Adoption Race!

Today was the Chosen Marathon for Adoption Race in New Braunfels and it was so fun! I got to cheer on some of my amazing friends today! I wanted to tell all of them thank you so much for training and sacrificing your time to run in this race and be on our team to help raise funds to bring Yana home with us forever. I can't tell you how much it means to me for all of your prayers, words of encouragement, training and amazing generosity! God is really teaching me through all of you about extravegent giving! We are so blessed to have you in our lives! God is good all the time He is good! Here are a few pictures of the race today. I missed getting some of my team's pictures but I want to tell you all thank you from the bottom of my heart! Love all of you! I also wanted to tell everyone that this race is truly amazing! Everyone that organized this event did an amazing job and all of the families involved in this race have been blessed by all of their hard work! Next year please consider participating in this race because unlike many races the money goes directly to helping the families bring home their children. Not just a percentage or small portion but the funds go the families. That is truly amazing! Thank you!

The girls making a Team Sims sign!

Go Team Sims!

Pretty Cute!

These girls rocked this race!!

Thank you!

Awesome Job!

O.K. just had to add this cute one!

We Passed!

We passed court today!  We are so relieved and so excited at the same time! Yana is such an amazing little girl! Today I got to see a glimpse of Yana beginning to believe that we truly love her and that she is our daughter. Court  has to be so difficult for an older child because they have to sit and listen to their story being told out loud for everyone to hear. They also have to re-live their history and how they ended up in an orphanage. In Yana's case she has been in this orphanage since she was 6 years old. Yana had no control over the choices that her parent's made and had to live a life that was full of hardships that you and I can't even begin to understand. Here's the good part, after hearing the woman from the child services department audibly state that there is no one in Ukraine willing to adopt Yana then Bryan and I were asked some questions by the court. We stood up in front of Yana and in front of everyone in court and explained our deep love for her and that we desperately want her as our daughter. We stated that we are committed to help her learn that she is worthy and deserving of reaching all of her dreams. We got to look in her eyes and say that we are committed to love and support her for the rest of our lives. Yana was emotional today in court and I think that is such a healthy response to all of this. I have been concerned from the start about Yana not feeling comfortable enough around us to show her emotions. God is transforming this right in front of our eyes. After the judge read his ruling out loud declaring us as her parents she just laid her head on my shoulder and said over and over that she loved me! God is so good! He is equipping all of us as we go and it is just awesome! You know that there are many good books out there to prepare you for adopting but I learned today that God is totally in control of Yana's healing and bonding and that He is going to finish an amazing work in this little girl. Thank you God that You are in control and going to equipt this very imperfect mom to learn how to love Yana as my daughter and that You are going to heal her wounds in time and teach me how to be there for her when she needs a mom. Thank you all for your prayers! God has truly blown me away by this journey! I pray that we continue to be open to His calling so we don't ever miss being a part of seeing His presence so clearly in our lives. I can tell you that my life began with experiencing the loss of some pretty amazing people but God is so faithful that He continues to bless me in ways that I truly don't deserve.

She's getting ready for court!

Pretty sweet!

I love this girl!

Waiting for court!

She's ours!

She's ours!

Now it's time to relax!

A friend of mine and her small group sent us with bags of stuff for the kids! They all loved it!

Hanging out with friends showing them her new sisters!

It doesn't get much sweeter than this!

 Now we go back to San Antonio and wait 10 days. This time period is for any appeals that may occur on behalf of our adoption of Yana! Please pray that Yana have a safe and peaceful 10 days and nothing change regarding the court's decision. We will be back on the 11th day to get our Yana's passport and birth certificate. Yana Sims sounds like a good new name to me! Then it's home for good in the great state of Texas! Can't wait!

Yana Is Worth It!

Our Sweet Yana!

Well I wanted to post a couple of pictures of Yana to remind myself why we are traveling so many hours and why we are leaving our girls back at home. The answer is this sweet little girl! She is our focus and I know all of this will be worth every mile we travel and every minute we spend in Ukraine because we will get to have her as our daughter for the rest of our lives! 

We left on Monday morning at 6:00am from San Antonio and arrived in Zhytomyr at 10:00pm Tuesday! What a trip! Everything went smoothly except our driver was a couple of hours late to pick us up so we got to hang out at the Ukrainian airport for a while. The good news is that we are back in Zhytomyr and we have our court date tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2:00pm Ukrainian time and 6:00am U.S. time. I wanted to ask you for prayers for our court date. Please pray that everything is smooth and successful. We are also hoping to get to spend some sweet time with Yana tomorrow outside of the orphanage if they permit us to do so! Please continue to pray that Yana have peace about going with us to America and that God confirm in her heart that she truly is our daughter! 

