Thursday Update

This one will be short but apparently there are people out there who are addicted to this blog and I will do what I can to be an enabler for the Ethan addicts!

No, Ethan cannot stay with us in the apartment yet. We are still making twice daily visits to the orphanage.

We are planning a farewell party for Ethan's room at the orphanage. We are going to purchase fruit and juice, perhaps balloons, so that we can make leaving the orphanage a positive experience for Ethan. This will be a week from next Monday, when we can take Ethan with us as we leave.

Much more we could write but we are short on time, the internet cafe is packed with people waiting on computers. Love y'all. Later.

Court Date

We apologize for not posting anything yesterday. We tried, but the internet cafe was full and we didn't really have the time to wait. So, we found out when our court hearing would be.........do you wonder when it might be??

We appeared in court and were officially pronounced parents of Ethan Warren Baldwin this morning at 10:00!!! Yep, it was today. Natasha had suggested that we might be able to have the hearing before the 6th, but she didn't want to make any promises. So, on Monday night, she came to our room and told us we would be having court on Wednesday morning! How did she do it? We didn't ask questions, we just praise God. There is another American couple here who has been in Donetzk for two weeks now, and they still haven't had their court date. So, we know that it was God's plan for us to have this today. Actually, we are about two weeks ahead of the average adoption cycle here in Ukraine. Our facilitator is a wonderful christian woman who understands that there are no coincidences, just the hand of God at work.

This means that we will be traveling home on December 14th or 15th! We must wait here in Doneztk for another 10 days (mandatory waiting period) and then we can travel back to Kiev for Ethan to have a physical examination and to meet with the US Embassy to get an immigration visa for Ethan. We will be looking at the airlines today to see which day we will actually be flying back.

This is the first day we have seen the sun in Ukraine. We think that it is beautiful here today, because of what God has done.

We celebrated our becoming parents by eating at a new restaurant for lunch. It was good! OK this is Joe taking over since we are talking about food! Not only was it good it was great! I had borsch and some raw (well not really raw but cold and smoked) bacon as an appetizer, then I had a beef and mushroom dish that was served with a side of buckwheat and a side of cold sour cabbage---excellent! Steph had a seasoned pork tenderloin with what they called fried potatoes--technically they are correct french fries are truely fried potatoes.

Now I will tell you some about court. We anxiously waited in a court building that interestingly resembled the court house in Randolph County. Yes, a pre-WWII communist type building looked just like the Randolph County Courthouse inside. The judge came down the stairs in his black robe and entered the court room on the first floor right beside the waiting area. He heard a couple of cases then asked us to enter. It was very intimidating, we acted like we were not nervous but I was shaking in my Timberlands! The judge asked me to stand and state my name, b-day, yrs married, my address (which I momentarily forgot), my job and my salary. He wanted to know if we have any kids. Then it was Steph's turn. She really got put through the ringer! The judge asked her the same questions and then the "People's Advocates" two ladies who represent the state and apparently the state's concern for orphaned children started asking Steph questions. They wanted to know if Steph could handle being a mother, they were concerned because she has a job, they asked Steph why we were adopting not from the US, but from Ukraine. Steph did a bang up job! We showed the judges and the ladies pictures of our home, so that they would see we have sufficient space to raise a child. They asked who the children were in the pictures, we have pictures of all the nieces and nephews. One lady specifically asked about Logan. We told her that Steph's sister and her husband had recently
adopted him. They seemed to enjoy the pictures. (Plus, that picture of Logan is sooo cute!)

The entire process took probably twenty minutes and after the Inspector (city representative), and a representative from the orphanage testified on our behalf, the judge made his ruling that we were officially the parents for Ethan. We both cried, and I think I saw a tear in the eye of the lady from the orphanage.

Immediately following our court hearing, we went to the orphanage to see Ethan. Our normal visit is from 10 am to 12 noon, but because we were in court at 10:00, we were late. Ethan was obviously upset about that because he was pouting and giving us dirty looks when we first arrived. (He knew we were supposed to be there when the other American couple came to see their son.) But, he quickly got over his attitude. The director of the orphanage offered us his congratulations as well as several of the ladies who work there.

It has been an awesome day!

Ready to come home, but can't yet

Joe here..
As far as we are concerned it is time to come home. Too bad we have to finish up all the formalities and legalities. As of right now, court is scheduled for 12/6, may be a chance that this is moved up some. If not then it looks like a return just before Christmas.

We are enjoying reading all the comments. Thanks for all the prayers, I think it is great that we can share this experience with our friends and family despite the fact we are 6,000 miles from home.

