope she can one day smile at all this (like when she is 18!)

Yesteday afternoon, Sergei told us he had to make an unexpected trip to Haley A's birth city (Komonsquare) because the Uk. government told us we needed an ID number for her (given at birth) in order to get her passport. When he arrived in Komonsquare, he was told she was never issued an ID number and we would have to apply in Kiev for another one. This process could take up to 10 days. We were shocked...but Sergei forged ahead, undaunted. This morning, we continued working on getting all the referrals and papers we needed to apply for a new birth certificate. We picked up the final court decree, visited several notaries and other government agencies, travelled back to Komonsquare where we were issued a new birth certificate, stating that we were her parents. So happy to see it in writing...albeit, Ukrainian writing! We rushed back to Zaporizia just in time to get to the passport office before it closed. Sergei presented all the documents we need to get her passport (there were about 10 items). He was hoping that they would overlook the missing ID number. Somehow it worked and they told us we could pick her passport up tomorrow at noon. We are still holding our breath until we see the actual passport, but we are hopeful that all will go well and we will be on the train to Kiev tomorrow night (Haley A and passport in hand!).

Yesterday, while Sergei was in Komonsquare, he did some investigating and found Haley A's grandmother! She lives in a very poor section of town (no running water, no electricity). Our driver Max had remembered we had left our video camera in the car and Sergei video-taped the grandmother. He told her he was doing a piece for a local newspaper. It was great to have a picture of her grandmother for when she is older and wants to know her heritage. We are still hoping to get a picture of her mother at some point, but the grandmother said she had moved a way several years ago and she had not come to visit in a long time. At least we have the picture of her grandmother and the area where she was born. We are told this is extremely rare to get this information, so we are happy Sergei was able to find it!

Tomorrow is Independence Day! What a fitting day to be taking Haley A out of the orphanage! We will take balloons and cookies for her group to "celebrate" and take her back to the apartment for a good bath and new clothes. We have been debating all week whether to take the train or plane. We know both will be a shock to Haley A. This sounds terrible, but we are hoping she reacts by retreating into her zombie-state rather than the screaming tantrum she's prone to throw if she gets scared. Because we will have a little more control over her on the train (in addition to the fact that the engine is fairly loud and can block out screaming and loud snoring) we chose to ride the overnight train back to Kiev. It's a 10 hour ride and we are hoping she will sleep through most of it.

Sorry this is so scattered. We are rushing to get this online before we head to the next hurdle...

Thanks for all your prayers for our journey! We are so excited to get to the States and begin life as a family there!

Blessings,
Hunter and Lauri

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

2007-06-30T05:24:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-06-29T03:45:00.001-07:00

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

2007-06-28T06:07:00.001-07:00

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...

2007-06-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

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!!

2007-06-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

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!!

2007-06-19T04:55:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-06-18T04:30:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-06-16T04:49:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-06-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

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

A great new day...

2007-06-12T06:28:00.000-07:00

I only have a few minutes to post today before we have to get back to the orphanage for our afternoon visit with our little one. The morning went great. She waddled over to us from her play group without any tears and let me scoop her up in my arms. She loved the apple slices we gave her and we have taught her to say "more" and use sign language sign for more. We're not sure if she understands this means "more" or "apple". We'll see this afternoon when we try it again with a banana! :) Every day is a new adventure. We got her a new push toy this afternoon and are excited to see if she likes it. Anything has to better than the sticks she's been using to sweep the dirt (and then throw!).

Things are going well business-wise and Sergei says everything is on track so far. He is going to court tomorrow to find out our court date, then we will have a better sense of our time line.

Thanks for all the name suggestions. We love them all. We have narrowed it down to 2, so we're just trying them out to see which one fits best with her. :) We'll announce soon!!

Blessings to you all. Love, Hunter and Lauri

So much to learn...

2007-06-11T06:06:00.000-07:00

Our times with our daughter at the orphanage get better every day. She is definitely a two year old and shows sure signs of the dreaded “terrible twos” every now and then. Guess these are the same no matter the language or culture. :) Imagine inheriting a two year old that has not been disciplined by parents, who doesn’t understand a word you are saying and at the same time you are trying to get her to trust you, bond with you and obey. It seems an impossible task! But we are learning more about each other every day and hoping for the best.

