Day 2, Kremenchuk

I brought my good camera to the orphanage for our second day visiting.  It takes such better photos than the iPhone, but it’s much more cumbersome.  I posted the “good” photos below, but we didn’t leave the camera out for long because Conner wanted to throw it.  (Remember, he loves to throw things and laugh.)

 

Conner crawled today!!!  (Remember, Conner isn’t supposed to know how to crawl.)  And, Conner stood up by hanging onto a chair!!!  He was able to bear weight on his legs, and we discovered he LOVES to jump and bounce! 

 

Cooper was reserved today, but still as sweet as can be.  He rode on Matt’s belly like a horsie, and he giggled the sweetest giggle.  He also rode on Matt’s shoulders, which he giggled about as well.

 

One thing Cooper did on Day 1 that I forgot to mention is that he likes to hit/slap Matt.  He thinks it’s hilarious.  Matt laughs, which just encourages Cooper to do it more.  I’m trying to nip this in the bud because I have a feeling no one else is going to like being blindsided!  Well, immediately upon Day 2’s visit, Cooper welcomed Matt with a big slap!!!  He doesn’t do this to me, only to Matt, so he remembered from Day 1’s visit that Matt thought the slapping was funny.  I was quite surprised to see Cooper remember this so quickly!

 

Both boys seemed to be less drugged on Day 2’s visit.  They were still in their sleeping PJ’s upon our arrival.  Conner was in a walker while Cooper was at the table eating a bar that looked similar to a NutriGrain, only harder.  They had a different caregiver than we met on Day 1, and she was not as kind to us.  She seemed unprepared for our visit, and she hurriedly changed the boys into their “play” clothes (different sleeper PJ’s…the same ones they wore on Day 1) and shooed us away.

 

Here are the “good” pics from our morning visit:

 

 

 

 

 

I caught Conner crawling on camera!  Watch his progression in the photos.  He’s good!

 

 

 

 

He crawled right over to me and sat in my lap!  He LOVES to sit in laps.  He will crawl to either mine or Matt’s lap and make his way into it and just sit contentedly.  Precious.

 

 

 

 

Could Conner be any cuter?!?!  Look at that darling smile!!!

 

 

And before we knew it, we were out of time.  A caregiver notified us that we had to return the boys to their room for lunch, so off we went.  (Remember, we took lots of videos, and you can view them HERE, if you haven’t already.)

 

Back to the room on Daddy’s shoulders.

 

Tuesday was filled with all kinds of required adoption paperwork.  Our translator did an awesome job of getting everything approved and accomplished.  We spent the day running around the town of Kremenchuk chasing papers, getting everything notarized, etc.  We visited the big grocery store between notary appointments and stocked up on grocery items.

 

Mattie (one of our daughters) is begging to know more about the town of Kremenchuk, so I took photos from our car window as we drove about town.

 

This is the town’s big Christmas tree.  They keep Christmas decorations up through January in Ukraine.

 

 

 

Matt at the notary (our first visit of the day).

 

 

 

The town is very pretty.  It’s much different than Kiev because it’s not a big city.  It’s still bigger than our little towns, but it doesn’t have as many options as the big city of Kiev.  But we like it and think it’s a lovely little city of its own.

 

The prettiest place in Kremenchuk (that we’ve seen) is the orphanage.  The following photos are all taken in the yard of the orphanage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the end of the day, our translator had all of the necessary documents to proceed with filing a court date and submitting the next set of documents to the SDA.  If the SDA is able to get the documents approved in time, we will have court January 26 or 27.  (BTW, Mattie’s 14th birthday is January 27.)  Matt and I will remain in Kremenchuk until the day after court.  Then there’s the mandatory 10-day waiting period (which we’re told is not waived in this region), so we will fly back to Texas during the 10-day wait.  It will be a bittersweet time as we will have to leave Conner and Cooper at the orphanage, but we miss our kiddos at home greatly, so we’ll be grateful to love on them for 10 days.  Then we’ll return to Kremenchuk, following the 10-day wait, to pick up the boys and finish the process of getting them to America.  (The second trip, last part of the process, takes about 5-7 days.)  So, looks like, if all goes according to plan (ha, what plan?!?!), the boys will be able to come to Texas the middle of February.  Oh, the time seems too long, doesn’t it?!?!  We so wish we could bring them home NOW.  Waiting is hard.  Praise God that His grace is sufficient.  Couldn’t do this without Him.

 

 

And then back to our apartment where this guard dog statue sits at the front doors to scare people away.   He even has bones in his dog bowl.  Hilarious.

 

We’re still praying that God will do a miracle and allow us to take these boys home on this trip, if it be His will. 

 

Thanks for praying!