Learning

Arriving home with a new child a few weeks before Christmas is kind of fun but probably not the best scenario.  While Lucy likes quiet days at home, it's been really difficult to get enough of those lately.  I fear we will just have to go with the flow and deal with the fallout come January.  

Lucy is doing quite well and is often delightful but we are seeing more tears and a little more opposition lately.  At those times, we long to be able to communicate with ease.  She is learning more and more English.  Tonight's new phrase is "Oh my goodness!"  She can now say her ABCs and " I don't know".  One of her first sentences was a prayer - "Jesus, thank you for this food."  We thought this was highly appropriate as food is near and dear to her heart!

Shye is being a great big sister but often finds herself frustrated with her little sister's listening skills or with the time she requires from Mama.  I am impressed with how hard she tries and how kind she is and I'm trying to make special times just for her.

I've been battling a chest cold for a week and a half now and I'm a bit weary.  I don't think all the regular Christmas prep is going to happen.  One day at a time by the grace of our loving God.

Lucy really likes Santa!

Just Dance on the Wii;  they're pretty cute :)

Ukrainian Princesses

Here's a photo of our true Ukrainian princesses.

Okay, they're not aways pouting but they do it well, don't you think?

Love them :)

One Week

Well Lucy's been in Canada one week now and we think she's doing really well.  She's picking up a little bit of English and we're learning a bit more Russian but we're all learning a lot more drama!  Most of it s good :)

She really enjoyed playing at the small indoor playground while Shye was at gymnastics.

She's making herself at home.

And she loved the Festival of Trees.

She walked up to these guys and mimicked them :)

She also shook hands and said, "Hello" to all the Mannequins at Sears!

All in all, a pretty good first week and we're almost recovered from jetlag.

Home Sweet Home

It is so good to be home, among family and friends, surrounded by all that is familiar.  The trip was long and not without delays, lost luggage, worry and exhaustion but here we are and our luggage has even arrived!

Lucy is doing well.  

She's enjoyed meeting the family and especially this little love who we dearly missed.

She likes her bedroom and will even listen to stories in English.

She really enjoyed playing in the snow and I need to get a rosy cheeked photo of that next time.

We are unpacking, sorting mail, adjusting.  It's going to take a while!

We've been blessed by friends taking excellent care of our home and leaving us groceries and gifts for the girls, meals from our daughter in law and daughter, gifts for the girls from a neighbour, greetings from dear friends at the airport, warm welcomes from many loved ones, dear friends in Ukraine, all the prayers and encouragement along the way.  We really feel this journey was done in community and we are so thankful!

We're Going Home!!

Well have we got a tale to tell....

After getting the phone call Tuesday afternoon saying Lucy's visa would be ready for pickup on Wednesday morning, we spent the evening, and half the night, trying to get a plane flight home.  When we bought our flights in September we figured that eight weeks would be the absolute outside of the timeline we would be here....well here we are.  All our travel agent could find that was close to what we already had was flying on the same flight for $4150 or one of us changing our ticket for 6:30 instead of 9:40 and flying with Lucy, meeting the other and Shye in Amsterdam for about $2500. Beth thought it was really important to stay together so we didn't buy any ticket and tried to sleep on it hoping that we could figure something out in the morning.  It was 1:00 am you know.  Beth felt that it was something that God could work out on our behalf.  Morning came and I called KLM to see if there was anything they could offer us - nyet. We waited for supper today to call our travel agent again.  We asked her to check one more time and if nothing had changed, to book the $4k ticket. Oy!  When she got in and called, apparently one ticket had become available and it was for $1980!!!  We are so grateful to God who worked this out on our behalf.  Thank you to all who have been praying.  Even "small" stuff like this feels big after being here so long. 

 If I may ask a further favour, pray for families who are here waiting and waiting, for passports, third appointments with the Child Welfare office etc. It is so hard living in this bubble.  We have really appreciated making new friends with fellow travellers, both Canuck and American.  It is essential to keeping sane.

So early Friday morning we start our long journey home to the great white north and turn the page on Lucy becoming a Hughes. Can't wait!

Canadian Embassy

Today we applied for a Visa for Lucy.  Tomorrow they're supposed to let us know how long it will take but they think it will be ready by Thursday.  Which means - Coming Home on Friday!!!

We hope this will be the case so we won't have to change our flights.  We just need to purchase one more ticket for a little girl who wants to go home :)

My friend Bill Murray......