We are without a doubt in un-chartered territory and in definite need of prayer and counseling if anyone out there has any advice on parenting a strong-willed toddler who doesn’t speak the same language. (Note: David and Kelli…when’s that book come out? We need you here desperately!) The flip side of her acting out aggressively (hitting, throwing, biting, etc.) is that she can be sweet and give tender kisses. ;) It's good to know there is a sweet heart in there somewhere when she is in the midst of one of her disobedient fits. We are learning a lot!!

We have become friends with some of the other families adopting from the orphanage. There are couples here from Italy, Israel, Spain, and France. We met another couple today from Williamsburg, VA—Rob and Laura Passanita-- (they are adopting 3 boys, ages 3, 5, 7. The 3 year old is at our orphanage). Laura is a James Madison graduate. Such a small world!

This morning, we awoke to Sergei cooking ravioli for us from scratch! I forgot the Russian name for them, but they looked like peroggies or dumplings. After our morning visit at the orphanage, Sergei and Tasha took us to a park where there was a beach! J We played in the water…along with 3 horses bathing there-- and spent a few hours in the sun. We got lunch from the McDonalds drive through (they call it the McDrive here…maybe it’s called that in America too…I don’t eat at McD’s, so this was new to me). They have a great Greek salad at the one here, so I am happy to eat there anytime we are in a rush! We went back to the orphanage for our afternoon visit. It was the first time that she didn’t cry when we went to get her from her group. At the end of our 2 hours with her, we were able to spend some time with her within her play group. She was comfortable with us being there while she played with (near) the other children…their play activity is simply holding broken dolls, trucks, small pull toys with strings attached to them and walking around a 15x15 cement play area while the caretaker keeps them corralled like a flock of sheep. She would come over to us for hugs or to show us her toys, etc. This is a humongous improvement over the last few times we’ve joined this group time.

Sergei made us dinner (spaghetti and Greek salad—red peppers, tomatoes, olives, feta cheese and olive oil-- my favorite dish in Ukraine! This is a picture of the lunch he prepared for us yesterday…complete with a centerpiece of daisies!)…I know we are completely spoiled with how well he takes care of us…and then he took us to an outdoor amphitheater where they reenacted some Ukrainian history, complete with horses, colorful costumes, etc. It was a great show until a swarm of mosquitoes attacked us and Laura and I had to find shelter from the hatch! (Tait, that one was for you…)

Sergei is presenting our petition to the courts tomorrow to try to get our court date. Once we are given our court date, there is a 10-day mandatory waiting period. We HAVE to know her name by the court date, so we’ll definitely have something finalized by then! Although we’re told we can change it up until the court hearing. Then we will travel back to Kiev to the US embassy for a passport for her. We’ll keep you posted on the progress. It always sounds easier than it works out to be…but we are hopeful things will go smoothly with the Inspector and all will stay on track. The Passanita’s have already been here 3 weeks and have yet to get a court date. We are hoping that this is mostly due to the fact that they are adopting 3 children from 3 different orphanages, and not due to the court proceedings in Zaporizia. We’ll keep you posted.

Blessings, - love, Hunter and Lauri

Greetings from Ukraine…aka “YKPAiHA”

2007-06-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

A great day...(Notice the TUCCO hat! She loves daddy's TUCCO hat and immediately will remove her bonnet to put his hat on! Dale Henderson should be happy to know his company is well represented here in Ukraine by this cutie pie!)

We had a great day with our little girl...each day gets a little better. Her initial response to us is still just shy of utter fear, but after a few tears she settles down and warms up to us.

Here are some pictures of how things progress...

1st we walk from her play group to a private place (sometimes with one of the workers, sometimes with another one of the little children). There are few tears along the way. Once we are at a private place, we give her a cracker or other treat and a little plastic blue doll she loves to hold on to...and after a few minutes, she comes alive. ;)

We were not able to visit her yesterday at all, so we were really glad for two good long visits today. She continues to grow in her trust of us and by the time we have to leave she is all smiles and giggles and gives us goodbye kisses. We are completely taken with her!!

