We finally made it!

Orphanage visit day 1
We walked 25 minutes to the metro, rode 12 stops, got off, and got lost! We had directions from another RR family, but we took the stairs up to the left instead of going straight to the end. Thank goodness for a kind cab driver who took a call from our translator and pointed us in the right direction! Overall, it took 2 hours to get to the orphanage yesterday, but we were right on time at 9am.

We got to spend 2 hours with Micah, then had a 5 hr "lunch break" before we could see him for the 2 hour afternoon visit. That was a hard 5 hours to find something to do. We walked to the nearest McDonald's, which we thought was just up one metro station and ended up being two (about 3 miles), spent quite a bit of time resting there, and took the metro back. We still had two hours to kill, so we walked around the orphanage grounds with Annie trying to get her to take a nap...never happened. But we met a nice Canadian couple adopting a 20 month old. They've been here 5 weeks and we were the first English-speaking family they had seen on the grounds! She was so excited to speak English. Their court date is Friday, so we won't see them for too much longer.

We rode the metro home, but stopped to have dinner on the way, so our total ride home was 2.5 hours.

Total walking miles: 8 (not exaggerating). Total time gone: 13.5 hours. If we don't come home skinny, there is something seriously wrong.

Okay, now onto the part you really want to read about... Micah. The day went so great. He came running down the ramp from his room and ran into Barry's arms. We got a really good video of it, but for some reason it's not loading right now (it's been 2 hrs since I tried). I will get the blog posted and try again later. We took so many pictures so for the sake of time, I posted this album on Snapfish: http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=7422420013/a=99581526_99581526/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Bottom line: Micah was happy, enjoyed his toys, played well with Annie, ran, ran, and ran some more... all he wanted to do was go around all the paths, then he would run for the front gate and shake it. I picked him up and said, "Soon enough little guy... you'll get to see and smell all those cars and people and dogs, soon enough." He loves being held and snuggled, and laughs so hard when you tickle him. He loves kisses from Mama, but doesn't like Daddy's stubbles... he moves away from him when he tries to kiss him, but he'll put his forehead to him and bond with good eye contact and laughs that way.

He LOVED the little blue mouse we found at the market here for around $8.50. It sings something in Russian. So he would dance with it, and make it dance, and OH HOW FUNNY he was with it. When it would stop, he would run toward me, throw it at me, and I'd tell him to say "more". He would open his arms as wide as he could and say, "MORE!" (in English).

He also loved the blocks. I want to say I don't think he's ever played with blocks because he was overly excited, kicking them around and throwing them everywhere. Annie had a few near-hits. After some time, we got him to calm down and play "easy" with them. He would put them in the bag and dump them out, over and over and over. He has really good hand-eye coordination and loved putting toys away. He'd put one in and say "Da" (yes in Russian). So I'd say "da" and "yes" and "dobre din" (very good), and "good boy" each time he put one in nicely. We brought out the blocks three times over the day and by the end he did really good with them.

I was very impressed with his running and walking skills. He was able to step over curbs and know when to be more careful when the steps were bigger. He and Annie got along great. He's definitely going to need 3T clothes (which we have none of). I'll have to try to exchange some of the clothes that we bought or were given as gifts, but I took off all the tags and washed them before we came, so I might just donate the ones we brought to the orphanage and start over when we get home. There's a great kids clothing store not too far from us that has Target prices, just to get him home.

We sang "happy birthday" to him (two days late). He loves to be sung to. I sang "itsy bitsy spider" too, and then he was off to do some more running. He's very active. I have to say that I know he's going to wear me out, but I'm so excited he's that active. We came here not knowing anything about him other than the fact that he had DS. But I knew he had a light shining in him, and he is letting it BURN! We're going to have so much fun with him when he gets home. It was so hard to take him back to the nanny... he started crying (1st time all day) when she took him and made him go down the hallway. We can't wait to go back and play some more, but it would be nice to play inside too. It was probably 70-75 degrees. He was dressed in three layers, a jacket, and a hat when they gave him to us... we quickly took of the jacket, but if we take off the hat they get mad at us. The director even told us to put a jacket on Annie (she was in short sleeves). How are you going to argue with a man speaking in Russian? So we put it on her, but she took it off, lol. Today she will wear long sleeves to avoid the jacket lecture.