Here's a fun story. Before we met Ethan, another little boy in his room met his new parents. These parents brought their boy a toy car. Well, when Ethan heard that a Mama and Papa were coming to see him, he asked if his Papa was bringing a 'machina' (ma-shee-na) for him. So, when we arrived at the orphanage for the first time, he just kept saying, "Papa, machina." over and over. Of course we had to buy him a machina! Now he carries it with him everywhere he goes.

We went shopping yesterday and purchased clothes for Ethan. It was funny, we tried to measure him before going shopping, but he didn't want to be measured. He really enjoyed playing with the tape measure but didn't want any part of someone stretching it along his legs and arms. So we guessed. He is either a 2T or 3T? Here it is just "3" or 192--whatever that means. We bought some jeans, shirts, socks, underwear (He is already potty trained!), and a winter coat. We tried the clothes on him last night. He enjoyed showing off in his new duds!

Some things we are glad we packed:
1. Zip lock bags.
2. trail mix. (even though the food is good, once we are back at the apartment its nice to have a snack)
3. Carnation Instant Breakfast. (the food is good but the milk here tastes different--read 'not very good'
4. Books. A lot of downtime. Nice to have some light fiction, but sure glad to have my Bible as well.
5. Computer. Many said 'not needed' I say, can't live without. Laptop takes up almost as much space as a mini DVD player, but has other uses too. We are putting pictures on the computer as soon as we return home each day, also can download video from camera and watch DVD too!
6. Dryer Sheets. Excellent to put with dirty clothes that you will wear again or to hang in the closet. Also, easy to pack.

Some things that were not necessary:
1. Sunglasses. Not sure if the sun ever shines in Doneztk
2. Baseball caps. Want to be sure you look like an American--then wear a Purdue or a Colts baseball cap!
3. So many clothes. We way overpacked. We have available for our use a washing machine. But no dryer, Steph did a load (which was a pair of jeans a t-shirt and some socks and underwear--very small washer!) last night. I draped my jeans in front of the heater and they were nearly dry by morning.

We have started sleeping with the window open. The apartment has no thermostat control. The entire building is heated by a boiler with radiators in each room. You just take the heat as it comes and we have found that it is too hot for sleeping.

We have to hire a driver each day. I pay him about US$6/hour. He gets paid even when he is not driving. So, that is getting kind of expensive. But it is nice, we do not have to wait on or call a taxi. Vladimir is ready to go when we are. He is not a driver by trade, he is just a friend of Natasha. He makes sure we get to the apartment safely each night. I pay him cash daily. Having a personal driver is a convenience that I am happy to pay for, makes me feel safe.


I'll give Steph a chance to write now...

Hi everyone!

Just in case you were wondering, that red mark under Ethan's nose is just a boo boo. They put something red on it for healing...not sure what that could be, maybe beet juice? LOL We've seen lots of kids with this mysterious red stuff on their heads.

We've noticed that Ethan is the best child in the whole orphanage! He has been crying every time we leave. That is exciting for us, yet sad too. We hate to see him upset.

We got to see his bare feet today. They looked much better than we were led to believe. The surgeons who did the work on his feet had to break his legs to create a heel on his foot. They told us today that he didn't walk until after recovering from that surgery, but that he was a very patient child and started walking in his casts. They also ordered new orthopaedic shoes for him 5 months ago, and they just arrived today. So, they are probably too small, but that's ok because we'll take care of that when we get home.

We have been showing the pictures of our family to Ethan several times each day. He will repeat the names of everyone. It is really funny to hear him try to say Ella. He says Tricia, Mamaw, and Babushka (grandma) really well. We're still working on that one.

He loves to be picked up and tossed in the air. He also likes hanging upside down. He has a new game of running down the hall and waiting for us to chase him and pick him up to run back.

We have introduced him to fruit juice boxes. He loves everything we give him, even water!

Each day is more fun than the last. Soon, we won't have to see him cry when we leave, because he'll be going with us!

That's all for now! Thanks again for your prayers and your thoughts.

Ethan Pictures

A day off

Today is Saturday, and things have slowed down a bit for us. Natasha was able to complete all of our paperwork yesterday, so she said today would be a day off for us. We have already been to visit Ethan today. When we arrived, there was another american couple there waiting to see their son. They told us that when they came in, the ladies of the orphanage had sent out Ethan! So, they had to tell them that he was not their boy. It's good to know that those ladies are expecting us everyday.

