Our boys...

We are home for a brief holiday and the chance to prepare the home a little more specifically for our three new sons. Sons! That's right! December 26th made us the official parents of Max, Misha and Vitali, our little Ukrainian Angels. Once they were orphans; now they have joined our family! Praise God!

If you haven't been watching our adoption site then this is your first opportunity to meet our little guys! Let me give you a proper introduction to the newest Eimers':

Max, whose full name is Maximus Stephen Eimers, is eight years old. He is only about two weeks younger than our oldest girl, Hannah. He loves to draw and paint and play cars and kick around a soccer ball. I am sure he has many more interests too; we still have much to discover!

This picture was taken the day we had court. He was freshly "ours" but we couldn't tell him! As far as he knows, he's been ours right along anyway.

Misha. His full name is Mikhail James Eimers. Misha is 6 years old and quite a little ham. He loves to have his picture taken. He is also most likely to sit on our laps and color and is always very excited to see us and disappointed when we leave! He is happy, happy, happy and my bet is that he will make friends very quickly here in America.

He loved sledding and playing outdoors. I am glad that we have a big yard for all these boys! He also likes trains and cars--especially trains.
Vitali Luke Eimers. Ahhhh...Vitali! So much personality. He is a very busy little three-year-old who is constantly on the move. Consequently, I have taken many pictures of him but most are blurry or he isn't looking at the camera! He is very possessive of new toys and especially likes to have a bag to put them in. He loves things like purses for this reason. Ha ha! I surely hope he outgrows the purse thing! I am hoping we get to hold him more as we get settled as a family. For now, we have to be content with lifting him over our heads and catching him when he jumps. I am becoming well-acquainted with the Russian for "Pick me up to the ceiling!", "I'll do it myself!" and "I want to get down!"

I can't begin to tell you all the ways this whole experience has affected us. Beginning last November when we made the decision to pursue our plans to adopt till now when we are so overjoyed to have finally met the objects of our pursuit! The work of preparation, the waiting, the anxiety of financial pressures, the stress of the final decisions and the overwhelming joy when we saw the boys that first day and knew they would be ours. All this has been a package deal. Can't have the final prize without the work to attain it. And the story isn't over!

We praise God for His mighty hand all the way so far, and we pray that He will continue to make our paths straight. He has not only answered our prayers but also the unspoken prayers (we call them 'dreams') of three little boys on the other side of the ocean. And we will get the opportunity of introducing them to the One who has made their dreams come true. A blessing and an honor.

We will be leaving again for the final leg of this journey on January 7th. When we come home, amid the craziness of adjusting to family life, you can bet I'll be posting our new family picture!
Even if we aren't all smiling! Oh, boy, this is going to be an adventure!

Americans!

Hi All! We have the wonderful privilege of spending an evening in Christian fellowship with a missionary family from Missouri all the way over here in Ukraine! English! Hooray! Thank you, Phil, for hooking us up!

We just have spent a little while sitting around thier table visiting about our adoption, their church planting efforts and general Ukrainian-specific topics. We may even be able to go to an English church service this Sunday!

How nice it is to nibble Christmas cookies with Wendy and Kieth and their children. They have a Christmas tree set up in their apartment and it is the first we've really seen except for the big ones in the squares of the cities. It is just too early for most to have trees since they don't celebrate Christmas until January here.

We spent the morning with the boys again. We had a great time taking Misha and Vitali out on the sleds. Misha especially loved this. He rode down the hill over and over again. A few times he asked Steve or me to ride with him. It has been a long time since I have done that! We got it on video, too!

We went next to see Max at his place. He is obviously proud to have the older kids "deliver" us to him. They are proud to be able to help. We played in a big room with him for quite a while and Steve asked him to show him where the bathroom was. Max jumped up and his tongue stuck out just a bit like it does when he is slyly pleased with something. He knew that to take Steve to the bathrooms would require parading him past his friends! Oh, how he must feel to have what every child in that place is dreaming of! I am so glad to be a part of his joy.

Thanks to Wendy and Keith for the loan of their high-speed internet! And thank you all for so many well-wishes and prayers! We get so excited to log on and see your messages!

