Cole with his new sisters at home

We arrived in Omaha.

Cole's first flight - Ukraine to London.

New Son & American Citizen

Like a good book with the last chapter missing, you all are wondering what's the rest of the story for Susie, Kyle and Cole. Susie, Cole and I made it back home on Thursday afternoon, April 21, 2005, to a family waiting with open arms. Our last message was on Saturday after our farewell party at the orphanage.

Susie, Cole and I left for Kiev on Sunday by van to start our long journey home. We arrived late afternoon in Kiev. We stopped at McDonalds for a quick bite before returning to our facilitator's apartment.

Monday we spent the morning at the U.S. Medical Clinic. In true to form medical protocol, we waiting for our turn, and waited. Finally, the Doctors did a rotine physical and checked his medical records. We waited some more and about three hours later we had our medical records for Cole and the US Embassy.

Our facilitator, while we waited at the US Medical Clinic, went to the Ukraine Minister of Justice to have Cole's birth certificate stamped and turn in the decision of the court to the National Adoption Center. She returned to find us still waiting at the US Medical Clinic.

Tuesday we went to the US Embassy to get Cole's immigration Visa. The process was fairly painless, except the uncertainty of getting an immigration visa. I stood and reflected on the fact Cole is already our son and the visa is only allowing our son to travel to America. If we didn't get the visa, he is still our son forever and we would need to stay to resolve any issue. The thought of this made me pray constantly toward the end of the process. Please Lord allow us access to America!

We received the immigration visa Tuesday at 3:30 pm saying we could bring our son into America. America has a very beautiful visa, one that we will hold in Cole's scrap book forever.

It was too late to leave on Tuesday, so we had to wait until the next day. It seemed like an eternity, but we left on Wednesday at 1:00pm for airport. We were praying constantly as British Airways tried to figure out our tickets that I had to change from an international calling booth in Kiev. Next we had to go through passport control, baggage check and then boarder patrol. We waited to her the words, you may pass around the booth, whew! We were on international soil. Next stop. . .America.

We took off from Ukraine and said good bye. We traveled to London where we made connections to American and flew into New York at 10:30 pm. One last immigration stop. God blessed us with an immigration officer who also had tried to adopt. She was excited for us and therefore made it easy. They took fingerprints of Cole and he signed his name. Cole Matthew is offically an American. Susie and I were never so happy to see New York.

We stayed the night anxiously waiting for our flight the next morning to Chicago and Omaha. With three hours of sleep and running on adrenaline, we arose with excitement and headed to the airport. Cole loved flying, especially the televisiion screens in the headrest on the 777 to New York.

We arrived in Omaha Thursday at 12:30 pm into the arms of our girls and Cole's sisters. We were too tired to cry. We were glad to be home. Praise God.

Thanks to everyone for all your prayers and support.

Yuri and his Babushka who came to visit while we were having the party- she told us in Russian how happy she was that we were adopting one of the kids

Deanna and Nastia

Kyle, Dima S. and Denise thumbwrestle

I am crying as I write this last blog from Odessa. We leave tomorrow on a bus for Kiev. Today we had a going away party for Cole. We went to the store and bought all his favorite foods, had pictures made up of his class for all his friends. The children are all so happy to see us when we come. We ate, read books, played games and took pictures and videos of all. Kyle played hangman with the boys, a hard task when neither speak the other's language. My sweet Dima Shugachev asked Galina how to write I love Susie in English for his turn at hangman. When we left the kids all followed us outside and still kept hanging on to us and Cole, wondering when we would come back. Some of the kids started crying and then I started crying. Cole has spent all of his last 8 years with a lot of these children and they are like a family to him. I feel like they have become part of our family as well. I cry because I wish we could take more of them home with us,I cry because I wish they all had a family to love them, and I cry because we will probably never see them again. Lela is doing a wonderful job being a grandmother to these children, but I know that she prays as I will that all these children will have a home and a family of their own. We thank you all so much for praying for us and I ask that you continue to pray for these kids, that they will also know and love Jesus. Monday we will continue on trying to finish up with with everything, pray that it all goes smoothly. As I hear Cole calling for Papa in the background I thank God that he has made it possible for us to take one of these precious children home with us.