(I just realized I didn't post anything about his medical condition that we learned on Friday -- healthy! No heart condition! DS and mental delay, flat feet, cross eye, and that's it!!! The only hospital stay he's had was in 2008 for bronchitis.)

We are grateful to be here. It's so hard to be away from our other children, but we know we were called by God to save this little angel. We are grateful we have the right son now after a week of straightening out logistics. We are grateful for our facilitation team here for making things happen so quickly for us (some people are waiting up to a month for a 2nd appointment). And we are grateful for the sweet young lady at SDA who felt compelled to get our referral to us early on Friday so we could spend the weekend with Micah instead of having to wait until Monday. There was a hiccup, but we caught it when it was small, and now we are moving along again.

Next step in adoption process: receiving a court date (hopefully we'll know in the next week when it will be).

Other upcoming news: The Goldens arrive today! We can't wait to meet and spend time with our new friends adopting Jackson and Josiah at Micah's orphanage!!!

2nd SDA Appt

Today was our 2nd SDA appt. It was very quick, quicker than the last one. I'm emotionally drained right now and won't go into too much detail until the adoption is final, but Micah's health is good, and we will see him again soon. Unfortunately, soon may not be until Monday and that is the part I'm wiped out about. I just want to crawl in a cave and not come out until then. Please pray for strength for both of us. This is not the news we wanted to hear today, but we are really trying to stay positive. Soon this little boy will be ours for eternity, so a few more days isn't really a big deal in the scheme of life. We'll know for sure tomorrow, but not expecting the earth to move for us just to be able to visit for two extra days. We are hoping to get some paperwork done though... just pray. We are really emotionally drained (both of us).

On the bright side, we are so blessed to have our extra week of lodging taken care of in just 10 short hours thanks to all of you and those who have re-posted our need. Thank you so much! May the Lord bless each and every one of you and keep you all safe. All our love, Shelly

I don't want to do this.

UPDATE!!***I'm in tears. I posted a need this morning and we've already received $570 in donations! This is beyond what we thought we might need for just one extra week of lodging. Thank you so much everyone!***

I really don't. If you know me well, you know I hate asking for help. I've had to do it way too much over the past 6 months and I really thought we were done asking. However, the little mishap of the switching of information and pictures has caused us to be in country for an extra 7 days. Not only is it hard on us emotionally to have to wait longer to visit Micah, but we're missing our other kids that much more too. And the part I dread mentioning... it's costing us more money. Rent here is $350 per week. It will go down to $175/week when the Golden's get here on Sunday. Potentially in the end we may not be here that much longer, IF our court date is soon. But we have no way to know right now.

So the last of the begging from the pit of my stomach, could you help us raise just a little more to cover at least our lodging for this extra week we may be here? If it helps, Micah's "real" birthday is today (it's Thursday, May 26 right now here in his country). On what we thought was his birthday on January 24, I asked everyone to donate $2 for his 2nd birthday and we raised almost $100! So maybe if everyone donated $3 for Micah's 3rd birthday, we could have the same outcome? It would really help us so much. And I'm sorry to ask this. I really am. It pains me to type this. And with any "extra" funds we get, it will go to pay off the adoption loan we have to Barry's mom. It's not really extra, it will just lessen our debt in the end. With the most humble of hearts, I truly thank you all. Your support in this strange and difficult time is so appreciated.

Love and prayers!

http://reecesrainbow.org/sponsorray

Updates

We found out today that our new SDA appointment will be on Thursday at 3pm... please pray it goes well, but more importantly pray that we can get our referral the same day or early the next morning in order to start the adoption paperwork before the weekend. By getting it started, we will also be able to start visiting Micah every day (even the weekends!) We need this badly so we don't feel like we just wasted an entire 7 days away from our girls... we are homesick today and having to wait three more days is hard on us.

We also moved into our new apartment. It's about 15 minutes outside of the center of the city and we'll be traveling by Metro to get everywhere now. The reason we moved is because our bed was broken in the other place and it took this long to get a new place that was big enough for us and the Goldens when they arrive on Sunday. This new apartment is so large and beautiful, it's perfect! There is a grocery store right across the street that has everything (even diapers and toys) - and it's SUPER cheap compared to the last place we shopped.

The playground right outside our apartment; you can see it from our living room window.








