Hello from Amsterdam

Greetings from Holland! We are currently in Amsterdam, after flying from Lewiston to Seattle and then into Amsterdam. The flights were great - the only complaint was that we couldn't sleep very much because they kept feeding us! We were given 3 meals, drinks the entire way, an additional pretzel snack and watched two movies, plus a news-style show.

Our flight to Amsterdam was 9 hours long and took us "over the top" - we flew over the southern tip of Greenland and Iceland.

After landing in Amsterdam, we passed through passport control (just looked at our passports), collected our luggage and were out to greet my host family. There was no customs, or anything!

We drove from the city to the Olympic Stadium (1928 Olympics), parked and took the Strassenbahn (street car) into downtown. The weather was beautiful and we were able to walk around and see several churches, the Ann Frank house, beautiful gardens and more. We also took an hour long boat tour through the canals of Amsterdam.

Now we are at Dennis' apartment (my host sister Britta's boyfriend) which is about an hour from Amsterdam. It is a classical Dutch house - very narrow with steep staircase. It wouldn't even come close to meeting our building standards for stairs, but what character we miss!

We will fly to Kiev tomorrow morning, leaving at 11:15. We will arrive in Kiev at 3 PM, meet our friend Volodymyr, tour around the city for awhile, have dinner with our friends' cousins who serve as missionaries in Kiev, and then get on the overnight train to Odessa.

Not sure when we will be able to check in again, but will as soon as possible to update everyone! We are enjoying our little 10th anniversary vacation before our adoption begins. I think it is starting to sink in that our adoption is finally happening. On the Seattle-Amsterdam trip, we sat next to the cutest little 2-year-old girl. She was so well behaved! I kept thinking Anabella wouldn't ever have done that well, and how difficult it must be to travel long distances with children. Then, in the next thought, I realized that we might be doing that with up to 3 children within the next month!

The nervous and excited butterflies are definitely growing stronger as our NAC appointment approaches.

We are off to get some sleep. Both John and I pulled all-nighters (the last time we did that was college!) getting ready to leave on Thursday night. So, it is now Saturday morning according to our time clocks, and we have been up, with only minimal cat naps since 5 AM Thursday!

Love and greetings to all!

Kristen and John

Ice-cream cake wishes for a great trip! Bud zdorov! 

Enjoying a farewell family dinner. Clockwise from the bottom - Lillia, Joanne (mom-in-law), Anabella, Wendy, Kendi, Richard (dad-in-law), David (dad), John and Patricia (mom). 

Lillia helping Mommy pack for Ukraine! 

A final farewell...

It is early Friday morning and we are putting the final touches on everything around the house and at the office.  The bags are mostly packed, the girls are packed to go spend time with NeeNee and Pops and then Nana and Gramps, and the lists are made for everyone who will hold down the fort at home.
 
Our local daily newspaper featured our adoption story on the front page of the newspaper today!  What's fun is they will possibly include weekly updates on the progress of our adoption as we go through the process - so welcome to all the local readers from Moscow, Idaho and Pullman, Washington areas!
 
For a final farewell dinner, we had both sets of parents, the kids and our two college students, as well as our Ukrainian friends.  My mom picked up a icecream cake from Baskin Robbins and had them write "Bud Zdorov" in Ukrainian.  My mom searched on the internet, and it was supposed to mean "goodbye", but our friends said it really meant "good health"!  Either way, a wonderful send-off and a special time to say goodbye.
 
Putting the girls to bed tonight was a bittersweet time - probably the last time it will just be the four of us.  As John read the story to the girls, I kept trying to imagine him reading nighttime stories to our bigger family.  We have been so blessed already with our family, and it is amazing to think that we will again be blessed with new children.  As we prayed together before the kids went to bed, Anabella (who really doesn't talk much at all) folded her hands and began praying.  We caught the words "Dear Jesus", "Lillia", "Momma" and "Amen".  She went on and on quite awhile, and when she stopped, John started praying - turns out she wasn't done yet!  So, she continued.  Even after Lillia went in to lay down on her bed to be tucked in, Anabella still stood there and kept praying - hands folded, reverant voice (to know Anabella, you know this is definitely out of character!).  It was touching, and I have no doubt God got her message!
 