We've been in Kiev a week now and Bill Murray's movie Ground Hog Day is starting to feel like our reality. We have our passport but no "Letter of No Objection"- a Canadian thing necessary to get a Visa attached to the passport.  The province says it was sent on Tuesday, nobody knows where it is today.  All this means is we may be stuck here past next week! Please pray for us and this letter.  At seven weeks from home, we're past feeling at the end of ourselves, and we ask God for strength everyday. Trouble is, we wax and wane in our knowledge that it will be ok, little things become big things. Hopefully soon.......

Here's a great pic of two lovely ladies

Life on a day to day level has been pretty good.  We have our little routines, find ways to get to know each other better, lots of tickling, laughing and having fun and a little bit of pouting. Life.

Thanks again for all your prayers and kind words.

Out and About

Yesterday we took the Metro for the first time and did a bit of sightseeing.  While Lucy asked several times if we could go home, she actually held up quite well.  

St. Andrew's

Kiev

This is the street we "live" on.

Today we walked around our neighborhood and discovered a wonderful cafe and a much needed playground.  

Lucy's love language :). She had an enormous sandwich and couldn't stop beaming!

This evening we met with some new friends, Russ and Cissa Newberry (who are also adopting) and Karen Springs (who works here in Ukraine with Orphan's Promise) and we had a lovely, refreshing visit - in English!  Karen gave us a Russian version of The Jesus Storybook Bible.

All in all, a good day.

News from some very tired people

Yesterday evening, after two insane days of running around getting paperwork done, we picked Lucy up from the orphanage.  She had some very mixed feelings, which is as it should be.  We think she's a very brave girl.

John and I got to bed after more work at 12:30 and got up at four to catch the train to Kiev today.  We were so blessed on the train trip to get the seats we did.  It was a very comfortable trip and Lucy did quite well.

It felt like our own private suite!

View from the train

We are now settled in an apartment in downtown Kiev.  This is by far the nicest place we've stayed and we are very thankful for it.

Life with the girls is presently exhausting and we would love prayers for strength and endurance.  

We will probably be here for another 10 days or so and we sure are looking forward to settling into a routine at home again.

Getting to know each other

Our visits with Lucy have been going really well.  Still stuck in the same little room but we're seeing really positive changes in her.  She has become more affectionate, is seeking cuddles more, doesn't have to protect and gobble down all her food at once, is repeating English words and is showing a fun sense of humour!  We are really looking forward to  "springing"  her from the orphanage next week.

We continue to look for ways to fill our mornings.  The Ironworks park was a very pleasant and interesting place to discover.  

John and I liked the conversation chair.

Shye preferred horseback riding.

Thank you for continued prayers.  We need them.  Yesterday was very sobering as there was a person hit by a car right next to our apartment and he was killed.  Sadly, we were heading to the orphanage and passed by while he was still there.  This is the second person we've seen laying in the road after being hit.  It made us very sad and has been hard to shake.  The roads are quite precarious for pedestrians and passengers alike.  Anyways, every day has good and difficulty and we are thankful or those of you who pray and encourage us.

And the routine continues...

We continue to have daily visits in our little room in the infirmary.  We will all be glad when we can begin to know each other outside of that room!  Our visits consist of crafts, snacks, Russian cartoons and IPad games, and any snuggles or eye contact and communication we can manage.

We find we are needing to plan more outings to keep the unrest at bay so we've enjoyed several visits with another adoptive family, walks, shopping, eating out (quite a challenge in itself) and today we took a bus to the Nemo dolphin show.  It was actually an excellent show for ten dollars a piece!  In a few days we'll try the Circus :)

We are homesick but praying lots and trying to take one day at a time. 

Introducing...........(drum roll please)

Well, a few hours ago in a court in Donetsk, Leninsky District a brave little girl went up to the podium and said "Da. Huh? Da." in answer to the questions of the imposing, straight faced judge.

After an hour of proceedings he left the room for 10 minutes and came back to read his judgement: Lucy Alexandra Hughes ( age 8 years) is now the daughter of Johnathan Richard Hughes and Beth Mitchel ( not Michelle!!) Hughes.  WOW!!!!!

After a year and a bit, of hours and hours of writing, pages and pages of forms and studies, much fretting and frustration and hours of prayers, it has happened. We have a new daughter!

To be perfectly honest, it has not sunk in.  Even after supper at my own restaurant (check previous posts) we feel pretty numb. It will sink in tomorrow after a good sleep I'm sure.