The only downside is nobody likes it here when we ask if they speak any English. This is the part of town where people live, not tour, so we are cramping their style I guess, lol. I got scoffs, talking back in their language with laughs, rolling of the eyes, and just plain rudeness today. I can say hi, thank you, and goodbye in their language, and we really are trying, but we can not carry on a conversation without some English. It's been typical that we can point at what we want, and they'll put the prices on a calculator and show us... so when I asked for the calculator today, the woman was frustrated. Another woman literally tossed our yogurt at me. I was flabbergasted. Oh well... they'll get to know us around here, so they'll have to get used to us, or vice versa.

It puts a new meaning on accepting others who don't speak our language at home. I did not come to this country expecting people to know English or for them to embrace the fact that I did. But there is a language barrier nonetheless and up to now everyone has done their best to communicate without anger or disgust. I see in America how many people will get very angry if visitors to our country do not speak English. I've heard "go back to your own country if you can't speak our language." English is an international language, but it is not the "national language" of America. America is a melting pot and people speak many different languages. There are people here in Micah's country visiting from Germany and France that we've run into on the streets, and they speak English because it's a universal language. They laughed because not very many natives here speak English, even though they teach it in the schools. But none of us expect them to speak our languages of choice or knowledge. Now I'm on the other end of the spectrum and people are expecting me to speak their language. I don't think I've ever done that to others in my adult life. I really wish others wouldn't as well. This would be my only complaint about anything really so far... and it's only in this new area. Perhaps not visitor-friendly, but one woman did ask us if she could help, and that was very comforting... something I will take with me when I go home and hear someone struggling to communicate in English.

Talk to you in a few days!

It would only happen to us!

Today was the big day… the day we were finally going to meet Micah! I was a ball of nerves this morning awaiting our cab ride. At breakfast we prayed that everything would go well today. We had to stop at the social worker’s office to get our referral signed and approved; then we were finally on our way to the orphanage with our facilitator, Yulia.

When we pulled up I was instantly amazed and how great everything looked. I knew the buildings had been remodeled in 2005, but everything looked brand new. We drove around and parked, walked into the waiting area and Yulia asked us to sit down. The director came out and they asked us to go outside because Micah was outside right now. We were a little surprised because usually they sit with you first and go over all the information, then they bring the child into the director’s office. But today, Micah had a cardiologist appointment at 12:30, so they wanted to make sure we saw him before he left… so away we went. The children in the groupa were playing in one of their little play hut areas, (we saw Johanna White first) and the nannies brought Micah to us right away, told us a bunch of stuff about him and I just started bawling… I was holding him and kissing and hugging him, then gave him to Barry, and once we were told he likes music, he busted out the iPad (that I won just a few weeks ago in a $20 raffle "thanks Mom to Mom!") and started playing music. We got him to clap and laugh and he was having a great time.

Looking back, we both noticed that Micah didn't look the same in person as his pictures, but we were so excited we didn't question anything and thought maybe his pictures were just "off".

It was then I decided to get off the grass and go take some pictures of the other children for some of our friends who are coming to get their children very soon (Jackson Golden and Johanna White). In the back of the play hut behind all the kids, I saw a little boy who looked identical to the picture we’ve been holding for 6 months. It was Micah! We were given the wrong child! We were in disbelief and crying and not sure what to do. Yulia said this has never happened before and was VERY confused. She said, “but this is the child you asked for” and repeated his personal information. We said, “Yes, that’s his information, but he (pointing to our Micah) is the boy we’ve come for… the one we’ve prayed over for 6 months!” She didn’t understand, so we showed her his picture and her jaw dropped. "How could this happen?!" She ran to the director’s office and came back with information.

Our Micah's birthday is May 26, 2008 not January 24, 2009 (his 3rd birthday is in three days!) WHAT?!!!!

Our heads started spinning. What do we do? The referral we have is with the right information, but with the wrong picture. We were loving and holding "Misha", but we couldn’t leave the boy in the picture behind; he’s our son! I felt bad putting Misha down, but I had to see our Micah. The nannies were very confused… it was sheer pandemonium. I don’t remember much, but when Micah got a good look at us, he got the biggest smile, ran to me with his hands up, and I just scooped him right up. I’m pretty sure that’s against orphanage rules, but oh well. Nobody stopped us. Nobody shooed us away. In fact, they let us go into the hut and play and hold all the kids. They let us take pictures. They kept commenting on Annie (they called her Anya) as she played with Johanna White and the other littles in the hut.

Our very first moment together. He knew who I was!

Pretty Johanna and another boy wondering what's going on.