Next time we journal we will be somewhere on the way.  Hopefully we will be able to say hi from Amsterdam and then in Odessa.  Pray that our luggage doesn't have a problem being too heavy.  We have two large suitcases to check - all filled with wonderful donations.  We are bringing about 30 pairs of shoes, 20 pairs of shorts, 20 shirts, 20 winter hats, toys and scrubs.  Thank you to all the nurses at Gritman hospital that donated the scrubs for the orphanage workers!  Since most of our suitcases are filled with donations, our clothes and personal items are all in our two little carry-ons!  On the way home, we will definitely be traveling light!  Even though it will be a lot to lug around the country, we are happy to do it because we are thrilled to be able to bless the children and workers at our children's orphanage.
 
Final preparations are waiting my attention and so I must close for tonight.  If you wish to comment or ask us questions while we are on our trip, feel free to sign the guestbook! 
 
Good night and see you in Europe!
 
Kristen

A Borscht and Pierogi send-off!

Our friends Olga and Evgeny from Lvov, Ukraine gave us a wonderful early-send-off dinner. Evgeny cooked all day and we were treated to Borscht, Pierogis and Crepes (can't remember, and can't even begin to spell the Russian or Ukrainian word). It was a special dinner - a great way to spend one of our last meals before leaving Friday morning! If all Ukrainian food is as yummy as tonight's dinner, we might have to go shopping for bigger clothes while we are in Ukraine!

Anabella and Lillia - Our two little dolls, who are quite excited about Mommy and Daddy leaving for Ukraine to bring them home a brother and/or sister! 

Our last Sunday in church

What a special day it was today. Our new friend, Brian, joined us at church. We were called forward and everyone prayed for us, our trip, our children and the entire process. The support and love we have felt from our church has been tremendous. They told us today they want to have a welcoming reception when we get home for our entire family!

The Pastor spoke today on Pray-Prepare-Pursue, and while he was specifically talking about our upcoming church building project, I couldn't help but think it had also to do with our adoption. Here we are, just a few short days away from flying to Kiev. I have had adoption on my heart for so long, I can't remember when it wasn't there. John and I have been praying about this for 4 years. And, we have been preparing for an entire year. And now, it is time for us to pursue. God has been faithful in every step of the process so far, and we have no doubt He will continue to walk with us, and bless our family as we pursue His plans and purposes.

I have to share an awesome testimony of how God has been at work providing for our adoption. Just 3 short weeks ago, we were very nervous about the financial aspect of our adoption. We were still short $9800. That amount of money seemed overwhelming and we were getting to the point that if it didn't come in, we wouldn't be able to go. The next week, we were blessed with a sizable, anonymous donation. What a blessing that was! It was completely unexpected and we had no idea until we opened our mail one day.

So, last week, our remaining money to be raised was about $4800. John is a realtor. He has been working some friends, who are also adopting, to find them a house. So far, nothing seemed to fit their wishes, or when a house did seem to fit, it was already sold. Late last week, they looked at a house that already had an offer on the table. Our friends loved the house, made an offer, had it accepted, and the sale will close this Wednesday! Sales simply don't close this quickly. They are usually 30 days out, at least. And, the God-part of the whole thing, John's commission, which hadn't been figured into our budget, meets almost to the penny, our remaining needs!

Isn't God awesome? We can all be part of God's adopted family. Adoption is His idea, and what a blessing it has been already to be called to this ministry with our family!

God bless you all!

Kristen

P.S. One more note on answered prayer. Last Thursday we were despairing over finishing our addition before we left. The drywall was hung, but we didn't have anyone to finish it. Late Thursday night we met with some drywallers who agreed to work this weekend on the project. Well, God once again answered prayers! They finished the taping and texturing this morning, and John is upstairs painting right now!