Three Sweet Reasons To Be Home!

Reason #1

Reason #2

Reason #3

We enjoyed our week home! We missed our girls so much and we all enjoyed just being together this week! We are also so excited that we are going back to Ukraine for our court date to begin the final stage of bringing Yana home! Praise God! We want to tell everyone thank you so much for all of your prayers and words of encouragement during this time. I didn't know how difficult it would be to leave my girls at home but thanks to Nana and Brent and Kat they are doing fine and we are going to do whatever it takes to get Yana home.

Coming to America!

 Yana and Alona

Beautiful Sisters!

Well today started with getting up early and going to the notary and then our facilitator went to see the judge to request a court date! We got a court date! Our court date was a little later than we expected but we are still very excited to begin the final phase of the adoption. We then went and picked up Alona ( Yana's sister) because she needed to go to the social services office to write a letter stating she is in favor of Yana's adoption. I can't even imagine what was going on in her mind as she wrote this letter. Our sweet Yana just sat nearby and watched with a blank look on her face. I kept asking if she was o.k. and she said "yes". This whole situation is hard from every way that you look at it. Our facilitator stated we are finished with the paperwork portion of the adoption and this week would be one of just waiting around. Bryan suggested that we try to fly back home for a portion of the wait and then come back for the court date. He really needs to get back in to work and this will hopefully allow him to return with me to Ukraine to finalize Yana's adoption and bring her home. So we are up bright and early to head to the airport and begin the journey home. Please pray that God fills Yana with peace and the assurance that we will be back and she will be together with us as a family soon! Bryan and I both have had a terrible time sleeping while we have been in Ukraine so we are hoping that we will be able to sleep well at home. Thank you for following our journey! I'll talk to you in about a week!

Just to Lighten the Mood!

 Our favorite restaurant!

Ukrainian beer!

Just have to lighten the mood after that last post! We had to show you our favorite place to eat. We eat there for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When we walk in the sweet waitresses smile and know that the chunky Americans are here! For the record my husband says he's not chunky he's just big boned! For all those who know me I don't really love the taste of beer but the Ukrainian beer has hit the spot!

Meeting Yana's Sister

Meet Yana's sister Alona

I love this picture of them locking arms!

Isn't she beautiful!

Saying goodbye 

Today was a very happy day but also one of the saddest days I have ever experienced so far in my lifetime. I got to see the excitement as Yana met her sister at the local mall and I also witnessed them saying goodbye for what could be forever. Alona is a beautiful 18 year old girl that is living a life of survival. Unfortunately Alona graduated out of the orphanage at 16 and with no support at all ( no living family and no healthy family members ) she is left to fend for herself. She rents a very small side of a home that when it was suggested to Yana we may go over and meet her sister there, Yana was very quick to tell us that she does not want us to go to her sister's home. She was very worried that we may see the terrible condition of her living situation. I had to take a picture of Yana locking arms with her sister because it showed just how sweet she is and that she does look up to her big sister. We exchanged addresses and we gave her our email address for Yana to hopefully get to send her sister letters and pictures to let Alona know she is doing well. Alona is a perfect example of the tremendous need for families to adopt older children. These children are preyed upon by others and taken advantage of by many in the community. Alona has many things against her but I'm asking you to please keep her name and face in mind. We ask that you continue to lift her up in prayer that God place someone in her life to love her and help her to have a hope and a future. Please also share with others the urgency for these children. These are bright, joyful, loving and very kind children that need a family to love and support them to help them learn how to have dreams and then help them reach them! I am faced again with the truth that sometimes life just isn't fair. I can't say why these things happen to some and not for others and I will never know while I am living on this earth. What I am sure about is God's attributes He is love, all powerful, prince of peace, mighty god, holy, sacrificial lamb and on and on. God is God and He has the power to take care of Alona and all of these children. We are also here to be His hands and feet so it's time to pray for these children, support these children and fight for these children to have loving families and the ability to learn how to dream and  believe that they can be rescued.

Party at McDonalds!

We got to go to McDonalds today to celebrate one of the kids birthdays and got to spend some sweet time with Yana too! They all ate happy meals and more ice cream. It doesn't matter how cold it is outside everyone eats ice cream. The kids were having so much fun making their hair stand up using the balloons. These kids are so joyful despite their circumstances. They are truly an example of how we should approach life.

Traditional Ukrainian Dinner!

 Yana and Alla.

 Yana, Alla & Nadiya

 Us eating Nadiya's delicious Ukrainian meal!

We found some little ones waiting to see Alla. All of the children love Alla!