Kolya is now officially Cole Matthew Lennard and has a passport to America

Susie, Natalia, Kyle and Cole

Cole's friends say good-bye

April 15, an important day for many to remember to file their taxes. For us it will be the day that Cole Matthew Lennard legally became a part of our family. We began the day at 5am with a call to our precious daughters. At 6:15 we were picked up by Victor and drove to the train station to get Galina. After that on to the internot to give Kolya clothes to wear to court and to meet with the director. Kolya's friends did not want to see him go and there was much hugging and picture taking. One friend asked if we would take him today and I asked if that was okay and he said it would be better tomorrow. Next on to court, we waited 1 1/2 hours for our turn, the americans ahead of us didn't have papers ready and so took a long time. We got in to the court room which is not at all like american court rooms, just an office. We were asked questions like our address, occupation, living conditions( I wasn't sure what to answer to that)They asked if we spoke Russian and I said I could say please and thank you. The judge laughed at that. When asked why we wanted to adopt Kolya Kyle said we wanted a boy and didn't want to take the chance of having another girl of our own. He said he had the same situation at home. Kolya was asked by the judge if he was a holligan and he said no. After court Kolya told Victor he had prayed before we went in. Next up,the tortuous van ride for the rest of the day, to the vital statistics for the birth certificate where they scrutinized everything, asking Kyle wasn't MO for Montana and not Missouri? Tried to pay the tax at many banks that were closed for lunch. Scrambling to get the already been paid but still wants to be ornery birth certificate lady to stamp our papers. On to the Passport office where Ben Franklin got us a passport in 1 hour. Poor Kolya didn't get to go with us until we had the passport and so had sat waiting for us all day in the asst. director's office wondering where we were. New Rule,(there are alot of those here). Got back to Lela's at 7pm. We are exausted! Lela cried when we showed her the birth cert and passport. We will probably stay at Lela's until Sun when we will head to Kiev. Keep praying that all will be well with his medical checkup there and the embassy. Also have to have a paper stamped by NAC again. We thank you all for your continuing prayers, God has truly blessed us this day.

Susie, Kolya and Kyle celebrate with pizza

Sweet little Sasha and her hand made bear.

We have the paper!

Thought I would give you the news in the title so you wouldn' have to rush through the blog to find out. Today we visited little Sasha in the hospital. She was very happy to see us and to get her gifts from her penpals.We got there at lunch time and had to stand outside and wait while they ate lunch. The doors are locked so nobody can run away. She will be there for 3 weeks so we showed her the gifts and then took them back so nobody would steal them from her while she was there. On to the internot where we picked Kolya up, we were shocked when he came out to the van and was wearing a Florida Gators sweatshirt. We told him he could leave it for one of his friends! For those of you reading this blog who don't know us well, we are from Nebraska and are avid Husker fans. Lela is from Ocala, FL and this is where the shirt came from. While we were driving to have pizza the call came from Galina that she had the paper. We all let out a cheer! She will arrive at 7am and we will pick her up at the train station then head over to the internot to fill out some paperwork. We will have our court date at 10am. If all goes as planned we will spend the rest of the day getting his passport and new birth certificate made.Thanks for all who are praying for us and sending bible verses. Our God is an awesome God, we feel his presence in so many of the people here. Continue to pray that all will go well tomorrow. We have appts set up at the embassy for Monday morning.

