our blog page over to http://wildemanfamily.blogspot.com

It’s just a bit more user friendly not only for us, but also the viewing audience.

Until we figure out how to import these posts without royally jacking things up on either site, we will keep links between the sites up and running for those wishing to see where we’ve been & what we’ve been up to…

Apologies for the inconvenience…

Brad & mari

We’ll start quickly by simply saying that most of our flight(s) were uneventful, save for about a 30 minute delay in Dusseldorf, Germany and some heavy turbulence somewhere between Dusseldorf and Kiev. We arrived on time in Germany, but our connecting flight was delayed due to weather. I wasn’t up to the “chick flicks” the airline played for on-board entertainment (understandably this has to be a “family show”) My entertainment was trying to ensure a German speaking flight attendant crew (coupled with nearly all German passengers) could speak English (and they could quite fluently), and that I would not stumble over my own tongue convincing them that my German was not good. (“Mein Deutsch ist nein gut.”) One of our German speaking friends, or our daughter will correct the spelling, although I have been told I have spoken it perfectly. Another story for another day.

Andy, Mari & Kelsey in Omaha

Mari and I made a command decision to pack our winter coats since that would be two less clumsy items to carry. The whole idea was to pack as light as possible (for winter in Ukraine) and carry as little as possible. It seemed like a good idea at the time and good ideas always looks good on paper. Little did we know we would be entering a time warp. I guess we had been advised, but one is never sure until they see it for themselves. A former co-worker put it as, “Don’t believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see.”

We have made the jump from what we know as the 21st century United States and discovered a whole new world in Kiev. Arriving at Kiev Boryspol airport is an adventure to itself. Boeing 737 jets lined up on the tarmac and buses shuttling people between the aircraft and the terminal. Even before jet ways, aircraft have been parked near a terminal so people could walk. Well fortunately for us, we had the bus. The temperature was a balmy 33 degrees F (+1C) and we were not about to walk what seemed to be a mile or so to the terminal with no coats.

Money well spent was the $130 VIP service at the airport… Nothing more than an express lane (read ‘Crew Only’) past the guards, inspectors and many, many disgruntled passengers waiting in line to be processed, and our airport tour guide led us directly to one of our facilitators, who promptly asked if we had coats (Yes, they’re packed in the check luggage – facilitator rolls eyes and laughs at us, then gives us a chance to get them out.) The packing of the coats? In our perspective it was a good idea after all, especially since we got them both in one suitcase.

Brad, why no pictures of the airport? I’m glad you asked… Nothing says ‘tourist’ (besides the fact that we are one-dimensional in the language arts (read ‘English speaking only’) and I am wearing sneakers) than having a dorky-looking passport holder and a digital camera bag dangling from your neck in a public place. Maybe as a last hurrah when we leave, I will take some.

Re-enter into the time warp… We are whisked away to the parking lot (which is packed), out into the middle of what appears to be nowhere and standing next to a VW mini-van with no driver. “Brad, can you break $100 bill, I need to pay the driver…” Great… I have an undisclosed amount of cash, mostly in $100 bills and you want change? Right… I did manage to find the necessary change and made the swap. Enter Sergei, a former history teacher at a University in Kiev about 15 years ago. “We have university, but no students, and no money to pay for heat… so I drive…” I have got to respect that. It appears to be a rather lucrative venture for him. And oh, by the way, gas here, from what I have gathered, is about 6 Hryvnia (Ukraine currency) per liter; somewhere around $4 a gallon. As we were carted from Boryspol airport to our hotel, I am amazed that Ukrainian drivers are quite skilled and courteous on the road; they manage to succeed in fitting four lanes of 40-50 MPH traffic on three lanes of road. They also do it without getting angry, frustrated, issuing hand gestures, and most importantly, no accidents, although there is an occasional obligatory honk of the horn.

Our view from Hotel Khreschatik

The history professor in Sergei comes out and he begins to point out items of interest and gives a quick synopsis of them, complete with approximate time periods. The city of Kiev dates back over 1000 years, many of the older structures are several hundred years old, and have weathered war, famine, disease, and other natural and man-made disasters. One can’t help but be in awe over things like that. As he drove, he also kept apologizing for his English not being very good. It is much better than any Russian/Ukrainian language that I have ever known, so he really has the advantage.

We have settled for the night in our hotel in Kiev, Ukraine. The view from the seventh floor for a down town hotel is actually pretty neat. A lot of well-lit beautiful architecture, both modern and not so modern blended well, so it is aesthetically pleasing. As for now, we are spent both physically and mentally after being up for nearly 20 hours. So, after a two hour playing of the “Chainsaw Symphony in D Minor” I am back on Central Standard time again; while Mari gets caught up on her sleep.