Me holding Jackson Golden while Micah honks my nose.

Trying to listen and figure out what's going on.

First hug with his "Papa"... he was meant to be our son!

After a very few short minutes (much shorter than we had with Misha), Yulia asked us to go to the director’s office to figure out what to do. I cannot describe the feeling we both had leaving Misha behind. It was heart-wrenching to say no to a child. But Yulia consoled us by saying that he’s younger and has more time to find a family. "Maybe God brought you here to help save him too, just in another way."

Misha is SO cute and sweet. He turned two on January 24, 2009. He’s had heart surgery, cannot walk without help, and has not been able to talk so far. He does communicate, just is mentally delayed because of the Down syndrome. He has a chest protrusion because of the lack of muscle tone in his body (common in kids with DS). He does show recognition and love, we got him smiling and laughing, clapping and dancing to the music. He let us hold, hug, and kiss him. He clung onto our thumbs with a force so strong you had to pry his fingers off to let go… he wanted to walk! He desperately needs a mama and daddy. Oh how I cry thinking of that little boy. Unfortunately, we asked to be approved for only one child, or we’d bring him home with us too. But, we cannot deny that Micah is our son; the son we’ve come thousands of miles for and there is no way we’re leaving him here.

What we later came to find out is that a family who visited the orphanage took a picture of Micah and told Reece's Rainbow it was an updated picture of the boy they had listed as "Micah", which was actually Misha's file and information. 

So back in the director’s office, a lot of talk was going on in Russian… a lot of confusion on what to do next. The director said he can’t give us information on Micah without an official referral. Yulia said we had to have another SDA appointment for another referral. What does that mean? Days, weeks? We don’t have extra time on Barry’s vacation schedule, so he may have to go home and wait between our next SDA appointment and court now; we just don’t know.

Luckily, we very quickly raised the money for that if it needs to happen. We were baffled, sad, and happy, and found a reason to laugh. This could and would only happen to us… craziness added to our already crazy lives. We praised God with Yulia that we were outside today, that Misha had a heart appointment or we wouldn’t have seen Micah at all. On an average day, Misha would’ve been brought into the director’s office, we would’ve signed forms for his adoption and nobody would’ve been the wiser about Micah. Unless by some miracle chance we saw him outside at a later date and questioned it then… then we would’ve had to start all over after spending a lot of days or possibly weeks here for another boy (one who deserves a family, but not the one we were called to save at this time.)

Finding out Micah is turning three-years-old in three days means he is closer to being transferred to a mental institution. If it wasn’t for us being here and pointing him out, and the mix-up with his photo with the other boy’s information, that would have been his destination for sure, because nobody would have known about him (THANK YOU C for taking his picture last summer!) Who knows how the mix-up occurred, but it doesn’t really matter because all of this is a GOD thing. It was meant to happen. Misha is younger and has more time to find his forever family. We will be advocating for him now. We will be his warriors!

As far as Micah goes… somehow his information was never put in the database at Reece’s Rainbow or the facilitation team’s database here. Somehow he got overlooked at one point (perhaps he was sick or in the hospital or not there yet, who knows!) But what I do know is that God is a loving God and one who knows ALL of His children by name. And He keeps watch over all of His flock. God designed Micah to be our son, and us to be his parents. We’ve known that since day one. It took some sort of mix-up for us to find each other on that early November day. And I will be forever grateful for it.

Funny that the baby picture we have of Micah is actually of Misha, and that we celebrated his birthday on January 24th (which is actually Misha's birthday). With God’s loving kindness, we will be able to celebrate Micah’s 3rd birthday with him in three days. (His birthday is two days after Barry’s! Happy birthday honey!!!) With that said, we have the wrong size clothes, he is much bigger than we expected since he’s 7 months older… time to go shopping!

Let me tell you, Micah is meant to be in our family. He’s a spitfire and will fit right in at our place. After he ran into my arms, he took my glasses off. I was able to grab them and put them back on. Then he grabbed them again and threw them. Then he honked my nose. He has tons of energy, is very communicative and looks very healthy. Any mental delays he has “look” mild, which is what we expected by looking at his picture. He is very happy and smiles a lot, and that LAUGH is contagious.