Alosha B. with his penpal gifts

Alosha and Oksana

Kolya and dad try the bumper cars

Kolya and Mom play a game of air hockey

Twins Inna and Alina

We started out the day running errands for Lela, she lives a ways from the internot so we all go to the city and do everything at once. We picked Kolya up early today, he was excited to tell us that he had received good marks in school and to recite two poems he had memorized. Someone reminded me in an e-mail this morning that just three weeks ago Kolya had had nobody to do many of these things with. He has never had a mom and dad to tell when he gets good grades or does something special at school. We went to McDonald's again, I shall never eat there once we return to the states. Our little group prays together before every meal and today Kolya asked if he could say the prayer. It is so special to hear his little voice praying in Russian, knowing we don't understand what he is saying but that God does. After lunch we went to a small amusement park that is set up beside McDonald's and Kolya got to try bumper cars with his dad, air hockey with mom, and a great big slide. It is such fun to watch him try things that we take for granted. When we went back to the internot the kids were waiting for us again. They love to take pictures with our camera and look at the instant digital picture. Everyone wants to try the video camera as well. We looked for the kids who we have not been able to give penpal gifts to. Found Alosha but discovered that Sasha is in the hospital and Katia is in isolation. Pray for both of them. We will try to visit Sasha in the hospital tomorrow. We wait again tomorrow for news of our paper, if we get it we have court Fri. morning at 10am. Pray that we will get it for we wish to go home and see our family. Our extra days have been a blessing as we have been able to see more children and visit them. We still aren't allowed inside, but the beautiful weather has brought the children outside to us every day. Thanks for all the e-mails and comments, we look for them daily.

A New Day

Last night we watched the old Parent Trap movie, Kyle said he felt like we were in the parent trap. This morning we both felt much better. We went to the market and purchased a cd player for #88 (courtesy of someone who sent money with us)so they can play christian music while they work on crafts. Also purchased were stools for the children. We brought the socks and underwear that we collected from church as well.The children were again happy to see us, as well as the director. We couldn't stay long because as always Kolya has to be back by 5pm for homework time. When we got to #4 we were 15 minutes early and so many of the children were outside for free time. We got to take pictures and video, we had brought a skateboard the day before and the boys were trying it out. The kids all jump in the van when we come, little Vladik who has always admired Kyle's sunglasses came out to the van with some of his own and wanted his picture taken. I felt like we were having a contest to see how many people we could fit into a van. The children are so friendly and loving, I wish we could take all of them, Dima S. is a favorite, someone please come take him! Thanks for all your encouraging e-mails and comments, we know God is directing all our steps in his own time and way.

Deanna, Nastia, Lela, Dima S. and Kolya

The children of #88, another picture for Julia

Anya and Masha love Daddy Victor

Pasha, Vladik and Susie model their shades

The Other Shoe Drops

Our good luck here has ended, Lillian the ladybug pin is on it's way to the bottom of the Black Sea! Galina assured us this morning that our paper would be ready at 3:00 so we made our appts for the medical clinic and the embassy for Wed. morning. While eating another lunch at EXPRESS SANDWICH, which is not express in any way shape or form, we had the call that our paper would in fact not be ready today but on Thur.These papers are only processed on Mondays and Thursdays. We were very disheartened, everyone was put into a gloomy mood except Kolya, who is the only one who can't understand english. We decided to break into the Internot and bring our gifts, we were supposed to be having a going away party today. The kids were happy to get them and to see us.Lela went to the store while we were there and purchased comfort food for us in the form of chocolate, coke lite and popcorn. She has brought it to us while we type this. Keep praying.

Dima K. gets a gift from his penpal

Vitalik shows his gift but wasn't sure what to do with it

Nastia and Nastia get new socks

The children in 6b say thanks to Hanson's

Oh Boy!

Sunday was a day of rest and enjoyment. Kolya could stay for the weekend, so we decided to go shopping and site seeing on Sunday with Lela, Victor, his boys and Susie, Kolya and I. We enjoyed the Black Sea, opera house and Port of Odessa. Susie and Lela did some shopping, but they had too many men along to truly enjoy the experience. Victor got us some good discounts, since he can speak the language, but once they heard us speaking English the price went up and stayed up. That's okay, the exchange rate is in our favor.

I'm not used to having a boy. After a hard day of shopping with my girls, I would normally relax with them inside reviewing all the purchases and talking about how much money they all saved me. Not with Kolya, it was out to the park for intense game of soccer or "futball". I'm sure I'm going to lose weight having a boy.