Please keep us in your thoughts as we prepare for our agency appointment on Friday and travel to Odessa this weekend. Tomorrow is another day and we will spend part of it exploring the blocks around our hotel in the down town area, trying not to look like one-dimensional tourists.

Kelsey, Mari, Brad, Andrew

On Nov 5^th, we received the long awaited email from our facilitator. We have an appointment with the SDA on Nov 28^th, the day after Thanksgiving. We are now in the process of setting up our flight plans and trying to get our to-do list done before we leave. One of the big items on our list was to finish the basement before we left for Ukraine but I guess it will have to wait until we get back!

This past Sunday, we went home to Minnesota to visit family and attended the church Mari grew up in. The sermon was titled “Choose this Day” with the reading from Joshua.

“…then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 3:15).

It continues on to tell us:

“We will serve the LORD our God and obey him.” (Joshua 3:25).

While God cannot control free will or some of the choices we make, He can steer us in the direction He wishes us to go. It is up to us to ultimately make the choice to trust His plan for us.

We are still asked ‘Why?’ I still don’t have a good answer other than “It’s God’s calling for us.” Just the idea of giving a young person a chance at a better life further adds to our blessings by introducing us to good people who have also received the same calling.

We received word that our dossier was submitted on October 23.  So close!!!

We now are at the mercy of the SDA for the next 20 business days.  So far away…  The 20 day wait puts us around Thanksgiving before we hear anything.  We are hoping beyond hope that we would be able to travel and be home before Christmas.

Patience…  A little bit goes such a long way.  Soon the patience will be replaced by the anxiety of traveling, followed by a little more patience in dealing with the SDA, the court system, and the embassy, followed by the joy of giving a young person a new lease on life. 

Mixed in with all the emotions is fear of the unknown. 

Time for a little more patience…

So…  Maybe I’ll get the hang of this after all…  Besides, young people do this (blog) all the time and I still wonder how they can have meaningful face to face conversations…

So much for the vent…

We have, right now, a small ray of hope…  Our dossier was received by our facilitator on the 14th, and collected from the translator on the 16th; too late to be submitted this week.  He is going through it to make sure everything is in order and will submit, or at least attempt to submit our dossier next Thursday (Oct. 23), and we should hopefully hear something by mid-November (‘Are we there yet?’ ‘No’! ‘Are we there yet?’ ‘No’!)…  When will we travel?  Nary a clue…

 There is a fear of the unknown, but yet there is the thrill that this is about to come to fruition, and so many “what ifs” that are either rhetorical, or difficult to answer.  To me, it almost seems counterproductive to post blogs when we don’t know what’s going on.  But yet, I find it helpful to periodically vent.  Maybe, just maybe there is someone out there who feels kinda like I do…

Where to begin???  How about the beginning!!!  It’s been over a year since we started this endeavor, and we are now at a point where maybe, just maybe, we can get this done.

Not too long ago, I summarized 20 years of my life with the passage:

            ‘…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to    be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.’                                                                                                                                                                                           (Phillipians 4:11a-13)

We have everything we need, plus a few things we probably don’t, and we are happy.

We have two grown children of our own, and for the longest time, it has been just the four of us.  We had talked of adopting several years ago, but finances and/or timing just didn’t seem to cooperate.  More likely, it just wasn’t in the Master’s plan for us…  until Mari was talking to a co-worker about it.  Mari brought home a picture of a young lady with physical and facial features that hit us in such a way that we both thought she looked like she belonged with us, and we agreed to start the adoption process.  Here’s where this story begins (condensed version)

Vera has been in the system for what we understand to be several years, although she was not ‘registered’ until early 2007 and would not be available for adoption by ‘foreigners’ until 2008.  Also, because of her age, we had to play ‘beat the clock’ to ensure our paperwork was filed before she turned 16.  Now we have to wait and see if the adoption can actually be completed.

With the help from some new friends and acquaintances who have already gone through the adoption process or were several months ahead of us in the planning stages, we met Vera (We’ve been told several times “She’s a sweet girl!”).  And she is…

The past 15 months have not been without challenges:  The dossier, and its subsequent updates, the frustration of policy changes, the expenses, and the wait.  We were told this would be a long drawn out process, but somehow I don’t know if we were ready for this long of a wait… Our patience was starting to wear thin because we had some expectation that we would have already been and gone from Ukraine early in the summer.   Unfortunately that was not to be.  Just not part of the plan.  We received word that the SDA would (possibly) be accepting dossiers this month, so over the past 30 days or so, we have been diligently updating our dossier and shipped it off last Friday (Oct. 10)

That’s it in a nutshell…  Our last parting thought…  We actually found this verse while Mari was putting our daughter’s graduation scrapbook together: 

            “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;   in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”                                                                                                                                     (Proverbs 3:5-6)

This is what we intend to do for the next few weeks.