Our facilitator, Sergei, is our advocate before the government and other agencies involved in this process. But even more than taking care of all the business, he essentially takes care of us and makes sure we have all we need while we are here. He definitely goes above and beyond the call of duty with us daily! He’s been in search of coffee makers, fans, good coffee and internet cafes. Crazy high maintenance Americans! And he has come through on all fronts with a smile every time! He is incredibly smart, kind and has a wonderful sense of humor. He has become a fast friend and such a great bonus to our adventure. He is a natural teacher and has helped me learn to speak some Ukrainian and read the alphabet. He is very patient and I have learned so much from him. He has a wife and 13 month old child back home, and it is a sacrifice for him to be away from them for 3 weeks. You can tell he has a heart for the orphans and likes helping them find good homes. He is a great problem solver, very quick on his feet and I can tell he is doing everything he can to make this process go as smoothly and quickly as possible for us. We would be lost, literally, without him!

We are all staying in a 2 bedroom apartment, which has 2 pull out couches for beds. There is a kitchen (although we’ve yet to cook anything other than coffee in our coffee maker) and great water pressure in the shower—thank goodness! It is a great change from the Intourist hotel where we were staying when we first arrived, which was pretty expensive since we needed 2 rooms (and it wasn’t even that nice for $70 a night each).

To compensate for the expensive hotel, Sergei rented an inexpensive car. It was $12 a day and you could fit it in your pocket. It stalled out a lot and choked every time we turned off the engine. It was hilarious and gave us a lot of laughs, but after a day, we told him that we would have enough money for an upgrade. He surprised us by finding us a BMW and a wonderful, sweet girl named Tasha who lives outside of town to drive us around.

Wednesday and Thursday were a whirlwind of activity! We had to go to another city, Berdansk, about 3 hours away for some paperwork. The city is on the Sea of Azov. Very pretty area. I was so excited to see a beach!! This is a picture with our "driver" Tasha...a 25 year old speedster we've nicknamed Danika (after Danika Patrick) because she gets us places quickly. She doesn’t speak English, but we bonded right away talking about hair products and dating! :) Poor Sergei had to endure the girlie topics, as he patiently translated what we were saying to one another about highlighting, boys, etc. She is so much fun!! We spent the night in a “cabin” (more like a shack) near the shore.

Our rooms were no bigger than our train cars and more bugs than if we had stayed in tents. The boys had a great picture of a scantily clothed Christina Agulara on their wall! Tasha and I shared a room and were very anxious for morning...Suffice it to say, it was a $12 room and we got what we paid for! ;)

On the way home from Berdansk, we stopped in a town that sounds like the words “CommonSquare” where our little one was born. It is very poor and rural, no running water or electricity. We were told her mother and grandmother still lived there and we drove the streets asking for them by first name. We were able to locate the house where she was born, but we were told the mom had moved away. I took a picture of her home, so we could show her at some point where she was born.

Tasha and Sergei are going to make us a typical Ukrainian dinner of “borschk” soup and ravioli! They are so kind and fun to be with. This evening, after Tasha finished driving Sergei around to notaries and other agencies while we were at the orphanage, they returned to pick us up to take us back to the apartment. They patiently sat in the car for an hour while we played with our little angel. We feel safe and very well taken care of! What a blessing!

Since today was Friday, there is not much we can get done over the weekend—business-wise. We will get to visit the orphanage 2 times a day and may check out a Ukrainian movie just for the experience of it—Shreck and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 are both showing now.

We have gotten into somewhat of a routine the last day or so, we visit the orphanage from 9-12 and then go to the notary with Sergei or walk around some markets, each lunch, return to the orphanage from 4-6, then Tasha takes us to the Intourist Hotel (where we first stayed) to use the wi-fi in the lobby for a few hours so we can catch up on emails. I walk to a little kiosk down the street to buy Schwepps Tonic and some chips. She knows me now and hands me the tonic before I even ask for it. We have eaten at a restaurant called the Potato House at least once a day since we’ve gotten here, one day we ate there twice. The Greek salad is incredible (basically cucumbers, red peppers, onion, feta cheese with Italian dressing). I told Sergei the first time we ate there, “I could eat this every day and be happy”. I guess he took that literally. So far I have eaten it every day... and I am very happy!

