Home

We are back home! We are so happy to be home with the boys, and been showing videos, pictures and sharing stories with Karl and Trygve. They are excited for the next trip, as they will be going with us, and witnessing it all first hand. We left her with pictures of all of us, and toys, blanket, and her favorite doll.

We are just totally amazed at the trip, how it went and the outcome. We are so sad to leave her there, but she is in good hands and will be safe. Kaia and I did a lot of talking on the way home, and are just amazed at how this happened to us. I believe that God was working and guiding us through this process, that started a long time ago. She was meant for our family, and Karl and Trygve were meant to be her big brothers. I have never experienced anything quite like this.

It is SNOWY here, and boys Christmas Break from School started early. It is just perfect-we went sledding today, had a great day with them and talked a lot about having a baby sister. There are some deep 9-year old thoughts happening, and it is neat to see unfold with them. They will LOVE having a little sister, and will be so good with her.

There is no place like home.

Hard

We are waiting to be picked up to go say 'good bye' to her for a while-we fly out this afternoon, right after we see her. A bit sad, but we are so thrilled with the outcome, of course.

We will have a continual stream of videos and pictures running for the next four months at our house. Feel free to stop by, as we are cancelling cable and netflix, and just dedicating a tv to run a constant loop of Sylvi Vids and Pictures.

Isaiah 43:5-7 "Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth-- everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

Snowing here, just fitting weather for this. Heavy feelings.

This will be one of the hardest thing I've done.

Big Day

We had a big "Medical Day" for us-Kaia and I had to go through about 5 doctors, wanting to check us out, make sure we were 'adequate' for the job. Really crazy-took all day, with a break to see Sylvi again. She was dressed up in pretty whites, but a little quiet and subdued today. We did get to see where she lives, sleeps and plays. All in one room. We watched her being fed. Ugh! Pitiful, so FAST and SUCH a BIG spoon! The craziest thing we have ever seen-but she didn't mind.
It was sad to know that we have to leave tomorrow, although she seems to be in good hands, we are so scared for her. We'll have more stories when we get home, but just kind of what you'd expect in an orphanage with 100 babies in it. We are a little sad tonight, but know that we will have her soon, and make her ours this spring. We just can't wait for that. To come back here, all four of us; and make her ours!
We know tomorrow will be hard to say goodbye. We knew this coming; but it still will be a long flight home.

Going out in Khabarovsk

We Really saw some neat parts of the city this evening-had a good (Japanese) dinner, and walked around a bit.

Fancy Ice Sculptures everywhere-Lenin Square is full of them, and all the fancy store fronts have displays in Ice. About 10 degrees-very cold, but all decked-out in Christmas lights and people shopping. Fun side of the City.

Group Photo

It went really well again today. We went again at 1pm, and immediately met with her doctor at the orphanage, who sees her every day. It appears that all the conditions she has, or had, are minor-and will clear themselves up. We are very happy for no 'suprises' here, and will find more out when we get her to Dr. Jimmy. For now, all is well, and we signed the papers today to accept her! It does sound like it will be 4 months until we get our court date, for the government 'tape', but we knew that going into it. It will be impossibly hard wait for us, but we are very encouraged by all accounts here.

Our adoption person, translator, etc said that she is are rare find-in two years they haven't seen a girl come out so healthy and well-adjusted. We totally believe her, of course!

It was so nice to spend time again with her-although it goes by too quick. She is just perfect, and we just sit in the hotel and stare at pictures and videos of her. I had so much time, I made up a You Tube video/slide show-see the link to the right "Kaia and Sylvi".

Thanks for all the positive support, and comments. We love getting them!

Day 2

She Just Loved getting held by Kaia, She just melded into her, and could have spent the two hours just like this.

She was a little sleepy today, but so happy to see us-recognized us right away and started where we left off-playing!

She is such a fun, happy little girl!

We really broke some ground with each other today.

