I prayed for speed and received it, but I never added to please give me the strength to endure the speed. So far things are moving along at an amazing speed, so much grace by everyone in the process. We arrived in Zaporizyhya at 6:30 a.m. by train. Victor, our facilitator slept in the same compartment as us since there is 4 to each compartment. Therefore we slept in our clothes. I had on sweatpants and a tee shirt. In the morning we real quickly fixed ourselves up, I put on a little make-up on in the dark because I looked soooo exhausted. I am sure that I didn’t get more than 2 hours of sleep. I know that Yana didn’t either. At 2:00 a.m. Yana is calling down to me from the bunk above, “ Mom, I am hungry”. I gave her an orange, at 3:00 a.m. she is climbing down to go to the bathroom. When she returns, she says, “Mom is there anything else to eat?”. I sent her up with cookies that we had brought with us to have with coffee and tea. At 4:00 a.m. I am wide awake and preparing to get off the train.
Our good friend, driver Roma, is waiting for us to rush us off to Berdyansk. Unforturnately Roma got pulled over for speeding and not wearing seatbelts in the front seat. I have never seen anyone where a seatbelt in Ukraine. I had no idea it was law. Yana had just got done telling them that in America you get a fine for not wearing your seatbelt in the front seat. Both Roma and Victor laughed at such a notion. Roma was totally embarrassed by the whole thing.
We arrive in Berdyansk around 10:00 a.m. Roma has 4 apartments that he knows are available. I have to stop at the church that we stayed at before, so Rick and Yana are sent out to get an apartment. Our game plan is to find the apartment, drop off the bags, come and get me and stop for food so we can eat something before we go visit Koyla. About an hour later they come to get me and everyone is in a hurry. We have to be at the orphanage in 5 minutes , the inspectors are waiting for us. No time to change, clean ourselves up or get our presents that we brought for Galina or buy the flowers that we wanted to present her. We arrive, smelly, dressed like slobs, hair a mess, and only a small amount of caffine in our system from the 4oz of coffee/tea they serve on the train in the morning at 5:30 a.m. For me that is not too bad, for Rick, he is a true coffee man in the morning, a minimum of 4 cups (mugs) just to get the morning started. You can imagine how Yana felt seeing her friends for the first time looking like she did. She handled it better then all of us.
What a beautiful welcome Yana got from teachers, children, and the director. There was a mix of laughing and tears. The teachers kissed and hugged her and me. Such a joy filled the air. Then we met the inspectors and Galina. They were all so beautifully dressed with their hair perfect, smelling of beautiful perfume and well rested. That turned out to be a great occasion also. They were so happy with Yana. All were amazed at her English and ability to translate and how healthy she looked. Yana’s face was glowing, she was like a radiate star sitting at that table.
After 10 minutes of questioning Yana and discovering how she was doing in America, they asked us if we were ready to see Koyla. My first thought was no, I didn’t want to meet Koyla the way we looked, but I knew that was the wrong answer. By this time Rick and I are numb with being tired. Yana is on an adrenaline high, she is as alert and awake as if she slept all night. Koyla comes in shaking, sweating, scared, and excited. It was a touching time to see him and Yana embrace for the first time. The whole room was filled with emotion. Yana introduces Koyla to mama and papa. Poor little guy was sweating with anxiety. As soon as our interview was over the doctor at the orphanage and Koyla jumped in our car and we ran around finishing the medical. Everyone at the orphanage is so excited about this adoption, including the inspectors, that they are approving things out of order. The medical was supposed to be done before we had the inspector’s interview. Yana stayed at the orphanage and went to classes with her friends while we were running around. The goal of everyone is to try to get our court appointment on June 5th. The courts are only seeing adoption cases on Friday here in Berdyansk.
Koyla is a sweet, tiny, young 13 year old. When walking out of the orphanage we held his hand. When Rick took his hand, he looked up at Rick and then down at his hand. Ricks hand has to be 10 times the size of Koyla’s. It shocked him to see the size of his papa. Even Yana was shocked by the size of her brother. One thing Rick and I talked about is Koyla’s size does not match his thinking. He is a teenager and we have to respond to him in that way. It would be easy to treat him as a little boy. After we got back to the orphanage Koyla jumped out of the car ready to return to what is familiar to him. Rick and I were ready for sleep and Yana….still on a high. We went to our new apartment where our bags were dropped off and all of us fell asleep, except for Victor. He was on a run to get the papers done. Victor has a double incentive to get out of Berdyansk. On the train he got a call that his son fell and broke his arm. The little guy that was with us the day before, so full of energy was in the hospital full of pain. When we got to Berdyansk he got another call from his wife that while examining Anton, they discovered that he has some stomach problems too. Victor and his wife were on the phone constantly. It was obvious that he wanted to be with his family during this time of difficulty.
Things are moving at a speed that far exceeded my expectations, the body is not keeping up. My prayers include praising the Lord for His powerful speed, it is easy to see that His hand is on all of this, and please Lord give me the strength to keep up. Between no sleep, no food, and meeting our son for the first time, I could have been an emotional basket case. Fortunately Yana was on such a high that I didn’t breakdown she kept everyone in good spirits. After a few hours of sleep, and a good dinner that night we all felt better and ready for the days ahead.
Now it is time to build relationship with our new son. Yana and he haven’t missed a beat, they are already bonded as if never apart. It is sweet to see them together. They do look alike, that was one of the first things Yana said when he walked into the director’s office. This is different than the first adoption. Yana trusted us immediately because of her American experience and she knew that we were friends with people she knew in America. Koyla, this is all new. He is also leaving a good grandpa behind. Grandpa is old and can no longer care for him. We told him that Grandpa is still his grandpa we don’t want to take that away. We want him to have relationship with him. We want to have grandpa’s blessing on the adoption. He has told the director and Koyla that he is very much in favor of the adoption. The poor old man loves his grandson. He not only verbalizes it he shows it by his visits to the orphanage. He will have to sign papers stating that he gives his blessing on this adoption. That will happen next week. I am glad I brought a lot of Kleenex with me!
Today, May 28th, Victor hopefully gets our court date and then he goes to tend his own family back in Kiev for the weekend. We will spend our weekend getting to know our son, Nicholy Marcus Rahn (Koyla). The story of the name is a book in itself. The last chapter of the book is, Nicholy is his name. Marcus is Yana’s pick. Marcus is a famous soccer player. I am not sure who picked Nicholy, but I know it was a huge issue at a time that I couldn’t think of my own name that alone the name of a boy that is leaving the orphanage, his country and his grandpa. I think he went to some teachers and asked for help while mama and papa slept. That night we got a call saying this is Koyla’s name.
Amazing love how can it be that I should experience such precious moments as these!
Fran
I am going to do a fast post so that this picture makes it on the blog. I have tried 6 times and each time something happens. Here is the first reunion of brother and sister. Yana was caught totally off guard. They called Koyla down and we did not know it. The director was asking Yana questions when Koyla walked in the door. This is too precious of a time, it brings tears to the eyes, at least to Mama's eyes.