We got invited to Alla's mother's house to eat a traditional Ukrainian meal! I have never seen more food on one table! It was delicious too! She also made an entire table full of Ukrainian homemade desserts! Nadiya is one of the head teachers at the orphanage and just loves Yana so much. She cried when she talked about Yana leaving for America. She has been an amazing influence and a source of stability in Yana's life. Thank God for sending Nadiya and Alla into Yana's life because they have been so important in shaping Yana into an amazing little girl. Nadiya discussed that Yana follows her around at the orphanage and that she helps her gather eggs from the chickens and pick vegetables from her garden. We got to eat many of her fresh vegetables at dinner too! We all drank a shot of brandy to celebrate the coming together of a family. We toasted and laughed and ate and ate and ate. I really got to see love from Yana tonight. She sincerely loves Alla and Nadiya. They love Yana so much and were so kind to be excited that Yana is finally going to be a part of a family. Alla and Nadiya will always be a part of Yana's life and we are forever grateful for their love of our little girl.

Visiting the Orphanage

 Pictures of the orphanage!

 This is where my little girl sleeps but not for long!

 Hanging out with friends.

 Daddy's girl!

 Cute friends!

So much cuteness I can barely stand it! They have been sleeping with this kitten in their room! Yana loves cats and her daddy....well not so much! We may have to work on him!

We visited the orphanage today and got to hang out with some of the kids too! Yana and I played some Uno and just visited today. Yana showed us around the orphanage. It was very cold and raining today so we stayed inside the entire time! We are going to McDonald's tomorrow with all of the kids to celebrate a very special little girl's birthday so that should be fun!  Yana's sister called today and I believe we are going to get to meet her there too! I'm so happy that we are going to get to meet Yana's sister. I keep asking Yana what is she going to miss the most from Ukraine and she says over and over her sister. God is good that He has kept the love strong between these sisters.

Orphanage in Zhytomyr

 First time seeing Yana! She is so precious and so tiny!

 I love these two people!!

 Our beautiful little girl!

I can't wait to bring our girl home!

Well today started later than we would have hoped but the day turned out great! I'm beginning to learn how to sit quietly, listen and wait wait wait! I also realized if I ever thought I had any control of the process I was so very wrong. We have a wonderful facilitator that really knows her job and has amazing rapport with people we had to deal with today. I am so thankful that she is the one helping us through this process. The day begun with doing some paperwork and then picking up a woman that had to witness us meeting Yana and interacting with her. Then we traveled to the orphanage where we went to the director of the orphanage's office and found out that he will be in the hospital for some time and that the attorney would have to go to the hospital to get the director to sign them. Which she did and they were signed! Yana was then asked to write a letter indicating that she would like to be adopted by us. Yana also had to discuss some family history and that is when I truly started to see her as a brave and strong little girl. We learned that she loves her older sister very much and will miss her very much. We hope to get to meet her sister and let Yana have a good visit with her. I also really want for Bryan and I to get to see her childhood home. For some reason I really need to do that. We didn't get to visit long with Yana today because we had to rush to two different offices for our paperwork before 5 p.m. in order to have a good chance to be able to submit our paperwork on Monday. No one seems to think we will get a court date next week .They indicated that it would be the following Monday or Tuesday.  I wanted to share with you what I saw today at the orphanage. I saw two of the most beautiful little girls I have ever laid my eyes on in the office. They followed us around most of the time we were there too. They told us over and over that they would like to be hosted in America!  Each one of these little girls couldn't take their eyes off of Yana because I believe they knew she was being rescued. I also met the sweetest blond hair blue eyed boy that was so friendly and kept opening the door to the office and peeking in to see Yana and her new family. I really don't have any words to describe the needs of these children. My mind can't even begin to wrap around what these children live with on a daily basis. All I know is we have to do something to advocate for these children. These children that I saw today longed for a family. They got to see the beginning of a family forming and I'm pretty positive that they knew this. I hope and pray that they too will get a chance to be a daughter or a son again in a healthy and loving home. Please if you have ever thought about adoption but never thought you could afford it and never thought in your wildest dreams you would adopt an older child please pray about it. If its not adopting a child please support a family who is in the process. These children are real to me with real faces and names and a real longing for a family. Please pray about hosting a child too! What an amazing program to get to know the child and have them in your home. This is such a blessing!  All I can say is we didn't have the money to do this and really don't fully have it now but God has brought us this far and I know He is going to finish what He started with Yana. I always think of this verse and I really believe that this is possible for these children I got to meet today. 

“For I know the plans for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you.” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity…” (Jeremiah 29:11-14)

   

Zhytomyr Day 1

 Zhytomyr has been different than Kiev. It is much smaller and there seems to be more of a family atmosphere.

 Just a few pictures as we walked to a few places to do paperwork today!

It was very cold today and we walked in freezing rain most of the day.