Sylvi Lois DeBoer

HERE SHE IS! We are amazed at what God had planned for us with this little girl!! More than words can say right now, but the visit went so WELL! She is amazing-was shy at first, just us in a room with the consultant, then Kaia took her in her arms and she was so serious! She kept staring at us both, clenching her little fists. We were just talking to her, giving her things, trying to get her to relax. Finally, she started to respond and smile at Kaia-then she started laughing, and playing with me-and we had a BALL! She is so smart and beautiful. We were really moved by the 2 hours we spent with her by ourselves. She is just perfect. We can't wait to see her tomorrow! We came back and emailed the pictures to UW doctors right away, and they responded about an hour ago (middle of the night there) that ALL looks great. We meet with her doctor tomorrow, and start the acceptance process. We are SO HAPPY tonight! Little Sylvi Lois DeBoer.

Orphanage

Hair?

My First Doll?

Pretty Girl

Found.

WE are ALL so happy!

Momma?

Wait!!

We are killing time, just waiting for Irina to show up and take us to the Orphanage, should be in an hour. That is our hotel behind me, pretty non-descript-no windows, just a simple wood door, and a small name above it. That's how a lot of the stores are here; just doors with names, pretty non-descript. We definitely are under-dressed; -10 F in this picture, with a breeze makes it very cold, makes your legs numb. Everyone walks with snowsuit on, or Fur Parkas and big hats, masks, boots, etc. I was desperate for coffee, so we walked around for 30 minutes without any luck this morning. Not exactly like Seattle-you can buy Vodka anywhere, though-in plywood stands, on street corners, grocery stores, restaurants. And chocolate. Will take a lot more pics on our drive and maybe afterward walk around a bit more. There is a market nearby we might try and brave. Kaia and I are not very worldly when it comes to communications, etc. Kaia is planning on drinking hard this afternoon, so she should have some interesting things to say later. Just kidding.
We are just Waiting-

Hot ChOcOlAt?

We are HERE! Wow! We just found out we get to meet Her tomorrow-at 1pm! We are so excited! We are about to the end of the world-just getting internet is a major feat. SO COLD! Going through Russian customs, etc took forever. Even the flight was a bit strange. Desolate, Gray, Barren landscape. A shroud of ice fog is over all, and the land is completely dead here. The airport was cold and bleak, and we walked across the tarmac to the building, 2 degrees and wind. Official looking people watching, in parkas and fur hats, all seem to frown.
Our translator met us and took us here. This Hotel-so funny! Strange little spot. English is not spoken much here, we went and ate dinner down in the hotel 'bar' (2 fridges and 6 tables, with Forrest Gump in Russian blaring on a little tv. Kaia ordered Hot Chocolate, and here it is. So funny-the waitress didn't speak english, but knew what CHOCOLAT was, so she melted some up for Kaia. Lumpy Sludge, like a Kit-Kat melted in a microwave, 'cept they dont' have micros here. I ordered the Shnitzel, and I got a piece of schnitzel, pork-sausage on a plate. That's it. We are going to learn how to order the food a bit better here.

Too cold to walk much-we only made it a block before our faces were stinging-just biting cold.

We are SO EXCITED to meet Her tomorrow! We get to spend 2 hours with her-and are happy to see her a day earlier than we thought.

All this doesn't matter-like we talked tonight, laughing-it is part of the story, and makes good memories.

Asiana Air, Baby Seat!

We sat behind this Family-these little girls were so fun-ended up in our laps, and played with them for hours. We thought this sleeper 'seat' was the coolest thing.

The service on Asiana was incredible-every 5 minutes they came by and dusted off my crumbs, were feeding me constantly. I am like a dog, and couldn't say no to anything. I think I was the chubbiest person on the plane-I'll just throw that out there. They all stared, I don't think they knew how to handle me, so they just kept feeding me. Staring and snickering as I left. I think I'm made a bit different than your average Korean person? Oh-and the flight attendants all wear suit-dresses and are skinny as can be. A bit different than the Southeast Alaska "Milk-Run" attendants. No stretch pants and baggy sweaters here.

Missing You

Our dog gets a bit depressed everytime we pack. Ole found the blanket and doll that we are bringing to her, and he thought it looked like a good spot to rest.

Korea!

We are here in Seoul, 4 am in the morning and can't sleep. It is noon at home.

The flight went well, we are staying in the airport hotel, it is HUGE. Such an experience with the language. It took us a while to just navigate the airport and security. Yikes!

We are excited to get to Russia, and just looking forward to meeting her.