Thank you to all the people who have prayed for this day to happen. From Facebook friends, precious adoption friends who have been here and have supported us every step, steadfast friends from church and our dear family.  You are all a part of the village for Lucy Alexandra.

Beautiful, isn't she!

SHYANNE'S THOUGHTS

Today Shyanne agreed to let us post her journal entry.  Here it is!

Oct. 16 2013

Finally we have court, today at 2 PM.  We are so excited and nervous.  Mom and Dad and little sis are probably nervous.  I don't blame them; it's a good time to be nervous.  

I feel homesick but after court, hopefully two more weeks in this city and then one more week in Kiev then home.  It will be amazing to go home with a little sister!

COURT TOMORROW!!!

Tomorrow afternoon we will be going to court to become the parents of one precious little girl.  If all goes well, there will then be a ten day waiting period, then a couple days of running around for birth certificate etc.  THEN, we will walk away from the orphanage with our new daughter!  

I, Beth, am a little nervous about answering questions in court as my brain shuts down when I'm nervous.  Yes, I'm nervous about being nervous!  Our little one will also come to court and will have to say if she wants to become our daughter.  I imagine she will be nervous too.  So, prayers are appreciated :)

Cheers, Beers and Tears

Well we started this week out with a birthday celebration. Our little one turned 8 on Monday so we tried our best to have a birthday. After 5 children, the Hughes have done a couple of birthdays but this one was a little different. We intentionally made it small to make sure we don't overwhelm her. We've already noticed that when things get too heavy, she gets goofy so we're trying to move slow. We were able to use a big room, which was kind of the staff and we found some old photo albums with a certain someone in them. Not sure if that was just coincidental or kindness, but we enjoyed them none the less. One of the standard features of visits now is a very active rock-a-bye baby with Beth. She insists on several bouts each time.

That night we decided to explore one of my forebear's haunts. Some of you may know that John James Hughes headed a steel company in Donetsk in the mid 1800's. Hughes brought his Welsh iron knowledge and established the iron works empire which is the foundation of the wealth in this region.     The best thing is though, he had a cool name and even better is the restaurant they named after him. There is nothing better than English food cooked by Ukrainians! Add to that beer that they pipe to your table and it's Heaven. It really was a great experience with great food, service and facility that all four of us enjoyed. I even got a souvenir glass!  It's definitely going to be a repeat experience.

That brings us to today. When we first met our girl, she understood that we were from Canada and not "Amerika".  For some reason today she thought she was going to the US which is where all her friends were adopted to. When we reminded her we are from Canada she fell to pieces and started to cry. This is far too big a thing for her to understand. Between Beth comforting her and our facilitator explaining some thing's to her over the phone, we worked it out for now. The good thing is that she was able to receive comfort by Beth, which we all know, will need to happen countless times as we travel this sod. The sad thing was realizing that she has been disappointed many times in her life I'm sure, and this instance was another one and we were a part of it. It was all smiles when we left so we look forward to seeing her tomorrow.

Market Day

Our daughter Kim arrived yesterday for a week of visiting and it's a pleasant diversion to have her here.  Today we took a day off from our trips to the orphanage and headed to the outdoor market.  The high today was 5 Celsius so we wore layers and toques and wandered the market for a few hours.  We were able to find a couple clothing items for our little one as well as a few other items and went for lunch at a very busy McDonalds.  We had our driver drop us at the market and travelled home on the bus which was actually quite easy.  It felt good to spend the afternoon outdoors!  We tried to find the John Hughes Brewery but had no luck.  We'll try again another day :) A Welshman named John Hughes was actually the founder of this city !

Tomorrow is our girl's birthday so we'll be taking cake and a gift to the orphanage. We're not sure if she even knows it's her birthday or if it means anything to her but we will celebrate her.

What We Woke Up To

This morning we woke to fresh snow!  Feels like minus 5 and still no heating.  Our apartment owner brought us a little space heater and it takes the edge off, just barely.  Camping indoors :)

Our visits are going well.  Our little one seems to have had a growth spurt since friends met her here several months ago.  Most of the clothes I brought will be on the small side so we'll have to shop for a warm outfit for her here.  She looked up into my face and called me "Mama" yesterday.  Warmed my heart.

Shye is doing well and loves her younger sis but has still struggled with sharing Mama and Papa.  Please pray for her transition.  So much change.

We're off to the local mall this morning.  We think we've figured out enough to purchase Shye a ride pass.  There are several large signs at the ticket booth with loads of words and numbers and we've been trying to translate enough to make some sense of it!