Today, Ethan played mostly with Joe again. I have been fighting a cold and am not feeling 100%, nor do I want to make Ethan sick. Plus, he isn't as interested in me anyway. In fact, Natasha and I think that he isn't drawn to younger women at all because he spends all his time with older ladies and he has no use for younger ones yet.

We think Natasha is going to try to find a Church for us to attend tomorrow. She said that there is one here that has an English speaking service, but she's not sure which one that is. So, we'll have to wait and see.

The weather has been good here, cloudy and dreary, just like home. The air quality in Kiev was awful. We could feel the smog in our chests. Here in Donetzk, it is much better. This is a city of about 1 million. We just walked by a political rally of some sort. Natasha said they were talking about prices of everything. We haven't seen any snow or rain yet, and the temperature has been in the upper 30's and 40's during the day.

We will be spending the afternoon walking around downtown, seeing what there is to see and maybe doing some shopping. Then at 4:00, we will go back to the orphanage to see Ethan.

We had our first bad experience last night. We tried some food from a fast food place called Potato something and it was yucky. We didn't eat any of it. So, we know not to go back there. We have eaten at several good restaurants. Yesterday, we ate at a Russian place and the food was very good there. For our Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, we ate at a place called Winter Garden. It was very good as well. We have many options for food here. We've been buying eggs, bread and milk at the grocery store, and eating pork, chicken and potatoes when we go out to eat. We have eaten at McDonald's once, for breakfast...but they don't have 'breakfast' food at the McDonald's here. We had a McChicken and a Country Sandwich (pork patty on rye) and some fries.

Joe bought some chips and some Coke Light (diet) at the grocery store. We think the cashier was making fun of us, because we kept hearing her laugh and say 'chips'. Aparently, americans must be the only people who buy chips here.

Oh, I melted my curling iron on the first day we were in Ukraine. It melted from the inside out and fell apart. Oops! So, we've been keeping our eyes open for another one, but so far we haven't had much luck. And I've had bad hair days ever since.

Thanks for the comments, it is helpful to hear from home. And it makes us feel loved.

Today, we saw that the Colts lost on Sunday, that made us a little sad.

That's all for now.

Introducing Ethan Warren Baldwin.........

I wrote the title to this post, now I will let Steph take over, she will let you know how great this week has been......

Hi! Steph here. I first have to say we're sorry that we don't have any pictures yet. Well, we have them, but we aren't able to post them from here. We are writing this from an Internet cafe in downtown Donetzk. Maybe another day we will be able to post some pictures.

Anyway, yesterday we finally met Ethan. His current name is Maxim, but we will change that soon. Ethan is almost 3. He has blonde hair and blue eyes. He is full of life and when we asked the ladies at the orphanage what he liked to eat, they said everything! So, he is well fed, and has nice little chubby cheeks (We have our own little 'pork chop'). We have been to visit him four times now. The first time was during our meeting with the orphanage director yesterday. We knew right away that he was our son. He was immediately drawn to Joe, and he is already calling him Papa. We have given him several snacks as bribes to keep him close to us. Today, he gave us hugs.

Ethan was diagnosed with two club feet at birth. He has had one corrective surgery, and still needs another. This doesn't seem to slow him down any, becuase he is everywhere and does everything. One foot had previously been corrected with bandages and braces, and now the other foot just needs one more surgery, that we will schedule when we are home. His cognitive development is right on schedule, according to the orphanage standards. He will however, need some PT, good thing I work at Gateway!

We are having a wonderful time here. Natasha, our translator/facilitator/protector has been so good to us. We are eating well and enjoy our time with her. She knows exactly where to go and how to get there. We just follow her along wherever she goes.

We are staying in an apartment in downtown Donetzk. We do not have a phone, nor do we have any internet access there. But, we do have a bed, a shower (with hot water!) and a kitchen. We looked at one other apartment, but the location was pretty scary, and Natasha was not comfortable with us staying there. So, we found this one instead. It is five floors up and we have a bullet proof door! (Don't worry, it doesn't really seem dangerous, but what do we know, we're just Americans)

Yesterday and today we have been running all over town with Natasha to complete paperwork that will be needed for our court date. We know that after our court date, there will be a mandatory 10 day waiting period before we can leave. Natashsa is trying to get us a court date next week, if possible. If not, it will probably be on Dec 6th. So, you all can pray that the court date is as soon as possible so we can bring Ethan home.