We enjoyed the break from all the paperwork and adoption process. Tomorrow (Monday)we need prayer for our paperwork to be completed at the NAC, so we can begin the final leg of our adoption journey. Please pray for these documents to be completed on Monday.

Love,

Kyle and Susie

The boys playing at the Black Sea, wanting to get wet, but knowing better.

Kolya in the gondola going to the Black Sea shores

Kolya, Vova and Vana standing on top of the world!

Kyle, Susie and Cole overlooking Port Odessa.

Susie finally gets to go shopping, but not for long with five boys!

Pray

Can't post pictures again tonight for some reason, had a wonderful day touring the city, shopping, riding gondola cars, going to the beach. Kolya slept over again and will go back to the internot at 7am. Pray, pray, pray that we will get our approval papers from the NAC tomorrow and so we will be ready for court on Tuesday. We want Monday night to be the last night Kolya sleeps at the internot.

Kyle and Kolya play football/soccer, notice the heart Kolya scratched into the pavement for Susie

Kyle handing out cookies.

Susie with some of the boys in the craft room, even the boys knit!

Internot 88; Vova, Lela, Katia, Alyona, Kolya and another boy I can't remember his name

Internot 88

Today we enjoyed very much. We went to Internot #4 and picked up Kolya. We went to McDonalds for lunch and enjoyed our time together . After lunch, we went to internot 88. We brought a big box of yarn for the kids to knit, as well as a box of chocolate cookies for everyone.

They kids were so cute and starved for some outside affection. The director was very happy for us to visit and had no problem with us coming into the Internot for a visit. The kids there are as sweet as the ones at #4. They sang for us and showed us what they were knitting. We have great pictures but can't get them on the blog for some reason. This is the internot where Julia Hanson was from and they were happy to see pictures of her, Kolya knew some of the children there too.

The high point of the day was when Lela asked the director if Kolya could spend the night and she said he could stay with us til Monday morning, I think we're actually renting him. He and Kyle played soccer, ate a big meal(I'll have to start making more food), and now are working with a Russian/English translation program on the computer. Tomorrow we will shop a bit, that always lifts my spirits.

Passport Photos

Today was a very slow day for Susie and I. However, for Victor and Galina it was a full day. They went to the court administrator to confirm all our papers were in order and that we had enough money to proceed with hearing on Tuesday. They completed the process of checking the paperwork and coordinating the court preparation work by 1:00 pm. Susie, Lela and I stayed home and waited. A very nice break. Susie and I also went for a walk.

Later, Victor took Galina to the bus station, so she could return to Kiev. She will spend the weekend in Kiev with her family before picking up some documents at the NAC on Monday and returning to Odessa on Monday evening. We will then go to court on Tuesday morning.

Victor picked us up at Lela's and we went to the Internot to pick up Kolya. It was already late in the day, so we did not have much time with him. However, we did get his passport photos taken. We will pick the competed photo's up tomorrow.

We went for ice cream, Lela's treat, before returning to the internot.

Kolya has school again on Saturday until 2:00 pm, so will plan to pick him up and spend more time with him. We are not allowed into the internot. . .this is frustrating for those wanting information about kids and for us becuase we want to see them!

That's all for today. . . we are having some computer trouble today posting blogs, so hopefully we will be able to continue to update you in the coming days.

God's Speed,
Kyle and Susie

Didn't do much today. Galina came back on the train last night and Victor picked her up this morning. They spent all morning working($$) with the asst. director of the internot and the birth certificate lady to make sure we would have no problems on Tuesday. Galina took the bus back to Kiev to await our docs there. Picked Kolya up at 3:30, he probably thought we forgot him. Took him to get passport pictures, got ice cream and took him back. We are tired of being here and want to go home. Pray for us that we will have renewed energy and that our docs will be all good to go on Mon.

Lena B., a good friend of Lienna Hanson's is being adopted while we are here.

