In Ukraine.

So, we're here in Kyiv. Travel with a baby went as you might expect. We all started out bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. 

I was so excited about the bassinets that Lufthansa provides for infants

 on overnight flights. Jude could sleep on the plane! Then Dave and I could, too! 

Little Judester didn't get the memo about sleeping on the plane, though. He did for about 30 minutes in that bassinet. And like a parent of a newborn who finally gets them to sleep, NOT in their own arms, I was practically euphoric with relief, and didn't fall asleep myself. Oh, well. We all survived. 

We got to Frankfurt. I was very excited to see all of the signs in German. I knew that of course there would be signs in German, but I still loved it. I threw around my meager German vocabulary like a boss with the flight attendants, too. ;) 

Of course, being in Germany, wurst was on the menu for our meal. 

Which happened to be breakfast. 

And you end up feeling kind of sleepy after eating 1.5 pounds of sausage

 and french fries after being up all night. 

(Waiting for our flight to Kyiv)

And eventually we descended into Kyiv. 

At the airport, people were extremely nice to us. As soon as we got in the (long) passport line for non-Ukrainians, an officer approached us, and had us follow him to the FRONT of the diplomats line. No picture for that, just know that they treat babies like foreign ambassadors here. I like that. 

Jude passed out again in the car from the airport to our apartment. You should have seen his face after Dave dressed him in a snowsuit for the first time. He looked panicked and confused about this stifling get-up. It is cold here, but so far, not as bad as we expected. 

I'm not sure what to say about our apartment. It could be worse? I've been running through a predictable cycle of being shocked by the different standards, then feeling a little annoyed (I'm sorry), then feeling guilty for being annoyed, and for having so much in the first place. I am left wondering why America is so nice. I know that there are other nice places. And I know that there are places a lot worse than this. But still, why do we get to live somewhere so nice?

View from our apartment.

Today we got out in our neighborhood a bit. We are about 1/3 of a mile from the square where there is the large protest right now. Other than being able to hear the chanting at times, there is no sign of it if you are not right in it. 

Really close to our apartment is St. Sophia's Church. I hope to get a closer look tomorrow. 

And finally, lunch today at a Ukrainian/Russian restaurant. It was good, hearty food. 

That's about all for now. We'll be here for a few days, then expect to head to the boys' region at the end of the week. Here's a picture of several of the boys from the orphanage, with Oleg in the middle, and Tolia to the right. 

Thank you for reading. Please keep praying for a smooth process, and please pray for Oleg and Tolia, as they will soon have to officially decide to be part of our family.

Winners!

Oh, my goodness... just entered all of the shares, donations and picked winners from random.org. Drawing the numbers was one of the funnest moments of my life! Right up there with announcing them! Here they are!

iPad mini- Gregory Jones
Kindle Fire HDX- Luke Bell
Tassimo- Jeff Kerchner
$100 Amazon gift card- Kimberly Kremer
$100 Amazon gift card- Jason van Brackel
Cookies and bars- Danielle Dryburgh
Vera Bradley set- Christine Nichols
31 Perfect Party set- Rachel McCready
31 Hang-up Home Organizer- Heather Burdeaux
$50 Target gift card- Becki Kerchner

Guys, thank you SO MUCH! Your donations, shares and just LOVE have been amazing. Our account as of this moment is $10,192 and I just cannot believe it! Our $10,000 matching grant has been met! Thank you to family and friends for donating these amazing prizes. We are the most blessed and just plum lucky family in the world.

A weight is lifting.

I want to thank all of you who have given so generously to help us bring Tolia home.  In addition to the many donations by our friends and family, we received a very large donation this week. We do not even personally know the couple who donated! One of my friends shared our giveaway, and one of her friends read about Tolia and decided to make the donation. That is utterly amazing to me. We are grateful and humbled.

We received another large donation this past week, from a wonderful family we met in the adoption world...so generous and touching. To even explain exactly how we know them is complicated, but here is the post where they talk about it. (This donation is held by a different nonprofit, Project Hopeful... also an utterly awesome organization.)

Then, tonight, we received very exciting news of a generous donor (unreal, really!) who will match ALL donations to the Reece's Rainbow account for Tolia given before December 31st, up to $10,000. Right now our account is at $6425, which in itself is SO thrilling....just amazing. If we can add $3575 between now and December 31st, our match will be met, and our account will be at $20,000! That will essentially make Tolia's adoption fully funded, when we also count the money we have saved, and have received in the Project Hopeful fund.