Thanks for all the support, everyone-we Love to get your comments. We tried to call, but strange dialing systems, etc-make the web the easiest way to communicate.

Will keep this updated as we can.

Anxious!

We are so excited to be going tomorrow. We just received an email, for the 'additional information' that we have been desperately waiting for, from the orphanage. In fact, we were nervous for the information-as it could have cancelled our trip tomorrow. We didn't know if it would come or not, and so we went ahead with the plans for this trip anyway, on faith. Waiting for the information, and the Christmas holiday, could have stretched the process out another month with Visas, orphanage schedules, etc. We are SO happy that we went ahead last week, here is the email pasted from our agency director:


Hello JP and Kaia,

Here is information DOE is passing to you. I included the signed original in case if your doctor or his ( her) staff have Russian speaking people. Here is my translation.

Best wishes



Additional information for the child referred for the adoption.


To Jp and Kaia DeBoer

V , DOB, February 2008, female

Girl was born from the third pregnancy, second birth, fast delivery, birth weight 2,3 kg, height 49 cm, Head/chect cir. 32/31 cm. Apgar 7-8 Condition after the birth is satisfactory
Current development girl clearly and loudly prounonces syllables, crowling in different directions, sits independently, can play independently for long time with toy, keeps attention on her caregivers and other kids. Lauphing, trying to talk..

Regional operator of Federeal Data Bank

We are so anxious.

Start

We are taking off, with nothing more than a picture and some advice, and have just bought the tickets for Next Thursday to Khabarovsk! I thought this might be a great time to start this blog, although we are so nervous to be getting ahead of ourselves. We consider Her part of our family already, but are trying to be careful not to get too excited, in case something tragic happens. We want to be careful, but are So Excited! We are not sure if we can post pictures of her and the orphanage, until this is over-but will keep things as updated as we can.



She is 9 months old, named V (we can't post her Russian name yet), her mother gave her up immediately upon birth, a single woman. She is in an orphanage (baby home) with 40-50 other infants, in the city of Khabarovsk, Siberia, Russia. Khab is in Far-Eastern Europe, 12 miles north of the Chinese border, extremely cold, barren, and gray part of the world. We think, based on pictures, anyway.



We fly (Thursday) 11 hours to Seoul, overnite there in the airport hotel, never leaving customs; and then fly the next morning (Saturday there) 3 hrs to Khab. Khab is 18 hours ahead of our time, so we lose a day going there.



This will be our first trip, we have been going through the Russian process and application with an agency that we were recommended to by some relatives and friends that had great success with. It is a smaller agency, but we are very happy with the attention and service. We started the process in March '08. Anyway-it has been a very complicated, time-consuming process up to this point. Paperwork, dossiers, letters, applications, Visas, trips to Apostille Office in Olympia, fingerprinting in Stanwood and Yakima, background checks, home study and hundreds of emails and calls; all come down to this little picture and our trip.



The Russian process requires both Kaia and I to make two trips-no exceptions. The first trip is relatively short-6 days total, in which we meet V, interact with her at the orphanage for three days, and get to make our decision on accepting her, or not. We will take pictures and videos, also a 'sticker picture' where a specialist at UW can better diagnose facial features of Fetal Alchohol Syndrome. This is an important step in the Russian adoption process, as we are willing to accept correctable conditions, physical impairments, but FAS is a major concern, and we can't take it lightly.



It seems cold and calculated, after wanting, hoping, praying, and waiting so long for our little girl. We will be devastated, and it will be so incredibly hard for us to hold her, play with her, and love her; to have to make the decision. We leave it to Faith, and that He has a plan for us and her. Enough said on that.



So-this first trip is the shorter-but such a BIG one for us, emotionally. We feel the weight growing more every day.



Then, if all goes well, we accept her-and apply for a Court Date. We leave her at the orphanage, with as many items as we can-and come back home to nervously await our court date to be assigned. This might take 2 - 4 months, agonizing all the while. Then, when we get it assigned, we go back to Khabarovsk for the court date, they should rule to allow us to Adopt her, then wait 10 days there in Khab, for the decision to be final, where we can visit her and even possibly take her for outings. Then, we fly further away, to Moscow, to take her to the US embassy to become a US citizen, and then fly home with our new daughter. It seems so long, and far away.



We are haunted by her eyes.