We are at the hotel now, getting ready to post this BLOG. Thinking of you all back home and how we can’t wait for you to meet our little one. We still haven’t come up with her name, but will soon! We love all the suggestions you are sending in! We are considering all of them, except we had to rule out “Taiter salad” someone submitted (hm..wonder who that could have been??) since we didn’t quite understand it.

Blessings to you all! Love, Hunter and Lauri and our little munchkin

Here she is...La Lambeth!

2007-06-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

HERE SHE IS FOLKS...OUR LITTLE ANGEL!!

Here is our darling daughter just 2 minutes after we met her. She is very shy and is on the verge of tears...Hunter and I were on the verge of tears as well...tears of happiness! :) We met her the day she turned 2 and 1/2 (her birthday is Dec. 4).

She's already attached to her daddy's finger!! We still have yet to name her as we figure out what will fit with her personality and story. So we'll keep you posted on that.

We were only able to spend 5 minutes with her intially, but got to return that afternoon for about an hour. We played with her group (2-3 year olds) and spent about 30 minutes walking her around.

Day 2 was a little hard, as we had to do some blood tests (all are fine, by the way!) and after a shot in each arm she wasn't very happy to see us. But we got to spend some time with her playing with some toys and walking around.

She loves to eat bananas, crackers, anything we give her! I don't think she's ever seen a juice box before as she had no idea what to do with the straw and pulled it out of the box to suck the juice off the bottom of it. After some treats, she was happier and we walked around pointing out birds (petechka) and planes (samaloot). Hunter would meow like a kitten (keesa) and and bark like a dog (sabachka) and she would jump up and look around or "ruff" back at him. Very cute.

Here's a great picture of her with her daddy! Grandma (Babushka) Lambeth this one is for you!

She is very inquisitive and loves to explore and pick up sticks, rocks, trash, anything she can find. ;) She likes to keep the park area clean! ;)

We've had 3 good days with her. What a wonderful blessing! :)

We need to run, but will have more time tomorrow to fill in the details of the last few days.

Lots of love, Hunter and Lauri and little one makes 3!!

Day 1 in Zephorizhia...

2007-06-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

The train ride was great, about an 11 hour ride through the night. We had a private car with a small bed (cot) on each side and were able to get a little sleep. The sound of the train was wonderful (like my beloved box fan) and drowned out all the other "noises" nearby. I have missed my box fan on this trip.

We arrived in Zephorizhia around 8 and went to meet with the Inspector to get permission to visit the orphanage. After a few stops, we had our paperwork and were off to meet with the doctor at the orphanage to get the medical report. When we arrived, we were told the Dr. had gone home for the day because she had worked the night shift. But they allowed us to meet the little girl and we will meet with the doctor tomorrow. She is adorable and very shy. I gave her some crackers and we spent about 5 minutes with her before she had to join her group (age 2-3 year olds) for their snack time. At one point, one of the other girls dropped her candy bar and she ran over, picked it up and started eating it right away. Hunter thought this was great that she already knew the "5 second rule". We returned the candy to the caretaker, but it was funny that she knew a good chocolate bar when she saw one...even when it had fallen on the floor!

We will meet with the doctor in the morning and if all goes well, we'll go forward with the court process. Most of the work is done in this city to finalize the adoption, then there is a 10-day mandatory waiting period before we can take her to Kiev, register with the embassy for her US passport and fly home.

I was reading over the Ukraine translation of our dossier last night, because I am fascinated with the letters they use here. I noticed that the petition letter the NAC gave us had our name misspelled. They added an extra R, making it Lambert instead of Lambeth (this happens all the time in the US and I thought it was funny that Ukraine made the same mistake with their funky letters). I told our translator about it and they are getting the paper redone.

I am able to read more and more as we drive by signs and buildings. The picture on the left is of a dress shop called "LAURA". :) Sergei is a natural "teacher" and patient when I ask him over and over again what the letters are and the sounds they make. But I can sound out most words now (most words are written phonetically and are just like words in English). The tricky part is when the word I am sounding out ends up being nothing like a word in English...then I am lost!