Kolya gets his passport picture taken

Good News

We started our day early. Victor picked us up at 8am. Got to Svetlana's at 9am. Galina went in to get our paperwork, came back and said Svetlana's boss had been fired the day before. The good news was that his temporary fill in would sign our documents if we had any pictures of dead presidents. We did and off we went. Got to the notary, brought her a box of candy to thank her for getting us in so quick. She was very nice and told us that today was a religious holiday in Ukraine to remember when the angel Gabriel told Mary she would give birth to Jesus. All this in hand we went to get a plane ticket for Galina so she could get to Kiev and turn our papers in. They are at the NAC now. Praise God!
With all this work finished we picked up Kolya and went for lunch at the Black Sea. Found a restaurant right on the water and enjoyed a meal with our friends. The service was very slow, I think it was dinnertime when we got our food. Kolya asked many questions about his new life in America and we answered. He is excited to go on a plane. There were two dogs in the restaurant when we were eating, very strange. Alyona asked for them to be removed, they were but then came back again. We are enjoying our time here. We have met many nice people. Everyone is happy that we are adopting a child.
The only sad part of the day was when we took Kolya back to the internot and saw Dima M. who we prayed for for so long. It made us sad. We will continue to pray that God will get ahold of him. Now we wait til Court on Tuesday morning, we will continue to see Kolya this weekend, it will be nice not to have to run around so much. Continue praying that all will be well, also pray for the children here, they all need a home.

Kolya, Viktor, Alyona, Lela, and Susie eating lunch at a restaurant right on the Sea.

Kyle, Susie and Kolya at the Black sea

Day of Paperwork

Nothing interesting to report today, except that we notarized many documents. We saw Kolya for about five minutes and then we were off to the notary for preparing documents necessary for the National Adoption Center in Kiev. Our court date is set for next Tuesday at 10:00 am, which is good. After our court date, Kolya is legally ours and we do not need to take Kolya back to the Internot anymore, which gets difficult to do each day. We let him know that we have to get all the paperwork completed before we can take him with us and it will take a little time.

We are lacking one document before Galina can return to Kiev and submit all paperwork to the NAC. We leave early in the monring to pick that document up in Odessa from the Minister of Education. Galina will then fly to Kiev and present the documents to the NAC. The reason we must fly Galina to Kiev, is that if the papers are not submitted tomorrow we will lose three days. I think the NAC requires so many days to process before the court hearing. Please pray that we get Galina on the noon plane to Kiev and paper delivered to the NAC tomorrow.

We are very close! The process has gone very smooth for us so far and quickly. We are grateful for that. We will turn our attention to spending time with Kolya, after Galina leaves for Kiev tomorrow with completed paperwork and before she returns for the court hearing.

God's Speed,
Kyle and Susie

6 year old orphan girl begging for money or food at McDonalds.

Galina finds Elvis at McDonalds in Ukraine!

Another long day of driving around getting paperwork signed. We managed to get into the Internot once again while Galina was in the office. We visited with the children, Kolya was in English class. His friend Dema told me he was in love with me through our interpreter Ira. He is so sweet. We were informed that the class rat is actually a pet of Kolya's given to him by his aunt. We told Kolya at lunch we probably couldn't take him to America. He said that was okay, he would be too smelly. We spent alot of time sitting at Express Lunch while Galina and Victor drove around to the various places. The workers know us by name now.
We were told that we were not allowed in the internot because of the director's precarious position. We did manage to get the penpal letters to Ira. Ruwe's, I delivered your letters to Nina, Alonya and Artour. Got some pictures as well. Amy we saw Sasha and I took her picture. We didn't have the gifts though. The highlight of the day was when we returned to the Internot and Kolya signed a paper by his own hand that said he wanted to be adopted by us and change his name to Cole Matthew Lennard. We hope to make a copy of it before it has to be turned over to the authorities so he can have it for later. Now we wait for Svetlana again to write a paper that has to be signed by her boss, he may be on vacation for a few days. Pray that we can get it signed tomorrow and Galina can be on the train to Kiev tomorrow night. We thank you all so much for your comments, they cheer us on every day.

