Friday, December 5, 2008

We Made It!

We finally made it to Ukraine after 16 hours of traveling! YAY! It was so wonderful to walk around after sitting on planes for so long!

When we stepped off the plane, we waited in line for a very long time to get our passports stamped. After that we claimed our luggage, which all got here safely, and we were even waved on through customs!! That was a huge miracle!

We are staying in a children's home right now. It's run by two Christian American ladies who are friends of some of our friends in Florida. They own four buildings on a piece of property here. One is used for housing boys, another for girls. The third building is used as a school room and the fourth is the cafeteria. The children age in range from about 7 to 16. They are all orphaned kids that were pulled off the streets. What an awesome ministry! We have loved staying here!

Tomorrow we get to go and meet our boys! We are so excited! Our facilitator Konstantin has been amazing! He has worked very hard on our behalf! I'm hoping that we will have internet in the area where our boys are so I can post some pictures for
you all to see. It's a very small town but our facillitator is pretty sure there will be internet access somewhere. So, I'll send pictures in my next post if there is! Now, drum roll please, I have just talked Derek into blogging about some of our experiences today. As most of you know, he is NOT a blogger :). I'm sure this will be quite entertaining! Love to you all!


- Hey everybody! This is Derek interrupting. I'm not a blogger at all but Renee picked up an AK47 today from a Russian mob road side stand and is making me do it. She also has purchased two very sad Russian violin cd's from a street performer and is playing the music as I write. I feel like I'm trapped somewhere between the Godfather and Fivel. Wait ... nope, that was just a mouse running through the orphanage.

Today was quite an adventure! Renee and I jumped on a little van/bus and took it into the outskirts of Kiev to catch the subway into downtown. We had a little paper with instructions and a few Russian phrases on it like, "Where is the bathroom?", "I'll have more cabbage, thank you", and "Are you my mother?" Needless to say, we were successful in getting into downtown Kiev and back for under $2 and it was incredibly entertaining. The van was the size of an airport shuttle but with over 60 people "inconveniently" packed in (I counted). Renee and I stood out like sore thumbs because we were smiling. We really tried to get everyone to sing, "If you're happy and you know it" but they just wouldn't clap their hands! Guess if we'd broken into some good late eighties Def Leopard we would've gotten a response but I've had all those lyrics "surgically" removed from my memory by an IHOP healing room prayer team. We met our facilitator under a giant golden angel downtown ... things were "looking up". At 11:40 we arrived at the Central Adoption Authority building for our interview. We were in there for about an hour but interestingly never were asked one question, Darn it, I had my answer buzzer and "call a friend line" all ready to go ... all for nothing. About five women ran around diligently for about an hour looking through one large binder after another of children's pictures and profiles. In the end, they presented us with four children. Well, we came for three boys and only one picture was of a girl so, it made our selection pretty clear. God speaks like this to me ......... "Hey Derek - adopt 3 boys from Ukraine" ... "Ok Lord, we'll do it. Which ones should we get?" ... "Whichever ones you want to my son" ... "Ok, great - thanks God, can I see the options?" ... "Sure son, here's number one, here's number two, and here's number three. Which three would you like?" .... "Uhhhhhh, Lord, I'LL TAKE THOSE THREE!" ... "Good job son, you really can hear my voice clearly!" ... "Gee thanks PAPA". Hold on ... I'm tearing up cause this violin music is really really sad! Get back to you later.

13 comments:

Chris and Mary Malone said...

Hey guys! So glad you've made it! You are adopting from the same place we are adopting Oleg and Dante from (in Novograd Vilinski). We'd love it if you could take some pictures of them for us and maybe see what size clothes they wear and if they're walking yet. Thanks a bunch!

The Loux Family said...