We will have to move into a one-story house for sure when we buy next year because our stairs will be very tempting for him, lol. We will also have to be very consistent with expectations because that boy is ALL boy. I am beyond excited and can’t wait to bring him home. We don’t know the timeline from here until tomorrow. Yulia was able to run around today to get the papers where they needed to go and request a new appointment. She is hoping we can get in tomorrow. If so, we’ll have his referral Wednesday, and get to officially meet him on Thursday (his birthday!) Then we will find out his personal and medical history as well.

A day in the life of the Ray family! In a foreign country. I hope you are all laughing and praising God like we are. It’s a small setback in the big scheme of things, and it will all work out. Please pray for sweet little Misha that we can find him a forever family too… http://reecesrainbow.org/aaron512

Thank you all for your love and prayers. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: WE FEEL THEM! And so does Micah or he wouldn’t have seen his mama and daddy today. We'll be able to go back in 2-3 days (hopefully on Micah's birthday!)

Here is Misha with one of the caregivers, then the rest with Barry and Annie:






UPDATE January 3, 2014: We are the proud "aunt and uncle" of Mikhaylo "Misha" Aaron Chellson. David and Melissa Chellson quickly committed to him after reading our story in 2011 and brought him home in 2012. They have become some of our dearest friends. Luckily, they live in California too, so we are able to see them on occasion. They are returning to Ukraine to adopt a baby girl and we are helping them raise her ransom. Watching the Lord's hand in all of this is really amazing. We are all very blessed!

A day in the big city

I had imagined it, but never thought I'd be a world traveler. And I definitely never thought I'd come to this country of all I could choose from. But let me tell you, this place is great! We are having such a good time exploring. I'm so grateful Micah has brought us here.

Yesterday, we picked up the official SDA referral and will be traveling to his orphange on Monday to meet him for the first time. Until then, we had fun wandering around the city for five hours today. It's very easy to walk everywhere and find your way around. And it was great exercise!


Annie wanted to say hi to her sisters and Fischer! She was trying to kiss the camera.

Us with A --- feels so weird to only have one of our children with us.

Shovchenko Park

Looks like a mini Central Park.

The University.

A statue in the park--- don't know who he is (the statue, not Barry).





Dads pushing their kids on the swings... where are the moms?! :)

Horses to ride around the park.

And little carts for the kids.

It was between 70-75 degrees today and this little one was bundled up for a Fall day with hat and all.

St. Volodymirska Cathedral

This is a beautiful cathedral... I just love the blues and golds.

Inside it was like a market... there were stands thoughout the church with things for sale. Felt kind of weird to be shopping in a church... reminded me of the story of Jesus turning tables over in the temple courts. But still it was beautiful inside as all cathedrals are. And there was still a spirit of reverence as women had their heads covered and people did their rituals inside.

Botanical Gardens

The entrance pillars and walls were scraped up and had graffitti all over them... not very welcoming, but once inside it was gorgeous!

This sign says Botanical Gardens... at least I'm assuming so :)

The place was filled pathways that wound down and uphill... very stroller-friendly!

A just loves chasing the birds! She got really close to his flock without scaring them off because they were eating. I had to get her away from them before they started trying to eat at HER.

She wanted to pick this dandelion and was so meticulous about making sure she didn't squish it. She let me put it behind her ear for this pose (my FAVORITE picture all day!) After I photoshop the plastic bag and curb out, I will print it for my wall at home.

A group of young women were happy to take this picture for us :)

The flowers were absolutely beautiful.

The Golden Gate

This was one of the main entrances to the city back in the day when it was surrounded by walls. The entrances were called golden gates, and I think there were four of them. This is a reconstruction because the original didn't survive the war. However, some of the wall is still there inside this building that we toured for only $1.25 each!

Random pictures:

A schoolhouse. I love their sign :)

Every weekend, the center of the city closes off the main road for celebrations and festivals. Today was European Day and these are some of the costumes and happenings.

The Opera House

Tickets are so cheap here, and there's a ballet playing on our annivesary June 4th, so if we can find a babysitter, we may try to go :)

We found a bride in the Botanical Gardens and got some pictures of her gorgeous, fluffy dress.

The sweet and very friendly missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had dinner with these guys last night. All four of the ones we met today are from Utah - go figure.

Cool signs around town of things we recognize, know, and love (well at least me for Sting)!

The building with two "towers" sits above the GINORMOUS underground mall. It's so cool down there; we'll be going again and taking pictures.

Costumes... the first one is almost identical to the one we bought for Micah. We have no clue what the 2nd one is, but he's all over the place!