We actually bought a coffee maker today!! The size of the coffee here is tiny and we end up ordering 2 or 3 just to equal the 16 oz cup of coffee we are used to. The cheapest maker they had was $40 and then we had to go back and buy a plastic filter b/c we could not find paper filters anywhere. But we think this is well worth it. We can have our super size American coffee in the morning and at night. It will pay for itself by Friday! :)

We are so excited about our journey here and very hopeful everything will go well tomorrow. Sorry to remain a little vague, but we want to meet with the doctor to over her medical report.
Then we will come straight to the internet cafe and give you an update with some pictures! :)

Blessings,

Love, Hunter and Lauri

We've moved BLOGS!

2007-06-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

We decided to move our BLOG to blogspot.com because it's more user friendly and I can use all the help I can get!! I also can add links to make it easier to find other web pages and have put our photo album on a separate site so the pictures are bigger than postage stamps. Click on link in the upper right hand corner to access our album...or click on this link below:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/LambethAdoptionJourney/LambethAdoptionJourney02

We are headed out of town in a few hours. I spent the better part of the day with the Sims (from Huntsville, AL) and Stouts (from Allentown, PA), who arrived here last night. None of their luggage made the flight either. Guess that happens alot here. Their appointments are tomorrow am. I'm hoping their luggage will arrive in time, so they can feel refreshed before they meet with the NAC.

We board the train at 10 PM and will make it to Zephorizhia by 8 AM tomorrow. Sergei will travel with us and help us find accommodations and take us to the orphanage in the morning. We are hopeful there is an internet cafe nearby where we can access the web. We'll post more tomorrow and if all goes well, some pictures of our little one.

I've added a clock so that you can tell what time it is in Kyiv...Kiev. :)

My thoughts are with the 110 HS kids and leaders from Gwinnett County that boarded 2 buses this morning at 8 am on their way to Rockbridge for a great week of YoungLife camp! If you get a chance, pray for safety and all will have the greatest week of their lives. :) Thanks.

Have a great night.

Blessings, Hunter and Lauri

Saturday in the Park!

2007-06-02T05:07:00.000-07:00

We spent yesterday and some of today walking around the city, looking at beautiful churches and buildings (I've posted some new pictures of what we've seen). Today, we took the metro to attended a seminar with Ben's leadership center students. A buddhist monk (who is here from Switzerland) lead a discussion about various topics. Hunter took several pages of notes.
The metro costs about fifty cents each way. A great way to travel here! The escalators and rail system are incredibly fast, bordering on a Disney ride! :)
Sara and I found a great salon yesterday and got pedicures--after all that walking around, we needed them. (I got russian red!) While I was there, I discovered they have massages for $20 an hour! Who could refuse that? Not me! ;)
Tomorrow, we will pack up and head to Zephorizhia by train. Sergei will go with us to help us find lodging and translate while we are there. If all goes well, he will get the paperwork done in the local court system. We are excited to ride the train, although it will be at night, so we won't see much of the country side. It's about a 10-hour train ride. We will miss our 2-bedroom flat and the Reynolds. They will be going to a different orphanage in "Nepro" to meet their son.
Will post more after we get to Zephorizhia!
Happy Birthday, Lester! :)
Blessings to you all. We love reading all your comments..they have helped us feel at "home" everytime we read a new one.
Love, lauri and hunter

Appointment Day at the NAC!!