Hi Chris and Mary,

Yes! I was actually planning on doing this for you! I brought my video camera with me so I could take some video footage of your precious Oleg and Dante too! I will take stills of them and I will measure them too. I'll let you know as much as I can about them. I meant to get ahold of you before we left. Please forgive me for not doing that. Please email me at reneeloux@ihop.org. I will keep in touch with you all. We go to the orphanage tomorrow. If I have internet access tomorrow I'll be sure and send pics of your boys! Sorry your trip was postponed. The waiting is so hard. The unknowns are hard. I'm so sorry. We are keeping your boys in our prayers! I'm sure glad we serve a God we can trust with our hearts!
Hey, I'll give your little guys a hug from you as well! Blessings and hugs to you both! I pray that the Lord will hold your boys in a blanket of His love!

Tracie said...

YEAH!!! I've been stalking my computer all day! I'm so glad you guys are there and safe and well.

I checked the weather in Kiev today and it appeared to be WARMER there that here in KC... is that true?

I can hardly wait to see pics of all of our boys... Tell us about #3 as soon as you can please! We need to know MORE!

D, thanks for your post! You'll keep us all laughing for sure.

I'm still in shock that you guys are there and going to hold your boys, and OURS soon!

Love you SO MUCH!

Telma Navia Loux said...

Good job Mama!! You got daddy to blog! I think you should keep getting him to say something on there! I was laughing so hard!! Love you guys and miss you tons! Don't worry, we're still alive. No's on top of each... yet =) Love you

sarahjohns said...

I too have been stalking my computer all day! I am so glad to hear the update! I have been praying off and on all day! Like Tracie I am excited to hear about all the boys, seeing pics and finding out about #3! And a new pic of Aiden too! Just think, very soon we'll be following his journey home, I can't wait! Funny thing about all this, there's a good chance I may never meet your boys but I will know them in the spirit! Excited for all involved! What an awesome God we serve!!!

Meredith said...

So glad to hear your update! And I'm glad the malones connected up with you as well :) Just FYI, you might not be able to see the other kids the first visit day-- in fact it might be a few days before they 'trust' enough to let you see the other kids. That's the case with most families/orphanages but you all are the first to REALLY be adopting from Novograd from RR (I don't count ;) ).

Glad to hear the updates- Derek, you had my husband and I both laughing, I'm sure you all will enjoy your trip if you're able to keep that attitude up!

Stella said...

Hi Derek and Renee,
I laughed so hard at your blogging efforts...Derek you're good at it!
Praying for you guys and let us know the name of number 3.

Randy Bohlender said...

Great updates! Come home soon, but bring Borscht! Praying for you...

Unknown said...

Hi guys! I'm glad you're well. Good to hear from you. Let me know your phone number. When I come back through (next week Sunday/ Monday?) I will call you and try to come see you. You should be experts in all things by then! Email me if I can help you with anything!
Tammy

Karen said...

Can't wait to follow along on your journey! Dont you love it when He makes it so clear!

Am thinking of you and praying for you often.

Karen :)

Debi said...

Thanks for blogging your journey -- it's so fun to see all that God has planned for you over there! :)

Arden Campbell Czaszewicz said...

Derek and Renee! Sooooo happy to hear all of this and I'm excited to see how God is answering! Derek, you need to blog more often. I'm here in Debrecen, Hungary with my friends Edith and Mary Jill and Tammy, who left a comment, is arriving later this evening. We laughed out loud at Derek's writing and want to hear more from him as well as you, Renee! I'm soooooo very proud of you guys getting in that taxi...I have been there, done that, and it is definitely an adventure! Excited to hear about your boys and know that God is moving and leading! Praying for you and cannot WAIT to meet ALL your kids this summer when I move to Kansas City! Be blessed in Jesus' name and rejoice in all that He is doing! Arden

Faith said...

HAHA
"Guess if we'd broken into some good late eighties Def Leopard we would've gotten a response but I've had all those lyrics "surgically" removed from my memory by an IHOP healing room prayer team."
We do that at my church too!! :)
HAHA