Oh, by the way. We decided on Ethan's name last night. We had a different name picked out for the past two years, but when we saw him, he didn't really look like the other name. So, Ethan it is! And I'm sure everyone knows about the middle name! (Joe's grandpa's name is Warren)

We miss you all and are ready to come home with our son. Thank you for your prayers and your postings to this blog. It has been very encouraging to read your words and feel your excitement for us.

We'll send pictures as soon as we can.

Love,
Joe, Steph and Ethan

Our Chosen Child

We had our appointment today at the SDA. Everything went very smoothly.
The people were very nice! We were shown several photos of available
children. Some sibling pairs and some individual children. After just a
short discussion, we chose our child. He, yes HE, is 2 years old. He
will be 3 on January 23rd. He is in an orphanage in Donetzk (Don-yetzk).
We are hoping to travel by train tomorrow (overnight) to that region. It
is approximately 400 miles from Kiev. All we can tell you right now is
that he has blonde hair and grey-blue eyes. It has been a very big day
and we feel very blessed already, and we have yet to meet him!

Our facilitator, Natasha, will be staying with us every step of our journey.

Please continue to pray for us as we have a long road ahead with lots of
paperwork and waiting.

More updates soon.

Steph & Joe

We Made It!

So here we are, our first day in Kiev. The flight was very nice, there
was no trouble whatsoever. We did get a little worried when we arrived in
Ukraine and there was no one here to get us, but Natasha soon showed up
and we felt safe and sound.

We traveled from the airport in Kiev to the apartment and got settled in.
We took showers and Natasha cooked us some lunch (very good lunch). We
then went to the SDA and made sure our appointment was listed for
tomorrow--and it was. After returning from the SDA, Steph and Natasha
went to the market and I took a nap.

We shared pictures of our family with Natasha. We are very happy to have
her as a facilitator and we have learned to trust in just a short amount
of time.

Our appointment tomorrow is at 1500. Which is 8:00 AM EST.

SO far--things are going great!

The Time is Very Very Near

So you may wonder what we have been up to since we finally got the word to go. It has been a flurry of activity. Well, more than a flurry, more like a BLIZZARD of activity. Steph and I have worked very hard at our jobs to make our absence painless for those who will graciously pick up the slack while we are gone.

We rushed to paint the kid's room, we procrastinated on this project for about 2 years. We did put together a crib and clean up the spare room. We purchased some new luggage, since my big suitcase was destroyed on a trip to China a couple months ago. We have collected some gift items to take with us and give to those who will guide us through this process. I purchased some T-shirts that can be reminders for them of where we come from. I purchased Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana Wesleyan, and Indiana State T-shirts. Although I hate to say it, I actually bought a couple Indiana University T-shirts. Its hard to believe I actually spent my money on a red IU shirt, but it would be difficult to get someone to understand the connection between Purdue University and the State of Indiana. This is the first time in my life I have ever spent money on an IU item!

We were given a large supply of blankets to donate to the orphanage. We will fill one suitcase with the gifts to leave and this will give us the space we will need for child's items on our return trip. Many thanks to the Welch's for the blankets, we all know they are needed and will be appreciated at the orphanage!

NO-WE HAVE NOT PACKED YET! That is the number one question we have gotten this week. First of all, I am by nature a last minute packer. Secondly, we have not had time to pack. We did buy some new, cheap, comfortable clothes to pack, but they are still in the bags from the stores.

We purchased a video camera and a portable DVD player last weekend. Uncle Jack loaned me some books to take. Believe it or not, we expect to have a significant amount of downtime and we will be starved for entertainment. DVD's and books should get us through.

We met with Christina Moore who will be house sitting for us while we are gone. It is comforting to know that we will have someone we trust taking care of our home. Thanks Christina.

Many have asked if we get to change the name of our child. Yes we can and no we will not tell what we have chosen as a name until we are certain that we want to change the name. We have selected a boy's name, but we have not been able to agree on a girl's name--that is still under negotiation and Steph is a tough negotiator.

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by to visit and pray with us before we leave.

The time is flying, as of right now we will be leaving in less than 48 hours!

Much to do, hopefully we can post updates when we are traveling, but can't promise anything. Please don't forget to pray for us...... Thanks to All!!!!!!!!! See you soon.

Amazing News!

We called Ukraine again this morning. WE ARE ON THE NOVEMBER LIST! Our appointment is on November 21st! We will leave here on the 19th...that leaves only 18 days to prepare for our departure!

We are in a state of shock right now. And such a nice state it is!

Oh how good is our God! We are scared and excited and nervous right now. This really IS going to happen!

More updates soon!