2007-05-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

Our appointment day has finally arrived!! We had a restless night "sleep", anxious for the morning to finally be here so we could get to our appointment with the NAC. I have not felt this anxious since cheerleading tryouts in the 9th grade!! Only with this, you really have no control whatsoever over the outcome and there is only our FAMILY'S FUTURE at stake! It really is the most daunting task we’ve ever undertaken. We arrived early for our appointment, so our facilitator, Sasha, calmed us with coffee from a kiosk on the street. After the Mocha-cappacinos in plastic cups, we walked to the NAC where we were met by a translator and taken to meet the social worker. Both women could not have been nicer but the entire process was quite overwhelming. We were told right off the bat that there are very few healthy young children available for adoption right now and all the girls on the registry have major health issues. The shortage is due to the months the NAC was closed last year, abandoned children were not able to be registered at the center. They are at the tail end of the children who were on the registry before the NAC closed. We were shown the files of three little girls, all with significant health issues. Our hearts were broken for these little ones, but it was quite clear from the files that their issues were more severe than we are equipped to handle. We were given the referral to one child, who is a potential and will travel to Zaporizhia on Sunday night with our interpreter Sergei to visit her at the orphanage there (new picture with Sergei and Sasha added to Our Album). We do not want to say too much because there is a possibility that she will not be available for adoption. Our only other option at this point is to get in line for another appointment, which could take several weeks. There are 31 families who did not get a “match” at all during their initial appointment who would be ahead of us for a 2nd referral. So we are thankful for at least something to pursue in the meantime (if we were to need the 2nd referral). God has been good and continues to remind of His provision and faithfulness to us. And He is bringing new meaning to one of my favorite verses each day: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 We're excited to see this promise unfold!
Thanks for taking the time to email and comment on our BLOG. You can’t imagine how much your prayers and words of encouragement have meant to us during this time!! The arms of Christ have reached us in Ukraine !! Thank you!! Blessings and much love, Hunter and Lauri

10 Hours and Counting...

2007-05-30T05:04:00.000-07:00

We've found our way back to our favorite little coffee shop for free wireless internet service and a cup of coffee! :) I was able to upload some pictures of our day around Kiev. (See Kiev Photos in Our Album). We had fun hanging out with the Reynolds in central square. Hunter and I did find 2 monkeys who are in need of a home. We will consider this option if the NAC can't help us tomorrow. :) Just kidding!! We are excited to see what is in store. We will be at the NAC in 10 hours and will find out then what's next for us. Thanks for your prayers. We'll "post" again as soon as we know something!! :)
Blessings, Hunter and Lauri

Days 1 and 2 of the journey...

2007-05-29T04:59:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 29th...
We have arrived in Kiev! Our facilitators, Ben and Sasha, have been great! We are sharing a 2 bedroom flat with another couple, the Reynolds, from Florida. It's right in the center of the city, so we are within walking distance to everything. Although we are enjoying the Ukrainian cuisine, we had lunch at TGI Fridays today. Nice to eat a salad again! :) So far, no problems with that lettuce.
The man sitting in front of us on the plane to JFK overheard Hunter on his cell telling someone we were off to Ukraine to adopt...he came back to our seats to tell us he adopted from the Ukraine years ago. The baby was 8 months old. She is now 8 and beautiful. He gave us lots of encouragement. Very sweet. He lives in Alpharetta. Another God thing to add to our list! :)
Delta lost 2 pieces of our luggage. Fortunately, they were put on a later flight and delivered to our flat this afternoon. Thank goodness for the carry on bag with my tooth brush and change of clothes in it! :)
We have found a great coffee bar that has wireless and we will most likely be camped out here until our appointment with the NAC on Thursday! :) It's 1:40 AM our time, 6:40 PM USA time. Our body clocks are still off from the long flight over and time change, so the 2 cups of strong coffee we just drank should help keep our bodies guessing when it's time to sleep! :)
The sun comes up before 5 AM here...and it's light until after 9 PM. Great for runners! We haven't found a place to run yet, but are doing a lot of walking around the city. We definitely miss the greenway! Tait, you'll have to double up to do some running in our stead.
Hunter wants to go to the Chernobyl tour...they actually have this available!! You have to wear a geiger counter to make sure you aren't getting too much radiation. I think it's crazy and will certainly seal our family's fertility fate for good. hehe. :) He's considering it b/c he says it will be a once in a life time thing to go. Jumping off the top of a 10-story building is a once in a life time thing too... maybe we'll try that the next week after our radiation treatments. hehe.I'm trying to learn their crazy alphabet...where Hs are Ns and 3s are Zs and Rs are ks and backwards Rs are Js...reminds me trying to learn the greek system in college!
Please Pray for us at 10 AM on Thursday, May 31st (that will be 3:00 AM your time in case you wanted to set an alarm clock for that!). We will be meeting with the NAC and finding out what child(ren) are available to match our preference.
We love you and will keep you posted! - Hunter and Lauri