This is a tremendous development, and we thank all of you who have helped us so far--your help is being doubled!  Please do share this news, and help get the word out to others who may want to donate. As we've already seen multiple times, even strangers have donated to Tolia's fund because they've seen the giveaway shared on their friend's Facebook page. Thank you, all, for being so patient with us...I know we have asked so much already, and we really do hope to put this fundraising to bed shortly!

Thank you, God, and thank you, friends and family. We Warners are a VERY blessed family. Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Super-good news, someone won a prize, and how much is this going to cost, anyway?

Hello, there. I have several things to talk to you about today, but let me start with some great news that we heard today. According to our in-country adoption facilitator, our dossier has been verified, confirmed, and registered. I'm not EXACTLY sure what all of that means, except that they didn't find any errors, red flags, discrepancies... yay! Our facilitator said that we will receive our invitation to travel toward the end of this month. Further, he predicts that it will be in early to mid-February that we depart for our first trip. I am SO EXCITED. We were able to share the good news on facetime with Tolia today, and he was so happy. 

Today is the 12th, and you may remember that we had a little guessing-game going, and Ginger, you won a copy of The Grace Effect. Congrats, Ginger, and thank you everyone for playing! 

Our giveaway has been going so well. The love that you guys have shown us through sharing the giveaway and donating to it, has really made us feel so loved. Thank you! Some folks have asked us how much we expect the adoption to cost, and what the components are the financial components. Allow me to do my best to show you what expenses we've had so far, and share an estimate of what expenses are to come. 

So far, we've had direct adoption expenses of about $4000. I say "direct", because I'm not including hosting expenses in that total, though they are related and have been important to our adoption and family bonding (the three hosting trips have been about $8000 total).
Some of the expenses that are behind us (again, about $4000 so far):

Home study (where a social worker thoroughly checks us and our home out)
Criminal background checks
Child abuse clearances
USCIS (immigration) application
Fingerprinting
Notarization
Apostilling
FedEx
Other documents (birth certificates, marriage certificates)

Expenses to come:
Adoption facilitator fees $10,000-14,000 remaining 
Airfare for two trips: $3000-5000
Travel in-country: $1500-2000 (trains, taxis- we'll be traveling back and forth from Kyiv to Tolia's region frequently)
Hotels: $2000-3000
Food: $1000
Orphanage donation: $1500
Child's medical exam: $200
Passports: $200
Other: $1000

So, we have remaining expenses of $20,400-27,900. That estimate is cobbled together by recent families' costs and our own facilitator's estimates, taking into account our own family's unique situation and variables. We expect to be in-country for the first visit anywhere from 10 days- 3 weeks.  The second trip, for our court date and picking Tolia up, will likely be 2-4 weeks. Jude and I will probably return home immediately after court, and Dave will stay in Ukraine with Tolia, during the mandatory 10-day wait period, then will pick him up, and take him for medical exams, to get his passport, and I don't know what else. Lots of paperwork! 

Thanks for reading... I hope that that didn't give you a headache like it gave me! ;) Another look at our giveaway:

An iPad Mini! 

A Kindle Fire HDX

The Bosch Tassimo Single Serve Beverage System 

$100 gift card to Amazon

ANOTHER $100 gift card to Amazon!

An amazing assortment (more than pictured) of cookies and bars made by

 a real-deal French (well, her pastries are French, she is German and Irish, mostly)

 pastry chef. Oui oui! Will accommodate dietary restrictions. 

This GORGEOUS Vera Bradley set- 

the Signature Print Travel Bag & Slim Cosmetic Case

in Venetian Paisley, and it's even more stunning in person! 

The Perfect Party Set from 31 Gifts

(I have one of these that I won in an 

adoption fundraiser last year, and I looove it)

The Hang-Up Home Organizer from 31 Gifts

AND A $50 Target gift card 

A reminder of how it works:

1) Donate to Tolia's super-secure, tax-deductible adoption fund. Don't be alarmed, his pseudonym on there is Sasha. No worries, that is definitely our Tolia! For every $5 donation, your name will be entered into the drawing to win one of these prizes. Donate $10, get entered three times. $25 donation earns you 9 entries, and a $50 donation earns you 20 entries. I could go on. Any other large donation, I will come up with an appropriately insane number of entries for you, never fear! Once you have donated, leave a comment on this post with your donation amount, and let me know if you'd rather it not be published. 

2) SHARE this blog post. On Facebook, Twitter, or your blog. Facebook and Twitter shares get an entry, sharing on your blog gets three entries. See, you can win something for nothing! Amazing, huh? Just comment to let me know how you shared it. 