Things are progressing smoothly with the adoption. All is well at this point. Tomorrow we should have more of an idea about court.

In Kiev

A little bit blurry but here we are in Kiev! Click here and read about our adventures at our other site! We are going to call home to the girls now and then probably go to bed. We are doing great so far! Our appointment is Tuesday; pray for us!
Oh, and here is an exclusive--I didn't post it on the other site: Dima, who took us around town today said that I blend in somewhat but that Steve definitely looks American. We aren't sure why. :-) I jsut thought that was funny.

Time to go...

Okay....Forget Christmas Steve...I give up! I am out of time!

We leave tomorrow morning. Steve's brother and then his friend are coming to take turns sitting for the house and Mom and Dad Falk are sitting the kiddies.

I have to put the last things into the bags and get the bags to the car. Tidy up my bedroom a bit. Mom is going to bring the girls over and do any housework I can't get to. I wanted to leave it perfect, but...well, you know. Thankfully it's Mom to the rescue!

Reminds me of the night before my wedding. I had everything planned an perfect until that last little thing. In that case, I left Steve's apartment key at the church-which was locked-and when he stopped by the house at midnight to get it, I went downstairs to my mom and started bawling. She got out of bed with my Dad's church key and found it where I had left it, on the front pew.

I was so grateful. Imagine how bad I felt, letting down my almost-husband the night before the wedding! Tonight, we were taking the girls for their dress rehearsal for their Christmas concert that I am going to be missing. And, almost there, Mom says, "Umm...where are the Angel costumes?" Yup, at home. She and my dad went back for them while the kids and I were at the church. Fortunately, They didn't need them until well after she got there. Thanks, Mom...and Dad! Oh, and I forgot to mention that she had already rescued me by hemming the darn things!

The practice went FOREVER! So we weren't home until it was after 9:30 and we had left at 5:00! The girls were so cute in there parts. I'm glad I at least got to see them do the dress rehearsal.

Tomorrow is Steve's birthday so we are having a little birthday brunch at my mom and dad's house before we leave. The girls have opted to go to the airport with us. That is going to be one hard goodbye.

Pray for us. I am sure I will be tear-streaked for my flights. Thankfully, I am not anxious about the girls' care or safety or anything...I'm just going to miss them like crazy!

Tomorrow!! Or maybe today for you since I am typing this late in the evening. I'll try and post when we get there!

My Sippy Cup Runs Over...

I promised that I would post pictures of ChristmasSteve ( our invented Holiday to have a little Christmas with the girls before we leave. Hannah came up with the name). I am several days late posting but I have a good excuse. At least, I think I do...I lost that particular list of good excuses.

Anyway, better late than never, right?!! But first, for those of you who haven't been on the other blog, I have good news!! We have, through God's blessings, more than met our goal of funds-needed for our adoption!! An not a moment too soon. We are leaving the day after tomorrow! Even that elusive kitchen table is being provided! For all the details go to our adoption website and read this post.

I have been working on teaching Ivy the 23rd Psalm. (That isn't her on the video on the link above to our adoptions site but that little girl surely is darling, isn't she?) She is getting it but still likes to "embellish" a bit. My favorite embellishment I was fortunate enough to catch on video. I want to figure out how to put video onto the computer so maybe I will get it posted here sometime. But for now, you'll have to take my word for it. There is the part that says: "..My cup runs over..." Ivy starts to say that but then stops and puts her own twist on it:

"...My cup, my sippy cup, runs over!"

Besides bragging on the cleverness of my adorable two-year-old, I mentioned that verse because that is truly so descriptive of how we have been blessed. Our cups are overflowing. God has blessed us with more than we asked. Several people who have known our budget is met, have still brought us gifts (one last night, for instance, of $500) and said we should use them for whatever we need; be it for the trip expenses, or settling the kids, or whatever might come up. We will probably use some of that for a really nice Christmas party for the kids at the orphanage. Maybe some for root canals on the kids when we get home...who knows?...Well, God does! He knew from the dawn of time what we would need and has supplied it. We are so grateful. To Him and to those who have been His hands and feet by doing whatever they could to help us. Praise be to Him!

All right, the next post will be ChristmasSteve...I need to go and get my camera.