Kyle holding the document in which Kolya agrees to become our son and change his name.

Lunch at Express Sandwich, again. Our friends Ira, Lela, and Alonya join Kolya and Susie.

Kolya's pet rat

Today Victor picked us up at 10:30 and we went to buy a cartridge for the Internot's Xerox machine, they need to make many copies of our paperwork and wanted us to bring that and a ream of paper. We did so and then picked up our dossier from Svetlana the regional director who was not happy because some other couple was trying to get out of their adoption that was almost finished, we are always nervous when someone we need to help is not happy. We proceeded to the Internot to deliver supplies but the asst. director who was to make the copies had been called to the prosecutor's because of this called-off adoption. We waited, and waited. She came and we gave her the supplies, we waited and waited. Galina came and said the cartridge didn't work. We drove back to the store, (these places are not close of course) where they tested the cartridge and said yes it did work. We drove back to the Internot and saw Kolya outside rollerblading with his friends. They came to the van right away. This time we went in while the copies were made(some button was not adjusted correctly) and got to visit with the children. they were all very happy to see us. They all tried on Kyle's glasses, he tried to leave them for the kids but they kept returning them to him. We visited with the second graders, Paul, Alosha B. is in the picture, he has a sling on his arm. Kolya wanted us to visit his class as well where we were recited poetry by his classmates who had been memorizing it for class. We gave out letters from Lienna Hanson and took some pictures of her friends. The children are all so sweet. They all want to be adopted. They all try to speak English to us and want hugs and kisses. Tomorrow Kolya has one more medical exam by another expert which will cost us 50 grivna or $10. We hope to have all paperwork complete by Wed and then Galina will go to Kiev with it. Keep praying that all goes well, it has so far. When Kolya was speaking in Russian to our friend Ira he called us mama and papa. Pray that nothing will stop that from happening.

Kyle's sunglasses were a big hit with the second graders!

Victor and Alla and another boy from class 6b.

Kolya and some friends from class

McDonald's

Today our wonderful friend Victor picked up Kolya from the internot before church and brought him to Lela's house so he could go with us to church. Lela goes to a Ukranian Baptist Church. None of the service was in English and it was 2 1/2 hours long. Kolya sat very patiently, although he did ask our facilitator after 1 1/2 hours why it was so long. Afterwards Victor again picked us up and we went to McDonald's along with his two boys who you see in the picture, Vova and Vana. After lunch we came back to Lela's house and played awhile with Kolya, computer games, Kyle will have to help him get the hang of that although he was very interested. He played with his remote control car and showed us some of his soccer moves. Watch out Lauren!

He had to be back at the Internot at 4pm so once again Viktor picked us up and we drove him back to #4. It breaks my heart to leave him there but he took his car and was excited to show his friends. Tomorrow we will try to get some paperwork that is needed, Kolya will have to go to the Dr.'s again. Things are moving along well. I will be happy when we can bring him home to stay, that will be after the court date.
We appreciate all your comments and look forward to reading them every day. Keep praying for us!

Kolya gives Babushka Lela a big hug!

Papa teaches Kolya how to play a computer game

Kolya, Vana and Vova at Mcdonald's

Our Sweet Kolya

Today we met our son for the first time. He was as cute as a button. We went out for lunch with him and to the store. He was very interested in pushing the cart for us and wanted to carry our bags as well. We spoke with him through our interpreter. He was very happy to tell us his favorite foods and sports, he was not shy at all. He can say basic words in English such as naming all the fruits that were on the menu. We showed him pictures of his new sisters and he was happy about that. He has no idea how many relatives he will really have!

We asked him if he wanted to come to America with us and he said yes. Our missionary friend we are staying with says he looks like his new papa! The pictures we posted are of Susie and Kolya at lunch and Kyle and Kolya at a table outside of McDonald's trying to get Kolya's remote control car to work. Susie finally had to step in and get the thing working!

Koyla and Momma!

Koyla and Papa!!