On Friday, December 20th, we will draw winners, let you know immediately, and ship these items to you STAT! I'm a nerd, and just worked out the math of your likelihood of winning a prize, and you're AT LEAST 30,000 times more likely to win a prize in this giveaway than in winning the Powerball. Great odds at winning a prize, my friend. I've won lots of times from similar adoption fundraisers. (Not to mention EVERYONE wins EVERY time they donate to an orphan's adoption)

Thanks for reading, sharing and donating, friends! 

Giveaway Announcement

Hello, friends! I must start off with an exclamation point like that, because I'm very excited about this post and the incredible prizes that are on the line! So, as I said recently, fundraising kind of has to happen. However. There is a way to make it win-win-win. This is how it will work. We have prizes. I will get to those in a minute. Okay, how about now? Here they are: 

An iPad Mini! 

A Kindle Fire HDX

The Bosch Tassimo Single Serve Beverage System 

$100 gift card to Amazon

ANOTHER $100 gift card to Amazon!

An amazing assortment (more than pictured) of cookies and bars made by

 a real-deal French (well, her pastries are French, she is German and Irish, mostly)

 pastry chef. Oui oui! Will accommodate dietary restrictions. 

This GORGEOUS Vera Bradley set- 

the Signature Print Travel Bag & Slim Cosmetic Case

in Venetian Paisley, and it's even more stunning in person! 

The Perfect Party Set from 31 Gifts

(I have one of these that I won in an 

adoption fundraiser last year, and I looove it)

The Hang-Up Home Organizer from 31 Gifts

AND A $50 Target gift card 

Firstly, thank you family and friends for these donations. You. Rock. I love you guys. Thank you for loving Tolia and loving us! 

Second, this is how YOU, dear reader, can get one or more of these items in your hot little hands!

1) Donate to Tolia's super-secure, tax-deductible adoption fund. Don't be alarmed, his pseudonym on there is Sasha. No worries, that is definitely our Tolia! For every $5 donation, your name will be entered into the drawing to win one of these prizes. Donate $10, get entered three times. $25 donation earns you 9 entries, and a $50 donation earns you 20 entries. I could go on. Any other large donation, I will come up with an appropriately insane number of entries for you, never fear! Once you have donated, leave a comment on this post with your donation amount, and let me know if you'd rather it not be published. 

2) SHARE this blog post. On Facebook, Twitter, or your blog. Facebook and Twitter shares get an entry, sharing on your blog gets three entries. See, you can win something for nothing! Amazing, huh? Just comment to let me know how you shared it. 

On Friday, December 20th, we will draw winners, let you know immediately, and ship these items to you STAT! I'm a nerd, and just worked out the math of your likelihood of winning a prize, and you're AT LEAST 30,000 times more likely to win a prize in this giveaway than in winning the Powerball. Great odds at winning a prize, my friend. I've won lots of times from similar adoption fundraisers. (Not to mention EVERYONE wins EVERY time they donate to an orphan's adoption)

************Update 12/14/2013: We now have a $10,000 matching grant! This INCLUDES the funds already in our Reece's Rainbow account. If our account reaches $10,000 BY DEC. 31, the fund will DOUBLE, becoming $20,000! And our adoption will basically be fully funded! Please share and give! (The giveaway, however, will still end on Dec.20th so that we can get folks' prizes to them by Christmas)***************

Thanks for reading, sharing and donating, friends! It's all for this boy...

Good news

Just a quick update to let you know that our dossier was submitted yesterday to the State Department on Adoption and Children's Rights (SDA), November 14th. This past week, it was being translated by our adoption facilitator's team. It is a great sign that the facilitator's team found no problems with it, and didn't ask for any additional documents or corrections. They are extremely careful and only want to submit perfect documents, so we are very hopeful that the Ukrainian government will find it (and US!) up-to-snuff. 

From here, we will wait approximately four weeks to hear if the SDA has approved our dossier. If it is approved, we should receive an invitation to travel shortly after that! So, sometime in the New Year... likely end of January (any of my adopting friends feel free to tell me if that's ridiculously optimistic) or February, we should be going to Ukraine! 

In the meantime, we will get to have Tolia home, for Christmas hosting! We are so thrilled to have this opportunity to spend some more of the "waiting time" with him in our home, in HIS home!

Christmas 2012. I'll have to take a similar shot this year for comparison; he has grown so much! 

So, just to make this waiting time a little fun, I'm going to steal an idea that has been used as a game at many baby showers. I'm going to take guesses for when the next part of this process occurs (hearing if our dossier was accepted). Whoever guesses correctly will win a book that we really like, called The Grace Effect, by Larry Taunton. It follows one family's journey of adoption from Ukraine, but also weaves in philosophy, theology, and a bit of Ukrainian history. It is a great book! Leave a comment with your guess (remember, typical range will be 25-35 days from now), and I'll let you know who guesses closest and wins the book! 

Why fundraise for adoption?

Now, we haven't actually had anyone ask us this question, but I know that adoptive families do sometimes get some questions about fundraising, so I thought I'd share our reasons and thoughts on the matter.

One, there is a need for children to be adopted. I don't think there is too much doubt about that. Estimates for how many orphans are in the world are generally in upwards of 100 million. While many countries have programs in place for orphans (orphanages, foster care), most do not come close to the benefits and protections provided by a permanent family. 

In Tolia's country, when kids age out of the orphanage system at age 16, they are considered adults at that point. They have two options. They can strike out on their own, looking for work in their country or other European countries, or they can go onto a technical school. Orphans in his country, even ones with great grades and bright minds like Tolia, do not have the option to go to college. If they do choose technical school (which is outdated, bleak and provides little opportunity for future vocational success), they are still considered adults, and have almost no guidance, still very little food, and still lack the love and protection of parents and family.

What's worse, in addition to the poor likelihood of GOOD things in their future, there are many BAD things that happen to these vulnerable teens when they age out of the orphanage system. 

• In Eastern Europe, less than 50% of the orphan population will live to see their 20th birthdays 
• Of the orphans that survive their 20th birthdays, 50% will end up in organized crime, drugs, or prostitution
• One in six will commit suicide by their mid-20s. 

Others are tricked or kidnapped and sold into other types of slavery. 

In our family (and as you can imagine, in most adoptive families), we will turn ourselves inside out to make sure that he has every opportunity for good health, excellent education, love and safety. 

We absolutely can afford to parent Tolia, and even if we have no help financially, we will somehow find a way to adopt him, even if it means going into debt. However, we would like to avoid that, of course. He will have college in just a few short years, and we would like to be in a position to really help him as much as possible with that! We have cut our expenses in every area we can think of, and I have taken a work-from-home job to help pay for the adoption, as well. Dave has accepted almost every overtime offer sent his way (and I know that we're extraordinarily lucky to have that; we know that most incomes are pretty static). We are doing everything we can to tackle the financial "mountain" that is international adoption, and pay for as much of it ourselves as possible! We are so thankful for what God has already done to help us pay for our expenses so far.

Also, we know that many of our friends, family and members at our church just love him, and believe so much in the cause of adoption, but for various reasons can't adopt, or don't feel it's the plan for their family right now. That's totally fine! Many in our circle have expressed their desire to care for the orphan, and this is one way to do that. 

You are not compelled to participate in any fundraiser we have (I promise we love you either way!), but if you feel led, we are thankful. And I cannot emphasize enough how much we appreciate the moral support of our friends and family. It is so moving to hear the words of support and get encouraging emails and messages on Facebook. We can feel your love for Tolia and for our family. :')

Just a quick "rundown" of what we plan for fundraisers. We just want to let you know in advance, so you can see if there's one that is especially appealing to you, and know if you'd like to save your support for that one. 

• Our 31 fundraiser, going now through Nov. 15. All online. Click on the link, go to "My Events", and select Joy's Adoption Fundraiser. Thank you, Becky G! 

• Soon, we will have an ongoing puzzle fundraiser. We are having a 300-piece puzzle made of our family picture. You will be able to "buy" a piece of the puzzle for $10. We will write your name (or your child's name, husband's name, favorite pet's name, etc.!) on the back of the piece. When the puzzle is complete, we will double-frame it in glass, so Tolia can see all of the names on the pieces, and see everyone that helped bring him home. (Donations for this one will be tax-deductible, received by our Reece's Rainbow account.)

• We will have two blog giveaways. One on this blog, and one on Dave's, The Flatpick Apprentice. Each will have great prizes for those who donate or "share" the giveaway on Facebook, Twitter or their blog. Seriously, super-pumped about these; the prizes are going to rock! These giveaways will likely take place in December and/or January. (Donations for this will also be tax-deductible, through our RR account.)

Thanks so much, guys, for even taking the time to read this. It shows that you're interested in Tolia, our family, and I'd guess, have concern about vulnerable children, in general. Please, stay in touch, keep following our story, and pretty please KEEP PRAYING for our sweet Tolia while he waits, and pray that we can bring him home SOON.